Our Big Adventure

BACK in ITALY

We finally arrive back into Genoa, Italy, 12 hours late and very glad to see to the back of the ferry that we have just spent the past 36 hours travelling from Tangier.

Genoa at 3am is a very different place from Genoa in the daylight. And the port area where we arrived is very seedy. So we passed the hookers and night people as swiftly as possible and headed out of the city in search of a spot to pull up and spend the few hours until sunrise.

The Ligurian coast is beautiful, the road winds around the rock face and even at this time of night/early morning it’s scenery is breathtaking.

The area of Cinque Terre is where we are heading and we finally pull into a parking area in a lovely town called Sestre Levante, and wait until the sun comes up so we can look for a camp site.

After getting the last spot in a great family camping park high up on the hillside with great views to the harbour, we have a cup of tea then a little nap and prepare for our next few days here.

Cinque Terre is the name of five small villages that seem to cling dramatically to the very edge of the vertiginous cliffs. Once only accessible by boat and still not all accessible by road these 5 villages are linked by train and an ancient footpath that follows the coast, and gives you wonderful views. The hillsides are terraced with vineyards and olive groves, and the wine from this region is exceptionally good. We walk from Riomaggiore along the cliff on the via dell’Amore (the lovers path), and stop for a photo at a seat in the shape of a heart, where couples had put locks on the fence and thrown the keys into the ocean as a sign of their undying love for each other, and we though the French were romantic!

PISA- when we were in Tuscany last year we didn’t get to Pisa so this time here it’s a must see for us.

It’s surprisingly easy for us back in Italy this time, I don’t know if it just feels this way after the crazy drivers of Spain and Morocco, or we are just getting used to the horn tooting and the overtaking on the inside and on round-abouts. But with Pisa we find a reasonably priced parking area, and only 100m from the gates to the Campo dei Miracoli, where the famous Leaning Tower or Campanile is.

We both are surprised by The Towers size, both expecting this famous gravity defying structure to be much taller. The Tower is dwarfed by the Baptistry and Duomo that sit in front of it, and they give you a good idea of the degree of lean, now only just over 4 m. after stability was ensured in 1998.

The tourist season has started here in Europe and hoards of Americans are everywhere, while trying to get a couple of pics of the Tower we laugh at the dozen or so kids standing in a line and holding out their hands as if the hold the Tower up.

Before we head to Rome we visit our friends in Tuscany that we met while helping them to harvest their olives last year. Della and Mauro kindly offer us another holiday in the fall, staying in their beautiful 1000-year-old villa, in return for helping them once again, we promise to keep in touch, as you never know where we may be by then. ROME

Rome has thousands of years of visible history and we plan on staying here for at least a week, especially after finding a great campsite ‘Happy Camping’ with a large pool, and a hourly shuttle service to the nearby train station, where it’s only a 30 minute ride to the centre of Rome.

The Ancient Centre and Rome’s greatest amphitheatre, ‘The Colosseum’ is our start point. As with most Roman buildings the exterior is also particularly beautiful, three rows of eighty arches with Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns, that sadly where plundered to build many buildings, including St Peter’s.

With a little imagination you can picture this place in it’s heyday, holding 55,000 spectators, with boxed seating for the benefactors, marble floors and columns, refreshment stands and even a giant retractable sail to act as a roof and protect the audience from the sun, and Gladiators fighting wild animals, and if they survived, each other until death. Still visible under part of the arena floor are the cages that held wild animals, and also a network of lifts and trapdoors where-by the ‘entertainment’ would enter the arena.

Even the ruins of the Roman Forum are impressive, and now it’s hard to imagine the chaos it once was. Temples and the Senate Houses next to brothels and food stalls. It was the social, political and religious centre of the Roman world.

We visit Capital Hill and the Piazza del Campidoglio, redesigned by Michelangelo in the 16th century for a royal visit.

At the Trevi Founatain we threw coins over our shoulders into the fountain, the first supposed to ensure our return to Rome and the second grants a wish. I can’t tell you what Brian wished for, but if we stay healthy and get to do some more travelling in the next few years you will know mine came true.

At Piazza Navona, probably one of the most beautiful Piazza’s in Rome, we have the most expensive espresso to date, but the chance to sit in a sidewalk café, overlooking Bernini’s beautiful fountain, makes it all worthwhile.

The Pantheon gives you an idea of the splendour of Ancient Rome. It’s the only temple to all the pagan gods still standing, and is almost intact. Brian stood transfixed by the beautiful red, green and rare blue marble, the domed ceiling and the workmanship of the craftsmen that built this architectural marvel.

No visit to Rome would be complete without a visit to the Vatican City and St Peter’s. Vatican City is the smallest sovereign nation in the world, and is ruled by the Pope, Europe’s only absolute monarch. Only about 500 people live here, but it has it’s own post office, newspaper, bank, judicial system and radio station. We hear that it’s possible to obtain tickets to a public audience the Pope gives every Wednesday, so go to the Vatican the day before and with much excitement, receive the sort after tickets from the Swiss Guard at the Prefettura della Casa Pontificia.

We catch the first shuttle from the campground to make sure we arrive in plenty of time to get a seat at The Vatican, but obviously lots of others had that same idea, but we do get a seat, not right at the front but close to the middle and in good view of the stage. While we waited for the Pope’s arrival we were entertained by the various choirs seated around us and by people watching, always entertaining.

It was easy to know when the Pope arrived by the cheers and waving of the crowd, 4998 people stood on their seats, so we did as well (although we refrained from cheering). We listened to His Holiness address the audience, in Italian, then decided we would get ahead of the crowd and visit the Vatican Museum.

VATICAN MUSEUM

You could spend day’s at this world famous museum, they even have colour coded itineraries based on time to follow. We follow our own plan, as well as using a audio guide, a great help and worth the €7 each charge. The art on display is astonishing, collected over the centuries by various Popes. And of course ending in the Sistine Chapel, with it’s crowning glory, the frescoed ceiling by Michelangelo. It takes time to take it all in, and with a bit of a crick in our necks from admiring the famous work, we leave and find ourselves in the gift shop. We pick up a few gift items, they will go well with the holy water from Lourdes, and leave the walls of the Vatican City, another big day spent in Rome over.

Rome is a magic city, saturated with history and awe inspiring buildings, and hopefully my wish at the Trevi Fountain will come true and we can visit here again one day. THE AMALFI COAST

After the hustle and bustle of Rome the Amalfi Coast is a lovely place to chill for a few days. Describing this area as having ‘dramatic scenery’ would not do it justice. Villages are perched impossibly in between rocky crags, and homes have been built to blend into the surrounding area, making them at times impossible to define. This is the land of the jet setters with the Isle of Capri just off the coast.

Deciding to give Fatima a well earned break we catch a fast catamaran from the dock near our campsite to Amalfi, and work our slowly back through Positano and Sorrento, having a incredible day dining on fresh seafood at the beachside cafes and swimming in the azure blue Mediterranean Sea.

Napoli being the birthplace of pizza, and hearing from the owners of the campground about a excellent pizza place a short walk away, with a patio overlooking the Bay of Napoli it wasn’t a hard decision what we would be having for dinner that night.

Getting there early (before 9pm, a normal time for the locals here to go out) we get a great table, overlooking the bay and with Mt.Vesuvius in the background. You can imagine our surprise when looking at the menu we see the pizza comes by the metre, yes 100cm of pizza! We look around and see serving tables being placed alongside some other tables, and with great flair 2 waiters deliver a large tray of pizza. The waiter comes to take our order, and we mention we would like pizza but don’t need so much, ‘you just want pizza for two? that’s OK’. Our 50 cm pizza arrives, fresh tomato’s and rocket with thin slices of prosciutto, bellisimo. POMPEII

Majestic and menacing, Mount Vesuvius still dominates the Neapolitan landscape.

It’s been nearly 2000 years since it erupted on August 24th, 79 AD, putting on a show with devastating effects, excavations and restorations are still ongoing. Much of what we know of the daily lives of the ancient Romans is known because of Pompeii, and it’s wealth of artifacts and architecture preserved for decades in the hot ash and pumice of Vesuvius’ fury.

It’s an odd feeling to wander the well preserved streets of Pompeii, sit in it’s Amphitheatres and see the inside of the homes of the 2000 or so residents that perished here. Many items have been removed to museums, or stolen over the years, but the frescoes on many villa walls, and courtyard fountains still remain, and give you an idea of the sumptuousness that was once here. In the Garden of the Fugitives, once a vineyard, but sad and sombre now, are plaster casts of some of the victims, men, women and children caught here while trying to escape the fury of the eruption.

We leave Pompeii, once only a name in history books for us, now knowing a fragment more about life in Ancient Rome.

TRULLI’S of ALBEROBELLO, PUGLIA

We had heard about these strange looking circular buildings with conical roofs and as it was on our way to Bari on the south eastern coast of Italy, we make it sure stop.

You start to see these odd shaped buildings in the neighbouring towns, but where surprised by the number of Trulli’s still in use as homes, restaurants and gift shops in Alberobello. They are built from the local limestone that is stacked without mortar and with conical stone roofs that often have religious, pagan or magical symbols painted on them. To see the whole village freshly whitewashed and with beautiful flowering pot plants, it was another magical moment in Italy.

Our time in Italy has come to an end, from here we catch the ferry to Greece and the start of our journey through Turkey then north and through Eastern Europe. Our time here and in Western Europe has been a wonderfully awe inspiring and educational experience, and we will treasure those memories and the friends we have made here forever.

posted by Brian and Julie @ 11:10:00 PM