Thanksgiving and the western Mediterranean

Click here for more photos of Bormes, Barcelona, Montserrat and Orvieto

We're back to Toulon France, where we spent Thanksgiving Day. We had a nice day in Toulon visiting the hillside town of Bormes-les-Mimosa. What is left to say, it's yet another charming medieval town with narrow streets and lot's of flowers. Since the season is over, everything was closed making for a nice quiet day.

In between, we spent yesterday at Barcelona and the old Benedictine Monastery complex at Montserrat. It was the end of one cruise and the beginning of the second so about half the ship's travelers left us and we picked up a new set of passengers. 

The extraordinary Gaudi designed cathedral. Scheduled for
completion in 2026

The view from Montserrat. Cable cars take visitors to the bottom

And the funicular takes travelers to the summit of the mountain

The interior of the Santa Maria de Monserrat

The monastery exterior. Montserrat has been a religious shrine since the time of the Roman settlements in Spain

The itinerary now has us backtracking from here to Livorno and Civitivecchia before moving on to our Atlantic voyage.

We had a great time visiting Orvieto from our port in Civitevecchia. It was a long drive from port but it was worth it. Orvieto is yet another beautifully preserved medieval village, but this one is a bit different. It was a Etruscan settlement Rome came into being but once the Romans conquered it, it was abandoned until medieval times. In 1300 they began construction on the cathedral, which they call the Duomo. I hadn't heard of it before, but it was breathtaking. The sculpture and fresco paintings were extraordinary. Unfortunately, no photographs were permitted inside the church but I did get some photos of the exterior. The miracle of the transfiguration happened nearby and the blood stained alter cloth is a relic displayed in the church. The frescoes are very famous and were used by Michaelangelo as a model for the Sistine Chapel. One can easily see where his motivation came from. They are vivid since they were recently cleaned and magnificent. It is amazing how much nudity is on view in this church! The murals show the story of the anti-christ and they show the results of sinful living. Risque stuff. 

The cathedral

The shops were beautiful and colorful!

The light was low at 4pm. Great time to take more photos!

San Gimignano, Pisa and Tuscany

Click on this link for more photos of Tuscany

So if yesterday's wine tasting was fun, today's was off the charts. 

Ted and Nan joined us on this all day tour and following a visit to beautiful San Gimignano, we went for a tasting at another vineyard. The owner was a piece of work and the setting was really beautiful. Good feng-shui. Anyway, I think we sampled 11 wines so between the wacky owner and the flowing wine we all really got going. The owner said that the winery has been in the family since the 1700's. 

The Tuscan countryside is magnificently beautiful with its vineyards and olive groves and hills all around. I was surprised to find that the Alps are also often visible in the distance. Quite beautiful.

Anyway, the lesson was clear: good food, fine wine, and love really makes for a rich and wonderful life. They realize here that one should work to live while we so often are guilty of living to work. I'm ready to make the commitment to live well, like the Italians! 




Here are photos of our same day visit to Pisa:

SEX!

Ha! That got your attention now, didn't it? I bet this post gets some action (so to speak). Actually, our travels through Europe from ancient Rome through modern Iceland kept reminding us that this is a European theme. I wouldn't call it an obsession. It's more a case of our American Puritan heritage making this seem a bit risque for us. Europeans certainly have a much easier time of it. (By "it" I mean discussing "it").  So, read on if you dare. Warning: the following photos are pretty graphic!

First, in Reykjavik, the tourist map they hand out has the Phallusmuseum prominently listed. I did a double take when I saw that but then on our walk through the town we see this sign, again in the tourist section! Despite what my friends might think, this is a sign in the town square. I didn't take this photo at the museum! I didn't go to the museum. Really!

Funny, but as we traveled deeper into Europe, I noticed there was a theme....

Big Ben

Eiffel Tower

British Museum

The Shard, London

St. Mark's, Venice

naked percussionist!

But then we saw the great sights of the ancient world. It turns out that the ancient Roman cities all had more than their share of brothels and phalluses. Who knew? I mean, brothels were the Starbucks of Roman civilization. They were everywhere. And so were signs so out of towners would know where to go. And since people generally didn't read, the signage was quite graphic. And, just in case there was some confusion about what exactly a customer should do in the boudoir, there was a graphic tutorial running along the top of the walls in the hallway. They really thought of everything!

Instructions!

Need a caption here?

More instructions...

As we waited outside this ancient brothel for the Korean tour group in front of us to move on through, it was hysterical to hear the Korean women giggle and laugh at whatever story they were being told by their guide. They were a little too into the story!

This is interesting. Ancient Roman cities had billboards on
the sidewalk. This one advises that you take a left (foot) for
access to beautiful women (silhouette). Payment required is
indicated by the rectangle in the lower right.

I have no words...

This has nothing to do with sex. It's the vomitorium.
Just another lifestyle anomaly. The trend was for the
wealthy to show off their wealth by eating
themselves sick... and then visit the local brothel, I guess?

Tuesday is Civitavecchia

Click on this link for more photos of Civitavecchia and Anguillara


Civitavecchia is the gateway port to Rome.  We skipped Rome because we had visited before and I was hoping to see some surrounding countryside instead of the city.  So Diane and I we spent the morning relaxing aboard ship, taking the time to relax and recuperate and to explore the ship a bit while most folks were our on tour, including Ted and Nancy, who went to Rome for the day. We opted for an afternoon trip to the volcanic crater lake Bracciano with the beautiful lakefront village of Anguillara.

Civitavecchia Harbor with the Mediterranean Sea beyond
the seawall

The hillside town of Anguillara

The wind was blowing.  Can you see the whitecaps on
Lake Bracciano

Anguillara has charm and hills.  Typical old European town

Up at the church, Diane is unhappy with the wind...

...but she grins and bears it.

Quiet Anguillara

I really liked the town. For a change, it was so quiet and small. Quiet because it was a brisk, blustery day on the lake. and most people stayed inside.  We had great espresso and gelato here.
The second part of our trip was to a winery for a tasting. It was fun as we got to meet some great new people including two couples from East Islip! Go figure. Tastings are always fun as people loosen up an have a good time. The bus ride back to the ship was downright rowdy.

The wine tasting ended a beautiful day!

Pompei

Click on this link for more photos of Pompei

Mt Vesuvius

Prior to our Amalfi adventure, we visited the ruined city of Pompeii. The city sits in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius and when it was buried under volcanic ash during the 1st century it laid dormant for 1600 years before being rediscovered. 

Now 75% excavated, we get to see this well preserved relic. The streets are exactly as they were before the destruction and the bottom halves of all the buildings are still in place. 

Nothing is restored, just cleaned.  This road looks
 like it was built yesterday.  The white marble inlays were
placed to reflect the moon's light so there was increased
nighttime visibility!

Colors, mosaics, statuary all so well preserved it's hard to believe it's 2000 years old. Historic sites in the US don't have this level of preservation!

The weather has been very nice lately with daytime temperatures in the 60's in beautiful sunshine. That'll change a bit as we sail toward Rome as we'll only be in the 50's. Still a lot nicer than NY in November. By contrast, it's been windy and chilly at sea making walking on deck a bit more difficult than I would like. All in all, not bad. 

Overlooking the forum toward Mt Vesuvius

They call this the original pizza oven!

A plaster caste of discovered human remains

Detail of wall covering

Some of the buildings are surprisingly well preserved. The following photos are of a bath house that still has it's roof intact.

 Details of sculpture which surrounds the baths.

 

Okay, this is a fast food joint.  Really.  The marble
bar was heated from below and bowls of food were stored in
the cutaways on the top and served from there

Well, Pompei is certainly an amazing place to visit but time to move on up the Italian coast!