Category: italy

we explored the ancient roman city of pompei, where the streets were frozen in time when the city was covered in lava by the precipitous eruption of nearby mount vesuvius, which still towers menacingly over the ruins. it takes hours to fully explore the site, so bring some water!

 

we took the fast train (1 hour) from rome to naples, where we spent a full day. it is known as a gritty, densely congested city still run by the mafia, and it was very fun to explore. amazing narrow streets throughout, including via san gregorio, or christmas alley, where artisans built ornate nativity scenes called presepe. there are also a number of underground tunnels in naples, which among other uses, were used as shelters during world war two.

ann and i spent 2 days in rome! and then i stayed another 2 days to see more things! for my birthday, ann got us an airbnb guided tour of some of the catacombs in rome. an american tour guide/aspiring comedian took us to the capuchin crypts, which are amazing underground collections of human bones which were made into evocative displays by the capuchin monastic order. he also took us to st. clement basilica which has layers of underground history.

centrale montemartini is museum of ancient roman statues housed in a former thermal power plant. the resultant juxtaposition is mesmerizing!

this white marble monument to nationalism seems a bit out of place amidst the surrounding ancient history in central rome, but it sure does look good.

this less-visited basilica in the south of rome hosts the tomb of st. paul, an amazing guilded gold ceiling, and some nice cloisters.

wow – it was remarkable to see the roman colosseum in person. it was definitely worth paying the little extra to get the view from the ground floor level.

the papal basilica of santa maria maggiore in rome is an impressive 5th century church.

rome’s national museum is known for its statues and mosaics.

my final adventure during this trip to italy was at the bergamo airport. i left lots of time for the drive there, but got into a traffic jam so started cutting it a little close. once inside the check-in area for my ryanair flight to malta, i became aware that the thousands of people in line weren’t moving at all. apparently, all of ryanair’s bag tag machines had crashed and were rebooting. as time to the bag check time cutoff inched closer, those who were about to miss their flight, including me, started to panic. i made friends with a russian couple who were on their way to ibiza, and we began asking people ahead of us in line if we could move in front of them so we wouldn’t miss our flight. of course almost everyone said no, one middle-aged woman so forcefully that her and the russian woman started hurling superlative insults at each other, almost leading to a fistfight. eventually, with three minutes to cutoff, the russian couple decided to get go for it and push through to the front of the line, and i followed in their wake.  the machines were finally reboted and i was able to check my bag 30 seconds before the check-in cutoff. whew!