[7/1 -- 7/4 Barcelona]
[7/5 -- 7/6 Norwegian EPIC]
[7/7 Naples/Pompeii, 7/8 Rome]
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July 7 Naples / Pompeii ...
- Mount Vesuvius
We booked a shore excursion combining Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii.
On the way to Mount Vesuvius, we first passed by a
jewel/shell place for a
quick tour and pit stop.
Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption
in AD 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities
of Pompeii, Herculaneum and several other settlements. Vesuvius has
erupted many times since and is the only volcano on the European mainland to
have erupted within the last hundred years with the last major eruption in
March 1944. Today, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in
the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living nearby and
its tendency towards explosive eruptions.
The hike from the
parking lot to the summit crater was a steep but easy 30-40 min walk.
It was high enough to be above the clouds which had blocked the view of the
mountains when we arrived at Naples in the morning, but being above the
clouds meant hotter temperatures that were in fact part of a record high
week in years.
- Pompeii
Pompeii was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to
20 ft) of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The city was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in
1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish
engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748. The objects that lay beneath
the city have been well-preserved for centuries because of the lack of air
and moisture, and provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life
of a city during the Roman time.
July 8 Rome ...
I decided to cancel the shore excursion tours, and went to Rome on our own so
we could have the maximum flexibility since I had already pre-booked all the
tickets to Colosseum/Forum and Vatican Museum. I was planning to take
train to Rome,
but we ended up hiring a taxi (from the cruise bus stop) to take us directly to
Colosseum and had him pick us up at St. Peter's Square at 4PM.
- Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum
The old saying "Rome wasn't
built in a day" is particularly applicable when you visit the ancient Rome
areas like Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum.
The Colosseum is
probably the most impressive building of the Roman Empire. Constructed in AD
72--80 and originally known as the Flavian Amphitheater, it was the largest
building of the era, measuring 188m by 156m and reaching a height of more
than 48 meters. When Emperor Titus inaugurated the amphitheater in AD
80, he declared 100 days of celebratory games that some 9,000 wild animals
were slaughtered during these games.
Even though I had seen many
pictures of the Colosseum on the internet before, I was still very impressed
by its grandeur at first glance.
Palatine Hill in Imperial Rome is the most famous of the
seven hills of Rome. By the time of Rome's Republican era, Palatine Hill
became the fashionable place to live, due partly to the amazing views on the top
of the hill, and also to the belief that the air was cleaner atop the hill and
that those who lived on it were less likely to catch the diseases from the bad
air below. Augustus, Cicero, and Marc Antony (Marcus Antonius) all had
homes on the hill. Later, emperors built their domains here and, at one point,
the entire hill was covered with imperial palaces.
The Forum Romanum was the center of life in Imperial
Rome, evidenced by the many remains of triumphal arches, temples and
basilicas. It was the site of the first forum. Here, triumphal
processions took place, elections were held and the Senate assembled.
Today, the forum known as the Forum Romanum can look like a disorderly
collection of ruins (Arch of
Titus, Arch of
Septimius Severus,
Temple of Castor and
Pollux,
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, etc.). Although I tried to study
the forum map carefully before the trip, it was still quite difficult to
locate and recognize all these historical landmarks from the ruins.
- Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II
Officially known as the
Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, the enormous white marble
monument that dominates Piazza Venezia was built as a tribute to the first
king of a united Italy. Victor Emmanuel II was king of Sardinia from
1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title King of Italy to
become the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century, a title he
held until his death in 1878.
- Pantheon
The Pantheon was designed by Emperor Hadrian, a brilliant
amateur architect, and was constructed in AD 118-125. The building
is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns. A
rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under
a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky.
Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still
the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to
the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3
metres (142 ft). The Oculus, a bold 8.3m diameter hole at the dome's
center, provides light and structural support that the tension around its
ring helps hold the weight of the dome.
Although Colosseum is the
biggest building in Roman time, Pantheon is the most amazing one in my
opinion.
- Rome to Vatican
After a delicious Italian cuisine lunch, we headed
toward Vatican City.
- Vatican Museum
Although we booked the tickets to Vatican Museum and
Sistine Chapel (1PM), we decided to upgrade to a guided tour which would
give us direct access to St. Peter's Basilica after we finished at Sistine
Chapel. The Vatican harbors one of the world's greatest museum
complexes, a series of some twelve collections and apartments whose
highlights include the Raphael Rooms and Michelangelo's incomparable
Sistine Chapel. It was extremely crowded in the museum that we
were shoulder to shoulder with other tourists. Sometimes we could
not even see the walls when we were standing in the middle of an exhibit
room. Unfortunately photography is not allowed within Sistine Chapel
due to some
legacy copyright reason...
- Saint Peter's Basilica and Square
Saint Peter's Basilica, the
world's largest church, is the center of Christianity. The church is
built on Vatican Hill, across the Tiber river from the historic center of
Rome. The location is highly symbolic: this was the site where Saint
Peter, the chief apostle, died a martyr and where he was buried in 64 AD.
St. Peter is considered the first pope, so it made perfect sense for the
papacy to build the principal shrine of the Catholic church here. The
church standing here today is a new basilica rebuilt in 1506 and finally
reconsecrated in 1626, exactly 1300 years after the consecration of the
first church (326 AD).
St. Peter's Square, a grandiose elliptical
esplanade created in the mid seventeenth century by Gian Lorenzo Bernini,
is bordered by massive colonnades that symbolize outstretched arms.
Bernini and his assistants sculpted the 140 statues of saints that grace
the balustrades on the colonnades. The square is decorated with fountains
and an Egyptian obelisk that was transported to Rome in 37 AD.
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[7/5 -- 7/6 Norwegian EPIC]
[7/7 Naples/Pompeii, 7/8 Rome]
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Pisa/Florence, 7/10 Cannes/Monaco, 7/11 Palma]
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