The Mediterranean Coast
Our home in Spain was within walking distance of the Mediterranean Sea. Sunday we went down to the Sunday market. There were a ton of oranges for sale there. We would call them clementines. The beach was right beside the market. An awful thing happened on Monday in the afternoon about five o'clock we (except dad and Betsy) went to a playground. Bria went on an unusually high Monkeybars and swung across, Landon went too. He swung out and dropped landing on his arm and mom heard it snap. he went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a broken arm. He even had surgery.
Mom planned on Wednesday, (the forecast said it was going to be clear) "Let's go watch the sunrise over the Mediterranean." I don't know what is so great about walking twenty minutes to see something I can see every day. Wednesday we did not see it because everyone was too tired to get up early enough. Saturday we went to the beach in the afternoon and played there for a couple hours, I even tried crabbing. We drove back into southern France on Saturday to spend the night on our way to Verona, Italy. The next day we drove along the coast and right by one of the smallest countries in Europe called Monaco. At one point we could see across Monaco and see its harbor on the Mediterranean. We went through lots of tunnels and drove into Italy. Within 2 minutes dad and mom each got a text from T-Mobil saying they were in Italy , great! we didn't know when we had crossed the line. We got to Verona at about 5:00pm and settled into our home for the week.
I was writing about things having to do with the coast and Verona is not actually near the coast, but this post so far is too short so I will continue. What puts Verona on the map? it was because of a very famous English man named William Shakespeare. How did he do it, well he wrote the play Romeo and Juliet, setting in Verona. The families that possibly inspired him, lived here. About 100 years ago a clever city resident named a certain place as Juliet's house. It was not, but tourists flock here just to stand on "Juliet's balcony" anyway.
What are these!!!????
They are above ground tombs. I think the rich would make these so that a long time after they died they would be remembered by everyone.
And what is this standing here? (above pic) For I thought this was Verona, not Venice? The lion is the symbol of Venetian power. Venice ruled quite a ways inland too, a large area including Verona.
There was also a Christmas market we browsed for a while.
Wednesday we went back into Verona to visit some new sites. First stop, Verona cathedral. This cathedral dates back to Roman times and there are some roman ruins you can see here. There was a service going on in front of a magnificent golden statue of Mary sitting in a lavish chair holding baby Jesus in a little side chapel, so we were very quiet. The huge Gothic architecture was dazzling to look at but not at all like Wurms (as the Germans spell it) Cathedral's high alter. We glanced at the roman ruins under the cathedral, displayed through plexiglass flooring, and headed to our next stop, The tower of Verona (that is what Betsy said).
We climbed to the top of this lofty tower. The climb was hard, I was wondering when I was going to get to the top. The view was incredibly good and I still can't believe how I missed seeing where we were heading next, the Roman Arena. I never thought to look for it I guess.
This arena is the fourth largest in Italy still standing. Sound carries really well, everyone can hear you from about anywhere. When it was built it was positioned beside the city wall to avoid jamming the center with traffic. Later they built a wall around it to protect it, now it is in the middle of the modern city. On our way home we visited Juliet's balcony and looked at the walls covered in names.
Luckily dad found parking where you weren't required to leave your car unlocked and the keys in your car, otherwise we would not have taken a day trip to Venice. Beforehand we had downloaded on our smartphones some Rick Steve's Walking Tours where you walk around listening to explanations of what you are seeing. The first 'tour' was on a boat on the Grand canal where we saw Peggy (a famous modern art collector)Guggenheim's house, a stoplight for the fireboat house, Ca' d'Oro palace, and a lot of other interesting things. We got to St. Marks Square and there started a walking tour (as opposed to the boat ride tour). It was all about the square and the Basilica of St Mark's. What are these doing here?
They are sidewalks. Venice is built in a lagoon. When the lagoon floods when the tide is high, and the water seeps (or gushes) through the cracks between the stones of the streets and floods the city with a couple inches of water, then they lay out these temporary sidewalks. if the flood reaches 6" an alarm goes off and everyone gets their furniture to a higher place so it won't get wet. We ate lunch and went into the basilica. This church is unusual because it is a church, a cathedral, and a basilica combined. What is a church, a cathedral, and a basilica? A church is a building used for public Christian worship. A cathedral is the principal church of a district under the supervision of a bishop. And a basilica is a church that is given special privileges by the Pope. This basilica is a mix of Islamic domes and Byzantine Mosaics and Greek cruciform floor pattern. The floor is sinking in some places as the ground beneath becomes mud and it sinks. Notice the beautiful floor patterns below and the wavy floor.
The Mosaics are of stories such as Noah's Ark. Who's first in the ark? Lions of course.
And my favorite factoid: Venice wanted religious pilgrims to come visit their town but what would make them come? Here is what they did. They made St. Mark the Patron Saint of the city and stole his bones out of his grave in Egypt. They built a huge cathedral to house his bones. The building was about complete when they realized they lost St Mark's bones [in the passage of time and the chaos of the building process]. The Doge (the duke) led the city in prayer and then they looked in a hollow pillar and there were the bones!
We rode on a Gondola! A bit of bargaining and Presto! you have a ticket for 6 people on a gondola for a more reasonable price. Wintertime and cold make that bargaining much easier I am sure. Gondolas are built in a slight curve allowing the gondolier to row and steer the gondola in a straight line with one oar and standing in one place. The gondola let us explore the city with a personalized tour guide.
We decided to call it a day, and headed back to our car. We walked by a market that was closing for the day. The parking garage we parked in was only accessible by the PeopleMover (the people that named it were really creative) which is a train/monorail and we drove home.