We took a train from Rome to Ancona, Italy, where we had a one-day stop. Ancona is about ¾ of the way up the east coast, on the Adriatic Sea. The next evening we planned to take an overnight ferry to Split, Croatia, so this seemed like a simple transfer place, but Ancona is a really neat city itself! At night I wandered around and ended up hiking to a functioning lighthouse. The stone sign is at 104 meters above sea level, about 341 feet. Our neighborhood had some nice murals / graffiti: Here is a view out over a pentagonal building formerly used as a quarantine colony, a little island right by the city, open to the public: There are quite a few drinking fountains scattered all over, and all the ones we tried worked! This is the correct way for a city to be. It is very hilly, with stairs and steep roads all over. Many narrow little alleys between buildings, and connecting passages and staircases up and down hills, between houses, churches, and pa...
In Malta on Palm Sunday I went to a Holy Week pageant called “Ħtija Tiegħu?” which means something like “His guilt?” It was held in Marsa, a few kilometers south of Sliema where we were staying. The pageant has been held since 1970 and is normally done outside on the street, but rain was forecast for the day and by evening it was coming down pretty steadily, so they moved the pageant indoors to the church and started two hours late so they had time to adapt to a fully indoor setting. It's a newish Catholic church, bright and colorful, and a bit in the suburbs and there were lots of families there. While we were waiting during the delay, a man who spoke English, named Albert, introduced himself to me. He has been involved in the pageant for 30 years and is currently the treasurer and one of the participants, no longer Judas as he was for many years and got tired of portraying. 😂 In a building across the street they had a display of some neat handmade Christian artwor...
We visited the town Kutná Hora , about an hour from Prague by bus. Its Sedlec area is home to the famous ossuary = bone house, a church with a still functional chapel upstairs and displays of human bones in the basement. Many others have published photos of that, including these by Zed: signature , chandelier , coat of arms , angel weirdness , etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. , IHS . In the town proper we saw this Soviet war memorial: The plaque reads: Zde stanul 9.V.1945 první voják Rudé Armády naší osvoboditelky z německé poroby vděčni a věrni zůstaneme Which roughly translates to: Here stood on the 9th of May 1945 the first soldier of the Red Army, our liberators from German bondage. We remain grateful and faithful. This was a neat church that was closed to prepare for Easter Sunday the next day, but a very nice lady who arrived to do some setup work there let us in to look around: And while I'm documenting memorial plaques, here's another one: Which re...
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