So Far
So we’ve been pretty silent so far. Since Barcelona anyway. After that amazing town we left the Iberian Peninsula for the Italian one. We stayed in the tourist trap of Cinque Terre, five small villages in a national park. Although touristy, the place is gorgeous: pebble beaches and hiking trails through green mountains.
Then it was onto Rome, a great rummage sale of mind-blowing antiques. On the way to the St. Peter’s Basilica, Martha said, “So this must be pretty big for you, eh? Kinda like Mecca?” Really, it didn’t hit me until I got in, the overwhelming religiosity of the place. I had to bless myself at least once. I had to. After five days, we barely scratched the surface of what Rome had to offer.
While in Rome, we took a day-trip to Cassino. Both of my grandfathers fought in a nasty battle there in 1944. The Second Polish Corps was assigned the task of fighting their way up a mountain to the Abby of Monte Cassino. This was the fourth Allied attempt to take this spot from the Germans over four months. It was a very key place as its capture led to the capture of Rome a week later. One of my grandfathers either loaded or fired artillery (I can’t remember which). The other grandfather drove a truck. After seeing Italian drivers and taking a bus up the crazy mountain road, I think the truck driving was the more dangerous job. At the top of Monte Cassino was the lovely Abbey, completely restored, and a large monument/cemetery for the Polish soldiers. It was a nice way to spend my birthday.
Then we decided it was time to put some hustle in our bustle. It was well into July and we had places to go. We motored over the eastern coast to Italy (see drama outlined below and above). We took a 18 hour ferry from Brindisi, Italy to Patras, Greece. I thought of all those adventure tales about running away to sea. I was very into it for a while. We slept on the deck of the ferry, under the stars with exhaust from the stacks washing over us. I’m not sure if it was the rocking of the boat or the carbon monoxide that lulled me to sleep.
We are in Athens now. Like Rome, there is lots of cool, old, broken stuff. Tonight, it’s off to the Island of Naxos, then Rhodes and then Turkey.