Italian road trip – Day 7 – Ladispoli, Capalbio, Rosignano Marittimo

Twelve years after our road trip, I still haven’t published the photos taken during its last day. At a time like this, when travel is a somewhat distant memory for most, and draconian travel rules require you to jump through even more hoops in order to board a crowded cattle plane, perhaps these photos, taken during more relaxed times, will provide a bit of comfort to you. So, Day 6 ended with us crashing around 11:30 pm, exhausted, at our newly found hotel in Ladispoli, after having charged through most of downtown Rome earlier that day.

We woke up the next morning to find we were about 20 meters from an unusual beach. We hadn’t come to Ladispoli for its beach — we came because we wanted to find a reasonably-priced hotel outside Rome, on our way back to Pisa, but the next morning, we got to enjoy the beach nonetheless. I’ll let the photos show you what I mean.

You see, Ladispoli is know for its black (blackish) sand. It’s quitely a lovely texture too. Ligia and I actually went back to the hotel to tell the others about the beach, but they were too tired from traipsing through Rome to come down, so we had our breakfast and off we went toward Pisa.

We’re driving along on the highway and around lunchtime, we spot this lovely medieval village on a distant hill. We all agree that we’ll go there for lunch and a little visit. That little village was Capalbio. The lunch was delicious and we had a wonderful time walking through the fortress. Much like many other medieval villages, the entire settlement is surrounded by fortified walls and is set on a hill, with vineyards and fields spread out in the valley below. The houses and overall properties inside the fortress are small and right next to each other, in order to maximize the available space. The actual patrol routes along the walls have now become sidewalks that visitors and inhabitants alike use to get around the place.

By 4 pm or so, we could see the sea (pun intended), with the Gorgona Scalo barely visible in the distance in some of the photos. By 5:30 pm, we made our way seaside in Rosignano Marittimo and found a spot to stop and take photos. It was lovely. In the gallery below, you’ll see I edited the colors in some of photographs quite heavily. Sometimes I can’t help myself. In recent years I’ve begun to do fairly conservative edits but in my younger years, I sometimes ended up doing fairly heavy color manipulation, and these photos were edited years ago. I also snuck in a photo of Ligia and I on the shore of the Ligurian Sea, as it’s called down there. That’s how we looked 12 years ago. How time flies…

We then drove to a hotel in Pisa, where we spent a short night, because the next morning at 6:10 we were on a plane which fiddled around on the runways until 7:06, when it was wheels up and on its way back to Romania.

And that was my last, long overdue post on this road trip. You can wind your way through our days on the road in Italy from start to finish by following these links:

The Italian road trip
Day One – Pisa
Day Two – Florence
Day Three – Venice – Part 1 and Part 2
Day Four – Ravenna, Rimini and Grottammare
Day Five – Crossing Italy from Grottammare to Rome
Day Six – Rome
Day Seven – this was it

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the photographs!

Places

Washington, DC

We lived in the DC area from 2003 to 2008 and we loved it, particularly the historic area of DC with all the old neoclassical buildings. Here is a gallery of photographs of some of those buildings, including a few from Union Station, which is not only a train station but also a connection to DC’s metrorail system.

Washington, DC
Union Station, Washington, DC
Union Station, Washington, DC
Union Station, Washington, DC
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Washington, DC. This image is stitched together from 17 separate photographs and is almost 70 megapixels at full resolution.
Washington, DC
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Washington, DC
Washington, DC. This image is stitched together from 40 separate photographs and is almost 100 megapixels at full resolution.
Washington, DC
Metro station, Washington, DC
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Washington, DC
Washington, DC
One of my favorite photos from Washington, DC. The fresh green leaves bursting out of their buds are the perfect sign of Spring.
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
The top of the US Capitol Building, in downtown Washington, DC. Notice the statue of the Roman general on top of the cupola. It bears the likeness of George Washington.
Washington, DC
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Monument on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, Washington, DC
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
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A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument
A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument
A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument
A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument
A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument
A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument
A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument
A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument
A panoramic image of downtown Washington, DC, taken from the top of the Washington Monument

Places

A jaunt through Dresden

Dresden (known as Drježdźany in Sorbian, Drážďany in Czech and Drezno in Polish) is the capital city and, after Leipzig, the second-largest city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the border with the Czech Republic. Its name derives from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning “people of the forest”. An important thing to note here is that there is a difference between Sorbians (also known as Lusatians) and Serbians; they are separate ethnic groups in Europe, with completely separate histories.

Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendor, and was once the family seat of the Polish monarchs. The city was known as the “Jewel Box”, because of its baroque and rococo city centre. The American and British bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed approximately 25,000 people, many of whom were civilians, and destroyed the entire city centre. After the war restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the historic inner city, including the Katholische Hofkirche, the Zwinger and the Semper Oper.

A view of Dresden in 1945, after the Allied bombing

We visited that old part of the city and we walked around in the section between the Frauenkirche and the Hofkirche in the course of an afternoon. We didn’t stay. We were on a fairly tight schedule and needed to move on. That evening, we made it to a small town named Radebeul, where we spent the night. Enjoy the photographs, there are 93 of them!

In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany
In the historic part of Dresden, Germany

Places

Leipzig Train Station

Inaugurated in 1915, Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main train station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. When its plans were finalized in 1909, it was the world’s largest railway station. Today, at 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.

It was in 1898 that the Leipzig city council decided on a joint terminal for Royal Saxon and Prussian state railways north of the city centre. A building contract with both organisations was signed in 1902 and an architectural competition with 76 participants was held in 1906. The winning design by architects William Lossow (1852–1914) and Max Hans Kühne (1874–1942) featured two identical domed entrance halls facing the street, one for each company. The foundation stone was laid on 16 November 1909 and the platforms were gradually brought into operation station from 1912 onwards. When construction works finished on 4 December 1915, Leipzig Hauptbahnhof had become one of the world’s largest railway stations with 26 platforms.

Enjoy the photographs!

Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig main station) is the central railway terminus in Leipzig, Germany. At 83,460 square metres (898,400 sq ft), it is Europe’s largest railway station measured by floor area. It has 19 overground platforms housed in six iron train sheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches, and a 298 metres (978 ft) long facade.

Places

Cecilienhof Palace

Inbetween the two days of visits to Schloss Sanssouci, we made time to visit Schloss Cecilienhof, which is nearby and is a larger compound, in spite of its less imposing facades. Sanssouci was originally projected with just 10 rooms to be used by Frederick the Great, while Cecilienhof was built with 176 rooms. Although the various buildings seem separate, they are interconnected at ground level and below ground and feature quite a few private gardens, set in private courtyards. We visited all we could manage in the space of an afternoon and evening that stretched till dusk, when we had to call it quits.

Cecilienhof is a palace in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany built from 1914 to 1917 in the layout of an English Tudor manor house. Cecilienhof was the last palace built by the House of Hohenzollern that ruled the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire until the end of World War I. It is famous (or infamous) for having been the location of the Potsdam Conference in 1945, in which the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States made important decisions affecting the shape of post World War II Europe and Asia. In other words, the Potsdam Conference is singularly responsible for drawing the dark iron curtain of communism over most of Eastern Europe, so it’s not an event that many from Eastern Europe remember fondly. The palace’s history is also a fairly sad one, because in spite of its beauty and functionality, it was only used for its intended purpose for a few years.

On 13 April 1914 the Imperial Ministry and the Saalecker Werkstätten signed a building contract that envisaged a completion date of 1 October 1915 and a construction cost of 1,498,000 Reichsmark for the new palace. The architect was Paul Schultze-Naumburg, who visited the couple in Danzig to work out the design for the palace. It was based on English Tudor style buildings, arranged around several courtyards featuring half-timbered walls, bricks and 55 different decorative chimney stacks. The palace was finished in August 1917. It was named Cecilienhof after the Duchess and the couple moved in immediately. Cecilie gave birth at Cecilienhof to her youngest child, Cecilie of Prussia who was born on 5 September 1917.

However, when the revolution erupted in November 1918, for security reasons Cecilie and her six children moved for a while to the Neues Palais, where the wife of Emperor Wilhelm II, Empress Augusta Victoria, was living. Kaiser Wilhelm II fled to Holland, where he remained until his death, on his estate Huize Doorn. (Incidentally, a film was made about the last years of his life and it’s called “The Exception” (2016). It stars Christopher Plummer, Lily James and Jai Courtney.) After the Empress followed her husband into exile in the Netherlands, Cecilie remained in Potsdam and returned to Cecilienhof where she lived until 1920. As the property of the Hohenzollern family had been confiscated after the revolution, Cecilie then had to move her residence to an estate at Oels in Silesia, which was a private property. Only her sons Wilhelm (William) and Louis Ferdinand remained at Cecilienhof while they attended a public Realgymnasium (school) in Potsdam. Crown Prince Wilhelm had gone into exile in the Netherlands on 13 November 1918 and was interned on the island of Wieringen. He was allowed to return to Germany—as a private citizen—on 9 November 1923.

In June 1926, a referendum on expropriating the former ruling Princes of Germany without compensation failed and as a consequence, the financial situation of the Hohenzollern family improved considerably. A settlement between the state and the family made Cecilienhof property of the state but granted a right of residence to Wilhelm and Cecilie. This was limited in duration to three generations.

Prince Wilhelm subsequently broke the promise he had made to Gustav Stresemann, who allowed him to return to Germany, to stay out of politics. He supported the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, who visited Cecilienhof three times, in 1926, in 1933 (on the “Day of Potsdam”) and in 1935. However, when Wilhelm realized that Hitler had no intention of restoring the monarchy, their relationship cooled. After the assassination attempt on 20 July 1944, Hitler had Wilhelm placed under supervision by the Gestapo and had Cecilienhof watched.

In January 1945, Wilhelm left Potsdam for Oberstdorf for a treatment of his gall and liver problems. Cecilie fled in early February 1945 as the Red Army drew closer to Berlin, without being able to salvage much in terms of her possessions. At the end of the war, Cecilienhof was seized by the Soviets.

After the Potsdam Conference ended, Soviet troops used the palace as a clubhouse. It was handed over to the state of Brandenburg and in 1952 a memorial for the Conference was set up in the former private chambers of Wilhelm and Cecilie. The government of Eastern Germany also used the palace as a reception venue for state visits. The rest of the complex became a hotel in 1960. Some of the rooms were used by the ruling party (SED) for meetings. After 1961, a part of the Neuer Garten was destroyed to build the southwest section of the Berlin Wall (as part of the Grenzsicherungsanlagen) which ran along the shore of Jungfernsee. Beginning in 1985, the VEB Reisebüro (state-owned travel agency) modernised the hotel.

Today, parts of Cecilienhof are still used as a museum and as a hotel. In 1990 it became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site called Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin. The private rooms were opened to the public in 1995 after comprehensive restoration work. Queen Elizabeth II visited Cecilienhof on 3 November 2004. On 30 May 2007, the palace was used for a summit by the G8 foreign ministers. In 2011, Schloss Cecilienhof was awarded the European Heritage Label.

I hope you’ll enjoy this gallery of 113 photographs I took there!