Palmanova & Halstatt

In the morning we headed off for Palmanova, the star-fort city built by the Venetians in 1593 AD. The site is best viewed from above, as in aerial, so here's a satellite view:


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We saw towns like this (probably including this one) in the map hall at the Vatican and thought that surely they could not be accurate representations of real places. And seemingly for that reason didn't bother to photograph any of them.

We weren't sure how much of it we would be able to see from the ground, but it was pretty neat. We started off in the center of town. The central piazza is surrounded by the tiniest moat ever. We figured it was the last line of defense. The whole city-town-fort was laid out on a plan that let the defenders defend from a number of concentric stars.

From Palmanova

The center of town also contained the (free) military museum. While not a big tourist destination, Palmanova remains an important military base, though surely less so with military aircraft in the picture. Most of the museum was dedicated to World War Two, and there was an old WW2 veteran there who seemed eager to show off some of the stuff to us. If I understood him correctly, he showed us a bicycle that disassembled that a paratrooper could carry on his descent, *his* helmet (from somewhere in North Africa), and a bunch of old radios that Joe and Josh geeked out over, propaganda (from both German and American sources), and of course guns and uniforms.

From Palmanova

From Palmanova

Parked outside the museum was a jeep with an old gun mounted on top, which the old war vet drove off in after he was done talking with us.

We picnicked for lunch near one of the city gates, and explored the Earthworks defending the city. They were pretty impressive. I wouldn't bother trying to attack this city without an airplane!

From Palmanova

From Palmanova

From Palmanova

Next up was the scenic drive to Austria, through the beautiful Alps. Along the way we passed an old castle and when we drove up there we found that they've turned it into a bird zoo.

From Austrian Alps

From Austrian Alps

Finally we arrived at Hallstatt, which might just be quaintest little town in the world, perched on a lake in the Australian Alps. It is famous for its salt mine, which is the oldest in the world. In fact, salt mining was such a big industry back then (and source of power and wealth) that there is an entire period of European history named for this little town. When we got there, we found water across some of the roads, flooding along the waterfront and into some of the lowest buildings. According to our host at the hotel, it'd been raining almost non-stop for a month, but was supposed to clear up around noon tomorrow, and would be followed by a beautiful Saturday, which she had off. She seemed pretty excited.

From Halstatt

We went to dinner at one of the few restaurants that was still open at 9pm and got lots of really good Austrian food (which seems much like German food). Mary got an incredible soup that was described on the menu as "Beef Consume with Pancakes". We thought surely this was a mistranslation, but Mary has had a lot of things called pancakes all over the world, and they have all been good. Well, it wasn't a mistranslation. There were thin pancakes sliced up like noodles in a beef consume soup. And it was really good. Will have to try making pancake soup at home!

Venice - San Marco, Aquileia - Layers of Mosaics

Got out early, but there was already a long line for the San Marco Basilica by the time we arrived. We enjoyed touring the inside and seeing the Byzantine mosaics. Up in the museum, there were great views out over the interior of the Basilica and over the square outside. There was also an array of old tapestries from the palace next door. We also got to see the horses atop the Basilica. The horses are thought to be from ancient Greece, and are spectacular.

After San Marco, we hurried off to the Venice Airport where we picked up a rental car then drove on to Aquileia. In addition to being an important town in the spread of Christianity, which isn't really important to us, Aquileia, specifically the town's Cathedral, is one of those cool places where you get to see many layers of history right on top of each other. While there actually was a service going on while we were there (in a corner up front), the Cathedral is more archaeological site than church these days. The beautiful original mosaics covering almost the entirety of the floor have been uncovered and to protect them you walk through the cathedral on elevated glass walkways.

From Aquilia

From Aquilia

Approximately under the alter there is a crypt full of pastel frescoes with a few relics from minor saints. Where by relics, of course I mean bones of the saints in fancy displays. I know they have these all over European churches, but I don't think I will ever get over how weird it is.

From Aquilia

From Aquilia

Next up were the mosaic excavations where we saw the floor mosaics from the former church on the same site on the top level.

From Aquilia

A few feet below the level of the old church is the Roman basilica (meeting place). This one is well squished by the weight of the current bell tower, but you can see the mosaics that aren't directly under the tower.

From Aquilia

From Aquilia

From Aquilia

And even a bit further below the Roman basilica there are simpler mosaics from the old Roman house that stood on that spot.

From Aquilia

We've seen a lot of mosaics in this trip. And Mary and her parents have seen a lot of mosaics in previous trips (actually, they'd all been to Aquileia before but wanted to go back and to show Josh), and so we think we are really saying something when we say that this is still the best place to see mosaics.

There were also some Roman ruins around town outside, though nothing to write home about. So we'll leave it at that.

From Aquilia

Venice - San Gorgio, I Frari, Merano, Jewish Ghetto, Grand Canal

Got out later than intended and had a bit of trouble figuring out the vaporetto (boat bus), and ended up on the number 2 vaporetto around the outside of the city (instead of the one that goes up the grand canal), which provided interesting views of the more industrial part of the city, such as it is. It appears that Venice still has a fishing industry.

We got off at San Gorgio island where we explored the church and went up in the tower for the view back over Venice.

From Venice

From Venice

Back at San Marco Square we found a long line to go into the cathedral, so we decided to move on to the I Frari church, where we admired the famous art by Titian.

Next we took the vaporetto to Merano Island to see the glass making (after an accidental stop on the cemetery island).

From Venice

Mary and her parents remembered being on Merano Island 15 years ago and watching glass being made in a factory setting for shipment around the world. We weren't sure if we would find that again though, as there is now a lot of imitation Venetian glass made in China. We saw it for sale in Asia and wondered at it, and according to Lonely Planet, a lot of what they sell in Venice is now made in China. The first place we went to that claimed to be a factory, we paid to see a demonstration, and they were clearly only working glass as a show when people were there to see it. How disappointing! We wandered later into another facility where there were 2 guys actively making stuff, that actually looked like it was for sale and not just a show. It was a smaller operation than we'd seen 15 years ago, but cool. Still, I don't think we can really recommend the trip out to Merano to see it any more--they were only doing the kind of stuff you can see everywhere these days.

From Venice

We didn't get back in time for San Marco, but Josh went to the Galleria dell'Accademia while everyone else went back to the hotel for some planning for the rest of the week.

On the way back to the hotel we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in the vibrant heart of the Jewish Ghetto, which was the original ghetto, but in fact never was a "ghetto" at all. There was just a Jewish community near the copper works, which was called a "ghetto," and that's where we get our word for a segregated community. There was a monument to the people taken away to concentration camps during WWII. There is a new Jewish community there now, but they are mostly not the same families. Anyway, it was the first and only place in Venice we went that felt like a real city with real people living their lives. The square was a block from a school and full of children playing. There was only the smallest handful of other tourists.

After dinner we look the slow vaporetto the full length of the Grand Canal while listening to the Rick Steves commentary.

From Venice

From Venice

At San Marco, we enjoyed listening to the live music coming from the fancy cafes and danced in the square before taking an express vaporetto back to our hotel.

From Venice

From Venice

Venice - Arrival, San Marco Square

In the morning in Florence we visited the Basilica de Santa Maria Novella where were admired some nice frescoes before hopping our fast and expensive EuroStar train to Venice. When we arrived Mom and Dad were were just arriving at the train station to meet us, having gotten in 45 minutes earlier from Portland, Oregon and checked into our hotel.

We dropped off our bags at the hotel room, then struck out in search of a restaurant that wasn't crazy expensive. We ended up at a little bar along some random little canal where we had pasta and salad.

From Venice

After lunch we walked down to San Marco Square where we found and admired the fancy astrological clock which shows the positions of the sun and moon relative to the earth and zodiac, along with the phase of the moon and the world's first digital clock. According to legend, the inventor was murdered so that no other city could make for themselves such a cool clock. Something for us scientists and engineers to keep in mind, I guess...

From Venice

Next we did the Rick Steves audio walking tour around San Marco Square, seeing the different "sides" of the square that were from different eras, and how the one built by Napoleon in the back tries to bring everything together, which it does well at a glance, but if you look closely you can see the imperfections.

From Venice

There was also the big bell tower, the Doge's Palace (a fancy place that very much flaunts its lack of needing to be a fortress), many of the winged lions of St. Mark, and the Bridge of Sighs (surrounded by ad-covered scaffolding).

From Venice

It was a good day, and it was really good to see my folks!

From Venice

Florence - Uffizi, and Pisa - Leaning Tower

Dreading the extra-long queues, and unable to reserve tickets (sold out), we got up early, breakfasted, and queued up at the Uffizi twenty minutes before opening. There are only around thirty people in front of us. Given the page space devoted to the museum in our guidebook, we expected something the size of the Vatican, but it's quite a lot smaller (but still really nice). Notable paintings include The Birth of Venus, Primavera, Venus of Urbino. The famous Venus statue was indisposed when we were there. So it goes. We had a Rick Steves audio tour here too, which highlighted the important works and changing styles and methodologies employed in painting as the Renaissance got going. The Galleria exhibit was the work of Caravaggio.

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

The museum took less time than we expected (only a couple hours, perhaps Lonely Planet's 4 hour estimate was assuming a long wait in line and the need to elbow past crowds?), so wandered around Florence poking into whichever churches we could find that were open to tourists (not many, as it was Sunday). They have a lot of really lovely churches in Florence.

Next we decided to head over to Pisa for the afternoon. Pisa is a cheap (5.70 Euro) and fast (1 hour) train ride from Florence, and the tower is around a mile from the train station, so we walked. On the way, we picked up some gelato (chocolate and hazelnut, yum). The tower is quite a bit shorter than Mary had remembered or Josh had imagined. And it leaned more than either of us had expected, even though Mary had seen it before! There's a very nice green space around the tower (which is part of the Duomo complex). Here, we relaxed and enjoyed the sun and shade and views before we headed home. The leaning tower looks just like the photos, except it's not until you see it in person that you discover that you never really believed that it leans that much.

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

Florence - Duomo & Loggia dei Lanzi

Today we were planning on heading straight up to Venice. Mary's parents will be meeting us there, so we thought we'd need some time to see the city before they arrive, but it turns out they want to spend some time there also (even though they've been a couple times before), so we decided to skip the Appian way and catacombs and head straight for Florence, which is on the way to Venice anyway. We caught a morning train to Florence and checked into the hostel near the train station. It's the weekend, so we were happy to have anything with availability that was cheap. Since most of the awesome museums have hour-plus long queues, we decided to reserve some tickets for the next day and walk around town first, visiting the Duomo. Luckily, walking around Florence is really easy. They have banned cars (except for residents' vehicles) in the historic down town, making it a wonderful pedestrian zone. First, we visit the Duomo, which has a lovely white, red, and green facade (the colors of Italy), which is actually new to celebrate the unification of Italy. The impressive part is the dome, which we decided to not climb, as the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica is similar and was somewhat disappointing to climb.

From Florence

The inside of the Duomo was disappointing. There just isn't much in there, like they blew their whole budget on the dome or something. Speaking of which, apparently the better part of the cathedral was built during the century before the technology to build such a big dome was rediscovered in the Renaissance. Talk about faith!

Next, we walked around down town with the Rick Steves audio walking tour. We went into a church that was a granary before it was a church, with a grain warehouse upstairs and an open air grain market downstairs. We could see the holes in the columns that were the bottom of the old chutes for delivering grain. We then made our way down to Piazza della Signoria where we saw the Palazzo Vecchio with it's replica of David out front on display where the original David used to be, the other monuments, and the Loggia dei Lanzi which is a pavilion with some awesome statuary. It was originally a place for public speaking, but was converted to a place for statues by the Medici. As Rick Steves put it, the Medici preferred free art over free speech. We also walked down to the Ponte Vecchio, the famous covered bridge full of jewelry shops.

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

Rome - Ostia Antica

We slept in, and made our way lazily over to Ostia Antica in the afternoon after some suboptimal public transit. Ostia Antica was at the mouth of the Tiber river in ancient times; since then, the river has changed course, the shoreline has moved farther seaward, and the major port for Rome has moved. It was abandoned for these reasons, and because of Malaria. The site itself was a lot bigger than Herculaneum (the excavated part) or Paestum, and a little smaller than Pompeii. Unfortunately, the best stuff (columns, marble, statues) have been largely carted off to other locations as far away as Istanbul. After all, this city didn't get buried by a volcano!

From Rome

From Rome

From Rome

The site itself was nice, though if felt a great deal like a poorly preserved version of what we've already seen. I don't know that we can recommend a trip out here unless you don't have time to go to Pompeii, or are looking for a quiet place away from the crowds of Rome. It's never busy, and with good reason. There is an awesome theater next door to a business district. There are also a few baths to explore. The whole site is brick. Before this trip, we didn't realize that the Romans used a lot of brick and concrete. I guess we assumed that they used stone exclusively. Heck, they even plaster brick columns to make them look like marble.

From Rome

Paestum - Greek Ruins in Italy!

Undeterred by our miss the previous day, we headed down to Paestum after checking out of our hostel. Paestum is a modestly sized Greek ruin from the 7th century AD. It has three temples standing, one with columns around six feet across at the base. There are also a few mosaics, atria, and a lot of waist-high walls. It is supposed to be one of the best preserved Greek sites anywhere, better than any we are likely to see in Greece, yet gets few visitors...perhaps because there is so much less left of it than the nearby Roman cities. It was very nice, and we lingered until 6pm. The evening at these archaeological sites are much nicer. It's cooler, less bright, and there are fewer people. They're quite serene. There wasn't much left of the other buildings around the temples, but we were able to spot many similarities in architecture to Pompeii.

From Naples

From Naples

From Naples

Paestum is evidently on a train line, which our guidebook failed to mention, and there are plenty of late trains directly back to Naples. Our hostel hostess would have told us this yesterday, had we told her we were thinking of going there. While waiting for the train, we talked with a man leading a small group of his students on tour: they'd come down for the day from Rome and visited both Pompeii and Paestum in one day. That sounds a bit grueling, but doable. I think they did it in the wrong order though, should do Paestum (which doesn't get that busy) in the morning and Pompeii in the evening after the other tourists have departed. We caught the 6pm train back to Naples and changed for the next train for Rome. We had just missed a train, so we waited an hour for the next train, which was then "retardo" by around an hour. So we got into Rome right at midnight, which is when the metro line and regular bus service stop. Did I mention that we booked a "camping" hotel in the middle of nowhere? They do seem to run night buses that approximate the metro routes, so we took that to around the metro stop where we would have caught a bus to our accommodations, and then grabbed a taxi for 26 Euros, which still equates to cheaper than staying in the center.

From Naples