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By Gabriela, on February 10th, 2010
 (5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...This year we have decided to spend the winter holidays in Italy, more specifically about 40 km from Napoli in Grazzanise a small village/town, in Campania region. While in Italy we had such a horrible weather that we were lucky to get 3 sunny days during the whole 2 weeks we were there. In one of these sunny days we went to Capua which in the ancient days was the most important road center of Campania, and here we decided to stop and visit the Santa Maria Capua Vetere Amphitheater. The Amphitheater is accessible from the A1 motorway – exit Caserta North, and to be honest it is impossible to not see it since it really stands out. Built in the time of Augustus, restored by Hadrian it was dedicated by Antoninus Pius as the inscription over the main entrance states, the amphitheater it is said to have hosted the famous battles of Spartacus ( you could start watching the TV show called Spartacus if you are not fond of reading, though the show it is quite bloody I have to admit). Capua used to be the region of the best schools of gladiators in Italy and the amphitheater once held up to 60,000 spectators and admitted both men and women for free, making the games extremely popular. The interior of the amphitheater is quite well preserved and you could almost see the glory of those days. Beneath the arena going all around are impressive subterranean passages which “beg” you to continue the exploration and admire the remains of columns, sculptures and such. The vegetation in some areas is quite abundant and makes you feel like you are in a mystical private jungle, that you and only you are exploring for the first time. The galleries can be quite muddy in some areas since it is rather humid bellow the arena. This particular amphitheater is the second largest after the Colosseum in Rome, measuring the longer diameter 170 m (185 yd), the shorter 140 m (152 yd), and the arena measures 75 by 45 m (83 by 49 yd), where the corresponding dimensions of the Colosseum at Rome are 188, 155, 85, 53 m (205, 170, 93 and 58 yd). I could keep going on and on about the grateness of the Amphitheater but I will just let the images speak for themselves and invite you to visit if you are ever in the area. Do not forget to enter the Gladiator museum as well, where they have wax people impersonating a gladiator fight, which I can not understand very well since it was in Italian only The ticket is about € 2.50 and is valid for entry to the amphitheater, the Gladiator museum, the Mithraeum (on request), and the archaeological museum of ancient Capua. PS. I am introducing a new type of gallery…hope you will give me your input
By Gabriela, on January 29th, 2010
(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Most of you know that we have been stationed in Athens since October 2009, but we are not the type to sit put in one place, thus we went on various quests around Athens. Greece is well known for its archeological features and here I come with a highlight on something less popular but yet quite impressive. If you head towards Marathon Lake and Schinias beach you should not miss visiting Rhamnus Archeological Site. It is well marked so it is not hard to find from Marathon. I will let the legend to speak for its self: “There is an ancient legend that, before the Battle of Marathon, the Persians brought with them a huge piece of marble, from which to make a memorial to their victory, which they believed certain. However, Nemesis, or divine retribution, willed it otherwise. The Greeks won the famous battle in 490 BC. Agoracritos, a pupil of Phidias, wrought the statue of Nemesis herself from that very piece of marble, and it was erected at Rhamnus. The deme of Rhamnus took its name from the buckthorn bushes which grew in abundance in the area. The settlement consisted of a fortress, public buildings, sanctuaries, houses and burial grounds. The Athenian garrison was permanently stationed at Rhamnus, in the small enclosure at the top of the hill, to watch over navigation. The extension of the fortification further down embraced the little theatre, the gymnasium, a small sanctuary of Dionysos, a number of other public buildings, and dwellings. The ancient road passed between some colossal grave monuments and ended at the gate of the fortress. Early in the fifth century, the sanctuary of Nemesis was built to the south. The huge fifth-century temple was a Doric hexastyle. Inside, the statue of Nemesis stood on a base decorated with reliefs, with the altar in front of it. Themis, the personification of justice and equity, was worshiped in a small temple nearby: her statue, the work of the local sculptor Chaerestratos, survives intact. Another smaller sanctuary was originally dedicated to the local hero and physician Aristomachos, but his cult was gradually supplanted in the fourth century BC by that of the better known Amphiaraos, who was worshipped at Oropos and shared the same attributes. Christianity having prevailed, the order went out in AD 399 that the temple should be demolished. But the remains of the sanctuary and the fortress were never entirely buried under the earth, and have remained visible to travelers and local people ever since.” (Quoted from the presentation boards at the site)
By Gabriela, on November 24th, 2009
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Greece has many wonderful places to be discovered, thus last week we headed towards the Peloponnese Peninsula, in the search of such a place. To get to our special destination in Kalogria, we passed the Corinth Canal which really left me somewhat astounded at the result of such many years of work. Starting from the ground level almost at the first bridge to about 100 meters in the highest spot…Looking down did make me dizzy. One of the interesting things about the first bridge is that it submerges instead of being lift up as I would have expected it.
We followed the road on the coast until we reached Rio where I was interested in seeing the Charilaos Trikoupis bridge at night, most commonly known as the Rio – Antirrio bridge. This bridge built in the mid 90’s and opened for public in August 2004, connects the Peloponnese to the mainland Greece. The bridge at its length of 2880 meters is the world’s second longest cable-stayed deck bridge.
The night slowly came down and my waiting for the bridge lights to get turned on was in vain, because…well I guess the photo I saw of the bridge in the night was taken at opening or holidays…lol…But the sunset was beautiful so it worth the wait. We reached Kalogria later in the evening and after a well deserved dinner, we choose a spot to park the car in the darkness around us and sleep without knowing what sights the morning had laid out for us. The morning did come, and it shocked me with the views it enchanted us. As soon as I opened my eyes I took my shoes on and grabbed my camera in a rush. This was one of the most beautiful sunrises I ever saw in my life, and the magical silhouettes of the umbrella trees and Prokopos lagoon shocked me. We had finally reached our destination, the Strophylia forest and the wetlands.
A little to the side a chapel rested peacefully between the mist at the base of the Mavro Ori mountain.
The morning continued with our exploration of the place, and headed us to the beach of Kalogria where big sand dunes had many treasures to hide for Cosmin. But you can read about that in his blog. I on the other hand rested for a while on the beach and waited to get stinged by a wasp…that was painful and a pain in the a** for the next couple of days.
After making some four-legged friends which would not loose us from their sight and ran after the car for a few km after I fed them with some caju, we were some people with a mission, and that was releasing Miruna…a lizard (Ophisaurus Apodus) which I baptized with this name when it was given to us from the University in Athens to release back in its natural habitat.
In the area we also found some fortifications, the Ancient Dyme fortifications and while around there we had a nice encounter with a praying mantis. Cosmin had some fantastic raptors posing for him so he was happy.
In the evening we took the road back to Athens with a detour and this time we decided to cross the Rio – Antirrio bridge…well we knew there was going to be a toll, but the amount they charged was quite high for us…11.70 euro. We stopped for dinner in Eratini at a small Pizzeria where we had an excellent service and plenty of food, and this was after getting ourselves somewhat lost through some villages from which our GPS could not find an entry for the national road. That’s all folks ! Stay tuned from scenes of our next…post ??? Coming up…Ramnous Archeological site and…ok I ain’t telling ya By Gabriela, on November 20th, 2009
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Some do take advantage of everything that nature has to offer. While we were somewhat upset of the wind that started to blow quite strongly and disturbed us from taking good photos of flowers and stuff, other people exploited the wind to the maximum, and who was I to say no to such subjects… So there we were back at Schinias, exploring the “best beach in town”. No I mean seriously, this beach, Schinias is situated in the south-east side of Marathon and it is said to be the best beach in this part of Attica. It is a wonderful long and pine –circled beach. Its popularity and beauty cause it to be often quite crowded, especially during the weekends, where a lot of families bring their children to play and enjoy the small old taverns along side. This great beach is well-known and appreciated among windsurfing lovers, since it is really long and located in a windy area. While Cosmin explored the wetland close to the beach, I got stuck on the kite surfers performing for me…The best part was seeing them fall with a big big splash…haha…
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