Athens, Greece

When we first arrived in Athens, we took a train to the center of the city to see the ancient Acropolis. The Acropolis sits high on a hill, and most people take a bus to the top, but we wanted to make our way up on foot. The area was pretty but the first thing we noticed was the abundance of stray dogs wandering around. They were even hanging around on the ruins, waiting for tourists to feed them.




The Acropolis was built in the 6th century BC, and includes a number of ancient ruins including the famous Parthenon. The first ruin we saw was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a beautiful theater which was once enclosed by a wooden roof, but is now open on top and offers a beautiful view of the surrounding ruins and tree topped hills in the background. The theater holds about 5,000 people and we were told they do still have concerts at the theater.














The next ruin we saw was the Erechtheion, which was a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. It is easily recognized by it's famous Porch of the Caryatids (maidens), which has 6 beautiful maiden statues lining it's entry. In 1806, Lord Elgin of Scotland took two of the statues to decorated his castle in Scotland, but they have all since been replaced by exact replicas. The real statues were moved to a museum in 1979.




At the time of our visit, the Parthenon was undergoing renovations to repair the damages done in about 480 BC. The Ottoman's had taken control of the Acropolis, and were using it to store ammunition which was ignited by a Venetian bombardment. The explosion did extensive damage to the building. Even with all the renovations going on, it was still very impressive to see and it was hard to believe that a building built so long ago that has been through so much, could still be standing today.









The view from the top of the Acropolis was beautiful, and we could see our next stop down below, which was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. In the 3rd century AD, the temple fell out of use after barbarians pillaged it, but its size is what's impressive. During Roman times, it was the biggest temple in Greece.


After seeing the ruins, we were tired and didn't have much time left in the day. We did a little bit of shopping in a charming little neighborhood called Plaka, right below the Acropolis. We ate gyros on the patio of a small restaurant and watched all the kids walking home from school. Just like in many of the other cities we saw, we felt there just wasn't enough time in one day to see everything Athens has to offer.

Venice, Italy

We ended our two week journey in Venice. For me, it was the most anticipated city on our agenda. I had wanted to visit Venice from a very young age. I had seen it in movies and read about it in books, and it seemed so beautiful and mysterious to me.




We rode in a water taxi to the nearest exit to our hotel, but finding the hotel was a challenge. Generally, finding things on a map is difficult in Italy. The streets signs are often missing and the cobblestone alleyways are tough to navigate. But in Venice, it is nearly impossible. We also had to take into account the canals, and bridges required to cross them. Luckily I had learned a little bit of Italian before our trip. Not a lot, but enough to ask for, and somewhat understand directions.

Our hotel was very charming and I was glad I had done a little research into it before booking this one. Our room had a cute little balcony overlooking a small, quiet square, where we sat and had breakfast before heading out to see the sights. Breakfast was fresh baked croissants with cheese and jam, and of course cappuccino.





After the morning's events, we knew we would probably get lost in this city, and frankly, we welcomed it. After all, our most memorable events on this trip involved getting lost, talking to locals, and discovering little places off the beaten path. That being said, we decided to see Piazza San Marco, the city's main square, first because it was the one thing we didn't want to miss.




The piazza sits right on the edge of the lagoon, and is surrounded by numerous buildings, restaurants and shops, including the Doges palace and the Campanile, but the one that stands out is St. Mark's Basilica. From the beautifully designed exterior to the detailed Romanesque art, the Basilica is truly breathtaking, and was nicknamed the "Church of Gold" because of it's extravagant decoration. This is a must see for anyone visiting Venice.



Next we decided to wait in the short line to go to the top of the Campanile (bell tower), and it was well worth the wait. The view from the bell tower is amazing. Venice is even more fascinating from above and I realized why I find this city so appealing. With all the beautiful old buildings and no streets or cars, it gives you the feeling of being transported to an earlier time.

 Around the corner from the piazza, we stopped to have a drink in Harry's Bar, which is famous for being frequented by Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock, among others. I ordered a Bellini, which Harry's is also famous for inventing, and it did not disappoint.

The rest of our afternoon was spent leisurely wandering through the alleyways, listening to the gondoliers sing, and shopping for souvenirs. One of my favorite things to look at were the Venetian masks. Mask making is an art that usually has been passed down from generation to generation, and there were lots of shops selling beautifully crafted masks.






After shopping for a while, we dined on the patio of a small restaurant overlooking the Grand Canal. With the full moon rising over the skyline, the setting could not have been more perfect for the last day of our amazing Mediterranean journey. Venice is a unique and truly romantic city, and it definitely lived up to all of my expectations and more.

Kusadasi, Turkey

Our next stop was Kusadasi. It is a popular tourist destination mostly because it is the closest city to Ephesus, which was an ancient trade center. There are lots of fascinating ruins to see there including the Temple of Artemis, which is one of the Seven wonders of the ancient world, and the Shrine of the Virgin Mary. They say she spent her last years living here. Ephesus was not our goal however. We just wanted to spend a lazy afternoon on the beach and go to a Turkish bath.

We chose Pigeon Island to do just that. It is a small island connected to the mainland by a long isthmus. The setting was beautiful. We swam in the crystal clear water and relaxed on the pier watching the yachts sail by. The main attraction on the island is Pirate Castle, which was used to protect the land from pirates in the Ottoman Era.

After checking out the castle, we decided to go find a Turkish bath. We wandered around the shopping district for a little while until we found the right one, stopping for some mint tea, and a little conversation with the locals on the way. We noticed a lot of the alleyways have small glass "evil eye" beads inlaid in them. The beads are very popular in Turkey and Greece, and are used to ward off the bad luck or injury believed to be caused by others envy.





But the best part of this day was by far the Turkish bath. I had heard a lot of horror stories about them, but our experience was quite the opposite. After undressing (I wore bikini bottoms), we were led to a huge, steamy sauna room, elaborately decorated with mosaic tiles. The ceiling was dome shaped, with small windows to let in rays of sunlight. In the center of the room was a huge, waist high granite slab, and the sides of the room were lined with dozens of beautiful fountains pouring out warm water. The air in the room smelled so good to me, like wet clay and exotic oils. We laid on the slab as two men poured warm water over us, scrubbed our bodies with hot, sudsy towels and proceeded to give us the best massages we ever had. It was truly heavenly, and one of the best experiences I had in Europe. I would definitely go back and do it again.

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul was definitely one of my top favorite places that we visited. As we came into the city, what really stood out was the beauty of the skyline. Being a primarily Muslim city, there seems to be mosques everywhere, and their towering minarets can be seen from anywhere in the city. Five times a day, the minarets blast music throughout the city to signal a call to prayer. When the music plays, Muslims all over the city stop to pray, no matter where they are, or what they are doing. Some carry small rugs that they roll out to pray on. It was inspiring to see them taking the time to stop and worship throughout the day.






Istanbul is a very old city, rich in history, and there is a lot to see here. It is the only city in the world that lies on two continents. We only have one day, so we decide to see a couple of the things in the most historical part of the city, the Blue Mosque, and the Hagia Sophia.

Visitors entering the Blue Mosque are required to remove their shoes and women must cover their arms and shoulders. It was absolutely amazing inside, though our photos didn't come out very well because of the lighting. Every inch of the ceiling and walls are covered in intricate mosaic tiles, and there are hundreds of stained glass windows which offer the only source of light, other than the hundreds of  tiny glass candle holders that hang from huge iron chandeliers.

Next we went to the Hagia Sophia, which is right across the street. Built in 360, it is now a museum, but was originally an Orthodox Cathedral, and later used as a mosque as well. Until around 1500, the Hagia Sophia was the largest and most ornate church ever built. It was currently going through a restoration process to repair the cracked dome and replace some of the mosaics, but we could still get a sense of it's great beauty. The walls are covered in huge marble slabs of all different colors, and there are gold mosaic tiles on the ceiling depicting the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. We learned from our tour guide that many of the gold statues and mosaics that were here at one time were stolen by Latin crusaders, and shipped to the Doge of Venice, who organized the invasion.





After a long day of sightseeing, were were tired and hungry, so we walked across the street and stopped in the first restaurant we saw with food displayed in the window. We didn't know what it was, but it looked delicious, and we hit the jackpot. This was probably the best food we had during our entire trip. After dinner, we drank some raki, which is a licorice flavored liqueur popular in Turkey, and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.

Mykonos, Greece

Our stop on day 8 was Mykonos, an island off the coast of Greece which is pretty well known for it's partying. Tourists come here from all over Europe to drink and dance all night long. During the day, it's a pretty sleepy little town, which was good for us. Plus, we had already done enough drinking and dancing the night before. We were pretty hung over and relaxing on a beautiful beach was just the thing we needed.


The first thing we did was take a nap on the beach, under an umbrella. My husband was a little shocked to wake up to a hairy, nude Greek man walking on the beach. I guess clothing optional doesn't only mean topless women. We ordered a drink from the long list of cocktails named things like brain food and devil's tongue. Of course we had to go with the suffering bastard.



Now we were ready to go explore the town. I has always wanted to visit the Greek isles, since I was very young, and they did not disappoint. The buildings are very simple, but all painted white, some with blue or red roofs and doors. The contrasting colors of the houses and the ocean are so beautiful, they seem to elicit a very peaceful feeling.



There are quaint little churches everywhere and a row of rustic old windmills on the cliff, near the main pier. Our last stop was my favorite, an area called Little Venice, where the buildings seem to sit right on top of the water. We sat and ate the best gyros ever at a cafe where the waves crash up right next to your table. It was a perfect ending to another perfect day.

Naples, Italy

On day seven of our trip, we went to Naples Italy. We didn't really have much of a plan, so we decided to just enjoy the culture. The first thing of interest we saw was a huge medieval castle. My husband has always been fascinated with castles, so we decided to take a tour. Castel Nuovo is on the coast and we later found out it was the home of several Italian kings and the site of many famous events and battles. One pope was elected here, and one resigned here.





The castle has beautiful interior architecture and contains some
amazing medieval art. I was fascinated by the statues and carvings of Jesus in which he always holds up a peace sign. Inside the floor there is a Plexiglas window that you can walk on and underneath there are several human skeletons. We tried to take a picture of them, but it didn't come out because of the flash.

















Next we stopped inside a huge shopping mall to have a drink. It wasn't like any mall we'd seen at home. It was inside a gorgeous old building with high glass ceilings, and there were several stray dogs laying in the middle of the main area enjoying the cool temperature of the marble
floors.





At this point, we realized we were hungry, so we asked the locals at the table next to us where we should eat. They told us about their favorite Pizza  and also a small cafe that serves their favorite limoncello.

After roaming the streets for a while, and almost getting ran over by a scooter, we finally found the Pizzeria. The traffic in Naples is completely insane. Everyone drives very fast and they don't follow the rules of the road, but somehow it works out for them. You have to be careful as a tourist though.

The Pizza we ate was unbelievable, nothing like the Pizza in the U.S. It was Pizza Margherita, which has buffalo mozzarella, olive oil and fresh basil and was named after Queen Margherita because it resembled the Italian flag. We had the pizza with a delicious red wine because that's what the locals do. They wouldn't think of eating it with beer.





After eating we took another stroll around the streets to check out the local culture and stopped in a cafe for some cappuccino and limonecello. Limoncello is a sweet, lemony aperitif that Italians usually drink after dinner to help with digestion, and it became my new favorite drink. It was very interesting to watch the locals stop in and get their usual drinks and converse with each other even though we didn't really know much of what they were saying. They were very warm and welcoming and seemed to be delighted that we chose to come into their local cafe. Overall, I liked Naples very much, even though it seemed a little dangerous. But just like any other big city, you just have to be aware of your surroundings.

Rome, Italy

In Rome, we only had one day, but we had a lot planned. We would need more that a day to see Vatican City, so we decided to bypass that and see it next time. What we wanted to see the most was the Colosseum, so we opted to ride the subway there and make our way back through the city on foot, stopping at the Forum, the Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps.









We had to wait in line about a half hour to get in the Colosseum, but it was well worth the wait. The Colosseum was built in 80 AD and is still the largest building ever built in Rome. It was used for gladiator shows, among other things, and was able to hold 50,000 people. The structure is partially deteriorated due to earthquakes and stone robbers, but you can still get a really good sense of what it must have been like originally. On the inside, the original wooden floor is missing, so you can see the maze of rooms below where the gladiators and animals were once kept before entering the arena.





Right outside and across the street from the Colosseum is the Roman Forum which is a plaza surrounded by numerous ancient government buildings. It was the center of Roman life for hundreds of years and although it is in great ruin, it is amazing to see it still standing here. It consists of a great number of structures, mostly government buildings, but also temples dedicated to gods, royal residences, and an assembly area. Some are in better shape than others. We were particularly fascinated with the temple of Caesar and the complex of the Vestal Virgins. When we approached the complex, we were lucky enough to be right behind a tour guide who told us about the Vestal Virgins. They dedicated their lives and their chastity to the Goddess Vesta, but if they strayed from they're path, were buried alive.





Our next stop was the Pantheon, but we needed to stop and rest our feet a little. We sat at a cafe directly in front of the Pantheon, which is probably one of the busiest cafes in Rome. When I asked the waiter if he spoke English, he said "probably better than you do". Although the cafe was busy, we couldn't have picked a better setting. There were a lot of tourists, but also a lot of Italians passing by in their daily grind.



The Pantheon was truly amazing. Built in 126 AD as a dedication to ancient Roman gods, it's ceiling is the world's largest unreinforced dome. It has since been used as a tomb for the painter Raphael and several Italian kings, and a Roman church. It has a beautiful marble floor and a hole in the center of the ceiling called the oculus, which is it's only source of light.






Next we went into a small deli and got some arancini, small deep fried rice balls, and sat on the Spanish Steps for some people watching. The steps are the widest staircase in Europe and there were a lot of people doing the same thing we were.








Our last stop was at the Trevi fountain. A must do for anyone visiting Rome. They say if you throw a coin over your shoulder, you will return to Rome one day, and we definitely wanted to come back. We needed way more time in this beautiful city.