Well, we have run out of Frequent Flyer points, so on this trip it is back in steerage, row 44, for one of the longest flights in the world: Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, then on to Berlin. OK, I know there are longer flights, but not many.Elly decided to ask, at check in, whether we could pay for an upgrade. “Yes,” said the nice lady, as she was telling Elly her carry on bag was overweight. For $2500 each we could be upgraded to business for the first sector. No thanks. Funny thing about the carry on baggage – limit 7kg, was that Elly had a bag full of camera gear, well over 7 kg, plus a fairly large handbag. However, if she opened the bag and took the camera out and carried it separately, that was OK. As soon as the nice lady said it was OK, Elly opened the bag and put the camera back in it! This trip is to be fairly short, by our standards; spend a few days in Berlin with Michael and Nora, and, as it happens, also being joined by Albert Hiler, who is in Europe catching up with son Simon. After Berlin, Elly and I along with Michael and Nora will fly to Sicily for around eight days, before Elly and I head home via 3 nights in Rome. The Etihad flight was survivable, particularly for Elly, because she managed to snare 4 seats in a row, and slept most of the way. We had a scheduled 2 hr 30 min turnaround in Abu Dhabi, but when we arrived we found our Berlin flight was delayed a further 2 hr 30 min. Unfortunately my chest cough of 2 months, which had finally looked like clearing up, started to deteriorate, and by the time we were on our flight to Berlin, I was shivering uncontrollably, and obviously had a fever.. I spent most of the flight in delirium, and in this state, the 6 hour flight seemed like 16. Although this blog is supposed to be about Berlin and Sicily, the Berlin bit will have to remain largely blank, as I spent the next several days inside the apartment, out of the cold and damp, nursing my chest cough, whilst Elly, Michael and Albert did all the Berlin things. Nora joined us after work, and I did venture out once for dinner, when we also met up with our friend Alice Chilton, who is working temporarily in Berlin, and also I did get to see Michael and Nora’s fabulous apartment. They assembled and installed their entire kitchen, which looks fantastic and really professional. Everything looks fresh and new, with high ceilings and a balcony looking across to a park opposite.
Catania 23 Oct 2015
We eventually left Albert, who was spending a couple more days in Berlin, and flew to Catania, in Sicily. We hired a car, finally, after changing our mind a couple of times about the size necessary to hold all of us and our luggage, and drove straight up the East coast to Taormina, a simply gorgeous ancient medieval town, which has 3 original Roman arch gates still standing, but which has developed into a very upmarket town with both old and new buildings, shops etc. but which still retains a wonderful character.
There are gelati bars everywhere, so Elly is considering changing her original limitation of one gelato per day, to two! Fortunately our car has GPS, which enabled us to find our B&B, which was down a narrow dead end road, and required climbing 4 flights of stairs to reach. Our host was a disarmingly extrovert, Martina, who proudly showed us around her beautiful premises, with separate rooms and ensuites for each of us, a large communal dining, and lounge area, and outside large balcony overlooking the ocean. Simply magnificent!
From the balcony we could see down to the sea, far below, and right across to Calabria, on the Italian mainland – the toe of the Italian boot. We, in Taormina, we’re just below the spot where the boot would connect with Sicily! The coast is reminiscent of Amalfi.
I never cease to be amazed at Michael’s command of German, and, even more so as Martina, who was speaking to us in English, found out that Michael lived in Berlin. She immediately started to talk to him in German ( she is Austrian ), and, even though we told her that Nora is a native Berliner, she seemed to want to use Michael as her information vehicle. She was much more comfortable speaking German, she said, as her English wasn’t so good – not true, of course. I was even more amazed when Michael said later that she had a very strong Austrian accent! He can even work that out! Martina mentioned that her daughters ran a seafood restaurant in town, so we booked for the night. The restaurant was really good, but the thing that impressed us was that both the daughters, who are character filled images of their mother, took the time to explain every dish on the menu in great detail, from personal knowledge, not rote learned, to us as if we were the only guests in the restaurant. We wandered back through the beautiful streets to our B&B on the hill, where I called it a night whilst the others stayed up for a nightcap.
Taormina 24 Oct
Next morning we woke to a magnificent day, looking from our room to a spectacular view of the ocean. Martina had prepared a very indulgent breakfast, and set it up out on the balcony, so we enjoyed the view along the coast and down over the sea, whilst over eating.
Michael wanted to see if there was a dive operator in the area, which, of course there was, so we drove down the narrow, winding road to the water, and he and Nora and Elly went out on the boat; Michael to dive and the others to either snorkel or just watch. There was no shade on the boat, which was just a large zodiac, so I decided to leave them to it, while I settled into a chair on an outside balcony/cafe overlooking the beautiful little bay enclosed by magnificently green, tree covered cliffs, running down to the rocks and the small beach area.
Having initially decided to drive to Mt Etna that morning, we demonstrated our flexibility by driving to Mt Etna in the afternoon! Michael and Nora have been navigating brilliantly – I am glad it hasn’t been my job – through all the narrow winding roads and sneaky turn offs, all, for me, on the wrong side of the road. This time, however, it didn’t work quite so well, as we had intended to approach Etna from the south, and then take a cable car further up. Michael had been following directions given by Martina, and all looked pretty good, except that we found ourselves on the wrong side of the mountain, and, according to the GPS, with not enough time to get to the cable car before it closed. We decided to make the best of what we had, at a place called Piano Provenzano, 1800m up on the northern side of the mountain, which still gave us a beautiful, cloudless view of the volcano, emitting its own small white cloud above a patch of ice fight at the top.
Mt Etna is 3300m high, and has a history of eruptions, the most devastating one on record being in 1669, lasting for 122 days. More recent lava flows have occurred in 2002 and 2013.
From Piano Provenzano there is a walking track, actually a road, which takes around 5 or 6 hours to the top. We obtained this info from the little tourist information hut at the site. We decided to walk the track for a while for some exercise and to get different perspectives on the peak, as well as for Elly to get some photos. We walked through surroundings which were partially forest, but mostly black lava rock, and it was easy to see the path the lava had taken as it flowed down the mountain, even, in one place, you could see where a house had been crushed, leaving just a small section of roof.
This reminded me of walking across lava plains in Iceland when we were there a few years ago, although this was anything but flat plains.
After we had been walking for quite a while, a 4wd bus came down the road past us, obviously a tourist bus, followed soon after by another one. We thought, hang on, why didn’t they tell us about that? We flagged the bus down, intent on asking the driver if any more were coming up the road, and could we catch it on the way. He had no idea what we were talking about!
We could see the buses arriving down at the bottom, but no more came up – it was nearly 5:00 pm at that stage, so no surprise. Back to B&B Martina for happy hour on the balcony. 25 Oct Another beautiful day starting with another Martina breakfast on the balcony, even a bit warm in the sun. The plan today was to drive from Taormina, down the east coast, through Catania, and on to Syracuse. This was done excellently by chauffeur Michael, ably assisted by Vasco da Nora, who continued to display exceptional navigation skills. Generally, if Michael and Nora disagreed on a matter of navigation, even when walking, Nora would be right. Elly and I were like the old Dudes in the back, just letting it all happen. A pleasant drive, the early part of which had a looming Mt Etna for company. Syracuse was settled by the Greeks in 734 BC, and rose to match Athens in power and prestige, attracting such luminaries as Plato and Archimedes. As the Greek influence eventually diminished, the Romans moved in and looted many of its treasures. We first visited a large archaeological site, which incorporated a Roman amphitheater, which, of course, was closed for renovations. We found ourselves a guide, who had a gentle weather beaten look, and a deep, Leonard Cohen voice.
Greek TheatreHe took us to a place called Dionysius Ear, which was part of an area they call Paradise, but which, in fact was the bottom of an Ancient Greek quarry, which had been carved out of solid rock, but remained enclosed, because, as they dug, they left a roof, supported by nine massive supporting columns, of which only one remains. The roof, of course is also gone.
Remaining support columnThis Paradise is now a green, quiet lovely area, and incorporates an original Greek theatre, where many performances were put on for “premier productions” at the time. This theatre area is quite large, and can still seat hundreds of people. The only reason it remains, and was not subject to the large scale stone removal by the Spaniards in the 15th Century, is that it is monolithic, meaning that all the curved rows of seats were carved out of one piece of rock. Getting back to Dionysius and his ear; this is a very tall, curved rock cave, which goes all the way up to the roofline of the original quarry, about, I would guess, eighty metres high, and, in which sounds echo dramatically. It was apparently used to house the slaves who were digging in the quarry. I was about to mention to our guide that he had a beautiful voice, and was he a singer, when he suddenly bellowed forth an abbreviated operatic version of Santa Lucia, which was appropriate, since she is one of the big deal saints in the area. His voice boomed and reverberated through the cave.All the tourists stopped in their tracks and gaped, then gave him a standing ovation. He was well worth his money. Just across the bridge from the main city of Syracuse, lies its ancient island neighbour, Ortygia. Immediately past the bridge are the ruins of the Temple of Apollo which are really only remnants. From there we walked to Piazza Archimede, which is a beautiful, wide, open square featuring an elaborate fountain dedicated to a mythical water nymph. Archimedes is the local boy made good; he was from here, and his name is everywhere.
The streets are narrow, but lined with beautiful, well preserved buildings, with a character which eluded me for a while, until Michael mentioned a similarity to Venice. That was it.
Further wanderings through the narrow streets brought us to the cathedral, which was on another main square, with outdoor trattoria under umbrellas, squeezing the last drops from the tourist season.
We had heard about an ancient Jewish Mikva, a ritual bath, which was under an hotel, so navigator Michael somehow caused us to materialise at the front door. They conduct tours to the baths every hour, so we took the next one. The Mikva is 18 metres below the surface, built that depth to ensure availability of water, in the 2nd century, but was covered around the time of the Spanish Inquisition. It was only discovered about 25 years ago during the foundation works for the hotel. The water levels have changed, and they now use pumps to keep the water level from getting to high. The baths are in a group of three, and are simple steps leading down into the water, which is around 16 deg. The local Jewish community is only about 40 people, but they still use the baths. Ortygia is a really appealing place, lots of character, beautiful buildings, on the water, and full of history.
On our return to Taormina, we did a diversion to a neighbouring Castelmola, which is a gorgeous hilltop village incorporating a ruined castle. We parked the car just on dusk and wandered through the tiny streets, and looked across at the slowly disappearing Mt Etna in the sunset, and down to Taormina below.
The exercise involved in getting up to Castelmola was challenging, and I was so glad we had Michael at the wheel. Our car has parking sensors front and rear. The rear ones are only active in reverse, but the forward sensors are active all the time. Normally one would only expect to hear from these guys when you are parking. But not in Sicily, or more particularly in Castelmola and Taormina. Our excursions are punctuated by beepings ( high pitch for front, and low pitch for rear), even while we are driving. The roads are so narrow you can have a couple going off at the same time, either from a close wall or stone fence, or by another car going past, or even a pedestrian passing in front of you, or by a combination of many! How Michael has managed to avoid scraping something, as well as navigating, one wonders, but he has done it brilliantly. I am hiding in the back seat and not offering to drive. 26 Oct A loud and enthusiastic farewell from Martina produced lots of double kissing moi moi’s and resolves to return and stay again – all good fun. We had a long drive scheduled across to Agrigento, on our way towards the west coast. Our first stop this morning was the fish market at Catania. Michael braved the lunatic driving environment, and finally found a tiny parking spot. We had been specifically warned by the car rental company to NEVER leave anything at all in a car, along with comforting advice such as, if someone hits you in the rear, the first thing you must do when you stop is remove your car keys. Nice! This morning, I volunteered to do what I always do at fish markets – anything else! Thus it was that I spent an hour or so guarding the car from inside, with keys securely hidden and doors locked, whilst bringing the blog up to date.
We were working to a tight schedule, because Michael had a vision of what should occur in Agrigento on our arrival, which should be around sunset. Our drive took us through a countryside of rolling green hills, with occasional glimpses of a distant Mt Etna. Elly wanted to do a diversion to the ancient Villa Romana del Casale, which is a beautifully preserved fourth century Roman Villa.
It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was a sumptuous hunting lodge, thought to belong to co-emperor Marcus Aurelius Maximianus. It had been buried under a flood in the 12 th century, and remained hidden for 700 years, when it was discovered in the 1950s. You roam past the usual bath house area, with small information plaques which describe that section, then, in to an enclosed section which covers an enormous area, and which leads you, along a continuous walkway through the villa, looking down on what must be among the most extensive, well preserved mosaic floors anywhere in the world.
Not Roman Playboy. Actually female athletes.Once again, all the information is presented on plaques as you progress. This was quite an amazing place, and worth a visit. Onwards toward Agrigento, frustrated by endless roadworks, with the sun heading lower in the sky and threatening to win the sunset race. Finally we arrived at what Michael had termed the “indulgent overnight”, the Hotel Villa Athena. Elly and I scored one of the best rooms, and Michael and Nora were upgraded to nearly as good. Outside our room, on the terrace area, we looked straight at the Temple of Concordia, which looked In remarkably good condition, and which was beginning to glow, being floodlit, as the sun went down. It was a stunning view, right in front of our room, and warranted a special happy hour. We obliged.
Following happy hour we moved to the outdoor hotel restaurant, for dinner, wine, and more views of Concordia! 27Oct Villa Athena had its own entrance into the Valley of the Temples in which Concordia stood, so we avoided having to trudge to the main entrance. Concordia was built in 430 BC, and is remarkably well preserved, due both to the fact that it was later converted into a Christian basilica in the 6th century, and also to the flexible, earthquake resistant soil under its foundations. The path along the valley had the remains of numerous temples in various states of decay, Concordia being the standout, but, a close second was the Temple of Hera at the eastern end of the valley, in fact on a rise known as the Hill of Temples. Connecting all these temples, at various places, was a line of ancient fortification, some areas of which had arch type cavities cut into the rock wall, to be used as tombs by the Christians.
800 year old olive treeAdjacent to the Temple of Hera, was evidence of a road, indicated by a section with deep wheel ruts worn into the rock, moved laterally away from its original position by earthquake activity. This temple has had its north side columns re-erected in the 1800s, and a sacrificial altar can be seen at the eastern end.
All the temples were constructed by the Greeks, and later used by the Romans, then the Christians, or whoever was boss at the time.
Girentana goats in the Valley of the Temples – first introduced by the Greeks.In the afternoon, we set out to drive to the town of Erice, in the northwest of Sicily, a pleasant enough drive through areas of rolling hills, with occasional views of the ocean. We called in to a winery in the hope of a tasting session, but to no avail, as we needed to have booked in advance. We were not sure why, as all the staff were there and nothing else was happening, – maybe it was just too hard, if they had an excuse not to do it. Michael and Nora did, however, buy some wine for our upcoming happy hour.
Continuing our drive to Erice, it became apparent that it was up on quite high ground, as we climbed higher on increasingly winding and narrowing roads. Michael mentioned that someone he knew had indicated that the road to the hotel could be a challenge, and that some people left their car and had the hotel staff drive it to the hotel for them. This was an interesting piece of information. Our GPS guided us unerringly towards our hotel, the hotel Elimo, along cobbled roads, becoming narrower and narrower. Then we started to descend, very cautiously, faithfully following the GPS, and taking note of the increasing number of parking sensor beeps as we turned corners. Michael was making a good effort, rising to this increasing challenge, until, finally, we came to an intersection which required a slight jig to the right, and then to the left, to get around the corner. We couldn’t fit.
It was like a bad movie; in front of us, just through the intersection, was, in fact, a film crew, which had no intention of moving for us, – they were shooting a movie! A small crowd was gradually gathering, waving hand signals at us, which were, of course, entirely unhelpful, as we decided that, in order to achieve anything, we should get out and give directions, in view of the fact that poor Michael was getting no help from the car technology, since all the beepers, front and rear, were activating on continuous tone, meaning we were about to hit everything all at once! We clambered out and assessed the situation, which didn’t look good, we seemed to be trapped. The only possible course of action was to try to reverse the car back the way we had come, – difficult enough when going forward! That is what we did, with me shouting directions to Michael, whilst Elly had her head out her passenger side window, calling sometimes conflicting opinions, as Nora was keeping an overall view and alerting us to the many obstacles we came across, such as sandbags (film crew!), concrete bulges at the base of down pipes, shop wares, and even a dog, on his mat, who showed interest, but no inclination to move. Looking from the rear of the car, where I was, walking backwards, I could see a whole army of people, seemingly the whole town, walking in front of the reversing car, following us back up the hill. It looked as though we were being run out of town!
Finally, we made it back to a place where we could turn the car around and park it whilst we walked to the hotel down the hill. Michael had done a brilliant job, and hadn’t scraped anything. The church bells just next to us started to chime loudly, as if to acknowledge our achievement! At this point we noted that there was an alternative road down to the hotel, which the GPS hadn’t used, but which looked a bit wider, so Elly and Nora walked to the hotel while Michael and I returned to the car to try this new road. Some reading this may be forgiven for thinking this was a stupid idea, based on what we had just been through, however, this time we made it. A hotel staff guy came up the road with Elly to meet us and organise parking.The hotel Elimo was a cosy sort of place, and after some communication issues regarding our rooms, we found an outside terrace to park ourselves for happy hour. Unfortunately, with the combination of exiting daylight savings last week, and our time consuming adventure in the alleyways, it was completely dark for our wine and cheese session. We then wandered around the darkened streets of Erice, where the whole place seemed to be unoccupied, with no lights coming from windows, although we finally did find a beautiful little restaurant which served first class pasta.
Erice 28 Oct 2015
This was a morning for wandering around the formerly deserted Erice, which became anything but deserted as we walked. Doorways opened up, and various shops appeared from nowhere, many of them really high quality, selling local chinaware, local wines and liqueurs. Our semi interested dog from the day before had relinquished his position on his shopfront mat, and was replaced by a much more friendly version. We revisited our nemesis corner, and confirmed it was too narrow.
Our Nemesis cornerErice is built at the top of towering rock faces on several sides, giving spectacular views across the countryside, as well as to the sea, and the nearby port city of Trapani. The entire town is made of stone, churches, shops and dwellings, all connected by intricately patterned paved roadways, the only green being the many plants in large pots on the sides of the streets (good for setting off parking sensors).
At the beginning of our walk, the town was shrouded in mist, which gave it an ethereal atmosphere, but then it cleared to a fine day, and we could enjoy the amazing views from both sides.
Tarantola Agriturismo, Alcamo 29Oct 2015
Leaving Erice was a much easier exercise than arriving had been, and we headed east towards our next destination, which was a farmstay/vineyard, at a place called Tarantola Agriturismo, in Alcamo, south west of Palermo. We arrived to be greeted by two cats, a sheep and a goat, of which only the goat was interested in talking to me, and also two dogs (no, not those two), one of which was full of boundless energy, all boisterous and knock down fun, whilst the other was completely timid, and could barely summon the courage to come for a pat, and when it did, it would be bowled over by the other one, reinforcing its timidity.
We sat outside for happy hour, with a bottle of wine we already had with us, and when the owner, Philippo, came to talk to us, he said that if you come to his house with a bottle of someone else’s wine, in Sicily, this is an insult, as he made a throat slitting gesture! We assured him we would make up for it by buying his wine very shortly!
Dinner was high quality, and home cooked by their own chefs, and we made reservations for all of us to attend cooking classes the next morning – even me, under duress. The accommodation was adequate, but the setting was lovely, with fields of vines and olive trees, and lots of birds.
Our host, Philippo is an interesting character. He is the winemaker for his property, as well as boss of all the other fresh food cultivation that happens. They make all their food from fresh produce grown on the property. He is also a jazz pianist, although unfortunately he doesn’t keep his piano on site, otherwise Elly would certainly have nagged him into playing for us. He told us he has had an interesting life, and is in the process of writing his life story. ” I have the wine, the farm, the music, and the Mafia” he told us. He already has someone lined up to write the story! Late in the morning we took part in the aforementioned cooking class, during which we made our own very extensive lunch, and it was beautiful, even if we do say so ourselves. It was an authentic Sicilian meal, and I have already forgotten most of what we did!
This was our last day here, as Michael has to catch an early flight to Bern for an orchestral obligation, and Nora will be heading back to Berlin, whilst Elly and I head to Rome for 3 days.
It has been a wonderful opportunity to travel with them both, and share some new places.
Palermo 30 Oct 2015
A thunderstorm at 5:00 am saved us from having to worry about alarms, so we loaded up and left the farm around 6:00. Michael had an 8:00 flight, whilst Elly and I were leaving at 2:30, and Nora at 4:00. Elly had arranged for a friend of Philippo to give us a tour of Palermo while we waited for our flights. This presented a logistics problem: while it relieved me of the possibility of having to drive into Palermo myself, amongst apparently chaotic traffic, there was nowhere to store our baggage. No lockers, and too early for check- in, and Francesco, our driver, had a small car. Someone came up with a great idea – drive the car into the hire car return area, but don’t return it, just leave all the bags in the car and come back in a few hours and do that. It worked a treat, although I’m not sure that you would get away with that in Australia. I did have to do a small amount of driving, because, just a in most places, you have to fill up with petrol, or pay an enormous penalty. Unfortunately when we checked on our arrival at the airport, there were no petrol stations, so, after we dropped Michael off, we set off, with trusty GPS, and with Nora navigating, to find a petrol station, which was 6 km away. With Nora issuing sharp commands to tell me where to turn, we finally did it, and safely found our way back to meet up with Francesco. Francesco lives in Palermo city, but he said it would be hopeless to drive around, as the traffic is insane, which made me feel better, so he found a parking spot near his house, which is apparently something you would sacrifice your first child for, and took us on a walking tour. He is an architect by profession, but says he enjoys guiding more.
We first visited the markets and the fish market (my favourite), and then through the streets of this town which was founded initially by Arabs in the 8th century, before the Normans made it a seat of power. It became Europe’s grandest city by the 12th century, before undergoing another period of change under 500 years of Spanish rule. Today it remains a mix of Middle Eastern, Norman, Renaissance and Baroque architecture.
We visited the La Martorana, the church of Santa Maria, ordered built by the King’s Admiral, and Francseco gave us detailed descriptions and explanations of all the mosaics in the interior.
The main road is a very long road, and it has a major intersection, with frescos, and statues depicting each of the four seasons, on each corner, and on a higher level, the four Spanish kings of Sicily, and the Patronesses of Palermo.
The intersection is octagonal, with the usual four sides, but the other four are spectacularly occupied by the statues, which also give their names to the corresponding quarters of the city. Francesco entertained us with some stories if the Mafia, which is still operating in Sicily, although at a less conspicuous level than In previous times. They have apparently dropped their rates!This is to keep the contributors numbers high, while keeping it ” affordable “, and, instead of killing you if you don’t pay up, they just slash your tyres!
Gelato en route to the Palace
As we were running out of time, and we had walked quite a way from the car, Francesco, obviously much against his better judgement suggested we take a Tuk Tuk to save us a ten minute walk, which we did – a bit of a giggle.
Back to the airport for a huggy goodbye to Nora, then we took our short flight to Rome.
Rome 31 Oct 2015
We are in a lovely little AirBnB place, with a dining area, lounge area, and kitchen on the ground floor, and an upstairs mezzanine bedroom and bathroom. It is right next to the river, and walkable to most places, although my health has gone backwards a bit, so we are taking some taxis and bikeshaws.
This first morning we decided to visit the Colosseum; this is within comfortable walking distance from our apartment, so off we went. I lead us astray a couple of times, but we finally sorted it out. I did learn something interesting about ” walk” and ” don’t walk” signs here. You are not protected at all – buses and cars turn right in front of you as you walk. I think I have worked it out: if you walk when the little man is red, you will die. If you walk when the little man is green, you might die! We toured the Colosseum with a guide, which was worth doing. It is still an amazing place no matter how many times you see it.
We next had an appointment at the Domas Romaine Di Palazzo Valentini, which was a fair walk away, but we made it with five minutes to spare. This was part of a normal Rome office setup, set around a courtyard, but when you enter this particular office you descend some stairs, which takes you down to a beautifully presented old Roman Domus, a house which had been occupied by a very wealthy family. We walked on solid glass panes which allowed us to see down into the ruins. They have done extensive research and construction to give an excellent view of, not only what remains now, but, with selective lighting, and virtual image presentation, what it would have looked like in ancient times. Archaeologists say that the house was brought down by an earthquake, which totally destroyed it, but left the basic shape, mosaics, structures, and artefacts, all of which have been used to recreate the image of the magnificent house which once stood there. This was all in the very heart of Rome. It really is amazing to think that you could probably dig fifty metres away, and you would be likely to find another one.
I was exhausted after being on our feet for about seven hours, and my cough was making its presence felt, so, rather than walk home we took a taxi. We tried to get a table at one of the two restaurants recommended to us, but it seems they are booked out till next for ever! We ate at another one which was ordinary. I have lost my hat! I think I left it in the taxi. Buggar!
Rome 1 Nov 2015
A beautiful sunny day, nice for a walk to the Forum, only about 30 mins, crossing the river then walking alongside Circus Maximus to the Colosseum and the Forum. This was the one day of the year ( first Sunday of November) when entry is free, so, even though it is right at the end of the tourist season, the place was crowded, and our attempts to do a guided tour were to no avail. Even the audio guide devices were all sold out.
We did our own tour, but, of course, it is never as good as having the experts describing the history for you as you walk. It is amazing to look back in time to see what was there, but I also find it hard to understand that structures of such strength and engineering have been so devastated over time. I know that earthquakes have been involved, but looting, both unofficial and official, must have been prime culprits. When you look at a building such as the Pantheon, which we visited later, you can see the building almost as it was constructed, without the ravages of human greed. This building has the largest, unreinforced concrete dome ever constructed, yet it wasn’t destroyed by earthquakes.
After our tour of the Forum, we decided to continue along the tourist trail, and visit the Trevi Fountain. Bearing in mind my current lack of stamina, we negotiated a fare for a ride in a Bikeshaw (my word), I.e. A bicycle powered rickshaw, to take us there. The young guy driving us asked if we wanted a good restaurant near the fountain, (probably his uncle’s place), so we stopped there for a beer and some lunch.
As we exited the restaurant and turned the corner, there was the Trevi Fountain – closed and fenced off! No water in it, and just tourists trying to get photos through the mesh fence.
We turned our attention to the Pantheon, as I mentioned, and had a good experience there, using audio guides to get all the detail of the points of interest in the interior of the building. It was built by Agrippa in 27BC, and destroyed by fire in 80AD, subsequently being rebuilt by Hadrian, although he gives credit to Agrippa, with the inscription over the entrance. In 609AD it was to become a Christian Basilica dedicated to St Mary of the Martyrs. Next on our tourist trail was the Spanish Steps, so we ambled forth in that direction, along with thousands of others. Finally they appeared in front of us, in the distance, curiously empty. Oh dear! The Spanish Steps were also closed!
At least the chestnut sellers are still there
Demonstration in the centre but we couldn’t find out the cause. The waiter said ” just another small protest”Home to our apartment for a light dinner of stuff Elly had bought at the local supermarket, and a bottle of wine bought from a local restaurant.
Rome 2 Nov 2015
Today Elly had booked a three hour walking tour of the History of the Jews in Rome, scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm, so, in view of my less than 100% condition, we decided to take it easy in the morning. This meant we would only walk for four hours, and climb only two mountains – just kidding – only one mountain. We began by wandering through our local area, Trastevere, a really character filled place with narrow roads and alleyways, and restaurants around every corner. This took us in our travels to the Basilica Santa Maria in Travestere, which purports to be the oldest basilica in Rome. We snuck a look inside, and found it quite impressive, even with the pre recorded singing emanating from the pulpit area.
We were looking for, and subsequently found, the Via Gariboldi, which steadily climbs up to high ground from where you can get a nice elevated view of the city. Elly, being concerned with my health (really!), decided to flag down a taxi to take us up to the top, and then down again to the synagogue, where we were to start the tour. In reality, I think it was only to ensure that I would last the distance on the three hour tour, rather than a genuine concern for my health. Only kidding Elly ……..
The view from the top of Gariboldi wasn’t all that great, so we hopped back in the taxi and headed down. We were met by our tour guide, Leah, and another couple who would be with us on the tour, which began with a general look around outside, then a visit to the synagogue itself, which is quite an enormous structure, and very ornate. It was built in 1920 with the site given to the Jewish community by the city in exchange for their original community site which was demolished in the earlier days. Leah spent quite some time talking about the history of the synagogue and explaining the various sections in it, along with the history of the Jews in Rome, and Italy in general.
In 1555, the Pope at the time, in his efforts to convince Jews to convert to Christianity, ordered all Jews in Italy into a ghetto area in Rome. The synagogue stands right in the spot where the ghetto was established. The ghetto had walls which faced the river, which was then lined with buildings, unlike now where there are just river banks, just behind the northern bank of the Tiber, where a small island stands in the river.
This is the only remaining building which was inside the ghetto The ghetto covered a very large area, and people could only access it via a few gates. They had to wear yellow to identify themselves, and had to return in the evening. The yellow Star of David wasn’t Hitler’s idea. Yellow was the colour worn by prostitutes, and also conjured images of urine, to humiliate the wearer. The objective, unlike under the Nazi regime, wasn’t to kill Jews, just to convince them to convert. We wandered through the museum, which is attached to the synagogue, and saw lots of artefacts, generally donated by Jewish families, including intricate weavings, using gold thread, many of these were done by the women during the time of the ghetto. Also there were many intricate Mantels (Torah covers) and other precious items donated by families, who chose to donate rather than allow these treasures to fall into the wrong hands. No photos allowed We then wandered around the former ghetto area, which is now a main Jewish thoroughfare, with shops selling Kosher food, alongside Kosher restaurants. In this mix is also a Jewish school, where kids were exiting at the end of the school day. We also passed some memorial plaques, similar to those in Berlin, marking the houses from which Jews were taken away during the 2nd WW. There is a square named for the date when the first German troops arrived, early in the morning in 1943, to begin the process of removing Jews to the concentration camps.
After the tour we strolled across the bridge across the river, and noticed, as we had the day before, swarms (I know it’s not the term used for birds) of birds above the river, sweeping one way, then the next. There must have been tens of thousands of them, almost obscuring the sky. People were actually pulling hoodies over their heads, or opening umbrellas to protect themselves from the possible shit shower.
Back to the recommended restaurant that we had booked two days earlier, good food and a nice chatty American couple sitting next to us.
Vatican 3 Nov 2015
The weather continued to be good to us, with another cloudless sky and temp around 20.Our first job was to find the shop where Elly had purchased a handbag the day before, but left it to have the strap shortened. That we managed, and then a pair of boots looked too good to ignore! This was our last day in Rome, as we were leaving on a night flight. We had decided that we would visit St Peter’s Basilica, and the Vatican, so we hopped in a taxi and found ourselves there. We then encountered a very slick operation. As we exited the taxi, we were approached by a very presentable young guy with good English, who told us about the problems of joining the queues, and the delay involved, whereas, if we signed up with him we could avoid all the delays, and jump the queues. We decided to sign up with him, and were shuffled across to the other fellow travellers who had already been nabbed. We were then given audio receivers, so we could all hear, and the then the main man, the boss of the company, gave us a 10 min talk about what a good decision we had made, and how we now had the advantage, along with some rules and regulations, including being warned not to pay any tour guides enroute as they were all spins, and illegal anyway. Only his company was the real deal! He talked about the Vatican being the smallest country in the world but the wealthiest per capita or per area with the lowest birth rate. Interestingly he spoke about the overall architectural design being that of a head- the dome, the body and at the sides, the embracing arms. I did think it related to the shape he described. The Vatican has around 900 residents with its own post office, bank, police force etc.
We then were introduced to out guide, Frederica, who was very friendly and non spivey. Our next duty was to walk for about 10 mins, to their office, to pay the fees and get our tickets. Finally, we actually started the tour, although we had to hand in our audio receivers before we entered the Vatican museum, because we had to use their official network. This whole process took about 30 mins, but I guess we did avoid the queues. I won’t attempt to write a guide to the Vatican and St Peters Basilica in this epistle as, not only would it be incredibly inaccurate, but would also be boring. What does amaze me is how this vast empire of wealth and influence ever came about, from the writings of an era of limited knowledge compared with today, and a high level of superstition. Stories with holes so big you could drive a truck through them have persisted throughout the ages to produce this organisation which is its own country, and has ambassadorial diplomatic relations with countries all over the world, including Italy! Having said that, we did enjoy the day, and it was quiet amazing to see the work of Michelangelo, and also, the original sculptures that he, himself, admired and used as models for his own work. The history of these artefacts is staggering to imagine. An early dinner, and then home to pack, as our Host, Daniele, was taking us out to the airport for the flight to Abu Dhabi.
The globe in the courtyard is one third the size of the dome
Maps drawn by hand and incredibly navigationally accurate
Abu Dhabi 4 Nov
Six hour flight in steerage was tolerated. We had booked a luxury stop over in Abu Dhabi, at the Shangri La, which we assumed would have a shuttle bus from the airport. Wrong. With much grizzling, and help from one nice gentleman at the airport, we realised that it was to be a taxi for us to the hotel. We had no local money, so we made the hotel pay for the taxi, and put it on our bill.
A few hours sleep was welcome, drinks by the pool, looking across the water at a rather splendid mosque and ccompanied by some boys with toys roaring around on jet skis, and dinner to follow, was all we could do to prepare for the 14 hour economy flight home! Thanks for being with us on this journey.
Alan & Elly