Road trip north, part 1

A few days ago, we returned from a 2-week road trip north. This is part 1 of our chronicle.

We left Rome on a rainy day and drove all the way up to Bolzano, in the Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige, near the border with Austria. We were pleased to find that it was not raining in Bolzano, unlike just about all the other ground we covered that day.



Bolzano (also known as Bolzen) does not look like Italy, but Austria, of which it used to be part. There is a wonderful riverside park where we enjoyed strolling and watching all the people playing various sports. There were all kinds of playing fields, including the usual soccer, but also volleyball, basketball, and tennis courts as well as a skate park.



A highlight of our visit to Bolzano was the Ice Man. Who's the Ice Man, you ask? You might remember that the body of a prehistoric man was found in the Alps in the 1990s. That was "Oetzi," the Ice Man. He lived over 5000 years ago, sometime between 3350 and 3100 BC, during the Copper Age. The South Tyrol Museum of Archeology has an excellent and exhaustive exhibit about Oetzi. Alas, photos weren't allowed in the museum, but you can see many on the museum's website.

Athens, end of trip

OK, here we are in May already, and only now are we finishing our blog entries about our January vacation in Greece. Our last day-and-a-half there were spent in Athens.



The man above is selling salepi, a drink made from powdered orchid root combined with sugar and water. You can see a picture of a pink orchid on his cart.



Graffiti seems to be a big problem in Athens, just as it is in Rome. What a shame; it really junks up the place.



It was drizzly when we made it to the top of the acropolis to see the Parthenon. There's a ton of scaffolding around it, alas. Still, it was impressive. Unlike Mark Twain, we did not break off a piece to bring home with us.



The photo above shows a view of the Parthenon from town, below the acropolis.



There are lots of interesting ruins all over Athens, not just at the acropolis. This is the Temple of Hephaestus, which is near the ancient agora (marketplace). This city, like Rome, is chock-full of archaeological sites, scattered here and there amidst modern-day apartments and office buildings. The juxtaposition is sometimes jarring, but I kinda like it for some reason. Go there, and tell me what you think.

Corinth and Sounion

Corinth is a spot many have heard of from religious texts (Corinthians) and Ricardo Montalban commercials (rich Corinthian leather). Actually I'm not sure if the leather is from the same place, but that is neither here nor there. Corinth was a rival to Athens in ancient times. Today one can visit the ruins on the Acrocorinth (upper town) and see artifacts like this mosaic in the museum.



This is the Temple of Apollo on the Acrocorinth:



Heading east and south, past Athens, one reaches Cape Sounion, where the Temple of Poseidon is perched on a promontory overlooking the Agean.



It was probably built around 440 BC.



It must have been dramatic to approach this spot from the sea in ancient times. Or even now, actually.

Epidauros and Mycenae

Epidauros is famous for its amazingly well-preserved amphitheater. The acoustics are great. If you stand on the little circle on the center of the stage, your voice is amplified so that even the people seated in the last row can hear you.



Here's the view from the bottom, looking up.



On the same day, we visited Mycenae, northwest of Epidauros. Mycenae was the home of a Bronze Age civilization. It was a fortified city whose ruins are still visitable. The structure pictured below, the main entrance to the citadel, is known as Lion Gate.



Here's the valley view from a higher point.



Nearby is the confusingly named Treasury of Atreus, which was a tomb. The entrance shape looks similar to Etruscan tombs we visited near Rome, only it's at least twice as high. The lintel stone (the horizontal piece just above the doorway) supposedly weighs 120 tons! Not sure how the construction workers put it in place in 1250 BC.



We clapped our hands inside to hear the repeating echoes. The interior is cone-shaped.

Mystra

Near Sparta is another fabulous site for Byzantine ruins, the former despotate of Mystra. The Turks and Venetians also occupied Mystra for significant periods of time.



Like Monemvasia, Mystra has a lower town and an upper town. Here's the view down from the upper town. There is a convent still in use here. That's the modern town way down below.



From the upper town's wall, there is a nice view of the snowy mountains, or at least there was during our visit in January.



Wildflowers grow alongside the paths.



I liked the flowering trees as well.

Now those are Easter eggs

We still haven't finished posting photos of our trip to Greece (which took place in January!), but we are interrupting them to show you how Italians like their Easter eggs: enormous, chocolate and filled with presents. You can buy your eggs with presents already inside, or you can bring your gifts of choice to the chocolatier to place inside whichever egg you want.

Here's a photo of a chocolate shop window in our neighborhood in Rome:



Can you see the price tag on the egg in the lower right corner? It says 350 Euro. At today's exchange rate of $1.35 = 1 Euro, that's $472.57. I wonder how much the larger, mermaid egg costs.

Monemvasia

Monemvasia was an island off the southeastern part of the Peloppense, but now it is joined to the mainland via a causeway. Great place for a stronghold, so they built one.

This is the view from our hotel room's balcony.


There is a lower town, where hotels, shops and residences are located today, and an upper town, which is where residents would go in the event of an invasion. This is the main square in the lower town.



A fortress wall separates the upper town from a sheer cliff.



The upper town now features Byzantine ruins and footpaths leading from one to the next.



The trails were a bit overgrown but lovely, with wildflowers here and there. You can see the Agean Sea (although it was actually much bluer than it appears in this photo) and the lower town from here.