31 May and 1 June

31 May and 1 June

Our last day on the road with Insight.  I think both Roger and I are ready to be on our own for a while, as oppose to traveling with 37 other people.  Our last stop was in Tivoli, which is a Renaissance town built in the 1400s.  There's a villa in the old part of town that took 25 years to build completing in 1527.  The owner was a Cardinal/Pope, which came from a very influential family.  Apparently being a Cardinal was a well paying job, as the villa was extremely ornate and has a unique use of hydrostatic water pressure to create over 500 fountains.  The inside of the villa there were several frescos that used the style of Michelangelo.  There was one ceiling that had a very good optical illusion of pillars that changed angles depending on viewing angle.  It was raining, so the outside fountains were turned off because the water comes from the top of the mountain and there was a chance of debris that could clog the works.  I guess over the last 500 years or so, they've figured this out.  The fountains don't work inside the villa.  The gardens outside the villa are considered on of the top ten best gardens in the world according to our local guide.  Mediterranean style gardens use fountains and lush green bushes, as oppose to flower gardens typical of the English garden.  The Aussies and Kiwis in our group were commenting on the lack of flowers.  The rain slacked off and fortunately on our way out the fountains were turned back on.  It takes a while for the pressure to build up, so they weren't spectacular but our guide Guiseppie made sure we saw pictures of the most beautiful fountain garden in the world.  The villa is now an UNESCO site.  Italy has the most UNESCO sites in the world, or so we've been told.

Last night we had our farewell banquet.   I am not a huge fan of anti pasta, which regularly has been thinly slice prosciutto, two different types of salami and a small piece of bruschetta.  To me, there's a lot of fat on the plate, but according to Mario that is what gives the meat it's flavor.  Of course we had pasta, one in a olive oil sauce and one in a red sauce.  Both were tasty.  Next came the main course, I had eggplant parmesan which was good.  Roger had beef and potato that he said was surprisingly good.  Desert was some sort of flat cinnamon breaded thing or a flat berry filled thing.  It was sweet, but nothing noteworthy.  (I had some biscotti at one of the cafes and it still tastes to me like sweet dry pound cake with almonds.)

1 June
Travel day to Athens, flight is scheduled to depart at 15:55.  This morning we walked down to the Postal to mail an envelop to the USA.  We got their prior to the office opening at 8:20, which was the posted opening time.  Being the first  of the month, there were over 20 senior citizens in front of us and probably over 50 people waiting for it to open.  There was a verbal altercation between an elderly lady with a cane and a man with a collapsable umbrella with a wood hook handle.  There was some waving of both and a lot of raised verbal voices,  which lead us to ponder which wins, a cane or an umbrella if waged against each other in a senior battle?  This entertainment lasted no more than a minute or two, with a younger peacekeeper stepping in to calm them down.

When the Postal opened, you enter and get a ticket which establishes which window you go to and your turn at the window, sort of like the DMV but with 4 different windows possiblities.  Fortunately , all we wanted to do was mail an envelop, so our ticket was P01, 15 so  no wait time.  Our envelop was weighed just like the USA, and after we paid our e7.50 we left the Postal.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes to arrive in the USA.  We were very surprised the Postal was opened on Saturday, yet again evidence that Italy is definitely now part of Western Europe.  The Postal closes at 1235.  We thought the operating hours rather odd, but it seemed to work for opening.

We got to the airport no problem and our flight was uneventful, in fact we arrived 15 minutes early only to have to wait 15 minutes for a gate to become available.  Easyjet doesn't even serve free soft drinks, the minimum charge is e3 for a soda.  It got us to Athens.  We took the metro from the airport to the city center.  Fortunately Athens has become tourist friendly and all the signs are in Greek and Englsih