After leaving the Capitoline Museum, our initial destination was the Christian Catacombs of St. Callixtus. Unfortunately, we were not to visit. In our attempts to reach the catacombs, we were met by a police officer who turned us away without explanation. We circled around and tried the street from a different direction, only to be turned away again. Thinking we could outsmart the authorities, we tried still another small side street that might give us access to the area, only to find that the gentleman walking idly down the street was yet another polizi who turned us away. At the point we had expended most of the time allotted for visiting the catacombs, and we relented, and turned towards the day's final destination: the small town of Arpino.
On a hill above the city of Arpino, along long and winding road are some interesting walls. The area is often called civitavecchia. The walls are megalithic, that is, they are made of huge rocks. The best description on the Internet can be found here. Despite the fact that further information was difficult to find, I decided that this was one site I did not want to miss, providing some insight into yet another of the many cultures which have lived and died within Italy's present day borders.
Finding the town was easy enough, finding the road up the hill to the walls was not to difficult, and missing the wall was impossible. We parked our car in a grass field, with many others. It was early evening, and the sunlight was just beginning to take on the golden red hue of late summer. The grass beneath out feet was brittle and hot. The other cars belonged to several local families. They had with them their children who were all dressed as angels, with a single, Christmas light bulb glowing from the halos on their heads. From up the road came a young girl all dressed in white, escorted by her father. One of the children carried a sign which labeled the gathering as honoring the virgin Maria. We moved through the crowd and across the street to investigate the wall, and the tower. The area of the tower is reached through a pointed arch, which is plenty large enough to drive a small car through.
It is difficult to appreciate the scale in pictures because the mind just assumes the rocks are smaller than they are. So, I including Jake, who is 6'3" for scale.
The tower, which was built much later, and by different people than the walls was an interesting bonus feature of the location.
And I couldn't resist a picture of the olives growing on the tree there
The view from withing the walled area was wonderful that day
We began to walk the trail which followed the outside of the wall, when I first heard the singing. It did not come from the children, but from far
away. Looking down the hill, I spied along the winding road a long line of people, 5 or 6 abreast, marching up the hill, and they were singing as the sun was setting.
As we were returning to the car, a little boy looked at me and smiled. He had dark hair and light blue eyes. On the way back down the hill, came upon the people marching. One gentleman leading, with several rows of official looking church officials, wearing velvet robes, followed by the masses, who were dressed surprisingly casually. Beyond them were abandoned tables, which had distributed water. It was quite a hill after all.
This is probably one of the most perfect and memorable moments of the entire trip.
After arpino, we turned our smart car towards Pompeii. The traffic in Pompeii is extremely crowded. The skill we learned driving in Rome came in very handy here, though the traffic moved at a snail's pace. We were quickly learning that you must drive like you own the place. After finding and checking into our hotel, we headed to a pizzeria just down the hill from the entrance to the old city. I had oiled pasta with chicken and vegetables. It was good. While we ate we watched several women work the street. One young lady spent quite some time talking to one man in a car, until a police officer showed up, whereupon the women drifted casually into the crowd. We stayed the night at the Villa Dei Mysterie, which was quite nice, and had a nice pool we did not get to use. It would be an easy walk from the hotel to the entrance to the old city in the morning.
On a hill above the city of Arpino, along long and winding road are some interesting walls. The area is often called civitavecchia. The walls are megalithic, that is, they are made of huge rocks. The best description on the Internet can be found here. Despite the fact that further information was difficult to find, I decided that this was one site I did not want to miss, providing some insight into yet another of the many cultures which have lived and died within Italy's present day borders.
Finding the town was easy enough, finding the road up the hill to the walls was not to difficult, and missing the wall was impossible. We parked our car in a grass field, with many others. It was early evening, and the sunlight was just beginning to take on the golden red hue of late summer. The grass beneath out feet was brittle and hot. The other cars belonged to several local families. They had with them their children who were all dressed as angels, with a single, Christmas light bulb glowing from the halos on their heads. From up the road came a young girl all dressed in white, escorted by her father. One of the children carried a sign which labeled the gathering as honoring the virgin Maria. We moved through the crowd and across the street to investigate the wall, and the tower. The area of the tower is reached through a pointed arch, which is plenty large enough to drive a small car through.
It is difficult to appreciate the scale in pictures because the mind just assumes the rocks are smaller than they are. So, I including Jake, who is 6'3" for scale.
The tower, which was built much later, and by different people than the walls was an interesting bonus feature of the location.
And I couldn't resist a picture of the olives growing on the tree there
The view from withing the walled area was wonderful that day
We began to walk the trail which followed the outside of the wall, when I first heard the singing. It did not come from the children, but from far away. Looking down the hill, I spied along the winding road a long line of people, 5 or 6 abreast, marching up the hill, and they were singing as the sun was setting.
As we were returning to the car, a little boy looked at me and smiled. He had dark hair and light blue eyes. On the way back down the hill, came upon the people marching. One gentleman leading, with several rows of official looking church officials, wearing velvet robes, followed by the masses, who were dressed surprisingly casually. Beyond them were abandoned tables, which had distributed water. It was quite a hill after all.
This is probably one of the most perfect and memorable moments of the entire trip.
After arpino, we turned our smart car towards Pompeii. The traffic in Pompeii is extremely crowded. The skill we learned driving in Rome came in very handy here, though the traffic moved at a snail's pace. We were quickly learning that you must drive like you own the place. After finding and checking into our hotel, we headed to a pizzeria just down the hill from the entrance to the old city. I had oiled pasta with chicken and vegetables. It was good. While we ate we watched several women work the street. One young lady spent quite some time talking to one man in a car, until a police officer showed up, whereupon the women drifted casually into the crowd. We stayed the night at the Villa Dei Mysterie, which was quite nice, and had a nice pool we did not get to use. It would be an easy walk from the hotel to the entrance to the old city in the morning.
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