We are now in Sorrento and plan to spend the next four days here and in Capri, Vesuvisus, Pomeii, and Naples Then we are going in to the mountains above timberline to Cappracota to try and find the Tisones, Dede's relatives. Then we will head back to Rome for four days or so, Palm Sunday and Florence for Easter. Rome is filled up for Easter so we have to change our plans.
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Click to enlarge photo We drove into Rome and by the Vatican City. We got our mail at the American Express office and went down the coast via the beachhead of Anzid (beachhead) Lido de Roma and on to Naples.
Click image to enlarge and view slides From Venice we went to Firenze (Florence] but there was no room in the Hostel. So we went on and got stuck in a snowstorm near Bologna. We drove to Pisa and went straight to the tower. What a sight! It leans 14 feet off center due to slip of land during construction. It was was the perfect place for Galileo to do his experiments on gravity. Even the Cathedral and Baptistry lean, but not like the tower.
Click to enlarge image We spent the day riding boats, gondolas, lost on narrow streets, then to the Piazza San Marco and the Cathedral with all its gold mosaics. Confirmed again today that Italians will walk right up and pinch you on the rear on the street!
Click photo to enlarge and view slideshow Venice is fantastic. It was built on 118 islands in the middle of a bay. You must park your car at the edge and get around by sidewalks, gondolas and ferrys. There is nothing like taking a boat to your hostel.
Pasta is the food here, If you stand up, the food and wine are cheap. Wine or vermouth is only 8 cents US and a plate of lasagna, pizza or spaghetti is just 20 to 35 cents. Cheap but fattening. Click image to enlarge We stayed in a hotel last night and had our weekly bath after that 24 hour drive. We usually stay in hostels but once a week we splurge in a hotel to get cleaned up for the next week of the trip.
Click to enlarge photo We drove from Greece straight back through Belgrade to Trieste, 24 hours straight because we couldn’t find a place to stay. Yugoslavia is a dreary country and the farmers are still using oxen to plow their fields. The previous trip through Yogoslavia was interesting but a little scary and very uncomfortable. Even two days under Communism is too much we are very happy to get back to Italy again
Excavations in the Peloponnese at Epidavrous, Corinth, Mycenai, Seaport of Patras, resort of Mafplion But the best part was the Temple to Poseidon. It is white shining marble and stands on a hill at Cape Sounion overlooking the Agean sea . We were the only people there. Legends abound about this place and it is one of the most stunning places we have been
Click Postcard to enlarge and view as slide show Since we can’t read the menus, we have to look in the kitchens and point at what we want - small plates of Dolmas, Spanakopeta, olives, feta cheese and, best of all, Baklava – Yum! Then there is Ouzo – it must be an acquired taste. In the evening we saw the movie, the Longest Day based on D Day and the Normandy landing starring Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda and Robert Wagner – all big stars and made in black and white.
Today is all about columns. We climbed up to the temples of the gods on the Acropolis, to see the Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus.
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A daily diary of a journey in 1962. Please post comments about where you were then on the Background page.
1962 was pivotal. This is the background:
It was a year colored by the Cuban Missile Crisis, an escalating involvement in Vietnam, the Berlin Wall and the Cold War with Russia, Civil Rights issues, a nascent space program, Nelson Mandela in prison, Betty Friedan's, The Feminist Mystique, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the death of Marilyn Monroe. Archives
May 2011
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