We were up around 5:45 this morning to start our long day of sightseeing in Rome. The tour started with some interesting history on Rome and a view of the old senate building and Forum from Julius Caesar’s reign, as well as the oldest shopping market on the planet.
We spent some time in Trevi Square viewing the Fontana del Trevi but did not toss any coins since we have all already found our true loves...
No trip to Rome would be complete without a trip to the coliseum, where we actually saw some gladiators fight. Outside there are many men dressed as gladiators hoping to make money off of tourist by taking pictures with them. Apparently things got a bit territorial between an old timer and a new comer and a good-old-fashion fist fight broke out. Several other gladiators got involved and we were just as enthralled as the Roman mobs of old...
After a homemade lasagna (fabulous) lunch, we spent the afternoon in the Vatican City where we were in awe of the Sistine Chapel and the Museum galleries. Bee’s favorite item was an enormous circular, marble bath tub that filled an entire room and belonged to Emperor Nero’s wife. Due to her issues with dry skin, the tub was frequently filled with Donkey’s milk. Unfortunately this was a great expense to the emperor and when he got tired of paying the bill, he had her killed. Ladies, let this be a lesson to you about staying within the budget...
We ended our time at St. Peter’s Cathedral, which is built over the tomb of Peter and is also the site of his martyrdom.
From there we headed to Taormina, a lovely town situated on Mount Tauro overlooking the Ionian Sea. Here we visited a Greco-Roman theater that had originally been built before the time of Christ.
Afterwards we spent some time shopping and enjoying gelato...
There are over 400 churches in Santorni, adding to the beautiful architecture...
We spent some time shopping in the town of Oia, which has very narrow cobblestone streets that are only about two shoulders wide. Dad’s version of shopping...
Seventy percent of Santorini is covered in grapes, which makes wine one of their top exports. We were able to visit one of the local wineries, Domaine Sigalas. Here we learned about the production of the wine and got a chance to taste it as well. In addition, we were told about the myth of Bahkos, who is attributed with bringing vines to the island. The story goes that he planted the original vine in the bone of a bird for transportation to the island, but when the vine out grew the bone he planted it in the skull of a lion. Eventually the vine out grew the skull and he moved it to the skull of a donkey. Therefore the locals say that if you have a little wine you get light as a bird, a little more and you get the courage of a lion, and any more than that you will become an ass.
Our last bit of knowledge gained was that “thank you” in Greek sounds like F Harry’s Toe in English. So F Harry’s Toe to Greece, we loved our time here!
This Island is made up of steep mountains that plunge to white sand beaches, edged by a clear, torquoise sea. We toured an underground cave via a boat ride on Melissani Lake, and then took a winding ride down the beautiful coast line...
which took us to the village of Fiskardo for coffee, Baklava, and shopping. Dad was a good sport on the shopping...
Another great day in paradise...
The day began with a tour of Achillion Mansion, former summer home of Empress Elizabeth of Austria and Wilhem II, King of Germany. It was later used as a hospital during the second World War. The Empress had a great love of Greek Mythology, particularly Achillies, whom the property is named for and who also has an enormous statue displayed in the main garden. The surrounding gardens were full of greek statues and fantastic views of the Adriatic Sea and an Albanian Mountain range.
From there we continued on to Kanoni and toured Mon Repo Palace, summer home of the Greek Royal family and birth place of Prince Philip of England. This palace was built for the second British governor of the island.
It was very exciting to see the ruins of a Christian church from Roman times. We discovered that Christianity was first brought to the island by disciples of Paul!
We wrapped our tour in town at one of two forts built by Napoleon during the French occupation, and headed by to our balcony for cocktails and sunset...another great day.
The architecture is quite impressive having been constructed of hand hewed stones and encompassing forty-seven Roman Catholic churches, some dating back to the seventh century AD.
After a morning of exploring, we continued south along the coastline to the Montenegro border for lunch at old country home. Here we saw how olive oil is produced. We had a fabulous lunch of red wine, salad, potatoes, beef and apple strudel. The salad was dressed with olive oil made on the property.
After lunch we wandered through the shops and outdoor cafes of the charming coastal town of Korcula...
At the end of the day, we said goodbye to lovely Croatia with a toast from our deck over a plate of nachos. We loved this country and would love to return!
We are happy to report that we made our way to Italy via Amsterdam with without incident. In fact, it could not have gone better. We were prepared for long delays between the storms in Nashville and the volcano ash hovering over the Atlantic, but the biggest delay we encountered involved 30 minutes of taxiing around the Amsterdam airport due to a pilot that apparently needed more taxi hours to get his certification. Giddy up.
The real fun began in getting to our hotel in Venice. Did we take the water taxi that routes you directly to the hotel? Heck no, what is the fun in that when overcrowded public transportation can be combined with four clueless travelers carrying way too much luggage? Oh, did we mention that the bus initially pulled away without Dad, who was returning a cart to get one stinking Euro back (thank heavens Susan was able to bring the bus to a screeching halt with panicky screams of “stop” from the back of the bus)? Or, that at our next stop, we forgot to pull our luggage up into the bus away from the doors, causing the doors to jam with the suitcase securely locked in place? There was most certainly applause from the locals once we finally made our exit.
As you may already know, old Venice is a town of canals and no automobiles; therefore, anything that cannot be reached by water taxi is reached by your own efforts. For us this involved a climb across a high bridge with quite a few steps hauling our 10 plus bags. Then a “slight” walk through a million people over wet, slippery cobblestones. Needless to say, we looked like ridiculous tourists (of the Chevy Chase European Vacation variety) while sweating, panting and giving each other a good cussing. Good news, every one was brought back to a general state of familial friendliness by local wine and pizza at a neighborhood restaurant. We were all impressed after dinner at the local gelato shop when mama looked poised to pick up the tab with her “foreign money” hauled across the pond from a bowl back home. Unfortunately, this was an entire coin collection of British pounds, and we realized we were out of luck because a good bit of gelato had already been consumed. Luckily no one had to wash dishes...
After spending the night in a small hotel in the heart of old Venice we made our way this morning to the boat. We checked in and all appeared to being going well until mama decided to use the bathroom in the ship’s lobby on our way out for sight seeing. Now some of you fellow Americans may take note that in this part of the world the flush button can only be reached by closing the toilet top. For the uninformed, there is always the bright red emergency button...and if it doesn’t work, keep on pushing until the guy with the crash cart shows up. Also called to the scene were a crew member with a wheel chair and several supporting players...Hello, Dorothy - we’re not in Kansas anymore...
Today started well with delightful pastries and strong coffee from the local bakery. And all was right with the world right up to the moment we missed the prepaid tour of the outlying islands; however, we were able to take a wonderful gondola ride through the magical canals of Venice instead. Susan was unafraid to take one giant step for mankind into the gondola that almost resulted in a refreshing dip in the Mediterranean...note to self, that first step is a doozie. Our driver was an adorable, third-generation native that shared some interesting facts along the way. In addition, we were highly entertained when he decided to play chicken with an oncoming boat under a tiny bridge. We lost this contest with our heads held high because the competition almost took a swim. The canals, quaint bridges and old buildings were more beautiful than we had imagined. It was a great afternoon of shopping and wandering through town.
Conversation of the day:
Call on global phone from Uncle Jim...
UJ: Hey Mel when are you leaving on your trip?
Mel: We are already in Venice.
UJ: Get out of town!
Mel: I already did...
I find myself these days having to purposefully look for daily encouragements. There are some days where at the end of the day I literally have to pray for my eyes to be opened in order to see the day’s encouragement. It’s not that I have regret getting the implant. On the contrary, I am slowly seeing the possibilities of this implant.
The possibilities are thrilling as well as maddening, for patience is not one of my stronger virtues.
It isn’t enough that I have been able to chat with Mama on the phone everyday without much of a problem. Or that I am discovering new environmental sounds weekly. Its just that there is a need for me to pipe down. Take it down a couple of notches. Start drinking on a daily basis. More specifically, to restrain myself from rushing ahead with inflated expectations.
On Saturday night, my Hous performed the dedication ceremony for our godchild which was held at the parents’ home. It was a lovely and intimate candlelight service by followed by a dinner that lasted several hours. Because of my recent successes with the phone, I had high expectations that I would be able to follow dinner conversations better. There were 10 of us around the table and while I knew I would miss some things, I was pretty jazzed about how well I was going to do.
Let’s just say that by the end of the night I learned two things:
I have quite an extensive fantasy life.
Barking Frog is a red wine, not a misunderstanding on my part.
I was pretty frustrated by the time we got home and through the lens of disappointment, I could not see the daily encouragement. We built a fire and settled in to our movie. Halfway through the movie I got up to stoke the fire and my implant started hissing. As I moved upstairs to get the remote control to troubleshoot the problem, the hissing stopped. I came back downstairs and it started again. Seeing the confused look on my face, Hous informed me that the hissing I was hearing was not the implant but the fire.
Come again? Fire hisses?!?! I thought it just popped and crackled but apparently it also hisses when wood has not been well seasoned or if there is water on wood. Who knew?
I had never heard the fire hiss before. With disappointment, I duly noted this was my today’s daily encouragement. Hous subtly made the point that although I’d hoped that today’s encouragement would be something with conversation, I don’t get to choose my daily encouragement. A fire hiss is no less of a celebration than a conversation.
He’s right.
And I finally understood why: In the same way that a mountaineer savors his conquest of the peak more abundantly after a hard climb punctuated with small victories and setbacks, how much more would I delight in the mastery of speech discrimination if I lived each moment of the journey?
