Italy: Day 3

We arrived in Rome after dark on Saturday night. We stayed at another small 6 room hotel that was nice. After another challenge finding the hotel we settled in for the night.  We had an early morning wake-up to meet with the tour taking us to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius for the day. A lot of the city shuts down on Sundays so this was a good adventure to take. We had a couple of great tour guides that helped keep us entertained and learning during our bus ride to Pompeii. In 62AD an earthquake shook the region.  Many of the people fled the city, but some remained to rebuild and claim their neighbors property.  In 79AD Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the city in ash, fumes, and heat.  The city was covered, preserved until the 1700's when real excavation began.

Mount Vesuvius in the background.

Bath house.

Original paint that has survived almost 2100 years.

Streets in the city with the stepping stones that would have been used to walk across during times of flooding.  This was one of the main streets with the stores lining each side.

 

The next pictures were a little difficult to view. Those people that stayed after the earthquake all lost their lives.  They either died of extreme heat or suffocation.  When the city was being excavated one of the archeologists realized that people would have been buried and their bodies eventually would have decomposed. He was able to then drill holes in the ground where he knew bodies would have been. They then poured plaster in the hole to fill the cavity where the bodies were.  The details are amazing, but your heart tightens a little thinking of what they were experiencing in their last moments of life. 

A dog that had been chained up.

I can almost picture him curled up, holding his face as he took his last breath.  What an awful way to die.

After visiting Pompeii we had lunch in Naples. It was probably the best pizza we had during our trip. Then we loaded the bus to head up Mount Vesuvius.  Mt. Vesuvius is an active volcano and last erupted in 1944. The scientists believe they will have at least a 3 day warning of when it may erupt again.  We had a great driver, thankfully, and we made it safely up the volcano.  The top portion of the volcano has to be hiked and it was intense.  There are no trees for shade and it was much more difficult of a hike than Sweat Mountain or Stone Mountain here at home.  Or at least that's what Marc said.  I haven't hiked either one. But we made it to the top for some amazing views.

The crater at the top of the volcano.

We returned to Rome late evening and headed back to our hotel for some rest.  We had another full day ahead of us on Monday. When you are in Italy for 5 days you pack as much into your days as you can.

Italy: Day 2

Saturday was our last day in Venice and we wanted to take a gondola ride. You can't go to Venice without doing the main tourist attraction, right?  We went early in the morning and most of the gondolas were still covered up.  We learned quickly that most Italians take a slower start to their mornings. It was a peaceful ride through the back canals.

We then took a water taxi over to the island where the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore is located. This had Tintoretto’s Last Supper painting.

We also took the elevator up the bell tower which had some amazing views of the city.

A view of St. Mark's Square.

After going back over to the main islands we walked over to Doge's Palace. A doge was similar to a governor. Once again the buildings were very ornate.

One of the many painted and sculpted ceilings.

The Chamber of the Great Council - one of the largest rooms in Europe.

Marc being Marc in the prison of the palace.

After a little more getting lost in Venice we grabbed our bags and headed for the train station. We took the fast speed train that got to speeds of 150+mph and headed for Rome. Here are a few pictures taken of the Italian countryside.

Italy: Day 1

So here I am awake at 4:45 in the morning. Jet lag. Marc is already up and gone to work. Jet lag. I have a puppy sleeping in her crate in my room and a child that made her way to the couch in the middle of the night. The computer is far enough away not to disturb anyone, so I thought I'd start blogging about our trip. There will be a lot of pictures and a lot of words, but since I may never go back I want to make sure and document it all.

Several weeks ago the possibility of a business trip to Italy was presented to Marc.  His company's policy would have allowed for me to join him for free (airfare, hotel, and food) if he gave up his first class ticket. So that's what my amazing husband did. He flew out to Turin, Italy to work for a few days and then I flew into Venice to meet him. I tried to sleep on the overnight flight, but unfortunately that didn't happen. So when I arrived at 9:30am Venice time we started exploring the city.

All of the hotels in Rome are little hidden gems. Marc arrived in Venice the day before I did since his meeting ended a day earlier than planned, and he searched out the hotel we had booked. The signs are small on the side of the building, but behind the door to our hotel was this little courtyard. And although the buildings are old, the ones we stayed in were very nicely renovated on the inside.

After dropping of my suitcase we started exploring the city built on the water. There are 409 bridges in Venice and I think we crossed each one twice. ha!

There are no cars on the island and very few bicycles. Everyone walks or takes a boat.

The Rialto Bridge is probably the most famous of the bridges. It crosses the Grand Canal.

One of the things that all of the websites tell you to do in Venice is to just wander and get lost in the streets. I wanted to make sure we did that, and it turns out there was no problem accomplishing that goal.  Every time you go anywhere you get lost - but in a good way.

Our first stop of the morning was to St. Mark's Basilica.

The scenes painted here are from the life of Jesus.

 

 One of my friends I've known for probably 20 years, Laura, is an art teacher at a local high school.  Before we left I asked her if she could point us to any "must see" arts while in Italy. I'm in no way artistic and art appreciation was not my favorite class in college. I do however appreciate art. She was so kind to send us a very detailed list of the important things to see and why they were important. We printed our her list and carried it with us everywhere.  It was such a great help to us and really made the trip even better.  For example I would have looked at this and said, okay, cool bronze statues of some horses.  But she let us know that these probably date back to the ancient Roman time period and very few of their bronze statues have survived.

We visited Galleria dell’Accademia which is a museum with many ornate rooms (like everything else in the country) as well as artwork and artifacts.  Towards the end of this museum the lack of sleep in 26 hours was catching up to me so we headed back to the hotel for a nap. After dinner we wandered around the city some more before calling it a day.