Italia! Part I (Roman Numerals, of course)

Italia. Kim and I honeymooned here fourteen years ago. I remember loving this country. The countryside, the towns, the food, the wine, the people, and the language are all so lively and fun. I took Italian in college partially because of the way the Italians seem so happy when they speak it and partially because everyone has always mistaken me for being Italian and I wanted to know what they were saying…

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is the main square of what is arguably the fashion capitol of world. It is also Italy’s publishing and banking center. This is Milan, where we arrive and spend a couple of hours wandering around the heart of the city. Never have I felt so drab, dowdy and underdressed. These Italians have a great sense of style. And, they don’t seem to wear their hiking boots everywhere. Not only do the Milanese dress well, but they are also quite good looking, as Kim and I ogle the locals. The cathedral (il Duomo) was built to impress and it is impressive, in a garish, over-the-top, sandcastle kind of way. There are pigeons everywhere, swooping low and making us look even more ridiculous as we duck to avoid being hit.

We train down to Monterossa, the most westerly of the towns making up the Cinque Terre. These towns are only connected to the outside world by train or hiking. The coast is beautiful, lush, vineyard covered mountains, ending in cliffs above dark blue seas. The hike takes us about 4 hours, not counting the stops for gelato and lunch to refuel our tanks. The path is so narrow, so that we must hug the hillside when hikers come from the other direction. The towns are almost too perfect—multicolored buildings, carefully placed churches and castles, brightly painted boats. We muse if there is a local building code to make sure your paint goes well with the neighbors, but at the same time provides sufficient contrast for artistic interest.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is an easy one, isn’t it? I gather the builders realized the tower was tilting when they had only built two levels, but they forged ahead anyway, putting this city on the map for eternity, or at least until the tower falls. This is Pisa, a major rival of our next stop--

Florence. The colors here are much more subtle than on the coast. There are so many shades of browns, and, with the ubiquitous red tiled roofs, the effect is of tremendous warmth. We climb to the top of the cathedral (Duomo). This church was built at the start of the Renaissance. They actually started building this cathedral before there was the technology to build the dome to enclose the gapping hole in the structure, but, with supreme confidence in the abilities of man, they built it, secure in the knowledge that someone would figure it out in time. The whole of Florence unfolds under our feet, with the morning mist obscuring the Tuscan hills in the distance. While Italy as an entire country was a leader of the Renaissance, Florence was really the heart of the movement. It was an interesting place for the Renaissance. After hundreds of years of the dark and middle ages, during which time the people must have unearthed ancient ruins from the Romans and earlier. They undoubtedly realized that, at some point, long before their time, there had been an age possessed with greater knowledge than they. “Darn, I wish I could figure out how they built this building…” or “I wonder what all these lines and squiggles mean (in exhumed writings). Like sitting in on a preschool and discovering the babies know more than you do.

Siena: We purchased tickets for the Uffizzi gallery beforehand (lines are always very long). Taking our time to see every room, we wander through the gallery. They have the artwork in chronological order. There are too many religious panting for my liking but some are absolutely gorgeous. It is very interesting how the paintings vary through the ages. In the paintings from the dark and middle ages, the painting are very two dimensional and the peoples’ faces are blank. Everything is posed for the painting. It doesn’t seem like they moved. In the painting from the renaissance period, they rediscovered how to paint perspective. Every thing seemed more lively and life-like. We listened to a story about a painting. The painting is of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, with two angels in the corner. The master painter painted the central figures and had his two young apprentices, Leonardo de Vinci and Botticelli, paint the two side angels. The two angels seemed so much better than the master’s work, so much more beautiful, that he never painted again.

The Beattie Beer Index has stalled a bit in Italy. I mean, the beer is good—we had a Peroni tonight the cost $1.30 for a little one. But, who would drink much beer here when the wine is so unbelievably good and cheap??? Not only have we enjoyed the local wines, but the local liqueurs have been great, too. Have you ever tried Limoncello? I’m working on learning the recipe, so you can try it at our house when we return.

Greece, Part III: Crete and Athens

We finally arrive on Crete, after a two day delay. Our plane leaves early (!), but our rental car is not there when we land. It arrives, running on fumes, and we circle around the city, searching for an open gas station. We finally arrive at our villa after 1 in the morning. But, it is definitely worth it. The house is straight off the pages of Architectural Digest. It is not a house that you would want to live in, (no comfortable places to read indoors, gorgeous, but hard to climb out of showers, etc) but to rent it for a week was wonderful.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is an ancient palace that figures prominently in a number of Greek myths. This is where the Minotaur was kept captive, in a labyrinth and fed the young people of Athens. The Minotaur was finally slain by Theseus, who escaped from the labyrinth using an unwound ball of thread to find his way out (kind of like Hansel and Gretel). The word “labyrinth” actually came from here—the symbol of the palace is a double-headed axe, which is what “labyrinth” means in ancient Greek. This is also the palace from which Dedalus (the architect of the palace) and his son Icarus escaped by building wings made of feathers and wax. It is critical that the young people following the blog understand that the son perished during the escape because he failed to listen to his parent. Don’t let this happen to you… This is Knossos. The civilization that lived here, known as the Minoans, were incredibly advanced. Like the houses in Delos, they had flush toilets and indoor hot and cold running water. To put this in perspective, when France’s Palace of Versailles was built, 3000 years later, the most glorious palace of its age, neither running water nor indoor toilets were installed.

It is interesting to come here right after Santorini. As you may recall from my posting on Santorini, many historians believe that the catastrophic eruption on Santorini caused a tsunami to destroy the palace here on Crete. The 50 meter high tsunami actually traveled faster than the plane we took to travel between the two islands. And, there wasn’t a two day delay, either!

I know it is juvenile, but we snicker every time we see a restaurant proudly stating they serve Cretan food, sell Cretan products, or a typical Cretan village. Can’t they come up with a better adjective for themselves??? But, Crete itself is fabulous. There are so many olive trees here. We learn that the Cretans (heh, heh) consume 1/3 of their daily calories from olive oil. The roads are tortuous, winding up into the mountains and along the cliffs that line most of the coast. The Cretans are known for being scrappy and independent, fighting off the Turks, the Nazis and their enemies. They have a reputation for revenge bordering on brutality, but everyone we met was friendly and welcoming. There are countless caves and gorges in this rugged island. One day, we hike down one of the narrowest. The walls rise above us 100 meters straight up, barely 2 meters apart. The trail closes during periods of heavy rain, and we can see why. Being at the bottom of the ravine would be deadly if water were to funnel down here.

In addition to olive trees, grapevines cover the arable land. The wine is spotty. They serve this special local wine, that to us tasted like cheap sherry. Other wines were great. It was a bit of a crapshoot when you ordered it. Prices for beer and wine are moderate here. I should mention the liquor. The first house we rented had a homemade bottle of ouzo. Now, I’m not usually a fan of ouzo, as I loathe licorice, but this didn’t taste like licorice at all. It was fabulous! Our attempts at purchasing the stuff were less successful, as all the store bought ouzo tasted like black licorice. Yech. We also tried what we thought was an after dinner drink called Raki. It was brought to our table after a meal at a small taverna. The aroma and initial taste were of rubbing alcohol, but, by the third glass, we all quite liked it, kind of like sake that way. The reason I said we thought it was an after dinner drink, is they gave my parents shots of it after breakfast one day as well. As my friend Peter would paraphrase, when tippling early, the sun’s over the forearm!

There are sheep and goat everywhere on Crete. When hiking through the gorge, we are amazed by where the goats can get. Shear rock faces seem to be no obstacle, and the ringing of the bells the animals wear around their necks makes us search the rocks for their location. The weather is still wonderfully warm. Siena and I swim in the Libyan Sea, on the south shore. We see land in the distance, and believe that it is Africa. After looking at the maps later, we realize this is impossible (250 kilometers away).

Our last two days in Greece are spent in Athens. We stay at a small hotel in the Plaka, hike between the various archeological sites, and take a day trip to this spot. The Temple of Poseidon is on an awesome location, jutting out into the Aegean Sea, on a promontory a hundred meters high. This is where legend has it King Aegeus, for whom the sea is named, threw himself to his death when he thought his son Theseus had been killed by the Minotaur, (see above).

Ethan is standing in front of the old Olympic Stadium, from 1896, the first year the modern Olympics was held. They used this stadium during the 2004 Olympics, too. This is where the marathon ended. We loved that the hedges surrounding the area was made of laurel bushes. You could make your own wreath even if you were unable to win one…

We bid farewell to my parents at the airport, to fly to Italy. Unfortunately, our flight does not exist. Instead of flying to Bari (southeastern coast), we fly to Milan (northwestern mainland). Luckily, while we had sketched out an itinerary, we’ve made no reservations. When you fly il cheapo budget airline, it isn’t like flying Lufthansa. Wish us luck!

Yamas,
The Beattie Clan

Greece, Part II: Santorini

Wow. Let me say that again. Wow. As our boat pulls into the pier at Santorini, we crane our necks to see the top of the island. It looks like there is snow on the peaks, but this is an illusion created by the myriad of white buildings clustered at the top. The island makes a large "C" with two islands in the middle, and two more that used to form a circle around the two in the middle.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are standing on the edge of the active volcano's crater. This is the larger of the two middle islands.

The island on which we stand is the newest island in the Mediterranean. It's top emerged from the sea only about 450 years ago. The newest eruption to increase the size of the island was 50 years ago. Santorini lies at the convergence of the African and European tectonic plates. As these move relative to each other, molten lava occasionally spews forth from any of a number of openings. This one is the most obvious one, but we are told a much larger volcano is lurking 7 kilometers off the cost, just under the water. There was a very sophisticated civilization living on Santorini ages ago in 1650 B.C. They had a city and hot and cold running water. A huge volcanic explosion covered the island in meters of lava and ash, causing a tsunami to form. Present day scientists believe this tsunami may have wiped out the cities on Crete, 75 miles away, in a half an hour. An earthquake devastated the island in 1956. We understand that earthquakes here are a way of life, but that doesn't make us feel any more comfortable when the ground shakes under us one evening during cocktails.

We were planning on spending 3 days on Santorini, but high winds prevented our ferry from running. We spent an extra 2 days on this island, enjoying the waves the wind blew up. We had lunch at the place where I snapped this picture. We had to periodically lift our feet to prevent getting soaked by the waves.

We are staying in a villa, a cave actually, built into the side of the cliffs facing the caldera. Our view, from almost a thousand feet above the water, is breathtaking. The down side to having such an awesome view, is that the rest of the tourists come here to watch the sunrise, the sunset and crowds accumulate here at all hours. We've had to shoo people off our roof, and feel a bit like celebraties, with the papparrazzi surrounding us with large cameras pointed our way. If that is the price one must pay for paradise, it is worth it.

This is taken on our terrace. Santorini might be the first real "buzz" place that has exceeded all expectations. It is more beautiful in person than in all of the pictures I have seen. The view from our villa adorns countless posters, postcards and travel brochures for Greece. And it does not disappoint.

Yamas!

The Beatties

Greece, Part I

We leave Istanbul and travel by plane to Turkey's nemesis (word of the day) Greece. Thank goodness for all those math, physics, and engineering classes Kim and I took. I was concerned that I would never use my knowledge from them again, but here they have come in most useful. Greek Letters! Sure, we know what a sigma, theta and pi look like. And, we can sometimes translate that knowledge into reading a street sign! Unfortunately, the signs frequently are in interesting fonts, impossible for us to decipher.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is a city with one of the longest histories of any city in the world. People have lived in this city for over 3000 years. This is the birthplace of democracy, the birthplace of western philosophy, of western literature. The citizens wrote a constitution, had an assembly comprised of citizens, and developed a sophisticated society two millenia before America was "discovered". Wild to be on the same streets as Plato and Aristotle, Socrates and Sophocles, Pericles and Homer. It is named after the goddess of Wisdom, Athena: Athens. Ethan and Siena are behind the Parthenon, a large temple to Athena. It is the largest structure on the Acropolis, Greek for "high place in the city." It was built in the 5th Century B.C. and is a magical place. It is so beautiful that I'm going to put another picture of it here:

From Athens, we traveled to Paros, one of thousands of islands in Greece. There are small fishing villages, empty beaches, and hilltop churches. They seem to have two paint colors here: white and blue. We are in a beautiful home; in fact, it recently graced the cover of Greece's Home and Garden. We love the pace of life here. You walk to the butcher, vegetable market and grocer before each meal, and we plan on nothing between 2 and 5:30 (sometimes 6:30) when the island shuts down for a siesta. Can you see what this man is pounding? It is an octopus. Instead of throwing them on the ice, the way they do in Detroit, here they thrash the octopus to tenderize it. Evidently, they don't thrash it hard enough as, while it is delicious, the octopus is decidedly chewy. As for the rest of the food here, it is wonderful. Ethan can't get enough of the fried squid, ordering it whenever we go out for meals. Each morning, we walk to the bakery, a couple of blocks from our house, and pick up fabulous warm bread. Siena doesn't know how we will ever return to eating packaged bread again.

Reminders of past civilisations surround us here. We hike on a Byzantine road, through ancient groves of olive trees. We take a day trip to Delos, a holy island, filled with ruins of temples. These lions are aligned to face the morning sun. The amphitheater's acoustics are so good, I can hear Ethan, sitting in the first row, tell Barbara to "smile" as I click this picture from the top. We stop at Mykonos in the afternoon. While lovely, we are a bit mystified as to why this island is "in" more than the other islands.

We are clearly here after the season. There are large, largely empty, parking lots, boarded up tavernas and inns, reduced bus and ferry schedules. Of course, this is to our liking, as there are no crowds. The only negative though, is the keg beer has been depleted. No place on the island has draught beer, so we drink our Mythos and Alfa in the bottle. The beer is excellent, like a not-quite-so-sweet Beck's. Prices are about $4 in a restaurant, $2 in the store. The wine is wonderful, except for the one with the handwritten label we try. Last night, we bought wine in a water bottle (1.5 L) for 3 Euro-- about $4.50. It was delicious. It is now the "house wine".

Next, it is on to Santorini!

We hope all is well with all of you, despite the financial market woes.

Yamas! (cheers in Greek)

The Beatties

Istanbul

This is the most foreign city we’ve visited. As we drove towards the old city, minarets, shaped like modern rockets clutter the skyline, surrounding the numerous mosques like some defense system. We wake each morning at 5:30, by the wail of the male voices, telling us it is time to pray. This occurs 5 times a day, starting with our morning wake up call, and ending in the late evening. Each mosque has its own crier, their timing staggered with the other mosques close by so that all can be heard.

We are staying in our first hotel in a long time. It is such a luxury to have people to ask directions, suggestions, to make reservations, arrange for transportation. And, my parents are here! We explore Istanbul together. What an amazing city!

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is a mileage marker. Istanbul was the center of the world for over 1600 years. This is a remnant of the Roman period here. When Constantine led the Roman Empire, he moved its capitol to Byzantium, present day Istanbul. This was a more strategic position, especially relative to the east. This marker is the zero mile post for the entire Roman Empire. All cities and distances were measured from here. The city was renamed Constantinople after Signore Constantine. The Romans were the first empire to call this city their capitol, but far from the last. Following the break up of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was formed from the eastern half of the original Roman Empire. The Byzantines were, I believe, of Greek origin, and their empire extended across a wide swathe of Asia and Europe. The third empire to rule here were the Ottomans. When the Turks defeated the Byzantines in 1453 for control, they renamed the city Istanbul. So, present day Istanbul was the capitol of the largest empires of the world from about 88 AD until the 19th century.

Where in the world are Ethan and his grandfather Alan? They are cruising along the Bosphorus, a river connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. On the left of the river is Europe; the right bank is Asia. Istanbul sits at the cross roads between East and West, Europe and Asia, and, today, Islam and Christianity. It is the only city that spreads across two continents.

The city is also marked by decline. The Roman Empire’s collapse, the long, slow decline of the Byzantines, and the 300 year fall of the Ottomans all have left an ancient air of abandonment to this city. My favorite story involves a magnificent cistern, built in Byzantine times to provide water for the growing population. Apparently, after years of disuse, it was entirely forgotten, buried on debris. The people of Istanbul thought Allah had blessed their city as you could drop a bucket into any hole and pull out water. The cistern was only re-discovered about 20 years ago. There are over 300 columns, all stolen from other ruins.

The Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofia are both staggering in their magnitude and decorations. We have a knowledgeable guide, willing to not only show us the sites, but also to discuss the history, the religion, the people of this city with us.

We are fortunate to be here for Ramazan (Ramadan, as we know it). The devout fast from sunrise to sunset, but the population is very tolerant, and restaurants are open and, if not teeming with people, at least not empty. Each evening, the city is filled with revelers. We are glad to not be fasting. The food here is excellent. We love the lamb, lemon, dill, baklava, grape leaves and wine. Not all in one dish, though. The Beattie Beer Index is high for taste, moderate for price. A half liter of excellent draft beer, Efes, is about $4. So, we say cheers in Turkish—

Sherefe!
The Beattie Clan