We're on our way to Victoria, British Columbia for a meeting I am attending for work. Doc just came along for fun! I am doing a presentation at a conference at the Empress Hotel.
Victoria is a beautiful city, but it is on Vancouver Island, so it is very hard to get to. Here's what we have done so far. We left Clarksville at 5:00 Wednesday afternoon and drove to the Nashville airport. Our plane was suppose to leave at 7:25, but it was running late and didn't leave Nashville until 9:30. Then we flew to Denver and let some people off the plane and some more people got on. We left Denver and flew to Seattle where we arrived at 1:30 in the morning. But here is the bad part. It wasn't really 1:30 in the morning for us - it was 3:30! Because we flew across two different time zones, it was two hours earlier in Seattle than in Clarksville. You can look at this map and see the time zones. We live in the Central (yellow) time zone and Seattle is in the Pacific (blue) time zone.
This website shows what time it is right now in cities all over the world!
Anyway, we got to bed at 2:45 in the morning and had to leave to get the ferry at 6:00. Guess how much sleep we got? Not much! We were only at the hotel for FOUR hours. Then we got up and looked out the window. It was raining (it rains a LOT in Seattle), but look what was right outside our window. The Space Needle!
We took the hotel shuttle to the pier where we got on our boat, the Victoria Clipper.
It is a very big boat that reminds me a lot of the boat we took from Amalfi to Sorrento.
Doc and I are sitting on the very front row!
The men who operate the ferry are untying us from the pier, so we're off on our adventure!
After 26 hours of non-stop traveling, shuttling between two New York airports, three trips through TSA security, four scheduled American Airlines flights from New York to Nashville, three canceled American Airlines flights from New York to Nashville, and one successful (but delayed by three hours) Southwest flight from New York to Nashville, this is what we saw when we got home. I can't think of a better welcome home surprise.
We love you and miss you and can't wait to see you both!
We were so sad to leave Ravello Saturday morning, but at least it had stopped raining, so we were able to see one more glimpse of the beautiful view before we left. We packed up and left Villa Ravello very early - 5:45 am!
We had a beautiful view of Mt. Vesuvius as we drove past. Charlie, do you remember the Magic Treehouse book about Pompeii? This is where that happened!
After about three hours in the car, we arrived in Rome. We returned our rental car and met up with Stephan, our guide for the day. He took us to see many of the historic sights in Rome. It was a fast and furious trip...and pouring down rain!
The next few pictures will be of ruins of buildings from ancient Rome. Ancient Rome for Kids is a great site for learning more about these places.
This is a picture of Palantine Hill, the palace where Julius Caesar once lived. There is a Caesar's Palace hotel in Las Vegas today, but I don't think it looks anything like this one, do you?
In front of Palantine HIll is the Circus Maximus. This is a large outdoor track where they had chariot races and other sporting events. Over 150,000 people would come to events held here.
Next we went to the famous Roman Colosseum. It was built about eight years after the death of Jesus and is the oldest amphiteheatre (outdoor theatre) in the world. The Romans used it for gladiator battles and other forms of entertainment.
Recently, archaeologists found the remains of this marble statue. They think it was once used to decorate one of the outdoor columns of the Colosseum. What do you think the complete statue looked like? It was a horse with a man riding it.
This is the inside of the Colosseum. What you see at the lower part of the picture is like the basement. It used to be covered with a floor and those were the underground rooms. Wouldn't you love to know what happened in those rooms?
These marble seats were where the very important Roman people sat at sporting events. They even had their names carved on their marble seats. Everyone else sat on wooden bleachers or stood up. The entire top of the Colosseum was covered with a fabric ceiling. I bet it looked a lot different then, but it is amazing that it is still there for us to see over two thousand years later.
Can you find the marble seats in this video fo the inside of the Colosseum?
Have you ever heard the word graffiti? Graffiti is when someone draws or colors on a place where they shouldn't. Even the ancient Romans had graffiti. In this picture you can see where someone watching games at the Colosseum carved a picture of a gladiator on a stone seat.
After we left the Colosseum, we went to the church of San Pietro in Vincoli. It is a beautiful church with two very special items inside. The first is Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses. Remember the statue of David we saw in Florence? Well, even though Michelangelo grew up in Florence, he did much of his most important work in Rome. This sculpture shows Moses when he was very angry with the Israelites because they were not following God's laws. Stephan told us that when Michelangelo first carved the statue, Moses was facing the front. But Michelangelo was not happy with the results of Moses's expression, so he re-carved his head so Moses was looking sideways and had an angrier expression on his face.
Here is a close up of Moses's face. Doesn't he look lifelike? I wouldn't want him angry at me, would you? Why do you think Michelangelo put horns on Moses's head?
In the same church are these chains. Rome was a very important city during the times of early Christianity. After Jesus died, his Apostle Peter was jailed in Jerusalem, and kept in chains for preaching about Jesus. The night before his trial, Peter was said to have been released from the chains by an angel and led out of the prison. Peter had also been previously imprisoned and held in chains in Rome. A legend says that when the Empress who had the chains from Jerusalem gave them to Pope Leo I, he held them next to the chains from Peter's first imprisonment in the in Rome and the two chains miraculously fused together.
Next we went to the Trevi fountain. The legend is that if you are visiting Rome and you throw a coin in Trevi fountain, it will bring you luck and you will return to Rome one day.
So Doc threw in a coin...
...and so did Sweetie. I hope we get to go back to Rome someday!
Then we went to the Spanish Steps, one of the most popular sites in Rome. It leads to the Trinita dei Monti, a church built in 1495. Here we are at the bottom of the steps. No umbrellas or hoods - the rain was letting up!
After we left the Spanish Steps, we went to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was a temple built before Jesus was born to worship all the ancient Roman gods. It was commissioned by a famous general Marcus Agrippa. Can you find his name anywhere in the picture?
One of the most interesting things about the Pantheon is the ceiling, a perfect dome with a hole in the top. It is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The only light that can enter the Pantheon is through that hole. Our guide, Stephan, told us that engineers today could not recreate that roof exactly as it was made over two thousand years ago. Ask your daddy if he thinks that's true!
We stopped for a very short lunch and then went on to the Vatican City. The Vatican is a separate country inside the city of Rome. It is also called the Holy See. There is a wall around the city, and it is the smallest country in the world. It is owned and governed by the Catholic Church, and it is where the Pope lives.
Can you find the Vatican City on this map of Rome?
For centuries, the museums at the Vatican have collected art by many famous artists. There are many stone and marble sculptures, but there are not very many bronze sculptures left, because over the years, the bronze sculptures were melted down to use the metal for other things. This huge bronze pineapple is one of the largest bronze sculptures in the museum.
This is one of the few ancient bronze sculptures of a person in existence today.
This is a very famous statue called the Discus Thrower.
Doesn't this look like an amazing carving? It is actually a painting on the ceiling, not a carving at all!
Many of the ceilings are painted with very elaborate artwork. Can you imagine how hard it would have been to paint like this on a ceiling?
After we left the museums we went to the Sistine Chapel. Although we couldn't take pictures inside the chapel, you can see some good pictures here. Many famous artists in the 1500s painted the walls of the chapel, but Michelangelo painted the ceiling. He was only in his 20s when he painted it, and it took him almost four years to complete it. It tells the story of the book of Genesis, the Bible story of the creation of the world. Many years later when he was in his 50s, Michelangelo painted another wall at the end of the chapel. It is very interesting to see how his painting style changed over time.
After we left the Vatican Museums, we went next door to St. Peter's Basilica. This is a beautiful church where they still hold church services today. It was built in the 1600s and is where St. Peter, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, is buried. There are beautiful works of art in the church as well as the museums. This is Michelangelo's Pieta', a very famous sculpture of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the crucifixion. Mary's face is very beautiful but very sad. This is the only piece of art Michelangelo ever signed. He carved MICHAELAGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTIN FACIEBA (Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this) on the sash running across Mary's chest.
This is a picture of the basilica from St. Peter's square, the open area where people can stand to hear the Pope when he speaks.
It stopped raining while we were in the Vatican museums, but there was a very dramatic sky over the basilica as we were leaving.
After we left Vatican City, Stephan took us to the Piazza Navona, a city square in Rome that has a beautiful fountain. And look, the sun is finally shining!
Finally Stephan took us took us to our hotel, which was good because we were EXHAUSTED! In fact, I get exhausted all over again just reading this post! This was waiting for us in our hotel room...
...and then we went to dinner and had this....
...and then happily fell asleep here!
We love you and miss you very much, and we will see you VERY soon!
Friday was a very rainy day in Ravello. In fact, it rained nonstop from morning until night. But that didn't stop your Doc and Sweetie from getting out and doing some things around Ravello. We put on our raincoats and walked into town for lunch. This is the view from our table while we were eating. Do you think Ravello was crying because it knew we were leaving soon?
Guess what we had for lunch?
After we finished eating, we each had a cup of coffee. When I looked at my cup, this is what it saw. The coffee, the cups, and the sugar were all from Guatemala. Do you suppose the sugar came from the Matzetenango area we visited in Guatemala last February.
The dishes at this restaurant were beautiful. That's because the restaurant is owned by the same people who own our favorite ceramics shop. They make a sell all sorts of beautiful ceramic tiles and dishes. Do you remember my Italian dishes? Last time we were here, we got eight sets of dishes at this same shop. Eight was plenty then because there were only six people in our family. Since then we have added you two and Uncle Greg, so we needed more dishes!
Our dishes don't look like any of these, but I can't show you what ours look like because I couldn't take pictures inside the shop. They are going to mail them to me, so we will have a big Italian dinner and use the new dishes when they arrive.
There are ceramic tiles everywhere! This tile os over the fireplace in the living room of the villa.
After we got home from lunch the owners of the villa, John and Paola, stopped by for a visit. Polly, her name is just like yours in Italian.
They were very nice, and we were so happy to meet them and tell them how much we enjoyed staying in the Villa Ravello. We found out that Paola's parents built this house about 50 years ago. They built it in stages starting with the top level and working down.
As we were visiting with John and Paola, this is what we saw outside. Ravello truly is somewhere over the rainbow…
I wish I could say that the rainbow was the end of the rain, but that was not the case. It continued to rain, so we called Stefano, our friendly driver who picked us up in Sorrento, and asked if he would take us to a seafood restaurant in Scala, a neighboring village.
We had a wonderful meal at Trattoria de Lorenzo. There were only three tables of people there while we ate, and at one of the tables was a couple who were at Mamma Agata's cooking school with us. Small world!
Trattoria de Lorenzo is a small, family operated restaurant. This is Lorenzo and his son. Lorenzo's wife is the chef.
Our entire meal was made from these fish!
Octopus salad… Yum!
Marinated anchovies.
And delicious Caprese salad with fresh olives.
Our main fish dish.
It was a wonderfully fishy meal. So even though it rained all day on our last day in Ravello, we had a great time meeting nice people and eating great food.
