Day 12: South Italy (More of Naples)

Today we visited the Archeological Museum, which has some of the best collection of Roman sculptures in the world. Many are copies of Greek sculptures lost to antiquity. And, of course, it contains much of the artworks salvaged from Pompeii.

The "Toro Farnese" is the largest sculpture, made from a single piece of marble. It was painstakingly restored by Michaelangelo and others. For instance, the dog was completely redone.

The mosaics, especially the micro-mosaics, recovered from Pompeii and Herculaneum were outstanding. I tried to capture the detail in the above two pictures, the second being a blowup of the first. My photography doesn't do it justice.

Remember the brick columns in Pompeii. These are better preserved examples.

Surgical equipment found at Pompeii.

A beautiful fresco from Pompeii or Herculaneum.

Yesterday's word of the day: orologio, or watch. The Italians are very stylish, even when it comes to watches.

Today is the last official day of our tour. We leave for an overnight stay in Rome tomorrow, and fly home on Sunday. See you soon.

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Day 11: Southern Italy (Naples)

To say Naples is chaotic is an understatement. Rome and Sorrento are mild in comparison. They say it is their proximity to Vesuvius; live life on the edge. There are over 4 million people living under Vesuvius, and a major eruption would be a disaster. As chaotic as it is on a normal day, I cannot even imagine what an evacuation would be like.

Inside the oldest opera house in the world.

We visited the Museo Capodimonte, home of some great art. Does this guy remind you of anyone?

Naples is where pizza was invented. No, Vera did not go into the pizza business. Vera Pizza means true pizza, and is the sign you look for if you want the original.

Typical street scene. There was another street totally dedicated to nativity scenes and the making of them. Closer to Christmas, they make it one way, pedestrian only, because the crowds are so big.

Yesterday's word of the day: uscita or exit in Italian

Today's word: orologio

Hint: Don't leave home without it.

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Day 10: Southern Italy (Serene Sorrento and Capri)

I would not use the word serene to describe Sorrento, those are Rick Steve's words. It's Italy, watch out for cars if you walk, pray if you are driving along a steep coastline. We had a brutally busy day yesterday, and were thankful that today was a free day to experience things on your own.

While waiting for a ferry boat for Capri, we could look out over the Sorrento harbor at Mount Vesuvius.

View from our open taxi on the way up a virtual cliff on the way to Anacapri, a small town on the island of Capri.

Once in Anacapri we ventured out on our own, finding quiet neighborhood paths that wandered up the mountain to beautiful homes and wonderful vistas.

We got on the wrong bus to Capri, so had to take the funicular from Capri to its harbor to catch a boat back to Sorrento. Oh well, lots of time to enjoy the scenery.

Capri's marina.

Yesterday's word of the day: scavi or excavations in Italian. Italy certainly has a lot of these.

Today's word: uscita

Hint: Better know where this is when traveling.

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Day 9: Southern Italy (Pompeii and Sorrento)

The map doesn't show it, but we back tracked today, driving back to Sorrento from Positano. It is all related to rugged coastline, one way roads, and big buses. You have to see it to understand.

Sorrento is a much larger town than where we just came from. This is Marina Grande, confusingly named since it is the smaller of the marinas, but the more picturesque. Our orientation to the town included a rather rushed limoncello and gelato making demonstration. Sorrento is on the south side of the Bay of Naples, with the large city of Naples on the other side. Pompeii and Herculaneum are in between, with Vesuvius in the background. After lunch, it was off to Pompeii on the commuter train.

Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background. The crowds were overpowering, even though it is a weekday and we are out of the prime tourist season.

Many of the columns were made of brick, but covered in a white plaster cement made of ground up marble. Much of that plaster finish is gone.

A casting of a dog that died in the eruptions. The inhabitants of Pompeii were killed by poisonous gas, and then buried in over 30 feet of ash. Most roofs collapsed from the weight. All organic material decayed away, leaving a cavity into which plaster was poured to capture the shapes like you see above.

The inside of a Roman bath.

Painted walls inside a typical Roman home.

A bakery complete with mill stone (human powered) and a wood fired oven in the background. The oven was in such good condition that it almost looked like a wood fired pizza oven you might see back in the states.

Yesterday's word of the day: zattera meaning raft (or liferaft) in Italian.

Today's word: scavi

Hint: Italy has lots of these

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Day 8: Southern Italy (The Amalfi Coast)

The road to Positano is so narrow that we had to transfer to two smaller buses for the last few miles of the journey last night. This is a view of the road from our hotel.

We took a short boat ride to Amalfi, and this is the view from the boat looking back at Positano.

The scenery was spectacular! I have no idea what hotel this is, but similar ones dot the coast all the way to Amalfi. The Amalfi coast has become one of the hangouts for the rich and famous because of this kind of remoteness.

Amalfi was a treat in itself. We decided to stay a while and explore the town.

Narrow Amalfi streets with lots of shops.

Lunch with friends back in Positano

Yesterday's word of the day: estintore or fire extinguisher.

Today's word: zattera

Hint: We were sitting right next to one today

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Day 7: Southern Italy (Greek Paestum and Positano)

We are on the road again, leaving wonderful Matera and heading for Positano via Paestum.

The bufala, or buffalo in English. Not to be confused with American bison, these animals are prized for the high fat content in their milk; 3 times that of regular cows milk. The Paestum area is noted for its "mozzarella di bufala", which we saw produced on a very modern and organic farm.

Happy cows make more milk, so these are queued up at a massage machine. However, each has a chip for identification; no milk, no massage! They are milked when they want to be by a fully automated and robotic milking machine. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch complete with buffalo mozzarella and ricotta cheese. Dessert included buffalo gelato with no sugar added. It was very sweat anyway because of the milk.

Paestum has some of the best preserved Greek ruins in the world. After conquering the Greeks, the Romans built their towns around these temples. Luckily for us, the Romans were superstitious, and didn't want to disturb any gods. Luckily the early Christians and Muslims never paid much attention to this area.

This temple is massive; Vera is in the blue jacket.

Paestum is one of the few places in the world where you can see actual painted Greek frescoes, preserved because they were on the inside of stone coffins buried long ago. This is one of hundreds in the museum.

Yesterday's word of the day: chiese rupestri or rock-hewn churches. There was a picture of one in yesterday's blog update. Matera has nearly 50.

Today's word of the day: estintore

Hint: You find these in almost every public building.

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Day 6: Southern Italy (The Wonders of Matera)

Matera has been occupied on and off by humans for the last 20,000 years. It is considered the 3rd oldest city in the world; only Aleppo (whose ancient ruins were recently destroyed by IS) and Jericho are older. It is older than Jerusalem! For these and other reasons it has been made a World Heritage Site.

Pictures do not do this place justice. In fact, this picture was taken from the crucifixion hill used in Mel Gibson's 2003 movie "The Passion of Christ". The modern city sits above, while the Sassi, or cave dwellings sit below.

The Sassi are dug into the soft sandstone rock, complete with sea shells, that you see in this picture. The facade is made of the stone blocks that were cut out of the caves. Our hotel room is such a structure, modernized of course with all of the conveniences.

Churches like this one were also built right into the stone. We visited one dating back to the 12th century.

Remember I said that the region we are in was, and still is, the poorest in Italy. At one time, they lost about half their population to emigration. Most, I think, wound up in the USA. Matera was the poorest of the poor; so poor that the government decreed a forced evacuation of the Sassi in the 1950s and 1960s. The infant mortality rate was 50%, and diseases like malaria were rampant. The one we looked at had 11 people in it, plus farm animals like donkeys, pigs, chickens, goats, etc. Water was from a cistern which collected rain and sewage was dumped into an open ditch just outside.

Today, only 60 years later, the Sassi are becoming gentrified with young professionals moving back in, obviously adding a few amenities. The building code is strict to retain some of the character of this ancient city.

Today we had some pretty wild weather. Intermittent heavy rain and wind in the morning followed by a torrential downpour in the afternoon. Above is the view from our lunch time restaurant. We just sat there and enjoyed great Italian food with absolutely no pressure to leave. Rumor has it that this was caused by the remnant of Hurricane Joaquin, the storm off the US coast that indirectly provided much of the moisture for the floods in South Carolina.

Yesterday's word: Camera or room. Stanza also means room, but we picked the word off of this sign on our hotel room door back in Vieste.

Today's words: chiese rupestri

Hint: They are something religious

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