Italy
Feb 2007
In February I was sent to Italy
to install some equipment for work. We
had a few days to kill while waiting for parts so I went sight seeing.
On Thursday I went to Sorrento
& the Amalfi
Coast. It’s down towards the southern part of Italy. In Sorrento
they are famous for their lemon liquor and very old cathedrals. We also met a lady who does wood work inlay
the same way that her great great grandfather does it
from way back when. She said it was said
that the tradition would probably not go past the next generation because it
takes some 20 years to perfect and there’s no money to be made in it. You can see some of that same inlay in one of
the historic churches that I went to and it’s been done that way for hundreds
of years.
Here is the photo gallery: Sorrento & Amalfi Coast
On Friday I went to Pompeii
and Mt. Vesuvius. Nothing could prepare me for Pompeii
though. This is a city that was over 2 thousand
years old and it was buried under tons of ash from the eruption of Mt.
Vesuvius. The cool thing is the lava never got to the
city, just the ash so everything was preserved under layers of the ash. They still found skeletal remains and bodies
in the same position they died in. Most
of the people got out which I didn’t know.
Only some 2,000 or so actually died because they wouldn’t leave and
eventually asphyxiated and were buried.
They had an amazing society of merchants and lawyers and the things we
saw were amazing for something 2,000 years old.
They even had a red light district and I took plenty of pictures of the
art on the wall there. J
Here is the photo gallery: Pompeii & Mt. Vesuvius
On Sunday I took a trip to Rome. Rome
is immense and you could easily spend an entire week there. We took a trip called Rome
of the Caesars. So
basically old Rome stuff before it became the Christian center of religious might. We saw the Colosseum
and the Baths of Caracalla. We saw where they used to have chariot races
and all kinds of interesting stuff. Even
back then Rome had one of the
biggest populations of any city of it’s time.
These people back then were way ahead of their time. I learned that the Roman aqueducts were built
using a type of cement that was perfect for water. They then lost the formula and it wasn’t
until the industrial revolution came about that they started getting back to
the same type of engineering prowess.
That to me is just incredible.
Here is the photo gallery: Rome of the Caesars
All in all it was pretty cool. There is so much to see that you definitely
need to be moving quick to even hope to see a fraction
of it. I could have spent a whole week
in just Rome alone. Pretty neat seeing stuff 2
thousand years old though. -Will