Category: Travel

Travel

In Giulianova Italy ~ Day 1

Post author By kmarieclark
Post date April 29, 2015
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The bus took us from Roma, east and into the mountains. We slid into the low-lying hills as they backed up into the Apennines –the spine of the mountain coursing down the center of Italy. Gran Sasso loomed highest of all. Black granite and snow-capped peaks. The sky darkening. We started to see the signs for Giulianova –our destination on the beach. We drove through a crane-ridden city, Acquila which needed rebuilt after a seisma, an earthquake. There were poppy fields through Abruzzo, arms of grey green olive trees grasping, closed fists, open fists to the sky. Our bus drove through Mosciano, a dusty road right before the train stop in Giulianova. I could imagine my grandfather taking this trek, stepping out into the city from here with my great Uncle Tom forty years earlier. Lucky for them, they knew where they were going.

A view of the ancient city above sea-side Giulianova. Also the view I enjoyed from within the Adriatic Sea.

Tags Finding Family in Italy

Travel

To Giulianova, Italia

We were leaving Rome. We walked to the Termini and took a subway to Tibertina. We’re loaded down with bags and as the train pulls up we realize it’s packed. So we push into different carriages and my backpack gets stuck in the closing doors. Needless to say my Dad was still behind me, and the train left him there in hopes that we’d be able to get back together when we were to get off. Thankfully he is on the next one and from this station we need to figure out the bus schedule.

Up on a piazza, below a raised road and over another is a building adjacent to a large lot. The busses. We buy tickets for Giulianova, grab a bite and are in a coffee shop confused as to where the bus will show up not a minute too soon for the sea. It feels like we’ve got it. It feels like we are one place in a million and this bus will take us to where our family is from.

Tags Finding Italian Family

Travel

Tours by Night – Rome

A lot of people were out enjoying this large piazza -Piazza Navona. The marble sculpted fountains were so idealistically Italy. Our task was to ‘find the Steelers Bar.’ I figured we’d just walk the perimeter looking for La Botticella but it wasn’t that easy. My brother and Phil took off in different directions, and my parents began walking the perimeter which left me standing still to enjoy the view of the Fountain of Neptune.

Fountain photo by Dara McCarthy.

The place was busy. My brother found the bar one or two streets off of the piazza and I couldn’t keep up with Mom or Dad as they drove right through the tables out front and into the place. Giovanni, the owner, came right up to my Mom and shook her hand as she walked in, considering she had changed into her Steelers jersey on our walk to the piazza. (They call Giovanni John here in the United States when he comes to Morgantown or Pittsburgh.)

He led us to Navonna Notte –a good pizza and calzone restaurant just around the corner for dinner. No one really cared how long you took to eat, so we enjoyed a nice two-hour dinner. We returned to the Steelers bar for an after dinner drink where we sat inside and ordered dark beers of Guinness while Mom and Dad looked around trying to recognize the different university flags. We told Giovanni we were headed to Giulianova the next day and he suggested renting a car, which we didn’t do. Our train travel throughout the trip would make everything so much more interesting and eventful. For the rest of the time in the pub we talked about Pittsburgh towns, even Waynesburg. American college students came in and we would have socialized longer had we not a curfew of the train schedule. We made the 11:30 deadline, barely. Leaving the Steelers Bar, we went by way of the Pantheon and Trevi fountain to the train station. Without realizing it we took Rick Steve’s recommended night-time route to see the monuments. All of a sudden we were in the piazza sharing a scene with the Pantheon.

The ancient nature of the Pantheon was more stunning this time than it had been the last time I’d seen it twelve years ago. We stood admiring it for some time before moving on to find the Trevi fountain. There were hundreds of people before this massive sculpture coming from the base of a building and a fountain of rock. Phil and I threw in small coins. Men with roses were abound. The evening colors of gold, shimmering the water with tints of blue were eerie -kind of like what you get below a yellow bulb of a parking lot light. But before the 1700’s sculptural scene, and the crowds enjoying themselves late in the night, we just went along with it. ~ When in Rome…

The next morning meant heading to the heart of our trip -Giulianova! People all around Rome were checking in to get ready for the weekend festivities. God was so central to their being –a part of everyday life, and so beautiful to be within.

Tags Rome Nights, Steelers Bar in Rome

Travel

The Ceiling of St. Peter’s Basilica

Post author By kmarieclark
Post date April 25, 2015
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Climbing the Dome

In the Vatican you can climb the dome of St. Peters. My grandparents had done this together forty years ago and we wanted to take the same picture as they had done that long ago. Electing to climb the first 300 steps let us skip a huge line. So we climbed and joined others at the roof below the dome where the elevator let off.

This area was directly behind the statues that guard St. Peter’s square. These pieces were twice the size of life. On the inside of the dome angel’s faces were 10’ tall and set in mosaics. In the Basilica earlier I hadn’t realized people we so far above us. The angel’s glances were startled, scared and we slipped in a thin door that led us upward on our continued journey. We walked in slated steps up the walls, hugging the interior dome as the hallway got skinnier. Finally it opens to the crowds of people vying for the same sight of Rome.

The dome was even more beautiful, holding watch after our exit. Outside of the church we walked slowly around the square, following the colonnade, watching the sun set. Phil filmed us. Andy bought a rosary and a prayer card for a co-worker and we walked back into Roma down the long perpendicular street. Festivities for the canonization were gearing up as three million Polish people alone were traveling to this holy Catholic center as we were making our exit.

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In and Above the Vatican

Out into the lovely courtyard carpeted with grass, tourists lunched, some tanning on benches to rest. Gifts of the different popes explained -the pineapple sculpture above lion-carved fountains was one pope’s gift to the Vatican –the fresh water of ancient aqueducts still quenching human thirst. Alcoves and archways, the pristine nature of it all was absorbed as Valeria described the paintings of the Sistine Chapel. For eleven years Michelangelo painted in this room. His first paintings, mind you, for he was a sculptor. Five years it took him to paint the ceiling. He painted angles, hid humor within the work that was sometimes too high for us to see to perceive. He painted God and Adam, judgments and rulers. In one place he painted himself -his signature for work, as artists in that day did not sign the canvas.

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Travel

At the Vatican in Rome ~ April 2014

Post author By kmarieclark
Post date April 23, 2015
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People parked everywhere creating their own spaces for their small cars. We had a tour of the Vatican booked for 2:00 so we made our way via the subway toward that part of town.

We met Valeria who led us through the maze of getting our tickets, up and down long stairs, we ran past the view of an open green area where Pope John Paul II’s gift rested. A huge bronze sculpture rolled onto the lawn. Domes in the sky above like mountains watching over a city. We only caught glimpses as we followed mama, as she instructed to call her.

We went into open courtyards with marble statues, purple bathing tubs, as old coffins with side holes to let out the remains. The seven of us were attentive children as she explained the art, the artists who worked only for honor for the church, their timeless gifts still staring us in the face. These open-air museums were surrounded by portrait sculptures. Pea gravel centers made all of the tourists sounds militant. From here rooms and rooms of mazes and domes, one bronze sculpture that wasn’t melted during the war-time for casts still stood there.

Tags Roma Italia

Travel

The streets of Rome

My family of five walked the sunny streets, looked over the shaded outdoor cafes covered by large awnings, and descended down steps near the Vatican entry piazza to try and find a bite for lunch before our scheduled tour. All of the tables were covered in linens. Most servers wore a tie. Throughout our time in Italy it was difficult to understand how so many restaurants could stay in business. But then again, when most of the world wanted to come to your country for vacation it wasn’t hard to imagine.

We ate outside at Bar Canada, half at a high-top and half at a shaded lower table with a waiter speaking half Italian and half English to us.

Architectural details in the surrounding buildings were evident in so many ways. The time spent in thinking, crafting and making the balcony brackets, which were pillars formed into men’s torsos carrying the weight of the floor projecting above on their heads were one of the many wonders. Who could carve this work? All the marble scrolls are so delicate. Above most windows there were family crests on the lintels. If our generation now could focus so much as these craftsmen did, appreciate what is valued in the talent and ability at hand, what could we do?

Tags Rome Italy

Travel

Sole e Luna in Roma

My Mom and husband, who couldn’t sleep after 23 hours of travel, started walking the streets near our B&B. They found their way to a nearby park and turned a corner to be surprised by the dominating face of the Colosseum. They took us back later, when the rest of us had woken up, to have dinner in the district with rainbow flags. Within view of the 2000 year-old monument Mom toasted her father –who had come back to Italy forty years earlier to trace his own roots back to Giulianova.

Roma, Day 2: At Sole e Luna we were served breakfast each morning in bed. I don’t know if there is anything better than being served Italian coffee on a platter first thing in the morning in Rome. The hotel courtyard below was full of potted plants, big ones, with new red blooms in the corners, and on window-sills. Rome was gearing up for the canonization of Pope John Paul II, or Ioannes Paulus II as they called him here, and Pope John XXIII, which would happen the weekend after we left the city.

Tags Italy to Find Family

Travel

Italia ~ Day by Day

Last year my family went to Italy in search of our relatives… and we found them. It’s now a year later and I’ve wanted to memorialize our trip day by day to remember how special the experience was for us. So, for the next few weeks each day I will present an image or two and a short synopsis of what we experienced.

The first day was a day of travel.

Half-asleep, we meandered outside to find the bus between the airport and historic city center. Men along the curb side pick-up were smoking, and speaking with all of the extra inflections one would expect, stereotypically. When our bus arrived the Italians crowded the drive and we shoved along and into the mess because we wanted to get on –which we did. Into the ancient walled city, the crumbling brick facades, old plaster colors fading into the street.

Welcome to Italy, where lunch portions are digestible, the restrooms are inaccessible to anyone impaired, always downstairs behind some small doors, and you listen in on a language spoken like a romantic Latin song.

Our hotel, Sole e Luna, was through a small door, easily missed as the marker was a note beside a doorbell. Up four and a half flights of steps or from within the elevator cut into the stair, we found our rooms and opened the shutters.

Welcome to Roma.

Tags Italy to Find Family

Travel

Mt. Lafayette, Summer Hiking in New England

Post author By kmarieclark
Post date March 27, 2015
No Comments on Mt. Lafayette, Summer Hiking in New England

In the summer of 2013 my husband and I took a few hikes in New England. The hike to Mt. Lafayette along the Appalachian Trail stands out as one of the most beautiful. With mileage just over 8 miles, we give it an 8 in difficulty.

We spend the night in Lincoln, New Hampshire at an Inn and brewery called The Woodstock Station and Brewery. From here the White Mountains beckon. We began our day at the parking lot off of Falling Water Trail. The trail for the first hour was sandy with large sunken rocks. We hiked along the many falls up a comfortable grade before the tree roots of the spruce forest created natural stairs. We crossed rocky streams of clear water and then the forest receded, thinning out as the sky became big, blue and unobstructed.

-Map from 4000 Footers

We summited Haystack and then Lincoln, realizing that Lafayette was beyond another 1.8 miles. Species of low growth plants were blooming with the rock outcroppings. The climbing up and down wasn’t easy, and one must be sure-footed at all times. Mounting Lafayette proved to be amazing after waiting 15 minutes for the grey windy clouds of midst to pass. The trip down was the most difficult as large rocks were loose along the trail.

The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) hosts hikers at the Green Leaf Hut, though it is a significant amount of mileage off of the AT. It was nice to sit there to take rest within view of the Franconia Ridge.

–Backpacker Image

A well-stocked hiking book bookstore in Lincoln provided us with an idea of what to hike the next day. Check out Mountain Wanderer in person or online. We hiked Mt. Chocura the following day.

I’ve been working on a poem to pull together a few hikes from that summer. We were caught in a storm the day before hiking Mt. Lafayette while attempting to summit the Beaver Creek trail nearby.

Mt. Lafayette

The Appalachian range takes the sky to see

it was known to my ancestors, taller

before feet and storms crossed the spine and half the range crumbled

so unlike the stability it promises to hikers.

In my blood, my body aware, is drawn

ten hours from home

I travel far to find something of myself

a new life in New England

where the Presidentials are laid out

the White Mountains –Washington, Mt. Adams, Jefferson.

I’ve come to climb the peaks at Mt. Lafayette where

I follow many footsteps

those that link Georgia to Maine

And what did I find–

the wind

A storm came quickly, shaking the magnetic rock

waterfalls began to pool together

to make streams of clear water

over the faces of flat-paved rock.

At haystack, the base

the trees claw and stretch their legs like a relaxing spider–

the earth is soft between them. The fingers

drying after the morning storm.

An accomplishment of the 3,800 feet at the top, the exhaustion

a New Hampshire day in view of the distant mountains hiding their heads above the clouds

standing through the rain

letting the juice seep into the bones and nourish the desperate feeling of necessity when it is given.

This is what enters the mind at fatigue

the importance of simple food drink exercise

and at the root of it–

determination of the self

this is what enters the mind at fatigue

the things that don’t matter are driven away

allowing more important things to enter.

Tags Mt. Lafayette NH Hiking