Lou's Place in Cyberspace

European Vacation-1996

[ Home ] [ Altamura ] [ Florence ] [ Paris ] [ Pompeii ] [ Rome ] [ Sorrento ]

• ROME: After years of wanting to visit Rome, and  to stand in the Forum daydreaming of the great historical events that passed there, I finally made the journey.  It was the joy of seeing ancient things constantly, everywhere, and to pause and try to imagine what it had been like. 
  Presented here are some thoughts about, and photos of, my journey through Rome.

FLORENCE There, before my very eyes were the works of Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Leonardo. And there were all the famous and most beautiful Art the world has known. To walk down the very streets where Michelangelo played as a youth and worked as a man, art is everywhere. The countryside itself is art.

POMPEII: As I entered  the ancient city I felt vaguely like I had been there before. The streets, the shops, the Forum, Mt. Vesuvius sitting majestically in the background. It all seems so gentle and beautiful. It is hard to imagine the terror of that day in August 79 AD, when this world came to its end.

ALTAMURA:  On the opposite side of Italy, near the seacoast town of Bari, is a little town of my ancestors. I was able to find a church which had been passed on in my families history. The Byzantine church where my maternal grandparents passed though its portals on the day they were married. The sight of the "Big Lions" at the entrance brought goose bumps and the reality of my history to life.

PARIS: To see the Lourve, to walk the Champs Elysees, to visit Notre Dame and Chartres. More wonderful moments.

SORRENTO: Such a beautiful location, a view of the Bay of Naples, a part of our visit to Pompeii, a place I will always long to return to.