Swim at the Castel Gandolfo

On our last day of the Italian tour, Janne and I drove to Lago Albano, an old volcanic crater that is now filled with water. On the rim of the crater you can find Castel Gandolfo, one of most beautiful Italian towns, the Pope's summer cottage, and wonderful views.

At the bottom of the crater you'll find nice clean water. Although in the August heatwave the water wasn't particularly cool -- 31 Celsius. Nevertheless, a nice plunge into water before flights back home...

We at Ristorante Bucci, with a wonderful view as shown above. They had interesting meat ball dishes, either with cheese Cognag sauce or the red wine sauce... we ordered both:

This restaurant must have one of the best toilet views, too. From the men's toilet there's a window:

Here are pictures from the swim. Note the black sand:

Butterfly on the rim:

More pictures from the restaurant:

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Grotta di Frasassi

This week I'm on a tour through Italy with Janne. I had mentioned this to Tero, who suggested that we visit Grotta di Frasassi east of Ancona. He had made a visit earlier, and saw an incredibly large cave hall. Still, I had not realised how big it was. Over 100 meters in free height, and 240 meters to the natural opening at the top.

The size of largest room, Sala Abisso Ancona ("the abyss"), is difficult to imagine, even standing there. A tiny stalactite on the wall turns out to be two and half meters high, but it pales in comparison with the largest ones.

This cave has the most elaborate and untouched stalactite and other cave forms than I have seen anywhere else. It also help that the cave was only discovered in 1971, and has been carefully developed.

The cave has a number of different chambers. One of them is called Sala Finlandia, named according to the land of thousand lakes as that chamber contains may pools of water.

In the 1980s, a psychology experiment was performed in this cave with 15 volunteers. Olli Lehtinen, then a youngster and interested in adventures also participated in the test. There was a recent article in Helsingin Sanomat about the experiment.

Gortta di Frasassi worth your visit if you are anywhere near this place in Italy!

Maps and more information can be found here.

More pictures from the Sala Abisso Ancona:

Map:

Sala Finlandia:

A 7-meter stalactite hanging on top of us, close to 100 meters above at Sala Duecento:

Paths elsewhere in the cave:

Here's the entrance to the lower, flooded levels of the cave:

Interestingly, the site for the cave is a tourist gathering, and there are countless vendors selling what is largely just toys and junk; I tried to search for a t-shirt about the cave itself, but did not find anything else than one kids' size one. However, the good thing is that there are multiple vendors selling food and drinks; choice is good.

Vendors:

A rare occurrence: a free ticket for a blogger. Thank you!

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Pool at the Hilton Sorrento Palace

While touring the Naples area, we stayed in Sorrento, at the Hilton Sorrento Palace. They had a nice pool, with a view of the Vesuvius!

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All photos taken when the pool was closed and when there were no other guests in the area.

The Kauniainen-Vantaa-Tuusula-Espoo-Kauniainen bike ride

I had a nice bike ride with Janne today.... more than 70 kilometres, and through Vantaa to look at the airport, visit my mom in Tuusula, and back via Espoo.

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Train to Vatican City

We tried to get to the St. Peter's Basilica twice today, but no luck. Too many people. However, we did take a look at the train line running into Vatican City.

This 300 meter train line (!) serves Vatican, but is closely guarded, blocked by metal doors and walls. Rail access to Vatican was granted by the Lateran Treaty, but it is rarely used today except for goods and occasional tourist services. This must also be the shortest national railway system, and with just one station!

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Sauna in Rome

After a day of waiting in lines for sights in 36 degree sunshine, it was time for a sauna. Fortunately, the Hilton Garden Inn at Calridge had one. Or two, really, a Finnish and Turkish saunas. Quite nice, quite hot, and there was a bucket of water to throw on the heater as well.

At first, the scoop in the bucket seemed tiny... but I soon realised the heater was *really* hot. So all good.

All sauna articles can be found from the Saunablogger.cool site. Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. As usual, photos from pools and saunas were taken when facilities were closed and no other guests were present.

Vesuvius

Went to see the Vesuvius crater with Janne, quite interesting and of course the source of many sad fates in destroyed cities around. Overdue for eruption, too.

Easy but very hot climb, 200 or 350 meters vertical depending on whether one came by bus or your own car. At the top many touristy servings, including Limoncello. In Finland, the price and percentage would probably be reversed.

We also saw many small caves around, Finland-size so not relevant. And we also found a Korso sticker :-)

I did have my miniskis with me as well, but the only place to try them on the mountain would have been the walking path down, possibly steep enough to slide. But Janne announced that if I ski down on the path among the many people walking there, he doesn't want to be seen next to me :-) So I didn't ski :-)

Robot-observer at the top:

When you are doing what you think is a hard climb, you are set back to reality by seeing small cars go up or down past you :-)

The forest at the parking lot was nice. Vesuvius behind the trees:

The Limoncello offering:

Korso sticker:

View of Vesuvius from our hotel:

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko and Janne Arkko. All rights reserved.

Biking to Mont Royal

In my series of biking in the world's cities: Montreal. And visiting Mount Royal for the views and nice park experience. I particularly like the lake on the backside.

Amazingly, Mount Royal is a part of an extinct volcano that was active 125 million years ago. I did not know this; it is always nice to visit volcanoes.

But it was way too hot, somewhere beyond 30 degrees. I was way too tired, and I almost gave up on the steep hills leading to the top.

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Sauna at the Fairmont the Queen Elizabeth

I'm staying at a conference in Montreal, at the Fairmont the Queen Elizabeth hotel.

It turns out that they have a quite nice swimming pool and sauna area. At first I was not impressed with the sauna, but when the heat was on for more than 5-10 minutes, it was actually perfect.

The pool area has a 15 meter swimming pool with is comfortably warm (perhaps even too warm) and a small hot tub.

I was also very happy that they let me use the pool on my day of departure, after having exited the hotel hours ago. Nice touch, and allowed me to be fresh for my flights back home :-)

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. All photos taken after hours and while there were no other customers at the facility.

Lightshow at the Notre-Dame

Tero and Peter convinced me to join the the AURA lightshow at the Notre-Dame basilica in Montreal. Wow, what a show. Much recommended.

The show begins with regular lights lighting up the cathedral (as above), but then proceeds with projectors painting the most wonderful creations, like pillars growing into trees. And then the laser show starts :-)

For a short a video, see this official clip (thanks Jaime for finding this!)

If you have a chance, visit!

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.