Yes and No

Amy and I have returned to Viterbo after a brief trip to the States at the beginning of August. In some ways, I was looking forward to coming back to Viterbo almost as soon as we hit the ground in Boston. It was a great trip and we were able to reconnect with family and friends, check out the house and spend some snuggle time with Diesel.

In a touch of symmetry, we arrived for our second year in Italy on the same calendar day - 17 August. That was just one of the many things which stayed the same. Once again we were greeted by a heat wave. It hit 100 one day and was in the upper 90s every other day. We are in the midst of a nasty drought which makes it even worse than it was last year. Once again, we have internet issues. Nothing at home so I am writing from school. They hope to have the service/line fixed by Thursday. If that is the only problem we should be back on shortly after that. If it is not, then we will likely have to wait until Monday for the school's IT specialist to return from vacation.

Other things are different. This year we have our car from day one making our trip back from the airport much simpler. This year we have a new English teacher. Steve and Pam arrived on Saturday and settled into our former apartment on Via Vetulonia. It has been fun getting to know them and we are looking forward to working with Steve this year. Our other friends, the H-Ps, return on Saturday. We are looking forward to catching up with them and hearing all about their travels over the summer.

The Festival of Santa Rosa is just around the corner and this time I should have the ability to load lots of pictures so stay tuned!

Ferragosto

Ferragosto is celebrated on August 15. A traditional Italian would use the excuse to take off the entire month of August and head to the beach. Many Italians still take a couple of weeks off and for some that vacation time has crept into the end of July. Ironically, when an entire country takes time off all of the restaurants and hotels close so there is nowhere for those on vacation to go unless it is a large city or beach with a huge tourist base.

Viterbo is absolutely dead. Our school is closed and only a handful of restaurants and shops are open. Not being ones to buck the trend, Amy and I are out of here and on vacation. We arrived in the US on August 1 and will be here through August 16. We look forward to checking in with family and friends and snuggling with the Diesel Dude.

Ciao!

Capodimonte

Amy is fond of saying that in Italy we don’t just have a life, we have a lifestyle. Part of that is the hot baths we frequent outside of town which I have blogged about before. Another big slice of that this summer has been the beach.

Italians just LOVE going to the beach. The Mediterranean coastline is very obliging, with miles of sand. Some of it is not all that far away from us. During the months of July and August and especially during the middle four weeks of that span, Italians migrate to the coast to bake themselves into a stupor and court skin cancer. Amy and I long ago decided that wasn’t our type of scene: unremitting glaring sun, salt glazed skin, sand in every body opening and stinging jellyfish thrown into the mix.

When we returned from our Norwegian expedition, we took guidance from some of the locals and made our way to Capodimonte, on the southern edge of Lago di Bolsena. Lake Bolsena is an old volcanic caldera. The town itself sits on a short peninsular jutting out in to the lake.

To the west of town along more than a kilometer of lakefront, is a public beach. Parking is quite reasonable, 2 euros for 6 hours on a weekday and only double that on the weekend. The edge of the water is lined with a row of mature trees providing shade almost to the water’s edge.

The bottom of the lake is black volcanic sand and you can wade out almost 100 meters before the water goes above head deep. Sometimes little bubbles (and little fish) percolate from the bottom and tickle you. This is proof that the lake is volcanic. One recent day when the mercury topped 97 in Viterbo, we found shade and a stiff breeze that made it seem downright pleasant. From the beach you get a nice view of the surroundings and especially of one of the two islands in the lake.

According to the web, you can take a boat from Capodimonte to the island, but we haven’t explored that yet, choosing instead to lounge and picnic by the beautifully clear, fresh water.

Towel Creatures Revisited

Apparently, the world of cruising changed sometime between when Amy and I went on our New England/Canada cruise and now. Both of our trips this year have featured little towel creatures left in our room at turn down. Apparently, you can even buy (of course) a book which shows you how to make all of the darling creatures. Don’t worry, we didn’t buy it so you won’t find them waiting for you in your room here if you visit. However, I thought it would be fun to follow up on my earlier post with another visit to the strange and wonderful world of towel art creatures. So, we have:

a squid

scorpion

ray

dragonfly

turkey

fish

puppy

elephant

and a monkey (or maybe Yoda!)

Messina, Italy: 26 July 2012

Our 7^th and final port of call following our second sea day was Messina, Italy. Even if you don’t include the fact that we began and ended in Civitavecchia, we still hit 4 different countries: Croatia, Greece, Turkey and Italy. Messina sits on Sicily at the closest point to the toe of the boot which is mainland Italy, directly opposite Reggio di Calabria. The straits are only 3 kilometers wide at the narrowest and the passage could be very unpredictable in Roman times. Our stop in Messina was a short 6 hours. It was barely long enough for people who wanted to take an excursion to Mt. Etna or Taormina to get there and back. Since Amy and I had just been to that part of Sicily in February, we didn’t worry much about it and opted instead to go into Messina itself. We had only ever passed through or by it; we had never stopped.

Unlike some of our other ports, the pier in Messina was right in the heart of the city. Walk out the gates and you were there. However, there isn’t really that much to see. It isn’t really Messina’s fault. In 1908 a terrible earthquake destroyed almost all of the ancient buildings and killed some 80,000 people in just a few minutes. After patiently rebuilding, the city was once again erased in 1943 as the Allies bombed the snot out of it, killing thousands, as they made landfall and started to work their way up Italy during WWII. The waterfront is mostly concrete boxes and the architecture elsewhere isn’t much better except for the few older buildings which remain or have been restored.

This is a view of the Sacrario Cristo Re which you can’t get any other way. The cruise ship is tall enough so that you can see over all the other buildings which block your view from street level.

Near the dock is the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, a Norman influenced church.

It is very near the Duomo with its restored Byzantine Mosaic Interior. After all of the mini-churches we saw thoughout Greece, it was interesting to once again be in a church of size.

In the Cathedral piazza is the Fountain of Orion, dating from the 1500's.

A few hours after sailing away toward our final destination, we passed the island of Stromboli. We had magnificent views of it from our stateroom balcony. Stromboli is one of the most active volcanos in the world. You can see the blackened northern sides and the steam coming from the vent at the top just to the left of the tallest point in this picture.  Not really visible are the houses on the island. Yes, the Italians are crazy enough that some actually live in the middle of the sea on a volcano!

Santorini, Greece: 24 July 2012

Our 6^th port of call was Santorini, Greece. If you ever look at travel pictures of Greece and wonder what you are seeing, unless it is a picture of Athens you are probably looking at Santorini. Santorini is the top of a massive volcano that blew its top some 3600 years ago. It is theorized that this was at least partially responsible for the collapse of the Minoan Civilization. The crater was jagged enough that the sea made it over the lip in some places forming a ring of interconnected islands. Around 2000 years ago there was another eruption, this time forming a new island in the interior of the caldera. We sailed into the sea-filled crater of the volcano around 7 am, shortly after sunrise.

The few beaches are either black or red volcanic sand and that was reflected in the rocks which form the island ring. 

There are a number of towns on the largest island. We were headed for Fira in the middle of the island. The towns sit up on top of the island some 250-300 meters above the sea with a little port-like outpost on the water.

Fira has a cable car which moves 30 people at a time up the mountain, you can walk up or be carried up by a donkey. We tendered in, saw the line of several thousand people from 5 cruise ships sweltering in the sun and humidity waiting for the cable car and opted for none of the above. Instead we bought tickets and got on a fast boat to the northern end and the town of Oia. We were met by a bus at the port and driven up to the town. Quite civilized, if I do say so myself. Once there we wandered among the characteristic white washed buildings and had a lovely lunch at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the bay.

Several hours later we caught a bus back to Fira and made our way to the top end of the cable car to be met again by hundreds of our closest friends. Undeterred, we opted to walk down the donkey shit covered path reasoning that down was infinitely easier than up. I was never afraid of the animals, even when convoys would pass us going both up and down at the same time, but I was afraid FOR the animals. Carrying fat American tourists up a flight of 500+ stone steps didn’t really seem like something they should be doing.

Kusadasi, Turkey (Ephesus):23 July 2012

Our 5^th port of call was Kusadasi, Turkey, jumping off point for a trip to the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. Kusadasi translates as “Bird Island” and is named in recognition of the small island which sits just offshore.

Once again we opted out of the ship’s excursions and contracted a private tour online. Our tour guide, Sinan, met us at the port with a driver in a mini-van type of excursion vehicle. There was enough room for 8, but it was just the two of us. Sinan has multiple degrees, including a master’s in archaeology. We didn’t get quite the jump on the crowd as we did in Olympia so we sweltered the morning away among the masses of tourists.

The ancient city of Ephesus was inhabited as early as 3000 BCE. There have actually been 3 different cities in the same general area by that name as the city shifted several times when the mouth of the river/port silted in. The ruins we visited were actually the 3^rd city. Only a small amount of the vast site has been excavated and you can easily see the remnants of old structures poking up from the surrounding area. The site itself is, unfortunately, largely rubble. Bits and pieces have been propped together to give you a sense of place, but it isn’t nearly as impressive as Ostia Antica, Pompeii, or even Olympia. We entered through the upper entrance into what was originally a portion of the city reserved only for the upper class males (and their attending slaves). There was a small theater and any number of temples and buildings.

Downhill from this area you pass through the remnants of a gate and enter the city proper. The main road must have been lined with shops.

The current incarnation is paved with stones from the ruins and lined with columns and statues. Notice, we were far from alone!

In addition to temples and baths, we did visit a public bathroom similar in form to the ones we saw in Ostia Antica and cleansed by water flowing from the giant public baths next door.

Ephesus was famed for its library which rivaled that of Alexandria. In fact, when it threatened to eclipse the Egyptian center they responded by cutting off the supply of papyrus necessary to make the scrolls for new books. The Ephesians countered by developing a new technique of printing on processed animal hides which eventually evolved into parchment.

Down in the city proper, there was a huge amphitheater which could seat upwards of 24,000 people. Given an approximate ratio of 1:10 for citizens and others, this suggests that Ephesus had a population of roughly a quarter of a million people at its height.

After our walk through the archeological area we headed off to the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Little remains of this massive building which would have covered a football field save for a single column, complete with stork, which has been cobbled back together on site.

Next we headed off to a tiny little village for lunch at an out of the way little restaurant. We feasted on olives, stuffed peppers, spinach and cheese stuffed flat bread, stuffed squash blossoms, rice wrapped in grape leaves, Greek yogurt with watercress, fried red peppers, rice and fried beef bits followed by fresh watermelon. While in town we bought a bottle of black mulberry wine to bring home with us. Below is the view from our table.

Our final stop of the day was at the house of the Virgin Mary. Legend has it that she moved to Ephesus with John. The house has been rebuilt a number of times and visited by both of the last two popes, John Paul II and the current Benedict.

Just before we returned to the ship we stopped in at a carpet house. Unlike the masses of people from the ship tours, we were taken into a private, air conditioned back room and given a little lesson on carpets while drinking cold apple tea. We didn’t purchase anything since it was well beyond our budget and we already have more oriental carpets than we know what to do with at home. We still don’t know how the company managed to make money on us. Everything was included: car, driver, guide, water, lunch, entrance to Ephesus and Mary’s house. He even gave us a coin to drop in a well at one of the churches we came to along the way. All in all, another magnificent day!