Cinque Terre

From Rome we went to a little town in the Tuscan region of Italy called Montecatini Terme for just two nights. We would have gone straight to La Spezia but it was booked for a few nights. So Montecatini Terme was our "lay over" stop. We followed our directions to the hotel and try to check in. The old man at the counter seemed to have trouble finding our reservation though and had to call someone else and it was all a big fuss. I eventually whipped out my computer to double-check the hotel - turns out we were at the wrong one! Whoops. We ducked out of there as quietly as possible and panicked a bit at how we were supposed to find our actual hotel. As we're heading back to the train station I look up and see our hotel, looming just off the road to our left. That was pretty lucky of us! They had no problem finding our reservation, although we did have to wait an hour for our room to be cleaned. It was already 5:00 PM and our room hadn't been cleaned yet? This was not going to be the best hotel. Once in the room we realized that our air conditioner was missing it's remote. Of course, they had no more remotes and suggested we open the window (which had about four layers of blinds and shutters on it). And last but not least, they charged out the butt for one hour of internet. Poo. We got out of the hotel and went to get some groceries for breakfast, then we stopped for dinner at a restaurant just next to the hotel.

The next day we headed out try and experience the highlight of Montecatini Terme: hot springs. There are a number of spas in the area, most of which seemed to cater to actual spa treatments. We just wanted to swim in a pool of hot spring water. Another problem was that it was Sunday, and it seemed that everything was closed on Sunday. So after a bit of wandering around with no luck we called it quits and headed back to the hotel. I noticed on the walk back that it seemed everyone was shutting down. The streets were pretty much dead - it was like a ghost town. We watched a few movies and Bones episodes (I love that show) for the rest of the afternoon. We went out for pizzas in the evening. The town had come back to life now. The streets were swarming with people and it was fun to watch everyone going by all dressed up. Chuck and I went to get some gelato while Robyn did some shoe shopping. Back at the hotel I fell asleep kind of early, only to be woken up by some distant loud booms. Over the course of 30 minutes the explosions got closer and closer. We were all sitting around wide-eyed, wondering what on earth was going on. Is there a war? Some Tuscan gang violence? Really, I think it was fireworks, but we never did find out! After 30 minutes it was done and everything seemed to be fine. Probably fireworks.



We woke up to heavy rain on the morning of the 14th. We packed all our stuff up and got ready to leave. We tried to check out a couple of times, but no one was at the desk. Finally someone showed up, we called a Taxi and headed to the train station. The taxi was because it was still pouring outside. It rained all day long. Rain rain rain. It let up just enough that we were able to walk to our hotel in La Spezia though. The room was tiny and Robyn's bed unfolded out of a little wooden box. It kind of reminded me of Harry Potter's little room under the stairs (before he moved to Hogwarts) for some reason. We went searching for internet since we hadn't been able to get online for a few days now. We were really hoping to find some place that had free internet, but after getting groceries and a couple of kebabs Robyn and I broke down and went to a €3/hour place. We ended up booking our next hotel in Pula, Croatia which was nice to have done and out of the way. Later on Chuck and I headed back out together for some cheap gelato.

It was raining again the next morning - the 15th. Thankfully, it let up and we felt confident in going to Riomaggiore to walk the Cinque Terre National Park trail. It's a hiking trail that runs along the coast and passes through five little towns, all tucked away into the cliffs along the north-west coast of Italy. It's so beautiful that it's been made into a national park and has a fair amount of tourists that visit. I heard quite a few Australian accents on the trail, so apparently the Aussies like it. It was a gorgeous hike! The waters were a beautiful aqua green-blue and the cliffs, although they didn't quite dive into the sea, they sort of swooped instead. The landscape was covered in aloe plants (the ones along the trail were completely covered with peoples names that had been carved into the the juicy aloe flesh), cacti covered in bright pink and red prickly pears, and all sorts of other scrubby shrubs. There were also a lot of lime trees and vineyards full of grapes that looked to be turning into raisins. Either their owners were just being lazy and negligent, or they were actually making raisins. Robyn said she though she heard that they make raisin wine around there, so maybe that was it. We stopped for lunch in the fourth city on our route: Vernazza. We ate at a pizzeria and happened to be sitting next to a nice Australian family. The father was very talkative and told us all about where to go in Australia and how to get there, etc. One of the daughters was up and down out of her chair trying to avoid a little bee that was flying around their table. She kept saying "I don't like beeeeeees!" Her Mom finally told her she was free to take her lunch somewhere else and eat if she'd like. She said "He won't bite you," to which Chuck added "He'll just sting." They were a nice family! Some of the hike was pretty tiring. There were parts that seemed to have stairs that just went on forever and was constantly uphill. Most of the trail was easy enough though. So all in all, a great hike!



The next day, it was raining again. It slowed to a light drizzle in the morning and Chuck and I headed out for breakfast. It was nice to sit int he quiet of the morning eating a croissant and having a cappuccino (which I never do). They don't do big breakfasts in Europe like they do in the US or even England. I have to say, I miss giant plates of eggs with sausage and bacon and biscuits and gravy and pancakes and french toast and syrup. Oh yum! But still, the croissant and cappuccino were good. We checked out prices on train tickets to Pula and made it back to the hotel before we it was raining too hard. We headed back out into the drizzle again with Robyn to actually buy tickets and get food for the next days trip at the grocery store. After that the heavens broke open and it became a torrential downpour, keeping us locked up in our room for the rest of the night. Eventually we got hungry enough that Chuck decided he would take Robyn's little umbrella and bring us back some pizzas. Somehow the rain actually got worse while he was out and the thunder and lightning set in. There were some seriously loud cracks and the lights started to flicker every once in a while. It felt like being back in Florida! I was a little worried about Charlie out there in the rain, one hand holding pizza and the other a tiny umbrella and decided I would go help him. I threw a towel over my head and plowed out into the storm barefooted. It was great! I sloshed through the streets managing to mostly stay in the protection of the side of buildings so I didn't get completely soaked. I found him walking back not far from the pizza place and joined him. We were both pretty wet by the time we got back to the hotel, but it was fun. And the pizza was very good.

Can you guess what happened the next morning?? It was raining! Somehow we manage to avoid the rain most of the time, which is just what we did after packing our stuff up and heading off to the train station. We managed to get to the station before the drizzle turned into actual rain. Off to Pula we go.

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Rome

We arrived in Rome's incredibly busy main station in the afternoon on the 8th. It was a mad house with people squeezing in on you from every side and others coming at you from the opposite direction you're trying to go. It was as though I was clinging desperately to a barnacled edge of reef during a raging storm, just to keep from getting swept away by the tide of writhing, luggage-wielding bodies. Okay, so I'm exaggerating quite a bit, but it was a really crowded station. We were happy to easily find our bus in the bus terminal, as though he was waiting just for us. We passed by a number of cool looking sights on the way to the hotel. The ride took about 40 minutes, and once we got there Robyn had to use her iPhone to get the last bit of the directions to the hotel. The hotel itself (Il Casteletto) was pretty decent. The air-conditioner worked once we figured out what setting to use, and the internet, once we figured out the settings for that as well. We walked to the grocery store which turned out to be like... the Dollar store of grocery stores. It wasn't that everything was a dollar, but that everything was of a fairly bad quality. We weren't gonna find no Bugles there (and I've been craving them for a while now - no Bugles anywhere! Makes me so sad). But we got enough for a somewhat satisfying dinner and just staying in for the rest of the night.

Being the superbly responsible person that I am, I set the alarm for somewhere around 8:00 AM. It went off quite a few times with no effect until I decided that I should go ahead and get up for breakfast. I was apparently the only one who cared to do so because Robyn and Chuck continued snoring away while I ate a dry croissant and some stale cereal with warm milk. Boy, did they miss out or what. I have to admit being a little peeved at the fact that we didn't end up leaving the hotel until close to noon, but it ended up being a full and successful day despite that. So we took the bus back into town, keeping on the lookout for a nice central stop. The bus was pretty packed when we found a stop that was right by the Roman Forums, so although Chuck made it off, the door shut in me and Robyn's face before we could make it through the crowd. We watched in horror as the bus drove off with us to god knows where. Okay, so there was no horror and the bus drove off with us to just the next bus stop, but I did feel a faint bit of subdued panic at the thought that we could be separated in the big city of Rome. Of course, if worse came to worse we would all end up back at the hotel with nothing lost but a day of sight-seeing, but still! Robyn and I walked back to the stop that Chuck had gotten off at, hoping he had decided to stay put. But he wasn't there. After hanging around for about five minutes I decided to take the bus to the next stop again and walk back one more time, all the while keeping my eyes peeled for him. No luck. I got back to Robyn with still no Chuck in sight. So we waited some more. I was starting to get a little worried now - mainly I though he might have just decided to go back to the hotel immediately and that we would have wasted one of our days in Rome. After maybe 10 minutes or so I was greatly relieved to see him crossing the street towards us with a smile on his face! It was all good - we were back on track. First things first: we deserved gelato after that ordeal. You look for any excuse for gelato when in Italy... So first thing we took pictures of was the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, then moved on to see some nearby ruins. When we realized they weren't the Roman Forum ruins we made our way across the street to where they were located. We paid our admission and Robyn whipped her heavy, yet useful European guide book to guide us through the ruins. Most of the buildings had completely fallen down and only a couple pieces of columns were left lying in the dirt, but some temples still had quite a bit of floor intact with the stumps of columns planted throughout. There was a memorial to Julius Caesar where he was cremated. There were a couple of huge, Arc-du-Triomph-like arches at the edges of the complex. The highlight of the whole complex is the Palatino. You have to climb a few flights of stairs past pretty fountains built into the walls, but once on top there's a pretty good view of the city. It definitely has an old Roman feel to it. You can then wander toward the Colosseum through the ruins of the old palace area. You really have to use your imagination to be able to grasp how it all might have looked and felt - otherwise you can just be impressed with the idea that you're walking the footsteps of people who are many hundreds of years dead and gone. Walking the footsteps perhaps, of people who have shaped the world. You have to think to appreciate it all. Oh, and I thought it was really cool to see that they had areas blocked off where people were still excavating the ruins and sifting through the dirt, looking for undiscovered treasures. I kept pointing and exclaiming "Look! Archaeologists!" whenever we came upon a site. There's still secrets to be found in the middle of Rome! Next was the Colosseum. It's a pretty cool building with a cool, grisly, dark history. People stood in there cheering on the deaths of other human beings! Craziness! And there we stood, taking pictures, trying to imagine the past. The original floor of the arena is long gone, so you can see into the labyrinthine bowels of the stadium where the gladiators, prisoners, and wild animals would have awaited their fate. Apparently they could actually flood the stage and recreate naval battles! Real blood and all, I'm sure. We headed on to San Giovanni Laterano next, stopping for a kebab on the way. San Giovanni Laterano is a huge church and is filled with absolutely stunning decoration. I can't even describe it. The pictures I took do it so little justice. It was really incredible though. Our last stop was incredible too, but in a different way. It was the Scala Sancta, or Holy Stairs. It is a long set of marble stairs that have been overlaid with wooden stairs for protection. The story is that they are the very stairs that Jesus walked up to face Pontius Pilates during the trail that led to his crucifixion. The stairs were apparently moved from their original location and basically enshrined there in Rome. The coolest thing is that you can climb the stairs on your knees to praise God! In fact, you can only climb the stairs on your knees - no feet allowed. I don't consider myself religious, so I felt a little blasphemous as I made my way up the stairs on my aching knees. But I did think about Jesus and all the good that the man himself stands for in an attempt to make up for that. It was interesting to watch the others on the stairs - some were obviously adamantly devoted to whichever form of faith they had chosen. One guy who had a bit of a surfer look spent about 3 minutes on his knees at the top of the stairs, hands fervently clasped in front of him when he wasn't bowed low enough that his forehead almost touched the floor. I was glad I went through the pain of getting to the top (which I suppose is the purpose). So I may have gone up the very stairs that Jesus himself walked up! If he did go up some stairs and if they actually survived that is... After that we went back to the hotel, got some groceries, and relaxed for the rest of the night.



We managed to get into the city at a decent time on the 10th. First stop: the Vatican. We waited in a long, but quickly moving line to get into St. Peter's Basilica. It was a beautiful church, as one would expect from the Vatican. It was huge too, yet so packed with people you had to fight your way through the crowd in some places. The architecture was ornate and the statues incredibly life-like. Everything seemed to be made of either marble or gold. There was a famous statue sculpted by Michelangelo on display just inside, protected by a glass wall. There was a long line to see the glass casket of Pope John XXIII. We didn't wait in line to see him, but through the gaps in the crowd it looked like it was indeed his actual remains. After fighting our way out of the church we headed over to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum. We had bought tickets online, which turned out to be useless because there was no line to buy tickets in person. So we wasted €12 in online fees to make sure we were guaranteed admission into a rather empty museum. Grrr. The main attraction is, of course, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings. To get there you are tunneled through the rest of the museum first. We just ran by everything at first, but then I realized that we weren't going to be coming back to see it all so I'd better pay attention. Most of it wasn't really all that interesting in my un-educated opinion. When we finally made it to the chapel I was underwhelmed. I'm not sure what I was imagining it would be like, but it wasn't as impressive as it had been in my head. It sort of reminded me of a kid who had painted their room with a bunch of different scenes of various stories. I mean, it was very good and skilled painting, but the way it was all laid out across the ceiling and walls was a bit... I'm not sure how to describe it. But it was still cool to see the famous chapel. The rule was "no photography" but being the rebels we are I whipped out my camera with well-concealed trepidation and nonchalantly snapped a quick picture. There were so many people in there that I could probably have stood taking pictures for a good minute before anyone said anything to me. I saw other people breaking the rule too. I'm not sure why they say "no photos" anyways though - I think probably just to be the only ones with pictures of the chapel so that visitors have to buy a postcard or something to have a visual reminder of their visit. It can't be because it's too sacred because we could take pictures inside their big sacred church, and it can't be because it's copyrighted art, because he's long dead with no existing manager. So we went ahead and stuck it to the man (although in this case "the man" would be the Pope perhaps). After he museum we left the Vatican area and looked for food on the way to the metro to go to see Trevi Fountain. Right outside the metro station we found a cafeteria-style joint where, after much confusion and frustration, we got some food. Trevi Fountain was completely packed once we arrived. Lots of people were throwing pennies over their shoulders into the fountain, as is the tradition. It's said that if you throw a penny over your shoulder into the fountain it guarantees that you'll come back to Rome one day. We all threw our pennies in for fun too, then hoofed it out of there. We passed by the eight columns of Tempio Adriano (not very exciting) on or way to the Pantheon. It's pretty big and looks very old from the outside. Inside it looks newer and has been converted into a sort of open church. Once again, lots of people here. We went south to Campo de Fiori - an open air market - but being so late in the day, most of the stalls had packed up and left. We refilled our water bottles (I should say Robyn's water bottle, since she's the only one dedicated enough to actually bring one along everyday) and popped into a bakery. They had a giant bologna sausage on display out front - about 1 foot in diameter and 3-4 feet long. Huge sucker! So thanks to their crazy bologna they managed to sell me a sugary meringue and Robyn bought a canolli. We walked through Piazza Navona which had a nice big fountain in the middle and lots of people. We went into St. Ignazio di Loyola, another beautiful church. Lastly, we headed to Chiesa del Gesu which is yet another church and unfortunately closed. After that we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the night. It had been another long day!



We slept in on the 11th, making it out the door at about 1:00 or so. Robyn and Chuck found a hookah place, or shisha as it's called in Italy. It was literally called Shisha & Kebab and they served both food and hookah. It was a pretty cool place. We sat in the basement area which had no tables and only a bunch of cushions lining the walls. There were paintings of the walls, mainly of men on horses wielding scimitars in a desert. It was only lit by two or three small lights, giving it a nice relaxing aura. We ended up sitting down there for almost three hours eating our kebabs and a dessert of baklava while smoking our hookah. The lady who ran the place was very nice and had a casual personality. She had us test the hookah to make sure it was working okay instead of her doing it because she was fasting. I assume she was fasting for Ramadan and that smoking hookah was one of the things that they fasted from. Kinda cool. After lunch we walked to Paola Fountain, which is not nearly as grand as Trevi Fountain but still pretty. For the next hour or so we just walked around the Trastevere area checking things out. Before heading back to the hotel we grabbed a pizza to go. I felt bad about possibly making everyone on the bus hungry because the whole bus stank of pizza when we got off. Oh well! It was another relaxing night.



We checked out on the 12th. At the train station we found a grocery store where Chuck got what we've taken to calling a pearple. It was the shape and texture of an apple, bu had the color and flavor of a pear. They do some weird stuff with genetics these days... We hopped on the train and zipped off to Montecatini Terme!

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Bologna

Warning: This is a long post!

We arrived in Bologna unsure of what to expect. As we walked down one of the main streets and felt the vibes we all agreed that it had a nice feel - it sort of reminded me of the authenticity of Granada mixed with the city-life of Madrid. And of course, throw in some Italians. We found our apartment really easily and I was secretly excited to see that it was a real apartment! The entrance was a giant door that doesn't actually open - what opens is a little door cut out of the giant door. After meeting our cute Italian apartment manager he led us upstairs through a tiny hallway to our awesome, spacious two-bedroom apartment. It had a big TV, a full kitchen, a big bathroom, air conditioning, internet, etc. It has got to be one of the nicest places we've stayed so far - and really cheap for it being a two-bedroom apartment in the heart of a big city. We were briefed about the apartment in broken English mixed with fluent Italian and after settling in we went out for some food. Chuck took us along the scenic route where we saw Bologna's set of leaning towers: the Due Tori. I suppose leaning towers aren't just for Pisa! These weren't all that pretty though. They were just 4-sided, brick towers that rose straight up with little embellishment. We headed through one of the food-market areas trying to find a butcher. Most things were closed by that time in the afternoon though, so we didn't manage to get what we were hoping to: a duck and a rabbit. We got a few veggies instead. Chuck next took us to Piazza Maggiore which is home to the Fontana del Nettuno and the fifth largest church in the world: the San Petronio. We just glanced around as we passed through on our way to the supermarket. After buying a big load a groceries we trudged our haul back to the apartment. We sat in for the rest of the evening just watching TV or sitting on the computer. Robyn made us a yummy pizza for dinner and we all split a bottle of wine.



The morning of the 3rd Chuck cooked us omelets stuffed with chopped ham and soft cheese. We headed out again to try and find a butcher, and this time had much more success. We actually found numerous butchers as well as a bunch of fruit and veggie stalls, cheese shops, and delis. I managed to find a duck (although it was a bit sad looking) and Robyn got some nice, thick sausages. Chuck and I finished up some more grocery shopping at the big supermarket and Robyn went off to do some person shopping for herself. She ended up with a shirt or two and some pants among a couple of other things. Meanwhile I prepared the duck. The duck came still attached to its head and feet, which I have no experience with removing. I got out the biggest knife I could find (which wasn't all that big, really) and stretched out the poor little neck. I looked at it for a few moments, staring into those beady little eyes as I held the knife poised near my shoulder. I had a few small false starts before I steeled myself to the task, counted to three and gave it my best whack. The head was, of course, still attached. I barely made it through the bone for all my effort. But after hacking away a few more times I had the deed done and finished. The feet involved a bit snapping which I won't get into, but that wasn't pretty either. I made my mashed potato and onion mixture, stuffed it up his butt, ringed him with carrots and potatoes and shoved him in the oven. All was looking good! I sat back and relaxed while the duck baked. Every once in a while I would baste the veggies in the bubbling fat that was melting off the bird. About halfway through I noticed something odd. The mashed potatoes that were oozing out of the cavity (as they are supposed to do) had a green tinge to them right around the edge of the duck. It looked like green food coloring had seeped into the potatoes! Try as I might, I couldn't find anything at all about "green stuff on my duck." The duck was still pretty tasty though. If we just avoided the weird green bits then everything was fine. The potatoes were especially good, if I do say so myself. Not too long after dinner we got dressed in our finest clothes (which for us is about the equivalent of getting dressed to go to the movies or something) and headed out to find a fun looking hookah bar Robyn and Chuck had researched online. A few wrong streets later we had made it to find the place was closed down for renovations. What a bummer! So no hookah for us.

The 4th was to be our day in Pisa. I forgot to set my alarm clock so we woke up late. I have to admit, I'm not sure that we would have gotten up in time even if the alarm clock had been set. We tend to ignore alarm clocks these days. Perhaps that's what extended "vacation" does to you? Although come to think of it, I ignore my alarm clock whenever possible, vacation or not. We decided we could still go if we took the 1:15 train so I cooked up a pasta lunch to take with us and Chuck cooked us a quick breakfast. We got to the station, ready to go by 1:15 and waited. And waited and waited. The train ended up being almost an hour late! This totally threw off our schedule for the rest of the day, but what could we do? After finally making it to Pisa and figuring out their bus system we found ourselves in front of the front gate to the Pisa Cathedral. We mingled into the crowd with all the other tourists to take in the sights. On the left is the baptistry with the cathedral across from it. Fun fact: apparently the Pisa baptistry is where Galileo Gallilei was baptized! It's also a unique building because of its echo-y properties. We didn't go in ourselves (would have been €5 a person and we're cheap) but you can find videos on YouTube of people kind of singing with themselves because the echo lasts so long. It's pretty cool. The cathedral is big and beautiful, but really just another of the many cathedrals around Italy. And then there's the famous tower of Pisa right out behind the cathedral. It's not the only tower in Italy that's leaning, but it is one of the prettier ones. And it does have quite a lean to it! We had to do the obligatory "optical illusion" photos of us holding up the leaning tower as well any other sorts of things we could think to do to it. I have to say, I think we were some of the more original tourists there. We not only held up the tower, but pushed and kicked it over, picked it up, and even ate it! It was funny to just stand and watch the other tourists doing the same thing. People everywhere, young and old, holding their hands in the air, pushing against some invisible object. After getting our fill of the tower we made a quick stop at the Arno River that runs through Pisa. Robyn wanted to see it because it's mentioned as the river Lauretta threatens to throw herself into in the song O Mio Babbino Caro from the opera Gianni Schicchi. We arrived back in Bologna at about 10:00 PM, all feeling a bit cranky. It was nothing that some steaming pizzas and freezing granite couldn't fix though. The granite (like a sorbet kind of) were soooo good! We got them from the little gelato place right near our apartment and I think they're made fresh everyday. They taste fresh and natural - like there were real peaches in the peach granita and real grapefruit in the grapefruit one. They made us feel instantly better about getting home so late.



The next morning we slept in. Just as I woke up Robyn was heading out to the big market that's held down the road on main street each day. When she got back she told us that they had absolutely everything there and that it was huge. She got a few woven leather bracelets herself. We were getting hungry so headed downstairs to to the restaurant right below us called Bel Fiore. We each decided to simply go with the "menu del giorno," or menu of the day. The waiter (I think he was the owner or manager at least, too) was a rotund cheery fellow who was very nice and chatty. He didn't really speak English - he could just manage to slip in a few English words here and there when we looked completely confused by what he was saying. But he loved to chat with us about how things are in Italy, and how Italians do such-and-such. He was great. And the food was divine! Our first course was a simple plate of spaghetti with olive oil and some lemon juice and spicy red pepper bits. Next was a filet of breaded pork doused in a tomato sauce with a salad. We also got a tiramisu for dessert. It was all to die for. After lunch we just had to get a granite again - they're that good. We got some wine from the nearby wine shop (everything is nearby, it's awesome) and finished it off while waiting for dinner time. Robyn prepared for dinner those giant sausages she had gotten the other day with sauteed peppers and onions. We went and got more wine... The sausages ended up being great. We had our wine and all just hung out talking late into the night. Somewhere near midnight we all decided we wanted some more food so I cooked up the mushrooms we had on hand and just tossed them in some pasta. Nothing like mushroom pasta at midnight when you're somewhat intoxicated... Good stuff.



I have to say, we've become good at sleeping in by now. We woke up some where between 10:00 and 11:00 and didn't actually get out the door until 1:30 or so. But when we did we went to the train station and hopped the train to Firenze. Firenze is a popular city for tourists, but still has its charm if you can manage to ignore that fact. We saw a number of churches from the outside only: Santa Maria Novella, San Lorenzo (with the Medici Chapel Museum in the back), and Santa Croce. I would have liked to have gone into Santa Croce but by the time we finally got to the church it was closed. It's home to the tombs of Dante, Michelangelo, and a couple of other famous old dudes. We managed to go inside two other churches, one of which was the huge Santa Maria del Fiore. It is an absolutely stunning church from the outside. It looks like it's made completely of white, cream, pale green and pale pink marble and is just gorgeous. Inside is another story though. It's plain. I guess that's probably why it's free to go inside maybe? It seems that if the church is gorgeous on the outside it usually isn't special inside, and if it's boring outside it's probably incredible once you go in. Maybe inside-beauty is inversely proportional to outside-beauty for European churches. The Duomo also had it's own baptistry and bell tower, just like Pisa's cathedral. Unlike Pisa though, the bell tower isn't leaning. It was just as pretty as the church and for a small, exorbitant fee you could climb all the way to the top. Can you guess whether or not we decided to do it? Yeah, no. We stayed on the ground. We also went into a small, boring-looking-from-the-outside church that was actually rather beautiful inside. They had a large monument-like structure by the altar with a picture of the Virgin Mary in it that looked much to big to be in there. And lucky us, we got to hear a trio practicing. It was two violins and an organ which, as far as I know, is not a very common combination. I always love it when we go into a church and find that there is music being performed. We also wandered through the thoroughly crowded Piazza Signoria where the Accademia Gallery is located. The gallery is home to Michelangelo's David statue, so out front they have an oversized replica that we all got a picture with. We passed by the Uffizi Gallery (apparently a pretty famous art gallery and home to the Birth of Venus painting) and came to the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio is pretty cool. It's a bridge that was built in the 1300's that is lined with shops along each side, with the road running down the middle. It was originally occupied by butchers, but when the royalty moved into their new palace nearby they decided goldsmiths would much better suit the place. It still has it's old feel to it with small windows, tiny doors, and small rows of potted plants hanging off a few second story windows. It has a small feel to it and is rather quaint. Our last major sight was the Palazzo Pitti. This is that "new palace" that the royalty moved into. It's rather plain looking from the outside consisting of huge, undecorated slabs of rock. I can't say what it look like inside or around the gardens because we decided not to buy the tickets to go in. I'm sure it's much prettier inside though, and I was kind of sad we had to pass it up. We made it back to the train station just in time to catch our train. In fact, we were so close to the departure time that we didn't have time to buy tickets at the counter. I made sure to ask the conductor before getting on if we could buy them on the train and she said yes. Not too long into the ride a man from the compartment next to us was laying on the ground with a worried wife or girlfriend hovering over him. He seemed lucid and was talking, but something had obviously happened. His wife doused his forehead with water and the conductors came around discussing what they should do. He managed to get back up within 5-10 minutes though and we all thought the excitement was over. About 10 minutes later he's back on the ground again. This time they called the ambulance and the train backed up the station and we all waited. Eventually the ambulance arrived and they brought a stretcher on board, loaded him up and took him away. We never figured out what had happened. The best we could figure is that he kept having moments where he would black out briefly, or perhaps his legs kept giving out on him. Hope he ended up being okay! And we got a free ride on the train due to all the excitement. Once back in Bologna we had dinner at the little restaurant downstairs. The owner was, once again, very cheerful and talkative. And the food was, once again, absolutely delicious.



We all woke up very early on the 7th in order to catch the 6:30 AM train to Cinqueterre where we were going to do a nice long hike through some beautiful scenery. We made it to the station and bought tickets in a sleepy haze. They were more expensive than we had expected, but we got them anyways. We waited at the platform for a few minutes before realizing we were at the wrong spot. We were supposed to be on 6 West, not 6 East. It was very close to the time our train was due to arrive so we backtracked in a run, following the signs to the West platform. We emerged onto the platform in a huff and wondered where the train was. The arrival screen showed that it was already here, but we didn't see it anywhere. And the track we were on looked suspiciously like the same one we had just run from. Long story short: we completely missed the train because it was on a track that is not adequately signposted. But luckily we were able to get our refund put towards our tickets to Rome. We couldn't take a later train to Cinqueterre because it would get us there too late to do the hike. Robyn was pretty disappointed I think, but accepted it as the way things were for now. She said that she still wanted to go and that perhaps we could try again after Rome. So we ended up with our tickets to Rome and a bit of disappointment at the end of the morning. Or really, the start of the morning as it was only about 8:00 AM by this point. On the way back to the hotel I took the opportunity to drag us through a park I'd been wanting to see since we got to Bologna. It ended up being more than a let-down seeing as it was covered in graffiti and not taken care of. Oh well. Robyn went back to bed after we got back to the hotel, but Chuck and I went back out again to the food market to arm ourselves with ingredients for a spaghetti carbonara dinner. We found the biggest onion of our lives at one stall and had to buy it. I managed to get a little practice with my Italian in as well. I find I don't remember much, sadly. The carbonara ended up being pretty good, but I'm always wierded out by the fact that the egg is technically raw when you eat it. So nothing exciting ended up happening that day because or plans were spoiled by bad signage.



On our train out of Bologna to Rome a guy had a kitty in a carrier that he put on a seat in our compartment for a few stops. We all "awwed" a lot and poked our fingers through the cage when we were sure the guy wasn't watching. The cat was really friendly and would rub up against our finger tips, making us "awwww" even more. Luckily, that was the only eventful part of the trip. Next stop: Rome!

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Venice

The train-ride to Venice was fun. And by fun I mean not so fun. The second class section was packed full while the first class had nearly nobody in it. We sat in first class for a bit, but my guilty conscience got the better of me and Chuck and I ended up sitting on the floor between the train cars. Robyn soon joined us when the conductor came around and kicked her out. We arrived in Mestre which is where we had opted to stay because staying in the heart of Venice is much more expensive. Mestre is just across the bridge from the island Venice, so it's nice and close. So we arrived in Mestre and got lot trying to find the hotel. We ended up walking back to the train station, running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and eventually finding a bus that was luckily going our way. After checking in and settling down we headed to a little diner next door to the hotel. It wasn't until after we were sitting and looking at the menu that we realized it was a Chinese run Italian joint with half Chinese food and half Italian food. At that point, my hopes for good Italian food were dashed. Oh well, it was food and tasty enough. After dinner we walked around Mestre to see a bit of the city. It's actually a pretty nice town in my opinion. North of the hotel was a square lined with restaurants, each with a bunch of white chairs and white table-clothed tables under umbrellas out front. We sort of kicked ourselves for not finding the area before we had eaten at our Chin-talian place. There was a very good cellist playing in the square that we stopped and listened to for about 10 minutes. I wish I remembered her name - she was really very good. There were a few inconspicuous fountains, a church at one end, and lots of little stores. It was a nice little area to spend the evening.

The morning of the 31st we woke up in time to enjoy our free breakfast that was included in the price of the room. Boy, what a disappointment. The only food available were sweet, preservative-filled, pathetic excuses for pastries. One of the items was something Twinkie-like, but worse. No meat, no eggs, no cereal. Robyn's espresso (which she loves) was even undrinkable apparently. Bleh. Moving on though, we got tickets for the bus from the tabbachi (basically a little convenience store) around the corner. The cashier and the woman she was chatting with when we arrived seemed to find the fact that we were foreigners interesting. They asked us "Orlando?" and I did a double-take thinking that, holy crap, how'd they know we were from Florida??? Turns out she was saying "London?" in a thick Italian accent. When we told her we were from the US she brightened even more and asked if we liked Michael Jackson! That cracked me up inside. Once we arrived on Venice island after a 15 minute bus ride, we crossed our first Venetian canal with excitement. We walked around the south side of the island to the Accademia area, passing through narrow alleys and over small bridges. The state of most buildings would be indicative of a run-down neighborhood in any place other than Venice. In Venice the peeling paint and crumbling stucco is really charming. Combine that with the laundry hanging over balconies here and there and it feels like you've been transported back to the 1700's. There were quite a few churches all over the island that we stopped into (we made sure to bring cover-ups to cover our shoulders this time), but none were quite as impressive as the Basilica di San Marco. This is a rather famous church that is known for it's bubble-ish domes and intricate gold frescoes. When we got there we had to wait in a long line, but just like at Notre Dame, we were inside within 10 minutes. Unfortunately, everything is roped off once inside and you can't actually explore the church - you just have to follow the line as it moves along. I honestly can't remember too much of the inside because there were so many people and it was so restricted. I do remember that there was a lot of dull gold everywhere. The piazza that the Basilica di San Marco is in had a few other interesting looking buildings, but mostly had a lot of pigeons. People were selling seeds to feed them and you could get them to land on your head and hands while they took a picture. Or you could scatter the seeds on the ground and create a writhing cess-pool of dirty little pigeons crawling all over each other to get to the food. It was a bit gross. We also found the Grand Canal at one point, which, just as it sounds, is the biggest canal in Venice. There are some really nice views from the bridges that cross the Grand Canal. Venice is a very touristy area which means a lot of tourist shops. I loved all the masks that were on display. They came in all sorts of shapes and were usually covered in glitter, the nicer ones with extra bits coming off of them to create maybe a hat, or perhaps something that looked like a lions mane. They were so much fun! I would love to be able to see Venice is February during the Carnevale di Venezia when people dress up in crazy costumes and wear their masks. Some of the cheap masks were selling for €10-20 while the nice masks were €200-300. I'm sure there are masks that get much more expensive too. Another Venetian specialty is Murano glass, made on the Venetian island of Murano. I'm not sure what's so special about it these days, but apparently it was where glasswork really developed and became a serious craft. It was the birthplace of artisan glass craftsmanship I suppose. So real Murano glass tends to be pretty pricey, but there are a ton of shops willing to sell you cheap fake stuff. They have wine stoppers, earrings, necklaces, little decorative candies, and even huge glass chandeliers. We tried to keep lunch as cheap as we could and ended up at a pizza restaurant that told Robyn she wasn't allowed to have tap water, so she had to buy their bottled stuff. The pizza was good enough though. Robyn paid to go inside the Frari church to see the grave of Claudio Monteverdi, an awesome 18th century composer. Last thing we did that day was check out the most famous Venetian bridge: the Rialto. It is a very wide bridge that has a bunch of little shops all along it. It's one of the busiest areas of Venice, along with the Piazza San Marco. After that we headed back to our hotel pretty exhausted. I do have to mention our dinner though because it was pretty bad. Among other strange problems, our steaks tasted really really bad. Robyn kept calling it a "shit steak" because, well, hers really tasted like they had soaked it in a tub of poo or something. Mine wasn't quite as bad so I managed to choke half of it down, but after the first bite Robyn refused to eat anymore. Instead she fed it to Chuck who had decided he wasn't hungry enough to actually get a meal. That ended up being a slightly expensive disappointment in Italian dining. I though Italy was supposed to have awesome food everywhere you went! Apparently we didn't learn anything from breakfast...



Needless to say, we didn't bother waking up for the free breakfast the next morning. We basically sat inside most of the day because we wanted to see Venice during the evening. We found a great kebap place though - love those kebaps! Each region has their own, unique way of making them and I love trying them all out. At 4:00 we headed to Venice and went north this time to the Jewish Ghetto. Mostly, we wandered aimlessly. For a while we sat and watched some old women chatting with each other and a little girl. It all had a very Italian feel to it somehow. As we continued walking we started seeing people carrying grocery bags from a Billa (a grocery chain). Since we were looking for a grocery store we followed them backwards. Hmm, what I mean is that we went the opposite was they were headed and looked for more people with bags and backward followed them, etc. This took us across a bridge where we found what looked like a little locals bar. We stopped for a glass of wine that came with a little dish of potato chips. It was like a little tapas, but in Venice they call it cichetti. At some point during our glass of wine music began drifting up to us from across the bridge. It had a very Jewish feel with a fun, upbeat tempo and the sound of a fiddle. When we walked by after our drink we were impressed by the trio - one was playing a bassoon, the other a guitar, and the third was playing the fiddle, had a kazoo in his mouth and one foot on a cymbal pedal and the other on a bass drum pedal - the drum, however, was a cardboard box! It was quite the setup. We found the Billa and got a bunch of little foods: cheese, salami, bread, some chips, dessert twinkies, wine, etc. On top of all that we got the cheapest and most delicious pizza we've found so far. We plopped down on the edge of one of the many sets of the stairs that lead into the canals and chowed down. We watched people passing by and "awww"ed at dogs with their owners. We watched a little motor boat pull up to our stairs with three people. Two got out to go grocery shopping while the third stayed and watched the boat. She looked like a gypsy with her dark skin, hair, and eyes. She wore a black, lace-up top and a full red skirt and I think she even had a red flower in her hair. She just sat in the boat working on weaving some sort of wire basket, a small smile on her face as she waited. We thought it would be pretty cool to just hop in your boat to go to the grocery store. After dinner we wandered around, retracing our steps sometimes, trying to find the island's casino. We eventually found it as darkness was settling in and were somewhat disappointed. It was hardly grand - it wasn't big and it wasn't really fancy at all. We went inside to see if it was anymore exciting but were only allowed to wander down the short main hall. If we wanted to go anywhere else we had to pay. We did not pay - we went back to our hotel instead. We got to see Venice in the evening, which was the whole point of our late outing.



Leaving Venice was nice and stress-free. We walked to the train station since we now knew where it was and hopped on our train to Bologna. I'll leave you with some pictures of different masks for sale in Venice.

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Milan

Upon arriving at the train station in Milan, Italy, we ran around in confusion trying to figure out just how we were going to get to our hotel. We decided that the metro would do the trick so headed downstairs to get tickets. Hanging out by the ticket machines was a very helpful young woman who insisted on pressing the buttons for you and then asking for money. I said "Sorry, no" while reaching down into that dark, apathetic place that resides in us all, grabbed my tickets and headed for my metro. I feel like such a priviledged jerk when I don't give them money, but it's not like I asked for her help or even wanted it. I will not be guilted or obliged into giving my money away! We managed to make it onto our metro and to our hotel with just a tad bit of snapping at each other and some icy silences, but otherwise unscathed. It was a nice sort of place except for the internet. I had been lead to believe that internet was complimentary with the price of the room, bot noooo. It was €5.00 for one hour. That's $7.50 for one hour! And then we were offered two hours for €5.00 or 24 hours for €10.00. We didn't need 24 hours for our two night stay... So that was a bit frustrating and we ended up with no internet. After settling in for a bit we got hungry. We asked the guy at the front desk where a good pizza place was around the hotel, but he was new to the area and didn't know. On the bright side he turned outt o be Spanish and Chuck got to practice his Spanish some more, even though we were now in Italy. We walked down the street and around the corner keeping our eyes open. We settled on a little place called Fly Pizza (whether because of the numerous flies in the place that insisted on sharing your pizza, or because the pizza was so awesome that it was "fly", I'm not sure). They turned out to have some really good pizza, my favorite being the Fly Pizza II that was covered in doner meat (the stuff the use in kebaps) and covered with the garlic white sauce. Man was it good!

We woke up on the 29th with continually itching bed bug bites and some fading sunburns (I might have forgotten to mention that Chuck and I managed to get pretty burned on our hike up the mountain) but managed to get out to see the city despite all that. We caught the tram and ended up getting a free ride because we thought you could buy tickets on the tram, but turns out we were wrong! The driver's apparent apathy meant we ended up with free ride to the Duomo. Although there are numerous "duomos" throughout Italy (afterall, "duomo" is italian for "church") this one is one of the more impressive ones. The outside is more impressive than the inisde according to Chuck. Robyn and I wouldn't know because we weren't allowed to go inside due to the fact that we were wearing sleeveless shirts. In Italy they stick pretty rigidly (especially in the big, well-visited churches) to the rules of "No sleeves, no long pants/skirt, no service." I assume it's done out of respect for the snctity of the church. I sort of think it's BS, but on the otherhand, it's their church and they can do what they want. So no big deal really. But we did learn that we needed to bring along a cover-up in the future. This is also where we first ran into a scam where a friendly-seeming person (usually an African man (I assume they're African by the accent)) physically attempts to tie a little frienship bracelet onto your wrist - just like the ones we all made in middle school - and then asks you for money for the bracelet. We managed to avoid falling into this trap despite being approached about five times. The first guy that came up to us was kind of funny, asking if we were African because Chuck had us, his "two wives" with him. They all seemed to like that "Oh, you are African, yes??" line. After fending a few of those guys off we walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which is a big, fancy arcade that is home to some of the high-end shops in the city. I noticed a Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and of course McDonalds in there. The arcade is actually pretty impressive in it's size and detail. And as you pop out the other end of the arcade you find yourself in a busy little square with a fun statue, trees, and an oh-so-popular-for-some-reason drinking fountain. It's not a drinking fountain like you would think of in the US, but more like a fancy spigot with a continually running stream of water. One could fill their water bottle easily this way, or just do a quick rinse of thier hands if they were feeling a little OCD. But I learned from watching another savvy fountaineer that if you stick your finger on the spigot, blocking it's flow, the water pops out in a traditional water-fountain-like stream from another hole in the top. How clever is that?? So I had me a nice refreshing drink of cold water. One of the buildings bordering the square was housing a very temporary-looking exhibit about Leonardo DaVinci and his many, many invensions. We stepped in a looked around briefly. Oh, there was this small, old Italian woman who was having some trouble with one oft he displays. The display was a big four foot wide touch-screen image of one of DaVinci's sketchbooks. To turn the pages you touch the edge of a page and drag your fingers across the screen, effectually pulling the page over. She, however, was having a hell fo a time doing this and after about seven attempts (while the rest of us stood around getting a slightly agravated) she looked with innocent frustration saying something or other in Italian. So Robyn and I ended up turning pages for her. She was actually kind of cute! Across the square from that exhibit was the famous Teatro Alla Scalla. It was opened in 1778 and was the premiere theater for a number of works including Norma in 1831 and Madame Butterfly in 1904. It is also where Maria Callas made her official debut in 1951. Unfortunately we were unable to go on a tour of the building, although Robyn did pay to see the museum section. It's not the most impressive building by any means, but it's got a lok of history. Next stop was Castello Sforzesco. It was original seat of power of the ruling family in Milan - the Sforzas - back in the 1400's. Now it houses a couple of museums, some feral cats, and more of those guys who try to put the friendship bracelets on you. It was a cool place I suppose, but nothing really exciting. After stopping in an American bookstore for a bit we spotted a crowd of people and went to investigate. There was a man carving things out of food sitting cross-legged on the ground. He had parsnips, carrots and beets strewn on the ground around him while he serenly carved away at a swan, or an owl, or a flower. He was fast too! Each creation took only a couple of minutes. Robyn and I were entranced by him and Chuck had to almost literally drag us away finally. We satisfied our starving bodies with paninis from a hole-in-the-wall (I do mean hole-in-the-wall) place. They had over 100 paninis on the menu, it was so overwhelming to have to choose one. It was very good stuff though. Oh, we went back to La Scala again and found there was a chorus singing in fromt of the place. As far as I could tell it was a chorus that was on a trip together for vacationing and decided to pay tribute to the theater by singing right there for the whole world and God to see. It was really cool - the sound echoed well in the little arcade. And the ride home sucked because we tried to get away with a free ride again, but didn't. We were caught and fined €32 each... Ouch! They just calmly wrote us a ticket and had us pay right then and there. The woman was a bit of a shrew, but the guy she was with was actually kind of nice. That sure put a damper on our day. But after a few hours sulking back at the hotel we said "Screw that" and traipsed out to McDonalds for some internet and comfort food. Actually, I tried to just buy two hours of internet from our hotel at first, but the guy who was at the desk was now telling me it was €8 instead of the previously quoted €5. I was ready to shell out €5, but instead they got nothing! Hah! I laugh in their faces. Inside my head. Hah.



We woke up on the 30th, checked out of the hotel, tried to buy tickets on the underground train but the machines were all broken so we got another free ride, although this time it was unintentional and we actually tried to find someone to pay. Then we got our train tickets and hung around at the station forever until it was time to go to Venice!

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