Sunday, October 3, 2004

Central/South Italy

Florence - Siena - Rome - Naples - Mt Vesuvius - Herculaneum - Pompeii - Sorrento - Positano - Capri - Amalfi - Atrani - Ravello - Salerno - Paestum - Materna - Lecce - Brindisi

Ciao!

Hope all is well back home seeing I’ll be back there in 28 days? from now!!

Florence as mentioned in my last email, is a beautiful white marbled facade town, home of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Birthplace of the Renaissance, Florence is full of lovingly crafted marble sculptures and rare paintings, unfortunately contained within expensive museums such as the famed Uffizi gallery, which I had intended to visit but ran out of time (and patience waiting in the extremely lengthy queue of people waiting to see works of art such as Botticelli's "Birth of Venus".

Anyway, did get some amazing views of the city from above in an old monetary on top of a hill overlooking Florence, which also contained a beautiful old cemetery with elegant marble gravestones with vines growing on them and all that sort of thing.

Went to Siena the next day, a small town in Tuscany, where all the buildings are the colour of, well, siena. Probably due to the type of building materials they had available at the time, but I think secretly it's a good way to avoid having to wash the walls (they are filthy but the siena colour hides the dirt). No amount of rain (and indeed there was plenty of it that day!) could remove all the dirt caked on the walls. Nice Romanesque town though, with it's chocolate wedge like shaped/shaped main piazza.

Went to Rome next, a glorious city with a glorious past, shame about the people though. I've found that Italians can be either exceptionally nice, or exceptionally nasty! Got a 50 euro fine with other hostel folk at the train station because we had unvalidated tickets due to somehow accidentally bypassing and missing the validation machines there! Italian ticket inspectors are perfect incarnations of evil, no excuses or explanations are accepted!

Was lucky at least to be in Rome for this huge festival called "La Bianco Notte" (White Night) which was an one night only thing that went from 8pm till 6am! Watched "Cirque de Soleil" do spectacular circus stuff at the Spanish Steps, then with hostel folk enjoyed drinks at a bar in front of the Pantheon at 2am while people watching - Rome was heaving with people of all walks of life that night, moving around in all directions to watch other performances, bands and events going on. Ended up at an outdoor rave at the main train station which was fun!

Getting up the next day you would find Rome devoid of life till about noon when bleary-eyed people would emerge for lunch. The amazing thing was all the stages that were set up and the bottles and rubbish scattered everywhere last night had miraculously disappeared! The only time I’ve seen Italians efficient at something (besides brushing you off if they don't want to deal with you)!

Went to the Vatican and St Peter's Church again to warrant a better look than when I was here doing the Contiki tour last year. Turns out that, according to my journals, I visited the Vatican and St Peter's Church EXACTLY one year ago to the day! Divine intervention perhaps?

Also went to into the Colosseum because people kept telling me "you're in Rome, you HAVE to see the Colosseum! "So I did, and it was indeed impressive, though smaller inside than I imagined. Also had a good look at the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, which is where all the ruins of Ancient Rome are located and you'll find broken columns here, a statue of a god missing a head there, and a lot of unidentifiable piles of rubble and buildings that were important at some stage in history but only get a sidewards glance today.

Checked out Bernini's famous baroque sculpture of Ecstasy of St Teresa, the only sculpture I know of a saint having a... well, an orgasm! Satisfied, from Rome I headed to Naples.

Naples is a city that you either really love or hate. The dirty streets with garbage filled gutters, beautiful views of the bay, high crime rate, very friendly people, broken down houses/apartments, good quality cheap food.... Naples is also the birthplace of pizza (so guess what I ate there?) It was pretty good, usually tomato paste, mozzarella cheese made from buffalo milk, and fresh basil leaves.... also good (but not for the heart) is the deep fried cheeses, potatoes and rice dumplings they make! Bellisimo!

If you want a cheap thrill, try crossing the road in Naples. Drivers in their cars, buses, mopeds and bikes are crazy, and the trick to crossing the road is to not hesitate and just do it, making sure you look at drivers in the eye as you do so!

Went to Mt Vesuvius, which is a very large active volcano which caused the demise of the inhabitants of Herculaneum and the famous Pompeii. Went up to the very top to see the crater, which still had smoke coming up from particular areas. Great views of Naples bay and surrounding villages from there!

Then went to Herculaneum, which was remarkably well preserved having being buried under lava mud. You can walk through the old ancient fishing town and see colourful frescos, piazzas, shops and pubs as it was in that time. Interestingly some of the architectural styles haven't changed too much from there to some places in Europe.

Pompeii is pretty much the same as Herculaneum, only 5 times bigger, and contains an amphitheatre, more richer lavish villas/piazzas, and of course, the local brothel featuring mosaics of...well, use your imagination! Pompeii was one of those places I’ve always wanted to see as a kid so now I can cross that off my list!

Went down to Sorrento for the start of my Amalfi Coast adventure, the Amalfi coast is supposed to be one of the most beautiful coasts in the world, and it didn't fail to disappoint! Rugged cliff faces and coast line with white washed houses staggered on the edge, connected by a series of white steps, twisting narrow pathways and tunnels, opening up to small intimate piazzas, local houses, or the expanse of the cobalt blue Mediterranean sea! Though the sea is very salty and the beaches aren't very good (pebbles and black sand) - does not compare to Australia beaches at all!

Ok, so first was Sorrento, a popular resort town, but nothing as exciting as the other towns. Has a cool old mill at bottom of ravine and extinct waterfall.

Went to Capri, an island off the coast, with its famous blue grotto! Didn't go in, was more amused by watching petrified tourists lying flat in small row boats in turbulent waves as row men valiantly grab hold of a dodgy rope and pull them all into a tiny hole in the cliff face where inside lies a cave with water bright blue from the sun reflecting off the bottom. Views from the chairlift at the top of the island at Anacapri town were amazing! Also the famous Via Grupp road, a picturesque road meandering through the cliff wall, and the rock of the legendary sirens, though the only sirens you see today are the pretty topless Italian girls sunbathing on it...

Positano was another resort town, the most expensive and scenic part of the Amalfi coast, filled with designer clothes shops, restaurants and tourist shops that you can only look at but not afford to buy things from!

Amalfi (trying to keep this email short now) has a spectacular duomo cathedral with lots of Byzantine gold and mosaic influences, also contains the tomb of St Andrew the apostle.

Atrani has the cathedral that inspired M.C Escher with his famous "waterfall" drawing. In fact Atrani has a lot of Escheresque qualities to it.

Ravello, on a cliff on top of Atrani, has beautiful villas and gardens, once a residence of Wagner (this guy's been everywhere!), choral orchestral performances now perform in the gardens at dusk near the cliff edge with spectacular views and groves of lemon trees where they make their famous limoncello, a lemon flavoured strong liquor. Hic.

Salerno is the end of the Amalfi coast, nothing terribly exciting there, I only stayed there to do a day trip to Paestum, where you would find 3 Greek Doric temples standing in a middle of a field of poppies (when in season of course) and ruins.

From Salerno I went to Materna (rocky Basilicata region), which is a small town of stone houses (and cave lodgings) built on the slopes of a steep ravine, timeless, almost like living in a town in ancient Rome, most of it still hasn't got running water, electricity or gas as people were relocated 40 years ago due to Malaria epidemic and have only just started moving back in. The place seems almost deserted, with rock churches with Byzantine decorative motifs, and the place is stunning at night from the top of the Cathedral overlooking the town below...definitely a favourite of mine in Italy.

Went to Lecce, which is a small town at the heel of Italy, known for it's refined "Lecce Baroque" style, there is a church there with pretty cool gargoyles of mythical creatures and giants...

Then from Brindisi I went to catch a ferry to Corfu, after a turmulous start that will be part of next email...

Ciao!
James

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