Matera

The city of Matera dates back from 7000 BC. What makes it so interesting is the caves that they live in. They actually chose that spot because the rock was easy to carve out.

We toured through some of the cave churches. (The guide was kind of creepy!)
One of them had 4 holes in the wall. They were used to tell time by where the sunlight hit on the opposite wall. Like a really ld clock.

Almost every church had a big hole in the floor. That was used to sore rainwater to drink. They also had a sort of underground plumbing system so the water could run to the other houses.

Another interesting thing were the old wine presses. Those were inside the church. It's pretty much a big square tub with a hole in the bottom. The grapes would be in the bottom and someone would stomp them down. then they would come out of the hole and go into a barrel. They kept the barrels in a room underneth the church.

We also saw a house that was furnished like it would have back then. The corn husk filled bed was raised above the floor to avoid humididty. Underneath they would keep their chickens. They would actually keep many animals in the small house with them like a horse, pigs, and others.
The house would usually have 6 or more kids along with the parents and their animals.

Almalfi Coast

We spent time at the villa for many of the days we were on the coast. Some of the days were spent at towns nearby. We also went to a very rocky beach. The pictures above can show you the beauty of the coast. (and a cute kitten)

Pompei

We took a train to the sea. Our villa that we have there has a view of the island of Capri. We can see all of the lights on the coast at night. Ahhh....

One of the places we went to is called Pompei. It's a 2000 year old city. Well it used to be a city now it's just a bunch of ruins. Even so it's pretty cool. The city sort of died in 82 AD when Mount Vesbius erupted and buried the city in ash and lava. Some of the people were encased in ash. Over time the bodies decomposed leaving the inside hollow. When Pompei was re-discovered they filled the hollow part with plaster and left a plaster shape of the person.

Most of the buildings are almost all the way destroyed so you have to use your imagination. One building that was mostly still there was the baths. All the people would come to the one building, well men to one women to the other but anyway, there was a waiting area before hand then they would go into a big tub with hot water then one with cold. Or is it the other way around? Hmm...

Pompei has lots of dogs. They have so much that they started an adoption organization for them! All the tourist's paparazied them. They were so cute I can see why.

Protest!

November the 17th is Student Day. The students get the day off. For some reason the students protest against things that are happening to the schools. We saw a really big one on one of the mornings we were in Rome. Well actually it was a bunch of protests but they banned together to make it larger. Many of the kids were protesting against the Italian goverment because they have been cutting funding to the schools. Both the university and the high school funds had been cut.
There was a lot of police officers. They helped move traffic so the kids could walk without getting hit. So there was a bit of a traffic jam because of that.

Vatican Museum

The Vatican is the Popes city. It only has 1000 people but it has it's own laws, military, post office, and news paper. You can even get a Vatican passport. All run by the Pope. The Vatican is right in the middle of Rome.

Anyway the museum. The first thing we saw was the sculpters. Both Greek and Roman. There was a lot of Egyptian stone called pophery. There was only one quarry that mined it so they ran out. We saw a a really huge tub made out of one big piece.
Another part I liked was a hall full of old maps. The building of the museum is cool as well. Some other rooms are the Raphael rooms. The entire rooms were painted.

I bet the most famous thing we saw that day was the Sistine Chapel. It has the paintings The Last Judgement on the front wall, and Creation in the middle of the ceiling. They were done by Micheal Angelo. It's kind of sad seeing he didn't really want to paint them at all. Even so it was pretty amazing.

Saint Peters Basilica

Saint Peters is the biggest Catholic church in the world. Next to it is the apartments of the Pope. The church is inside the Popes city wich is called the Vatican.

The church has lots of stones in it. Marble, granite, and many more. Inside the Basilica is the Pieta a sculpter done by Micheal Angelo. It's of Mary holding up the dead Jesus. It's very beautiful.

On top of the Basilica is a very large dome. We went to the top. We took an elevator then we went up 300 stairs. Rome looks lovely from up there. Well once I caught my breath from all the stairs it looked lovely.

The Forum

The Forum was the old city. It was in the middle of the main hills. When they wanted to start it it was a swamp so they had to drain it. (The drain still works by the way) So the sheperds would travel down from the hills and gather here. Kind of like a downtown.

The Forum has lots of collums. Did you know that the Romans were really bad sculpters? Most of the collums were done in sections. So most of the good sculpters were done in other places. The old buildings were amazing! Well what's still there anyway. There are 3 main arches. They built them when they had huge victories. There's a path underneth called The Path of Victory or something like that.

Over time the Forum was buried. In 1945 Mussallini, the leader of Italy of that time, dug it back up. When he reached the path he thought that there was more under it so he kept digging. Saddly he was mistaken. When he found out that there wasn't more he put them back down. It used to be flat and smooth but thanks to Mussulini it was spaced out and bumpy. Sigh!

Light's, Camera, Fight!

On the day that my Uncle and cousin left we took a train from Venice to Rome.

Rome is cool! On the first day we went to the Colosseum. The Colosseum used to be a big arena used for gladiator fights. Gladiators fought with another glatiator in groups or 1 on 1 or an animal. There were spaces underneath the stage where the animals were kept before a fight. Gladiators were usually prisoners or criminals. There was also the ocasional nobleman who would be inspired by a victory. If a prisoner won 5 fights then he was granted freedom. That didn't happen as much as you might think seeing about 2 people a day died. In all of the 450 years that the Colosseum was used 300 000 men died.

The seats went by rank. The emporer had the best seat. The Vestel Virgins sat below him. The Vestel Virgins were a group of priestesses.
The rest of the men went from lowest rank at the top going down to higher ranks at the bottom. The bottom had the best view of the fights. The only place for the women was standing at the top.

The stone of the Colosseum has lots of holes in it. That's because when they stopped using it for fights they used it for making weapons. There used to be metal inside the stone so it wouldn't fall down in a earthquake. Thankfully there hasn't been an earthquake in 800 years.

Glass Blowing

Venice is famous for it's glass. There's an island that all the glass gets blown and shaped. They aren't in the city because the ovens caused to many fires.
We saw a demonstration. The man doing it used a long hollow tube with melted glass on the end. When the glass was on he would roll it in different powders to give it different colours. Then he would blow through the tube and use a variety of tools to shape it. The first thing he made was a plate. The next thing he made was a horse. He did it in under a minute! He had to keep the glass soft by puting it in the 1000 degree oven every couple minutes.

After that we saw the finished glass. It were gorgeous! One of my favourite ones was a band of glass clowns.

Venice on Stilts

As most of you should know Venice is on water. What you may not know is that it's not floating. How they built it is they hammered wooden post's into the mud below the lagoon that Venice is on. Surprisingly the wood didn't rot but the mud hardened it onto something ike stone. What I don't get is that the water above the mud would rot the wood wouldn't it?

One of the mornings I went with my Mom and Uncle (my Uncle and cousin visited us for a week) went to the market. There was a lot of seafood.(of course!)The shrimp were still jiggling and I saw a crab almost escape.