Wednesday, March 21, 2001

By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
sallies@juno.com

It's been a while since I've shared with readers our daughter Mary's adventures in Europe.

For those who came in late, she is a pianist for the Dortmund Opera company, which means she rehearses individual singers as well as productions, occasionally performs with the orchestra, and often accompanies soloists in other venues. In return for odd hours followed by late nights practicing, she gets an adequate income, generous health care provisions, and a full month off every summer.

That means lots of time to travel. But all of Germany and France take vacation in either July or August, so you may "get away from it all" only to discover that "it all" came with you, and many of the locals whose land you want to visit are also on holiday. I picture this gigantic tidal wave of tourists draining northern Europe creating a vacuum that Americans fill up instantly and flooding points south.

I've never heard that the Italians are swept out to sea by it, but Italy, like the western United States, is inundated with Germans vacating Germany. Last summer, Mary and her significant other, Rainer, also an opera company musician, packed tent and camping gear into the boot of his car and were swept south with the other good Germans, looking for some sun.

Along the way, they visited friends in Stuttgart and drove past the new Hochschule there, the music school, where Mary studied on a Fulbright grant in 1984 and 1985. She found the new school next to Stuttgart's grand museum, the Staatsgalerie, "quite impressive," then added, "Funny, I never noticed before how aggressive and impatiently they drive there." (No, she probably didn't, since she either walked or used public transportation when she lived there.)

Rainer's brother lives near Rottweil: "Werner threw a big grill party. His business [as a computer consultant] is going well enough that he's bought a second car and has moved his office into town.

"On the way back from visiting their parents' graves, we saw two foxes in a field. And that evening, near the compost heap behind the house, we watched a hedgehog the size of our computer speaker. Later he apparently got in a fight, because there were horrendous noises, catlike. I didn't know they hissed."

Then on to Italy.

"Italy was hot, but not unbearable, I would think between 30 and 35 during the day." That would be 86-95 Fahrenheit.

"And we almost always had wind at night, including a couple of hefty windstorms, so I only dragged out the bug stuff once or twice.

"The wind meant we had ashes on us while waiting for the metro to go into Rome; they burn a lot down there, and I didn't know till we got back that they were also having some extensive forest fires right outside the city center.

"In Rome, I saw a few things I hadn't before, like the Roman Forum and a catacomb. Went through the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel again. Lots of security and police in the city, and lots of tour buses with pilgrim tourists. It seems like such a decadent city to pilgrim to.

"We ate outside once in the old city after the sun couldn't reach between the buildings anymore, almost at the end of what appeared to be a dead end, but there was a passageway big enough for a scooter. Watched a businessman ride through, helmet in one hand and mobile phone in the other. Pretty funny. They're phone crazy.

"Camped near Naples at the Phlegrean Fields. That's a volcano crater with sulfur fumes, sort of like in Yellowstone. Also saw the lake which is the entrance to Hades birds used to drop dead over it from the gases and Sybille's cave. I guess I thought all this stuff was in Greece, but then again, I think southern Italy was part of Greece once.

"Drove to Mt. Vesuvius and walked up; unfortunately, it wasn't doing anything exciting, although interesting enough. Then Pompeii, which is surprisingly big, lots of it not even dug out properly. It remains impressive, despite the fact that anything of value (mosaics, statues, furniture) has been stolen or moved to a museum.

"I guess the problem in Pompeii is that it was discovered quite some time ago (250 years?). It's been open to the elements and thieves, once they cleared off the lava dust, and it's truly large, with lots still to be excavated. There's another city that was similarly buried nearby Herculaneum with better examples of private houses, but not the temples and amphitheaters of Pompeii.

"Rode down to Sorrento and then over to the Amalfi coast. It was Sunday, and I knew this was a mistake, but it was not to be avoided. The way they drive there is truly amazing. Rainer's car [a 1980-something Citroîn] is too big. He was good at going with the flow, and nothing bad ever happened, but I had a roller-coaster feeling because of all the near scrapes.

"Anyway, it was wall-to-wall summer traffic, until we got over to the south part of the Amalfi coast, where there weren't any towns or beaches, sort of like Big Sur. In Amalfi, I wanted to see the cathedral, a Norman-Byzantine mix, but we never found a place to park so I could go up and into the old city above the marina."

Next week, on to Sicily. ...

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