Eternity

I thought about the Eternity after I've discussed the life of Jesus between His childhood and 33 years. My friend wanted to know what I think about the possibility that Jesus passed some yars of His life in Tibet.

Well, I don't want to speak about it now. I simply wanted to understand: what feelings I have after this call. I opened the photos of my visits of Greek and Roman sites this year. And understood that all  I feel now is possible to explain in only one word: Eternity. Maybe I'm not right, maybe I choosed a wrong definition. Here are the photos that made more impression on me.
Do you agree with me? Is it the right word to explain the concept?

(Photo 1,2 -Paestum; 3 -Roman town under  Naples; 4 -the view from the crater of Vesuvius on Sorrento coast and Capri)

The Very First Baptistry

Spring is just the main character of the life in Italy, we had more than a week of the relatively sunny days, and all the institutions awoke after the letargy of the winter inactivity. In Naples, there are different and very interesting exhibitions, an entire bunch, that are connected to the week of the culture, when the entrance in all the national museums is gratis.

I wanted to visit the castles situating over the city but the weather was not too good and I decided that the most wise way is to stay in the museums that morning. So, the itinerary was urgently changed just in the car and I had to visit the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro (here is the photo of the best piece-the mitre http://www.museosangennaro.it/ )

The actual Dom is built near one of two antique doms of the city, that is actually called Basilica of S. Restituta. Very beautiful and unique building that was created in IV cent. (!) Today, it practically has not the traces of that initial sanctuary.



The right part of the Basilica has an interestiong mosaic inspired, I think, by the mosaics of Constantinople, created in 1322.



On the left, you can find access to the most antique Baptistry (in Europe). It was built at the end of IV century and has unique, literally, mosaics that no one other site has. The Baptistery is actually opened for the visits after many years of important restaurations.



What is interesting in this site that the capitals of the columns are not from the Roman villas -that is usual- but they have signs of the cross and other christian symbols.

The catechumen had to rise his eyes to the god during the christening and could see all these signs over him.

Here are some photos of the mosaics.

Santa Lucia in Naples

Quarter Santa Lucia of Naples is very beautiful. You have to go for a walk there if you visit this city. And it's unpossible that you miss it, if you decided to walk there. Because this quarter is situated just behind the Royal Palaceabout a km far from thje port where your cruise ship waits for you. By the way, I've just wrote about the restructured port of Naples ( “New” Port of Naples and Mariner of the Seas in Naples ) and went in the city to see the ship of Royal Caribbean, Mariner of the Seas. Because the weather was so good and I had free time, I decided to spend some hours to see the places I like there.



I wanted to visit the fortress Castel dell'Ovo (on the photo, in the sea) to take some photos in this incredible medieval building, but did not want to walk all that way from the port to the castle -about one km, I think. So, I asked one man that was clearly from this place about a short way. He said me that there is only one but not very nice street, and, at the end, decided to accompain me. You can see the mountain road we took just behind the 5-star hotels of the sea front. You will see it, that road, on my next photos closely.



All the street was this way: go and return. 100 meters forward, 100 meters back.



And the castle was just under me, so near but so far... The first Greek sailors decided to leave on that rock in the sea and they used this mountain to excavate the caves for their needs and for their gods.



One of the bends of the street opened a splendid palace. Abandoned. The man that accompained me told, the residents burned it once to protest when the muniсipality wanted to transfer them from the caves where they live (you can see them on my next photo)

 

These "houses" and "apartments" are the caves in the side of the mountain. Did you ever claim your house? Look at this photo in the period when yoou are not content with your accomodation. But they are sure, I think, that their houses can not fall down during the earthquackes...

 

Fjord in France

Did you know that there are fjords in France? No? I did not know about it, too. Till yesterday.Than I found a photo like this one:


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The title of that photo was "Calanques". I heard that word for the first time and thought it's something like a little mediterranean town that is situated not far or on the seaside of this formation -like Amalfi, Maiori etc. But I was not right. The word is possible to translate as "fjord" -well, you are right, "translate" is not the proper signification but everybody knows what it is. So, I, for example, sell vacation packages and cruises in Northern Europe that offer visits and trips to Norwegian fjords. Spectacular places, I have to say you.


But I' never thought that there are similar fjords in South Europe, too.

The region is full of them. Here is the photo from Wikipedia where you can find more general information about this place ( Calanque ). Because I did not know about it, I'll copy here some words to have them in my site.

The region is between Marseille and Cassis, there are different calanques there you can visit.

There arew similar formations. So here, in Italy, there is a Regional Natural Reserve of Atri (it's in the region Abruzzo) where you can visit calanques -without sea there, only mountains of this special form. Plants do not grow there but there are interesting animals like reptiles and many species of rapacious birds. Because there are so many different species, it would be interesting to go for bird watching there. We have some species here and they are very interesting to observe.

Happy Birthday, Italy: 150 Years

Tomorrow is the great feast for Italy: 150 years. All the main cities open important exhibitions, shows, all kinds of the celebrations. Rome and Turin begin the feast just this night. Everything will be open all the night there. Concerts, concerts, concerts everywhere! Hope, the weather will be not very bad and it willl be possible to go in Naples where the feast begins tomorrow at 11:00 in Piazza Plebiscito.

I want to "celebrate" with some photos that represent (I think so) some attractive sides of Italy for all us.

Do You Love Salami?

Well, "Salumi" -if we want to be precise. All kinds of sausages.

If you come in Italy, you WILL eat them in any case. There are hundreds and thousands of types of salumi in Italy. And you will remember some of my reports about one of the agricultural shows we visited a year ago. (on the photo)



This time I wanted to write about salumi once more because ther was an other "show" in our zone: one of the largest malls, the supermarket inside it, exposed typical products of an other zone of Italy, I do not remember, what zone but all I bought in the show was excellent. Cheese, salami.

And salami -besides the low quantity of salt- was ...look here how long it was! I've never seen such long sausage! And the low quantity of salt was the other good discovery because my husband has to avoid to eat it. Do you know, that the fresh made salami has completly different taste? Mature is good, but fresh is special. Maybe because we can taste it rarely.



This other is Mortadella. It was about 3 m long but it's not surprising because there are often long mortadellas exposed in the shows.

Looking For Cheap Vacation

Budget travelers and not only they look always more often for cheap vacations. There are different reasons because this phenomena is so popular in the modern world. We work hard and want to have a good vacation, but we are conscious that there are many vendors that have excessive prices thought for unsuspecting tourists. And, from other side, it can happen that we do not inform us about the ways we have to behave in other countries and places we want to visit.

The most evident example from the life. If you go in a bar in a central street of a popular among the tourists town or in one that is near a very popular touristic destination, you can often pay what you order in that bar much more in confront to an other bar that is situating just some steps far from the main street.

Sometimes, I find advises about the airfares. You have to book your ticket choosing a little airport where there are not too many flights, they say. It can be right for some places. But using the air transportation in Italy, I noticed that the best prices I found, were always in the most big and hectic airports like Milan. Personally, I look in all the most important online agencies and carriers sites and choose the best for my intentions price among all them.

Sometimes, cheap means not "less paid". For example, my husband went in Argentina booking a flight for an incredible low price about half a year before the flight. In these 6 months, the company changed the time of departure and other similar things every week. Every time, we had to call their paid call center to confirm that he, my husband, wants to take this flight. Every call's cost was very high.

The other time, I bought an incredibly low cost ticket to fly in Russia about 2 month before the flight. I had an emergency and had to fly there in any case. The company suddenly transfered the flight from the airport near my house to an other, in North Italy just some days before the departure. All the "last minute" flights costed a fortune it that moment, and I had to accept the change of the airport. All the additional expenses raised the price to the business class sum.

That is why you have to read advises of those who just experienced the travel destination you choosed to avoid such bad experiences.

Everybody Loves Dubrovnik

This port in Croatia that visit maybe all the cruise liners and not so big ships, too, is known -and I read about it many times- as the most beautiful town in Europe. It's possible not only come for one day for a short shore excursion, there are many hotels and resorts here. My friends that stopped in this town for a day during their vacation  on board of their own car, told me, there were even wild roebucks that were not afraid of them and neared them so, that they could make photos.


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As we can see on this photo, the place has interesting history, too. There was a Roman settling and a Slavic settling from both sides of a little river here. With time, the persons conjuncted their towns, burried the river that is the main street today.


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Who knows why we are fashinated by the towns situated in similar places?What is so attractive to make us feel we are in a kind of Paradise? Colors? Our love to stay near water?

By the way, the name Dubrovnik comes from the groves that grew here. As I see on the photos, there are not those groves more. I would plant them...


«Дубровник. Хорватия.» на Яндекс.Фотках

Immersed in Ancient Life: Greeks in Italy

The last week was difficult for me because I was ill. But I decided to take advantage of some suny days we had and went in Paestum.



Paestum is an excavation site not too far from Salerno (about 40 minutes of train) where you can see 3 of Greek temples and some interesting rests of the roman town. Than, there is a museum where you can see many original pieces of the cultures from 40000 years ago till Roman times. Very interesting. If you know what you have to look at.

The 2 temples on the photo are from Vi and V centuries BC. And here is the third of them that is situated far enough and is dedicated to an other deity. This one is from V century. BC, clear.



In this post I want to show you some greek vases. It's something simply incredible, the quality of the pictures!

Here is the rape of Europe (by the way, I've seen dufferent representations of this event but there was no one where Europe showed her disappointment about this crime :0)))





Most tourists do not look at the pictures on the vases. They go away and leave the juice of the exposition. Because these pictures represent the life of those persons. I went in Paestum this time with intention to photograph the pictures to show them to you. So, that you can enjoy it with me.

This is a picture on the vase that was given to the woman for her marriage. I think, the picture shows the moment when the woman was prepared for the cerimony. The most interesting is that these vases were found in the tombs too. So, the woman had to take this "marriage vase" with her in the life after the death.



What has to represent this picture I don't know. What surprised me here were the hairs of the man. Not only all the characters of the vase are blond (?????) but the man has this strange long hair. It was not comfortable to have long hair in the battle, I think, because the ancient fighters used them (on the pictures) to take the enemy. So, why this long hair?



Here is the proof of my doubts



Finally, to have this post not too long (more about Paestum I'll write in my blog "Marvelous World of Travel") I want to show you an other picture from the vase to attract your attention to the vases when you will visit a museum next time.
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Monaco, Monte Carlo -one of the Most Beautiful Places in Europe

For many years I thought, Monaco is the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life.

We traveled with my friends in Liguria and because they have a flat not far from Ventimilia, we visited the not too far situating towns and other interesting places. It was vvery interesting because the French part of the coast was much more illuminated and there was life all the night, there. This way we reached Monaco one of the days.

The road we came in Monaco was high enough, and we could see all the town. Ther is not so much soil between the mountains and the sea, and the buildings grow in high into the air there. And all the amenities like gardens and pools that all "normal" houses have on the ground, were on the roofs there.


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In the little harbour there was an interesting entertaining: you could sail with a little yacht that had glass bottom so that the tourists could see the underwater life of the harbour. But the cost of one ticket was 300 Francs (I don't remember the currency) and we were 4 persons, so we decided to leave this idea.


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We went in the old town where is situating the Palace of the Prince. The square was empty (maybe we came too early, I don't remember now) and we decided to walk there. We found a garden on the rock over the sea. Somebody said us that there is a prison just under our feet there. The prisoners could see only sea from the windows of their cells. Nearby was the Institute of the Oceanography which head was Jacques-Yves Cousteau in that period. We loved to watch his documentaries and felt honoured to stay near the place he worked in (even if he surely was in sea).


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It was clear that the old town was the residential area of the rich families. All the houses that seemed to come from XVIII-XIX centuries were very beautiful.


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In the evening we visited the square of the famous casino where we found different enormous cars that I've never seen from that time more. There were women clothed with long evening dresses, too. But not only these persons, everything there was very beautiful. We entered the building just to see that some persons came to visit theater, others went to casino. Tourists are not allowed in such places. So, we went out.

After that, we walked some steps and found "American casino" opened for everybody. We entered it, too. It was only touristic visit, nothing more. A week before, an other friend of this family left a big sum there. She lived 5 days there and passed all the evenings in this casino to prove that all the stories about the money that persons leave there are not true. Well, she proved it. ;-)))

It was night when we left Monte Carlo. And I could never forget it's beauty.
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