If driving along the Amalfi Coast was hair-raising, anyone with a great fear of heights should never visit the the Greek island of Santorini, which I did yesterday. Driving up the very high cliff face there from the little port to reach any of its towns, and then coming back down by cable car, required nerves of steel, I can tell you!
But I get ahead of myself. I am still trying to catch up on telling you about all my travels. I leave this ship on this coming Sunday, 28 May, which will mark three months of travel since I left home. Five months to go! On that day I will be setting off on a couple of days of train travel across several European countries, so it will mean another gap in my posts.
I meant to mention that the farewell dinner for our Insight group on the evening of 13 May was at the Vatican museum, a place with such wonderful works of art it was incredible. As you would expect, security there was very tight - tighter than anywhere else we visited. We walked through countless large galleries, each with beautiful frescoes on its ceilings and patterns on its marble floors and treasure upon treasure - paintings, tapestries, golden gifts from other countries . . . And then we saw the stunning Sistine Chapel, which had been restored to its former glory. Here Michelangelo’s work showed the true genius of the man. We stood there in complete awe, only sorry that the size of the crowds, though it was nearly closing time, meant we were walked through all too quickly.
Unfortunately my phone camera, which I have found best for indoor photography, started to play up, so most of my photos cannot be shown in this post. And photographs were not permitted in the Sistine Chapel. Unbelievably, some of the crowd could be seen sneaking shots anyway. So little respect!
The buffet dinner itself was so-so, in my opinion, but the venue was beautiful - a large gallery full of works of art that were gifts from many countries, including Australia. Each country had its own set of showcases laid out in a small gallery off the main gallery. The Australian exhibition consisted entirely of works of art by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, although the museum's map of Australia showing the Kimberley region, where much of the work apparently came from, was incorrect. It showed, or appeared to show, that the entire north west of Australia is the Kimberley region. Interestingly, our tables were set amongst many beautiful life-like models of American Indians.
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| This sculpture was just inside the museum entry. |
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| A typical ceiling in each of the galleries. |
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| A pure gold model. |
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| A very ornate work of art in pure silver - perhaps from the baroque period? |
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| Another work of art - a glass window set in an ornate piece of furniture. |
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| One of the works of art in the courtyard outside the museum entry. |
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| A huge modern sculpture consisting of one sphere inside another, the whole sculpture slowly rotating. |
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| Both sculptures seen in the courtyard. |
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