Fall vacation: The UK and Italy

Cheryl travelled to the UK for work. We decided that it would be a good idea for me to join her in Edinburgh near the end of the trip, and extend the visit with a European fall vacation. We originally planned to head out to Istanbul but the town’s weather forecast was for much more rain following the worst floods in 80 years, so at the last minute we decided to head to Italy instead (not a bad second choice).

Wednesday afternoon (Sept 23) I took the red-eye out of Seattle direct to London. From there my connection didn’t quite work out (after standing by on 4 flights British Air finally swapped me airlines on the last flight out), so I didn’t make it to the Gleneagles Hotel in time for Scotch tasting. Bummer.

My bags didn’t turn up either, so I had to attend the relatively formal conference lunch with my sneakers: I stuck out a bit...

At the end of the conference we played a round of golf at the famous PGA quality Gleneagles golf courses. I was scheduled to play the King’s Course, while Cheryl opted for the par-3 Wee Course. I played with a couple of low-to-scratch golfers, and for the most part hacked the course apart. Highlights for me include getting to within 15 feet of the pin on a 250 yard par 4 with a 4-iron from the tee (then three-putting for par), a lone birdie, and the loss of over 9 balls :) Cheryl got a par by sinking a shot from the sand!

Here is Cheryl right after chipping in from the sand for par:

London
From there we started our trip over to Italy. We had a long layover in London, and had to transfer between London City Airport and Stansted which required us going into town anyhow, so we checked our bags at the Liverpool Street Station, and headed down to visit some of the sights of downtown London.

We went to Westminster Abby, saw the church (The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster – Westminster Abby for short), Big Ben, the London Eye, and had lunch downtown.

Here’s Cheryl and I in London with Big Ben in the background:
 

After catching the train to Stansted Airport it was time to head to Rome. We flew to Rome on a budget airline (RyanAir), which would not allow checked bags over 15kg (which really isn’t that much weight for a week’s long trip), so after a lot of luggage-swapping, and pocket-packing, we were able to get my bag down to 14.9kg, and Cheryl’s to 15.0kg even. So, there’s a good reason we didn’t bring back many souvenirs :)

Rome
Our first night in Rome was pretty uneventful. We got in late enough that we essentially hit the sack immediately after a crazy taxi ride.

The next morning we decided to tour around to some sights near our hotel to get a general sense of the city. We immediately walked to the train station (Termini) and bought ourselves Roma passes (which gives you free transit around the city for 3 days, discounts at many major attractions, and free entry into the first 2 attractions you see).

From there we walked towards the Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri church. A pretty impressive first site, made more so by the sounds of the spectacular organ ringing throughout.

The most impressive organ I’ve ever seen someone play:
 

Just around the corner from there is the National Museum of Rome – Palazzo Massimo. I am not a huge museum buff, so to me this was primarily a good way to escape the noon-2pm heat prior to walking down to the more interesting sights in the old city.

After escaping the museum and participating in the famous Italian siesta, we started our walk down to the iconic Colosseum, a truly impressive sight. The Colosseum construction began in 70AD (ish), and its opening in 80AD was marked with an 100 day opening ceremony where 9,000 animals, and 2,000 humans were killed. That’s 90 animals, and 20 people per day on average: Lots of ‘entertainment’… Over the course of its existence it is estimated that 500,000 people, and over a million animals died to entertain the people of Rome.

From the inside:

From the outside:

After spending a few hours marveling at the Colosseum we walked over towards the Pantheon, and to start a night walk through the city.

No shortage of scenery:

We then went over to the Pantheon, and ate some dinner nearby. The night walk took us through the Trevi Fountain (where Cheryl and I threw money over our left shoulders for apparent good luck – approximately 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day and given to charity), and then we walked on to the Spanish Steps (and up them). This was a lot of walking in one day for Cheryl, so we took the metro back to the hotel to get some sleep for our next big day - the Vatican.

Vatican City
Technically the smallest country in the world, Vatican City houses St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Vatican Museum which gives access to the famous Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo.

The Vatican Museum line is famously long, often hours, so Cheryl and I decided to start there to be sure we could make it in before it closed - it closes earlier than other museums in the city. When we got there, the line we saw seemed to stretch for a kilometer… But it was moving very fast, so we held out hope. In the end I believe it was under a 45 minute wait for us, so I was pretty happy for that – we had psyched ourselves up for an hour and a half wait, and it’s all about expectations.

The line for the museum:
 

I do not have an art degree, so I am very sure that I didn’t come near full appreciation for the art held within the museum, but the Sistine Chapel was impressive even to someone who doesn’t typically appreciate art.

From there we took a trick from Rick Steves, and snuck into St. Peter’s Basilica by closely following a tour group through a side entrance rather than walking out and around for 30 minutes into the main entrance (having to once again go through security). This worked really well. We came out of the Sistine Chapel right by the main entrance to the Basilica.

St. Peter’s Basilica was the most impressive building I have ever seen, and I had just been to the Colosseum. It blew me away, and I really wasn’t expecting it to. The size of everything in there was absolutely incredible, even though the construction was actually made to make the building look smaller than it is.

St. Peter’s Basilica (photos do not do this one justice):
   

We then went up the dome of the basilica (elevator + 320 stairs), which offered a stunning view of Vatican City, and a 360 degree view of Rome.

View from the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica:

We then went down to the shop at the base of the dome (still on the roof) to buy a few post cards (and Vatican stamps), wrote the post cards and sent them off.

At this point we went back to the old city again to continue our tour, we went to Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum to learn more about ancient Rome prior to heading back on another night walk via the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps.

The next morning Cheryl and I visited the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore since it was a block from our hotel. Then we were off to Sorrento which required taking a train from Termini to Naples, and then swapping to another train to Sorrento.

Sorrento
Sorrento is a pretty small town compared to Rome and Naples, famous for Limoncello, lemon trees seem to be all over the place here. Now that we’ve got our fill of museums, and churches, it was time to relax.

This was the view from our hotel terrace:
 

We arrived early enough to get a look at the town in the daylight, we found a good pizza place, and walked around to get a lay of the land. Cheryl also had the chance to dip her feet in the Mediterranean for the first time too.

In the morning we decided to head to Positano on the Amalfi Coast. Our bus actually got stuck trying to go below a bridge it didn’t fit under. It took the bus driver a few minutes to wrench the bus out of there, and we were a bit worried we’d have to figure out another way to get there (or back to the hotel). The views on the way to Positano were stunning, the highway is perilously perched at least a hundred feet over the water below, and it winds its way with many tight (and stomach wrenching) turns.

The highway winding its way around the mountain:

Positano is a pretty small town, and the houses are constructed seemingly one on top of the other on a relatively steep set of hills…

Hopefully people here have erosion insurance:

Cheryl took a swim in the Mediterranean and we both sat down for more pizza prior to grabbing the ferry back to Sorrento. From the boat we were able to watch the beautiful coastline, along with that same long and windy road much of the way back. The water was calm, and the weather was great for a boat ride.

Cheryl on the boat as we leave Positano:

The next day, we decided to go to Pompeii, an ancient town destroyed (and completely buried) by the local Mt. Vesuvius eruption in 79AD. At this time somewhere between 10 and 25 thousand people died in the area. One of the more interesting exhibits in the area are the plaster casts made from the holes left in the ash by the decomposed bodies that once laid there. These casts show people frozen in time as they were… attempting to protect themselves from the inevitable.

Here are some of the plaster casts of people who were trapped in the eruption:

Much of the city has been excavated (starting in the 1700’s), so you can essentially walk through the streets of ancient Pompeii, and see cart paths, pottery, frescoes, and murals.

Another interesting sight is the amphitheatre – one of the oldest and best preserved in existence:
 

Walking through the ancient village:

On our way back from Pompeii we found out that it was too late to take the bus to Mt. Vesuvius, so we decided to do that on our way out of Sorrento the next day.

Our hotel recommended a fish restaurant on the water, so we decided to eat there. The wine was great, and I ordered the local fish – which came with a full fish, mini-lobster, shrimp and squid. The waiter de-boned the fish at the table, but didn’t touch the full shrimp and mini-lobster. I didn’t really do a good job of picking the lobster meat off, but I did my best.

Here was the meal – note mini-lobster on the far end of my plate:

Anyhow, the morning came fast, and it was time to head out to Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Vesuvius is considered the world’s most dangerous volcano mostly due to the 3,000,000 people that live within it’s eruption base (the most densely populated volcanic region in the world). The last eruption was in 1944, but none have been as destructive as the one in 79AD that obliterated Pompeii and neighboring towns.

Here is Cheryl on her way up to the crater rim:

Here’s a postcard of the rim with actual rim in the background:

In order to get to Mt. Vesuvius we originally stopped and left our bags at the Pompeii station, since we were on our way back to Rome. We found out the bus we paid for would not get us back before the bag storage stop closed, so we decided to hire a taxi to take us to the rim. The taxi ended up being a much better idea since it took us an hour and a half less time which really made the rest of our day go a lot smother.

After finishing the crater walk we got our bags, and took the train back to Naples:

From Naples we found our way back to Rome, and we spent some time in the Rome Termini station trying to find a small souvenir for our trip. At Termini we found a taxi to get us to our hotel, and had a pretty good dinner there. This was our last night in Rome, but with a 6:35AM international departure, the morning would come soon enough.

Our wakeup call for 4:30AM was a real shock to my system. For the past 3 days we had been waking up at 9:30 or later, so 4:30 was rough. We arrived back in Seattle by about 6pm Seattle time, and were able to get a few things organized prior to crashing. That was almost 24 hours of travel – wish I could sleep on planes.

Looking back on the trip, we saw a good variety of things. From golfing on one of Scotland’s great courses, to Ancient Rome, the Vatican, Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii, and climbing Mt. Vesuvius I think we covered some good ground. I would totally recommend Italy since it was easy to get around, relatively safe, most people speak some English, and there is a ridiculous amount of stuff to see.

Until next time!