August 2, 2023

August 2, 2023

With Aimee taking frequent trips to Amarillo, we have been effectively grounded. One place we have been remiss on visiting in Tucson is the Center for Creative Photography on the U of A campus. This university repository was co-founded by Ansel Adams, the famous photographer of the Western US and its National Park vistas. So when Aimee suggested we make a trip downtown to see the world premiere of the Linda McCartney Retrospective, I agreed.

Unbeknownst to us, Linda had a stronger connection to Tucson than we realized. Despite growing up back East, she studied art history at the University here and later bought a local ranch after marrying Paul. During college she picked up the photography bug and specialized in NYC concert and celebrity photography. Later as Paul’s girlfriend she had unprecedented “Behind the Scenes" access to the Beatles phenomena. She was the first woman to have a photo on the cover of Rolling Stone. Sadly, she developed breast cancer and died here at the young age of 56.

June 1, 2023

June 1, 2023

We rise early and return to the Napoli airport for our flight to London Heathrow. Aimee has breakfast in the Lounge and a second one on the airplane. She is turning into a hobbit. Italy is mostly mountainous, with the Appenines running right down the spine. We cross into Switzerland and the Alps in full view of the Matterhorn. We enter France over Lake Geneva. The Rhone River is full of glacial till as it enters this border lake.

After a two-hour layover at Heathrow, we board our long trans-Atlantic flight to Dallas. Aimee and I share opposing seats facing each other. Aimee is able to keep an eye on me for the whole flight. It is the first time I have flown in an airplane facing backwards. Very weird.

During our layover in Dallas, I have some tasty beef brisket sandwich. I love Texas BBQ. We get to Tucson just after 8pm.

We ran into more than our fair share of bad luck on this trip; rain, thunderstorms, a Red Alert, Sirocco winds, volcano eruption, train strikes, near-miss landing, missing artifacts, and scaffolding-obscured sites. More than enough to discourage the most ardent travelers. Despite the setbacks, Aimee and I both liked the trip. We still managed to see the most important monuments and had good weather when it really counted. What we missed was minor. But I would have loved to see a cloud-free Mt. Etna actually erupting.... from a safe distance!

One of the things that probably made up for the bad luck was the good food. Despite our extensive travels, we surprisingly had many tasty items, we either haven't had or have only had infrequently. The list included Pistachio-flavored everything, Red Pesto, Caponata, Eggplant Parmigiana, Swordfish, Meloncello, and huge Ricotta-filled Cannoli. And who can't like the Sicilian penchant for eating desserts for breakfast! Thanks to my sister for ensuring we ate well.

May 31, 2023

May 31, 2023

Getting to and from the Amalfi coast is tedious, so I had left the afternoon open for travel back to the Napoli airport. Surprisingly Aimee thought we should do something. She nixed the Greek temples at Paestum, but she agreed to visiting another World Heritage site in nearby Caserta. So we checked out of our Positano hotel early and took the first ferry east to Salerno.

It is a nice relaxing scenic boat ride. The whole seacoast is rugged with nearly sheer cliffs filled with houses and villages and terraced gardens. Whoever built the Amalfi coast road deserves a civil engineering award. There are also medieval stone watchtowers at frequent intervals. This was to keep alert for Saracens or Barbary Pirates seeking to kidnap and enslave the unwary Christian.

A few blocks inland from the port of Salerno we found the train station. Instead of taking it to Naples, we skirted north of Vesuvius, ending in Caserta, just twenty miles north of Naples. The Royal Palace is across the street. It is immense, and we cannot believe how long the entry promenade is. We are even more impressed by the four interior courtyards connected by towering corridors.

We ditch our luggage in the coat check and then stop at the cafeteria for a ham and cheese Panini.

We bought a ticket to visit the Royal Apartments. As we walk up the monumental stairway, we are gobsmacked. It is over the top Baroque constructed of rich marble and granite and adorned with statuary. The scale is gigantic. I can’t believe this place is not on the tourist radar. To top it off there is classical music playing in the background.

We walk from one grand hall to another. Each seems to top the last. These monumental rooms are clearly meant to impress. Caserta is considered the Swan Song of Baroque. With the rediscovery of Pompeii, Neoclassical became the new fashion.

The palace tour eventually gives way to the actual rooms where people lived and slept. This palace is one of the largest in the world. Only a small fraction is open to tour, but even that small part takes time walking down long hallways. Most of the rooms are lit with beautiful Murano glass chandeliers.

This palace was built in the 18th century by the Spanish Bourbon kings who ruled the Kingdom of the Two Sicilys. They apparently taxed their serfs heavily. No wonder the local peasants turned to the Mafia to look after their interests. This is also why Southern Italy got left behind the North during the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution.

After our tour we tried to visit the Palace backyard, but it is some two miles long. We can barely see to the end. We walk about ¾ of a mile to the first section of decorative ponds and decide to turn around. It is a good thing we did. It starts to rain, and when we get back to the palace, the sky lets loose. The rain is coming down in buckets, and the thunder is reverberating through the cavernous courtyards. We wait and wait but it just gets worse. After almost an hour, it starts to lessen, so we pull out our raincoats and make a run for it. We are stymied when we make it across the entry garden and find the road flooded. So close, yet so far. We try every direction and decide our feet are just going to get wet. How could the sky hold that much water!

Back at the Naples train station, we are met with dry sunny weather. It never rained here even though we are so close to Caserta. Go figure. We took the shuttle to the airport and found our airport hotel accommodation. For dinner we ordered appetizers of Bruschetta and Eggplant Parmigiana. Both were excellent. We should have stopped there. The huge serving of dessert put us over the edge.

May 30, 2023

May 30, 2023

We had a leisurely breakfast on the hotel deck. We are thinking it is a good idea to head out for a couple hours while the day-trippers overwhelm the narrow lanes of this little village of Positano. While we waited for the public bus, Aimee was fascinated by this little gecko that scoured his territory for one insect after another.

We took the bus east along the World Heritage Amalfi Coast. The road, carved into the sheer cliff, is carefully designed to be a little narrower than two cars side by side. The ride was hair-raising for us. I can’t imagine how the bus driver does this day after day. I felt like I needed to give him a tip afterwards.

We got off at the eponymous town of Amalfi, which is the main economic and historical city on this coast. We tried to learn more about this history by visiting the Arsenale Museum. The Republic of Amalfi had the early lead in developing maritime trade with the Orient after the first Crusades. This museum is housed in the old shoreline caves where these merchants built their great oared vessels. Amalfi developed the first ‘rules of the sea’ that the world still abides by. They also refined the first compass to aid navigation. Unfortunately having volcanoes in your back yard is not good for business. In 1343, the Stromboli volcano generated a tsunami that destroyed the town ceding maritime leadership to Genoa, Pisa, and especially Venice.

We walked into town past the Cathedral sitting atop a monumental staircase. We plowed through the tourist crowd uphill along the main drag. We can hear the rushing of water below the pavement. The street covers the river that runs through the center of the town.

After an hour we head back to the port and buy a ticket for the ferry. We want nothing to do with the coast road. The boat ride is faster, smoother, and comes with fresh air, and great scenery.

Back in Positano, we make another late lunch reservation at the same spot as yesterday. We have almost the same table and meal. It is great food and wonderful scenery, above the tourist fray below us.

For dinner I sip some wine by our window. Aimee and I toast our Italian holiday. Tomorrow we start the long journey home. I am going to miss Italian Tiramisu.

May 29, 2023

May 29, 2023

We checked out of our Naples accommodation. It was a cross between a hotel and a B&B. It resides in an old elegant turn of the century high-rise with open stairwells and original elevator. The rooms are very modern and are an oasis away from the cacophony of Naples. Breakfast was delivered to our room every morning.

We met our next driver and he took us past Vesuvius and out onto the Sorrento Peninsula that is the southern border of the Bay of Naples. Off the tip of the peninsula is the island of Capri. We get nice views of the cliffs of Sorrento as we make the turn. In Sorrento we cut across to the Amalfi coast. We soon reach Positano. Between the traffic of Naples and the winding coastline, the journey is hair-raising for the driver.

We dropped our bags at our hotel and set out to explore Positano. The village clings to a cleft in the rocky sea cliff. Positano is packed with tourists and shopping. I watch as Aimee stops in every store. This is our little vacation from touring so I am wanting to sit in a peaceful spot and have a drink with a view; but that seems to be impossible. We search around and find a nice restaurant above the street and make a reservation for 2:30.

We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a while. When we return to the restaurant, we are overjoyed to find a few of the early lunchers have finished and we get an ocean-side table with a primo view. We settled in for a lunch of sea bass followed by an awesome Tiramisu with whole coffee beans. We drag out the meal to take full advantage of the ambiance.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the town. We buy a bottle of Vesuvius wine and have a picnic dinner at our sea-view window.

May 28, 2023

May 28, 2023

This morning we awoke and took the same Circumvesuviana train as yesterday. This time we got off earlier at the Herculaneum ruins. This is another town that was buried by the 79 AD eruption. The area excavated here is much smaller. Many modern houses surrounding the site would have to be razed to uncover more. We spent two hours walking up and down the small grid of eight city blocks. There seems to be fewer surviving wall paintings here compared to Pompeii. This city was buried quicker and twice as high. As a result many upper floors have been preserved. Some ceilings and stairways are visible.

It is interesting to now see how tall the ceilings and the central atria were. Roman houses had plain exteriors with no windows. To keep an open Impluvium and Peristyle garden secure, they needed these high walls that would be difficult to scale. For Romans the focus was interior courtyards like we have seen in Morocco and other Arab communities.

Herculaneum has more surviving wooden structural elements, albeit very charred. In one house we saw not only wooden beams, but also a dining room sliding door and a bed frame.

Color has survived in a few interesting spots in Herculaneum. I knew Greek temples were painted; but one Roman house shows how this Peristyle courtyard garden had brightly colored red columns. Nothing like I would have expected.

Another cool spot was a wine shop. Since many people were illiterate, there had to be a sign telling people what they offered. In this case, it was four wines of different colors and their price.

At the ancient shoreline we ran into the boatsheds where the bodies of 300 victims awaiting rescue were discovered. An overturned ship was also found nearby.

After two hours we made our way out of the ruins, and walked uphill back to the train station. We returned to Naples and found the Metro line. We took it across Naples to Pozzouli, the hometown of Sophia Loren. Its harbor was the main port of Roman Italy. Just around the corner we find the Flavian Amphitheater, the third largest Roman arena. We flew over it on our approach to the Naples airport.

I wanted to visit this Roman arena because it is renowned for having the best preserved underground. This is where the gladiators and animals would have been kept. The lions would have been raised on wooden cranes coming through holes in the arena floor. While the vast underground is mostly intact, we really didn't find it too interesting. Probably because the wooden apparatus that raised the animals didn't survive the centuries.

We made our way back to the hotel and rested. Before dinner we walked to Capella Sansevero. We tried to visit it earlier and found that tickets sell out days in advance. This reservation was the only one available. After presenting our ticket we were allowed in this tiny chapel a few minutes early. It is all Baroque and totally filled with statues. The centerpiece is the Veiled Christ.

I actually found two other artworks more compelling. Most of the sculptures represent allegories or virtues. I liked a female standing statue called Veiled Modesty. But my favorite hands-down is another called Disillusion. It has a man entangled in a fishing net. It had to have been one of the hardest sculptures to carve.

For dinner we had pizza again, but this time with a tasty Caesar salad. We had a long conversation with our tablemates from Australia. It turned out they are staying next door to us and they also came to this restaurant three times.

May 27, 2023

May 27, 2023

From our hotel, we walked up Corso Umberto to the main train station and bought tickets for the Circumvesuviana commuter train. Like the name implies it goes right past this volcano. Vesuvius at only 4000 feet height doesn't look dangerous compared to her much bigger sister Etna. In some parts of the world it would barely be a hill, but in 79 AD she probably had a peak that exploded and rained terror down upon nearby Pompeii completely burying it. The city's rediscovery in 1748 made it an instant must-see tour stop and kicked off a Neoclassical Revival. The wealthy all redecorated ala Roman.

We arrived in Pompeii shortly after opening and entered this World Heritage city through the Porta Marina city gate. In 79 this would have been at the harbor. Lava flow pushed the shore a mile away.

From the gate we arrive in the public space of Pompeii, the Forum where people would gather to visit the market. Surrounding it are the Basilica Law courts, temples, and public baths. Not far away are the theaters for entertainment. The last time I visited this spot almost forty years ago it was raining.

We turn north to visit the residential sections. It looks very eerie, like a bombed out city. To add to the creepy feeling, voids were found in the pumice while excavating the site. When they were filled with plaster, they turned out to be body molds of those who didn't leave Pompeii in time.

The streets are all cobblestone lined with sidewalks on both sides. Ruts from chariot wheels are all over. Rain was directed down the streets to wash them, so there are stepping stones at strategic spots to get across without getting ones feet wet.

Pompeii is very large, with every street looking similar. It is easy to get turned around. The list of houses open varies day to day so we have to keep checking the map to determine where to go. Interestingly the Romans put polished stones in the sidewalk that would glow in the moonlight to provide direction.

On many corners there is a marble fountain where common people would gather drinking water.

We visited dozens of houses including the spectacular House of the Vettii that reopened just a few months ago after twenty long years of restoration. Roman homes all have a common design theme. There was an entrance hallway that was tiled with a greeting. Oftentimes simply Hello, but famously a few with a mosaic dog with the Latin inscription for Beware of Dog.

This hall opens into a tiled atrium with a small marble pool (Impluvium) to catch rainwater for personal use. The tiled roof would have been slanted to funnel the rain into it.

Surrounding the atrium were several small bedrooms and opposite the entry a large dining room. In one house we saw the table they ate at. It was just an L-shaped couch. The Romans ate while reclining! 

The great draw of Pompeii is that many of the mosaic tiled floors and wall decorations survive giving us a detailed idea how ancient Romans lived.

The quantity and variety of painting that has survived in Pompeii is so great that art historians have been able to classify it into different styles that were prevalent in each era. First-style mimics fine stonework, others are decorative, and some have mythological themes and architectural elements.

The dining room usually looked out onto a garden that was surrounded by a peristyle hall (colonnade). The garden would sometimes have a fountain. Adjoining it would be a richly decorated great room where business would be conducted.

One house had a piece of polished obsidian in the wall by the entry door. It was used as a mirror. I wondered why aloud, but my smart wife informed me it was to check how you look before answering the door.

The Romans were very practical so they had exterior rooms that were rented to vendors selling products and services. This is like our big cities that have stores on the first floor of residential buildings.

We started exploring these homes mostly by ourselves, but as the morning progressed the crowds thickened so we walked east thinking most tourists won't stray far from the entrance. We saw a bakery, which had large grain milling stones and pizza-like ovens. We also saw a laundry with large fire-heated lead pots.

I made a special point to find a Thermopolium. This was the fast-food restaurant of the Romans. It consisted of an L-shaped marble counter top with several large clay vats containing wine and various foods. It turned out I didn’t need to look hard. There seemed to be one nearly everywhere I looked. Apparently Romans never ate at home.

On the far east side of Pompeii, we toured the Amphitheater where Romans watched sporting events, like lions eating Christians. This arena is believed to be the oldest still in existence.

Next-door is the Grand Palestra. We walked through the encircling columned portico of this YMCA of Pompeii. The huge interior courtyard of this gymnasium even had a swimming pool. The Palestra is used for special exhibits. One set of displays shows the foods that Pompeiians ate. Their Last Supper included Peaches, Figs, Walnuts and a loaf of bread. Unfortunately, all are over-cooked, by the volcano!

There is another exhibit on erotica. Apparently it was prevalent in every house. Some is tame, but surprisingly explicit images of Priapus were on prominent display in common areas. He was the God of Prosperity and Abundance, in particular male abundance. Interestingly, the notorious side effect of Viagra, Priapism, is named after him.

We were getting tired and the crowds unbearable so we quickly walked back across Pompeii towards the exit. Our last stop was the Brothel. It consisted of many small rooms with stone bed platforms and erotic wall paintings. Not far away we found a very explicit sign carved into the pavement pointing in this direction.

To finish the day, we left the walled city of Pompeii out the north gate. Tombs lined both sides of the road as Romans always buried their dead just outside the city walls.

Our last stop was a country estate called Villa of the Mysteries. Most of the villa is closed for renovation except for its famous Mystery room that has some brightly colored frescoes illustrating an initiation rite of women into a mysterious cult. We walked to the train station for the trip back to Naples.