Sirmione

Sirmione is the town located on Sirmio peninsula extending into Lake Garda from the south.

The Scaligero Castle, originally built in the 13th century, protected the Scaligeri Garda fleet.

Stonework from a 9th century Lombard church once located on the peninsula

Sirmione is also home to the ruins of a 1st century BC/AD Roman villa, with some frescoes still intact.

Underwater archeology in 1859

The villa is known as the Grottoes of Catullus because his family owned a villa nearby, and he wrote about the beauty of the place.

Sirmione was largely ignored until surveyed in 1801 by Napoleon's Chief of Artillery.

Nice comb!

Sirmione is a great spot for a day trip.

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and one of my favorite cities in Europe. Above is Vilnius Cathedral; Lithuania was one of the last states in Europe to convert to Christianity (1387). It is a Roman Catholic Cathedral; 3/4ths of Lithuanians identify as Catholic.

Moses with horns

The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is located in the center of old town next to the Cathedral. In front is a statue of Gediminas, who in the 14th century united the Baltic Lithuanian tribes to fight off German crusader and Rus threats. He and Vytautas, a ruler in the 14th and 15th centuries, were the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's greatest leaders, and conquered a great deal of the modern Baltic states, Poland, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

The Palace has been completely rebuilt. Lithuania merged with Poland in the 16th century, and then Poland was partitioned in the 18th century. Russia took over Vilnius and dismantled any nationalist structures in an attempt to assimilate Lithuanians into the Russian Empire. The new Palace was built over the ruins of the old palace.

Pagan oak rods

Tile found at the old palace site

As shown on this map, most of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania consisted of Rus lands, not ethnic Lithuanian lands.

What are those rabbits doing?

A tile with the crests of the Polish White Eagle, the Lithuanian knight, and the Swedish house of Vasa wheat in the center. The Jagiellonian dynasty that ruled the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth intermarried with many of the noble houses of Europe, including the Vasas, the Sforzas, Hapsburgs, Bathory, Muscovy, and others.

Gediminas Tower has the best views in Vilnius.

An old heater with historic dolls

The tapestry weavers of old did not know what tigers looked like.

Or ostriches.

The Radziwill family was a powerful Lithuanian family that often served as de-facto rulers of Lithuania when the Polish-Lithuanian capital was established in Polish lands, in Krakow. The 16th century document from the Holy Roman Emperor confers on the Radziwills the title of "princes and princesses."

The Lithuanians were skilled cannon makers. Pictured is Melussina, a 16th century cannon.

Shoe flair will come back in style some day.

Jan Matejko's Union of Lublin was on loan to the Palace. In 1569, Lithuania surrendered a large portion of its territory to Poland in order to merge with it to protect itself from the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Muscovite princes claimed to be the rulers of all Rus, which threatened Lithuania's extensive holdings of Rus lands.

The MO is Vilnius's modern art museum. It focused on Lithuania's transition from East to West in the 1990s and art inspired by that period.

Wise doggo

A dwarf guard stone for carriages

The Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights documents Nazi and Soviet terror in Lithuania. After World War 1, Vilnius was captured by the Poles, and the new Lithuanian state, free from Russia, moved its capital to Kaunas. During World War 2 the Soviets took Vilnius, then the Nazis, then the Soviets took it back. The Museum is located in the old KGB headquarters; the basement has their interrogation rooms, including this room filled with freezing water with a pedestal in the middle prisoners were forced to stand on for extended periods of time.

Lithuanians have great beer. Pictured on this can is Vytautas the Great in Matejko's The Battle of Grunwald.

Lokys was one excellent restaurant we ate at. It specialized in the historic food of Lithuania. We started with some deer jerky, pig ears, cheese balls, and toasted rye bread.

My entree was beaver stew with rye kvass.

The best restaurant we ate at was Ertlio Namas, which also served historic Lithuanian fare. For desert we were served Lithuanian mead with berry-snow ice cream and carrot cake.

Old Orhei

Old Orhei is a cultural site and geologic phenomena unlike any in the world. It is a mini-grand canyon dotted with religious sites.

Some locals paint their houses blue; the best reason I heard was to ward off mosquitoes.

The river and geologic formations at Orhei made for excellent natural defenses. The Golden Horde used it in the 14th century to shield their herd.

The Church of Saint Mary is maintained by Orthodox monks, who also inhabit cave churches below.

The church was recently renovated.

The entrance to one of the caves. This cave church was maintained by one very old monk, who slept there.

These are seashells in the walls of the cave. All of Moldova was once underwater.

An interesting restaurant was established in a limestone quarry near Old Orhei.

It has some great cave art.

Quite the stove

Cricova Winery

Moldova was the major wine producer in the Soviet Union. Cricova Winery was originally a limestone quarry; in the 1950s it was converted into the world's second biggest wine cellar (the first is Milestii Mici, also in Moldova).

There are over 200 kilometers of tunnels filled with wine at the Cricova compound. A small bus is required for tours of the facility.

Wine flying by

Cricova wines are stored for maturation in the caves as well. These bottles are turned by hand to aid in the sedimentation gathering process.

Each tunnel has a street name.

There are stories of Yuri Gagarin getting hopelessly lost down here after drinking too much wine.

Every good underground winery needs a church.

Some of the "noble wines" of the collection on display

These passageways of very old and valuable wine also stretch quite a ways.

There's wine from all over the world here, including the Republic of Georgia!

Putin's wine collection is right across from...

John Kerry's wine collection.

A wine from 1902

There are a number of beautiful rooms in the winery heads of state taste wine in when the visit Cricova.