Italy - On the road again - February 1969

Heading North towards the Alps

Snow... snow and more snow. Cold... cold and more cold!

Driving conditions were becoming difficult...  somewhere around here in Northern Italy a girl driving a TR4 up hill ran into us coming down the hill, while it was snowing.  One of our mudguards suffered a little damage but her car came off the worst.  Her car was still drivable and she begged us not to report the accident... We did wonder what was going on but it was snowing so we parted company and didn't report the accident!

Italy - Milan - The Last Supper - February 1969

 We are the only ones here checking out Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper' which was painted between 1595-1498.

In 1969 it was rather sad looking, I remember we weren't overwhelmed but restoration took place over 21 years, 10 years after we were there so maybe it looks a lot better now.   If you want to see this painting nowadays you have to buy tickets online at 30 Euros (A$36) each and book a time as well with warnings of not being late.  At the time I wrote this there are vacancies on the 20th, 21st of August but hurry they seem to be selling fast.   Wow... weren't we lucky.

 Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie on Corso Magenta, Milan.

Italy - Milan - February 1969

Pigeons and Cathedrals can be found in all big Eurpoean Cities but this beautiful one is in Milano Duomo.

Milano, Il Duomo. This is an Anonymous etching, colorized found on Wiki.

 

Old Tram on Corso Magenta, below today from Google Maps with a trolley bus to the right.

And for David... below from Wiki.

Strikers in Milan - Workers and Students strike.  When I was flying from Australia to London we were supposed to stop over in Paris but there were Strikes going on there so I guess it was happening in other countries as well.  Here are some more photos I found.

Italy - Assisi - Narni - Florence - February 1969

 

Assisi.

 

Today from Google...look at that pollution in the distance... yuck!

River Tiber at Narni.

 

Ponte Vecchio, Firenze.

I didn't see much of Florence, we parked Tabitha in a backstreet, pulled the curtains and I slept and slept because some horrible bug had caught up with me.  David in the meantime spent the time exploring but this is the only photo he took.    To be quite honest, I think we were getting tired, we'd been on the road now for 5 weeks.

Overnight snow at our camp... It certainly snowed.  The Futa Pass was closed because of the weather so we were stuck here, nice and cosy inside Tabitha but trying to get out of the cab in the morning was hard because of all the piled up snow on the running boards... took a lot of pushing and shoving and eventually two pairs of feet to push the snow off and allow us to open the door and get out.  

Doing a wee in snow like this is fine for fellas but for me it was seriously wet wet wet :-)

Italy - Pantheon - February 1969

Bernini's elephant statue outside the Minerva Church, just behind the Pantheon.  No cars allowed now days I see which has to be good.

 

The Pantheon.

Italy - Trevi Fountain - February 1969

The 1954 movie 'Three Coins in the Fountain' made the Trevi Fountain popular for tourists but you can see in these photos that we are the only people around other than those two boys who have magnets on string and are fishing for the coins, a policeman came by and shooed them off but they were back not long after.  A few years ago I read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about a couple of lads now grown up talking of their youth and fishing for coins... I wonder if those two men were these two boys!  I've searched for that article but can't find it.

Just look at the Trevi Fountain today! 

 

Italy - Rome - February 1969

 

Our first sight of the Collosseo.  Only difference today, below,  are the souvenir stalls and the hoards of tourists.  The Eternal City is indeed incredible and very beautiful, the history, the people, the food... the whole buzz was amazing.   Although I remember some weird things as well... car parking... here there and everywhere double park, front in, back in, sideways, on footpaths, half up and half down... just anywhere at all, it didn't seem to matter, I have no idea if there were any parking police.  Also car horns!  Oh my goodness the noise!  And one other thing...  ladies didn't shave their legs which did look a little different to the clean shaved mini skirted young girls in other big cities.

And inside...

Foro Traiano Trojan's Column

I have Googled and Searched for this same spot but cannot find it anywhere... unlike the Apollo in Nice he couldn't have been removed because of his nakedness because he simply isn't naked, but where is he?  Maybe he's gone out of favour or something.

POSTSCRIPT

Thanks to Daphne and Dy and Di (after I asked for help on one of my other Blogs) my Caesari has been found, see below.  There are so many statues of Caesar in Rome that are similar but not quite the same.    Hurray... Internet friends are fantastic!

And for some of David's friends... an old Roman Tram!  Long gone.

Italy - Cerveteri, Etruscan Necropolis - January 1969

 We found this Etruscan Necropolis on our way to Rome, there was nobody around, no fences, no entry charge, no nothing so we were able to wander around with the feeling that we'd just stepped back a couple of thousands of years and everyone was out working or something.   Amazing place and even more amazing now that I've looked up Wiki, see bottom of this post.

 The below two photos are from Google Maps, I'd forgotten how enormous the site was, or maybe we didn't see it all back then.

From Wiki - Necropolis of the Banditaccia

The most famous attraction of Cerveteri is the Necropoli della Banditaccia, which has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site together with the necropoleis in Tarquinia. It covers an area of 400 ha, of which 10 ha can be visited, encompassing a total of 1,000 tombs often housed in characteristic mounds. It is the largest ancient necropolis in the Mediterranean area. The name Banditaccia comes from the leasing (bando) of areas of land to the Cerveteri population by the local landowners.
The tombs date from the 9th century BC (Villanovan culture) to the late Etruscan age (3rd century BC). The most ancient ones are in the shape of a pit, in which the ashes of the dead were housed; also simple potholes are present.

Italy - Pisa - January 1969

 Pisa Cathedral Square - we thought there were a lot of tourists around here, more than we'd seen in a lot of other places but look Tabitha has a very comfortable parking spot right beside the Piazza del Duomo.

 Climbing up... look mum no safety rails...

When our oldest daughter Nerys was in Pisa in the 1990's she was very disappointed to discover the tower closed, she had grown up with this above photo on the wall of our dining room and was looking forward to climbing up just like her parents had all those years ago. 

 Further up... We clanged one of these bells so I believe, if you read what David wrote in a postcard to family, that sounds naughty.

 We made it to the top... how spectacular is this eh!

Basilica, Pisa.

Look at all these little ants below... and we thought there were heaps of tourists about when we were there in 1969!  The road that Tabitha is parked on in the first photo above is now closed to traffic.

Italy - La Spezia - January 1969

 Above La Spezia in Italy.

Lots of little Fiat's in the streets of La Spezia... looking down to the Harbour on Via Settembre.

Gosh, what beautiful buildings and check out that Palm tree on the left, still there and a fair bit taller. Cars are different though.