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Mon 8/07 23:00 |
Mon 8/07 15:00 |
Venice 2nts, Park Villa Marcello Giustinian , Via Marignana, 45/A, Marocco, 31021 Mogliano Veneto TV t +39 (41) 942 444, f +39 (41) 942 507 |
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Tue 9/07 Evening |
Tue 9/07 Day |
Venice Glass Blowers, San Marco Bell Tower, Basillica San Marco, Gondola Ride, Lagoon Cruise, Lunch on Burano Island |
Another day of fabulous sunny skies. Here's the view of Piazza San Marco from the bell tower. It's hard to imagine on a day like this that the square was awash with water just three weeks earlier when strong southerly winds pushed the Adriatic up into Venice.
 
A romantic gondola ride accompanied by an accordionist and a tenor. Perhaps we should have done this in the evening when there wasn't as much construction going on. Here's the Melbourne crew in the same gondola as Maureen & I.
 
For lunch we went out across the main lagoon to the island of Burano where the houses are not constrained by 400-year-old building codes. They are much more colourful. It was a fabulous lunch which lasted till about 4pm. We rolled back to the boat. Some of us were harder to roll than others.
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Wed 10/07 19:26 |
Wed 10/07 11:26 |
New Moon |
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Wed 10/07 23:00 |
Wed 10/07 15:00 |
Assisi, Windsor Savoia , viale Marconi, 1 - 06082 Assisi (PG) - Italy t +39 (75) 812 210, f +39 (75) 813 659 |
Elevated highway through the Appenine Mountains (left below)
Umbria was very picturesque.(Below right) The heat - in the high 30s - followed us to Assisi, a town everyone voted as tops.
 
Santa Maria Di Angeles This church has a little chapel inside it, where St Francis of Assisi prayed, and where he also died. They built the Basilica around the little old chapel. Like many European churches, there was a basement, with the tombs of the clergy and prominent citizens, and then the current church above. Given St Francis' philosophy on life, I don't think he would have approved of the building of such an elaborate church!
Up on the hill is the town, with St Francis' Basilica. We had a tour through the basilica by one of the Franciscan priests (from the USA). He gave us great insights into the 13th and 14th century frescoes, done by painters such as Giotto. They were still repairing the damage to the church from the 1997 Earthquake. This was one of the few churches we visited which felt religious. Most of the others felt like art museums. The shops and cobbled streets were absolutely delightful, and we all wished we had another day to enjoy Assisi.
  
Below left is a view of the monastery, with the church behind it, at night. Most of our group is in the picture below right, outside the hotel at Assisi.
  Click here for a higher resolution copy of the group photo. |
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Thu 11/07 23:00 |
Thu 11/07 15:00 |
Sorrento, Hotel Cesare Augusto t +39 (81) 878 2700, f +39 (81) 807 1029 |
Umbria sunflowers, the Monastery at Monte Cassino, from which the Allies had great difficulty dislodging the Germans during the war.
 
Naples was pretty horrible. Garbage everywhere, and suffocating smog. Apparently, the traffic lights are just for decoration. They just go straight through red lights. It was a near death experience crossing the road. We took the boat to the Isle of Capri, which was really beautiful. The water was crystal clear, and the buildings charming. The heat was pretty terrible, but it was cooler up the mountain, at Anacapri. We had lunch in a restaurant at Anacapri, with a great view, after a hair-raising trip in a bus to the top. Here's another bus coming the other way. The drivers seem to nonchalantly glide past each other with millimetres to spare. Unfortunately, the tides were not right to see the Blue Grotto.
 
The chairlift to the very top was like flying. I kept worrying that my sandals (with no back strap) were going to fall off and roll a thousand feet below. Still, the view was worth any number of sandals. Above is the view looking down the southern side of the mountain at the top of Capri, straight down into the water. Below left is the view towards Sorrento.
 
Capri Grande Marina, (below) We went to a house, previously owned by the Swedish writer, Axel Munthe, and took in more fantastic views. Then we caught the ferry to Sorrento to stay the night. Below right is Sorrento as seen from the ferry as we approached.
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Fri 12/07 23:00 |
Fri 12/07 15:00 |
Rome 2 nts, Jolly Villa Carpegna , Via Pio IV, 6 - 00165 Roma t +39 (6) 393 731, f +39 (6) 636 856 |
Pompeii If we thought 39 degrees was hot in Venice, it felt much more in Pompeii. We survived! Pompeii was unbelievably huge, 20 times bigger than we imagined...It must have been quite a city!
 
They even had a take-away food café in 79 AD! There were a couple of bodies there, preserved by the ash.
Can bathing in volcanic ash give you whiter teeth? You bet your life!
 
Rome continued the heat wave, but it did improve at night. The first night, our group had a great dinner in the courtyard of a restaurant, and really got into the party mode. Afterwards, we went to the Trevi fountain at night and threw 3 coins into it.
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Sat 13/07 |
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Vatican Museum , sculpture representing the explosion of technology around the world.(below) Some ceilings achieve a 3D effect by a trick of the eye (a Tromp L'Oeil)(middle below), others use real plaster mouldings but now have to be netted to prevent birds nesting in them. (below right) The queue to get into the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel was about one km long. Thank goodness we had a group admission!
  
Sistine Chapel. The ceiling was breathtaking. It took Michaelangelo 22 years to paint it. More recently, the Japanese have cleaned it up, and it looks good as new. It took them 23 years to achieve the clean-up, as the work was so delicate. In return, they get souvenir rights. All of the magnificent cathedrals etc., that we saw in Europe cost a fortune to maintain, so have had to become very commercial! Below is the famous "God creating Man" scene.
St Peter's square (actually the main part of it is round)
St Peter's Basilica is massive, and stunning. The writing that you see below, in the picture on the right, is actually 2 metres high. It runs around the inside of the dome and says "TU ES PETRUS (You are Peter) ET SUPER HANC PETRAM (and upon this rock) AEDIFICABO ECCLESIAM MIAM (I shall build my church) ET TIBI DABO (and to you I shall give) CLAVES REGNI CAELORUM (the keys to the kingdom of heaven)".
 
Michaelangelo's "Pieta" is in the Basilica, and was much more impressive, than we could have imagined.
The swiss Guards were noted, and Mike is seen below in front of the Basilica. The outside of the roof to the Sistine Chapel is on the right.
 
No other country in Europe can beat Italy in the contest for magnificent ancient architecture. The Colosseum, build in 72 AD, could seat 80,000. They attracted crowds much bigger than "State of Origin"! After seeing the Roman Forum -(huge) we had some wonderful pizza for lunch and then went to the Pantheon .
 
The Pantheon is still almost perfectly preserved, even though it was built in 27 BC. The dome is probably the greatest architectural achievment ever!. Originally, it was a temple dedicated to the planetary gods; now it is a Christian church.
 
We also saw the Catacombs that afternoon, erroneously thought to be places where persecuted Christians hid. They were, in fact, burial chambers.
SPQR, old and new. The arch in the forum (below) contains the inscription "Senatus PopulusQue Romanus" (The Senate and the Roman People) often abbreviated to SPQR by the ancient Roman armies on shields, battle standards etc. This abbreviation is obviously still in widespread use today. Here it is on a manhole cover.
 
This afternoon we received the news that Mike's Dad had passed away. When we were in Vienna, it was thought he was coming home from hospital in a few days. On the day we headed to Rome, we were told he would not make it through the night. We desperately tried to get on the next flight out, but because it was the beginning of the Italian summer school holidays, we had to wait 48 hours for the next vacancy. Mike would not have made it, even if he would have been able to get on the plane, as soon as we heard the situation. He arrived in Brisbane, the day before the funeral, and was able to deliver the eulogy. Maureen continued with the tour group for the last week of the tour without him.
On the day he left Rome, (Sunday), Mike attended Mass at St Peter's and could understand every word, as it was in Latin, just like when we were kids. |
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We went on a cruise along the Grand Canal, under the Rialto Bridge and stopped for a drink in St Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) dominated by the breathtaking St Mark's Basilica with its bell tower - below right.
