Bay of Naples – Sorrento

Dear Commons Community,

We arrived on the Italian coast this morning and are staying on board ship in the Bay of Naples just outside of Sorrento. The views of the Bay are fine examples of the sea and mountains that dominate this part of the Mediterranean. Sorrento is a beautiful romantic city that rests on a cliff overlooking the Bay.

We spent three hours touring Pompeii which was destroyed by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The entire city was covered in ash in a matter of hours and all life ceased and was frozen in time. The most striking feature of the excavated ruins is its size – over 120 acres, much of which is still not unearthed. On our tour we went down Pompeii’s main street, saw the amphitheater, a gladiator training ground, baths, houses, and the forum from which there is a magnificent view of Mt. Vesuvius. There are also the images of ash-covered bodies that have been preserved by a process of drilling holes into the harden ash and pouring plaster into the cavity where the bodies have since disintegrated.

It was a lot to take in!

Tony

Mt. Vesuvius from the Pompeii Forum

Ash-Covered Slave

Pompeii Main Street

Pompeii Gladiator Training Ground

Pompeii Garden

Marina Corto – Lipari

Dear Commons Community,

We spent the day on Lipari, the largest island of the seven Aeolian Archipelago islands. It is green and lush and nestled among a number of volcanoes including Stromboli and Vulcano.

The main port, Marina Corto, has a beautiful quaint quality that welcomes and beckons as you come into the harbor. Lipari has been conquered by the Greeks, Romans, and Barbarossa who ravaged the island in 1544 and took most of the population especially all of the women captives and sold them as slaves to the Ottomans. Before and during World War II, Mussolini used the Lipari Castello to imprison his political opponents.

We took a motor coach around the entire perimeter of the island and the views of the Mediterranean and the hills and mountains that permeate the landscape provide spectacular scenery.  Pumice and obsidian can be seen in large quantities on hillsides and in gardens.

We concluded our visit with a walk through Lipari’s old center and lunch at a café in the Marino Corto.

Tony

Lipari Castello

                                                                                       Lipari Old Town

View from the Hill Area

View from the Beach

Fishing Piers in the Trapani Port

Dear Commons Community,

Trapani is an old port town in Sicily. We walked through its historic center that houses many small churches and palazzos. The streets are very narrow and cars cannot fit on many of them, making them ideal for walking.

While there are several large churches and cathedrals, some are rather small with enough space to seat no more than fifty or so parishioners. One of these churches (San Guiseppe) is being used to restore sculptures for the other churches. In the cathedral and in several of the larger churches you can see the results of these restorations. In the Chiesa del Purgatorio, there are life-size, very colorful statues depicting the stations of the cross. They rest on platforms covered in purple bunting. The platforms with the statues atop are used as floats during Holy Week processions that wind through the streets of Trapani.

We finished with lunch overlooking the fishing piers at the foot of the port.

Tony

Street in Trapani

Workers Restoring Statues at San Guiseppe Church

Restored Statues in Chiesa del Purgatorio

Temple of Concordia

Dear Commons Community,

We arrived at Porto Empedocle, Sicily,this morning and spent much of the day at Agrigento which is home to the Valley of the Temples, which is one of the largest collections of Greek temples in the world. Originally there were at least twenty-one temples in what was then the city of Akragas. Ten of the twenty-one temples have been discovered. They all represent the Doric style which do not have any ornamentation on the top of the columns. In addition to housing the temples, the Valley has orchard after orchard of olive, almond, pistachio and pomegranate trees.

The four major temples on the site are:

• The Temple of Hera
• The Temple of Concordia (it is not known who this temple was dedicated to and was given the name “Concordia” by the Spanish.
• The Temple of Hercules (the oldest temple – built in the 6th century B.C.
• The remains of the Temple of Zeus (probably the largest Greek temple ever built in the world measuring 112 by 56 meters.

The guide Giovanna had an incredible repertoire of information on the history, architecture and culture of the Greeks at the time the temples were built.

BRAVA!

Tony

Temple of Hera

Temple of Hercules

Remains of the Temple of Zeus

Modern Bronze Sculpture of Icarus

Orchard of Pomegranate Trees

Ggantija Temple (Exterior Wall)

Dear Commons Community,

We spent the day on the island of Gozo just northwest of Malta. It has spectacular views of the Mediterranean as well as several points of interest.

Our first stop was Ggantija in Xaghra, free standing temples built and developed between 3600 and 2400 BC making them among the earliest planned structures in the world, older than the Pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in England. The exterior stone slabs weigh several tons and the outside walls are up to six meters high. In addition to the exterior remains, several apses (rooms) are still intact.

Dwejra located in the southwest corner of Gozo provides some of the most beautiful scenery on the island. Hidden behind the towering cliffs is a huge natural pond of shallow water (the Inland Sea), which is fed through a narrow tunnel in the cliff face. This tunnel links it to the deep blue Mediterranean.

Whenever you drive along the coast of Gozo you will likely see watch towers built by the Knights of St. John.  They served as a communications system to alert authorities of any type of invasion.

Our last stop was Xlendi, a village situated in the south west corner of Gozo. We had lunch overlooking the Bay of Xlendi.

All very beautiful!

Tony

Ggantija Interior

Ggantija Interior

Dwejra 

Dwejra

Watch Tower

Bay of Xlendi

Dear Commons Community,

We arrived at Valetta overnight. Valetta is the capital of Malta and has an incredible history mostly tied to the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, also known as the Order of Saint John, Order of Hospitallers, Knights Hospitaller,  or Hospitallers.  It was a medieval Catholic military order that became the modern founders of Valetta in the 1500s after the island of Malta was given to them as a fiefdom by King Charles I of Spain and Sicily.  Malta was taken over as a colony by the British in the 1800s and was given its independence in 1964.  English and Maltese are the two official languages of Malta, the latter being a combination of Arabic, Italian and Sicilian.

Because of its strategic location in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, the Knights designed Valetta as an impregnable fortress city built on a series of quarries that served as walls against invading forces. Many of the walls still exist and dominate the city landscape.  

During World War II, in order to disrupt shipping by the Allies, Valetta was one of the most heavily bombed cities by the Axis powers.

In addition to Valetta, we visited the three cities of Senglea, Cospicua,and Vittoriosa traveling by a gondola-style boat called a dghajsa.

Our visit here was capped by a visit to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist that houses two major works by Carravaggio. (The Beheading of St. John the Baptist and St. Jerome Writing, supposedly a self-portrait.)  The entire interior (every square inch) of the cathedral is elaborately carved limestone covered in gold.  

Very exhilarating day!

Tony

Dghajsa

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

The Beheading of St. John the Baptist

St. Jerome Writing (Self-Portrait of Carravaggio)

Mt. Etna and the  City of Catania at its Base

Dear Commons Community,

We spent the day touring Catania and Taormina in Sicily. They are both in the shadow of Mt. Etna, the largest active volcano in Southern Europe.

Catania has a history of being completely destroyed and rebuilt. Wars, earthquakes and Mt. Etna have leveled Catania seven times. In 1669 a lava flow destroyed the western part of the city; and, in 1693 a heavy earthquake destroyed the rest of Catania. During World War II, it was bombed by both the Allied and Axis powers. Catania is the major port city for Sicily on the Ionian Sea Coast.

Taormina is a beautiful quaint town just opposite Mt. Etna. It is easy to get lost in its small streets and alley ways but as our tour guide said there is a photograph to be taken on every corner.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Elaine and I are on board our ship, the Start Pride.  We have been on the Mediterranean for about a day now.  It is a small ship and carries a maximum of 200 passengers.  So far everything is going well.  We will reach our first port in Sicily early tomorrow morning.  Here is our complete itinerary.

• Catania, Sicily
• Valetta, Malta
• Xlendi, Gozo, Malta
• Porto Empedocie, Sicily
• Trapani, Sicily
• Lipari, Italy
• Sorrento, Italy
• Amalfi, Italy

As part of our day tours, we will visit Pompeii, Agrigento, and Mt. Vesuvius.

Below are photos of us leaving port in Civitavecchia, sunset on the Mediterranean, and the Stromboli volcano, one of the most active volcanoes on Earth that has been erupting almost continuously since 1932. Because it has been active for much of the last 2,000 years and its eruptions are visible for long distances at night, it is known as the “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean”.  You can see a plume of smoke coming from its crater in the photo.

Tony

Elaine on the top deck of the ship with Stromboli in the background.

  Hotel San Giorgio

Dear Commons Community,

We arrived at our hotel last night in Civitavecchia.  The Hotel San Giorgio is an old-style European hotel that is right on the Mediterranean Sea.  We will be embarking on our cruise late tonight. Below are views across the street from the hotel.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Elaine and I are traveling to Rome today on our way to Civitavecchia where we will catch a small ship to cruise the West Coast of Italy and the Mediterranean.

Assuming I have a good Internet connection, I will post photos of our trip in the days ahead.

Tony