Spring Break Trip -- April 2005

We went on our Spring Break vacation in April 2005, which led us to Sicily, Italy, and Greece.

We flew into Sicily, and went up the still-active volcano Mt. Etna. Then, we went to Taormina, which is a beautiful coastal city located high up on a cliff that has an excellent Greek amphitheater.

Next, we caught an overnight ferry from Sicily to Naples. From Naples, we drove to Pompeii to see the humongous, ruined city from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Pompeii is a complete city, with homes, temples, roads, stadiums, theaters, etc. In addition to Pompeii, we drove the famous Amalfi coast of Italy. This coastal region is beautiful but scary and dangerous, as roads curve for miles and miles. 

Then, we drove across Italy, and took another overnight ferry to Greece. The weather was strormy, and the waters were rough so that it felt like we were on a roller coaster!

After landing in Greece, we traveled to Corinth, and saw the ancient ruins of the agora, with a temple to Apollo, etc. We then traveled up to the AcroCorinth, which is high on a mountain behind the agora, and was used as a Roman fortress, along with being used as a worship center to the Greek goddess Aphrodite. The view atop AcroCorinth is amazing, and is not for those afraid of heights.

Next, we drove to Athens, ate a traditional Greek dinner while we listened to Greek music and watched numerous Greek dances representative of various Greek Islands. We were even able to get on stage and participate a little.

The next day, we saw the city of Athens, including:  the changing of the guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (the ceremony is interesting, as soldiers wear pleated skirts and shoes with fluffy pom poms); the Olympic stadium; The Acropolis; Agora; Aeropagus (Mars Hills).

We headed from Athens back to the port to catch our ferry, and on our way, stopped off at the famous Corinth canal, which is an unbelievably steep canal chiseled strait through cliffs.

We caught another overnight ferry, landed in eastern Italy, drove back to the west side of Italy, and visited Herculaneum--the sister city of Pompeii. Herculaneum, like Pompeii, was also destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius, but is much better preserved than Pompeii because the volcano sealed the city and preserved items such as metal, wood, and colorful frescoes (wall paintings) on homes.

We took the ferry from Naples back to Sicily, and then, in Palermo, visited the eerie catacombs, which contain about 8,000 mummified bodies that are dispersed throughout the undergrounds of the church, and are dangling on walls or neatly tucked in wall niches, with the bodies propped up and elegantly dressed. Also in Palmero, we visited the opera theater that appeared in the movie Godfather III.

After Palermo, we arrived at the Sigonella military base, and sent our girls to the Teen Center, where they went on an exciting expedition in the outskirts of Mt. Etna:  Paintball! They came back grungy and somewhat "wounded," but had a blast!