AAR CSS: Day 18

Terracina & Sperlonga

7:30am bus trip. Enough said.

It took about two hours to get to Terracina, and then a nausea-inducing ride up narrow switchback roads to the top of the local hill mountain (Italian bus drivers are miracle workers, I'm sure of it), where we found the Tempio di Giove piano bar and several kitties.

...and a snail:

...and a view:

This temple (probably dedicated to Jupiter Anxur) was recently featured in the music video of Luciano Ligabue's "Happy Hour", which you can find on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efe2HHYJCqQ (Fair warning: I watched this on mute, so I can't tell you how good the music is - or isn't; the best shots of the sanctuary come in the last minute of the video, from 3:10 to the end.)

Down at the bottom of the mountain, the Romans counted how many (Roman) feet of rock they had to move in order to lay the road:

Then it was off to Sperlonga, where Tiberius had a grotto and villa, and where he liked to hide until part of the grotto fell on him and he relocated to Capri.

On the bus on the way to Sperlonga:

Across from the Sperlonga museum:

The reconstruction of the two main scenes from the grotto (Scylla attacking Odysseus' ship, and Odysseus blinding the cyclops Polyphemus):

Hairy feet: proof that Polyphemus was related to a hobbit?

Then the villa-cum-grotto:

Lunch at a place called Scylla, then free time in the piazza by the beach, where we saw signs for Hotel Virgilio, Ganymede Hotel, and Immobiliare Ulisse (immobiliare = real estate). They really get into ancient themes here.

(Chris pretending to eat the giant plastic ice cream cone outside of a gelateria:)

You can't really tell, but this shot is looking straight down - the lizard is sticking out of a wall.

Someone alert failblog - we have found the epitome of Fail (bus shot, if you couldn't tell from the reflection):

Dinner: Risotto di carciofi | Arrosto di manzo con pourè di patate | Spuma di zabaione