Sunday and we’re on our way to the hotel the Trafalgar tour people organised for the first 2 nights. A simple taxi ride is called for when my knees and Angie’s back have taken a pounding over the last few weeks, best to save them for the upcoming walking tours. The hotel, the Grand Hotel Tiberio, is very nice and we have a top-floor room with a patio. Whilst the outlook from the patio isn’t a stunning tourist-worthy one, it’s still nice to have and very refreshing in the cool evening after a hot day. The Tour Guide greeted us all before dinner with a rundown of the upcoming tour and then we all had dinner provided by the hotel.
Monday and we are around Rome today. We have a full day of activities, apparently the busiest day of the tour so the other days should be more relaxing. The first place to visit is Vatican City. It’s a Jubilee year, every 25 years, and also a new pope, so Vatican City is especially busy. It took a while to get into a bus park and then to make our way through the crowds to visit St. Peter’s Basilica, but being in a tour group does cut many queues. The pilgrim groups, however, still get priority. St. Peter’s is yet another intricately decorated cathedral, but I think we have seen more spectacular ones on this trip.
The following stop is the Colosseum. Again lots of crowds but the guides are well versed as to where to get easy access. We wandered through this fascinating place, being educated about all the facts and myths of this monument. Construction began under the Emperor Vespasian in AD 72 and was completed in AD 80 under his successor and heir, Titus, just 8 years! It could hold an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators. It was substantially ruined by earthquakes and then stone robbers ‘recycling’ material for other new buildings. We spent about an hour there, the history is incredible.
We carried on with a walking tour of the old city, and through to the Trevi Fountain. The crowds were thick here too so no chance of getting close to toss a coin in. But there was time for a great Gelato! Then we walked on to the Pantheon, an ancient 2nd C Roman temple and, since AD 609, a Catholic church called the Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs. The Pantheon was built on the site of an earlier temple, which had been commissioned by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa during the reign of Augustus. After the original was burnt down, the present building was ordered by the emperor Hadrian.
Dinner was a special night out as a group at Le Del Terme Colosseo ristoranti, housed in a building over 2000 years old not far away from the Colosseum. It was traditional Italian food with the added twist of singing waiters entertaining everyone. So we had a mix of classic Italian, Tom Jones, Opera, and comedy. Audience participation in singing, cheering and as subjects of the comedy skits made for a great atmosphere.
Tuesday was an early start, or was supposed to be. It will hopefully only take a day for some of the other passengers to get their act together and be on time. We are on the road a little late so have hit the building morning traffic. We got to the motorway south and will be travelling for just 3 hours to get to the Naples area. Not far south of Rome, we passed Montecassino. The 2nd New Zealand Division was heavily involved in the brutal Battle of Monte Cassino between January and May 1944, suffering nearly 1,400 casualties during assaults on the town before the town and surroundings eventually fell. The Division and the associated 28th (Maori) Battalion faced intense, difficult fighting, similar to WW1 combat conditions, including deadly shelling and fierce German resistance. Today, Monte Cassino remains a sacred site for NZ.
Our main stop for the day was Pompeii. Pompeii was a thriving ancient Roman city near Naples that was famously destroyed and preserved under volcanic ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. The excavated ruins form a significant archaeological site offering a unique glimpse into daily Roman life. We were guided through the site for about an hour getting a comprehensive run-down on all we were seeing. bakeries, butchers, villas, etc, all excavated and original, as it was when Vesuvius blew. Plaster casts of bodies excavated from the ruins are on show, special methods used to make the cast an accurate replica of what was found. Pompeii was buried under 4-6m of ash and undisturbed until in the 16-C a local fell through the roof of a buried building that could no longer withstand the weight of the soil on top. Excavations didn’t start till 18-C.
It has become a very hot day, clear skies, and we are melting! But Pompeii was a fascinating stop. We’re now on our way to Sorrento and a lunch arranged for the bus. The road to Sorrento is breathtaking and extremely challenging for the driver. Palo our driver, is a real pro. The narrow streets of Rome were bad enough, but this mountain road for a full-sized coach!!
Once down into Sorrento we all went to an arranged lunch and pizza-making demo. The lunch was all local cuisine using local produce. The pizzas were made by 5 of the passengers and the restaurateur displayed all the Italian gusto and passion in his tutoring. Luckily we had already been provided with pizza as part of the lunch and didn’t have to rely on the demo versions!
After this, we had a little free time in Sorrento before catching the ferry out to the Island of Capri. Located off the Sorrento Peninsula on the south side of the Gulf of Naples. Capri has been a popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic and is famous worldwide with numerous celebrities staying here. Steep cliffs rise majestically from the blue sea, villas draped with wisteria and bougainvillea, many of which are on the edge of the cliffs. We arrived at the Marina Grande and took the Funicular to the top where the township of Capri is situated. With such a big lunch in Sorrento, dinner was not required! After a bit of a rest, we took an evening stroll through the town soaking up the nightlife, all the shops still open late, and taking in the night lights from Sorrento and Naples across the water.
The next day is a full day on the Island of Capri with a full day of activities organised. The first was a walking tour of the town of Capri, starting not far from our hotel, the Gardens of Augustus. This is on the southern cliffs and overlooks the sea and the rocks of Faraglioni. To get down to the little bay, there is a spectacular path zigzagging down the cliffs, for the brave.
Then we’re straight off to Anacapri, the town on the opposite side of the island. If the path from the Gardens down to the bay was extreme for walkers, then the road from Capri to Anacapri is the same for vehicles. It’s called the Mama Mia road. There are only a few vehicles on Capri, electric micro trucks for deliveries in Capri, canvas-covered roofless cars as taxis, and short mini buses. All able to play dodgems on the Mama Mia road. We had a nice walk around Anacapri, then back down the Mama Mia road to catch a boat.
Also included in the day’s activities was a boat ride around some of the island. The rocky coast is home to a number of grottos, the most well known being the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto can only be accessed lying flat in a rowboat-sized vessel but it was closed today due to the sea conditions. We travelled around to the rocks and the bay below the Gardens of Augustus, visiting and pulling into a number of other grottos. We were also able to see the Amalfi Coast. It was a beautiful day on the water. Afterwards we shopped at the Marina Grande, (a lot cheaper than up top in Capri) and paddled our feet on the 20m of stony public beach there.
Trafalgar put on drinks and dinner for everyone tonight, a nice way to finish off the Capri stay. In the morning, we’re up early, down the Funicular, onto a ferry for Naples and the next part of our tour. And the next issue of the blog.
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