Our cruise ended in Mote Carlo. It’s 50 miles to the nearest airport. There are few taxis. The cruise line charges a lot for a bus ride to the airport. We decided to hire a tour guide to show us the sights and drop us at the airport. It worked very well, Pierre knew all the places to go and all the things to see: Monte Carlo, old town Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo from above, old town St. Paul de Vence, and another old town whose name I don’t remember.

The flight to Rome was uneventful, but the ride to the hotel was “interesting”. Our driver was a nice guy and extremely helpful, but it was dark out and he drove like a demon. When we got to the narrow cobble stone streets in downtown Rome, he didn’t bother slowing down. Our hotel’s reception desk closes at 5 PM, We had registered online and received a link, but it wasn’t obvious how we were going to get in the front door. While he was driving, the driver called the Anna, the hotel receptionist, at home. He handed me his Bluetooth headset, and turned the radio on.It was lovely music, but quite hard to hear Anna. I went through the entry process twice, but it each time I asked a question it got more complicated and I heard less of what Anna said. I finally gave the headset to Danita so she could hear part of what Anna had to say.

Our hotel is in a pedestrian-only area, so we had to stop a couple of blocks away. The driver led us down more cobble stone streets, wheeling our suitcases behind us. When we got to the hotel, we turned on phones, clicked the links, and pressed buttons on websites. Amazingly, the door buzzed and we were in. We were to proceed to the third floor. We walked up stairs and found an area labeled “3A 3B 3C”, which had nothing to do with our hotel. We went up at least two more flights of stairs and found a locked door with our hotel’s name on it. More phones, links, website buttons, and the door unlocked! Our rooms are clean and modern, but it’s not easy to upgrade very old buildings to modern accommodations. Our room has lights hung from wires draped from the ceiling, some 15 feet above our heads. The woodwork for the floor above is exposed. We see a massive wood beam going across our ceiling. Everybody was very kind. It’s all quite different and interesting. But we were exhausted and went straight to bed.

For the last full day of our cruise, we stopped in the little village of Portofino. The area has several pedestrian trails. We walked a few miles in one direction to an adjacent town and took the ferry back. They we walked 20 minutes in the other direction to see the castle and light house. It’s a beautiful area.

You’ve heard of it, but do you remember why? When France was tired of Napoleon, the king promised to pay him 2 million francs if he would go to Elba and stay there. Napoleon went, but the king forgot to send the money. After 10 months, Napoleon went back to France, declared himself emperor, lost the battle of Waterloo, and had the English ban him for good, in a place a lot less nice than Elba, and still without the 2 million francs.

We docked at Portoferraio, a delightful town. We took an exciting bus ride up into the mountains, then took a cable ride to the top of the tallest. It was a delightful day. Here’s the pics.

We visited Rome today. We took a 10-hour tour of St. John the Lateran and the Vatican. Danita and I both enjoyed St. John very much. The Vatican was immensely crowded. The feeling was of being pushed through a commercial museum.

I didn’t know anything about St. John. It was established by Constantine as the residence of the Pope around 300 AD. Popes continued to live there until the Western Schism around 1300 AD, when the Papacy moved to Avignon, France. St. Johns was the residence of the Pope for nearly 1,000 years. The Vatican has a couple hundred years to go before it reaches this milestone.

I didn’t get man pictures from the Vatican. I managed to grab a telephoto shot of the Pieta, but it was behind heavy glass, poorly lit, impossible to get near … altogether an inferior experience, as was all of the Vatican. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

The good folks at Pompeii have been restoring and reconstructing a couple of houses of the richest people in Pompeii. We were very lucky that one of these houses was opened to the public just a couple of weeks ago. Below is some of what we saw.

The Romans were quite open about their entertainments. Maybe someday I’ll write up the adult version of Pompeii. Or maybe you’ll just have to go and see it for yourself.

We were scheduled to stop at the Amalfi Coast, but that’s a tender port and the sea swells were too large for that. So we re-routed to Naples. We had not researched Naples, so we decided to sign up for a tour of Pompeii. This is the town that was destroyed by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 72 AD. I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

We docked at Sicily and took a tender into port. They have some very strange visions in Sicily, as you can see from their flag. We had a tour of Taormina, a city at the top of the hill. The Greeks built a theater here. Later on, the Romans built their theater on top of the Greek. It’s a very pretty area, as you can see below.

Sometimes when a cruise line finds an out-of-the-way port to visit, one senses they have overreached their ambitions. Still, Crotone has an archaeological museum that left me wondering. This golden crown was the obvious highlight of their holdings, but not the most interesting.

The museum describes this as a Gorgone Alta, or High Gorgone. They have several examples. All with their tongue sticking out and all smiling. Yet the internet describes a Gorgone as a woman with venemous snakes for hair that could turn the observer into stone. It refers to three sisters, Medusa being the best known and the only of the three that was mortal. Was this the precursor to the feminine danger we know of today?

Or how about this Sirene de Kroton? Sirenes tempted Hercules’ men to their death, if they allowed themselves to hear the call. Was this bird-woman equally dangerous to us male mortal?. Is she the precursor to the mermaids that allegedly tempted so many early mariners to their deaths, deep in the ocean?

Why did early man find women so dangerous? I will never know the answers. Maybe that makes these simple ancient statues more interesting.

Ciao.

We docked at Bari, which is neither quaint or picturesque. We took a bus to Bari. This town has a very interesting area called the Sassi, where people have been living in caves continuously for 35,000 years. There are two areas of cave houses, one on either side of the church in this square.

Somewhere around 15,000 people continued living in these cave houses, without any utilities, running water, or sanitation, into modern times. These pics give some idea of how many cave homes there are. The houses are small. Families had up to 11 people. But most of the living was done outdoors, in small plazas. In the 1950s, the Italian government built new houses and forced residents to leave the caves. Most people wanted to stay, but today they are happy to be living in more modern houses.

The area is slowly being repopulated. Residents with money to renovate and modernize the houses can get a 99-year lease from the government. Today, people, retailers, and restaurants are slowly taking over areas closes to Matera. The pictures below give an idea of what these houses were like.

Ancoa is a small, picturesque port town on the Adriatic Sea. The weather was perfect. We spent a few hours strolling around. Here are some pics.