Cameos go way back in Italian culture and tradition.
Cameo is a method of carving an object. Roman cameos are carved on shells which started during the Renaissance period. Cameo subjects were either scenes of Greek or Roman mythology or portraits of rulers or important dignitaries. Many Italians treasure and cherish their cameos. They are given to wives at their wedding and at 10 and 20 year anniversaries. They are handed down from generation to generation.
We visited two cameo factories in Pompeii: Cellini and Giovanni Apa.
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| An artist diligently carving a piece. |
There is a shortage of coral and master artists, as with many traditional arts.
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| A beautiful conch shell masterpiece. |
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| Emily liked this one! |
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| Gorgeous! |
Naples has so much to see depending on your tastes: ruins, food and drink, islands. Nearby cities Sorrento and the island of Capri are also wonderful opportunities to explore in Italy. We were not able to check them out but the rest of my family did.
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| Lots of lemons in Pompeii |
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| Check out their size! |
Lemon is the key ingredient for the making of limoncello, a drink made from lemon rinds, alcohol, water and sugar.
About one hour from Naples is Sorrento, a small town in southern Italy which is famous for their limoncello! The town overlooks the Bay of Naples.
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| Mandy and Kyle and their limoncello selections. |
Cheryl, Don and their kids visited a wine cantina and farmhouse where they learned about olive oil production and handmade mozzarella cheese!
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| Mozzarella cheese sampler plate... looks delicious! |
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| An even better looking seafood pasta! Yum!! |
My brother, Hilda and my parents checked out the island of Capri.
Capri is in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula on the south side of the Gulf of Naples. It has been a resort town since the time of the Roman Republic.
There are no cars on the main port of Capri. Ferry or hydrofoils are the main transports.You can also take a tram up the mountain to see the sights.
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| Hilda riding the tram up the mountain! |
Oh Those Romans! My Last History Lesson for you...
Overall, we had a wonderful time seeing European history that we read in our textbooks come to life. You could see the Roman influence throughout all the places we had visited. The Roman Republic (starting 509 BC) was the period of the ancient Roman civilization when the government operated as a republic. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization and was characterized by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean in Europe, Africa and Asia. Because of it's vast extent and lone endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a huge and lasting influence on the language, religion, architecture, law and government in all the areas that they governed specifically in Europe.
Oh so powerful and influential.. How did they fall?
It has been said that the decline occurred over a period of four centuries culminating in the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire (WRE) in 476 AD when Roman Augustus, the last empire of the WRE was killed by Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain; along with many of its territories falling to barbarian invasions. There are many schools of thought on what supposedly attributed to their fall: loss of civic virtue among it's citizens; a weakened military; disease and plagues; lead poisoning; moral decay; and outside transformations and influences from other countries.
No matter the reason... their presence still remains and people from all over the world come to see what they built before Christ was born.
This vacation was definitely not a relaxing one! There was just so much to see in so little time. But it made me want to go back especially to France (Paris) and Italy (Venice) and visit other European countries such as England and Greece!!
Thank you, dear readers, for joining me on this long ride. I hope that as you read these posts you felt that you were right there with us and learned some European history along the way!
Now.. back to my 'regular programming'!
1 comment:
i really enjoy your travelogues! it makes ME want to visit some of those places that i hadn't given much thought to before! and you've also given your daughters an expanded/enriched view of the world and appreciation for different cultures and their history. xxoo
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