The Squamidian Report – June 24 / 17
 
Issue #787

Including:
From Lorne
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Would you believe that after months of cold and wet, the sun has come out and the temperature is climbing. Our visitors from KW left early Tuesday morning. We dropped them off at the crack of dawn under a heavy overcast that was producing spotty rain. By the time we got home from the airport there were signs that the sky just might open a bit. By mid afternoon the sun was out. It took another 3 days for the temps to climb all the way up to 'normal'. Unfortunately, the temps weren't aware that 'normal' would be a good place to stop and just kept on going. The point is, the weather seemed to want to be sure that our visitors had left before finally shaking off the lingering dregs of winter. However, we were able to keep our visitors entertained and the weather wasn't really a factor, and, most of us preferred cool and cloudy with a bit of rain over hot and hotter anytime.

Now, there is no need for me to drag my section on any further as Lorne has sent in his take on things, and, Greg has another great installment from his trip to Italy. So, read on.


doug
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From Lorne

Back to the grey old east.   But remembering a week ago when we made a few more adventure trips up the  gondola bringing the total to 34 times over the last 3 annual visits.  A trip to Britannia Beach and a return up The Sea to Sky Hwy. to the site of the 2010 Olympic ski jump and a climb up to Shannon Falls all since last weeks reporting.    Ending at the Vancouver Airport by 7am, Tues., whereupon an inspector of identification upon examining my Ont. Driver's Permit, found it had expired 3 days before and would not accept it as a valid form of identity even though it contains a recent photo.  2 pieces  are required.  Several other officials were summoned speaking in rapid and strange languages but  finely I was given the OK. with a warning.

Attempting to board at Calgary, checking our identification, some power craved migrant discovered my driver's permit had expired and would not accept  proof that I am the same person. The inspector at  Vancouver looked very much like this one. Don't know how they did that.  Both times looked like I may not get on the plane but again with a meeting of authorities and a warning I was allowed on.

In both cases, after everything was settled, I was treated kindly and brought to my seat by an attractive attendant. This couldn't happen to a nicer fellow.

Lorne
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

Once again I’m back to continue my description of our trip to Rome. It’s actually barely touching on the details of our adventure but the more I write the more I remember about the amazing time we had over in Italy. To continue from last week, I’ll start off by mentioning our mid vacation decision to ride around the city rather than walk one day, just for a change of pace. We found that there was a bus stop about a block from our apartment that was geared for the tourists visiting the city. For 30 Euros per person you can board their topless double decker bus and take a great tour of the city. You are even supplied with headphones that allow you to listen to a description of all the amazing sites you pass along the two-hour route. This bus is called a “Hop-On, Hop-Off” tour and you can do just that anywhere along the route you wish. You can hop off at a certain site and once you have finished touring that site, you can hop back on the bus and continue your tour. Your ticket is good for a 24 hr period. If you start at noon you are good until noon the next day. They call it a 24-hour ticket but the bus only runs from 8am until 6pm on any day. It was fun to see the city and it’s busy streets and walkways from a different perspective and we did hop off at a couple of different sites, once to have lunch and the second time to visit the cool “Ferrari” store in downtown Rome. The store has a real F1 Ferrari race care in the front window and of course you can have your picture taken beside the car as long as an employee doesn’t see you doing it, since there is no photography allowed in the store. LOL! We managed to take a couple of photos anyway! We purchased a couple of Ferrari Tee Shirts (Red of course) as well as a Ferrari phone cover for Adam’s phone and a red Ferrari mug for myself. I have enjoyed many a cup of tea in my mug since arriving home. I guess technically it’s a “coffee” mug but I’m not a coffee drinker so, tea it is!

     The next day, we were walking along the wall above the Tiber river and decided to walk across the “Bridge of Angels” to the north side of the river and check out the “St Angeles Fort” directly at the north end of the bridge. It’s a huge fort that was built many centuries ago to be used as a form of protection against invaders that might enter the city by way of the river! This fort is also used to this very day as a refuge for the Pope should Vatican City ever be invaded. There is a one-kilometer long 10meter high roadway that stretches from the fort to the residence of the Pope in the Vatican. The pope and his guards can move from one place to the other without having to be on street level and this affords them safety from enemy forces. The fort was an amazing part of our day and it is visited by thousands of visitors every day. It’s huge and totally impenetrable unless by air! The fort is at a guess, at least 100 to 150 feet high and it’s quite a challenge to climb to the top of its highest point. This particular building affords one of the best views of the city of Rome. You can even look down on the St Peter’s Square of Vatican City where the Pope holds his outdoor services. I believe the fort covers an area of approximately 25 acres, it’s huge!

    The next day, we decided to take a trek to see the Spanish Steps in central Rome. This is an ancient set of steps; I believe there are 189 of them or more. They were built during the 1600’s to connect the French Cathedral on the upper plateau to the Spanish “Square” below. Once the steps were completed, they attracted hundreds of artists, musicians and performers who were inspired by the amazing architecture surrounding the “Steps” and also the tourists flocking to see the steps. The tourists became a grand source of income for the street performers and artists and still are to this very day. We also made our way to another famous square that fronts the Leonardo Di Vinci Museum. We wanted to be sure to see this museum as it contains many of the famous artists inventions as well as a copy of his most famous portrait “The Mona Lisa”. The copy is so amazing that I’m surprised nobody has made an effort to steal it from the wall it’s mounted on. It is mounted at eye level with no security ropes or obvious protection around the painting. It would fool an art critic I’m sure if presented as the real thing! I could have reached out and touched the painting without any problem at all. Well, maybe someone would have chastised me for doing so but it was tempting to say the least! We have had a copy of “Mona Lisa” on our living room wall for about 40 years and it was interesting to see that our “fake” Mona is almost identical in size and not a bad copy at all! We also saw the real Mona in the Louvre in Paris two years ago but were kept at a distance of about 25 Feet by a rope and guards! I think it was cooler to see the copy in Rome than it was the real thing along with 2000 other pushy tourists in the Louvre! LOL!

I was amazed to see how many inventions of a mechanical nature Di Vinci had perpetrated in his lifetime. He invented everything from the helicopter to the common lathe. I believe there were about 50 different items shown in the museum in Rome that were attributed to Leonardo! When we were approaching the museum from the Square out front, a man carrying a bunch of roses approached us. He presented Carole with three lovely red roses and insisted she take them. We thought he was trying to sell them to her but then he said, “No no, they are for you!” So Carole accepted them graciously. At that moment, he proceeded to tie a small coloured string around her wrist and then one around both Adam’s wrist and mine as well. We thought this was rather quaint and he said it was for good luck! As we thanked him and started to walk away, he stepped in front of us and insisted we pay him 5 Euros each for the “Good Luck”! Aha, so there was a catch! We said “no” several times, feeling duped by this tricksters method of extracting money from tourists but finally offered him a 5 Euro note and claimed that was all the cash we had on us! He followed us across the Square but gave up his pursuit as we entered the Museum. We learned a lesson that day or so we thought!

     The following day we decided to venture out to visit the Coliseum. After all, what would a visit to Rome be without a tour of the most famous and the oldest structure in this ancient city? Upon our arrival at the famous site, a gentleman asked us if we wanted to join a guided tour of the Coliseum for 30 Euros each. We decided it might be a better way to see the structure as well as a way to learn more about the history. So we paid our money and received a set of headphones for the tour. This tour also allowed us to go to the head of the line to enter the Coliseum rather than wait two hours in a long public line. We entered the front gate and found that the City had installed an elevator for those of us with bad knees etc rather than having to climb the steep stairs to the different levels. We were collected on the top level in our group and the Italian guide began his spiel! He was informative but his English wasn’t as good as we had hoped and he was a tad difficult to understand at times. However, by listening closely we managed to get most of what he said to make sense. We viewed the lower floor of the “Stadium” which had originally been an open playing field where war games and gladiator contests were held. In the early years of the Coliseum they even flooded the playing area and floated ships to perform actual sea battles to please the crowds in the seating area surrounding the stadium. Today, the floor space is littered with stone structures that were used to have lions, elephants and other exotic animals displayed upon for the spectators. I suppose this is where they fed the Christians to the lions for fun! It’s incredible to think of what went on in those days for entertainment! After exiting the Coliseum we walked through the ancient ruins of the city of Rome. Again with a different guide telling the features of each area we walked through. It took about two hours to complete that last part of the tour and it was a grueling climb up one of the 7 hills of Rome that were made famous by the wealthy of ancient times. The top of the hill behind the Coliseum was the area of the city where the rich and famous of the time lived. The richer you were, the higher you lived on the hills of Rome. It just so happened that we took this tour on the hottest day of our vacation so it was doubly difficult to keep pace with the tour group. We finally reached the end of that tour and found our way out of the ruins back to the street and headed for home. As we walked the street above the ruins, there were two Roman Gladiators dressed in the armor of ancient times. One of them placed his metal helmet on Carole’s head and urged us to take her picture. They even held their swords to my chest and groin to pose for the shot beside Carole. We thought this was great fun until it was over and they insisted we pay them 5 Euros each for the picture we just posed for! LOL! Hahahahaha……. I guess we should have known better after being stung the day before with the “Rose Guy”! LOL! We handed them a 5 Euro note and they finally walked away to bother some other poor suckers! That was a good days walk and adventure even with the exhausting heat and once again we were quite happy to be back to our apartment for an evening of R&R. We were in bed early by our standards most evenings. I think it was usually about 9pm when we hit the hay! All that walking sure did make for sound sleeping!

That’s about as much as I have for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to writing the final chapter of this story next week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>
Is pizza the same here in Canada as it is in Italy?
    
7 FACTS ABOUT THE SPANISH STEPS
With its irregular butterfly design, the beautiful “Scalina Spagna”, or Spanish Steps are just one of these must see places when in Rome and a great example of Roman Baroque Style. It’s a great place to just sit down and enjoy the atmosphere and views of the Eternal City. The steps are a wide irregular gathering place consisted of 138 steps placed in a mix of curves, straight flights, vistas and terraces. They connect the lower Piazza di Spagna with the upper piazza Trinita dei Monti, with its beautiful twin tower church dominating the skyline.
7 FACTS ABOUT THE SPANISH STEPS:
1     The Spanish steps were built in 1723-1725 by a design of the rather little known architect Francesco de Sanctis and were financed by French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed. It was built in order to link the the Trinità dei Monti church that was under the patronage of the king of France, with the Spanish square below. The long, triangular Spanish square is named after the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See. In the 17th century, the area around the embassy was even considered Spanish territory. The idea of connecting the church with the square below originates from the 17th century, when the French also planned a statue of King Louis XIV of France at the top of the staircase. This plan was never executed, due to the refusal of the Pope.
2     The Spanish steps unique design and elegance has made it a popular place for artists, painters and poets who were attracted to the place which inspired them in return. The artist’s presence attracted many beautiful women to the area, hoping to taken as models. This in turn, attracted rich Romans and travelers. After a short time, the steps were crowded with people of all kinds of backgrounds. This tradition, of the Spanish Steps as a meeting place, has lived on ever since.

The Spanish Steps are the widest stairway in Europe

3     At the lower end of the stairs you can find an early baroque fountain called Fontana della Barcaccia, or “Fountain of the Old Boat”. It is credited Pietro Bernini; a member of the renowned artist family Bernini and father of famous Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The fountain has the form of a sinking ship and it is said to be based upon a folk legend. The legend tells that a fishing boat was carried all the way to this exact spot during a massive flood of the Tiber River in the 16th century. The design with the sinking boat also helped Bernini to overcome a technical problem, due to low water pressure.
4     On the 13th June, 2007, a drunken young man attempted to drive a Toyota Celica down the Spanish Steps. Luckily no one was hurt, but several of the 200-year-old steps were chipped and scuffed. The driver was arrested.
5     At the corner on the right as one begins to climb the steps, is the house where English poet John Keats lived and died in 1821; it is now a museum dedicated to his memory, full of memorabilia of the English Romantic generation.
6     On the 20th March, 1986, the first McDonalds restaurant in Italy was opened near the Spanish Steps. Protests there against fast food led to Carlo Petrini founding the international Slow Food movement three years later.
7     So many tourists sit on these steps every day that it is difficult to climb them.

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Have a good one..
the doug
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