ITALIA BELISSIMA!

FROM VENETO TO LIGURIA - AUGUST 2003

***

VERONA


"ARENA - The Roman amphitheatre completed around 30 AD - 139 meters long and 110 meters wide - is the third largest in Italy, after Rome's Coliseum and the arena at Capua. The Aida was great, but unfortunately the temperature at night was probably around 40º Celsius inside the Arena. When we got back to the Hotel, at 1:30 a.m., the thermometer at the pharmacy in front reached 31º Celsius. Ugh..."


"PIAZZA DELLE ERBE - During Roman times, this was the place of the Forum, centre of city life. It has continued to fill the same role for centuries: home to the city's administration, market and meeting place"


"JULIET'S BALCONY - Shakespeare's «The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet» concerns two noble families of Verona: the Capulets and the Montagues. The balcony may be only fiction, but Juliet is real..."


"IL DUOMO - The Cathedral was begun in 1187, but was not finished until many centuries later. It is dedicated to S. Maria Assunta, and is the result of many reconstructions and additions. The main portal is a combination of Romanesque and Gothic and is particularly interesting. For many reasons Verona is included in the Unesco's List of World Heritage Sites"

***

FERRARA


"CATHEDRAL - Started in the 12th century, the mixed Romanesque and Gothic style of the façade is outstanding. The bas-relief above the central door is a magnificent work of the sculptor Nicholaus (1135). The upper part was built some decades later in a Gothic style"


"CASTLE - The House of Este dominated the town for many centuries. The Castle shows its power. Ferrara is also included in the Unesco's List of World Heritage Sites, as a city of Renaissance"

***

MANTUA


"DUCAL PALACE - The magnificent residence of the Gonzagas houses some fabulous treasures, including some fantastic frescoes. You have to see the video to catch a glimpse of its value"

***

CINQUE TERRE

Within five miles of rocky coast in eastern Liguria, between two promontories and with kilometres of cultivated vineyards, there are the five coastal villages in the province of La Spezia: the Cinque Terre (Five lands): Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore! They became a National Park in 1999 and was included in the UNESCO's list as «a cultural site of outstanding value, representing the harmonious interaction between people and nature to produce a landscape of exceptional scenic quality that illustrates a traditional way of life that has existed for a thousand years and continues to play an important socio-economic role in the life of the community»"


"MONTEROSSO is the westernmost of the Cinque Terre and can be reached by walking along the most difficult part of the «Sentiero Azzurro» footpath. The village, protected by hills and covered with vineyards and olive groves, has some beautiful beaches with crystal-clear waters"



"VERNAZZA - The village was founded around the 1st Century, and acquired maritime traditions. Its buildings have some loggias, arcades and portals, which are evidence of a standard of living that was economically and socially superior to that of the other villages of the Cinque Terre. The beach could be an escape for the heat that hit us there, but we had no time to profit from it"


"VERNAZZA - Cooler seen from the sea"


"CORNIGLIA - Located on the ridge of a rocky promontory at the foot of a terraced vineyard, we didn't dare to see it but from the safe distance of a boat with the sea breeze. Concentrated in agriculture rather than on fishing, it looks very much alike - architecturally - as an inland village"



"MANAROLA - This very ancient village, with a little port sheltered between two promontory rocks, is beautiful! It is my favourite of the Cinque Terre! Furthermore, there is a wonderful footpath called «La Via dell'Amore», which starts in Manarola and follows along the coast to Riomaggiore. A thirty-minute walk that we didn't take: it was too hot there!"

***

PORTOFINO



"ROOM WITH A VIEW - The view from our room at the SPLENDIDO was fabulous"




"SPLENDIDO GARDENS - A fantastic stroll within the Hotel"



"SPLENDIDO POOL - Also superb!"

VENICE STOPOVER!

BEFORE THE CRUISE - AUGUST 2003


"PIAZZA SAN MARCO - The Basilica, the Doge's Palace and the Campanile"


"GRAN CAFE QUADRI - A Venetian landmark, with music"


"PONTE DELL'ACCADEMIA - View over the Gran Canale to Santa Maria della Salute"


"GRAN CANALE by vaporetto"


"DANIELI - Great view from the top of the Hotel Danieli!"


"BOARDING - Composition by the Ship's photographer"



"DEPARTURE - Photos taken from the cabin balcony"

TRAVELLING IN SICILIA...

NEITHER PALERMO, NOR CORLEONE: GREEK SICILY - AUGUST 2003

Sicily, once part of Magna Grecia, is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Phoenicians, Punic settlers from Carthage and Greeks, starting in the 8th century BC, lived in Sicily. The most important colony was established at Syracuse in 734 BC, though Akragas (Agrigento) was also an important part of classical Greek civilization.


"AGRIGENTO (as it was finally named in 1927), built on a cliff on the south coast of Sicily, was surrounded by two rivers - the Hypsas and the Akragas. It was founded c.580 BC as Akragas by Greek colonists of Gela, and became one of the most prosperous in the Greek world. Destroyed c.406 BC by Carthage, it recovered to fell definitively to the side of Rome in 210 BC during the Second Punic War. The fight between Sun and Clouds shown in the picture finally ended, after the visit to the historical site, with a massive downpour..."



"TEMPLE OF CONCORDIA, named after the Latin word for peace and unity, is a magnificent work of art. This Doric temple from the 6th/5th century BC is located in an acropolis in the Valley of Temples, surrounded by olive trees, and with a fabulous view to the sea. It is well preserved, perhaps for having been converted into a Christian Church, though it was never reconstructed.
The temple has six columns in the front and 13 on the sides, 13 being a lucky number in Sicily"


"VILLA ROMANA DEL CASALE - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - is located about 5km outside the town of Piazza Armerina, and is the richest and largest collection of late Roman mosaics in the world, including the famous Girls in Bikini mosaic (recorded in video...)! It was constructed in the first quarter of the fourth century"


"PIAZZA ARMERINA - The "town of the mosaici" has also a Duomo, and the Aragonese Castle..."



"TAORMINA - The Siculi (from near Valencia in Spain) were the first to come. Then, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, Italians, Goethe, Otto Geleng -a young Prussian painter -, everybody had been in Taormina. Tourists also started coming early, due to the extraordinary geographical location of Taormina, its glorious landscapes and its superb climate, as well as the fabulous colours of its sky, sea, beaches, trees and flowers"


"TAORMINA - The highlight of Taormina's antiques - the city was founded on a terrace of Monte Tauro in 358 by Andromachus - is the Theatre, where tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and comedies by Aristophanes were performed. There is no photo of it (only video), but it is an extraordinary piece of architecture, with a fantastic view behind the stage to the sea. It was one of the largest theatres in Sicily, second only to the one in Syracuse..."



"BEACH - The beach at Naxos goes up North (1st photo) and down South (2nd photo), to Syracuse. Mount Etna Volcano was covered with clouds (to the right of the photo), and had just thrown some stones"


"SYRACUSE, described by Cicero as «the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all», has seen its ancient core included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The EAR of DIONYSIUS is an artificial limestone cave carved out of the Temenites hill. Its name comes from its similarity in shape to the human ear, and it is the most famous of the stone quarries - latomìa -, also used as prisons in ancient times"


"SYRACUSE RESTAURANTS with a view, at the Ortigia Island"


"SYRACUSE DUOMO"

DOLCE VITA

ITALY - JULY 2002

Profiting from a stay at Metaponto, some incursions were made in Puglia, Basilicata, and in the Costiera Amalfitana!


"MATERA - Starting from the South. Matera - actually its ancient town, called I Sassi - is the most incredible example of a prehistorical - troglodyte - settlement in the Mediterranean region. The "Sassi" are houses dug into the tuff rock, many of which are actually only caverns.
It was inscribed in the UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1993, and deserves to be seen!"


"ALBEROBELLO - TERRA DEI TRULLI! Another UNESCO World Heritage Site! The Trulli - made of roughly worked limestone boulders, with pyramidal, domed or conical roofs - are typical of this region, but unknown in the rest of the world. Another Must see, and furthermore there was a very good restaurant in Alberobello - Il Poeta Contadino"


"TRULLI SOVRANO - Located at Piazza Sacramento, it is a unique example among the Trulli, as it is the only two-storey trullo. You may visit as a museum!"


"RAVELLO - At the top of a promontory well above the sea, Ravello has probably the most beautiful view of the the Costiera Amalfitana. It also has a touch of culture, as is visited by many artists and intelectualls. It has fabulous gardens and magnificent villas, including Villa Rufolo, which inspired D.H. Lawrence for "Lady Chatterley's Lover", and provided Richard Wagner with the setting for "Parsifal"


"COSTIERA AMALFITANA - Beautiful views. The only problem are the users of the "lambretta", as well as all other Italian drivers. It's even worse than you can imagine! Avoid week-ends, if you do not want to run the risk of heart attack. At every turn of the road - and it has hundreds, if not thousands - you'll most probably face one of those guys running entirely on his left side of the road, i.e., occupying your space... UFF!"


"SORRENTO HILTON - After such an experience, the salvation was the beautiful view from the small swimming pool at the top floor of the Hilton Sorrento"


"SORRENTO - Probably best known from the Ernesto de Curtis 1904 "Torna a Surriento" song, sang by Mario Lanza, Pavarotti, and others, Sorrento has its own merits, and deserves a stop, not only to get to Capri!"


"CAPRI - BLUE GROTTO. Revealed by the German writer August Kopisch in 1826, it became the symbol of the island of Capri. The sunlight enters the Grotto, as you do when the sea is not too rough, through the cavity in the picture and creates a blue reflection that illuminates the cavern"


"BLUE GROTTO - Familly picture"


"I FARAGLONI from sea - Another well known Capri spot. The term Faraglioni describes a geological formation in which high cliffs have been eroded by the sea and the wind so that sections are now entirely isolated from mainland"


"I FARAGLONI from land - Seen from the Tragara - the most famous and best liked walking passage in Capri. The Tragara has many beautiful villas along its side, and ends with a panoramic terrace facing the Faraglioni, probably the best known view of Capri all over the world"


"POMPEII - destroyed during the catastrophic volcanic eruption of the Vesuvius in 79 AD, and lost for sixteen centuries, it's an amazing experience after all these years. Here, the Villa of the Faun, so called because it contained Pompeii's most famous statue, the dancing faun. It was the largest house in town"


"POMPEII - BAKER'S HOUSE - An oven in which you could still cook pizza!"


"POMPEII - FORUM - The centre of the city's political, economic, religious and administrative life. So large, it must have been magnificent, but it looks a bit empty today, and seen from here the Vesuvio still threatens!"


"POMPEII - THEATER. The big theater could sit 5,000 people, and is beautifully preserved"


"VESUVIUS - Up the hill, on the way to the crater!"


"VESUVIUS - The crater: it's huge!"


"BAY OF NAPLES - The view of the Bay from the top of Mount Vesuvius is awesome!"


"VESUVIUS FROM SORRENTO - But the view to the volcano from Sorrento is unbeatable"