Driving to Sorrento today - all day. Gaetano keeps us entertained on these long bus drives by talking about everything italian/mediteranian/greek. This might seem grim if he weren't such an entertaining and informative speaker.
The switch from Greek dominion to Roman dominion was not good for Sicily. They did not speak Latin for 400 years. They did not truly become Roman citizens for 400 years. Sicilians remained Greeks. Roman governors just came and stole the Greek antiquities. Cicero was a young lawyer asked to prosecute some of these governors.
We stop part way on this long trip in Polignaro a Mare'. This town is a beautiful seaside town with walls and a fort overlooking the sea.
There is also a statue of the man who wrote and made popular the song Volare'. He is from this town. After practicing the song in the bus - where Gaetano translated it for us - we all gather in front of the statue and sing it - schlocky - but fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA_FmFX4_YQ&feature=youtu.be
Back on the bus. As it darkens, Neapolitan love songs are filling the air in the bus.
Just at dusk we see a darkening Bay of Naples and lights of the towns along the coast. Also, a dark and brooding Mt Vesuvious. We are driving down a serpentine road, winding down the sheer cliffs to the water. We can see the island of Capri. The lights are all twinkling. It is 5:30 - rush hour! Narrow little winding roads. Traffic is terrible. Busses can only be operated for a certain number of hours at a time. This bus must be turned off by 6 PM. We take one turn in the city to find it has been blocked, so Alexandro, our heroic bus driver executes a 3 point turn of a huge bus, amidst many small cars and scooters, on a hill. The taciturn Alexandro has been repeating 'Ma-nudge! Ma-nudge!' for quite a while now. ( I have no idea how to spell this, so I wrote it phonetically. It is a term I remember my mother using at stressful times while pinching her fingers together and shaking her hand. You know the gesture I mean. ) We reach the hotel parking lot at 5:59.
Pompeii
Mt Etna is the mother. It is an 'effusive' volcano steaming, smoking every day frequently erupting, but never violent and destructive. It is the female - giving fertility and life.
Mt Vesuvius is the male. It is an 'explosive' volcano. Laying silent for centuries and then erupting massively and violently. It erupted and destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD. Pompeii lay under massive amounts of ash forgotten by history until the 1700s when it was discovered by an engineer excavating for a building project.
The discovery of Pompeii triggered new fashions in architecture (neo-classical), women's dress (empire waistlines), and pizza baking (round stone pizza ovens).
Pompei is the name of the modern city. Pompeii is the name of the ancient one. Pompeii had been a commercial, cosmopolitan city of about 25 thousand people. On August 24th 79 AD everything stopped.
Mt Vesuvius is the male. It is an 'explosive' volcano. Laying silent for centuries and then erupting massively and violently. It erupted and destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD. Pompeii lay under massive amounts of ash forgotten by history until the 1700s when it was discovered by an engineer excavating for a building project.
The discovery of Pompeii triggered new fashions in architecture (neo-classical), women's dress (empire waistlines), and pizza baking (round stone pizza ovens).
Pompei is the name of the modern city. Pompeii is the name of the ancient one. Pompeii had been a commercial, cosmopolitan city of about 25 thousand people. On August 24th 79 AD everything stopped.
The city that you see across the water nestled along the base of Mt Vesuvius is Naples, the 3rd largest city in Italy. (!!!!) Vesuvius last erupted in 1944 during WWII.
 |
| This is our local guide, Nicola - he grew up in the historic area, his father used to do maintenance for Pompeii |
 |
| These are stepping stones. They are the width of the wagon wheels. |
 |
| The public baths |
 |
| Menu at the whore house |
 |
| pretty eerie |
Capri
A beautiful place with beautiful vistas, but mainly shut down for low season.
Probably the nicest public bathrooms we encountered.
Amalfi Coast
The pictures say it all here (just glad that someone else was driving!)
Amalfi
Where we practiced the 'sweet art of doing nothing'.
A video of the main square in Amalfi - gives you a good flavor of the square:
Notice the fountain in the middle of the above picture. On the top of it is a statue of St Andrew, an early martyr. What you can't see in the base of the fountain is this:
It is typical here to see christian and pagan icons combined in the same work of art.
Saying goodby
(Thanks to Bill for the use of his pictures)
The final group dinner
 |
| Gaetano getting us all in place for the final group picture |
 |
| Thanks to everyone for making this a wonderful trip |
No comments:
Post a Comment