Tag: Italy

Italy and the Adriatic: Part 3

Posted on 3 June 201217 June 2012 by puu

Capri, Italy

Our first shore excursion, Capri! It started off wet. And cold. A front had gone through, and the cloud was hovering over the highest point of Capri. The ship anchored out of the harbor, and we hopped aboard tenders straight to the Blue Grotto. Along the way, the tour guide gave us an amusing overview of “Boar Island”, and I wasn’t sure just what we were really going to get to see on a cloudy day in the grotto. From our larger tender boat, we jumped into smaller row boats in groups of four for an intimate ride through a very small hole in the cliff wall. We all had to lie down in the boat to get through, but wow! The water lit up underneath like a giant neon light. The rowers entertained us with song as we ogled the glowing water.

The tenders then took us to the main port of Marina Grande, and a bus weaved us up to the town of Anacapri. We sat for a while to do a wine tasting that Herr thought was “okay”, but we both agree the bruschetta was tasty. From there we got tickets to ride a single-seat chair lift to the tippy top of Solaro Mountain. The ride was a unique and peaceful experience that took a little over ten minutes dangling in the air to reach our destination that sat in a cloud. Despite not getting the view from the top, the ride itself was worth doing.

When we came back down, we ate a lunch of sandwiches we grabbed from the ship (free food!), and I bought a gelato (it was also just “okay”). The shops were cute though; expensive, but I didn’t have enough time to truly check them out (or I’m sure I would have spent a good deal of money). The tour guide shoveled us back into buses to go to the main port of Capri, pointed out the major highlights around the main square, and left us to our own devices. Herr and I looked at a few shops, then took the funicular railway back down to the port for some more quick shopping (just a summer dress). Back to the tender and a good nap for me once on board while Herr dutifully checked out the fitness center. By the time we had left, the sun was out, so we both got a little pinker.

Taormina, Sicily

Ah, Sicily! The day was much more pleasant, weather-wise, but there was some frustration with how much time we had. The port of Messina isn’t terribly interesting as most of the city was rebuilt after a 1908 earthquake, so we took another tour that required a bus ride to Taormina, about 30 miles south. The city of Taormina is beautiful with views of the coast from its mountainous location with Mt. Etna (the tallest volcano in Europe, and quite active) in the background. The bus brought us to the south end of the main street, which we walked to get to the north end where the ancient Greek theatre is located. The theatre was retrofitted by the Romans to be an amphitheater, so it has a mix of stone and brick infrastructure. While sitting down to hear its history, one found it difficult to take their eyes off the mountain in the distance.

We ate lunch once the guide let us go and only had 45 minutes to walk the long stretch of road back to the other end. Along the street were several confectionery shops that looked good, so we sampled some of the local food. I wanted to do much more shopping – the streets were just beckoning me – but we hardly had time to get back. We did make one side tour to see the English garden that was visible from the theatre. It was quite a sight, I just wished we could have seen more of it.

Practically jogging back up the hill to the main street, we made it back to the tour group to get back on the bus back to Messina. Unfortunately, Sicily has a three hour siesta during the time we arrived, so we couldn’t get into the church to see the 16,000 pipe organ. So back to the ship to chill out. Amusingly, one of the huge cruise ships had pulled in as our ship was docking; it was so huge! About as big as a mega-hotel on water with roughly 3,000 or 3,500 passengers. I don’t think I would ever enjoy something so crowded and large. The WindSurf sailing yacht is quite big enough for me! We had high tea and chatted with others as we pulled out of the harbor. Herr went for dinner (I couldn’t handle yet another 3 course dinner!), and I finally got a chance to watch A Room with a View (recommended to me by a friend).

At Sea

Today was a day at sea, with the shores of Italy hanging off one side of the ship for a good part of the day before heading straight into the Ionian Sea towards the Dalmatian Coast. For the most part, I chilled out in the library playing word puzzles and Trivial Pursuit until our afternoon spa appointments. The sea was a bit rough with high winds but sunny; I found walking in a straight line a challenge so preferred to sit.

Herr tried acupuncture for the first time. He came back to the room looking more relaxed than I have ever seen him, so I am curious now to try it myself. Dinner was another three course meal that left me feeling full beyond capacity. We camped out and watched Back to the Future, vegetable-style.

Italy and the Adriatic: Part 2

Posted on 22 May 201217 June 2012 by puu

Rome Day 2

We had planned to go to the Vatican, but we could only get tickets for Friday and decided to do something completely different. So we went to Ostia Antica, a small port town just south of Rome that was “Pompeii-ed”, if I might make that a verb. Instead of ash though, Ostia was buried in river silt. We spent nearly seven hours walking through this well-preserved, partially reconstructed town.

One problem with visiting Ostia Antica was the sheer number of classroom tours going on. It honestly felt like an entire school dumped its kids on the site! After struggling through the entrance, we skipped ahead, ate an early lunch, and found the far west corner. It was very quiet, and we were amazed at just how much exploring one could do. Not much was blocked off (only unsafe places), so we definitely explored! I think we came across no less than ten public baths and walked through several casas (large family homes) and smaller residences. It was quite amazing to see the floor mosaics and walk on many of them. One casa still had a good deal of its second floor as well. Herr loved it, and now we must see Pompeii, which is a wealthier town versus this more practical port town.

We caught quite a bit of sun and did a great deal of walking, so headed nearly straight back to the apartment. Right off the metro is a nice restaurant called Pastalleta I believe, so Herr had a cheese-less pizza while I had a dish of fruit with a scoop of lemon sorbet on top. Tasty! Herr headed out for the train station to do some rail fanning of the brand new AGV train service while I chose the evening to recover (seven hours of walking is a lot for a desk job worker!).

One oddity in particular we noticed was how much people double parked around here. It’s understandable, with lack of space for parking garages (you really can’t dig down without hitting an archaeological site!), but it made me wonder how does the person inside get out? Does the double parker just try to be quick? Well, I found out. As I chilled out in the room, a car would not stop honking. I finally got up to look, and sure enough, it was someone trying to get out of his parking spot. And not more than 30 seconds after I looked, the owner of the vehicle caging him in came out to move his car! I couldn’t imagine doing it myself, I’d probably just have a bicycle. 😛

Rome Day 3

A busy day today, starting with St. Peter’s Basilica. We’ve visited this the last time in Rome, but this time instead of going up the cupola (a great view), we went into the grottoes and the treasury. I think we were both a little disgusted with the church’s show of wealth, to be honest. Gold chalices laced with precious stones and white gold diamond stars for ornamentation among other works. We’d visited St. Peter’s before and mostly overlooked the monetary squandering to respect the craftsmanship of the building. I still think it’s a beautiful building to see, but it’s a jaded trip for me.

Herr’s parents met us at one of the fountains in St. Peter’s plaza to go to the Vatican Museum, which we found an online reservation that was much appreciated (oh the linesâ€¦). As it was, we didn’t escape the crush of people inside. Oh did I feel like cattle being herded through the halls and rooms. When we went three years ago, we didn’t experience this and were able to enjoy each installation that appealed to us. Being squashed through, we got to the Raphael rooms very quickly as we could not stop or deviate to look at anything until then. I have to say the Raphael rooms were worth going through again and were, thankfully, not nearly as crowded. At that break between the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel, both crowds thinned out. Woohoo! We still had to go back through the Sistine Chapel, which both of us thought seemed different the second time around, but made it through to the cafeteria for some water. Herr was interested in the “popemobiles”, so we made one stop there (I didn’t find it too interesting, many of the carriages looked alike but the cars were modified to have a heavily gilt single seat in the back) before hopping the metro and two buses to the catacombs.

Getting to the catacombs was difficult, but we arrived at the Domitilla Catacombs in time to meet up with the English tour that had just begun. I was very curious after visiting the Parisian catacombs, with its bones piled into art, to see Roman catacombs, which are supposed to be much larger. It was much different though. The narrow tunnels were dug specifically for burials (Paris’ had a different original purpose), and people were laid into narrow slits in the wall. It was a unique experience, although it was a very controlled visit via the 40 minute tour. I was reaching the end of my walking tolerance by then, but we still wished to see the Caracalla Baths. And so we did.

The Baths required another hop on the bus, and we misinterpreted the stop we needed due to a road that carried the same name. After quite a walk, we thought we found the entrance, just to walk allllllll the way around the baths first. The long way round wasn’t all in vain though, as one side was up a hill that had a decent view over the ruins. Once inside though, we went right into the enormous main bath facility. Much of it no longer has any roof or ceilings, but we got to see some of the still-colorful mosaic floors and much of the superstructure walls still stand. Herr was keen on this building as two railway stations in the U.S. were modeled after it (although only half of one still exists, whereas this does). By then, I wasn’t sure how I was still walking. We found a metro not too far away and looked for a restaurant all over the main train terminal. We mostly stumbled to our apartment after eating.

At Sea

The day our cruise began! We didn’t do much of anything until our van came at noon, which was a welcome break for our feet. The van took us to the port, but the driver struggled to get us to our actual ship. He ended up bringing us to a bus that brought us there. After all the hassle, I didn’t want to have to get back to the city, so we missed out on Civitavecchia. We had a lot of orienting to do with the ship though. We learned of the 370ish capacity, there’s 270ish passengers. An overall relaxed atmosphere with a number of younger couples (although the majority was certainly older). I hadn’t realized the ship is run primarily in English with the U.S. dollar. It’s been so long!

We sat in on the two orientation discussions and had an evacuation drill (it was like a participatory version of the airline emergency drill, but funnier). Dinner began very late for my standards at no earlier than 7:30 p.m. and came out to be three courses. Three! All free! Oh, it was awful how much I ate. I think we all learned our lesson to moderate. It was good too, aside from an excessive use of salt (and alcohol in everything, honestly! Cruises were not meant for tee-totalers). The staff were super friendly and each learned our names. I felt quite out of place as this was my first experience on a cruise, but I started to figure it all out by the end of the day.

Italy and the Adriatic: Part 1

Posted on 19 May 201217 June 2012 by puu

Summary

Herr, his parents, and I went on a two week vacation in Italy and along the Dalmatian Coast, primarily by ship. The weather held to mostly sunny and pleasantly warm, and the cruise was onboard the Windstar line’s WindSurf, the largest sailing yacht with a capacity of 370 passengers. We spent three days around Rome before boarding with stops at Capri, Italy; Messina/Taormina, Sicily; Kotor, Montenegro; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Hvar, Croatia; and ending in Venice, where we stayed for two nights followed by one night in Verona.

This is our story.

Rome Day 1

Our flight out of Frankfurt was delayed for a half an hour, and upon landing in Rome we found out potentially why when we heard a crazy noise repeatedly coming from the landing gear. After a sporty van ride through some crazy Roman traffic, picking up the keys to our apartment, and picking up some lunch, we went our separate ways for the rest of the day. Herr and I went northeast to the Borghese park and rented a riscio (two person quadracycle with electric assist). Our goal was to see the Galleria Borghese, but it was sold out until Monday. So instead we cruised around the gardens. The pedal carriage was a lot of fun!

We made a quick stop by the Hard Rock Cafe, which was only a block from the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini church that houses the Capuchin Crypt. The crypt was interesting enough with only a euro donation, but no pictures makes for sad tourists. The crypts are decorated with a wide variety of human bones, unlike the Paris Catacombs that display mostly femurs and crania. It makes me all the more curious to see the bone church in the Czech Republic.

The church isn’t far from Trevi Fountain, but we just jumped the metro to the Roman Forums instead. We heard later from Herr’s parents that Trevi was intensely busy, so I’m a bit glad we didn’t go by, even if it has one of the best gelato shops. At the forum, we sat down and enjoyed the atmosphere much more than last time (three years ago). We had spent most of our time on Palatine Hill then, so we skipped that and hung out among the ruins. It was great to take it easy, and it allowed us to appreciate it much more.

We left a little after 6 p.m. and grabbed some sandwiches from a street vendor (overpriced, but it is a tourist-y area). As we ate, we watched other tourists around the Colosseum, which was entertaining enough. By then, though, we were quite exhausted with the early wake up (3:30 a.m.) and made our way back for an early night.

Alpine Mediterranean Loop: Part 2

Posted on 9 September 201117 June 2012 by puu

Day 3

We checked out of the hotel in the morning and paid one more visit to the Marseille harbor to see the St. Jean fort (under construction, so just a walk by), then to the Cathedral. Along the way we stopped by a quaint French cafe for breakfast that was just right. The Cathedral also sported the striped stone building construction, and inside was quite lovely. I swung by a candy shop on the way back to the car (it couldn’t be helped), and then we hit the road for Monaco.

The scenery was magnificent! I had not realized that Monaco is its own country because it’s a virtually impenetrable piece of France literally a part of the mountains along the Azure Coast. We drove through a long downward-winding tunnel and roadway catching snippets of incredible scenery as we entered Monte Carlo. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world with Monte Carlo the only city (not even) fitting inside its mile length. After a considerable amount of time zig zagging through the expensive looking buildings, Herr finally found a parking ramp. We proceeded in the direction of the coast and left Herr’s friend at the pebble beach while we caught a taxi up to the Aquarium. The building was lovely, but it was very crowded and small; unique though, with a giant octopus hanging from the ceiling in the main foyer and a second museum with the recently added royal wedding outfits. Jean Jacques Cousteau was once the director, too, which might explain the giant squid/octopus thing.

When we finally squeezed out of the building we didn’t have enough time to tour the Prince’s Palace, so we hopped a mini tour train to get back to the beach. It stopped at the casino, one of the well-known landmarks if ever you heard of Monaco or Monte Carlo, then walked the waterfront stopping for ice cream a few times along the way. Herr and I waded in the Mediterranean for a short time (just as salty in this part of the Med) before we jumped back in the car, promptly got lost in Nice, then passed out when we finally made it to the hotel (or at least I did soon after we ate).

Day 4

The epic driving day. We started off at a decent hour following the main route parallel to the Azure Coast, which alternated between tunnels and bridges over large valleys with the sea on our right. It was a very scenic drive (aside from the tunnels), but I was finding it difficult to do homework (sad, I know, but it was due). I gave it up shortly after. Right before reaching Genoa, we turned north, got lost (and a bit frustrated) in Turin, then found the Alps. What a sight! Admittedly, I was bouncing around in the backseat with the camera, going from window to window trying to capture it all. Herr finally pulled over in the town of Hone, where we had some tasty Italian food (honestly, every time I get a calzone in Italy it’s nearly the size of my torsoâ€¦ it became my lunch the next day as well). We took some backroads for a while before jumping back on the route for the St. Bernard Tunnel, one of the longest road tunnels in the world. Cost a bit of money to get through as well, just FYI.

Switzerland was one big traffic jam, then Germany was one big rain storm. We were quite grumpy by the time we returned having lost an hour driving “through” Turin, an hour in traffic, an hour driving slowly in sometimes torrential rains, and we did stop for lunch tooâ€¦ we had one night to recuperate before jumping back in the car the next morning for the Czech Republic.