Day: December 14, 2012

Our first of many early starts happens this morning with suitcases to be outside our rooms by 6:15am.  Breakfast at 7am and departure at 7:45am for Sorrento.

Peak hour is evident as we leave Rome southbound.

The true Italian countryside is not far out of Rome – green hills and farmland.  There are fields of solar panels supplying electricity to the villages along the way.  Although the bus looks slick, as we travel, there is a whine in the motor and the suspension is not the ‘air foam’ that you can experience in some coaches.

Our trip to Sorrento is only 4 hours total including 30 minutes comfort stop – 50cents a pee.

I forgot to mention in yesterdays post that Mr Pope did not come to the front door to greet the pilgrims from Australia.  Perhaps we needed to be more conspicuous – Harry forgot to bring his lime green mankini.

We arrive at Pompeii to notice that the size of the cobblestones has grown enormously, great big bricks.  How the ‘slaves’ of the day worked with them in forming the road, no one knows, but the council hasn’t had to upgrade the road surface for 500 years or more.  Pompeii is a very busy town and this is the off-season.  They say during June to August, tourist sites in Italy are very much overcrowded.

After lunch at a local café, we commence a guided tour through the ruins of the old Pompeii; well kept because of the many tourists that visit each year.  Our local tour guide has a great Italian accent and her ‘comea toa thisa streeta’ is rather fascinating.  We see two amphitheaters that had great sound qualities without an electrical power point in sight.  Each house has been carefully excavated and a story revealed. There is a line of bakers, each with stone ovens to show generations in the future how to cook a real Italian pizza.

We are taken into the ‘red light’ area and into a brothel.  There are well-painted erotica on the walls, perhaps to act as a menu for the customers to choose which experience they would like, as most of them didn’t know the local language.  The gym, with steam rooms and massage facilities, shows evidence of constant use.  (I wonder if they had iPods to listen to as they exercised?)

Following the tour, we bus to our accommodation for the next two nights.  I had jokingly mentioned to our tour guide that I would like an ocean view for lunch not knowing that the view from our accommodation in Sorrento is going to give us a magnificent ocean view of the Bay of Naples.  Our motel is ‘hanging’ on the edge of a cliff with the absolute perfect view – for two days.  Wow, only film stars and heads of state get this view, but we are experiencing it because we are travelling with Scenic Tours.

Our dinner for the evening is at a restaurant run by a family for three generations; it too sits on the edge of a cliff with a magnificent view and a beautiful sunset over the Isle of Capri.

Today commences with a dull overcast sky with rain.  Not a good look but not as bad as yesterday.

After breakfast, we board our bus, which is to be our mobile home for the next 2 weeks.  It is well done out both inside and out.  The title on the side of the bus is ‘Pleasure on Wheels’.  There is a caricature of a shapely woman on the back door, which even our Tour Director had not noticed.  Inside, the roof is bright pink and the chairs have dashes of the same pink.  Rather classy indeed – especially when it is full of retired, or close to retired, folks from down under.

We make our way to St Peters Square.  While getting off the bus, my video camera drops on the sidewalk – sh……ucks is heard!  Just a broken ring that holds the wide-angle lens on is slightly damaged but can still do its job.  Man, I was so thankful.  And then when fitting the lens at one point, a passer by knocks my arm and the wide-angle lens drops to the ground.  Thankfully, no further damage.

The line of people into St Peters museum is probably over 1km.  We take the fast lane as we have a set booking time.  We go through security and purchase tickets at 15 Euros (a group discount) normal entrance fee is 17 Euros.  There are an average of 22,000 visitors per day.  That’s over $120 mil per year.  A tidy sum indeed – and no taxes either.  We head towards a scale model of the entire Vatican representing 44ha or 108 acres.  The area we are visiting is only a small portion of this immense display of wealth and hypocrisy when you think that the money collected could be spent on so many poorer groups of people in the world.  Magnificent sculptors, intricate tapestries and the many works of Michelangelo line the, what feels like, 1 km of display in the one hallway.

We enter the Sistine Chapel, said to be a Holy Place.  It is a private chapel of popes and the site of the secret conclaves at which cardinals elect new popes.  From 1508 to 1512, Michelangelo painted the ceiling with the saga of humanity from the Creation to the Flood, the largest work ever accomplished by a single artist.  Twenty-three years later, he painted the Last Judgment on the Sistine’s alter wall.

From here we enter the magnificent St Peter’s Basilica, consecrated in 1626.  It is the largest church of any kind or religion, in the world.  The church spreads over more than 1.5 ha.  Amid the basilica’s breath-taking array of gold, mosaic, marble and guilded stucco, the supreme masterpiece is Michelangelo’s Pieta, a superb marble statue of the Virgin cradling the body of Christ.

After a counter-lunch, we bus to the Colloseo.  This is the fourth time I have visited the site and it is true that the best time to be here is 5:30am, when no one else is around.  However, large crowds visit this site each day, although not as many as St Peters.  We enter the stadium where history tells that the gladiators had a wonderful time filling in the day by killing people and exotic beasts from around the world.  70,000 people would attend these ceremonies.  It took 8 years of manual labor to build this intricate arena, 3 giant walls thick and many entrances.  The people would be there all day to witness this gladiator sport.

We bus back to our Hotel, and after a short rest, we are taken to Piazza Navona where we have our welcome dinner in a sidewalk restaurant.  The sidewalks are lined with artists selling or painting their works.

I wake early, 4:00am, and decide to get the blog for yesterday ready for uploading.  At 5:30 I quickly dress and catch a cab to the Colosseo to get early morning light effects on this great building of history.  The cab driver is asleep as I tap on his window.  However, it doesn’t take long for him to wake.  He straight away gets into ‘Roman Chariot speed’ as we make way towards the Colosseo down cobble stoned laneways touching 80kph at times.  The best early morning ride one could ever wish for.

The sun is still not taking effect on the Colosseo, and with no one around, I get some great video; the spotlights make for an even better picture experience.  I slowly walk back towards the Hotel Westin, hoping for a McDonalds to be open for an early morning tea – they don’t open until 10:00 am.

Breakfast is another great meal similar to yesterday.  Today’s program is free time until 3:00pm where we meet our Tour Director for Italy, Rosemary.  Rosemary is English but has lived in Italy for many years.  She helps us with important information like, “Don’t order a coffee without asking for American Coffee”.  Italian coffee is full on heavy stuff.  To eat or drink at the counter is much cheaper than taking a seat for the event.  Our hearing pieces, which will be the source of all history and information during our walking tours, is checked and ready to go.

At 4:30pm, we venture out on our first city walking tour, with umbrellas up as it is raining and continues to do so throughout the tour, which lasts to 7:00pm.  Our first stop is the Piazza Di Spagna or, Spanish Steps.  At the top of the stairs is a major French church in Rome.  Many tourists hang out at the fountain at the foot of the steps – oh, I forgot to count the many steps.  We wander through the maze of little streets and find the Trevi Fountain, occupying almost the entire square in which it stands.  This is where Neptune takes center stage.  If you want to be sure of returning to Rome, turn your back and toss a coin over your shoulder into the basin of water.

Still venturing through the narrow streets, we make our way to the Pantheon.  This was reconstructed 2,000 years ago after a disastrous fire.  Its majestic dome, with a diameter of 43 meters, identical to its height, is a triumph of architectural harmony.  There is a 9m opening in the dome for light to come into the church below.

The streets are busy even though it is Sunday afternoon and it is raining; tourists, we can tell, are a plenty.  We make our way to Piazza Navona where there is a large square with yes, another fountain taking centerstage. Of course, there is a story to this fountain like there is to all others.  This fountain is Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers; Nile Ganges, Ia Plata, and the Danube.  These rivers are in the four major continents of the world.  From here, we make our way to our bus, which takes us back to Hotel Westin.

It is suggested by Rosemary, to take a meal in the not so up market restaurant region, so we take a 10 minute stroll and find a nice little café in some back street which turns out quite acceptable food.

Sorry for the quality of pictures in today’s post, but due to the constant rain, we decided to just use the iPhone cameras.  I have reduced them in size and so if you copy and paste them, you will not experience good quality.  If any of you wish to see pictures of your relatives ‘on site’, please leave a comment at the foot of this post and we will include something in the next post.  Normally, Lyn takes the pictures on her Sony DSLR a55 with a Tamron 18-270mm zoom lens.  We had nearly 400 hits to the site on Sunday – very good!

I wake early, 4:00am, and decide to get the blog for yesterday ready for uploading.  At 5:30 I quickly dress and catch a cab to the Colosseo to get early morning light effects on this great building of history.  The cab driver is asleep as I tap on his window.  However, it doesn’t take long for him to wake.  He straight away gets into ‘Roman Chariot speed’ as we make way towards the Colosseo down cobble stoned laneways touching 80kph at times.  The best early morning ride one could ever wish for.

The sun is still not taking effect on the Colosseo, and with no one around, I get some great video; the spotlights make for an even better picture experience.  I slowly walk back towards the Hotel Westin, hoping for a McDonalds to be open for an early morning tea – they don’t open until 10:00 am.

Breakfast is another great meal similar to yesterday.  Today’s program is free time until 3:00pm where we meet our Tour Director for Italy, Rosemary.  Rosemary is English but has lived in Italy for many years.  She helps us with important information like, “Don’t order a coffee without asking for American Coffee”.  Italian coffee is full on heavy stuff.  To eat or drink at the counter is much cheaper than taking a seat for the event.  Our hearing pieces, which will be the source of all history and information during our walking tours, is checked and ready to go.

At 4:30pm, we venture out on our first city walking tour, with umbrellas up as it is raining and continues to do so throughout the tour, which lasts to 7:00pm.  Our first stop is the Piazza Di Spagna or, Spanish Steps.  At the top of the stairs is a major French church in Rome.  Many tourists hang out at the fountain at the foot of the steps – oh, I forgot to count the many steps.  We wander through the maze of little streets and find the Trevi Fountain, occupying almost the entire square in which it stands.  This is where Neptune takes center stage.  If you want to be sure of returning to Rome, turn your back and toss a coin over your shoulder into the basin of water.

Still venturing through the narrow streets, we make our way to the Pantheon.  This was reconstructed 2,000 years ago after a disastrous fire.  Its majestic dome, with a diameter of 43 meters, identical to its height, is a triumph of architectural harmony.  There is a 9m opening in the dome for light to come into the church below.

The streets are busy even though it is Sunday afternoon and it is raining; tourists, we can tell, are a plenty.  We make our way to Piazza Navona where there is a large square with yes, another fountain taking centerstage. Of course, there is a story to this fountain like there is to all others.  This fountain is Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers; Nile Ganges, Ia Plata, and the Danube.  These rivers are in the four major continents of the world.  From here, we make our way to our bus, which takes us back to Hotel Westin.

It is suggested by Rosemary, to take a meal in the not so up market restaurant region, so we take a 10 minute stroll and find a nice little café in some back street which turns out quite acceptable food.

Sorry for the quality of pictures in today’s post, but due to the constant rain, we decided to just use the iPhone cameras.  I have reduced them in size and so if you copy and paste them, you will not experience good quality.  If any of you wish to see pictures of your relatives ‘on site’, please leave a comment at the foot of this post and we will include something in the next post.  Normally, Lyn takes the pictures on her Sony DSLR a55 with a Tamron 18-270mm zoom lens.  We had nearly 400 hits to the site on Sunday – very good!

Our Grand Tour of Italy and Mediterranean Cruise has begun.  We have 12 fellow travellers with us.  All but one has been on one or many of our previous group tours.

It is a drain on one’s body in an aircraft for 8 hours and 13 hours at a time.  And so we were all looking forward to a good bed to give us the best of sleeps.  Italian time is 8 hours behind Australia.

The trip over was uneventful with meals at weird times and just a little turbulence at various times during the flight.  We all managed a little sleep but not enough of course.

We arrived at Rome airport about 30 minutes late but our departure from the airport was held up due to the major major modifications going on.  At least our bags were through by the time we were ready to collect them.  The flight over was reasonably smooth with only a few sharp aircraft movements during the trip.

Our transfer from the airport was in 2 Mercedes vans.  The airport is about 40 minutes from the city but it didn’t take long at all. We were sitting on 110kph and many others were overtaking us at speed.  A fast but safe trip!   Our driver did his best to speak English – it was far better than our Italian, of course.  We drove by many of Rome’s landmarks including the magnificent Colosseo (Italian).  There were so many people (tourists) there.  The Vatican is the biggest attraction here and we will see it a little later on.

When we registered at the Hotel Westin, it was around 10:30am.  We could not get into our rooms until after 12 midday and so we just ‘sat around’ waiting.  I think we may have a bit of that in the next couple of days until the ‘real’ tour starts.

Lyn and the others, had a lunch in a street-side café, but I was more interested in getting into the room and having a sleep.  Yesterday, it was a beautiful sunny blue-sky day and the video of the Porta Pinciana, came out rather striking.  I had trouble with the video camera at first (it had not deleted all the video from Vietnam) so I had to do a complete wipe of the disc and start a second time.  At least it is functioning OK now and should give us some good shots.

After a very heavy sleep, I was able to drag myself out to an evening meal of pizza and Caesars salad with a very chocolaty hot chocolate.  We made it back to bed by 9:15pm

I got up at 5:30 this morning to do some early morning video of the Porta Pinciana, which is a part of the ‘city wall’.  The early morning light made for some more interesting video than during the day.

What we have seen of Rome so far is more interesting than Paris.  The streets near us are lined with eateries with great looking pasta for sale – not!  I hate pasta.  No, the pizza was Ok last night.  The clothing shops are very up-market and probably very expensive, although one dress that Lyn ‘browsed’ at was 713 euro.