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May 22 Rome--Part 3Well here it is. . . the final chapter in the Italian adventure. I still miss Italy a lot. At least there is a very cute guy that just sat across from me at this internet cafe in Paris: His good looks help take away some of the sadness for leaving such a wonderful place! Friday in Rome continued. . . later that night we got ourselves dressed up and ready for a nice dinner and a night out on the town at Alien Disco Club. Had to take a cab to get to the club but that was reasonable split 3 ways. When we got to the club we were about a half an hour early so we settled down in a little bar across the street. As we watched the people in the bar and hanging around the area we kept saying we should ask one of them where they are going because they looked like they were all goth-punked out for a great club that we'd like to know about. Meanwhile these same people were all eyeing us and wondering what we were doing there as we obviously weren't regulars. Thank goodness we dressed in cross-over style because when we went in the club a bit later it was totall gothic-industrial night and was great. Only difference was that they tended to dress more on the punk side and were amazingly happy which was fun to see. The next morning I looked at my club listing notes to notice that I'd forgotten to see that Friday's at Alient Disco Club are "Thank Goth it's Friday" nights! Now I'm continuing this blog from a cafe in Chamonix France. . . where I must interject that I had the most awesome experience tandem parasailing through the French Alps. Might as well go home now as I don't know how I can top that!!! Okay, back to Rome. Alien Disco Club was cool and had 3 rooms, 2 of which had music going on. The main room played upbeat happy Cure songs (yup, they did make a few happy ones), Depeche Mode and OMD as well as ones some of you would recognize but they escape me now. The back room was a little smaller and played the heavier more danceable for me industrial stuff. The dj gal was cool and played a few of my requests. VNV Nation's Chrome is a guaranteed play in every club here as well as home. Oh and on that note--special thanks to Jen at home for picking me up concert tickets for the weekend I get back. . . can't wait to see them live! Elizabeth and Kerry took an earlier cab home and I stayed about an hour longer. Was great place, very Mercury like in the back and Vogue on a retro night in the front. Felt right at home other than I missed my usual friends from the scene. Will see you guys in about 5 or 6 weeks now. Saturday wegot up at 7am so that we could catch a train to Naples to visit the ancient city of Pompei. Once in Naples we had to take another shuttle train 20-40 minutes to the site. Boy we felt like we were slumming it. There was graffiti everywhere and it was dirty and there were less than appealing people on the train. Pompei was very cool though. Couldn't belive how large it was. And there really isn't much that is off limits. You could spend hours wandering the ruined city. I was amazed at how many things like mosiac floors and frescoes had survived. Was a little sad that they didn't rope those off because people wrote graffiti on the ruins. What a crappy thing to do. We explored the ruins for about 2 hours, grabbed a bite for lunch and then headed out. The only other thing that really stood out to me there was the large number of stray dogs there. At least 30 wandering the site mostly by the food vendor. While we didn't spend as much time as we though we would there we were still very glad we went. When we got back we found this very colorful little bistro and had the best dinner. Just regular food but was done to perfection. Elizabeth was a doll and treated me to dinner for the second time (first was in Florence) as a thank you for being such an organized tour guide.
After we went to the Jungle Club where it was Dunklezone Gothic Night. I was hoping to go to a regular club in Rome but oh well. Thought that is what Friday was going to be but it was all good. Plenty of regular clubs on the rest of my trip planned. The club wasn't very big and didn't have a lot of people compared to Alien. The music was good but no one really danced. Again it was divided like before with two dance areas. The rooms were really really loud which got a bit tiresome. I requested like 6 songs from the dj after listening to his mix for awhile. Got Chrome played as expected but was flattered when on my way out he grabbed me to say great songs requested and a few he needed to look up and was excited to hear. The way back was the only brush with attempted crime I've come across the whole trip. It was about 2:30 or 3am and we were walking around trying to find a cab (not a walkable distance and bus not an option). These 2 drunk guys (noticeably drunk) came up to Kerry who was carrying his leather jacket in his arms and put there arms around him while laughing like you'd do with a good friend. Then the one guy tried to trip him, even though we were more amazed he could stand up enough to try that move, while the other guy grabbed for his jacket. Elizabeth and I both slapped the guys and after a few seconds they backed off. We went into the open newsstand we were in front of and they guys started getting pissed that we stopped them and they started yelling at us. I said we'd just hang here until they left since there were other people there. A few cops from a block away came our direction and the guys left and we did too since we saw an available cab drive by. Kerry hadn't even figured out what was going on until after.
Sunday we parted ways. My roomies had to get up at like 5:00a to get to the airport in time to fly to Great Britain. My flight to Rome wasn't until a bit later so I got up around 6 since I couldn't sleep anymore, packed and made calls to friends and family to catch up and use up minutes on the calling cards. It is hard to find good times to call people. The best time for you guys is if I get up at 6 or 7 am (sorry, just not gonna happen for a call) and the best for me is in the early evening which is first thing in the am for you or late at night when you are all at work. Okay, that was Italy. . . loved it and want to go back! Now to tell you about Greece! May 16 Rome--Part 2Now I am in Paris and am using a French keyboard. Kind of weird. . . but almost like normal. A is where W goes; W is where Z goes; M is where semi colon. . . and a few other quirks. This is a sure way to slow me down since I am an anal typist! Thursday morning my roomies wanted to sleep in late again. . . gosh, never thought to wonder why I kept wandering past the market to the Tiber River and walked along the waterfront then crossed a bridge to the other side. Got some of my favorite bridge pics there. Really appreciated time by myself just to wander: I met up with E and K after lunch so we could check out the inside of the Pantheon and head out on a quest to find the Cappucin Crypt. That's the crypt where they artistically arranged the bones of hundreds of monks. It was cool and creepy at the same time. My favorite part of it was waiting for people to come out at the top before we were allowed in. The range of expressions and reactions to what people had seen ranged from grotesquely horrified to saddened to amazed in a cool way (by teenagers). I thought it was interesting as did Kerry but Elizabeth was suprised at her own reaction that she was disturbed by it. Then we headed on the Metro to the other end of town to go to the National Museum and the little site that you get to see for free with it. My roomies were tired and needed a nap so they left the museum after 20 minutes or so and I finished up on my own and window shopped my way home. I stopped in at an Irish pub called "the Surge" behind our hotel and wrote in my journal, enjoyed a brew and chatted with the folks there. They didn't have the right change for my 20 so they gave me a free one and I told them I'd be back to settle up. Met up with the roomies for dinner and we felt a little low key that night so we went to the pub to chill out. The folks there were happy to see me again and wouldn't let me settle my tab. That's the general attitude here--nice things for nice people, no biggie. There was some kind of celebration going on with the 20 or so people in the pub and they were doing a big champagne toast: The older mother of who we assumed was the toastee brought us each over a big glass of champagne to join in the celebration. That was just so nice that we totally felt like a part of the group. Friday I made us all get up early--hey they'd been sleeping in until 10 or 11 and they agreed--so we could ctch the 8am Metro out to the Vatican City. Did you know that the Vatican City is actually its own country with its own postage, police and government? Yup. The Vatican Museum is the first thing you see as you approach the Vatican from the Metro station. Starting to get faster with this keyboard thank goodness! Frustrating when the head goes faster than the fingers when you have a lot to say! Anyhoo it was so funny to see this long line of people, really it was a long line of umbrellas going for 2 blocks then around the corner 3 to 5 wide and then a giant mess of them in the middle street area. Kind of looked cool until you realized that these were all people who wanted to get in and see the same things you do. We decided to skip starting with the museum as the line was obviously really, really long and it didn' even open for 30 minutes. So we headed to the line for the Basilica of San Marco--St Mark's Basilica. Line looked long but went really fast. Was amusing to see what type of people carried what umbrella while waiting. . . men with floral patterns, women with zebra stripes, those who obviously bought theirs from street vendors like me and where falling apart like mine. The church was free to enter and was quite exquisite! Just what I had imagined. Glad we got there on the earlier side because there were a lot of people inside but all things considered it was probably on the emptier side for big tourist times. We followed a little shorthand guide to what to see and look at with a few informational blurbs. The best part about the guide was that around the 12th spot covered as you are standing in front of one of many giant pictures it says that there are no paintings in the church . Everything is a mosiac. That made us do a real double-take and it couldn't have been timed better for maximum impact! Next we went down to the crypt beneath the church to see where all of the popes are entombed. It was sad that the people were so loud and kept taking pictures when they weren't supposed to. Oh, one quick side note--E and I thought this was funny when we where in the Cathedral in Assisi. It's no surprise that when you are in a church you are supposed to be quiet. In many of the churches you'll hear someone who's job it is to shh people and say "silence". In the Assisi church there was a guy who did this with a microphone because of the sheer size of the place and the fact that there were church services going on while we where there. He would repeat about every 2 or 3 minutes in a booming voice that sounded like god talking directly to you "Shhhhhhhhhh. Silencio. . . Silence!" It was amusing about the 3rd time you heard it and we felt it would have been perfect for this important church. Not sure if you know this but you can climb to the top of the dome of St Mark's Basilica and it was just something I had to do even though it was raining and quite windy at the top. E and K paid the 7 Euro to ride the elevator that took you up the first 200 stairs to the upper part of the inside of the church where you can look down in the church at the people but they didn't want to climb the 320 steps that get you all the way to the top. Too bad for them!! Just want you to know that I would have climbed all the steps but old marble steps in the rain are quite slippery and we saw people slipping often. Wasn't willing to risk injury even for god's grandest church this early in my travels. Sorry big fella in the sky! The climb up was fun because the farther up you went the more you had to lean to the inside because of the shape of the dome. Was a mind-bender not to stand straight up at times. View at top was beautiful and definitely worth it even if it was raining; windy and crowded with tons of umbrellas. Lots of people slipped on the stair climb down. After that we grabbed a bite at what we soon dubbed to be the worst food at the restaurant with the most irritated people ever. After lunch we hopped in line for the Vatican Museum. Sadly; it was in exactly the same place as it was in the morning but at least the museum was open now. We didn't realize that the line went around two other sides of the building: That was a good thing because we were in line for 1.5 hours. Really in the three and a half weeks of travel and tourism this was my first line of any consequence. . . it just sucked because it moved slower than molasses, was raining, and honestly I was getting grossed out by excessive PDA's by my companions. Now up until this point I dealt fine with the constant handholding; need to be touching in some form or another and pecks or more here, there and more times than necessary. . . but it was a little on the overboard side here. And just after visiting the Vatican. I was so bored in line that after awhile I decided to start timing how long they could go without kissing: In a thirty minute period they managed to go as long as 1.5 minutes. I was so proud of them! At least they were enjoying the line. The museum was great. E and K were in a giant hurry just to see the Sistine Chapel and split but the one-way floor plan made that a little hard and it took us about an hour and a half to get to it. I bought a pretty crucifix necklace that I am very pleased with and have been wearing a lot. At a point after the chapel we were all ready to leave at the same time but they wanted to go straight back to the hotel for another nap. Gosh they sure were sleepy: I shopped my way back and finally found some jeans that I desparately needed b/c I
forgot to notice the ones I brought were wearing out fast in a very
inconvenient place. Also found 2 shirts for dirt cheap. Yeah for some
good shopping results finally! I'll wrap this up in part 3. Okay, guess I have been on the wordier side with Rome too. May 15 Rome--Part 1Rome will be a less lengthy report (ha ha you chuckle to yourself) because I didn't take as many notes and while it was definitely a great place and I'm glad I had 5 days here I just don't have as much to say about it. Okay, we'll see. . .
So we got to Rome on Tuesday afternoon around 4p and I made a few calls while Elizabeth excitedly awaited the arrival of her "boyfriend" 14 years her junior. Ahh, young love. . . Kerry, 24 years old from England but born in the states, showed up around 6pm. The two of them had only seen each other 2 times in 3 days back in January and now after phone calls they were getting "re-acquainted". Thank goodness they showed a little self control at this first meeting. After a bit we all went out to dinner and I enjoyed a savoury treat of wurstel, sauerkraut and potatoes. By then it was around 10 or 10:30 so we decided to walk down about 5 minutes from our hotel and see the Colosseum at night. Ohh, what a pretty site at night. Looked perfect and with no one around it felt like you shouldn't get to walk up to it but you could. My friends started getting a little frisky so I elected to walk around that area and people watch--lots of street vendors selling everything you could possibly make glow in the dark. I was careful to knock very loudly on the door when I got back about 45 minutes later.
Wednesday morning my roommates said that they wanted to sleep in until at least 10 or 11 so I headed out the door around 8 or so and hit the internet cafe to update you all on Florence. I went to a cheap place that was a laundromat with a few internet stations in the back. The guy running the place was already halfway into a bottle of wine at 9am. Was a bit amusing. As I was on my way to the internet joint it started to rain. Not Seattle rain, real rain drops. I looked around trying to eye a place where I might buy an umbrella when in an instant there were 8 or 10 street vendors walking the 2 blocks I could see in either direction instantly available with umbrellas to sell. It is hilarious how they have fruit to sell anywhere to drivers that are stuck in traffic, umbrellas the instant it rains and purses at the ready at any moment. While a bit eerie it was handy to buy an umbrella within 30 seconds of needing one. It made it all the way through the 4th day of rain in Rome. . . used the hotel one for the last day of rain in Rome. Are you picking up that it rained every day in Rome? Yup.
I was thrilled and a bit suprised to see that Elizabeth and Kerry were up and nearly ready to go when I got back to the hotel. We went across the street for lunch and had inexpensive panini's and hot chocolate. Note I didn't say inexpensive hot chocolate. This was my "re-enforcing" lesson to make sure you ALWAYS know the price before ordering. The hot chocolates were tasty but by no means were they 8 Euro each tasty. .. and we each had one. The rain had stopped as we walked across the street to the cafe but we were bracing ourselves for a rain-filled Roman ruins exploration afternoon. As luck would have it the skies parted and fluffy white clouds skipped their way into the backdrop of the ruins against a crayola blue sky. It warmed up perfectly and everything was perfect for our 3 or 4 hours of exploration. We wandered all over the ruins near the Colloseum that include the Forum, Imperial Palace (not exact name but I'm being quick), Capitol Hill, Palatine Hill, and went inside the Colloseum. I am still amazed at how perfect the weather was for all of that. Then within 2 minutes of our "calling it a day" and starting back to the hotel the skies opened up and it rained again. Like magic.
We went back to the hotel to shower and get gussied up to go to dinner near the area where we were going to go later that night after a walk that started at the Spanish Steps and then took us to the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. Oh, the skies cleared up again like magic for our walk and looked so perfect that I forgot my umbrella. Stayed perfect almost all the way through dinner but where we were going after wasn't supposed to be very far away so we weren't worried. When we left for the Full Moon Club for their gothic Wednesday night it really started pouring. We're talking big ol' fat and heavy drops that felt cool. . . if you hadn't just done your hair and makeup just for going out. E and I shared her umbrella and within a few minutes we all hopped in a cab. The cabbie gave up trying to figure out where we were going and dropped us off a few blocks away annoyed. Was weird. We finally figured it out and nearly drenched even though we had an umbrella we found the doorbell to ring to get into the Full Moon Club. It was a tiny hole in the wall bar joint that was for "members only". Lucky for us it was free membership and they were happy to give us our brand spanking new membership cards. I think I'll accidently present that card instead of my regular Merc card when I go out next in Seattle and say. . . "Oh, I'm sorry, that's my membership card for my Italian Gothic Club, so sorry!". I know, I'm retarded but Elizabeth is going to do it too!
I knew and warned the other two that this club was more of a joke and something to do just to say we went. The pictures on their site were very well lit--nowhere near the dark and gloomy context of the gothic scene and the people had long rocker-grunge hair with giant happy smiles on their faces. That's great that they are having fun, but again the goal in the goth scene in the states is more to look deeply intense, introspective and frankly as disinterested as possible in the goings-on around you. That is until a friend comes up then you have a private fun happy moment and go back to the act. Well, in reality my friends aren't so dramatic that way in the scene but everything in Europe is totally happy fun so it was an interesting change. The club was jam-packed with the 2 people that worked their and the other person that showed up. There was barely room for us to sit in the back room at the table with a skeleton in it but we managed to squeeze it. Was a fun experience and we called it a night on the early side. The people were really nice and they did play great music so it was worthwhile especially since we knew what we'd be walking into. Okay, think I'll turn Thursday into a new blog. . . but I'll have to continue it in Paris as I need to repack and go to bed since it is midnight here in Santorini and tomorrow I have a 7:25am flight to Athens to connect to my flight to Paris. Oh, and after an hour of looking online before writing this I still don't have a place to stay in Paris. Might stay the first night with Antonella if I need to. Bye for now! Hill Towns of ItalyHello again! Sitting here in Mykonos and ready to type until my fingers are little bloody stumps. Have a lot of updating to do. Only had about an hour worth of time in Athens online so choose to upload pictures intead of write. Hope you've gotten to see my pics from Florence, the Hill Towns and Rome. Now hopefully you'll get the in-between stuff! Okay, this is a little frustrating. I've written a bunch and the computer keeps crashing every time I go to save. Thirty minutes of typing and typing same thing again. Urgg. Think I'm going to have to try this from a different cafe. . .
Okay, now I'm emailing you from Ia in Santorini waiting for the beautiful sunset to happen in a few hours with my temporary travel buddy Sam. So let's catch up to the hill towns all from memory! Elizabeth and I left Florence Sunday morning by rental car. Got a very fancy car that resembles a Euro-Soccer-Mom automobile--a Lancia Musa. Very easy car to drive. Manual of course that handled like my Focus but felt like a mini van because you sat so high. The rental place told us to take 2 lefts and just follow the blue circle signs with white arrows to stay on the main road and follow signs to Siena. It was really pretty easy to do but felt like we were playing a giant game of Candy Land combined with Where's Waldo. I'm sure if I grew up with these road signs it wouldn't be that way but they just seemed so happy, colorful and simple it was fun. Getting out of Florence was easy but it seemed like we were driving around and around in circles (following the arrows) for like 20 minutes as if we were following long strands of spaghetti in a giant heap on a plate. After what seemed like an eternity that put us farther into the center we were magically on a country road.
Happened in a blink of an eye. The country roads were beautiful as you can see from the pictures. Drivers weren't too crazy, not like in the city at least. For the first half hour or so we kept stopping for pictures of the landscape every two minutes. After a while we figured out that this is just what the Italian countryside looked like and we would get to see a lot of it! Gorgeous, gorgeous and more gorgeous. Lots of fun to drive the winding roads too. Took us about 2 hours or so to get to the town of San Gimignano. About a mile or so before the town we stopped at a streetside stand where a family was selling local specialty wines. It was amazing how "inexpensive" they were. 2.50 Euro for a bottle. Had to buy one to enjoy later that day or so--was quite tasty. This was a hill town sort of on the way to Siena where we were spending the night. It was like a very old-fashioned medieval town where everything was castle like. It was also the first time on my whole trip that I actually felt like I was in tourist-land. The town has really converted the majority of its existence to cater to tourists but still had a charm that was very rewarding. It was also filled with tourists. Felt like a brigade of photo-hungry, fanny-pack wearing legions had invaded. We had some lunch, wandered around and began our treck to Siena.
About 20 minutes into our drive to Siena it started raining. Sometimes lightly, sometimes heavy. Was a nice weather change (guess it's not always perfect in Italy!) but it made all of the greens darker and richer on the hillsides so was cool to see the weather change. Found the countryside fascinating because it appeared as if all of the trees were always planted in rows. Not just around homes and churches but on hills where there was no farming or anything. Lots of "broccoli" and "asparagus" trees as we liked to refer to them. Took us just over 2 hours to get to Siena and we didn't have any problems getting there. Was a bit of an adjustment to go from looking for highway and freeway names to just navigating by city. The maps have all kinds of street or some kind of numbers on them but they didn't seem to relate to anything in our version of reality. We just looked ahead to a big city name in the direction we were traveling and then tried to recognize any smaller cities on the way.
While spending all of this time in the car, which was a nice break for our feet, we had an opportunity to do a lot of channel hopping in the car. I was really excited about that because I hadn't had a chance to catch much of the local music scene out of my MTV/Milan experience. Turns out that they just don't play anything but American music on the stations. They are apparently really in love with the late 80's and early 90's music genres and are very dedicated to it. Was nice in some way to know the words to all of the songs but then again, it was a little like the twighlight zone with a tinge of disappointment. Have to say that I REALLY loved driving the highways with no upper speed limit. . . that little Lancia Musa wasn't a powerful car but certainly could get up and go when it needs to. Once we got out on the main autostrada I averaged about 140 kph depending on how rainy and curvy the roads were but on a few very nice stretches got up to 190 kph (that's about 118 mph so you don't have to run out to your car or open another browser). Don't worry mom and dad--I was a safe driver!
Getting to Siena as I said was easy. Getting into Siena was an entirely different matter altogether. Apparently there was a GIANT football (soccer) game going on that afternoon and the entire town that is situated up on a hill was closed to all traffic and all of the parking at the base was full. There is a reason it is a hill town. It is up on a hill. We couldn't get up on the hill and the closest we could get by car left us a 45 minute walk up that just wasn't going to happen if we could help it. It took us a full 30 minutes of trying to get in through every road possible and having confused conversation with cops before finding one who finally could communicate to us that there was a game and that there was no way to get into town. This sucked because we wanted to use that remaining afternoon time to explore things, do dinner and watch sunset, etc. He did his best to tell us where we could park. We found that place and it was full. Every time we thought we were getting closer we were farther and farther away. Not wanting to spend another hour in the car (yes we were up to an hour of trying to find a place to park/get up) we decided to invent our own parking spot in a grassy median. Hey, there were some other cars parked there.
It was definitely a questionable parking spot with some questionable cars around but we took a number of pictures of the car, the location and the cars and buildings/signs around for identification and problem purposes. Then we took our luggage and headed in the direction of what looked like could be a road that led up the hill. Thank god 5 minutes into our walk we ran into a hotel that we had driven by about 6 times. I was commenting to Elizabeth that we should definitely take a cab back to our car in the morning to save time to get more out of the day when she brilliantly said we should take one now. Great idea! The hotel guy explained that this was probably the worst time to try to get into Siena and it was a good thing we decided not to walk because it would be at least 45 minutes of uphill hiking, not walking, real hiking. He called us a cab and the cabbie was able to get passed the closed off roads and take us to the door of our hotel. We had the cabbie do a drive by and make sure he felt it was okay and safe for us to leave our car there and he said all was good. Four flights of stairs later we made it into our nice room in Antonella's B&B.
Everything touristy to do outside of shopping in stores was closed because it was almost 7pm. We decided to walk around a little bit, figure out what we wanted to tackle in the morning and get some dinner. Siena is a much bigger town and is more of a college town so there were a lot of people, particularly locals at this time of day which was a nice change from San. G. We found a swanky bar to hang out at that was playing fun dance music and had some fun cocktails. The bar maid was a hoot and obviously a draw for a large crowd of local guys who came to admire her bouncy cocktail shaker accessories. She sure shook the drinks a lot. It seemed that she did not like Elizabeth at all and pretty much refused to acknowledge her existence at the bar. She didn't seem to have a problem with me, not sure why, and she would get really excited and give me a wink when I would order 2 drinks at a time. Very weird. They also had great appetizers so we filled up a little there and then went out to catch a sunset view of a church that we never made it over to.
After sunset we went to the upstairs part of the bar where their restaurant was and both enjoyed tasty veal dinners. I had this amazingly succulent veal in a marsala and mushroom sauce with a side of spinach soufle. Yummy! E had a different veal dish that seemed to be more breaded and fried veal. Turned in early and got up at a reasonable hour (in E's opinion too) to visit the duomo there and all of the related combo-ticket items. Oh the food for breakfast in the B&B was amazing! Pastries, yummy omletes, cheeses, toasts, juice, tea, etc and the ladies that ran it were the nicest women ever! When we got to the church it was beautiful as expected. I liked that they had this counter thing as you entered that constantly kept track of how many visitors were in the church at any given moment. I was number 687. That's a lot of people in a church. This one is known for it's spectacular mosiac floor. I have a nice postcard that shows the entire floor but because they use the church for the town people they keep the prettiest section by the altar covered most of the time so the chairs don't ruin it. They don't show it until August and September so we missed that. The best part of Siena was climing to the top of a fortress wall where there was a perfect panoramic view of everything. The climb to get to the top of the wall was pretty normal. Then to get to the top of the wall you had to go through this tiny, tight ciruclar stairway. You sort of had to holler to see if someone was coming up or down because only 1 person could fit at a time. Was a bit of a climb but very worth it.
Then just as we got to the top there was a security lady opening this gate to another set of stairs that went even higher--didn't even look like you were able to up there but we did it. That stairway was even tinier than the first one. Unbelievable view. We just snapped picture after picture until there were enough people up there it wasn't worth fighting to miss strange heads in the pictures. Made our way down, down and down and went to Il Campo which is their giant square. There was a giant celebration, speech thing going on because of the holiday and there were all kinds of guards, military branch officers, nuns and other official-looking people all standing in formation for the event. Didn't know what they were saying but was impressive to see that huge square used as it was originally intended. There were also a lot of flags all over representing the 17 different town/districts, not remembering exact name right now, that made for a pretty sight. We went back to the hotel grabbed our stuff, a cab and made our way back to the car with fingers crossed hoping it would still be there. It was!
We hit the road and made our way to Orvieto. Once we left Siena it started pouring again. It let up just as we were approaching Orvieto though. Did I mention it stopped just before Siena? We got really lucky with the rain deal. Coolest part about approaching Orvieto was that we kept seeing this amazing little town in the hazy distance on a high hill and kept saying to each other--it better be that town because if it isn't, screw it, we're going to that one. The windy road up was beautiful and view-filled. Parking was super easy and we explored the town in quick time. After awhile they all have a lot of the same feel. It was still very worthwhile and was one of my very favorites. After the visit here we made our way to Assisi hoping that we would be able to get there before it got dark. We did. . . but had the same horrible experience trying to make our way to where we were supposed to go!
It sucked. We could get into this town but couldn't figure out where on god's green earth there was any way to make it close to the part of town where our hotel was. To make it worse 2 people told us that they knew the hotel and that we would be able to drive up to the front door. Not even! Parked at the mid-bottom part of town and had a 10 minute hike uphill to the hotel. Not so much a problem for me but with Elizabeths 38+ pound rolling suitcase it was horrible. Poor thing, she was very tired at the top. The hotel room was adorable and had a perfect view out the window. The B&B was really only a B because there was no breakfast. That was kind of odd. The old lady that ran the place was an absolute gem! Both of us wanted to adopt Anna Lisa as our grandmother. She didn't speak a lick of English but she made me feel like I spoke the best Italian ever and even complimented me on it. She was so happy-smiley and warm it made the whole parking thing go away. We love her!
In the morning we did the quick Rick Steve's walk-through of the town which gave us just the highlights we wanted. Felt like we were lemmings with about 15-20 other RS'ers. We got some tasty gelato. Everyone had told us that it was a 2 hour drive to Rome from Assisi so we gave ourselves 3.5 hours just to be sure. It's a good thing we did because with our lunch stop we made it to the rental place with 5 minutes to spare before getting charged another day. It did take us 2 hours to get there and we didn't get lost, don't worry. It cracked me up that everyone said 2 hours because I was driving super-duper fast and passing people right and left. So I have no idea how fast the people who said the 2 hours drive in reality because I felt like we made it in some record time. Took a train from the airport car rental place to the main metro station in Rome and found our hotel. No problems with this one. . . but will tell you about that in the next blog! May 02 Florence--Part 3And the story continues. . . We made it home about 4:40 that morning and still got up in time for breakfast. Perky person that I am I was still up by 8 but Elizabeth struggled a bit I think to be ready in time. We had tickets with reservations that morning at 10:30 for the Accademia (knew we'd go out the night before so I'd picked a little bit of a later time). After the Accademia E was very excited to see a McDonald's because she was dying for a coke. They aren't hard to come by here but she wanted the experience. This McD's menu was a lot more like our US one. The ones in Milan had the burgers on ciabatta rolls and the meat looked different. This was pretty standard. I got a little side dish of what I would most easily describe as mini hot pockets with cheese and tomatoes in them. Tasty good.
Eventually we made our way to a little place that became a monastery filled with a lot of frescoes by Fra Angelico called the Museo della Chiesa di San Marco. Then we went to the Medici Chappel which is connected to the Basilica di San Lorenzo. Brunelleschi designed the basiclica and I must say, he really pulled this one off. Very spiffy and amazing. So much marble, so tall, wow. Michaelangelo did a few sculptures in there too. There was a smaller church we stopped in that had an incredible painting that was the first real 3-D painting technique used. Would have been cool to see the reaction to that type of depth captured in a work by the people of the time who had never seen something like that. We covered a lot of ground this day and even made it to the Bargello near the end of the day. Perfect timing there as there were no lines and it wasn't very crowded. Had been told that we wouldn't have a chance with out a reservation. It is primarily a sculpture museum. Did I mention the Accademia is where Michaelangelo's David is? It really is a masterpiece and I didn't think I was going to be as impressed with it as I was. Knew it would be the perfect specimen of man sculpted in marble but it is just so big and perfect that it doesn't seem like one man could do that on his own.
So as evening rolled around we gussied ourselves up for dinner at Crocodillo (yup, that's crocodile) and then onto a night of clubbing at the tourist-focused Space Dance Electronic club. The downstairs area of this club features karaoke which of course is a huge aspect of my life. Not. It seemed like there was a huge highschool aged to early college group of people who were so thrilled to be able to drink in public. Their "chaperones" were off in corners watching and smiling as a giant frat party essentially erupted karaoke style. We were waiting for an hour to pass for the giant dance room upstairs to open. Supposedly they played a lot of techno-house music which is right up my alley. Wasn't planning on a lot of dancing since my feet were a bit tired from the night before and day's worth of trekking around but when the beat starts sometimes you just gotta do it.
I never had to do it at that club. The music was pretty good, 100% American and repeated songs a lot. The upstairs was very cool and a great club set up with multiple layers, dance platforms and a huge center area. The place got decently full but everyone seemed to peak around midnight and it started thinning out a bit. Definitely a tourist-influenced factor. We had a great time watching the local guy "stalkers" as we called them. There was this one guy in particular who was quite gorgeous--I mean model gorgeous--who spent the whole time on the dance floor dancing. By dancing I more refer to an odd style of sort of marching, stepping sort of like you're going to do a jumping jack but with your arms not so far out. Looked odd but hey, at least he was out there dancing. Plus he was hot enough that it made up for it. But, the funny thing was we had to call him The Terminator because he would constantly scan the entire crownd searching for young, weak (drunk) gazelle. He really looked like Arnold when he went into the first bar in the movie scanning for Sarah Conner. So funny. 3 hours of it! He never did make a move or anything. There were other fun locals to watch that did "put their moves on". Great people watching. Then at 1am they switched from good dance music to playing songs from Grease, the Beach Boys and La Bamba. . . oh and Eye of the Tiger from the Rocky 4 soundtrack. Was totally random and strange. The locals kept on dancing like it was the same music and drunk Americans went crazy like this was the first time they'd ever heard such great music. Don't get me wrong--love those songs and all but not at a dance club! Finally after 30 minutes of that they went back to regular music and I had to ask the DJ to play me some Benny Benassi. He did it as the next song, I got my groove on and we headed home. That was just plain interesting. Like watching National Geographic or something.
By Saturday we had covered everything but the giant Duomo that we wanted to go to every day and was the closest thing to our hotel. The morning lines ran around multiple blocks so we waited for the afternoon when we didn't even have to wait in a line. It was the Catedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. You'll see a few pics soon. Was worth the wait. Realistically 5 days was too long in Florence. The only places that are good for day trips from here were to Pisa (been there, done that) and Siena (was going there next). So to do it again I would give Florence 3 days. But, since I got sick and had to really slow down I think it really all worked out for the best. We wandered around the rest of the day and made our way up to Michaelangelo's home. Didn't go inside but the walk up was beautiful and had breathtaking, photo-op views of downtown Florence. The house is on the other side of the Arno across from where the majority of the Florence sites are up on a hill. Was a great walk and at the top I almost freaked out because there was an autoclub thing going on. Was hard to tell what it was. After a few minutes I heard some squealing tires that sounded very autocrossy (could be a new word). I got all excited and searched around to discover that there was the tiniest little course set up in a parking lot where people were racing their scooters. They looked pretty die-hard about it when they were doing it but it was like a 20 second course set up in a space the size of my downstairs. No one could go more than like 10 miles per hour and their 4 cone slalom was so tight people almost fell over. Was close to a race for me!
Saturday night we hunted down and found Za Za restaurant. My brother had recommended it highly--said to get the beef with Za Za sauce--and other people had heard of it as well. Worked out well because was blocks from the club we were going to that night. We didn't have a reservation but apparently should have had one. Had a 40 minute wait but it was worth it! Yummmmmm. We shared a table with two students who are studying here but are from Israel and Albania. The gal from Albania was amazingly beautiful. Don't think I have the self esteem to visit that country. Weird thing about her though was that we thought she was like a super hot 40 year old because she just had that aged look. . . but she was 23. Twighlight Zone. After the tastiest dinner yet we made our way over to Maracana'.
We loved how much fun everyone has in the clubs here. YAB and Maracana' in particular because it is all the locals. Oh forgot to mention the club card system in these clubs. Not in Andromeda for some reason but the rest. Instead of paying your cover when you go in you get a little punch card. To get out you have to give them the card and that's when you pay the cover. If you get drinks they just stamp the card for the appropriate level of drink. If you lose your card you have to pay the value of the entire card. Coat check is even on there too. I liked it. This was a fun club, they played a song from Grease here to but it worked better. Must be quite popular here. There were a number of local stalkers here as well but they were having more fun. Like that the guys come up and ask you to dance a lot. That's nice. Things didn't die down here early like at the other tourist club and we had fun. Think we left just after two. Had to get up earlier to get the rental car and head to the hill towns. . . Caio for now! Florence--Part 2I am back and feeling much, much better! Thanks for all the nice notes everyone sent to make me feel better--they worked! Left off on Wednesday morning with my sore throat and painful belly. Haven't been that sick in ages. But I wasn't going to miss things if I could help it. . . just do them slower. I think the slower part worked well for Elizabeth because she didn't get nearly as many blisters as I had on my first day of full-on site seeing in Milan. We started the day at the Palazzio Vecchio which is a big palace with many of the palace's original furnishings and of course art. There were some very suggestive male nude sculptures that were amusing. Took some tasteful pictures, not sure if going to put them up. . we'll see.
The palace was cool but not anything as close to the elaborate, overwhelming beauty and style I'd seen at other places like Doge's Palace in Venice so couldn't wait to see E's reaction when we got to one of those kinds of places! Next we walked a block and crossed the Ponte Vecchio which is the bridge that connects the Vecchio Palace to the Pitti Palace over the Arno river. In the upper section, which was closed, there is a Prince's Passageway where the royalty would cross in case of attacks that were well fortified. Would have been neat to walk through but the overly cheesey computer re-enactment of the walk did give me an idea of what it was like if I was to walk like a crippled robot. On the lower/main part of the bridge where all the regular people like myself get to walk, both sides are lined with gold and silver shops. The sparkle factor was astounding. Window after window crammed full of glittery necklaces, rings, earings and whatever else you could adorn. Kind of out of my price range.
On the other side of the bridge we went to the Palazzo Pitti which is all a part of (once you spend 17.50 Euro for a mega entrance pass) the Boboli Gardens, Modern Art Museum, Costume Museum, Porcelain Museum and the Palatine Gallery. We covered them all fairly well. There were a few other little side museums attached that we didn't do. The Pitti Palace was much more ornate and over the top than the Vecchio Palace so E got a real taste of the Renaissance. The museums were interesting as I was hoping. There's a pretty good pace that you can museum walk to take enough of it in that you see it all but don't get bored or overwhelmed. There are always a few items that suck you in though and you just have to stop for a moment and take it in. The gardens were what we were most looking forward to and they were pretty. . . but did not have quite the granduer that we were expecting. They were very large--enormous amount of real estate--and well maintained in the main areas. Barely any flowers but lots of greenery with some neat trees. If I'd been feeling better we probably would have covered more ground but we definitely feel like we got what we wanted out of them.
After our site seeing extravaganza we stopped for some panini's for lunch by the bridge and did some people watching. Love that you can get them practically everywhere and they are typically 2 to 3 Euros and tasty as heck! Great meal that doesn't break the bank but still gives you lots of bang for your buck! After lunch we went back to the hotel for a little nap for E and shower for me. When I got back from my shower I turned on the tv in our room and found MTV Italia. Guess what happened to be on??? It was the video awards show from Milan that I happened to be at the week or so before! Was just like I remembered it. Thought that was pretty nifty! Later we went to dinner at Buca Niccolini Ristorante where we had some decent food and had the funniest/worst pic taken of us. Wasn't really a bad pic but my stomach was getting REALLY bad at this point so I wasn't looking as happpy as usual and then E assumed I wouldn't be smiling as big so she didn't. . . . anyways it looks like 2 people trying hard to look like they are having fun. I'll post it later this week.
Now I wouldn't normally share this much info. . . but before dinner I decided I need to go to the Farmacia again to see if I could get some stomach medicine. Wasn't sure exactly what the problem was but had to assume it was gas because my stomach had gotten quite big and was tight and painful. No other indicators, really. I went to a different store and asked for some gas medicine. Was really nervous about what I might be given considering my throat problem warranted "oral disinfectant" which was an intimidating solution to my problem. By the way, it obviously worked because my throat was doing really well. I expected them to hand me anything from a giant needle and make motions like a popping balloon, some scary device that was supposed to go somewhere I didn't want to deal with or a bottle of something that had smokey stuff come out when you opened it with a name like petrol eliminator. Got a box of "Emo-Gas". I think it helped because by Thursday afternoon I was feeling a world better. Done oversharing now!
Had really wanted to go out to a club that night but it was just physically impossible. Was sad to have given that up that night but oh well. There's always the next night! Thursday morning I had already purchased tickets and reservations to the Ufizzi Gallery. Was great to walk by a mile long line of people to the "reserved" line and walk right in at our appointed time. The museum was great, lots of great art as you would expect. Saw a lot of things I'd studied back in my school days. After that we walked up to the Santa Croce Church and checked it out. Very pretty. Always impressive to see the size of the churches. After we explored the markets and did shopping, mostly with the street vendors. After awhile it is amazing how many of the same purses, leather coats, sunglasses, belts, toys, postcards. . . . etc you see at place after place. Seems like everyone sells the exact same thing. But there are enough people buying that it is obvoiusly worth it. I like it though because if there is something you like you ask a number of people the price, listen for how much others bargain for, take 20% off of that and get yourself a good deal. E went shopping crazy in Florence and has added tons of weight to her suitcase. Me? Bought a few birthday presents and a skirt that has been great to wear. Nothing really that I don't need. We'll see if I get stuff in Rome because I'm going to make a little shipment home. . .
Thursday night I was feeling really good after getting all gussied up and enjoying our dinner in the Piazza Republica. Clubs don't open until like 11p but this one called Full Up was supposed to open at 10. We managed to find it quickly only to find out that it had apparently closed down awhile ago. Hard to get perfect up to date info online. Oh well. So we went to a bar to hang out for awhile and then headed to Andromeda. We'd walked by it earlier in the day so we knew it existed and would be open later. We got there about 15 minutes after it opened know it would be dead until like 12:30a. Paid our cover and went inside. Club looked cool and I got a few pics. Waited and watched as about 8 people came in, sat, got a drink and then left. We got a drink and waited. I asked the bartender when things would get good and he said usually by 1a. So we chilled. Thankfully a nice 24 year old named Enrico from Argentina came by to talk with us. That was entertaining. He was a cutie. He was also enchanted with Elizabeth.
The music they played was all stuff from the states. But there was at most 10 people there at any time including us and no one danced. After awhile I said I would talk to the bartender to find out what other good places we could go to. Both E's had had a hard time talking to the bartender and claimed I wouldn't get anything from him. He was great and told me 2 places, one of which was nearby, and even drew me a map. Then he wished us well and apologized for the lameness of his club. He was a funny bartender to watch in the beginning because he kept flipping bottles and doing bar flair tricks but wasn't really that good. We tried not to be obvoius in our watching because he dropped things a LOT and we couldn't stop ourselves from laughing. I'm sure we were very covert about it all! Enrico, Elizabeth and I all headed out the door to go to YAB because it was really close by.
YAB is an awesome club. Very stylish in a Vegas way and full of well-dressed men and women (not late teen, barely twenties) who were having a good time and were dressed to impress. The music was great and a lot of people were dancing. Most of the music was still everything I knew but they did play two new songs and I liked them. My little notes that I scribbled from that night (that's my system to remember everything) reminds me that there were a number of women wearing impossible shoes. Impossible for dancing but also just for walking the streets. I give these gals props--there is no such thing as smooth pavement in most of the places I've been--all cobblestone. Pretty but an amazing workout for your ankles. The guys there were a bit on the aggressive side but I found if I looked extremely distracted and annoyed I could schoo them away more easily. Spent a lot of time dancing there as the E's went off to "talk". I have it on good authority that Enrico is a good kisser but I can't say any more than that!
 April 28 Florence--part 1Hello again. Feel great now that I'm caught up enough to catch you up on a city while I'm still in it! Elizabeth and I leave tomorrow to explore the hill towns (Siena, Assisi, Arezzo, etc) by car tomorrow but for tonight we are still in Florence with a bit of dining and clubbing left to do! So let me tell you what's gone down so far. . .
You know, if you've been reading along like little Jackie trip cult followers (maybe I should come up with a cute name. . . no, then I'd come across like I have an ego!) that I left Pisa by train in the afternoon on Tuesday. I made some notes in my little book about my trip and a nice fellow by the name of Gino started talking to me. He lives in Florence (Firenze if you want to sound like you are really from here) and is studying penal law at the moment. Criminal in case you were confused a tiny bit. He was forward and gave me his number and asked me out for a drink that night or the next. Would have taken him up on it but frankly I started getting pretty sick when I got to the hotel room so that wasn't an intriguing idea, let alone the fact that I hadn't seen Elizabeth in a month. Cute guy, little short but very sweet.
I now know the limit of carrying that 25 pound back on my back. Did I say 25 pounds? If you read my last blog you would know that that means like 2000 lbs after 30 minutes (okay, I know that is a little bit of a stretch!). The streets of Florence are just not as easy as every other place I've been to and people had a hard time helping me. Okay, their attempts were nice but useless and it had nothing to do with the language barrier. By the time I met up with Elizabeth she shared the same story. Happy times now, all settled in the hotel. It is a cozy room with 2 single beds that is about the size of my first hotel room in Milan, less a bathroom. Cute though. Stairs are our friend. Our room is on the 2nd floor which means 3rd floor to Americans since we actually count the ground floor when talking to people. That's not a complaint, I knew that coming in, just sucked with the heavy bag and when you don't get home from dancing until 4:40am.
Just heard the bells ringing in the hour or half hour and I must say--as a little tangent--that I do not understand the bell ringing system implemnted by the churces here at all. After 3 towns they are consistent, I'm just not sure what the meaning or counting behind it is. So at 7am the bells ring 40 times. Everywhere, every time. 40. Far from seven as your typical cookoo (sp?) clock will alert you. At the half hour it will often ring another unrelated number of rings. Consistently though. On some hours it does ring the "american" cookoo clock number of hours. If anyone has insight into this ringing phenomenon I would appreciate the assistance as I do not care to waste a Euro googling it. Back to my story. . .
So Elizabeth and I connected around 4p and we wandered around, grabbed a glass of wine and some tapas and introduced her to pizza Italian style. She made it into Florence pretty smoothly with the exception of the same hotel-finding issues I had. I had been starting to get a sore throat that morning and it was definitely a solid cold or something. When we were out and about we stopped at a Farmacia and I asked (in words and sign language) for some "throat lozenges". They quickly nodded and handed me a box of "Oral Disenfectant Tablets". I bought them and wondered if the instructions included gargling with bleach. Let me tell you, couldn't wait to put a tasty oral disenfectant tablet into my mouth. Yumm! Actually tasted like Mentos. Didn't really feel like it did anything. Later that night I started to have lovely stomach pains. Just a bit that night. We turned in on the earlier side after making plans for the next few day's museums and site visits.
Wednesday we got up (earlier than I think Elizabeth would have preferred--oh, 7:45am) and ate breakfast at the hotel. Bread, bread, coffee, tea and what's that, another bread item? Thanks. It worked but I feel like they are trying to hook me on bread. Not a problem. Trying to quit, really. My throat had started irritating my ear overnight and my stomach really started hurting in the morning. I was doing quite lovely. If I wasn't in another country I probably would have stayed in at home and watched stupid shows on tv or rented a movie but couldn't do that here. We went out and covered a lot of areas. . . oh no! That note is sitting on my hotel bed. I'll have to continue this later! Until I type again. . . hope all is well and you are enjoying life as much as I am right now! Toodles! PS--hope you liked the pictures! You can email me if you like. I read and type fast so it isn't like you are taking up too much of my precious time. Love to hear from my friends and family!
April 27 Cinque Terre--Part 3 plus PisaI was here for 5 days so 3 parts doesn't seem that unreasonable! Plus I do talk alot. The 45 minute hike was nice except for the fact that there seemed to be a lot more people on it that my first hike. I was always amused when people would give me these weird looks because I was doing these hikes in a skirt. Yes, technically a skirt but there are shorts built in underneath with a handy security pocket. Was just as comfortable as wearing shorts would be but served double duty in my luggage. I must have looked pretty girly because I also bought a goofy floppy hat and big sunglasses. Felt like I was hiking incognito. Like anyone was going to recognize me anyway!
Corniglia is the middle town and is the only one that is not on the water. It is more at the top of a cliff. So the last 20 minutes or so of it was a bit of uphill and then you can take a free bus up to the top of the town or climb 400 stairs. I opted for the stairs so that I would feel better about having something yummy for dinner that night. Cornilglia was pretty because you could see far but everything felt like you had to climb a little mountain to get to. I was really impressed with the oldest townpeople who were really having to struggle to get around--certainly kept them in shape. Didn't linger here very long either and headed out for the 90 minute hike toVernazza. The guide book I used said this wasn't nearly as much of a hike as that first day's was. . . I believe that they are wrong. Not saying it is more but by golly I was glad to be in Vernazza 90 minutes later. Whew! I think it was like 90 that day too and it was the early afternoon when I did it. Everybody on the trails was drenched in sweat and as you passed people they gave you an expression like "am I close" and all you could do was smile because you wanted to ask them the same question but knew the answer on both parts was no.
Don't get me wrong, it was a great hike. Great workout and this was the lushest, greenest section of the trails between the towns. A few things I want to make sure I mention about the foliage and creatures. Can't remember if I mentioned from the first day's hike but there were a lot of lizards. Cute little gecko type lizards that would scurry in the bushes and across the rocky steps in front of you. Not to many bugs but bees near the orchards. Lots and lots of lemon trees, grapes growing up in the hills, olive trees, capers (although I couldn't tell you what they looked like--trees, bushes or shrubs--but they were the tastiest big balls of yumminess as tapas in the bars) and other things I couldn't identify. There was also a lot of cactus. Different types of cactus. It was really cool to see them sprinkled throughout the landscape. A lot of them were quite large too.
Made it to Vernazza, trained 5 minutes home, swam in the Liberian Sea off the beach in Monterosso and laid out in the sun. For the water not smelling salty I was really covered in salt when I laid out after swimming. The water was a little cold when you first got in but you got used to it quick. Felt very soft. Ahh, that's a vacation! Dinner, laundry in the sink and bed finished off that night.
Monday I took the train to La Spezia which isn't really as touristy of a town although it does have its share of museums (that are all closed on Monday, but I knew that) and a castle. It is more like "regular Italy" as a few people put it. I wandered down the harbor where they had giant palm trees lining the pedestrian boulevard. With the more recently built buildings on the waterfront as the back drop it really felt like southern California for a moment. At the end of the harbor is a Coast Guard station and a lot of fishing boats. I kept seeing these people fishing off of the docks but couldn't tell what they were fishing for. They would have little piles of mussels in front of them but it looked like they had taken them out of a net or something. After awhile I finally saw a guy pull his line out of the water to discover they were using worms or something close to that to fish for mussels. Found that odd but guess it works. There were a few others fishing for things with fins and I peeked in their buckets to see a fish here and there but nothing impressive. Think it was more of a social routine for the older men to go to the docks to fish and tell tales.
Tuesday I caught an 8:45am train to Pisa (1.5 hour and only 5.30 Euro, what a deal train traveling is!). As I was trying to figure out which of the Pisa stops to get off on (you get a few hundred feet's notice to see a sign if it isn't a major central station stop and only a minute or two to get off), this nice guy told me to get off at the first stop so my walk would be 5 min not 45 to the Field of Miracles. Sorry for that terrible run on sentence! He was actually going to a spot in that area so he walked me there. Married student who had just graduated with biochemistry degree and now needed a job. He got me to my destination and I checked out the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Duomo and Baptistery. These three monuments are what make up the Field of Miracles. They are all in a very large grassy square within a few hundred yards of each other.
I was a sneaky tourist and checked my bag into the baggage deposit that was only for people climing the Tower (didn't feel it was worth 15 Euro or about $19) so I could actually move around and be able to walk upright later in the day. Remember that bag I have is a back pack and 25 pounds is great for 30 minutes, 45 minutes is about the limit and I now know after trying to find my hotel in Florence that 1 hour just sucks! Anyhoo, Duomo (church) was large and beautiful as expected and the Baptistery was large, hollow and very empty. Thought it made for an unexciting stop. Better from the outside. The tower? Yup, still leaning. Not as much as it used to since they made major support and restoration efforts in the last few decades. They only allow 30 people at a time in it.
I poked my head into all of the cheesy market stands selling loads and loads of the same stuff for the same price and bargaining it down to the same great deals. Turned down fake brand name belts, sunglasses, purses, scarves and watches. Ignored the stupidest battery-operated toys I've ever seen in my life. Thank god I didn't see anyone buying them or my hope in humanity would have been severely questioned. At the bus stop I met three gals from the UK and we decided to take a cab to the train station as it was actually cheaper and more comfortable. They told me I will love Greece and that everybody speaks English over there so I won't have any problems. I hadn't heard anyone say that so definitively before so now I'm not so worried about that scary alphabet. . . will just worry about the hairy agressive men! Next is my first report on Florence. . . Firenze!
The Cinque Terre--Part 2Hello again! Finally back online to check emails and update the blog. Hate going so long between updates because I forget stuff! So if I remember correctly I left of at meeting Sharon and Beth for dinner. These gals are fun, mid-fifties who look and act like late thirties, and have great attitudes about life. Dinner was great even though I was a little conservative and had a cooked vegetable assortment. Afterwards we went to the Piccolo Bar for what Beth said was the best dessert ever. Have to admit it was really tasty. Up there but can't say the best ever. We had pastry balls with creme filling covered in what I can best describe as a foamy chocolate pudding sauce. Very rich but light and tasty. We washed those down with some limencellos (although "wash" is a bit of an overstatement as it is a very lemony semi-sweet apertif). Beth was definitely getting drunk and having a great time talking to everyone in the area. We decided to part and lo and behold ran into each other 5 minutes later at the Fast Bar. A fun dive in town. Really the only place open after 10:30p.
It's a fun place with a great atmosphere and lots of people more my age. We had a drink there and talked with a couple from Ohio who were visitng for a few days. Left on the earlier side that night and hit the hay as I was a bit pooped from my hike and sunbathing. I know, rough life! Saturday in the morning I took a train to Riomagiorre (the bottom town) and from there took a 30 minute boat ride to Portovenere--the real "resort" town of the area where you dock your yacht and stay at the ritzy places. Trains are cool because the towns are all about 5 minutes apart and with the 1/3/7 day Cinque Terre Card pass are covered or at most are 1 Euro for a ticket that is valid for 6 hours. Pretty darn cheap. The boat ride south to Portovenere was beautiful and the town was very picturesque.
When we approached the tip of the town we could see a scenic castle right on the edge. First thing I did when I got off the boat was to go explore the castle. It was mostly ruins at this point with a little, still in use, church at the top but it had spectacular views and I liked that the locals set up a soccer field in the dirt in the courtyard of the castle. I guess it wouldn't seem like a big deal to kick the ball around a castle courtyard if you've always grown up with castles around you! After that I grabbed lunch at a little spot with a great people watching view. Saw a wedding party go by just after they tied the knot, a bunch of nuns, lots of tourists, strolling musicians and all kinds of characters. Very pretty. Didn't stay much over 3 hours and headed back for some beach time. What can I say, this was my laziest day! But it is my vacation on my vaction so don't give me any grief.
Later that night I had dinner at the Il Casello Bar. Felt a bit guilty about going back to the same place again but I'd made friends there and loved the view so what the heck--many more meals to be had elsewhere in the next few days. After that I wandered up and down the waterfront taking in the sun slowly slipping into the edge of the landscape painting a pastel sky we just don't see in Seattle. Was perfect. Stopped into an Enoteca (wine bar) and sampled some local wines and made my way over to the Fast Bar again. Ran into a threesome of girls from my hotel that are from Edmonds. Yup, a lot of Pacific NW people around these parts. They were fun to hang with for awhile and then they moved on. Hung out with the nice waiter from Il Casello and got to know his sweetheart of a girlfriend from Chicago and eventually met Michael from Switzerland. Can't remember where exactly in the northern part of Switzerland he was from but it sounded lovely. He was a fetching, strapping, tall lad who looked like he could hop on a pair of skis in an instant and rescue an entire family from an avalanche. We talked and had fun hanging out until the bar closed. Said goodnight and I never saw him again. . . oh well! If there are more details to share you aren't going to get them here my Team BH ladies! I can hear you all giggling right now.
Only disappointing part of that night was that I tried to call my friend Amy O at her bridal shower in the middle of the night from a pay phone in my pajamas and my calling card did not have enough credit to complete the call. I talked to her the other day though and she said it was good. Keep learning new things about how stuff works over here every day. Sunday I got up to start a very active day of walking and hiking to make up for my laziness the day before. Took the train down to Riomagiorre and did the 20 minute stroll to the next town of Manarola. This is truly a stroll, not a hike, on a well paved trail with gorgeous sweeping views of the coast, the mountains, the towns, the foliage and it is called the "Via dell'Amore". It was neat and a bit disappointing to see how many people had written all over the rocks and things with hearts and all. It was sweet but ended up looking like a lot of grafitti after awhile. There is a famous sculpture of two figures kissing where lovers tie little momentos to the railing. That was nice. I liked this part of the walk but there were a lot of people and even more strollers so I got a little frustrated wanting to go faster.
Got to Manarola and checked the town out. Riomagiorre is a working town that focuses mostly on fishing and little town business (okay, I honestly couldn't tell you what business but they looked busy, not as tourist focused). Manarola was the quietest and smallest town and I just breezed through it. The hike between Manarola and Corniglia was 45 minutes and was much more of a hike. Not quite the haul that my first day's hike was but still got the blood pumping good and provided for lots of picture vantage points.
Feel like I should break into part 3 here. . . be right back!
April 23 The Cinque Terre--Part 1Just want to let you know that I have tried twice to put pictures from my camera onto this site but the site requires the loading of a little program that they have blocked. Will try again in Florence with as much gusto as possible!
My vacation from my vacation. . . the Cinque Terre. Left Venice Thursday around 10a for 5.5 hours of train rides with an hour stopover in Milan. Really feel like I have that train station down now! Got here in the early evening and was very pleasantly suprised with my 30 Euro room. Staying in Hotel Souvenir in Monterosso and I highly recommend it. I talked to a bunch of people paying 100 E plus a night and there's isn't much different than mine other than they have their own bathroom. Never once have I even run into anyone in the bathroom which is right next to my room. And I have a sink and bidet (really haven't found a need to use that!) in my room. The room is spacious, light and airy. Everything is white or cream and there is a big window that opens to a little garden with a lemon tree outside. The garden is the neighbors but everything is so cozily crammed in that it doesn't really matter, I still count it! There is a big closet and a double bed with a comfy blanket and night lights. Hey, I'm going on a bit because it is a nice step up from Milan and a giant leap from the hostels.
I read my little guide and after wandering the town (only a few major blocks so easy to do in a half an hour) decided to have dinner at Il Casello Bar that is up on a little bluff overlooking the ocean. My favorite spot. I had a tuna salad that was yummy--hard to work in those veggies with all of the bread and pasta here! Peepo my Marshmallow Peep pen got some attention from the cute waiter who spoke good English. No I didn't date this one. He has a very nice girlfriend who moved out here to be with him from Chicago. Met her a few nights ago and she is great. While eating I met two gals from Hawaii--Sharon and Beth. They are on a 3 week trip and just arrived from some time in the French Riviera. Chatted for a bit and then moved on to check out the night views which were spectacular. Hard to tell on my tiny screen on my camera but I hope they turn out as good as they were in real life.
The next morning I got up and ready to do the hardest of the hikes between the towns. The Cinque Terre is 5 towns that are about 5 minutes apart by train and 20-90 minutes by hiking. I am staying in Monterosso which is considered the most "resort" like town which I'm sure is the case during the busy season. It is the only one that has a bar open past 10p and all the youth in the area go here. Also has the most beach. They bring in sand every year just to make sure. I really like Monterosso the best for a home base and then for pretty atmosphere and lunches Vernazza is the tops. So here is the order of the towns from North to South: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riogimorre. Yes, I have them all memorized after 5 days here!
Hit the trail from Monterosso to Vernazza at about 9:30a and headed up a million stone steps straight up a hill. It was breathtakingly beautiful scenery but some challenging footing at times and definitely a sweatfest considering it gets up to about 85 pretty fast here. Took like 50 pictures on that hike. I am so glad I timed my trip here for April. The towns are really quite tiny. I mean Monterosso has 240 residents, Vernazza is the biggie with 500 and there isn't a lot of room for a lot of people. Occassionally I would listen in on tour guide explanations and a few of them mentioned that in the "peak" season there are on average 10,000 tourists in the towns at any given moment. I would guess 2,000 right now on weekdays which made for a lot of room to move. In some towns though it was already a little frustrating with crowds of tour groups packing the areas and getting though was a challenge. That tangent came from the fact that I think it was the perfect time of year to do the hike. I ran into the most people on this hike but it was only one or two every few minutes and because the trail was so curvy up and down the hills it felt like I had the place to myself. Couldn't imagine doing that hike and the other challenging one I did yesterday with more people. You'd reach a point that you would be tempted to push some people off the cliffs!
The hike took me 90 minutes and when I arrived in Vernazza I went straight to the tiny waterfront and laid out to sunbathe on some rocks. It is a popular place to do that. The rocks were just not that comfy for me (guess I'm a tender american) so I moved to the 200 or so yards of sand they brought in for the beach and walked in the water. I was glad for my guide book advice that said to watch out for sea urchins because I wouldn't have thought of it and there were a lot on the rocks. The water was very clear though and you could see lots of different fish and sea creatures. Very cool to be able to stand high on docks and see all of that going on. After a while I decided I was hungry so I climbed the steps of this castle on the end of the spit and had lunch at the top overlooking the giant cliff edges and boat docks with a view all the way down to Monterosso (this will mean a lot more when you can see the pictures). There were some guys high diving off the rocks right below me so there was lots of entertainment. Had delicious home made pasta with Pesto sauce--this area is known for their pesto, anchovies, white wine and foccacia. All was good except the anchovies--tried them twice in Venice and that was enough for me!
When I walked back through the town I ran into Sharon and Beth from dinner the night before and we agreed to meet up for dinner at a new place that night. Fully explored Vernazza, took pics and then took the train back to Monterosso. Met up with the gals at 6:30p and we went to the New Town part of Mont. There is Old Town which is where most of the action is, stores, restaurants, etc and New Town which is where more people live and the train station is. They are about a 3 minute walk apart. And there is a great Gelateria in between them, a little castle to walk up to for a view and there always seems to be musicians playing romantic music hoping for a few coins. We went to Miky Restaurant which is the nicer place that the locals go for good seafood that has pretty reasonable prices. Not very many tourists at all there. All restaurants open at 7p here which can get a little frustrating when you are really hungry. We had to wait because we didn't know that until just then.
Okay, this internet joint is about to close so I need to run off and pay my bill. I was also able to burn my pics onto a dvd here so I have a little back up. Plan to do that as often as I can. . . until later! I am starting to miss you guys but I am definitely not ready to go back yet! Tomorrow I get to see Elizabeth and those should be some EXCELLENT times!!!! She arrived this afternoon in Florence. . . hope she did okay and this is her 3 trip by plane and she's never traveled alone, let alone out of the country. Caio! April 22 The Venice Recap--part 2Now you are caught up through Monday night and all of Tuesday. Tiffany left to go back to Ireland Wed afternoon. But she hadn't been to St Mark's Basilica or Doge's Palace yet. It's always more fun to go with company so we went together carrying her luggage in tow. Thank god for bag checks (they're required at the sites so no guilt!). We started at Doge's Palace which is next to San Marco (the basilica) and saw how the upper end of the world lived. The paintings everywhere were practically overwhelming. The size, the number, the images. . . they seemed never ending. And it seemed like Tintoretto did most of them. He must have spent 24x7 of his whole life painting or he was a speedy painter. I know, they had assistants and all. Whew, I feel like a total under-achiever now!
There was a very nice lady probably in her late 60's from Vancouver BC who we'd talked to a few times named Ruth. She had told us that when we go to San Marco we need to go between 11:30a and 12:30p because it is the only hour every day that they turn on a bunch of flood lights to light up the cieling. My god am I glad she said that! That was awe-inspiring. The church is completely decorated with mosaics and the majority of the cieling (and we are talking a TON of space!!!) is in gold leaf. We got there about 5 minutes before the lights turned on. Yes, it was impressive without the lights and I'm sure it would be even better in the afternoon sunlight but my god, you could hear so many people gasp to catch their breath when they came on. It was like a giant treasure chest opened above us. I'm so going to email Rick Steves that he did NOT mention that hour of importance in his books at all. Bad Rick, bad Rick. Thank you Ruth!
Oh and a quick note on Ruth because Tiffany will say something if I don't. She was a unique character
 . She has traveled extensively in Europe over the years and stays exclusively in hostels to afford it. I found that interesting. Great way to do it. Preferably without a million other people crammed onto a floor if you can do it. She seemed to have enjoyed a lot of something "mood-enhancing" in her days. . . maybe now still. There was a permanent sense of calm about her, mixed with some restlessness and a thoroughly challenging conversational style as she would seem to drift off or go somewhere else in the conversation or nowhere at all. Still, she was nice and I owe her big time for showing me the light. . . literally!We also stopped in and did a quick walk through of the Correr Museum and saw some interesting things. Tiffany headed out and I proceded to explore the other sites on my list. Most of which we had already walked by but this time at a relaxed pace and going into them. The Frari Church was a great one to see, covered the Rialto Bridge again and a few other things that escape my mind at the moment. I had a much more laid back night Wed and headed off by train Thursday for the Cinque Terre (5.5 hours by train so it was mostly a travel day. But that is for another blog that I might write in just a few minutes. . .
Few last things about Venice. It is a floating city and most of the time I was very aware of the rolling feeling like you are on a giant cruise ship. That was cool and unnerving at the same time. My favorite moment going to Venice was when I got off the train and sat down in the vaporetto. It felt so nice to be out on the open water on a sunny day heading to a new city. So refreshing feeling. What suprised me was that it didn't really smell at all like the ocean. In the northwest we have salty sea air and the smell of kelp, etc. You know what I mean! Out here everything feels very soft and mild. The water doesn't feel drying and gritty and doesn't smell salty or otherwise. It is heavenly. Same with the Cinque Terra beaches. Water is also a lot clearer so you can see into the deep aquamarine and teal blue waters very deep with lots of fish and sea urchins (more at the CT).
Okay, I'm starting to get hungry now and I really like the cute waiter at Il Casello Bar just up the street and I know he'll be there. He's got a girlfriend from Chicago that moved out here with them and I hung out a bit with them last night at the Fast Bar. Fun times. . . we'll have to talk about the hunky guy from Switzerland I met and spent a bit of time with last evening later. . . Caio friends and family! The Venice Recap--part 1Well hello again everyone! Sorry for my time offline not giving you the perpetual updates but frankly once I got here in the Cinque Terre the last thing I wanted to do during the beautiful sun-filled days was sit inside an internet cafe that is open from 10a-7p. But now my feet are so tired from hiking and I'm toasty warm from having gotten a lot of sun that sitting on my butt and unloading my adventures sounds like a great plan!
Without going back I don't think I covered any of Venice yet. Great city, fun new friends (especially Tiffany--she's cool and she only paid me 5 Euro to write that!). Hah! Anyways, on Monday I arrived by train in the early afternoon. Had originally planned to take a bus because it is supposed to be more scenic but honestly the train was faster, cheaper and left sooner. Got to the hostel by vaporetto (ferry boats that are their transportation system). Think I'm really mastering this traveling via many modes of transportation and figuring out how to read the schedules and destinations. Still have a few hiccups now and then but I like it. The hostel that I booked had said that there were 6 beds to a room all female. Having done that the night before in Padua with no issues I thought ok, no big deal. Although I did ask when I first arrived when I had to let them know if I didn't want to stay more than one night.
I asked that question because when I went to check in there was a nice big sign that said "all rooms in hostel 16 beds". Wow, 16, that sounds like a lot. Well 20 Euro versus 65 Euro a night is a big difference so I thought I'd give it a go. Went upstairs to the third floor to see that 16 beds are in a room. And there are 5 rooms that each have 16 beds on my floor. And they are all full. The next thing I noticed was that there were 3 toilets and 5 showers for all of those people. Geesh, I had my doubts. Took a quick nap and when I woke up I heard these 2 gals in my room that were speaking English. So in the usual not so shy Jackie way I asked them where they were from. Seattle! What are the odds? Pretty high apparently. Technically she is from Carson WA. Tiffany is 20 and in her junior year studying a hear abroad in Ireland. She's a hoot and super cool. (You didn't pay me for that one Tiff--you earned it!). The other gal was Antonella who is a 28 year old music teacher in Paris on vacation.
Antonella had plans to meet friends that night for dinner so Tiffany became my local tour guide after she'd pretty much mastered the city with her 3 days there. She took me on this whirlwind ride around pointing things out, explaining how the vaporetti and tickets work. We had a lot of fun and ended up at a little restaurant for dinner. We had 3 course "fixed" menus that were tasty and shared a little of our meals to broaden our options. It was fun wandering around, but I knew I was going to get to see things a little more in-depth the next two days. We'd made plans to see the Accademia Gallery with Antonella the next morning. That was a great move, not just because they are fun to hang out with, but because Antonella studied so much of the art and had lived in Venice for a year to study 7 years before. I was amazed at how much information she had about the paintings, representations, interpretations, etc. The most fun was this cartoon flier thing that took people from like 8 or 9 of Bellini's giant paintings and told a story. It would have been nice if the paintings were in order in the story (there were like 50-200 people in each huge painting I'd guess) but it turned into a hilarious Where's Waldo adventure with Antonella translating Italian to English for us.
After the Accademia we had lunch at one of her favorite cafe's (Cafe Noir) from when she lived there and then we parted ways in the afternoon as she had to head back to Paris that afternoon. When we left we walked by some snooty stores (Gucci, Prada, etc.) and Tiff had said she'd never been into those before. I told her that today was the day and made her go into as many as possible until she felt like she belonged. Think she thought they'd kick us out. That was fun. Couldn't afford much but was very, very tempted by a small black Gucci purse.
Tiff really wanted a purse (and one for her mom) and as we left the world of the unaffordable one of the many street vendors illegally selling all of their illegal fake purses approached us. She liked one of them and he told her 50 Euro. We started to walk away and he went down to 45, then as we played a not interested game we got him down to 30 Euro for 2 purses. She was in heaven and was shaking for like an hour because she'd never done that before. That was fun!
Went back to the hostel and I did my one of my online updates and then Tiffany and I headed out to do a Pub Crawl where you wander around during happy hour from place to place enjoying appetizers and wine. We had a lot of fun and I tried to take us to an area where Rick Steves had recommended by the Rialto Bridge. We gave up after awhile because there were enough places and we were in the vicinity so it didn't matter. We started out with some chardonnays at L'Olandese Volante with the oh so classy appetizer of a small bowl of potato chips. Can't say that it was a flavor combination I'll crave again. Now we find another place.
So we're sitting in Cafe Manuel. . . and here's that darn weird Jackie luck. . . we're chatting away enjoying a drink when Rick Steves and two of his employees walk into the bar carrying his books and making notes for updates. Now how often does something like that happen? His books are great and I had copies of the Venice pages in my purse so I had to show him and do the horribly tacky thing of taking a picture with him. Not because he's famous but to prove it happened! He shared some appetizers with us and mostly whirled in and then out. We'd seen people ordering this colorful drink with some pieces of fruit in it and then they did. They are called Spritz's. We decided to try one. Regretted that. Yuck. Can't say that I would recommend that for anyone. But then again, I also tried a fried sardine there too in my attempts to broaden my horizons. Mission accomplished. Again, not recommending that to anyone either. Later we had a late dinner at Osteria "Vini de Pinto" dal 1890 and enjoyed some tasty pizza and more wine. Then off to bed. Hostel has an 11:30p curfew so no crazy nights here--at least not ones that have a highlight with a PBS tv show personality! April 18 Padua and VeniceSo the Scrovegni Chapel was beautiful. So the big site to see in Padua (Padova) is the Bascilica of St. Anthony. It is a truly impressive building full of all kinds of astounding church fancy art. (That's my laymans terms if it helps!). But on my way to that church I apparently wandered into the Basilica of San Guiti.. . will tell you the details later. This is the giant church I could see from where I was staying by the Prato Della Valle. Honestly, it was stunning, gorgeous, bright and inspirational, had beautiful paintings, marble and you could take pictures. After seeing the name that did not say "Anthony" a few times my big lightbulb in my head went off and I realised I wasn't in the place I thought I was going to be.
It was all good though, I really liked that church more. Of course I couldn't go to Padua without visiting the Basilica de San Antonio so I went there and enjoyed the dark, ominous (yup, in the end we are all going to hell picutres) that overwhelm the entire building. But the highlights for me (sort of) and definitely for the thousands of people that make the pilgramige each year was to see the tongue, jawbone and vocal cords of Saint Anthony. If you aren't famililiar with the background, part of the sainthood of his persona is the fact that when his body was examined hundreds of years later the tongue, jawbone and vocal chords where still pretty intact. I personally wouldn't want to use them but for 800+ years they seemed to be in great condition. Guess, as they say, that is because he was preaching the word of god. (Total side note. . . with all of my talking, wouldn't you be freaked out if my words were that important for all of the talking I do?????).
Moved from Padua by train to Venice and had to take a nap because I was a bit beat. I only have 2 minutes of internet time left so I am not going to get to fill you in on Venice in full yet. I do feel as though I'm becoming a more competent international traveler. While I have a minute, I have to tell you that I do like that the money in Euro is sized larger (in bill form) based on the demonation as it is in coin. I think that is nice and it is also very colorful. Honestly, to me it looks more fake than Canadian money but they seem to accept if for food and stuff just the same. Got to go, have 30 seconds left!! Ciao! April 17 Ahh, the city of romance. . . Venice!I am in Venice! Only have time for a quick update at the moment but I'll catch up you as much as possible. The hostel in Padua was very basic. Very basic. Guess I couldn't expect much more for less than 20 Euro. Turned out that there were 3 girls that showed up around 11p that whispered a bit and then went to sleep. Never talked to them so I don't know where they were from.
Monday morning I got up bright and early, took the bus to the train station at the north end of the city to check my baggage and then went to the Cappella degli Scrovegni (Scrovegni Chapel). I have wanted to see this for a VERY long time. Giotto's frescos are just so beautiful with the deep blue cieling and over 45 giant frescoes depicting bible stories. Had to wait in a climate chamber for 15 minutes before entering to stabilize the humidity and something to minimize bacteria before entering. My reservation was for 9:30 so there was only me and this other lady. The church was more beautiful than I was expecting. The colors were so bright and the blending of shades and depiction of emotions on the faces of the people were touching. Loved it.
What I was the most impressed with was the fact that he had painted the entire interior of the church in less than 3 years. It is a small church compared to the large basilicas I've been seeing but this was enormous for just one person to paint. Not only that, if you get the chance to look it up the pictures themselves are a painting feat. But all of the marble and every other detail in the church, like the fill in work around the pictures was all done by him too (everything is a picture, no real trim). The church is really just a giant rectangle with a rounded cieling with no details. But walking in you would think there are fancy columns and trim work. So cool! I am sure that within 10 years the frescoes will be degenerating so much that most people will never get the chance to see it.
So I am going to go off for a fun pub crawl with my new friend Tiffany (from Seattle of all of the crazy places in the world--go Huskies!). Will fill you in on the rest and how cool she is later! Ciao! April 15 Sat night in Milan and VeronaTo catch you up on Saturday after the last post I spent a long time wandering the streets of Milan. Not the touristy Via Dante and major site areas but blocks away from those places. It is truly amazing how every block is filled with the same eclectic, charming mix of 3 to 4 story buildings nestled in next to each other, each looking different but somehow almost the same. Block after block, each block had a colorful mix of stores, caffes and bars. . . I believe it would be impossible for one person to visit them all. It is endless. After my wandering I had to find out when the MTV Italia TRL awards show started.
I didn't ever find out for sure but as my constant stream of good luck would have it, when I walked up they were just starting to announce the start of the show. I stayed for about an hour watching a bunch of live performances by Italian artists. The first was an Italian version of Eminem that was entertaining and had some good songs. Then there was a gorgeous man singing wearing the tightest white shirt that fit perfectly on top of. . . well who cares. . . he had a great voice and was a true joy to watch on the big screen
. Then there was a Green Day like band and a handful of others. Was a great opportunity to see what is popular here. Very entertaining. The square wasn't as crowded as I would have expected--took pictures you'll see. I thought it was going to end soon and was getting hungry so I left. Turns out the show went from 4p until 9:30p.I came back to that spot in the Duomo Piazza to see if it was still going on and boy was it. The show was all of the MTV awards mixed into one giant show--movies, videos, best artist, TRL request songs. All of it. It really started to get crowded when I got there at 8. By crowded I mean a few thousand people. It was so loud and fun with all of the energy of the fans it was quite the treat. Took some more pictures and a bit of video. Now that's what I call an MTV awards show! Only thing that was a little disappointing for me was that there were a lot of American bands, artists and movies that were nominated and won. Too many but I really don't know what all they had to pick from.
After the show ended I wandered down a few streets and unbelievably ended up running into Enzo again. He was a little upset that I hadn't gone back to see him that day but was just so happy to see me he didn't care. I really wanted to go dancing at Club Hollywood that night but my feet just wouldn't have it so we sat at a bar to have a drink and talked. We'll be pen pals now. Isn't that dolce?
Sunday morning (this morning for me) I got up bright and early, packed and went to the train station. Managed to figure out and buy my train ticket--11.50 Euro for 148km/2hr ride to Verona. Got to Verona at noon and made it to the city center where all of the good stuff is by bus around 1p. Wow, Verona is beautiful too. Have a feeling I'm going to say that about every place. Just like in Milan it is just a site to see everyone living a regular ordinary life amongst buildings that you and I would only picture in movies or, well, in Italy. Giant castle doors sealed shut with a regular sized door cut in it so that people can treat it like a regular apartment.
Verona has an enormous Roman arena. Went inside and climbed to the top. They were setting up for an opera performance tonight so there were a lot of workers blocking off areas. Would certainly like to hear what a performance there sounds like. There were thousands of flowers laid out on the stage ready to be arranged for decoration. And yes, I mean thousands! Explored Castle Carraveggio and some other neat sites whose name escapes me. Covered the whole town in about 3 hours. Didn't feel the need to go into all of the churches. Enjoyed them from the outside. And then of course had me some gelato. This time went with a scoop of peanut butter and chocoloate (they are small scoops I want you to know) and nutella. Now I know I LOVED the hazelnut from Saturday's treat and nutella is hazelnut and chocolate. . . but this was like the hazelnut with swirls of nutella. I'll just say that it was tasty and leave it at that.
Caught the next train to Padua (8.50 Euro) and arrived around 6p. Had one heck of a time trying to find the hostel I am at tonight. First, the bag I wear as a back pack is heavy. Not too heavy, but a wee bit exhausting and I might just send a few things back in two weeks or whenever I am done with the alps. Not complaining! Second, the directions I had to the hostel were °300 meters from Torresino church". Found the church. . . .300 meters in which direction? Lot's of extra trudging around and I made it. Now I am in a room with 5 other beds (don't know how many will have people in them yet, maybe when I go upstairs in a few). Feels like summer camp. At least I get a free breakfast in the morning--all that for 18 Euro. What a bargain!
Well I'm off to bed now as I'm quite pooped and feeling sleepy after a tasty dinner at a lovely little bistro. Must say that Gnocchi Gorgonzola with Speck (a type of ham) is quite yummy. Oh, Jeff and Missy--thanks for the towel and day bag. They are coming in handy and working out great! So long for now and talk to you soon! Arreviderci! April 14 First full day in Italy/MilanYou got most of my update from yesterday's post. After I left the internet cafe I went back to the hotel room to change and freshen up a little. Was not suprised to discover that I had gotten a lot of blisters on my feet (9 in total) but don't worry, they are not holding me back. Went back to the main touristy area of Milan by the Duomo and wandered around trying to decide where to have dinner on Via Dante. Via Dante is one of Europe's largest pedestrial shopping areas. Lots and lots of outdoor restaurants/cafes. I settled on a nice restaurant closer to the Duomo since I wanted to take a picture of it at night and there was a waiter there who was very nice to me when I walked by the first time.
I got a glass of wine and sat in the outdoor area with a lovely view of the street. Asked him what his favorite thing on the menu was and he suggested a very nice plate of mozzarella, ham and tomatoes. It was delicious! Enzo (waiter) and his waiter friend (on Enzo's behalf) flirted with me all night until Enzo asked if I wanted to go out dancing later. It was quite the production with his manager singing romantic songs, etc. so to make a long story short I had a date on my first night in Italy. While I waited for him to get off work I went back to photograph the Duomo and saw that they are setting up the MTV TRL 2007 awards show to air live tonight from the square. What are the odds? Of course I am going to try to go Sat night! There were a lot of entertaining folks in the piazza performing circus tricks, playing music and doing some amazing slalom tricks with rollerblades to some snazzy techno music. Very entertaining!
When he got off work, Enzo and I wandered to the local nightlife part of town (read: younger, hipper area) where the Metro gentleman that morning had told me wasn't the best place for me to go. He was wrong of course, but it didn't hurt to have a great local guide to make things safer and more interesting for me. I wanted to practice my Italian a bit but Enzo really wanted to practice his English (and he was very fluent) so I quizzed him about all aspects of life in Italy, Milan, travel, etc. Very interesting. We went to Dolce Vita, a local bar next to a small river and then to Cobà which is a Latin dance club. We danced some salsa moves and had a grand old time. Yes, I danced with 9 blisters--a girl has got to have priorities! We had lots of fun and he kept trying to take me to all kind of romantic places. I finally told him I had to say good night around 2:30a and went back to my hotel. Gosh, wonder what my Sat night will be like?
He wanted to hang out again today but unfortunately I want to do my own thing and I kind of had the feeling that he liked me a whole lot more than I liked him. Oh well, my adventures are still just beginning! I am sure I am not going to give this level of detail to my postings for the rest of my trip but hey, while I have the chance and can sit in a cooler room for awhile, what the heck.
Weather here has been beautiful. 70 to 75 maybe--haven't looked to know exactly. Just know that it is gorgeous, sunny and warm. And humid. I love the humidity but am still adjusting my internal thermostat. Today I slept in a little and decided to wander the less-touristy parts of Milan a few blocks off of the main drags. Wow, now those are some beautiful and interesting streets. Driving is impressive as the streets are quite narrow and some drivers are a bit creative. It seems like there are stores with all kinds of specialties everywhere. I think it would take a lifetime to discover every little shop, cafe and market. I just wandered around for 2 hours trying to take it all in. Then I needed lunch and went for pizza with Brie!! Quattro Formaggi pizza with brie--who cares what the other cheeses were because there was brie! Okay, I am over that now. Also learned that wine "ballo" means with bubbles. Chardonnay with bubbles tastes just like champagne and costs twice as much. Good learning experience.
Now I am going to head out to see if I can find out when the MTV thing is, figure out the train schedule for tomorrow's trip to Verona and then Padua and then scope out tonight's nightlife. . . until next time, Caio! April 13 I am here! --MilanHello all! I made it! The Seattle flight was pretty nice. 9.5 hours with lots of sleep, 2 warm and tasty meals, a large selection of movies (I watched Deja Vu) and video games (lots of black jack and solitaire played). Landing in Copenhagen was effortless and pretty. It amazed me how perfectly flat the tidal flats of Denmark and Sweden are. And the water is crystal clear--could see a crab pot or something with all of its markers at least 50 feet below and a large herring ball with a number of seagulls feasting on them. All from the plane.
My stay in Copenhagen was a little longer than planned as we had a technical delay. As the captain put it (and it sounded so apologetic and sweet with his skandanavian accent) "we have a very HUGE hole in one of our tires and that just won't work for taking off. so we are going to have to change it". That led to a 2 hour delay. The flight to Milan over some stunning mountain ranges which I can only guess to be Swiss was smooth with our fancy new tire. They didn't mention if they were using Kuhmos or Hoosiers in case you were wondering. It struck me how many airport stores offer housewares and furniture. Not the most carry-on friendly offerings. The women there were stunning. So beautiful. Can't say that the guys caught my attention that much.
The airport was my first challenge. No problems with luggage, a phone card or getting a ham and cheese panini. Calling home didn't seem to connect but I was able to make a local call to confirm my hotel. All of a sudden my studious memorization of key Italian phrases escaped me and I had an ackward conversation that somehow managed to confirm that I would be there sometime in about an hour. Decided to take a 50 minute bus ride to the Milan train station for 5 Euros rather than an 85 Euro taxi ride. I started to get ancy when I couldn't tell which stop at the end of our ride was the train station but I figured it out by reading every sign we passed in the final 10 minutes of the ride until my eyes were cross.
Made it to my hotel room and went to bed around 11pm. I'll figure out how to get some pictures up on my next internet visit but the room is cute and charmingly small (is that a nice way of saying super-cozy?). At least I have a balcony and my own bathroom. When I got up this morning I went to walk around and find a phone and the train station. Went 180 degrees the wrong way and after essentially being lost for a half an hour I found a phone booth and called home. Mom and dad are relieved I am alive. And hey mom, thanks for the ride to the airport!
Eventually I found my way back to the hotel only to discover if I had gone about 3 blocks the other direction I would have been at the Metro station I was looking for. Thought I would wait until I went the 8 minute metro ride to The Duomo (cathedral) have breakfast. Bought my ticket at a machine and then spent 10 unsuccessful minutes trying to figure out how to get to the yellow line. I asked a few folks (yes, in Italian) and they pointed me in the right direction. When I finally got to my metro stop by the Duomo I could not for the life of me figure out how to get out and where to go to. Darn that Rick Steves skipped that step in his book. I asked this nice gentleman of about 50 who had just answered a question for another passerby and he gave me what I imagine were great directions.
I followed his directions for about 5 minutes and somehow ended up near the same place. He saw me again and asked if I still needed help. We spent a bit of time trying to communicate with a very limited vocabulary and lots of smiles. He said he would help me but let's get a coffee first. Not wanting to turn down the help I agreed. He was such a sweet man by the name of Gieufranco. He treated me like his daughter. We passed my phrase book back and forth to discuss some pleasantries like when I got here, where I was from, etc. We each spoke about the same amount of the other's language. It was a fun conversation with a lot of "capisce?" (do you understand) and a lot of work. He said he didn't have to work for about an hour and ended up taking me to a different stop on the metro himself. We continued our learning conversation along the way and then he was kind enough to give me a 20 minute tour of the Duomo, La Scala and a few other places. He told me to skip the "politico" stuff and made a snoring gesture. I think I got about 10% of the tour info but he even introduced me to the site entry people and told them what audioguides to sell me when I came back. Then with a kiss on each cheek and a hug he went off to work. Gosh, I just meet the nicest people on my adventures!
After he left I toured the Duomo and climbed the 250 steps to the top of the dome--absolutely gorgeous! Next I explored the ritzy glass-domed arcade of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele with its many Prada, Loui V and Gucci stores. Then onto La Scala Opera House and Museum and Sforza Castle. On my way here from the castle to write this I enjoyed some strawberry Gelato. Yum!!
To wrap this up (obviously I had to unload a little--can you imagine me not talking this much for 11 weeks?) a few observations. Things are very easy once you have them figured out--trains, metro, phones, internet cafe. Restating the obvoius? Think I am just celebrating that I've got it figured out! I am DEFINITELY going to wear my fake wedding ring tomorrow and display it with genuine fake pride. Let's just say that the men are very friendly and say hello with your eyes at your chest (well mine) for a long time before giving the occassional cat-call. I'm taking it all as flattery and ego-boosting right now. If nothing else, they are easy to ask for help as long as you deflect an arm around your waist or an unneeded kiss on the cheek. At least a great number of them are bello and well-dressed (as are the ladies)! Caio for now and I'll check in with more adventures soon! : ) Jackie |
. So I got up early as usual and went down to the Campo dei Fiori which is a fun open market with fresh fruits, fish, flowers, and a handful of the usual touristy crap thrown in for sale. So weird that you have to press the shift key to insert a period--now that's annoying!! In the square I saw the place called Drunken Ship that some party girls in Florence told us was "the" place to go. Their giant sign advertised "girls flash your boobs for free prizes and drinks" as the main lure. As tempting as that sounded I decided we'd have to pass for a classier joint for our evening entertainment. Didn't rain while I was out which was very nice!|
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