Water, Water Everywhere

Tuesday, June 26 – Day 29 (Rome to Venice)

Before taking our train to Venice, we visited the Museo Nazionale Romano Palazzo Massimo alla Terme (National Museum of Rome). Our guidebook said this museum housed the greatest collection of ancient Roman art anywhere…and that may be the case, but it just looked like a bunch of chipped busts, heads, and other parts to me…

Rich enjoyed studying the enormous coin collection they have amassed in the basement vault dating from ancient Rome to Modern Times…

We arrived in Venice during the early evening and hopped on a vaporetti or water bus to reach our hotel in the Academia area…

The Grand Canal was an amazing site…

Tired and worn out from our Rome in a flash tour the previous day, we took a chance on the restaurant next door to our hotel (actually a great choice!) and snapped this picture of the small canal right outside our door…

Basically, The Best of Rome (in a day)

Monday, June 25 – Day 28 (Rome)

We started today at the Vatican City. The smallest sovereign nation in the world, Vatican City, comprises just 1 square kilometer on the west bank of the Tiber River.

After waiting in one of the longest lines I have ever seen, we finally got into the Musei Vaticani (Vatican Museum). This museum contains a vast collection of art and treasures collected by the popes throughout the years. Through the breathtaking Galleria delle Carte Geografiche (the Map Gallery) and the Gelleria degli Arazzi (the Tapestry Gallery) are the Stanze di Rafaello. Once the private apartment of the pope, the walls and ceiling are decorated with frescos by Raphael. Here Rich poses in the Map Gallery with the map of an Italian island that is close to our hearts…

We found the ceiling of the Tapestry Gallery to be even more impressive than the tapestries…


They save the Sistine Chapel as the last stop on the self-guided museum tour. Supposedly no pictures are allowed in the Sistine Chapel, yet flashes are going off all around you. We tried to adhere (slightly) to the no photos policy and turned off our flash. Here was the result…
Once a private papal chapel, this building was constructed in 1473. It then took Michelangelo four years to paint the Creation fresco. This is probably the most famous portion of that fresco…
Twenty-four years later, he painted the Last Judgment fresco over the alter.

After exiting the museum and the chapel, visitors can choose to go down into the crypt or up into the duomo (dome). For seven euros, an elevator goes up to the roof and visitors can then climb 323 steps to reach the top or for a mere four euros visitors can climb 551 steps to the top of the duomo. We climbed ALL the steps! Here Rich and I pause before continuing the second half of the climb (where the elevator drops everyone else off)…
Inside at that level, you can look down into San Pietro’s Basilica (St. Peter’s Basilica) and walk along the edge of the interior of the dome. From below these mosaics look tiny, but up close they are huge…


Taller than a football filed is long (120 meters), it was a sweaty painful climb, but the views from the top were well worth it – the city of Rome, the Vatican grounds, and the Piazza di San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square)…


After descending from the duomo, we entered St. Peter’s Basilica. There has been a church here marking the legendary spot where St. Peter was crucified and buried since Constantine’s reign in the 4th century. The main altar sits directly over St. Peter’s tomb and under Bernini’s 13 meter tall bronze canopy…


We exited the basilica through Piazza di San Pietro, a remarkably beautiful square designed by Bernini and laid out in the 17th century…


From Vatican City, we headed over to the area of the Roman Forum. First stop, the Colosseo (Colosseum). This 2000 year old structure is a prime example of great Roman engineering…
Similar to Texans, Romans were into everything “big.” By putting together two theatres, they were able to create an amphitheatre that would hold 50,000 people. The floors of the Colosseum are missing exposing the underground passages where wild animals were kept and lifted up in elevators...

Set in a valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills throughout the era of the kings, the Republic, and the Empire, the Foro Romano (Roman Forum) was the political, religious, and social centre of the Roman world…


One of the most interesting spots in the Forum is the Tempio del Divo Giulio or Ara di Cesare. As legend would have it, this temple was erected by Emperor Augustus in 29 BC on the very site where Caesar’s body was burned after his assassination…

Oppressive Rome

Sunday, June 24 – Day 27 (Rome)

The pace of our journey thus far, combined with the heat of Rome, and the sheer number of insane tourists lead us to take the cop out tour of Rome today. We opted for a quick 2-hour orientation tour on one of those big red double-decker buses with an open air deck. They gave us little earphones, and a recorded message about each sight we passed played a couple of seconds too early or a too late while we sweat for two hours!

Unfortunately, a tour like that does not provide for many good pictures, but here are a couple…
The first shows us on the top of the bus with our little headphones and the second is a drive by shot of the Castel San Angelo. A continuous wall connects this castle to the Vatican. During times of religious turmoil, this was a place where the Pope could seek refuge and cover.

Rich was just amazed by the Monte Palatino (Palatine Hill) in this picture behind him…
This hill is above the Foro Romano (Roman Forum) and contains scant remains of the imperial palaces and the foundations of Rome. Apparently, we get our word “palace” from this hill where the emperors chose to live.

After the bus tour, Rich and I had to return to the hotel where we stayed the night before and move to the bed and breakfast where we were supposed to stay all three nights in Rome. After we got into our room, we thought we would try to catch the Colosseo (Collseum) before it closed at 7:00pm.

As we headed there on foot, we second thought that plan and decided to just take a leisurely stroll to find a recommended dinner spot. Here we paused for a shot in front of Scala Santa. I think Rich really liked all of the statutes on the roof…


Our final “sight” for the day was a walk around the Mausoleo di Augusto (Emperor Augustus’ tomb). Here Rich poses in front of this dilapidated tomb of one of Rome’s great leaders…

The Night Lights of Rome

Saturday, June 23 – Day 26 (Sienna to Rome)

Today we traveled from Siena to Rome with (thankfully) no pits stops or unexpected layovers. However, when we arrived in Rome, the owner of our B&B was some how not expecting us and had no rooms available. It turns out that by day he works at a hotel on the other side of town and so he put us up there for the night and paid the difference.

It was a beautiful evening, and our guidebook suggested a night walk across Rome from Campo de’ Fior (Field of Flowers) to the Piazza di Spangna with the famous Spanish Steps. Since we are still learning the ins and outs of our new camera, most of these night shots did not turn out quite as well as we’d hoped, but here goes…

One of Rome’s most interesting night scenes can be found at the Piazza Navona – street musicians and performers, human statutes, fire jugglers, gelato, gelato and more gelato, outdoor cafés, and fountains by Bernini.

In the center of the square is the Four Rivers Fountain…

Here you can see the Ganges River God in the foreground and the Danube River God in the background. As you can probably tell, the fountain was under restoration so we were unable to experience it in all of its glory, but anyone with an imagination can see what an incredible sight it must be!

Likewise, the Pantheon is an amazing sight. Dating from 120 A.D., the 13 meter single piece granite columns are a testament to the scale on which the ancient Romans built…

The Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain) completed in 1732 shows how Rome took full advantage of the abundance of water brought into the city by its great aqueducts… Neptune surfs his chariot through his wet kingdom with water gushing from 24 spouts and tumbling over 30 different kinds of plants while Triton blows his conch shell. Supposedly from here, the water goes underground and bubbles up again over at the Four Rivers Fountain at the Piazza Navona.

Here the custom is to throw a coin in the fountain (over your shoulder while facing away) to ensure your return to Rome; a second coin grants a wish. A very nice American woman celebrating her last night in Rome insisted on giving me three coins to throw into the fountain and informed me of “the custom.” I asked her, “why three?” She told me, “one for good measure!” A good thing too - because I only managed to actually get two of the three coins INTO the fountain. Here I prepare for the LONG throw…

Finally, the exquisite Piazza di Spagna, church, and famous Spanish Steps have long provided a major gathering place for foreigners and locals alike. Built with a legacy from the French in 1725, but named after the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, the steps lead to the church. Here we stand in front of the church looking down over the steps…

Under the Tuscan Sun

Friday, June 22 – Day 25 (Sienna)

Today we took the Chianti Tour in Terre di Siena. This was a 5 hour guided bus tour to the Tuscan countryside with its vineyards and olive trees…
We stopped in Radda in Chianti, a medieval town that in the 1400’s became a Florentine fortress and chief town of the Chianti region (as Siena and Florence battled for control)…


We also visited the heart of the Chianti Classico area and stopped for a tour and wine tasting at Castello D’Albola (a mid-sized winery) located outside of Radda in Chianti…

There we enjoyed: Chiantic Classico, Chianti Classico Riserva, Vin Santo, Grappa (uuck!), and yes, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which tastes VERY DIFFERNET fresh off the trees!..

Even More of the Smaller Towns of Italy

Thursday, June 21 – Day 24 (Cinque Terre to Siena via Pisa)

From the Cinque Terre to Siena, Pisa was a natural stop. Veering upward in permanent defiance of gravity, Pisa’s Leaning Tower is a startling sight. Tower apart, Pisa is a quaint university town that only necessitates about the two to three hour layover we allowed. Pisa’s main sights: the 11th century St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Battistero (Baptistry), and the Leaning Tower sit in an absolutely beautiful square known as Campo dei Miracol (Field of Miracles)…

But it’s the campanile, better known as the Leaning Tower (Tower Pendente) that’s the highlight. Bonanno Pisano began building the tower in 1173, but almost immediately his plans were foiled in a layer of shifting soil. Only three of the tower’s seven tiers were completed before it started tilting – continuing at a rate of about 1mm per year. Today, it is almost 4.1 meters off the perpendicular…

On to Siena - a truly enchanting town. From 1260 to1348, Siena was a major banking and trade center. Then the Black Death (bubonic plague) swept through Europe. Siena’s population was cut by more than one third, and the city never recovered. Basically, political and economic irrelevance pickled the city in its medieval state.

Siena itself is one big site. Action centers on Piazza del Campo (Il Campo), Siena’s great central piazza with a gently titled floor fanning out from the 102 meter Torre del Mangia (city hall tower). We found this to be a great place to enjoy some of Italy’s greatest delicacy – GELATO!..

The square and its buildings are the color of the soil upon which they stand…a color known to artists and Crayola-users as “Burnt Sienna.” The chapel located at the base of the tower was built in 1348 as thanks to God for ending the Black Death. Apparently, it should also be used to thank God that the tower - which was just plunked down on top of the chapel with no extra foundation – still stands. Here you can see the tower and the chapel at its base…

Hills of a Different Sort

Wednesday, June 20 – Day 23 (Cinque Terre)

With our travel day from hell behind us, we woke up to a beautiful sunny day in the Cinque Terre. Here Rich looks out our window onto a square in Riomaggiore that house a church originally dating from 1340 (rebuilt in 1870)…

First a few words about the Cinque Terre (which means five lands). This area of Italy, founded in the dark ages, was once only known to locals and the pirates who attacked the villages. However, the coming of the train made access easier. To preserve the land, the Italian government declared the Cinque Terre a national park. A wonderful trail weaves the five villages together through the hills, hamlets, and muri a secco terracing for vineyards and olive groves that is characteristic in the area. Here Rich looks up the hill and you can make out the terraced hillside behind him…

From Monterosso to Riomaggiore, the trail is 9 km and takes about five hours (counting time to gawk and take pictures). We read that the most difficult portions were between the first three villages (going north to south) and decided to get those out of the way early…

The trail from Monterosso to Vernazza is a 90 minute scenic up and down A LOT trek. The trail is rough and almost dangerously narrow in some portions, but always easy to follow. Here we paused and looked back on Monterosso before we rounded the corner on our way to Vernazza…

Here a nice older gentleman (who smoked us on the trail) offered to take our picture on the hillside above Vernazza…

The orange box is some kind of an emergency system for getting help on the trail. These were so space out that I’m pretty sure if some needed emergency help, they would be dead before reaching the box!

When the trail and the trees break and you come up on Vernazza, it is just breathtaking – perfect postcard material! Notice the fascinating tangle of pastel homes leaning on each other…

From Vernazza to Corniglia is also a 90 minute hike. This was probably the wildest and greenest of the four trails. That is the village of Corniglia over my shoulder…

The walk from Corniglia to Manarola is just 45 minutes and starts to lose the natural beauty of the previous two trails. Here Rich looks over the Manarola’s inlet…

The final stretch from Manarola to our village, Riomagiore, is a mere 20 minutes of mostly paved walkway called the Via dell’Amore or the Avenue of Love. Hot, sweaty, a bit sun burned, we called it a great day!

Not Sure Why ALL the Hoopla about Provence and the French Riviera

Monday, June 18 – Day 21 (Arles)

The Arles, France of today offers a step back to Roman times and a glimpse of a town that inspired artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, who both lived and worked here and made Provence the subject of some of their most famous paintings.

First stop, the amphitheatre. Built around 80 AD, the monument is 136 meters long, 107 meters wide, and has 60 arches. Her Rich climbs up into one past a do not enter sign…



The amphitheatre could fit 20,000 spectators during Roman times…



In the Middle Ages, the arena became a fortified town and towers were built to strengthen defenses. Here is a view from the top of one of the defense towers…



Just before the amphitheatre was cleared out (1826-1830), 212 houses and churches were still standing inside the monument. They were demolished and a huge restoration campaign began…





Next, the Théâtre Antique (Classical Theatre). Built from 20 to 10 BC, very little of this building survives from the Roman era. During that time, this theatre seated 10,000. Today the space is stilled use, but only 3,000 can attend events here. Two lonely Corinthian columns look out from the stage over the audience…

Finally, in the downtown area, just off the Place du Forum (Forum Square – more on that to come), the Hôtel d’Arlatan was built over the site of a Roman basilica. In the lobby of the 15th century building, a glass floor looks down into Roman ruins…

The Place du Forum (Forum Square) named for the Roman forum that once stood here was the political and religious center of Roman Arles. The bright yellow café on the square is famous as the subject of one of Vincent van Gogh’s first works in Arles (September 1888)… While his painting showed the café in a brilliant yellow from the glow of gas lamps, the façade was bare limestone (like the other cafes on this square). The café’s current owners painted the outside to match the van Gogh version…and to cash in on the tourists who are willing to pay way too much to eat or drink here. We ducked in to get out of the rain and enjoy a pastis. The licorice flavored aperitif was quite tasty and interestingly enough only cost us 1.80 euro (the price at a café table on the square was listed as 5.90 euro!)…

Here you see another of 17 steel-and-concrete van Gogh “easels” spread throughout the town. Each marks a place he painted, including the Café Terrace at Night on Forum Square. The easels come with a photo of the actual painting and provide viewers with a fun opportunity to compare the scene then (most of these were painted in 1888) and now (120 years later). Here is The Old Mill (September 1888)…

Down next to the river Rhône is the location where van Gogh painted Starry Night over the Rhône (September 1888). Unfortunately WWII bombs destroyed the cafés that once stood here, as well as the bridge in his painting. However, van Gogh’s piece and remains from the bridge that once stood here still live on…

Finally, the hospital where Van Gogh was sent to treat his self-inflicted ear wound is a cultural center today, and subject of one of these easels… Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles was painted in April 1889. Today, the courtyard still houses a beautiful flower garden…

Tuesday, June 19 – Day 22 (Arles to Cinque Terre via Nice)

We woke up early this morning to catch a train to the Cinque Terre (in Italy). Our train left Arles at 8:05 am and connected through Avignon and Nice getting us to the Cinque Terre around 7:00 pm. Unfortunately when we arrived at the station in Arles, we found our train was cancelled. Quickly we determined there was another route we could take through Marseille and then on to Nice. We literally ran and jumped on the train to Marseille without a moment to spare.

When we arrived in Marseille, we learned there were no seats left on the next train to Nice which meant that we would have to wait in Marseille for close to two hours in order to get to Nice. Then in Nice, we would miss our 14:05 connection and have to wait until the 18:05 train. All in all, we would be lucky to arrive in the Cinque Terre by 11:30 pm that night. But on the upside, circumstances forced to spend about three hours soaking in the French Riviera – Nice.

From the train station it is a 20 minute walk down Avenue Jean Médecin to reach the beautiful crystal clear azure blue waters. Here we paused briefly at the Place Masséna to orientate ourselves and continue toward the water…
Down by the water, we strolled along the Promenade des Anglais eventually heading down to the rock beach to walk out on a jetty. Here Rich stands at the end of the jetty waiting for a “the big wave”…
and then he got his…
Getting back to the beach was a little tougher…

Our guidebook offered a self-guided walking tour of the historic area of Nice or as they call it, Vieux Nice. Here we stepped into an old church. Rich was so amazed by the crystal chandeliers (in a church) that he had to take this picture despite the big sign with an “X” through the camera...
The tour recommended we stop and try a local culinary delight called la socca. This is a crepe made from chick peas, which sounded interesting enough, but neither of the location recommended was open and so we figured there would be no socca for us this day… However, at the VERY end of our tour, we found a little stand that was selling and bought a serving. It was actually quite delicious! Rich and I both would highly recommend it…

As we sat enjoying our socca we did not realize exactly how far we had venture into the city and away from the train station. Our train did not leave until 18:05, but the luggage check area (where we had put our big back packs in a locker) closed at 17:45. When Rich and I realized what time it was, where we were on the map, and how much distance we had to cover in 15 minutes, I took our day pack and Rich set out on a RUN to the train station. Luckily he made it in the nick of time, and we were off to Genova, Italy. Little did we know that our train woes for the day were not yet over…

In Genova, our train to Monterosso (the most northern village of the five in the Cinque Terre) was delayed by 30 minutes. Unfortunately, this delay meant that we would miss our connection to the LAST train for the night going south from Monterosso and stopping in each of the other four villages. Our best hope was to stay on the train, skip our stop at Monterosso, speed past all of the Cinque Terre villages (the train we were on was an Intercity Express train that didn’t bother with the small villages), and get off at La Spezia. This is the first big city south of the Cinque Terre and for some reason, trains travel north more frequently and later than they travel south…go figure.

So anyway, to make a long story even longer…once we reached La Spezia, we found out that the next northbound train left at 00:34 (or 12:34 am) and would have us to Riomaggiore’s train station by 00:48. We called the hotel where we were staying that night to give them an update and tell them our ETA. Fortuantely, Rich had also called them from Nice when we learned we would be arriving late. We just never imagine it would be THIS late. Here Rich poses in the underground tunnel that leads from the train station to the bottom of the village… from here is was just a bout a 12 minute walk (uphill) to our hotel.