Pompeii

The law room, or 'Basillica'

The forum and Mt. Vesuvius (now caved in)

A major pedestrian-only street

Mosaic floor art

Original mosaic (Naples)

Columns still staning

A cool mosaic that we couldn't get closer to

One-way street with stepping stones

A large theater

Pretty scenery around Pompeii

Pompeii Amphitheater

A fancy house in Pompeii

Alonna, Ben, Pompeii & Mt. Vesuvius

You can never have too many columns

The Forum (main market and meeting place)

The Forum

Main entrance to Pompeii (used to be by sea)

 

Herculaneum

Walking on 2,000 year old mosaic

A well-preserved room, even the doors!

Old & new towns of Herculaneum

The new city was built on top of the ash

Ben with his backpacks

Herculaneum, Italy

 

Amalfi Coast

Also while we were based in Sorrento, we took a bus trip along the Amalfi Coast, a popular resort area south of Naples with beautiful cliffs-meeting-the-ocean scenery. Most of the excitement of this trip was during the bus ride, which winds along the rugged coastline on a tiny road with huge drop-offs into the ocean.

On the bus - front row!

Blurry view from the bus

Better view from the bus

Cool church in Amalfi

Strong liquor made from lemons

Amalfi, Italy

Ben on the giant cement jacks

The town of Amalfi

Quite the bus ride

 

Pantheon

We’ve seen some amazing churches, but you gotta love the simplicity and ancient grandeur of this Roman “church” built to honor all of the gods. The Pantheon is very well preserved because it was converted into a Christian church later on. The best thing about this building is the dome, which shows yet again how advanced the Roman’s were 2,000 years ago. Michelangelo studied this ancient dome when making plans for St. Peter’s Basilica. I never cease to be amazed that it took 1400 years for people to recreate something as simple (by today’s standards) as a dome or realistic looking art.
 

Trevi Fountain

We stopped by the Trevi fountain, and I got a kick out of how touristy this spot is. Artistically and historically it’s not all that significant (relatively), but this was the most densely packed tourist area we found in Rome. The fountain was nice, but there’s just something about seeing hundreds of people posing for a photo that makes it seem so lame.
 

• Life on the Road – a 3-month update on me and Ben
• Career Breaker Round-up – description of 3 “career break” couples, including us
• Negotiating a Sabbatical – includes tips from me
• Giving thanks for Career Breaks – what we’re thankful for on our travels

Rome: 150 B.C. to 2009 A. D. and everything in between

Ben and I definitely saved the best for last on this Europe trip. We’ve fallen in love with both Italy and Greece, where we’ve spent our entire last month. And our very last stop, Rome, is a culmination of everything we’ve seen up to this point. With ancient ruins everywhere, impressive churches on every corner, museums with great Renaissance art, and a slightly chaotic modern city, Rome really packs a lot into one place. Although we’re a little tired of sightseeing, Rome has made it pretty easy to continue to be amazed.

We’ve seen Roman ruins throughout our trip, but nothing compares to what is here in Rome. There’s a Roman amphitheater in Nimes, France? It’s tiny compared to the Colosseum. You’ve seen Roman statues in a museum in Vienna? The Vatican museum and Borghese Gallery will blow you away. Frescoes and mosaics buried by a volcano at Pompeii and preserved for 2000 years? We were surprised to find that the National Museum of Rome had an almost more impressive collection. I’m not trying to degrade these or any other places, but Rome is really “it”.

Our second day, we tackled the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica.  We saw some of the very best Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures that exist, and the epitome of the Italian Renaissance painting in the Sistine Chapel and Raphael rooms.   And there’s no way to describe St. Peter’s except HUGE – larger by far than any cathedral we’ve seen on this trip.
 

Beware of Dog

Pompeii’s answer to Panda Express

When you walk through Pompeii you’re stepping on the actual paving stones as they were placed thousands of years ago.  The stones were old even when Vesuvius erupted, with ruts from chariot wheels that were worn over centuries.

Think of the big stones in the road as “crosswalks”

Some other interesting facts about life in Pompeii

• They didn’t just have running water, they had 3 separate water lines running throughout the city – one each for public fountains, private residence, and public baths so that they could prioritize water shutoffs in the case of a shortage.  But the pipes were made of lead.
• Every morning they would flood the streets of Pompeii with water to clean up horse crap.  The sidewalks are elevated for this reason, and there are large stepping stones in the middle of the streets for pedestrians (chariots could pass right over these).  One stepping stone means one-way street, two means two-way street.
  
• They loved to paint faux windows on interior walls, generally showing some garden scene or some people gathered around a statue or something of that nature.
  
• To save money, columns in less important buildings were “faux marble” – brick covered by stucco covered by a thin layer of ground marble stucco.
  

After Pompeii we also visited Herculaneum – a city that was buried in lava instead of ash – and the Italy National Archeological Museum, which has most of the best sculptures, mosaics, and frescoes from Pompeii and Herculaneum.  Some pictures from all 3:

Boat tie-ups along what was the docks of Pompeii

The original sidewalks in Herculaneum are still mostly in place

Neptune and Aphrodite mosaic

Tile mosaic at the baths in Herculaneum.

The quality of some of the Roman art is surprising.

This portrait from Herculaneum is famous.

Hanging out at the Herculaneum gym

Maybe not the best way to die, being covered in hot ash

HAVE means 'hail to you.' Pompeii's version of a welcome mat

 

Volterra

We took a day trip from Siena to visit a small hill town called Volterra. It took a few long bus rides to get there and back, but it was totally worth it. We saw the beautiful countryside of Tuscany and got away from the main tourist track. The town of Volterra was cute and had some interesting history as well. It was a major town in Etruscan times, which is a fairly advanced Pre-Roman civilization in Italy around 700 B.C. We saw Etruscan ruins (arches, tombs, etc) and a museum with some impressive artifacts (grave stones, bowls, jewelry, and art). There were even ancient Roman ruins – an amphitheater from 1st century B.C.
 

But our main activity in Volterra was biking. We rented mountain bikes for a few hours, and headed straight downhill to the valley, and then powered our way back up. It was fairly difficult, but we enjoyed the strenuous exercise (which we’ve definitely been lacking) and biking is a great way to see more of a place and get off the beaten track.
 

Orvieto

After Siena we spent 2 nights in Orvieto. This was another cute old town built on top of a hill (they did this for defensive purposes in medieval times). Orvieto had great views and a very impressive Duomo (similar to the on in Siena). But honestly the highlight of this visit was cooking in the kitchen of our apartment! We went out of our way and spent extra $$ to find a place with a kitchen since we were tired of eating out and craving some home-made spaghetti. One thing we’ve found in Italy is that they have really great and really cheap tomato sauce (pomodora). It’s basically just plain tomato sauce (like Prego without all the extra seasonings and vegetables), and then we add some fresh ingredients of our own. It seems funny to cook spaghetti in Italy when we could get great pasta at any restaurant in town, but it’s so delicious, much cheaper, and really fun to make ourselves. Also, I even tried making my own bruschetta. It was so good… I think the key is the very fresh and delicious Olive Oil in Italy. Yum!
 

So that was our very limited stay in Tuscany… just enough to whet our appetite and convince us to return someday!

This is the basic idea:

At any given moment there are at least 10 people trying to stand just right so they can take one of these pictures and use it as their facebook profile.  We took no such pictures for ourselves, but did take a few of other people.  Out of context it looks a little ridiculous.

Other than the tower, there is also a beautiful cathedral, baptistry and cemetery.  Pisa has a unique style of architecture referred to as Pisan-Romanesque – basically extensive use of arcades – columns and arches on the outside of the building -  that make the buildings look light and fragile.

One of the great ironies of tourism is that it’s no fun when there are a lot of other tourists around.  Pisa is the very embodiment of this uncomfortable paradox, so we only spent 4 hours there and then jumped back on a train for our next destination…

The main sites in Siena are Il Campo and the Duomo (Cathedral). Il Campo is a round amphitheater-like piazza spreading out from the City Hall at the bottom.
 

The Duomo in Siena is incredible. The facade on the front is probably the best we’ve seen. But the inside of the Cathedral is just as impressive – with marble mosaics all over the floor. There was some good art as well, including a Michelangelo statue (and yes – his statues are noticeably better than others), and a room with really cool frescos all over the walls. Apparently they wanted to build even more Duomo, but it was never completed, as you can see from an unfinished wall outside.
 

A few more photos from the streets of Siena.
 

Following are photos from the 5 towns that make up the Cinque Terre. Between two days, we hiked between all of the towns except one link (towns 3-4).

Town #1: Riomaggiore

This is where we started our hiking. The path between this town and the next, Manarola, is called “Via Dell’Amore” meaning the trail of lovers. It was flat and paved and sure, romantic. There were multiple places that people had carved their names (i.e. Ben + Alonna = LOVE), and people also left little padlocks symbolizing their love.
 

Town #2: Manarola

This was a pretty town partially perched up on a cliff. The coastline trail between this town and the next was closed due to landslide danger, so we decided to take a higher trail up on the hillside. We cheated a little by taking a bus up, but then we walked all across the mountain through vineyards and olive trees, before a really steep descent into town #3, Corniglia. This totally wore us out so we called it a day.
 

Town #3: Corniglia

We didn’t spend much time here since we were exhausted, but it was pretty!
 

Town #4: Vernazza (our home town)

We stayed 3 nights in a tiny room in Vernazza overlooking the main street. The town was really cute but full of American tourists. There’s nothing wrong with American tourists in general (especially nice “Rick Steves tourists”), but it’s weird to be all in the same place, and it takes a little of the charm away. Anyway, this town had a nice little harbor, and a castle tower up on the top of the hill that I spent some time relaxing at one evening.
 

Town #5: Monterosso

Ahh, finally some nice bright sunshine on our second day.  This day we hiked from the beach town of Monterosso to Vernazza – which was a pretty difficult hike, but great views.
 

Ben and I spent a full 7 nights in an apartment in Florence.  It was perfect, and exactly the relaxing break that we needed. Staying put in one place (and knowing it in advance) allowed us to enjoy some things we’d been craving… examples: “Colorado Bulldog” drinks and a puzzle.
 

We spent a lot of time in this cute little apartment, so I thought I’d share some photos:
 

Florence

The city itself is small but bustling, with major history and museums.  Florence was birthplace of the Italian Renaissance – where finally Europe came out of the dark ages and made major cultural strides in art, science, music, philosophy, etc.  Most of the main artists from this time were from or lived in Florence (Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, Donatello, etc).

Besides hanging out at the apartment, we basically just wandered around the city.  We did have a couple must-see items on our list, which we managed to squeeze in between the puzzle and Colorado Bulldogs: Uffizi Gallery (amazing Italian art), Academia (museum with Michelangelo’s “David”), the Duomo (big beautiful cathedral that dominates the city skyline), and Piazza Michelangelo (up on a hill with great city views).  Here’s some photos:
 
 

One of the highlights for me was seeing Michelangelo’s David.  It’s very obvious why this statue is famous.  For one, it’s enormous – apparently the first giant statue since Roman times.  And I’ve been told that it perfectly embodies the “Renaissance Man” – strong, determined, and beautifully made by God.  But the key is simply that it’s very beautiful.  We’ve seen a lot of sculptures, new and old, but for me this one blows all of them out of the water. I secretly snapped this photo of David (photos not allowed). Unfortunately I think it’s impossible to show the scale in a photo. The second photo below is another cool statue I liked of Perseus with the head of Medusa.
 

A random side note – I bought a pair of jeans in Florence from H&M.  In general jeans are a big no-no for backpacking (heavy and take forever to dry), but I have to say, it feels so great to have jeans again!  I think I’ve worn them every day since I bought them.

Anyway, we just spent 2 nights in the Cinque Terre, five towns beautifully situated on the Italian Riviera.  Today we traveled to Siena, stopping for the afternoon in Pisa (where the famous leaning tower is).  Photos coming soon.

Some images from Venice:

Church Facades

At the peak there were over 200 places of worship on the tiny island of Venice.  For minor churches, the standard approach seems to have been to build a large warehouse-like building, put a gorgeous facade on the front, fill it with priceless art and call it a church.  They’re sprinkled all over Venice, and contribute to the “wow what’s that, it’s not even in the guidebook” feel everywhere you go in Venice.  These are in addition to more architecturally interesting churches like Basilica San Marco, Santa Maria della Salute, and Basilica dei Frari.

Basilica San Marco

The most important church in Venice is the Basilica San Marco, which is free to enter.  The interior of the church is mind-blowing.  The walls and ceilings are covered in tile mosaics that make generous use of gold tiles, and the floors are intricately tiled with impossibly complex patterns.  Pictures are forbidden, of course, but I’m not sure pictures can really capture it.  We took a few anyway.

We paid a little extra to visit the Basilica treasury, which mostly contained hands, legs, teeth, and miscellaneous bone fragments of various saints that were brought back during the crusades.  I couldn’t find the full story on these body parts anywhere.  It definitely felt like looking into the very different mindset of the crusaders.  Basilica dei Frari also had a wonderful collection of hands, teeth, and femurs.

So that’s Venice as we saw it in our 2 days there.

After Budapest we took a budget flight to Venice, Italy and spent two nights.  Venice was amazing.  We spent most of our time wandering the streets and enjoying beautiful views of canals, gondolas, churches, and Venetian style buildings at every turn.  We’ll post photos soon.

Following Venice we decided to chill out in Florence for a week.  We’ve been here 7 nights in a cute little apartment near the city center.  It’s been really nice to relax, unpack our bags, have a kitchen, and stay put for a while.  Unfortunately, I got some bad news from home that my Grandfather passed away.  It’s been tough to be far away from my family right now, but I’ve been using Skype to keep in touch and I’ve been taking it easy most of this week.  Grandpa was a caring, funny, and generous man and I will miss him.

Despite this bad news, we are excited to be in Italy, one of the places we were most looking forward to on this trip.  So far it hasn’t let us down – beautiful scenery, amazing history and art, great food, and nice people with cute Italian accents.  Our plan for the rest of the trip is to travel through Italy, hitting the following places: Cinque Terre, Pisa, Siena, other Hill Towns in Tuscany, Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Amalfi coast.  We will also be spending 6 nights in Greece to visit Athens, Peloponnese, and maybe an island.  Originally we also wanted to see Croatia and Istanbul, Turkey, but at this point in the trip we’ve slowed down our pace and I think we’ll have to cut them out.  But no worries, we’ll just add it to the list of places to come back to!

Thanks to everyone for following along on our trip.  I’ve enjoyed using this blog as a way to share our photos and what we’ve been up to.  Until next time, Ciao!