Journey to Ancient Civilizations

The Early Human Song

2007-11-15T20:17:00.002-08:00

The journey to ancient civilizations may be back home, but it's not over. This photo looks east along a ridge of the Santa Ynez Mountains separating Santa Barbara from Egypt, Greece and Rome. Ok, that;s a little dramatic, but this point does mark the halfway point on our Outdoor School nine-mile hike. I just got back from a week of science camp with my students at ODS Rancho Alegre. I couldn't recommend the program more. We hiked, played, learned about geology, botany, biology, and the Native American Chumash culture of the area, and then hiked some more. Oh yeah, and it was tons of fun. Buzzard, the director, really understands kids and education. On the last night of camp he asked me to present my sabbatical travels to his staff after we got all 112 of the students down to sleep, a wild task in and of itself. So around 11:00 pm we broke out the bread, cheese, prosciutto, and wine, and I gave them the virtual photo tour. Three days later I gave the tour to our dear friends Dewitt and Dorothy Jayne. Dewitt and Dorothy are in their 90's and are responsible for inspiring me to dream of going to Egypt in search of his early Exodus story. I will be doing it again for a group of supporters in the next few weeks. The journey marches on.

Last month I had all 112 sixth grade students at our school recreate the ten-minute video I put together chronicling ancient cultures of the Lascaux cave dwellers, the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. Using iMovie and iDVD students imported my narration and video clips, added a few transitions and titles, and voila! They had their own video to take home and share with their families. It turned out nicer than I thought. Here is the blog link to the movie I made myself.

We also completed our first real social studies unit on early human cultures. I decided to record my students singing "The Early Human Song." Megan and I wrote this song several years ago while playing around with ways to teach vocabulary to our students. The tune is a lousy rip-off of Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind." The students are appropriately loud and obnoxious as the sing. I'm not sure that Zimmy could sound any worse. It's lots of fun and it gets at the basics. I have also included the lyrics in case you couldn't quite make them out. Enjoy!

The Journey Returns Home

2007-10-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

The journey home has been stretching and filled with joy. We have been home for almost two months now. At times the reality of the adventure seems so far away. Yet a day hardly goes by in which we don’t reference the incredible hospitality of Mohammed from Luxor, Spyros from Athens, the Gils from Milan or Stephanie from Tuscany. We have been deeply impacted by the cultures we’ve lived in, the people who invited us into their lives, and our time together as a family. We came upon this quote from Mark Twain while staying with our friends in Oxford, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” It has proved true for us. We live in a great big wonder-full world. We will never be the same.

And even though we are “home” our journey continues. Here are a few excerpts of in-the-moment writing since we’ve been home.

I just got back from coffee with Donald Johanson. Yes, the same one that I met in Les Eyzies-Tayac. We talked for two hours before I had to rush off to do a home visit with one of my new students.

I’m back on campus. My room looks good, but nothing is where I thought it should be and many things are missing. And my school feels different. Everyone seems a bit more harried, somewhat scattered, less prepared than I remember in the past.

I write this from the comforts of my classroom in Santa Barbara, California. Students are busily reading, working on vocabulary, writing reflections. It is the first week of school and quite possibly the only time I am not hurrying about the room helping kids with their work. They are settling in. What a great group this year! And in spite of the fact that there is a two to one ratio of girls to boys, it’s almost peaceful.

It’s the next morning 6:15 am, and I have ridden my bike to The Coffee Bean to meet with a friend before classes begin. Dark, foggy, early, but when else can I get a few moments with a friend without too many interruptions? Several acquaintances and other teachers I know stop to say hello as I write.

We just got back to our house after spending the morning with a group of church leaders helping raise environmental awareness. The response to our tiny presentation was overwhelmingly good. We are excited and a bit overwhelmed about upcoming opportunities. This is very energizing.

I look forward to a continued sharing of what we learned and continue to learn along the way. To those of you interested in the ancient civilization student curriculum projects I have created from the 9,100+ photos and video clips I’ve collected, I will post a link and instructions on how to upload these in an upcoming blog entry.

Taking a Bath in Bath

2007-07-31T23:57:00.001-07:00

No. We did not pay the big bucks to experience the modern spa built next to the old Roman baths of Bath England. But it did rain on our visit. What the heck, we’re in England! Meg and I left the kids with Lara Morgan (Thank you Lara!) and did a whirlwind trip to Bath from Oxford. The kids meanwhile got to go to the University Museum of Natural History. It was the highlight of their visit to Oxford. Dodos and dinos are a big sell to kids.

England represented Rome’s furthest stretch of empire. One of my favorite emperors showed up here as well, Hadrian. In addition to all the structures and monuments to his glory that we saw in Greece and Italy, the bath here in the UK was most likely remodeled under his direction. He is more commonly known in these parts for Hadrian’s Wall in the north along the border of Scotland and England. I guess after building that 80ish mile long wall it was decided that he needed a decent bath. In addition to Hadrian’s interest in the construction of this spa he also instituted new rules as to how baths should be run throughout the empire. Hadrian banned naked and mixed bathing. As a result separate men’s and women’s dressing rooms and bathing rooms were built. Apparently he was calling the empire back to the more conservative ideals of Rome during the Republic.

The Roman bath at Bath has some similarities and differences to those that we visited in Rome and Pompeii. Similarities include the traditional caldarium, tepidarium, and firgidariums. The ruins here are in better shape than in other places. That’s probably because they weren’t destroyed by a volcano or barbarian hordes. When Rome fell (AD 476) this area just fell into disuse. Eventually the building fell in upon itself and buried much of what was left. For the next 1,000 years the baths were subsequently cleaned, used, dirtied, and buried several times. Locals literally built their homes on top of the old rubble not knowing that only a few feet under their homes there lay an incredible complex of pools, changing rooms, and heating equipment. It wasn’t until the late 1600s that the bath and temple was “rediscovered” and renovated into its present Georgian style.

The biggest difference in this bath was that it was built upon a natural hot spring. There are actually three of them in the area. The temple and bath built here were dedicated to Sulis Minerva (Athena) and so also functioned under the name of Aquae Sulis. The hot spring bubbles up about 300,000 gallons of hot sulphery-smelling water every day. This “sacred well” as it is now called, was channeled into a large pool surrounded by a Doric columned portico. Traditional Roman bath rooms were later added around this mineral water pool. On our tour there was much talk that this bath was special and that people came here for the healing qualities of the water. I need to research Roman writings to see if this is really true. Most roman baths were social, business, fitness, hygiene centers, and while religious sacrifices were often held at these places, they were not commonly known for their mojo. The waters were certainly known for their “magical” qualities in pre-Roman Celtic mythology and post-Roman Medieval practices.

After their rediscovery the bath was dug up and given a bath itself. At this time it most certainly became a haven for those seeking the healing values of mineral baths. It was actually vogue to visit hot spring baths. This was relatively short-lived as the fad swung over towards swimming in the ocean for health (early emergence of British surfing). Bath once again fell into disrepair until Mary Queen of Scots was able to conceive shortly after bathing here. The conception was attributed to the waters of the bath, and the city experienced a boom in popularity. The bath was reborn. The old Roman pool was repaired, and new columns, porches, and statues were constructed. Architecturally the city followed suit and new structures were built in a neo-classical or “Georgian” style haling back to Roman times. It’s a beautiful city, even in the rain.

Roman Bath

Oxfordshire

2007-07-11T14:39:00.001-07:00

I feel smart just saying that I’m writing here in Oxford. It’s that kind of place. We are staying in a St. Hughes College dorm right in the heart of the city. Our friends Ronnie and Janine Morgan teach for Abilene Christian University in Texas and are in charge of the off-campus program here in Oxford. They have graciously given us a couple of empty rooms. The kids are thoroughly enjoying dorm life! I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

We have walked the town and visited University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Trinity College, Radcliffe Camera, Christ Church College (Yeah, Harry Potter was filmed here), and numerous other colleges. There are incredible museums here as well. The Ashmolean Museum boasts an impressive collection of antiquities. The Natural History Museum has a Dodo bird and the most complete T-rex skeleton in the world. The Bodleian Library has amazing collections. And all these are free! Talk about encouraging learning! We fed the ducks in University Park and sat on the bench there dedicated to Tolkien. Apparently he liked to sit in the park at this bench along the Cherwell River under the willow trees. We think we found “Old Man Willow.”

We went to dinner one evening at the Eagle and Child pub, better known to locals as the Bird and Baby. It’s just a regular neighborhood pub but was made famous by a group of Oxford scholars who used to meet in the Rabbit Room for a bite and a pint each week. This group used to discuss their current writing projects (primarily narrative fiction) as well as politics and theology. Members of this group included J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and others. Fish and chips never tasted so smart.

One afternoon we took a leisurely walk around the grounds of Blenheim Palace just outside Oxford. The grounds were given to General John Churchill in thanks for the victories he won over the French back in 1704. The British government even gave him the funds to build the palace. That is some kind of thanks! It is an immense park. Sir Winston Churchill was born here, and we decided that he must have played in the tree where we rested. It is a beautiful setting.

Today we walked out to Port Meadow and strolled along the Thames River; they call it the Isis River here in Oxford. I’m not sure why. But the walk was very peaceful. We passed through meadows with cattle, lots of Mallard Ducks, and several canal boats. The canal boats are now “mobile” homes, but once they were functional cargo ships cruising the canal from London to Birmingham (135 miles). They are often colorfully painted and home to colorful people. Afterwards we passed the Oxford Castle and prison and later climbed the Saxon Tower, Oxford’s oldest building (AD 1040). Oxford is celebrating its 1,000th year. It’s not quite ancient, but 1,000 years is nothing to sneeze at.

Stonehenge and Avebury: Stone Circles

2007-07-10T03:30:00.000-07:00

This morning found us borrowing our friends, Ronnie and Janine Morgan’s, car and making the drive from Oxford to Wiltshire to see the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles. The kids were excited about seeing the ancient sites; I was excited about testing my driving skills in a country that drives on the wrong side of the road ;^) Why else would they call the right side of the road the “right” side? I think that my expectations for the drive were higher than my expectations of the prehistoric sites we were to visit; we had received underwhelming reports from several previous visitors.

These two stone circles in the UK are not a regular part of my curriculum so I won’t even pretend to know much about them. All the same, they are pretty spectacular settings. Both sites date back to about 3000 BC and were built in spurts that sometimes had gaps of use or construction lasting as much as 500 years. For Stonehenge the first bit of construction was little more than a ditch with a circular mound of soil. Around 2600 BC a wooden structure of some sort was built in the center of this circle. And then finally from about 2500 to 1500 BC the all too familiar stone circle was constructed and rearranged several times. After that time it was apparently abandoned. That oldest stones used at Stonehenge are called Bluestones (from their original color) and come from the Preseli Mountains some 240 miles away. These were originally arranged in an outer circle around the center wooden structure area. Closer to 1500 BC the larger Sarsen stones from Marlborough Downs (19 miles away) were arranged into the familiar posts and lintel formations known as trilithons. It is estimated that dragging these 50-ton stones over the hills to Stonehenge would have required about 600 people per stone! About that same time the Bluestones were rearranged into the pattern that is seen today. Interestingly, the current arrangement of stones works as a sort of solar calendar casting shadows to the center of the ring at both summer and winter solstices. And while the construction at these sites lack the craftsmanship and artistry of temples built in Egypt and Mesopotamia from the same era, they still demonstrates some pretty impressive celestial calculations!

Around the countryside of Stonehenge and Avebury are several Barrows. I first encountered this term while reading Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. In the Fellowship of the Rings Tom Bombadil warns Frodo and company to stay away from the barrows and their stones because there lived the Barrow Wights. I’m still not exactly sure what a Barrow Wight is, but I have a much better understanding for the barrows and cold stones. A barrow is simply a burial mound! Could Tolkien have been referring to the stones of Stonehenge or another of the numerous stone circles throughout southern England? Sure, why not? We picnicked at the outer circular mound and contemplated the scene with Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Meriodoc in the middle of the stone circle.

Avebury (c. 2600 BC) is equally impressive if not more so for two reasons. The first is obvious when you first arrive - you can walk right up to and touch the stones. It’s really cool. Of course you have to dodge mountains of sheep dip strewn every square inch of the fields, but you really get a chance to walk among the stones. Second is the size and arrangement of the stones at Avebury. The stone circle is huge -almost four football fields in diameter. The stones here were selected for their unique shapes and were uncut like the stones at Stonehenge. The largest stone on site weighs over 65 tons! An early archaeologist in the area named William Stukeley (c. 1720) observed that the arrangement of the circular ditches, mounds, stones, and surrounding barrows created a design reminiscent of serpent passing through a circle, an ancient symbol of alchemy. That’s cool! The most impressive barrow in this area is the Silbury Hill about a mile from the stone circle of Avebury. This huge volcano shaped mound is also surrounded by seemingly random stones and underground chambers. Turns out that these too line up with certain celestial events. And all this digging and hauling of soil was done by hand with antlers and bones. That had to have required a lot of cooperative work hours from the local people.

So what do these stone circles mean? Since there is no written record from the era of their construction nobody knows for sure. We do know that they are old. Neolithic people lived here as evidenced by the artifacts found at the sites and in the burial barrows. They do seem to line up with celestial events that we readily recognize. But the why question really remains a mystery. This has sparked numerous legends about their genesis and purpose dealing with everything from the Devil to King Arthur. Throw in some Druids with a little new age mysticism and you can have a lot of fun with these sites. So far none of these has any historical credibility. The circles predate all of them, except maybe of course the Devil!

A Jolly Good Time in London

2007-07-10T03:26:00.001-07:00

In addition to spending time in Southall at the A Rocha UK center we did make it in to London for some fun. In spite of the rain everyday we took several long walks through the city. We followed the lead of Londoners and dashed into museums, cathedrals, pubs, and phone booths during the heaviest downpours or resorted to busses and Underground in order to keep dry. Public transportation is incredible; you can get anywhere in the city really easily.

Our first trip out took us to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. We enjoyed the bands, uniforms and silly walks, but all agreed that the changing of the guard in Greece takes the prize for the best silly walk of all. We walked along St. James Park to Westminster Abbey, parliament and Big Ben. Then we hoofed it up to Trafalgar Square and then found a bus that would eventually take us back across town to the Natural History Museum. We all really enjoyed the dinosaur exhibits.

Another trip into London took us to the British Museum to be overwhelmed by the amazing collections from all over the world. We promised ourselves we would return (which we did) and hopped on a bus to catch a free organ recital at Westminster Abbey -very cool (not only was it really neat to hear the organ music, but we didn’t have to pay the usual 14 pound admission!).

Another trip took us on a Sunday to St. Paul’s Cathedral where we caught the sung Eucharist service. It was really beautiful. The London Symphonia was there to accompany the boys’ choir. We had a nice walk along the Thames and onto the Tower Bridge. Saw a Beefeater at the Tower of London and made our second pilgrimage to the British Museum.

Our last adventure in London began at Knotting Hill where it seems cool book and music stores abound. Walked to Kensington Park where the kids had a ball at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. We passed along by Kensington Palace and the Royal Albert Memorial on our way to the science museum. This was the museum for Emma! They have an area just for 3 to 6 year olds where you can touch and play with everything. She couldn’t get enough of the water-play area. The rest of us enjoyed the science museum too and agreed that, just like all the others, we could spend a week in there -if it weren’t for the imminent sensory overload

The Search For Homer’s Ithaca in the British Museum

2007-07-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

I returned to the museum one evening on my own for a special event lecture given by Robert Bittlestone, James Diggle, and John Underhill (great name for a geologist don’t you think?). About three years ago Bittlestone came up with a “what if” idea concerning the real location of Homer’s Ithaca and has since written a book titled Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer’s Ithaca. I have this book in my class! Bittlestone is a businessman, not an archaeologist, based here in the UK and was planning a family vacation to the Ionian Islands off Greece’s west coast. He thought it would be appropriate to read The Odyssey in preparation for the trip. After visiting the currently named island of Ithaca he noticed how poorly it lined up with Homer’s description in The Odyssey. So he applied some problem solving skills, a little bit of basic sixth grade plate tectonics, and a plane flight over the island to form a new theory explaining how the island of Cephalonia was once two islands, one of which being the real Ithaca. He then teamed up with the other two presenters and the real science of archaeology/geology/classical literature began. And so far all the research is heavily in his favor. I love it! It is a great example of utilizing geology to help make sense of the “myths” of the ancient world, something I am quite interested in. I briefly spoke with Bittlestone after the lecture and he is very interested in visiting Santa Barbara (If you’re from England, who wouldn’t be?). What do you think the chances are that I will be able to take both Donald Johanson and Robert Bittlestone out for coffee back home in Santa Barbara?

The British Museum

2007-07-08T12:50:00.001-07:00

London arguably has the best museums we have visited anywhere along our trip, and it’s not just that they have acquired (plundered?) an unbelievable number amazing artifacts. It’s the accessibility of everything. The museums are free, you can take pictures, and you can walk right up to original pieces. While I have to admit that it would be nice, even the right thing to do, for native countries to actually house their own cultural artifacts, Britain has done a tremendous job of allowing the public to be educated by these cultures. I’m not convinced that they are protecting the artifacts any better than other museums we have visited, but they certainly have them organized and presented in a manner that makes the public want to learn.

I visited the British Museum on three occasions, and it was packed each time. On two of the visits the whole family cruised the facilities together. There are free activity booklets and kits for kids. On our first visit there was a hands-on table where we all got to handle biface hand axes from the Magdalenian Period. Incredible! As usual I was most drawn to the Egyptian, Greek and Roman displays. We saw the Ramses head whose statuesque body we visited back in Luxor at the Ramesseum. The highlight from these areas for me was the room displaying the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens. The number of pieces the museum has that Elgin removed from the Parthenon back in 1806 blew me away. They are beautifully arranged in a manner that sort of reconstructs the layout of the Parthenon. But if I had never been to the Parthenon this would not have been very evident. Wikipedia has a good article about the marbles and their controversial stay in the British Museum (Elgin Marbles). I for one would love to see them all displayed together in the new Acropolis Museum under construction in Athens. Not only does it seem to be the right thing to do, but also it makes good archaeological sense to have them all together for study and interpretation.

Other highlights for me included the Assyrian collections from Nineveh and Nimrud as well as the Babylonian and Sumerian collections from Mesopotamia. Essentially what you find in the Assyrian collection are several hallways containing all the engraved wall sections from the palaces unearthed at Nineveh and Nimrud. Both of these cities were Assyrian powerhouses during the 9th through 5th centuries BC. The relief carvings on these walls are incredibly detailed, and in just looking at them you learn a lot about the daily life and beliefs of these people. My favorite pieces in the museum, aside from the Elgin Marbles, were in the Babylonian room. The color, detail, and antiquity (2600 BC) of the Standard of Ur, the Ram in the Thicket sculpture, and the Ur Game board are breathtaking.

British Museum Highlights

A Rocha UK and Southall

2007-07-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

We drove from the French Alps to Milano Italy and once again spent the night with our friends Juan and Talissa Gil (Thanks again you guys!). From there we braved the city streets of Milano (a nightmare for Megan) and flew from Bergamo to London England. After a half dozen bus, train and tube changes we arrived at our new home in Southall in the north -west sector of London. Southall is a very diverse community that hales as one of the largest Indian Sikh populations outside of India/Pakistan. We thoroughly enjoyed the colors, sounds and smells of life in this community. We even ate lunch at the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabba, the largest Sikh temple outside of India. They serve free meals to anyone who enters, no questions asked. Our kids may have them rethinking that policy; Emma and Sarah Jane both went back for seconds on the lentils and rice pudding while Sam made a full three trips through the food line.

Over the past three years we have been working with a conservation organization called A Rocha (Portuguese for The Rock), and here in Southall they have their UK offices. The focus of A Rocha can best be described as “a Christian nature conservation organization… with projects working in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North and South America, Asia and Australasia. The projects are frequently cross-cultural in character, and share a community emphasis, with a focus on science and research, practical conservation and environmental education.” (quoted from their international website at arocha.org) We enjoyed the ARUK community while we: worked in the garden, helped out with some mailings, installed attic insulation, led a group of students on a field trip at Minet Park (their local project), and assisted with an environmental club at a local elementary school. Sam even rescued the pond at Minet Park from a trolley (that’s a shopping cart for all of you back in the US). We spent many long hours discussing the urgent need to make radical changes in our consumer lifestyles in order to effectively begin the task of reversing decades of environmental and socio-economic degradation around the world. While the word urgent was never actually uttered, it is the overall sense that has been growing in me throughout our trip. Our world is a wonderful place, but without immediate care there is much that will go wrong in the not-so-distant future. People seem to react to the message of environmental crisis in different ways. Some choose to ignore it completely. I tend to believe this is because recognizing there is a problem demands a response. Which then gives rise to the next type of response, to recognize the problem but be so overwhelmed by the immensity of it that nothing is done. It can be a pretty hopeless outlook. Which brings me back to A Rocha. Here we find hope in what can be done. I have attached a video of theirs that introduces the need and their approach to solutions. Check it out.

It has been the perfect way to end our journey: a time for reflection, challenge and plans for action. After leaving the A Rocha UK center we discovered this wonderful quote from Mark Twain, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Our world feels less scary, more inviting, and much bigger than we ever imagined. It’s really quite wonderful!

A Rocha International

The French Alps: No Caves Here

2007-07-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

France is great! There are great Roman ruins, fantastic Early Human cave sites, and fresh baguettes and pan au chocolat every morning. At least in our campground! We camped at yet another Les Castels site in Rochetaillée near Bourg-d’Oisans. It is cyclists’ heaven. We were situated near the base of the Tour de France famous Alpe d’Huez. We walked the 100 meters from our campsite and watched the sixth stage of the Dauphine Libre bike race. I spent a good deal of the time in our trailer organizing photos and curriculum for back home, but we were able to get out for a few fantastic hikes and watch the throngs of cyclists cruise through the mountain passes here.

Here are a few shots of the area. It was truly beautiful!

Hiking along the summit of Alpe d’Huez.

Hiking to Lac Lauvitel.

Hiking outside of Besse en Oisans.

Views from our campground.

Bourg-d’Oisans.

Views along the road trip to Milano near the Col de Galibier.

Périgord: More Than Caves

2007-07-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

The region in France known as Périgord is located just southwest of central France. The Dordogne and Vezére Rivers cross through the area. It is hilly, green and very peaceful. We camped here for two weeks, and it rained everyday. You’ve read plenty about the caves here (of which there are many more), so now I’d like to share some photos of some of the places we visited all within about 20 minutes of our campground.

These are some of the places we saw while hiking around our Moulin du Roche campground.

This is market day in the city of Sarlat, a ten-minute drive from our trailer.

We also toured the Chateau Puymartin (Pooey-Martin no joking allowed). It was a five-minute drive from our campsite.

We drove through Les Eyzies-de-Tayac several times on our way to cave sites along the Vezére River.

We also drove to La Roc Gageac, beautifully situated along the Dordogne River.

The Caves of Périgord: Roque de Saint Christophe

2007-06-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

The final cave we got to explore was more of an amusement park than a cave, Le Roque de Saint Christophe. The day we were there several school groups on field trips joined us. There is a restaurant and picnic area out front and a gift shop at the entrance. Cheesy scenes are recreated throughout the overhanging shelter and range from Cro Magnons fighting off a cave bear to Middle-Ages knights in shining armor. Here you can scramble around the cave overhanging and explore with or without a guide. We chose without as we were tired of French tours (Our previous two cave guides were only available in French at the time). It was kind of fun.

It has been said that just by choosing to live in this beautiful location Cro Magnon people demonstrated their extreme intelligence. It is a huge cliff shelter directly above the Vezére River. This site has been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times around 15,000 BC. Cro Magnons gave way to iron age Neolithic agriculturists, who gave way to the Gauls, who gave way to the Romans, who gave way to Middle-Ages kingdoms and Norman invaders, up to present times. Because of its constant use there is little evidence of the earliest people of this area. There is no cave art here as there really aren’t any caves, just overhanging cliffs. People lived here! Burials and religious activities must have taken lace elsewhere. It appears that daily life took place in one area while death and ritual in another. One exception to this rule is found nearby at Abri Cap Blanc, where the cave art is part of the overhanging cliff rather than deep in the cave. But there was also a burial beneath the carvings.

So why are there paintings deep in the caves? Lascaux would have been extremely difficult to enter. The passages in Font-de-Gaume are extremely narrow. Grotte de Rouffignac is several miles long and was a regular home to hibernating bears. None were easy to access. None of these have evidence of human habitation from the Magdalenian period: worked flint, fire pits, or butchered animal remains. Human habitation for these caves is from the Middle Ages when many of the caves in this region were used as shelters for local people seeking refuge from invaders; these people didn’t even notice the cave art. Because of the remote nature of the art most researchers describe these areas as spiritual or religious worship centers. The description seems to match our modern concept of what religion should look like. The dead are buried near these areas. They are richly decorated, candle-lit shelters. There may even be priestly representations. The “unicorn” in Lascaux appears to be a compilation for several animals but has human hind legs. Could this be a priest wearing animal skins and performing some sort of ritual for the people? If these really were places of worship, based upon the quality of work and space inside the cave, Lascaux appears to have been the “Vatican” and other sites as local shrines. All of this is purely speculation based upon our modern interpretations and limited evidence. At minimum it makes for great stories and brings these people to life as humans much like us.

The Caves of Périgord: Rouffignac

2007-06-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

Our next cave took us to Rouffignac. This cave is unique in many ways. First, it is about three miles from the Vèzére River; all the others are much closer. Secondly it is really long -several miles long. In order to see the artwork you join your guide on a small electric train that travels about half a mile into the cave. This was a real selling point to the kids! And thirdly, it has been the frequent winter dwelling place of hibernating bears for millennia. All along the way inside you can see their burrows dug into the soft sides of the cave and the scratching of their claws as they trimmed their nails upon waking each spring.

This cave is known for its numerous mammoth paintings and etchings, more than 150 have been counted so far! These were spread throughout the cave and almost exclusively in groupings. Rouffignac also has its own “Sistine Chapel” called Le Grand Plafond. The ceiling here is richly decorated mammoths, bison, ibex, and horses reminiscent of Lascaux. The main difference is that these were drawn only in black line on a ceiling only two feet tall (The ceiling in Lascaux’s main chamber is about 10 feet tall). Al of this was done of course with the light of a fat burning lamp more than a half mile from the entrance to the cave. Even Michelangelo would have had difficulty here.

The authenticity of some of Rouffignac’s artwork is often called into question. In particular the wooly mammoth drawings here caused early prehistorians a lot of trouble. The tail end of these creatures included a strange flap of skin near the anus (sorry, I used the “a” word). This anatomical mystery was authenticated when in modern times the remains of wooly mammoths were found in Siberia with this same feature. So these drawings couldn’t have been fakes. No one knew of this feature until modern times.

Along with the paintings and engravings found in these caves there are also a number of “tectiforms.” These are pattern-marks that repeat themselves within a cave or regions of a cave. Some are painted dots, rectangles, lines, and triangles, and others are engraved scratchings. In Rouffignac there are miles of lines drawn in the soft mud of the walls by fingers. Researchers have studied the shape and size of these finger flutings and determined that these markings were made by eight different people at least three of which were children under the age of eight. The children must have explored extensively as their markings are found even in the remotest areas of the cave. They appear to be like a kind of signature or sign specific to a cave, area of a cave, a people group, or artist group. Because of the uniformity of the markings they are thought to be an early form of writing or least a way of signing one’s name. Could this be the beginnings of written language dating back to over 15,000 BC?

Again, my aplogies for the low resolution photos from inside the cave. As in the previous article, they are borrowed.

The Caves of Périgord: Grotte de Font-de-Gaume

2007-06-18T06:39:00.000-07:00

Even though I was disappointed at not being able to really look at the replica Lascaux II cave, it was still a great experience overall. The artwork is far and above the best executed and articulated of any we have seen in the area. It is beautiful! We gained some knowledge about the Cro Magnon Magdalenians that dwelled in the area, and I picked up a couple of good books and a video. The books spoke of several other caves in the region where we could join groups and experience a real cave. We set out to be speleologists for the remainder of our time in the area.

Typical to this area, most cave dwellings were situated at the base of the limestone outcroppings along the river valleys. At one time rivers ran underground here carving out several grottos that were later used by the early people who lived in the area. Contrary to general knowledge, the people living in this area did not live “in” the caves. The evidence of the lives of these people of the past (stone and bone tools) is almost exclusively found at the mouth of the caves. The caves were shelters from the harsh elements, but not really habitable places. They were difficult to enter, easily filled with smoke, and were dark and dank on the inside. The temperature is pretty constant at about 50° F with 98% humidity. Not very conducive to habitation. Cro Magnon people of this region built huts with frames made of branches. Caves were often used as burial places. And then of course there is the artwork - artwork which was most often found deep in the caves where living would be impossible.

Our first real cave to visit fit this description perfectly: Grotte de Font-de-Gaume. People of the Les Eyzies area have known of this cave forever, but it wasn’t until 1901 that an elementary school teacher first recognized the art inside. (Let’s hear it for the teacher!) There are more than 170 animal and human representations either painted (some in polychromatic color) or etched on its limestone walls. It is often called the cave of bison since there are more than 80 of them depicted here. Animals appear to be arranged in processional groupings. There are two reindeer facing each other in what looks like an affectionate kiss (are we overly anthropomorphizing these images?). Some animals are given special places of honor on the walls; A wolf at an intersection of cave chambers, a wooly rhino in the last gallery, and an engraved lion at the narrow end of the same gallery. Once inside it was easy to understand why locals took so long to recognize the artwork on the walls. Even with a guide aided by artificial lighting, a flashlight, and laser pointer it was often difficult to see the images. But they were truly amazing. It was particularly interesting to see how the artist used the contours of the cave walls and ceiling to accentuate parts of the animals. A bulge in the rock might become a bison’s humped back. Streaks in the stone might become the legs of a horse. And all the while you have to keep in mind that these paintings were done in the dark; the only light being provided by a primitive lamp made by carving a stone into a cup shape that was then filled with animal fat. A small juniper branch served as a wick. Truly amazing!Sorry about the low quality of the pictures from inside the cave. These are borrowed photos and of low resolution.

Périgord Prehistory: Lascaux

2007-06-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

This has been some Journey to Ancient Civilizations! Egypt was truly ancient. Lots of culture grew up there as far back as 3,000 BC. We’re talking 5,000 years ago. That’s ancient. Even Greece kicked into gear in ancient times with the Minoans ruling the Mediterranean from Knossos in Crete as far back as around 2,000 BC. That too is ancient. My son Sam has been reluctant to include Rome in the category of ancient. But even Rome was growing up as far back as 2,500 years ago. That’s ancient enough. But none of these compare to the antiquity of the Périgord region of France. We’re talking about human colonies in the area as far back as 450,000 years ago. Now that’s ancient!

Our visit focused primarily on the Magdalenian people who lived in this region around 17,000 -10,000 years ago. I was more familiar with the term Cro Magnon for this group of people; the two terms appear to be used interchangeably in texts that I’ve read. The Cro Magnon term refers to a specific group within this region whose fossils were found behind a hotel owned by Monsieur Magnon back in 1868. The hotel is still there, and you can look at the site where the fossils were first discovered. In a very real sense we are all Cro Magnons, Homo sapiens. They looked like us and had a very advanced culture. By the way, the term “Cro Magnon” means Mr. Magnon’s hole.

Our first stop was to Lascaux, often referred to as the Sistine Chapel of prehistory because of the incredible wall and ceiling paintings found deep in this cave. There are dozens of polychromatic paintings and etchings of horses, bison, bulls, reindeer, felines, ibex, and a strange “mythological” two-horned unicorn. The actual cave is off-limits to tourists due to mold and fungus damage to the ancient cave art due to tourist traffic. The original cave was closed to the public in 1963. In 1983 an exact replica of the two main chambers of the cave was constructed near the site. It is known as Lascaux II and is incredible. No expense was spared in this reconstruction. The only drawback is that this amazing replica is treated as if it were the original. Once inside everyone whispers and speaks in hushed voices. A mandatory guide took a great deal of time going into how the replica was built but then rushed us through the galleries. The lighting was poor and it was difficult to see many of the paintings on the walls and ceilings. Nor were we allowed to take any photos. Now, I know that they are trying to simulate/trick me into thinking that I’m in the real cave, give me the “real” cave experience without ever gong into a real cave. But we all know that it’s not real. It was beautiful to experience the beauty of the “cave,” but it’s not really a cave. It felt like they were taking the “Sistine Chapel” nickname too seriously and treating the replica like a chapel of worship. The original must be truly awesome, as in awe inspiring. But let’s face it, this is a replica. I thought the idea was to preserve the original and allow the public to enjoy the wonder of the artwork. I was a bit disappointed. There are lots of other “real” caves in the region where you can walk through dimly lit chambers and not take pictures.

Preservation of ancient sites is a huge issue, and I totally support the idea of making copies for tourists to visit freely. But the key word here is freely. Lock up the originals to the experts, but let the rest of us bozos actually see the copies. In Egypt, the Valley of the Kings tombs suffer similar over-exposure to tourist traffic. The Lascaux II approach to quality reproductions around the Valley would be very beneficial but only if people could actually get inside, ask questions, spend some time, even take pictures. I believe that it would foster a deeper respect for the tombs and garner greater support for their preservation.

All the same, I have collected some video from a nice set of replica paintings at Le Thot (I’m not sure if I was supposed to take pictures there or not, but oh well) and old video footage of the original. Enjoy.

Lascaux

Journey to Ancient Civilizations: A Movie CroMagnon, Egypt, Greece, & Rome

2007-06-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons I came on this journey was to create classroom curriculum for the sixth grade students back at Peabody Charter School. I am constantly looking for ways to combine areas of curriculum for students. In addition to the staple subjects of language arts, reading, math, science, and social studies, I also teach technology. What better way to teach technology skills than through a real subject, like ancient civilizations! The attached video is an example of a project I have put together that will require students to import media and build a video. The narration is information heavy, but if you have to listen to it a dozen or more times in order to construct the movie, some of it will probably stick.

Camping in France

2007-06-14T02:16:00.000-07:00

Pools with waterslides, fresh baguettes and pain au chocolat each morning, quaint countryside locations, lending libraries, and fully equipped domiciles. This is camping, yes camping, in France! We are a family that has done a lot of camping, but only in the US and Canada. We never knew camping could be so cushy (and yet still really affordable). We have stayed at three different campgrounds that are part of a chain of campgrounds called Les Castels. Many of these properties were once large estates, often including a castle. Check out the website for yourself! les-castels.com We have stayed in one tent-cabin and two little mobile home trailers -which doesn’t really count as camping in our book -but we’re not complaining. We’ve stayed in Provence, the Dordogne region -often called Pèrigord, and the Alps. What a great way for us to see some ancient sites and for me to get some writing done.

Provence
We had five nights in a small tent-cabin down in the balmy south of France. We were within 30 minutes of Nimes, 45 minutes to Pont du Gard and an hour to Orange. We were only 2 km from the little town of Sommières. We walked the bike/walk path into town one day. Beautiful. We thoroughly enjoyed the pool with deluxe waterslides and the beautiful oak forest around us -reminded us a little of California. We were the first Americans to ever visit this campground! We crammed in visits to several ancient sites and logged some good pool time.

Dordogne
We spent 14 nights in a deluxe little mobile home next to cow pastures and dense, lush forest at Le Moulin du Roch, our second Les Castels campground. This was to be a big block of time to write and work on curriculum. The time was productive and we were still able see the beautiful countryside and the rich historic sites all around us. Wherever we went, either on a walk or a drive, we came across old chateaus, beautiful old stone homes and caves, caves, caves. What a perfect location for us to visit many important sites of pre-history. Several caves with stone-age art were only a five-minute drive from our campsite. Many of the small towns in the area were established in the middle ages and still look like you’re walking back into medieval times. We also happened to be right in the middle of the land of Foie Gras -famous French goose liver! Our campground had a great playground, pool and library. And even though it rained the majority of our time there, we still had a great time.

The Alps
Our final campround, Le Chateau, in the French Alps is beautiful!! We will have eight nights here. We are just 10 km down the road from the Alpe d’Huez of Tour de France fame. There is no shortage of amazing Alpine views. As soon as we arrived, Sam said, “Hey, they have the right kind of trees here!” Our first time among pines in a long time. More time to work on curriculum and take in some beautiful hikes.

We are so glad that our friends in Milan, the Gils, tipped us off about these campgrounds. I don’t think we could have afforded traveling in France any other way. And the way these campgrounds are, we were able to show up with no camping supplies at all and still get by just fine! We still look forward to camping the good ol’ fashioned way back home, but we will nevertheless never look at camping the same way again.

Camping in France

The Roman Theater in Orange

2007-06-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

From the Pont du Gard we traveled another half hour to the city of Orange (O’ráwnzh). I knew right away that I was going to like this city; there was a criterium bike race under way at the entrance to the town. Meg and I used to ride in small town bike races like this years ago. Orange is a regular town. It has some great Roman ruins but feels very much like the kind of place you might just live in. It lacks the touristy sheen. That was refreshing. That being said, it is also home to undeniably the most complete, best preserved Roman theater in all the world. There are only three Roman theaters remaining that still have their original stage sound walls, one in Turkey, one in Syria, and the other here in Orange France. So far that’s three big architectural “number ones” for France as far as Roman ruins go (Nimes amphitheater, Pont du Gard).

We listened to the information-packed audio guide and wandered around this amazing structure. It is a traditional Roman theater with a small stage and seating built into a semi-circle on a gently sloping hillside. The stage wall is about 130 feet tall and was originally decorated with columns. These columns were a recent find (within the past decade) and a few have been placed back on the stage. In the center of this stage wall, about 80 feet up, stands a marble statue of the emperor looking out at the crowds below. It’s a funny statue in that it has a removable head. When the emperorship changed, a new head was shipped to Orange and the old head discarded. From this stage wall an awning could be hung over the seating area to provide shade. And speaking of the audience, this place could seat over 10,000 people. It was organized in the same way as Roman amphitheaters, The wealthy ruling class got the front row seats; on one of the seats you can still see the carving of “EQ III” signifying that this section was reserved for the elite soldiers of the Equestrian Order. The working class took up the mid section, while the slaves and poor were allowed seats way at the top. There are hallways at the back of each level where spectators could buy refreshments at intermissions and use the bathrooms if needed.

I have incorrectly written about this place in the past tense, because like the amphitheater in Nimes, it is still in use. In the summer there are large theater events held here. Actually, it has remained in use continually since its original construction under Augustus back in the first century AD. First as a theater and later as a fort. At one point it became a city within the city of Orange housing several hundred people, their animals, and all of their businesses.

The Orange Roman Theater

Pont du Gard

2007-06-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

Our next adventure from Sommières took us to just beyond Nimes to the Pont du Gard. Now all of you will have to think back to your old social studies textbook. Remember the picture from the section on Rome? The text always talked about the amazing aqueducts of the Romans, how they carried water from high in the far away mountains to the big cities so that all those Romans could drink and bathe to their hearts’ content. Well, the Pont du Gard is the aqueduct in about 95% of those pictures. And it’s in France! Once again one of the best-preserved structures from Rome’s ancient heritage lies in France, not in Rome.

The Pont du Gard is a bridge the Romans built to carry water across a canyon where the Gard River flows. It was part of a 31 mile aqueduct built to carry water from a spring at Fontaine d’Eure near the city of Uzès to the 50,000 citizens of Nimes. As the crow flies it is only about 16 miles, but in order to minimize the need for unnecessary construction, the Romans planned for most of the aqueduct to meander around hills and valleys. What’s really amazing about the engineering of this aqueduct system is that there is only a 40-foot drop in elevation between the source near Uzès and its final destination in Nimes. It dropped only one inch every 350 feet and provided Nimes with about nine million gallons of water per day! It was completed around AD 50.

There are a few other remaining bridges and tunnels from this amazing aqueduct system, but the Pont du Gard is by far the largest and best preserved. It stands about 150 feet high. The only Roman structure taller than the Pont du Gard is the Colosseum, and it’s only about 10 feet taller. Originally it was about 1,100 feet long, but over the centuries the ends of it have been hauled away to build other buildings. There are three levels of arches built one upon the other. The largest arch on the lowest level, directly above the river, spans about 80 feet -the largest ever built by the Romans. The mid-level arches span about 50 feet, and the top-level arches are about 15 feet across. On top of this uppermost level is the actual aqueduct, a canal about six feet tall and four and a half feet wide. A stone lid covered the canal completing the structure.

The random blocks of stone sticking out from the sides of the arch columns are the remains of the support structure used to hold the arch pieces together until the keystone was put in place. These supports were used on most large Roman building projects and later removed once construction was completed. For the Pont they were left in place to assist builders with a support structure in anticipation of future repairs.

Another fun feature of the Pont du Gard it the graffiti carved into the arch columns. For centuries France had a guild of highly respected stone, metal and wood workers known as the Compagnons du Tour de France. During the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries they visit respected architectural sites like the Pont du Gard for inspiration. After their visits they would carve their initials and symbols into the ancient monuments they visited. Sounds kind of rude by today’s standards, but believe it or not there is a whole field of historical study investigating nothing more than old graffiti at ancient sites. Apparently there’s a lot to be learned from these writings. Go figure.

The Pont du Gard

Nimes

2007-06-10T13:42:00.001-07:00

Not only was our campsite located right outside the quaint and very old city of Sommières, but it turns out that it was also just a short drive to Nimes, Pont du Gard and Orange. These sites are incredible examples of how the Romans took Rome with them wherever they conquered. Our first stop was to the city of Nimes (neem). Originally a Celtic city dating back to 500 BC, Nimes is mostly noted for its Roman roots. During the first century BC it was taken into the Roman Empire and given special status. It was thoroughly Romanized. The symbol of the city, a crocodile tied to a palm tree, testifies to its status as a retirement home to the Roman officers that had conquered Egypt. Roman soldiers retired after just twenty years of service, and who wouldn’t want to retire to the South of France -especially if you could take the comforts of Rome with you?

We visited the amphitheater. It was completed around AD 100 and is considered one of the best-preserved amphitheaters in the Roman world, better than the Colosseum in Rome! Remember there is only one Colosseum, and it is in Rome. Everything else is an amphitheater. It is about 425 feet in diameter and over 65 feet tall. It seated about 24,000 spectators and like the Colosseum in Rome, the 60 arched entryways allowed for rapid exits within minutes. These were appropriately called vomitoires.

Unlike the amphitheater in Rome, this one is still in use. You heard that right! We showed up hoping to cruise around inside and were denied access. It turns out Nimes was celebrating its own version of Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days Fiesta, the Feria. The amphitheater was being used for a bullfight! Not wanting to miss out on my only chance to see the inside of this arena I purchased a ticket and watched the modern equivalent to gladiatorial battles. Meg wisely took the kids for a walk around the park while I went inside. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it all. While I’m opposed to slaughtering animals for entertainment, I was also trying hard to put myself into the context of ancient Roman times -and see this amazing amphitheater. I sat right in the middle of the arena with hundreds of straw hatted, “Olé!” shouting fans. The lower seats in the arena had been remodeled and numbered. Apparently, during the winter there’s an awning that covers this area allowing for shows, concerts, and ice-skating. I uncomfortably watched two bulls begin their road to Big Macs and then got up to wander the quiet corridors. I was able to wander everywhere. Up to the top and down to the floor levels. Access was not a problem here. The bullfighters were finished with bull number three and beginning on number four. I had had enough. The arena is beautiful, but the spectacle of Rome is pretty bleak. My imagination works pretty well, and after watching a little “reality” it was well greased and beginning to imagine the atrocities of the big Colosseum back in Rome.

We then braved the crowds of Feria revelers and walked across the old town area to the Maison Carrée, a Roman temple built around AD 4 in the same style as the Parthenon in Athens. Now, the Rick Steves’ guide commented that, “This temple rivals Rome’s Pantheon as the most complete and beautiful building that survives from the Roman Empire.” I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is a beautiful temple from the outside, and perhaps I would have been a bit more in awe if there weren’t sound stages backing up to it for the Feria concerts, but it reminded me all too much of a cheap copy of the Athens Parthenon. The Pantheon is complete and truly original to the Romans; it still gets my vote as Rome’s most complete and beautiful building. And besides, who wants to go to a Roman temple that has been converted into a cheesy movie theater? The inside of the Maison Carrée has been converted into a theater that shows a touristy movie about Roman life. The movie-house atmosphere has overly commercialized this once grand structure.

Nimes Amphitheater and Bullfighting

Sommières

2007-06-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

I thought we were coming to France to have some peace and quiet away from the lure of ancient sites. This was to be a time for me to settle down and write. Instead we find that the campground we are staying in is one mile from the town of Sommières, which just happens to be celebrating its two-thousandth year of history! I’ll write more about what camping actually means in another blog. For now suffice to say that it is nothing like camping in the US.

Sommières. I just like typing the word. I’m not even sure I know how to pronounce it. But there is a very nice Roman bridge crossing the Vidourle River that accesses the town. It is pretty much the only way into town, and cars and trucks drive over it every day. Emperor Tiberius built the bridge around the year AD 19. This area was a major thoroughfare for armies and trade moving from Rome to Gaul (France) and Spain beyond. Seven of the original 17 arches are still visible and very much in use. The other 10 arches are under the old walled city. You might ask, “Why is the city built on top of these old arches?” It turns out that this area sees a lot of flooding. Every time there are big rains in Central France, it floods here. The locals that set up shop along the Roman road soon discovered that the bridge kept high and dry during the rains. Before you knew it, people were building up on and around the bridge. Soon a city grew up on the banks of the river built on a series of vaulted archways connected to the bridge. These served as water catches and drains during the flood season. Pretty smart! Around AD 1,000 a castle was built here. Ever since the 13th century the city has been well known for its colorful market days. The town really suffered during the Catholic/Protestant wars of the 16th century. After 1700 the castle was turned into a prison. Today it is a sleepy little town with quaint streets, an active market place, and a 2,000-year-old Roman bridge. Pretty cool! Sommières!

Donald Johanson in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac

2007-06-04T13:11:00.001-07:00

Yep, that’s right. I got to shake hands with Donald Johanson (premier paleontologist, discoverer of the fossils of Lucy the Australopithecus) while visiting the Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac. It’s a world-renowned museum for paleontology located right down the street from where Monsieur Magnon first discovered Cro Magnon fossils back in 1870. Anyway, we were walking into the museum just past an exhibit of plaster casts of Lucy’s fossils. In the distance I heard a familiar voice. I turned to Megan and said, “Isn’t that cool. They have a recording of Donald Johanson playing near the display.” I looked around the corner to see what was on display, and there was Donald Johanson with a tour group. A woman in the group encouraged me to hang around and talk to him, maybe get an autograph. So I went up to him and introduced myself. He laughed at how I recognized his voice (I’ve seen videos he’s narrated dozens of times). Turns out he’s coming to Santa Barbara in August to work on a new book, “Lucy’s Legacy,” or something like that. He’s working on organizing a symposium with the SB Museum of Natural History as well. Maybe we’ll meet up again. :^)

All of my students should start singing the “Early Humans Song” at this time!

Milano

2007-06-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

By the end of our trip we will have visited Milano three times! I visited here twenty-five years ago and loved it then. I still do! It is a big, smoggy, busy city. And yet filled with a warmth and culture different from other areas of Italy. The old saying has been that the north of Italy (read Milano) has been the wealthy industrious heart of the country, and that the south (read anything south of Milano) has been more laid-back and, let’s say, less than wealthy. It’s not meant as a compliment to the Italian southerners. But one thing I observed while in Milano is that they work hard. Long days, long weeks, busy, busy, busy. I have to admit that the lazy man in me really enjoys the kicked-back nature of the rest of the country, the “I’ll open the store when I feel like it” freedom and independence. But the efficient American in me really admires the industriousness of the Milanese. Maybe there’s meant to be a balance here…

Back to Milano. We stayed with our friends Juan and Talissa Gil. Juan is a Santa Barbara native who ended up in Milano in the photography business where he met Talissa who was a model at the time. They have four kids close in age to our kids. They are amazing hosts! Imagine cramming your family of six into your bedroom so that another family of five can sleep in the kids’ room. Add to the mix Rachel (their wonderful au pair) and Leah sleeping in the other room. Shake in a regular stream of friends and business associates passing through for dinner or a conversation and you have an idea of what our stay was like. Being a family of five, we make a major impact upon whomever we visit. They made a big sacrifice to put us up, or put up with us as the case may be. We ate together (Talissa is an amazing cook!). The kids played together. I helped out with the business. We went on a double date. We even got to celebrate Christian Gil’s fifth birthday along with twenty some-odd Italian five-year-olds. Wild! Thank you Juan and Talissa! We look forward to taking you two out on your next visit to Santa Barbara.

We spent a good deal of time in the area around the Duomo in the center of Milano. Now, just about every Italian city worth its weight in pasta has a Duomo, but Milano has “The Duomo.” This place is huge! It is primarily gothic in design, but because it took so stinkin’ long to complete its construction (several hundred years), it has a few renaissance touches. The sides and roof of this structure are littered with thousands of icons and statues. The inside is cavernous with columns that just may rival the size of the columns in Karnak Temple from Egypt. In fact that’s a lot of how it felt inside, like we were in an Egyptian hypostyle hall. There are beautiful stained glass windows all around, and yet it was always dark inside. It’s really quite breathtaking. Megan says that it is her favorite of all the duomos, maybe even better than St. Peter’s in Rome. I agree. It’s very cool!

We spent an afternoon exploring the museums, courtyards and gardens of the Castelo Sforzesco. It’s where the ruler of Milano lived back when this was a medieval city. A real castle complete with moats and gigantic walls. We then wandered through the Galleria with it’s cavernous glass covering. At the center of this very prestigious mall/business center you have Gucci sitting kitty-corner to an elaborate McDonalds. Around the corner form the Galleria and just behind the Duomo we had lunch at a local panzerotto shop called Luini’s. Basically these are delicious folded pizzas, kind of like a calzone, and the closest thing you can find to Italian fast food. Leave it to Milano to figure this out!

We tried twice to reserve viewings of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper but were thwarted on both attempts. Ever since the “Da Vinci Code” you basically need to get reservations several months in advance. But not to worry. We also visited the Leonardo da Vinci museum. It is a fine science museum highlighting models of several of Leonardo’s sketches. It also has a nice replica of the Last Supper in it, and you can take pictures here! I figure that if I want to see the real thing I’ll just have to go on the Internet or rely on my dark photos from twenty-five years ago.

With the wonderful history and architecture to take in and the fun and hospitality we enjoyed with the Gils, we have nothing but good to say about Milan. And that without even having a stitch of ancient Rome in it! How did they do that? We love it!

The Duomo and The Last Supper

Cinqueterre

2007-06-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

On one Saturday morning we joined Stephanie and a few of her friends for a two-hour train ride from Livorno to Cinqueterre. Cinqueterre is a cluster of five (cinque) towns along the coast of Italy. They are a frequent tourist hangout by both foreigners and locals. They are noted for their quaint walkways, spectacular views, local wines, focaccia bread, beautiful beaches, as well as a series of hiking trails and train rides connecting all five towns.

We disembarked at town number four, Vernazza. This town rests in a tiny river valley opening out onto an even smaller harbor and beach. The sides of this valley rise steeply in every direction but are terraced for vineyards and small gardens. The town itself has only a few hundred inhabitants who seem to make the bulk of their living off of tourists like us. Stephanie and friends went to look for a hotel since they were planning to stay the night. We headed straight down the main drag for the beach. There is really only one street from the train station to the harbor, and it is dotted with focaccia shops, tourist schwag and cafes. Focaccia is a bread that originated from this region. Basically the bread rises, they put thumb and finger indentations into it, pour lots of olive oil and salt on it, and finally throw it into the oven to bake. It is yummy but makes you really thirsty. We cruised down to the harbor past sea archways under buildings and ate focaccia on the breakwater.

Later we climbed a medieval lookout tower above the harbor. The views are incredible. Tiny towns like Vernazza aligned themselves with larger medieval towns like Genoa to the north or Pisa to the south. These towers served as lookouts for pirates and other invaders by sea. Vernazza was an early warning station for Pisa (I believe) and in return received protection during times of warfare.

After a brief time playing in the water on the sunny beach we went for a hike to town number five, Monterosso. What beautiful views of the water, the jagged coastline and the hills dotted with lemon groves, vineyards and olive trees. The trail was well maintained but more strenuous than we had expected. We were short on water for the steep exposed hike, and it was hot! Sarah Jane practically ran the entire way, which of course resulted in arguments over who got to lead the hike and be in front. The sun and mid-afternoon timing (the witching hour for Emma) made everyone a bit crabby. Fortunately for us there was gelato in Monterosso, and all was made well. We relaxed in the sun on the beach with the locals. The beach was not really sand, but this really cool breccia of calcite and granite. It glittered in the sun. From the beach we walked about 75 meters to the train station and made our way home. It was another great day trip! I love this area of Italy!

Farming & Fortezzas: Tuscany pt. 4

2007-05-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

We spent two glorious days out at Giovanni and Grazie Amirrabile’s farm near Firenze. They have a vineyard and an olive grove along with a large community garden. The Amirrabiles are good friends with Jessica and Stephanie. We were invited to join the family for a down home Tuscan farm lunch and to do a little work on the garden. Dirt therapy sounded like a good thing to us. Unfortunately for our first visit it was to be mud therapy. It had been pouring rain for the past 24 hours, and the fields were huge clay bogs. That stopped our work, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying the lunch. There is an order to Tuscan/Italian meals. I forget the fancy names given to each course, but it goes something like this. First came the pasta. When the pasta was ready the meal began. Nobody likes cold pasta! Giovanni treated me to his special homemade olive oil pepper sauce to add to my pasta. It added an incredible kick to an already mouth watering dish. There was such a huge vat of pasta on the table that I mistakenly thought it was the entire meal. After that came the meat dish. The first time we ate there Grazie served us chicken, the next time she served us eggs. (I always thought that the egg came before the chicken in answer to that age-old question.) After that came the salad. Throughout the meal there was fresh Tuscan bread, gallons of olive oil for everything, and always a full glass of Chianti. It’s no wonder they usually take a nap after lunch! To keep us moving their daughter Kati made us espressos and passed around a basket of kumquats for dessert. And of course everything was grown right there on the farm. After our rainy day meal Phil (an American who married into the farm via Kati) toured us around the farm and the adjoining church retreat center. We learned about olive oil (Extra virgin means it’s the first pressing of oil for the season, the highest quality and should be a little green in the bottle). We saw where they prepared the grapes for the Chianti they make. It’s an amazing place.

We came back about a week later to help out in their garden. Along with Phil and his three-year-old son, Benjamin, we set to staking beans, planting tomatoes, and digging holes for zucchini. After a few hours of digging, trenching, carrying, and planting we joined the rest of the family for lunch back up at the farmhouse. Phil walked us through the vineyards and olive groves on the way back. It’s a huge job for one family to run an operation like this. Lunch was once again wonderful, and we went back to work to complete our tomatoes. The ground here is sticky clay with tons of rock in it. It blows my mind that anything grows in it, but grow it does. Phil explained that it’s important for the plants to struggle a bit if they are going to produce any favorable fruit. They might not produce as much fruit as plants that grow in “cushy soil,” but they will produce much hardier and fuller flavored crops. It seems to work. Everything produced on the farm tasted great. So thank you to Giovanni and Grazie, and Phil and Kati for opening your table and lives to us. We look forward to visiting and working together again some day.

We met another family through Stephanie named Eduardo and Karla Godoy. Eduardo is a doctor at the Army base who is about to return to California. We swapped emails over dinner one night and later made plans for an evening hike outside of the town of Vicopisano to a place called Fortezza Verruca. The fortezza is located on a wart-like outcropping of rock on top of a hill overlooking the Arno Valley between Pisa and Florence. Remember that these two towns were economic rivals and archenemies for much of their medieval history. Pisa built this fortress as a lookout and last stand against the Florentine invaders. It was pretty effective but eventually fell to Florence sometime after the plague ravaged the population of Pisa. The old fortress is rumored to have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci, but the area had been used as a stronghold long before him dating back into the 8th century AD. It was a bumpy four-wheel-drive to the hiking trail (which had the kids shrieking with glee as they bounced and bonked their heads on the roof ) and a steep climb to the fortress ruins. Eduardo, his two-year-old son Paco, Matt (a nurse at the base), Stephanie, and the rest of us climbed on and under everything. The views of the Arno Valley were stellar as we watched the clouds blow in from the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was a refreshing evening not unlike taking a hike in our local Santa Barbara hills. Except of course that here we were visiting a fortress five times older than anything built back home. Thank you Eduardo for your hospitality and the hike. We hope to return the favor someday when you return to the states.

Posers

2007-05-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

One thing we have noticed along our travels is that European tourists don’t just smile for the camera when they take pictures in front of monuments or dramatic landscapes. They strike poses. Think of cheesy pop-idol poses found in teen magazines. The authorities at these sites often frown upon these poses. Remember how Steve Greig got reprimanded for imitating the Olympic discus thrower? Well, Leah gave us proper lessons in how to strike these poses. Sam and Emma really seem to have the a gift for the pose. Sarah Jane, fortunately, has more common sense. Here are a few of our attempts to blend in with the Euro-tourists.

Emma

Sarah Jane

Sam

Lucca & Pisa: Tuscany pt. 3

2007-05-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

We cruised over the mountains to the north of Pisa and visited the massively walled city of Lucca. Lucca was a textile rival city to Florence and Pisa. It seems that all these cities were violent rivals at one time or another. To protect itself Lucca built cannonball-proof walls. So impressive were these walls that no one ever dared to attack the city via the walls. Today the walls stand guard to the quaint streets, shops, homes, gelaterias, churches and towers of old Lucca. The walls are THICK. In a way they are the main attraction to the city. We even rented bikes and rode around the city atop these ancient ramparts. It sounds dangerous, but it’s like riding your bike on a two way street without any car traffic. You get tremendous views of the old city inside the walls and the new city that surrounds the walls.

We also wandered the streets in search of the old clock tower with hand wound Swiss movements that have been striking chimes quarter hourly now for about 200 years. Meg and the kids climbed the clock tower just in time for the chiming. They loved it. I had to stay down at ground level having retorn part of my calf muscle while jogging back from the bike rental shop. I hobbled around town at a snail’s pace. Later we made our way over to the remains of an old Roman amphitheater. All that are left are a few stones from an entryway arch. The current buildings were built upon the foundations from the old outer walls and form a circular “square” where the old arena floor would have been. It’s kind of fun to stand in the middle of this shopping area and imagine the gladiators duking it out over Italia sweatshirts and postcards.

Pisa was a pleasant surprise. What we had read was not all that complimentary about spending time here. Admitted, parking was a nightmare. In fact we failed at our first attempt to visit Pisa. We aimlessly wandered streets for about an hour before we gave up, had a picnic along the Arno River, and headed back home. We came back another day, having figured out how to actually enter the city, and had a great time. The main square, the Field of Miracles, was where we hung out. It is a vast grassy area inside the old city walls. We were all impressed that there was actually grass and that you could not only walk on it but picnic on it if you chose. Four huge structures spread out across this lawn: the Leaning Tower, the Duomo, the baptistery, and the mausoleum. The contrast of the clouds in the blue sky, the bright green lawn, and the white marbled buildings was dazzling. The Duomo church was beautiful inside and outside. The mosaics above the altar were my favorite. The complex represented the life cycle for Pisanos: baptized at birth in the Baptistery, married in the Duomo, and buried at the cemetery/mausoleum next door. The Tower was to function as the bell tower announcing all the events of this field. And yes, the Tower really is leaning. Actually, all the structures in this field lean to one side or another. I guess that’s what happens when you build on top of an old river marsh. Shortly after construction began on the tower, it was noted that the foundation was sinking on one side causing the structure to lean. Construction halted with only four stories of the building completed, and it sat unfinished for about 100 years. Another architect thought he could rectify the problem by angling the building back against its slant and built another three levels of the structure. This gave the Tower a banana-like curve but did nothing to stop the sinking and slant. It again sat unfinished for about 100 years. Yet another architect threw his energy into the project and finished the last couple of stories to this bell tower. Like his predecessor he angled the latest addition back against the slant, further accentuating the crescent shape of the structure. And it still continued to sink. Over the centuries the angle grew to such an extent that it was feared the Tower would topple over. It’s rumored that Galileo, a local Pisano, did his experiments with falling objects from the Tower. Eventually it was closed out of fear that it would fall. Over the past twenty years millions and millions of dollars have been spent to try and halt the continuing slump of the Tower, and engineers have been able to reverse a few inches of tilt. It is now open but costs a ridiculous 15 euros to enter. It is fun to look at from ground level and strike the typical tourist pose of trying to hold the Tower up.

Lucca Amphitheater

Volterra & San Gimignano: Tuscany pt. 2

2007-05-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

From our home base in Tremoleto we took the long and winding road to Volterra. This hilltop town was once one of the most influential Etruscan towns in all of Italy. Today it is a well touristed stop more noted for its medieval fortress. We hit it on a rainy Monday hoping to avoid the crowds but to no avail. We must have circled the town three times before we found a parking place. Once inside we were well rewarded with picturesque narrow cobblestone streets, flower-boxed public squares, and several gelaterias. There was even an antique car show going on in the main square. We didn’t go into the old fortress there in town, but I was intrigued to find out that this 500 year-old castle is now a maximum-security prison for about 60 inmates. We were told that it is a dark, depressing place. That should give pause to one’s involvement in crime.

After a quick snack in a coffee bar we made a mad dash to the Etruscan museum. I rented the audio guide this time and learned a lot. There is very little left of Etruscan life but tons centered on Etruscan death. Meaning that most of what we know about the Etruscans comes from their graves. Their old cities were built over by the Romans and later by the medieval castle-estates. So what we have in this museum is a collection of items found in the necropolis of Volterra. The Etruscans of this area were cremators. After death bodies were burned and the ashes placed in small sarcophagi. These sarcophagi were then buried in a tomb along with whatever belongings the family deemed important for the afterlife. It’s a good museum, way better than the Etruscan Museum in Rome. As it should be, since this is the place where the artifacts are from. I like it when the smaller towns are able to hold onto their archaeological heritage.

There is one piece of the old Etruscan city still standing in Volterra, an arched entry that was incorporated into the Roman/Medieval city. The stones are pretty eroded, but that’s what happens when you’ve been left out in the elements for over two thousand years.

On another day we wandered similar carsickness inducing roads to the famous towered city of San Gimignano. Almost every hilltop fortress city had these funky towers in them. They weren’t really dwelling places, although some of them were used as homes and some were used as lookouts. But their main intended function was to be a giant clothesline. These towns made their fortunes and were known for their textile manufacturing and dyeing. Long pieces of freshly dyed fabric would be hung from a tower to dry. San Gimignano still has a dozen-plus of its original four-dozen-plus towers. Many were damaged by earthquakes and later disassembled with the cut stones reused to build other structures. When you walk the tiny streets of the town it’s difficult to imagine how they could fit more towers within the walls of the city, but somehow they did.

This town was supposed to be a major tourist trap and we came prepared for the worst. But on this Friday it was empty. Go figure! We climbed the Torre Grosso, wandered the streets, ate lunch in front of the Duomo, played in the park, and had gelato at a place claiming to have won the “World Cup of Gelato” (we’ve had better). The views from atop the tower were unbelievable! You could see forever. We’re talking the curvature of the earth kind of views. After photo opps we wandered back to our car and cruised home to Tremoleto. It was really great.

Tremoleto, Lorenzana, & Fauglia: Tuscany pt. 1

2007-05-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

We have had the incredible good fortune of being able to spend the past month in one place. As I mentioned earlier, we have been staying with Stephanie, the friend of a friend of a friend. She let us live in the downstairs area of her tri-level home in Tremoleto. You say you haven’t ever heard of Tremoleto? That’s because it’s quiet.

Tremoleto is about 30 minutes southeast of Pisa and about an hour and a half west of Florence. It is in a rural area surrounded by mixed forests of elms and Italian Stone Pines. There are numerous farms with everything from beans to vineyards to olives to pulp trees. The town of about 200+/- residents rests on top of a small knoll and is centered around an old church. There is one trattoria (Italian for a quick sit-down restaurant, not that any eating experience is actually quick), a couple of groupings of homes, and a cemetery. That’s pretty much it. And for us, after a couple of months tramping around in large cities, it was like heaven. We took long walks on the tiny roads from there, planted a garden for Stephanie, did household chores, fixed meals, and let the kids just hang out and play. I even swapped soccer jerseys with Maxmiliano the neighbor who just couldn’t figure us out. It was just what we needed.

One day I rode a bike to a town called Lorenzana located just across the valley on a neighboring hilltop. It is about three times as large as Tremoleto and even has a stoplight to help regulate the traffic down its single lane main street. Since this is the only street through town and only wide enough to handle one tiny car at a time, there is a stop light at either end of the town to regulate traffic. On the top of the hill there is a church from which we could hear the beautiful chiming of bells throughout the day, even across the way in Tremoleto. Steph watched the kids one Sunday afternoon, which afforded Meg and I the rare opportunity for a “date.” We had a typical Tuscan meal at Lorenzana’s main restaurant called La Fraschetta. I am really learning to like good food: zuppa Toscana and zuppa de farro, panne Toscana, formagio Italiano with miel, cingale sausage, and a bottle of local Chianti. All served on the patio overlooking farm valleys and forested hills as far as the eye could see. Yeah, it was romantic.

One day we decided to explore a dirt road across the highway from the entrance to our village of Tremoleto. We wandered for about an hour along farms, vineyards, and forested lanes. We found porcupine quills and wild boar burrows along the embankments. The wind was really blowing and made great sculptures in the clouds as well as ocean waves in the tall grasses on hillsides. It was really beautiful. Eventually we popped out into the tiny town of Fauglia. It too has a streetlight just like the one in Lorenzana. And just like Tremoleto and Lorenzana, and for that matter pretty much every other small Tuscan town we visited, it sat on top of a hill with and old church at its center. We were hoping for a gelateria but had to settle for a coffee bar where Sarah Jane discovered panne ciocolato. She’s been hooked ever since.

We’ve all been hooked by the beauty and pace of life here. On our last day here, Emma woke up and immediately said, “I don’t want to go. It’s so beautiful here.” That sums it up.

Happy Birthday to Me

2007-05-29T06:35:00.001-07:00

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to old man meee. Happy birthday to me.

Yep, I had a birthday too. On May 19th to be exact. And unlike Emma I kept my clothes on! I woke up to wonderful cards from the kids and Megan. After coffee came the really groovy gifts. Meg bought me a cycling jersey from a local shop in Lucca. Sam bought me soccer jersey for the Roma team Lazzio. Sarah Jane got me decals from all the countries we have visited and a Leaning Tower of Pisa that changes color with the temperature (It’s kind of like a mood ring - that’s another give-away as to how old I am). And Emma gave me a Rolex; that’s right I now have a Rolex. OK, it’s probably a faux-lex; it gained three days, eleven and a half hours one afternoon, but it looks like the real thing.

Our friend Jessica invited us over for crepes with toppings of fresh strawberries, bananas, and Nutella. Mr. Belly was very happy. We relaxed most of the afternoon and invited Jessica over to dinner with Stephanie and the rest of us. Teriyaki chicken and my internationally famous chocolate chip cookies topped off the evening. Jessica and Stephanie have been quite observant regarding my affection for coffee and gave my a few bags of good Italian roast and a Dosacafé to scoop the perfect amount of espresso. Meg and I put the incredibly tired kids down (see video) and spent the rest of the night packing. It was a great day with a bittersweet ending in light of the fact that we had to leave our home and friends the next day.

Thank you Stephanie!

2007-05-29T06:27:00.001-07:00

We have been blessed in countless ways by our new friend, Stephanie Feagin, in Tuscany. You can call her Captain Feagin if you want. She works for the US Army at a base near Pisa. Her home is out in the country a half hour away from the base and Pisa and just about anything else. We had never met Steph in person until we showed up at her doorstep. We were introduced via email by a friend, Jessica, (who is now our friend too) of our friends the Liseas (thanks guys!). From our first email exchange with Stephanie, she was offering her home to us with true sincerity and graciousness. Wow. We came and stayed and stayed and didn’t want to leave. You can ask Stephanie how she felt about that! Actually, we all hit it off and had a great time together. We enjoyed great conversations and hanging out with Stephanie, meeting her friends, reading her books, and getting a look into her life (including visits to the army base!). We enjoyed her wonderful home and did our best to show her how much we appreciated it all. We were able to finally experience some rest from the hectic pace we had kept for four months. And once we slowed down, we realized just how much we needed it. We also got to explore several wonderful Tuscan towns and the Cinqueterra from our “home base.” We saw some really good Etruscan sites too. So even in our rest there was still something new to learn about ancient civilizations. It was an all-around perfectly timed and placed respite in our travels. Thank you, thank you, thank you Stephanie!

Etruscany

2007-05-21T10:12:00.001-07:00

We left Florence filled with Renaissance inspiration and headed west into the Tuscan countryside. We arrived at our home for the next four weeks in tiny Tremoleto, about an hour west of Florence and about 30 minutes southeast of Pisa. Stephanie Feagin, our host, is amazing. She said she wanted to practice hospitality; we decided that she needs to teach hospitality. She is based here in Tuscany with the Army and let us take over the entire downstairs of her home. It has been great living out in the sticks. I’ll write more about our life here in Tremoleto in another blog.

I have mentioned the Etruscans several times in past blogs. They were the early civilization living in Rome prior to the arrival of Aeneas and his family from Troy. They were the people that Romulus stole women from when he first established Rome. King Tarquin was the last Etruscan king before Rome flexed its muscles and established the Republic. But who exactly were these people?

Turns out that it’s not that easy a question to answer. Before Rome became Rome in 753 BC with Remus and Romulus, there were lots of people already living here on the Italian peninsula. There were barbarian tribes living in small villages pretty much any place there was fresh water and fertile soil. But most of these were little more than sustenance farming communities; they lacked the sophistication of art, government, and written language that identifies groups as cultured civilizations. This is where the Etruscans were different. They were a group that seemed to have originated from the hill country of Tuscany to the south and west of modern day Florence. The regional name Tuscany comes from the word Etruscan.

Legend has it that the Etruscans may have been connected to Aeneas’ decedents from Troy. Who knows? More than likely they were farmers who recognized the good things that early Greek travelers brought to this region. This Greek culture was mixed with local customs and eventually blended with Roman life. By the 800s BC several Etruscan cities were established in the Tuscan hill country. Several of these cities joined forces to improve trade and defend themselves. Little of these cities remain today. All that can be found is the occasional wall, city gate, or cemetery that has been incorporated into the medieval fortresses of later times. Between the years 700-500 BC they brought peace to this region and pretty much controlled all trade in the Tyrrhenian Sea. They excelled in metal work, jewelry, and ceramics. Much of what they produced held a strong Greek influence. The Etruscan alphabet is Greek-styled and has been difficult to translate. This is compounded by the fact that there are very few long texts written in the Etruscan language. Lots of short decipherable pieces but nothing long enough to really gain a strong grasp of the grammar and structures of their language. Most of what we know of their culture is based upon what has been found in their necropolis burials.

Apparently the Etruscans enjoyed life in much the same way as the people of Tuscany do today. They loved good food, music, dancing, and family. On the lid of almost every sarcophagus is a statue of the individual lounging at the dining table. In Etruscan life men and women ate at the table together, something that was considered outrageous to the Greeks and Romans of the time. The hands on these sarcophagi carvings are almost always held in a sign that was meant to repel evil. Buried with these sarcophagi are beautiful red and black figure ceramic dinnerware and loads of fine jewelry. If the quantity of jewelry in each burial site is a good indicator, Etruscan women were given a high place of honor, even in the afterlife. From the records that can be read we know that women could own property and were even given positions of authority in the government. People in the sarcophagus carvings are usually smiling and well dressed with incredible hairdos. The Greeks and Romans described them as the best dressed people in the entire world. They seem to have really enjoyed life.

In 509 BC King Tarquin was thrown out by the Romans, and one by one the Etruscan cities were taken over. Over time the Etruscans married into the Roman culture and cultural differences really become blurry. The Romans basically massed-produced Greek culture and were likewise quite taken with the Etruscans. Even in conquering them they still adopted much of the Etruscans’ way of life. So much of what was “Etruscan” appears to just be a happier version of Greek culture. And who wouldn’t be happy in this region of the world? It’s beautiful here. Everything is green. The climate is perfect. Life is good!

Firenze

2007-05-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

We rode the Circumvesuviana shuttle train from Sorrento to Napoli and boarded a train for Florence. We then schlepped our backpacks across the main square to just behind the Duomo to the Residencia Proconsulo. We were spoiled by the excellent rooms, great breakfasts and fantastic views of the Duomo from our room.

Florence, like most cities in Italy, was once a Roman town. Now all that really remains of its connection to its Roman past is a pillar locally referred to as the “Belly-Button of Florence.” After the collapse of Rome in the fifth century AD this area of Italy was invaded and plundered by everyone it had offended over the past 1,000 years. In AD 800 Charlemagne, the King of the Franks took the control of the peninsula from the city of Rome in the south northward. The area became part of the Holy Roman Empire. The new rulers reigned from distant Germany. And while local Italian cities pledged allegiance to the king they functioned pretty independently. Wealthy families gained control of cities and employed the less powerful peasants to fight in their armies, build walls around the cities, and farm the lands. In exchange for their service these peasants were given homes, food, and protection. They functioned a lot like the ancient Greek city-states. Sometimes neighboring cities fought with each other. Sometimes they allied together to take on other stronger enemies. Florence became noted for its wealth in textile manufacturing and eventually became an international banking center. Italy was rocked by the bubonic plague (1347) and 1/3 of the population died. In the wake of death Florence was somehow able to take control of other local municipalities and became a super power. The Medici family, who began as doctors (Medici-medicine), now controlled the city as bankers. It was the wealth of this city that was able to draw together pretty much every gifted Renaissance artist and thinker of the times.

Florence is now really noted for is its fine Italian Renaissance art (and expensive gelato). It is a tourist Mecca. And with good reason. The architecture and art of the city is truly breathtaking. We spent the morning of our first day at the Academia staring at Michelangelo’s David. We sat ourselves at a small group of chairs and watched the tour groups parade by this magnificent piece of marble. All three kids passed the hour sketching different versions David. Sam and Sarah Jane got on a roll and illustrated David in the styles of Picasso, Salvador Dali, Mondrian, and Jackson Pollock. Emma stuck with dot-to-dot. The medieval icons in the museum were really fun as well. The afternoon was spent wandering around the Duomo and admiring Bruneleschi’s famous dome. We feel that he did a pretty good job even though he was unable to reproduce the size and grandeur of the Pantheon’s dome in Rome (see the blog entry The Pantheon). We completed the day with a stroll along the Ponte Vecchio. I especially liked the street venders selling their Faux-lex Rolex in front of the real deal jewelry shops there.

The next day found us wandering the rooms of the Uffizi Museum. We somehow survived four-plus hours of art admiration with three children. The kids were amazing. We set them up with a Get Art Smart book that functioned as an art scavenger hunt that actually educated them as well. They really know their medieval to renaissance art, probably better than me. Sam came prepared having taken Ronda Perea’s renaissance class last fall. Even Emma learned how to look at art and can now recognize John the Baptist regardless of how he was painted. Sam and Sarah Jane’s favorite piece was a painting of Jesus and John the Baptist as toddlers. It was fun to see them so engaged. I was really struck by how similar the subject and style of Botticelli’s painting the Birth of Venus was to a fresco we saw in the ruins of Pompeii. This fresco was still buried at the time of the Renaissance. We capped the day off with a picnic alongside the Duomo. One thing this city is missing is a park. It seems that every square inch of ground is covered with paving stones.

On our final morning in Florence we visited the Brancacci Chapel for a look at Masaccio’s incredible frescoes. The realistic, sorrowful expressions on the faces of Adam and Eve as they were expelled from the Garden of Eden are truly moving. He is often credited with bringing the skills of human expression and perspective to Renaissance painting and was an inspiration to many Renaissance greats who came after him. From there we backtracked our way to the hotel, hoisted on our backpacks and struggled down the street to the bus stop. We must look pretty funny with the three kids and all our gear. A group of Japanese tourists passed by and stopped to take pictures of us. Whatever!

Pompeii

2007-05-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

So what is Pompeii? This Roman city in the south was named after General Pompeii. He was the one defeated by Julius Caesar, forever changing the course of Roman government. It was then that the Republic became an Empire. Originally founded by the Etruscans in the 7th century BC, it eventually became a thriving residential city by the first century AD. The only really noteworthy thing about the city is that their amphitheater fans were very enthusiastic about the hometown gladiator champions. They had team spirit. In AD 59 a riot broke out among Pompeian fans and those of rival city Nocera. Things got so out of hand that the Senate closed the amphitheater for 10 years. Talk about a serious suspension! Think of how many centuries European soccer stadiums would be closed if the same rule were applied now!

In AD 62 there was a tremendous earthquake that leveled much of the city. Reconstruction began, the ban on amphitheater games was lifted out of pity for the city’s devastation, and life was looking up for Pompeii. But not far enough up. Nobody at the time knew it, but the city was built upon an old lava flow from nearby Mt. Vesuvius. A few decades earlier, Roman geographer, Strabone, declared that the volcano was extinct and not a threat. Nobody knew about the connections between earthquakes, tremors and volcanic activity. At noon on August 24, AD 79, the mountain blew and Strabone became unemployed.

When we think of volcanic destruction our minds immediately go to rivers of hot lava burying cities in their wake. Not so in Pompeii. The city wasn’t actually destroyed by the eruption; it was buried in hot ash and pumice, preserving it instead. This pyroclastic material was hot enough to burn rooftops and most other wooden structures. It even melted some glass objects, but the majority of the city was built of brick and survived the rain of hot ash and lay buried for 1,500 years.

Most of what we know about the actual event of the eruption comes from primary source letters written by Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. After escaping the destruction of the eruption, Pliny wrote about his uncle’s death as a result of the disaster and gives us an incredible eyewitness account of the volcanic events that lasted for three days. Here’s a quote that kind of says it all. “At the same time ashes began to shower on us, not yet thickly; I turned and saw behind me a thick cloud that pressed upon us like a river, flooding the ground… as soon as we sat down, night fell; not a cloudy, moonless night, but as if in a closed room when the lights are out. We could hear the moaning of women, the wailing of children, the shouting of husbands… There were those who, afraid of death, called out for it. Getting up every once in awhile, we shook the ashes off, otherwise we would have been not merely covered but buried by them.” (Epistolae, Book VI, 16 and 20)

Pliny survived, but at least 2,000 people from Pompeii did not fare as well. Most of the inhabitants suffocated in the clouds of ash or were overcome by poisonous gasses released from the volcano and were subsequently buried. Clearly this death and destruction was a disaster for the people of Pompeii to say the least. But for archaeologists, it has been truly amazing. Not only were all the brick and stone structures preserved, but the people, animals, trees and even some food (basically anything organic) were also encased in the ashy tomb. The ash covering everything hardened and over the centuries everything organic turned to dust. This left empty places in the hardened ash. At first archaeologists didn’t do much with these empty pockets they dug up. Then in 1860 archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli began to pour plaster into these empty chambers. After it hardened he carefully removed the ashy shell and was rewarded with perfect plaster models of the people that died in the cataclysm. These haunting plaster casts are much-needed reminders that this was a real city, with real people, that really died in the eruption. They are pretty freaky to stare at, maybe as strange and eerie as the mummies of Egypt.

At this time about ¾ of the city has been excavated. Most of the homes were of working class folks arranged in neighborhoods called insula. Mixed in among the homes, just like neighborhoods here in modern Italy, you can find restaurants, stores, and markets. The center of town had temples and government buildings. Streets were paved and traffic regulated with speed bumps. Cisterns/wells were fed by aqueducts and placed throughout insula to service those not wealthy enough to afford water directly piped into their homes. There were baths complete with caldarium, tepidarium and frigidarium pools. There was a separate bath area just for women. At the far end of the city there was an amphitheater, the very one closed in AD 59 due to unruly fans.

Homes faced the street and were often adjoined to a storefront. Storefronts could be closed off to the street using sliding doors. The entrance to a typical home was a porch that was gated, wooden (gone due to the burning hot ash), or bronze. Walking off the street in through the porch hallway would lead you to an open-air courtyard with a rain-fed fountain in the center called an impluvium. A roofed porch with Greek styled columns surrounded this courtyard. Doorways from the courtyard lead to bedrooms, kitchens, studies, toilettes, and eating areas. They might also lead to other patios, gardens, art collections, or household shrines. Floors were tiled with beautiful mosaic designs and the walls were often decorated with simple fresco paintings. While the mosaics are amazing, the frescoes lack the artistic quality of the more ancient Minoan and Greek work. These were not the homes of the Roman wealthy, and as such these regular Joes couldn’t afford the more skilled artists. All the same, the overall effect of the statued gardens, frescoed walls and mosaiced floors upon the gardens, patios, and courtyards is spectacular. I’d want to live here.

Here are several pictures from both Pompeii and the recovered artifacts housed in the Naples Archaeological Museum.

Much of the construction in Pompeii was of brick and tufa (a lava pumice like stone that is easily cut). Notice the walls and columns. Columns were made of brick and faced with marble.

The Pompeii Grand Theater and a mosaic now housed in the Naples Museum of Archaeology.

A bakery with grain mills.

Around the House of the Faun with mosaics of Alexander the Great, an Impluvium, and an entry “Welcome” mat. (HAVE roughly means, “hail to you”.)

Street Restaurant and Advertisements

Streets, speed bumps, ruts, and wells.

Baths, tepidarium, women’s bath.

An unexcavated street. Notice how deep the solidified ash rises above the excavated front and sidewalk area.

Visit Pompeii

Vesuvius: Shaky Real Estate

2007-05-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

I will write later about the city of Pompeii. In its story you will learn that Mt. Vesuvius is the bad guy. Sure Strabone, the Roman geographer, declared it extinct just a few of decades before it blew its top, but as we shall see, the Mountain was just faking sleep as it has so many times in its violent history.

The bus to the hiking station on Mt. Vesuvius stopped ¾ of the way up the mountain for a “bathroom” break at a tourist snack shack. That means that the bus company had an agreement with the shop owner to bring in loads of tourists to buy junk. There, a kindly elderly man named Andrea De Gregorio told us his story of Mt. Vesuvius. He hails from Torre De Greco on the southwestern slope of Vesuvius. His town has been buried in lava flows every century since a 1631 eruption. Four times destroyed! If I were the city planner I think I’d look into a new neighborhood. And given Vesuvius’ history of eruptions I would consider moving from the area all together. For Andrea, it’s been his livelihood.

The first recorded eruption is that of Pompeii/Herculaneum fame in AD 79. By studying the geology of the area, we now know that eruptions have been going on for the past 17,000 years, but Pliny the Younger was the first to actually write about the destructive forces in Pompeii back in AD 79. In the first phase of the eruption, ash, pumice and rocks were blown more than 10 ½ miles into the atmosphere. Eventually the pressure of explosive gasses subsided and this cloud of pyroclastic materials came raining down on the city of Pompeii killing anyone who hadn’t evacuated and burying the city with a thick, preserving blanket of ash. Large amounts of water also escaped from chambers in the mountain and raced down its slopes. The water gathered fine ash on its journey, creating a “lahar” (mud flow) that buried the city of Herculaneum. Because Herculaneum was spared most of the effects of the burning ash (because it was buried in cooler volcanic mud) it still contains some of its wooden structures and supports.

Based upon frescoes found in the homes of Pompeii and Herculaneum we know that the slopes of Vesuvius were covered in vineyards. Pompeian wines were well revered and shipped all around the Roman Empire. It turns out that soil with high levels of volcanic ash is perfect for growing grapes for wine. Santorini is another great example of this. Every bit of vegetation on the mountain was burned in the eruption’s hurricane force winds of scorching gasses at the end of the three days of activity. Locals who escaped the ash and lahars were justifiably reluctant to move back into the area.

Not much was written concerning the numerous eruptions that occurred between AD 79 and 1631. People, at least educated historians and writers, must have kept their distance! While the Pompeii eruption was most noted by Pliny for its ash fallout, later eruptions were noted for their lava flows and changes to the terrain in the area. This is most likely due to a more scientific approach to vulcanology rather than a major difference in how the mountain reacts to its bad gas and explosive eruptions. Pliny was writing a letter and may not have been as thorough in his observations as later scientist. The coastline has been shifted and elevated due to the incredible strength of the gasses that bulge the mountain and its slopes. The caldera and cinder cone have risen, fallen, expanded and shrank several times. The summit shrank almost 500 feet in the 38 years between eruptions in 1906 and 1944. Huge valleys with rivers of cooled lava exist where there was once a mountain slope. There have been at least ten major eruptions since 1631 and numerous small eruptions. There seems to always be some kind of activity on the mountain whether it is a destructive eruption or a quiet release of gas and steam from vents around the caldera.

The mountain now rests quietly in a quiescent stage. Farms, small towns and homes cover its lower slopes. Pine forests fill the sections midway up the mountain. The summit is alive with wildflowers and lichen taking hold where they can among the rocks and cinders. It’s an easy hike with spectacular views of the sea and countryside surrounding the sleeping giant of Mt. Vesuvius.

Mt. Vesuvius

Sorrento and Napoli

2007-05-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

We spent another day utilizing Italy’s great public transportation system. No I really mean it; it’s great. You can pretty much get anywhere for a decent price, have street/Metro musicians entertain you along the way, and people actually use it. We bussed our way from our flat in Rome to the Metro station that took us to the main bus depot. There we got on a first class (at least that’s how it felt to us) bus to Sorrento about 3 hours to the south. Sorrento functioned as a base for us to visit Napoli (Naples), Pompeii, and Mt. Vesuvius.

While Sorrento worked as our peaceful home base, the majority of our time was spent between there and Napoli. We spent a wonderfully long rainy day in Napoli. We began our wet day munching Nutella and bread under the eaves of the Napoli Archaeological Museum. The museum houses an incredible collection of mosaics, frescoes, sculptures (bronze and marble), jewelry, glassware, and cooking pots from the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Early excavators were interested only in bringing the treasures back to their king. They functioned more like treasure seekers, and treasure they found! The museum also has an impressive assortment of marble statues from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Seems the king really liked (read wanted) these as well and was somehow able to pull it all off. It tells us a bit about the power and influence of the Bourbon king in Napoli in early 1800s.

We then took a stroll through the streets of Napoli roughly following a walk outlined in Rick Steves’ guidebook. Our walk led us through narrow cobblestoned streets. Because we were out around 2:00 pm and it was raining, the streets were vacant. We sampled sfogliatella and bought a tiny nativity set. It all reminded us of scenes from the Godfather (not the gory ones), or a Billy Joel song (before Christy Brinkley), or Northend Boston. The kids were getting tired and it began to rain, but we bribed happiness into them by promising “real” pizza and gelato at the end of the walk. Eventually we found our way to Antica Pizzeria da Michele. They have been in business for over 150 years and still only serve two kinds of pizza: margherita (tomato sauce with mozzarella) and marinara (tomato sauce no cheese). It’s pretty much a “locals only” hang out and was a welcome shelter from the rain. We were warmed by the wood pizza stoves and ate four great margherita pizzas! We then walked three doors down to Polo Nord Gelateria (The North Pole). Gelato makes everything good. I think the UN should send gelato to all the war-torn areas of the world. They would make great strides toward world peace and boost the Italian economy.

Here are a few highlights of Sorrento. This was our first stay in a hotel for this trip. It’s nice having someone else make your bed! There are incredible views looking across the harbor toward Naples as well as back at the cliffs of Sorrento itself. The streets in the older part of this small town are narrow enough to deny access to even the smallest of Fiat 500’s and Smart cars. Unfortunately, Vespas still manage to find their way down these passages and seem exempt to the laws regarding speed and pedestrian zones. In the evenings the streets close to car and Vespa traffic, and people cruise the main thoroughfare from about 9:00 to midnight; it is wall-to-wall people. Gelaterias and cafes overflow into the streets. Very fun. But our favorite meal was just south of Sorrento in Vico Equense -Pizza a Metro. We thought that this cavernous pizzeria (it can easily seat 600+ people) was situated near the Metro. Wrong! They sell pizza by the meter (Metro). That’s a big pizza. We got it with buffalo milk mozzarella cheese. Thanks to our friend Reed for recommending this place. Now we know why he remembered this place after almost 40 years.

Ciao Ciao Leah

2007-05-20T10:36:00.001-07:00

After three months of schlepping luggage through airports, bus stations, train stations, boat yards, rental cars and taxi cabs together we had to say good-bye to Leah. She decided to wander Spain, Ireland and England a bit on her own before joining up with her boyfriend for the last part of her journey. It has been an incredible blessing to us to have had this time together. She will be greatly missed. And it’s not just the Euro poses or motion sickness stories that we will miss; it will be her constant friendship and help. Thank you Leah. If it’s been written about in this blog, Leah was there to experience it with us. But we thought that it just wouldn’t be right if we didn’t post a few pictures highlighting her adventures with us. They say that a picture can paint a thousand words. Well… here are a few thousand words about Leah. You will be missed.

Leah taught us how to properly pose for pictures.

The joys of having a younger brother.

Leah found a love interest in Athens...

... and in Egypt...

and in Rome.

The picture just before the whistle blower.

We miss you Leah!

Our Visit to St. Peter’s and the Vatican Museum

2007-05-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Like I said in the first Roman blog, we arrived in Rome during Holy Week, the busiest and most crowded season to visit the Vatican. But we were here with our friends, the Greigs, who only had a few days in town so dove into the throngs with determination.

Steve, Peter, Sam and I cued up with tens of thousands of other tourists to enter Saint Peter’s early in the day while the women and girls ran a reconnaissance mission to check out the line to get into the Vatican Museum. The Vatican line was moving much slower than the St. Peter’s line. I decided to hold places for everyone in the Vatican line while the others visited Saint Peter’s. After all, I had visited there 25 years earlier, and given its history, how much could change in that amount of time?

After an eternity of crowd shuffling (2 ½ hours) the St. Peter’s faction rejoined me only 30 minutes from the entrance. The Vatican Museum is overwhelmingly large. It really should be tackled over several days if you want to maximize its wealth of treasures. Ruling Popes over the centuries collected art and artifacts from everywhere they established churches. Some of the objects were gifts. Some were commissioned. And others were taken. Endless halls with a “Who’s Who?” of Roman and Greek characters are followed by miles of tapestry lined corridors. The subjects of the artwork range from the expected Biblical stories to the totally surprising inclusion of Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman religious tales.

I love how the Rick Steves’ Italy Guide puts it so I’m including this quote from page 569. “After long halls of tapestries, old maps, broken penises, and fig leaves, you(’ll) come to what most people are looking for: The Raphael Rooms (or stanzas) and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.” I could have stared at Raphael’s fresco The School of Athens all day of given the chance and stronger neck muscles. In this piece Raphael honors great thinkers throughout the classical age like Plato and Aristotle, but substitutes in the faces of innovative thinkers and artists of his own time. Plato got Leonardo da Vinci’s face.

Of course the main attraction here is Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. It is the Pope’s personal chapel and the place, upon the death of the old Pope, where the Cardinals gather to elect a new Pope. It also pretty much marks the end of the museum gauntlet, the exact opposite of the direction it went when I visited 25 years ago. The guards do a pretty good job trying to keep the crowd quiet and respectful in this beautiful room. Most of our time was spent gawking at Michelangelo’s Last Judgment on the wall at one end of the chapel and The Creation on the ceiling. They are truly amazing. I was so focused that I hardly noticed the crowds. It’s that riveting. Sam pointed out Michelangelo’s self-portrait in The Last Judgment, a very self-deprecating sack of skin dangling above the abyss of Hell. Somehow I get the idea that Michelangelo held a pretty low opinion of his chances of making it into Heaven. It was well worth the wait, cost, and crowds. By this I mean the visit to the museum, not Michelangelo’s chances of making it into Heaven, but I’m pretty sure that would be worth it as well. I digress, and so I will change subjects.

After the Greigs left, and Easter had passed, we decided to again brave the crowds at St. Peter’s. The crowds were still there but the line moved relatively quickly. While we waited in line, Pope Benedict XVI stuck his head out his office overlooking the square and gave a brief public address. Of course we were directly underneath his window at the time and had no idea that he was really there. Since it was all in Italian we had no idea what was being said or that it was “live.” Oh well… we did get to hear the Pope.

St. Peter’s is a cavernous structure. There is no other church in the world even close to its size. Michelangelo designed it in the shape of a Greek cross, but it was later elongated on one end to take on the more recognizable shape of a Latin cross. It can easily fit more than 95,000 worshippers standing on its six-acre interior marble floor. To the immediate right of the entrance is one of the most recognizable Christian statues in the world, Michelangelo’s Pieta. A pieta is a type of artwork showing Mary holding the dead Christ. Michelangelo was only 24 when he sculpted this marble masterpiece. Unfortunately it is a bit hidden behind bullet proof glass that was installed after a vandal clubbed the sculpture in 1972, breaking off an arm that was later restored.

After wandering around the interior for an hour we once again queued up for the cupola tour. Again we waited in line, this time for more than an hour. I can’t believe the kids survived the claustrophobic mobs waiting to buy tickets. Yuck! But the climb up the close to 600 steps to the top was stupendous. Easy encircling stairs gave way to narrow spirals with the dome bending in over us that eventually led to a ladder out to the observation deck at the top of the dome. The views were incredible and so were the crowds. It made me wonder at the strength of this structure’s construction! Along the way up we detoured and walked around the base of Michelangelo’s dome inside the basilica. People looked like ants milling about the altar below us. On the way down we ducked into the tourist shop on the roof, bought a cool little nativity, some stamps, and mailed some cards home from the roof of Saint Peter’s! Despite the crowds and the lines the kids loved it. They said it was well worth the “suffering.” We topped off the day with some of the best gelato in all of Italy at Old Bridge near the entrance to the Vatican Museum.

Cruise St. Peter's with Us

St. Peter’s and the Vatican

2007-05-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

The city of Rome has a distinction that no other city can claim. It has an independent country housed right in the center of town. The Vatican is its own independent entity. It’s tiny, internationally influential, has its own euro-design coin (each European Union country has its own designs), and operates its own postal service. Use their mail service when sending postcards. I once did a test. I mailed two cards on the same afternoon, one from the Vatican and the other across the street via the Italian postal service. The Vatican card took 5 days; the Italian card took 3 weeks. Within this tiny country are two major tourist sites: Saint Peter’s Cathedral and the Vatican Museum.

How did Rome get to have a country within the city? I won’t get into the details, but here’s a brief explanation. Around AD 40 Emperor Caligula reclaimed a marshy area of land and began the construction of a circus on the site. Emperor Nero completed the building of said circus around AD 55. The large obelisk in the center of St. Peter’s Square marks the turn around point for chariot races. It was on this site where Nero executed innumerable Christians after blaming them for the great horrific fires that devastated Rome in AD 64. One of these was the Apostle Peter, one of Jesus’ original 12 disciples. He was crucified upside down, thinking himself unworthy to die right side up in the same manner as Jesus. He was buried on the northwest side of a growing necropolis reserved for the poor. Around AD 330 Emperor Constantine had the necropolis leveled off and began the construction of a basilica to honor the Prince of Apostles, St. Peter, which was completed about AD 349. This structure was 275 feet by 200 feet, and at its center, directly over the tomb of St. Peter, was a marble monument to the Saint. Constantine officially recognized Christianity in the Roman Empire, and the basilica he built became the official center for what later became known as the Roman Catholic Church. The leader of Catholic Church was given the title Pope who governed not only the church and its religious duties but also the city. For centuries the pope was referred to as “King Pope.”

Shortly after Constantine the political entity known as Rome fell, but the Christian church centered there continued to thrive. The original building was redecorated and remodeled several times for the next 1,000 years. At this time the building was in such a state of disrepair that the only solution was to demolish it and build anew. On April 18, 1506 construction began on what is now known as St. Peter’s Cathedral and the Vatican, a palatial home for the Pope. Leading artists of the time contributed to the design and construction, chief among them, renaissance artists Bernini, Michelangelo, and Raphael. The cathedral was consecrated on November 18th, 1626. At the heart of the new basilica, in its very center, under Michelangelo’s incredible dome and Bernini’s bronze altar, lies the original burial place and bones of Saint Peter.

Due to its heritage and religious/political influence, the Vatican remained independent over the centuries. Even when Italy once again became an independent state in 1870 it was the Vatican that exercised its authority by not recognizing Italy as an independent country until 1929. Today the Vatican is the religious capital to over 800,000 Catholics worldwide. It felt like all of them were there during our visit.

Happy Birthday Emma!

2007-05-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

That’s right, Emma had a birthday on May 8th. She climbed into our bed early in the morning and flopped on her back. She hoisted her legs into the air, examined her pajama bottoms and exclaimed, “Look Mommy, my legs are still the same as when I was three!” This was followed later by the discovery that her socks still fit as well. I think she was expecting a bit more to happen when she reached that momentous age of four. Maybe that’s why she refused to wear clothing for most of the day.

She got to be queen/tyrant for the day with us following her every decree. She made a list the week before and was determined to make sure that we did what was on the list without deviations: pancake breakfast, video movies, playing in the sprinkler, games with Sam and Sarah Jane, opening gifts, macaroni and cheese for lunch, eat candy, balloon decorations, walk to the park, hot dogs and ice cream for dinner. Her goal was to stay around the house all day. Funny what travel does to kids. It took quite a bit of convincing, since our late afternoon event was not on the list, but we finally got her to get in the car and go out for gelato.

Dinner was celebrated with our two new friends Stephanie and Jessica. Emma entertained us once again but not with the usual singing. This time she demonstrated her lungpower by driving us crazy with her birthday horn blower. She was quite angry as put her down for bed saying that we let her stay up too late. I told her sorry and said that there were three big sleepy kids ready for bed. “No Daddy. There is only one great big sleepy kid - me!” We love Emma and the joy she brings us every day!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Viewing Roman Ruins

2007-05-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

Rome is different from Egypt and Greece in how you see ruins. This is a giant generalization, but something I noted in our wanderings. For the most part, ruins in Egypt are outside the major cities; they are areas that are set apart geographically from modern structures. It was probably a combination of not wanting to defile the awesomeness of the ancient structures and the harshness of the desert that kept newer cultures from claiming ancient sites for new cities. Even where cities have grown and now encroach upon the once isolated sites, the ruins are still set apart for the most part. In Greece, there are ruins everywhere, and particularly in Athens, the city surrounds them. You can’t dig in the city without finding the remains of some past time. But the policy in Athens is that if there is some archaeological find on your property it is no longer yours, but now belongs to the state in order to accurately excavate the artifacts. As a result there are islands of ancient monuments throughout the city. The major areas like the Acropolis and agoras are huge islands of ancient structures completely surrounded my modern city. But in Rome it is different.

In Rome you find remodeled ancient structures. There are still the islands of “preserved” and “restored” sites like the Foro Romano/Imperiali, Pantheon, and Colosseum. Preserved meaning the ruins are left pretty much as they were found with some reconstructions of the original materials. Restored means that there is a mixture of the ancient ruins with modern materials mixed in to rebuild the old buildings as they may have been originally. But there are also a huge number of ancient structures that are being used for newer contemporary activities. Some became churches (like the first photo on this page) others museums, fortresses, and even housing. Here are just a few examples.

Caesar Augustus completed the Theatre Marcellus in 11BC. It was one of Rome’s first permanent theaters. The Roman Republic viewed performances as a danger to public morality. Therefore theaters were built of wood to retain a sense of non-permanence; if the show was deemed “improper” the theater could always be burned to the ground! It could seat 15,000 spectators. But by the Middle Ages, long after Rome’s fall, it was converted into a fortress for noble Roman families. In the 16th century it was converted into a palace. I’m not sure of this, but I believe I heard that it later fell into disrepair and became housing for the struggling Jewish community of this ghetto area. Those windows up high weren’t a part of the 16th century palace!

The Mausoleum of Hadrian is another fine example of Rome building upon itself. Rome forbade the building of any tombs within its walls so Emperor Hadrian built his just across the river where it was completed one year after his death in AD 139. His ashes were placed in the burial chamber at the base of this cylindrical structure, as were the ashes of future emperors for the next hundred years. A cypress grove was planted on top of this burial chamber and crowned with a huge central column holding a statue of Hadrian riding his horse-drawn chariot. Around AD 590 a vision of the Archangel Michael appeared above the mausoleum and signaled the end of a plague in the city. It was then converted into a fortified palace and named Castel San Angelo after the angel. During the Dark Ages it was again converted, this time into a fortress/prison. Tunnels later connected it to the Vatican and it became a hideout for the Pope during times of invasion. It is now a museum.

The Baths of Diocletian were constructed in AD 300 and could host 3,000 bathers at a time. Roman baths were a combination gymnasium, restaurant, sauna, pool, meeting area. Aqueducts guiding water into the city from the mountains far away fed these baths. Water was heated and steamed in the caldarium, lukewarm in the tepidarium, and left cold in the frigidarium pools. There was a work-out gym with weights and exercise classes. And there were plenty of places where people could just hang out, discuss politics and seal business deals. These were great places. When barbarians invaded Rome they cut the aqueducts, and the baths ceased to be used. In the 16th century the great central hall of the bath was converted by Michelangelo (not of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fame) into a church. The exterior looks like the marble-façade-stripped exterior of any ruined structure around Rome, but inside you find a beautifully decorated renaissance church. The Roman vaulted ceiling and the red marble columns are the originals. It’s still used today.

After Rome’s fall many of the old structures were dismantled and used in the building of newer structures. The Baths of Caracalla are a great example. The rich marble façade of these huge baths (1,600 people at a time could bathe here) just south of the Circus Maximus were stripped away and used in the construction or back fill of palaces built in the area at later times. All that is left are the empty shells. But even in its ruined state it was used for opera performances from 1938 to 1993.

Circus Maximus

2007-05-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey it’s not. But it is the original “Big Top” but without the top. Circus Maximus was an arena built into a narrow valley on the outskirts of the city of Rome. It is situated on the south side of the Palatine Hill. Tradition holds that King Tarquin originally built it around 500 BC (remember the last of the Etruscan kings in Rome?) in order to commemorate a successful battle with the neighboring Sabinites. Apparently the Romans were short of eligible women for their men and conducted a successful raid and theft of Sabinite women. Not exactly a circusy event, but a circus it became complete with chariot racing, gladiator battles and gambling.

It certainly isn’t much to look at today, but in its heyday the Circus Maximus could accommodate as many as 300,000 people. It is considered the largest structure ever constructed for entertainment purposes. At its peak around AD 100, its huge oval shape measured more than six football fields long and two football fields wide. The infield of this gigantic racetrack, because that’s what it really was, was a long narrow island called the “spina.” At either end of the spina were two obelisks imported from Egypt. One is attributed to Thutmosis III (c. 1460 BC) and the other Ramses II (c. 1250 BC) What did I tell ya? Everybody loves Egypt. Races usually consisted of seven laps, and these obelisks marked out the turns on the track. The obelisks were re-excavated in 1588 by Pope Sixtus V and re-erected around Rome.

How do you seat 300,000 people? There were box seats that backed up against the Palatine Hill where the palaces of the emperors stood. These, of course, were reserved for the ruling elite, the emperors. Most of the seating was paved with concrete, bricks, and stone into the hillsides on either side of the Circus. The cheap seats at the top of the hills were wooden bleachers that regularly collapsed. On one occasion, around AD 300, historians wrote of the deaths of around 13,000 spectators. I hope that this number was a misprint. On that day the main event was in the bleachers not on the track.

Unable to resist the temptation Megan, Sam, Sarah Jane, and Emma raced one lap around the track. Emma dropped out after about 30 yards. Megan turned back after ¾ of a lap. Sarah Jane ran back and forth to check on Meg and Emma before she completed her lap (probably completing two lap in the process). But Sam cranked out his lap in record time and then went on to run another half a lap just to make sure he completed a full mile on the Circus Maximus.

Circus Maximus

The Palatine Hill

2007-05-12T06:08:00.000-07:00

This grassy hill is where Rome really began. Remember the legend of Remus and Romulus? This is the city location that Romulus wanted, fought and killed his brother over, and eventually founded the city of Rome upon. On the north side of the hill is the Foro Romano. On the south side of the hill is the Circus Maximus. It overlooks the Tiber River. It’s prime real estate, but not worth killing your brother over.

In addition to the story of Remus and Romulus there is evidence that Bronze Age people lived on this very hill even predating the April 21, 754 BC date of Romulus. Aside from the temples built upon the northern slope of the hill, there were no real public structures built here. During Rome’s growth as a Republic it became a neighborhood for the rich and famous Patricians, elite upper class. When Augustus became emperor in 44 BC he decided to build a palace on the hill for himself. After that every emperor decided to live here as well. The hill eventually became one huge palace for whoever happened to be emperor. It's a beautiful place for a walk through lots of ruined palace structures.

Walking the Foro Romano

2007-05-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

While the Pantheon is my favorite Roman structure, the Foro Romano is my favorite place to hang around. At first glance, maybe even second and third glances as well, it really isn’t much. Basically you can walk among the ruins of several Roman structures along a walkway in a small valley between the Palatine Hill and a busy roadway. But it is the story behind the pieces, what actually took place in the forum, that make it so worthwhile.

The forum is the Roman equivalent of the Greek agora. Religious processions, grand funerals, public speeches, and shopping sprees took place here. While Julius Caesar was in leadership he sponsored a gladiator show in the main square with more than 320 pairs of fighting warriors (this was before the Coliseum was built). In 45 BC he celebrated a banquet in the Foro Romano that lasted several days and served over 22,000 guests. Plautus, a Roman writer from the times of the Republic, wrote about the kinds of people that hung out in the forum. Alongside the consuls, senators, judges, lawyers, bankers, salesmen, butchers, and bakers could be found the drunkards, criminals, prostitutes, fortunetellers, gamblers, liars and gossips. It was the place to be in Rome.

This location for Rome’s forum began as just a collection of huts back in the 7th century BC. There is even a small monument believed to commemorate the grave of Romulus dating back to the 6th century BC. This east-west rectangular valley became know as the Sacred Way. And while many of the temples and shrines were originally constructed back in the 5th through 1st centuries BC they have all undergone numerous reconstructions. Every time there was a fire or a new emperor there was a new opportunity for remodeling.

Here are a few of my favorite places. They may not look like much, but they all have a story and that’s enough for me.

At the west end were two temples that now only sport a few beautiful columns reaching for the sky. The Temple of Saturn was begun the year that Rome kicked out the last of the Etruscan Kings and became a Republic around 498 BC. The base of this temple functioned as a “bank” and stored the treasury of Rome. Next to it are a few columns from the Temple of Concord. This temple was constructed in 367 BC to commemorate the equal rights agreement between the upper class patricians and middle class plebeians.

In ancient Rome a basilica was nothing more than an indoor courtroom and marketplace. Toward the western end was the Basilica Aemilia, the only basilica that remained in Rome from its Republican roots. At the eastern end is the Basilica Maxentius/Constantine. Emperor Maxentius began the construction of this humungous structure, but it was Emperor Constantine, who defeated him in AD 312, that finished it. At more than 300 feet by 200 feet, it was Rome’s largest and last great basilica. The ceiling was constructed with cross vaults from the tops of the columns that allowed for an even higher, airier inside feel to the great building (over 100 feet tall). It was the architectural design of these gems that inspired later architects in the construction of Christian churches.

The Temple of Vesta (Hestia in Greece) is one of the oldest and most important temples in all of Rome. This simple hut-shaped structure, with a smoke vent hole in the roof, housed an eternal fire and a wooden statue of Athena Pallas that according to legend was brought to Rome by Aeneas. The six Vestal Virgins who tended the flame lived next door in the House of the Vestal Virgins. They began their duties in the temple at age 10 and served for 30 years. It was an incredible honor to be chosen for this work, and the state provided them with a rich dowry and other privileges only granted the consuls. But, if they broke their vows of chastity or let the flame go out, they were sentenced to be buried alive in a small underground chamber just outside the city walls called the “Field of the Wicked” with only a loaf of bread and a lamp. Great honor required great responsibility.

This place is one of the least impressive pieces to look at but says so much more. The Temple of Julius Caesar is little more than a brick wall with a mound of dirt in the middle. This is the place where Caesar’s body was burned after his assassination on March 15, 44 BC. It was here also that Mark Antony made his famous speech decrying the dictatorial deeds of Caesar before the body was burned and buried. Mark Antony was later defeated by Caesar’s adopted son Augustus, who built the temple here that made Caesar the first emperor to be deified. This marked the beginning of emperor worship in Rome with succeeding emperors also claiming deification. To this day people still place flowers on his grave.

And then of course there are the arches. At the western end there is the six-story tall Arch of Septimus Severus. Arches were typically built to commemorate victories in battle. This one celebrated the African born Emperor Septimus’ victories in Mesopotamia around AD 203. Unfortunately this victory did little to ebb Rome’s weakening and eventual fall. At the opposite end of the Via Sacra is the Arch of Titus. This arch commemorates the victory over the province of Judea (Israel) around AD 70. Jewish religious freedom was at stake so Israel staged a revolt against Rome and Jerusalem was leveled. Emperor Titus brought back around 50,000 Jewish slaves and had them build this arch.

Across the busy street to the north and alongside the sacred way of the Foro Romano lies the Foro Imperiali. These were forums added under the guidance of Emperors Julius, Augustus, Nerva, and Trajan. They continue the tradition of marketplaces, public speaking arenas, and legal buildings and were built out of a need for more space. The old Foro Romano was still the heart of Roman life; the Foro Imperiali only added a larger body.

The Foro Romano and Imperiali

The Pantheon - My Favorite Roman Structure

2007-05-12T04:29:00.000-07:00

We spent the better part of a day wandering around the inside and the outside and neighborhood of this great structure. For me it was another kind of homecoming; I visited here with a friend while cycling through Europe 25 years ago and fell in love with this place. What can I say? I still like this building. While the Colosseum wins in the category of “Place where lots of wild and nasty things happened,” the Pantheon wins hands down as “The most unique, forward-thinking, best preserved ancient Roman building.”

It was originally built by King Agrippa, a son-in-law of Emperor Augustus, around AD 27. Unlike many temples, it was not dedicated to one particular deity but dedicated instead to all of the Olympian gods. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it burnt to the ground in AD 80 and was totally rebuilt under a completely different design by Emperor Hadrian around AD 125. This domed circular building has an internal diameter of about 142 feet and is the same distance tall at its highest point inside. The interior of the building could perfectly fit a sphere of equal size. The center of the dome has an aperture opening to allow in sunlight that measures about 30 feet in diameter. The original drains in the floor that collect the rainwater that falls in through the aperture still work. The dome itself was built of concrete of increasingly lighter materials as it reached its apex. The upper-most concrete material was made from of pumice. The sixteen monolithic marble columns at the portico entrance to the Pantheon are of Egyptian granite.

There was no dome structure equal to it prior to its construction and no dome structure even approached its proportions until the building of Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence, Italy some 1,300 years later in 1436. Hadrian’s Pantheon took seven years to build. Brunelleschi’s took sixteen years. The Romans perfected the use of concrete, but by Brunelleschi’s time it was a forgotten art and heavy brickwork replaced the delicacy of a pumice concrete mix. Brunelleschi was even given special permission to cut a hole in the Pantheon dome to try and learn how the concrete worked, but still couldn’t figure it out. You can still see the hole today. In this particular case, the Romans were truly revolutionary in their architectural design.

And you know what makes this place truly amazing? You don’t need one of those silly “Before and After” overlay books to enjoy it. The Pantheon is perfectly preserved on the inside. It remained in use as a Roman temple until AD 608 when it was converted into a Christian church (Santa Maria ad Martyes) and today functions as a mausoleum for dead presidents of Italy. The outside is pretty unassuming although the piazza in front of the Pantheon does contain an Egyptian obelisk. The Pantheon is in such good shape that I had to regularly consult my guidebooks just to make sure that I had read the information about its preservation correctly. It’s amazing!

The Pantheon

The Colosseum

2007-05-12T02:52:00.000-07:00

The Colosseum in Rome arouses more emotion than any other structure from this ancient culture. Like most visitors to Rome, it was out first stop. I visited here twenty-five years ago (that makes me either pretty old now or very young back on that first visit). On that first visit I was moved to tears at all that this structure stood for. It was a bit more difficult getting in touch with that feeling upon this visit; it was extremely crowded and expensive to visit. But after the initial crowd and sticker shock I was once again caught up in the feeling of the place. It is truly colossal.

A few facts about the place. Known as a the Flavian Amphitheater, it was begun around AD 70 by Emperor Vespasian and finished by his son Emperor Titus in AD 80. The Flavian name refers to the dynasty family name that began with Vespasian. Estimates vary, but between 5,000 and 11,000 animals were killed in the arena during the first 100 days of celebration. It was designed to seat between 50,000 and 70,000 people. A series of hallways and 80 arched openings at the ground level around the stadium allowed for the entire crowd of spectators to exit the building in 10-15 minutes. It takes me longer than that just to find the bathroom at Dodger stadium! It is oval shaped, and is over 600 feet long and 500 feet wide. Its outer walls stand over 160 feet tall. The metal pins that hold the stone blocks of the Coliseum together alone weighed more than 300 tons. Shipbuilders from Naples were brought in to construct the velarium, a huge awning that shaded the entire arena from the sun and rain, much like the dome on the Houston Astrodome.

Many events were held in the Colosseum. Gladiators duked it out to the death and for the glory of being champions. Animals were battled and killed by these same gladiators. Often these animals were first used for public executions where criminals and later in the 2nd century AD Christians were fed to the lions and tigers and bears (oh my). The arena area was sealed off and filled with water in order to create mock sea battles. Land battles were also reenacted with elaborate sets that often included the construction of hills, forests and even lakes on the arena floor. These sets also doubled as backdrops for hunting shows. In addition, classical theater dramas were performed. In the event of a performance that had a death scene, a stunt double convict was brought in and executed to add realism and justice to the show. It was a gnarly place.

Around AD 95 Emperor Domitian decided to construct an elaborate network of hallways and elevators under the arena floor. This put an end to sea battles but provided some incredible drama for the other programs. At one event these underground elevators simultaneously raised more than 100 lions up. Their initial roaring was so loud that the usually rowdy noisy crowd was immediately silenced in fear.

In AD 438 gladiator fighting was abolished. Even though Rome’s official fall was in AD 476, the last official Colosseum performance, an animal hunt, was held under Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, in AD 523. After that it was used as storage, a fortress, and even a Christian church. Periodically groups would rummage through the ruins and salvage stone and marble to build palaces and other buildings. Today the Colosseum is pretty ruinous but what remains is symbolic of what was once the glory and disgrace of Rome.

One last little note. When I write about “The Colosseum” I am referring to the officially named Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome. There were dozens of coliseum amphitheaters throughout the empire. Also, the original spelling for the title was “Colosseum” and was a reference to the 100-foot tall gilt bronze Colossus of Nero that stood outside the amphitheater. The spelling “coliseum” was a medieval misrepresentation and now usually refers to any amphitheater…just in case you were wondering about these things!

The Colosseum

A Brief History of Rome

2007-05-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

As usual, it seems appropriate to begin with a bit of history, a context from which to hang all the pictures and experiences. Hold on tight. A thousand years of history in just a few paragraphs.

Origins of Rome - A Mixture of Legend and History

To really understand Rome’s beginnings we need to go all the way back to the fall of Troy in Asia Minor, sometime around the early to mid 11th century BC. According to legend the original residents of Troy migrated there from Italy and the area near the modern city of Rome. Legend also connects the Trojans with the residents of the Greek mainland. According to Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas and his family escape the sacking of Troy by the Achaean Greeks and begin a perilous journey that lands them in the area of the modern day city of Rome. Virgil tells this story more than 1000 years later and acknowledges his style-copying of Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. So while I believe there is a great deal of truth to be learned from his telling, there are also quite likely many stretchings of the truth. Anyway, Aeneas’ family and descendants settle (resettle?) in the area of modern day Rome that was then predominantly Etruscan. Who were these Etruscans? That’s a great question. The Etruscans were the earliest permanent settlers of the Italian peninsula. They were greatly influenced by the Greeks of the 8th century BC. Maybe they were actually Greeks, or maybe Aeneas’ Asia Minor descendants, but most likely they were farmers that settled there and absorbed the best of the visiting Greek explorers. So who were the earliest Romans? Greco-Trojan-Etruscan farmers? Your guess is probably as good as anyone else’s.

According to Roman legend, around the year 753 BC, Remus and Romulus (descendants of Aeneas) are left to die in a basket along the Tiber River by an evil power-hungry uncle. A friendly, and apparently not-so-hungry she-wolf takes them in and raises them as her own. Later a friendly farmer finds them and raises them in the ways of humans. These two wolf-boys later have an argument that leads to a fight over where to found a new city. Romulus kills his brother Remus, founds the city on the Palatine Hill, and names the city after himself, Rome. For the next 200 years Rome is a monarchy, ruled by a mixture of good and bad Roman and Etruscan kings.

The Roman Republic

Somewhere around 500 BC Rome threw out the last of the Etruscan kings (Evil King Tarquin the Proud - great name eh?) and formed a new representative style of government called the Republic. In the Republic, voting citizens elected representatives called senators. From this pool of senators a consul (president) was elected to give leadership to the government. At first the rich and powerful Patrician class dominated this system of leadership. Lower class citizens known as Plebeians eventually rebelled and were granted equality. Plebeians eventually gained equal rights to leadership and a co-consul leadership was established. This top position consisted of both a Plebeian and Patrician who had to agree upon decisions. Rome struggled in its defenses and growth during this internal turmoil over equality of citizenship for over 100 years but eventually pulled its people together and began a grand age of expansion. It was during this time that Rome took control of the entire Mediterranean region, from Portugal in the west to Persia in the east, from Britain and Gaul (France) in the north to all of northern Africa including Egypt. Rome was huge!

Rome became very wealthy as a result of all these conquests, and as with most rapid acquisitions of power and wealth there came a plethora of problems. The rich Patricians became even richer and the poorer Plebeians became even poorer. With all the conquered peoples there came a tremendous number of slaves. By the first century BC there were more slaves in Rome than there were citizens. Around 73 BC a slave named Spartacus lead a revolt against Rome with an army of 70,000 runaway slaves. Rome squashed the revolt and crucified 6,000 of these rebels along the Via Apia leading to the city. That put a damper on revolts, but Rome was still experiencing a leadership vacuum.

Enter Julius Caesar. Julius was a consul and a very popular and powerful general. Around 48 BC, after a series of skirmishes with the Republican senate and General Pompeii, Julius was able to centralize the government around him through strong leadership and force. He was advised by the Senate but made decisions on his own; he was not bound to their rule as in the former Republic. Julius had become a dictator and the Senate did not like it. After four years of rule they assassinated him on March 15, 44 BC.

The Pax Romana

Julius’ death launched Rome in further internal struggles for power. Eventually Octavian, Julius’ nephew and adopted son, gained control of the government. He continued what Julius had begun and officially became Rome’s first emperor. An emperor is a kind of dictatorial monarch. In fact the name Caesar is pronounced kaiser in Latin and should remind us of Hitler’s title in Nazi Germany. Not that Julius, Octavian, or the other emperors of Rome were all bad dictators. A few were downright evil, but many were quite benevolent. At any rate, Octavian changed his name to Caesar Augustus and lead Rome on a path of great reforms. His reign also marked the beginning of an era of general peace throughout the empire, which lasted about 180 years known as the Pax Romana, Roman Peace.

Rome prospered tremendously during this time, which lead to many great public projects. Roads and aqueducts assured safe travel and ample water. Coliseums, circuses, and theaters provided entertainment as well as a means for getting rid of public offenders. Criminals were regularly executed as part of the program in theater shows where a death was being portrayed. And public baths provided fitness and relaxation for the masses. Forums, the Roman versions of the Greek agora, flourished with each new emperor expanding the marketplace in his own name. It would have been a pretty glorious time to be alive.

It was also during this time that Christianity first began. Jesus was born and raised as a devout Jewish rabbi in the Roman territory of Palestine. Because of a perceived threat to the religious establishment in Jerusalem, Jesus was crucified in AD 33. Easter is the celebration of his resurrection three days after his death. His followers, known as disciples or apostles, spread the news of Jesus’ message and resurrection and many people throughout the empire believed them. Christianity came under a lot of scrutiny and was seen by many emperors as a threat to the empire. This was due in part to the monotheistic nature of Christianity that did not allow for believers to pray and pay homage to the emperors. Emperor worship had become the official religion of Rome, and for the most part you could practice whatever you wanted religiously just as long as you also worshipped the emperor. Nero is one of the most notorious persecutors of Christianity. Nero set fire to Rome in order to clear land possessed by the poor for his new palace. The fire got out of hand and burned for about a week straight causing tremendous damage throughout the city. The citizens of Rome accused Nero. Realizing that he needed a scapegoat, he quickly shifted the blame to the Christians who were seen as a strange Jewish cult in the city. He rounded up as many as he could, bound them to posts, dipped them in wax, positioned them around the theater, and lit them afire as living human torches to light the evening drama performances. In case you’re wondering, he was one of the bad emperors.

There were many good emperors as well: Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. While walking the ruins of the old Roman Forum you are surrounded by the work of these men. There are monuments built to honor their names and accomplishments as well as great structures built by them to honor their citizens.

Decline and Fall

After Marcus Aurelius, around AD 180, the empire began to slowly deteriorate. There were attacks by barbarians from the outside. From the inside, power hungry generals knocked off emperors that they disagreed with (15 different emperors in 40 years were assassinated by the army). The army was big and expensive and taxes were high for the regular class citizens. Rome had become lazy and accustomed to the easy life of the Pax Romana. At one point they had more than 200 public holidays a year (now there’s something Roman to strive for!) Christianity was no longer a small off-branch of Judaism but a major belief system and threat to emperor worship. Emperors believed that because so many had converted to this new religion that the gods must be angry and that is why Rome was having so many struggles. Christians were systematically rounded up and slaughtered in coliseums and circuses around the empire to no avail. Rome was in trouble. Around AD 300 Emperor Diocletian divided the empire in half, Rome ruling the west and Byzantium ruling the east. This forever split the empire but did nothing to alleviate the problems it was facing. Around AD 330 Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the empire entirely to the city of Byzantium and changed its name to Constantinople. He also gave in to the Christian way of life and legalized it for the first time.

After this western Rome limped along for another 140 years before it finally fell to the German barbarian King Odacer. All that remained of western Rome was the Christian church at St. Peter’s in Rome. The western empire was fragmented and never regained its unity. Meanwhile the eastern empire under rulership from Constantinople thrived for another 1000 years when it finally fell to the Ottomans.

So in the end Rome returned to Asia Minor, the circle complete from Aeneas’ great-great-grandson Romulus in the beginning to the last emperor, appropriately named, Romulus Augustus. What a crazy 1000-year journey it was.

Rome at Last

2007-05-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

Whew! We made it! Rome! Pinnacle of the ancient world! Center of western civilization! Lots of exclamation points!!!

We arrived in Rome in the midst of Holy Week, just days before Easter, and the city was packed. The impact of the ancient world remains strong and alive in this city. It is not a dead culture that was buried and forgotten. Some part of it has continued to survive and thrive despite the millennia. As I reflect upon ancient Rome I am struck by what remains. Structurally speaking, there really aren’t that many intact buildings to gaze at. The ruins are quite amazing, but without the handy little “Before and After” books on sale at every site, it takes a lot of imagination to actually see what the city was like in its heyday. Egypt was all about the incredible preservation of its antiquity. The monuments and temples are amazing in comparison to anything else you’ll find in the ancient world. Greek structures, like Roman structures, suffered greatly over the years, but their art, sports, governments, pottery, dramas, philosophies, mythology/history survive due in large part to the fact that their language remains alive. Everything else was conquered and buried. But Rome is different. Millions of people travel from all over the world to celebrate holidays (like Easter) that began under its jurisdiction. Ancient Rome continues to make a mark upon the world today.

A quick word on Rome for the students back home: Rome was much more than the busy capital of Italy we see today. I’m not just talking about their domination of the ancient world of Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. The breadth of real estate they ruled made them an empire, but more importantly it was the lasting imprint of the culture they collected and spread throughout the ancient world that should be noted. Throughout this blog I have commented on the mark of Rome on ancient cultures. Romans conquered and made outposts in Egypt. They also took control of the Greek city-states and adapted much of Greek culture thereby spreading Hellenism. Perhaps the greatest contribution Rome has given the world was its ability to pull the most appealing features of the cultures it conquered and assimilate these into their own. Rome isn’t particularly noted for its creativity, but they admired and built upon the genius of others. If there was something they liked about a culture, the Romans adopted it, changed the names, made it bigger, more permanent, and affordable for the masses. On the whole they sound a lot like our own American culture. For those of us too deeply entrenched in our Americanism to make that connection, think of Rome as the Costco of the ancient world. With that in mind I look at ancient Rome for what it can tell me of my own culture today. It is a culture that speaks volumes to what can happen to successful powerhouses throughout history…uh-oh!

Fun With the Greigs

2007-04-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

Refreshment at last! Our friends from Santa Barbara, Steve and Maja Greig and their kids Peter (9) and Stacia (7), came all the way to Greece and Italy for their spring break. We all stayed together in Athens for the first three nights. It was great to catch up on the happenings back home and our kids relished in the opportunity to play with their friends. We are at the midway point in our journey and we miss home.

We did the “tour Athens in a day” jog through the ancient sites. We even had whistles blown at us by the site guardians for taking an inappropriate picture of Steve modeling the discus thrower at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The only thing I found inappropriate about the picture was that Steve was not dressed in the traditional Olympian uniform. Traditional Olympic participants competed in the nude. Check out the picture and tell me if it’s inappropriate.

We then hopped in rental cars and drove out to Nafplio, the old capital of Greece. Once again we were confronted with the overused descriptor “quaint.” It is beautiful. Quiet, tiny marble streets that look like you’d never fit a car down them, and yet we did. They kids stayed in one night watching a video with Leah while Meg and I went out with Steve and Maja. It’s a romantic place. Great honeymoon/anniversary local if any of you are looking for something different.

We spent our one full day there hiking up the hill of Palamidi Fortress. It is an old Venetian fortress that has been used by every conquering force ever since. It has incredible 360° views. Locals say it is 1000 minus 1 steps to the top. That of course put us to counting; we came up with 900 something and figured they must be counting every increase in elevation from the port to the top. At any rate, it’s a long way up. We played a quiet game of Sardines at the top with the Greigs. Maja hid and we didn’t find her for an hour. She appreciated the solitude, and we got lots of exercise. The day ended with amazing gelato. Since then we have sampled gelato in about a dozen places in Italy, and the winner is still the gelateria in Nafplio. I just wish I could remember the name of the place… There’s a big ice cream cone out in front, and they make their own product. The orange/chocolate is amazing!

We then flew to Milan. The Greigs went to Florence for a few days while we stayed with our new friends Juan and Talissa Gil. The Gils bring new meaning to the word hospitality. They are amazing! Thank you and bless you!

From there we met up again with the Greigs in Rome. Because the Greigs were here for such a short time we were back to the whirlwind pace. Our first day found us walking the Foro Romano, wowing at the Coliseum and looking for dinner at the Spanish Steps. It was in the Subway station there at Spagna that I was once again pick-pocketed. I now realize what a sitting duck I am when I’m holding Emma. But this time things turned out differently. My wallet was locked safely away in the backpack. This time the thief unzipped my camera case that was tied to my belt and slipped my camera out as the door to the overcrowded subway opened. I immediately felt the change in weight, noticed that my camera bag was empty and grabbed the man by the jacket as he was making his get-away. I shouted at him, “You stole my camera!” He held up his right hand as if to defend himself, and there was my camera. I grabbed it out of his hand and pushed him up against the wall of the metro tunnel. I called him a thief several times. Meanwhile an older (60ish) man grabbed the pickpocket and twisted his arm behind him. We were attracting quite a crowd by now. I still had him by the jacket with my left hand and held my camera and Emma in the right. Sam and Peter were each holding onto this guy’s jacket as well. Dilemma time, now that I had him, what was I to do? Steve had freed himself up and was next to me asking the same question. We finally decided to let him go and he ran. Seconds later the police showed up and gave chase to no avail. Emma and the girls were crying. I was all pumped up. It was pretty exhilarating. And I still had my camera. I’m still not sure how I held onto the thief, grabbed the camera from him and held Emma the whole time. Unfortunately that was not the last of our encounters with pickpockets in Rome. The very next evening, at the same Metro station, Steve got picked and lost some cash and credit cards. It was the same set-up; Steve was helping his kids on the Metro and was picked from behind. Here are some things I have learned about pick pocketing: 1 Never leave anything in your pockets you wouldn’t mind donating. That means any pocket, front, back, shirt or jacket. They can get it all. 2 Lock anything important in your backpack and lock that to yourself. It’s a hassle when you need to get things out, but that also means it’s a hassle to get things out for others. 3 Kids are like Power Bait to pickpockets. They know that you will pay greater attention to your kids than to your valuables. 4 Be vigilant, maybe even paranoid. Assume that you will be picked. Or in my case now, be vigilante. I pity the thief who comes at me next time. I have had plenty of time for loads of evil retributive responses to cultivate.

Even so we still enjoyed a bus tour and a day in lines to see Saint Peter’s cathedral and the Vatican Museum. No matter how many times you’ve seen the pictures you are still awed at Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel. We all left with cricks in our necks from gawking at the ceiling.

Steve, Maja, Peter, and Stacia, thank you for visiting us here. We will miss your company.

Kalinikta Greece

2007-04-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

Between our time in Crete, Naxos, Santorini, and Athens we have been in Greece for about six wonderful weeks. In spite of our pickpocket experience we have really grown to love the country, culture and people. Especially the people. A friend of mine back home said it is important to have your own personal Greek when visiting Athens, and we have ours! Thank you Spyros! Some of you have heard about Spyros, but here is the full story.

Back in December our housing plans for Athens fell through and we had to begin anew. We searched a site called sabbaticalhomes.com and got in touch with Spyros who advertised a home for rent in Marathon. Renting his place looked hopeful. But after a few initial emails it became apparent that there were problems with the place, and he informed us that it was not in good enough condition to be rented. He felt really bad about not being able to rent to us and offered to help us find a new place, even inviting us to stay with he and his parents. We eventually found another place to rent in Athens, but Spyros was adamant in his offers to help us out. He picked us up at the port at 7:00 am when we arrived and drove us to our apartment. For him this meant at least a two-hour round trip drive, and this for complete strangers. So we not only got to meet but he was also able to assure us that our place was safe. During our stay we met for coffee, dinner with his girlfriend Anya, and had him over for dinner at our apartment. The highlight of our time was being invited to lunch with his parents out in Marathon. They totally spoiled us was an incredible Greek feast and gifts for the kids. We visited the Marathon war memorial site and the beach where the Persians first landed. It was an incredible day. Incredible people.

I was struck by the similarity between Spyros and some of the Greek royalty from Homer’s Odyssey. In the story I am always inspired by how strangers are taken in, bathed, freshly dressed, finely dined, entertained, and then asked who they are. The Greeks like many other ancient cultures believed it was important that you treated strangers well because you never knew when one of the gods or an angel might take on human form and visit your home. We weren’t exactly angels, but Spyros and his family sure were! We were blessed by them and hope to pass the blessing on to other strangers we bump into along our journey and back at home. Thank you Spyros! Our door is always open for you and your family.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention this. Spyros is a Komboloi champion. Komboloi are Greek worry beads. Their origin is somewhat blurred but has some connection to rosary beads and mocking the ancient Ottoman Turk invaders. You’re just not Greek if you don’t have some in your hands. We all have our own sets and are learning how to fidget like a Greek. I have included the following video more for my own instruction but am sure that you will enjoy it as well.

Mighty Mycenae

2007-04-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

Of the three early Greek Civilizations (Minoan, Cycladic, & Mycenaean) it was the Mycenaeans who embodied the immortal images of Greek Mythology and history. The peoples of the Cycladic islands were influenced and changed by both Minoans and Mycenaeans. The Minoans could have become the people of Greece if it hadn’t been for those pesky volcanic eruptions of Thera and the ensuing tidal waves. And so we are left with the Mycenaeans -Indo-European immigrants, known as Achaeans, to the Peloponnesus, who inherited the rich heritage of the both the Minoans and the Cyclades.

Most of what we know about his culture comes from two sources. The earliest source is Homer, the late 8th century BC epic poet/bard who authored and probably sang the Iliad and the Odyssey. (Now that had to be a long song!) He tells the story of the Achaeans rallying together to battle the people of Troy way over on the northwestern coast of modern-day Turkey. The Iliad recounts the drama and tragedy of the ten-year war. Tens of thousands of Achaean Greeks travel by sea, an incredible task in its own right, rallying around one king in particular: Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. Many historians place the date for this war somewhere around early to mid 11th century BC. At the end of the war, (this won’t ruin the book for you, but the Achaeans win) the Greek warriors head back home. Then in the Odyssey, Homer tells the fantastic story of Odysseus’ ten-year journey home, the coming-of-age of his son Telemachus, and the faithfulness of his wife, Penelope. It is a must-read. I recommend the translation by Fagles. It’s readable and beautifully poetic. Anyway, all the Achaeans go home. Agamemnon returns to Mycenae only to find that his wife has taken a lover in his absence. He actually learns this while at a welcome-home feast when the lover runs him through with a spear. His surviving troops are slaughtered, but Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, eventually avenges his father’s death, killing both the lover and his own mother, Clytemnestra. Homer gives detail to Agamemnon’s heroics and cowardice, his generosity and selfishness, as well as his repentance and pride. He’s a “real” person, flawed just like the rest of us. All the other generals seem too heroic or self-sacrificing to humanly identify with. Agamemnon’s foibles as general of the Achaeans lead many historians to believe that he was more than just myth; he was a real live person. There’s a lot more Homer has to say about these people, about 900+ pages more, but this is a good place to start.

Our second major source of information about the Mycenaeans comes from amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. In 1876 he uncovered the ancient city of Mycenae - Agamemnon’s hometown. He found a great walled city set on a hill overlooking fertile plains with views to the sea in one direction and snow covered mountains to the other. It is beautiful. There are several other Mycenaean ruins in the area - all with their defining super-sized walls. The stones in these walls are so large, some weighing as much as six tons, that legend has it that Cyclopes were the only beings strong enough to move them into place. The term used to describe the enormity of the wall construction of these Mycenaean city-states is appropriately referred to as “cyclopic.” That’s pretty cool!

Aside from walls, Schliemann also found several shaft tombs - narrow cylindrical paved tunnels down into the ground. In one of these he found the now famous gold “Death-Mask of Agamemnon.” Along with this mask Schliemann also found several bronze swords, gold funerary ornaments, libation cups and pottery. It is the Greek equivalent to King Tut’s treasure except not quite as ornate or near the same quantity. All the same it’s amazing! It is in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. But it turns out that it doesn’t belong to Agamemnon at all. It predates him by about 300 years. If Agamemnon is buried here at all he is probably in one of the tholos tombs. These tombs in Mycenae match up with the probable dates for Agamemnon’s life. They are beehive shaped mounds. They were probably earthen hills that were paved over with foundation stones and bricks to create a dome. The dirt was then dug out from the paved area to create an empty room, the tomb. There are several of these being excavated in and around the ancient city. It seems unlikely we’ll find Agamemnon’s body since he was killed by enemies in his own home. His body was probably disrespectfully dumped somewhere just to spite him even more. That might explain why in the Odyssey, his ghost talks to Odysseus from Hades where he roams without rest. He was not buried properly to move on in the afterlife. Bummer for Agamemnon.

Mycenae’s ruins are pretty ruinous. The limestone foundations remain, walls are pieced together here and there, and some artifacts are in the on-site museum. But, most of the cool artifacts of pottery and gold are now in the Archaeological Museum of Athens. What strikes me most about this place is that anything at all remains. The weather here is harsh, and even though it’s on a hilltop, it’s still pretty damp. The moisture is really taking its toll on the limestone construction. Add to that the warlike nature of the Mycenaean city-states. There’s a reason they spent their time building walls! It’s the whole picture of the place that really stands out for me. The stories of real people like Agamemnon walking the palace pathways, rallying and marching his troops across the plain to their ships at harbor, returning home the victor only to be murdered here in his own palace. It’s no longer an epic myth. It’s real, a little embellished, but earthy, beautiful and real.

Metro Archaeological Museums

2007-04-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Who needs museums when you get to visit one every day just by commuting? I alluded to it earlier, but just about anytime someone digs a hole in Athens they “discover” something. The Metro system in Athens created an incredisble opportunity for archaeology. A number of the artifacts that were uncovered are on display and have the best descriptions we’ve encountered from any museum. At first we stared at the displays and took pictures of everything. I’m positive that we looked pretty dopey standing around the Metro stations actually reading the information about the artifacts that were found while digging the tunnels. The locals just cruise on by. More accurately put, they jog on by to catch their next Metro train or bus. After a while we joined the rush of it all until I realized that if I was going to retain anything about this place I needed to slow down and take it in. And one of the best places to read about the local archaeology and history just happens to be in the Metro. Whatever! These are a few of the Metro sites we discovered while commuting around town.

Monastiraki

Syntagma

Acropoli

Evangelismo

Panepestimio

Greek Pottery

2007-04-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

I will be the first to comment on my knowledge of Greek pottery. “This guy knows nothing!” But that will not stop me from sharing what little I know. After tromping through several museums and archaeological sites I am convinced that what put Greece on the map in the ancient world can be boiled down to two items. And no, they do not include democracy (they coined the term but not the idea) or statuary (early Greek statues were greatly influenced by the Egyptians!). No the two big contributions that put them on the ancient world trade map were olives and pottery. Laws were passed to insure greater olive output as early as the 8th century BC. But their pottery production and expertise were legendary and shipped everywhere throughout the ancient world. The following is a sort of timeline of examples of Greek pottery and its development over the milenia. The terms that describe the pottery are the terms also used to describe the historical periods of Greek culture. Like I said, I know nothing, so these dates are pretty rough and there are several sub-periods within each general period. Take it all with a grain of salt.

Neolithic Period (8500-3000 BC)

Geometric Period (3000-600 BC)

Archaic Period (6th Century BC)

Classical Period (Early 5th Century BC) Black Figure

Classical Period (Early 5th Century BC) Red Figure

White-Ground Lekythoi (Late 5th Century BC)

Capital Idea

2007-03-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

It has been said somewhere that there is power in knowing a name. Here’s your opportunity to gain a little power concerning Greek architecture. Here is a brief guide to naming the capitals, thanks to the archaeological museum at Ancient Corinth. The ruins there weren’t very well labeled, but we found this tidbit of information very helpful. I have arranged them in order of appearance in history and ornamentation. I hope this is helpful.

Doric Capital

Ionic Capital

Aeolic Capital

Corinthian Capital

Chimaera Capital

The Crumbs of Corinth

2007-03-28T04:14:00.000-07:00

One early morning we hopped on the bus, rode nine stops, and then got on the Metro. We switched from the Metro after seven more stops and boarded the urban rail for the next hour. We caught a bus to modern Corinth and then changed busses once more to get to Ancient Corinth. We were on our pilgrimage to Corinth!

By the 6th century BC Corinth was one of the richest city-states in Ancient Greece. It was located on the Isthmus of Corinth, a thin stretch of land that connects the Peloponnesus to Attica, making this city strategic for both its trade and military access to the cities of Sparta in the west and Athens to the east. It was a powerful and influential city-state that usually allied itself with Sparta for protection. That ended when the Romans sacked Corinth in 146 BC. In 44 BC Julius Caesar decided to rebuild the city, and it once again became a major metropolitan trading center.

There is a museum at the entrance to the site of Ancient Corinth. Several statues, mosaics, friezes, and pottery pieces that were found on site are housed here. Most of them are Roman replicas of Ancient Greek pieces. Anything Greek from the site was pretty much destroyed back in 146 BC. There are pretty good write-ups for the pieces but not much to help connect the history of Corinth to the pieces.

The ruins of Corinth are just that: ruins. It was difficult to make out what was what and the map signposts that were situated around the site were not helpful. The only recognizable structure is the Temple of Apollo, built in the 5th century BC. The rest of the site was a mixture of rubble and foundations. There was an Agora with a forum for important government meetings and proclamations. It was here that Phillip II (Alexander the Great’s dad) had the people swear allegiance to him when he conquered the peninsula in 337 BC. It is also the place where the Apostle Paul preached Christianity for the first time to the people of Corinth.

The Lower Peirene fountain was really interesting. It is a natural spring that has been in use since ancient times and is still used by the people of Ancient Corinth for their water supply. The myth behind the fountain recounts the weeping of Peirene when Artemis killed her son. The gods decided to put the tears to good use and made this fountain. Doesn’t sound all that compassionate, does it?

I wish we had a bit more time, and that the kids had a bit more energy to tackle the Acrocorinth. The Acrocorinth is a natural fortress that lies on the top of a mountain directly behind Ancient Corinth. It is a beautiful mountain that everyone from Ancient Greeks to Ottoman Turks had used as a fortress lookout. Unfortunately, too many forms of transportation, a lackluster archaeological site, and the prospect of our return trip, left us resting in the park before our journey back to Athens.

On our way to and from Corinth the Urban Rail passed over the Corinth canal. If you blink, you miss it. Sorry, I blinked and therefore have no pictures, but there is a good story behind it all the same. The isthmus is less than four miles wide. The tyrant of the city-state of Corinth, Periander, at the end of the 7th century BC, decided it was time to really boost Corinth’s trade potential by digging a canal across the isthmus thus connecting the Aegean and the Ionian Seas. It turns out that the isthmus is almost entirely made up of rock, and he quickly changed plans. Instead he built a paved road for ships to be drug along to have access to both seas without having to sail all the way around the Peloponnesus. For the next 2600 years different rulers tried their hands at digging the canal. Roman emperor Nero took out a gold pickaxe and struck the first blow on his attempt. He then put 6,000 Jewish slaves to work on the project. A Gaulish invasion distracted him from the task, and it wasn’t until 1893 that a French engineering company completed the task. The steep sides of the canal are about 300 feet above the water at their deepest points, and it is about 75 wide. Almost solid rock the entire way. That would have been a lot of digging.

Santorini

2007-03-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

OK. Now before you get all worked up with, “Dude, you got to go to Santorini? Must be nice!” remember that it is still winter. It rained a bit and the wind howled the entire time which made it impossible to explore the volcanic center of the caldera. It also made for some lovely seasickness on the ferry both there and back. And, about 90% of all the stores and attractions on the island were closed. That being said, it was still beautiful, and we had the entire island to ourselves. That made it rather peaceful.

The island was once round. In fact its original name, Strongili, meant “Round Island.” Now it looks a bit like a French croissant with a small dab of jam in the center. Santorini is the southern most of the Cyclades islands, which were once a chain of active volcanoes until around 3000 BC when most of the volcanoes went dormant. People have lived here ever since. Sort of that is. Beginning around 1650 BC a century-long series of violent volcanic eruptions, arguably the largest ever recorded in human history, reconstructed the shape and habitability of the place. Huge tidal waves resulting from the earthquakes and eruptions were felt as far away as Crete, Israel and possibly Egypt. I happen to be in the camp of believing that these tidal waves were heavily responsible for the weakening and final demise of the Minoan civilization. I also think they may have played a part in the Exodus story in Egypt. After the 1440 BC eruption Santorini was pretty much devoid of life. Eventually Mycenaean Greeks made their way over and resettled the rumbly, now tiny, island. In 236 BC one of the current islets was created when volcanic activity separated it from the main croissant. In 197 BC a small island appeared in the bay at the center of the croissant caldera, a growing lava dome that became the island Palia Kameni. In AD 726 an eruption here launched pumice all the way to Asia Minor. Again in 1707, another eruption created a sister islet next to Palia Kameni with a hot spring in the bay between the two. More recently, in 1956, a massive earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale ravaged the island. As usual the locals rebuilt and continued on with their mellow, friendly lifestyle. Our “Lonely Planet” guidebook used a great word to describe the people here, insouciant. You can look it up for yourself.

Between 3000 BC and 1440 BC a highly advanced Minoan culture thrived on the island. The only evidence that remains can be found at the south end of the island at a site known as Akrotiri. Archaeologists have been having a field day here. Pottery, frescoes, statues, structures are all fairly well preserved due to their burial in volcanic ash. Unfortunately for us the site has been closed. A few years ago the concrete roof of an awning set up over part of the dig fell on some tourists and killed one. It’s been closed ever since. The legendary advanced culture of Akrotiri, even among people of the ancient world, has been connected to stories of the lost continent of Atlantis. It’s a fun idea to play with.

Evidence of the island’s volcanism can be seen everywhere. Just beyond the Akrotiri archaeological site is the Red Beach. We hiked along the road from Akrotiri past homes and small cafes through a fairly rural area. There is a striking Orthodox church built against the cliffs where the road ends and the trail to the beach begins. Sheer red cliffs of raw lava rock angle down to the surf. The layers of differing lava flows and ash make for great color on the cliffs. Rocks that fall to the sea are tumbled and buffed into smooth, beautifully colored red, black, green, and white stones.

Further evidence can be seen at Kamari’s Black Beach. Here the tidal zone is made up of surf-tumbled marble and volcanic stones, the majority of which are black. This was nice for us since it was windy and cold. By lying flat on the black sand we were able to keep quite warm. The real fun about this day was that we had the entire beach to ourselves. This is a beach that doesn’t even have standing room for sun worshippers during the summer months. We didn’t get much of a tan but Sam and I did test the water. It is cold.

On our bus rides around the island we encountered vineyard after vineyard of coiled dormant grape vines. Santorini is famous for its wines that get their unique flavor from the volcanic ash in which they grow.

On another day we walked down the face of the caldera to the old port of Fira. It’s a long cobble stoned path that most tourists bypass in favor of the tram that travels the same route. On our hike we were graced with spectacular views of the city of Fira dangling on the edge of the Caldera (How does it stay put?) and again dazzling layers of lava, ash, pumice, and even bed soil. Once at the bottom of the caldera, right on the port, we tested the buoyancy of the local pumice. I have only floated white pumice in the past, but on this day we discovered black pumice that floats almost as well as white. Red pumice we discovered is so buoyant that is should be used in the construction of life preservers.

It was also here on Santorini that Megan and I shared a romantic evening out for an early birthday celebration. There weren’t too many restaurants to choose from but we found a place for a local meal and a café with incredible crepes. But the best parts of the evening were the views we enjoyed. It’s as beautiful in the winter as they say it is in the summer.

Santorini

Rome in the Shadow of Athens

2007-03-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

The Romans began their conquest of Athens and their allies around 146 BC when they broke up the Achaean League but left much of Athens and its culture and lifestyle intact. If anything Rome emulated the Greek/Hellenistic way of life. Even after knocking down Athens’ walls and carting away much of the city’s wealth in 86 BC, Rome still honored the city by sending their most privileged youth to the city for their education. All this to say that Rome basically continued building Athens the way Pericles first envisioned it some 400 years earlier. The Romans really dug Greek culture.

Since the Greek Agora was getting too crowded, the Romans, under the direction and funding of Julius Caesar, built their own Agora. At one the end of the Roman Agora is a beautiful marble structure known as the Tower of the Winds. A Syrian astronomer named Andronicus built it in the first century BC. It is a three-story, octagonal building with each of its eight sides crested by a relief statue representation of the points on a compass. It functioned as a sundial/weathervane/water clock. It’s the only recognizable structure left in the Roman Agora.

The Roman Emperor Hadrian was also quite fond of Athens. After he stole most of the original classical Greek statues and art, carting them off to Rome, he threw his energies into copying the Classical style in his expansion of the city. Hadrian’s arch is a great example of this. It was built in AD 132 probably to commemorate the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. More realistically it stood as a delineation point between Greek and Roman Athens. On one side of this marble monument it reads, “This is Athens, the Ancient city of Theseus.” On the other side it says, “This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus.” Clear enough!

Just beyond Hadrian’s Arch stand the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This is a humungous Greco-Roman temple. It’s gargantuan! There is not much of it that remains, but if I put the rest of the pieces together in my mind, it harkens back to the scale of the Temple at Karnak, Egypt. This was a structure built for the gods, not for mere mortals. The Athenian ruler Peisistratos began it way back in the 500s BC. The scale of the complex bankrupt his budget for the temple, and it was abandoned. About 700 years later, in the year AD 131, the Romans under Hadrian’s rule competed the structure. It housed a massive statue of Zeus, and in typical emperor fashion, Hadrian had an equally large statue of himself placed alongside. This was a project more fitting of the Roman Empire mindset: Bigger is Better! Classic Greek architecture tended to be more elegant and refined, like the Parthenon. Roman copies tended to be bigger and not quite as graceful. This temple is an interesting mix of Greek elegance in its design and Roman massiveness in its size.

Hadrian continued his love affair with Athens by constructing a beautiful library near the Roman Agora. This structure was rectangular in shape with a courtyard in the middle. There were over 100 columns around this courtyard with a pool in the center. It also housed music and lecture rooms as well as a theater. Oh yeah, there were books there too.

No real ruler would be complete without leaving his mark on the Acropolis itself. The Roman General Agrippa built a 26-foot tall pedestal for a bronze statue of himself that sat right at the entryway to the Propylaia of the Acropolis. The statue showed him riding a chariot and commemorated his victory at one of the Panathenaic Games. When the general wins it usually means the race was rigged.

One other Roman structure worth mentioning is the Theater or Odeon of Herodes Atticus built in AD 161. Herodes was a wealthy Roman and built this theater in memory of his wife. It sits at the base of the Acropolis just below the Propylaia and is still used today for open-air performances of Greek drama during the summer months.

Rome clearly left its mark on Athens, but what better compliment could they pay the Greeks than to copy all their forms in art and architecture?

Thanks For Watching!

2007-03-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to shout out a big thank you to all of you who have been visiting the blog. The dots on the map above represent that last 100 visitors to the blog from March 19th. It’s been very encouraging to monitor the web traffic. I know that sounds pretty nerdy, but when I began this blog I pretty much envisioned a few students, their parents, and some family and friends as visitors. To date there have been over 4700 visitors from every continent excluding Antarctica. So thank you for your support! And if you happen to know anyone in Antarctica that might be interested feel free to pass this along to them.