Vanzella BLOG

Tuesday, June 8th

Transit of Venus from Catania

Under clear skies we had a hot sunny day to view the Transit.

The alarm went off at 5am and Salvatore and Carmelo picked us up and drove to Lido Aurora. We met the gang and set up the equipment with all the usual hub bub (only in Italian).

Luca and Salvatore setting up (photo)
(Note the caffe - only in Italia can one do astronomy in style with an espresso to start the observing session.)

First contact was very exciting with all the yelling and exclamations. The next 20 minutes flew by to 2nd contact. Here is a 2nd contact photo showing a bit of the 'black drop effect'.

2nd Contact (photo)

So lots of talking, wading in the ocean and nearly 6 hours later, we were excited again on 3rd contact. Some people saw the ring of light around Venus as it was partially off the disk of the sun. 20 fast minutes later, we were sad to see Venus leave on 4th contact.

A few people came by to see what all the equipment was about and we showed them Venus on the Sun. Here's an example of what you could see using the completely safe method of projection.

Viewing by Projection (photo)

Overall a great day, especially with the great hospitalilty of the Catania Astronomy Club and the owner of the Lido Aurora.

Thanks to Giuseppe, Emilio, Salvatore, Saverio, Sciuto, Davide, Carmelo, Mimmo and many others for including us in their activities and for a wonderful day.

Group Shot (photo)

Next a brief stop in Rome and then home. Too bad about the Flames.

lkvanz on 06.08.04 @ 10:44 AM MST [link] [5 Comments]

Monday, June 7th

Sorrento and Pompeii and Catania

Up early and after another great cappucino and cornetto we were on the train to Napoli. Then a hot, slow, crowded 1-hour, 32-stop LRT ride we reached the resort town of Sorrento. It is your typical resort town with junk for sale everywhere. Lots of lemon and orange trees, beautiful views. In this town we ate well at La Favorite O Paruchianno (twice). Luca had the pasta con tonno twice.

Sorrento (photo)

Went to Pompeii and toured the ruins (another 2 rides on that LRT). It is much larger than we expected. Jackie, you can tell Scott the roads are on a grid system (the only one so far and the place is deserted).

Pompeii (photo)

Another early morning and an all day train ride to Catania, Sicily. The train is loaded in a ship to cross to Sicily. More ruins, old churches and old castles. The Bellini park has a street lined with these purple trees (we cannot tell if they are the flowers or actually the leaves)

Catania (photo)

Tomorrow is Transit of Venus day, we are hoping for clear skies. Our new astronomy buddies are picking us up at 5:45 am and we are heading to the beach to view the transit.

lkvanz on 06.07.04 @ 12:43 PM MST [link] [4 Comments]

Thursday, June 3rd

Rome

Arrived Tuesday around noon and checked in. Since we had the afternoon and had been advised to do the Colosseum in the morning, we headed off to St.Peter's Basillica and the Vatican. St.Peters is HUGE.

St.Peter's (photo)

Now we know where all the marble stripped from the colosseum etc is located. Toured the vatican museum where all itineraries end at the Sistine chapel. The Raphael rooms are very interesting, especially the 'School of Athens' in which Raphael depicted Greek philosophers with portraits of Rennaissance artists. The Sistine chapel has been restored and looks good. There is suppose to be silence in there but all you hear are the guards kibitzing among themselves, then shooshing the crowd, then on loud speakers, announcements in several languages telling everyone to be silent. We walked back to the hotel from the Vatican, stopping at the Spanish steps.

Wednesday June 2 was a National Holiday. We headed to the Colosseum but could not get there due to blocked roads for a parade. So we went to the Domus Aurea to look at the restored palatial home of Nero (mostly underground). Then we went to the Pantheon (during which we saw 2 fly overs by Italian jets with the red-white-green contrails). We stopped for a great porchetta sandwich before seeing the Pantheon. We then meandered around Rome and saw the Piazza Navona and Trevi Fountain, stopping for excellent espressos and Rome's best gelatos.

Piazza Navona (photo)

Gelatos (photo)

After we toured the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill (home of the Emperor).

Forum (photo)

That evening we had a great roman supper at Hostaria Nerone - tagliatelle funghi, cannelloni, pollo romagna con peperoni, saltimbocca alla romana, limoncello on the house, and espressos. Then we strolled to look at the colosseum lit by flood lights and we saw the nearly full moon rising through the arches along the north wall.

Today we toured the inside of the colosseum and then revisited some of the forum.

Colosseum (photo)

Then we headed to see the Circus Maximus and the Terme di Caracalla (where the 3 tenors performed their original concert). As we left the Terme we could see a big storm approaching. We took the CROWDED metro back to St. Peter's to climb the cuppola (if there is something to climb in Italy, we climb it). Enroute we missed most of the only daytime rain we've had on the trip. We climbed the cuppola and viewed the panorama of Rome and the Vatican grounds.

Above St. Peter's Square (photo)

Next up, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast.
lkvanz on 06.03.04 @ 02:51 PM MST [link] [6 Comments]