The ABCs of Greece & Italy! X, Y, and Z, and that Friends is THE END!!! :) See you in Asia and Australia, Join Me THERE!!

[pkondz]

Leaving Naples wasn’t difficult; I honestly didn’t care for it much at all. It was loud, busy, and incredibly dirty.

You should write their tourist brochures.

If I was to do the planning and traveling all over again, I’d use Sorrento as a “homebase” for both Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, add Herculaneum, and skip Naples altogether. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I'll keep this in mind if I ever get over there.
Doubtful... but you never know.

mmmm... who doesn't love a good puff pastry?

This is a short and sweet post because it’s been an incredibly wonderful day filled with the palette of Autumn in the Appalachians (Red River Gorge)

Saw that (at the bottom of this post). Incredible colours!

and Miguel’s Pizza (IYKYK)

I do not know.

and I picked up a 12-hour shift in the morning.

Just did one of those a couple days ago. 12s are long.

Goodbye Vesuvius, rest quietly.

They are fast, hence the blur in so many of my photos.

153kmh... not bad.

Every little bit, we’d see another hillside village of whitewashed homes resembling a Lego set creation. I wished we’d had time to hop off the train and explore each one.

<sigh> Never enough time, is there.

Each station was home to a few train cars meant for other purposes, which gave me constant amusement. They are a bit reminiscent of something out of a Richard Scarry children’s book, and I giggled at that a bit.

even I was now hankering for some mediocre, but predictable “American” food.

no... no, no, no...

there’s a Mickey D’s right across the massive Rome Centralia

Noooo...

Ah well. When in Rome?

I mean it. This was probably my favorite room we stayed in the whole trip, except maybe a couple of them in Tuscany.

My favourite room... except for the one in Tuscany. No, two in Tuscany. And that one in Venice. Oh, and the one in...

Love that ceiling.

My mouth nearly fell onto the ground when the owner said he had a surprise for us. He turned on a light switch and pushed aside a throw rug. Right there in the middle of the floor was a sunken “museum” filled with treasure’s he’d found while excavating for his remodel. RIGHT THERE!!! Pottery, coins, old pipe, etc….

How cool is that!!

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite shots from my day in the Heart of Appalachia.

Really gorgeous.

 

[missjackiemcg]

Holy moley!! That is SO cool!!! I really loved that ceiling, too.

Simply gorgeous. Love the fall colors, too!

 

[Wood Nymph]

This is a short and sweet post because it’s been an incredibly wonderful day filled with the palette of Autumn in the Appalachians (Red River Gorge)

The fall colors are gorgeous. I would miss them if I lived in a place like Florida.

There just wasn’t time to find a taxi, get to our Airbnb, and then go back out in search of a meal. Besides, we’d both gotten to “that point” in our trip. Anara had a couple of nights before me, but even I was now hankering for some mediocre, but predictable “American” food. Not surprisingly, there’s a Mickey D’s right across the massive Rome Centralia and being fast (and not so cheap) we pigged out on artery-clogging crapfood for lunch. Yes, we both ate our entire burgers, fries, and Coke.

Sometimes you just have to have a burger. My brother-in-law lived in Singapore for a year or so and had Burger King for lunch every day. My sister would try all the different foods, but he wouldn't.

Right there in the middle of the floor was a sunken “museum” filled with treasure’s he’d found while excavating for his remodel.

I love the floor museum. That is awesome.

 

[rdkeim]

Loving reading about your big adventure! We were on a tour of Italy last month and were in many of the same places. We only saw Naples from the bus window but it was pretty depressing. We did love Pompeii - one of the highlights of our trip. Wish we would have had a little more time there but such is the nature of tours. Your AirBnb in Rome looks perfect! And the little museum - how creative! Anxious to hear about your visit to St. Peters and the Basilica. We're having a pretty Fall too but hate that winter isn't far away.

 

[Paulaparm]

How cool is that surprise under the rug?!?!
Your local pictures are beautiful too!

 

[Steppesister]

J is for: Join Me in the Vatican Museum (Part 1)​

After we settled into our Airbnb, Anara and I headed out for our 3:00 tour of the Vatican Museum. Before we left on our trip, I’d bought us some Rome City Passes and unfortunately, they ended up being pretty confusing to use. In the end, we missed seeing at least one place I’d wanted, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Luckily, The Vatican Museums wasn't one of these. But more on this later...

The hour-long or so (or so because we were doofuses with no map) walk towards Vatican City was absolutely lovely. Here's the (very!) approximate route we ended up taking. We could have done it in less, but wouldn't have strolled along the Tiber in front of Castel Sant'Angelo had we done so.

​

I have to say, at least in my own humble opinion, the bridges in Rome, as famous as the Ponte Vecchio in Florence is, are far prettier that span the Tiber. We crossed several of them, (because we were lost most of the time) and each time I was amazed at the art atop each one.

​

I love that about Europe in general- art is embedded in so much, and here things are just so… utilitarian.

​

Then again…

​

We marveled at each scene that unfolded as we wound our way towards Vatican City.

(This was just near our Airbnb at the end of our street. In fact, if you click on the Google map spot "Via Guilia" this is the exact spot/image that pulls up. I should have been a Google photographer!)

(This cracked me up FAR more than it should have! "Hey, Man, wanna take a tour?" ​

The weather was partly cloudy and a perfect temperature for trekking around the city; Autumn is a perfect season to head to Italy, should that be on your bucket list. Speaking of which… (some of you have already answered this on Facebook, but hey, drop a line here!) what places to travel to are on yours?

Eventually, we made the semi-circular trip around to the north side of Vatican City where Museum Tours begin. Even the outside has some amazingly famous and OLD works!

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_della_Pigna )

​

It wasn't long before I realized the QR code/ticket I was sent wasn’t going to work.

How could it with no internet? No, still haven’t fixed that connectivity problem, but soon. Promise, soon.

But for now…. Thank Goodness I had printed out a hard copy of our payment and ticket confirmation and handed that to the lady at the window. A tip that's ESPECIALLY important for international travel that I’m learning the hard way: PRINT YOUR CONFIRMATIONS OUT!! I re-learned not long ago from a friend the beauty of a Trip Binder.


**** Warning Nostalgia Trigger Ahead****

Umm, remember when, if you’ve been following my own TRs for long enough, that some of us used to make fancy, decorated binders for Disney? Before apps and all that? I did. With cute stickers too. They had all the printed ADRs, schedules, lists of stuff we wanted to see and do, resort reservations, MNSSHP hard tickets, you name it, the binder had it. There were even fancy templates right here on the DIS for that! But, I digress. Today, we were thankful that I had printed out our tickets (and actually even remembered to put them in my bag. My senility is settling in far faster than I’d like).

With a quick scan of the paper tickets we were assigned a group and told that our tour would start in about 15 minutes. Just in time!!!

You know what’s hilarious about this entire affair so far? I had ZERO idea we were even ON a tour or had paid for one! Seriously. I thought we’d simply bought entrance to the museum and we were going to wander through the zillions of rooms all by our lonesome. Which is even more hilarious. Because we were faaaaaaaaaar from lonesome. It was so packed we could literally hardly move through the exhibits, and even keeping sight of our guide was a joke. I had NO idea what to expect, so really couldn’t be that disappointed; it was what it was.

With just enough time to hit the loo, we met up with our group and were given our earpieces. We found out right away that we got a very good and knowledgeable guide and were glad in the end to have “signed up for a tour”. I’ll just say up front that, if you’ve never been to the Vatican Museum, you could spend days… weeks… in there and not scratch the surface. There are dozens of rooms chockful of every artform you can imagine from well before the Renaissance up to Modern Art. It was good that we were taken to the best highlights, including the Sistine Chapel, and the 2 or 3 hours (def lost track of time!) we were there was honestly enough . It was overwhelming at times, both physically and spiritually(?). We both felt that the art and works were not something we wanted to rush through nonchalantly.

With a brief introduction, in the “Welcome Area” and short tutorial about the use of color and some of the symbolisms we’d see, using a giant digital painting behind her and an interactive screen presentation, we began our immersion into the vast Vatican collections. Only 15 minutes into our tour, we both realized it was definitely already worth the price!!

I’m not going to give a ton of commentary for each of my load of photos; I took too many and honestly don’t even remember half of what it was all about now. But I did have some favorites and will share a few tidbits along the way. Enjoy what I did get in two posts. I have far too many photos for one.

I'll start with mosaics, because we all know how much they float my boat:

I mean remember the mosaics from Delos and even Pompeii?? Yeah, these blew those out of my mosaic boat-floating waters!

​

Many, but not all, of those are from The Round Room:

https://vaticantips.com/round-room-at-the-vatican/

And sometimes it pays to look up too!

​

I'll finish up in the next post- maybe even 2- with more art: Marble statues, paintings up the wazoo, and even tapestries. Just so much mind-blowing art, My Friends!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Rome looks like a beautiful city to walk around in. Does an app like Mapquest give an accurate map for Europe?

You know what’s hilarious about this entire affair so far? I had ZERO idea we were even ON a tour or had paid for one! Seriously. I thought we’d simply bought entrance to the museum and we were going to wander through the zillions of rooms all by our lonesome.

That was lucky to have a printed copy. Did they offer a non-guided admission to the museum?

I used to create schedules and print things out for WDW back in the earlier days when fastpasses were free and bookable ahead of time.

I mean remember the mosaics from Delos and even Pompeii?? Yeah, these blew those out of my mosaic boat-floating waters!

Those mosiacs are amazing. I could look at those all day.

 

[Steppesister]

You should write their tourist brochures.

LOL!!!


It'd be blank with,

"Don't Go"

I'll keep this in mind if I ever get over there.
Doubtful... but you never know.

No, you never know where you'll end up. Australia has really never been on my bucket list at all but here I am planning a big trip there.

mmmm... who doesn't love a good puff pastry?

Sooooo goood!!

Saw that (at the bottom of this post). Incredible colours!

It was such a lovely day and this was the absolutely peak of our colors. It's rainy and cold here now and most of the leaves are gone. I'm glad I forced myself out to do it last weekend.

Just did one of those a couple days ago. 12s are long.

They are. But I'm almost starting to wonder if 3 12's wouldn't be better than my normal 4 10's.

153kmh... not bad.

We'd been on faster ones, but they all seem to clip right along.

Noooo...

Ah well. When in Rome?

I see @franandaj did the same thing in Egypt. We're not the only ones.

My favourite room... except for the one in Tuscany. No, two in Tuscany. And that one in Venice. Oh, and the one in...

Ok, there were several, but this was a stand out!

How cool is that!!

Unexpected too!

 

[Steppesister]

Holy moley!! That is SO cool!!! I really loved that ceiling, too.

Isn't that amazing?! So unexpected and neat!

Simply gorgeous. Love the fall colors, too!

Thanks, Jackie! Mother Nature put on a very fine display this year!

 

[Steppesister]

The fall colors are gorgeous. I would miss them if I lived in a place like Florida.

They were truly spectacular this year. Just beautiful and so many shades! I've been tempted to travel to Florida for travel gig, as I really do love it there, but yes, the seasons are harder to enjoy for sure.

Sometimes you just have to have a burger. My brother-in-law lived in Singapore for a year or so and had Burger King for lunch every day. My sister would try all the different foods, but he wouldn't.

Yes!! But I'm not in the every day category. We'd done Italian for every single meal until then and honestly it was time for a change. Even if it was to something like Chinese, or Indian, or Thai!

I love the floor museum. That is awesome.

Wasn't it!? So creative and masterful!

 

[Steppesister]

Loving reading about your big adventure! We were on a tour of Italy last month and were in many of the same places. We only saw Naples from the bus window but it was pretty depressing. We did love Pompeii - one of the highlights of our trip. Wish we would have had a little more time there but such is the nature of tours. Your AirBnb in Rome looks perfect! And the little museum - how creative! Anxious to hear about your visit to St. Peters and the Basilica. We're having a pretty Fall too but hate that winter isn't far away.

Thanks Sooo much and for stopping in as well! Italy is definitely someplace I could spend a very, very long time in. I love the slower pace, the country lifestyle, just everything.

Yeah, Naples just seemed like a big industrial and rough place. Not so pretty really. But it is a good jumping off point for Amalfi and Pompeii and see the draw for its convenience. I'd pick Sorrento though in the future. That's why I "FIT Travel". It takes WAYYYYYYY more time to plan and research and set everything up, but I'm willing to do that for the exchange in freedom and tailoring things to my own needs.

Vatican is up, but sadly we didn't make it to St. Peters. We... wait for it....

petered out.

 

[Steppesister]

How cool is that surprise under the rug?!?!
Your local pictures are beautiful too!

Thanks, Paula!!! I was so stunned when the host pulled away the rug revealing our own personal treasure so admire for 3 nights!

Thanks! Very lovely time of year here!

 

[Steppesister]

Rome looks like a beautiful city to walk around in. Does an app like Mapquest give an accurate map for Europe?

It really is! Especially in the areas near the Forum and and Circus- the historical parts. But it also has some really cool neighborhoods with charm that are fun to wander through.

I've never used MapQuest, but I'm sure it has some similar features as Google Maps. What I'd done was save my routes as links, but I could never figure out, even after exhaustive research how to SAVE them on my phone to pull up later. Like as downloads sort of. So, what we ended up doing until we finally got a card (I mean FIXED the one I acutally had) was taking pictures of the maps and the steps at places with internet then using the photos to guide us. So tedious and cumbersome. My #1 piece of advice? Take care of your SIM FIRST thing!!! Before you leave the train station or airport!

That was lucky to have a printed copy. Did they offer a non-guided admission to the museum?

I used to create schedules and print things out for WDW back in the earlier days when fastpasses were free and bookable ahead of time.

I'm sure they did, but the #1 warning I had was buy advance tickets as this and the Colosseum FOR SURE will sell out. We saw this absolutely at the Colosseum for sure. Many, many people were turned away. I didn't want to rely on same day/walk ups as there would likely be none, even during the "shoulder season" when we were there.

Those mosiacs are amazing. I could look at those all day.

I can even believe the detail in them. Holy smokes, even the shading and contour! Crazy!

 

[Steppesister]

J is for: Join Me in the Vatican Museum (Part 2)
​

Moving from room to room and listening to the stories of the artists who contributed to the works held in Vatican’s Halls was truly a feast for the eyes. Every inch was covered in some form of art including carved wood, vaulted ceilings, paintings, sculpture, and other mediums.

​

I loved how detailed the marble works are!

​

One of my favorite rooms was the Hall of Maps. It was very crowded in this narrow hall, so my photos didn’t turn out, but these couple give a small taste of the 40 panels done by commissioned artist Ignazio Danti from 1580-1583. Yes, you read that right. Each one depicts a region of Italy at the time and boasts a surprising 80% accuracy- not bad for 1580!

​

My other favorite room was the Room of Segnatura. It features 4 HUGE paintings by Raphael in the most exquisite colors. I LOVE how alive the scenes are and made me imagine myself sitting in one of the scenes as a participant. The depth and perspective were just so perfect!

Each of the panels represents the 3 Greatest Pillars of Human Existence: Truth, (separated into Philosophical Truth and Spiritual Truth in 2 paintings) Good, and Beauty. Our guide explained each one and how it represents one of pillars. Then she told us that this was Ground Zero, the very starting point, of a turn into what is known as the High Renaissance. These were painted from 1508-1511. This was the first painting commission that Raphael did for the Vatican and where the long-standing and envious rivalry between Michaelangelo and Raphael arose. Apparently, jealousy of one another ran deep and Michaelangelo died hating Raphael and his successes.

​

^^ See the guy right there? Apparently, many scholars believe this is a satirical depiction of Michaelangelo and Michaelangelo knew it was mockery, fueling the animosity between the two.

(How pinatas were born)​

Another of my absolute favorite rooms was the Hall of Tapestries. I had no idea tapestries could be so intricate and realistic! This is a huge hall with enormous woven treasures over 15 feet tall and 20 feet wide! If I had had to choose 2 rooms to spend my time in at the Vatican, it would have been this one and the Sistine Chapel.

Close ups of the woolen craft

(Called "Slaughter of the Innocents"- some things never change)
​

Of course, there is all myriad of statuary scattered throughout the museum as well as rooms and rooms filled with Catholic objects of worship throughout history, tools of exploration and navigation, gifts to the Popes, furniture and just…. Stuff. In the next post, I'll round out our Vatican visit with the remaining batch in no particular order.

 

[pkondz]

After we settled into our Airbnb, Anara and I headed out for our 3:00 tour of the Vatican Museum.

Oh boy!

I’d bought us some Rome City Passes and unfortunately, they ended up being pretty confusing to use. In the end, we missed seeing at least one place I’d wanted, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

Well, that's unfortunate. Too bad it wasn't a little bit more intuitive.

The hour-long or so (or so because we were doofuses with no map)

We could have done it in less, but wouldn't have strolled along the Tiber in front of Castel Sant'Angelo had we done so.

I think you chose wisely.

We crossed several of them, (because we were lost most of the time) and each time I was amazed at the art atop each one.

Wow! So lifelike! That's pretty amazing art.

Like the soft focus on this one.

I love that about Europe in general- art is embedded in so much, and here things are just so… utilitarian.

Then again…

Well... when in Rome? Literally?

(This was just near our Airbnb at the end of our street. In fact, if you click on the Google map spot "Via Guilia" this is the exact spot/image that pulls up. I should have been a Google photographer!)

That's a very eye-catching shot. Good on you!

Autumn is a perfect season to head to Italy, should that be on your bucket list.

I do try to travel on the shoulder seasons. Better weather and less crowds (usually.)

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_della_Pigna )

Interesting. Imagine what it must have looked like with water flowing down it.

A tip that's ESPECIALLY important for international travel that I’m learning the hard way: PRINT YOUR CONFIRMATIONS OUT!!

Even for domestic travel, I do this.

Umm, remember when, if you’ve been following my own TRs for long enough, that some of us used to make fancy, decorated binders for Disney?

Nope. Maybe before my time.

They had all the printed ADRs, schedules, lists of stuff we wanted to see and do, resort reservations, MNSSHP hard tickets, you name it, the binder had it. There were even fancy templates right here on the DIS for that!

Sounds both fun and practical.

With a quick scan of the paper tickets we were assigned a group and told that our tour would start in about 15 minutes. Just in time!!!

Good thing you didn't get too lost!

I had ZERO idea we were even ON a tour or had paid for one! Seriously.

It was so packed we could literally hardly move through the exhibits, and even keeping sight of our guide was a joke.

We found out right away that we got a very good and knowledgeable guide and were glad in the end to have “signed up for a tour”.

Good!

I’ll just say up front that, if you’ve never been to the Vatican Museum, you could spend days… weeks… in there and not scratch the surface.

After seeing all your photos... I believe it!

It was good that we were taken to the best highlights, including the Sistine Chapel, and the 2 or 3 hours (def lost track of time!) we were there was honestly enough .

Little confused by this. You said you could spend "days... weeks... in there"... but then you say 2-3 hours was enough?

Only 15 minutes into our tour, we both realized it was definitely already worth the price!!

Good!

Mosaic???

The detail is incredible!

Love the colour and detail of the wood.

I loved how detailed the marble works are!

​

The amount of work required to create something like that... let alone the skill!

One of my favorite rooms was the Hall of Maps.

When I saw it on FB, it really caught my eye!

I LOVE how alive the scenes are and made me imagine myself sitting in one of the scenes as a participant.

I can't think of a better description for good art.

Apparently, jealousy of one another ran deep and Michaelangelo died hating Raphael and his successes.

This, I did not know. Huh!

^^ See the guy right there? Apparently, many scholars believe this is a satirical depiction of Michaelangelo and Michaelangelo knew it was mockery, fueling the animosity between the two.

Oooohhh... fighting on canvas.

(How pinatas were born)

enormous woven treasures over 15 feet tall and 20 feet wide!

The detail is stunning!

(Called "Slaughter of the Innocents"- some things never change)

Perhaps not...
Still... that painting is entirely too captivating.

 

[pkondz]

LOL!!!


It'd be blank with,

"Don't Go"

No, you never know where you'll end up. Australia has really never been on my bucket list at all but here I am planning a big trip there.

It's been... hmmm... on the edge of my bucket list?
But... like you said... here you are, going.

It was such a lovely day and this was the absolutely peak of our colors. It's rainy and cold here now and most of the leaves are gone. I'm glad I forced myself out to do it last weekend.

Whelp... everything here is covered in about a foot of snow... so... no more fall hikes for me!

They are. But I'm almost starting to wonder if 3 12's wouldn't be better than my normal 4 10's.

I would think... yes.

Ok, there were several, but this was a stand out!

 

[Wood Nymph]

This was the first painting commission that Raphael did for the Vatican and where the long-standing and envious rivalry between Michaelangelo and Raphael arose. Apparently, jealousy of one another ran deep and Michaelangelo died hating Raphael and his successes.

I didn't realize that they were contemporaries. Both artists did fabulous work.

Another of my absolute favorite rooms was the Hall of Tapestries. I had no idea tapestries could be so intricate and realistic!

The tapestries are gorgeous. It looks like you could spend days looking at the artwork. The detail of everything is amazing.

 

[cheryllarsen]

I enjoyed reading this post!

 

[cheryllarsen]

Thanks so much for posting. Looks like you had a great trip!

 

[rndmr2]

I had started this TR back when you were planning it and lost track as I was off the Dis for a while and then rarely on the TR board. I saw the recent title of the Vatican museums and skipped to the last few posts and then will go back.

Hubby and I were just on a Med Cruise and in Rome Oct 3-5th with the cruise leaving late on the 5th. We did a Vatican tour on the 5th Thursday. We were late for our original tour because we couldn't get an Uber but they were able to get us into another one. Which was different than the one I booked but I was glad they were able to accommodate us even though it was a larger group and we had booked a "Small group" one. There were about 20 people and our guide wasn't the best about making sure we were all together. It was so hot and crowded that day and I was not feeling 100% to begin with and all the stress of trying to keep up with the group added to being tired and hot (partially from not feeling good---turned out to be for female reasons, ugh...) and all those darn steps, ohh man, it felt like there were constant steps, up, down, up, down and my knees don't like steps (out of shape at age 50 with almost 30 of those years as a nurse will do that to a person, LOL) I barely felt like I could enjoy it. I have looked back at my pics and at least I think I got some good ones but I have no idea what most of it is.

I did love those 2 hallways with the maps and the tapestries but I was loving the ceilings more, so gorgeous.