Trips With JamesPhoto Journals

The Splendor of Florence and Milan

It was near the end of my month-long tour around Italy, and I was headed back to Zurich, Switzerland to catch my flight back to Atlanta. I had spent the last week on the Amalfi coast sightseeing and unwinding from what had been a very tense time for me during the Pandemic. When Europe started to open again, I saw a flight for Switzerland in November and knew from there I could catch a train all the way down to the Amalfi coast. And now I was on my way back but there were still two stops that I wanted to make before I thought my trip would be complete.

The first was to make a stop in Florence, also known as Firenze in Italian. I visited Florence once before during the summer of 2005, and everything they say about the crowds and the congestion and how hard it is to get around is absolutely true. It is very crowded. When you are visiting Florence during the summer bring your patience and your camera because the architecture, the art and the scenery are magnificent. You just must wait in line for everything.

Waiting in the rain to see the frescos of Florence Duomo Cathedral

This time I was making a stop just to see one of my favorite pieces of art for the second time. It is so impressive to see live that I wanted to do it again. It is (the) David statue sculpted by Michelangelo. Sculpted from white marble that he went up into the mountains to select himself, this statue is incredibly beautiful. Based on the biblical figure of David, the statue is a masterpiece of renaissance sculpture standing 17 feet tall and weighing over 6 tons. It was sculpted by Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504 and when completed was placed in front of the City Hall of Florence where it stood for well over two hundred years before being moved inside and replaced with a replica. The statue is currently housed at the Galleria dell’Accademia which is in the city center of Florence.

A replica of the statue of David — The Replica of David outside Florence City Hall

Florence is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political and economic center. During the time that Michelangelo sculpted the David, the city was filled with the artistic and cultural elite of Europe. Imagine walking down a Florence street in the early 1500s and passing the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, and Niccolò Machiavelli, writer of the political handbook The Prince, which is about ruling and exercising power. All these artists and intellectuals were drawn to Florence by the power of the Medici family who ruled Florence and Tuscany and influenced Rome and the Catholic Church for well over three hundred years. The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Florence a World Heritage Site in 1982. Due to Florence’s artistic and architectural heritage, Forbes ranked it as the most beautiful city in the world in 2010.

View of Florence at Sunset from Piazzale Michelangelo

One of the most beautiful views of Florence is across the river and high on a hill that overlooks the city, the Piazzale Michelangelo. Offering spectacular views of the city especially at sunset as the fading sun reflects off the roofs of the city giving it a golden glow, the Piazzale Michelangelo is located in the Oltr’Arno section of the city (means literally ‘the other side of the river’) is an easy bus ride up into the hills and home to one of the famous sculptor’s three versions of David, offers stunning panoramic views of Florence. There are also restaurants, cafes and bars here, so you can enjoy a drink and a meal while you breathe it all in, often to the soundtrack of local musicians playing in the square. It is difficult to think of anywhere better suited to the quintessential Florentine experience.

DAVID by Michelangelo at the Galleria dell’Accademia

As you can tell from the photographs of (the) David by Michelangelo it portrays a naked man. During the Renaissance in Europe many paintings and sculptures portrayed naked women and men, or naked angels and saints. The human body was seen as something beautiful not something to be hidden away. I was reading recently where a teacher at a junior high school in Florida who had shown photographs of the David to her students was suspended for a few days when one or more of the parents complained about her showing one of the greatest works of European art to her students. The parents were upset that the statue was of a naked man. When the directors of the Galleria dell’Accademia heard about the American teacher being suspended, they offered her and a guest two business class round trip tickets to Florence so she could see the statue for herself for the first time. I am often confused by people who equate art showing naked people with pornography. These are two separate things. The human body by itself is not pornographic. It is beautiful. If you believe in a God, then that is how we were created. To take offense at having a teacher show a photograph of a world famous 600-year-old statue to her classroom, I think is ridiculous but that is my opinion. All I can say is if you are ever in Florence, the statue of David is worth standing in line to see. I have done it twice and I would not trade the experience for anything. It is truly a magnificent work of art.

The next morning, I got on a Euro-Star train which took me to the train station in Milan. The Milan train station (Milano Centrale) is a hub for travel for all of Italy and Europe itself. Located in the northern part of the country, if you are coming from Switzerland or from Germany or France you always stop in Milan to change trains to go to Rome, Naples or anywhere further south. Yet, I was not just coming to Milan for the train station, I was coming to spend time in this amazing city.

Milan is the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome. The city has a population of about 1.4 million. Its outer suburbs even stretch into the nearby country of Switzerland making it the fourth largest in the EU with 5.27 million inhabitants. According to national sources, the population within the wider Milan metropolitan area (also known as Greater Milan), is estimated between 8.2 million and 12.5 million making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the largest in the EU.

The city’s role as a major political center dates back to the late antiquity, when it served as the capital of the Western Roman Empire. Milan is recognized as one of the world’s four fashion capitals; many of the most famous luxury fashion brands in the world have their headquarters in the city, including: Armani, Prada, Versace, Moschino, Valentino and Zegna.

Milan is also a global center of tourism, receiving millions of visitors every year with museums and art galleries that include some of the most important collections in the world, such as major works by Leonardo da Vinci. In the field of sports, Milan is home to two of Europe’s most successful football teams, A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. The city will host the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2026.

Some of the most famous sites to see in the city (of so many to see) are:

The Milan Cathedral also known locally as “The Duomo.”

Milan Cathedral is an artistic monument, well known for its stunning architecture. Also known as Duomo di Milano in Italian, this cathedral is one of the most iconic structures that is also serves as a symbol of Milan. This magnificent cathedral is noted for its Gothic-style architecture and impressive look. The structure was built over a period of six centuries, it is also known for being the third largest church in the world.

On the same plaza is world’s oldest shopping malls, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

One of the major landmarks in Milan, it was first opened back in 1877. The iron-and-glass architecture of the gallery is particularly notable as it was unprecedented in any shopping gallery of those days. It is home to many iconic stores and coffeehouses.

The Policlinico of Milan also known as Ospedale Maggiore di Milano, is one of the oldest hospitals in Italy, founded in 1456. It is a monumental complex which now lies mere steps from the Milan Cathedral and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in the heart of the historic city center. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was decided that the hospital needed to be moved. This move coincided with the founding of the University of Milan. The University took over the historic building complex and it now serves as one of the ten campus buildings spread throughout central Milan. The University is one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 60,000 students, and a permanent teaching and research staff of about 2,000. The Ospedale Maggiore di Milano today it is a modern hospital with nine hundred beds, with wards for adults, pregnant women and children. During the first COVID-19 breakout in March 2020, 300 of those beds were readapted for COVID-19 patients.

La Scala Opera House is considered one of the greatest opera houses in the world on the same scale as the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Inaugurated in 1778, this legendary opera house is known for hosting the finest operatic artists in the world. Most of Italy’s greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala. Its impressive repertoire of music directors includes names such as Arturo Toscanini.

Mural – The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

The Last Supper is a mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1495–1498, and is considered one of his major works. The painting represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with the Twelve Apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John – specifically the moment after Jesus announces that one of his apostles will betray him. Its handling of space, understanding of perspective, treatment of motion and complex display of human emotion has made it one of the Western world’s most recognizable paintings and among Leonardo’s most celebrated works. Due to the methods used, a variety of environmental factors, and intentional damage, little of the original painting remains today despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999. Housed in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Reservations are required all year and tickets can only be booked up to four months in advance but usually sell out very quickly. The official ticket site, Cenacolo Vinciano, releases tickets for sale for periods of two to four months in advance. If you just show up to see it, you will be turned away.

On your next or first trip to Italy, make sure to give yourself time in each place to enjoy the amazing history, art, architecture and glory of these ancient and historically important modern cities.

All photos by James Carey, except the photo of The Last Supper @Wallpaper Cave.

Some information is provide by Wikipedia.

TripswithJames.com is a trademark of Carey On Creative, LLC

The Queen of Napoli’s Secret Bathing Pool

The place where she meet her lovers while ruling for 40 years.

Outside the town of Sorrento, Italy, the Gateway to the famous Amalfi Coast is a hidden natural swimming pool with a natural arch that leads out to the sea. The pool is a beautiful bluish green color. It’s a beautiful and romantic protected cove and you can understand why the Queen of Naples would come here to relax and have fun in the sun. At one time there was an old Roman temple here (I do not know which God or Goddess it was for), so it has been an important place since before the birth of Christ.

Cliffs for swimming and fishing at Cape Sorrento

It was a moderately warm but drizzly day in Sorrento where I was staying for a few days as I toured around Italy. I had already walked all over the city, eating amazing Italian food, taking a wild bus ride along the cliffs of the Amalfi coast to Positano and I needed something to do on this gray day. I was not going to stay in my hotel room just because of a little rain. I had heard of Queen Giovanna’s bathing pool, so I decided to go see it for myself.

The swimming hole of Queen Giovanna is not actually a secret today. It is quite a famous tourist attraction during the summer months along the Amalfi coast because of its wonderful views of the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius, the cliffs and the swimming. This spot along the Cape of Sorrento has been a popular destination for the rich and famous since the start of the Roman Empire. The ruins of a sprawling Roman villa called – Villa Pollio Felice – dating from the 1st century BC. still stands and can be visited. You can go down into the foundations of this Roman villa and hang out if you want. Many people do as evidence from the graffiti covered walls, the empty beer cans and wine bottles, and the odor of weed that lingers in the air. The original owner of this Roman villa could have never imagined that what is basically his basement would become a party place over 2000 years later.

The area around Bagni Regina Giovanna (or translated to Queen Giovanna Baths) is an archeological site and park but in true Italian style it is not protected like an American archeological site. It is a secluded spot located off the beaten path and there is no supervision or guard on duty so you can do whatever you want here on the cliffs above the bay. You are free to wander around, swim or sunbath, fish, have a picnic or cliff dive if you want. Yet, you must be careful because the paths are very rocky, and some are in disrepair, so it is easy to slip and fall to the rocks below. A staircase leads down to the pool. It is shallow and perfect for swimming.

How To Get There –

The baths and ruins are easily reached by bus with a short walk and climb. Begin on Via Capo from Sorrento, staying on this street until you reach Traversa Punta Capo. You can reach the road by cab for about 20 euros from city center you can also hop a bus here as well. There is a store where you can buy water, sandwiches, and basic supplies very close to the bus stop. Walk a few yards along Taversa Punta Capo and off to the right you will see what looks like an old Roman road with high walls along each side. You will follow the road down towards the Bay for about 20 minutes. You should take good walking shoes and the climb back up by this road can be tiring because it is uphill all the way, so you need to be in decent shape or take your time.

You will be passing old villas and homes – some lived in and several not, but on the other side of the walls are olive and lemon groves that seem to have been farmed for centuries. The road is wide enough for a small car or truck to pass by and the road is very old. It is paved but rough walking in many places.
You will eventually come to a staircase that will take you down into the park area. The trails in this area are in rough shape and the stairs down to the pool look unsteady but they seemed safe. You will find the Villa ruins here with its sweeping views, you can sneak down into the foundations if you want. You can make your way along a path that leads to a stony beach for swimming in the bay or take another staircase down to the bathing pool. I did it in November, so it was not crowded at all, and it was cool. During the summer months it will be much warmer and much more crowded so just follow the people.

Who was The Queen of Naples?

Regina Giovanna or Joanna (1326–1382) was a legend before her time. She inherited the kingdom of Napoli from her grandfather at 17 years old during the time when it was extremely rare for a queen to be the ruler of any Kingdom. It was assumed by everyone that she would give up her authority to her husband as soon as she married. Her first marriage took place when she was seven years old, and she married her cousin from Hungary who was six years old. His name was Andrew and of course they did not consummate their marriage until she was 18. Giovanna was smart, ambitious and spent most of her life defending her right to be queen from all the medieval men who kept trying to take her throne. She was married four times, lost both of her children, and had to defend herself from the Pope, her Hungarian relatives and her own family members who were determined to take her throne. Yet in a time of male dominance and when the entire political system was turned against her, she managed to stay on her throne for over 40 years. In the end she was betrayed by one of her Hungarian relatives who invaded Napoli, laid siege to her castle, imprisoned her and finally put her to death.

Unfortunately for Giovanna she is not remembered for her determination to stay on the throne, but instead for the legends that accuse her of murder, ruthlessness, sluttiness and general bad behavior. Whoever she was and whatever she did, it is no wonder that because of all the political intrigue and drama that took place in her palace that she needed a place to get away too. That place was this secretive but beautiful protective cove which allowed her to escape the worries and cares of ruling Napoli. According to legend, the Queen spent much of her time at these baths where she and her ladies-in-waiting waded around the waters with their various lovers. Call it scandalous, or call it sexy, either way this paradise stays, and today the Queen is honored in her favorite place in Naples by thousands of visitors each year.

All Photos by James Carey

Historic Charleston, South Carolina: A Journey into my Family’s Past

Over the holiday season, I went on a search for information on my father’s ancestors who first landed in historical Charleston, South Carolina, and while doing this, I also fell in love with this beautiful seaside city full of charm, history and grace. My family has a long history of being involved with Charleston, but I never experienced the city as an adult and had not been back in Charleston in over 30+ years. Though the trip started as a search for a family past, it quickly became a chance to discover this unique and lovely city and explore all it has to offer.

While we all have multiple grandparents and great grandparents, my family name comes from a gentleman by the name of Thomas Carey, my great-great grandfather who landed in Charleston in the late 1840s. He escaped Ireland with his three brothers and came to the New World seeking a better life; a life free of hunger, oppression and cultural prejudice at the hands of their British masters at the end of the great Irish Potato Famine. The other three brothers ended up landing in New York City and their histories and whereabouts are lost to the mists of time. For some unknown reason Thomas decided to try his luck in Charleston, and in doing so he left behind him possible starvation, grinding poverty, religious and cultural prejudice and possible genocide by a Protestant British government against their Irish Catholic subjects in the United Kingdom.

ONE OF THE MANY GRAVEYARDS LOCATED IN THE PENINSULA

Now times were not any easier for my great-great grandfather in Charleston than they were in the United Kingdom. On a social scale in Pre-Civil War Charleston, Irish Catholics were only slightly above freed African Americans and slaves. First of all they were Catholic in a Protestant city, most of the time they were not well educated, and popular assumptions seemed that the only things that they could do well was farm, drink and sing songs. Yet this is not a story of how the Irish progressed in American society, this is the story of the Carey family and how they progressed in Charleston. This journey into the past was also not a story of who married whom and where they’re buried, this is more story of how the Carey family lived and worked in historical Charleston.

FRENCH HUGUENOT CHURCH NEXT TO THOMAS CAREY’S HOUSE

Little is known about what part of Ireland Thomas came from and what his skill set may have been. All I managed to find out is that not long after he arrived he was somehow able to purchase a three-story building at 25 Queen St. just behind the French Huguenot Church on Church St. where he opened a bar on the ground floor and his family lived on the two top floors. Along the way he also became a stereotypical Irish cop walking a beat in Charleston and later a night watchman.

Thomas is remarkable for two things in terms of family history. He managed to fight in all five battles that took place around Charleston during the Civil War including the attack on Fort Sumter and the battle that was made famous in the movie “Glory” starring Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman. He also started a tradition that would last for four generations of Carey men only marrying Irish Catholic girls. Because of this my DNA according to Ancestry.com is 60% Irish even though the Carey family has been here for over four generations. My father was the first Carey male to marry someone who was not of Irish descent and outside the Catholic faith when he married my mother who was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister.

157 KING STREET, JAMES JOHN CAREY’S BUSINESS AND HOME

Thomas married a good Irish Catholic girl, and they had several children including a son by the name of James John who is my great grandfather. James John grew up in Charleston and became a very successful business owner who made his fortune installing gas lighting in people’s homes and along the streets of Charleston. He was so successful that he became an Alderman which was unusual for an Irish Catholic to accomplish in Charleston at that time. With his success he bought a building at 157 King St. which was the most prominent street in Charleston. His plumbing and pipe business was located on the first floor and his family lived above. He and his wife Jennie Devine had three daughters and one son. The son was George Thomas Carey, my grandfather. James John passed away very young, age 36.

My grandfather was raised in Charleston and met my grandmother, Anna Sylveria Reynolds there. At some point George and Sylveria moved to Charlotte, NC, and raised five children there. In leaving Charleston, George became the last Carey male namesake to live in Charleston. His three sisters stayed in the Charleston area, and I have many cousins that live there. However when I was very young an estrangement occurred between my mother and my father’s brothers and sisters. What caused it, why it happened no one can remember, yet it was there. So when my father passed when I was in my early teens, the Carey family connections just faded into the background of my life. Now many years later I’m trying to pick up some of those threads and this trip to Charleston was part of that family journey.

Yet, the weekend was more than old addresses and digging into family history. Charleston is a beautiful historic and very walkable city filled with restaurants, bars, shops, art galleries, theaters and music venues. The center historical section of Charleston is the Peninsula which has the Ashley River on one side and the Cooper River on the other. At its widest the peninsula is 15 blocks wide and south of Mary Street, it is 20 blocks to world famous Battery Park, where the Civil War started. Contained within those blocks is a very walkable section of the city where you can reach any part in less than 30 minutes on foot and it contains history that dates back to the early 1700s. Charlestonians revel in their food, their art, their architecture, culture and history. Some of that history is very dark especially if you go to the Old Slave Mart Museum which is located in the actual old slave market, a market that was active until the end of the Civil War.

I found this part of modern day Charleston, which is very tourist friendly to be diverse, culturally rich, very upscale and friendly in its southern hospitality. My partner and I snagged a very comfortable and affordable hotel room at the Hampton Inn which is part of the Hilton chain of hotels on the corner of Meeting and John Streets. The hotel also served a delicious breakfast in the morning for free. There are more expensive and luxurious hotels within the center section of Charleston, but this was perfect for us by meeting our budget and we were one block away from King Street which is the economic tourist center of the city.

CHARLESTON CITY MARKET, 4 BLOCKS LONG OF SHOPPING

And we walked a lot tracking down old family addresses, going to art galleries and finding wonderful off the beaten track restaurants and neighborhood bars. There was still so more stuff to do, and we didn’t even leave the peninsula to go to the other really enjoyable areas of Charleston. For a journey into the historical past and food that is the equal of New Orleans, I cannot recommend Charleston enough. We are looking forward to going back soon!

ONE OF THE MANY HISTORIC CHURCHES ON THE PENINSULA

Special Thanks to my second cousins Cliff Roberts and Charles Cansler, my first cousin Carey Roberts, and my sister Emilie Allen for the family information and history, and Laraine Smith for walking over 30 miles in two days as we wandered the streets of Charleston.

Traveling by Train to Lake Como, Italy

It was the first week of November and I was seating in a lakeside cafe in Lake Como, Italy. It was 54 degrees Fahrenheit; the sun was shining and the small city was crowded with tourists. Since the month was just starting, I could only imagine how crowded this popular tourist destination was during the summer. I was eating shrimp ravioli in a saffron and cream sauce while working my way through a half carafe of Italian Chardonnay. I’d been in Italy about five hours, and I was as happy as a clam. Lake Como was beautiful beyond belief and after spending four days in the gray rainy dreariness of Zurich, Switzerland to be sitting in the sunshine watching beautiful girls pass by I felt like I had won the lottery.

Yet it wasn’t easy to get here. While I had spent several hours online getting all the required documents and certifications that I needed to travel from the United States to Switzerland to meet all the COVID restrictions, I spent almost as much time getting the documents that I needed to travel from Switzerland to Italy. Because Switzerland is neutral, and Italy is part of the European Union, I had to acquire a complete new set of documents.

The main form that I needed was called the EU Digital Passenger Location Form also known as the dPLF. You can find the form at this web address https://app.euplf.eu/#/ .

The form is fairly simple to fill out. It’s only three pages long and has sections that include your permanent address, where you’re staying in Italy, how you’re entering the country either by train or by plane, how long you’re going to be there, what countries you’ve traveled to in the past 10 days and also if you were vaccinated. And then it has a declaration stating that you are vaccinated or have had a rapid test to prove that you do not have COVID. I filled out the form online and then downloaded the PDF onto my phone and also onto my computer. There is also a “Green Pass” QR code that you can use. This is the Italian version of the Swiss “Green Pass” which allows you to enter restaurants or concerts or museums. However, I found it very difficult to download even in its QR form. Unless you’re a citizen or are planning to stay there for a long time, the short-term passenger finds when they download the Italian Green Pass that it is only good for a couple of days and then you have to reapply for it. Instead of downloading their green pass, I just carried around my American passport with my vaccination card and that allowed me to get into any place that I needed to go.

So a warning for anyone who’s traveling to Italy from another part of Europe by train. No one will check your digital pass for the EU when you board the train. You must show it to the conductor when he comes through which was 30 minutes after I had boarded the train and we were already 20 miles down the tracks. When we crossed from Switzerland into Italy, the train stopped at the nearest station, and it was checked again. The conductor wanted to see my dPLF document and my vaccination card, because just like Switzerland they take this very seriously. If you don’t have the required material they will kick you off the train at the next station, and on many trains that cross borders there are armed police to enforce rules.

As you cross the border from Switzerland into Italy you will notice a very funny thing that happens. Switzerland is a very organized country. Its grass is cut, fences are fixed and there seems to be no trash anywhere. It’s not only a beautiful country, but also a well-maintained country as well. I saw little to no graffiti anywhere the entire time I was in Switzerland. Italy has a completely different mindset that is more relaxed about graffiti, the care of their lawns and their fences or their trash pickup. It’s as noticeable as night and day as you cross from Switzerland into Italy. Italy is a gorgeous country, it’s just a different way of life.

I had bought a ticket at the main train station in Zurich. The train from Zurich to Lake Como is about 3 hours. Traveling to Europe, you can be told if you’re an American that you need to buy a EuroRail pass online before you travel to Europe. That is not true at all. Europe is full of trains running in all different directions. Local trains, regional trains, and high-speed trains that cross borders. Trains are the main way that most people travel in Europe going from one place to another. It is not difficult to buy a train ticket, and the savings that you will get by buying a European Rail Pass in America online are not that significant. I personally just find it easier to go to the train station and buy the ticket that I need instead of worrying about which train my Rail Pass will allow me to get on.

I chose an excellent hostel that was located very close to the train station and was only four blocks from the main city square and two blocks from the lake shore. The hostel I chose is the Ostello Bello Lake Como Hostel and their address is Viale Fratelli Rosselli 9 Como, Italy 22100. I prefer staying in hostels as opposed to hotels for a couple of reasons. One they’re cheaper and two there is a built-in community of people who are doing the exact same thing that you are. It is an easy way to meet people. You already have something in common and they may have wonderful advice on places that you need to go see and things that you should do. I rented a single room with an ensuite bathroom. I’m just too old to share a dorm room with three or four other people. The room that I had rented was lovely with a view of a private garden and a bathroom with plenty of hot water.

Ostello Bello is a chain of hostels all throughout Italy, and you receive a discount of 10% to 20% at the other locations when you book through them. They have locations in Como, Florence, Milano, Rome as well as others though out the country. The hostels are all different in size and accommodations but the staff in each one is very friendly. I highly recommend them.

The town of Lake Como is not very big. The city centre is probably 10 blocks by 10 blocks and filled with cobblestone walkways, old churches and timeworn buildings but also filled with tons of restaurants and modern upscale shops. The city was founded by the Romans as a holiday getaway for the ultra-rich of Rome, and the gorgeous scenery of the lake and mountains is unparalleled with blue skies and snow-covered mountain peaks.

In my next blog, I write about all the things to do in Como from museums to visiting the ancient lakeside town of Bellagio.

Till then Ciao!

All photos and film by James Carey. Copyright CareyOn,LLC 2022.

Lake Como, Italy – A Short Film

An Amazing Italian Lake Vacation!

A short travel video of Lake Como, Italy from this year! A blog about traveling in Italy during COVID will be loaded soon. Happy Holidays 2021.

James Carey

A Cost of Freedom, a forgotten film finds new life!!

Old Short Film Wins New Awards

For followers of the blog, you may know that I am a film maker and theatre director. I am very pleased to announce that my short film that I just released to the international film festival circuit just a few weeks ago has already won an award in one festival and is a finalist in another.

(There is a link to the film at the bottom of this page.)

A Cost of Freedom was a short film conceived in 2004 and shot in 2005. The story is based on a short story by Italian writer, Luigi Pirandello, called War. Pirandello lived from 1867 to 1934. Pirandello’s basic story is a group of parents riding on a train after World War 1 all talking about how their sons died in the war. Some are proud, some are hopelessly sad, some are just hopeless. The story when I first read it in college has always provoked deep emotion in me about the futility of sending young men and women to war, while the makers of war never seem to fight themselves.

I was moved to make the film when I read about young men and women who were not US citizens but grew up in the States legally (green card holders) that volunteered to the various services when we were attacked in the 2001 World Trade Center attack (9/11). It has always been the policy of the US Armed Services to give full citizenship to these green card soldiers if they die in combat allowing them to get a military funeral and their families the few benefits that the armed services give out. Yet, when the Iraq War was started by the Bush administration they needed a lot of new soldiers because we were now fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq at the same time. President Bush got the law changed to now not only offer US citizenship to the dead soldier but to their immediate families as well. A lot of young green card holders saw this as a way to create a pathway to citizenship for their families so they joined the war effort. I took Pirandello’s story and mixed it with the stories of young non-US citizens fighting for us in Iraq to make a film which I felt paid honor to those sacrifices but also laid bare the hypocrisy of this system of using non-US citizens to fight in our wars.

ACTORS MORRIS SCHORR AND THERESE MCLAUGHLIN

Yet when I started to make the film, I found different people reacted to my little antiwar film script in very different ways, especially when I needed a real army uniform for one of my characters. The actor I chose for that part was actually a reserve officer but to use his uniform he had to get permission from his commander. To my everlasting surprise, the commander not only approved the use of the uniform but also gave us access to many other unit elements like official flags and posters and emblems.

And that has always been the reaction to the film. People have seen past my limited view of my own film to the human elements of love and grief and pride in these real life stories and Pirandello’s brilliant original short story.

The film came out in 2007, a time where there was really no place to view short films. There were festivals back in the day, but it was an expensive and time consuming effort to get your films around the country and the world to be viewed with no real idea that it would be screened. So A Cost of Freedom just sat on a shelf for almost 16 years until a young film editor named Tal Anderson re-edited the film for me and updated the sound and some minor effects. Since its re-release, the film has won a Best Drama award at the Reale Film Festival in Milan, Italy and is now a Finalist at the Rome Prisma Independent Film Awards Festival (in Rome, Italy).

I want to congratulate my cast and crew from back in 2005 especially my producer, Vivian Best, who is now a famous feature photographer, plus my new film editor in 2021 for their hard work and efforts. The praise and accolades should have been there long ago, but at least people are now seeing and enjoying this story told by a lot of very talented people. There is a link to the film below –

Yours, James Carey – Filmmaker of A Cost of Freedom!

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/638267918

Zurich, Switzerland- A short video

A day in Zurich!

I hope you enjoy the video. A blog on traveling to Zurich in the age of COVID will be coming in the next days.

Images of the Salton Sea, California

Jekyll Island, Georgia’s Gilded Playground

Millionaires Row on the Georgia Coast!

Jekyll Island just before Christmas Day 2020

After spending the late fall in Atlanta, GA during 2020, when the cold wet winter arrived I escaped further South to Jekyll Island just before Christmas. The weather was in the low 60s and the island had decked itself out with its annual Christmas light show. The light show is a self-guided driving tour that takes you through several parts of the island and ends at the historical district with amazing lighting displays in front of the houses and through the 100-year-old Oak trees that are spread throughout the historical district. Then after the tour, I went inside the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, and had an expertly made Old Fashion at the bar while maintaining social distance. It was a warm and lovely way to kick off the Christmas season even during such a horrible year as 2020!

Christmas Light display in the Historical District.

Jekyll Island which is part of the Gold Coast of Georgia has a rich history that stretches back to at least the 1400s where it was first a Native American settlement as part of the Creek Nation. Starting around 1510, white man arrived and over the next couple of centuries it was colonized first by the French, then the Spanish and finally the English until it became part of the United States. But in the late 1800s, Jekyll island was taken over by an entirely new type of invader, the American Captains of Industry!

After the American Civil War, the original owners of the island returned and set up shop once again. Previous to the war Jekyll island had been a plantation whose work force was based on African American slaves. The island was owned by the Du Bignon family, who were refugees from France that had escaped the French Revolution. Upon their return to the island, the father, Henri Charles Du Bignon divided the island among his four children.

The 100 year old Oak trees between houses in the Historical District.

JEKYLL ISLAND CLUB

In 1875 John Du Bignon started to buy out the rest of his family and set about trying to market the island as a winter retreat for the super wealthy of the Northeast on par with summer retreats such as Bar Harbor, Maine and Newport, Rhode Island. The plan came to fruition on February 17, 1886. He and 53 wealthy investors formed a private club called the Jekyll Island Club, and a limit of 100 members was imposed to preserve the club’s exclusivity.

The first building of the new club to be built was the large Jekyll Island Club Hotel, a two-winged structure that served as the centerpiece of the club. The “club” began to sell off plots in the area surrounding the Hotel and soon some of the wealthiest families in America had built large mansions called “cottages” which became known locally as “Millionaires Row”.

Moss Cottage, Home of the Macy Family. The shingles are made from local Cypress trees on the island.

Some of the millionaire owners were the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Goodyear family, the Macy (the department store) family, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Joseph Pulitzer. They would arrive by private railroad car or private yacht bringing with them servants, horses, buggies, and other toys to amuse themselves during the winter months. It is rumored that every time Carnegie’s yacht arrived that he demanded that a cannon be fired off in salute to him.

The back of Indian Mound Cottage, home of the Rockefellers. Named for a mound in front of the house thought to be an Native American burial site. It was really a large mound of oyster shells buried.

The largest and most expensive winter home built on Jekyll was Crane Cottage. Richard Teller Crane, Jr – think Crane plumbing fixtures. 20 Bedrooms and 17 Bathrooms! It caused quite an uproar, as Club members valued the “simplicity” of their cottages. To try and be good neighbors, it’s said the Cranes had marble flooring removed and replaced with wood.

View of the Crane Cottage from the gardens.

The “club” also played a role in the formation of the Federal Reserve system of banks that we have today. According to history, a duck hunt on the island lead to the creation of our national banking system. In November 1910, Senator Nelson Aldrich and Asst. Secretary of the Treasury met with five of the country’s leading financiers in the Club Room of the Hotel and devised a plan to create a national banking system that became the Federal Reserve which is the agency that sets national banking and monetary policy for the US.

Jekyll Island Club Hotel, centerpiece of the Historical District. Hotel is still operational 12 months a year.

Jekyll Island was also part of the first transcontinental phone call which took place in 1915. The call took place between President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C., Alexander Graham Bell in NY, Thomas Watson in San Francisco and Theodore Vail, president of AT&T who was on Jekyll Island. Remember when long distance was expensive? It was REAL expensive when it first became available – a call between New York and San Francisco? $20.70 for the first 3 minutes.

The Sans Souci, the first “condo” building on the island. Six luxury apartments for single Millionaires *right next to the Hotel.* No children or mistresses allowed. There large balconies on both front and back of the apartments.

From 1888 to 1942 the club opened every January for the winter season, yet even the wealthy suffered during the Great Depression, and the club had financial difficulties. When the United States entered World War II, it ordered the island evacuated for security purposes, ending the era of the Jekyll Island Club. After the war in 1947, the State of Georgia bought the island.

Map of the Historical District including the businesses that serve the tourists.

In the midsection of the intercoastal side of the island is a designated 240-acre (0.97 km2) Historic District. This includes most of the buildings erected during the Jekyll Island Club period, which have been carefully preserved. The district revolves around the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. Thirty-three buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries surround the hotel and many of them are the elaborate mansion-sized “cottages” built by the rich. Some cottages offer rooms for rent for temporary stays. Others have been adapted for use as museums, art galleries, or bookstores. The hotel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district itself has been listed as a National Historic Landmark District since 1978.

Tram tours originate from the Jekyll Island Museum located on Stable Road directly across from the historic district. They run several times daily and guides describe much of the history of this area.

The view of the shoreline from the Jekyll Island Wharf.

THE NEXT TO LAST SLAVE SHIP

Sadly, Jekyll Island also played a part in the end of Slavery in the United States. America ended legal slave trade in 1808, but the practice was continued illegally until the beginning of the Civil War. The last ship to bring slaves from Africa to the US was the Clotilda out of Mobile, Alabama in July 1860. Yet, the next to last ship was the Wanderer, a pleasure boat that was converted by Southern slave traders in Africa and brought the last large load of slaves from Congo to Georgia in 1858. Of the 500 Africans bought for the voyage, 409 survived and arrived off the southern tip of Jekyll. The crew smuggled the captured Africans ashore and then on to the mainland. News of the slave ship set off a wave of outrage. The federal government’s effort to prosecute the conspirators was unsuccessful. For several years, it was thought that the Wanderer was the last documented slave ship to arrive in the USA before proof of the Clotilda was found.

View from the front of the Crane Cottage (Mansion). The waterway in front is part of the Inter-Coastal Waterway.

Jekyll Island Tourist Information

The island also serves as host to Georgia Sea Turtle Center which is a functioning hospital and rehabitation center for sick and injured Sea Turtles and is the only center of its kind in Georgia. It is open to the public. For more information about times and events, call 912-635-4444, or go to https://www.explorejekyllisland.com/Sea_Turtle_Center.shtml .

Jekyll Island Historic Tours & Gift Shop offers a variety of tours for the whole family. Take a guided tour and step back in time as each historic building’s story unfolds, and the Jekyll Island Club and the National Landmark Historic District come alive. For more information, please call 912.635.4036. Or visit https://www.jekyllisland.com/history-category/tours/.

Sailboat on the Inter-Coastal Waterway which runs by Jekyll Island.

Photos by James Carey

Information provided by Wikipedia and Jekyll Island Historical District and www.explorejekyllisland.com.

Images of the Southern Gulf Coast

The Gulf Coast is a beautiful and timeless place full of images the Old South and the new. Spanish moss, old Coke machines, and wetlands mix with modern industry and political changes and reawakened downtowns. From the juxtaposition of sleepy tourist towns to the NASA Space Program, there is always something to see and appreciate along the Gulf Coast. These are just a few random images that reminded of my home area.

@ All photos taken by James Carey