Glenda Cook

Glenda Cook

traveled in 69 countries Read more🇺🇸Asheboro

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Into the Midnight Sun
Longitude Zero
June 25, 2022 in England ⋅ ☁️ 66 °F
We landed at Heathrow Airport and, because we were carrying our luggage, breezed through immigration and customs. The Viking representative snagged us just outside the door of luggage claim to put us on the bus. The ship’s crew needed some time to debark our predecessors and make the ship ready for us, so we drove to a palatial Sofitel at the edge of the airport, where we killed about an hour and a half feasting on coffee, cinnamon buns, cheese and fruit. Another 90 minute bus ride brought us through Kensington and Chelsea, and along the Thames to Greenwich. There we boarded a tender that took us to the middle of the river, where the beautiful new Viking Mars awaited us. This ship is only one month old, and ours is only its second cruise. It is good to be in Greenwich again. We walked through the beautiful green lawns of the Old Naval College, saw the clipper ship Cutty Sark, and passed the church of St. Alfege, which contains the body of British General Wolfe, who was killed on the Plains of Abraham at the Battle for Quebec. He and his family were parishioners in this church. The congregation here also displays behind a glass panel the old organ keyboard used by the noted baroque composer Henry Purcell, who was choirmaster and organist here. The Royal Greenwich Observatory winked at us from high atop its hill at exactly 0 degrees of longitude. We grabbed a quick lunch at the World Cafe and found our stateroom prepared for our arrival. Much of the history of the English speaking world took place a stone’s throw from here and we are about to dive into it.Read more
TravelerHappy memories
6/25/22Reply
TravelerSo glad you are situated and already enjoying the trip!!
6/25/22Reply
TravelerSo thankful you two are safe! Have a wonderful time. Love you guys!
6/25/22Reply
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Into the Midnight Sun
Chillin’ Out
June 24, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 86 °F
It is a good thing that we arrived at the Raleigh-Durham Airport a few hours before our flight started boarding. We walked up to the American Airlines counter, and there was no one waiting in line ahead of us. Unbelievable! We just walked right up, first in line. I don’t know what the problem was with our checking in online last night, but the agent seemed to have trouble as well. He had to scan our passports 6 times (?), and then he had a problem with the printer. Finally he called over a more experienced colleague who treated our issue as though it were no big deal. Technology is great when it works, but when it doesn’t, repairing what should be a simple problem can seem impossible. Now we are comfortably waiting in the American Airlines Admiral’s Lounge for our boarding, which is set to begin at 6:30 pm.Read more
TravelerSuch a sad state of affairs with the airlines in terms of available, knowledgeable staff. How fortunate you were taken care of, no lines and relaxing prior to your departure.
6/27/22Reply
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Medriatic Sojourn
There’s No Place Like Home
May 13, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
We have returned to Newark, have passed through security and customs and have transferred our luggage to a domestic flight back to Charlotte. Since this airport is the place where I officially began the travelogue for this trip, Newark seems to be a good place to end it. Thanks to all who have taken this trip with us on the web, and special thank for all the kind comments about the musings I shared. It was great to have you come along with us. Best wishes to all, and may all your journeys be happy ones.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Back to Rome for a Final Covid Test
May 12, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F
Before we even checked in to the hotel Savoy, we went to the international pharmacy for our quick-result Covid test. The United States requires that we be tested for Covid within 24 hours of our departure from Rome. We have just enjoyed a beautiful lunch of spaghetti carbonara, and now we are ready for supper and an early departure tomorrow. So now we are here in a lovely hotel, with our feet up. This has been a wonderful trip, and we are still enjoying ourselves. Nevertheless, after five weeks we are ready to be home again.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
A Day on Our Own in Florence
May 11, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F
We have no schedule today, no bus musters, and no promises to keep. So we can do what we want to in Florence.

The first thing I wanted to do today was to go to Santa Maria Del Fiore to show my friend the baptistery and the cathedral. We did that quickly enough, so the next step was to walk over to the church of Santa Croce, where Italian geniuses are buried. As we waited to enter the church, I snapped a photo of a high school group posing for a class picture. In the church we saw the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Rossini, and Cherubini. We took our time and enjoyed the cloister, the museum, and the refectory. We stopped to have lunch at an outdoor restaurant adjacent to the church. We were not being herded in a tour group, and I didn’t have a vox plugged into my ear. We took our time enjoying a cool, sunny morning in one of the most beautiful cities of the world.

After lunch my friends asked me what I wanted to do next and I told him that I wanted to see the chapel of the Medici family. I grabbed a coffee-chocolate gelato cone on the way, savoring it as we walked. Glenda and I had been to the chapel on a previous visit, but on that occasion we were rushed through the sacristy as the guide hurriedly told us that the sarcophagi whizzing by had been carved by Michelangelo. How surprised I was today to learn that there is an upper floor with a spectacular rotunda carved in multicolor marble housing massive tombs of later members of the Medici family. There is also a museum that contains multitudes of reliquaries and other religious art collected by the Medicis. We saw some of the splendid vestments worn by Pope Leo X, who was a member of the Medici family.

As an extra little treat Glenda and I had a happy memory as we passed the Grand Hotel Baglioni only a block from our current lodging. We had stayed at that hotel on our previous visit to Florence. Returning to the Hotel L’Orologico on the Piazza of Santa Maria Novella about 2:45 pm, pleasantly tired, we were grateful for a fantastic day in Florence.

So now, it’s it’s back to Rome and then home. We are still enjoying ourselves, but I think we are ready to get back to our place, our food, and our music.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Florentine Kaleidoscope
May 10, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F
We just returned from the most detailed walking tour of Florence that I have ever experienced. We saw so many things and went to so many places that I cannot begin to describe them all. Our guide Mike walked us for over four hours, first to the Duomo, then through the streets to Palazzo Vecchio, over the Arno river and through some recently restored areas of the city. He took us into some churches with some very obscure early works by artist such as Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, and Verrocchio. He took us inside the benevolent order of St. Martin, a charitable organization to which Michelangelo belonged. Some art historians believe that a young Michelangelo painted a good part of the artworks that adorn the walls of this small room. The benevolent order is still in business, and volunteers provide aid to the poor and to orphans even today. We walked through the street where Botticelli was born. We saw the church where he was buried. We stood on the site of the home of Dante Alighieri and saw where he wrote the Divine Comedy. We saw an apartment rented by Leonardo da Vinci. We saw the building in which he began painting the Mona Lisa. We passed by the house of Lisa del Giacondo, his model for the painting. We saw the building where, in 1913, thieves attempted to sell that painting, thus giving it a status and notoriety it had never known. We went within a block of the convent where La Giaconda died as widowed nun. Mike pointed out the building in which the story of Pinocchio was written. I wish I had been able somehow to record his entire presentation because the detail and the breath of his knowledge surpasses that of any guide I have had. What a day! What a city!Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Launching Pad for a Saint
May 9, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
San Gimignano is famous for lots of things – – it’s skyscraper towers, it’s beauty and its food, but perhaps it is not as famous for starting the career of St. Francis of Assisi.
The first thing our guide told us about Saint Francis is that his name was not Francis. He was born in the year 1182 as Giovanni di Bernardoni dei Moriconi. As a young man it was apparent that he was intelligent, very personable and quite handsome. He had all he needed to continue his father’s successful business. With his wealth, wit, talent and charm Giovanni was living the high life.
His dad sent him on a number of business trips across the Alps, and he soon became a confirmed Francophile, so much so that everyone began to call him “Frenchy”—Francesco or Francis. His father had the means to outfit his son as a knight in the war with Perugia. He was captured, imprisoned for a year, became seriously ill, and as a result felt that he needed to re-evaluate his life. After an encounter with a beggar, he adopted a life of poverty. His father objected and demanded that his son appear in the piazza before the town officials to renounce his new lifestyle. On the day appointed, Francis appeared in the public square, undressed completely, gave his clothing to his father saying, “You have always given me more than I needed, and I am grateful to you, Father. So now I return to you everything I own, and now I will serve my Heavenly Father.” One version of the story says that Francis’s close friend, a young noble woman named Chiara, immediately ran to an adjacent kiosk, grabbed a potato sack, ripped arm-holes in it and covered her friend’s nakedness. We know her today as St. Clare, and the Franciscans, as well as the nuns of the order of Santa Clara, today still wear a habit akin to sackcloth.
Francis began to attract others to his simplicity, and established a very simple set of rules based on the Bible. He set about to build churches in Tuscany, and one early base of his operations was established here in San Gimignano. Later he settled in Assisi. The remnants of the façade of one of his churches dedicated to St. John still stands here in San Gimignano. For many years he went up and down the countryside here building churches and preaching the need for a life of simplicity. God used him so powerfully that his message still resonates with people today.
Looking around in the beautiful town
With its green, cloud-draped hills stretching to the horizon, one could easily believe that this is a special place—a holy place. One could believe that God really does talk to people here.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Pasta and Truffles and Lunch—Oh, My!
May 9, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F
We were guests again today at Tenuta Torciano. In our morning cooking class Cousin Antonio taught us how to make pasta the Tuscan way. Half semolina and half regular flour, with a touch of salt, olive oil and one egg does the trick. We all rolled out our pasta paper thin, and then cut it with a knife to make the most delicious tagliatelle we have ever tasted.

While the cooking crew completed the rest of our lunch using the fresh pasta we had just made, we went with an old gentleman named Signore Moreno, who has made a life of hunting truffles with his three dogs Viola, Vila, and a three-month-old puppy named Zora. He told us about the six kinds of black truffles and about the elusive white truffle, which cannot be cultivated. The white ones can only be found out in the wild, and just a few ounces will fetch a price of thousands of dollars.
The training of the dogs begins before birth. Truffles are fed to the expectant bitch, and the flavor is infused in the breast milk she feeds her newborn pups. They become sensitized to that flavor and aroma from birth. Then truffles are placed inside a ball that the puppies fetch. Finally the ball with truffles inside is buried, and the young dog must dig it up and bring it to Signore Moreno. Today he released the three dogs in a wooded area and within minutes they began digging out black truffles. We petted and loved on the dogs and rewarded them with bits of cookies. Zora, the youngest dog, still insists on eating the truffles she finds. When he is not teaching a group of tourists, Signore Moreno trains little Zora alone so that he can stop her from consuming the product. He is sure she will eventually get the idea and turn into a good truffle hunter. Her mother Viola is regarded as a champion, and in 2018 found nearly 16 kilograms of white truffles. The cost of a dog like Viola can be as much as a new car.
By the time all of the folks in our group had helped the dogs to dig out a black truffle, lunch was ready. Again our places at the table were set with a rainbow of white and red wines. We had fresh bruschetta and an antipasto plate of cheeses, melon, and dried beef, followed by the pasta we had made in the morning. The cooks had added sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes and the truffles found in the woods we had just scoured. The main course was Tuscan steak with roasted potatoes and eggplant.
The meal was remarkable not only because of the wonderful team in the kitchen at Tenuta Torciano, but also because we had contributed to making the ingredients of the meal.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Nine Wines—Fine Times
May 8, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F
We are properly in Tuscany now, safely ensconced in a wonderful hotel called La Capucina just outside the historic town of San Gimignano. One of the very successful businessmen in Italy lives on a fabulous estate near San Gimignano. He owns several of the farms and vineyards nearby. He also owns two helicopters that fly VIP guests here from Rome and Venice. His parents were also successful, as were his grandparents, and great grandparents. In fact the Giachi family have successfully run this enterprise since 1720.

In medieval times, while most of the nobility built out, limited space on top of these cliffs forced the nobility of San Gimignano to build up. Each family attempted to out-do their competitors by building a taller tower. Half a dozen of these towers have survived battles and earthquakes. Today the tallest tower still standing belongs to the Giachi family.

Tonight we went to a wine tasting and dinner at the Giachi estate called Tenuta Torciano. We strode across the palatial grounds among statues of gods and goddesses to enter a festive dining room that could have been decorated for royalty. Nine wines, paired with the various courses of our meal ranged from a sparkling white wine, to a beefy Brunello di Montalcino. Each one was delicious. Each of the recipes Cousin Lilo served us was made from a recipe handed down from his great grandmother. The lasagna was especially good, consisting of flat noodles covered not with tomato sauce, but rather with a white bechamel. It took a great deal of discipline to avoid eating or drinking too much, and I must confess that none of us, except for Glenda, was successful.

We returned to our hotel around 9:30 pm more than satisfied, contented by the nine wines and ready for a good night’s sleep.

For more information visit:

https://www.torciano.com/en/

http://www.lacappuccina.com/mobile/index.asp?li…Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Papal Rest Stop
May 8, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
Whenever the medieval popes traveled north of Rome, they would stop at the papal palace in Orvieto. Because this was the boss’s favorite home away from home, the church here received more than its share of attention and funding. Not only was it a rest-stop for the popes, it was our rest-stop as well on our journey from Abruzzi to San Gimignano. This is the only example of Italian Gothic architecture still remaining. Perched atop a volcanic plug, Orvieto occupies the high ground. The mountain around it has eroded, so the town covers the top of a basalt cylinder that rises a thousand feet above the surrounding terrain. The only way to assault this fortress is with a helicopter, and these were in short supply in the 1200’s. The popes felt safe here.

Though the cathedral here is neither as large nor as flowery as St. Peter’s in Rome, in some ways I like this church better. Glittering golden mosaics on the facade dazzle the eyes in the afternoon sun. The stiff archaic characters painted on its interior walls speak of a faith that transcends time. Each panel tells the story of part of the Bible, and they do it with such graphic simplicity that one cannot miss the story. Adam sleeps as God removes a rib from his side to make woman. Noah rides over the waves in a huge boat. Peter is crucified upside down. Their message is unmistakable.

It is a Sunday, and when we walked into the church we saw a Catholic praise-and-worship service in progress. All of the frescoes were illuminated. And they were glorious. A chapel contains the church’s major relic, a tablecloth said to be stained with the blood of Christ that once miraculously dripped from a communion wafer. This event is said to show that the communion elements are the real body of Christ. Okay. I won’t argue the point. This miracle, however, gave rise to a holy day called the Feast of Corpus Christi and to the name of a wonderful city in Texas.

After leaving the church we wandered through this lovely, ancient town. We bought a pizza and a glass of wine just for the memory. I expect that the memory of Orvieto will be with me for a long time. Like it’s biblical images, it’s hard to forget Orvieto.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Traveling Through EATaly
May 7, 2022 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 54 °F
Today we made a culinary journey through Italy. It was not just a geographical journey through Abruzzi, it was a junket to three wineries. Each one tried to outdo the others in showing us hospitality, generosity and some of the best wines we have ever tasted.

We visited first the Tilli Vineyards. This small operation prides itself in producing wine the old fashioned way. While they do have modern equipment, they are a completely organic vineyard using no chemicals or insecticides. They harvest and press the grapes using traditional techniques and methods. Their sparkling white wine is made with a relatively new variety, the cocociola grape, using the methode champenois which requires unaltered white wine to ferment and age in the bottle. This process involves more risk to the winemaker. The wine is sealed in the bottle, and after a couple of years, the neck of the bottle is frozen and a plug of sediment is removed. The bottle is corked, and except for periodic turning of the bottle, nothing else is done to the wine for one to three years. The winemaker does not know whether the process is successful until he finally opens the bottle and samples the wine. If everything was done correctly, the wine emerges with a strawy yellow color, extremely tiny bubbles and a flavor that is indescribably delicious.
The third winery we visited, the Contesa Vineyard is a considerably larger operation. They also produce excellent wines using the same varieties of grapes, but their sparkling white wine is made using the charmat method, also called the tank method. The white wine is fermented and aged not in the bottle, but in a large stainless steel vacuum tank. This process is faster, produces a larger volume of sparkling wine and allows for some adjustments to the liquid as it ages. Although this process is not favored by serious connoisseurs, for most of the rest of us wine made with the charmat method is completely satisfactory and is cheaper than sparkling wine made with the traditional method. Contesa Vineyards is a medium-size producer in the Abruzzi region, and sells about half a million bottles per year.
Between these two visits, we were wined and dined at the Dora Sarchese Vineyard near Ortona. Favoring the traditional methods, this vineyard has a private reserve Montepulciano. The grapes used for this still, red wine are harvested by hand, pressed by human feet and lovingly tended. This wine is regarded by some as the best red wine in the world. You can drink it to your heart’s content for a mere €1000 per 750 ml bottle.

While the region of Tuscany with its wonderful Chianti is much better known, the region around Abruzzo also boasts some world class vintages. Additionally this area is very concerned about maintaining its distinctive rural character. The dominant grape here is called Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, which produces a full-bodied red wine that stands up favorably to any Chianti in Tuscany. The scenery and the wines convinced me that, though undiscovered by the masses, this place is the culinary heart of Italy. Endless rows of grape arbors climb mountainsides as far as the eye can see. Hundred-year-old olive trees silently grow their fruit. The farmers here are as careful about their olive oil as they are about their wine. Though the food we were served at all three vineyards was delicious, I would want to come to Abruzzo again just for the scenery.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Fisherman’s Feast
May 6, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F
As one travels along the coast near Abruzzi, one sees numerous little shacks standing on hundreds of slender sticks driven into the beach. Wooden booms holding fishnets extend out over the surf. This type of fishing hut is known as a trabucco. Most of them were built hundreds of years ago, and have simply been patched up with chewing gum and bailing wire ever since. We stopped at Trabocco Punta Cavalluccio, now converted into a restaurant, for a seafood feast of a lifetime. I was about to say that we had an eight-course meal, but it would be more accurate to say that we had eight consecutive meals. We started eating at 7:00 pm and did not finish until midnight. Each course was more food than I usually eat at one sitting, and it was all delicious. Waiters brought fried sardines, squid, octopus, sea snails, pasta-seafood combinations, and a dozen other delights, along with enough local wine to float a fishing boat. Before the meal was half over I was painfully full. But the food kept on coming.

An interesting twist to the meal involved a heavy storm out at sea. A huge surf constantly shook our sea-hut, giving us some concern that any moment the whole toothpick structure would collapse. As Jerry Lee Lewis once sang it there was a “whole lot of shaking going on,” and our twenty-eight eyes all enlarged together every time a huge roller threatened to smash the sticks and allow the Adriatic surf to swallow us, our shack and every last dinner plate.

I had to return my last four heavily loaded plates practically untouched. Now that the meal is over I feel as though I may not have to eat again for at least a month.Read more
TravelerThe feast looks amazing. 5 hours is a long time to eat and drink. Saving this for our next trip to Italy
5/22/22Reply
Chuck CookAmazing! Excessive! We’re chow hounds, but the amount of food we received (and wasted) was WAY beyond what generosity or hospitality would require.
5/23/22Reply
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Medriatic Sojourn
An Abbey Outside of Time
May 6, 2022 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 59 °F
On our way to supper we have stopped at the Abbey of Fossacesia. This austere church and cloister have stood here unchanged since the middle of the eleventh century. Unlike the high baroque interiors of the churches we have visited recently, these whitewashed walls bear witness to faith in a kingdom beyond the material world. A small community of believers have prayed without ceasing for a thousand years.

As we arrived a single priest prepared the elements for the Holy Eucharist. At 6:30 pm a single bell up in the campanile called all who wished to worship. Half a dozen people from town silently entered the choir area, where the priest began, “The Lord be with you.” Our group silently exited, but as we left we mixed our prayers with theirs thus joining their small community in our hearts.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Life in a Medieval Castle
May 6, 2022 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 61 °F
We have arrived in the eleventh century. For the next two days our home will be in the fabulous Castello di Septe, a building that has been maintained since its construction sometime around 1050 AD. The inside has been modernized, and it is as comfortable as any hotel we have ever occupied, and the building and its grounds are indescribably beautiful. Its original function was to serve as the home of a nobleman charged with protecting shepherds who drove their flocks to market along a nearby road. Highwaymen we’re a constant problem. A recent descendant had no offspring and the property came up for sale. The result is Castello di Septe, one of the most idyllic lodgings one could imagine.

Nowadays this facility is used most often as a wedding venue. But our group is occupying most of its rooms right now. There are many vacation venues that do not have any appeal for me. However, for an old medieval antiquarian like me, I feel like I have died and gone to heaven.

A brief history and other information about this place can be found at the website

https://www.castellodisepte.com/mobile/index-en…Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
On the Backs of Horses
May 6, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F
Lunch consisted of a wonderful haute cuisine Italian dinner at a restaurant, Mammi Locanda. That town of Agnone specializes in a certain kind of cheese known as coccia di cavallo (horseback cheese). In the old days farmers union would sling two huge wheels of it over the back of a horse, hence the name. We had a an appetizer made out of this local cheese with puréed peas, a tomato risotto with fresh cream and basil, Roasted chicken with a garnish of horseradish mustard, spinach, and puréed carrots. Dessert was a chocolate trio served with coffee ice cream. I have never had a more magnificent meal.Read more
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The Bells of Heaven
May 6, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F
On the way from Sorrento we came straight across the Italian peninsula. We had one rest stop in the Apenine Mountains, and then enjoyed a most unusual excursion to a factory that has been making bells since the thirteenth century. The Marinelli Bell Company in Agnona is the second oldest family business in the world, and the foundry that provides all the bells for the Vatican. This company still makes artisan bells in the old way. They dig a hole in the ground, make the cast, and then fill the cast with molten bronze. After it cools they lift the whole assembly and chip away the part that they don’t need. The formula for the tuning of the bells was achieved in the 15th century. The size and shape of the bell, along with its thickness, determines the note the bell sounds. Small adjustments can then be made by shaving off metal to sharpen or flatten the pitch.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
The Sorrento Death March
May 5, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
We were excited about walking into Sorrento again today to complete some unfinished business. I wanted to visit a wonderful furniture store that has some of the most beautiful inlaid marquetry I have ever seen. Secondly, we wanted to have lunch at a little sidewalk snack bar we enjoyed when we were here last. Thirdly, we wanted to show our friend Mary the deep road cut the Romans made with slaves captured in their many wars. Fourthly, I wanted to re-take a photograph of Glenda I muffed when I was here last. It was in the courtyard of a church, and I was just beginning to learn photography, and it was bright out in the courtyard and so Glenda’s face was underexposed.
So I pulled out the maps app and it got us the six tenths of a mile into town quickly and dumped us right at the door of the snack bar. Cool. We went to the furniture store as expected.
Check.
We showed Mary the furniture store.
Check.
We showed her the Roman road cut and took a photo.
Check.
We walked over to the church and I re- took the photograph.
Check.

And then I pulled out my maps app and set it to take us back to the hotel. It began by taking us down a flight of stairs that went down at least 1000 feet below the water level of the bay. Mary was panting. Then we had to climb up another inclined roadway which has not been used since Caligula drove his herd of donkeys to market on the same path in the dying days of the Roman Empire. It rose, and rose, and rose until we could see Capri, and Ischia, and Vesuvius, and Rome and even Biloxi.
Mary does have a little hitch in her git-a-long, so I wasn’t surprised when she asked, “Any more stairs?”
“Naw, don’t worry about it,” I said. “This app is great. It shows the quickest way back. Look, you can even see the hotel from here,” I told her.
“Yes, but it is on the other side of Mount Vesuvius,” she said.
“Uh—it’s not as far as it looks,” I said.
“Where’s Glenda,” Mary asked.
“Oh, crap!” I said. We had already been walking over an hour and a half, and we had lost Glenda. I was frantic. Mary was quickly running out of gas and I had lost my wife in a foreign city. In a few minutes Glenda appeared up ahead of us. “Where have you been?” I yelled.
“I’ve been up ahead asking for directions.”
“You’ve been doing WHAT!”
“It’s not a sin,” she said.
“It ought to be,” I said.
She said, “I’m getting us back up to the main road and Mary and I will catch a cab. You want to come?”
“No way,” I said. “I got this map app . . .”
“Suit yourself,” she said. “Mary and I are taking a cab.”
So they did. And I walked back to the hotel. And when I arrived Glenda and Mary were there waiting for me.

So now Glenda is gloating because for the first time in our married life SHE figured out how to get us home. She is ecstatic because SHE got the right directions before I did. SHE is laughing at me because I took them over four miles when we only had to walk six tenths of a mile. Well, all I have to say is that map app is really cool. I think it’s great cause at least with it a guy doesn’t have to ask for directions.Read more
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Positano and Beyond
May 4, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F
We began the day by driving down the Amalfi coast. I had no idea of the spectacular scenery we would find. Towering mountains fall right down into the sea. The coastal road hugs a tiny ledge that often rises 2000 feet above the water of the Mediterranean Sea. Massive cliffs rise vertically out of the ocean to a crest another thousand feet above us. The coastline here is even more magnificent than the California road traveling from Carmel down to Big Sur. We stopped in Positano at a wonderful family restaurant called Constantino’s. Our five course meal started with a Caprese salad, continued with a pizza course. This was followed by a pasta course consisting of cannoli, tagliatelle, manicotti and a wonderful cheese filled crêpe. The meal ended with lemoncello cake followed by a small shot of the beverage itself.

The scenery became even more magnificent as we swung back-and-forth on switchbacks. We went into higher mountains with terraces for growing white grapes, lemons, olives, and a host of other agricultural products. The terrain looked as though a giant accordion has been thrown down the mountainside. Each new turn revealed another mountain with hundreds of terraces going up the side. Each terrace was supported by a thick retaining wall made of huge stone blocks. Each of these blocks had to be hauled up the mountain side, usually by donkeys. It must have taken an unbelievable amount of work over centuries to haul all of the stone necessary to build those retaining walls. The terrain is so steep that even today stonemasons in brickmasons use donkeys to carry their loads to the worksite. We took time to visit a resort that our travel agents wanted to investigate. It is the opulent San Pietro resort near Positano. Rates here start at €3000 per night. We also saw the lovely town of Ravolo that hosts a classical music festival every June.

At the far point of our trek we were delighted with the sites from the Villa Rufolo, an estate begun as a castle in the 13th century, modified by the Saracens around 1500, and completely renovated in the 19th century. The estate belonged to a cousin of the pope, a nobleman who essentially ruled the Amalfi coast. This building originally reflected an unusual balance between Norman, medieval, and Saracen styles. However, the major renovation in the 19th century incorporated some romantic fantasies which upset that balance. Nevertheless, the house and watchtower are interesting, and the gardens are stunningly beautiful in their springtime colors.

We returned to our hotel after a long day, said good-night to a bejeweled Vesuvius and dropped into bed.Read more
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Return to Sorrento
May 3, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
We have just driven down the Amalfi coast and have checked into the hotel Bel Air in Sorrento. Our room in the view from it is indescribably beautiful. We can see for miles up the coast, Mount Vesuvius towers in the distance in the bay of Naples, and the city itself basks gracefully in the Mediterranean sun.

Like most of the places we have visited, the Greeks discovered the bay of Naples. They named their trading post on the coast Neapolis (new polis or new city). Gradually that name elided into Naples.

It is not difficult to see why this place is the home of the beautiful people. Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Ralph Lauren all have homes here. Our hotel seems about a thousand feet above the sapphire blue water, and it has all of the amenities one could ever want. We just gathered for dinner with friends. I enjoyed a delicious dinner of ravioli and grilled vegetables. I finished it off with a bottle of the local red wine. It was as perfect a meal as I have ever enjoyed. I know why those who can afford to live here do so. The Amalfi coast is literally a paradise on earth.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Vesuvius: Mountain of Spirits
May 3, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F
We have returned to the town of Pompeii at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. This is one of the most amazing places in the world because on an ordinary October day in 79 A.D. the mountain which had provided fertile soil, beautiful views and a rich source of income for this trading town suddenly erupted. This catastrophe caught the sleepy town completely by surprise. The mountain had erupted in the past, but the most recent activity had occurred 800 years before. Although there had been prehistoric settlements here thousands of years before, that eruption drove away the Greek traders who had settled here at that time. In 79 AD people had been living at this site for only 600 years. They had no idea that Vesuvius was anything more than an ordinary mountain.

First came the blast that shot a plume of volcanic ash 120,000 feet into the stratosphere. The effluent was so large that the mountain made its own weather. A few people died from the shock of the heat, but the worst damage was yet to come. The eruption produced lightning and a thunderstorm that caught the volcanic ash and dropped it in hot, muddy raindrops on everything below. A muddy fog was inhaled by every breathing creature. Where the heated raindrops fell they thickened and eventually hardened, encasing everyone and everything they covered in a shell of hot concrete. Most of the victims of Vesuvius didn’t burn, they suffocated.

A few people escaped. One woman rode a horse to the Roman port authority on the coast several miles north of Herculaneum. She told the captain of the port, a man named Pliny, about the eruption. He tried to help by sending several fast Croatian rescue ships across the bay to Herculaneum. However, the heat and the rain of volcanic ash were so severe that the ships could not reach land to rescue the victims. Port Captain Pliny wrote a report about the eruption of mount Vesuvius and sent it to Rome. His son, Pliny the younger, remembered his father’s account of the events of that horrible day. The son wrote it down in a book which was essentially lost to history until Naples came under the rule of the King of Spain in 1734. A Spanish scholar found Pliny’s account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and this discovery eventually led to the archaeological excavation of this site. Several skeletons and other artifacts had already been found when one of the archaeologists came upon an idea. He knew the bodies down in the volcanic concrete had decomposed, so he reasoned that the must have left a cavity. He filled the cavity with liquid plaster of Paris and let it harden. Then he dug away all of the soil around the dried plaster and he had a perfect cast of the victims on their final seconds of life.

In this way the images of the victims were preserved. So we’re their houses, their mosaics, their ovens, their streets, and their temples. The city is still here. So are its people. Pompeii is a city of spirits.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Roman Holiday
May 2, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F
We began our morning by passing quickly by the monument to Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the two men who founded the Italian republic. Our first real treat came at the Circus Maximus, Rome’s entertainment capital before the construction of the Flavian Amphitheater. One circuit of the course covered one Roman mile, a distance just a wee bit shorter than our Anglo-Saxon mile. Every time I come to this place I’m always more interested in the palace overlooking the racetrack.

Augustus built a palace here. It wasn’t exactly small, but it wasn’t nearly as large as some of the additions made by Tiberius, Nero and Titus, who followed him. Before Augustus, the ruler was his great-uncle Julius Caesar, who never was declared Emperor, but was a member of the First Triumvirate and essentially a dictator from 49 to 44 BC. As ruler he assumed the title of Pontifex Maximus, that is, the bridge or connection between the gods and men. As such he was required to live in the house reserved for the Pontifex Maximus located in the forum. Caesar’s family home, where he was born and which he never sold, was located in a slum. His grand-nephew Octavian (later titled “Augustus,”) succeeded him after a turbulent transition and actually did declare himself Emperor. So he got the palace.

We next went to the Colosseum (actually called the Flavian Amphitheater), the Trevi Fountain and to the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo to see its two magnificent paintings by Caravaggio, “The Conversion of St. Paul,” and “The Crucifixion of St. Peter.”We grabbed a quick lunch at the Campo della Fiore and finished up at the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. (We were not allowed to take photos, so those included are borrowed from the web.) In the central panel the finger of God is about to touch an inert Adam with the gift of life. The divine Father is portrayed over the exact shape of a human brain holding all of God’s thoughts, which are momentarily to be created. His left arm surrounds Eve, whom he is about to present to Adam. Michaelangelo had seen a human brain. Many of the artists of the renaissance, including Leonardo da Vinci, broke church rules to dissect human cadavers. Only in this way could they learn how a human body really looks, inside and out.

Unfortunately the queue to go into St. Peter’s Basilica stretched out into St. Peter’s Square. I doubt that half the people waiting to get in could do so by closing time.

Still, it was a great day and as usual Rome gave us more beauty and history than one person could possibly absorb.Read more
TravelerGorgeous photos and a great looking travel group. I remain amazed at the information you retain and share about everything you see and everywhere you go. Loving it.
5/3/22Reply
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Medriatic Sojourn
Dinner with the Gang
May 1, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F
Wonderful dinner with the gang at a Restaurant in Piazza Navona. Its name is translated “The Three Steps.”
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Medriatic Sojourn
Home Run
May 1, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F
I did something today that I have wanted to do for a long time. Using the maps on my cell phone, I walked about 1 mile to the Ara Pacis, the temple of Augustan peace. This beautiful structure was carved in the time of Augustus to commemorate the Pax Romana, a period of about 200 years when Rome so dominated the world that no other nation dared resist. This marble monument has always been housed indoors, so it is pristine, lovely and unweathered. I particularly wanted to see it because the cover of my New Testament introduction book in seminary was a photograph of this monument. The part of the monument displayed in the picture on my book is called “The Procession.“ My luck ran a little short however because the museum itself was closed. Today is May 1, and the museum is closed only two days a year, today and Christmas day. Even so, I was able to photograph it through the building’s glass side.

The other monument that I wanted to see is the mausoleum of the family of Augustus Caesar. This building was only discovered fairly recently and is still undergoing excavation and reconstruction. Scaffold and barriers were placed all around it to hide the ugly construction site, however, from the portico of the museum I was barely able to see over the barriers and grabbed a photograph of the structure. It was supposed to be open by now, but our guide tells me that it is still unfinished and will not be open for another couple of years.

So I still expect good things to come. There may be a time when I return to Rome and I can see both of these monuments restored and in their full glory. Nevertheless, I found them by myself, and walked to them by myself—to the two main monuments in Rome that I wanted to see. I’m sure these two places are not on the hit parade of most other tourists here. And I know that in the guided tours we will take for the next two days we will see many of the more popular attractions of Rome such as the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and the Vatican—all beautiful and worthy sites. No guide would ever take his tour group to see these two obscure monuments. But they are the ones that I wanted to see on this trip, and today I bagged them both. I called that a definite home run.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Glorious Sunday in the Piazza Navona
May 1, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F
Glenda and I shared a delicious breakfast here at the hotel early on this Sunday morning, and then started walking to the Piazza Navona. The air was cool. Church bells rang a joyous cacophony reminding everyone within miles that Christ is risen. We passed the open doorways of churches and overheard the sweet voices of nuns singing mysterious music, and we joined other tourists snapping photos in front of the large fountains. We had a good time here this morning in the Piazza Navona. We always do.
This popular tourist site is usually filled with smiling visitors, diners in fashionable restaurants and happy vacationers sipping a cup of espresso. However the name of this place hints at its former purpose. Modern Italian makes it hard to realize what Piazza Navona was originally called.
A clue to the original use of this site maybe found in the piazza’s shape. It is shaped like a hippodrome, a horse racing track. Chariot races could be held here. Another hint is on the street sign that marks it’s location. The street name carved in a granite plaque on the side of a building says, as one would expect, “Piazza Navona.” But in small type underneath it says, “Il Stadio di Domiziano,”—the Stadium of Domitian. Most of us remember this Roman Emperor as the ruthless persecutor of Christians. But his persecution of believers was just a part of his overall plan to keep the masses happy. We all know the cliché that the Roman Empire kept the rabble entertained with “bread and circuses.” There is some truth in this. Roman spectacular entertainment always had involved brutality. Christians actually were fed to lions. Gladiators actually did kill each other in front of huge crowds of spectators. However, by the time of Domitian, the normal bloodshed in the arena had become, well, normal. The crowds wanted more—more brutality, more bloodshed more terror. We see equally horrific things in movies today, but back then there were no special effects. So Domitian built a new stadium, staged larger, bloodier shows than any that Rome had ever seen. Hundreds of warriors fought against each other to guarantee that there would be enough gore to satisfy the crowds. Shiploads of animals fought against other animals. Thousands of the best trained athletes in the world came to this place for the last struggle of their lives. Domitian’s new stadium won the name “the Place of Agony,” or “Piazza Agona.”
So now tourists sip espresso, kids munch their pizza and buskers blow bubbles—all at the Piazza Navona.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Buonjourno Roma
April 30, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F
We landed at the Fiumicino Airport, got our luggage and found our driver Manny without a hitch. He was born in Rome and has lived here all his life. As he drove us to our hotel we discussed Roman history, the development of the Italian language and the world situation in general. What a great guy!

He drove us to the Hotel Indigo St. George on Via Giulia, the same hotel we stayed at when we were on a tour of Italy with Uniworld River Cruises back in November of 2014. We popped up to the rooftop terrace to check in with Lisa Saint, our tour organizer, and then came back to the room to put things away.

It was a good trip to Rome with no glitches. Now we will power down and get some rest before we walk the Roman streets tomorrow.Read more
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Medriatic Sojourn
Athens to Rome
April 30, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
Our ship docked at the port of Piraeus outside of Athens this morning. We had breakfast, packed up our cabin and now we’re waiting in the Explorers Lounge for our transfer at 11:45. We will go to the airport and try to get ticketed and checked by security. Then this afternoon around 4 pm we will board an airplane headed for Rome.Read more
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