Rome (Day 2 or the chase for Angels and Demons)

Wednesday, 12 Aug

With the second day of Rome upon us, Gene and I braved the streets of Rome to view ancient buildings and hunt down the 3 remaining clues given in Dan Brown’s book, ‘Angels and Demons’ that would involve us travelling us through the streets and subways of Rome. Dee declined the offer and stayed home.

The Roman Forum and Emperor’s palace was great. The history that occurred in that small area is amazing.  We looked down upon Circus Maximus and saw just a sandy stretch of land, all that remains of an impressive building 2,000 years ago. Gene was very patient with me and we were off looking for her clues.

It started well as we headed north-west by foot, to Piazza Navona. One turn took us away from our destination but we righted ourselves to munch our lunch in the shade overlooking the Egyptian Obelisk with the dove of peace capping its top. The fountain at its base looked cool and inviting but out of bounds like all of Rome’s fountains. It was also where the cardinal was drowned in the book.

Heading north directly up Via Della Scrota which changed to Via Di Ripetta we found Piazza Del Popolo, the area where we could find the second clue, the skeleton mosaic in the floor of a Church. We were at a quandary, we could see 2 identical Churches but neither had the right name. Asking a police constable, we found out that they were opened at only 4pm, still an hour and half away.

Instead of waiting, we decided to move to the third clue as we could take the train, find it and come back to the second clue before making our way back home. As we navigated around the Piazza’s Egyptian Obelisk which was being repaired, we saw another Church. Was this the one we were after? Closer examination indicated it was so. To the right of the Church was a display of Leonardo De Vinci’s work. It was rumoured, he was Illuminati and we took this as confirmation. To escape the heat, we had fun looking at the display being able to play with the items drawn by the great man himself.

We bought a copy of ‘The Last Supper’, a painting of much controversy. The more you looked, the more saw Mary Magelan sitting at Jesus’ right with Peter making a slashing motion past her throat. The change we received had the Visturi Man image engraved on the face of coin. Surely a sign!

Catching the Metro to Barberini Station, we found the Fontana di Trevi. It wasn’t the third clue but it was ice cold and a welcome respite. We moved on looking for the Church of Santa Maria Della Vittoria, and the statue of The Ecstacy of St Agnes. The Church wasn’t in the Piazza or on any of the maps we could find (I later found out that the place was moved in the book). The police came minutes after we left the fountain, herding the people away from the water we recently cooled ourselves with.

We explored the Church near the Piazza, hoping it was incorrectly named in the book but to no avail. I then used my charm on a female local and she was able to Google Maps the Church, only 9 minutes away. With lightness of foot, we were away!

The Church, like many others in Rome, was small but heavily decorated in marble and gold. There we found St Agnes writhing in ‘Ecstasy’. You decide why…..

Time was running short but we had enough to find the last clue and home by 5pm. The train was caught and the Church entered 10 minutes after it was opened to the public. We found the apse and saw a mosaic of a skeleton but was it sneering? A search of the Church confirmed it being the only skeletal mosaic, sneering or not. We put it down to artistic interpretation. All the clues were found! We were tired, hot and sweaty but now we could return home satisfied of job well done.

 Police consulted and avoided, no attempts made by Gypsies and success with our challenge but foiled at the end by the bus system. When was it due? Every 30 minutes. When was the last one? He didn’t know. So we sat and waited in the shade, sipping our dwindling supply of water. Finally, the bus arrived and we bolted from our seats though the summer sun to the air conditioned bliss of the bus that took us to the doorstop of the caravan park and to an over heated Dee.

Veni, Expectavi, Vidi, Habeo vexatis pedibus

Tuesday, 11 Aug

Just to get it over with, it’s hot and dispersed throughout this post is the hunt for water, cold drinks, drinking of said drinks, sweating and looking for shade and air con. But let’s start 16 years ago when Dee and I visited Rome. *insert lulling music and fade out screen shot*

It was the summer of 99 and I didn't have a grey hair in my head. We were heading toward the Vatican and realise we are not attired in accordance with the dress regulations to enter. At the local market we find a suitable dress for Dee and buy this awesome shirt with a collar and we visit the spectacle that is the Vatican. *fade back in*

As we get ready for our visit to the Vatican with Gene, I put on this awesome shirt with a collar. A bit frayed and worn out but at least I look better than the shirt. Just....
:)

With a successful journey on Roma’s public transport without being molested, mugged or lost, we embraced the Colosseum. It hadn't changed much but there was less scaffolding but more people trying to sell you guided tours.

As Dee still had a sore, sprained ankle from her trip in Herculenuem, I lent he my awesome walking stick I acquired on the trip. As the walking stick can unscrew into 3 sections, I wondered if it was the same for the head as well as the head felt slightly loose. To my great surprise, it did unscrew and, to my even greater surprise, out popped a spring mounted corked vial from within the cane. How amazingly cool is that??? Unfortunately, where I unscrewed the head of the cane was where the bronze joined with the wood and it wouldn't stay together after that (I glued it back together one we came home but I did a quick fix with sticky tape borrowed from a souvenir stand). Unfortunately Dee dropped the vial half an hour later and broke it but we can get another one. Goodness knows what the cleaning personnel (and possibly security) thought of visitors with vials secreted in canes........

We headed towards the Vatican's Museum and proceeded to wait in a 400m long line to get inside. Some idiot wanted to bring his dog inside but was told no (since it wasn't a guide dog or anything).

As Dee had visited 20+ years before, I followed her lead into the museum and that's when things went awry. After seeing the largest bronze pine cone eva, Dee told us once we see the Sistine Chapel, we get funneled out of the museum. I didn't really want that, so we saw the other side of the museum which was quite boring and not at all air conditioned.

We then started heading past the 'No Entry' sign and against the flow of other visitors. I felt very salmony at this point. After a while of looking at cool things, Dee decided to turn about and go with the flow which led us back and down the stairs to the boring bit where the cafeteria was. A great opportunity for a rest and recharge of the frazzled batteries. We then bit the bullet and went with the flow of all the other visitors and started to see amazing art.

We finally saw the Sistine Chapel and were suitably impressed. I was also amused by the security guards with the loudspeaker telling everyone to be quite. Oh the irony.

We finally escaped the museum and headed towards St Peter's square (which is round unlike a boxing ring which is square) with the hoped of getting into the Basilica. Unfortunately, the line up to get in, with on 1 1/2 hours before closing, was halfway around the circumference of the square. That was at least 400m.

We decided to skip that bit. Gene and I went to the obelix at the centre of the square and found the item mentioned in the Dan Brown thriller 'Angels and Demons'. It was the start of the following days adventure.

By then, the rain had started to come so we enjoyed a rather expensive dinner while the heavens opened. Making our way back to the bus stop, we were informed that our bus now goes every hour instead of every 15 minutes and so it would be faster to catch 2 trams. While we were waiting for the tram our bus showed up, so we bolted to catch it.

A big day out that we won't forget in a hurry.

The next day Dee stayed at home and gene and I continued the search for the remaining clues.

A trip to Herculaneum

Sunday, 09 Aug

We can now ticket off from our bucket list, ‘Sleeping in a Sulphur pit’. Being in a more active volcano was interesting, the bonus being the pool was a nice temperature due to the bubbling magma just meters under our feet *turning off hyperbole system now*.

We conducted our morning routine reasonably quickly and headed towards Herculaneum, a posh seaside town that was buried by 20m of volcanic ash from Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. We decided to visit that site instead of Pompeii as it was in better condition although Pompeii is a much larger site due to it being buried with only 4m of ash.

Dee had a bit of fall when she misjudged a step and twisted her ankle and skinned both her knees. The way she was grasping her leg, I thought she had broken something and started to look for a staff member but she called me back. It was then I realised all the site’s staff are at the front building and not actually at the site itself. Lazy buggers.

The town itself was amazing. There were quite a few mosaics and painting in the buildings and walking down the streets was a fantastic experience. A few comments were made by the girls that they were getting tired of all the old stuff we’re seeing and they hadn’t seen a single dead body yet. They finally did see quite a few at the end but they were casts of the originals. For some reason, Gene was a bit disappointed in that.

We were finished by 11am and that was enough for the day. As it was a Sunday, there was a market ‘somewhere’ and Dee wanted to visit. The problem with this is we didn’t know if it was within walking distance or we had to drive to it and try and find a parking spot would be hell. I thought we weren’t going to try for it and head for the night’s camping site but Dee thought I’d drive around looking for it. Remembering the first cardinal rule, we headed for the camping site situated on Mt Vesuvius. 

After a quite picturesque or terrifying drive up (mine was the former, Dee’s was the latter), we figured the camping site was no longer in business. We stopped at a café, took some terrifying or picturesque photos and confirmed that the buggers had indeed closed up shop. With the option of driving towards Rome looking for a camping site (with none recorded on the GPS) or further south to Pompeii where there were, we opted for Pompeii.

Tomorrow we head for Rome! Luckily, it’s a thriving metropolis and they’ll hardly see any old stuff there………..

Sleeping in Volcanos

Thursday, 06 Aug (continued)

With a disregard to the consequences, we continued onto the port and our booked crossing to Italy. Luckily, there was very little need to use the brakes on the way as it was mainly highway.

We found the port and, after a bit of mucking around, we were booked in. We grabbed a quick dinner and loaded Springy onto the ferry.

The extra cost of having an actual bed instead of just ‘deck’ accommodation was worth it. We had air con, our own toilet and shower and single beds. Gene was quick to point out that her bed is actually smaller than the bed she normally sleeps in in Springy. Life is hard for her. The poor buggers who booked a deck trip basically had that. If you could find a chair, that was lucky. There were some people who came prepared and brought deck chairs.

As I get nauseous on a fast moving elevator, we bought some sea sick tablets from a chemist who couldn’t wait to get rid of me. I think I was interrupting some groundwork with a lady who was there. Luckily, the 13+ hour trip was perfect. I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been so far. Only one more crossing to go!

Our GPS found us the nearest mechanic in Bari but it took us a bit longer to actually get to one who; existed, had a business accessible by car and not mentioned 3 times on the GPS. We finally did the smart thing and looked for a fiat mechanic. It took us about 2 hours but we had new brake pads and new wipers (bonus) for quite a reasonable price. We even used their air con and wifi!

Assessing our options, we decided to get the hell out of Bari and start heading for Napoli, although not intending to get there that night.

If anyone remembers the movie ‘Demolition Man’, there’s the ongoing joke about Stallone not knowing about the 3 shells. That’s how we felt about the Italian highway tolls. We couldn’t figure out if it was cash, card, mandatory electronic billing or sacrificing small animals to a the respective Roman God(s). I think we’ve figured it out though. You need to get a ticket when you enter the highway and when you leave you present the ticket with money to the toll worker when you leave it. I guess it isn’t a bad system but you have no idea how much you’re paying for any trip.

We found the night’s camp site with the extra bonus that it’s in the middle of an extinct volcano. It was wonderfully cool and gave us a respite to do some much needed laundry.

Saturday, 08 August

With the sale of Springy only over a month away, we took photos of her from various angled and states of undress, err, set up for driving and sleeping. Hopefully, we’ll get the for sale sign up soon on gumtree and ebay in the next few days.

The drive to Napoli wasn’t so bad but the Italian Summer is definitely upon us. When we finally camped at the end of the day, it was 38 degrees inside. To escape the heat, we're staying in a volcano....

We had read up a little bit on Napoli and decided to see one museum and hide out of the sun. After finding the museum and realizing we had just broken the first cardinal rule of campervans (don’t take them into old European cities) and we couldn’t find a park. After losing a little bit of skin we decided that Napoli sucks and we just want to rest. We’ve found the camping spot (in another volcano but not as dormant) and trying to relax.

We can feel the build-up for another rain storm.

It’s taken me ages to find wifi access within this volcano…….

This is Sparta

Wednesday, 05 Aug

I woke especially early and walked into cosmopolitan Sparta for a bit of exercise before the expected long day ahead of us. Sparta was quite nice, no one tried to kick me into a well as the unofficial ambassador of Australia. The view of the mountain ranges either side of Sparta are truly impressive. It’s quite understandable how the town of Sparta was never sacked as it’s situated in a natural fortress.

We had planned to leave Greece at Igoumensitsa by ferry on the 7^th and arrive in Italy the following day. Unfortuntely, that day’s ferries were fully booked or leaving at the wrong time, so we decide to leave a day earlier but drive an extra 100km for the next 2 days to make up the distance.

We packed up and drove to Mystras, a 13^th Century Byzantine fortress only a few km from where we slept. It’s a truly impressive construction with many beautiful, still standing buildings and pieces of art. The views were also amazing. It was quite hot still so we only visited the bottom part of the fortress and gaped at middle and upper buildings. We had morning tea in Sparta and had a great conversation with an older gentlemen who spoke with a Greek/American accent. He had lived in Chicago for 45 years but came back after his wife passed away.

The intent was to visit Olympia, the home of the Olympic Games, during the day and end up at Patra , a city about halfway to the ferry port. The GPS took us through a scenic route to arrive at the west coast of Greece and then head north. That took ages and started to stretch the day out. We stopped at some small town for lunch and was served by a lady from Florida who had moved to Greece with her daughter when she was divorced. You could tell that she didn’t like it there but it seemed to us she was trapped.

Somewhere after Mystras, Springy lost her bathroom wind up skylight. It probably wasn’t wound down after Mystras and blew off on the road. We’re on the hunt for a replacement. Luckily, it isn’t as important as a damaged side window or the 2 other skylights in the main part of the van.

We also had quite a bad discussion about rest stops during the trip as any places where we stay for 2 nights involve a fair bit of exhausting walking about seeing the sights. My point of view was it is a travelling holiday and the sitting in the van while I drive a few hours each day while they read, rest or sleep seemed quite a good deal. The end result is a week of travelling will be taken out of the trip for rest days and we won’t be able to make it down as far as the Straights of Gibraltar but have to see a third less of Spain than originally planned. I’m sure the summer heat played a part in the discussion.

For the last few days Dee has been managing a headache, possibly due to the heat. It was different to any of the headaches and migraines she normally has and the normal treatment didn’t seem to work. We decided to backtrack a little bit to a hospital and see what a doctor could do. After a drip of some medication, an x-ray of her neck and finally an injection of something, Dee was released at about 7pm, feeling not much better than arriving. We drove for another hour to a camping site at Olympia.

Greece has a shocking low level of co-ordination in advertising their camping sites. Using 3 different books and maps we’re only seeing a third of the camping sites and most of them haven’t addresses.

Thursday, 06 Aug

Due to the necessary hospital visit, we weren’t able to get to the halfway point the previous day so we had to make up for it today with about a 5 ½ hour drive. That didn’t stop us from visiting Olympia at 8 in the morning though.

The museum and site were great. The artifacts were amazing and it was a very special feeling to walk the Olympic running track. I’m sure some people expected me to do a traditional nudie run.
J

For the last few days I had noticed that Springy ha acquired a squeak in her front right brake pad but I wasn’t concerned too much until today when it had more of a grinding noise at low speed when passing through a town. Suitably alarmed, I made sure nothing was falling off or dragging behind. I was able to take to a petrol station and the local mechanic was able to confirm that the brake pad was touching the brake disc but it wasn’t his type of vehicle and recommended that I drive Springy to Petras, a town not too far away and, thankfully, still on the path to the ferry.

We arrived in Petras and realised we could be looking for a needle in a haystack when it came to a mechanic. Our options were at that point:

1.       1. Look for a mechanic at Petras who could see to Springy but almost guarantee we would be late for the ferry and be charged a fee for changing our booking or lose our $600 booking altogether, or,

2.      2.  Push onto the terminal to catch our ferry and have a mechanic look at Springy in Bari when we disembark but running the risk of damaging the brake sufficiently to not reach the terminal or causing a level of damage to the brake that may require extensive and costly work.

You’ll find out our decision and what happens in the next blog post.

For whom the road Tolls

Tuesday, 04 August

On our drive through Greece so far we've clocked up $135 of road tolls. I don't mind helping out the economy and I appreciate the good roads, I just didn't anticipate the cost which is coming out of the daily budget. We're not really wanting for anything but it's worth the whinge.
:)

As I've mentioned, the heat has been punishing over the last week. This afternoon the storm has finally come and has cooled things wonderfully.

Yesterday afternoon, Dee noticed that Springy's exhaust was hanging a bit low and when I took look underneath, she had only 1 rubber hanger holding the exhaust pipe. I knew she had lost one recently but now 3 were gone. This morning I went on the search for replacements. I even Googled the question I had and translated it into Greek.

First up, I realised after taking to an actual Greek that the translated Greek work for 'muffler' is 'silencer' and if I used the word 'exhaust pipe' things would have been a bit easier for me.It felt like I was on some sort of 'Davinci Code' search with mechanics and spare parts businesses. After being bounced from one place to another, I was finally sent to a exhaust mechanic and had the job done in minutes. That whole experience took 4 hours of my morning away.

The flow effect of this was we didn't leave Athens until almost lunch and into Sparta until late afternoon. We were in no mood to visit anything by then and just relaxed at the camping ground which was blessedly easy to find.

Driving into the Peloponnese was great. Massive mountain ranges with roads negotiating between them. I don't believe the basic path we took today (and the last few days) has changed much over the last 3,000 years. It's things like that I enjoy.

On our drive south to Athens we passed the town of Thermoplylae, famous for 300 Spartans (plus another 6,500 troops but we won't worry about them). I don't know what problem the Persians had, we got through fine.
:P
Due to my geographic ignorance, I didn't realise I was coming close to the site until I saw the turn off and then it was too late. We had the same with Delphi. After a quick Google Maps search, I realised that the distance from Sparta to Thermoplylae was 400km, at least 2 weeks (probably 3) of marching to get there. Just the planning required to enact this on the potentially aged information is amazing.

Tomorrow, we'll visit the ancient city of Mystras, just down the road from Sparta and start our trip north along the west coast to Patra. The weather for the rest of the week is still low 30's but more rain and clouds forecast, something we're looking forward to.

Athens

Athens is great.

In the morning, I finally dragged my fat arse out for a walk up and down the main road near the camping ground. I even lumbered into a run for almost 10 minutes. The things I do to use the second last hole in my belt instead of the last one.....

Another hot day in Greece but only to 34 degrees. We all took hats, sunglasses and water and sought out public transport.Overall, it was an easy trip to get to the centre of Athens once you figured out where you were and what train station you were standing at.And the tourist map didn't show all the train stations, like the one we came out of, so we were trying to figure out where we were for a few minutes.

As a side note, I think Athenian motorcyclists are insane. They don't drive any worse than I've seen before but half of them don't wear helmets. I'm not talking about puttering around but a bike carrying 2 people going at least 120km/hour.

We thought we did the smart thing and bought tickets for the 'hop on/ hop off' bus tours through Athens and not have to walk everywhere.We decided to visit the Acropolis first to avoid the heat of the day but where we joined the tour involved us taking 3/4 of the tour to get there.

Even though we were there before 11am, it was quite hot and slushy lemonade drinks were the call of the day. The site was great and we took some time to rest in the shade and enjoy the 2,500 years of Greek architecture.

We ambled down but missed the tour bus by minutes, so we decided to have lunch in the air conditioned bliss of a nearby restaurant and re-evaluate the second half of the day. I wanted to see the archaeological museum and Dee wanted to see the markets we passed when travelling to the Acropolis. I didn't seeing both but we didn't have time for that sort of nonsense. We finished lunch and had only 7 minutes before the next bus but the waiter took his time and we missed it. That gave us another 30 minutes to sort out when, where and how to meet up. That done, we caught the bus and I stepped off at the museum and Dee and Gene stayed on to explore the markets.

The Museum was great, the highlight was the death mask of Agamemnon.And the air con. I finished early, so I waited at the pickup point enjoying an ice cream and cold drink. I realised the bus was late and I'm sure it didn't pass me by. I started to text the girls that I was still waiting when the texted me saying that I'm not on the bus. From the tone of the text I thought they had jumped on the bus and I had this thought we would be circling each other through Athens on differing buses.

I tried to text but it failed (This isn't the time for a long drawn-out rant about our International mobiles but let's say I'm not impressed), so I tried to ring several times but I only received a recorded message in some foreign language. The texting and calls used up all my credit and it took a while to get that sorted.

I finally arrived at the stop where I was supposed to meet the girls and I couldn't see them but I had assumed they may be at the next stop. I had just sorted out the credit on the phone, rang Gene and, amazingly, got through. Even though I didn't see them and they didn't see me, they were still there. I got off at the next stop, walked the 500m back and found them.

Safely reunited, we caught a couple of trains and a bus and made home, a bit frazzled and weary but together.

That gave us a few hours to rest, have cool showers, wash the days clothes and play on the computer for a bit. I also realised we have only 1 out of 4 rubber, muffler hangers left. I we lose the last one, I can only imagine what would happen. That's job for tomorrow morning before we leave for SPARTA!