Egypt

Alas, it has happened again (remember Panama?) but I lost my camera. Sadly, this time the chances of it being returned are slim, and slim is pushing it. I left it in the taxi I took to the airport.

People are asking me, how was Egypt? I have to say, that the Pyramids were wonderful, Alexandria and visiting Sam M. was awesome, but the the traveling was exhausting and challenging, more challenging than any other place I have traveled since coming to Europe. Mostly, it comes from the fact that most Egyptians see me as a big walking dollar sign and hassle me for tips at every corner, not speaking or even being able to read the language was more challenging than I imagined and just not feeling like I had much control of my situation (and it mostly went well) was really hard.

I landed in Cairo at 3AM and waited in the airport for the first bus to Alexandria, which departed at 530AM. All went smoothly and I arrived in Alexandria at the "new" bus station, which was a big dirt lot and luckily, Sam was right there to meet me. We spent an AWESOME day, drinking tea, catching up, walking along the water and seeing the new Alexandria library (which is a big modern building) with some cool art and a great retrospective on Anwar Sadat's life. The highlight of the day for me was drinking mint tea and playing backgammon with Sam (oh there was a great picture of this) at his local tea house. His favorite server probably had never seen an Asian before and asked if I did karate! It was great. I really felt that, with Sam and his Arabic skills in Alexandria, I got a true taste of modern Islamic city life.

On Saturday morning, Sam returned to class, and I hopped on a first class train (35 L.E. (7 US Dollars) watch out because the numbers are going to start getting big) to Cairo. I get off the train in Cairo and get immediately accosted by taxi drivers. I am a bit overwhelmed and perhaps I didn't do my homework, but there was no public transportation system in Cairo (or at least none that I knew of) and I picked a taxi driver for a ride to Giza and the pyramids.

Now things get interesting. The taxi driver, speaking no English, knows I want to go to the pyramids. I want to go to my hotel. We can't communicate, the traffic is CRAZY and I end up being taken to a camel stall near the pyramids. I am offered a camel ride tour of the pyramids. At the time, I felt like I was being hijacked and had no real choice, but in retrospect everything was on the up and up. The camel ride through the pyramids was AMAZING. The weather was perfect, not hot at all, no wind and it was around sunset. WOW. Now comes the part where I am single-handedly supporting the Egyptian economy. I have to pay the camel owner, pay the entrance fee, pay the camel guide, tip the camel guide, tip my actual guide and pay the taxi driver for the ride and his two hours of waiting. I think I spent a total of 800 L.E.. Money is money, yeah? So, I'll have the wonderful memories and pictures in my mind.

That night, I haggled a taxi ride back to the pyramids for the light show, which was kind of cheesy, but a chance to see the pyramids again was worth it. Dinner? On the street for a total of 5 L.E.. Now sure what I ate. It was edible but nothing to really that memorable, other than trying to communicate with the guy at the stall who was enjoying watching this Asian guy eat.

Sunday morning, I got up and was planning on going to Islamic Cairo, but my taxi driver, better English this time, told me about another set of pyramids at a place called Saqqara. I went for it and this was the highlight. My driver got me a one-on-one guided tour. The guide took me into the funerary tombs of the manicurist and butcher of one of the fifth dynasty kings. I had a fantastic time and learned a ton about Egyptian views on the afterlife. The hour and a half I had with this guide brought Egyptian art and funerary ideas to life.

Afterwards, the haggling for the tips, the drive to the airport ended with a haggling for the fare and tips and here's where I must have left my camera in the taxi.

Now that I'm reliving the experience in my mind, I am really more sad about losing the pictures than the pain of the travel and feeling like I was being ripped off the entire time. As they say, time heals all the pain and hard parts and it's true, I'll just remember how great the good parts of the trip were.

Matera

Last stop: Matera in the region of Basilicata, the "instep" of Italy.

This is the view from my hotel room window at dawn.

Because the rock in this area is so soft, in prehistoric times, inhabitants simply carved into the stone to live.

My guess is that this is pretty much how it looked up until the 1950's, when residents of area were still living in the "Sassi" without running water or electricity. The Italian government relocated citizens to a modern part of town.

However, tourism has become an economic boom (re: people like me) and so the two main ravines which contained the majority of the "Sassi" have been restored, even gentrified, and hotels, restaurants and families have moved back into the region.

Oh, Italy, I love you so, errors and all.

The town of Metaponto was a major Greek city of Magna Grecia. This is the remnants of the Temple of Hera.

It is here on this spot that it is believed that Pythagoras lived his final years. This is purported to be his home and his tomb is here or nearby.

The morning I returned to Viterbo, I went for a tour of the Grotte Castellana. It was a 1.5 km walk in a cave to get to the most amazing "Grotto Bianco." Think white stalactites and stalagmites as far as the eye can see.

Puglia: Lecce and Leuca

Way at the end of the "heel" of Italy is the city of Lecce. It was founded by the Romans around the 3rd century BC. Here is the Roman amphitheater that sits half uncovered in the central piazza of the city.

However, around the late 1700's, when Baroque architecture was in fashion, the Leccese took it to the nth degree. Walking around town, you turn a corner and there is another church facade that makes you almost chuckle. The stone is almost honey colored and you'll see that the feeling is almost whimsical. I'll proceed from most tame to the famous Santa Croce. Here is Chiesa del Gesu.

Chiesa di Santa Maria della Grazie

Chiesa di Sant' Irene

Right on the facade of Sant' Irene is the town symbol of Lecce.

Chiesa di Santa Chiara

Chiesa di San Matteo

And we're ramping up with Chiesa del Rosario






.....and we have Chiesa di Santa Croce.

Here's a closer look at the top portion.

I think it's great that the animals are holding up their portion with little difficulty, while the humans are struggling.

The Lecce Duomo and piazza are the second best I've seen in Italy (after Siena). The piazza is enclosed with only one entrance. It's fabulous.

But even better at night!

Here is the tip of the "heel" of Italy. It's the town of Leuca and there really isn't much there. But it's the "end" of the country.

Puglia: The Trulli of Valle d'Itria

Driving south along the "heel" of Italy, you start seeing lots of stone walls in the fields and then, a bunch of these conical-roofed buildings in the fields, called "Trulli"

They are built from local stone without any mortar. There is a theory that they were built in such a way to be dismantled quickly to avoid taxation.

The town of Alberobello has whole neighborhoods with these trulli. The architecture is right for its environment as the buildings are cool in summer and retain heat in the winter.

The trulli are decorated with symbols and topped with a capstone, sometimes indicating which family lives inside.

Puglia: Castel del Monte & Trani

The November trip this year took the students to Umbria. I instead went down to the "heel and instep" of Italy, to the regions of Puglia and Basilicata. These regions, along with the "toe", Calabria, make up the southern part of Italy, historically the poorest in the country. Why did I go? Because it's off season (this is the place where Italians like to spend the summer) and well, because there it is. I found a cheap flight from Rome to Bari, rented a car and off I went. First stop, Castel del Monte, near the town of Andria and the city of Trani.

The Castel del Monte, built by the great Fredrick the II between 1240 and 1250, stands high on a hill. It's also a tribute to geometry as it is an octagon with octagonal turrets.

Historians debate why it was built at all, because it doesn't have any traditional defensive characteristics, such as a moat. Perhaps because it sits high on a hill, it is easy to defend, but some think it was a pleasure palace.

Here'a plan of the Castel del Monte! Octagons and trapezoids too.

Not sure if you can make out the trapezoid shape of the room.

A staircase

Next stop was the coastal city of Trani. I arrived in port just as the fisherman were unloading the days catch.

I was offered this entire basket of fresh shrimp for 5 Euro. Alas, I didn't have a kitchen, but later on that evening, I had the first of my many great meals. The best of this evening was a ceci (garbanzo bean) and squid soup.

The great site of Trani is the cathedral.

Like many of the great sites in this region, it was built in the late 1100's to early 1200's, when it was under Norman Rule.

Ta Da!!!! The cathedral is built RIGHT ON THE WATER. It's a fantastic site.

This region was the crossroads of the Mediterranean, and Fredrick II had the goal of uniting Northern Europe with Jerusalem and the Arab world. The arch here has some of the whimsical touches of the Arab world.

Two people mauling each other? Or something else?

These HUGE bronze doors were cast in 1175 and were in place until 1990 when they were moved inside.

Even though the Renaissance passed this region by, the panels show the inklings of what we consider to be Renaissance artistic developments. Yeah, art history!

Capitoline Museum & Campidoglio

I had been here in Central Italy for over a year and had yet visited the Capitoline Museum in Rome. Check! Yesterday, I headed down to the Campidoglio and spent three hours in the museum. I have become SUCH a classicist and have such an amazing appreciation for sculpture, much more so than painting, but still, I'm a huge geek now.

Although this is just a model, it shows how the Campidoglio is laid out. Designed by Michelangelo, physically it faces AWAY from the forum and metaphorically AWAY from ancient world and TOWARDS the renaissance. The buildings on either side are the Palazzo dei Conservatori (right) and Palazzo Nuovo (right). Both of which house the Capitoline Museum. The building in the center is the mayoral seat of Rome. The statue in the middle, Marcus Aurelius.

This 10 foot high frieze was removed from its original location and is now in the museum. I love these scenes. Here we have Hadrian (bearded on horse) giving clemency.

Brutus, yes, that Brutus!

The Capitoline She-wolf! The wolf itself is thought to have been created in Etruscan times (remember they were great bronze workers). Later on, the two babies were added to complete the myth that the twins, Romulus and Remus who were abandoned by their mother and eventually to found Rome, were raised and sucked by a she-wolf. This is the symbol of Rome.

Bernini's Medusa

This HUGE bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius is the only one to survive to the present. It's only because the church thought it represented their benefactor, Constantine.

I like this bust of the Emperor Commodus because it actually should have been destroyed. He was subject to "Damnae Memoria" where all references to him and likenesses of him were to be erased and destroyed. But this one survives!

An ancient Roman game, rules and objective unknown.

There is an ENTIRE ROOM in the museum dedicated to the busts of Roman Emperors. The two males on top are Nero and Agrippa (not an emperor actually). Juxtaposed below is Septimius Severus who centuries later displays the fashion at the time, beards and long hair.

The Dying Gaul, which I studied in Art History last year. Intense emotion of a warrior, obviously strong, accepting death. Hellenism, baby.

The light in the room was perfect, so I snapped him from all angles.

As I was walking out of the Campidoglio, I saw this up in one of the open windows. It's the statue of Cupid and Psyche kissing. I think its great that the curators have such a sense of humor to put it right where everyone can see it through the window.

I left the museum and it was a gorgeous day, so I paid the 7 Euro to take the elevator up to the top of the Vittoriano right next door. It's totally touristy, but for this view, it's worth it.

Looking west to the Pantheon, Castel San Angelo and the Vatican.