Cruising on the Adriatic Sea

April 4, 2011 Back at it again

After almost a year I am ready to finish sharing our trip to Italy, the Adriatic and Aegean Seas. When I left off we had just been to Santorini. Next we headed for Corfu another Greek Island.

Town Square in Corfu

Corfu is at the entrance to the Adriatic sea just like Sontorini is at the entrance to the Aegean. Both are strategically important. Corfu has changed hands many, many times - Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, Venetians, French and English. The English turned it over to Greece after WWII.

Corfu was where Ulysses made his last stop before going home to Ithaca. The Venetians ruled the island from 1500 to 1700.


Doesn't this street in Corfu look like ones that you see just about everywhere?


The main attraction in Corfu for me was the palace of Empress Elizabeth of Austria. (Seen above) She is known as SiSi. Franz Joseph was Sisi's husband and he ruled Germany for 60 years. Sisi's sister was engaged to Franz Joseph. He came to the family home to announce the engagement and found Sisi fishing at a pond near the entrance to the estate. He fell in love with her immediately and announced his engagement to her rather than her sister.



She was beautiful as this portrait and sculpture show. She had the palace in Corfu built as a retreat from court life, a place to rest and enjoy life. She is said to have been an inveterate traveller, horsewoman and fashion maven.

The next several pictures are of some of the beautiful things she had in the palace. They definitely do not do the Palace justice but a few pictures are to help me remember how much I enjoyed this site.


Two large sculptures adorned the front porch one on either side of the main entrance. She had a lot of beautiful art work both in sculpture and painting.



I was surprised to find out when I got home that I didn't have any pictures of the paintings. I guess I was enjoying them enough that I forgot to take pictures. Fortunately Marv took a few.






Part of our tour group looking at a spectacular staircase and the painted ceiling (see next 2 pictures)




This vase was absolutely spectacular. I wanted more information about it but none was found. I would love to know where it was made, how it was made and who did it.


She had a wonderful assortment of antique furniture.

Courtyard

Sisi was assassinated at age 61 by an Italian anarchist. Her first child Sophie died as an infant and her only son Crown Prince Rudolph is said to have committed suicide as a young man in 1889.


A final note about Corfu. Corfu is tropical unlike att the rest of Greece. It gets lots of rain. Our day there was one of two days of rain on this trip. Olives are the main industry. Also have thousands of Kumquat trees for making sweets and candy. The Kumquat is found only in Corfu and no place else in Greece They also have lots of Cyprus Trees.


Tomorrow we will be in Venice.


As I mentioned we left Verona to board our cruise ship at Venice. We knew that we would be at sea one night and in the morning we would be in Dubrovnik, Croatia. By now we were very tired and a night at sea sounded especially good.

Every meal was delicious and all the dishes were done :) how can you beat that ?!
There were a lot of fun activities to chose from. Shuffleboard was a favorite one. Swimming pools and a spa made you feel a bit royal.
A special surprise of this trip was to find out that one of the couples with our tour group was almost related to me. Their daughter married Leslie Kowallis's son. Leslie is my second cousin and Judy his wife is a dear friend. They know Leslie and Judy really well and quite often spend evenings together.


Every night the cabin steward made an animal out of towels. This hanging monkey was a prize winner.

Morning and we are in Dubrovnik, Croatia. During the war of 1992 the Serbs lobbed 400 shells into the city. Roofs are all new and buildings show signs of that activity. However, despite that it really is quite beautiful.



The neighborhood streets are memorable. They all ascend and descend at about forty five degree angle. They must be some of the healthiest people around. All there homes and shops can only be reached using these stairs.

After a day in Dubrovnik we boarded the ship knowing that we would have two nights and a day at sea. We would be landing in Turkey and traveling to see Ephesus.


We were greeted by a group of dancers in Turkish native costumes.

Much like Pompeii Ephesus was a big surprise and a high light of the trip. Greeks settled here about 800 BC. Persians came in 500 BC. Ephesus was moved to several different locations. There isn't much left to mark the first location. The second one has a church built by it. There we found what they believe is the burial spot of John. John is the only apostle who died of natural causes. His body wasn't found but he is thought to have lived the last part of his life in Ephesus.
In the area marked Basilica of St. John (Ephesus 2) we saw a baptismal font deep enough for immersion with a confirmation room next door.


The Persians in 550 BC built the Temple of Artemis (Diana) . It was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Temple was a source of pride for the Ephesians and brought tourists to the area. So it was an economic boon to the city and a source of employment, selling items for sacrifice to the idols. Paul threatened this source of wealth with his preaching. The temple was destroyed in 401 AD by a mob.

We took a hundred pictures of Ephesus but I'll share a few of my favorites. I will probably add more later
Huge beautiful columns were everywhere.Streets were lined with marble.

This is the Library. Very beautiful
Only about 13% of the old city has been excavated. They have a very intensive excavation program going on at this time. This is a condominium that they have uncovered and are restoring. Once again we found frescoes and tile murals decorating the walls of their homes.
Gorgeous floor tiles.

What a fantastic experience this was. We have a lot more pictures but this will give you an idea.




From Turkey we went to Santorini Greece. Many Greeks considered this the birth place of Zeus. It was a round island that in 1650 BC erupted and became a crescent shape.

White homes are from lime and water used to sanitize the homes after the Spanish flu killed so many. They believe that blue color chases away evil so you see a lot of it. The Greek flag is blue and white.
From port you have to take a cable car to the top or walk or ride a donkey up the zig zag path.

It is a very popular tourist place. 14000 live on the island year round but during the summer the population explodes to 90,000. 500 of the year round population are Catholic and the rest are Greek Orthodox. There are over 300 churches on this small island.



The picture below is of some motels. The guide quoted 700 Euros per month for a rental in the village. How about a month of this?A restaurant; eat inside or out - gorgeous weather. Notice our ship down on the water.

Our next stop Ravenna, then Verona and on to ship

Ravenna at one point in history was the capital of the Western Empire and later capital of Italy. It was one of the major ports on the Adriatic side. However the port over time silted in and the economy began to fail, leaving it as an "unimportant village" for centuries. Today it is known for one main reason; some beautiful mosaic murals in several churches in the area. We visited two of them. Both were constructed in the fifth century. I particularly enjoyed Ravenna for two reasons. First, here Christ was portrayed as a living, triumphant and even tender being. After all the dying Christs of Florence and Rome it was a welcome change to see Him loving the sheep, and generally ministering to the people. Second the tile murals were absolutely incredible. Every tiny detail was rendered in very small tiles. What a work of art!

I'm not sure that you can see enough in the photos. I needed a better camera but try and imagine all of this is worked in tiles. None of it is painted.


I tried to get a closeup of this figure of Melchizedek

In the top of the dome is the cross in a beautiful starry ski. In the center of the cross is a beardless picture of Christ with an "extremely expressive expression" on His face. Very kind and thoughtful. Above is another picture of Christ who is giving a blessing to those with him but here he has a more troubled look. Remember this has been done with tiles.Notice the beautiful marble columns. There were twenty four of them. They lined both sides of the Basilica of San Apollinaris in Classe.

Beautiful!! My favorite is this one of Christ patting the head of one of the sheep. This was in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia.
Basilica di San Vitale - once again completely done in tile. Absolutely exquisite!

On to Verona
This arena is the oldest one in Italy. It was built forty years before Romes. The Opera Festival, held here each summer hosts the best opera singers in the world.
We were told that this fountain is 2000 years old. It is located in the main piazza. Notice the frescoes on the building. Many of them are 500 years old.

This is the balcony where Juliet was serenaded by Romeo. This place was as packed as the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Nobody told them it was just a story. ;0

If you saw the movie "Letters to Juliet" you'll know what this next picture is.
There still doing it.
People in Verona don't like Juliet's house because it is touted too much over other sites. I have to agree! This is part of the house and is for rent as a honeymoon suite. There is also a statue of Juliet and if you touch her breast you will have good luck in love.

I loved this little Grandma selling beautiful little bouquets of real flowers. Sorry we didn't get her face she was adorable. I suspect that a bouquet would bring more luck than the touch on Juliet.

This is a statue of Dante in front of the town hall. He was banished to Verona where he wrote the 2nd volume of the Divine Comedy. His purpose was to write the Divine Comedy in Italian to unite Italy.


Now on to the ship Splendor of the Sea. An evening of fun, food and sleep and when we wake up we will be in Dubrovnik, Croatia