Roadside Mysteries

and Tony was on had to talk about it:

Our guide Tony who has a weakness for limoncello.

And he took us on a walking tour of this UNESCO World Heritage Site and most popular tourist destination in Italy:

The Ruins of Pompeii

This amazing site attracts over 250 million visitors per year!

It’s much larger than I imagined

And it provides a well preserved snapshot of Roman life that had been buried for 1,600 years.

A street sign directing you to the “Red Light” district of town

Interestingly the better maintained parts of Pompeii ruins are the brothels

where there were graphic user interfaced walls that the customer could point for specific services

So much to see and so little time! It would take a good week to really check this place out!

A plaster cast of a Pompeiian caught in the moment.

A preserved foot

… and part of a skull

Never really liking history in the 4th grade, the whole concept of the Vesuvious eruption and people getting buried alive in volcanic ash was probably the first time I actually paid attention in class. I’m sure I had insisted on a now long-forgotten pilgrimage to these ruins and now that I’ve been there, I am glad I was able to make this journey. This place is amazing! Really, it is!

The Dogs of Pompeii

The dogs might be there to “protect” the city, but it seems they prefer to sleep in the streets. They hardly move; they appear dead.

They are stray animals and while some groups are working on having them removed from the ancient city, they are kept well fed by the tour guides who pitch in to help.

toward Sorrento:

Looking out to the Bay of Naples

from the Piazza Tasso

Bayside Sorrento

A typical street view in Sorrento

A courtyard musician

Men’s group meeting

Gnarly looking tree

If you are anywhere near Naples, Italy you have to go to Sorrento. Actually if you have a choice stay away from Naples altogether and spend as much time as you can in Sorrento.

Well, the cruise line kept telling us that you have to book an excursion with them or you may not make it back in time and you might miss the boat. So, while we did book two days of excursions we thought “Hell, Rome should be no problem” and we decided to check it out on our own.

We don’t do cruises! We like to visit a place for maybe a week and really check it out; can’t do that on a cruise! We knew we couldn’t check out Rome in a day, so we hung out the best we could:

The ship docks in the town of Civitavecchia. From there it’s a one and a half hour train ride to the main station in Rome. From the station you take the Metro to the Colosseo stop:

Tourists at the Colosseo Metro station

Sure, If we paid for a ship excursion we wouldn’t have to buy our own train tickets, worry if the train is on time or make sure we get the last train out to the docks before the ship sails off… But where’s the fun in that?

From the Metro, it’s right across the street:

Yep, the Roman Colosseum

Time for a Roman Photo Op!

Or purchase a $7 diet Coke from across the street!

OK, we paid for the location but it’s the only way to have access to a clean restroom. We also had pizza there for lunch.

The Arch of Constantine

The Obelisk of Thothmes IV at the Piazza S. Giovanni in Laterano

Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

Along the way…

to the Catacombs of Domitilla; We thought we could walk from the piazza to Domitilla, but as time was a concern, we took a taxi. A good thing too, it was much further than we thought. When we got there we met some visitors from Arvada, Colorado who took a taxi to the cats just like us!

Outside the catacombs

The subterranean basilica

These are the largest of the catacombs in Rome and the only ones that still contain bones! That’s why we made a point in checking them out.

Subterranean frescos

Our underground tour guide was this guy who reminded me of the weird character “Polo” played by Ronnie Corbett in the  1966 movie “Casino Royale”. I think he was perfect for the part.

After the tour we  jumped into the nearest taxi to the train station and had a bit of a rush to find our last train back to the port of Civitavecchia. By some luck we made it on time, but it was a close one! If we didn’t make it we probably would have had to stay in Rome and take the train into Naples the next morning and find the ship from there.

Livorno is everyone’s gateway to Tuscany and all the tourists flock from Lovorno to Florence and maybe Pisa.  So while maybe 6 to 7 thousand visitors waited in line to get into the Uffizi or did the stupid photo op keeping the leaning tower steady, we chose to visit the town of Lucca with this woman:

Angelika with her stick

If you like tourists as much as we do, you will love visiting Lucca. It seemed as if we were the only visitors there that morning. The place is closed to personal motor vehicles so you won’t feel like you have to take out extra insurance while you stroll the quiet streets. My recommendation if you’ve been to Florence and Pisa is to check this place out. Angelika was our guide to Lucca and you cold tell she liked visiting this town.

Lucca City Walls (Renaissance era)

Just one of three wall systems, Lucca was founded by the Etruscans and became a Roman colony around 180 B.C.

Behind the first wall area are structures like this near the Roman era walls

The principle mode of transportation in Lucca

The Church of San Michele in Foro

This church has a huge facade made out of  white local marble; It’s the kind that Michelangelo preferred 9 out of 10 times!

Church detail

Silk trade house

The secret silk making process was hidden in Lucca (after they stole it from the Chinese, of course) for many years.

Getting ready to party

The annual ‘Settembre’ festival is starting up in a few days! Too bad we will miss it as we must be on our way to Rome tomorrow! Above, the windows are decorated with glass jars that will have candles lit at night during the festival’s ‘Luminaria di Santa Croce’

Giacomo Puccini’s house

On the right, I believe. It’s not quite ready to view inside, but it will be a museum in the future.

A Statue nearby of Giacomo

Note the cigarette in his right hand; Puccini died of throat cancer in 1924.

Napoleone gave his sister the town of Lucca for her birthday! The Piazza is the place for music festivals; In July this year ZZ Top and Crosby, Stills and Nash performed in the Piazza.

San Martino

Inside this dark church you can view a number of paintings on the walls if you put a 1 euro coin in a slot that will activate an electric lamp for about 40 seconds. Then at another part of the church is this:

Volto Santo di Lucca

This sculpture of probably the happiest looking crucifix we have ever seen was placed in this very spot by a miraculous event involving un-guided oxen or something like that. Check this link for more info.

and Monte Carlo:

The ancient Phoenicians were the first to  build here.

Of course we wouldn’t have known the place if it wasn’t for Grace Kelly. Too rich for our tastes; we are not planning on moving there in the near future unless I can get a good deal on a luxury yacht.

The Casino is the big draw here.

The prison is actually high class as well

The view from the prison!

Ship’s entertainment tonight

Something called the “Broadway Ballroom”; They had this giant disco ball drop on stage and inside was this dancing girl who came out singing

More of the cast

Lots of energy in this group! Hey, this cruise ship stuff ain’t so bad.  Looking forward to visiting some ancient cities in the next few days.

Well we did actually see Castell de Montjuïc and the wonderful mountain-side cemetery;

We tried to follow the instructions

It was Lord Dunsany who once said “I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full.” It is that time to travel and we have done so; unlike the worm, we took a much more tortuous route: Fort Collins – Denver – Philadelphia – Madrid – Barcelona. Will we do this again? I hope not!

Dude’s got a parachute!

In addition to the little Minolta camera that I have carried for the past two years to provide photographic evidence for this blog I have also been using the camera included in my Nintendo DSi. I found it to be easy to carry and good for candid shots. Sure, it’s got a fixed focus lens and the resolution is poor but I can hold it while I walk onto a plane and take picture of fellow travelers.

Watching our bag in Madrid

The baggage handlers were ignoring our bag (the brown one on the ground) and didn’t seem to be working until a woman with a clip-board came over and yelled at them to start moving. She pointed to our bag and they quickly placed it on board the plane going to Barcelona. Will the other three bags make it as well?

Loading bags onto the ship

Yes, they are looking down between the pier and the side of the ship. The makeshift ramp they were using broke and some of the passenger’s bags fell into the Adriatic Sea. I saw them fishing them out and wondered just who the lucky passengers were! Was this a harbinger of things to come?

Note: Jeanne and I decided to go on a Mediterranean cruise with some friends. We’ve never really been on a big cruise ship (except for Alaska) and thought that it would be a chance to experience the whole concept of constantly eating and touring a different country each day much like in the 1969 movie “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium“. The ratio of the number of countries per days at sea were about the same as in the movie so I must believe that things have not changed much since 1969. We actually started our journey on September 1st, but I was certain that I would not be able to update this blog while at sea so I pre-date loaded a number of posts before leaving town. And now I and post-date loading this stuff. Yes, I can do that!