Something I Never Expected

Back in April, Nathan and I strolled down to our local roundabout for a gelato. Our roundabout is sort of like our village's piazza, only filled with traffic. Edging the roundabout are businesses which include a newsstand, coffee bar/gelateria, pizzeria, salumeria (very small grocer), butcher, tabacchi, hair salon, and restaurant. The coffee bar has a large patio with tables, and the sidewalk of the road is edged with benches, the better to watch the traffic go by. It's surprisingly entertaining to sit on these benches and people watch the drivers. When my aunt and I did so, we saw a lady drive by with three dogs in her car, the one in the front seat had his head hanging out the window while the two in the back were sitting up very properly, both with heads turned to watch the world go by out of their respective windows. It's also fun to count how many cars go by with young children riding either in laps or just bouncing around on the backseat playing - definitely a unique sight for these American eyes. Across the street is the Metro stop and a large parking lot, empty until this month, when I found out the parking lot is not for all the trash usually heaped there, but is instead  for all the summertime beachgoers.

So back to mine and Nathan's stroll...the fence edging the parking lot usually has a banner of some sort hanging from it. Sometimes it's the same banner for months - usually the soccer ones are around awhile. Then there are political ones every now and then, advertising some candidate or other. This particular evening, we were struck by a banner that I never, ever, in a million years thought I would see half a world away from the U.S.:

Best of all are the words that you can't make out with the blog photo resolution, but it says, "The South Will Rise Again." We stood across the street, staring at this banner in absolute awe. We looked up and down the street as if we'd see who raised it. We looked at the store owners standing in their doorways, as they often do, to gauge if this sort of banner was acceptable. There were no clues anywhere. But it was yet another reminder of Italy's youth as a country and as a democracy, and their culture wars as the country grows. I write so much of the ancient history and culture that surrounds me here, but even more so, the modern problems of a growing country are the backdrop of daily life.

Until 1861, Italy was ruled by city-states and/or foreign countries. So 100 years after America became a democratic country, Italy's disparate parts joined together, ruled by a monarchy, then the Facist dictatorship, and finally, almost 90 years after unification, Italy became a republic in 1946. Prior to unification, southern Italy was powerful. The people were rich, cultured, smart, and basically, they were the cool kids. The northerners were considered the peasants and the laborers. Then, unification occurred, and the decades have brought us to today, where the north is considered the land of the educated, the people who know what's best, the rich and the powerful, while the southerners are the farmers, the hillbillies, and are considered to be very lazy. Any of this sounding at all familiar to anyone? Anyone? Now I don't pay close attention to the details of the Italian political culture, but I do know there is a group who wants a divided Italy, who essentially, wants the south to rise again. But what I really found interesting is thinking about the North/South divide in many countries and on a global scale. In considering many of the European countries, they have a similar culture war. Even more interesting, I put North vs. South into Wikipedia and found a great article on the global ramifications - across the globe, the developed, First World nations are in the north while the poorer, struggling nations are in the south (with Australia and New Zealand as exceptions). And so it seems the Weepies are correct...the world really does just spin madly on.

Siren Landing

When my friend and I took our walk along the sea yesterday, we passed Castel dell'Ovo (Egg Castle...I'll explain another day, once I've actually visited the castle). More interesting than the castle was the adorable marina at it's base (Borgo Marina) and the fun restaurants lining it. Today, I learned that the marina is on the site of a crucial piece of Neopolitan legend. Odysseus wanted to hear the song of the Sirens, but had been warned of the danger, so he had his sailors fill their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast of the boat. As they passed by the island of Nisida (now connected to Naples by a short causeway which takes one to either the prison or the Joint Forces Command Yacht Club), Odysseus could hear the songs of the Sirens, but was restrained from giving in. This rejection caused one of the Sirens, Parthenope, to jump off a cliff in despair. Her drowned body washed ashore at the very spot where modern yachties play.

Now Greek colonists had come to this area between the 9th-7th centuries B.C. (making Napoli one of the oldest cities in the world). Some of these early settlers found Parthenope's body and buried her here, thus the city became known as Parthenope, and by the 6th century B.C., it was a bustling city along the trade route. Around the 5th century B.C., some of the Cumean settlers (Cuma is the settlement very near where we live) moved about 13 miles away, just beyond Parthenope, and formed Neapolis (New City). In only 300 years, Parthenope and Neapolis grew together into one city, which just goes to show that even the Ancients couldn't get a handle on urban sprawl.

Assisi

This past weekend, while Nathan was out of town, I joined in on a USO trip to a chocolate festival in Perugia in the Umbria region. I'd spent the previous week on the waitlist, calling the (very nice) lady at the USO office every single day to see if I'd made it onto the trip, which left at 7am on Saturday morning. It wasn't until Friday afternoon, 1.5 hours before the USO closed, that I got the okay...as long as I was willing to share a room with another lady on the waitlist. Since we'd already arranged Scully care, and I didn't want to sit around the hotel all weekend, Saturday morning at 6am found me up and on my way to my pick-up point. The USO arranges for bus transportation for these trips with plenty of rest stops (too many for me - 100 people on our bus plus all the other bus tours who are stopped all trying to use about 4 toilets...really, I think we spent more time waiting for a free stall than actually driving to our destination). Our trip consisted of spending Saturday afternoon in the town of Assisi (a surprise to me) and Sunday in Perugia, the location of EuroChocolate.

Assisi is gorgeous! It began raining as we arrived, and the clouds obscured the view, but it was just clear enough to show us what we were missing from this little hill town. The panoramic version of the more you know, the more you know how little you know...or something like that. Sadly, we didn't have nearly enough time in Assisi. There are two main churches in town, which anchor the ends of the main street. The largest and most famous church is the Basilica of St. Francis, who was born in Assisi. The story of St. Francis is more fascinating than I ever imagined and rivals any of the modern soap operas. He was born in the late 1100s to wealthy cloth merchant, and while working in the market one day selling cloth, he was compelled to give all he had to a local beggar. After this event, he joined the military, spent a year as a POW, and shortly thereafter, had a serious illness. At some point during this time, he faced a crisis in his spiritual life convicting him to nurse the ill and renounce material things (all material things, including shoes and soft clothing) in order to rebuild the churches. The final straw for his folks (or at least his dad) came when he sold a bunch of his dad's wares and gave the money to the local priest for rebuilding the church. Dad retaliated by beating him, then taking him to court...an interesting take on the parental "I'm going to teach you a lesson" lesson. St. Francis (then known only as Francis) left Assisi, founded his new order (the Franciscans) and lived in the valleys around Assisi repairing churches as well as doing some travel preaching. In his travels, he attempted a peace treaty with the Muslim world, and so impressed the Muslim leaders that the Franciscans were the only ones allowed to stay in the region as the token Christian representatives.  To this day, 1000 years later, the Franciscans are still the ones charged with responsibility for the Christian sites of the Holy Land. St. Francis was pretty radical for his time - he believed everyone (even poor people) should be allowed to talk to God in their own language, not just in Latin (gasp!). And a final fun fact, St. Francis set up the first (known) live nativity at Christmas. I left out all the other drama, such as being shipwrecked, having visions, getting his very own mountain to use for meditation, and the stigmata that plagued him for his final years. So there's your very unofficial guide to the life and times of St. Francis. The church built in his memory is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The insides are covered in frescoes. There was a terrible earthquake in the region about 30 years ago, which severely damaged the fresco - one of them was broken into so many pieces that only (only) 200,000 of them were found...and put back together.

Unfortunately, this is NOT the hotel where we stayed; but I love the red scooter up against the ancient, stone walls.

The 2nd church is the Church of St. Clare. St. Clare was a woman quite taken with the ideals of St. Francis. She ran away from her parents because they wanted her to marry a wealthy young man.  This seems preferable to a wealthy, old man, however, one may assume that said young man was "che bruto" since it doesn't seem like she even gave the guy a chance. St. Clare, like St. Francis, also founded an order. Hers was called the Order of Poor Ladies, and after her death, it was renamed the Order of St. Clare. The nuns of this order are today known as the Poor Clares, and it is still a cloistered order. Only three of the women are allowed to leave the cloister. They can't even participate in mass in their very own church, which is attached to the cloister. I seem to recall something about a room opening onto the sanctuary but blocked off with an iron grate.

We only had time for a quick jaunt down the main street of Assisi, which had tantalizing, little alleys begging for exploration, colorful flowers in window boxes set against old, crumbling stone walls, monks wandering around, lovely shops, and finally, finally, finally, the chance to walk around a gorgeous street with no fear of death by speeding Vespa. How disappointing it was to then return to our hotel, which was one of the worst hotels I've stayed in. However, my roommate was great - just moved here from DC, so we had a lot to talk about and stayed up late into the night. This and the fact that my bed had clean sheets were the only redeeming qualities of the night. I take that back - the dinner was also fun. Food was only so-so, but the companionship was fantastic. My table was all women, most of them moms on weekend getaways, and we had such a fun time.

From now on, while we're on trips like these, I'll be updating an on-the-go travel journal separate from this blog. The blog is to update our loved ones on our life here, to act as a diary for me, and to be somewhat informational for anyone out there moving to or visiting the region. The Everlater is very different. It has actual details, such as name of hotel, where we ate, what tour we took, etc., plus it will have quick thoughts - a place to record a sentence or two on what we're seeing, experiencing, eating, one or two photos, etc. I've added a link to "My On-the-Go Travel Journal" on the right side of the blog, under the title "Blogs and Links I Love." Below is also a link:

Link to Everlater.com Travel Journal

Since I just wasn't able to stop writing about St. Francis, I'll have to leave Perugia and the Chocolate festival (the actual reason for the trip in the first place!) for tomorrow.

Just a little decoration on the walls in Assisi to enjoy as you wander down the street

A Small Bit of Sightseeing

View from window of our classroom at Centro Italiano.

With class in downtown, it's the perfect opportunity to explore the museums, castles, and churches. I'm right there within walking distance of it all. But four hours of struggling to speak and understand a foreign language takes most of that day's brain power quota. Then add the thought of the commute home, and I've just not gone off exploring. One day last week, however, I made myself take some time. Naples has an underground city...like most of Europe's larger cities, it's built on top of ancient cities. Dig down just about anywhere, and you'll hit some sort of sign of habitation from centuries ago. Even way out here in the country, this base must be built over some sort of old city or farm because our commissary and department store both have glass walkways on certain aisles providing a window onto the ruins below.

In the Exchange (base department store); We'd lived here three weeks, and I'd passed this aisle half a dozen times, before I looked down and saw this!

One of the sites I really wanted to see was Napoli Sotterranea - a tour of the underground city. Arriving at the site, I found the tour was still an hour away, and "it is not possible" (a favorite Italian phrase) to visit without taking the tour. Next door is the San Lorenzo Maggiore church, which has their own access to a subterranean site. While the San Lorenzo scavi (ruins) are listed in all the guidebooks, by all reports, it's closed to the public. Since I was there, I thought I'd just go see for myself. Off I headed to stand at the ticket booth. And there I stood, in front of a lighted booth with no one in it...and waited, and waited....watching other folks heading into the area, walking with purpose. I finally got tired of waiting and went through a nearby doorway, which opened onto a very pretty courtyard surrounded by a loggia on all sides. Discreet signs pointed the way to the scavi. Not too many people were about, so I followed the signs, walking down a corridor lined with old columns on their sides and statues, and eventually coming to a narrow staircase headed down and an open door at the bottom. Since I'd yet to run into anyone who challenged me or looked askance at my presence, I headed down...and into an amazing subterranean world. Since I hadn't actually paid for a ticket, I didn't have any information on what I was seeing with the exception of my limited Naples guidebook. That at least told me which parts were ruins of an old main street - a street of shops.

Main Street

 Even without information, it was wonderful to wander about on these old streets, walk into homes last inhabited centuries ago, and just imagine what the lives of those who came before must have been like. A friend commented several years ago that the older he gets, the more he realizes that people all over the world are the same, regardless of country, economic circumstance, religion, etc. People everywhere are just focused on their friends and families, raising their kids, getting together with friends, all the things that make up our daily lives. The women living in these houses of old were most likely thinking about what to make for dinner, heading to the shop to get some lamb or chicken, resewing a fastener onto their children's clothing, and taking time to chat with a neighbor. I love the opportunity to live in a place where history is so very present in the day to day. Rounding a corner can bring speeding cars and vespas, yet rounding another corner can put me face to face with a castle built 1000 years ago, and still another corner brings an exposed column set in place over 2000 years ago.

While I enjoyed my little side trip, I was brought back to crushing reality when I got to the train station, waited almost half an hour for a train, finally got to my stop in Aversa (the nearest town to the base accessible via train), and headed to the bus stop alone. Waiting at bus stops in the outer towns, especially alone, is just not pleasant for women. Even when with a friend, it's a constant barrage of honking, men coming up to talk, circling the road by the bus stop to stare, etc. Alone, at least one man stops to try to get you into his car. You may be getting the picture of where the working girls ply their trade, so apparently, no matter one's mode of dress or the fact that they're wearing a backpack, woman at a bus stop equals woman looking for some johns. My friend and I asked our teachers at school what a good Italian phrase is to communicate "get away from me," as we had problems even when we waited together, but they said it's a problem for all women at bus stops,  foreigners or not, and you just turn your head away. So I spent an enjoyable afternoon in Naples capped off with a not so lovely commute home. Plus, it meant Scully was in his crate for 10 hours.  I guess my days of afternoon exploring are over until we're living in our house.

Sunday in Herculaneum

Ancient Herculaneum, Modern Ercolano, and Vesuvius watching over it all.

When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79AD (following an 800 year dormant period), the ash fell onto Pompeii, crushing the buildings, burning what could burn, leaving us what is now an overwhelming area of ruins. Pompeii takes a full day to really explore. But head northwest along the coast, and you'll come to modern day Ercolano, home to some of the best preserved 2000 year old ruins in Europe...the ancient city of Herculaneum (actually, the city was built around the 4th century BC). And best of all, these fantastically preserved ruins take only half a day to explore. As a side note, there was a devastating earthquake that rocked this region in 62 AD, and Herculaneum was completely rebuilt after this...only to suffer complete destruction only 17 years later, which really makes one think about the frailties of life and, in order to be a complete Debbie Downer in this blog, how little our material efforts really matter.

Rope found at the seaport

 ...depressed yet? Anyhoo, while Pompeii burned under hot ash, the (wealthier than Pompeii) citizens of Herculaneum headed down to the port for evacuation by sea, taking with them their gold and jewelry. (Yet another side note: this makes me think that guy on TV who hawks gold at every commercial break may really be on to something). Back to topic, again...hours after the initial eruption, a surge of hot gas blasted the town. At 900 degrees, this immediately killed all remaining citizens and carbonized all organic material (such as wood framing in buildings, plants, fabrics, wax tablets, and more interestingly, preserved the joint connections of all the people). Following this blast was a whole bunch of mud (or solid ash) - Nathan has a good analogy: honey flows very slowly at room temperature, but stick the bottle in the microwave, and then out comes this fast-flowing liquid. That's what happened to the top of Vesuvius. Hot air liquified the mud/ash/lava. This is what flowed down in several surges over Herculaneum, burying this carbonized town under 50 feet of tufa (volcanic rocks). There the town remained until about 1709 or so, when it was discovered during the digging of a well shaft. Excavations have taken place on and off since then. Once of the neatest features of ancient Ercolano is that the site goes right up to the edge of the excavated area, around which are tall walls. Immediately on the edge and on up to Vesuvius is the modern town of Ercolano. I enjoyed looking at those apartment buildings and thinking of just what is underneath them...grand villas of wealthy Romans, filled with frescoes, statues, papyri, jewelry, perhaps a few temples, some restaurants, some ancient apartment buildings upon which are sitting the modern ones.

I'm not really sure how often I can use the word "amazing" when I write these blogs, but I'm probably reaching my limit. Yet they'll still come out. Herculaneum is amazing. I visited Pompeii seven years ago, and while it's a wonderful site, it's a whole bunch of ruins. A column or two here where you must then imagine an entire forum, a foundation there to use in imagining the villa it once supported. Herculaneum has buildings, homes, thermal baths that you can actually walk into as if it were a modern city. When you look up, you might just catch a glimpse of the wood framing used within the rock walls. Frescoes are on the walls and you walk upon mosaic floors, giving any HGTV aficionado a great glimpse of the decorating trends of 2000 years ago. We took a photo of Nathan sitting in the "locker room" of the Men's Thermal bath. There was a bathhouse for both the women and the men, complete with a locker room, a cold room, a warm room (sauna), and the hot room. Herculaneum also had a very large gym (palaestra), which included a marvelous fountain of a Hydra (mythical monster that was a many-headed snake) which apparently flowed water all around it into the swimming pool, where young Herculaneumanos would go for their swim practice, which just goes to show that no matter what millennia we're in, people are concerned about working out. Although this gym also contained a fish breeding pond, so the ancient gyms were a little more versatile.

Herculaneum was so well preserved that food was found in pantries and stores. In one home, a loaf of bread was found, and fortuitously, bread was apparently once stamped with one's name; therefore, we now know that the House of the Deers was owned by Q. Granius Verus because this loaf of bread found there had the stamp "Celer, slave of Q. Granius Verus." My mind immediately heads to such hypothetical situations such as: What if Q. Granius Verus sent over his slave, Celer, with a loaf of bread to his new neighbor? I am assuming that the professionals have much better detective skills and subject knowledge to rule out these types of things.

House of Neptune and Amphitrite, so named because of these richly decorated, glass paste, mosaics. This was a personal dwelling.

Nathan hanging out at the Thermopolium (i.e., lunch joint). One such taberna contained the following saying painted upon the wall: "Diogenes, the cynic, in seeing a woman swept away by a river, exclaimed: 'Let one ill be carried away by another.'" Perhaps this particular taberna was an all male establishment.

Grocery Store

Walking the ancient paths

Going to hell...twice

Yesterday, we met with our landlady and realtor at the house we hope will soon be ours. The meeting went well - basically, we asked our realtor if we could have things like patio furniture, the alarm hooked up to private police, the gas tank fixed, etc., and the realtor replied no, we could not - as I understand it, our house is considered pretty desirable, so we don't get any extras. Our house is pretty desirable to us, but the other lady who looked at it first hated it, so who knows. The landlady and her husband built this house and lived in it for decades; she now picks who she wants in it, and they have to take it as it is. She cleans it up and makes repairs as needed, but we don't get to come in like all the other Americans in rentals and negotiate a whole bunch of things, like maids, gardeners, private police, patio furniture (which we desperately need!) and so on. We can live with that.

Since Nathan didn't have time to attend this meeting, ferry me back to the boondocks, return to work, then return home, we had a couple of hours to explore some nearby sites. Without prior planning, the two places we visited were both once considered entrances to Hades. How on earth we managed this coincidence, I don't know. First up was Vulcano Solfatara, an eery, volcanic crater with fumaroles (smoke) escaping all over the place.

This is a dormant area, so no threat of catastrophic eruption, but it's unique in the numerous fumaroles of sulphuric gases. There are also a couple of bubbling mud-pits. We alternated between two names for the place: Fire Swamp, since it looks like an all white version of the one in Princess Bride, and Earth's Anus - it smelled seriously bad. In fact, for any of you coming to visit who wish to visit this place, I have already determined that I will be waiting for you in the car up at the entrance. I just cannot smell that again. The Fire Swamp name really stuck though once we crossed paths with a couple on a little tour. Their guide lit up a torch and started waving it across the ground. The fire sucks out oxygen, which then causes more fumaroles to steam up. We walked across this area just after the tour guide finished and the ground was still burning hot in some places and soft from the steam. I kept imagining steam shooting up as I stepped on a patch and then a pit of boiling mud opening up. Hell, indeed.

Tour Guide in the Fire Swamp

Bubbling Mud Pit, OR...Pit of Despair

We also visited Lago d'Averno, which is just a short walk from our (hopefully ours) house. We have two lakes and the sea (the Tyrrhenian, not the Mediterranean, is our shoreline) just a short walk away. Lago d'Averno has a walking path that goes all around it, about 1.5 miles total, and several restaurants line the shore. The restaurants are concentrated on one quarter, though, leaving the rest to vineyards, ducks (and duck blinds - guess hunting is big on this little lake), and a couple of ruins. Odysseus entered the Underworld from here as did Aeneus in the poet Virgil's writings. The Temple of Apollo is thought to have once been a thermal bath area and had a domed roof rivaling that of the Pantheon in Rome. In 37 B.C., Agrippus (the Roman General) turned this lake into an important naval port, linking it to Lago Lucrino (right by our house) and the sea with canals. He also built the first, major road tunnel that allowed chariots to travel to and from nearby Cumae - it was just over half a mile long. That tunnel was in use up until the 1940s! Yet another interesting tidbit is that just two months ago, police seized the lake from it's owner, who is accused of being a mafia frontman. News reports state that he allegedly purchased it on behalf of a former godfather Giussepe Setola. Setola was featured in the book, Gommorah, a bestseller about the Camorra (mafia) here in Campania (the region of Naples and surrounds). I haven't read this book yet, so I hope our library on base has it in stock.

And finally, Sibyl's Grotto is also located on the shore of Lago d'Averno (although other locations have also been suggested). Sibyl's were legendary ancient prophetesses, and this one, the Cumaean Sibyl, was the most famous among Romans. She first appears in writings from 500 BC. She is later featured in Virgil's Aenid, and also makes an appearance on the Sistine Chapel, painted in among Old Testament Prophets. This is due to the Middle Age belief that one of her prophecies foretold the coming of a saviour, perhaps because Emporer Constantine interpreted one of the written Syballine Oracles as holding an acrostic in which initials from verses spelled out "Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour Cross." The Cumaean Sybil lived 1000 years due to a deal with Apollo, but because she refused to sleep with him, he granted her only a long life, not youth. Sybil aged the entire time, so by the end, only her voice remained. Or so goes the legend. My favorite reference is in Virgil's poem - Sybil is a guide to the Underworld, which is entered through Lago d'Averno (Avernus):

Trojan, Anchises' son, the descent of Avernus is easy.
All night long, all day, the doors of Hades stand open.
But to retrace the path, to come up to the sweet air of heaven,
That is labor indeed. (Aeneid 6.10.)

We did not get to view Sibyl's Grotto. At the mouth of the path up to it were still smoking, fire remains. We passed those and continued up the path, to find the same thing. At the third fire, we turned a corner and glimpsed a man with a loose dog hanging about. Considering we were heading into a tunnel with a man who seemed to like to enjoy lighting fires within 10 feet from one another (creeeeeepy!), we elected to turn on our heels and quickly exit back to the lake path. The lake is a nice walk from our house, and will be a good place to walk Scully, so we'll save it for another day.

Alleyways and Neon Jesus

Here are a few photos of our first day of touring around Naples. We first started by following a little walking tour out of our Lonely Planet Naples guidebook. That took us to Santissima Annunziata, a church which was closed. But attached to it was the better site anyway - an old orphanage with a baby drop-off wheel:

Drop off your baby!

That window overlooks an alley. A nun sat on this side waiting for the wheel to spin, where she would then bathe the child in this little basin before registering it into the orphanage.

 Shortly hereafter, we just started off wandering, and headed to a pizzeria. We have no idea where we were, but found a little pizzeria on a side street. We figured that in Naples, it would be impossible to get a bad pizza. While the pizza was delicious...

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Our first pizza in Naples - yummmmm!

 the best was the picture of Jesus framed in neon on the wall behind the brick ovens.

Brick Ovens, Pizza Artist, and Neon Jesus

We're all for Jesus, and if having Him framed in neon helped make our pizza taste as good as it did, then bring on the neon.

More wandering led us past fantastic alleys...

Laundry, Laundry everywhere...electricity is too expensive to use dryers; also notice the blue bucket about 2/3 down in the pic - this is apartment "shopping." The lady holding the bucket on a rope lowers it for her items, pulls them up, then lowers money.

By complete accident, we found one of the most famous streets in Naples:

Via San Greggorio Armeno, home to presepi (nativity) artisans. Sadly, the presepi are made out of bark & moss, which the USDA bans from importation. These are one of the top "souvenirs" of Naples.

Here it is...my first Neapolitan gelato. Pistachio. Yum, Yum, Yum.

The mall; yep, that's our shopping mall.

And finally, this is some castle. I'm sure I've seen it listed in guidebooks. We were just headed to our bus and came upon it, so I have no additional info at this time.

We had a great first day walking around. It was definitely key to just get lost as we got off the main, really congested streets and got a feel for the Neapolitan life. We even got to witness some sort of intense, Jerry Springerish, lady fight which had all the locals coming out of their houses, staring and shaking their heads. Sadly, no pics of that.
I've seen other blogs with photo albums attached, so eventually, we'll include some album links. Ciao for now.