Photos and travel stories from members of the Intrepid La Dolce Vita trip to Italy 10.10.2005
As promised, pics of you all on tour in Italy!
Almost everyone at Bellagio
posted by Vicki @ Sunday, November 27, 2005
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ITALY OCTOBER 5 – 24, 2005 Jim and Rose White, Gene Eatinger These are impressions during a three week tour of Italy with Intrepid Travel. There are twelve of us and tour leader Gorana Gavrilov. Eight women and four men, [five Aussies.] This is primarily a walking tour using public transportation. We are responsible for our luggage, which is sufficient reason to travel light. We arrive in Rome 6 October at the train station, and take a taxi to find our hotel. We take a meandering long trip as the driver tries to find the word for one way streets. The fare is twenty euros and we are just three short blocks from the station! But the hotel people assure us that it is a long ways by car. Between pedestrians, scooters, and cars, the traffic looks like accidents waiting to happen. But we never saw one. Pompeii isn’t included on our tour, so we take a fast train to Naples and then to Pompeii. Mt. Vesuvius, which looks too far away to be a danger, erupted in 79 AD and buried this city of twenty thousand souls with thirty feet of mud and ashes so quickly that many died in their rooms not trying to escape. The city was forgotten, and accidentally discovered about fifteen hundred years later. This was a wealthy city and excavations have shown much about Roman life at that moment. The following day I go to the National Museum, a repository of ancient Roman art and statues. This museum had English summaries of the exhibits. [Translations aren’t that common here.] There is a coin collection going back to very ancient times, and explanations of the use of coinage to accelerate the economy, or to discriminate against minorities. The different ways rulers could ‘cheat’ a little bit on striking coins. I didn’t understand all the tricks, but the stories were fascinating. There are many warnings about pickpockets. Even in cathedrals Monday evening [10 Oct] we meet Gorana, our guide. She passes out maps; tells us the procedure of buying subway or bus tickets, and the procedure of using them. [We must have them stamped to validate the time of usage. There is a fine if not done, no matter how ignorant you may be. I never did see any one checked tho.] The water is safe, and you may fill your water bottle at any fountain. This water comes down the ancient aqueducts. Afterwards we walked to an outdoor restaurant for dinner. To meet the others and to eat ‘Italian’. Incidentally, ice cream seems nearly a national food. So many places with up to twenty flavors of ice cream. The next morning we start our walk at ‘Spanish Steps’ and Trevi Fountain. A very lovely morning. Most of the monuments here are in walking distance. The Romans thought BIG! The pantheon was built as a Roman temple in the first century; later changed to a Catholic temple and for that religious reason it was not damaged by the Vandals etc. The dome is 173 feet in diameter and 173 feet high. It was a puzzle how the Romans could have built such a massive dome, and so a small hole has been cut into the dome for study of the techniques.. The colosseum could hold 50,000 spectators with eighty entrances designed for efficient entry and exit, and to keep the riff raff separated from upper classes. At one time there was a one hundred foot tall statue of Nero in the front. There was an intricate system of under ground passages to facilitate the handling of wild beasts and gladiators for the bloody spectacles. These are among the greatest engineering feats of the Roman empire, but the style of classical, Ionic, Doric, etc are Greecian. I find it interesting that the architects for the Pantheon or the Colosseum or other large Roman works are not known. The Romans kept good records, so one wonder if they were ‘slaves’. The story is that the Romans had so many slaves they themselves had nothing to do. The escape of Spartacus and his ability to form a large army of slaves that held off the Romans for over two years and kept them scared of other possible slave revolts makes you wonder. We try to get to the Vatican early in the morning to miss the huge crowds. It’s not possible, but we do get a head start. The guide book says there are four miles of art. We must be dressed modestly to get in, but a majority of the art is nude. The Sistine Chapel is a marvel, and I felt sorry for Michelangelo painting the ceiling on his back. Just across the river from the Vatican is a monument erected in 1889 to Giordano Bruno [1548 -1600]. Local riots overcame Vatican protests to honoring an intellectual heretic imprisoned for six years before being burned at the stake. Bruno faces the Vatican, and the inscription translated is: “And the flames rose up.” We took a train to Florence. Trains run on time and on a tight schedule. There is about a minute at each stop, so one needs to be ready, luggage and all, to jump off at the station. This applies to catching the train also. Our hotel here is about a block from Old River Bridge; the only bridge in Florence not destroyed by the Nazi during the war because of it’s antiquity. Most of the major attractions are in walking distance. I thought October would end the tourist season. Even so there is a line waiting for the morning opening of Accademia Museum where ‘David’ and ‘Four Prisoners’ by Michelangelo are especially appreciated. It’s that we must rush through these corridors such as the Uffizi, and plazas with so little background. [Not too many translated labels here.] Florence has more museums and galleries than I can count. I go through the science museum and find the scientific instrument used were themselves works of art. Florence’s symbol is the dome. Florence competed with other cities for status. Accordingly they built a great Duomo with a hole for a dome, but didn’t know how to build such a large dome. Embarrassed that a hundred years go by without a solution, they actively seek a plan. A young Brunelleschi says he can build the dome, but refuses to tell how he would do it. The authorities tell him that he can’t get the job otherwise. Brunelleschi then challenges them to stand an egg on end. Since they can’t do it, he mashes the egg so it will stand. When they protest the could do that too, he retorts that if he showed how he would build it, they too could build it. So cocky Grunelleschi gets the job. But since the church doesn’t really trust him, they put two co-builders with him. Brunelleschi is so angered by this he almost quits, but reconsiders because it is his job. After starting the job, he then pretends to be sick to the point he is believed to be on his deathbed. When the co-principles show their ineptitude and are demoted, Brunelleschi makes a miraculous recovery. Only one workman [believed to have been drunk] was killed in this ten year project. Brunelleschi couldn’t get his way having only water for the workmen, but the wine was quite diluted. His solution to building massive domes was the first of the Renaissance domes, but the construction was not fully understood until the twentieth century. It still the world’s largest dome, altho St Peters by Michelangelo a hundred years later is higher. Regardless it is 463 steps to the cupolo. [379 feet high] We are in danger of being ‘museumed’ out. We take a break going to Lucca, about forty miles west of Florence. This was a Roman walled city. The invention of cannons made thin walls obsolete. The fear of Florentine or Pisa aggression causes the citizens invest heavily in a high earthen wall one hundred feet wide at the top, and to maintain a wide open area around the two and one half mile perimeter of the city. The city was never attacked, but Florence did move armies there at times. The top of the wall was converted to a park by Napoleon’s sister after Napoleon removed the threat of attack by the Florentians. We cycled around the city, and up and down the river. Very pleasant. This is the birth place of Puccini, and Lucca is very proud of him. We went to two Puccini concerts, which were accompanied by pianoforte. Well attended I thought, but mostly by tourists. We stayed in apartments in Lucca, and walking back from the concert Vicki told me ‘they’ were cooking supper. All the group had chipped in for the doings and were surprising Rose on her 79th birthday. A very delightful surprise! It’s about eighteen miles to Pisa, and the Leaning tower of Pisa is so dramatic. It is hoped that it is no longer falling. The cathedral complex is so huge that the bell tower does not look so tall. It is 185 feet tall. [The local coop elevator is 160 feet tall and dominates our town.] Construction was spread over three hundred years because of worries about the tower tipping. The cathedral tips a little bit the opposite way emphasizing the tilt of the bell tower. The number of people at the top is limited at any one time. They say climbing the tipped stairs in a small circle is tough, and the bells are pretty loud. We took the train back to Lucca that afternoon. The next morning we go on up the coast to Levanto on the Bay of Genoa. Every empire that conquered this area wanted this place for themselves. It is beautiful [and was an important port then.] We have unlimited train tickets for these five towns of the Cinque Terre area so we can board a train at any place in case we tire of walking the trails along the coast. The next day we go by train and bus to Priocca, a small town of about 2,000 population with a high spired cathedral on top of a hill. We have a delightful three hour lunch with the Hilberg Pasquero family, wine makers. They describe the tillage, harvest of the grapes; and the wine making process. They hire no help. We sample their various wines, and some even buy altho we must carry every thing. Well, they were smart. Shortly after arriving back in the USA we have an E-mail saying that Hilberg Pasquero got the Tre Bicchieri for their Nebbiolo. This is a prestigious award for one of the wines we sampled. Only one other winery received that for their Nebbiolo this year. We then take a bus to Milan; we leave our baggage in check at the railway station and take a street car to the Central Plaza. Milan’s Duomo Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world in glistening pink and white marble; and five hundred years in the making, and it is stunning! Statues on one hundred thirty five spires, and a total of 3400 statues in this project. A walk on the roof among the spires [and high above the ground] is so impressive! It was built to impress other nations and cities. I wonder if they thought it as ridiculous as I did. A rock star named Hillary was in town, and her appearance from a high balcony on the square was eagerly awaited by teen-agers with great cheers and printed signs begging the favor [in English] of her company. I had no idea who she is. [I have been told that she probably is Hillary Duff. She got her start on a Disney show called "Lizzie McGuire" and then turned to music. She was in the news a couple of months ago for donating several hundred thousand dollars for Hurricane Katrina relief.] This is a wealthy shopping center, and a stroll among the shops is an eye opener. We catch the train at 5pm on to Lake Como, the vacation beauty spots of Italy. We have boat passes to the six towns of this area the next day.. Because of the influx of vacationing people, this is a great place for shops. Large estates with art galleries and woodland trails also beckon. It is very pleasant. Early the next morning we catch the train back to Milan and board a train to Venice, a five hour ride. That afternoon we take a canal boat on Grand Canal. The guide book says this was a tourist town four hundred years ago as it is today. Tourists are the only thing that sustains it, but it is worth seeing. There are over 400 bridges over these canals, but only three across Grand Canal. Gondolas are built asymmetrical to compensate for one sided rowing The cathedral is built over one million pilings. Piazzo San Marco is flooded many times a year, but it is a marvelous atmosphere. I’m sorry we had so little time here. That evening we walk through the Jewish ghetto and have one last meal together. It’s been a good group and a good trip. The next morning we three catch a bus to the airport and are back in Denver by 9pm. [8 time zones change] The next week I had the feeling I had been in ‘Brigadoon’.
posted by Vicki @ Friday, November 25, 2005
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posted by Vicki @ Friday, November 25, 2005
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Here is a great website with lots of Italian recipes and other interesting Italian things.
Millie passed on a website that has recipes for Limoncello
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/limoncello.htm
I have started a "brew" already. I was not able to get Everclear pure alchol so am using the vodka version. So far so good, but it has many more days to go before the next stage. Will keep you posted.
posted by Vicki @ Wednesday, November 23, 2005
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posted by Vicki @ Tuesday, November 22, 2005
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