Sunscreen in the air

9/22/10 (Day 21)

Last day already? Time sure does fly when you are having fun. This 3 week vacation has been our longest yet. It's hard to remember that a couple weeks ago we were in a blizzard on the top of the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland, or that we were touring a chocolate factory, or even riding along the Grand Canal in Venice.

After a very long day yesterday we slept in until about 10am this morning. The Hotel Eden bed in Cannes was extremely comfortable. We didn't do much today, but headed out of the hotel in search of lunch. Mark really wanted a burger before going back to Algeria, so he found a place in Cannes that, from the photos online, had good burgers. Once in front of the burger place, we saw the disappointing sign that they were closed for September. Noooooooo. =( It did look like they had good burgers. They had a Mexican burger, a Hawaiian burger, and even a Manhattan XXL burger. Alas, we had to move on.



Walking along the coastline of Cannes, smelling sunscreen and sea air, we looked for a place that sold burgers. By the time we had pretty much sunk down to the level of finding the McDonald's in the area, we came across a place that advertised cheese burgers. We took a chance here and ended up with some pretty decent, almost American burgers with fries.



We wandered back along the coast and found the performance center where they must hold the Cannes Film Festival Awards. Outside on the sidewalk were rows of hand prints in cement of famous stars of the 80s. Richard Gere has very small hands. We also passed several cutout figures of movie characters like Spiderman, Hans Solo, Austin Powers, and Jack Sparrow. We did not put our heads in the slots, though. =)





We did see a couple free beaches, but for the most part, the beach was lined with private beaches with corresponding restaurants where you would rent a lounge chair and umbrella for several euros.



The beach is gorgeous with deep blue water and fine sand. We watched a guy build a giant caricature of a man in the sand, and imagined where all the sailboats might be going.





Eventually, we made our way back towards the hotel, stopping at a grocery store along the way for some snacks and extra food for Mark to take to Algeria. We picked up our bags and waited at the train station for our 3pm train to Marseille. That should put us in Marseille around 5p with plenty of time for dinner and splitting up our luggage to go two different ways.

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Leaning right

9/21/10 (Day 20)

Today our vacation is starting to wind down as we will leave Italy and head back towards France and the final destination of Marseille. In Marseille, Mark and I will part ways. =( But, today is still in Italy.

We woke up way too early this morning so that we could catch a 6:10am train to Pisa. The train ride was only about an hour and soon we were at our destination. We stored our luggage at the train station and then walked for 20 minutes towards the Piazza Duomo where the Leaning Tower of Pisa stands.

On the way we stopped for some breakfast and soon were in line for our 9:00am trip to the top of the tower. I've seen many pictures of the tower and I know that it really does lean. However, seeing it in person is a whole other story. It really does lean! I could sit outside that tower and just stare at the engineering marvel that it leans without falling down. I see the columns, only 18 of which are the originals, and can't quite fathom how the columns on the long side can survive under tension. The columns on the short side are longer to try and counter-act the lean.





Anyway, the climb to the top was highly controlled. Only a limited amount of people are allowed up at a time and for only a 30 minutes interval. We were led up where we could stand and take photos, and then we were led back down again. On the climb up, I could tell when we spiraled around the tower as sometimes I felt the lean towards the outside wall, and sometimes the inside wall. The first 3 levels lean the most as those are the original levels that were built and then sunk into the ground. It is impressive to stand on the lower levels and look out the window at the much straighter landscape.





Towards the top, a couple levels were under restoration, however, we were able to view the bell level and then stand on the upper-most level. Here, on the top, we felt as if we were on a disc leaning towards the side. They had added some drainage grooves along the roof so the water had somewhere to go other than down the stairs.

The best part of the whole trip was when we heard an announcement in about 6 different languages warning us that the bells were about to sound. Then, they did, and the booming was impressive.



Back at the bottom, we took our required tourist photos both holding the tower up and knocking it down. It was fun to sit and watch all the tourists pose with the tower doing various things with it. At one point there was a whole line of people standing on columns posing in various leaning formations.







We also purchased tickets to the other 5 attractions in the piazza. We viewed the Monumental Cemetery first where we saw various tomb monuments in the walls and on the floor of a sort of cloister type building. Here we saw a statue of Fibonacci. We also saw some artists restoring the frescoes. We went inside the Duomo, or dome. Here we not only enjoyed the decor, but we were also treated to a demonstration of the amazing echo effect inside. When standing on the right spot, a note sung will echo for several moments allowing one person to sing a chord with themselves. That was worth coming for. The larger church next door was decorated more lavishly than the Duomo and we toured the various areas inside.



By now it was time for lunch, so we headed outside of the piazza and found a trattoria that we could sit down and eat a long lunch. Mark had a tuna fish pizza ordered by accident. It must have not been translated right on the menu, but it was still tasty. I had some amazing tortellini in a cream sauce. The Italians know how to make amazing cream sauce!



We had a little more time before our train, so we quickly strolled through the Museo that held most of the original sculptures and artwork copied in the church and duomo. Then we sat marveling at the tower again before leaving. We found our last Italian gelateria for this vacation and savored every minute of our treat. Eating 1-2 gelatos a day every day has been quite nice.



Our train left Pisa at 3p. We had a change of trains in Genoa, then in Ventimiglia on the border between Italy and France. Actually, the hardest trains to schedule were the ones today that would take us along the Italian and French coastlines from Pisa to Marseille. After Ventimiglia, we'll change trains in Monaco and then finally arrive in Cannes for the night.

Cannes is a very high-end town. We arrived at 10:19pm and saw many fancy dressed people still out walking the streets. All the high-end shops were closed, but we certainly were not anywhere near a sketchy area of France.

Hotel Eden, our stop for the night, turned out to be a fairly fancy hotel, too, with a spa and everything. The reception was open and we soon found ourselves on the 7th floor looking out across the lights of Cannes. The room was nice with a large bed, bathroom, and free wifi. We dropped our stuff and headed out to find some food. After wandering around finding only bars open, we spotted a sandwich place that was still serving. I had a hard boiled egg sandwich that was not egg salad, but still good, and Mark had a ham sandwich.

Back at the hotel it was nearing midnight and we finally crashed into bed for the day. I think we woke up at 5a this morning. It's been a long day.

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The Secret Basement

9/20/10 (Day 19)

Ah, Florence. I will always remember Florence as the city that Sandra Bullock dreamed of going to one day in the movie While You Were Sleeping. We slept in this morning and then had breakfast at a cafe next door. Nutella croissants are delicious, by the way. =)

By now it was about 10am and we headed for the Duomo for a tour. The line outside at opening time wasn't too long yet and soon we were inside. I would say the most impressive part for me, was learning that the Duomo was actually built on top of another, much smaller church. When they started digging underneath the Duomo, they found the remains of the old Santa Repartante church. We were able to tour around the old church seeing parts of the flooring that still had mosaic tiling and see several artifacts that had been buried with the church. We could see where the supports were for the much bigger Duomo above us and were quite impressed to be walking around underneath.



The Duomo is listed in our guidebook as one of the big three of Italy. The other 2 are the Colosseum and Leaning Tower of Pisa. The exterior is incredibly impressive with all the colored stone and marble and artwork. I was surprised to learn that this place of worship was built in only 150 years compared to the 900 years it took for the Basilica San Marco in Venice. The dome was built during the height of the Renaissance when the idea of an architect being a designer of a building first started. Before now, buildings were just built by experienced builders over sometimes hundreds of years. It's crazy that all these buildings are still around today! The architect studied the Pantheon in Rome and eventually designed this dome. Many people didn't think it could be done, but here it stands as one of the largest brick domes in the world.



Outside the Duomo, the line to climb the adjacent Campanile bell tower was non-existent, so we decided to head their first. There were about 3 or 4 different levels where we could take a break from climbing the 414 stairs and view the surrounding panorama. We experienced the booming sensation that comes from the ringing of the bells while standing on top of the platform that holds them. =) The most memorable part of the climb, however, was near the top where the staircase became impossibly narrow and started to spiral up. Here, people were coming down the same direction we were going up. It was rather tricky for everyone to remain upright while crossing through here.



At the top of the Campanile we were completely fence in, but happy to see the fencing had holes large enough for my camera lens. We had quite the panoramic view and could see all the people that climbed the Duomo next door. We decided we didn't have to climb that one as well.



The next stop on our walking tour of the city was a spot for lunch where we grabbed some takeaway pizza at a cafe. Then we headed towards the main reason for coming to Florence....the Museo Galileo or the History of Science Museum.

No photos were allowed inside, of course. There were 2 floors housing a large collection of historical scientific instruments from early time and astrological keepers to globes, to microscopes, to large decides to create and measure electricty and electromagnetic pulls. We were most impressed with the video displays that showed both in English and Italian how several of the instruments were used or built. We were disappointed to see that a large amount of instruments had almost no explanation what-so-ever. Still, it was very interesting to see and learn about the science from about the 14th century to the 19th century.

There was a neat video of an exploding house to show the positive effects of lightning rods on buildings. The model house was built with wooden sides on hinges. Inside was a pedestal with gunpowder. Outside was a lightning rod with a removable piece. Without the piece making the metal connection from roof to ground, electricity tapped on the rod caused the gunpowder to explode knocking the walls of the house down. When the metal connection was inserted correctly, the same electric tap caused the house to stay intact and the electricity to travel to the ground, where it was safely dissipated.

The gift shop was disappointing with mostly just science books. There were no postcards or hat pins, our typical souvenirs. We made do with some photos of the museum signage.

By now it was late afternoon and we had really toured everywhere of interest in Florence. We wandered around the shops to find some tacky souvenirs. No, we didn't buy miniature statues of David. =) We each found a shirt we liked and skipped the rest of the items. Then, we went back to the hotel to use the internet, do some blogging, and relax before our dinner reservation.

Our dinner reservations were for 8p, about the start of the Italian dinner time, at a recommended restaurant for steak Florentine. The service was probably the best we've had in Italy. We started out with some addictive fried pasta. Mark ordered the 800 grams of steak Florentine and I ordered a smaller sirloin with mushrooms. Both steaks were superb as were the potato sides. Mark had a frozen limoncello for dessert and the waiter also brought us some biscotti to munch on. Eventually, we finally left and I grabbed some gelato to eat as we walked back to the hotel.

We are happy with our visit to Italy. Tomorrow we will hit up Pisa and then slowly travel the coast of Italy and France to Cannes for the night.

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Firenze

9/19/10 (Day 18)

This morning started way too early when my alarm went off at 5:30am. We had to leave the hotel by 6 in order to make our 6:50a train to Firenze (Florence). The train was uneventful and about 3 hours in length. I sure do like train travel rather than air travel. I was able to sleep almost the whole time, but Mark never did get comfortable in the seats.

In Florence, our hotel, the Luna Rossa, was just a few blocks from the train station. We arrived and found a note telling us to go across the street to another hotel to check in. It was only 10am now, so I figured there was no way our room was ready anyway. Across the street, we found out that somehow these 2 hotels are linked, and our room was actually on this side of the street anyway in the Hotel Ester? Whatever. We were pretty tired, so we just sat on their couch waiting for our room to open up. At 11am, our room opened up and we took a nap.

The room is fairly large and even comes with a computer hooked up to the internet! The wifi is only available in the lobby, but we can figure out about plugging our laptop into the ethernet in the room instead. The room has one double bed and two twin beds. It's a rather odd arrangement, but as I said, we were tired and just came in and napped.

When we woke up for lunch, we headed down the street to a place recommended by the hotel and had some wonderful pizzas. We could see them making our pizzas while we waited and I could tell the ingredients were fresh. I would say this was the best pizza so far in Italy. The cheese especially was delicious.

There were no real plans for today, so we just headed towards the large Duomo, or dome. I read in our guidebook that this Duomo is one of Italy's big three must-sees. The others are the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In any case, we shall see all 3 on this trip. The Duomo was indeed a marvelous sight. This one only took 150 years to build as opposed to the San Marco Basilica in Venice which took 900 years. The outside was very ornate with colorful stone, small pillars carved into swirls, and lots of statues. We were impressed. Tomorrow we'll go inside. The adjacent Campanile was similarly decorated and the two together were quite a sight.



We continued to wander and saw the Parazzo Vecchio that looks like a medieval castle on the outside and houses Renaissance art on the inside. Next to it was the Loggia dei Lanzi that had several Greek statues on display under large archways.






Continuing on our way, we walked past the famous Uffizi Gallery housing more Renaissance art and on to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. This bridge is more like a street with shops on either side of the walking path. The shops almost seem to hang off the side of the bridge as cantilevers. The shops used to sell meat, but when they just threw the unsold meat into the river below, the meat stores were banned, and now the shops are all jewelry shops.






The river beneath was surprisingly milk chocolate in color and very muddy. I don't know why, but it wasn't very scenic. We stopped to eat some gelato and I even found some peanut butter gelato! This is pretty rare I hear.

Our walking tour continued on the other side of the river where we found the Piazza de Pitti. I think this was another art museum, but mostly it was too big for the lens on my camera, so we joined everyone else and sat in the sun on the large area in front of the building. I guess people come here to lounge. The breeze was chilly and the sun was warm making the perfect combination of temperature.

Next up was a climb up many steps to the Piazzale Michelangelo. I had no idea that from here we would have an unobstructed view of the sun setting over Florence with all the important buildings like the Duomo in perfect view. Wow, what a wonderful surprise. We found the steps covered in people sitting to stare out at the panoramic view in front of us and we joined in.



While sitting, we listened to a few audio guides I had downloaded to my iPhone. The sun set and turned the distant mountains purple. The moon shown bright over the bronze copy of Michelangelo's David in the center of the square, and eventually we wandered away.



We wanted to get back to the Palazzo Vecchio by 8p as we had seen something about a night tour there. Luckily there was a restaurant selling food right there in the square and we ate our pasta within view of the giant castle. The city is still teeming with life and this museum is actually open until midnight! As it turned out, the night tour wasn't quite what we were expecting as we had to buy tickets to the museum as well and the tour wasn't until 9:30, so instead we headed out to take some night photos of the great buildings on the way back to our hotel.

We stopped at Ben & Jerry's to get some of their ice cream/gelato.



Florence is turning out to be a beautiful town. There are plenty of people and tourists, but it doesn't seem quite as crowded as Rome or even Venice. So, now, tonight, I actually have some time to catch up on my travel journal. Eventually I'll get around to posting everything online as well.

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Lawn chair to the sky

9/18/10 (Day 17)

This morning was glorious as we allowed ourselves to sleep in and have more of a relaxing day. We didn't order our breakfast in the room until about 9:30 and then set out to find the boat to the island of Capri.

The walk to the coast was only about 20 minutes and in typical Italian style the roads were full of crazy drivers and the sidewalks were too small for all the pedestrians. Purchasing the right tickets and getting to the right dock proved to be a challenge due to lack of posted information in English, but by following others we managed to get on the right boat. Of course it is a Saturday and the people of Napoli are going on vacation to the island of Capri today. The boat was fairly packed with a tour group as well, but thankfully it was less than an hour trip to this island.

On the island, we found out, after walking the coast, that the actual city of Capri is a train ride up the mountain. So we found the ticket line for the Funicular and then found the actual boarding area for the Funicular. All was not labeled well and rather confusing. Thankfully we don't have any real plans for today so we just went with the flow. Once we arrived in the city of Capri and walked to the edge, did we figure out where we really wanted to be was the city of Anacapri which is a bus ride away. This whole island is only 6km long and 3km wide, by the way. =) We took one look at the over crowded buses reminiscent of Peru and decided to inquire about a taxi ride. This turned out to be an excellent plan. The taxis here all have open roofs with a cloth canopy over the top for shade.





Anacapri isn't even at the top elevation of this island of cliffs yet. We went to the chair lift to be taken up to the top. The chair lift, was just that, a chair lift. We sat in individual chairs, almost like lawn chairs, and were taken by cable up to the top. I guess what the chairs most reminded me of were the chairs on the swing rides at amusement parks, but attached to a cable like a ski lift. The lift was really quite long and of course had excellent views. Finally, here at the top of the island we have beautiful panoramic views of the island, Italy, and the blue ocean. The view is unfortunately bit hazy, but still makes a wonderful spot to sit and type out blog posts. This is probably the least populated spot we've found in Italy and we are sitting here, enjoying the view and catching up on the daily journal.





At 5:30 we heard last call for the chair lift and we rode back down to Anacapri. We arrived in town too early for dinner as people start eating dinner around 8p or later. Every place we found wasn't serving food anymore. This seems to be more of a lunch island anyway. So, we took the bus down to Capri. The bus wasn't quite as crowded as the ones in Peru, but we just barely fit inside the door for the ride down. In Capri, no one was selling food either. Now it was already 7pm and our ferry was at 8, so we decided to take the Funicular down to the shore where at lunch there were plenty of food shops.

At the shore, everyone was closing up. We just barely had time to grab some gelato before the shop closed for the night. Now I can see why people left on the earlier ferries today. I don't know what people on this island do for dinner, but by the time our boat arrived, the area was nearly deserted.



The ride back was neat from the top deck of the boat because we could see all the lights from the surrounding coastlines of Italy and Capri. No photos of course as tripods do not work on boats. =) Just before we arrived, the crew decided they were ready to go home and the shoved us all off the top deck to the waiting area. They were so anxious to get us off, I was surprised they didn't have cattle prods and make us jump from the boat onto the dock.

Back in Naples, we found the city packed after 9pm on a Saturday. Of course now all the restaurants were packed with people. We found a busy one and figured the food had to be good with all the people. However, we had a rather poor experience here. Not only was the service slow, closer to the Italian style of service, but the food was not worth finishing. We stayed way too long trying to flag our waiter down to pay.

Naples does seem to like to party hard at night. It felt like the whole town was out and about. The streets were packed with cars and motorcycles and the sidewalks with people. It's not a very pretty city and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone coming to visit. The only thing Naples has going for it, is it's a great hub for Pompei, Capri, and the Amafli Coast.

We will be glad to leave this graffiti-covered city for Florence tomorrow morning.

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Nature's Fury

9/17/10 (Day 16)

We found out today just how boutique our hotel was as the breakfast was brought to our room at no extra charge. Breakfast consisted of the typical Italian style of croissant, juice, and coffee (declined).

Today is Pompei day. We headed to the main Naples train station before 8am to see if we could figure out what train to get on. As it turned out, we could not use our Eurorail pass for today, but the return ticket price was less than 10 Euros for the two of us. We jumped on the train and got to Pompei in about 30 or 40 minutes.

Once here, we had no idea where to go, but just a few steps put us right at the entrance gate to the ruins, so all was working out. We arrived at 8:45am and just after they opened at 8:30. This meant we had the whole day here. Excellent. Pompei is huge at 65 hectacres of which about 10 are visitable.





The audio guides were an excellent purchase and we were able to use them all day. There was about 4 hours of audio on the guides and we almost listened to all of it. We also had a book purchased in Rome that explained the ruins and had photos of the ruins as they are today with transparent overlays that showed the artistic renderings of what they would have looked like back in 79 AD before Mount Vesuvius eruption. Between these two resources I have enough information about Pompei, well, to write a book. =)

Some of the highlights..... Pompei had about 20,000 residents at the time of the eruption. The town was much bigger than I thought it would be. The legends stated that Hercules founded the town of Pompei and they worshiped him as such. The town is full of temples honoring various gods and goddesses. The archeologists named each building they found according to the statues or paintings they found in the rooms. Pompei streets were made of large flat, rounded rocks with sidewalks on either side built at least half a foot higher than the street. The street served as the drainage for both storm drainage and sewage, so crosswalks across the street were built raised like the sidewalks, but as stepping stones, so carts could still get through.



Most of the houses had a similar layout. The entrance went to a large room with a square basin in the center. The roof angled in towards this center and a square hole in the roof allowed the rainwater to collect in the basin for drinking water.


Typical entrance


The rooms were off of this main room. Many of the large houses of the diplomats has large gardens through the back with fresco decorated walls and rooms built off the garden as well.

We saw many of the shops along the street. You could tell which were the shops selling hot food as they had marble counters with holes to hold the food.


The forum for public events was extremely large. Off towards the edge of town we saw a small and large theater for, well theatrical events complete with dressing rooms and stage management in the back. There was a large amphitheater for gladiator events, and a huge sports arena for other sporting events.

Pompei was buried under several meters of ash and rock during the 79 AD eruption. Most of the inhabitants were buried alive in the ash. When excavating, the archeologists were able to make plaster casts of those buried alive because as their bodies and clothes decomposed, the ash kept the shapes. They could even see the folds in the clothing and expressions on faces. The city was not excavated until the 17th century and Mark and I would both like to know more about the excavation. It seems amazing that people were able to dig through volcanic rock to find the city, also built of rock. Today the city is completely walkable. Most of the buildings were blocked off to entry, but we were able to tour several of them with our audio guide.

Mosaic floor. About 5 tiles would fit in a penny!


The city is also strewn with stray, but very docile dogs. We found many sleeping in the shade. They were sleeping so soundly that we could walk right in front of their noses without a stir. There is a group that takes care of the dogs as dogs were always sacred to Pompei.

We were amazed to see that even the 2000 year old graffiti on the walls survived after all this time. Political figures would put their names on the walls before elections. Many of the floors of buildings and houses still had the small mosaic tiles laid 2000 years ago.



Overall, we were very impressed by all that remains. We didn't leave until after 7pm; a full day of walking. The train back was uneventful and we found a deserted restaurant in Naples for dinner.

Gorgeous sunset...did the best I could with the foreground


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Italian cut

9/16/10 (Day 15)

Only one week left. It feels like a million years ago that we had just arrived in Geneva, but it also doesn't feel like we only have a week left of vacation. We slept in this morning and there was not much on the schedule for today.

Breakfast in the hotel was the usual bread basket with nutella and soon we had checked out of the hotel, leaving the luggage in storage. We had made reservations at the Gallerie Borghese which is a very large and popular private collection of art. The walk to Borghese took us past the Spanish Steps and eventually we ended up in the Villa Borghese park area. Finally, the bustle of Rome was left on the other side of the trees and we could stroll quietly and easily through the park.



Our reservations only allowed us 2 hours in the museum. Only about 200 or 250 (I can't remember) are allowed for each 2 hour interval. I was impressed to find out that the day was all ready sold out by the time we arrived at 12:30 for our 1p-3p block of time. There was a 9a, a 11a, 1p, 3p, and 5p slot available for each day. No bags or cameras were allowed in the gallery of course. We did purchase an audio guide that filled our 2 hours quite perfectly showing us the main works. The Borghese family has been collecting art for this mansion that was eventually turned into a gallery. Before it was a gallery, though, they lived here.

The art work did not only consist of the paintings hung on the walls, but also sculptures, decorative floors, painted and decorated ceilings, and most impressive was the decorative walls. Each room was given a theme and painters were brought in to decorate the room to the theme of the artwork that would be held inside. Going back home to white walls will be very boring after visiting here!

We were especially amazed by a sculpture depicting the story of the nymph Diana running from Apollo. She was in the process of transforming into a tree. The marble had been sculpted showing the fine details of leaves and branches. It was very impressive work indeed.

Once our time slot had finished and we were shooed out of the museum, we started walking towards a gelato place recommended in an article sent to me by my friend Christy. On our way, we found a place to sit and eat lunch (after 3pm again). Mark had a tomato mozzarella, tomato olive pizza, and I had the house risotto. We were both happy with our choices.

Then it was off to get gelato at Ciampini. Their house specialty was marron glacé (candied chestnut). We both tried it, but while interesting, would not order it again. The most hilarious part of the experience was the fact that we had eaten at a restaurant just next door the other night! (It took me a couple days to get the information on my iPhone so we could view it while out.) We could tell that this was a place popular with the locals because we saw many Italian business men ordering their gelato here as well.

By now we had just about run out of things we wanted to do in Rome. So, we headed back to the Piazza Navona area so Mark could get his haircut, the Italian way. He ended up with a blow dry and style that straightened his hair. He will certainly have the range in haircuts. An Italian cut is just the first. Later we'll have an Egyptian cut, an Irish cut, and even a Kenya or Tanzinia cut.



We relaxed in the Piazza Navona and were happy to hear some of the street performers playing Italian music instead of all the American stuff we'd been hearing. I'm not sure if the street performers think we want to hear American music or if the bulk of tourists actually do prefer American music. I would have been much happier in Rome with a more Italian cultural experience.

Happy with everything we covered in Rome and with a couple hours to spare before our 9:30p train to Naples, we decided to pick up our bags and stroll to a metro stop, rather than calling a cab. The stroll took us past the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and several obelisks in each piazza. I am still amused seeing all the pillaged Egyptian obelisks crowned with crosses on top after the Catholics invaded Egypt.

Soon, we arrived at the closest metro stop and took a series of subways to the Rome Tiburtina station. The Tiburtina station was pretty much deserted this late at night and our late train to Naples is almost empty.



We arrived in Naples late enough that we were a little concerned about the neighborhood we were walking through at night, but all was fine and we figured out where the hotel was. The hotel was really hard to find! Basically the only signage was a note next to a doorbell on a big wooden door. Luckily, they were expecting us and we went to collapse in our room.

We walked in, and I immediately had to pull out my tripod and camera for photos. This was not a hotel, but more of a boutique. The door squeaked open similar to the doors in a haunted house and we turned on the light to view a high fresco-ed ceiling, 2 beds, wall art, and an enormous bookcase full of books.





And now it is time for bed. Good night.

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I saw the Pope! Well, Mark did.

9/15/10 (Day 14)

We woke early today and had our usual breakfast at the hotel. Today we were meeting a tour group at the Vatican at 9:30am, a good 30 minute walk from the hotel. This is the same tour guide we somewhat followed in Ancient Rome yesterday.

On the way to the Vatican, we had the opportunity to cross a bridge decorated with statues lit golden in the morning light.



Since today was Wednesday, the Pope would performing his weekly speech to the general public. Our tour was to start with the Pope and then continue on to the Vatican Museums, ending at St. Peter's Basilica. Wednesday's must be popular because our tour group was well over 50 people in size. We had to practically run following Ian, our tour guide, to get to the area in which the Pope would speak. Today he would be speaking indoors rather than the usual outdoors, so we all had to send our bags through security. This meant the line was long to get in. However, we did get in, and now we can say that we've seen the Pope. Well, at least Mark has seen the Pope. I looked at the picture he took over the heads of all people in front of me. =)

After we got our photo op, we headed back outside to wait for our group. Around 11p, we scrambled after Ian around the sides of the Vatican wall and entered the Vatican Museums. Here we were outfitted with our radios. This is the most awesome touring Italy is these radio systems for tour groups. We've seen them and today is the first time to use them. Basically, each person of our group is outfitted with a radio receiver with headphones and our guide has a microphone transmitter that sends his voice to our ears. Now, he can talk quietly in the exhibits and we can all hear him perfectly wherever we are. I am in love with this system and can't figure out why the big tourist sites in the US haven't picked up on it yet.

The Vatican Museums were jam-packed with people! There was so much to see. Our tour guide took us to the best pieces on a quick 3-hours tour of the place. We learned a lot about various pieces of art including all the symbolism in the paintings as well as who each person was and why they were painted just so.

We were surprised to note that the Vatican, a city of only about 800 people receives 10,000 visitors daily. The Vatican Museum is actually the only museum in the world (or maybe Europe) that is completely self sustained through ticket sales. All other museums rely on donations.

We also finally learned why all the piazzas had Egyptian obelisks. After invading Egypt, the Catholics brought back the obelisks to display in their cities. The one in front of the giant St. Peter's Basilica is 3000 years old and the oldest in Rome.

Since silence was required in the famous Sistine Chapel, multiple information panels with photos of the ceiling and walls lined the courtyard in the museums. Here, tour groups could stop and learn about the chapel before going in. Pope Julius, II forced Michelangelo to paint the ceiling against his will. This is the first painting Michelangelo every did. Everyone thought it was going to be rubbish because he had never painted before and actually M. thought this was a conspiracy against him so that everyone would think his work was rubbish. However, as we all know, the work turned out to be fantastic. Michaelangelo's knowledge of the human body helped him paint the fresco ceiling in a unique way that no other painter had tried before. All the people were lively, muscular, and life-like. In fact, Rafael, after seeing M's work decided to copy his style.



We saw several works by Caravaggio and learned that his unique method of making white paint look whiter than anyone else's involved lots of lead. So, Caravaggio's rather crazy life-style was probably due to lead-poisoning.

The Vatican Museums allowed photography inside which made the whole experience much more interesting to me as I could find ways and places to take photos of the art. Both Mark and I were surprised to see galleries containing Greek sculptures of gods and goddesses in a Catholic museum. There were also full galleries of animal statues.

Our guide was very interested in the Fibonacci sequence and talked a lot about how the numbers present themselves in nature. I think he could have done a whole seminar on just Fibonacci.

The gallery of maps was amazing as it was a long, ornately decorated hallway with gold ceilings and walls painted with many maps. The maps painted here were very accurate, amazingly, and the guide joked that this was the first Google Earth. It was about at this point in the tour where the radio receivers became absolutely essential to hear the guide. The hall was packed with people and we all moved as a herd of sheep or cattle would. Our group was strung out through the hall and we could tell our guide was 1 or 2 rooms ahead of us.




Photography was not allowed in the Sistine Chapel as the rights had been sold to some Italian network, but it was quite amazing to be inside. It was a lot smaller than I would have expected it to be. I was most impressed to learn that the fresco on the front wall was drawn so that all the figures in the painting would be the same size and look down on a person standing on the alter. If you looked at the painting from a distance, the figures on the bottom were smaller than the ones on the top. But, on the alter, everyone was the same size.

Michelangelo liked to take his frustrations out on people through his art. So, many places our guide pointed out where M had painted in a figure of someone with whom he had a vendetta against painted in a negative light.

The tour ended behind St. Peter's Basilica and we were left to explore that great church on our own. We started by climbing the 551 steps up to the very top of the dome to get a glorious panorama of Rome and the Vatican. Since the climb up was along the dome, many times we had to lean to the side or duck as the walls started curving towards us. The view at the top was fantastic as no building in Rome is allowed to be taller than the Basilica. We managed to squeeze our way all the way around and get plenty of photos.




By now it was about 4 in the afternoon and we took a fairly quick tour of St. Peter's Basilica before heading out to grab some food. Thankfully the hotel breakfast has been rather filling. We were able to find a pizza snack bar on the way and sat down to munch on our food. It seems like every where we look there is a pizza snack bar or a gelato place. The pizza from the snack bars isn't always great Italian food, but it's fast and it's filling. It was interesting here as we paid per gram, so we told the guy what size slice we wanted and then it was weighed and paid for.




Make-shift tripod in the Basilica


We walked back to the Piazza Navona. Along the way, we stopped at Gelateria del Teatro, a gelataria recommended in an article sent to me by my friend, Christy. I finally was able to get the gelato places into my iPhone so we could find them as we traveled. The gelato here was indeed fabulous and not quite so touristy as the other gelato places. Thank you Christy!

The rest of the evening wasn't very eventful. We spent some time at the hotel and then ate dinner in the Piazza Navona at a wonderful place where the pasta was made fresh every day. I had the tastiest fettuccine alfredo I've ever had and Mark had delicious ravioli.