Fountains

Rome has a hundred, at least, piazzas dotting the landscape and most of them have a fountain of some sort. The roots to the fountains come from early Roman history, when aqueducts were first built to bring water to the city. It became a custom to create a fountain, or mostra,at the entry point of an aqueduct in the city. Back then there were 39 fountains and 500 plus basins where people could get clean drinking water. Just building the aqueducts was a feat in itself. Plus, they had two aqueducts as a source for each major fountain so that if one was being worked on, there would still be water available. What planning!

The most famous fountain is Trevi Fountain. The fountain is a spectacular combination of heroes and gods, horses and flowing water. The effect is breathtaking, and extremely popular with the tourists. The place was absolutely mobbed both times we went. It's because of the lighting...one time it was sunset and the next in the middle of the day. Jeff, however, is the custodian of the spectacular pictures.
Piazza de Navona has a number of striking fountains, apparently one isn't enough when you have to compete with the popularity of some other fountains. This one includes Neptune fighting an octopus! Just for added interest, there are also some added horses and other figures along the outside of the basin. Hmmm....my picture seems to have disappeared into cyberspace. Check out the link for pictures of it.

Roman Forum

The center of economic and civic life was the Roman Forum. This was where anybody who was anyone conducted their business. The Senate met up here and it was also the location of Palantine Hill, where the rich and famous primarily lived. At one time this must have been an absolutely unbelievably busy and gorgeous place to be.
Since the various gods played such a large role in Roman life, and since it seemed that any number of new gods were adopted at various times, numerous temples and altars could be found up here. You didn't even have to be a god to get a temple...Julius Casear and Romulus each had one as well as Jupiter, Venus and Roma. There was also the House of the Vestal Virgins, with the all important job of keeping the fire going...to provide security for Rome but hmmm.... seems it didn't always work so well....
With all these temples, basilicas and arches commemorating victories and people, it seems that it might have been difficult to have ruled from up here...it seemed pretty cramped and we were looking at only partial buildings. Course then again, all the buildings listed may not have existed at the same moment in time...after all, they were great recyclers... They did mention that the Temple to Casear was used for meetings and that there were some unground areas. Still, must have been a tight squeeze with up to 300 elected senators. Capitoline Hill, opposite Palantine Hill, held many other buildings where meetings were held at various times.

Palantine Hill was the home to emperors and Kings, all of them bent on outdoing the previous ruler. While it's hard to imagine the extent of some of the homes from the rough walls now left, you can see the extent of them and with the reconstructions they have made it is almost unbelievable! These homes were spectacular, extensive, and, of course, expensive. Sadly, Romans had a great need for slaves to build these lavish homes as well as to keep them running smoothly, hence their constant push to capture more land, more cities and thus have more money and more slaves to continue building and expanding. Have to say, though, that I'm sure the lower classes didn't look on things in quite the same way. This shot was from the top of the hill in an open area just past an arena, on its way to some of the plush homes on Palantine Hill. Nearby there's a view of the famous Circus Maximus - a huge track primarily used for horse racing and maybe mock battles.

Rome

Once again, we have intelligently chosen to take the wonderful red eye flight out of Doha, slaves to the ever ellusive cheap(er) flight. On the plus side, I finally watched all three of the Twilight movies...now when will number four come out?
I'm happy to say we are in the world of public transportation. Train from the airport was cheap, but slow. Took us within blocks of our apartment but we had no idea. The 10 minute walk took almost 20 by cab...and cost twice what it should have. We now have week long metro passes and have roamed everywhere for less than the first taxi.

When we finally settled in...and took a greatly needed nap, we headed off for the Roman Collesium. It is an enormous ampitheater that was an early symbol of the city of Rome. Apparently, according to the stories, the citizens of Rome could come to watch the games for free. They also had free food and wine for them inside!
The building itself would hold 80,000 people. It's hard to imagine that many people living in the area at that time. They had gladiator fights, wild animal fights, as well as naval battles! They would flood the arena and then stage great battles between two or more ships! Hard to imagine the required technology to allow them to do all of that in the same space. They also had a cover that could be pulled across the top to protect the people, particularly the dignitaries, from the rain and sun!Over time they added the understructure here where they housed the wild animals they would bring up to the arena. Apparently this was not in place when they were doing the naval battles (good thing too, if you wanted to keep your ship!)

A couple of earthquakes brought down a large section of the outer wall but that didn't stop it from being used, although,overtime, it has been abandoned, used to stage wild boar hunts ( hmmm...wild boar, I think of being in the foothills, not an arena), a fortress and a quarry. Sadly, the marble that once covered it almost entirely has been almost completely removed for other projects long ago.

These people really believed in recycling. Whenever a ruler was ousted or found in disfavor, any temple, arches, or other edifices that were built for him would be torn down. Not to let the building supplies go to waste, they would be incorporated into a new something for the new favored person. Situated next to the colosseum is the Arch of Constantine, built to commemorate his victory over somebody(history is not my strong suit here) and was created out of pieces from other, older, arches.

Fethiye

We came, at last, to the end of our idyllic trip on the Turquoise Coast. I can still feel the gentle rocking of the ship – and can hardly wait until our next adventure…but wait…this one isn’t over yet!!!

We spent some time in the tiny town of Fethiye, the end, or the beginning, of the journey for many tours in the region. The small town prospers during the tourist season as hundreds of boats berth here, taking on new people, letting go of others. Wandering through the streets as we waited for our van to take us to the airport, we discovered many things…a Turkish Bath…where 5 of us spent a relaxing 2 hours being cleaned and massaged. Then, as we wandered through the streets, we discovered that this is, indeed, a town the supports truth in advertising.

Ah the airport…we got to know the airport really well. After a 1.5 hour drive, we arrived at the airport in good time, stood in line and got our boarding pass…for 3 hours later than our flight was supposed to leave. We checked…no, it was right, our flight was delayed. In fact,. ALL the flights on Turkish Air were delayed…and delayed…and delayed. After a few hours – and believe me, this airport has nothing in it…we were waiting and waiting, along with hundreds of other people. We discovered, however, that our plane was actually on the ground, at our airport…but we had no pilot. OK, pretty important person to have on a plane…but wait...there was a pilot sitting in the same waiting room, the pilot for the flight ahead of ours…but his plane wasn’t here. Now, a rational person would say “hmmm…pilot + plane = flight” and I would have been happy for the earlier flight to have taken off but…no can do…one can’t just go swapping planes and pilots. He had to wait for HIS plane (identical to ours) while we had to wait for OUR pilot. Go figure. 

Final Island

The next night found us once again near some ruins to explore. It was also a prime location for checking out the sunset and we were just in time. We all were ferried across to the island where we were greeted by the “temple cat” sitting at the wharf, rather disdainful of our presence.

We began the trek to the top, exploring the many remaining walls and partial buildings along the way – a lot of them were old churches… have to wonder why there were so many in such a relatively small space. The island was inhabited by goats and cats now, except for the tourists, the people were long gone. The sunset was indeed glorious and colorful and well worth the hike up.

Entrepreneurs and more

As I have said…the people here are quite enterprising…if you don’t go to where their shop is, they come to you. There were a number of small boats cruising among all of the sailing vessels in the various ports…all of them selling something. Sometimes it was souvenirs of some sort but usually it was food. The ice cream sellers had a couple of large ice chests on their boat along with a large, glossy board with the ice creams pictured on it. Big hit in the hot sun. Then, not to be outdone, an even more unique boat came along – selling fresh made crepes. The woman would roll out the crepe and fill it with whatever you wanted – nutella with bananas, coconut crème, cheese and onions and more. They were a big hit with our group!

Here’s a view of our sleeping mats – the rooms down below were so stuffy that we all slept out on top. The view of the sky was magnificent! You could truly see the milky way and millions of stars! What a treat…rocked on softly lapping waves, a clear view of the stars, fresh breezes keeping the night fresh, a beautiful sunrise to watch without even getting up out of bed. ‘Course the middle of the night mother nature calls were murder but otherwise, it was great.

We did have one morning that was a bit touch and go. For some reason we had to leave at 4 am…don’t ask me why, all we did was go somewhere else and moor the boat for swimming, however, we did. We went out into the ocean, rather than the protected strip of the Turquoise Coast (all of those gorgeous islands). That morning was quite choppy – and a number of people succumbed to the churning waves and tossing boat. Fortunately it didn’t seem long – and I was able to just go back to sleep. By the time I got up, we were back in the sheltered islands again.

The crew was great – they didn’t speak very much English at all but they were great cooks and they were always ready to do something silly…like taking off the helm!!! Despite the limited language, they were always courteous and friendly. One night a number of the younger group went off on a water taxi to the local bar. That was not a problem but they didn’t come back on the first or 2^nd run…our young captain, who couldn’t go to sleep until they came back (and this was that 4 am day) finally got on his boat, ran over to the bar, walked inside and said “now” and everyone left. Didn’t need much language for that!

Island Views

Our first day took us along the coast, skirting on the inside passage between numerous islands. The sailing was smooth and the scenery gorgeous. We had time to bask in the sun, read, rest in the shade, read, talk with others, read, play games, read and did I mention read? With 19 people on board, it was amazing that everyone was a reader – everyone had a book, if not more than one book, with them. Definitely my kind of people. It was fascinating to have such a diverse group of people – two women who worked with international companies, bringing people to various places, two couples just traveling around for as long as the money held out, and a TaeKwonDo Master – even higher ranking than Master Darrell. The conversations were interesting.

Our trip was taking us down the Turquoise Coast…and if you could have seen the water, you would have instantly known why it was so named. Everywhere you looked the color was stunning. We stopped at the ruins on a tiny island, the name of which has been impossible to discover. Nevertheless, a large group of us decided to head for shore and climb up to the top for a view.

Now…the people here are very savvy about tourists…they know you’re going to come climbing up the hill to check out the ruins at the top so…they set up all of their shops along the way, enticing you to buy jewelry, clothes, papers, food, drinks…you name it, they have it. I have become fairly quick at learning how to say “no thank you” in many languages. Fortunately for the locals, my friends were not so good. We had a few people who loved to pick up great deals…and everyone was happy.

Once we got up on the hill we were treated some stunning vistas and goregeous, vivid colors. While the ruins were small and not as extensive as those in Olimpos, they were set in an impressive location. 

We had a great view of the islands around us, our ship, pristine waters and clear skies.