Vatican Museum.

A few days ago we went to the Vatican Museum that is in its own country in the middle of Rome, Italy. It was full of old and very valuable artworks that the Catholic Church held onto so that we can see it all so well today.

Our tour guide was called Angelo and he was half Italian and half American so he was really good at English and was full of facts and info so we learnt heaps off of him.

The museum was huge. My three favourite rooms were;  
1. The hall with all the tapestries with the maps of Italy and all of its regions from hundreds of years ago.   They were enormous and they had so much detail.
 

 

2. A round room that only had one massive red marble (porphhyry) tub for the Emperor to bathe in after he feasted until he vomited. It is the biggest full slab of red marble in the world and it is very expensive. Everything was very expensive.  

3.  The Sistine Chapel. Every wall and the whole ceiling are full of divine paintings. The ceiling and the main wall was painted by Michelangelo. He didn’t want to paint the ceiling but the Pope made him do it. When he painted ‘The Last Judgement’ on the main wall he painted all the people nude to meet God.  Michelangelo hated the Curator of the Museum so he painted him on the wall with donkey ears and a snake biting his wee wee. After Michelangelo died the Curator painted covers on them. There were lots of interesting and funny parts in the painting.

I would love to see the Vatican Museum again.
It was immensely awesome.

M@D!$oN

The Road to Ravello.

We woke up feeling a little sorry for ourselves this morning and so a slow morning doing school work was the easy way out for our aching thighs and calf muscles.  By 2 o’clock in the afternoon we were a bit more nimble and headed out for a coffee. Ravello was our destination as we had heard from Ollie and Lizette (fellow travellers from Denmark staying below us in Furore) that it was a pretty place in the hills to visit.

Every single time we leave our apartment here in Furore we have 6 of the tightest hairpin bends followed by a series of cliff turns and overhanging by-passes to traverse. The trip to Ravello was no different apart from having to drive through the seaside town of Amalfi in which every car has to go through the one round-about that is connected to the main bus terminal and car-park. The traffic jam here was completely insane. It was an utter dead-lock and we were in the middle of it. Some young Italian men left their scooters and directed cars and busses ahead, other older Italian men directed with their hands from behind their steering wheels and Paul simply drove the CRV like it was a piece of limp spaghetti around impossibly tight turns and between busses full of tourists and policemen blowing whistles. Even though it was complete chaos, everyone was in good humour and the time passed eventfully.

Some of the frescoes by the side of the road we pass everyday

Ravello was in fact a lovely little town with a quaint piazza by the side of a church and some ancient ruins. Here we found exquisite Italian ceramics and beautiful hand-painted dinner settings to dream about dinner parties and alfresco meals at home.
www.ceramichedalena.com

After our coffee and biscotti we continued on through the town to the Gardens of Villa Cimbrone.         www.villacimbrone.com

  
Six hectares of historic parkland perched above the Amalfi coast. Since the 11^th century this property has been owned by nobles and enormously wealthy families as its much desired position and expansive fertile land were richly prized. In the early 1900s a very wealthy and influential Englishman came to Ravello after his Grand Tour to rest and recover from the early death of his much loved wife. The intense happiness he felt here spurred him on to buy the property in 1904 and turn it into “the finest place in the world” as a dedication to his beloved wife. The landscaped gardens are a mix of traditional English and Italian.

The Terrace of Infinity is a natural balcony, adorned with 18^th century marble busts.  It is incomparable to any view and both time and distance feel infinite from this point.  Other sites to behold at this luxurious estate were ‘The Avenue of Immensity’, ‘Eve’s Grotto’, ‘The Rose Terrace’ and ‘The Temple of Bacchus’. All exquisite and just ever so slightly left to overgrow to add to its romance and timeless splendour.

SplendidLee

The Pathway of the Gods.

We had never heard of it before but right here at our little village is the start of one of the most famous and picturesque footpaths in the world. The Path of the Gods takes you from “heaven” to the sparkling Mediterrenean sea.
www.in-italia.com/italy/campania/hiking-path-sentieri-degli-dei/

Bomerano is 635m above sea level and is the closest place for us to buy our supplies. We started at the piazza with an espresso and then as the clock at the Church of St. Matteo Apostolo chimed 9 we set off along the daring mule track that for centuries was the only connection between Agerola and Positano. 

Along the way we admired terraced grape and lemon yards, fig trees bursting with fruit and olive trees growing in the most unbelievable places. Ancient rock houses still existed next to other incredible cliffside architecture.

The walk down covers a distance of 7 kilometres along the high precipitous cliffs and deep gorges facing the cobalt blue waters of the Salerno Gulf.  The track was precarious and breathtaking with one section from the hamlet of Nocelle to the coast road descending rapidly with a series of 1700 steps. 
Ooow, my jelly legs!

We stopped at the top of Positano for a well-earned ice-cream and heard a nearby clock tower chime 12 noon. An invigorating 3 hour walk to one of Italy’s most famous beaches but we weren’t there yet. It took us another hour to walk through the town of Positano, looking in the windows and stopping for a Panini with a view until we got to walk along the black sand and then into the clear water of the Mediterranean.  Ahhhhh!  BLISS.

 It was gorgeous being in the water and looking back at the mountain we had just walked down. The girls loved the gentle waves and we couldn’t rush them out. We knew we wouldn’t make the 3pm bus. We let the 4pm bus go but we couldn’t afford to miss the 5pm bus, so back up to the top of Positano we trudged and waited on the side of the very narrow road for the bus to Amalfi. 

If we thought we could relax on that bus trip home we were very wrong…

AchingLee

Forget the Walk. What about the bus ride!!

 

Ok, the walk was great but if you were at Disneyland you would pay big money for this ride. From Positano to Amalfi is about 15 klms, then from Amalfi to Furore (home) is about the same distance again, on "not for the faint hearted" roads that have umpteen hairpin bends and snakes its way around the amazing coastline. What there is though is a sheer drop on one side that would mean certain death for any unfortunate car or bus. 

We chose bus and the ride was on! 

At breathtaking speeds and equally breathtaking braking, the bus driver manouvered his machine without worry or care, scraping plants on the side of the road down the side of the bus and not stopping to slow down for oncoming traffic, only until there was absolutely no chance of scraping through would he then throw out the anchor. Then comes the Mexican stand-off with tooting and waving. Funny enough, nobody really gets upset and it normally ends up with about 10 cars reversing and the bus (taking paint off both sides) proceeding for another acceleration that is like coming out of a cannon. I never have experienced a bus trip doing those speeds especially up hills with sheer drops. 

To his credit though we all made it home alive and can now confirm all rumours about the Italian drivers.


Paul

POMPEII.

Yesterday we went to Pompeii. Pompeii is a 2000 year old city that stood at the foot of a volcano. In the year 79AD the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted, lava and ash covered the city of Pompeii. 200 years ago people found it by accident because they were digging a canal.

The ash preserved the city so it looks like it was frozen in time.  The city looked old with no doors or roofs and we got to go inside some houses and see where they would have slept and where they would have cooked their dinners and sold their spices. In all the houses, the beds and pillows were made out of solid rock.

When we walked down the street they were made out of huge rocks and in between some rocks there were these pieces of white marble. In the light of the slaves candles the white would glow like cats eyes.

In most of the houses there were frescoes and because there was no light under a 7 metre high layer of ash they still have a very good colour and you can still see what the picture is about.

Down the roads there were 3 raised rocks and they used them for when it floods they can walk across without getting their feet wet. 

You could also see where the chariots came racing down the path and we can tell because we can see the grooves in the road. 

They also have heaps of Greek columns and you can see clearly where a roof would have been. 

We also saw plaster moulds of 2 slaves and you can see 2000 year old teeth and a 2000 year old skull. 

I really loved seeing Pompeii and I hope I go again.

M@D!$oN

Welcome to Italy.

We left Brač by car ferry from Sumartin to the mainland at Markaska. After 2 wonderful weeks in paradise it was time to move on to our next destination for one night near Dubrovnik. Our GPS said it would take about an hour, but it turned out to be four. It didn’t bother me much, but Maisy felt car sick the whole time driving along the windy coast road. I don’t blame her though, going round sharp bends whilst being able to see a steep cliff less than a metre next to you. It was pretty frightening. We followed the road through Bosnia Herzegovina’s small stretch of coastline and stopped for lunch then drove back into Croatia.

Dobar dan / Zdravo         Hvala         Do videnja / cao

 The address for the house we were meant to be staying at was ‘The Red House, Ivanica’ and we really didn’t know where we’d end up. Finally the GPS said that we weren’t staying in Croatia, we were staying in Bosnia Herzegovina. To get there we had to go through Border security, and to get past them you needed car insurance, a green card saying your car is allowed into Bosnia Herzegovina and more paper work.  We only had car insurance and the very large border security man was really grumpy, stubborn and mean ( and also very large). We were NOT going to pass unless we had the ‘green card’, we either had to go all the way back to Dubrovnik and buy a green card for 30 euros or turn around and not enter. After a long tiring day of driving dad accidently called the guard Croatian and that was it. He started yelling. He took all our passports and stormed into his office. Dad was also getting a bit irritated and he marched in after him.     By the time dad got to the office, the guard was half way through writing notes from our passports so dad took them and did a U-turn around the gates and drove off. I think we just got KICKED OUT OF BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA. So it was all the way back down windy roads to get to Dubrovnik. Dad found a cheap room and that was where we slept for the night. Maisy and I found some kids to play with and it wasn’t that bad. We walked down to watch the sunset and the city walls turned pink.

The next morning mum was ready and keen on walking the entire circuit of the Dubrovnik’s old town city walls. So whilst mum walked around Maisy, dad and I did the shopping for lunch and dinner. We picked mum up and drove to the ferry port where we boarded our Jadrolinija ferry to Bari in Italy.

The boat trip lasted 7 hours, but we were on one hour earlier. On the boat we played cards, did 3 hours of school work, ate lunch, had a Rummikub championship (Which I won!), watched the sunset with a blood red moon rising and ate dinner. By that time it was 8pm, time to get off. We were all queuing up ready to get in our cars or walk off the boat, when the doors finally opened it was chaos.  Lots of the Italians were barging and pushing their way in front of us when we were at the front and pushing everyone out of the way all because THEY wanted to get out. One lady whacked me on my cheek on purpose, patted me on the head and almost pushed me over. Luckily dad caught me though. From the start we had a slight feeling that they were going to be a bit impatient.

 Sunset on the Adriatic

Leaving Dubrovnik

The ferry stopped at Bari where we were to stay the night.
Our GPS told us that there was no such place as the address we had been given so we tried asking some of the local shop keepers but they couldn’t speak a word of English, so we showed them the address and they pointed down a narrow alley. We went up a dark street with lots of street kids who were smoking and in rag like clothes. That explained why the accommodation was so cheap! The ghetto that we were supposed to stay in had 8 units in it, all with no names and we didn’t want to wake anyone up at 10pm at night to find our accommodation. Dad was almost certain that if we parked our car outside, we would never get it back again so we decided we would move on.

Bari at night

Buon Giorno / Ciao          Grazie              Arriverderci

During a stop at the petrol station, my last K9 tooth wobbled out of my mouth and lots of blood came out. At 11pm we stopped in the middle of nowhere at a very, very posh hotel for us. This was our only option. So dad payed for our family to stay there. We all went to bed straight away.

 Another day started and we were only supposed to drive 3 hours to our next destination, the Amalfi Coast. When it had been 2 hours and 35 minutes there was a sudden stop in the traffic along the coast from Salerno. Mum then realised that only motorbikes were coming in the other direction, all the men were riding very slowly and the women on the back were crying. Mum suspected there had been a crash so she walked up to see what had happened like everyone else and to her surprise only 15 cars ahead of us around the bend was a dented Fiat and a smashed Ducati motor bike. There were lots of people around the rider trying to do CPR and crying. Mum didn’t want to get close because she could see there was no hope for the poor man.
   30 minutes later dad went up again to see if an ambulance had come yet. Even though it had come it was too late. There was a white sheet with blood stains over the man.

Another half an hour and a police man on a motorbike came whizzing up. Dad cleverly thought ahead and was one of the first cars to turn around on that very narrow road and head back down the long windy roads. About 100 cars behind us we saw a wedding car with the saddest looking bride in it.  Then 50 cars after that there was another car carrying a big wreath of flowers and the van behind that had a coffin. It was a hearse on the way to the funeral. We felt very sorry for all these people caught in a dreadful traffic jam.

We drove the back way around the mountains and just as we came out of a tunnel we kept seeing lots of Pizzerias and that made us feel very hungry so we decided we would stop for a quick lunch of bruschetta and spaghetti bolognaise. It was one of my favourite pasta meals ever along with mum’s chicken and pesto pasta. Halfway through our meal we saw the same funeral van and lots and lots of traffic which had been turned back from either side to get to the other side. We were very lucky dad thought ahead and saved us time!

 Our waitress, Jilda, was very entertaining and did a spot the difference game on herself to a group of English walking tourists and even gave the person who guessed correctly an espresso coffee cup. She also asked where we were staying and rang up the lady who owned the accommodation. The lady came 5 minutes later and lead the way for us. We would have had no chance in a million years on finding it otherwise. It was behind 5 farms each growing their own supply of corn, grapes and tomatoes. But once we got there it was completely breathtaking.

We learnt a new word today, vertiginous, meaning dizzy, giddy and woozy, so high it causes a whirling feeling even though you aren’t afraid of heights and you feel like you could easily fall. Well that is exactly how it feels like here. We are staying on a very, very high cliff 700 metres above the sea. In front of us we can see a small field of grape vines full of black grapes for wine then the land just drops away to a steep cliff and 180 degrees of water around us which we can easily see and looks like we could if we wanted to just jump off 10 metres in front of us and touch the sea. It is so amazing and a bit frightening at the same time.

Charlotte