ahhh Mykonos....(post five...make sure you start at the beginning)

So going to Mykonos with my friends was definately one of the smarter decisions I have done on this trip. It wasn't really something filled with great history or great architecture, but is was so relaxing, so beautiful, and perfect for a three day break. I arrived in mykonos about 1pm on Wednesday, my friends were supposed to be there waiting for me, but they weren't, the weather was a bit cloudly, so i was a little upset at the situation, I spent 6 euros to go by taxi to the hostel and found out the lady there didnt speak english at all.
But when I got there the lady called her daughter, who did speak enligsh and we talked, telling me about how great my friends were, this and that, and that she'd be there shortly. Well I stood outside on the balcony, enjoying the little view and waited, and within a minute, my friend Jon riding up to the hostel on a moped. he said "hey man i'm so sorry i wasn't at the port when you got there" and all I could respond with was..."what are you doing riding a moped?!?!" and from that point on the trip was just amazing. we all rented mopeds and used them to drive around the island and stop at different beaches.


we stopped at this beach just to eat lunch one day, it was a little windy and chilly in mykonos, but much better than italy this time of year. Mykonos is the biggest party place in Europe during the summer, but at this time of the year it was calm and pretty deserted, it was amazing to get away from a lot of the hustle and bustle.

a view from a small mountain we climbed, jon sitting on the rock, bathing.

and this is from our balcony at the hostel. the hostel was so fun, mama's pension. The lady who owned it had a daughter who was the sweetest, she took care of us, called people for us in greek to translate. and not to mention the place was perfect for a getaway. As you can see from this image, we didn't have many complaints.

this was the first beach i went to when i arrived. my friends had been there two days already and had a small grasp of the island. we stopped on this beach which was an inlet for the island and found tons of lumber....

...and so we thought it'd be great to start a fire, it took a while cause it was pretty windy, but we got it eventually and it was amazing. just sitting on the beach with a fire, hanging out and talking.

ten days in salerno, pompei, athens and mykonons, it was well worth it and well enjoyed.
thanks for listening everybody, i'll get some more updates soon...if you have any questions ask me too, i'd love to write and talk about more things. Ciao Ciao!!

Se non sono stato italiano, sarei da greca!!

(I'm not great at subjunctive, well I really don't know it at all, but that title is supposed to read...If i wasn't italian...i would be from greece!)
So my treck from Italy to Greece was long, but well worth it. I left Salerno late Saturday night and got into Bari Sunday morning. The town was quite dead but I slowly walked and made my way to the port and found my boat. It was soo crazy to see all of the Greek people at the port. Italy has two very large and very important ports, Ancona and Bari, and because of their importance, the Greeks frequent them often. If the actual towns of Ancona and Bari didn't exist, you would think the cities were Greek because of how many people are at the ports.

My ferry took about 16 hours to get to Patrasso with a short stop in Corfu. I was in Patrasso by Monday morning around six a.m. and took a train to Athens which took another four hours. So after leaving Salerno Saturday night I was finally in Athens by Monday at noon. A day and a half of travel is a lot, but for the price and the experience, it's worth it.

My first impressions of Athens were not the best. The people are a little rude and pushy, which is saying something considering I'm coming from Italy which is just as rude and pushy, lol, but the language was the most terrifying thing. It is almost entirely incomprehensible and is very frightening to be in a place when you can't understand anything. Fortuantely for me, alot of the signs are in enlgish as well because of the olympics a few years back, so I could do alright. But as well as the english, there are a lot of italians that frequent Greece so I was able to communicate in Italian alot, which really really made my day. If you can tell from my blogs, I have fallen in love with Italy and the italian language, and the fact that I could talk to people in a country other than Italy in italian, was so satisfying.

Anyway, I got to Athens and found my hostel which was right next to the acropolis. I didn't go there first because of some hours confusion, but I did go there and saw alot of other things, enjoy the pictures...


this is near the acropolis, closer to the street markets of Athens. It's very similar to Italia in a sense which its layout, but in this location there is a large park where the Acropolis is that provided some nice green space and created a bit more open feel to the city.



Here is an image of Athens from about halfway up the Acropolis. As you can tell we are already pretty high in this image, so you can tell jus thow high the Acropolis was. Also, you can see the size of Athens, this is looking south, there is an east, a west, and a north that is about twice the size of the other three directions combined. The city has 6 million inhabitants of the countries 12 million, but the city is soooo large and spread out. I can confidently say there isn't a building in Athens over ten stories, and not more than 100 buildings in Athens taller than five or six stories. But it's quite a beautiful scene to see the panoram from the top of the Acropolis. You can see one of the amplitheaters as well. Gorgeous Gorgeous Gorgeous!

Oh the Parthenon, you can tell my disapointment in the construction and preservation that was taking place, but such is life and it's the price I pay for going during the off season. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. We read about these places in books, the Parthenon, the model for so many different periods of architecture. It was very inspirational to see the details.

here is the amplitheater you can see from the other image above. It's size is similar to the one in Pompei, but much steeper with a better preserved backdrop, it's beautiful construction.

Here is part of the temple of Olympus. I could be wrong again, I should be writing these things down and looking at maps, but I usually am so overcome but what I am looking at it that it's hard to read and listen to things. It's so fun to see the column on its side like that in pieces.

This is the same temple that I took a picture of from the Acropolis the n ext day. That temple is one of the largest if not the largest. And if you're very careful, you can see the original stadium of the modern games in the top left.

The following are a series of images from the new olympic park. I have always wanted to get to this stadium because Calatrava is a genius in my mind. His work is beautiful and elegant. Somtimes it doesn't make sense, but you cannot deny its beauty.

the exterior

the interior

one of the indoor arenas with a similar design.

Overall, Athens was pretty fun. One of my nights there consisted of running into three italian men from the Venice area who were working in Greece. We ate dinner together, talked in Italian, just enjoyed each other's company, and later went out for drinks. It was a nice evening and will be something I remember in my life. Being Italian in Greece. I met a few people at the hostel from all around the world, just like every hostel I go to, and enjoyed myself. Two days in Athens wasn't a lot, but I did get to see a bit. After Athens I woke up early Wednesday morning to get to Mykonos...

Deve andare a Pompeii!!!!

Pompeii....wow, there isn't much I can say about this place except that you have to go here to really understand just how amazing a place this is. Architecturally, yea it's great, but historically, to phathom this place two thousand years ago and to see it standing in the state it is standing in considering what happened is just....amazing. If you ever find yourself in Italy, Pompei has to be on the agenda. If you are in Rome, you can wake up early enough and get to Pompei and spend a lto of time there and then make it back to Rome by nightfall, it's worht it!!...


You can see the pompeian streets here, people walked on the sides and there was an obvious heighth difference from where the horses walked for drainage and to keep people from stepping in the horse's.....yea, you can tell where I'm going with that. It's so beautiful to see cobblestone streets like that, let alone to imagine them that way two thousand years ago...

This image was taken from behind the Temple of Jupiter on a street. It's a little different from the last image, but at the same moment, the arch in the background is beautiful. You can see the formation of the arcade on the left leading up to it. Imagining Pompei was half the fun of this experience.

This is a courtyard, fairly bigger than a courtyard, I forget the exact use of it, but it is in great condition, probable because of its scale. It is a on the end of the city so the force of the lava wasn't as strong as it was within the city streets you might say.

this is from a hill on the edge of Pompei, looking back into parts of the city. I would say that the ruins of Pompei are about 50 times the size of what you can see in this image, probably much bigger. Beautifully formed walls, and the people who maintain the ruins still try and plant trees regularly to give a better sense of the space.

I wanted to take a picture of Mount Vesuvius from the temple of jupiter but the weather became more cloudly and this was really the only good image I got of the volcano. But it is very prominent still.

another image from the exterior of the city, looking at some of the public roads with monuments and some made displays by the preservationists.

this is the temple of jupiter. I am standing in an arcade on the left, there is the arcade at the right, the common open space (which is grass now) and the temple beyond it with the columns. This was one of the most common points if I'm not mistaken. It's beautiful.

The amplitheater from above, very amazing to see these. Not much I can say about it except that it's beautiful and awesome to imagine the uses of it when it was in existence.

This was the coliseum, much smaller than Rome's obviously, but a similar type of construction, very segragated from the city, it's on the periphery.

Overall, I spent less than a day in Pompei, but I should have spent at least two more days. There is so much to see and learn about. The thing that got me the most, that was most amazing to me, was to see wood lintels holding up these over two thousand year old structures. Original wood lintels. Not replacements. It's incredible to me, that they have been preserved that well and still function properly with all that weight holding it up.
After Pompei i went back to Salerno to catch my train too Bari so I could get to Greece!!!

Salerno.....

The first thing I did for this vacation was to make my way to Salerno with my friends. Salerno is a city south of Napoli that is strategically located for tourists between many great tourist locations like Pompei, and its cost is much less than those cities so many people choose to stay there. I used my eurail pass for the first time and I loved it. I had a minor complications in figuring out the use of it, but it is fantastic. We arrived in Salerno in the early afternoon on Friday and spent a day wondering around the beautiful ocean side town...

this is from the promendade of Salerno. The city has a lot of spanish influence in its construction and layout. There is the obvious italian historical center, but many of the newer pieces and government buildings were built later for the spanish colonization. You can see some of them over the trees in this picture, but you can see the beautiful ocean as well.

I loved how this city had a focus on the promenade. Everyone, well what seemed like everyone came here to enjoy the weather, to run, to walk, to sit and enjoy the ocean.

Here is part of the newer historical center, still very italian influenced but you can see newer, more modern pieces as well (not in this picture but in the city in general). This piazza is opening into a piazza behind me and is looking down to the ocean. Very lovely.

here are some of the southern palm trees and the spanish constructed churches. it is more typical of the napoli area, very beautiful in its own right.

I loved this shot, because it expresses the nature of the Italian culture and idealogy of living. How work and everything is below the family's homes. It's so amazing to see these balconies and the presence of life in the city. We in america tend to think that the city is a place for work and commerce; it is difficult to find a lot of great places to live in cities unless you're in places like new york or chicago. but it's because that people live in the center of cities that all of the activity happens regularly, it is amazing to me. Even the smallest italian cities have this regular and abundant activity.

this picture was taken because of the doors. they have display cases built in that provide more reasons to enter the store and see their products, as well serve the purpose at night when noone can walk in. People walk by at night and see it..."oh wow, we should come back here tomorrow!"

my time is salerno was really just a day, but it was enough to appreciate another place in italy. But Salerno was really just a stopping point for me to get to Pompei...

La Pausa....

Mi dispiace, per prendando troppo tempo preparare e scrivere questo. Ero un'po sotto di tempo e ho provanto dormire piu invece di facendo lavoro. Spero questo non e una problemo, grazie per la pazienza loro.

Abbiamo avuto una pausa della scuola la settemana scorsa. Ho detto molte volte che ero contento viaggare e vedere i molti cosi. Quindi, que e mio viaggio...

Faro questo entra in molti parti, quindi, leggi tutti.
..............

I'm sorry, for taking too much time to prepare and to write this. I was a little under the weather and tried to sleep more instead of doing work. I hope this is not a problem, thanks for all your patience.

We had a pause for school last week. I said this many times before that I was excited and happy to travel and see many things. So here is my trip....

I will write this entry in many parts, so read everything!

just returned...

hey everyone, give me a day or two of recooperation. I have been in other parts of Italia and Greece, traveling to see things. I will post a lot of things shortly, but I returned late last night and need a day or two to gather all of my images and ideas. Be patient! Everythings is coming!!
Ciao Ciao Tutti!

Stadio Artemio Franchi

I attended a UEFA Cup game last Thursday in Florence, to watch Fiorentina and Rosenberg on the return. As compared to the last game I went to, this game was of much more important and much more intense.

This image is of the tower which represents the fans of Fiorentina, it can be seen from far away and especially upon entering the city from the north. Florence is a much larger city than Ascoli is. So it was not likely to see so many places closed down since there is always a need for commerce in that city. It was very similar to see the amounts of people arriving at the stadium before hand, talking and debating about the game. You could see a few thousand people who were anxious to get the game started. This stadium had an abundance of shops, apparel venders, and food venders in and around the stadium providing food, the means to support their team and provide an exciting, active atmosphere.


this is the piazza that fans soon flocked to nearly two hours before the game started

you can see the fans and people are waiting for the game to start

food venders and sports venders



This image shows the common places where people were located before the game, the dark blue are buildings, the green and yellow are the stadium, and the light blue are the herds of people, staying near entrances. The largest spot is where the fans who were sitting in the curve entered, these fans arrived very very early, and were singing and cheering as soon as they entered inside the park nearly an hour before the game started

an offical outlet store for apparel along with people reading the game paper

this cross section of the main stands shows the attempt at arches that were formed with concrete

here is another image of the structure at a different location, the arches are apparent here

This game was played at night because of its significance in the UEFA Cup. I have noticed through schedules that the important matches are played at night where as most other games are played during the day. A majority of tournament matches are played at night to attract more fans away from work and television viewers. The atmosphere inside this park spoke volumes of the importance of this game.

Between the image above and the image below you can see how many people arrived at the stadium to watch this game, around 35,000. Throughout the game the symbol of the fans (the tower) is a unifying element.


This underpass for access to the stands was great because it allowed people who were going to use the facilities or concessions to have visual access to the game almost always, but at the same time was sheltered from the largest volumes of noises.



its difficult to tell from these images to, but the seats were much closer together and much smaller than in American facilities. There is a desire to really create a close and intimate atmosphere inside the stadium. Shielding people from the outside distractions as much as possible to focus on the game. This stadio was amazing in the amounts of singers that came to support the team. Almost a third of the stadium was dedicated to chants and cheers, particularly the curves.

This is an unfortunate but common occurance in Italia lately. This is strictly a sign of pride and is an attempt by fans to show their passion for their team and their sport. For some people its great to see, for others it is just dangerous.