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Greece and Italy are both exotic and beautiful. I have never been to Greece, but had always imagined white homes clinging to a cliff which jetted out of deep blue waters. My images proved to be true. I am in love with the Greek Islands. We plan to return to Greece again and again. This is our third visit to Italy; however our first time in Southern Italy. So far, I am very pleased. The city of Naples was full of life, Pompeii was magical and the Amalfi Coast spectacular. Sicily also was a culturally enriching experience. GREECE:
ATHENS, GREECE: GREAT FOOD, GREAT PEOPLE, GREAT HISTORY. All that I can say is that Lou Cataland is the coolest and nicest guy in the world. For those of you that have read almost every stitch of this web site, you may remember Lou. He allowed us to live with him for a couple of months before we left for our around-the-world jaunt. As it happens, Lou and his lovely new bride, Andrea, had a holiday in Greece planned, and we were able to coordinate our schedules to meet here in Greece. Rich and I have been very excited to meet them, and today we finally did. Lou is Greek. He has a lot of family in Greece. So Rich and I were very excited for the opportunity to spend time with a real live Greek family. Rich and I took a 20 hour bus in from Istanbul and met Lou and Andrea at the airport. Lou's cousin, Dimitri, came to the airport to pick us up and take us to Lou's aunt's home in an area near Athens. Dimitri is a very nice Greek man. While he grew up in Athens, he lived in the United States for five years while attending Northwestern University. He is back in Athens and is married with three children. After an interesting ride, we arrived at the urban apartment of Lou's aunt. I am sitting here right now, and let me tell you, this place is great. It looks like the apartment that Uncle Bill lived in in Family Affair, with a Greek flair to it. The place is very large and is tiled in marble and accented with beautiful wood paneling. To top it off, we have the place all to ourselves. Lou's aunt and uncle are spending the summer in their beach house and have graciously allowed us to stay here while we are in town. It is so nice to be in a nice home. Just sitting here is already a highlight of my month. I know that may sound stupid; however, you would understand if you were sitting here with me in this authentic and beautiful Greek home after spending twenty hours on a bus, with no worries now except that I have to think about taking a shower before Dimitri comes and picks us up for dinner. Athens is a wonderful city. Rich and I had a few hours to explore before we met Lou and Andrea. I am very excited to see more of Athens and Greece. Hello. We just returned from dinner with Dimitri and his beautiful wife, Mahi and their darling daughter, Luisa. We are now on Greek time. This means that we did not leave the apartment until close to 11:00 pm and we did not eat dinner until after midnight. The funny thing is that all of the restaurants were still going strong. All Greek people seem to enjoy the late night life. Dinner was delicious. We had a lot of tasty appetizers including saganaki (fried cheese), greek salad, spinach pie and delicious entrees, the names of which escape me now. There was a Greek band playing fun, traditional music and there were people out on the dance floor dancing traditional dances. Sunday, June 25, 2000 We have enjoyed the past few days exploring this ancient Greek city. Yesterday we spent all morning in the Archeological museum and in the afternoon, we saw the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Today, we watched the weekly ceremonial changing of the guard in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier which sits at the bottom of the stairs of the Parliament building. It was an awe inspiring site. After that, we played in the Olympic Stadium where the first modern day Olympics were held in 1896. The stadium is all marble. It is quite beautiful. Athens, Greece will be hosting the Olympics in 2004. However, they will not be able to hold any events in this stadium, because it is just too small for the crowds of today's Olympics. Lou believes that they may end the marathon in the stadium. Following our fun in the stadium, we visited a few more archeological sites and then headed over to Uncle Bill's place to pick up our bags and jump on the afternoon ferry boat to Naxos Island.
Monday, June 26, 2000 FIRST ISLAND: NAXOS We arrived into Naxos last night at 23:00 after a 6 hour ferry ride. The ferry was actually very pleasant. We were all pretty tired when we arrived at the port. However, that did not mean that we were going to throw in the towel immediately and settle on the first accomodation that we saw. Rich waited by the dock and watched the bags, while Lou, Andrea and I walked past the busy beach arcade and up the beautiful, dimly lit alley ways to the quaint Greek pensiones mentioned in our books. Unfortunately, the pension owners of Naxos do not subscribe to this late night scene, because we seemed to be waking everyone up. After only looking at a few places, we settled on a room that had four beds. Rich and I found it to be clean and pleasant. However, we have been on the road for over 9 months now and our standards have definitely been lowered to adjust to our limited budget. Poor Andrea. She was not too thrilled to be spending one of her vacation nights in a basement room with some guy who snored (let's just put it this way..Lou does not snore...and Rich was the only other guy in the room) and his wife. I am sure that she will look back on last night with fond memories. This morning we switched hotels. Rich and I are at a wonderful, clean and cozy little place called Rooms to Let. The owner, Despina, is a sweet old grandmother who takes great pride in her establishment. She is very eager to please. She has made us all feel very welcome. The funny thing about Despina is that she was calling out to us last night to see her place. We ignored her, probably because it was just late and we were tired. We should have listened because she has a lovely place. This afternoon we relaxed at the Plaka beach. Plaka beach features many people who prefer to sunbathe without swim suits. Given the fact that we have a maturity level of first graders, we were very amused by this natural behavior. Tuesday, June 27, 2000 We rented a car today and drove all over the island. This is a beautiful place. There are mountains everywhere, many of which are dotted with cliff side villages and white stucco chapels with blue dome tops. The scenery is very much like the typical photos one may see in advertisements for the Greek Islands. One of the villages has streets that are paved with marble. It is spectacular.
Tuesday, July 3, 2000 It has been a wonderful week for us in the charming Greek island town of Oia on the glamorous island of Santorini. Lou, Andrea, Rich and I came here by ferry boat just 6 days ago. As soon as the island became visible we knew that the rumors about Santorini were true. The island was beautiful as it came out of the sea with the villages resting on top of the tall, sheer cliffs. The island is shaped like a moon with a small volcanic island in the middle. This shape was created when the volcanic island erupted around 1450 B.C. and the crater blue up and sunk into the sea. Santorini is now officially known as Thira, which is its classical name...whatever that means. I will refer it to as Santorini, since everyone else still does too. The four of us had a great time here on Santorini. Both couples found wonderful accommodation in the charming town of Oia. Oia is a magical place..and I am not just saying this. The streets are paved with marble, the views are spectacular and the people are amazingly warm. It is very quiet most of the day, except for a few hours when the the cruise boats stop on the island and tour buses come in from the busier town of Fira, down below. Rich and I love our place. It is a traditional studio apartment which was carved into the cliffside, thereby actually making it a cave. This makes for cool temperatures and cozy atmosphere. We have a small kitchen, a loft and a front porch where we eat our breakfasts every morning. The mornings are especially quiet in Oia. We like to walk around town when no one else is around but the stray dogs and cats. We also run into Manos usually. He is the other resident of Oia who likes to walk through the streets early (if you want to call 8:00 am early). Manos is the guy in charge of finding us our wonderful apartment. We are so glad that we met him. I will get into that later. Our first full day in Santorini, Lou, Andrea, Rich and I hopped into the bus and traveled way down to the opposite side of the Island to see the lost Minoan settlement of Akrotiri. We were able to see the remains of two story buildings, a drainage system, pottery and even some remnants of the paintings on the walls. This settlement existed before 1450 B.C. and was quickly abandoned when the inhabitants must have felt that the volcano was close to an eruption. If only the citizens of Pompeii would have had that much foresight 1500 years later. After Akrotiri, we visited a winery. Greek wine is very tasty. We ended the evening with a less than satisfactory dinner in the town of Fira. The fine view from our table, however, made up for the Sam's Supermarket-type spinach pie. To top off our meal, we had some very sweet and delicious boklava in Oia before retiring for the evening. Saturday was Lou and Andrea's final day. We decided to make it a somewhat relaxing day. In the morning, we headed down to Fira once again to visit the new Archeological museum. The focus was on the Minoans and the Akrotiri settlement. We really appreciated the lesson on Akrotiri to tie everything together. We returned to Oia by lunch time and enjoyed gyros on our front porch. Later, we managed to catch a taxi to Paradiso Beach. Although the beach was rocky and lacking the nude bathers, it was our first time at a black volcanic sand beach, and the waves were killer. Therefore, we were very pleased with our beach experience. We had planned to have a nice dinner for Lou and Andrea's final night in Greece. As Lou and Andrea were walking out of their door to meet us for another beautiful sun set, they were greeted by our buddy, Manos. He invited them to dinner and was happy to let us come along as well. Dinner was wonderful. Manos picked out delicious appetizers and a huge plate of pork. We tried some chilled ouzo and drank some fine Greek wine. Miguel, the fun loving guitar player, came around to our table and sang some fun Greek songs for us. Manos treated all of us, despite our efforts to contribute. It was a wonderful and authentic dinner experience. We woke up the next morning at 5:00 am to see Lou and Andrea off to the airport. Rich and I, on the other hand, had no deadlines. Therefore, we decided to stay in Paradise for a few more days. We had a wonderful time having late dinners with Manos and his friends, Connie, Christos and Michael. Every night, we took turns treating. Connie is an Italian who grew up in Canada. She came to Santorini several years ago and fell in love with Christos. They began their long distance relationship and took turns visiting each others respective country. Eventually, Christos bought a tavern in his hometown on the mainland near the island of Corfu. He asked Connie to come to Greece and they ran the tavern together for several years. After some time, they created two children, and it was time to sell the tavern. So, they bought the supermarket here in Santorini. They run the store everyday from 7:00 am until 11:00 pm for 7 months. In the wintertime, Oia shuts down. During that time, they go home to Athens and also travel around. Christos knows a lot about Greek history. I enjoyed learning about the Spartans who lived in Southern Greece. They were simple, nonmaterial people and strong, successful warriors. Reminds me of the MSU Spartans. Michael is a fellow American who is working in Santorini for the summer. He is a masseuse. He is also a very funny guy, I guess you have to be when your name is David Lederman (pronounced "Letterman"). Manos is a very sweet man. He was born in Egypt and fled to Greece when Sadat made all of the Greeks leave. His father was a diplomat, so he was able to live in many different places growing up, including Ethiopia and Australia. Manos lives in Oia all year around. He is one of among only 200 people. He says it is very quiet and boring. He is a quiet, refined and genuine Greek gentleman. We really enjoyed getting to know the locals of Oia. It added to our Santorini experience. Our last full day in Santorini, Rich and I rented a motorbike and tooled all around the island. Rich did a great job racing along the sharp turns of the cliff side roads. I held on tightly. Rich and I both agree that Santorini is one of our favorite destinations of our trip. We loved the food, the people, our wonderful lodgings and the fashionable and friendly village of Oia. We see many return trips to Santorini in our future.
Here I am with our Santorini host and friend, Manos.
Thursday, July 6, 2000 Naples is not for tourists. Naples is a crowded and busy city where a lot of living takes place. We enjoyed this fact about Naples. We could not find any English book stores, and we were forced to learn basic Italian immediately or suffer. Our home in Naples was what I affectionately called the "prison". It was really not bad. It was an HI hostel which provided the basics: 2 bunk beds and a bathroom. Breakfast was provided: one roll (no more) and one cup of coffee in a small plastic dixie cup. The prison shut down at 9:00 am. Everyone has to clear out of the building. You cannot re-enter until 3:00 pm. All of this luxury and convenience cost us $35 (just under the same price that we paid for our wonderful Greek studio apartment on the beautiful island of Santorini). Part of me was screaming, "I miss Greece", while the other part of me was excited for this new experience. Naples is an experience. We had a wonderful time walking around and visiting the beautiful churches, eating the famous Naples pizza and watching early evening traffic as we sat on a park bench overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. While in Naples, we took a day to experience Pompeii and Herculaneum. As a child, I read about Pompeii and always wanted to visit the lost city. Pompeii did not disappoint me. I was very impressed with how well it was preserved. I was also very saddened by the thought of the people and how frightened and helpless they must have felt. We also visited the city of Herculaneum which also was buried during the 79 AD volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. I never really heard of Herculaneum. However, I was also amazed by this archeological site. While it was not as large as Pompeii and did not have the huge amphitheater, it did have more well preserved mosaics, furniture and homes. In short, I am so glad that we visited both cities. Check out 2 Go Pompeii Photos for more facts and photographs of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
THE TOWN OF POSITANO: THE AMALFI COAST. MORE CLIFFSIDE BEAUTY AND THE BLUE TYRRHENIAN SEA. Saturday, July 8, 2000 Before taking what we expect to be a brutal night train down to Sicily, we decided to visit the beautiful, Italian resort area of the Amalfi Coast. Furthermore, we decided to stay in the town of Positano, which is said to be the most fashionable and most expensive. While we did not visit the other towns, we believe that whoever made this generalization must be correct. However, Positano was well worth the price we paid. Besides, we managed to escape with a few liras in our pockets. We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast named, "Casa Teresa". It was tucked away in a little alley like a needle in a hay stack. We managed to find it, and we are so happy that we did. The owners, Teresa and Fernando and their son, Pino, and his soon to be wife Kristina do a fabulous job designing the rooms and maintaining the beautiful gardens and flowers around the hotel. Our room had a large terrace which overlooked the town. While in Positano, we wandered the streets of our neighborhood which were very quiet and filled with colorful homes lived in by their original Italian owners. We also walked down into town and passed many stylish shops and tourists along the way. Once again, I was feeling frumpy in my travel clothes. At the bottom of the hill, we reached the beach, which was very welcoming indeed.
SICILY: STILL SEARCHING FOR MICHAEL CORLEONE'S VILLAGE OF RETREAT Tuesday, July 11, 2000 Sicily is another place in Italy that I have always dreamed of visiting. Ever since watching the Godfather I, I wanted to see a small village like that of the one that Michael Corleone lived after he shot the chief of police in New York. Remember, he married the young Italian woman in the small village and they had a beautiful and traditional Sicilian wedding. So far, I have not seen anything like that. Although I had a fabulous time in Palermo (see our Palermo Photos to see how wonderful the Sicilian city is) and we have even come around to appreciating the European jet-set resort of Taormina (long story--we came for the film festival which had ended 2 days earlier), I am still searching for the traditional Sicilian village. But, tomorrow we are going there. Yes, as I was reading a tourist guide downstairs at our hotel, I saw the section for lesser known attractions. There it was: "Forza D'Agro--Medieval hill top views extending along the coastline of Messina, also the site where the wedding scene was filmed for THE GODFATHER I". We ran to find out how we can get there. Only one bus goes there each day. We will be on that bus tomorrow.
Monday, July 17, 2000 Rome, Italy. This is the first destination of our Round the World journey that we have actually visited prior to this trip. We have visited Rome twice before; however, each time we only had one day. You know what they say..."Rome was not built in one day". They are correct. There is ancient Rome, Constantinople's Rome, medieval Rome, Renaissance Rome and modern Rome. There is so much to see and experience. That is why we were so happy to return and stay a while and really experience the wonderful city of Rome. We have two guests for the next two weeks. They are Maureen and Doreen Willis. Maureen and Doreen are Rich's aunts. Their names sound alike and they look almost exactly alike...they are TWINS. Not only are they twins, but they are nuns. Not only are they nuns, but they are two very sweet and fun loving people. Maureen and Doreen flew into Rome on Friday, July 14th. This was their first international flight, yet they did not seem to have any jet lag. Soon after they arrived, we walked over to the Roman forum to see a comical version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. We felt very cultural as we sat on steps that were walked upon by the real Julius Caesar thousands of years ago and enjoyed the comical rendition with the Roman forum as the backdrop. The next few days have been a sight-seeing marathon including: high mass at St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican, the Pantheon, wandering through the trendy Trastevere neighborhoods, the Trevi fountains, the Spanish Steps, the famous Borghese art gallery, the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel, as well as a lot of pasta, pizza and gelotti. We have had several courses on the Renaissance movement and the artists that made it happen, including Michelangelo, Raphael and other great artists. The nuns are warring us out. They have more energy and stamina than anyone we know...and that includes ourselves. They are a lot of fun to be with. Rich has been working very hard as our tour guide. I am doing....what am I doing?
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