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.

Our first days of vacation were very hot. Highs were in the 90s in Florence, high 80s in Venice. Today was very nice — pleasantly warm and sunny. Our first adventure was taking the “water bus”, or as I think of it, the “boat bus”. All our difficulties were overcome with the help of incredibly kind and patient Italians who spoke nearly perfect English. We went back to St. Mark’s square. This is an interesting clock. It displays the hours in roman numerals and minutes in decimal numbers. The round dial displays the zodiac. The men on either side of the bell look cool but aren’t functional. The bell striker is quite conventional.

Our first stop was the Church. It has the famous four horses, which were originally in Constantinople. When Venice conquered Constantinople, the horses were sent to Venice as tribute. Or, if you are from Turkey, they were stolen. The horses pictured here are reproductions. The originals are inside. I was close enough to touch them, but no pictures are permitted inside the church.

Most of our time was spent in the Doge’s Palace. Doges were powerful rulers, but not quite as powerful as Marino Falliero thought. His was one of the shorter terms. One of the rooms had a picture of almost all the Doges. This picture shows only a black drape. The banner says “This is the space reserved for Marino Faliero, beheaded for his crimes.” Marino’s crime was trying to kick the powerful families out of government.

Our boat pulled out of Venice about 6 PM with perfect weather. Many passengers went to the top deck and gathered along the rail. We heard a commentary about the sites we were seeing as we left town.

Here’s more pics from St. Mark’s Square.

Due to technical difficulties, there are no pics today.

This morning we visited Murano Island, where the famous Venice glass makers are concentrated. We toured one of the larger factories and saw some jaw-dropping glass works. We were going to pick one up, but we didn’t have an extra $180,000 euro.

This afternoon we went to St. Mark’s square. Our plan was to visit the Doge’s Palace, but it was closed for a private event. So we walked around, window shopping the high-end shops. We visited to the bell tower. Going up the 323 foot structure was quite easy, as everybody is required to take the elevator. When we came out, we noticed the square had rain puddles. This was surprising because we didn’t see any rain. Before long, we realized the water was coming up from underground. The tide was rising. Today the tide was 1 meter, and that was enough to flood the central part of the square up to a child’s ankles. (Which was very precisely measured by observing a child playing in the water.)

In mid-afternoon, we headed back to our hotel to pick up our suitcases and board the cruise ship. We have a modern ad attractive room. We’ll be heading off to dinner pretty soon.

Ciao.

The trip to Vienna went off without a hitch. When we arrived, we took a water taxi. The hotel folks said it would drop us right at our hotel. When the taxi drive announced our arrival, there was one hotel in sight, and it wasn’t ours. He told us to just walk down a very narrow alley and it would be on the next street. At this point, we were wondering if maybe we were being scammed. But we had the taxi number, so we got off and walked down the very narrow alley. Low and behold, our hotel was there.

By the time we checked in, it was about 3. Lunch was getting pretty important (and, as usual, it was pretty good). Then went down to watch the regatta.It was time for gelato and bed. Ciao. You can see some pics of the parade and some of the racers below.