Mykonos but not Patmos

In the night Patmos was ruled out because of the weather, which seemd a bit strange becuase the morning weather was some of the best we have had.In the afternoon we set off on an excursion called "Jeeps on Mykonos". Now this was interesting because the detail which had been missed out was that we the tourists would be the drivers! Both John and I felt that there were certain fishhooks to driving other people so we took the passenger role.Our driver was an Austrian - so no communication;he also had limited knowledge of manual let alone 4 wheel drive. However, apart from one heart-stopping inciddent on a very steep piece of road with a long drop into the Ionian Sea it all went well. We got to see all kinds of things we would never have know about - the rocky, arid landscape with no trees and very little vegetation. We saw a couple of donkeys, a few cows, some goats some bougainvillea and some flowerpots with red geraniums. However we did not see the southern beaches where all the tourist hotels are. We were taken to a monastery at Ana Mera The hostess kept an eye on us as we admired the beautifully kept icons and chandeliers. Next came a stop at a taverna where ouzo, taramasalata and olives were laid on for us. And there were about 8 cats!Momma was making little cheese cakes by hand in the taverna proper. (We have seen some interesting H&S habits here. The baby pig in a display chiller where they kept the desserts was a feature of one restaurant in Rome.)
Our afternoon finished in the port town where we had Greek salad, baby squid and drank Greek wine to our friend Barry sitting on the waaterfront.

Rhodes - but not the Colossus

Seeing that the many tourist busese were lined up on the wharf to disgorge toursis onto a willing town is quite a sight. We opted to walk into the Old Town and found a really beautiful old Orthodox church being minded by two little old ladies who urged us "you come in" so we did. There were gorgeous chandeliers and icons all immaculately clean and shining bright. It was an oasis of peace.At 2.00pm we were booked onto a train ride around the town of Rhodes - one of those little ones that goes on the road with a rather keen driver who tooted at everyone we met or so it seemed.We went all around the island: past the new tourist hotels and lines of empty deck charis on the beaches;up to the height of the islane where the temple to Apollo had been.What a great site and being there looking out to Turkey you could see the strategic importance of this island - from about 200BC we were told. When we reached the Street of the Knights we walked right up to the palace which had been built in the 18th century style as a suck up to Mussolini(who never came there anyway) - using Roman mosaics and tapestries and church stalls from French churches. Honestly some people have no scruples! The guide was not sure why all of this had not simply been returned to the owners!
We were really impressed by this guide - she had a good balance of imformation and interest in her talk. At one point, just as she was getting to an interesting bit one of the group, known from here on as Restroom Man, broke in with "Restroom?" as though she was not speaking English (she was). She was really gutted and so were we as she led us off to the museum and the loo! After a really informative tour we were free to return through the ships - straight through the major market place of course1It was this guide who told us about the Colossus and that noone knows where it was originally. Ah well!
Another feature of these tours is the beggars - on the train even; everywhere we went as tourists there were women bent over with begging bowls; children singing or tunelessly playing an accordion; I even saw a little girl with a baby warpped up begging but when I looked more closely the baby was a doll!

All at sea

Civitavecchia is a bustling port with lots going on and we managed to get ourselves to the right port and the right shop/boat with little trouble. They are fairly organised and we were only 1 hour from the station to our cabin 7089 port side.The first thing which happened to us was a tornado before we had even left port. We were sitting on the stern bar having a leaving port drink and suddenyl this mini tornado comes up over the rail and started throwing things around! That night we had some rough weather - it felt like you were alternately sliding down the bed and then sliding back up it again.
Catania was our first port of call - very disappointing in the care of historical stuff and graffiti!! Still the place has been destroyed by its resident volcano Mount Etna several times and I guess that has an impact. We went on an excursion to a place called Villa Trinita, a small wineyard run by the same family since 1650 imagine that! Lovely gardens and trees and they were very hospitable.
The next day we were all at sea and lay around in the sun like cats soaking up the vitamin D. The cocktail of the day was Tequila Sunrise ( we are researching this topic diligently you will be pleased to learn!).
Thursday saw us tied up at Rhodes. This place has some beautiful buildings that they look after. Their churches are cherished and used with pride. More later...leaving port now

Part 3 Rome - you can see why it wasn't built in a day

Going into Rome was extremely interesting - if you were in the back seat. They do things differently there - like drive and park in the weirdest ways! You will have to see the pictures which I will add when we get back to a friendly system which allows us to upload photos. I am writing this in port at Mykonos. The boat computer does not like moving around or rough weather - and we have had some of both.
Anyway Rome - what they say about the drivers is true and it nearly gave poor Jared heart failure - but he only had to get us to the railway terminal and Gus got us absolutely to the door of the Hertz rental place.
Marlu B&B was our home for the nexy few days. Built in the 1850's this place had one of those funny lifts with the wrought iron doors and lots of marble and terrazzo floors. We each had a good sized room and a bathroom as well as access to a living room and breakfast laid on. Good price too! What did we see? We went first to the Colosseum on the first night as the sun was setting; then to the Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel; the Trevi fountain and the Plaza Nuova and the Pantheon; and on Monday when Jared and Jo were working again in London we went to the Basilica and 8.30am and had a wonderful time there before we went on to our rail trip to Civitavecchia.
The old city of Rome is as many of you know, littered with bits of very old buildings, which I had expected. What I had not expected was the crush of people, the noise of traffic (especially after the peace of the hill towns and Venice) and the graffiti. Don't get me started on litter also - I can't believe the amount - forget the recession, litter will bring down Europe if they're not careful.Some parts ofrome are being restored and I would say it's about time - if they don't they will lose those sandstone buildings and they better hope there are no more earthquakes coming through.The crush of people in Rome was brought home in a big way as we queued to go into the Vatican. It only took 1 1/2 hours to get there. The queues I reckoned were the modern day equivalent of pilgrims' progresses. I could not work out why there were so many priests, nuns, monks cardinals - you name it they were there. There were also these large pictures hanging in fromn of the balcony where the Pope comes out to bless the people. Finally, seeing a poster in a shop window on Monday morning I worked it out - the canonisation of five people had taken place on Sunday - no wonder there were so many holy people around.

Part 2 - Sansepolcro and the hill towns

That clever GPS got us right to the door of the apartment we had booked - Casa Mila run by two NZers Val and Colin Stevens! What an amazing invention! We travelled past huge fields of sunflowers and bronzing grapevines as well as winging over high motorways on long bridges and through tunnels. The apartment in Sansepolcro (pop. 16 000)was on the third floor of a house part of which was built in the 1400's very solidly in brick and plaster. We have a bedroom and bathroom each as well as a living room and a kitchen/dining room.The house has turquoise shutters on windows that open, as all windows seem to on this continent,inwards. Our room looked over the walled garden and this was also available to us - with a barbecue. We made use of this on two nights we were there, much to J&J's enjoyment - meat being something they deem too expensive in London.The first night we cooked steaks and Tuscan sausages (for Jared)and braised the hugest red pepper for the green salad we also ate. Another firm fave was the insalata caprese - the buffalo mozzarella was a real hit.The first night involved a bit of staying up and five bottles of wine - we had to be sure we getting the good stuff after all!
The next day we set off for Anghiari an neighbouring hill town, which was pictured on a poster in our apartment. We were also able to leave our washing drying in the sun! Anghiari was a fort back in the times of the middle ages when all good Christian men fought all the others for the glory of God ...or something. We found a market packing up and Jo found a leather bag she had to have - a good buy too!Anghiari dates from the 1300's and it is really quite amazing to see people just continuing to live there - with TV aerials sprouting from the roofs.We had a cold drink looking over the olive groves and gardens - buxus, bay trees and lots of petunias.
After a conversnation we agreed that we had enjoyed this experience so much we would give Florence a miss - I think we had overdosed in Venice a bit - and just go on to Cortona - another hilltop town but with some lovely leather bag shops and the odd museum and frescoes. At the Mueso Diocesana John and I saw and really interseting architectural exhibitions aboout how and why this fort had been constructed and then replicated (in Malta)and now adapted for future use. There is obviously not a great deal of call for hilltop forts in these parts so they are adapting for the culture market - opera and rock concerts I should think.We also found that Cortina had the best gelato we had found yet in our travels and frequent tastings. The country around was spectaular - olive groves, grape vines and cypresses. Jared capably drove us back a different way according to the strictures of Gus our friendly GPS. I think he was a great driver and he seemed to emjoy being behind the wheel even if it was a Ford Focus. When we finally got out of Tuscany and into Rome however, it was a different story....!

Venice, Sansepolcro and now Roma! Part 1 Venice

The access to internet has been a bit piece meal so I am cramming a lot into a small space. We are here in another great accommodation and thank goodness she (Marlene of Marlu B&B) has a keyboard that I can use at speed!
As we flew into Venice we had a great view of the Alps and then the lagoon after an "easy" one and a half hour trip from Paris on EasyJet. We came out of the buss station at Venice down to the vaporetto and suddenly there was the Grand Canal! All the colours and busyness were much more than I had expected - the greens and blues of the canal and the colours of the plastered buildings along the canal. We made our way to our B&B with only one detour and found our attic bedroom had a great bview over the rooftops and was only a hop from San Stefano, the nearest piazza. We needed a "cleansing ale" as John would have it and so we located ourselves in a cafe on the square.We had just texted Jared to tell him where we were and then they were - Jo and Jared had been having breakfast at the other end of the same piazza! It was lovely to see them again. We were entertained by a guy wearing a kit of a drum with cymbals and a drum stick attached on strings to his feet; playing a hand accordion with a begging cup attached; with a funnel ringed with bells on his head. He was playing Italian folk music and people wear having their photos taken and giving him money! It was really charming. Later that afternoon we went to the Rialto Bridge - much the same as would have been in the middele ages I imagine - crowded with shops and people selling junk amd went on to St Mark's Square where we had a Bellini/ beer combination watching life go by on the canal.Very Venice! The next day was Murano day. We got offered a "free" ride by water taxi over to the island to the family "fornace" - just the four of us - no obligation - Tui ad! It was great riding like this and the driver took us through an amazing route with great photo ops.We were welcomed to the Signorelli family fornace (since 1346) under the care of the maestro. This fornace specialises in chandeliers and they were making glass leaves that day. We also saw the apprentice make (and smash - because it was not good enough) a small statue of a horse and a glass decanter.In a process we were becoming familiar with, we were then "free" to wander through to the salesrooms which was an experience a bit like being in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles - so much light and colour! Needless to say we did succumb to the glass salesman - and managed to score a deal at the same time.
The next day we were to leave so our mission was to go to San Marco and visit the basilica. The day was coolish and definitely autumnal. The scene as we waited in San Stefano was very enchanting:endless pigeons staking out their space, two policemen in very splendid uniforms in important conversation; two astonishingly insouciant (and gorgeous)young men in 17th century period costume; men and some women dragging or pushing divery carts bringing bread, wine, tubs of olives and newspapers; one very thin very elegant young girl feeding a croissant to the pigeons - just some of what could be seen in the space of a few minutes. On our way to San Marco we came across a traffic jam of glossy black gondolas decorated in gold with red push upholstery and the gondoliers shouting the odds for customers (mostly Asian and American). None of them was prepared to make life any easier for the other! As we got closer to SM we noticed that the walkways which we had seen previously stacked up ready for use where in some cases being put out. At the basilica as we queued, we could see the water visibly welling up through the cobbles and the walkways were up in the cathedral proper. The cathedral is amazing! Though for me the terrazzo (the tessellations) floors were just as beautiful as the ceiling frescoes. There was a fair old crush and visibility options were limited. It certainly was a place to take photos but you aren,t allowed - not that stopped some.After the tour we had a coffee break at Caffe Florian(since 1720)where coffee and a cake for four costs the equivalent of $NZ120 - think silver trays, gorgeous waiters and porcelain with the cafe's insignia on it - and great macchioato, espresso and food. Ah Venice!!
Later thet day we picked up the rental care and set off through the smog to Sansepolcro.

Castles in the air and graves in the ground ...Au voir to Paris

Our trip through France is almost impossible to sum up but the title seems to try. France had a huge legacy of places of history of various kinds - castles for want of a word - and also, as we found when we went to Omaha Beach and the American War Cemetery,they remember and honour their past, even if the maintenance is getting a bit much in some areas.Tagging and cigarette butts abound everywhere and noone seems to care much.
5am is a brutal time to wake up - but a useful time to refelect on what we have been doing. Paris is a city I have read much about all my life so to see it in actuality was a really interseting experience.It is, in the Haussmann section of the central city, a very beautiful place. Our first encounter in the Charles Michel area was a kind of composite of may elemtns, The carousels which appear on many street corners;the regularly planted and clipped rows of military-like trees; the cafes and bistrots with chairs facing outwards to see what is going on;the traffis and the pedestrians which seem to co-exist somehow.Seeing Paris in the autumn for the first time makes me want to return in the spring.