After closing the Napoli (Naples) airport for several hours due to an emergency landing and the Pope’s visit, we finally arrived at our hotel in Praiano late in the afternoon on Wednesday.   Praiano is a charming town between Positano and Amalfi on the Amalfi Coast.  We chose Praiano instead of the very popular town of Positano because of the wonderful reviews we read about the Hotel Onda Verde.   Upon arrival, we were not disappointed.  This “boutique” hotel is right on the cliffs; and, our room has a large private deck with spectacular views of the ocean and coastline.   The scenery is absolutely stunning and the breakfast and dinners at the Onda Verde are superb-the best dining, so far, on our trip.

We were supposed to go over to the island of Capri Thursday; however, the ocean was too choppy and the trip was postponed.   We opted to tramp the very famous Path of the Gods (a.k.a. Sentiero degli Dei).   There are several path options for this hike (most hikers take a bus to a village above the path and walk down to the trail head).  We, unknowingly, chose the most difficult and strenuous.   To get to the main path on top of the mountain behind our hotel, we had to walk up literally thousands of stone steps through town and then large stone steps on a farmer’s path totaling a vertical climb of almost 1700 feet.  To get to the trail head was a strenuous 1 1/2+ hour adventure.   The breathtaking panoramas of the Amalfi Coast were stupendous.  The  Path of the Gods took us past caves and vineyards and followed along a narrow mountain trail with sheer drops.  Anyone who suffers from vertigo, probably should not attempt this hike!   (We later learned that someone had fallen today and had to be helicoptered out to a hospital.)   We continued climbing additional steps and scrambling over a few challenging areas for another couple of hours until we started our descent into Positano.   In addition to following a narrow road, the final descent includes a walkway with almost 2000 steps. Those steps use another set of muscles that the uphill steps ignored.

The hotel recommended a restaurant on their hand drawn map.  We stumbled upon it on the way down (to say the map was even close to scale would be a major understatement).  We were surprised at the large number of diners at this out of the way location which had incredible views of the coastline.  We chose the “light lunch” and Lesley’s request of a glass of wine brought a bottle of the owner’s own named wine.  A glass was not an option but the wine was some of the best that we have had in Italy.  After 7 different antipasto dishes we thought we were done.  Then came the pasta!  It was great but we would hate to attempt to eat the “regular” lunch.  Later we learned it was rated the 4th best Positano restaurant on Trip Advisor.

After lunch and the final  2+ mile walk plus the 2000 step walkway, we wandered around Positano with its lovely retail shops and lots of tourists.  Although the walk back to our hotel was only 3 miles, we chose the local bus as the winding road without any sidewalks is extremely narrow and all uphill to Praiano.  A great but very tiring day of 6 1/2 hours of hiking.

On Sunday,  we decided that it would be a museum day.  We started at the Hagia Sophia Museum which was around the corner from our hotel.  This building was built around 527 AD as a church.  The church is large enough that the Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris) could fit inside!  A walk through the Hagia Sophia will leave you pretty close to breathless.  It has beautiful Christian mosaics.  Around 1400, with the conquering of Istanbul, it was converted to a mosque.  It definitely has the feeling of a beautiful marriage between Eastern and Western design.   In 1935, the mosque was declared a national shrine and became a museum.  It was wonderful to see that the Christian mosaics were not destroyed when it was converted; and,  Islamic mosaics and other trappings were just added.

We then visited the Topkapi Palace which is the largest historical attraction in Istanbul.   The extensive grounds consist of numerous buildings that were the home to a long succession of Turkey’s sultans and even a longer list of their wives.  The display of jewelry (including an 89 carat diamond surrounded by 49 smaller diamonds), swords & armory were outstanding.  The best buildings were the sultan’s harem with 400 rooms and a maze-like interior; however, we were only allowed to see a fraction of the rooms.  This large facility not only housed his concubines (who were controlled by his mother) but also African guards and  eunuchs that cared for the concubines.  The harem consisted of a number of buildings isolated from the rest of the palace and the most outstanding was the Sultan’s mother’s apartment.

Other museums we visited,  were the History of Science & Technology in Islam and the Mosaic Museum.  Both were interesting but not exciting.  There is a deep history of science within the Islam communities and many key discoveries preceded the Europeans.

Sunday in Istanbul is clearly “family day”.  The streets and parks were absolutely packed with families.  We had visited one particular park on Wednesday; but, on Sunday you could barely see the grass!

After the last two days of 15-hour tours with flights, we decided this was a perfect day (Saturday) for a relaxing Bosphorous Cruise.  The Bosphorous Strait marks the border between two continents –  Europe and Asia.  It is a 19-mile strait (now within the municipal limits of Istanbul) that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and ultimately the Mediterranean.   What makes “cruisin’ the Bosphorous” so unique is the fact that you can travel between two continents within a matter of 15 minutes!   Modern Istanbul straddles both sides.  A complex system of ferries, bridges and now a railroad tunnel joins the community into one large “metroplex”.  To say that this waterway is very busy is an understatement.   We saw mostly commuter and tourist boats but they also compete with large oil tankers and container ships from all over the world that sail from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

It was a gorgeous, blue sky, sunny day.  The ferry boat was packed with what appeared to be mostly Turks with their families.  There were only a few tourists and it appeared to us that we were the only Americans.   We sailed past palaces, nice homes, fishing villages, fortresses and dodged fisherman and freighters.  Mosque and modern feels like the typical Istanbul mix as you travel along the Strait.  The shoreline is lined with summer houses (that were once for the Ottoman elite), mosques, palaces and restaurants.  If anything, cruising the Bosphorous gives one a visual hint to just how much massive Istanbul (population of over 15m) there is to discover.

After lunch,  we walked over the Galata bridge to explore Karakoy which is Istanbul’s hippest neighborhood.  Karakoy is the second half of the European section of Istanbul.  It is the “new” tourism center of Istanbul featuring many worldwide clothing chains such as Zara,  Mango, H&M,  etc. and a plethora of restaurants and chic cafes.  The major cobbled street in Karakoy is Istiklal Street where the most recent terrorist bombings took place in March.   It was difficult to walk this street due to the hordes of young” locals” strolling along the street on Saturday.  It felt like we were walking on Fifth Avenue in NYC during Christmas time.   Not surprisingly, Karakoy is also a contradictory neighborhood with steep, tight-knit streets reflecting an old world multiculturalism.  Once again, it felt like we were the only Americans roaming the streets of Karakoy!

On Friday, we flew from Istanbul to Cappadocia for the day.  We left at 5:00 a.m. and arrived back at our hotel at 9:00 p.m.  It was a long day but absolutely fascinating.  We were picked up at our hotel with a driver and “guide” who brought us into the Istanbul airport to get our boarding passes.  The guide was then leaving after telling us to come back on the flight around 7 pm.  We insisted on getting a printed schedule but finally ended up with only evening boarding passes.   At the time, it seemed to us to take a long time to get the return boarding passes at the counter (more to come).

Cappadocia is an region comprised of four major areas.  One is a large plain of essentially flat land.  Over the years (up to 5,000 years ago), the inhabitants dug underground caves in the soft stone below their homes in order to hide when their enemies arrived.  These caves were probably also more comfortable in the hot summer months.  As they randomly connected with neighbors, they became a massive underground town with up to 8 levels of carved rooms and tunnels. The area now has one of the world’s most extensive collection of underground cities and villages.  Prior to visiting these underground “Wonders”, our guide asked if any of the four of us were claustrophobic.  Lesley was timid to admit to her intense claustrophobia and thought she could brave it since she had no problem visiting the Timpanogos Caves a few years ago.  Within 5 minutes of entering the underground city with its low narrow sloping passages, Lesley had a claustrophobic attack and pushed her way back out to the entranceway where a crowd of tourists had just entered and did not want her to exit from the entrance.  These caves had living, storage and wine-making rooms as well as deep wells to the water table.  They are quite fascinating.

Another area of Cappadocia has deep valleys and soaring rock formations.  It is a geographical oddity of lunarscape panoramas that are spectacular and truly have to be seen in person.   Pictures do not do this “fairyland” justice.   These cones were created by volcanic eruptions and erosion which sheared away top layers of soil and left these odd-looking cylinder cones.   As the stone is soft, these cones were perfect for cave homes (with limited access to keep their enemies out) as well as many pigeon “farms” that were carved into the stone.   The whimsical fairytale cones that are dotted throughout the area were only vacated in the 1960’s due to the rock crumbling!  The government relocated all the villagers down the hill; thus the entire area currently has very few inhabitants.  Some of these fairy chimneys have even been converted into boutique hotels and there are loads of touristy nicknack shops at each “viewing” area.  Interestingly, when these cones were vacated in the 1960’s, they were sold “for a song” to Turkish people from other parts of the country.  Once the area was declared a UNESCO site, our guide told us that these vacant cones sold for millions and are still considered today an excellent investment.   We didn’t quite understand how a UNESCO site could still sell properties within the site; but we did see “For Sale” signs on a few crumbling cones.

After lunch, we visited an interesting pottery shop in a very large cave owned by a family which dated back 250 years.  The pottery making demonstrations were interesting but the salesperson was irritated that after the 20 minute tour and demonstration, we did not purchase the $3,500 bowl that Lesley inquired about.  We then got back in the van, ready to head back to the airport.  We assumed that we would be flying back out of the same airport as we arrived this morning.  As the van door was about the close, our guide wanted to confirm the airport (we hadn’t known that there were 2 airports in the area) and David pulled out the boarding pass for him.  We were flying out of a different airport 1 1/2 hrs. away!  Yikes!  We made our plane but were totally annoyed at the tour agency for not mentioning this “small detail” to us.

CLICK ON EACH PICTURE TO ENLARGE – SOME ARE VERY DISTANT

On Thursday,  we flew south to see the ancient Roman ruins of Ephesus.  These ruins were discovered in 1865 by the Brits building a railroad.   Some say that it is even a greater discovery than Pompeii.   At its height, 250,000 people lived here in this once coastal town (the ocean is now over 4 km away). The  outdoor theater held almost 25,000 citizens for concerts, plays & other cultural events.  In recent years, Elton John, Sting, The Three Tenors and others have performed here.  The archeologists are still in the early stages of discovery at Ephesus.  It will continue for years as funds are available.

We then went to the home where the Virgin Mary lived out here later years after Jesus was crucified.   The home is now a small chapel and a shrine for the Muslims.  They recognize Jesus as a prophet and therefore the home of his mother is a shrine.  It was a very moving experience for us to go into the chapel and say a prayer.    As you exit the chapel, there is also a wall for Muslims to place their wishes and prayers (written on small cloths) . The spring water from the fountain  outside the chapel is also supposed to have healing powers.  It was quite a serene and spiritual place.

The tour then took us to the typical carpet & leather shops.  We only agreed to go because we had so much time before our plane back to Istanbul. This is so often the problem with tours. They try to make a day out of 1/2 day of material. This was a private tour and, if it was local, we would have returned to our hotel. Unfortunately, they scheduled the plane 6 hours after we were “done”. It was particularly annoying as we had been picked up at 5:00 AM for the 7:00 AM flight.

In summary, it was interesting but the timing of it all really degraded the total experience.

On Tuesday we arrived in Istanbul. The flight was interesting because one of the airline stewards was dressed in a full chef’s outfit, including a hat. The food in Turkish Airlines “economy” was better than most domestic business class food we have experienced. Go Turkish Airlines!!

Our hotel is in the old city section of Istanbul near many of the traditional tourist sites. Clearly, there are not a lot of American tourists and our guide on Wednesday said that tourism was way down because of terrorist fears. The USA Turkey warnings really apply to the Syrian border area. So far in our 1 1/2 days in Turkey, we feel safe and are not concerned.  The shop owners and others are aggressive but friendly and quite often hilarious, especially when they called David,  “James Bond”!   It is easy to joke with them and they seem to enjoy the back and forth.

Our 3-hour walking tour on Wednesday was excellent.  We started near our hotel outside the Hagia Sophia Mosque & Museum.  We visited the Blue Mosque (site of the January suicide bombing) which is a huge structure with the interior laden with beautiful blue Turkish tiles.  Both of these mosques are enormous and the large center domes are supported by a series of half domes supported by more quarter domes.  It was an engineering breakthrough at the time.

We wandered through palacial gardens, loaded with tulip which is the national flower of Turkey.   Shortly, the city is planting more than a million tulips  as a city celebration. The next stop was the spice market which was full of great aromas.  Just outside this market, there is a coffee store where the locals stand in long lines just to buy their coffee.  We then visited a small mosque (Rushtem Pasha Mosque) that was built by a rich architect just to house his tile collection.

On Thursday & Friday we have separate trips, including 7AM flights, to Ephesus & Cappadocia. With a 5 AM pickup & returning late on both days, it should be quite an exhausting adventure.

After 4 days of heavy sightseeing, Monday is going to be a slower day.  As we came out of our hotel, we were shocked at the lines of people waiting to get into the Vatican (the entrance is just across the street).  Clearly, Monday is not the day to sightsee in Rome!

Prior to arriving in Rome, we were totally intimidated by the breath of sightseeing activities and the size of the city.  When we arrived in Rome, we were overwhelmed.  The map of the city makes everything look so far away.  After 4 days of walking (not one taxi, subway or bus ride), we realized that the city is not that large (at least the tourist part of Rome).  We really have gotten to know the area and have found that it is easy to get around.  Tourists are everywhere with maps in hand.  While Lesley was in a store, David even helped some Americans find their way.

We made a quick stroll through one of Rome’s best-known food markets, the Campo de’ Fiori market.  The market is filled with great colors, smells and tastes and made us hungry.  We always like to visit the most popular outdoor market in each city and were surprised that Campo de’ Fiori was much smaller than the major markets in Buenos Aires, Sydney, Melbourne, etc. given that Italy, especially Rome, is a foodie’s paradise.

We crossed over the Fiume Tevere (Tiber River) into Trastevere which is a charming medieval neighborhood with loads of cafes and restaurants without the crowds.  We headed toward the Piazza di Santa Maria which felt like the heart of this labyrinthine district.  We walked into the unassuming (from the outside) Basilica di Santa Maria and were absolutely stunned by its beauty.

After lunch in the shopping district, Lesley could not resist purchasing a few Italian-made shoes.  Fortunately, she was limited to buying only two pair because she will have to drag them around for another 3 months of travel!  On Tuesday, we fly to mysterious Istanbul for 7 days where we have two day trips by air to both Ephesus and Cappadocia.

On Sunday,  we knew would be busy but we had a few surprises.  We started our walk and stumbled across the 22nd Rome Marathon.  The marathon road closures funneled us into St. Peter’s Square where the normal flow of tourists, pilgrims and others was all ready heavy.  That, along with the increased security,  created a slow march – similar to walking down 5th Avenue in NYC Thanksgiving week.  We then discovered that the Rome Marathon really is a series of switchbacks through the city.  As we got through one street blockade, we would run into another 4-5 blocks later.

Our walk to the Crypts of the Capuchin Church was doubled as we struggled with the crowds & blockades.  The Capuchin monks were an order that followed St. Francis.  Below the church, the monks have created 5 crypts that are decorated with the bones of over 3000 monks.  Each crypt is not only the burial ground for some (the earth being transferred from Israel & Palestine) but a shrine to others as their clothed skeletons (5-7 in each crypt) were on display. Obviously pictures are not allowed but the images will remain with us for a long time.

We made our way over to the Da Vinci Museum.  The genius of the man was is undeniable.  Much of what we saw was quite interesting, considering what Leonardo was up to when he created these many revolutionary (at the time) yet quirky devices.  There were a number of hands-on devices allowing us to try them out.

We headed off to see the largest fountain in Rome – Trevi Fountain.  It was much more magnificent that we expected and the crowds were plentiful.  After lunch, we continued our wondering and couldn’t get to a couple of our destinations because of the street blockage.  We did see some of the late finishers (6+ hours) of the Marathon where they were awarded medals, a picture with various Roman soldiers along with silver capes that were handed out to keep the marathoners warm.

The Jewish Ghetto (a.k.a. Ghetto Ebraico) with its many outdoor kosher restaurants and bars was our next stop.  We were surprised to find out that nearly half of Italy’s 35,000 Jews call Rome home. This lively area is along the river which consists of a few cramped streets and squares and is much smaller than we expected.  At its height in the 17th century, it housed nearly 5,000 people.  There is also a gorgeous Synagogue in this bustling neighborhood.  Lesley purchase two small watercolors on the street.  In this most Catholic city in the most Catholic country (with churches everywhere), one of the  watercolors has the synagogue in the background – What’s wrong with this picture?

there are breathtaking plazas and beautifully-hued, colorful Italian buildings.  We started our second touring day (Saturday) with a 3-hour walking tour beginning at the gate that Julius Caesar entered Rome after conquering the French.  This important gate is located at the “Porta del Popolo” Piazza meaning The People’s Square.  The Piazza (Plaza) also contains one of 3 original Egyptian obelisks that the Romans brought home.  It is one of the largest public squares that we have visited so far in our travels. We continued wandering the narrow streets stopping at Augustus Caesar’s memorial (he is considered the greatest of the emperors as he “turned Rome from a city of clay to a city of marble” with his extensive building projects and 100 years of peace).  This mausoleum looks very unkept and we were told that it was once home to a vast colony of cats in the 1980’s.  Although we saw no signs of renovation, apparently, this mausoleum is now being restored.

We then proceeded to The Pantheon which is absolutely an amazing construction feat.  The large round hall’s roof is an engineering masterpiece since it contains no visible supports and has a large center opening in the ceiling.  It is the largest brick dome in the history of architecture.  While strolling over to the The Piazza Navona, we came across the Fiumi fountain (Fountain of the Four Rivers) which represents the 4 most significant rivers of the 4 continents at the time of its construction.  The marble that was used to create these impressive four river gods even has small veins in it.  They actually look like the blood veins of the statues! We passed by some ancient Roman baths on the way to Castel Sant’Angelo.  The interesting fact about the baths is that there was an army of hundreds of slaves, that were kept out of sight of bathers but scurried along the tunnels feeding sometimes 50 ovens with tons of wood a day to heat water surging through a network of underground channels that arrived via an aqueduct from a source 60+ miles away.  The slaves had to continually keep the appropriate heat for the spas hot; so, they spent lengthy hours underground.

Our last stop on our walking tour was the Castel Sant’Angelo.  It was originally commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family.  This rotunda-type building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle and is now a museum.  It was surprising to find out that the Castle was once the tallest building in Rome!

We finished the day with a walk along some of Rome’s most prestigious high-end shopping areas near the Spanish Steps.  The crowds were massive but many more looky-loos than shoppers.  There are numerous revitalization projects within Rome and many large buildings are draped in scaffolding and cloth to hide the work.  The one consistency was the Samsung Galaxy 7 billboards on these buildings-so historical!