Back Home: Another look at where we went

These are just some of the places we visited.

For more details, click here, and follow our slide show.

More photos may be added later or seen at other links on this Blog.

Babs' Top 10 from Italy and the Western Med

Here are a few of my favorite things:
1) The Donna Leon mystery novels set in Venice, introduced to us by our Swiss friend, Wies Gysi. Takes us right back there!
2) "The Feast of the Maritime Gods" painting by Peter Paul Rubens in the little jewel, the Museo Correale di Terranova, high on a cliff in Sorrento and seeing our ship at anchor far below.
3) The funicular up to Capri's old town and wandering the little tunneled lanes up above the castello.
4) The compass rose tile that I acquired in Amalfi, where sailors first used a compass. It shows both the directions and the prevailing winds, like Scirocco and Mistrale.
5) The Teatro Greco (Greek Theatre) in Taormina, Sicily. What the heck, ALL of Taormina!
6) Bathing in the bubbling sulphur pool and then in the bubbling Mediterranean on the island of Vulcano. Gee, I wonder where all those bubbles are coming from?
7) Dining on the EuroStar rapid train between Rome and Venice.
8) Sailing on the Royal Clipper, whither she wanders.
9) The wisdom of a slower pace, more in tune with Nature.
10) Good friends, good food, good wine, good memories!

They're Baaaack!

We're back in Houston - hot, broke, fat and happy. We'll check in with y'all in more detail as soon as we unpack and wash the sulfur out of our clothes.

This is a photo taken on the train from Rome to Venice on our last day in Italy. Trains in Italy are GREAT, by the way - fast, clean, and comfortable. The rails are all welded, so there's little noise (no clackety-clack) and speeds up to 160 mph are possible. City center Rome to city center Florence, a distance of 170 miles, took just over an hour. It's fun to watch the trucks and cars on the highways appear to be going backwards, even when they're doing 80 or 90 mph.

Another thing that makes riding trains in Italy great is that there are almost no signs to mar the view - no billboards, no big signs on gas stations, few traffic signs - you get the picture. (and you DO get the picture). I wish we still had trains and scenery in Texas.

Arrivederci, Italy

Tomorrow we disembark from The Royal Clipper and start home. As you can see, one of us has had just enough Grappa. Or maybe I should have paid attention to that sign that said to limit your time in the sulfur baths in Vulcano.

With our trip winding down, we're looking forward to getting back to decent internet service and getting back in touch with all of you.

Our Home at Sea

The Royal Clipper was our home on the Med for a week.

Explore the Royal Clipper.

This reminder of our trip is on our computer desktops; it welcomes us to every new day.

Buon Giorno from Sicily

With the straits of Messina behind us, we're dropping anchor in the harbor at Taormina in Sicily. In a few minutes we'll head for the daily ruins, to be followed by the daily food, to be followed by the daily wine, to be followed by the daily steam bath, to be followed by the daily nap. (You can see that we've got the cruising life figured out.)

The scene above is the old Greek amphitheater which is now used for concerts.

Ciao, Spud

Still sailing high

With Sorrento and Capri behind us, we're on our way to Positano and Amalfi. But mostly we are on our way to FOOD, - way too much and way too often. We've had smooth seas and lots of sun; hope you all get to make this trip soon.

We're still having trouble with slow internet and are unable to upload photos, so detailed reports will have to wait until our return to Houston. In the meantime, we're having fun and meeting interesting people - mostly Europeans but several yanks in the mix, too. Babs is getting a chance to use her German and French, and a few words of Italian and Spanish too.

We're underway!

So, after a few side trips around Italy, we're doing what we came to do. The Royal Clipper is GREAT - a 5-star sailing hotel!
We're in Ponza, Italy, tonight - a small island not far from Civitavecchia (the port of Rome). It's a fitting start to a laid back week. (Click on the links at the right for some info about and photos of Ponza and the other cities we visited.)

Not much going on this Sunday. In a few minutes we'll have cocktails with Captain Vlad, then dinner and romance under the stars. We head for Sorrento tonight.

To the Sea...

Sabato, il 23 maggio    
Arrivederci, Roma! We are down to the sea in ships! There may be something more stirring than being on the deck of a beautiful sailing ship at sunset, with the Mediterranean wind blowing in your hair, and Vangelis' "Conquest of Paradise" from the film "1492" playing as the captain orders all sails unfurled. There may be something more stirring, but I doubt it.

The anchor is hauled in and the bow is pointed seaward away from the dock. We sail past a statue on the column at the entrance to the port. It may be of Santa Maria as Stella Maris (Star of the Sea). She wears a crown of stars and in her protective hand she holds a 15th century sailing ship. Reassured by the sight, we leave the Port of Civitavecchia under full sail to plunder the Italian coastal towns and islands for the treasures they hold. Avanti!

Alone with Moses

One of the most remarkable events of our Roman Holiday was when I found myself alone with Moses.  Michelangelo's famous sculpture is housed in the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, around the corner from our flat. On Thursday, 21 May, I decided to pop over around 0800 to see if I could view the sculpture. Much to my surprise, the basilica was empty, except for a priest intoning Ascension Day Mass to a handful of parishioners in a side chapel.  Imagine...I was all alone with this magnificent statue! I walked back to the flat and by the time Spud and I left for the Cavour Metro station at 0930, there were lines
of tourists waiting to get into the Basilica! Our neighbor, Jerry Korshak, later told us a marvelous tale about the risk Michelangelo had taken with this statue from the point of view of the Inquisition--but that's another story!

When in Rome...

Mercoledi, il 20 maggio     ROMA!
I am watching the sun rise over the terrace and seeing the water from the automatic plant watering system pooling on the tiles. We are in Scott Barnes' extraordinary apartment on the top floor of 94, via Terme di Tito, overlooking the College of Engineering and the Colosseum. We arrived in Rome at 1300 yesterday, after yet another excellent train voyage on the Eurostar.

Scott is an American who has lived in this penthouse apartment in Rome for 16 years, and is an antiques dealer. The apartment is consequently beautifully appointed, with a magnificent terrace and flowering gardens. Scott has vacated to his country place and left all this for us to use as our Rome Headquarters!

The terrazzo is a really wonderful vantage point from which to explore Rome. Straight ahead rises the ancient wall of the Terme di Traiano (Emperor Trajan's Thermal Baths--these guys invented the Spa Experience!). To the left in the distance one can see the campanile (bell tower) of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore--the tallest campanile in Rome. Off to the right are the statues on the roof of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. Out of our bedroom window is the Colosseum and beyond it the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Our local grocery store is on the Via Cavour, down the hill past the local parish church of San Pietro di Vincoli (which happens to house Michaelangelo's statue of Moses). Rome ain't called "The Eternal City" for nothing. Everywhere you turn you are confronted with history--for good or ill.

My thoughts this morning are dwelling on the thousands of years of history that we saw embodied yesterday in the walls of the Colosseum and the older structures on the Palatine Hill. It gives one a much longer-term perspective than we have in America. It also serves to emphasize our Swiss friend Peter's contention that we in the States are not as conscious as are the Europeans as to the incredible importance of the European Union. 50 years without a war is a significant milestone in European history! One can understand that, when viewing ancient monuments that were made possible only by the enforced labor of conquered peoples. It does give one pause.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. For us that means gorging on espresso, gelato and antipasti and walking up and down the (many more than seven) hills! We are even thinking of fitting in some sightseeing between the noshes and the naps, but want to do it Roman-style. Va bene!

Waking up in Rome

It's a beautiful morning in Rome, but looks like another hot day in the making.

The workmen have already started their work rebuilding the Terme Di Tito across the street from the self-catering apartment we rented from a friend of a friend. It's a penthouse on the fifth floor with an outdoor terrace where we eat our meals and a nice breeze sweeping through it most of the time.

Today, our first full in Rome, we visited the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, and the Forum, all of which are just a block away from our flat. Tonight we have to refresh our supplies of food and money. We will probably try out the Metro/underground/subway.

Here's a map of the area of the apartment we stayed in in Rome.


View Via delle Terme di Tito, 94 in a larger map

Just click on the address and "Street View", then pan right to see the door to our residence and the outdoor cafe where we had lunch yesterday when we arrived. While you're there, use the Streetwalker to take a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood. It was a perfect location.

Yesterday we arrived in Rome on a Eurostar/Trentinalia high speed train from Florence which was a joy to ride. It was new and clean, had only 3 seats in each row - two on one side of the aisle, one on the other. With welded rails and no stops, we made it from Florence to Rome in just 100 minutes. I don't know how far the trip was, but I think we hit about 150 mph at times. Maybe one of you geeks with good internet access (which we don't have) could look up the distance and let us know how fast we really travelled. I wish we had trains like this in the states.

The trip throught the Italian countryside was particularly pleasant nice because there were NO signs along the railway, so we got an unobstructed view of the scenery. In fact there were few signs even in the towns we zipped through – just fields and streams and trees and mountains.

As expected, we are getting fat on wine, pasta, cheese, salami, gelato and chocolate. Even hours of walking doesn't seems to be compensating for our gluttony.

Before I ramble on, I'm going to save this epistle on a memory stick and see whether I can find a place to post it on the blog. If I'm successful, I'll work on recaps of Venice and Florence to fill in some blanks in our travels.

Hope all of you are well.

Spud & Babs

Venice-Florence-Rome

We had a lovely time enjoying our visit to Venice with our Swiss friends. On Monday, May 18, we parted company and Spud and I took the train to Florence for a quick overnight visit. I want to return for a longer Tuscan holiday in the country, but did not want to miss the opportunity to get a feel for Florence on our way to Rome. We stayed at the Hotel Argentina, which is ideally located a block from the River Arno and 400 meters from the Santa Maria Novello train station in the middle of Florence. A great breakfast, free Internet, and 85 Euros a night. I would definitely return there.

We enjoyed walking around Florence and across the Ponte Vecchio. Here's us on the Ponte, snapped by an Australian couple. The weather was quite hot, though, which really saps one's energy. We ate dinner in a Chinese restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Here's my Chinese fortune: "La prossima visita medica avra dei risultati molto positivi." Great news, huh? On Tuesday morning we were up and back on the train to our next adventure --ROMA!

Venice? (From Pam)

Did you get to the Peggy Gugenheim Museum? Remember that as one of the highlights of the city for me - that and just wandering through the streets and crossing the canals. Hope you're enjoying it all and that weather is cooperating. Says it's sunny and 84 today. Wondering if 84 in Rome is the same as 84 in Houston. May mean lots of stops at sidewalk cafes and less time spent with the Pope. :-) Mange!
Love, Pam

Saturday in Venice

Sabato, il 16 maggio    Venezia

On Sabato, we took the river boat in to San Marco but were dismayed by the queues and left immediately for the Above Tide ticket office to pay for our flat. Then we were off to Murano for a look at the glass factory. One of the glass artisans was crafting a horse at the end of his long pole and the whole process of heating, sculpting and molding the glass is quite miraculous. Interestingly, several of the shops had hand-lettered signs claiming "We sell Murano glass only...no Chinese glass!" We wandered around Murano and had a lovely lunch beside the canale before heading back to the alternate waterbus stop of San Pietro near our flat. A nap followed and then we meandered back down the via Garibaldi and had a lovely meal at Ristorante San Giorgio, immediately across the quay from the Arsenale vaporetto stop. The liver and onions was especially good. Do you see a Venetian pattern here--eating, sleeping, wandering the canals--not necessarily in that order.

After dinner, I talked everyone into an evening vaporetto cruise, so we hopped on board and had a perfectly lovely time seeing Venice by night, courtesy of the normal public transport. What amazed and enchanted me about Venice was the life on the canals. Of course there are the stereotypical gondolas, but more interesting to me were the normal human life processes in "watercolor." There were waterborne hearses carrying coffins covered with flowers en route to a church for prayers or an island cemetery for burial. There were waterborne moving vans carrying a couple's entire apartment (washing machine, bedframe and mattresses, worldly goods in boxes, lamps, AND the couple who was moving!). There were waterborne garbage "trucks" which pull up alongside the quay, send out an arm which grasps a little cart full of garbage bags that has been wheeled into place, invert it and dump the garbage into the hold. Needless to say, there is a lot more attention paid to recycling and to the sorting of garbage, with heavy attendant fines for non-compliance!

One of my favorite sights was early morning market along the Via Garibaldi. The greengrocer's barge would come into a quiet little neighborhood canal, laden with boxes of fresh vegetables and fruit beautifully arranged. The customers would queue up on the pavement and point to the produce they wanted on the floating shop. The greengrocer would weigh and price it, the cash would be exchanged, and on to the next customer. For this Scorpio water sign, I was "in my element!"

Our Arrival in Venice

We arrived from Frankfurt at Venice Marco Polo Airport on Thursday evening, May 14 and passed through immigration and customs, with nary a glance at our passports! Hail to the European Union! We had excellent and rapid bus service right into the heart of Venice at the Piazzale di Roma, which is the bus hub. The Piazzale is across the bridge from the Santa Lucia train station and right next to the Water Bus ('Vaporetto') hub. The first thing we had to do was head for the Ponte near the Giardini Papadopoli Tollentini to pick up the keys to our flat. We were so exhausted that I waited on the bridge with the luggage, entranced by the gondolas and life on the water below, while Spud went to the office to pick up the keys.

When he returned, we walked to the nearby Vaporetto station and bought a ticket for the water bus to Giardini. I headed to the back of the boat and we found two seats on the stern and plenty of room for our luggage. What followed was brilliant - a wonderful and refreshing 40-minute boat tour through the heart of Venice. What an enchanting city! there was no spot that did not require an "oooh" or "ahhh." The light, the architecture, the people, the boats, the gondolas, the everything. It was like stepping into a postcard!

It took us quite some time to get to our apartment once we left the Giardini water stop. We meandered through a beautiful park to the Via Garibaldi and along a little canal with picturesque homes and shops on either side. We found the Campo di San Pietro - a charming green square with a beautiful old church and campanile.

Our apartment overlooked this lovely venue and also offered a view of the little bridge over the Canale di San Pietro with its attendant boats and the wall of the Arsenale (il Castello) rising beyond.

The first night we were not in much of a position to enjoy it as we were exhausted and jet-lagged. We took a hot bath and had a nap before heading out for some dinner at a local trattoria (La Nuova Esperanza) across the footbridge in Campo Luga. And so to bed...

The next morning (venerdi, il 15 maggio) we were awakened by the Campanile tolling Matins (I assume), although it wasn't until 0800, and was perhaps a call to mass instead. In mid-morning we ventured forth to the Via Garibaldi and did some shopping for groceries. We were concerned that we would not have enough Euros, but we seemed to be on a roll and were able not only to charge our groceries but to hit the ATMs for multiple cash infusions.

In the late afternoon, our friends Peter and Wies Gysi
arrived from Bern, Switzerland to a joyful reunion. Babs has known the Gysis since the 1960s. They were married 40 years ago while staying for a few days in her apartment in Washington. The new arrivals rested up a bit and unpacked and then we were off for a beer on the via Garibaldi. We had a snack there and then wandered down to the quay and through Venice's Castello region, followed by dinner at a trattoria at the entrance to the Arsenale. We had great fun stopping at one shop or another to acquire cheeses and meats and bread and lovely stuff. Our ace in the hole was Peter Gysi, who speaks five languages, including fluent Italian. We found, in any event, that many people in Venice--and Italy as a whole--speak English. It seems to be the lingua franca for the international tourist community.

--
Barbara S. Malone
The Queensbury Press