Vesuvio

Vesuvius (Vesuvio in Italian) may be the most famous volcano on earth.   Located less than 25 miles from our hotel in Sorrento, it is possible to climb right up to the mouth of the crater, called Il Gran Cono. 

Quiet since its last eruption in March 1944, Vesuvio has a long and active history.  Scientists trace the first volcanic activity as far back as 6,000 BC.  The most famous eruption happened on August 24, 79 AD, when the towns of Ercolano, Pompei and Stabia were completely destroyed by ashes and lava.

Today Vesuvio is active as a tourist destination and national park.  You can climb up the path ...

... and peer right into the crater.

The path is steep in places and uneven in others, but it is rated as only "moderately" difficult.  The base of the path can be reached by bus from Pompei, or by van from Ercolano.   Both Pompei and Ercolano are on the Circumvesuviana train line; the Sorrento station for this line is one mile from our hotel.

To read more about Vesuvius, check out the national park web site, the Italy parks web site, or the Campania tourism web site.  There is also a brochure that can be downloaded as a pdf file here.

Rome - Europe's Largest Synagogue and Mosque

Although I knew that Rome's synagogue is the largest in Europe, I only recently learned that the city is also home to the largest mosque in Europe as well.

La Sinagoga

Jews first came to Rome as traders in the 2nd century BC and, despite efforts starting in the 16th century to drive them away, there has been a Jewish community in Rome for more than two millennium.  A papal edict issued by Pope Paul IV in 1555 created the Ghetto; walls and gates were erected to close off the Jewish community in a small area (approximately seven acres) along the Tiber.

Living conditions in the Ghetto were abysmal; approximately 3,500 people were imprisoned in the district each night and the area was prone to flooding.  Finally, nearly 300 years later, another papal order caused the gates to be torn down and the area was transformed into a Jewish quarter.

The synagogue (sinagoga in Italian) was built between 1901 - 1904.  Its distinctive four-sided, aluminum sheathed dome sets it apart from the other religious structures in the city and makes it instantly recognizable.

Relatively peaceful cohabitation of Catholics and Jews in Rome lasted for slightly more than 50 years, until October 16, 1943, when the occupying Germans raided the Ghetto and rounded up the residents.  More than 2,000 Roman Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps; very few of them returned.

The synagogue complex also houses the Jewish museum of Rome.  You can read more about the museum here.

The mosque is a new addition to Rome, completed in 1995. 



Amalfi Paper

Amalfi has been known for high quality paper making for hundreds of years; people came from all over Europe to have their documents printed on Amalfi paper.

Today the Museo della Carta preserves 500 year old paper making machinery and demonstrates how to make paper.

The museum's collections include engravings, manuscripts, printed books, bills and posters, as well as tools and machines for making paper.

Of course, there is also a museum shop where you can purchase hand-made paper products.

You can read more about the museum on their web site here.

Rome - Saturday Mass in English

Santa Susanna is the American Catholic church in Rome and it's only three short blocks from our hotel, the Quirinale.  For those who wish to attend a Roman Catholic mass in English while in Rome, this is the place to go.  Saturday evening mass is at 6 PM.

For more information, see the Santa Susanna web site.

Naples - Cappella Sansevero

Tucked away in the old part of the city, known as Spaccanapoli, is the Chapel of Sansevero.  Built, and then rebuilt, to fulfill promises to God, the current Baroque interior is from the 18th Century.

Today the chapel is a museum and its most famous work is Giuseppe Sanmartino's 1753 sculpture The Veiled Christ.  Even as you stand in front of it, it's hard to believe that the entire piece is made from marble ... the sculptor has made the marble appear to be transparent.

The museum has an excellent web site, full of pictures and information here.

Omaggio a Roma (A Tribute to Rome)

A couple of years ago the director Franco Zeffirelli produced a 20 minute film entitled Omaggio a Roma, which means A Tribute to Rome.   It features stunning photograpy of Rome and, as an added bonus, Andrea Bocelli singing.  Among the sites you'll see are:

• Tiber Island (in the still shot above)
• Trevi Fountain
• Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers, in Piazza Navona)
• St. Peter's Basilica
• Detail from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
• Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio and Cordonata
• Sculptures from the Capitoline Museums
• Colosseum
• Castel Sant'Angelo (the setting for the final act of Tosca)
• Bernini sculptures from the Galleria Borghese
• Il Vittoriano, the monument to King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, the first king of unified Italy
• Pantheon

You can see a three minute excerpt of the film here.

Rome - Pantheon

There are two preeminent architectural survivors of the Classical age, the Pantheon in Rome and the Parthenon in Athens. The Pantheon, however, is the only one that not only remains intact, it has been in near continuous use for almost two millennium.

It's not much to look at from the outside, owing to a few ancient recycling programs; gilded bronze tiles that once decorated the exterior of the dome were carted off in 663 by the Byzantine emperor Constans II, and in the 1620's Pope Urban VIII re-purposed about two hundred tons of bronze that once encased the supporting beams and underside of the portico roof by turning them into cannons. According to some sources, he commented that the metal was better employed keeping enemies away from the Holy See than keeping rain out of the Pantheon.

Although the church is partly responsible for the Pantheon's somewhat homely exterior, the fact that it survives at all is largely due to the church taking it over in the seventh century and consecrating it as sacred space.

The interior today features a beautiful marble floor that preserves the original Roman design.  There are shrines along the circular walls that include the tombs of the Renaissance painter Raphael and of several kings of Italy. 

Probably the most interesting part of the Pantheon interior is the ceiling and the oculus, the hole at the top that illuminates the entire interior of the building. 

The dome is made of concrete, which was a relatively new material in the second century.  It is 142 feet across and was the largest in Rome by far for nearly fifteen centuries, until St. Peter's Basilica was built.  

On rainy days, tourists flock to the Pantheon to see it rain indoors and they are not disappointed.

To read more about the architecture of the Pantheon, see here.