"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity..." --John Muir, 1898

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Day 15: Leaving Italy

Well, it was an unforgettable trip. Hope you enjoyed some of the photos and descriptions. I tried to keep things brief. Lots can happen in two-weeks' time!

If you're just joining in, you'll want to start here. Or, use the archive list to the right for easier maneuvering -->

Day 14: Rome and Vatican City

The majority of this day centered around Vatican City. We started in St. Peter's Square which was much bigger than I had imagined.

With four miles of displays, the Vatican Museum is one of the top showcases of art in Europe. It was exhausting but spectacular. Of course, the Sistine Chapel is here, but unfortunately they would not allow photographs. That didn't stop the majority of people from snapping photos, but I gritted my teeth and stayed strong. What a vivid, masterful work by Michelangelo. I was duly impressed.

St. Peter's Basilica. The sheer scale of this cathedral is hard to put into words. There are markers at various places on the floor to show where the largest churches in Christendom could fit inside it. It is spectacular. I'm running out of adjectives, but it definitely took my breath away. Jared and I kept saying "wow" and "oh, man" and "holy smokes" (ok, that was just me).

We also climbed the dome, which was a fantastic (and spine-bending) culmination to the tour.


This is one of the ceilings in the Vatican museum that stretched on and on.






Most of my photos of St. Peter's wouldn't do it justice. The dome, for example, looked like an amazing fresco. When we climbed the dome, however, it became clear that the whole thing was an enormous mosaic. Here's a cherub up close.






Here's the same cherub a little closer. Can you imagine the millions of pieces of tile required to create the artwork on the dome?






The higher we climbed up the dome, the steeper it got and the harder it was to walk upright.






St. Peter's Square as seen from the dome.






A view of Rome from the top of the dome.






The last photo I ever took in Italy, St. Peter's Basilica at night.



The next day can be found here.

Day 13: Rome

Today was a whirlwind tour of Rome. The most difficult and stressful part about a new city, for me at least, is getting comfortable with the layout and transportation system. When you know exactly where you want to go but can't find out how to get there, it can be frustrating. So, our first day in Rome was a little rocky at times, but honestly it wasn't too bad. I wasn't impressed with the confusing bus system they had, but the city is so large that even if you take the subway to a general area of Rome, you most likely will need to take a bus or walk a very long way.

Our first stop was the Colosseum. I was prepared to be disappointed, but I really wasn't. It was amazing. From there, we went to the Roman Forum which, next to Pompeii, was probably my favorite architectural sight-seeing spot. How incredible it feels to walk along the same roads and touch the same stones that countless Caesars had walked and touched. We nosed around the Pantheon (in daylight this time) and had some great gelato nearby. We sneaked into the National Museum of Rome thirty minutes to closing (it's included in the Roma Pass, so it was "free") and got to see a few pieces of art before we were ushered out. We ate in the Campo de Fiori and after dinner we strolled around to see some other sights like the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Four Rivers Fountain, Piazza del Popolo, and so on. Rome is certainly enchanting, especially after dark.


A panorama of one side of the colosseum.






A panorama of inside the Colosseum.






A closer view of a small floor section they have built to show that the Colosseum originally had one!






A view to the Forum from inside the Colosseum. One of two days we had dark clouds (that I remember) and just a few sprinkles.






Arches running around the portico of the Colosseum.






Tourism run amok.






Another shot of the Colosseum.






The Arch of Constantine between the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.






The Arch of Titus that leads into the Roman Forum.






More of the Roman Forum.






What remains of the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina.






The Temple of Vesta. (Behind that is where the Vestal Virgins kept the eternal flame.)






The Forum Square with the Column of Phocas, Temple of Vesta and Caligula's Palace to the back and right.






This kind of stuff was lying around all over. What must have taken so much skill and was so beautiful 2,000 years ago now lies among the grass, a testament to the ruin of the Roman Empire.






The Temple of Saturn






St. Peter's Basilica in the background as seen from a bridge over the Tiber River.



The next day can be found here.

Day 12: To Rome!

Another long day of traveling, retracing our steps back through Naples and then on to Rome. We dropped our weary bodies off at Casa per Ferie Santa Maria alle Fornaci dei Padri Trinitari. Yes, that was the full name of our convent/hotel. It was a comfortable little room with breakfast in the mornings, which was a rare thing for the places we had been staying. We couldn't wait to go romping around Rome so we decided to go out that evening and see what we could see. It wasn't long before it was dark, but we had fun nonetheless. I took a few after-dark photos, but the only one worth showing is of the glorious Pantheon. When you turn the corner and see this massive structure staring you in the face, it's quite a feeling.


The Pantheon at night.



The next day can be found here.

Day 11: Positano

Another day trip from Sorrento was by ferry to Positano, a picture-perfect town on the Amalfi Coast. This was a tough choice for us. We vacillated for days. It was between Capri and Positano. In the end, Capri was just too expensive and overrun with tourists. We decided on Positano. There were still plenty of tourists, but nothing obscene like we'd heard would be on Capri. We took in the town, went to the cathedral (of course!), ate some delicious lemon ice, rented an umbrella and chairs for the beach and went swimming, and walked high up the road to see the view of the town and ocean before taking a hair-raising bus ride along the coast back to Sorrento.

As for the beach, we spent a couple hours there enjoying the beautiful day. It was very hazy and humid, but perfect for lying on the beach. We decided to go in for a swim. I thought it was strange that nobody else was in the water. No matter. We swam around for a while until Jared started making jokes about sharks. "Don't even joke about that," I said. Literally a few seconds later, I felt something brush against my arm and of course I panicked and moved out of the way. I turned around and saw a purple jelly fish. "There's a jelly fish over here!" I said. Jared didn't believe me until he felt a stinging sensation on his leg. We hurried back to the beach. Looking back at the water, I was amazed we hadn't seen it before: it was like a plague of jelly fish. They were lying all over the beach as far as the eye could see, and the water from the shore to several feet out was thick with them. Jared's leg swelled where he had been stung, but he said it didn't hurt too badly. It took a while for the swelling to go down. Poor Jared. That's what you get for teasing me about sharks. So the jellyfish certainly put a damper on our swimming, but I did enjoy a relaxing time walking the beach and collecting sea glass and lazing around in the shade.


My lovely camera lens in action. *rrgg* Most of the photos I took from the ferry were pretty much ruined like this one.






Another photo from the ferry.






Positano comes into view.






A wider view of Positano.






Positano when we were near to port.






A view of the town from our hike up the road.



The next day can be found here.

Day 10: Pompeii

Jared and I took a day trip to Pompeii, one of the highest on my list of places to visit before I die. I wasn't disappointed! Because even a short description/history of Pompeii would take more time than I have to write, I will leave it to the experts and simply share a few photos with you. Simply put, if you get a chance and you don't mind walking your legs off, you must, must, must see this amazing place. It is so enormous you can't see it all in a day, but we sure tried!


Entrance to the Pompeii ruins.






Columns in the Forum.






The Forum with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. This mountain used to be a cone, but it now looks like this after the eruption that buried Pompeii.






The Basilica.






Another view of "inside" the Basilica.






Indentations and hollows of bodies (with skeletons) were found in the hard ash while excavating Pompeii. Archaeologists filled these with plaster and this is one example of the result.






A detail of one of the baths near the Forum.






A well-preserved fresco in one of the homes.






A bakery.






A typical street at Pompeii.






The Temple of Isis, for the city's Egyptian community.






Inside the Temple of Isis.






The theater near the Temple of Isis.






Inside another home.






A fresco inside this home.






A colonnade (I can't remember where).






Does anybody know Latin? This is a fragment of a placard that hung outside the...






Main Amphitheater.






Evening comes to a street in Pompeii.






Another ruin.






A part of a magnificent fresco.






Another street in Pompeii. The ruts you see were made by chariot wheels almost 2,000 years ago.






Sunset falls over an arch that leads into Pompeii.



The next day can be found here.