Trip to central and southern Italy 5-14 October 2010

This time we went on our own: Miriam and Levi

The first day 5th of October 2010 we arrived by Alitalia, which stll rather bad to Rome, where we took a room in Prince of Navona. They have two places, we were in the center of the city, Arenula str., 41. 15 min to major attractions: 50 s till the nearest kosher restaurant Yotvata, 10 min to Maria del Pianta str. of former Ghetto with shops and restaurants. 20 minutes to Capitoleum, 10 min to are Sacra, 25 to Forums, 10 to Tiberina and synagogues. Only Vatican is more distant.

The first thing to do - see river, which is absent in Israel.

All the best pictures of living in Rome per se are here

The next day we had a planned organized trip to gardens of Vatican (our pictures).  It is unusual and rather spiritual place. After that we visited Vatican museum . There are exciting ancient marbles in the courts of museum, but the main impression is Sistine chapel. At evening we tried to travel with two GPS (device and cell phone), but it was a nightmare. The next day I did it better, than still better.

The main rules are:

1. Never ever let it lead you into narrow streets of Rome
2. Do not use two of them
3. Always see the screen and know which turn to skip. On junctions know where to turn before the junction. On the junction itself sometime the device still does not have enough time to know if you are on junction or turned already or not. So, it sometime gives you the next direction, not the actual.
4. Know the general direction, it will recalculate. Sometimes it shows compass also.
5. OVI maps in Nokia M86 was a revelation for a movement of foot. Keep it horizontal and will show the map in a comfortable way. Excellent usage is to go out of the car, remember the place in its memory and use for going back
6. The same application allows also to seek in categories, like tourist attractions, save them, build a route using saved locations seen on map. In short can be very effective.

Parking in Rome. It is difficult, although there is a big parking with payment new Vatican. One must usually seek blue places and pay though automate or Tabachi (tabac shop). Good advice: take two places small car, it allows parking perpendicular to the pavement in narrow places.

The fourth day, Friday we used for Capitoline hill and its museums as well as to buy products and start a trip by boat. Forum may be observed from Capitoline hill too, but Titus arch is bit distant. On the municipally of Rome there is a picture of  Gilad Shalit. The square has also a a copy of monument for Marcus Aurelius, but the original is in the nearby museum. See all this here and  here.

On Shabbat there were a lot of impressions in the big and small synagogues. Acoustics, grandeur and bell canto in the big one, nice crowd in the small one. We ate the first time with Israeli pair studying there medicine, in the morning near the small synagogue. All people are nice. The payer book and rites are rather different from what I am accustomed to. On Shabbat night I made a foot trip to arrive to Comedin and a strange pyramid of Gall Cestius.

After Shabbat we succeeded to see several squares: Quirinal, Castor with Pollux, Maria Majore, piazza della Reppublica. Difficult, but possible to drive!

We meant to visit Tivoli on Monday, but some of attractions are closed this day, so we decided to skip papal blessing on Sunday and go to Tivoli. It also was against original plan to go to Naples from Tivoli. Вилла Villa of Hadrian  and  Villa D'Este are very interesting. Hadrian the Emperor build a miracle, which is partially preserved, D'Este is of cardinals and full of water and fountains. At night we traveled a bit through old Appia road. Later - Trevi and Spain square.

7th day, Monday we had a long survey of St. Peter square and the basilica ("cathedral"). Opinions were divided, but the pure measurements are impressive. And the Pieta by Michelangelo. Later through the day we traveled to hotel in Pozzuoli. The trouble was that the hotel in essence not in Pozzuli, but nearby. And the Domitian street is about 5 km long and goes through different towns. On the way we saw mountains with clouds.

8th day - Herculaneum and Vesuvius, both of great interest: here.. A bit of Naples.

9th day - Capri. They gave us tickets for a circling boat for 13.00. But on 13:00 he said that not enough people came, so it is set on 13:30. We drank coffee in Internet caffe, came 13:15, and the boat left! But then he wistled and the boat came back! All the trip was very beautiful except: the Blue Grotto was closed due to waves. The heaviest rain started, so we skipped cable car ascent into the island and fled. We were very wet and cold, see Capri album.

The last 10th day we saw different views near Pozzuoli, like lakes and temples. The last attraction was very good: Sulfotara volcano, see here: Vulcanology, around Pozzuoli.

Solfatara in video mode: