A Context Travel Tour in Venice
Editor’s note: As a result of the 2020 pandemic, Context Travel has introduced an excellent series of virtual seminars. These live, scholar-led courses even allow time for discussion and questions. … Read more
Italy
Lion and Saints, San Marco, Venice
The winged lion is the symbol of both Saint Mark the Evangelist and the city of Venice. You see it pretty much everywhere. There is some dispute of the origin … Read more
Grand Canal at Dusk, Venice, Italy
We’re staying near the Rialto Bridge in Venice, a very nice neighborhood to just walk around and enjoy the view. There’s a lot of architecture and painting and sculpture here, … Read more
Ceiling, San Marco Basilica, Venice, Italy
We arrived on the train from Ljubljana in Venice late afternoon, when the sun was already low in the sky, and the lines to get into San Marco Basilica were … Read more
Four views of The Matterhorn, Zermatt, Switzerland
From Montreux it was an easy train ride to Zermatt, which we visited just to see the Matterhorn. It was worth it. From Zermatt, which is pretty much a ski … Read more
Saints in the Basement, Siena, Italy Cathedral
They’ve removed the original statues from the facade of the Siena Cathedral and replaced them with reproductions. The soft marble originals certainly suffered from the pollution and elements over hundreds … Read more
Bend Over, Baby
This is out of the normal realm of the travel blog, but I sort of feel I must comment on the current economic situation of Spain. As anyone who pays … Read more
The Ruins of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Oplontis
I posted about Rome six days ago, and at the time promised to go on endlessly about our subsequent visits to the sites that were destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 AD, or as the secularists say, 79 CE. Since I’m a Latin guy though, I’m sticking with AD.
So, here goes. First there was a train ride from Rome to Naples, then a change for Pompeii. We had decided to stay in Pompeii, instead of Naples, for a couple of reasons. Number one is that Naples is pretty much of a shit hole, and I can’t remember the second one.