Five-Hundred Fountains

Another day, another day-trip. This past weekend I visted Tivoli, a small town just outside of Rome and home to one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen: The Villa d'Este.

The villa was commissioned by a Cardinal d'Este when he became the governor of Tivoli in the mid-1500s, which makes it a prime example of Renaissance architecture and the elaborate Italian Renaissance gardens of the time... and they are quite elaborate. There are over 500 fountains in the gardens alone, from tiny little spouting fountains, to remarkably huge waterfall-wannabes. The whole place was quite incredible, so I thought I'd share some pictures:

Fontana di Tivoli

The Rometta fountain

Le Cento Fontane (The Hundred Fountains)

View from the Villa

The whole time I was there I felt like I'd stepped into a painting

But seriously...

Pompeii, Mount Vesuvius, and Naples

I have a little catching up to do on reporting my 'adventures,' and I will attempt to do so over the next week now that midterms are over (though I can't believe we're actually past the midterm already)!

Two weeks ago a few friends and I took a train south of Rome to visit Pompeii and Naples. I will describe the events that occurred on this journey in a tale of ancient civilization, archeology, and pizza.

Oh yeah, and there was a volcano too.

Pompeii is a really fascinating archeological site. The original city, which was thought to have been established around the 6th century BC, became a very prosperous Roman city, particularly in the years of the peaceful Pax Romana. The city was destroyed, buried under ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, but as a result it was extremely well-preserved. Walking the streets of ancient Pompeii (which is actually quite extensive) and seeing the remains of all the houses and public buildings was quite an experience. What struck me most about Pompeii was the fact that the ruins so clearly resemble the actual city - you can tell which streets housed the rich and the poor, identify where people cooked their food, see the remains of frescoes or mosaics in ancient villas - it's very different than the typical ruins of Rome which are not as preserved.

 

For awhile, this dog was acting as our tour guide.

We spent several hours wandering the site of ancient Pompeii, which is large enough that it's actually quite possible to get lost (at least with my sense of direction...) and then we headed into the actual city of Pompeii to get lunch and replenish our energy to prepare for...

Climbing Mount Vesuvius! We didn't actually climb the entire way of course, since that apparently takes about 6 hours to do, but after catching a bus which went up a decent ways, we climbed the rest of the way to the very top, which was still a pretty substantial climb.

Climbing buddies!

At the top of a volcano

On our way back down, the bus we were on had to pull over thanks to mechanical issues, and we had to wait an extra 45 minutes for another bus to come rescue us. So we were stranded on a volcano for a bit, which isn't something that happens every day...

We headed into Naples for dinner. We didn't have too much time to explore the city itself (partially thanks to the bus break-down), but I thought it had a very urban vibe, much different than Rome. Our main goal in Naples was, of course, the famous Neapolitan pizza, which wasn't too hard to find. We all ordered and ended up getting these huge pizzas, which we took turns sharing and tasting. It was easily some of the most delicious pizza I have ever tried, and as an added bonus, we got to take home the leftovers, which was definitely preferable to dining hall food the next day!

And see how happy it made me?

We were the good kind of exhausted when we got back to campus, and I slept in the next day and then went out with a friend to spend the afternoon sketching in the city. Rome is so picturesque and we had no trouble finding inspiration! So that was another weekend spent in Italy. More to come soon!

Island Living

This week has been keeping me very busy - I just finished taking midterms and my hand is cramping from all the writing! Anyway, I'm getting behind in my travel chronicles, but I wanted to finally finish my report of the Greece trip (even though it feels like it happened so long ago now that I am back in the whirlwind of school)!

Mykonos (Days 7, 8, 9, and a little bit of 10)

Back on our beloved tour bus after departing Nafplio, we drove for awhile in pursuit of the coast in order to take a ferry to Mykonos. On the way, we stopped at Corinth, a major site of ancient history, as well as the city in which St. Paul visited and lived for a short time. Unfortunately, it was raining, so we didn't stay long in the interest of not getting soaked.
 

We reached the Corinth Canal shortly after, where we had another seafood lunch, and then we piled onto a ferry which would take us to the island. The ferry ride was five hours long, but we kept ourselves amused by playing cards and looking out at the beautiful view of the sea. By the time we made it to the island, it was pretty late. We had just enough time for a quick walking tour of the city before going to bed at our hotel, a really beautiful place with a great view of the sea, appropriately called Hotel Posiedon.

The next day my professor lead an optional trip to the nearby island of Delos. I took the option, and visited the island, which is small and completely uninhabited as the whole island has been designated an archaeological site. It was exeedingly cool though, because basically the entire island is covered in ruins. There was a very large hill in the middle of the island, which we trekked up, and for awhile I spent some time sitting on a ledge at the top and just enjoying the view.

I'm that speck on the top of the hill in the far distance.

The ruins covering the island

The Terrace of Lions

We returned to Mykonos and got lunch (more gyros!) from a place called Jimmy's. Jimmy's is coincidentally run by a guy named Jimmy, who is a super friendly Greek islander. He has pictures literally covering the walls of his restaurant of him and all the people who have visited his place, which I thought was pretty funny. After lunch, we decided to jump into the hotel pool, and while that may not seem logical considering the beach was not far away, let me elaborate:

This is the hotel pool.

Except the pool turned out to be absolutely ice cold, so once we all became numb from swimming in the water, we got out and went to the beach instead. Later we had another fancy dinner with never-ending food and wine and explored the island a bit.

Mykonos is, of course, an island paradise, and we spent our time there accordingly. The next day we spent the entire morning and afternoon alternating between swimming in the sea and lazily sprawling on the beach. I had a little time before dinner after returning to the hotel, so I spent it reading on the balcony of my hotel room while the sun was setting, and feeling like some kind of celebrity on vacation. Our last dinner was at another lovely place with a seaside view, and while the food was absolutely delicious, we couldn't help but lament that the next day we would be back to dining hall fare.

The next morning we packed up and drove to a tiny airport, where we flew out of Mykonos, and transferred to a plane bound for Rome, getting back to campus late in the evening and thus ending the Greek adventures.

One last view

Good-bye Greece, I will miss you...

999 Steps

Friday I went downtown for another school observation for my research, made more interesting by a transportation strike which caused the bus schedule to be even more sporadic than usual (oh Italy). I made it to the school and back with minimal difficulty though, and got some good information for my project, so I would consider it a success all around.
And now, back to Greece:

Nafplio (Days 5 and 6)
Nafplio was our base for the next two and a half days of the Greece trip, from which we took day trips to see nearby places of interest. The city itself was very nice - relatively quiet and free of tourists, and much cleaner and calmer than Athens. The architecture in the city gave it a very interesting character; there were ancient mosques from when the Ottomans took over the city in the 16th century, alongside Venetian-style buildings (who retook the city, then lost it to the Ottomans again, who then lost it to the Greeks, whew!) among all the Greek buildings as well.

We left the first morning for an excursion to the archeological site of Mycenae, what was once the center of Greek civilization from as far back as the 2nd millennium BC (sorry if I sound like a guidebook). It's also where the king Agamemnon, the inspiration for Homer's poems, resided. We walked among the ruins and Cyclopean walls (described as such because only a cyclops ought to have been capable of building them) and took some time to soak in the history. We also stopped off at the Tomb of Agamemnon nearby, before heading to another archeological site, the Theatre of Epidaurus.

The theater dates from the 4th century BC, where it was built in the asclepieion where Greek citizens would go for healing and relaxation. Ancient playwrights such as Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles staged plays at the site. What's fascinating about the theater is its amazing acoustics. We climbed all the way to the top row of seats, and from the center of the stage we could hear our professor dropping coins on the ground. Apparently there have been attempts to replicate the theater's natural acoustics, but no one has been able to.

You could hear a coin drop even from the top row!

 We returned to Nafplio late in the afternoon, where we had free time to do whatever we wanted. And what did me and a few friends want to do? Climb nine-hundred and ninety-nine steps to visit an eighteenth century fortress on the top of a giant hill. Let me just say, I don't think I have ever climbed so many stairs in my life as I have on this Greece trip. After a sufficient work-out getting up to the fortress, we spent several hours exploring every nook and cranny of the place, of which there were many. We intrepidly traversed the entire fortress, climbing through pitch black tunnels and shimmying along walls, at which point I felt a little like Indiana Jones. Then, about a hour or so before sunset, we headed back down the stairs (another trek) and went to the beach nearby to go swimming and cool off from all that exercise! For dinner, we ate gyros and gelato from a local Italian gelateria run by friends of our professors (even in Greece you cannot escape gelato)!

999 stairs (because having 1000 stairs would be too obvious)

A small portion of the Fortress of Palamidi

Infiltrating the fortress walls

The view from the top was worth the climb

We returned to the mountains the following day, driving about two hours to the ancient and well-known city of Sparta, where we climbed more ruins (I'm getting very good at ruin-climbing; I'm thinking about doing it for a living).

Spartan ruins

More Spartan ruins

Ruin-climbing professionals

After that sidetrip, we reached the village of Karyes on Mt. Parnonas. Karyes is an extremely small village; it's population is less than 1000 (so less than the amount of steps I climbed the day before) and it's where our guide Ioanna's family is from. As a result, the locals were extremely inviting and ridiculously friendly. We had a delicious meal of local foods, followed by a scavenger hunt in the village, and a visit to one gentleman's very own wine cellar, where we tasted some really amazing local wine. In the evening, we sat outside the cafes in the village's main square and they gave us Greek coffee (very strong!) and oukoumades, which are something akin to homemade donuts, served hot and doused in honey. 

And insanely delicious!

While we were eating, the lights in the village went out, so after the sun set, the locals brought out candles and we all sat around talking and eating in the dark, with a little candlelight. It was really a wonderful time. We returned to our hotel in Nafplio very late, and I went to sleep almost instantaneously! We said goodbye to Nafplio the next morning, setting out for our final destination: Mykonos!

Into the Mountains

The busy week back is almost over, though we don't have the day off on Friday as usual due to make-up classes. Did I mention how much I love my classes in Rome? Wednesday for art, we went to the church of San Clemente, which is multi-layered; we went underneath the current church to see what used to be the original chapel, from the 5th century, and even lower than that, two buildings from the 1st century of the Roman empire. Also today, we had a wine tasting in my literature class, so we were basically just sipping wine and taking notes...oh, the Roman life!

Anyway, allow me to continue with my chronicle of fall break:

Arahova and Delphi (Days 3-4)

We drove in our trusty tour bus for several hours to get from Athens to the deep mountains of Greece, our destination being the small mountainous town of Arahova where we stayed at a hotel which is apparently a popular ski lodge in the wintertime. The mountains were absolutely beautiful, but very cold, which we were not particularly prepared for given it is still summer weather in Rome. We bundled up as best we could and explored the town a little before dinner, stopping in some of the small shops along the way. 

Arahova, the little mountain town

Dinner was at a little tavern near the clock tower, which required us to hike up a mountain of stairs to get to! The restaurant was very small, so we Loyolans had the whole place to ourselves. The food was all local and very authentic Greek fare and I think I tried everything (I had really worked up an appetite after all those stairs)! Near the end of the meal, two of our guide Ioanna's Greek friends from a nearby monastery entertained us by playing some traditional Greek music on a mandolin. Our professor demonstrated some Greek dancing for us, to which Ioanna joined in, actually dancing at one point with a full wine carafe on her head! That takes some pretty intense concentration, I would say... Dinner was followed up by a delicious dessert in a nearby local cafe after which we headed home to get some sleep!

We departed for Delphi the next morning, which was a short drive away from our little mountain town. Delphi is a historic site to rival the Roman Forum; it was once thought to be the center of the universe by the Greeks, and was visited by figures such as Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Hadrian. The main attraction of Delphi was the oracle at the Temple of Apollo, which gave out prophesies similar to what you might find in a fortune cookie, but was apparently taken very seriously. We spent plenty of time climbing the mountain and seeing all the places of interest, including:

The Stadium

The Amphitheater

The Temple of Apollo (unfortunately there was no oracle to give us a prophecy)

The Treasury of Athens

Look Mom, I climbed a mountain!

On our way from Delphi we passed by the Gulf of Itea and the world’s largest olive grove, which was basically a sea of olive trees blanketing this huge valley area of the mountains. I have to admit, it's going to be hard to come back to the cornfields of the Midwest after seeing all this! Our next stop was a visit to the monastery where Ioanna's friends who joined us at dinner the previous night were from. The monastery was called Hosios Loukas. It was very beautiful and incredibly serene.

The monastery

Our final stop for the day was Nafplio, a coastal town that was the first capital of Greece. We had just enough time to drop our stuff in our hotel rooms and change for dinner, concluding the day with a laidback stroll around the town. More about Nafplio in my next post!

The Greek Metropolis

 I'm getting back into the school routine after the long break, and I have to say, as much as I miss Greece already, it is no punishment to come back to Rome for school. I went downtown this morning to tutor English and got a really delicious panini on my way back (though I am craving gyros a bit after the trip)!
 

Now that I am back in Rome, though, I can take the time to document my Greece trip in a little more detail for those of you interested. So:

Athens (Days 1-3) 

Our trip began early Friday morning when we left Rome to take a plane to Athens. I think I am very quickly getting used to planes and airports, considering I never really flew before this year, but I still find flying more exciting than it apparently warrants according to my more frequent-flying friends (I like the little snacks they give you on board...)
 

The flight was short, and we landed in Athens where we met our Greek tour guide, Ioanna, who is a friend of our professor's from Oxford. Ioanna was an amazing person and told so many fantastic stories (she's originally from the south so she spoke with a southern accent instead of a Greek one)! She was in charge of planning our entire itinerary, including the first lunch we had in Greece, after piling onto a bus and taking a quick ride to Cape Sounio, where this was the view we were met with:

The Aegean Sea

The Temple of Poseidon in the distance

Lunch was at a seaside tavern where, in addition to having an incredible view, I tasted real authentic seafood for the first time. Mussels, calimari, and shrimp were just a few of the dishes I sampled, in addition to the notorious Greek ouzo which they had us all try - a strange drink which could not be consumed without making funny faces.

We finished lunch with just enough time to head up to the cliffs and explore the Temple of Posiedon up close as the sun set.

Our delicious seafood spread

 After sunset we took the bus into Athens, got settled in our hotel, and followed Ioanna through the main parts of the city for a walking tour. It's so exciting to see a new city for the first time at night; it reminded me of my first night seeing all the sights in Rome! The Acropolis was especially exciting to see for the first time, all lit up and shining from the top of the hill like a beacon.

Athens at night was very cool to explore

Occasionally we'd run into some interesting discoveries, like this street full of lamps!

We spent the next day focusing on the Acropolis. We hiked up the hill to listen to our knowledgeable professor give an onsite lecture regarding all the highlights of the Acropolis, most notably of course being the Parthenon. Then we proceeded to explore the Agora, what used to be the most important meeting/marketplace in ancient Greece, and the Temple of Hephaestus which is a remarkably well-preserved Greek temple from 449 BC. Later in the day we returned to the Acropolis to visit the museum, followed by dinner on a rooftop restaurant where I had the best salad I have ever tasted in my life (along with a lot of other good food and wine)!

 

The Parthenon (though I don't think the ancient Greeks put those cranes there...)

The Erechtheion at the top of the Acropolis

The Porch of the Maidens, or the Caryatids

Another delicious meal with friends

I thought the city itself had a very eclectic vibe. At night, all lit up, it feels very urban and trendy. In the day it has more of a calmer, antiquated feel. While I would describe Rome as an orange city, with all its warm-hued buildings, orange cobblestone, and soft lights, Athens is definitely a white one; with stark white buildings and scattered, worn-away ruins.

Rome

Athens

We left Athens early Sunday morning and headed into the mountains for Delphi, which will be coming up next!