Amazing things to be learned about design here. Lessons from 40 B.C. or thereabouts.

We toured Ephesus today, the largest port in Asian Minor during its heyday, now a treasured ruin in the beautiful hills near the pristine coastline of Turkey.

It’s unbelievable. Bas reliefs like the expensive reproductions we see at market in Dallas. Except these are marble, the real thing, and they’re just lying on the ground. Everywhere.

Bas reliefs are those chunky pieces of carved stone carved into a variety of patterns  and shapes. They are the forerunners of modern-day crown molding. You know the dentil shape that looks like teeth or the kind that looks like eggs?

They’re nothing new.

The earliest buildings around the Mediterranean were made of wood in a post and lintel style. Today we call it a doorway. That trim around your front door? Think Greek temple, baby. That’s where it began. Without the trim, it would just be another hole in the wall. The frame-out makes it a shape that we recognize as an entry. And that dentil molding? The “teeth” are a reproduction of the cuts made to fasten the pieces together. Now we buy it at Home Depot just to make our dining rooms look…Greek?

And I’m forever recommending fluted curtain rods for window treatments. Ancient Roman marble columns were fluted like the Greek stone columns they imitated, which in turn imitated the native eucalyptus trees with their peeling bark.

And I thought fluted curtain rods just *looked* classy. They look, and are, classic. And we humans still respond to the carefully thought-out symmetry of Greek lines.

Bas reliefs are also known as “lower reliefs”, meaning they’re not meant to be fancy. The carvings don’t even attempt to come out of the stone, like higher reliefs or sculpture. Bas reliefs (pronounced “bah”) are strictly decorative in nature. I love them.

You’re allowed to touch them in Turkey, a major no-no in Greece or Italy. I ran my hand over the cool marble again and again, trying to feel something reach out from the past. It didn’t, but it was amazing to touch something so very old.

Patmos is the best!

Loads of great design here with the marvelous simplistic combination of beauty and practicality that was the hallmark of the ancient world.

But I’m really talking about everyday design, where the regular people lived.  People like you and me. There’s archaeological proof that small concrete houses with domes roofs have been built around the Mediterranean Sea for 5000 years. That’s a lot of know-how from a time when we think people maybe didn’t know too much.

They knew plenty. Turns out they were plenty smart, lacking only the ability to plug something in to do it for them.

Their homes are a great example. There isn’t much wood around the rim of the Mediterranean, so homes were built within frames and filled with rubble, loose rock, whatever they could find. Then they bound everything together with cement, which hardened up beautifully. Plaster on the outsides and voila! A very sound home with a domed cement roof to provide natural air-conditioning. Examples about throughout this small island, particularly in churches. But word has it that local construction is returning to this style, which is much more energy-efficient.

Don’t you love when old things become new again?

I also love the Greek sense of playfulness, which you see everywhere. Take a look at this doorknocker:

It’s a little hand! We also saw the interior of one home, occupied by the same family for eight generations, that used family china in a decorative wall arrangement. You know how we love plates at Metamorefix.  But we never claimed to be the first to do so!

I’m sorry we don’t have pictures of that for you. No photography allowed in Signora’s house.

Turkey tomorrow…

Wow, what a surprise when we got to the ship yesterday. We were upgraded to the Penthouse!

We had no idea it was coming. We got a message at our hotel in Rome from our travel agent, but it read, “The have a new cabin on the sheep. The pint hose.”

We pretty much understood that “sheep” was “ship” but the pint hose thing we didn’t get. I was thinking “pint-sized house” like maybe we were getting an even smaller cabin than usual. But no! Donna, our wonderful TA, got us da best place in da house!

You know, I’ve always hated reading travelogues and other stories about people getting upgraded. I thought they had connections, blah, blah, blah.

But now I know that it can happen to ordinary people who aren’t best friends with the cruise line president or any other president, for that matter. And now, when someone asks, how did you get upgraded like that? I can answer, truly,

“I don’t know.”

But here we are, and now I’m tempted to forego all those shore excursions we signed up for and just hang out on the balcony for the next twelve days. Just as soon as it stops raining…and warms up a bit. I didn’t know May in Italy could be so cold (it’s been around 60 with rain and wind. Mamma mia!)

All this room! I’m used to cabins with stand-up showers in the corner and a curtain that blows in on you unless you aim the shower head at it. This penthouse puppy has a Jacuzzi – it doesn’t seem to work but, hey, it’s still a big tub, right?

And it has a huge, four-door wardrobe closet instead of a big open spot with a pole and no hangers. But the seas were angry last night, my friend, and our ship rolled around like crazy. The wardrobe doors banged open and shut continually and nothing would keep them permanently closed no matter how many times I got up to try.

I swear I didn’t sleep more than twenty minutes at a time. But it’s the penthouse! So there’s definitely large gulps of lemonade along with the little tiny lemon slices. And I think the sun is trying to come out…

Today in Rome was all about churches. And walking. Walking, walking, walking.

The ancient Romans walked everywhere. The really rich ones were sometimes carried about in litters through the narrow streets, but even back then your average Roman loved to walk.

During our trip preparations, we read on thelonelyplanet.com that getting a cab in Rome was pretty regimented. You had to phone for a taxi or wait for one in designated taxi stands. Hailing a cab was out of the question.

So as we roamed from church to church, we waited patiently by one or two yellow “Taxi” signs to no avail. No taxis were present, and none seemed to come by.

So we walked.

Saw some pretty spectacular church innards, though. Take a look at this hand-inlaid marble floor. The detailing is unbelievable:

How’d you like that in your entry?

At Santa Maria Trastevere, the view from the pew was a row of paired columns in different marbles and granites. I couldn’t help but think how we stick this stuff in our kitchens and bathrooms, but here the materials were used to their very finest, hand-carved and polished, twenty feet high, each topped with a unique capitol, the workmanship non-paralleled.  Here’s an example:

I hope you can see it in person sometime. Truly, it takes your breath away.

Did I mention we got lost twice today? Hence the walking, walking, walking. The first time we got lost walking between churches, the second time after we walked down from the Janiculum hilltop, where we saw a great view of Rome that has scarcely changed since Renaissance times. Not a crane in sight! It blew my mind to think of the mansions that had graced this hill during Roman Republic times, and the people who enjoyed the view throughout the centuries. But we got lost among the narrow, winding streets at the bottom. Both times we managed to find our way to the river and then to a taxi. And it turns out you can hail a taxi easily when you have a lost, dumb-founded look on your face. All the taxi drivers have been delightful.

Day Three tomorrow. We signed up for an official tour. No more getting lost!

Our first day in Rome was a shopping spree!

Not the kind where you actually buy stuff. This shopping spree was all about discovering what Roman home-owners see when *they* actually buy stuff for their homes.

The typical Roman in our ‘hood (near the Leonardo da Vinci hotel) lives in a high-ceiling, centuries-old apartment building with shutters on the windows and giant brass knockers on the main entry doors, which open into a courtyard and access to the elevator or stairs to the apartments. Here’s the building next door to us:

There’s a terrace, but we’re not sure if access is for everyone in the building or just the one lucky owner. One block over is the via Cola di Rienzo, a major shopping street with everything you could possibly want, all available in tiny mom-and-pop stores. We hadn’t walked two blocks before we saw this home furnishings store:

And here’s one of their display windows:

Notice anything? That’s right! It’s the 2008 Color of the Year! Seems like they’re into it here, too! And remember, the COTY always takes a year or two before it filters down into home furnishings and accessories, so they’re right on schedule here in Roma.

And across the street is a great lamp place:

Isn’t that delightful? A farmer’s market for home furnishings!

 A block or two further and we discovered a delightful kitchen and whimsy store a wonderful assortment of Valentino wall clocks, (105 Euros each — about $135).

Style for the home is alive and well in Italy. These shops were packed and not just with tourists. We haven’t heard nary a word of English all day. These shoppers were locals  buying armloads of linens, fine fabrics, and kitchenware left and right. Too bad we don’t have time for a Metamorefix or two while we’re here!

Our Holy Land/Mediterranean cruise is underway! We’re spending the first three days in Rome, then heading to the ship on Saturday. Here’s our itinerary on the Pacific Princess:

You’ve heard the expression “Getting there is half the fun?”  Don’t you believe it.

Our first flight left Austin almost two hours late due to weather in the Chicagoland area. This was no cause for concern because we already had a three-hour sit built in between flights. My former flight attendant memories are still fresh when it comes to stormy May months flying in and out of O’Hare.

So we landed in Chicago with plenty of time to spare. The plane taxied past the United Airlines stronghold at Terminal 1, our first time there since I stopped flying in 2001. Imagine my surprise when I saw that UAL still has not completed re-painting the fleet, a project begun at the end of the last century! So how they can afford to buy Continental when they can’t even afford to finishing painting their own planes? I guess they can say the painting only gets done during heavy maintenance rotation, but shouldn’t every aircraft have rotated in at least once since they re-designed the color scheme back in the 1990s? Very strange…

But we are travelling on American Airlines and, standardized fleet colors aside, I can report that their airplanes are not any better on the inside than I remember with the competition. The 767-300 we took from Chicago to Rome was beyond miserable. Interior by Marquis de Sade? Completely full with 200 or so very nice passengers and flight attendants, the flight was basically stinky lavs, torturously cramped seats, overhead lights that wouldn’t turn off during an all-night flight, etc.

But we’re here in Roma, jet-lagged but happy, and will spend three days trying to see interior design through Roman eyes (as soon as our tired red ones clear up a bit). Buon giorno e buona sera!