Oldies On Tour

After the jubilation of yesterday, it is time for some serious sight seeing.  We are also meeting Trevor, Louise and her two girls and joining them with the private guide they had booked.

After breakfast we walked down to buy a 48 hour ticket on the “hop on, hop off” bus, and then we were off.

Our route took us back up our street, passing our hotel, through the well preserved city walls built between 271 AD and 275 AD by the Emperor Aurelian to keep out the Barbarian tribes out who were fighting their way south.  We then headed back into the city, passing our hotel again, (pity there wasn’t a stop outside!) and into the Plaza Bernini, a beautiful area with a magnificent fountain as its center piece. Our next port of call was outside Rome’s modern train station, we had been here before, ha ha! But more importantly, the other end of this large area are the remains of the Diocletian public baths, back in the day, they could cater for up to 3,000 people bathing at once.  We next stopped at the Brasilica Santa Maria Maggiore, this we will visit tomorrow.  Our next stop was the Colosseum and the surrounding area but as we had visited this on Saturday, didn’t feel we needed to repeat the experience.  We then headed out towards the Vatican City and St. Peters Basilica where we had arranged to meet Trevor and Family, passing along the way the great white building with

Monument to Vitorio Emanuele 11

the white marble facia, a Monument to Vittorio Emanuelle 11, containing the tomb to the unknown soldier and known locally as the typewriter or the wedding cake;  Apparently hated by most locals, though a very imposing building none the less.

This year is a Jubilee year at the Vatican and therefore our bus by-passed  St. Peter’s square and dropped us off at the  “Ponta Saint Angelo”  Bridge which leads to the entrance to “Castel Saint Angelo”, an imposing round, well fortified castle used by some popes to hide in during early troubles.  Around this castle and straight into the Via de Concilliazone, the road leading straight up to Piazza San Pietro, St. Peters Brasilica.  We were early so stopped for a coffee etc.

We finally made contact with Trevor who was in another Pizza Restaurant So hurried to join them for a quick Pizza before tackling the Vatican Mueseum, Cistern Chapel and St. Peters Brasicila.

A little later than planned, we met up with our guide “Marina” and after going through airport type security, entered the Vatican.  Firstly we were informed we were in a sovereign state, not Italy, and that the official language is Latin; they also have there own postal system with their own stamps.

Plan of the Vatican’s Area

When we left the hotel it was raining so I brought my new brolly with me but security wouldn’t let me enter the Vatican with it and told me to leave it with Security for later collection.  Unfortunatly we will be exiting the museum the other end and without a lot of extra walking, we would not be coming back, so my new umbrella had to be left, the second in 3 days!!

Anyway back to the Vatican Museum, we walked through some amazing galleries, each one displaying grouped artefacts, not all jumbled together.  We walked through a gallery of amazing statutes, some in excellent condition and others not so good.  What probably took our breath away was  how detailed many were but more amazing was the tender age of some of the sculptures, talk about old heads on young bodies, quite striking.  Another long gallery had walls covered in frescos of each region of the Italy.  As you walked through, on the right hand wall were all the regions on the Adriatic and on the left hand

The Giant Bronze Pine Cone set into one of the Vatican’s Many Arches

side were all the regions on the Mediterranean, they were all in the correct order but more importantly they were painted about 700 years ago yet the accuracy was astonishing.  Another gallery was all tapestries, these were again many hundred years old and had been woven with gold and silver thread amongst other threads to bring them to life.  These Tapestries were woven in Flanders from paintings done by a number of famous painters of the time.

An Internal Space for entertaining large numbers of visitors

We then entered the private rooms of Popes gone by.  Again the walls and ceilings were all frescos depicting various stories from the Old Testament as well as many of the atrocities committed upon the Christians at the birth of Christianity as well as several battles that took place.  Of These 4

Portrait of Raphiel

rooms we went through, one was completed by Raphael in person but the other three were painted

One of the many Frescos

by his students after he had died, none the less they were very good.

As I said earlier, much of the museum was closed so we now moved into the Cistern Chapel.  The Chapel was built in its current form by Pope Sixtus IV between 1477 and 1480 and all the frescos around all the walls were painted by a team of many well  known artists of their day and they were all completed in 1482.  The ceiling was not painted until Pope Julius II got Michelangelo to create his masterpiece.  It took 4 years to complete, (1508 to 1512) and all this work was done by Michelangelo lying on his back.

Trevor booked this tour for himself and Louise who also brought her two little girls Georgie aged. 11, and Heidi Aged 9.  This has been a very long tour for little ones especially for Heidi as she has a bad ankle and is walking around on crutches.  I think they were magnificent, they didn’t complain once when clearly towards the end they were very tired and probably bored, well done girls.

Bearing this in mind, our next part of the tour was the Brasisila of St.

Michelangelo’s Sculpture of The body of Jesus in Mary’s arms. (created by Michelangelo when he was only 23.)

Peters, a most imposing building with a wonderful piazza in front surrounded by 284 Columns.  Inside is vast and you could spend a whole day inside to do it properly, but now, for us, a quick feel of the grandure and a couple of significant items to look at.

The enormous great alter with its canopy held up on 4 great columns sits above the remains of Saint Peter himself, (though they are about 30 meters deep.). There are about 100 Popes entombed in this place a couple of kings and Christina, Queen of Sweeden in 1689 having relinquished her throne to devote her life to God.   Also buried are the last three Scottish Stuart’s,  who all claimed the English crown but were defeated in what is know as the Jacobite Rebellions.  There is also a Monument to them.

By now even Christine and I were flagging, it had been a very long day and we were exhausted, so after agreeing to return to their rented apartment a couple oh hours later we boarded aou bus and back to the hotel.

After a rest and showers we jumped into a cab and headed off to the Trevi Fountain, where they were staying.  Met Trevor who took us into he flat where a few glasses of wine went down very nicely before the six of us went round the corner for dinner.  After an all right meal we stopped of for Ice Creams before returning to the flat for night caps.

The Pope’s Swiss Guards

After saying our God byes we felt up to walking back to our hotel and into bed, exhausted.

Good morning, Valantines day and our anniversary, 11 years, who would have believed that after our track records!!!!!  Anyway leisurely breakfast, though Christine did give me a card but unfortunately I didn’t respond, however, I did mention this fact yesterday, explaining I had decided to buy here in Italy though I didn’t find an outlet that sold cards, oops!!!!!

After breakfast we collected our match tickets but went back to the room

A few England Fans Enjoying a few beers in Piazza del Popolo

to catch up on a few things, including our log.

Work completed we jumped into a taxi and went to the Piazza del Popolo

The Peroni Beer “tent”

where many Rugby fans stop for drinks, so did we.  After a while and a few beers we started the walk to the Olympic Stadium, built for the Olympic Games in 1960.  Tom Tom suggested this would take around 20 minutes, he/she was wrong, the walk went on for ever but arrived outside a nice looking restaurant in front of the stadium complex around 1 1/2 hrs before kick off so went in for drink and some assorted Bruschetta, very nice but had to get on so having eaten and drunk, paid the bill and we left.  At this point we had about 40 minutes to kick off, sufficient time to get to our seats collecting a beer on the way.

The logistics, common sense and organisation doesn’t fit comfortably here in Italy; we arrived at our seats just as George Ford kicked off, and

George Ford Scores the Opening Try for England

this was without any beers.

The game was a game of two halves as they say; the first half England did not play well but the Italians did and at half time the scores were: Italy 9 England 11 but, had Italy not missed two penalties, they would have been in the lead; at this point England was living on borrowed time.

Jonathan Joseph Scores his Second Try for England

The second half was different, Eddie Jones must have put a rocket up the team during the interval as they came out fighting and went on to score tries and dominate the game.  The final score Italy 9 England 40 but I must say that had we been playing a good team such as France, Wales or Ireland, things may gave been different.  Still with a break next weekend, perhaps, just perhaps, Eddie Jones

Head Coach Eddie Jones talks with Dylan Hartley Captain after the win against Italy. 9 – 40 to England

will work his magic.

Goodness knows what happened here, a bomb???

We walked back from the ground to Piazza del  Popolo  a different way, shorter we think, and passing a block of flats that had one corner blown out, how was that??  We  jumped into a taxi and back to the hotel where we showered

James Haskell and Chris Robshaw applaud the crowed after the match

and changed before setting out for our anniversary dinner.

Just down the road from our hotel was a restaurant specialising in fish, so naturally that’s where we had to go.  We had a

Our Anniversary Feast

magnificent mixed fish grill, Lobster, Salmon,  Sea Bass, Prawns, Langustines and others washed down with a couple of bottles of Frascati, wonderful, though it would probably been cheaper to fly

Leaving the Olympic Park after a resounding win

to Thailand!!!!! Oh well I made amends for forgetting to buy Christine a card!!!!

Back to the hotel for another good nights sleep before we hit the Vatican tomorrow with Trevor and his new family.

Up early, again!, but with purpose, we were off to Rome. Our last breakfast, much the same as before, nice but repetartive due I suspect to the few guests staying; still nice never the same. Naturally it ws raining when we packed the car, still, paid and gone in reasonable time.

Monti Cassino

We had decided to stop en route and visit the monastery at Monti Cassino, the one on top af a mountain 520 meters above sea level which was destroyed during the war By allied bombing and heavy artillery.This place was so stratragic to the Germans, their defensive “Gustav line” created Accross Italy to defend Southern Europe that the Germans defended it at all costs and by the end  there were a total of 55,000 Allied

British War Grave Cematery

and 20,000 casualties. The battle for Monti Cassino lasted from 17th January to 18th May and as The terrain approaching the monastery is so steep in all directions that much of the fighting was hand to hand.  There are a number of military cemeteries in the area.

The good news is that this magnificent  Monastery has been fully restored in all its glory and was well worth the time out to visit.

The Entrance to the Monastery

This site started out as a pagan place of worship in the 5th century by the Volsci, people living in this area until the Romans defeted them in 312BC and rebuilt it as a “Temple to Appollo” until a monk name do Benadict, later to be Saint Benadict, arrived.   He destroyed the pagan alter, introduced Christianity and turned the existing building into  a Christian place of worship, and then started the construction process of the earliest Monastery.

An inside garden

Throughout history the Monastry as had to endure attacks and sackings, examples are; the Lombards in 580 AD, the Saracens in 884 AD and Napolean’s troops in 1799, not to mention 1944: additionally they had to content with an earthquake in 1349.   One has to admire the Catholic Churce determination in this place!!!

First Impression as you. Walk into the Brasilica

The inside visit was fairly short, much of the building is closed to the public but the Brasilica was open.  The moment you stepped into this very large space your mouth just dropped, talk about a wow factor, well multiply this by ten and you have an idea.   The Mosaics and wealth inside, Frescos on the walls, on the ceiling not to mention the paintings, magnificent! as the Americans would say, “Awsome”.

Behind the Alter

We wondered around but there was so much to take in but we only had a short time, this meant unfortunately, we couldn’t take it all in.  I would highly recommend a visit to anybody who is passing by someday.

Back on the road after a quick coffee and heading into Rome.  Ezmerelda (Tom Tom) did her staff though one or two instructions were a little slow coming over as several

One of the many wall decorations

junctions were so close and traffic was moving quickly, we were driving faster than she spoke, still well done Ezmerelda, we arrived.  Parked outside on a fairly busy road, took our bags, booked into our room then headed out to deliver the car to a pre booked car park about 2 KM away.   Ouch, the Rome drivers seemed madder than the ones in Naples, and they were lunatics!

The Massive Walls

Tom Tom got us to the Street, half way down this one way street of course, but couldn’t find the car park.  To make matters worse, this street was alongside the main railway station, so taxis, cars, trams,buses and military vehicles all around, well you can imagine the tempriture in the car.  Not only was it chaos but we couldn’t find anybody to ask!  So we veventually pulled into the station taxi rank and asked a taxi driver only to be told it was the other end of the street we had been in, so back into fighting traffic, circumnavigating the station, again, and eventually we found the car park, HORRAY!!!!! Of course it was the other end of the street we arrived at half way down.

Parked up and thought we would walk the 2 kms back to the hotel, using Tom Tom in walking mode.   Tom Tom had different ideas he/she kept changing her mind as to which direction to go.  Anyway after much heated discussion, again, we got back to the hotel having walked about 5 kms.

Time to eat so found a nice looking Restaurant next door, not too far to walk!  Whilst wnjoying our Pasta, looking out of the window, it was raining and there was a fellow standing outside selling Umbrellas.  Now I remembered to bring my brolly out of the car when parking, but unfortunately I managed to loose it somewhere whilst fighting ToM Tom, so I was in the market after all rain was forecast for much of our time here    in Rome.  Asking the price through the window he said €20, I naturally laughed and said I would give him €5, he said no; anyway negotiatings went on through the course of our meal: he was very persistent and I was adamant, my offer was my only offer.  Anyway as we left the restaurant with a Five Euro note in my hand, he agreed so I now had a brand new brolly.

back to our hotel room and to bed, a bid day tomorrow, come on England

We woke to a very miserable day, wet grey and dull, thought for one moment we were in the Uk.
We had some breakfast, and checked at reservations to see if the ferry was running, which it is, also the weather is slowly improving, so we decided to go.

A view from the Coastal Road.

We travelled to Sorrento, such a lovely place, and parked the car by the ferry €20 for the day, not bad, had a one hour wait for next ferry, so went for a coffee. The seas looked more settled today, but once we were onboard, we realised it was not true! It was a very rough ride, nearly lost my stomach a couple of times, one of the crew, was delivering plastic bags, and many of them were filled, fortunately I managed to avoid all that. Even Geoff admitted it was rough!

Isle of Capri Port

Isle of Capri Port

Having asked the man in the shop where to go, we caught the local bus, this was like a roll a coaster, the roads are very narrow, and cars coming the other way, only just managed to pass.

We reached the Capital, called Capri, and walked around, the views are truly amazing,

Overlooking bay from the top

Side streets in Capri

A delivery truck to cope with the narrow streets

Versuvios

Heading back to the hotel for a quiet night, and pack our bags ready for the off tomorrow.

As we said yesterday we need an early start as we want to have a full day on the Isle of Capri so the alarm went off at 0730, showered and down to breakfast before 0830 and then things started to slow up.  We seemed to get bogged down in the Hotel organising some laundry and when we did get away Ezmerelda (Tom Tom) had a few funny moments and we ended half way up a mountain and after asking a local we had to turn around and find another way, the motorway!!!  At the end of the motorway we

A view from the Coastal Road.

followed the coast road, twisting and turning, beautiful scenery but cold, cloudy and windy with white horses on the sea: Through a 5 KM tunnel eventually arriving in Sorrento.  An interesting, twisty narrow road down to the harbour, parked in an empty car park and rushing as Christine had spotted a ferry waiting at the quayside.  Whilst Christine went

Looking back Accross Sorrento Harbour

to “you know where”, I went to buy 2 return tickets only to be told all ferrys cancelled today due to bad weather and rough seas, what????   in the Mediterranean, whats going on??????  Oh dear what a waste so drove back into the town, parked again, had a coffee then walked around the town.

The Workers Club in Sorrento

An Original Timber Lintel burnt but survived for 2000 years!

Sorrento was a pretty town with quaint narrow

Looking up from Sorrento Harbour

streets and nooks and crannies with surprising sights though the mains street was littered with confetti, must have been a wedding yesterday.

A Street in Sorrento

OK: so we decided to visit Herculaneum, in Ercolano as I needed to understand the difference and perhaps understand why I wasn’t so keen on Pompei.

The Plan of Herculaneum

After another 40 KM drive, retracing our steps we arrived at the ancient

An overview of Herculaneum

city of Herculaneum, parked up and went in.  The first and most striking thing one sees is how small it is compared to Pompei however, they have only uncovered 25% of the site.  Most of the outstanding 75% is under he modern town so apart from digging tunnels, there is not much more than can be

Christine Working the Local Cafe!

The history of this ancient city has Greek origins and it was not ’till 89 BC that it became Roman after the enevatable defeat in a battle.

Just like Pompei, Herculaneum was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and being closer to the mountain was buried up to 50 – 60 Ft. Unlike Pompei excavations started in the early 1700 , but they have been spasmodic, but to me as a casual observer being smaller and compact makes it more

A Local City Dignatry

attractive to visit.  Yesterday I couldn’t put my finger on why I was disappointed, I now know why; it was the sheer size and spread of the interesting things I went to see.  To do it properly one would need a week, that way you could cover the whole site systematically. Still I did enjoy Herculaneum, though Christine was very disappointed.  On her last visit there were many artifacts, furnished areas depicting

An Original Timber Lintel burnt but survived for 2000 years!

how things were, and a number of preserved bodies; they have all gone to Naples Archaeological Museaum, this was also true of the items from Pompei.  If we had sufficient time we would have to visit that Museum, but that’s for the future.

Some of the Preserved Decorations

We were back in the car by mid afternoon and wanting some lunch: could we find anywhere? No we couldn’t, we drove through Ercolano, Torre del Greco and Leopardi, nothing except pot holed, narrow, cobblestone roads shaking the fillings out of our teeth, not to mention knocking the car’s suspension to pieces.  No wonder my

Main Street

floor pan fell out yesterday, the local roads are deplorable, they make the UK ones look perfect!!!  Add to the bad roads Crazy drivers and sucidal scooter riders and you have a disaster waiting to happen, I don’t think I will too unhappy to drive elsewhere!

The Original Bakers Oven

We eventually ended at a restaurant we were aware of outside the entrance to the Pompei site, oh well, we were too hungry to be proud

Typical Street Corner

so enjoyed a pasta and salad dishes washed down with local “Vino Russo”. This restaurant is in a one way, narrow street and 2 minutes after leaving Christine said she had left her bag behind; oh dear, how do we get back!!  Tom Tom got us back to the main town, we then had to find our way back to the entrance. About 30 minutes later we arrived, Christine jumped out and 5 minutes later, she came back starting to say it was not there and she would have to cancel all her cards when suddenly she found it, in the front foot well just where she puts her feet, aaaaaggggg!!!!!  Still it was an enjoyable meal.

Back to the hotel and tomorrow we will ring ahead to find out if the ferrys are running, if so we will head off to Sorrento, and sail over to the Isle of Capri, if not, who knows!!!!