Senin, 22 September 2008

101 in 1001-- Item 39-- Perform five acts of random kindness

Why I Chose This Goal: Why not. In today's society it seems that kindness is a lost art form. Holding a door, letting someone go aghead of you in the super market line, heping someone out who is a little short at the check out counter.

What I Did: I did five acts of random kindness.

101 in 1001-- Item 8 No Potato Chips for 15 days

Why I Chose This Goal: I love potato chips... greasy, crunchy salty potato chips. But as everyone knows they can't be too good for you- can they?

What I did: While in Italy I didn't eat chips for over three weeks and still haven't had any since coming home.

101 in 1001-- Item 61 Visit Italy

Why I Chose This Goal: I had visited Italy twice and with K going there for Reserve Duty it seemed like it would be a good place to visit again.

What I Did: I flew out and landed in Rome on 8/30/08. We visited Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Paestum, Rome and then flew to Greece for four days in Athens and Delphi.

Rabu, 10 September 2008

My Five Things

1- We're getting packed and ready for a trip of a lifetime to Athens, Greece. We'll be flying tomorrow... on September 11... I'm not too keen on that.

2- I've taken the better part of the day to relax, check e-mail and do laundry. I had two tous scheduled with ITT, but they were cancelled. Instead I went to see the Underground myself (one tour was scheduled for that) and went to Sansevero Chapel. That day I was going to visit Caserta on the cancelled tour.

3- I've been scratching out ideas for my next novel and will be incorporating some of the characters and scenes I've seen and photographed here in Italy.

4- We watched several movies here over the last ten days: "Reign Over Me", "The Princess of Thieves", "The Jane Austen Book Club" and "Vantage Point".

5- I caught the latest football news... MSU wins, Lions lose, Chargers lose, and my fantasy team won it's first game.

Day 10: The Naples Underworld

I took a walking tour of the Naples underground. Naples has three layers of civilizations built one atop another. Greeks, then Romans and then today's Naples. The tour took us down 120 feet below the city streets to the greek era. The Aquaducts that we toured supplied water for not only Naples but for many towns arond Naples Bay.

The system was closed for good in the 1880s due to a cholera epidemic. World War Two saw it modified with steps added to access the cisterns and reopened as a bomb shelter. The wells have all been sealed up with 5 meters of trash and garbage- except for the well opening pictured here.

Two cisterns were filled with water to show what it must have been like. You might not think this would be interesting- but in fact I found it fascinating. Clean water is something we take for granted today. Small, little men were employed to crawl into these aquaducts to keep them clean.

Notice the two photos of German war artifacts. The last photo is of a print shop I happened to walk past. The shop was about 10' x 12'. How often have you ever walked past a printing press like this?








Day 9: Sansevero Chapel

This private chapel is hidden down a narrow corridor in the middle of the old part of town, just off the Spaccanapoli. It has several incredible scupltures on display. I arrived just before ten o'clock and enjoyed the quiet of the early morning before the city came alive. Although taking photographs is not allowed, I downloaded some stock internet photos to illustrate the wonderful art inside.








Days 8: Street Scenes in Naples

I was out wandering the streets of Naples on the way to visit the San Servero Chapel. Here are some of the sights I saw while out and about. Some grafitti, advertisments, mixed with a protest march. Some window shopping, church domes and clean laundry hung out to dry. More shops, road repairs and a man in a shiny golden suit.