Pisa and Livorno, Italy - 8/21/15

The next top on the cruise was to Pisa and the ever so famous leaning Tower. We went on a short strip to Miracle square, which is surrounded by an old wall and is home to five historical landmarks. The landmarks include the baptistery, the cathedral and of course the famous bell tower known as the leaning tower of Pisa. 

Currently after many attempts at correcting the tower, it leans at the same angle that it did 300 years ago when Galileo was discovering gravity by dropping coins off the top.

We did not have time to go into any of the other 4 buildings but we did climb the tower all the way to the top. There are seven bells at the top and walking around the tower at an angle is a weird feelings. We climbed the 293 marble steps to the top and the view was awesome.

After the tower climb, we returned to the port and ended up wandering around the Port city of Livorno, which was destroyed in WWII. You can still see some of the buildings that were damaged but it was mostly been rebuilt since then. There are two fortresses in the city that we went and wandered around but other than that, it was somewhat blah. Livorno had made an attempt to replicate the city of Venice with some canals and it just was not the same. 

Roma and Vatican City - 8/20/14

ROME, my lifelong dream. We started the day on an hour-long bus ride form the port of Civitavecchia to the downtown of Rome. The drive looked similar to my normal drive south to Corvallis on 99… except there was cacti. The hay fields, grapes and cattle all looked the same otherwise.

We arrived in Rome and passed through both roman walls and into the ancient city. Trevi fountain is under restoration, so there was no water and a bunch of scaffolding….

We walked through the downtown to the ancient roman Forum where we walked through the ruins. This part was cool… I cannot remember what half of the stuff was but I know there was a house where women had to live for 30 years and were considered goddesses. The women were in charge of keeping the roman flame lit that signified the life of the Roman Empire. If any of these women had sex then they would be buried alive because you cannot kill a goddess. There is your random fact of the day.

The next stop was the Coliseum ( MY FAVORITE). There are really no words to describe how magnificent the coliseum is, they just do not. The Romans are the smartest architects in my opinion building things with both looks, practicality and the ability to last for thousands of years. The whole coliseum is just mind blowing. I am a little upset that we only really had tome to run through and take pictures, but I will defiantly be going back someday. Go there; see it and you will understand.

For lunch, I ate the best lasagna I have ever had, drank Italian wine and enjoyed veal, potatoes and spinach. For dessert, I had the best Tiramisu I have ever had and the strongest Italian coffee ever. I was hearing colors after I drank it.

The final stop on the tour was to Vatican City. I thought we would only be able to go to St. Peters square but we actually got a chance to go into St. Peter’s Basilica (Largest church in the world). After a bit of a wait in line to go through security with a bit of entertainment. Some rude man cut the entire line into the basilica (Come on… its Vatican city...) and one of the English women we were touring with and her friends made a huge fuss over it. In the end, the rude person and his wife were taken out of line by security and were not able to go in. They deserved it, after rudely pushing the English woman and cutting everyone.  We made it into the Basilica with 15 minutes to tour it and it was breathtaking. Once again, there are no words to describe how large and magnificent the architecture and every detail throughout the Basilica are. 

Napoli, Italy - Vesuvius and Pompeii - 8/19/14

Napoli (Naples) was amazinggg.  We ended up on an adventure up the famous Mt Vesuvius. This is the famous mountain that erupted in 79 AD and buried the famous city of Pompeii (last eruption was in 1944 and you can see the recent Lava flows). The Mountain looms 4000 feet over Napoli and the surrounding suburbs.

  The picture almost looks like two mountains but if you can imagine that, the left side hump is actually the original crater walls and the right side hump is the caldera that formed during the eruption. It is hard to put into perspective how large the mountain really was.

We were lucky enough to be able to climb the mountain up to the crater. It was about a “30-minute” walk up to the caldera’s crater summit. We hightailed up the 1200 feet in about 15 minutes. At the top, you were able to look over the entire bay of Napoli, some of the steam vents in the crater and see Pompeii off in the distance.

Interesting random facts – Vesuvius has caused the land around it to sink down over the centuries and you can actually go snorkeling off the coast and see ancient roman ruins that are underwater. There are also random ruins all over the city that they have uncovered and do not want to destroy such as some right by the boat pier that they discovered when they were trying to build a subway system.

After we visited Vesuvius it was only right to visit the city that it destroyed, we were able to walk around the 2/3 of Pompeii that are currently uncovered (once had 20,000 people).

We visited the ancient Brothel, fast food kitchen, Forum, Basilica, Baths of the Forum, theater and saw some of the original, led pipes and artwork. There was so much to see and take in at one time.

After that adventure we had some time to walk around the waterfront and got some Margarita Pizza from its origin (Pizza originated in Napoli, margarita is the signature pizza). Also, Lemoncello is like the moonshine of Italy and it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!