Europe- Venice, Assisi, Capri, Sorrento

Dec 28- Caves and Venice

Today we left Ljubljana (Lub-liana) and headed to Venice. We stopped at a cave about an hour away that was 3 million old called the Postojna Caves (Postonia Caves). It was close to 50 km long, and we started the trip down to the cave in an electric train. The train ride lasted close to 10 minutes and was amazing to see. Throughout the cave they had it lit up with all sorts of different colors, red and green and blue and some caves even had music. Most of the other caves we have been in just had yellow or white light. One unique feature of this cave was the ribbons. The limestone here tends to organize in a delicate ribbon formation, sometimes just inches long, other times 10-20 feet long and looking like a breeze had frozen the stone in place. Also it was quite open, with large ceilings 50-100 feet above us in places. It definitely gave the impressive caves of Camuy in Puerto Rico a run for its money. The Postojna caves were discovered in roman times. They were first opened in modern times to visitors in 1872 and the price of admittance included a 2 person push cart down to the caves. The train ride is now an electric train that takes people the 5 kilometers and lasts close to 10 minutes. Karen said it reminded her of Indiana Jones movies. I couldn't imagine the amount of work it would take to manage a two person cart in the 1900's via torchlight down 5K of dark tunnel. One of the most unique residents of the the cave was a olm fish. It is called the "human fish" by locals. It is actually a salamander that has lost any functional eyes, but the amazing fact about is that it can live up to 100 years old (like a human). Although the cave tour was over in 1 1/2, we could have spent much more time in there.

60 foot Christmas tree inside one of the massive caverns, a small example of how amazing the caves are

   

T: the incredible ribbon stone formations R: Karen posing

We drove into Italy with the traditional low fuss of the European Union. Italy is know as the land of the oxen and is bordered by the appenine mountiaims in the north. It is a narrow long country and Is divided into the northern part as well as the southern area. The financial and industrial heart is Milan in the north as well as the stock exchange. There is some tension between the northerners and the southern Italian about making income vs social pressure. In the south there is apparently still a mafia presence and if the coach is not parked in the right space, our tour director informed us that the coach gets free air conditioning (aka broken windows) so they have to follow certain rules when we travel to southern Italy. I am not sure if the tour guide was joking about this when he was telling us or being serious. Our tour guide said that the best way to describe Italy in one word: confusion. Italians are obviously fanatical about pasta and wine, but are also pretty picky about coffee as well. It is verboten to order cappuccino after noon. Also New Zealand coffee rules apply where traditional American coffee is called a cafe americano. Also, it is very offensive to cut your spaghetti with a knife or fork. The Italians have a special relationship with food. Instead of being just a part of the meal, it is almost like the meal is another member of the family. The biggest meal of the day is lunch and usually starts at 2 pm and lasts 2-3 hours. A traditional meal starts with an aperitif, to help start the digestive process. A popular aperitif is a Bellini, which is peach juice in champagne. Then it is time for the antipasto, which can be any small bits like olives or mozzarella cheese. Next it is time for the pasta course. It is finally time for the main course, known as seconda which is the main protein for the day. After that, then it is time for the dolce, the sweet course. One of the local favorites for dessert is the "pull me up" you might know it as the tiramisu. To conclude any fine meal you need an after dinner drink, which is usually called a grappa. After lunch you can see people resting for up to an hour afterwards, letting their food digest. You will never see an Italian waking with a burger or other food, they either stand and eat or sit down and eat. We stopped at a rest stop for lunch which became close to a madhouse and then continued down to Venice.

There are over 118 real islands in the city of Venice, or Venezia if you are being authentic. The symbol of the city is the winged lion, and it is home to close to 10,000 pigeons. It is also home to many famous artists and types of artwork. From terrazzo floors to famous painters to hand blown glass that has been made in the city for 750 years, you can find nearly everything in Venice. Our hotel in Venice was a bit outside the city, and after a few hours in the evening to ourselves, we got picked up to go to dinner at 5pm. Apparently everyone who visits or goes to Venice proper has to take a boat to stroll through the canals and such. So this main parking garage is called Trunchetto. Then it was a wonderful slow cruise down the Grand Canale at night seeing Venice lit up. We saw scores of boats and taxis, and of course the famous gondolas in the foreground. But there was always the backdrop of the historical buildings of Venice with their front doors literally inches away from the waters's edge at night. After we had docked we got a brief walk through the immense saint Mark's Square, and then it was a series of twists and turns down narrow alleys past shops and eateries. We passed family grocery stores, world class designers to locals painting on the street. We even passed through "assassins street" to get to our restaurant. It would be extremely easy to get lost through the windy, torturous streets of Venice if you didn't have a lot of patience or a guide. Dinner was pretty good, we had the courses mentioned above, some great conversation, it was a great evening.

Venice at night

 

T: Assassins Street M: side street we passed through and name odd the restaurant B: Saint Marks Cathedral at night

Dec 29- Venice


We skipped the workout in the morning as last night was late, the morning started at 6:30 anyway and I (Karen) was still feeling pretty crappy from the cold I picked up on the bus. It was a good call, we were both tired and needed sleep. We headed to the water taxis and to the Murano Glass workshop. As we took the 40 minute boat ride we saw all the boats/ferries, old styled buildings stacked together and old churches lining the canals. We saw the palaces with winged lions (the symbol of Venice), the old jails, all the beautiful building architecture and other sculptures. We saw the cathedral where Vivaldi wrote the four seasons. Cecil and I both really liked the city. It was unique to anywhere we had been both in Europe so far and anywhere else. Everything is done by boat and space is also at a premium (especially considering the fact the city is aggregated from over 100 islands). The Murano Glass Factory gave us a demonstration. We watched a master make a vase then a horse, which is pretty impressive. It was the holidays so most of the ovens were covered and everyone was on holiday. Normally, they have 20 artisans working M-F. The master was a third generation craftsman. Apparently people used to be trained from the time they were young and then become masters in their late 20's. For example, the master was 25 and started training as a very young child. It is becoming harder in these days to get kids to do it. From there, it was shopping (of course). We bought a handblown Christmas orb and a small candy dish. After the glass workshop, we met our guide Emmanuela for a city tour, and she did a GREAT job. We walked over the bridges through the different islands (every bridge is connecting one of the 118 islands). The first main stop was the Doges (pronounced Doja ) palace. The Doge was the president of Venice back in the day. The palace was he seat of the nobility and actually connected to the prison next door (through a bridge called the Bridge of Sighs). The palace, and city, was built with defense in mind. They basically took a marshy lagoon and built a city to escape the Barbarians who didn't have the technology to built boats. The people of Venice had to reinforce the city because the muddy soil could not hold the weight of the buildings. So they would take a 100 square feet of soil and immerse hundreds if not thousands of wooden poles upright into the ground into the clay foundation to help distrbute the weight and stop the buildings from sinking (like a bed of nails...except with wood). The wooden poles don't rot because of the salt (in the brackish water) and lack of oxygen (from the mud surrounding them), in fact it's getting harder/petrifying. It was mind boggling just to think of how many poles were just holding up the palace! Another amazing fact that we discovered was the fact that Venice is built mainly on a 3cm marble veneer, with brick and mortar underneath the marble. This is mainly to reduce the weight and reduce the load on the wooden poles beneath the buildings.

Link to Venice City Origins

UR/L- views from the water taxi, BL- Moreno glass horse just after being blown, BR- bridge of sighs

   

The palace had a lot of history to it as well. For example, it had secret accusation boxes for some of the most common vices (bribery, theft, treason). In the 1300's they made it so at least two witnesses were needed for every accusation because it caused so many problems. The bribery one still was labeled today. The palace itself was ornate and covered in carvings, silks, gold, paintings and marble. Venice was extremely rich as it was the gateway to the east for trade. Therefore, all the rooms were ornate, old and impressive. Saint Marks square was next door to the Doges Palace named from his stolen bones. Two enterprising Venitians stole the bones of Saint Mark under a slab of pork from Alexandria in Egypt to compete with Rome (who had claimed St. Paul). The egyptians, who were muslim at that time, weren't allowed to touch pork and so St. Marks body was brought to Venice, a church was constructed, and Venice had threir own saint from the Gospel to couteract Rome's claim of importance. Therefore, the winged lion is the venician symbol (lion was mark) and that symbol can be found everywhere. So, a lot of the art had Mark, the lion and kneeling Doges. The paintings in Venice were focused on vibrant colors where Rome was on drawings. Why? To showcase the goods. Venice was a city of businessmen and tradesman and the colors showed off the silks, jewels, glass and other goods not drawings. Speaking of being businessmen they didn't trust the government. The Doges was always surrounded by 6 councilors and could not do any official business except in the prescence of "the six". Venicians were afraid of the Dojes gathering to much power. They also constantly reminded them in paintings where the Dojes were kneeling, and even in when they arranged the seating, the Doges has a simple wooden chair, not ornate thrones. It was also interesting to see the gods, specifically Hermes/mercury and Zeus/Jupiter used as symbols of commerce and war right next to Christian symbols. Venice basically collapsed over time when new trade routes, specifically Africa and America slowly dried up the trade train. The venicians had the longest running republic in history (so far).

UL- Selie on one of the bridges, UM- main chamber of the doges palace, UR- one of the mailboxes where one could accuse someone, in this case of bribery, Middle- painting showing the essence of god in the middle as the lady, with the doges kneeling and Saint Mark on the left, BL- Another painting with the doges kneeling but this one shows the extreme colors and examples of trade goods like silk, BM- cec in front of the impressive and ornate (each step is decorated) staircase in the doges palace, BR- outside the doges palace

 

 From the palace we passed through the Bridge of Sighs into the prison. The prison was used from 1750 until 1922. It had the standard carved graffiti from previous prisoners and the cold uneasy feel. Of course no bathrooms or comforts. We even got to stand and see what it was like in the prison cells.

UL- view of a prison cell, UR- view from inside the bridge looking out, BL- close up view of the bridge from the outside, BR- cec inside the bridge

From there we headed out to the Saint Marks square and the church. The church was embellished by "souvenirs" from the Middle East during the crusades. The church floors had "waves" as the floor had shifted in the mud. The church was a Byzantine church and very pretty with huge gilded ceilings and mosaic tiles showing important scenes from the Bible. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures so I pulled some from the Internet. It's impossible to really get the massive feel from the place. I know we have been using things like "amazing" and "impressive" but it really is. The stories on the walls were like a beautiful picture book. The bottom of the church was dark representing earth while the ceilings were gold and lighter representing heaven. Churches were very symbolic as people did not read.

Pictures taken from the Internet showing the details and ornate inside of the church. The upper right is the mosaic floor close up.


After that we were hungry (it was almost 2pm) so we quickly grabbed some tickets, more on that later, and got lunch. We found a back street and got a pizza, ham and chees pannini, and sparkling water for under $20! Service in Italy is slow so by he time we were done we had an hour so we went to the museum and saw some cool Venetians artifacts including crazy shoes, carvings, artworks and money. We met up with our group for a gondola ride. The water was golden, the skies blue and the company friendly. The group shared three Gondolas and the middle one had an singer and accordion. It made for a great atmosphere and I'm glad we did it (see a video HERE)!   

Images from our gondola ride

Jimmy, a new friend from the tour, Cecil and I had all decided to break from the tour and stay behind for a show that evening. The tour group left us to go rest at the hotel and we stayed in the city. We walked around and looked at the beautiful Christmas lights and peeked in several shops. We ended up buying some leather gloves (both of us), a piece of luggage to make our lives easier/carry our souvenirs, and Cecil got a jacket and a new sweater. We found another restaurant off the beaten path to eat dinner. It was ok. Nothing to write home about unfortunately. The rest of the evening we wandered around the city looking at lights, people and shops. One notable oddity was we stopped at a cafe to get a drink and use the toilets (there are zero public toilets) and the toilets were only about 6 inches off the ground. Quite odd. Anyway, we continued our exploration until coming to the Santa Maria Della Pieta, aka Vivaldi's church, for our 8:30pm show of Vivaldi's four seasons by an orchestra. This was the church where the famous four seasons was deuted and often performed back in the 1800's! It was a simple show, a half dozen musicians and some basic lighting. The musicians were top notch and the old church had excellent acoustics. Even with the with the simple setting combined with the history it made for a wonderful performance (see a quick video HERE). From there we took a water bus to the train station then hopped a train station to our hotel (which was literally across the road from the station).

UL, UR, BL- Venice at night BR- the church where we listened to the four seasons

 
  Dec 30-Venice to Sorrento 

We had the normal 6:30 wake up and we're off to Sorrento from Venice. We didn't work out as it was early and we didn't get to bed until after midnight after our concert the day before- we were both tired. The drive was sunny and pretty through the hills. Lunch was at a rest stop. Lode (our guide) gave us a challenge/Brian teaser: how many chickens, pigs and cows would you get if you wanted to spend exactly $100 and have 100 animals if cows are $15, pigs are $1 and chickens are $0.25? The winner got a snack, it wasn't us lol. 

We hit Assisi around 2pm and visited the main square of the town first then the two churches. There is an upper and lower church (Romanesque and Gothic). There main church is dedicated to St Francis of Assisi who was notable in his anti wealth and radical views on non Christians in his time. So, for old catholic churches these ones were not as ornate as many. Also, instead of oil on canvas the churches were mostly covered in frescoes painted into the walls themselves. The city itself was on a hill surrounded by valleys of farmland and olive fields. The city is mostly brick and tiles vs stucco, plaster and marble as a lot of the other cities we visited. We walked up tot he center of town, got some gelato and dipped in and out of the small shops, of course getting a Christmas ornament. Unfortunately, we were not allowed pictures inside here as well, but I got some from the Internet for you!

L- street actor cec posed with doing a good job. UR- Cecil enjoying his very good gelato, BR- Karen posing in the street under one of the archways

 

UL, UM, UR, MR Pictures inside the upper church ML, bottom- lower church

Dec 31- driving to Sorrento
Another early morning wake up, workout and bus ride. By 7:30 we were on the bus and hitting the motorway. We drove through the Italian countryside in the clear, clear fall-like weather (which is supposed to be unusual). The Apennine mountains visible from the valley we were driving though. Vesuvius was able to be seen easily from miles away. We made a couple of stops including Cecil buying a meter of chocolates that we shared with the bus in celebration of New Years. That is not a typo it was individual chocolates in a mix a meter tall (3.2 feet). There isn't much else to report on until about 3pm. The bus was pretty subdued and/or ill and it's good the last couple of days have been so low key. There we got transferred from the coach to small mini buses and driven through the scenic Amalfi Coast. The houses have a Moroccan, Arabic, and Greek influence going on. Olive trees, umbrella pine trees, Lemon trees, orange trees and almond bushes spot the landscape. We got to try some limoncello, a special lemon liquor produced in the small town of Positano, which is where our scenic drive ended. We had an hour of free time where we walked down to the beach on the Mediterranean Sea and put our finger in. It was a town of twisting alleys and beautiful homes dotted by shops and cafes. Apparently there are only around 5,000 people in the winter but 50,000 in the summer so I was happy to come without the crowds. The drive home was especially beautiful with the sun setting as we drove yet super windy roads that looked out into the sea. We then had some free time at the hotel before going to dinner.

No, that is not a green screen. This is the town we walked through. Yes, everywhere seems to look like that.

 

More snapshots of what things looked like.

 

Images from the bus trip, in the center is Cecil with his meter of chocolate

   

More images from our walks, including the sunset on the Mediterranean

 
Dinner was another drive, around 40 minutes to a farmhouse. Italians seem to take eating very seriously and have many courses and are in no rush. We got started by getting shown how they make mozzarella cheese (rennet and hot salt water are involved). Then we ate that, of course! It was super salty and tasty. After that we had starters, homemade pasta, more pasta, mains with sides (including pork sausage with lentils for good luck), dessert, and dessert liquor (limoncello and champagne). We got back and Cecil and I went to bed. Yes it was New Years and yes we could have gone out to downtown for fireworks and a party but I was finally getting better and Cecil was getting sick and to top that cherry off the wake up call for the next day was 6:15am. Sleep seemed more a priority and it's our vacation so we wussed out and slept. It was still a great New Years.

Large- the mozzarella cheese being shaped, small- the restaurant sign

 

Jan 1- Capri        
We got up without working out, Cecil was pretty sick and it was hard to sleep with the fireworks the night before. After a breakfast I (Karen) went with the group to catch the boat to Capri. Cecil was feeling too poor to be out all day. We met our local guide who gave us some background. Capri is an island that broke off of the mainland after a natural disaster. It has had Greeks and Romans on it. There are several palaces on it. The Roman emperor Tiberius even lived and ruled there for a time. In the past the island was thought to be a good place to cure illness. Today, The island is extremely popular with the rich and famous for vacationing. Probably because boats are limited to the number of times they can visit and the last boat leaves at 7pm, so at night there are not to many tourists only those staying on the super expensive island (expensive to stay not visit). The island was super quiet as it was New Year's Day and on top of that, winter. Most shops were closed and no one was out. Probably a good thing, there were beautiful shops and even a perfume factory. They even have stores like Capri watch and lady's wear that is only sold here. Since everything was closed for winter and tourists low it was very quiet. The weather was warm for winter, sunny and very clear. It made it peaceful but I could only imagine the atmosphere if it were summer and evening. There were beautiful Roman style buildings with very exclusive and expensive stores. There were tons of gardens and footpaths that would be wonderful to walk (we didn't have time). It probably is the prettiest town I've been to- ever. The water is that super crystal blue, the homes are white and tan mostly with a splash of color here and there. The plants are still vivid green and the mountains frame the background. After our guide walked us through a small part of the village, I decided to go on the boat tour. There wasn't much else to do and it was supposed to be the best way to see the island. It was beautiful seeing the large stones that were used for navigation as well as the other mini towns on the island. We saw the grotto's with the cobalt blue water that was so clear you could see the orange coral and fish underneath. It made you want to dive in. We saw the restaurants, castles, roads and small beaches that were a small part of the island. The rest is rocky and dotted with trees.

UL- the walkways along the coast, UR- a typical Capri street, BL- the cable car we took up the city, BR- a view of Capri from Sorrento before leaving in the morning

 

A perfect Capri Selie!

UL- Capri watches and other luxury goods sold on the island, UR- Selie with the town in the background, BL- the water was so clear it made you want to swim even with the cold, UR- the clock tower in the main square

Images from the boat ride: Top: the water, middle- the lighthouse, bottom- the rocks showing what the uninhabited parts look like and a castle in the middle on the part that can be used

After our boat tour we were shuttled back to the hotel were Cecil and I went out for lunch (he was feeling better). We waited for a long time but got some very tasty pizza with super fresh cheese. We rested at the hotel until dinner where we went to a restaurant that was founded in the 1800's. It is also the place were cannelloni was created. We had antipasti, pasta (of course.. cannelloni), main and limoncelllo cake for dessert. The restaurant was like a giant greenhouse with a garden in the back over 150 years old. It was delicious and beautiful. What was also notable is how alive the town was compared to how dead it had been that morning. The shops were mostly open and people were out. It seemed life bloomed late in the town. Also, a lot of people strolled the streets in the evening just walking and talking. Totally different lifestyle.

UL- dinner restaurant sign, UR top- cec with our lunch pizza, UR bottom- Cecil posing in the dinner greenhouse staircase, BL- cec posing with the cannelloni and gnocchi at dinner, BR- walking back Sorrento lit up at night