Alone during the opening ceremony in 80 AD, that lasted for 100 days, 5000 animals have been killed there. This is quite hard to imagine and reminds me of Obelix` trademark phrase: "These Romans are crazy."
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But despite its gory history the Colosseum is really worth a visit, even though one has to accept two hours of waiting in front of the ticket office. Especially interesting is the area below the stage with its narrow tunnels and cubbyholes, where the gladiators and animals were waiting for their fights.
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The place I liked best in the old Rome was the Forum Romanum, which has been the heart of the Roman Empire for more than 1500 years. Even though this place is mainly covered with ruins, blocks of stone, and derelict pillars, you still can imagine its former splendor. This was an almost sacred place for the Romans, because according to legend the twins Romulus and Remus were nursed by a wolf exactly at this place. And so every Roman emperor wanted to erect a memorial in his honor there.
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Tempio di Saturno (497 BC), oldest building of the Forum Romanum
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Being in Rome we also had to pay the Vatican a visit, of course. Since I have a quite ambiguous relationship with religions in general and with Christianity in particular I showed little spirit for that. But you just have to try seeing things from an artistic point of view. And at least in this regard the largest Christian church, St. Peter´s Basilica, is quite impressive.
Piazza San Pietro
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St. Peter´s Basilica
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Bernini´s Baldacchino
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Michelangelo´s "Pieta", the most famous artwork in the basilica
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I would have loved to see the ceiling frescoes of Michelangelo and his famous artwork "The Last Judgement". But unfortunately the Sistine Chapel was closed for visitors at that time
After a short stopover at the rather unspectacular Spanish Steps we visited the Trevi Fountain. And I have to say that it is rightly called the most beautiful fountain in Italy.
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The sculpture shows Neptune who´s shell chariot is guided by two Tritons, one being a symbol for the stromy sea, and the other for the calm sea. Since ancient times it has been a practice to throw coins in the fountain to win the gods over, and I also kept to that old tradition.
To sum up, I can say that Rome is a very beautiful city and definitely worth a visit. But you really should avoid going there in July or August as we did, because it is hot like hell then and in the end we literally fled out of the city. After hours of walking around when it has over 40°C in the shadow you´re just really tired of looking at heeps of stones.
You feel like roasted beef and you´re just desirous of 10 litres of mineral water and a cold shower
Two days also weren´t enough to get to know the whole city and there still are many interesting places left to see. That´s why this most likely wasn´t my last visit in Rome. And legend has it, that everyone who throws a coin in the Trevi Fountain will return to the Eternal City...
Before we travelled further towards Naples, we took a stopover at Ostia Antica, the seaport of ancient Rome. This old town still is quite well conserved and you can marvel at the beautiful mosaics, which seem to be unaffected by the ravages of time.
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Unsuspectingly we headed for our next destination, the Sorrento Peninsula, only to find ourselves in a perfect hullabaloo, right in the middle of thousands of Italians having holiday nerves. This maybe is another reason why you shouldn´t travel to Italy around the Fer´Agosto.
However, a solid line of cars blocked the coastal road to Sorrento. The
fatal thing, however, is the Italian driving style. Traffic rules seem to be non-existent and everyone just drives at his own sweet will.
Motor-bikes are overtaking you on the left and right side like crazed hornets squashing in every ever so small gap. But after a short time of
adjustment you get the hang of it: just fully step on the gas while hooting the car horn like mad and driving on with the gloves off. It also might
help to swear like a trooper out of the car - even better in Bavarian because this way you don´t run the risk of getting a roaster since nonbody can
understand you anyway.
We then gave Sorrento a wide berth and spend the night in a beautiful hotel in the rather calm town Sant´Agata where we have been spoiled with really delicious food. I guess I had the best grilled chicken of my life there.
And we also tasted a local delicacy, the Limoncello.
The coastal road of the peninsula is really wonderful, especially the coastline of Amalfi along the Bay of Salerno. The coastal mountains plunge down to the Mediterranean Sea and the towns Amalfi and Positano stick on them like eagle nests. The whole atmosphere is like in a fairy tale.
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Positano
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I especially liked Vietro, a small town that is famous for its ceramic artwork. Everywhere on the house fronts you can see colorful pictures made of ceramic tiles.
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A real highlight for me was Pompeii. Since I´ve read the novel "The Last Days of Pompeii" by Edward Bulwer- Lytton when I was 10 I have been bent on visiting the ruins myself some time.
This ancient town at the bottom of the Mount Vesuvius was buried under many meters of ash during a giantic vulcanic eruption in 79 AD. For its inhabitants Pompeii became a deathtrap. They couldn´t escape on the seaway because of huge flood waves and so most of them died in an ash cloud of 400°C.
In 1748 Pompeii was rediscovered and has since been excavated. Under the thick layers of vulcanic ash the buildings etc. have been conserved. almost perfectly and give us an unique snap-shot of that time today
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The rooms of some buildings are still fully conserved after almost 2000 years and some mural paintings seem to be made only yesterday.
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During the excavations voids in the ash layer have been found that contained human remains. These were spaces left by the decomposed bodies. By injecting plaster into these voids accurate forms of the victims could be created which reflect the agony in the moment of their death quite vividly.
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Here´s another picture from Pompeii with the Mount Vesuvius in the background.
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Of course, we also had to pay this evildoer a visit. And even though it was a bit exhausting to climb to the summit of the vulcano, it really was worth the effort. From the crater you have a fantastic panorama of Naples and the whole area. We also were lucky that exactly on that it day it wasn´t so hot. Some clouds found their way to the summit. They gave us some shadow and caused a bit of a mystic atmosphere.
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We travelled on to the other side of the Italian "boot" - to Gargano. At the entrance of the national park Monte Sant´Angelo is located. In Italy this picturesque town is famous for its sacred place - a large church which has been build above a grotto. According to legend the archangel Michael appeared a few times in that grotto and saved the inhabitants of the town from evil. It is said that last time it happened in 1656 when he rescued them from the Plaque.
Monte Sant´Angelo is a real nice place from where you have a great view of the sea, especially from the Castello Mediovale - an old castle of the 8th century.
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Gargano national park is still untroubled by tourism and you can enjoy nature there relativelly undisturbed. In contrast to the Sorrento Peninsula, the vegetation is quite sparse there, but it has its own special charm. I especially liked the olive tree groves, whose leaves sparkle silvery in the sunlight. And also here you can find a wonderful coastline with a sea of dazzling turquoise and almost deserted beaches (which really is a rarity in Italy). But you also could see the traces of the heat and drought of the last few weeks there. Some areas are covered with the skeletons of charred trees.
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After two days we left Gargano and headed for Suloma in the heart of the Abruzzo Mountains. The Giostra Cavalleresca d´Europa took place there. This is an international historical festival with a big horse tournament, a dancing festival, and a festival procession. We had some performances there with our dancing group.
Here you can see the Piazza Maggiore of Sulmona, which has been transformed to a big arena for the festival, where the horse tournament took place.
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During the breaks of the tournament we already had some performances in the arena. But the main event only took place late at night at the international Renaissance dancing festival in the Annunziata. We performed there together with the Spanish, Italien, French, and Czech dancing group.
Here´s a picture from our group (I´m the one on the very left side with the red dress).
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the Annunziata
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some pics from the performance:
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It was a great evening. It also was very nice getting the opportunity to spend time with dancing groups from other countries and to dance together. A thing I always will remember is also our performance under the impuls of the moment during the festival procession the next day. The music band from Catalonia started to play the "Pinagay" and all the different dancing groups took each others hands and started to dance in a row along the narrow streets. The people around were laughing and applauding. This really was an unforgettable experience and also another example of how music and dance can unite different nationalities.
Before we leave Sulmona there´s another peculiarity about this town: it is famous for its almond confectionery. The almonds are covered with sugar icing, chocolate etc., dyed in different colors and put together to quite artistic flower arrangements.
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While the rest of our group was travelling home with the bus, we continued our trip through Italy heading for the Gran Sasso national park. And on the way I finally managed to spend one day at the beach in Alba Adriatica and take a swim in the sea.
I also took the advantage of being so close to the sea and stuffed myself with seafood.
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In the Gran Sasso National Park the highest peaks of the Abruzzo Mountains are located and you have a great view of them at the small town Castelli:
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The last two days we spent in an enchanting, medieval mountain village called Civitella del Tronto. If you´re walking through the narrow lanes there you really get the feeling of having travelled back in time to the 14th century.
The village also has an impressive "Fortezza" from where you have a fantastic view of the area.
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Then we had to travel back to Rome where we spent the last hours before the return flight on the beach of Ostia and drank a beer to the nice time we had in Italy.
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All in all I really loved it there. The only thing that bothered me a bit were the huge amounts af waste in the area around Naples. But the landscape and nature is absolutley enchanting and the Italians are very friendly and in love with life. Especially during summer time in every ever so small village every night there´s party time, and sometimes the sound intensity of it can be a bit tantalizing :D Also the Italian food is great and even though I don´t like sweets so much, I couldn´t resist the lemon cake and the delicious ice cream they have there.
But I have to admit that I missed my notebook a bit. Without internet I always feel a bit isolated from the rest of the world. Anyway, there´s a strict rule: no computers during holidays, to guard against the danger of mutating into a monitor myself :P But towards the end of the two weeks I already suffered a bit of digital deprivation and now I´m happy of being able to hypnotize the screen again:D
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Photos and report by Melanie