Rome

Rome - of course the place to start our Italian sojourn. Our hotel is Hotel Castelfidardo, in Via Castelfidardo, and is relatively close to the main train station.  As we have arrived quite late, we drop to sleep and leave exploration until the next morning. 

For almost the first time in our holiday, we don't have breakfast included in our tariff, which is a really good thing because we can indulge in the traditional Italian breakfast of cappuccino and cornetto. Only we are a bit late getting to it so have biscuits instead. There is no bad coffee in Italy!  

There is so much to see in Rome that the problem really is where to start. Our choice is the Vatican. It is raining, but not heavily, and nothing to stop a determined tourist. It turns out that there are plenty of them about as well as us, although once again, I am pleased that we are not travelling in the high season. All these wonderful places we are seeing, and have been able to see throughout our travels, could not possibly survive in our memories as the beautiful experiences we have had if they were tainted by the additional experience of crowds of people. Even here in Rome in the off-season there are enough tourists that the phenomenon is immediately apparent, that the human being who as an individual is perfectly well behaved will, as soon as it becomes part of a group, drop all responsibility for this good behaviour and become just another ill-mannered member of an ill-mannered group.  No consideration or respect for anybody else outside the group, and not much either for those inside the group. So glad not to be here in June. 

Anyway, we make our way to the Vatican using the map that the hotel has provided us, which results in a very roundabout trip via the Bambino Gesu Hospital and the statue of Anita Garibaldi. This is a great thing. The statue is magnificent - a woman in 19th century dress, side saddle and long full skirts and all, on a rearing horse, cradling an infant in one arm and brandishing a pistol with the other hand.  She probably went home after the battle and cooked the evening meal for three hundred revolutionaries before doing their washing. And nobody ever hears about her!  With a woman like that behind him, Mr Garibaldi was never going to be defeated. 

There is nothing I can say about the Vatican and St Peter's that hasn't been said before, and better than I could, so I won't try. It was as magnificent as last time we came, and Joseph loved it. The building itself is extraordinary, and the artwork inside is superb.  We try to show Joseph Michelangelo's Pieta, but there is a pack of people in front of it so that it was difficult to get close enough. We were happy to find our old friends Snoozy Pope and Scuba Pope, still resident.  I'm struck again by the funereal monuments to the dead popes. Since our last visit, John Paul II has joined them, and his memorial is almost a shrine, and there are many people kneeling in prayer in front of it. These are all works of art, and some of them really impressive, but it's hard with most of them to see them as any kind of remembrance or indication of a Christian life or faith, rather than post-mortem self-aggrandisement.  Maybe the Vatican really is best compared to a multinational corporation, including the typical CEO and his accompanying ego and flunkies. Maybe it's necessary for the religion too, but it's difficult to reconcile with what Christ was about. 

Our stay in Rome is wonderful, even though it rains every day. The Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, the statues, the churches, and my favourite, the Pantheon, all impress. As well as these, the scattered pieces of ruins that have been left where they last stood, and now incorporated into new buildings. We visit the Trevi Fountain and throw in our coins, just to be sure we return some time. 

Ephesus and Istanbul, and goodbye Turkey

Selchuk, 22 March

Bus from Pamukkale, stopping at Selchuk for a dolmus to Ephesus. As with Pamukkale, best to view images on google, as we can't possibly do this place justice with our description.  These are supposed to be the most intact and complete Roman ruins in Europe, and they certainly are impressive.  It's  a Saturday, so we encounter quite a few Turkish tourists, as well as busloads of foreign tourists. This is not too much of a problem though, and we are told by a worker there that the visitor numbers more than treble today's in the high season.  Well worth the visit. 

Back to Selchuk where it is market day. We spend a little time wandering around before catching another overnight bus back to Istanbul. 

Istanbul 23 and 24 March

We arrive quite early in the morning, so dump our bags at our new hotel (once we find it) and head out. It's quite a relaxed day, wandering around. We head over the bridge to the Beyoglu area. In the afternoon, we attend a whirling dervish ceremony.  I understand the religious information behind this, but it still appears a bizarre way to express your faith. What is really impressive is their ability to whirl for so long without falling over - they go for ages!  

We also experience Turkish bagpipes and the Turkish bagpipe player. Not so different from the Scottish version really, but no kilts involved. 

Next morning, we head to the bazaar for a last visit, before making our way to the airport for our flight to Rome. Goodbye Turkey, it's been great!

Pamukkale - 21 March

We arrive, book in to our hotel, and head straight for the travertines. It's not possible to adequately describe these terraces of calcium-formed pools, so I recommend you google for pictures of them. I did that before we left, and we were all really looking forward to this visit. As you'll see from the pictures, this is an amazing natural formation, and one of our hoped for highlights was soaking in the pools. So naturally, we were very disappointed to find that access to most of the pools is barred and apparently has been for 17 years. This is not well known, and not even LP mentioned it. We struggled manfully on, heading up the travertines and enjoying them as much as we could. 

At the top are the ruins of a place called Hierapolis, a Roman city. The ruins are in good condition, and include a well preserved theatre.  The city is on the top of a hill, and the views of the surrounds are spectacular. We wandered around for a while, then headed for the theatre. When we were almost there, we heard singing coming from there. It was beautiful - opera, which sounded Italian, and it carried clearly to where we were. We hastened to try to hear some more from inside the theatre but it had stopped by the time we got there.  As we entered, who should we see but Geoff and Mei, our friends from Goreme. It was lovely to see them again, and it turns out that it was Mei who was singing. 

After we finish at the theatre, we have seen all of the ruins that we want to, so we head to Cleopatra's pool. This pool is fed by the natural springs, and is 36 degrees. It has been there since Hierapolis was in existence, and while it has obviously been updated, the pool still contains ruins - chunks and fragments of columns and buildings.  We eventually spend a couple of hours in the pool, despite David's concerns about it being a soup of germs, given its lovely warmth. 

Kizkalisi - 18 and 19 March

The smoothest of starts to our day.  Up early, off to the Otogar, booked tickets on a 7.15 am bus to Mersin, from there on to a dolmus to Kizkalisi almost without a break. As a result, we were in Kizkalisi by about 12.30, with half the day still ahead of us.  And there our run of luck ended.  We sought directions to our hotel, Hotel Baris, and followed the directions we were given, further and further away from the centre of town.  The further we went, the more rundown and rubbish strewn the streets became.  When we arrived at our hotel, the lobby stank of cigarette smoke. Nobody in attendance could speak English, and although we were happy to make do, as we have been doing elsewhere, with the few phrases we have through the LP book and universal hand gestures, they insisted that we wait while they rustled up their resident English speaker, who arrived looking like she had just got out of bed.  We got the formalities sorted, then were taken upstairs to our room, ascertaining from the gestures of the hotel employee that we had been given a room furthest away from the noise of the music that would be playing downstairs at night (which has just started up - it might be a long night).  The wi fi doesn't work, there is no hot water, one light globe of the four in the room works, and the walls are bright buttercup yellow, possibly the result of decades of Turkish dedication to tobacco. If I hadn't given my credit card details when we booked, we might have abandoned ship and gone somewhere else.   This place outdoes the night before for worst hotel. 

Anyway, travel is made up of things like this, so this becomes just another experience to be made the best of.  We went back into town and wandered around a bit. We are on the Mediterranean Coast in an area that is littered with ruins. It may be easy to become blasé about these things but we are enthralled. Despite the beautifully mild weather it is still low season so there are few tourists and many hotels are still closed. 

Kiskalisi has two Byzantine-era ruins of castles, Corycus on the rocky foreshore, the other, Kizkalesi, about 300m offshore and a few hundred metres away. It is almost surreal and if it were not for the fact that these are archaeological sites one could think it was a garish Las Vegas-style parody. Today was a lovely warm day, but by the time we got to swimming it was late and starting to cool down, so although we did dip in the Mediterranean (a first for Joseph) we have postponed the swim to the Kizkalesi castle until tomorrow.  We have also booked into a different hotel tomorrow night, and we are looking forward to a much more restful time of it. 

Next morning after breakfast, which despite being served on tablecloths littered with cigarette burns, is not too bad, we get the hell out of Dodge and make a beeline for our new hotel. Hotel Yaka is dated, but clean and welcoming, and appears to have been one of the premier hotels in Kizkalisi in its time.  That time is long gone, and now there are several apartment hotel buildings between Hotel Yaka and the beach, where before it probably enjoyed uninterrupted beachfront and sea views.  The owner is part of the overall faded grandeur, speaking a variety of languages and using formal, courtly English. It all adds to the appeal of the place. Yaka stands out for being tidy, clean and maintained. It is still well short of the high holiday season, and the streets and buildings all around are dirty, filled with rubbish and in some cases almost derelict. Signs of preparation are around, with repair and extension work being done on many of the empty hotels, but all the same some time between now and the opening of the season, there is going to be an absolute frenzy of cleaning if this town is going to look presentable.

Our first stop is the Chasm of Heaven and the Pit of Hell. These two geographic features are a few kilometres north of Kizkalesi.  The story of the Pit of Hell is that it is the place where Zeus imprisoned Typhon after defeating him.  This is impressive to look at, but that is all you can do, from a viewpoint at the top. 

To the Chasm of Heaven.  It is quite a deep gorge, leading to a cave. The descent and subsequent ascent are a little like the 1,000 steps. At the bottom is a Byzantine chapel, and the cave itself, which is pretty impressive. As we climb out, we hear what sounds like hundreds of people, but it turns out to be only a busloads of Syrians on tour.  They are certainly loud all on their own, but this is amplified hugely by the deep chasm.

As well as Heaven and Hell, there is another cave called the Asthma Cave. It's not so well known, and has this name because apparently it relieves asthma in those afflicted, because of its moisture. I can't speak for that aspect of it, but this cave was beautiful way beyond anything its name or what we read about it suggested. Stalactites and stalagmites both, sometimes meeting, and sometimes in different colours. Some had broken off, showing the quartz formation of the stalactite. All of it was just so beautiful, and we were the only ones there. 

From there, we went back down the coast by dolmus (a sort of public minibus) to be dropped off at the turnoff for Kanlidivane. After a three kilometre walk uphill in the hot sun, we got to the ruins of Kanlidivane.  Like Heaven and Hell, this is a blend of Greek, Roman and Byzantine ruins. They are crumbling now, but still fascinating to walk through. We are again the only people visiting. The ruins are set around a huge natural pit, and the story is that criminals were thrown into the pit to the wild animals there. We spend some time wandering around - it is just incredible. There is an olive tree that must be at least a thousand years old. Its trunk is split (as they tend to as the tree ages) and it is so wide that Joseph is able to seat himself entirely within it. We find fossilised sea shells in some of the stones that were used to build the churches. This place is so rich. 

We head back down to the main road and catch another dolmus back to Kizkalisi. The day has given us so much, but it is not over yet.  We head to the beach, and swim over to the castle. This is a 300m swim, and is the longest uninterrupted swim Joseph has ever done. The castle is still closed for the offseason and we need to get back to shore before darkness falls, so after a brief rest we head back.   Other than us, there are a few kids splashing around in the shallows, but nobody else has really taken to the water. 

To complete the day, we treat ourselves to a seafood dinner at Narlikuyu, a small town a few kilometres away. The setting is almost from a travel article in a glossy magazine - a small cove with restaurants lining its edges, lights reflected on the water, and the sea gently lapping the shore. The food was great, but easily the most expensive meal we've had in Turkey. We have come to this restaurant on the recommendation of our host at Yaka, and I expect that there is some kickback going on. All the same, it was a good meal, and a lovely end to a lovely day. 

The next day is a lazy day, and we leave Kizkalisi on the overnight bus to Pamukkale. 

Gaziantep

Gaziantep - 17 March

We had taken the overnight bus from Goreme to Gaziantep, expecting to arrive at 5 am at the Otogar (bus station). We planned to spend an hour or two working out our movements for the next few days, only for the bus to arrive an hour early. Fortunately, because Turkey has an extensive, efficient, well patronised and highly competitive bus network; the infrastructure is appropriately large, offering proper meals of good food, tea (tea, tea, always tea. The coffee is only marginally better than in Iran, which was horrid. Always choose tea). bathrooms etc. Some travellers obviously prepared for long journeys, travel with blankets and whatnot and were stretched out on the floor, We found some seats and relaxed for a couple of hours, watching a day's activity unfold. At about 6am, we succumbed to the smells from the delivery of an assortment of fresh bread and pastries.

Into the city, to our hotel, Hotel Yunus.  This one was an easy winner for worst hotel so far, but at least it was clean, and our room was ready for us even though it was only 7.30 in the morning.  LP was our guide again, and it had mentioned that Gaziantep is something of a culinary centre, so we followed the LP advice and sought beyran for breakfast.  It was fantastic - rice and shredded lamb (coated in the ubiquitous tomato paste) in broth, heated to boiling and served with warm bread. It was delicious and a perfect hearty breakfast for a cold day. 

Gaziantep's tourist information was really good, and had just about the only English speakers we encountered in the entire city. Very helpful and gave us a lot of information about the place, a population of 3 million supplemented by 200 000 Syrian refugees. This certainly makes Australia's refugee position look petty.  

There is a culinary museum here, which of course we visited. They do take their cuisine seriously here, and we spent a lot of time in the bazaar where there are so many shops selling so many different spices, and the smells of all the different spices are so seductive.  And pistachios!    This is apparently the pistachio, and sweets, capital area of Turkey. So many pistachios, so much pistachio baklava. Mountains of it are freighted daily to all parts of Turkey. Apparently the secret is terroir, the Gaziantep one for pistachios and that of the nearby Haran Valley in upper Mesopotamia for the durum wheat. But it is not just baklava, there is a cornucopia of sweets of many types. Sadly, not enough time nor spare notches in our belts to sample more than a few.  There are sweets shops every which way you look, the ones selling the ingredients with great piles of pistachios and other nuts cascading onto the footpath and towers of mysterious things, and the more restrained sellers of final product, usually the many variations of baklava. It is made daily for consumption that day or the next. 

Finally, dinner at a restaurant recommended by LP.  As with the rest of the city, practically no English was spoken, so between us and our hand signals and our waiter's patient attempts to explain, we finished up with no idea of what we had ordered other than the mutually understood Gaziantep cuisine. The result was, thankfully, a spread of typically Gaziantep dishes, and it was fantastic. A lot of it is quite different to what we have encountered elsewhere in Turkey, and very different from what you would expect from any so called Turkish food in Melbourne. This is a distinctly regional cuisine offering the most unusual foods that somehow work against the odds. Yoghurt soup anyone?