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Published: October 1st 2007
Apologies to everyone with this being so late and so long. The time has really flown by and everyday has been so busy that I haven’t been able to get to it at night. Also, to Maryvonne - we wish you were here....
Thursday, September 20, 2007 - Before leaving Venice this morning, Kevin and I went out and did a little Christmas shopping, and then back to the room to pack up and head out. We made it to the car with few problems. We find that after the first time disaster of trying to do anything, we get it sorted and it’s then pretty easy. You will find this theme recurring the next few days…..We drove through Bologna, though we had been trying to avoid it, by making a wrong turn, and then decided to stop at a hotel between Bologna and Florence for the night. Italy is not cheap. We finally found something, no English TV, no WIFI, however a good dinner restaurant. In fact, probably the best meal since arriving in Italy. Overall, a rather uneventful day, getting from Point A to Point B.
Friday, September 21, 2007 - We left our hotel this morning
Pompeii Metro Stop
We traveled from Meta to Pompeii on the Metro and I got to see the coastline. This was a far cry from the night before as we wended our way along along the coast road with what seemed to be a million Italians all wanting to overtake even though the traffic jam snaked for miles. to go to Rome, stopping at our host’s mother’s house (read VILLA) in Florence to pick up the keys. The house was amazing, about 500 years old with very high ceilings. You can imagine, with rooms the size of Russell! After trying to get out of Florence - yep, we got lost again, thanks to Kevin deciding to go left…. - we made it into Rome. Now, THAT place is scary! And we weren’t even driving in the City yet! We got to the house-swap to find the downstairs was flooded. We could only feel sympathy for the owners, having been through this ourselves once when we were gone. We got a hold of the next door neighbor and then Giulio - the owner - and, after cleaning up as much as we could, went off to the local agritourismo (farm hotel) for the night. On the way down the road, we spotted a couple of really rough hookers standing outside a factory, which we will point out to the Harr-man tomorrow. Dinner at the hotel didn’t start until 8:00 PM, a little late for us, but we had no choice. One thing to be said though was that the
Self-Guided Tour
A self guided tour of Pompeii, but how many times can you listen to the architecture of a Roman dwelling? food was good, probably the first really decent meal we have had in Italy. We are finding Italy more expensive than France.
Saturday, September 22, 2007 - Harrison arrives! YAY! Up this AM to go see the owner, who came back from a conference last night to deal with the flood, and decide what to do before picking up Harrison at the airport. There was little damage, except to the laundry room, so Kevin and I decided to head straight to Naples today after collecting Harrison, and then we would come back later this week.
Harrison arrived, saying that he actually was feeling okay, though he had been traveling for over 24 hours. After dropping stuff and lunching with Giulio, we started down to Naples, getting on the road at 3:00 PM. We went flying past after identifying Vesuvius, knowing that we didn’t want to stay anywhere near Naples. We finally, after lots of driving around and knocking on doors, found a place near Sorrento, another agriturismo that had a room for us. And it was the best deal we have had in a long time. We ate there, good home cooking by the wife, but poor Harrison was
Pompeii and Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius can be seen in the background and it looks so far away. starting to fade, and couldn’t eat much. Off to bed - a big day at Pompeii tomorrow!
Sunday, September 23, 2007 - Trying to get two people organized is tough enough. Three is diabolical! The owner of the agriturismo, who looks suspiciously like he could be the brother of our friend, told us where to get the train to Pompeii. That place is amazing, and a benchmark for ruins yet to be seen. We walked all day, guidebook and audio-tours in hand, and still ended up missing what I guess is considered the major attraction. So I can’t even tell you about it. But we saw incredible temples, and houses, and everything. 10,000 people lived there at the time of the eruption. After being sure that we had had enough, we got on the train and decided to head to Sorrento for dinner. Dinner was dead-average, again, but walking around Sorrento at night was really interesting. We were able to find a bunch of religious hologram pictures and if you are interested you can go to
Hologram Jesus . We took the train back to our stop and got the car, only to get lost, again, this time in a lot
Herculaneum Fresco
This was taken of a fresco when we visited Herculaneum and while the site is a lot smaller than Pompeii there have been some amazing excavations. of little streets that were one-way and so narrow that we had to pull in the side mirrors. We even went in a circle a couple of times, with a woman taking pity on us and trying to help us with her broken English. We eventually made it back to the hotel and piled into bed.
Monday, September 24, 2007 - We checked out of the hotel and drove to Herculaneum, closer in to Naples. I won’t bore you with details of the driving adventures in this country. But although Herculaneum was smaller than Pompeii, in fact a coast resort for wealthy Romans, there is more to see in regards to frescoes and tile work. The city itself was not burned but only covered with mud and ash, so everything was in good condition when discovered 200 years ago. The problem was trying to dig it out from under all the built-up city on top of it. It really was wonderful to see, and only took a couple of hours. Lunch consisted of mediocre pasta and pizza then it was on the road to Roma. On the way we stopped at Montecassino, where one of the big battles of
Herculaneum Mosaic
The city was discovered under about 10 meters of volcanic mud which happened to preserve even some of the wood. WW II took place, with the Americans bombing the Benedictine monastery to smithereens. (You have to destroy it to save it.) It has been completely rebuilt to the 1700s plans and is beautiful.
We found the market near the house and bought up large. Very expensive and not as much selection in regards to fresh foods, as in France.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - And away we GO! Rome or Bust this morning, with the decision to drive in. Whoa, Wild Scene! Somehow, we managed to get to the parking area we had been shooting for, but don’t ask me how. We invoked the powers of the Parking Fairy, since it was 10AM and were lucky. We love the Parking Fairy! And then Kevin announced we needed to find a bank. So, on our way, we did the Roman Forum, broke for a cheap lunch from a truck, and then did the Coliseum. With an Audio-tour. Harrison doesn’t like the audio tours. He is sick of them, already. (we have done 2) We managed to find a bank that didn’t spit our card back at us, went back around the Forum since I had a good book by that
Leaving Herculaneum
If you look closely you can see that the town of Herculaneum is in a big pit. time, and then we headed off to the Spanish Steps, because that was where the good McDonalds was and Harrison wanted to go. Burgers all around, ice cream and coffee. And, the guidebooks are right; it is a really classy foreign McDonalds. And after the mediocre food we have been having, we have found it to be the best value for money. We may return….
Getting out of town, even at rush hour, was decidedly easier than getting in.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - Today was the big day for St Peter’s. But we decided to Metro it today. We walked into the square to find the pope was giving his audience. Even though we hadn’t gotten tickets, we watched for about 45 minutes. I think we missed the English blessings, so we decided to got do the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, before the rush. The line was still long! The people who organize this place are very clever. The Sistine Chapel is at the end of a LONG line of museums and rooms that one goes through to get there. One is very enthusiastic at first and wants to do everything on the way. Then one
Another Triumphal Arch
We're now in the Roman Forum and it's numerous arches. This one is is the Arch of Titus. The forum is free entry and just columns, arches, temples and everything Roman. However, with this come the hordes of people. And it's free entry.... starts losing interest, more and more, until the time one hits the chapel, and (speaking for myself only, mind you) one couldn’t care less. Still, it was impressive, although some of the rooms on the way are equally so, I think (PPO). Harrison thought “it was well worth the number of rooms we had to go through to get there.” The funny thing is that there are rules about being quiet in the Chapel and the guards were making more noise trying to shush everyone. I didn’t realize, though it had probably just slipped my mind, that this is the room where the popes are elected. After finally getting out of there, about 4 hours later, we went for ANOTHER mediocre lunch. Back home - we were knackered!
Thursday, September 27, 3007 - Today was a Harr-Day, with shopping at the outlets. This was fun, because we really had to teach him HOW to shop (Aunt Chris and Aunt Mega, where are you when we need you?) and get him to build up confidence to be able to say no. He found a couple of things, a great pair of shoes and a jacket that he seems to be
pleased with. We have given him an allowance from his account to spend while here so all choices are his. It was a long, but fun, day. We had time to kill after the outlets so we decided to head over to Ostia Antica. Unfortunately, it was kind of rainy, so it marred the visit. They were also out of English audio tours, so we weren’t really able to understand what we were seeing. Most of the plaques explained the archeology of the site, as opposed to what we were looking at, so it was rather un-interesting. When it started to rain we decided to leave and head home.
Friday, September 28, 2007 - Today we were back to St Peter’s, this time to see the Basilica. Harrison was excited to see the Swiss Guards and, even though he couldn’t really get close, we managed to get a picture of him with one. Now, even he was impressed with the Basilica. It is awesome, and I feel much more impressive than the Sistine Chapel (again, PPO). We were all in awe, and can’t really say much more than that. We also did a little shopping on the streets leading
The Forum
Note the people.... to and from the Square. We found a shop that had like a BAZILLION types of black licorice, so of course we had to buy some, and, as it turned out, not enough. Back home - another long day, a lot of walking.
Saturday, September 29, 2007 - More shopping today, this time on Via 5Euros, or Via Condotti. We actually just did a lot of looking on these streets. We went into the Fendi store, not realizing it was THE store, where, if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it. We didn’t ask prices there. From there we went back to the McDonald’s for another reasonably-priced meal. Even Kevin went voluntarily. With map in hand we took off to the Trevi Fountain, which we decided was definitely better than we remembered. We headed over to the Pantheon, which is also awesome. It is the only ancient edifice to have remained in good condition, as it was converted to a church in the 6th or 7th Century. From there it was a short walk to the cat sanctuary, in the ruins of what is purported to be the scene where Julius Caesar was stabbed. Harrison enjoyed
Colosseum
One of my personal favorites. And given its name because it was built on ground occupied by the colossus of Nero, a giant statue of the emperor. this part of the day, finding cats that wanted his affection. There were many, and they were all well-cared for: vaccinated, neutered, and well-fed. It was 3 PM at this point - we wanted to find an Irish Pub to watch the rugby game. The next one was on at 5, so off we went to Trajan’s Forum and Market, where I walked around while Kevin and Harrison had boy-talks waiting for me. We also discovered that these buildings were only one block from where we were yesterday. Oh well. Back to the pub to watch the awesome Wales-Fiji game, and loved watching Fiji win! Back home on the train.
Sunday, September 30, 2007 - Happy Birthday Eddy! Today was low-key. Kevin actually volunteered to drive into town (since it WAS Sunday) and did a very good job. Of course there weren’t nearly as many people on the road as during the week so it wasn’t bad. We were headed for the Flea Market for MORE shopping, and were able to find a place to park though we were paying for it. Now this Flea Market has a noble history of dating back to the 40s when it really
Inside the Colosseum
THis is several photo's stitched together. was a Black Market. You can find everything here. But we have been spoiled by Paris. That market was so much bigger, better organized, and excellent prices. Harrison was able to find a couple of things but not like we were hoping for. After that, we all decided that maybe we needed some down-time and went home for a quiet afternoon after going to the market and lunch. We are pleased to learn tonight that Argentina won tonight, and that NZ will be playing France next Saturday. We have already starting looking for pubs in Umbria online!
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Marybeth Chapman
non-member comment
Greetings
Hi- Everything I've been studying for the last 6 months! So what is PPO? I really do enjoy the blog. Easy travel for me. Glad you're all 3 having a good time and H., I'm glad you liked the bday gift. You're only 16 once!