Back Home Again

Alas, the journey ended yesterday when I returned home around 6pm. I nearly collapsed due to jet lag, and am now having to spend an entire weekend putting everything back in order! In all, this was a great trip. Look at all of the things that we saw here in this blog: art, culture, history, food, travel, people, the rise and fall of an empire, the founding of the Church. I think the definite highlight of the trip was seeing the pope so closely, being there with 100,000 people on Wednesday morning. What did you think?

There's so much I didn't cover here, and I have hundreds of photos. I never talked about the side trip to Ostica Anitica, the Borghese Gallery, the eight or so ancient churches with relics (the crib of the baby Jesus, the chains of Peter the apostle, the bodies of Peter and Paul, and dozens of popes and saints). Such a rich history of famous people who lived and died in Rome. A great place for even the most fidgety of all travelers, one could not see everything in an entire week.

Here's some other neat trip movies:

I ran around Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus) on Thursday night. Click here.

I took a video snapshot of the crowds at St. Peter's square on Wednesday. Click here.

I explored the crypts of Ostica Anitica, an ancient Roman port town. Click here.

To capture the moment of being in St. Peter's square, I did a panoramic video capture. Click here.

Thanks for following along, this will probably be my last post on this blog. If you want to send additional comments, or ask any questions, feel free to contact me. :)

Top 10 things You Can't Do In America

In Europe, the culture is different, and there are many things you can do here that you would get into trouble (of some sort) if you did these things in America. Just for fun, these all happened to me. Here we go:

10 -- Go to a McDonalds and ask for a number #4 and get (and pay for) FOUR sandwiches, FOUR drinks, and FOUR fries.
9 -- Take two photos of tourists in a park and demand $8 for them, or else you won't return the camera back.
8 -- Walk through a busy highway without looking, expecting everyone to weave around you, without getting mad at all.
7 -- Stop and have a conversation with someone in the middle of a busy highway and have everyone weave around you and no one get mad at you.
6 -- In a packed subway car, bump and push your way through people to make an exit.
5 -- In a packed subway car, bump and push your way through people to make an exit, and not wear any deodorant.
4 -- Don't wear deodorant at all, anywhere you go.
3 -- Stop in the middle of any intersection, busy hallway, exit, terminal, or any place with a bottleneck of pedestrian traffic and just start talking to other people, totally oblivious to anyone else around you.
2 -- Creating a ticket line and have tourists start queuing up. Then, have only ONE ticket man selling tickets and allow five thousand people go through 1.5 hours of shoving, knocking others over and (potentially) trampling on children. Not to mention the ordeal of deodorant absence.

And the number one thing you can't do in America (or anywhere else civilized) but you can do in Europe is:

1 -- Get together with a group of friends at the bottom of a down-escalator. Start chatting and ignore dozens of other people continually trying to exit the escalator without being shredded.

In America, these are called (in order): extortion, extortion, suicide, suicide with bells on it, a good way to start a fight, a really good way to start a fight, a way not to impress women, inconsiderate and rude, a lawsuit waiting to happen, a multiple homicide waiting to happen.

Pope Benedict XVI from Three Feet away!

This is a once and a life time event! This morning at 4:15am EST, I was in St. Peter's square with nearly 100,000 faithful Catholics as we gathered for Pope Benedict XVI's blessing. Hundreds of youth tour groups crowded busses, subways, trains, and sidewalks and filled the entire square with banners, flags, and signs. Songs were sung, prayers were said, and chants of "Benedicto" were ushered. In the audience were priests, bishops, swiss guardsmen, nuns, and at least one sighted cardinal giving an interview (perhaps for KPOP?). Although it has been very hot here all week (35C), this morning was blessed with cooler weather and some clouds.

At this time, the Holy Father in his parade around the square passed my railing on the direct north side of the obelisk. He was only three feet from me. I was holding my camera in hand, and managed to capture a video of the experience which can be found here. This is an Apple QuickTime MOV movie, most Windows users should be able to view it with the right plug-in. Mac Users are already in the game.

I lost track counting the number of flags being flown, at least 20 countries were represented. When it was our turn (English), the Holy Father said something like this, "In the name of our Lord, greetings to the English speaking peoples here. Especial greetings to those from the countries of England (pause), Scotland (pause), and the United States (pause, some cheers). Many abundant blessings to you all for coming here today."

An Evening Tour of Rome

I started off on an evening stroll by going to the Piazza de Popolo. The subway there was erratic at best, at one point they had to cart away a broken train and replace it with a new one! Ahh, the joys of the Italian rail system (known for its inconsistency). But, I got there in one piece -- eventually.

Take a look at this statue, the plaza (piazza) is surrounded by them on all sides. Bernini is responsible for most of these sculptures, he is considered an architectural legend that brought Rome out of the Renaissance in both art and sculpture. All around the Plaza is busy, not surprising for Italians whose restaurants don't open until 7:00pm. Noticing my hands were dirty from subway "grit", I wash them off in the fountain -- because all plazas have fountains with obelisks.

Ok, lets go. But uh oh, what's this? A three way split in the road! (you only see two of them, my camera can not do panoramic view). The concept of "blocks" is not familiar to Italians, so a natural grid format isn't what you see. Looking at a map shows one that the roads look like strands of multiple spider webs placed on top of one another. The middle vein looks to be the right one. If you look carefully, you can see all the way down to the Vittoro Emmanuele II Monument perched on Capitol hill. That's where we want to go, its close to the Coliseum and home.

We're off, and heading down a very busy street with very few cars, and lots and lots of people. Shops are all over right and left, people buying and selling all kinds of wares. Its not like America, at this time we would mostly be watching sitcoms. Italians just have this way of coming home from work and heading right back out again. The mission tonight is to find gifts for my friends, so we'll be checking out book stores and music stores along the way.

Here's something that's an eye opener, an unmarked church on my map. That's how it is here, old churches are all over. So, I stop in to say a decade, pay my respects and on the way out, give a coin to a one legged beggar on the road. Great! Now I'm 0.000000128% closer to God, so lets continue down the road looking for our shops.

Found a music and CD store with Italian everything. No pictures here, I do want to keep the gifts a bit of a surprise. Outside, there's this grumbling sound, I wonder what it is?

Ahh Piazza Coalanna, we're getting close now. Again, another obelisk, and of course a fountain. That grumbling sound persists, could it be the diesel engines in all of the cars that the Europeans drive? They sure are noisy. Lets check out the mall.

Italians have them, but they're not as big as American malls. This is a ritzy one, with all kinds of expensive stores for the haves (which there are not a lot of thanks to a socialist society). Hold the door on the way out for the amazingly hot Italian chick in a tight orange tank top -- thinking, "is this a distraction while someone else pick pockets me?" Italy's women are amazing, but I feel sorry for them because I'm not jealous of Italian men -- ask me later on this one, in a bar.

That's what the grumbling sound is, my stomach! Ok, lets go off the beaten path and find an authentic Romano cuisine where I can get some seafood. On the way there, look at this guy, he's nearly invisible, looking exactly the same color as the trash can. At first he appears to be a bronze statue! But look at the pot, he's a beggar. Italy has these, they lie still and when you put some coins in the pot, they get up and do something. This one rolls around a bit and acts drunk and then goes back to sleep. A tourist trap, yes, I know.

Finally dinner, and its getting late. Seafood is on the menu tonight, so here's a picture of it. A little known fact, fish here is pretty good. Italians live near the sea and over thousands of years have used fish in all their meals. Seeing that everything else is superb in this country, fish would have to be too. Bon Appetite.

And the final leg home when it is dark. The Coliseum is well lit up in lights making it quite a nice picture to end this day with. Look down below in the picture, you'll see the bottom of a stage. Bon Jovi was playing here 24 hours ago. Italy's great, they never seem to left the late 80s and early 90s, so all that 80s rock is still in fashion here. Someone should resurrect Jerry Garcia and tell these people Madonna really isn't past 40, cause they still love their 80s music. :)

And that's about all, a nice little night stroll of the city. We'll try something again tomorrow but, first a meeting with the Pope!

Pax Romana Eternal

Rome has the name "eternal city", and its easy to see why. Everywhere you go, you're reminded of this cities grandiose past. Why today alone, I've seen artifacts ranging from 500 B.C to 1930 A.D. And, they are still part of the city -- the people build buildings around them, on top of them, next to them and live their lives as if these ruins were just how life really "is". It makes any other city in the world (with likely some notable exceptions) boring in comparison; no one has all of this as Rome does. It lived thousands of years ago, lived through good and bad times, and still lives today. It is in one word, eternal.

Lets start Rome off with a story about her. Picture this, you live in a beautiful Mediterranean world on the banks of a river where rolling hills, the mountains, and the flatlands are all around you. Beauty is everywhere, and part of your every day life. It never gets cold, only rainy in the winter. The summers are warm and hot (personal experience: try drinking 6L of water a day to survive. Yes, that's right, 6L.) Your food is rich, vegetable sweet, and the land is plentiful and young. Its culturally founding the Italic peoples, those who settled here in this land thousands of years ago.

You live in a center of an empire that spans the known world. You could be in a senator, a philosopher, an artist, an emperor or a slave. You are the culture that is the center of existence, of beauty and legends, poems and art, buildings that challenge the mind -- all expected of you. Statues to the deities of all kinds (Romans had nearly 30,000 of them to keep happy), monuments, staircases, oblesiks, and scrollwork -- always more scrollwork to see.

The beauty of the natural form of body, the conquest of man over man, man over animal, man over nature, all making you believe that the flesh was Nature's greatest achievement. The eccentricities, the natural precision of man flesh, the beauty and grace were what perfected the beautiful world you lived in, a paradise. [On a side note: naked male statue count, 47. naked female statue count, 8. Clearly we know which gender the Greeks thought was most beautiful. Yes, I said Greeks, the Romans "acquired" their statues -- its a long story. Also note: Greeks may like washboard abs, but seriously lacked an ideal of "horselike" attributes]

Beyond art, and to your architecture. Engineering tall monuments, colossal stadiums, defying gravity and physics so far that even today we still have not recovered from your loss O' Rome [Yet we can put a man on the moon]. Your work lasted, millennium after millennium. And in these places you held games of violence and decadence where emperors of men made you decide the living fate of another. All for fame, fortune, and self worth. Here in this beautiful blissful paradise, where the glory of your empire could be brought to you and reminded how far your bounds spread out. [Romans brought in animals from every part of the world to fight here]

Limitless were your self centered philosophies. You lavished in gardens, built palaces atop hills and temples and pillars to gods you did not know. And over time, the Romans asked questions of the stars, debated senselessly on meaningless topics, sat in cold towers of stone and believed that the center of everything revolved around you. For could it not be any other way?

And in all your secularism, your wisdom, your selfish gloating, the lust of women (or men), the greed, power, wealth and all the world's treasure and all the world's might -- at your fingertips. Alas, O' Rome, your empire of these things did not stand, for now you are simply this: crumbled statues, fallen pillars, ruined temples. All of those things you had could never stand the test of time -- for deceit, malice, contempt, greed, and decay never do.

But in your belly O' Rome, a seed was planted and it grew. And looking upon you as the center of these wicked things, the root of the problem, the planters chose you. A great mercy was shown upon you, for only 1000 years did you have to wait in silent decay. For out of this, the lair of sin in the ancient world, the a great Gift was bestowed upon you to rule again. But this time, it is not to be the same way.

Italy, a Man's Country?

So what is this Italian culture all about? Is it a man's culture? Lets take a closer look.

Italians, notably the Romans, conquered the known world at one time; and managed to rule this empire from a central location. It required wit, strategic thinking, strong men at arms, skill, and perseverance. They did it -- they conquered it all and ruled over it for hundreds of years. So, how do you top that? Its a gesture hard to overcome. You've been the top; now what else can you prove?

So, Italians just take it easy, relax a little; "hang out" more than one can imagine. Eating dinner at 12 midnight on a weekday is a common thing. But is this culture still a man's culture? Is it full of tall strong men who can carry the weight of an empire on their shoulders? Can they be dominant, aggressive, protectorate, providing and righteous? Lets examine.

On food, as mentioned, the greatest kinds are the pasta, the olive, the tomato. Beef is practically unheard of, as is pork. A salad, is "insalata" which by the way, is served before dinner, not afterwards. All these words, ending in "a" and "o" start to paint a picture of those who are what they eat.

The people are really friendly, talkative and sociable. They seemingly are always happy or engaged in very emotional conversations waving hands. They are lively; but you get the sense just not all that "with it" on the diversity sense. Sort of like living in a half-comatose state of life, they seem to be interested in their own cliques, their own people, and living a sort of homogeneous style of life. You don't see many mixed cultures here, everyone looks Italian or foreign -- that's all. And, they can tell immediately. There's simply no chance of fooling them.

The women, oh my, are absolutely gorgeous. Every one of them is amazingly beautiful -- its almost impossible to be reality. But, American Ladies -- don't be jealous -- I'd never stand any chance with them. After all, I don't own a moped (mini Motorcycle, see earlier posts); and that puts you way behind in the game. Like the French, the beauty and perfumes are all there but its the cool guys with the motorcycles who get the chicks.

Lets move on to liquor. The rough stuff, "beer" that puts hair on your chest is really not all that known for here. Instead it is called birra pronounced beer-AH. You have sweet liquers, vini (wine) of all kinds. Coffee is non-existent and instead they have these 1 shot sized expressos and cappuchinos. Lets not forget their obsession with gelatas.

The weather? Its hot over here, 35C today. Its muggy, misty, sticky, and it doesn't let up. Its tough to bear such a heat, it puts you to sleep. Italians only work six hours a day and practically four maybe five days a week. They even have a siesta time (nap time) in the middle of the day, the government regulates it. It kind of sets the mood for everything else.

So Italy, a Man's Country? Hard laborers, protectors, warriors, rulers, providers, vicious lion sacrifices. Is this is what Italy is all about? Or is it effeminate? I don't even want to tell you what my hotel bathroom comes equipped with.

I'll let you decide for after all -- tomorrow is Rome, and we'll see what they actually did accomplish and see the grandeur of masculine Italy and of course it will all be reported right here.

Impressioni Culturali di Napoli

Buona Sera! Penso il relativo circa tempo che abbiamo esplorato alcuna della coltura di questa citta , questo paese, questa gente. Che cosa compone... ahh, scusi; Naples has been around for a very long time, and the people here have a homogeneous way of living life. So, lets check out three things: their food; their atmosphere, and the way that they drive. From these, and more to come, we can piece together a puzzle -- how does a Neapolitan live, love, and die?

On food. There's really no one in the world who would tell you that Italians have terrible cuisine, and if they did -- they don't know Italy. But what makes Italian food so good? And is it really so different than American-Italian food? These are secrets we must unlock. So Bon Appetite, lets dig in.

Consistently, the Italians just know how to grow crops better than we do. Its either they have more skill in farming, or more likely, the land favors the growing of vegetables. Whatever it really is, the produce is just fantastic. No American tomato can come close to an Italian one. And since most Italian dishes are made with tomatoes, they are that much better than their Italian-American versions. Credit must be given to the vegetables of Italy, they make up everything else.

Cheese is another part of the normal diet here in Italy. Milk and butter don't usually go into the dishes but rather cheese and oil. Mozzarella is probably the most common cheese, it is served in salads too. It is squishy, having a more creamy taste than American-made mozzarella. And with tomatoes and such a cheese, Naples is the logical birthplace of Pizza. If anyone says, "Pizza isn't the same over there" -- they are wrong! As you can see, it looks the same. This pie is about the size of a large dinner plate. But, one can actually consume it all, because it is paper thin.

Gelato (Ice Cream) is the desert of choice. It is sold pretty much everywhere, in a variety of fruit flavors. It is very creamy and consequently very tasty. One must wonder why Italians are so thin seeing that they eat so many fatty things. We'll have to find out more on that, later.

Naples is Mediterraneann and it is always warm here. It rains some in the winter, but it never really gets freezing cold. Its landscape does change, but around Naples, it is like having steep mountains rise right out of the sea floor. Truly an impressive view. Neapolitans don't seem to mind their terrain. They build on everything -- with tunnels and bridges and roads going every which way.

Driving is another insight to Neapolitan way of life. A lot can be said about the cars (all small, mostly with hatchbacks) and the way they are driven. Rules of the road don't seem to apply anywhere. I guess it could be summed up with something like this, "Me first, waiting in lines is for others, and I'm looking to beat you to the front so I can get there first. If you cut me off, no problem -- I'll get you next time." Stress doesn't exist, but nor does any sense of organization. Many Neapolitan cars have moderate body damage. Oh-- and speed limits? forget those, those would get in the way you being there first.

Let me try to describe to you the differences in a comparative story. Imagine you woke up tomorrow and you decided to drive like a Neapolitan to work through rush hour. You'd get into a car, half the size of your own, and take off. At the light, you'd stop, but small motorcycles behind you wouldn't. If you leave any space at all between you and the cars in front of you -- they'd pass you by on both sides. Ok, the light is green, floor the gas and start down the road. Someone is in front of you? Pass them, ignore the white solid and dashed lines. Make a third lane out of the extra space on the right side if you can. Cut around them, don't signal -- never signal, and just drift into the left lane where there's just enough space to pass the next car. Hey, motorcycles are zooming on past you ahead, you can't allow this personal insult to happen! Ok here comes another light, stop -- and never mind if you are 1 foot or 1 inch from the guy next to you. You beat two cars this light, what a spectacular strategic victory! But, you've made two "enemies" who will calmly seek your demise for the next light, with smiles on their faces.

In America, you'd have at least twenty road violations by the time you got to your destination. You'd have seen the middle finger plenty of times, and probably you'd have someone laying on the horn for a whole minute. Heck, you may even be dead.

What a place this is, eh? There's just so much culture to absorb and digest here -- we'll just have to continue exploring tomorrow. :)