THE TRIP HOME

   In coming months, I expect that memories of the trip home will fade and what will remain are the happy ones of strolling car-less streets in ancient Dubrovnik, buying a memento in Rhodes of our several sunny days in Greece, and discovering the glorious Galleria Doria Pamphilj in our last day in Rome.
The trip home began well enough. Our taxi to the airport was on time, but then we joined the first of several airport queues that seemed to stretch for miles before we went through the first of three—or was it four?—security checks, one complete with pat-down. Then the first of our three flights was delayed again and then again by what we eventually learned was an airline traffic problem somewhere in the world. We barely made our connection in Amsterdam for the longest leg of the trip—almost ten hours to Atlanta. There a cheerie PA announcement said, “Welcome to Atlanta. All baggage must be checked here before continuing your flight.” We waited at the baggage carrousel and finally left without our bags to rush through now-empty check-in lines from one end of the Atlanta airport to the other. Fortunately, our last flight was delayed, so we did catch it for an extremely bumpy ride to Tucson, arriving too late to ask our neighbor to meet us. After filing our lost-luggage claim (which was still in Amsterdam!), we found only freezing optimists waiting at an empty taxi stand, so instead, we took the slower stage coach home, arriving finally to a bone-chilling house (it was 29 degrees outside) at 11:45 local time, a mere 26 ½ hours after the taxi in Rome picked us up.

SUNDAY - WHAT A FINALE!

GALLERIA DORIA PAMPHILJ

THE BALLROOM

THE GALLERY

POPE INNOCENT X

THE RED VELVET ROOM

It was a cold, rainy day in ancient Rome.

The rain, heavy at times, materialized, but it was sunny when we walked up the Tiber, crossed over on Ponte Garibaldi, which is at the tip of the island, and wound our way through various front and back streets to a museum we almost skipped, Galleria Doria Pamphilj. It turned out to be perhaps the most delightful palace/museum we've been to on this trip. It's still owned by the family, and an audio guide, narrated by one of the family with a strong Cambridge accent and matching wit guided us through the many restored rooms and pointed out some of the special features of the palace and the pictures exhibited. There was the ballroom, built for someone's wedding, and the gallery that had windows and gold-framed mirrors on both sides that gave it a dazzling effect similar to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Among the various Bruegels and Caravaggios was an exquisite portrait of one of the family members, Pope Innocent X by Velazquez. (Uncle Frank?) After, it was still raining fairly hard, so we took the #170 back to our neighborhood. Maybe after a few more trips to Rome, we can get around town by bus half as well as the Brucatos do, which would be saying something! Tomorrow, an almost 24-hour trip home! We'll be so delighted to meet up with the Spillers at the Tucson airport. We will...right John?

SATURDAY - VILLAS FARNESINA & CORSINI

Sun predicted, so we tempted the fates by leaving our umbrellas at home. Amazingly, it did not rain, but it did cloud over and grow cold. The day's destination was the Trastevere section of the city, which is across the river from our flat in Testaccio and a bit south of the Vatican. Much of it is more upscale and touristy than where we live, but our destinations were two very upscale places.

THE VILLA FARNESINA (Note the sun shining!)

The first was Villa Farnesina, built in the early 16^th Century by Agostino Chigi, a banker and the richest man in Europe. (Things never change.) The rooms were lavishly decorated by artists such as Raphael. There are several examples of trompe d'oeil including drapes covering lower sections of the walls. (I thought they were real!) Today, the villa is set back from the Thames (in Rome it is the Tiber, but this is a test to see who is actually reading the blog), but at that time, it was right on the bank, and at one of Chigi's parties, he had his guests toss their solid gold plates in the river after they'd used them. What he didn't tell them was that he'd had nets strung under water to gather them!)

CEILING

PAINTED DRAPES!

A WORK OF ART

Right across the street was Palazzo Corsini, which was built in the first half of the 18^th Century. It houses half of Rome's National Gallery of paintings, but they're hung, Victorian-style, from floor to ceiling, all mushed together, so it's hard to appreciate any of them. Perhaps the best had a wall of its own between two windows, a handsome Caravaggio. It's title was St. John the Baptist, but it was far from depressingly religious.

Afterwords, we wandered back to our flat without use of map. We crossed the Thames on Ponte Sisto, a handsome walking bridge, stumbled into Campo di Fiore, and ended up walking along the east bank of the Thames. Upon arrival at the apartment, seems someone had decorated the foyer tree for the holidays!

WHERE DID I PUT MY 12 FOOT TREE?

ROME - THURSDAY & FRIDAY

THURSDAY

   Cheryl Hanson suggested we have turkey pizza for Thanksgiving. Didn't see any, however. Instead, because it was such a long walk, we took bus #3 to the top of the Borghese Gardens to visit the Etruscan museum housed in the 16^th Century Villa Giulia (villa of Pope Julius III). There isn't much of the villa left in its original form, although the “porch” around the court yard was still beautifully decorated. The museum itself was modern and covered the mysterious Etruscan civilization from around the 6^th Century BCE onwards, especially its interaction with the Greeks. I had not realized how rich the culture was, and I'd thought, incorrectly, that it had no written documentation. By the time we'd finished our tour, it had begun to rain. So, instead of walking home, as I'd planned, we took the old #3 back to the flat.

PORCH OF VILLA GIULIA

    For dinner went back to the place we ate on the first night: Il Cantione. Stew had lasagna al forno and Bob had tortellini alla carne. Desert was tartufo for Stew and pann cotta fruittoi di bossco for Bob. Along with a bottle of wine and a limoncello and coffee, it was an Italian Thanksgiving!

FRIDAY

Rain and heavy winds predicted, so we took the metro to a pilazzo that Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII, commissioned for himself in the early 17^th Century. It's noted for its layout; amazing rooms with elaborately painted ceilings, use of tromp d'oeil for baseboards, ceilings, and hallways; a staircase designed by Bernini; and a collection of paintings that include (along with an exhausting number of religious ones) Franz Hals' portrait of Henry VIII, a portrait of a woman by Raphael that looks amazingly like the Mona Lisa, and several Caravaggios. By the time we left, the sun had come out, so we walked back to the flat via the Trevi Fountain and Colosseum and took pictures of both for Cheryl and Eva since they mentioned that they might like to come to Rome. We've been to many of these places before so find taking pictures is not a priority. Nice to think about our friends coming and seeing the things that we are currently seeing. Hope this helps make up their minds.

VILLA BARBARINI

BERNINI STAIRCASE

VIEW OF COLLOSEUM

TREVI FOUNTAIN - THROW IN A COIN, YOU WILL RETURN TO ROME

Dinner tonight was at Pizzeria de Remo. Had two supllis, two pizzas, a bottle of aqua minerale fizzante, a liter of wine and a cafe. Sat next to a couple from New York who had been here for two days. Felt like old hands. Wild and crazy local place that was PACKED.

ROME - MONDAY/TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY

ROME

MONDAY:  We arrived at our flat in Testaccio late morning and the agent gave us the tour and lecture. Then we bought food for breakfast, had lunch and a gelato, and spent most of the afternoon dealing with all the emails and news that had accumulated over the past week and a half. Since it was only in the 60s and rainy, there was not much incentive to go exploring. Dinner at a local restaurant where we were the only ones speaking English.

TUESDAY:  Rain predicted for the rest of the week, but amazingly, the sun came out for the six hours we spent wandering around Rome. Bob got a good shot of the Vatican dome through a keyhole in a door not far from where we have our flat. He also took one of the Circus Maximus and Palantine Hill (minus Charlton Heston and chariots), and one showing how Romans build modern buildings onto ancient ruins that they could not tear down. Our plan for the week is to have small museums as destinations for walking the City, and today's was the Palazzo Massi, which is a relatively new one housing an amazing collection of frescoes, mosaics, and sculpture, much of it taken from villas built around the beginning of the Christian era. In all, I think we must have covered ten miles on foot

CIRCUS MAXIMUS

DOOR WITH SMALL KEYHOLE

AMAZING VIEW THRU KEYHOLE!

WEDNESDAY:  Another day of walking. Maybe only eight miles this time. Again, it rained in the morning and once when we were in a museum, but whenever we were out, so was the sun. Amazing. This walk took us up the west bank of the Tiber, where Bob took a photo of the river which looked like rapidly-flowing, thick chocolate milk. We visited Campo d. Fiori (small, open-air market), Piazza Navona, and (as we always do when in Rome) the amazing Pantheon which Hadrian had built (if memory serves) in the 2^nd Century. We also knocked off two “small” museums of mostly sculptures: Museo Barracco and Palazzo Altempts. Both were housed in 16^th Century palaces with some restored rooms, and both had interesting collections of mostly sculptures. The latter included several that had been “restored” in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries when Greece and Rome were becoming the “in thing.” In several cases, though, the parts didn't all fit together quite right, so you'd have a larger-than-life statue with a smaller-than-life head stuck on it. Still, both museums were a pleasure to be in and did not overwhelm you the way large museums, such at the the Vatican, can do. Also, Bob finally had a cone of his his favorite gelato: frutti di bosco. To be companionable, I had one too.

CRUISE - FINAL DAYS

A DAY AT SEA ON THE STAR PRINCESS, then

NAPLES, ITALY We had thought we'd go to Capri, but since the weather report included possible showers and 25 mph winds, we opted to skip the ferry ride and go for Plan B, to stay in Naples. Our expectations were low, and we were not disappointed. The place is crowded, dirty, and filled with garbage. Literally. Since we'd been to the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the National Archeological museum before, we skipped them and checked out the national museum of Capodimonti ('Capo' meaning 'boss' - 'di Monte' meaning 'of the hill.') It was some kind of former palace overlooking the city, and it has two floors, long hallways, and room after room of badly lit religious paintings badly in need of cleaning. We walked a good part of the way back to the ship, arriving in time for a late lunch.

CAMPODIMONTE

STREET WTH GARBAGE

CRUISE - DAY SEVEN, EIGHT & NINE

CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER VERSIONS!

KUSADASI (EPHESUS), TURKEY 

The ship came into port beside a picturesque fort on what is known as “Pigeon Island.” Two of our table-mates, Steve and Sunshine, joined us for our private tour of the ancient city of Ephesus. Dennis, our guide, had our driver take us to the top of the city, and from there, we gradually descended various colonnades of pillars, one decorated with a unique lion's head protruding from an Ionic top. We saw the large public latrine that tourists wanted their spouses to photograph them sitting on. One of the most interesting sights was the newly excavated, two-story town houses of wealthy citizens of the city with their mosaic floors, marble and painted walls, and elaborate systems of using water for toilets, baths, and heating. The most famous ruin is the two-story facade of the Library of Celsus, which one held around 12,000 scrolls, and the theatre that could hold at least 25,000 people. On the way back, we stopped at a shop where we had a demonstration of how silk is extracted from cocoons, washed, dried, dyed, and eventually woven into amazing rugs. We managed, barely, to avoid taking a mortgage on the house to buy one of them despite the “great price” they'd give us for their end-of-season sale. 

OUR GUIDE - DENIS

LATRINE FOR 44!

THE TERRACE HOUSES EXCAVATION

THEATER - FOR 25K PEOPLE!

RHODES, GREECE We had not expected much of this small, walled city, but were pleasantly surprised by its low-key atmosphere. We passed the port area where the Colossus may once have stood, and wandered the streets in ideal mid-70s weather, snapping occasional photos of a mosque and the ancient walls. Bob bought a pair of black-topped sandals, and we also bought a handsome hand-cast plate to commemorate our trip to Greece.

THE HARBOR

OUR BEAUTIFUL NEW PLATE

LUNCH & FREE WI-FI

TYPICAL STREET SCENE

WE REALLY WERE THERE!

SANTORINI, GREECE  

People estimate that a volcano under the island erupted around 3600 years ago, sending a tsunami that destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete. The core of the volcano or caldera flooded with sea water, and now ships have difficulty anchoring there because it's so deep and the edges of the island rise almost straight up a thousand feet or so. There were two cruise ships there, however, ours and the Brilliance of the Seas (Royal Caribbean). In high season, there can be four or more, and all have to use tenders to transport people to the tiny docking station at the foot of the cliffs.

From shipboard, the villages of white-washed houses on the tops of the cliffs look like melting glaciers. To get up to the nearest town, Thira, you can walk, ride a donkey, or take a funicular. We opted for the last of these, and caught a bus to Oia, a slightly less-touristy village at the end of the island. This and later Thira provided lots of photo ops, since the day was sunny and warm (mid-70s). To return to the ship, we opted for the winding path down past herds of donkeys and such an underlay of donkey poop that Bob dubbed the island “Scatorini.”

SANTORINI...LOOKS SNOWCAPPED

OIA

OIA

PORT - FUNNICULA - WALKWAY

COASTLINE

LOOKING DOWN ON WALKWAY TO PORT

 

 

 

CRUISE - DAY FOUR, FIVE & SIX

 CLICK TO SEE THE PICTURES IN A LARGER VERSION!

OLYMPIA, GREECE 

When I (Stew) was in Greece 26 years ago with Harvey, we missed seeing Olympia because of a wrong turn. “It'll be there the next time,” I told him. However, just before we docked at Olympia's port town of Katakolon, we learned that because of Greek elections, Olympia's world-class museum and archeological site were both closed. So, instead, we browsed the junky tourist shops in Katakolon and caught up on our internetting at a free WiFi cafe. Next time . . .

STEW "INTERNETTING"

KATAKOLON STREET

OUR SHIP/OUR ROOM/OUR UPGRADE

ATHENS Monday. Bad news! The New Acropolis Museum, which was to have been one of the highlights of the trip along with the museum at Olympus yesterday, is closed on Mondays. However, the weather was perfect for outside touring: slightly overcast and 73 degrees. We took the subway in town and visited the Acropolis with the Parthenon (much renovated since I last visited) and the Erecthion, the temple with the five ladies holding up the roof. (All are fakes; the real ones are all in museums.) In Constitution Square, Bob took a photo of one of the guards with his pom-pom shoes, and later we visited the ancient agora with its amazingly well-preserved Temple of Hephaestus, and the “new” (Roman) agora with its single wall of what was once Hadrian's Library. (He also has an arch, which Bob photographed at my request.) We were going to go to the National Archeological Museum, but the subway line there was under construction and we weren't sure we could get a cab back from there if we went. Besides, we were both walked out, so we headed back to the ship for a couple of much-needed coffees.

WE REALLY WERE THERE

THIS ONE'S FOR STEW

HADRIAN'S ARCH

MYKONOS, GREECE The island was much as I remembered it: gleaming white houses, narrow walkways, millions of gift shops and restaurants. Mostly sunny; high of 71. Wandered awhile, took a few photos, and returned to the ship. Had decided not to go to Delos. Can't take too much sun anymore. Besides, the tour adviser said he thought the ferries might not be running there this time of year.

MYKONOS

A COLORFUL STREET

WINDMILLS

CRUISE - DAY ONE, TWO & THREE

CLICK ON PICS FOR LARGER VERSIONS...

VENICE, ITALY

WATER OVERRUNS THE SQUARES

 

AT LEAST IT HAD NO POSTS TO BLOCK THE VIEW!

We had thought about strolling a couple of hours more in Venice, but the fog was so heavy that the ship in the next slip over kept disappearing in it. As Karin would say, “We were SO done with the wet weather in Venice!” So, instead, we had a much-needed quiet day of naps and exploring the ship. That evening, dinner was “formal,” but our waiter and table-mates had urged us to come even though we'd brought no dress-up clothes. Reluctantly, Bob agreed, and we had a good time. Steve, it turns out, is a high powered lawyer for Cisco, so we learned that the company saves about $250 million each year by holding conferences not in person, but through high def video. Steve, for example, can sit at home and chat on his 72” screen with his team of twenty lawyers in Paris. Cuts down a lot on travel and leaves him more time to be with his new bride, Sunshine! After dinner, we saw the ship's twelve singers and dancers do numbers based on the theme of traveling to cities around the world. We think it may well be the worst stage show either of us has ever seen. As Jeff Fox would say, the sound guy created a wall of sound so the voices were no different from the music. Stan Greenberg would scream about the equalizers! We simply suffered.

OLD TOWN

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA The ship arranged for shuttle buses to take passengers to the Old City for only 20 E (about $28) for two of us round trip, but having done the research, we went local. First we bought a hundred Kona at an ATM for about $18. Then we took the local bus in and back and had enough left over for an espresso, a couple of ice cream cones, a package of candied nuts, two sessions to catch up on our email at an internet cafe, and a post card to use up the last three coins with! Love it when we can beat the ship's rip-offs!

PEOPLE CLIMBING TO THE TOP OF THE WALL--NOT US!

The Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's small and enclosed by a huge thick wall that you can walk around the top of, but even though the day was sunny (!), we opted not to because of Bob's knee. The first stairway up to the top gives you some idea what might lie ahead. Instead, we just wandered snapping photos of narrow streets paved with marble stones. (We paused at one point to watch a couple of men repaving one area with stones that must have weighed 150 pounds each.)

The city was involved in war and trade for all of its long history, but the worst time was in 1667 when it was virtually demolished by an earthquake that killed over half its population. Then again, in 1991—only 19 years ago—it was heavily damaged during the civil war when Yugoslavia broke up. Now it's under siege from tourists off humungous cruise ships like ours.

I (Stew) have to admit, though, we do enjoy our upgraded penthouse balcony. In the afternoon, we read and dozed there, and the view of city by night was spectacular.

URGENT WORKS?

C0RFU, GREECE The City has two forts that remind one of its war-torn past. We wandered around the end of the island expecting beautifully landscaped gardens, but found trash, seedy buildings, and grass that had not been cut for months. We searched for the archeological museum, and eventually found it. Closed! I'd hoped to visit Mon Repos, but by then, we'd had enough aimless wandering and made our way back to the ship.

IDEA ONE!

Idea is to do two entries a day. First will be a couple of days from the cruise to catch up. Second will be from this week in Rome. I know it's a lot. Scuzzi.

IT'S SUNDAY...AND IT'S ROME

Off the ship about 8:30 this morning and took the free shuttle bus to the port's terminal entrance. Then schlepped four blocks to the train station. Caught the 9:41 to Trastevere Station (just before the main Rome terminal). Easily found the number 3 bus and arrived at the apt about ten of eleven. Stephanie...our Rome contact...arrived about 11:15. Now time to catch up.

I'm not sure how to enter 12 port days into this blog without getting long and winded. Maybe a couple of days at a time. We'll see.

Hope you can bear with us!

IF IT'S THURSDAY, IT MUST BE RHODES

GREETINGS

Sitting in a small cafe in Rhodes on an absolutely beautiful day. Enjoying the cruise and having fabulous weather...once we left Venice. Days have been sunny with a few clouds and high 72-75.

Lots to share and pics too, but will wait till Rome when internet time is more leisurely.

THE LIBRARY  AT  EPHESUS

Meanwhile, thinking of you all and enjoying the emails...even though we don't answer them. YET!