By Sandra Elzie

If you’re just joining us on this month’s visits to Italy, Turkey… and now Greece,  I hope you’ll take a few minutes to click on the link to read the first two articles.  Wouldn’t want you to miss anything!

Like most of Europe, Athens, Greece is rich in history that dates back centuries.  In fact, Athens has been one of the most important and influential cities of that part of the world.   Athens became the capital of Greece in 1834, growing from approximately 6,000 residents at that time to the 4.5 million today.

In the 8^th century BC Athens was considered the artistic center of Greece…reaching it’s peak in the 5^th century BC during an era known as the Golden Age.  During this period, huge strides were made in literature, architecture, math, philosophy, medicine, and, in fact, all sciences of that time.  You’ll recognize many of the distinguished men from this area…Sophocles, Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato & Aristotle….just to name a few.

In the 2nd century BC, Greece was conquered by the Romans…and eventually the Byzantine Empire and centuries later by the Turks.  The Greek War of Independence  (1821 – 1829) prepared Greece for their rightful independence established in 1834.

Our tour included lunch where we had the opportunity to try some local fare.  There was Taramasalata…which is a dip made from fish roe…and which (shudder) I passed on;  Melitsanosalata which is made from smoked eggplant and is quite delicious; and Tzatziki which is a yogurt-type dip made with cucumbers and garlic that we spread on bread.  I enjoyed it, but hubby scrunched up his nose.  I think he preferred the fish eggs.   A lot of the small eating shops served pita bread stuffed with grilled lamb, tomatoes and onions, but I also passed on the lamb.  I’m not too brave when it comes to local foods, I guess.  However, I never passed up an opportunity to savor the baklava (a sweet pastry filled with walnuts & honey).

Our tour took us out into the country where we got out and walked among the ruins of several cities & numerous temples.  We visited the Acropolis which is one of the great wonders of the world and consists of four ancient buildings…the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike & the Erechtheion and the Propylaea.  The Acropolis was built during the 5^th century BC.

I found the Parthenon fascinating.  They are in the process of reconstructing the huge columns by painstakingly fitting together broken pieces of the columns and making pieces to fill in spots where the missing piece is too crumbled to use.  It’s like putting together a huge, huge puzzle.  If you look closely, you can see some scaffolding behind the mounted charts of the project AND if you look closer, you can see the columns…with what looks like white patches.  The white patches are the pieces they had to cut out of stone to fit the space on the column where the original column piece was too badly damaged.

The architecture of the Parthenon was obviously magnificent as depicted in one well-preserved structure circled by statues of their gods. 

The site…perched on top of the hill overlooking the valley, gives it a spectacular view of the surrounding area.

When the tour was over and we returned to the ship, it was to sail back to Italy where our trip would end and we’d fly home.  But that evening, during dinner, we were blessed with a beautiful view of a setting sun that captured the essence of our trip and bid us farewell…or adio, as they say in Greece.  

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Sandra loves to hear from her readers, so drop by her website and visit.  Read more about her and what’s coming in the near future at:

www.SandraElzie.com   

Sandra’s first print book, The Diplomatic Tutor,  is now available from Kindle e-books.

 She also writes as Sandra McGregor and you can view the selection at Amazon e-books.

By:  Sandra Elzie

I hope you were with us last weekend when we briefly visited Rome, Italy, but if not, you might want to take a couple of minutes and check out last week’s article.  This week I thought I’d start by telling you just a bit about our ship before we set sail for Naples, Italy.

Royal Caribbean’s Marnier Of The Sea is a self-contained city on the waves where you can eat 24/7, be entertained, gamble in the casino, be pampered at a spa, sweat in the gym or on a rock-climbing wall …..or relax by the pool with a cool umbrella drink & a good book.  (And that’s just the beginning.) 

If you’ve never been on a Royal Caribbean ship…or never cruised, I suggest you click on the link and view the short video of what they have to offer…and what you’re missing.

We ported in Naples (Capri), Italy to a sunny morning that promised us a great day of sightseeing.  Naples is the third largest city in Italy and we were anxious to get off and see the town.  We also visited Sorrento, Italy where we spent much of our time walking along the narrow streets and shopping. 

Then we boarded a tour bus for an unforgettable day touring the Amalfi Coast…and I must say, it was the highlight of the trip for me.  It didn’t take long to realize that the road along the coast was, at best, only a foot or two wider than two tour buses passing each other.  In fact, there were some curves in the road where the bus coming down the hill would wait for the one going up to pass before proceeding.  In short, two buses were unable to pass each other along the narrowed sections.  In other areas the buses would move their mirrors in so they could pass without incident.  To say the ride was harrowing is an understatement…in my opinion.  But the beauty of the coast was worth every breath-held moment.

We stopped at a quaint little restaurant that clutched onto the side of the hill overlooking the ocean hundreds of feet below.  Wine was automatically served on each table and the food was traditional Italian….rich with tomatoes & spices and utterly delicious.  We almost hated to leave and get back on the bus, but the scenery in the bus wasn’t bad either.  Below is a picture of the inside of our tour bus…but the tour guide stepped right into  the middle of my shot!   

Then back to the ship…..see it anchored out there between the two palm trees????

What did we do most on the ship?  Yep, you might have guessed…..eat.

For breakfast there was a choice of the dining room and ordering from a menu, or our favorite …going to the HUGE buffet where we served ourselves, but could pick a seat near a window and look out over the sea.  Lunch, if we were on the ship, was either the buffet with probably 20 – 30 choices of entree & at least that many sides, or an even more casual meal of pizza or a hamburger or hotdog at the grill by the pool.  Oh, and don’t forget the serve-yourself frozen yogurt machine where we got cones up until nine o’clock each night.   (Honest, I don’t think I missed a day without ice cream at least once.

But our favorite meal was dinner.  This was a time to visit with the people at our table who became friends over the two weeks. (We remain in touch with them). 

There was the wonderful couple we went on the trip with, a lovely couple from Canada and two ladies from Texas who were more fun than you will ever know. We’d each share what we’d done that day and sometimes even share our food.  Desserts were occasionally passed around so each one could take a spoonful and try something new & delicious.  My husband and the two other men love shrimp so on the first evening they requested Shrimp Cocktails.  And, although it wasn’t on the menu, our waiter brought them.  Then the second evening they did the same and after that our waiter just brought the Shrimp Cocktails without the guys having to ask.  The crew sought to serve us in any way…and in every way possible.

The next day that we went ashore was in Ephesus, Turkey.  The city was once the site of a great civilization and home to the Temple of Artemis: one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  It was established by the Ionians in the 11^th century BC, but later conquered by Rome’s Alexander the Great.  At one time it was the leading seaport in Asia Minor & thrived through a succession of rulers.

Today a lot of the old temples and once-grand structures are in ruins, including the Grand Theater where the apostle Paul once preached.  Only a few columns remain from the Temple of Artemis.

Everywhere we went there was shopping, shopping and more shopping.  We were told that tourism is the biggest industry for most of the cities. 

We wandered through narrow streets with tiny shops crammed full of treasures just waiting to sell you anything you wanted…and if it was too big, bulky or breakable, they were willing to ship it home for you.

At the end of the tour, we were taken to a shop where we watched a master weaver hand-making Turkish rugs.       

It was fascinating to watch how fast her fingers moved.

I know this has been only a peek at these two stops…and I apologize….but there’s just too much to see, too much to tell and with more than 2,000 pictures in our albums, it was difficult to choose which ones to share.     Next week we’ll visit Athens, Greece, so I hope you’ll come back to join us.  See you then!

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Sandra loves to hear from her readers, so drop by her website and visit.  Read more about her and what’s coming in the near future at:

www.SandraElzie.com   

Sandra’s first print book, The Diplomatic Tutor,  is now available from Kindle e-books.

 She also writes as Sandra McGregor and you can view the selection at Amazon e-books.

I’m a connoisseur of a number of things. James Bond movies, hats, castles, romance novels, chick flicks, Afternoon tea, reading on the beach at sunset, Rolls Royces, good looking men, boats, Auburn football and naps.

Yes, you read that correctly. Naps. I’m a big fan of a nap. I believe in it. There is no better sleep than that gotten at two o’clock in the afternoon. During the past year, I’ve not substitute taught as much as usual and I’ve had more changes for afternoon nap.

While my children were still small enough to take afternoon naps I did also. As they grew, I still continued to have them take afternoon “down time.” They didn’t like me calling it a nap when they reached elementary school age. I would read to them and then we would all go down for a nap. When the youngest was smaller, he had to make hospitals visits that required us to leave at 5:45 in the morning. We often didn’t make it home until late in the afternoon. He would crawl into bed and curl up next to me to take a nap. We still do take a nap after our visits but at twenty three he chooses the couch and I, my bed.

Naps are my way of renewing myself to prepare for the evening. I’m a much happier and kinder wife to my husband after I’ve had a nap. A friend of mine once told me that he knew his wife was sick because she took a nap. My husband would know I was sick if I didn’t take a nap!

Other countries do it right went it comes to naps. They call it a siesta only because it sounds more sophisticated than a nap but it’s the same thing. A siesta is serious business and not taken lightly. Years ago my children and I were in Brindisi, Italy. We were waiting on the afternoon train to Rome so we had to hang around town most of the day. There is a beautiful fountain in the middle of the main street of Brindisi. As we walked by it my daughter commented, “I bet they turn that off during siesta.” Most of the stores closed during siesta and we had no place to nap so we window shopped. We went by fountain again and sure enough it was running. Later after the siesta, the fountain was flowing at full force. We had a good laugh. Even a fountain needs a nap.

Do you like a nap? Are you a connoisseur of something? Do tell.

Welcome to Rome, Italy

WithCara Marsi, from Wilmington, Delaware, but with roots in Italy, and a deep love of Rome, especially Ancient Rome. Thank you for having me here to talk about my latest release, a romantic suspense novella,Murder, Mi Amore, from The Wild Rose Press.

Who is Cara Marsi?

I’m a former corporate drone and cubicle dweller who always dreamed of being an author. I crave happy endings and love strong heroines and the strong heroes they love. Once I started seriously writing romance, it took ten long years of hard work and rejections before I realized my dream of being a published author. I sold my first book, A Catered Affair, written under the name Carolyn Matkowsky, to Avalon Books. I soon discovered I loved writing romantic suspense and wrote Logan’s Redemption, published by The Wild Rose Press in 2007. My latest romantic suspense, Murder, Mi Amore, is set almost entirely in Rome, Italy. In addition to my novels, I also write short romance stories for the confession magazines–True Romance, True Love, True Experience and True Story. I’ve gotten the rights back for Logan’s Redemption, and it’s available now exclusively on Amazon Kindle.

How would you describe the general population of this city in fifteen words or less? 

Friendly, stylish, sexy, and most of the inhabitants speak English.

More…

Rome, Italy, is everything you’ve ever read, and more. Crowded, vibrant, bustling. The art and history will take your breath. Imagine visiting the Coliseum and touching the same walls that Roman citizens touched 2000 years ago! The city is very international and most natives speak English so you don’t have to know Italian to get around. The food is the most amazing I’ve ever eaten. Pizza, gnocchi, pasta, gelato, and wine, lots of wine. Motor scooters are ubiquitous and you need to watch out for them.

Why did you pick this location to write about? 

I’ve visited Italy twice. The first time when I was twenty. No, I won’t say what year that was. I went with my family. The last time I visited was 2006. My husband and I traveled alone to Rome, then after a few days of touring the city, we took the train to the province of Abruzzo and met up with a tour led by my Australian cousin, Luciana. Her tour company, Absolutely Abruzzo, specializes in trips to Abruzzo, where our grandparents came from. There’s a chapter in Murder, Mi Amore set in Ripa Teatina, the small town where our grandparents were raised.

“Local” restaurants and anything interesting about them

There are so many great restaurants in Rome, I couldn’t possibly name all the ones where we ate. But they were all good. I loved the outdoor cafes. In some, the tables were set up close to narrow streets with scooters and cars zipping by. It made for some interesting eating experiences. And there are the gelato shops dotted all over the city.

Gelato is Italian ice cream, but more delicious than any ice cream anywhere. So many gelatos, so few time to sample them all. But my husband and I did our part, eating three and four servings of gelato a day. It’s a good thing we walked all around Rome and burned off those calories.

The best meals I had were the special meals and wine my cousin arranged on our tour of Abruzzo.  Every meal was heaven. The one that stands out the most is the saffron gnocchi with fresh-shaved truffle made of all organic ingredients grown on the farm where we ate it. I will never again eat gnocchi because no gnocchi anywhere can ever be as good.

A hot local topic  

When we were there, the World Cup dominated everything. Some bars even set up TV’s outside and people brought chairs and sat outside and watched the games. The only English language TV station we could get was CNN International from the UK. It was all David Beckham, all the time. I overdosed on Beckham, but I’m not complaining. He’s a hunk.

After Italy won a game with, I think, Mexico, there was an impromptu parade down the Via Corsi in Rome. Scooters were decked out in the colors of the Italian team and people were carrying the Italian flag. During our Abruzzo visit, my husband and I stayed overnight with some relatives. They didn’t speak English and we don’t speak Italian. But my husband and cousin Rocco bonded over watching a World Cup game together. When we got back to the US, we continued to watch the World Cup on TV.

What is this city known for that is not stereotypical?

All the motor scooters. You really had to be very careful when crossing the streets. I especially loved seeing the women in their flowing skirts and stilettos wearing helmets and driving their scooters. I made sure to put scooters in my story.

Five famous people from this location

Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Augustus Caesar, Cicero, Nero. (I love Ancient Rome and read anything I can about it, fiction and non-fiction)

Something that might interest the Petit Fours type readers.

Trevi Fountain. When you see pictures of this iconic fountain that figures prominently in my story, it looks as if Trevi is in the middle of a wide street. Not so. It’s tucked at the end of a very narrow and busy street.

Something that would catch the attention of a Hot Tamale.

The sexy men. They have an easy, elegant style that exudes charm and sex.

What does the city smell like?  Or areas of the city?

Food, and more food. Tomatoes, basil, garlic, sweet gelato. And exhaust fumes from all the scooters.

Are there any parks or walking/running trails that are popular?

The Ancient Roman Forum, almost as popular and crowded now as two thousand years ago. The ruins are beautiful and breathtaking and will send you back in time.

Are there any rivers that have an impact on splitting up the socio-economic or ethnic communities?

The magnificent and ancient Tiber River runs through the city.

What are the local sports teams and what is the current popular view of them?

Soccer, soccer and more soccer. Italians, like most Europeans, are obsessed with soccer.

If there was one must see, can’t miss thing you would recommend to someone new to the city, what would that be?

The Coliseum. I ran my fingers over the ancient stone walls and felt a connection to all the Romans in the ancient world who’d touched the same places. There’s a lot of sadness in the Coliseum. The horrors of the hundreds of thousands of animals and humans slaughtered for sport hover over the arena. Our world is tame in comparison, very tame.

Thanks again to the hot tamales for having me.

Want to read more about Cara?  Check her out at the following links.

My site: www.caramarsi.com where you can read an article about finding my history and see a few more pictures from my trip to Italy.

www.thewildrosepress.com

http://www.thewildrosepress.com/murder-mi-amore-p-4345.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/CarolynMat2 (my video for Murder, Mi Amore)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040JI3PG (for my Kindle book, Logan’s Redemption)

Also my cousin Luciana’s tour site: www.absolutelyabruzzo.com/

MURDER, MI AMORE by Cara Marsi