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Pompeii: An archaeological treasure
Posted by daveb on November 7th, 2007
Here’s a potted history of Pompeii: The city was partly destroyed by an earthquake in 62 AD. Rebuilding started immediately. Seventeen years later, nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the city in really, really hot ash, taking its residents with it. The city remained buried until the 16th century, excavation began in the 19th and only two thirds of the sixty-odd hectare site have been dug-up to date.
Fascinating. Oh joy — Squiffy and I have at last discovered a historical site in which we didn’t have to feign interest!
The city has been just well-enough preserved to allow us to imagine how things might have been nearly two thousand years ago. Whilst initially loaded with fellow tourists, persist and one will soon leave the organised groups behind and discover quiet streets in which to allow the imagination to fill-in the blanks.
In many ways, life has changed massively since then. But in other ways, it really hasn’t changed that much at all: You think that take-away food outlets are a response to a modren, hectic lifestyle in which people don’t have the time or inclination to cater for themselves? Not so; Pompeii was served by over 89 take-away food outlets.
Plaster-casts were developed here: plaster was injected into the cavity left by the decaying humans to provide vivid record of the last few horrific moments of the average resident of the city. A most sobering sight indeed; to avoid a repeat performance, let’s try to cut down our carbon emissions, eh?
Oh and Squiffy and I visited another brothel. The ‘menu’ was painted on the walls. :-)
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Rome: Busy, costly, pickpockety
Posted by daveb on November 6th, 2007
Rome is mostly magnificent, but in-line with the rest of the Italy that we’ve seen, this place is expensive. I’ll surely write another post on the cost of travelling this country, but in the meantime here’s an example for you: We climbed the national monument to get the best views over the city. About two-thirds of the way up the building, the view started to open-up. To go any further however, you had to take the newly installed lift (the staircase was off-limits to the public) and pay €7 for the pleasure. We decided against it as €14 (for both of us to go up) is a significant chunk out of our daily budget. Everything in this city is a cost-option.
It’s also a busy city; more to do with the sheer volume of tourii than the residents, methinks. Large groups of bright-yellow baseball caps led by a raised umbrella maraud the pavements, pushing unaffiliated visitors into the middle; at the mercy of the constant rally of angry-bee scooters (I have already been nearly run over by one in Florence, but that’s another story). Seriously, these scooters are everywhere–including places they shouldn’t be–and their riders don’t give a monkeys. Half of them are on their mobile-phones whilst buzzing through the busy pedestrianised areas, terrorising anyone in their path. Walking through Rome is not a terribly relaxing experience!
Additionally, we overheard many a conversation from the victims of pickpockets, active everywhere but especially on the buses. Obviously pickpockets operate anywhere and everywhere, but if you do go to Rome, we recommend being extra vigilant. Don’t take a bag at all and don’t assume that your zipped trouser pocket is a safe haven — these folks are professionals and you won’t feel a thing. Only carry a small amount of cash with you, just enough to get you though the day. If you take a credit card, put it in a less obvious place than a pocket and make sure your partner is carrying the ‘lost and stolen’ telephone number!
Don’t misunderstand us here: We really enjoyed Rome, but as with all big cities, it’s not all a bed of roses — forewarned is forearmed.
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Vatican City: Popes and postcards
Posted by daveb on November 5th, 2007
People queue for half their day to get into the Vatican museum; we didn’t. People queue for the other half of their day to get into the Sistine Chapel; we didn’t.
We did go into the Vatican City piazza. We did queue-up and walk through the corridors of the tombs of the Popes of the past (sorry, photos not allowed). In fact, we had to queue to get out again!
We did send postcards from the Vatican’s post office though — they even have their own postage stamps!
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You work long hours?
Posted by daveb on November 4th, 2007
Today I got chatting to a market-stall merchant*. He was one of two, working a particular stall. They work together from 7am until 9pm, seven days a week. Oh, the boss does give them each one day-off a month.
I thought I used to work long hours.
(* Being a salesman, maybe you don’t believe a word that he says, but that’s a discussion for another time…)
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Queue-jumpers: I’m taking a stand
Posted by daveb on November 3rd, 2007
Squiffy was rather pleased when I intercepted a couple of queue-jumpers at the Colosseum in Rome. In my best projected theatre-voice, I asked them whether they were comfortable jumping ahead of all of the other good people who were waiting patiently in that queue. With the unwanted attention of all eyes around them, the queue-jumpers retreated into “I don’t understand your language” mode. After standing still for a moment to reassure others of their innocence, they nonetheless continued their relentless pursuit to the front of the line.
Today I’m taking a stand against you queue-jumpers: Why is it that you get to barge your way into the Vatican ahead of all the other patient folks, just because you’re more arrogant than your fellow (wo)man and are reliant on others feeling too awkward to call you on it.
Yes, you four in the picture, I’m talking to you.
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Rome: It wasn’t built in a day
Posted by daveb on November 2nd, 2007
It wasn’t built in a day and it shall not be blogged in a day, either.
Rome is the biggest city to which we’ve travelled, thus far. The closest campsite is big too. We were sharing the site with a few other campers and seventeen hundred blonde, German girls who were enjoying the most enormous organised all-girl school trip that I have ever seen. To give you an idea of the scale of their outing, they had brought with them three juggernauts containing their food — and their kitchens! Our chances of getting hot water in the campsite showers after 1,700 girls? Nil.
One could spend quite a few weeks in Rome just covering the main tourist bits, and a lot longer to see it all. For example, there are over five hundred churches in the city (or so we were told). As such, we limited ourselves to the biggies and allowed ourselves some mooching time, which we so enjoy.
The Colosseum is magnificent. Here’s a tip for you: Illegal touts outside the amphitheatre offer to guide and queue-jump you for €10 (on top of the €11 ticket price, so €21 total). However, once inside we paid an extra €3.50 (making €14.50 total, including ticket) for an official guided tour. We enjoyed the tour as it was a bit of a rarity for us; we generally walk in the opposite direction of large groups of tourii*. The same ticket allows you onto Palentine hill next door, which our brochure described as ‘a walk of indescribable beauty’.
* [daveb’s] plural of ‘tourist’.
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Italian logic
Posted by daveb on November 1st, 2007
We went into an Italian Cybercafe to use the Internet today. Here’s their price list:
| 15 minutes | 1.50 Euro |
| 30 minutes | 2.50 Euro |
| 1 hour | 3 Euro |
| 2 hours | 5 Euro |
| and so forth… |
We used the connection for 1 hour and 20 minutes. I approached the counter to pay.
“You’ve been one and a half hours”, said the lady.
“Ok”, I thought, “fine. She’s going to charge me for two hours”.
“That’s 5.50 Euro.”
I paid and returned to SQ, who was packing-up.
“Wait a minute”, I thought, “two hours was 5 Euros” and so I went back to the counter.
“I think there’s been a mistake, you charged me 5.50 when two hours is 5 Euros…?” I enquired.
“No mistake. 1 hour is 3 Euro plus 30 minutes at 2.50 Euro makes 5.50 total.”, came back the explanation.
I stalled as my brain tried to make sense of her logic.
“But that’s crazy, two hours is cheaper than one and a half?!”, I protested.
“Yes, I know, it’s crazy…”
“So I can stay an extra 30 minutes and you will refund me 50 cents?!”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
Squiffy stayed for a further half an hour watching Internet paint dry. The Cybercafe lady gave me 50 cents back and looked at me as if I was crazy.
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Scarlino: Just the two us
Posted by Squiffy on October 29th, 2007
Whilst we do love Yoko, our campervan, we acknowledge that she is a little on the small side when it comes to living accommodation. After 7 weeks of continuously living in her, moving everything around to get anything and constantly tripping over each other, we decided it was time to treat ourselves to somewhere with more space. Combine this with our desire for a clean and warm shower, and we arrived at the decision to leave the confines of Yoko and book ourselves into a cheap hotel for a couple of nights.
The hotel was chosen mainly for it’s price, remote location and nice pictures on lastminute.com, rather than close proximity to any famous sights. The plan was simply to relax for a day or two in the beautiful Italian sunshine. When we checked in we were slightly surprised by our accommodation, mainly because, in my mind, a hotel is typically a single, multi-floor building with identically furnished rooms. Ours, however, is what must be converted farm buildings, painted deep Tuscan red and set around a pebbly courtyard with plenty of trees and olive groves on all sides. The receptionist showed us to our apartment, opening the grand wooden doors onto a spacious kitchen/living room, with dark wooden furniture and a huge dining table that, for those of you who know her, Claire Pulford would be proud of. To my delight there was also a modern, clean bathroom and comfy bedroom. Not bad for the money.
We’ve spent the last two days eating on our terrace, reading in deckchairs and relaxing by the pool. It is low season so we have the place almost to ourselves, yet the weather is still gloriously warm. As I type I’m waiting for daveb to make us the steak sandwich he promised, but I fear it may not materialise. Earlier he drank 3/4 of a bottle of red wine, followed by 5 beers and was last seen heading for the bedroom to sleep it off. And suddenly there was one.
We like it so much here we’ve booked an extra night. Good thing for Dave, he’ll be able to sleep of the hideous hangover I’m sure will visit him tomorrow!
PS Ironically the shower is only warm for 2 mins then switches to super cold mode. What does a girl have to do?
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Bagni de Petriolo: Warm, eggy water
Posted by daveb on October 26th, 2007
To break up our journey from Siena to Scarlino, we took a small detour to the natural thermally heated waters of Bagni de Petriolo. Unlike most experiences in Italy, the [natural] spa here is a non-chargeable item. From afar, the smell of sulphur is a little offputting, but once immersed you hardly notice it…
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Siena: Help, what are we doing wrong?
Posted by Squiffy on October 25th, 2007
Siena is a lovely city which we only spent one day looking around, mainly because of the closure of the camping facilities there. However, had we been able to stay longer, I’m not sure what we would have seen. Bear with me here whilst I explain.
On our arrival, and after consulting the Rough Guide, we headed straight for the Campo, the city’s main square where they hold the famous ‘Palio’ horse race and the heart of all Sienese social life. We enjoyed sitting and watching life go by whilst soaking up the sun. After a while, when our bums became numb, we decided to go for a walk and visit some of the city’s other highlights. According to our book, the Duomo (cathedral) was not to be missed. Not usually ‘in to’ churches we agreed to give it a go, especially as we would be able to view the intricate mosaic floor, which a fellow camper had raved to us about, and which was only open in Sept and Oct – the rest of the year it is covered for protection. We were surprised to be charged 6 euros to enter when our guide book said it was free, but that’s why you should always have up-to-date versions.
We can’t deny the cathedral was impressive, both in terms of size and decoration. And we could appreciate that the floor must have taken a lot of work. But there’s where it stops for us. We looked around at many of the other visitors (mainly Americans), lost in wonder at the building. Feeling guilty, we tried to peak our interest in all of the art and history by reading the descriptions from our trusty book. However, we’d never heard of any of the artists, didn’t really understand the history, and above all, didn’t REALLY have a desire to. As an aside: there were no informative placards to explain the art, if you wanted to know more you had to put money into the conveniently located audio guide to hear about what you were looking at. To me, this doesn’t really encourage people to be interested. We left, agreeing that we prefer to appreciate architecture from the outside, whilst wandering, exploring, people watching and drinking coffee. As a result, we didn’t see any of the art galleries or museums of Siena.
We know many of you out there will be horrified, so we want to ask you; how do we become interested in this stuff? What are we doing wrong? Why are we not getting it?
On the flip side, is there anyone who thinks it’s ok NOT to visit the famous art galleries, museums and churches of Florence, Siena and the like (especially with the often steep entrance fees and multiple hour queues)?
We really welcome your opinions!
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