A Warm Welcome and the Vatican Museum

Short Version: The warmest welcome we've received so far this trip is certainly this one in Rome.  After host-related entertainment, we set out to explore the Vatican Museum which has a great collection but way too many gift shops.  Now scroll through and look at the pretty photos.  :)

Long Version: It took us a little while to find our hotel in Rome.  We had the address and were in approximately the right location but we couldn't find the correct street number nor could we find a sign anywhere.  It turns out that that's because our hotel is not labelled.  We've looked since and still can't find anything.

Luckily, the hotel owner had a friend (assistant?) who came out looking for us since he knew approximately when we were supposed to arrive.  After showing us to our room, this super friendly Romanian guy asked if we were hungry, started to tell us where some food options were, and then said, "It's easier if I just show you."  So he proceeded to lead us around to a bunch of pizza places until we found one that was open.  We enjoyed sampling some delicious Roman pizza:

Not the greatest photo, but I love that you can just pop into a pizza shop, get a slice or two of several different kinds of pizza, and be on your merry way - all for a pretty affordable price.   

The next day started off with a traditional minimalist Italian breakfast with the hotel owner.  Over cappuccinos and jam croissants at the espresso bar around the corner, he regaled us with information about Rome and drew all over a map of the city, making suggestions for itineraries, food, and more.  Paul had read that Wednesday mornings were a good day to go to the Vatican museum since many people are over at St. Peter's to see the Pope.  This turned out to be an excellent tip - we waited in line for less than five minutes.  

The Vatican Museum is overwhelming and has an extremely confusing layout.  To make matters worse, the map they give you is crap.  I'm willing to admit that my reading of maps isn't always the best, but when Paul has problems, you know it's not good.

However, we managed.  I mailed some postcards from the Vatican (most expensive postcard stamps ever!): 

We saw Hercules many times over (clearly, he was a popular figure to sculpt):

Paul and I both thought The River Nile was quite neat: 

And, of course, the fabulous Laocoon, which I loved seeing on my first trip to Rome in high school and was eager to see again.  Such an expressive sculpture!

Then there's the magnificent School of Athens:

I always forget how large these things are - the School of Athens takes up a huge wall.  

We topped off our visit with the Sistine Chapel, which was also larger than I remembered.  My main memory was of the crush of bodies, which held true this time as well, although not quite as bad.  The line to get in took forever.  Then we were able to stand in a somewhat less crowded space before queuing up in a tightly packed line for ages to get back out.  And the guards were worse than your worst librarian - endless loud "shhhhh-ing" to quiet the crowd.

Paul commented that the Sistine Chapel is a horrible fire hazard.  If something happened in that room, many of us would not have made it out.  There was simply no where to go.  There are other doors but Paul was not confident any of the guards could have gotten to them in time to open them for a panicked crowd.

The other nuisance in the Vatican Museum was the ridiculous amount of gift shops.  As you stroll through the endless galleries following the signs to the Sistine Chapel, they have many mini gift shops set up along the halls - in extremely inconvenient locations where they take up half the walking space in an already crowded area.  And, as you exit the museum itself, you are funneled through the biggest gift shop of all.  I expected that last part, but all the small ones spread throughout the inside were excessive.  

After the museum, we took a very long walk which included a hill with a pretty good view of part of Rome:

Our hotel folks say Rome really isn't that big of a city.  I suppose that's true - as far as the parts that most tourists want to see are concerned.  But from up high, it looks enormous.

Goodbye, Greece

After stressing over how to get to Rome, we opted to fly.  Otherwise, we would have had to take a bus, switch to another bus, somehow validate our Eurail pass (which the Eurail authorities told us they thought would be possible in Patras), catch a 24 hour ferry, and finally a 4 hour train to get into Rome about midnight.  All of which would have taken us 2 full days.

Instead, I'm sitting in an airport typing a draft of this post, feeling a bit bummed that the Greece airport security folks confiscated the small jar of honey that the lovely hotel owners gave us as a departure gift.  I was really looking forward to trying that honey, too.  It was over weight (130 when the limit is 100), but I was hoping it would just slip through.  The best part?  They never even checked any photo IDs - not even when we were boarding the plane.

Paul called this the most rigorous security he's been through, since they also wanted all electronics removed, not just computers (although they deemed his cell phone and camera small enough to be okay).  I beg to differ - that would be Japan or China - wherever they made us go through security twice.  The second security check was right before we got on the plane, and they confiscated the drink we'd just purchased in the airport (after we'd gone through the first security check!) so that we could take our malaria meds on time.  They definitely win.

Our flight was delayed 2 hours due to a strike in Rome, which was a bit of a letdown after we'd been telling ourselves how glad we'd be to leave all of Greece's transportation issues behind.  I have my fingers crossed that that was the last hiccup - ha!

Cruisin'

On Monday, we took a day cruise out of Tolo to the islands of Spetses and Hydra.  We enjoyed the sea air:

and the deck seating:

On Hydra, no cars are allowed (and I didn't see any motorcycles or scooters either), so it was nice and quiet.  It's also a quintessential Greek sea town, the kind you see in postcards:  

We managed to time things really well.  We had three hours on the island so we started out with a walk. Then, not long after we sat down to lunch, it poured (weather seems to change quickly near the sea).  It stopped raining just as we were finishing up our delicious meal.  Paul particularly enjoyed the Greek yogurt with honey, which we finally got the chance to try:

You can't tell, but the "spoon" he is using looks more like a little shovel with a flat end.  Considering how fast we shoveled it in, that seems appropriate.

Some more pictures from Hydra:

Bougainvillea taking over a pine tree.

Greece has lots of stray cats, but this was the most we saw in one place!

On Spetses, I was amused by these rather precarious driveways (there is no support):

and the Kraken made out of stones on one of the pedestrian walks:

Rough seas delayed our return to Tolo, so we had a lot of time to kill before the final bus of the day.  While standing around looking pathetic with thunder in the background, one of the boat workers took pity on us and offered us a ride to Nafplio.  We were very grateful, since we weren't confident the bus would even come - given our previous experience at the Sanctuary of Asclepius.

A Day of Beach and Rest

On Sunday, Paul and I took a break and just wandered around.  We went on a nice walk:

to a beach, where we both put our feet in:

Then I made sure to get a good picture of the 999 stairs I climbed up and down - hopefully, you can spot them along the cliff:

And finally, a lovely view of the Old Town of Nafplio from the pier:

The Kindness of Strangers

Greece likes to ease you in to things.  On our arrival at the Athens airport, we had the fun experience of finding another way to get to our hotel with the metro on strike.  That involved a bus and then a taxi (which overcharged us - pah!), but wasn't horrible.  Today, it was the full whammy - complete abandonment.  More on that after the pictures.

We took a bus to the Sanctuary of Asclepius to see the sites, in particular, the Theater of Epidaurus:

This amphitheater is heralded as one of the best preserved from that era.  It's even back in use today.  Some work has been done on it, but not the extensive work that we've seen on other ancient structures. Paul also liked the sophisticated drainage system.  I decided it was important for me to stick my foot in one of the two drainage tunnels so that you can see how deep it was:

There's also a stadium that a sign says is used by local schools, which I think is awesome:

So, the abandonment.  The Saturday bus schedule is limited, so there's really only one bus for the return trip - at 6:15.  After exploring the ruins for many hours, we made our way to the bus stop by about 6:00.  We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  We met an art historian from San Francisco and chatted about the unreliability of the transportation system in Greece and elsewhere.  6:30 came and went.  Then 7:00.  The already empty parking lot emptied further as we tourists, now seven in total, began to grow anxious about the lack of a bus.  There was one tour bus waiting for its group, so members of our group noticed the bus driver talking on a cell phone and inquired as to whether we could use it to call the transportation folks to see if the city bus was coming.  The nice bus driver called for us (which is probably for the best, since none of us spoke Greek) and informed us that the transportation folks claimed our bus, which was clearly scheduled for 6:15, supposedly came and left at 6:00 (it did not - some of the others were waiting long before that).

At that point it became clear that our only real option was to see if we could get that tour bus to take us back - or at least to somewhere not quite so remote!  After some stumbling through language barriers, waiting for the "boss," (i.e. the person in charge of the tour group), and a smidge of anxiety, we found ourselves on a plush bus full of Austrian academics (both profs and students in archaeology  headed toward Tolo - a city about 10 km from Nafplio.  Two Germans in our group had talked to the bus driver about dropping us off at a crossroads on the way to Tolo where it would be about a 3-4 km walk to Nafplio (totally doable) or just taking us to Tolo where we could catch a bus to Nafplio (there were two more that evening, so it seemed probable).  However, when the turn came for the bus to head toward Tolo, it continued on to Nafplio and dropped us off right in town.  Then, no one, not the tour leader nor the bus driver, would accept any compensation for the inconvenience/additional passengers.  What a wonderful turn of events.  

As five of us were walking back to our hotels together and chatting, Paul suggested that we all get dinner together.  Everyone else agreed, so we had an entertaining dinner with a couple from Moscow (the wife was actually from Spain) and the art historian.  

A Tube with a View

View from atop the Fortress of Palamidi

On Friday, we climbed 999 steps up the side of a large hill to the Fortress of Palamidi.  For anyone that knows me, this is quite the feat since I'm not the fondest of heights.  One of my goals for this trip is to work on that, so I'm going to take this opportunity to pat myself on the back and reward myself with gelato for making it both up and down those 999 steps.  (I like to reward myself with gelato on just about any occasion I can.)  Also, as I'm sure you can guess, I did not "cleap over."  Neither did Paul, although he may have wanted to at one point while I had his hand in a serious death grip.

The Fortress of Palamidi sits on a hill above Nafplio. Built in the 1710s, it's a sprawling fortress full of barracks, food storage areas, a church, and my favorite (because I like saying it), "murder holes."  Barring the occasional fear-inducing precipice, it's a fun place to wander around.

That's the church behind the tree.

At one point, I ducked through a tunnel and then noticed another tunnel right next to it.  Curious to see where that one lead, I peeked in and promptly announced to Paul that it was "just a tube with a view."  Since he couldn't stop laughing, I thought it might make a good post title.  

I'm standing next to the tube with a view.

Also neat about this fortress is that you can really explore quite a lot of it - not much is roped off. There's a small area that was called a prison at one point even though it was just a secondary gunpowder magazine.  I can see why one would call it a prison though - we had to duck through a tiny entrance to get into this small, cave-like space (I have no idea why we look so happy.  Seriously, it was like a scary dungeon in there!):

Just a few more cool photos:

Don't look now but I think there's a creeper (the Minecraft variety) in that building!

Food, Glorious Food!

We are enjoying a mix of eating out and hunting for local grocery stores for eating in.  One thing that seems to be common in Greece are outdoor restaurant areas featuring comfy couches and chairs:

This isn't the greatest picture of the seating, but Paul is on a couch with lots of pillows, which is surrounded by more cushy furniture ideal for lounging.  The only drawback is the smoking.  It feels like more people smoke in Europe (at least in Ireland and Greece, anyway).  We can't quite decide if it's the bans on smoking in public areas in the U.S. warping our views, or if it really is more common here.  Either way, while these restaurant areas are super-comfy, it's not as fun to linger with all the smoke.

We also enjoyed a tasty meal indoors on a rainy day.  We were trying to find a more authentic Greek restaurant, and I think we may have partially succeeded (it's hard to really know in popular tourist areas).  They even invited us into the kitchen to see all our food options, which was pretty fun!