#3065 The Trip: Catania, Siciliy

 

view of Mount Etna from the cruise ship

The second port of call on the cruise was Catania, Sicily. Sicily is an Italian island off the southeast coast, right at the toe of the boot. Our time in port was kind of short; we arrived at 7am and had to be back on board by 3:30pm. We decided to spend our day walking around the city on our own. I looked up a walking guide and created a walk for us to see the things we though sounded interesting on Google maps. Lizzie usually handles this aspect of travels, but since she wasn't with us, I figured I'd give it a try. She makes it seem easy. My walk wasn't the most efficient, but it was fine. 

It's a quick walk from the port into the city. Our first stop was to see the Cathedral of Catania, Basilica Cattedrale di Sant'Agata. We didn't go inside. 

Cathedral

The Cathedral is in Piazza del Duomo (of course) and is in the heart of this older part of the city. There's a cool obelisk with an elephant, and that white building on the right is City Hall.

Piazza del Duomo

There are fountains and fancy baroque buildings. My initial thoughts about the city on the walk from the ship to this piazza is that Catania is a little gritty. It doesn't have the historical magnificence and grandeur of Rome or the beauty and charm of Florence, but Catania has something that made me want to go a little deeper. Maybe it's Mount Etna looming over the city. Maybe it was the overcast sky giving the whole town a vibe. Maybe it was all the stories you read and movies you see about Sicily. It is Italy, but feels different from Italy at the same time. There have been many other influences at play on this island. 

Directly off the piazza when we turned a corner, there was a fresh fish market in full swing. It didn't smell like fish because all the products had been swimming earlier that morning. It was really cool to see it. I kinda wish we could have found our way down to the market just to look around a bit more, but we didn't. 

fish market

Just up ahead and around another corner, we came upon streets where umbrellas provided shade. It was unexpected and made MT and I feel delighted.

ussie with umbrellas

T was maybe a little less excited.

T didn't like the umbrellas?

I realized just now that I didn't take an ussie of the three of us in Catania. Bummer.

The next thing we saw was Castello Ursino. This 13th century castle/fortress is huge, and at some point had a museum in it, but now it's just sitting there. The neighborhood all around it is decrepit and kinda sad-looking. Even the little piazza in front of it is all dried up and unwelcoming. It was puzzling.

Castello Ursino

From the castle, we went back to Piazza del Duomo and made our way into a chapel across the street from the cathedral. There was rooftop access for views of the city and Mount Etna. MT is a sucker for a view, so we paid 10 euros each to climb up a bunch of stairs. There was a sub-roof where I decided to end my climb because I couldn't handle the tiny spiral staircase to the very top.

I wasn't interested in climbing up the spiral column of steps

my view of the rooftops of Catania and Mount Etna

It was hot in Catania that day, and I was glad to find a bit of shade where I could gaze at the volcano. Did you know that shortly after we got home, Mount Etna started erupting? The airport in Catania was closed because of heavy ash and the volcano has been active for a couple of months now. Glad it was quiet while we were there.

Our last stop of the day was not what I thought it would be, but it was interesting. We walked up a long hill and found this:

San Nicolo l'Arena

This is the Church of Saint Nicholas the Arena, and is the largest church on the island of Sicily. The neoclassical facade is unfinished, leaving it looking kinda strange. It is absolutely massive.

MT looks so small!

The church is part of a monastery that is attached to it, and there is a dome that you can walk up in order to have an excellent view. We didn't go to the monastery or the dome because it was getting late and we had to get back to the ship, plus, I was plumb tuckered out from the walking and the heat, so we headed back down the hills to the port.

My initial impression of Catania is the same as my final impression of the city. The vibe goes from charming to gritty one street to the next. 

That takes care of our day in Catania. Next we will leave Italy for awhile as we make our way around the boot of the country into the Ionian Sea and Corfu, Greece.

xo

#3064 The Trip: Salerno/Pompeii

ussie in Pompeii, Italy

We now begin the cruise portion of The Trip, seven nights, six ports, beginning in the port of Rome, which is in Civitavecchia, and ending in Ravenna, which is a couple of hours from Venice. We had a driver to take us from Rome to Civitavecchia. The driver and MT chatted the whole way, about 90 minutes. I think MT was very pleased to have someone to talk to other than T and I. LOL That first day, we just stayed on the ship, staking out our favorite area on the pool deck where we would return each day of the cruise. We left late in the afternoon, and in the morning, we had arrived in Salerno, Italy.

view of Salerno from the ship

Salerno is in southeastern Italy, and is the gateway to the Amalfi Coast. From Salerno there are many options for day trips, including Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Naples, and Pompeii. We chose to go to Pompeii. The allure of seeing the ruins of this ancient city was really strong. This was one of the few excursions we booked from the ship, but we didn't make a very good choice. We booked the "Pompeii on Your Own" which basically just gave us a ride to Pompeii and back. Once we got to Pompeii, we had to pay to get into the archaeological site and figure our way around the place. We would have been better off to spend the extra money for a real tour. We did get audio guides, but we really didn't use them. The site is huge.

map at the Pompeii archaeological site

There was no way we were going to see much of it in the two hours we had, but the audio guide desk gave us a map and told us about some places we could see in the time we had. We did see cool stuff, and I'm just going to show some photos I took. Sadly, I do not know anything about these places, other than I thought they were amazing. These walls and floors were buried under ash and volcanic debris for nearly 1700 years. The fact that you can see anything at all is mind-blowing to me. 

frescos!

details and colors

zoomed in photo of the little image from the photo above this one

look at the floor!

the detail!

a temple for Isis

amphitheater

pano of the street

pottery

It was extremely hot in Pompeii the day we were there. I'm glad it wasn't rainy, though. I saw some video of rainy Pompeii, and it was kind of scary. Those stone roads are a bit slippery even when they are dry and with the rain, they looked like rivers. Another thing about Pompeii is that there are lots of hills and steps and not much is even footing. I saw some older folks really struggling to get around there.

Tonight T and I watched a show on Disney + called Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston. What I liked about the show was that Hiddleston was trying to help us remember that the people in Pompeii in 79 AD were real people. He focused on three individuals who historians and archaeologists know were in Pompeii on that day and he imagined what their life might have been like and what they went through. It's just three episodes, and I was a little skeptical at first but then I was into it. Worked out perfectly that I was planning to write about Pompeii tonight anyway!

I feel like we missed out here by being cheap. I'd love to go back someday to take a tour and be able to spend as much time as I want on the site. Excavation is still being done, and I think more cool stuff will be found. I'd like very much to go to the museum in Naples, and if I'm in the area anyway, it would be awesome to go to Herculaneum. Ahh...maybe someday.

When we got back to Salerno, we decided that we needed to have pizza since we were so close to Naples (you know, where pizza was invented.) The guide on the bus told us that pizza is serious business in Salerno, so we found a nice-looking restaurant not far from the waterfront that had outdoor seating, and ordered pizzas. My pizza was the signature pizza, Giagiu: The Dream. It was a white pizza with mozzarella, yellow cherry tomatoes, pecorino, Cilento bacon and Cilento extra virgin olive oil, finished with coffee powder and "coffee air." How could I possibly pass on coffee air?

my pizza at Giagiu

See that foamy brown stuff in the middle where the knife is pointing? That is the coffee air. It was basically really light coffee foam. It actually tasted really good with the cheese and the salty bacon. After lunch we got a gelato and walked along the promenade back to the ship. We had a nice day!

Next time, join me to hear about walking around Catania, Sicily. 

xo

#3063 three things: two trips to CA and five concerts in seven days

 

It's been a busy summer, and the past four weeks or so has seemed extra busy, but in (mostly) good ways. Let's discuss.

1. July trip to CA. On 22 July, I flew to Long Beach and spent a couple of days with Mom and Lizzie. The primary purpose of the trip was to go to Dixon to bury the ashes of my aunt and uncle. Lizzie and I drove up to northern California on the 25th. It's about a seven hour drive, and we were motivated to get there before Frosty's Drive-In closed, and we made it! Unfortunately, it was so hot that the aged fryer hood had shut down, so we were only able to get a milkshake, but that orange creamsicle shake was fabulous. That night we went to our other favorite Dixon places: The Pip wine bar, and Dawson's. The next day we drove out to see The House. Honestly, we were kind of stalker-y, and the new owner came out to find out what the hell we were doing. We told her our story, and she was super nice. She even invited us in to see the renovations they'd done, but they had guests, so we declined the offer. (But I really wanted to see it!) That afternoon we hung out at the pool at the motel, and that night, we had a family dinner at Dawson's. My cousins had arrived, so it was nice to get together. Monday morning was the burial.  A few other family members came, cousins of my aunt and uncle who live in the area, and a couple of Mary's former co-workers. We told some stories about Mary and Dewey, then the ashes were buried in the plot of their mother. It was low-key and exactly what I had in mind. After that, I had a meeting at the bank there in Dixon where I finally was able to close out Mary's account and get a cashier's check for the balance, then Lizzie and I drove home. I stayed another couple of days, then came home on the 29th.

2. Five concerts in seven days. All of these concerts were at Red Butte Garden. I attended two concerts as a patron, and volunteered at the other three. The first show was Alabama Shakes, which I'd bought tickets for. That show was on the evening of the 29th, so I got off the plane, came home, then MT and I went to the concert. A storm came in and delayed the gates until 9:00 pm. We sheltered in place in the parking garage during the thunder, lightning, and rain delay. Once the storm passed, the weather was pleasant. Lots of folks had bailed on the show, so it was a pretty light crowd. I enjoyed it.

The next night I worked the exit recycling shift for the Melissa Etheridge/Wynonna Judd concert. It was my first exit recycling experience, and I would think twice before I accept that gig again. It is a short shift and it's not awesome. The music was good. 

The next show was Fitz and the Tantrums. Those were the tix I received for my service hours last year, so MT came with me. We like this band. They are fun and upbeat, and we had a good time.

The next night I was on the donor terrace for Walk Off the Earth and Andy Grammer. Donor terrace is a sweet gig because it's a good four-hour shift and you get to see the whole show from a pretty decent location, and the job is easy. There is no garbage involved. I'd like to pick up more of those shifts next year, if I can. And the concert? It may be my favorite show of the year. Both bands were so good! Great energy and vibes.

The very next night I was back to do a full recycling shift for Interpol. The opener was a band called Youth Lagoon. I have never heard of either of these bands, and I wasn't particularly interested in their music. Interpol did have an enthusiastic following, and I like to see that. 

I just have two more concerts on my schedule. If I can pick up another one, I'd be glad to do that, but if not, I'm happy with what I've got. With the last two, I will have worked at 11 shows, which was my goal for this season. 

3. Another trip to CA. The second trip to California was also a two-fer. The first part of the trip was about dropping MT off in the eastern Sierra Mountains so he could hike the John Muir Trail (JMT) northbound to Yosemite Valley. Lizzie met us in Mammoth Lakes, CA, where MT parked his truck. (He will take a shuttle from Yosemite Valley to Mammoth when his hike is complete.) We dropped MT off at the Cottonwood Pass trailhead on 8/8, then Lizzie and I drove back to La Mirada. I stayed with Mom and Lizzie for a week. It was a good week for me. I finished three books, did a lot of scribbling in my diary/journal, did a bit of art, and got to hang out with my people. Can't complain about any of that!

Now I am home and I don't have plans to go anywhere else for awhile. MT should be home sometime in early September. His permit for the JMT is for one month. The hike is 250 miles. Last year's Colorado Trail hike was 500 miles and it took him about 40 days, so maybe he can finish the JMT in under 30 days? He's averaging over 10 miles a day so far; he's probably hiked around 85 - 90 miles in the first nine days. He is having a grand time. Hiking the JMT is a dream come true for him, so that's awesome. 

So that's what I've been doing. Now that I'm back and settled, I will resume The Trip narrative. I'm looking forward to looking back at it :) I'll plan to write every other day about my travels, so I hope you'll check back when you can!

I will leave you with this photo of MT at Forester Pass.

#3062 The Trip: travel journal show and tell

my August wee calendar

Happy August, friends! 

I'm fixing to head back to California for a bit, so rather than jump back into descriptions of The Trip, I thought I'd share photos of a few pages from the travel journal that I am creating. It is a mix of photos I took, stickers, postcards, a little bit of my art, and some thoughts I had about things I saw. It's kind of interesting that I am exactly at the same narration spot both here and in the travel journal. With that said, here are six pages to show you what I've got going on there.

I painted the pages to kind of resemble the stained glass in the Sagrada Familia. I did not draw the beautiful image on the left side; that is a postcard. I'm sure you already gathered that. These pages turned out just about exactly how I wanted them to. Fun fact, I did these pages while we were in Spain. That isn't true for the rest of these examples.

This page is a sticker rendition of how we spent our first day in Rome when we arrived in the city. I painted the lines and circles and added splashes to make the background interesting. I was delighted to have stickers of everything! LOL

This page has some wee sketches from our day at the Colosseum and Roman Forum. 

These three magnificent sketches are from the day in Vatican City. I especially like my rendition of the Swiss Guard. I used colored pencils.

Here are a couple of pages from the Borghese Galleries. The postcards are the big cards and my photos are the little wallet-sized cards. 

These final two pages are kind of a round-up of Rome. I sketched that little thing on the left in my zine while we were having drinks one evening. I found having the zine was easier to carry around and pull out of my bag when we had a break. I would record some micro-memories as we went along, and I've been cutting apart the pages to include in the travel journal as I need or want. 

Creating the travel journal has been lots of fun. I did all the Rome pages while I was watching the World Cup matches when we got back home. There is quite a bit left to do, and I am looking forward to getting back to it when I return from visiting Mama and Lizzie. 

Talk to you soon!

xo

#3061 time for a quick break

 

Sunflower!

Hello! Posting is temporarily interrupted because I’m fixing to attend to some family business for a few days and won’t have the time or access to write here. When I get back next week, I will pick it back up with posts about the ports of call we visited on the cruise. 

In the meantime, please enjoy this pretty sunflower that just showed up in the back flower bed. I think a birdie might have dropped the seed out of the bird feeder. I am delighted by it. I hope it comes back next year and brings a friend or two. 

Have a great week!  

#3060 The Trip: Borghese Galleries and the Capitoline Musuems

ussie in Piazza della Rotunda

I kinda feel like we saved the best for last on our final day in Rome. We saw things that were new to all of us, which I felt was appropriate since we would be seeing new places and things from this point forward. 

The first stop of the day was the Borghese Galleries. The first time MT and I came to Rome, we talked about going there, but we didn't have tickets - we didn't know anything about it at the time - but going there sort of became an obsession of mine, kinda like the Alhambra was for MT. We probably had about a 30 minute walk to the Villa Borghese through a part of the city we hadn't been before. The walk was a slight but steady uphill climb, and the area was lovely. Not touristic, although there were some very nice-looking hotels on the way. The streets were quiet and shaded, and I quite liked the area. 

Finally we came to this:

Porta Pinciana

I didn't know what it was at the time; I figured it was part of the city walls. It is the divider between Via Venetto and the Borghese Gardens, and it is an ancient part of the Aurelian Walls. From this spot, we crossed the road and started walking through part of the Borghese Gardens. We didn't see the lake and the gazebo, but we all appreciated walking under the shady trees, because, you know, it was HOT!

 pedestrian road leading to the Villa Borghese

We had tickets for a timed, guided tour. A thing I learned about the museum is that only 350 people are allowed in the Galleries at one time, and there is a two hour limit to be there. The Galleries are compact and full of beautiful art. The first floor is mainly sculptures, and the second is mainly paintings. Because there are so few people there and because the entries are staggered, you really have time to enjoy the place without a bunch of other folks blocking your views of the art. It was a tremendous experience!

I knew two things about the Borghese Galleries. The first thing I knew about was Bernini's sculpture of The Rape of Prosperine. I have been eager to see this sculpture in person, and it is THE first thing you see on entering the gallery. It is stunning, even better than I ever imagined: the way Jupiter's hand is digging into Prosperine's thigh - Bernini makes the marble look like flesh. The tear on Prosperine's cheek, and the way she is pushing away his face. The way even her toes are tensed. The three-headed dog. The muscles in Jupiter's arms and legs. I could have looked at it for much longer, but there were so many other things to see, too. The place is full of Bernini's greatness.

The Rape of Prosperine - Bernini

The second thing I knew about the Galleria Borghese is that there are  Caravaggio paintings there. All six are grouped in the same room, and it is a spectacular display. Again, because there weren't many people in the room, I was able to get what I think are nice photos of the masterpieces. Here are three of my favorites:

David with the Head of Goliath

Saint Jerome Writing

Madonna of the Palafrenieri

Did you know that Caravaggio used his own image at the face of Goliath in the top painting? In the second painting, I love the simplicity and the colors used. In the third painting, I like the Madonna and the Child stepping on the snake. They are all just really freaking cool. 

Here is a pano I took of the space:

pano of the Caravaggio room

There was another sculpture by Bernini that absolutely took my breath away. I can't believe I'd never heard of this one before.

Apollo and Daphne

This sculpture show us the moment Apollo touches Daphne and she begins to turn into a tree. You can read the mythology here. I appreciated having a guide when I looked at this sculpture because she did a wonderful job of explaining exactly what I was looking at. After hearing the story, I walked around this statue probably three more times, looking at every little thing. It's beautiful.

I want to show you one more sculpture before we move away from the Borghese. This sculpture is by the artist Canova.

Paolina Borghese Bonaparte as Venus Victrix

Look at the cushion she is reclining on. Doesn't it look real and soft and squishy? It's all marble! I seriously cannot get over how these sculptors were able to render the rock like this. So cool. Not only did I want to show you the cool cushion, but Canova comes back into our story in a minute.

When our two hours in the Galleries was over, we hit the gift shop, of course, then we went outside to sit down in the shade, clear our minds, and figure out how we wanted to spend the rest of the day. We ended up deciding we would go to the Capitoline Museums. We bought tickets directly from the museum online. It wasn't too expensive and the entry wasn't timed, plus they are open fairly late, until 7 pm or so, which meant we didn't have to rush. This was nice considering it is on the opposite side of the city! 

We decided we would go to Piazza del Popolo because there is a church in the piazza that has two Caravaggio paintings. (I know! We are obsessed!) We were able to walk down a really nice tree-lined walkway, and I was really pleased with this green space.

the menfolk

We were thwarted in our Caravaggio quest at the church in Piazza del Popolo. There are limited hours to see the paintings, although it is free. We had just missed one of the windows of time, and we were unwilling to come back two hours later. Oh well. Gotta save something for next time!

Since we were hungry (it was just after 2pm) we found a restaurant that looked interesting. It was filled with statues. 

Musee Atelier Canova Tadolini

This is just a very small sample of the statues in the room where we ate. What we found out was that this restaurant used to be the atelier of Antonio Canova, the same Canova that created the Venus Victrix sculpture in the Borghese. I was not as hungry as the menfolk; I had a little sandwich, but they had pasta and were very pleased with it. MT also had an octopus salad which delighted him. It was an unexpected cool place. You come to expect the unexpected cool stuff in Rome. 

We passed by the Spanish Steps and made our way to Capitoline Hill to the Campodoglio and into the Museums. There are two museums, one on either side of the piazza. We started with the one on the right as you enter the piazza, and started wandering. I just have a couple of things to show you, although I took many photos as there was a lot of fantastic things in these museums.

She-Wolf

Surely you know the story of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, and the She-Wolf who raised them. (Click on the link above if you want to read about it.) This bronze sculpture is from the 5th century BC! It's nearly 2500 years old. How do you wrap your brain around that? No, it's not really beautiful, but it's so freaking old!!!!

The Capitoline Museums also have two paintings by Caravaggio  a few humungous statues, and paintings by Rubens, Titian, and others, including this one by Passarotti:

Portrait of a Man with a Dog

I like the guy's face, and dogs are great. 

One more thing I want to show you. We walked through an underground passage that was filled with old, cool things to get from one museum to the other. There was a set of stairs to the right as we were walking through, and we thought that's where we were supposed to go. It wasn't into the museum, but it did lead to this view of the Forum and the Colosseum:

the Roman Forum and the Colosseum

Maybe you remember this photo in post #3058:

view from Roman Forum of Capitoline Museums

In the photo that includes the Colosseum, we are in the big arch on the left taking in that view. Cool, huh?

When we were finished walking around the Museums, we were tuckered out. We didn't even have it in us to try to go to the Vittoriano. Like we always say, you gotta leave something for next time. We walked back to our home piazza and had an aperitivo, then ended the night with a really yummy sandwich from Antica Salumeria which we took up to the apartment to eat. We all did go back out to do a bit of souvenir shopping, and that was the end of our time in Rome. 

This day had a step count of over 22,000. It was a big day!

Next up, we board a cruise ship and sail around the boot of Italy. I plan to have a separate post for each of the six stops, so I hope you'll come back for those stories and photos. 
 

xo