11 May - Naples, Capri and Pompeii

Naples..... old Napoli  the home of Pizza- Pompeii buried by Vesuvius - Sorrento and Capri - our destinations for today. How exciting.
 We were getting to know the routine now. A lovely breakfast of eggs, roast tomatoes, beans and toast at the buffet as we watched the ship pull into port.  A wander down to our room for a pitstop and to get a bottle of water.  Off to the theater to get assigned to our tour.  We again picked the most popular tour.

Number 4 today.  A slightly rainy day and a gentleman tour guide with a lovely Italian voice. We drove through Naples to a cameo store and watched a cameo maker make a beautiful cameo from a shell. Cameos are made from shells. finely crafted layers of shell filed away with a drumel. Very pretty. I, of course had to go to the washroom and so by the time I got back I did not have a lot of time to shop. Margie got a nice necklace earring set and I got a nice little brown cameo pendant. Then we rushed back to the bus.

The tour guide told us all about Naples as we were driving throuh it on our way to Pompeii. Through the misty rain we saw Mount Vesuvius in the distance. It was missing the top of the mountain and the guide told us that it had come off during the eruption that buried Pompeii in 40 feet of ash.

When we arrived at Pompei Margie bought an umbrella as our misty rain had turned into something a little more substantial.
we climbed a small hill and entered the ruins of Pompeii. They have placed large pieces of art throughout the ruins kind of like in Versailles but outdoors.  Interesting.

Our tour guide gave us lots of details including some that are not in wikipedia,  like the fact that the ruts on either side of the laneways were caused by the wheels of chariots being driven up the lanes.  Wikipedia and our tour guide does say "Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the commune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaeum and many villas in the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the  eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC by the Osci or Oscans. It came under the domination of Rome in the 4th century BC, and was conquered and became a Roman colony in 80 BC after it joined an unsuccessful rebellion against the Roman Republic. By the time of its destruction, 160 years later, its population was estimated at 11,000 people, and the city had a complex water system, an Amphitheatre, (We learned that the greeks had theatres  and the romans put them together to creat amphitheaters.) a gymnasium, and a port.

The eruption destroyed the city, killing its inhabitants and burying it under tons of ash. Evidence for the destruction originally came from a surviving letter by Pliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from a distance and described the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, who tried to rescue citizens. The site was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748.

One has to really watch where one is walking as the lanes are all cobbled and very uneven. There are stones in the middle of the lanes raised up and we found out that those are for people to walk across the lane but they are low enough for the chariots to go over them.

Also there were grooves in the stones in front of some of the "shops" along the lanes. These were for the sliding doors..... they had sliding doors way back then. Amazing!

The objects that lay beneath the city have been preserved for centuries because of the lack of air and moisture. These artifacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana . Things like the  penis 's carved into the roads to point the way to the whorehouse and the frescoes in the whore house showing what positions were available for the visiting clients. this was our first house of ill repute and probably our last. 

During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died. 

There were three of these casts on display, one of a dog, one of a man and one of a child. Very sad.

Pompeii has been a tourist destination for over 250 years. Today it has UNESCO World Heritage Site status and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors every year.

After Pompeii we drove to Sorrentto through the beautiful Itlian countryside and a few tunnels thrown in for good measure. There are five towns that are along the coast that we passed through to get to Sorrento. We passed many small lemon  and olive groves, flower and vegetable gardens  and of course cars and bikes on the road.Sorrento is on a cliff and is lovely.

Wikipedia says " Sorrento is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, it can be reached easily from Naples and Pompeii as it is at the south-eastern end of the Circumvesuviana rail line. The Sorrentine Peninsula  has views of Naples, Vesuvius and the Isle of Capri. The Amalfi Drive, connecting Sorrento and Amalfi, is a narrow road that threads along the high cliffs above the Tyrrhenian Sea.  The roads are narrow and they arena cliffs big above the sea.

Sorrento is a lovely town and the sun had come out and so  it was bright, fresh and clean. We stopped in Sorrento at a wood carving place where Margie and I spent a little bit too much time buying souvenirs but the tour group waited for us patiently and then we walked through town to a lovely little restaurant decorated with burrows. ceramic ones and very colourful pottery. I had pasta for lunch which was very good.  a lovely lunch which was included in the price of our excursion.

After lunch we walked through town a little bit more to some stairs going down to a road that lead to the bay. there were a lot of stairs and I sprinkled Mom and Dad in some bushes about two thirds of the way down. 
Ferries and hydrofoils connect the town to Naples, Amalfi, Positano, Capri and Ischia. Sorrento's sea cliffs are lined with luxury hotels looking out over the bay.

We waited for about 20 minutes at the pier in a lovely little park with Sorrento high up on the cliffs behind us. Then onto the hydrofoil, my first,  a lovely  30 min trip and we were in  Capri,  Goat Island to the Romans. The water under the boats was the most amazing blue. Who needs the blue grotto.

Capri has a Funicular railway that goes from the marina up to the town of Capri. our tour guide gave us our tickets , you need two one to go up and one to go down, and we were loaded onto the Funicular. a train an tracks where the seats are all horizontal and the car is angled to fit the rails. so we all stood on one side of the car which unladed its downward bound passengers on the opposite side . then after their doors closed our doors opened and we got in you ride backwards or stand  and it is actually quit a nice ride up.

At the top of the funicular is more stairs to the town square where our tour guide told us to meet back there in 90 minutes and do not be late as we had to catch a boat back to naples and our cruise ship.the sun had come out and it was hot. the square had a great view of the bay and we stopped there to take some photos.

We decided not to hike up to the point and just to wander a bit. We wandered around the maze of little streets looking at shops and restaurants. Very expensive shops.  Then we decided it was time to look for a washroom.
We found a little park with statues of cats and more little streets, lanes really, there are no cars in Capri only little carts. We thought we saw a sign for a washroom and followed the lane but were confused by the ending of it.

We found a lot of little lanes and some of them had little shrines. We found shops that had skirts and little dresses for 1000 dollars, bathing suits for 200 euros. yes you had to have money to shop here.

We thought we were probably lost  but eventually we found a laneway with shops and a restaurant called the Aurora.  It was a sign. My granddaughters name is Aurora so we stopped to have a drink and use the facilities.

We ordered a Limoncello each and relaxed. they also brought us little appetizers which were very tasty. Margie did not like her limoncello but I did. so I drank hers too.
Limoncello is a digestive made from lemon rinds, alcohol, water and sugar which is produced in Sorrento. 

When it was time to go I realized that my little bag of souvenirs from the wood carving shop was not there. My first inside reaction was SHIT*#<^#* but then I thought 'I am not going to ruin this lovely day on the isle of Capri. I would just look for my souvenirs and see what we would see. I had it on the funicular so that is where we would go'. of course the fact that I had the limoncello helped too and I laughed at the predictability of losing the souvenirs even after our tour guide had told us repeatedly not to leave anything behind.
We wound our way back to the funicular and asked the ticket man if someone had turned in the bag. He said to check down below. so I found our tour guide and told him that I was going down to the lost and found and would meet him down by the bay.

We took the funicular down and asked at the bottom if someone had turned in a bag of souvenirs. he said to go to the lost and found just outside the entry. we went just outside the entry there was no sign for the lost and found. there was a restaurant , there were a few shops which i went into. finally I stopped a police man and asked if he could tell me where the lost and found was. he pointed to a tent across the way and low and behold it was. I asked there and they asked me what time it was and what colour the bag was. did they have that many bags turned in? I could not remember the colour of the bag it was either blue or maroon and it had my name in it as the tax paper work was inside. he called somewhere and then said NO it was not turned in. Out loud I said thank you, inwardly I said **!!#^><* dam. I was sad but now I had to get back to meet everyone  to get onto the next boat.
I picked up a few postcards at a little kiosk and then we got onto the boat with the beautiful blue water underneath it and a after a 45 minute ride we were back on the pier in Naples.  A short walk to a bus which took us to our ship.
So it was a very full day with lots of highs and lows. We had a lovely dinner and watched the show. tomorrow would be a day at sea and our spa treatments. things to look forward to.

May 10 - Rome - the Vatican Museums and Saint Peters

Good morning Italy! The port in Citavecheccia is very large and we enjoyed watching  as we docked.  They have trucks here to pull the big ropes to anchor the ship to the dock which makes much more sense that the hand pulling we saw in Toulon. They must have a better union here.  After a lovely breakfast we headed off to the exit and had to wait in a very long line for what seemed like a very  long time.
We had pre-booked our own skip-the-line to the Vatican and all we had to do was get there. We thought maybe the fast train in to Rome from Cittavecchia, but the line was so long and it took forever to get off the ship. We decided maybe a taxi would be the way to go. When we finally got off the ship and went to the taxi area the cab driver said we had to wait for more people in the cab. What? Then we asked him how long we would have to wait before he went to Rome as we had tickets for the vatican and he said he would give us a tour of Rome. We said "no we just wanted a ride to the vatican". He was busy waiting for more people and we were not happy with his solution of dropping us off during his tour of Rome.
The two shuttles that take people off the pier were gone and there was a line up waiting for the next one. We were starting to get that desperate feeling one gets when you are stuck in traffic and going to miss your train. We decided to approach the gentlemen holding name cards as they had private tours booked and maybe they had room for two just into Rome. They were leaving before the cabs were filling up so what would it hurt to ask.

Yes , one gentleman said he would take us after he checked with his group as they were four and he had room for two more.  He also asked if we would mind not telling the taxi driver as he was not actually allowed to do that. Oh my god, this is getting complicated. We just wanted to get to rome. The ladies on the tour said absolutely join them and so we walked down to the van and all piled in. As we were leaving our driver asked us to say, if we were asked,  that we had joined our friends and that was all. Well the taxi driver saw us and started yelling at our driver and then went to report him to someone. Our driver thought we might get stopped as we tried to leave the port but we were not and so he relaxed and proceeded to tell us all about how the mafia runs everything in Italy.

So for 80 Euros, 40 euros each we got a lovely scenic ride to Rome in 45 minutes. Our driver said that if we wanted we could catch a ride back with him  and told us where to meet hime at what time but we said no thank you as we had plans to take the train back.

We thanked him for getting us to the Vatican in time for our skip the line ticket time of 11 am jumped out of the vehicle and waved them on ;to a wonderful tour of Rome.

We asked a young gentleman in a uniform which line we should be in and he told us to go to the front of the line and show our pass to another gentleman there. We did that and just like that, we were inside. Just like that, no waiting, no fuss and it was starting to get hot out too so we were glad to get out of the sun.
A quick security check and scan  and then a bit of a wider to find out where to hand in our  computer printed tickets to get our passes. a few false starts but success at last and after a few minutes wait in a short line we were going up the escalator to go through security again ( they have a few to go through which didn't really bother us at all as we do not mind being safe and knowing it).
They gave us a map of the Museum and our audio guides and we decided to start in the Etruscan Rooms. We thought that there would be more escalators after the first long one but there were only stairs... lots of stairs to get there.

Wikipedia says "The Vatican Museums are the museums of the  Vatican City and are located within the city's boundaries. They display works from the immense collection built up by the Popes throughout the centuries including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and most important masterpieces of  Renaissance art in the world. Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century. The Sistine Chapel with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo and the Stanze di Raffaello decorated by Raphael are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. In 2013, they were visited by 6 million people, which combined makes it the 6th most visited art museum in the world.  (I believe that as there were a lot of people there when we were)

There are 54 galleries, or sale, in total, with the Sistine Chapel notably, being the very last sala within the Museum. It is one of the largest museums in the world. (Again, so true ,very much toes and lots of walking)

Museo Gregoriano Etrusco

Founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836, this museum has eight galleries and houses important Etruscan pieces, coming from archeological excavations. the pieces include: vases, sarcophagus, bronzes and the Guglielmi Collection. 
(Love those Etruscans)

Museo Pio-Clementine

The museum takes its name from two popes, Clement XIV and Pius VI, the pope who brought the museum to completion. Clement XIV came up with the idea of creating a new museum in Innocent VIII's Belvedere palace and started the refurbishment work.

Pope Clement XIV founded the Pio-Clementino museum in 1771, and originally it contained the Renaissance and antique works. The museum and collection were enlarged by Clement's successor Pius VI. Today, the museum houses works of Greek and Roman sculpture. Some notable galleries are:

• Greek Cross Gallery: (Sala a Croce Greca): with the  porphyri sacarphagi of Constance and Saint Helen, daughter and mother of Constantine the Great. 

• Sala Rotonda: shaped like a miniature Pantheon, the room has impressive ancient mosaics on the floors, and ancient statues lining the perimeter, including a gilded bronze statue of  Hercules. 
• (This gallery was roped off but we could see the inside and it was lovely)

• Gallery of the Statues (Galleria delle Statue): as its name implies, holds various important statues, including Sleeping Ariadne and the bust of Menander. It also contains the Barberini Candelabra.

• Gallery of the Busts (Galleria dei Busti): Many ancient busts are displayed.
• Cabinet of the Masks (Gabinetto delle Maschere): The name comes from the mosaic on the floor of the gallery, found in Villa Adriana,  which shows ancient theater masks. Along the walls, several famous statues are shown including the Three Graces. One wove the thread of life,second nurtured it, third cut it. They were created by Zeus (ROMAN form: Jupiter)

• Sala delle Muse: Houses the statue group of Apollo and the nine muses, uncovered in a Roman villa near  Tivoli  in 1774, as well as and statues by important ancient Greek or Roman sculptors. the center piece is Belvedere Torso, revered by Michelangelo and other Renaissance men.
• Sala degli Animali: So named because of the many ancient statues of animals.

Museo Charamonti  

This museum is named after Pope Pius VII whose last name was Chiaramonti before his election as pope), who founded it in the early 19th century. The museum consists of a large arched gallery in which sides are exhibited several statues, sarcophaguses and friezes. The New Wing, Braccio Nuovo built by Raffaele Stern, houses important statues like The Prima Porta  Agustus, Doryphorus, and The River Nile. Galeria Lapidaria is another part of Chiaramonti museum, with more than 3,000 stone tablets and inscriptions, which is the world's greatest collection of its kind. However, it is opened only by special permission, usually for reasons of study.

Museo Gregoriano Egiziano  This museum houses a grand collection of Ancient Egyptian material. Such material includes papyruses, the Grassi Collection, animal mummies, and reproductions of the famous Book of the Dead. The Museo Gregoriano Egiziano was inaugurated 2 February 1839 to commemorate the anniversary of Gregory XVI's accession to the papacy. The creation of the Museo Gregoriano Egiziano was particularly close to the pope's heart as he Believed the Understanding of the ancient Egyptian civilization was vital in terms of its scientific importance as well as its value in understanding the old testament. This Felling was declared in a paper by the museums first curator, the skilled physiologist barbanite father Luigi Maria Ungarelli.

The Gallery of Maps is a gallery located on the west side of the Belvedere Courtyard in the Vatican containing a series of painted topographical maps of Italy based on drawings by friar and geographer Ignazio Danti. When We first came into this room we thought we were in the sistine chapel. the ceiling was absolutely gorgeous. Of course we soon realized our mistake and hoped that the Sistine chapel would be as pretty.

The gallery was commissioned in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII as part of other artistic works commissioned by the Pope to decorate the Vatican.  It took Danti three years (1580–1583) to complete the 40 panels of the 120 m long gallery.

The four Raphael Rooms form a suite of reception rooms in the palace, the public part of the papal apartments in the Palace of the Vatican. They are famous for their frescoes,  painted by  Raphael and his workshop. Together with  Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, they are the grand fresco sequences that mark the  High Renaissance in Rome. (Again, absolutely wonderful to behold)

The Stanze, as they are commonly called, were originally intended as a suite of apartments for Pope Julius II. He commissioned Raphael, then a relatively young artist from Urbino, and his studio in 1508 or 1509 to redecorate the existing interiors of the rooms entirely. It was possibly Julius' intent to outshine the apartments of his predecessor (and rival) Pope Alexander VI, as the Stanze are directly above Alexander's Borgia Apartment. They are on the third floor, overlooking the south side of the Belvedere Courtyard. these rooms were spectacular. Raphael was very young when he painted them but he was amazingly talented.) 

We continued on through the museum and finally came to the Sistine chapel. No photos, no stopping, no sitting in the chairs in the centre where there were already people sitting,  and no talking. Lots of guards and very crowded with lots of people.  The very high ceiling is lovely with vibrant colours and beautiful scenes including the famous god touching mans finger but as we could not really stop to take it in,  it was kind of disappointing maybe  a little let down. The hall of maps ceiling was just as impressive to us but maybe that was because we got a chance to really look at it.

We were then finished with the museums of the vatican and walked outside into Saint Peters Square.  Now some of my friends have been here and they have told me that Saint peters square is huge, enormous, can hold thousands of people. I thought yes it is huge , yes it is enormous and can hold thousands of people.  Oh My God  it is huge and can hold thousands of people. Then when you get out in front of Saint Peters church, it is huge too.  So impressive. How long did it take to build this structure?

We walked into the church and were awestruck.we started to take photos but it was impossible to convey the size and decor . it wold take a thousand photos. so we just walked and looked and were awed with the splendour of it all. 

Wikipedia says " The Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, or simply St. Peter's Basilica is a Italian Renaissance church in Vatican City, the papal enclave within the city of  Rome.

Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is the most renowned work of Renaissance Architecture and one of the  largest churches in the world. While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian World " and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom".

Catholic tradition holds that the Basilica is the burial site of St Peter, one of Christ's Apostles and also the first Pope; supposedly, St. Peter's tomb is directly below the high altar of the Basilica. For this reason, many Popes have been interred at St. Peter's since the Early Christian period. There has been a church on this site since the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica, replacing the Old St. Peter's Basilica of the 4th century AD, began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.

St. Peter's is famous as a place of pilgrimage and for its liturgical functions. The Pope presides at a number of liturgies throughout the year, drawing audiences of 15,000 to over 80,000 people, either within the Basilica or the adjoining St Peter's Square. St. Peter's has many historical associations, with the Early Christian Church, the Papacy , the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-reformation and numerous artists, especially  Michelangelo. As a work of architecture, it is regarded as the greatest building of its age. St. Peter's is one of the four churches in the world that hold the rank of Major Basilica, all four of which are in Rome. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not a cathedral because it is not the seat of a bishop; the Cathedral of the Pope as Bishop of Rome is in the Arch-basilica of St John Lateran. 

I always thought that St Peters was the one but i guess not.  

After we wandered around the basilica we came out and crossed the square which took quite some time. It was hot out and we thought maybe we would take a carriage to the train station but they wanted 100 euros and so we took a cab for 15.

I Love Rome. all the history . you just trip over it everywhere and the people are very nice too.

The young and good looking iItalian cab driver gave us a kind of running tour of what we were seeing  on our way which it was not that far and he told us of a good restaurant for lunch before we caught the train.

the Leonnetti was excellent. It was frequented by romans and so we figured that it must be good. I had the gnocchi which was so tender and scrumptious.  the Italian's having lunch lingered but we could not as we had a train to catch and even though it was only three blocks to the train station we finished our lunch in north american time. 

The ride back was only a few euros and the ride was pleasant. pretty countryside and seacoast to Cittavechia. We then caught the bus to the pier and in no time we were back on the boat. tired and happy to have a nice dinner and a glass of wine.

We said good bye to Rome for now as at the end of our cruise we were going to be going back for a few days. we enjoyed watching the old fortress  in the harbour as we left that evening on our way to Naples.