Snapshots of Greece and Italy

The following are snapshot memories from our recent trip to Greece.

- Historic Athens surrounded by mountains, the Acropolis lit on a plateau above the city at night, graffiti covering the downtown by day.

Acropolis from our hotel

- A neo-Nazi demonstration in the central plaza across from Parliament, so quiet that only the speaker on the microphone could be heard a block away. The Greek military puffing on cigarettes in an alley around the corner, awaiting trouble.
- Volcanic cliffs of Santorini, with black beaches and towns of white perching recklessly on the outcroppings over the caldera. The caldera: a volcano that collapsed into itself under the sea.
- Olive trees, grape bushes, cacti, and occasional oleanders breaking Santorini's barren landscape that receives only two days of rain a year.
- The blades of quaint windmills jutting unproductively like a snowman's arms, now mere landscape ornaments.  Four hundred churches, each with a blue door.
- Between Santorini and another island cradling a volcano, cruise ships spewing thousands into the narrow streets of Oia and Fira to shop or have wedding photos taken against the spectacular scenery.

Oia, Santorini

- Greeks struggling to use the English they learned in elementary school so they might escape the 28% unemployment of their native country.











The following are snapshot memories from our recent trip

to Italy.

- A plate of the chef's specialty, octopus, for lunch on the island of Ischia, which nearly made me lose breakfast but proved to be delicious.

- A curly white coiffure on our driver from Rome to Anzio, whose three-piece suit and dazzling cuff links should have signaled he would drive as slowly as possible to collect an extra two hours' fee.

- The American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, where 8,000 are buried following the battle of Anzio and where we found Charley's uncle's name on the marble "Missing in Action" wall.
- The Italians' love of American music, movies, "Levi's," neon or leopard or zebra-striped high-top sneakers, and tee shirts that made no sense.  Examples we saw on the shirts:

          a swollen gone-to-seed 70-yr-old man wearing "PLAYGROUND HERO"

          a rotund grandmother with a cane wearing "I HEART CURVES"

          a 12-yr-old girl featuring Marilyn Monroe with thick, injected lips emblazoned with the Italian flag

          a  fairy-like wisp of a woman with half a heart covering each minuscule breast and the word "LOVE" between them.

- The pace of life that allows a three-year lawsuit over our hotel's driveway, where the
neighbor created a narrow turn in the rock wall to stop the flow of anything bigger than golf carts. Like the stroller trashed in the bush of a private garden, the wall will remain till we visit again.