A trip to visit seven World Heritages
In our summer vacation, my wife and I participated in a group trip of a very tight schedule to visit seven UNESCO World Heritages (UWH) in Greece and south Italy. Eight years ago, we changed trains to come to Pompei only to find it closed on the notorious strike, nor could we visit the near-by island of Capri. We had been regretting it very much.
To our surprise, however, we met with a strike in Greece this time and could not get into Acropolis (UWH). But we could compromise because, unlike Pompei, we could at least view it afar. Standing pillars of Parthenon were indeed magnificent. We have seen statues on the facades of Parthenon in British Museum. We were told that Greece was requesting Britain to return them, but that Britain had refused it so far saying that a Turkish Sultan in power then allowed Britain to bring back those facade statues which had dropped onto the ground. It was also told that many facade statues still remaining on the pillars by that time suddenly dropped onto the ground.
I found the track of the first modern Olympic Stadium much narrower than the standard 400m track, which I used to be running on in my highschool days, and thought, therefore, that the circumferential length of the track must be shorter. I jogged around the track and felt the linear stretches were so extraordinarily long that I had to walk for a while at the other corner. I later learnt that the track was 400m long after all.
In the afternoon, we visited the 4c BC ruin of the holy town of Delphi (UWH), located halfway up the rocky steep slope of Mt. Parnassus. Those who wanted to get an oracle of Apollo there used to come from the sea into the nearest inlet and to carry up the offering several kilometers to the temple in the altitude of several hundred meters. Today remain only several pillars and a half conic theater. Excavated objects are stored and displayed in the museum. We climbed further up panting in the heat to the uppermost location where we saw an athletic ground and stone seats for spectators for the classical Olympic Games. At the both ends of the seemingly 200 m long ground were white lines of buried marbles. The runner touched these white lines and turned back as in swimming races today. With a conditioned reflex, I ran again to and from the other end.
In Meteora in the midst of Greek mainland, there were several dozens of about 100 m tall big rock pillars carved out by erosion. On top of those pillars were built as many as 25 monasteries and nunneries (UWH) seeking for seclusion. Five of them are now open to the public. Today we use stairs, but ropes used to be the only means to carry people or building materials. Sceneries were super from the top and from the bottom.
We traversed mountains on the bus to reach the western sea coast and stayed overnight in a cabin of a 30 thousand ton ferry to cross the Adriatic Sea. We slept well over the calm sea and arrived at south Italy after breakfast. A small town named Alberobello (Albero=Tree, Bello=Beauty)(UWH) was featured with innumerable cone roofs called trullo (singular) or trulli (plural) made of thin stone blocks piled up, in order to tolerate the heat. Before the town was designated as a World Heritage, it must have been a forgotten town. Almost every trullo house is a souvenir shop now.
We were rocked for several hours on the bus to drive across the Italian Peninsula and stayed in Napoli (UWH) for a night. Next morning we took a ferry for Isola di Capri (no UWH). This 10 square kilometer granite island was filled with villas of rich people since villas of Roman emperors had been located there. Oleanders were beautiful everywhere. We changed to a small motor boat to the famous "Blue Grotto", which we had been longing for. We were told that the probability of being able to get in was 50%, but we were lucky there. We again changed to rowing boats in groups of several people and lay down to get into the eroded cave through an opening of only 0.5 - 1 m between the rock and the sea surface moving up and down with waves. The blue scattered light from the sea water was fantastic in the dark cave. I noticed some accidental facts which made this beauty. The entrance must be small enough lest the cave should become too bright for watching the blue scattered light. The opening of the cave below the sea surface must be big enough to allow scattered light to get in. The weather and time must be such that the sunshine reached the immediate outside of the cave. Waves must be modest enough for entering. Ebb and flow of the tide would cause problems, but ebb and flow are limited in the vast Mediterranean connected to the Ocean only at Gibraltar. We learnt that there were multiple such erosion caves in Capri. "Green Grotto" seems, according to pictures, to have a big opening in the air and combination of scattered light in the water and reflected light from the air seems to make green color. "White Grotto" must be probably a bright granite cave.
In an atelier of an artist in the island, I did an impulse purchase of a pretty oil painting of rock cliffs and the Mediterranean. I first gave it up at its price of Lira 500 thousands, but came back again to ask in vain if credit cards were accepted. I came back for the third time and purchased it for Japanese cash of Yen 30 thousands ( x 17 = 510 thousands).
In the severe heat in the afternoon, we could get in this time in Pompei (UWH), which we found great because it was bigger and more excavated than the ruin in near-by Herculaneum (within the same UWH) which we visited instead of Pompei 8 years ago. Stone-paved roads, lead water pipes, wall paintings, mosaic floors, lapis lazuli wall decoration, all two thousand years old, were marvelous. There were brothels, as a characteristic of a port town. We were impressed by the public bath with two-sided walls for warming through which the smoke was led.
We moved to Rome to stay. We were pleased to visit the Roman ruins (UWH) again next day. We were glad that we threw coins to Trevi Fountain last time and threw some again. In front of the Trinity Church facing the Spanish Plaza, we had a street artist draw our portraits on a single paper for the first time. In the evening we enjoyed much Canzone.
We visited many places within a short period of time, but we had a desire to stay somewhat longer at Capri sometime.
End