Unpacking

Hi everyone, I've been home for about two days and I've just been resting and trying to get my life back. For those of you who live in the Atlanta area at the moment, you probably remember the enormous storm on Thursday. Well, I was trying to fly out of Hartsfield-Jackson that day (after arriving from London), along with a few other thousand people, and it did not work out so well for nearly all of us. I consider myself fortunate that I actually arrived home that day. I met a family who were trying to catch a cruise in Rome, and another German family who would have to wait in Atlanta for two additional days. The only bad thing that happened to me was that I was up for 26 hours non stop, and definitely crashed once I got home. Everything is fine, and I really miss Rome and Italian food. Today I even made my family this Italian dish I had learned. Since I am home, I guess this is the last post I will write, or perhaps group of posts, depending on how much I can cover in each post. I managed to travel to some other Italian cities after my 10 weeks in Rome, and wow they were really different. I really didn't have enough time, so I'm definitely scoping out places to see the next time I find myself back in Italy.

I went to Venice, which is a group of islands shaped like a fish on a lagune. The people's accent are very different from that in Rome. Imagine something like a Frank Sinatra singing "signorina" and it will give you a better idea. I was very excited to go to Venice, but when my friend and I got out of the airport, we were immediately eaten alive by mosquitoes. Good thing we brought some cortizone cream. My number one complaint about Venice (other than the mosquitoes) is that it is sooooooooooo touristy. If you think about it, Venice doesn't really get any money from anything other than from tourism. I basically was not allowed to take a picture inside any building, and that includes most shops, probably because they wanted to sell more postcards and souvenirs. Nearly everything in the city was geared for tourists, and I heard that native Venetians are moving out because they can no longer afford to live in the city anymore. Tourism aside, the city was very quaint and cute, but I can't imagine living there for long. The streets are very narrow and the abundance of bridges with steps make wheeled vehicles impossible. Trash collection involves a man lugging a two-wheeled cart around and throwing bags behind him. The best thing to use is your own two feet and boats. We were very lucky to get a room in the center of town.

It really is amazing to see an entire city on the water. The taxis, buses, and even ambulances were boats. The ambulances disobeyed the "no wake" regulations just as police cars ignore speed limits even in the absence of an emergency. While there, I got to visit an island called Murano, which is famous for its Venetian glass. There was a glass museum with little miniature cities made of glass inside. I also got to visit the Doge's palace, with all its extravagance and themed rooms.

Here I am going on the gondola ride. Unfortunately our gondolier wasn't enthusiastic enough to sing.

The patron saint of Venice is St. Mark the Evangelist. The Piazza San Marco has the enormous cathedral the Basilica of San Marco, which contains the relic remains of the saint stolen from Alexandria around 780. They wanted to have the body of a very famous saint to rival those of Peter and Paul, which are held in the papal state of Rome. Also to be different from Rome, a lot of their architecture and even interpretation of the Bible reflect Eastern Orthodox tradition rather than Roman Catholic. Back in the day Venice was a huge merchant city since it sat at the cross way of land and sea trade to western Europe. Now Venice pretty much does everything for tourists. I couldn't even take pictures anywhere.

I am on the balcony on top of San Marco basilica overlooking San Marco Square

We also went to Naples for a couple of days. Naples is a beautiful city right on the coast. In Naples we stayed in an apartment owned by an elderly man who was simply delightful. Like other cities built in the need of defense, our apartment was on top of a huge hill. The owner, named Giuseppe, gave us both a ride on the back of his Vespa to bring us and our luggage up to the apartment. We spent most of our time in Naples walking along the sea, checking out castles, and oh yeah, visiting POMPEI.

This is the coast along Naples. You can see the Castel d'Uovo on the left and Mt. Vesuvius in the background. It's actually much larger and more menacing in person.

On the beach in Naples, which was mostly rocks and not sand, there were chains of locks around lamp posts. Closer investigation revealed that they were locks of lovers' names professing their eternal love.

Pompei was a very fun experience, as I absolutely LOVE ancient Roman ruins, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as Ostia Antica. Many of the rooms were locked up and unaccessible. Perhaps they want to better preserve the rooms or to earn more money, but they offer tickets valid over several days and probably rotate the open rooms. Pompei is much larger than Ostia Antica and we spent about seven hours walking around. There were rooms of very well-preserved wall paintings and frescoes. Unfortunately, pretty much every statue, notable fresco, or mosaic had been removed and placed in the National Archeological Museum of Naples.

This is a wall fresco from the Villa of Mysteries depicting some sort of Egyptian ritual.

A fresco of the birth of Venus behind an elaborate fountain in the large gardens behind another villa.

We then returned to Rome for two days as I was flying out of Rome to London. I finally made a trip to the Vatican museums. We took a guided tour and saw some very famous statues, rooms, paintings, etc. The guided tour lasted only 2 hours, and there were years left to see!!! I really regretted not going to the museums more when I was in Rome. I will have to go again each time that I return to Rome.

This is the famous statue of Laocoön which scholars only had written documents about. It was rumored to have decorated the Domus Aurea, or the Golden Palace belonging to Nero. It was unearthed around Michelangelo's time and subsequently identified. Laocoön was a Trojan priest who had warned the Trojans of the gift of the horse, but no one listened to him and gods on the side of the Greeks sent sea serpents to eat him and his sons. At the time of its discovery, however, the right arm of Laocoön was missing, and they completed the piece according to inference. The display of this statue was the beginning of the "Museums" of the Vatican, some 500 years ago. Hundreds of years later, the arm was actually discovered, and they realized that the statue should have been reconstructed according to Michelangelo's suggestions. So, the arm was reattached and the other additions removed.

In London I did not get to see much as I was only staying for one day to catch my flight. However, I did get to go on the Eye of London, which is a huge ferris wheel overlooking the Thames river.

In this picture, you can see the next cart of the Eye, the houses of Parliament attached to Big Ben, as well as Westminster Abbey right behind them.

I also got to take a short tour of the Tower of London. It was so strange to think that Rome had its heyday around 2000 years ago and then around the Renaissance, while most of England's significant history and buildings come from the Middle Ages. It really goes to show that the times of great development for a country or region has marked its romanticization in novels today.

Now that I am home, I don't have anything to eat! I have gotten so spoiled by the cheap olive oil, cheese, and meats sold in Italy. I think all of these things are controlled products from Italy, which means they can not even be produced elsewhere and must be imported. What a tragedy. I bought Parmiggiano Reggiano from Kroger and it was just NOT the same. Oh well, I guess I can look forward to the next time I'm in Italy for good eats.

I really do miss Italy already, and I am so thankful for this opportunity to have lived there. I met a world of wonderful people who I will keep in touch with and my outlook on life and the world has changed substantially. Thank you IRES!!!!! I can't wait to share more about my experiences at our next meetings (are we having more?).