Pisa - partially perpendicular but picture perfect

Pisa is another 'Ohmygollygosh' place - we all know what's there, but it is not until you walk around the corner and enter the Campo dei Miracolo ('Field of Dreams') where it stands, that you realise what an awesome sight the campanile, or Leaning Tower of Pisa, actually is. It is 54 metres high, surrounded by lush lawns and adjacent to the Duomo, Battistero and Camposanto cemetery. The lean of the tower seems quite pronounced, however it is in fact 4.1 degrees off the perpendicular (which is better than the 5.5 degrees before stabilisation in the late 1990s). All of the buildings are white marble which lends an ethereal atmosphere. The Camposanto, which is contained in a large building surrounding lawns and gardens, is said to contain soil that was shipped from Calvary during the crusades and is reputed to reduce cadavers to skeletons within days. There are many Roman sarcophagie, tombs and statues, including one of the famous mathematician Fibonacci. Of course we took the usual photgraphs of each other holding up the tower (as did every other person there) and we heard an interesting rumour: the Hilton hotel chain is negotiating to purchase the tower to convert it into a luxury hotel - the Tiltin' Hilton. Today we are visiting our Volterra landlady's home village, Casola de Val d'Elsa and tomorrow morning we have to leave this beautiful area, with heavy hearts. Next stop - Milan for just one night, then fly to Barcelona.

Living the good life in Volterra...........

We have really settled in to the laid-back lifestyle of Volterra. To try otherwise would be pointless. All shops in the town shut down for siesta between 1pm and 5pm and those who aren't engaged in eating and drinking between those time must go home for a sleep. Our temporary home, Casa Selci, is more than 200 years old. Built as stables, with space upstairs for grain storage, it was only converted to human accommodation by the current owners about ten years ago. Volterra has its roots in 3,000 years of history. The theatre of Vallebona survives from the time of Augustus and suggests the importance of Volterra under Roman domination. Volterra is surrounded by 12th century town walls and is criss-crossed with narrow cobbled streets filled with palaces, tower houses and churches. A dominant feature is the imposing Fortezza Medicea, now a prison (admission: one felony). Volterra has most of the works of art from the Etruscan, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance periods and the Etruscan Museum is one of the oldest public museums of Europe. Even the livestock here appear to be well-read. We have enjoyed visiting the Duomo, Baptistry, Palazzio Vitta and the Roman Theatre and Baths. Tomorrow we're leaning towards visiting Pisa and the coast.

Tantalising Tuscany........

After a hair-raising exit through the narrow, busy streets of Florence, driving on the right side (clearly the wrong side)of the road in our brand-new, rented Mercedes, we enjoyed a wonderful cruise through the Tuscan countryside, arriving at the gorgeous lttle town of Volterra and our home for the next week, a charming little medieval villa called Casa Selci. Volterra is enclosed by a high stone wall built about 2,500 years ago. Our villa is high on a hill adjacent to the wall, so we enjoy spectacular views of the countryside beyond the town. We have a large private garden and swimming pool and are enjoying the peace and quiet, with the opportunity to simply sit in the garden and read and not have to re-pack every day. Each day we walk down to the local shops and purchase our fresh pasta, meats and vegies, to enable John to try his hand at cooking with local produce. The Italian wines are incredibly cheap and delicious, and we have found a delightful panettiere for mouth-watering pastries. Yesterday we drove to Siena and only became lost twice - once on the way there and once on the way back. Siena is regarded as one of the finest examples of a 14th century Tuscan town. We visited the Duomo, its Battistero and Crypt, the adjacent Museo dell O'pera del Duomo, the Santa Maria della Scala (medieval hospital) where we saw magnificent 15th century frescoes by De Bortoli. Spent a bit of time in the main town square, which is shaped like a scallop shell, and climbed a tight spiral staircase for a spectacular view over Siena. Eventually found our way out of Siena and 'home' for another quiet evening ......not. The local flag-twirling team, with their drums/brass band accompaniment spent the evening practising in an adjacent field until 11pm. But it was fun to watch and listen. Next - more of the same.

Fantastic Florence.....

Internet connections are a bit hard to come by in Volterra, hence we are a few days behind. Florence is truly a city of history perpetuated through art. At every turn there are magnificent paintings, frescoes, statues - housed in equally magnificent buildings or lining the squares and streets. Our hotel was in the heart of the historic and artistic quarter and we were just a few minutes walk from the Galleria del Accademie, where several Michalengelo statues and paintings are housed. Here we saw the magnificient statue of David, sculpted by Michelangelo in 1504 at the age of 29. Although several metres tall, it is perfectly proportioned and breathtakingly beautiful. We were unable to photograph it but a replica was on display outside the Palazzo Vecchio, where the original stood until 1873. The outside of the adjacent Uffuzi Gallery was lined with statues of past greats including Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Macchiavelli, Donatello and Gallileo. Another highlight was the Capelle Medicee, the burial place of the Medici grand dukes. The chapel itself is breathtaking, with its dome reaching a height of 67 metres. The highly-decorated urns, all made of silver, contain bones from the bodies (creepy). On to the Duomo - Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore - which is the fourth largest cathedral in the world. Begun in 1296, it took 150 years to complete and has the spectacular ceiling frescoes that we have come to expect of Italian churches. Space precludes us from detailing all the magnificent sights, however our final venture in Florence was a stroll across the 14th century Ponte Vecchio (bridge), originally lined with butcher shops until the Medicis built a corridor under the bridge to link two palaces. Since then it has been the home to expensive jewellery stores. Next stop - Volterra, in the heart of Tuscany.

Delightful Positano and Awesome Vatican

A delightful day yesterday - a hair-raising bus ride from Sorrento to the little seaside town of Positano. We were dropped at the top of the cliff above the town and had to walk a kilometre or so down. Stopped to admire a church on the way and met an ex-pat Briton who visited 34 years ago and stayed. On his recommendation had luscious pastries at a little cafe just above the beach. In all, a delightful town made of narrow roads and alleys all leading to its beach. Fortunately a local bus took us back up to meet the Sorrento bus. Today was an exhausting 10-hour, 10-kilometre trek around the Vatican and other highlights of Rome, ending at Rome Termini Station to validate our Eurail passes. Visited the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel - just looked up in awe at what one man could achieve in 900 days of painting. Saint Peter's Basilica also defies description - an enormous structure with magnificent paintings and statues at every turn. Spanish It is impossible to take a photograph that can possibly capture its grandeur. THen off to visit the Castel Saint Engelo, the Piazza Navona, Pantheon, the Forum excavations and the Steps on the way back to our hotel. Tomorrow - Florence.

Pompeii, Sorrento and the Isle of Capri

Left Rome early Monday morning and after a brief tour of Naples arrived at Pompeii in time for lunch, then spent the afternoon wandering through this amazing place. The town of Pompeii, with a population of between 10,000 and 15,000 was totally covered by six metres of volcanic ash when the volcano on Mount Vesuvius erupted in August, 79AD. Three-quarters of the 44 hectare site has now been uncovered and it provides an eerie reconstruction of life in a small Italian town almost 2,000 years ago. All of the cobbled and paved streets are intact, many houses are still standing (although some had still not been repaired after a major earthquake just seventeen years before). Shops, brothels, temples and other buildings can be easily identified, either by their design or by the original mosaics and frescos that are still intact. A small ampitheatre, seating a few hundred people, is in such good condition - particularly the accoustics - that it is now used regularly for perfomances. We also saw plaster casts of two persons and a dog that had been created by a French archaeologist almost two hundred years ago, by simply filling the cavity left in the ash by the bodies with plaster of paris. Then on to Sorrento and booked into the most beautiful boutique, family-run hotel, tastefully decorated with antiques and hanging over the ocean. The dining room is accessed by a beautiful corridor which actually runs under the road and the dining room itself is right on the face of the cliff, high above the water, and with views across to Mount Vesuvius. To Capri this morning, the holiday island of the rich and famous, took the chair lift to the very top of the highest mountain for spectacular 360 degree views to Sorrento, Naples and Mount Vesuvius. Then a very hairy ride back down the mountain in a bus whose driver obviously has no concept of fear. Our personal tour guide, Paolo, made sure that we saw the best of what there was on Capri, including a beautiful church with its entire floor painted with a beautiful scene of the Garden of Eden, animals and all. Another magical day. Tomorrow we're off to Possitano under our own steam for a look, then back to Rome and a visit to the Vatican on Thursday morning.

Colossal Colosseum to gorgeous gelati......

Fortunately the weather in Rome cleared Sunday morning and it's now fine and sunny once again. Had another exhausting day Sunday, first walking the streets of Rome under our own steam and discovering magnificent buildings, including the stupendous Santa Maria degli Angeli basilica in the Piazza delia Repubbica. After lunch we took a guided tour that visited, among other places, the Piazza Venezia, the Piazza del Campidiglio (designed by Michelangelo) with many statues including one of Marcus Aurelus on horseback. Viewed the Roman Forum, where Julius Caesar was cremated, and the Basilica of Saint Paul, which contains a marble statue of Moses sculpted by Michelangelo. This statute was never completed, as Michelangelo was asked to paint the Cistine Chapel and never got back to it. The Basilica also displays chains that are said to have been used on Saint Peter before his execution. The highlight of the tour was a visit to the Colosseum which, according to our guide, was erected to pander to the local wealthy teenagers' thirst for gory entertainment. Slaves had regularly been killed to provide company for their wealthy masters when they died - a very popular spectator sport - and the government of the day saw this the construction of the Colosseum as an opportunity to expand the entertainment and make money from it. This entertainment was further expanded to include fights to the death between gladiators, and between gladiators and fierce animals. In fact, successful gladiators were treated like celebrities or pop stars. Finished the night with beautiful gelati at the Trevi Fountain, which is just a few steps from our Rome hotel. Next stop - Pompeii, Sorrento and the Isle of Capri.....

Sunny Santorini at Sunset

Our last night on Santorini was spent high above the caldera in a beautiful restaurant, watching the sun go down. It was truly spectacular. The mist across the water was ethereal. We enjoyed a delicious seafood platter and finished with baklava, all washed down with the local wine. Yesterday was spent flying from Santorini to Athens and then to Rome, where we are now ensconsed in our luxurious hotel overlooking the Trevi Fountain. The weather on arrival was raining and 15 degrees, quite a contrast to the 33 degrees with brilliant sunshine that we had enjoyed in the islands. We are now off to roam Rome......

Sunny Santorini........

Here we are in beautiful Santorini, temperature 33 degrees. Santorini is made up of volcanic lava, with huge unscalable cliffs and dramatic landscape. Prior to c.15000BC, Santorini was one large round island, however a volcanic eruption blew the island apart, and the centre sank into the sea, creating separate islands and a large basin of water between them, called the 'caldera'. It is thought that the land that sank was the lost City of Atalntis, as written about by Plato. We have been staying at a hotel on Perissa Beach, overlooking the black volcanic sand and the Aegean Sea. Yesterday we walked the steep path above the caldera, in the main town of Fira, with spectacular views over the volcano and surrounding islands. Like Mykonos, Fira is a sea of white buildings that seem to cling to the sheer cliffs. Last night we had a lovely mezee meal on the beach at Perissa and finished with the complimentary raki, a local spirit made from grape seeds and stems. It packs a powerful punch. Today we have moved to a family-run boutique hotel in Fira and will have our last meal in Greece watching the sun set over the caldera. Tomorrow, Rome .......

Naxos, naturally.......

First up, we're sorry for the occasional jumbled words in our blog. At times they just come out a bit different to what we put in and we don't know why or how to stop it happening. Yesterday was a brilliant but exhausting day spent on a nine-hour tour of the large island of Naxos, walking through the castle built by the Venetian conquerers in the 12th century, visiting several old inland villages, watching a famous potter at work, taste-testing at the local liqueur distillery, and inspecting churches dating back to the 6th century. There are 40 churches in the small Naxos township alone, and it seems that there are several churches, large and small, in each village, and one on every peak of the numerous mountains across the island. Some are so small that they only cater for two people. The countryside, though very rocky, abounds with fruits such as orange, lemon, plum, citron (which is used in the liqueur), as well as almond trees and thousands of olive trees, some 1,000 years old. Naxis is renowned for its marble and you can see several large marble quarries as you drive around. In fact one of the villages we visited was constructed almost totally from marble, including the paved streets. A beautiful meal at our hotel last night, a walk on the local beach this morning and, again, we are sad to have to leave such a beautiful place. But Santorini awaits.

Island hopping - Mykonos to Naxos

We were sad to leave Mykonos. We had Grown fond of our local restaurant, Ithaca, on the beach at Ornos (just down the hill from our hotel), où out waiter Michael spoiled us with Each night Complimentary dessert and a Mothers Day gift of olive oil soaps. Spent Mothers Day was relaxing on the beach, reading and snoozing. Much Needed R & R to recharge our batteries. This morning we took the high speed ferry to the island of Naxos with a short stop en route at Paros), the largest of the 200 Cyclades islands. Not as touristy as Mykonos, but lots of ancient sites for us to explore tomorrow. The god Apollo must have been well travelled as there is another temple to him here (as shown in our photos). Our accommodation here is fantastic - swimming pool, spa, tennis court and a three-room apartment overlooking the beach and with uninterrupted views to Naxos town and the Temple of Apollo.

.......Photos to go with Delphi Mykonos post...

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From Oracle to the Islands

On Thursday we visited the ancient city of Delphi, perched high on the Corinthian alps. This was the home of Apollo, around the 5th century BC. After driving through a couple of beautiful villages that seem to cling to the side of the granite mountain range, it was well worth the steep climb up the mountainside to reach the ancient ruins. We wandered through the Temple of Apollo and viewed the mystical stone that sat within the oracle (a building, not a person). We were enthralled at the huge stadium, still intact. The engineering of the time was amazingly precise and functional. Even the aqueducts for carrying water throughout the complex were still in place. Many years ago the French government offered to restorate Delphi, involving painstaking matching of stones and other relics to recreate the original Delphi. The Delphi Museum contains some beautiful sculptures back over two and a half thousand years, including a wonderful full-size bronze statue of a charioteer that was found buried under a landslide in about 300BC. When we returned to Athens we walked past anew Mercedes sports car that had been torched during the demonstration the previous day.

We now know why Shirley Valentine chose to stay here. Mykonos is everythig the travel brochures say it is - a sea of white buildings, with touches of blue, crystal clear waters and a hectic night life. We are staying at a beautiful hotel in a small fishing village about 4km from the main town and our private balcony gives a picture-perfect view over the Aegean Sea. Another beautiful meal at a restaurant on the beach, and our waiter spoiled us with complimentary home-made strawberry ice cream, slices of chocolate salami log and fresh fruit. It was a long waddle up the steep hill to bed and an undisturbed sleep. To be continued.........

Greece is the word........

It's hard to believe that this is our fourth country in a week - Australia, UAE, Turkey, now Greece. on the go all the time, with little sleep (although Elizabeth reckons it's just like doing night shift at TNH only much more exciting and much more fun).

After two visits to the Acropolis we are still in awe. It totally dominates Athens - you can see it from everywhere. Our hotel is just a few streets away and last night we dined at a beautiful terrace restaurant with a clear view of the floodlit Parthenon. The food was magnificent and generous - we were greeted with a complimentary ouzo and dip plate. Food here is fresh, served in generous proportions and reasonably priced, so weight loss through walking will have to compete with weight gain through eating.

Over the past two days we have visited the Acropolis museum, the ancient Olympic Stadium (where the first Modern Olympics were staged in 1896 and from where the Olympic torch sets out every four years); the Temple of Zeus; Hadrian's Gate; the Roman Agora and Ancient Agora; Parliament House to watch the changing of the guard (which no doubt influenced John Cleese's Ministry of Silly Walks); the Flea Market; and just about every ancient ruin in Athens.

Today (Wednesday) Athens has been virtually closed down by a transport strike and demonstrations and we have heard that three people have been killed in the fire-bombing of a bank. However apart from seeing a heavy police presence around Parliament House we were spared any of the demonstrations or riots and made it back to our hotel oblivious to what had been happening in other parts of the city.

We are looking forward to our day-trip to Delphi tomorrow, then off to the Islands (first stop Mykonos) on Friday.

Gallipoli and Troy

Yesterday was spent at Gallipoli - a very beautiful and picturesque spot, in stark contrast to the tragic loss of young lives that occurred there. We were amazed at how small Anzac Cove actually is - a mere 300 metres across. The memorials and gravestones were very moving to read, and we learned so much more history from our wonderful guide Murat. He really made the Gallipoli story come to life. The museum contained some very sad letters from soldiers to their families, there were skulls and femurs with bullets still intact, as well as displays of uniforms, weapons etc from the Aussies, Turks, Brits, French and the other nations that were there. We saw the gravestone of John Simpson and many others with familiar names like Clayton, Watts, Kelly, Cooling and Anderson - some were as young as 14, having lied about their age to enlist. Such a tragic loss of life - for what? Although we Aussies invaded Turkey, Turks hold no animosity towards us. They think of us as brothers and mourn the tragic loss of lives on both sides. They lost so many more men than we did, in fact an entire university of teenage boys was sent to Gallipoli and not one survived. That university did not have a graduating ceremony for four years after the war.

Mustafa was our guide for the ruins of Troy (he is also known as the King of Troy). As an historian and author of books on Troy, and Gallipoli, there was nothing he did not know on the subject of Troy. He led us through the ancient ruins, those built by the original Trojans, as well as the Greeks and the Romans. It is just mind-blowing to be touching walls made of stones that were cut by man about 4,500 BC and assembled into those walls, and marble from the Temple of Athena. There was also an enormous wooden horse replica that you could climb inside, although there is no firm historical evidence that the the wooden Trojan horse ever existed.

Between these two adventures we took the ferry across the Dardanelles to Cannakale, a vibrant town. Our hotel room overlooked the Dardanelles and we could look directly across from Asia (where we were) to Europe. We dined with fellow Aussies at one of the hundred cafes along the foreshore. It was all a great experience, for sure.