Pompei

Tim:  We planned for a three night stay near Naples and Pompei. Our hotel was located in the seaside town of Pozzuoli about 10 km north of Naples and about a 45 minute drive from Pompei. We arrived later in the afternoon on our first day and we visited the beach in Pozzuoli. We had a nice time, but the beach was not impressive and quite dirty. We went for a quick swim in the water. The beach was very shallow even though we were several hundred feet offshore it was still not over our heads. The water was cold, but not unpleasant.
     We found pizza for lunch. We chose Napoli style pizza that comes with sardines. None of us were impressed. I am very adventuresome when it comes to food and like all kinds of food, but I cannot understand why people like sardines or anchovies.

Amber:  I have always wanted to go to Pompei, and after discovering that pizza originated in Naples, both places were on the top of my to-go-wish-list for this trip.  Heather and Tim were also excited to go check out the ruins, and nobody can turn down good pizza.  Maybe even the worlds greatest!?  While in Pozzuoli, we found the third largest ancient arena in Italy, and were able to explore to our hearts content its underground passage ways.  It was far less grand then the Colosseum, seating for 25,000 vs around 50,000, but the accessibility of the ruins and the lack of crowds made it a very nice compliment.

All three of us were shocked with how huge Pompei is!  It is probably seventeen blocks across and about ten blocks wide, complete with bakery's, government buildings, homes,  bathhouses, arenas, and theaters. The streets were stone, many with wagon wheel ruts in them. Most of the artwork and artifacts have been removed and taken into Naples, placed into museums.  We walked throughout the ruins for hours, finding some of the casts of the remaining people that perished after the eruption of Mt Vasuvious, looking into lots of very old homes, and walking through the naughty Roman bathhouses.

Having found that most of the more impressive artifacts had been stripped from Pompei, we were glad that finding the worlds greatest pizza in Naples would also allow us to go the a museum in Naples that housed all of Pompei's finest.  We boarded probably the most derelict train any of us have been on, and after traveling through SE Asia, that says a lot!   We found a place that had been recommended by our guide book, and as there was a huge line out the door, figured it must be THE spot for pizza.  It was pouring out, and the wait was taking forever, so we grabbed a quick coffee.  Naples makes very good coffee, and after our wait was finally up, we found that they do, indeed, make very good pizza.  The pizza was cooked perfectly, and the dough was the best part.  It was almost paper thin in the center, and oh so good!

Florence: Round Two

Tim: Florence is probably our favorite city in Italy. Amber's sister Heather had joined us and wanted to see the city as well, so we were happy to drive north again to visit the city. We reserved a three person room at Hotel Marcella with a shared bathroom right near the middle of the city. It took us a few minutes to find the hotel. It turned out that it was immediately across the street from Hotel Mario where our friends Sarah and Jane had stayed when we visited Florence just ten days before. Cars without special permits are not allowed on many of Florence's downtown streets. We did not know this until we were told by our hostel staff. We had to illegally park for a few minutes until we got our baggage unloaded and checked into our place. Private parking in the area of downtown Florence costs 18 Euro for 24 hours so we opted to search for free parking further out. Through a google search we were able to find out that there was free parking near the Piazza Michelangelo. This was only 2.1 miles walking distance from our hotel but was over 5 miles driving in the car. We were able to find parking and the area was on a hill with amazing views over all of Florence.

Amber:  We had a great time in Florence with Heather.  The Domo is probably one of the most impressive buildings any of us have seen.  It is beautiful!  Heather had purchased a fancy Nikon camera this summer, so a lot of her trip consisted of photographing all the amazing sights she saw.  I think she may have taken close to 250 pictures of the Domo alone.  On the first day from the hill top where we poached parking.  That day when we walked all the way around it. That night when we went back for more pictures in the dark (it's very beautifully light up).  Then we climbed the Domo, so there were even more photos taken.

We love to eat while we travel, and of course drink good wine at affordable prices, so were happy to take Heather to our favorite wine bar in Florence and sip on a bottle or two of red wine while we ate prosciutto and cheese foccia sandwiches.  It was after she had finished her sandwich we pointed out the curing hindquarters hanging from the ceiling; future prosciutto!

       

Pickpocket in Rome

Tim:   My parents, Amber and I were making our way back to our lodging at Seven Hills Village on the outskirts of Rome. We had just gotten of the Metro Line A at Valle Aurale and we were making our way to the FR1 train station for the 25 minute train ride north of the city. As we were walking into the FR1 station we had to hike up several flights of stairs because the escalators were broken or not operating at the time. We had done quite a bit of walking that day, and we were all tired. We were walking up the stairs; I was in the lead with Amber behind me followed by my dad, then my mother. I was about two thirds of the way up the stairs when I heard my dad yell in a strained voice, "Hey, you get your hand out of that lady's purse!" It took a few seconds to register what he was saying as I had not seen anything. No one else seemed to be paying any attention. I looked to my side and understood what was going on. A small man in his mid-twenties was now standing on the stairs with a map of Rome unfolded and held up near his face. He was rigid and not making eye contact. We didn't know what to do. I thought about punching him in the face, but decided against that. My dad had seen the perpetrator slyly lift up the unclipped flap of a middle aged Italian women's purse. He had tried twice to view the contents for anything valuable. When my dad called him out he just stood in the middle of the stairs hoping no one would notice. The lady who had almost gotten pick-pocketed did not speak English and did not know what was going on at first until another Italian told her such.
      All I did was call him, "a piece of sh#t" and we all continued up the stairs to the train platform. We had heard about pick-pockets and there were occasional signs warning people to watch their personal belongings, but it was a different experience viewing a pick-pocket in the act.
See photos of our time in Rome at our facebook album.

Rome Part 2

Tim:   Our second full day in Rome we visited the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We took the subway to the Colosseum stop and when we stepped out of the station the Colosseum was just 100 meters for the subway exit. Our Foders Guidebook recommended that we check out the Roman Forum first because the ticket is for both and the lines are shorter at the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum is right next to the Colosseum. It includes the actual forum the open area where people gathered and this was surrounded by numerous temples, monuments, and government buildings built from the 1st to the 4th century AD. The buildings were in various stages of mostly ruined to completely ruined. Some still have a few of the original marble pillars still standing. It takes a little bit of imagination, but the ancient architecture is astounding.
     We also visited the Palatine which was the main palace area for the emperors and also house other prominent Romans. The sheer size of the palace area is jaw dropping.

     After our Roman Forum/Palantine visit, we walked over to the Colosseum which is of course very impressive. We did note , that not much of the original marble structure remains. Over the centuries having been built in the 1st Century AD, the marble blocks were looted for other projects including the building of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Somewhere in there one of the popes stopped the deconstruction of the Colosseum in honor of the Christians that were thought to have been martyred there. Turns out archaeologists do not believe that an Christians were persecuted in the Colosseum. This same pope also sponsored some reconstruction of the Colosseum with brown colored bricks instead of the colossal marble stones originally used.
See more phots at our Rome Facebook Album

                      My Parents

     

Rome, part 1

Amber:  Tim, his Mom and Dad, and I left Cinque Terre's peaceful hillside and headed towards Rome.  We were all excited to go to Rome to experience some of the worlds greatest art and history!  Tim and his Mom had found a little camp ground, Italian style, for us to stay at.  It was actually a bit out of Rome, but Tim and I got our own cabin (a box with two bunks shoved together with a little heater and shelves) and Robin and Val had a little suite, complete with a small kitchenette, bathroom, and tiny dining area.  We went to a nearby store and made tacos for dinner as best we could with the Italian ingredients available.  No sour cream, cheddar cheese, or taco seasoning was to be found! Thankfully, we had Italian wine to make it taste better! 
The next morning, we got up and had breakfast and brewed coffee.  The tiny espresso cups were filled numerous times and the teny coffee pot brewed twice for us to get our fill of caffeine before heading out.  We got a subway map from our campground host and took off towards Rome, huge rain clouds looming.  I was not worried about the rain, as it was hot out  (about 70'), so wore a dress and flip flops.  Thankfully, we all packed raincoats and two umbrellas.  It poured on us the moment we got out of the shuttle and went in search of finding a place to purchase tickets to get into Rome. 
Boarding the train, we headed out.  It only took two trains to get to the station next to the Vatican.  Out we filed, and found our way to the entrance to the Vatican.  Tim and Robin got into a long line once we arrived in St Peters Basilica   It was a long line, so Val and I went off, in search of what was to see.  We spotted signs for the Vatican Museum, so followed them away from the guys, and found ourselves at a different line.  We decided we would rather be in this line, as we both really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, so Val stayed in the line and I marched back to inform the guys of the good news - we'd found a new line to stand in!  Unfortunately, Tim and Robin were at the front of their line, and Tim was planning on booking tickets for the Vatican Museum online as the que would take us forever to pass through.  Which both Val and I had both missed when we went off.  So, Robin and Tim left their line, followed me to Val, and we all got out of that line so that Robin and Val could go back to the St Peters Basilica line and Tim and I could find and book tickets on line for the Vatican.

Tim: We were able to book tickets for the Vatican Museum later in the afternoon. We just had to walk to the ticket counter and show them the reservation confirmation. This enabled us to skip the line which was probably around 3 hours long for an extra 4 Euro each.
    The museum was amazing! The exhibits were collections of fine art that included sculptures, paintings, tapestries, stucco, and various artifacts. The Egyptian exhibit was expsecially fascinating. The collection was acquired over many centuries of donations, procurement, or by force. There were many ancient Roman Empire sculptures that were beautiful.

Most Valuable artifact in the entire Vatican collection

     The highlight of the Vatican Museum is considered by most to be the Sistine Chapel painted by Michael Angelo. We had purchased audio guides and this was helpful in understanding the amazing paintings. It really is a wonderful piece of art. We spent about 20 minutes inside the chapel staring at the ceiling while security was continuously yelling at people to stop taking pictures. After the Sistine Chapel there were many other exhibits that included a collection of modern art works, but at that point we were a little bit overwhelmed by all of the other exhibits to give more than a passing glance. We spent about almost four hours in the museum and left right at closing time.
     Our lodging was located on the outskirts of Rome so we had to take several subways and one train to get back to our place. The trip to 45 minutes to an hour each time, but we were able to park the car for free which is very difficult inside of Rome.

Cinque Terra, Italy

Tim:  We opted for the scenic route that got off the Autostrada 20km earlier than the suggested route and wound through narrow mountain roads. The roads kept getting narrower and we eventually came to a sign propted up in the middle of the road that said, "strada chuisa." We do not know much Italian, and we were out of cell service for me to look it up on google translate. Turns out "strada chuisa" means "road closed". I kind if thought that is what it meant, but the road was not blocked off at all. We continued down the road for several kilometers then we had to move around some large boulders, then some piles of brush and debris. At one point the road was completely blocked and there was a pull out that enabled us to get around the rocks blocking the road. I kept going even with Amber suggesting otherwise. Then we came to a section of road where the outside edge was washed away and you could see that the erosion had hollowed out some of the underside of the asphalt. I kept going and just hugged the inside of the road closely and sped up a little bit. Then it happened....................! We made it to the other side! Three hundred meters later spelled the end of our driving any further. There we finally some cement barriers hindering further progress. On the other side of the barriers a 20 meter section of the road was missing and fell off into a steep cliff side. We did not go any further because I could not push the barriers out of the way. OK, going any further with the car was impossible. We turned the car around and went back the way we came including the section with the bad erosion underneath the asphalt.
At this point the rain that had already started got worse. Once we got cell service again I chose an alternate route on the GPS. This one took us on another side road higher up in the mountainside. We were going up a very steep hill that went to a turn off that look more like someone's driveway when I had second thoughts about going that direction so I stopped the car on the steep hill. We decided that this was not the best way and I needed to turn around, but in order to turn around on the narrow road, we needed to go forward first. The car would not go forward on the steep hill. The car has about a 1.2 Liter engine and a manual transmission. With our heavy load of four people and all our luggage the car just couldn't do it even with the parking break set on the start out. After burning the clutch a few times and stalling out, Amber and my dad got out of the car and I was able to turn around.
At this point or had started raining heavily. We opted for the original route that we were going to take and got back to the main highway. This route took us past our destination, but took the road most traveled. After six hours on the road, we made it to Volastra which is right above Manarola, one of the Cinque Terre villages. As we pulled into the parking area for the village the rain was torrential. The streets are not wide enough for cars so you have to park your car and walk down the narrow streets. We jumped out of the car in the pouring rain to find our B&B. We were all soaked by the time we got our gear to our rooms.
The next morning after breakfast at our B&B we hiked the 1.2 km on the trail down the mountain to Manarola. The hike was beautiful and we descended about 300 meters of elevation to the coast. It was here that we learned that all of the main coastal trails were closed to hikers due to a few land slides, but mostly because a tourist had gotten hurt so all of the five sections of coastal trail between the villages were closed. This was a bummer, but we made the most of it. Amber and I went for a different hike up the mountains to an old church with wonderful views of the coastline.

Check out more photos on our facebook album.
Amber:  Cinque Terra is a beautiful place.  Just like the pictures; steep mountainside, covered in terraced vineyards, clusters of pink and orange houses on the bluffs, a huge blue sea.  So pretty!  After hiking down the steep face on our first day there, Tim's Mom and Dad decided to take the shuttle down to the train.  All the food and wine we've been enjoying in Italy has been taking its tole, so Tim and I opted to get some exercise and  hiked down again.  We met back up with Tim's folks in Manarola and boarded the train to Corniglia.  The town of Corniglia is much further up the terrace than the other four.  We huffed and puffed up the hill in the hot sun and finally got into the tiny town.  The hike up gave us a great view from the city to view the Mediterranean Sea and the cost line.  Our guest house had horrible coffee, so we stopped for a cappuccino and lunch.  Before heading back to the train, we all got gelato for the hike back down.  It was getting to be mid day, so we headed to Monterosso for a quick dip into the ocean before leaving Tim's folks to enjoy the rest of the sights and Tim and I hiked up one of the few open trails in the area.  It lead up a steep hill to a crumbling down old church.  We hiked for about an hour up, dripping sweat, stopped for a bit to enjoy the view, then headed back to get back into Manarola.  We poached our guest houses kitchen again and drank wine and made pesto and ate cold cuts and cheese.  It's a rough life in Italy!

Check out more photos on our facebook album.

We made it to Italy

Amber: Oktoberfest was quite the introduction to Europe. We had a great time with our friends Lee, Dustin, Rich, Tommy and Jeff! Over the course of our two day stay in Munich, one of them was able to slice his hand on a broken stein and required eight stitches in his palm, another may or may not have pooed in his leder hosen due to too many beers, brawts and too long of a line for the leu, and another one got married to a girl that spoke no English only he lost her when looking for a restroom. Funny group of guys, and all were in good spirits despite some of the... setbacks. On the first night, Tim and I each had four of the liter beers before deciding it would be best for us to take the subway home. On our ride home, we found that we were taking the wrong train. I stepped off the train when it stopped, only to look behind me and see the doors slidding shut, Tim still on board. We both looked wide eyed at each other as the train zoomed away, leaving me behind. Giggling to myself, I boarded a train only a few minutes later and thankfully found Tim at the next train stop. Happily, we were able to make it back to our flat together. Our third morning in Munich we got up and found our rental car to head south to Verona. Tim was able to find someone to join us on Car Pooling that was German. We were so happy to have a local ride with us and guide us out of Munich! And she helped cover the cost of gas, toles and the rental. Tim is so good at finding a bargain! I was feeling the effects of Oktoberfest, so napped a little as we drove through the southern parts of Germany, Austria and into Italy. It was beautiful! Tall mountains with castles perched on top of them at every turn. We got a little off track a few times, but Nadine was able to get us right to her stop at Trento, a town next to Lago Garda. My horrible navigating skills and Tim's endless patients got us the rest of the way in the dark and rain to our new home for three days; Camping del Garda. Camping del Garda was a nice little camp ground just north of Verona. It was right on Lago Garda, and consisted of tent sights or neat little rows of motor homes. We had a motor home, equipped with a nice shower, two bedrooms, stove and pots and pans. It did not come with toilet paper or towels, but we were prepared and had brought some ourselves and were happy to go to the store and got full use out of the pasta strainer and wine key they provided. Camping in Italy involves a lot of pasta and vino. At least for Tim and I. We found a small grocery store and prepared pesto with rotisserie chicken and enjoyed a bottle of Soave with dinner. Delicious! We took a train into Verona and were able to walk through one of the most romantic cities of all times. Romeo and Juliet did 'live' here, after all. We hiked around the city and saw the Arena di Verona, an ancient amphitheater that can hold up to 16,000 people and was built around 110AD. Sant' Anastsia is an absolutely beautiful church built in 1290 and housed amazing artwork. I was surprised that we could freely take pictures inside. We walked across a bridge and visited the Museo Archeologico and Teatro Romano, and Tim forced me to climb up to a bell tower that was terrifying yet beautiful to look down from; Torre dei Lamberti. And of course, we saw "Juliet's House," a two story building with a teny tiny balcony turned into a place where millions of love lorn girls have gone and written love graffiti along the brick walls. For a small fee, you can go inside and get your photo taken on the balcony. We opted to not get the smooching photo. The next day we decided we had seen enough of the sights in Verona and instead drove up Lake Garda in search of a mountain to climb. We ended up taking a tram up Mt Baldo and hiking around for a bit. We watched some para gliders take off from the mountain and drift out over the lake. It is really beautiful on the lake! A large herd of sheep and goats lived on the top of the mountain, and we were able to watch a man and his two dogs herd them along the ridge. A huge rain storm moved in as we were attempting to go a bit farther along the mountain, so we opted to turn around and go wine tasting instead. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves sipping on Amorone's grown in Italy and wandered around the tasting room, pouring ourselves more wine as we discussed our onward travels to Florence.