Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

November 07, 2007 08:08 +0000 | Family Italy 'Round-the-World Travel 3

Tell me something: do these blogging police really exist? 'Cause if they do, I can think of a few people (*cough* Audrey, Chris, Stephen, Lara and Shawna *cough*) that could use a few tickets ;-) This is what happens when you put stuff off though. You get carried away with what's going on and the to-post list piles up. I'll try to cover everything and break it up into two posts: this one about my last week in Rome and another (hopefully today) about my past week here in Yeosu, Korea.

Dad's arrival

My Dad's flight was due in at noon, so I got up at a reasonable hour and headed over to the airport by way of their stupid-crowded train. 11€ takes you to the little town of Fuimancino (foo-man-choo?) which is host to Rome's international airport. He was a bit beat up from the flight so we didn't do much sightseeing that day, just got some food and a brief walk around town. It was just nice to have him around really.

The Coliseum and Friends

The touring started the following day. My Father the morning person, was kind enough to not wake me 'till it was almost time for the hotel to stop serving breakfast (thanks Dad!) and after that we made our way to the Coliseum. When it comes to the Roman ruins, most tours in Rome don't include an interior tour of the Coliseum, so today we would do one of those, then do the rest of the ruins the next day.

As appears to be the case for most of my European tours, the value for your money is often hit & miss. Our tour guide knew his stuff (though some of what he said contradicted what we heard from the the following day's guide: were Christians executed in the Coliseum or not?), but the audio devices we used to hear him pretty much sucked. I ignored what the guy was saying for most of it and just looked around... damn.

Structurally, the Coliseum isn't really all that impressive... unless of course you take into account that it was built like 3000 years ago... by hand. It was at this point that I realised how badly the Christians fucked us all with the Dark Ages. The Romans understood how to use concrete, and reinforce their structures with iron scaffolding, techniques we use even today. Hell, they even filled the base of the Coliseum with water to enact navel battles back then! Really, really, impressive.

We filled the rest of the day with visits to some of the smaller well-known Roman landmarks: the Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, and Piazza Popolo. There's pictures in my imager of what we saw there, but in short, it's pretty :-)

The Roman Ruins and Other Christian Sites

The next day we did our big tour of the Roman ruins. For those who don't know, Rome is basically built on top of previous incarnations of itself over the centuries. All around the city, people have dug up ruins accidentally while attempting to lay a foundation for a new building and so you'll find excavation sites in many places. However, the majority of the "good stuff" can be found in the South East corner where you'll find the remnants of the Roman Forum and the very place where Julius Cesar was cremated.

Standing there, amongst the big marble pillars and crumbling temples, I realised something when I saw what was left of Cesar's final resting place: we don't matter. It doesn't matter how rich you are, how smart you are, or how powerful you are, give the world a few hundred years and no one will care about who you were. Even for the exceptions like Cesar, Cleopatra, Napoleon etc., in the end, your ashen bones are just another place for fat tourists to sit while they talk about where they're going to eat next... Kinda humbling isn't it?

We rounded out the day with a trip through The Pantheon Piazza Venezia and Piazza Navona and finally onto The Vatican. Dad looked thoroughly impressed (though tired) but it was at that point that I had to break it to him: barring some smaller, less impressive sights, he'd just seen Rome.

Armed with this information, we decided on a trip to Pompeii for the following day.

Napoli & Pompeii

In order to get to Pompeii, you have to take a train to Napoli (Naples) and from there, a commuter rail to Pompeii. Napoli is a horrible place. Dirty, scary and really not worth visiting. On top of that, the commuter train to Pompeii was stupidly crowded, noisy, and about 40min long. If you're into ruins though, it's probably worth the trip.

For those who don't know the story, Pompeii was a little town based at the foot of Mount Vesuvius in pre-Christian times. (Sorry, I don't do dates very well). Anyway, the volcano erupted and killed pretty much everyone, but managed to preserve the town. In fact, the ash fell so fast that the people caught in the blast had their terrified faces embossed in the hardened ash for centuries. Then, some guy dug it all up in the 70s and made plaster castings of it all. Now, you can see the horrified looks and even folded clothing of people in their last moments... oh, and you can see what's left of the town too.

If you dig ruins though, its pretty neat. I have pictures in my imager if you're interested.

Firenze (Again)

It was at this point that both my Father and I were beginning to get frustrated with the food available to us. Trust me when I tell you that Romans just can't cook. They suck at it. I guess they figure that they don't have to worry 'cause all the dumb tourists go there anyway, so why bother working on their cooking skills?

The view from the top of the Duomo in Firenze

I had, on occasion, talked about the fabulous food I'd had in Firenze (Florence) and how willing I'd be to go there if my Dad was willing to split the fare. He went for it, so the following day we hopped yet another train out to my favourite part of Italy. I got to play tour guide again, which I rather like and we went for a really nice lunch at a local pasta place after which I made a pain in the ass of myself trying to convince my father to climb the Duomo with me.

A word to those considering something similar with their elders (I wonder how my Dad feels about that word?): Seriously consider the implications of goading your loved ones into a physically taxing situation -- especially if said person is not in the best physical condition. The climb to the top of Firenze's Duomo is roughly 460steps, straight up, through narrow, stone corridors. There is no elevator and therefore no easy way to evacuate people in case something bad happens. There were a few occasions where both my father and I were afraid he was going to drop dead. It's a scary thought, especially when I had to come to terms with the fact that I was the one convincing him to come up there in the first place.

He didn't die though, and he tells me that he's glad he went 'cause the view was amazing. If you go to Firenze and are up for the conditions mentioned above, I very much suggest you make the journey.

We finished up our time in the city visiting the city central square (where David originally stood), doing a little tourist shopping, and munching on the Best Pizza Ever. Dad loves Firenze now. As far as I'm concerned, it's the only place worth staying in Italy.

Last Days in Rome

With one day left in his Rome trip, Dad and I took it easy. We walked around town a bit, tried to do some shopping and I took him to Travestre, a town within the city of Rome, home to little coffee shops and small, family-run restaurants. Surely, we'd be able to find something worth eating here? Sadly, we struck out again. Some more walking down by the Tiber was had and then we headed back home to get Dad to sleep early. He had a flight at 7am which meant he was looking at a 4am wake up call. Ouch

Dad woke up and said goodbye, graciously allowing me to sleep the rest of the night away, and I was left with one more day in the city. I happily ignored most of the daylight hours, letting my body recover from the warp-speed travel of the previous few days. It was at about 3pm though that I reminded myself that I wasn't likely to be in Rome ever again and that I should get out there and see what it was like one last time... and so I headed back to the place that drew me out this way in the first place: the Vatican.

I'd almost resigned myself to skipping the Basilica San Pedro (the big church in the Vatican) because I didn't want a repeat performance of the Vatican Museum fiasco. My feet couldn't take it. But no. I was in Rome, and damnit, it's just 2hours of my life to see something like Michaelangelo's Pieta. And so, I got in line.

It took about 30min. Unlike most queues I'd seen on this trip, the length was misleading in a good way

The pictures I took of the Basilica are toward the end of my Rome pack, but in no way can they reflect what I saw there. The Basilica is amazing. Infuriating, since one has to come to terms with the fact that such a beautiful palace was built on the backs of the poor and the conquered, but beautiful none the less. I'm so glad I went.

And that marks the end of my Europe trip. The next stop would be Korea, the following day.

November 03, 2007 17:22 +0000 | Italy 'Round-the-World Travel 9

I know that I've fallen behind with the blogging. Shawna's promised me some time to myself this coming week though so I should be able to catch up. I still have to post about my last week in Rome and this past week in Yeosu. It's been interesting I assure you.

For now though, you'll have to make due with my pictures from Rome and Pompeii as well as a second set from Florence (with my Dad). Check back soon for details etc.

October 23, 2007 00:26 +0000 | Italy 'Round-the-World 2

I know that it's been a while since my last update and that even that one was kinda lame, so I'll try to be thorough. Even if you don't read this one though, I'm sure you'll like the pictures :-)

The POP INN Hostel

I'd heard horrible things about Rome. Pickpocketting was incredibly common, and that some people actually had their bags slashed open by thieves on vespas as they drove through piazzas. It was enough to have me seriously worried about how I was going to get to my hostel and so I made sure to book a place really close to Roma Termini, the central station. As it turns out though, Rome really isn't that scary and while pickpocketing is pretty common, simple precautions and taking care not to trust anyone certainly helps.

My hostel was pretty damn awesome. Free bottle of wine in my room along with some post cards and a common room with a big LCD TV to watch movies with fellow travellers. The bed was horribly uncomfortable and the bathroom pretty dodgy, but the staff were too fabulous to let any of that get in the way. If you find yourself in Rome, I muchly recommend them.

The Day I Circumnavigated the Vatican

Since my Father had expressed little interest in seeing any of the "religious stuff", I made sure to hit the Vatican first for my independent touring. I woke up at a leisurely hour, hopped on the metro and over to Ottovani station and found my way south to Piazza San Pietro where, as expected I saw the stupidly long line for the Vatican museum. I knew I'd be in that line at some point this week, but not today.

Piazza San Pietro is pretty amazing and the pictures I've taken just can't do it justice. If there's anything I would recommend for travellers to cities like Rome, it's a wide-angle lens. Hell, go fish-eye if you can... there's just too much to fit in a shot and not enough space in the frame.

When I tired of staring at the church and watching nuns talk on cell phones, I checked out my map and decided that the Travestere would be the next best destination... sadly, they don't have a subway line going there so it was going to be a considerable walk (I don't trust buses).

Here's where it gets a bit insane though. I made one simple mistake and as a result ended up going all the way around the Vatican coming right back to the beginning on the other side of the square... at which point I freaked out and realised I'd burnt roughly an hour and half walking around the walls of the smallest country in the world. After recomposing myself, I realised that I had a long way to go and not a hell of a lot of time to do it so I pushed on.

Travestere

I didn't know where I was going really. General direction, yes, but my map book didn't have famous landmarks on it, just their Italian names and the streets surrounding them. I stumbled onto the Fontanone on Gianicolo Hill, host to the most panoramic view of the city. Really, it was awesome. As the afternoon bled into evening, I saw flocks of birds fly in chaotic sweeps through the air over Travestere in the distance. I was close, I could see where I wanted to be... but it would take me another hour before I found myself in the Yaletown-esque village. It's really quite pretty there; lots of shops, cafés and restaurants with kids playing football in the streets and people walking their dogs while eating gelato.

I strolled in the direction of "home" and despite the pain in my knees and feet, I was determined to walk all the way. It was dark now, but the map made it look like it was just another hour to get to where I needed to be... not so much.

The Ruins at Night

Rome is full of barriers. In most cases, it's a wall from some old palace that's been maintained over the century, or a moat around another monument, or in this unfortunate case, a huge iron fence erected around the ruins to keep people out at night. So there I was, the rather large expanse of ruins between myself and the hostel and so yet again, I found myself walking around something very big for the second time in the same day. It took a very long time, but I got some alright-looking shots through the iron bars. (it's amazing what you can get with a steady hand and a hypershot option your camera)

As I came around the Northeast corner of my latest obstacle, I ran into the awesome Roman Colosseum, backlit by yellow flood lights against the night sky. It was here that I almost gave up and took the Metro home, but by then it was too late, I was too close to give up now. Besides, I was hungry (having not eaten anything but a croissant and an orange juice for breakfast) and there had to be something tasty between here and the central station.

And so I kept walking. Knees aching and feet burning though, I found a decent restaurant where I refuelled before making the final trip home on foot. Big day, lots of pain, but lots and lots of great pictures.

Given the previous day's discoveries and the corresponding pain, the rest of the week was pretty relaxed. I did a lot of "recon", looking around Rome to see what was where so I could be a decent tour guide for my Dad when he arrived on Sunday. The only major expeditions I went on were to the Protestant Graveyard and the Vatican Museum.

The Protestant Cemetery and Cat Sanctuary

If you have more than a few days in Rome, a nice place to visit is the final resting place of some of the world's most famous artists and activists: The Protestant Cemetery. In a little well-kept spot on the south end of the city core, you'll find the graves of famous folks like Keats and Shelly as well as a number of people famous enough to be mentioned on Wikipedia's coverage of the site, but not famous enough for me to know who they are. The site also doubles as a cat sanctuary. As you walk through the graveyard, friendly felines lounge about on gravestones keeping their favourite dead people company, and sometimes they'll come nudge at you for some attention. It was a most peaceful and relaxing place to spend some time.

The Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

Everyone says the same thing about the Vatican: be there early. How early, is always a debate but clearly, I wasn't early enough 'cause by the time I got there, I was looking at about 2hours of waiting... and wait I did, because there was no way I was leaving Rome without seeing the Sistine Chapel.

However, after 2hours in line, you're finally permitted entry into the museum which is packed with all sorts of art and historic artifacts and about 10,000 slow-moving people. Sure, you can skip right onto the Sistine Chapel, but once there, you can't go back so you either move at a snail's pace through the museum or skip it all and see the chapel immediately. I chose the former... big mistake.

Most of the museum is pretty unimpressive really. For the most part, the Vatican is filled with the results of Papal self-importance over the last 1500years or so. There's a courtyard built for Pope Something XII and features these mediocre-looking statues etc. There's also an extremely large collection of Roman busts including those of both mortals and pagan gods. I 12' high statue of Herakles is part of the collection, as is a marble sculpture of a 30-breasted woman. Really not worth the 2hours or so I was herded through with the 10,000 spectators.

And then, at last, I met the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's famous work. To be honest, I don't remember much of it. I was so tired, shaking from hunger and pain in my legs and feet from standing for so long that I really didn't care what was on the wall, I just wanted to get out of that mob. The chapel is quite pretty, but I'm sorry to say that I can't really say more than that. Lesson learnt: avoid stupidly long lines and eat well before visiting important monuments.

The Communist Rally

Toward the end of the week, I was tired and decided to take it easy. For my last day at Pop INN, I just hung around the river, took some pictures and lounged around my favourite seat in Rome. I'll have a picture later.

I moved to a nicer hotel on Saturday though so that when my Dad arrived on Sunday, I wouldn't have to pick him up and move my stuff at the same time. I sat down, paid 17€ (!!) for 24hours of internet and pretty much vegged-out for a while and let my body recover... but I couldn't ignore the noise from outside. Someone had a megaphone and there was music and cheering coming from the street below. I set my laptop to download Veronica Mars, put on some warmer clothes and walked out into the parade...

On October 20th, Rome was the site of a national rally for the Communist Party of Italy. People had come from all over the country to march from Piazza Republica to this really big public square on the Southeast side of the city. The crowd was massive, in the tens of thousands, flags everywhere, System of a Down's "Toxicity" blasting from mobile speakers and of course battalions of pamphlet distributors. There were also a number of vendors selling tshirts with notable leftist visionaries and anti-globalisation slogans. The irony of their presence at a Communist rally was not lost on me.

It's also worth noting here that unlike typical anti-globalisation events in North America, the participants were not only 100% non-violent, but not a single member of the group wore a mask or hid their face in any way. The crowd was a healthy mix of ages from kids as young as 2 to little old ladies. People were friendly and helpful in explaining to me what exactly what was going on: Apparently, way back in July, the Communist parties (yes, there's 2 in Italy) who make up only 10% of the government, posted a call to all supporters to meet on the streets of Rome to protest for a more labour-oriented government. As is tradition, those who support the Communist Party responded to the call and showed up by the thousands from around the country.

I followed the parade along the route and was treated to a tour of some of the lesser-visited parts of the city. We found our way to a big public park where a stage had been erected and more vendors had set up. I left the party and went looking for ice cream.

Dad's Visit

My Dad's here now, and we've already had a full day of sightseeing, but since it's 2am and we've got another big day ahead of us tomorrow, I just don't have time to post about it. I'll post more later I guess but for now, I'm sure the above will suffice for an update ;-)

October 19, 2007 00:28 +0000 | Italy 'Round-the-World Stupid People Travel 9

I've had a most disturbing experience just now and thought that I would share.

I'm here in Rome at an ok hostel where I've had occasion to meet a number of really interesting people. In the few nights I've been here, I've met two nice girls from Ohio, four cool guys from Australia, three friendly Germans and a family of four (two girls and their parents) from Melbourne. However, I also met someone else, and this is where our story begins.

His name is Tim and he's from Kamloops, British Columbia.

At first, it was cool to be able to share some of the same background with a fellow traveller. We sat around the common room with the Australian family and chatted about all sorts of fun stuff like politics, the environment, our occupations etc. But as the night wore on, more and more alcohol was brought to the table and I slowly came to remember one of the things I was fleeing from when I left BC: stupid-ass drunks.

To put things into some perspective, I should mention that at the Canada Day celebrations on Grouse Mountain, it is tradition to have to lie to the partiers and tell them that they are out of alcohol as the evening wears on. This is because BC'ers tend to lack that bone in their heads that tells them when they've had enough to drink and without propper corralling, they've been known to get out of hand. The idea for some it would seem, is that everything is always better when hammered, and you're only hammered when you have trouble standing.

Now Tim wasn't too fargone, but I suspect that had he been able to afford more Yeager, he'd have been well on his way. I noticed the signs though early on: his respect of personal space disappeared, his voice got louder and louder, and his insistence on being the centre of attention was punctuated by yelling across the room. It brought me back to 6years ago, living in BC, having to deal with this seemingly consistent malfunction and having no idea how to make these people get the fuck away from me... So I got the hell away from them instead... 4349.9km away to be exact.

...and now I'm going back. Jesus Christ, what have I done?

October 17, 2007 18:38 +0000 | Blogger Italy 3

I've been rather busy since I left Venice writing code for this site. The changes are finished and (mostly) tested, so I'm releasing them now. Please let me know if you find anything broken eh?

Changes include:

Imager comments
Offsite-linking disabled (if a site tries to link to my images rather than copy them (thereby stealing bandwidth) they get a nasty message instead).
Lots of bug fixes

I saw a great deal of Rome today and yesterday, but only have 25minutes here to write it all out... so I won't. I'll write it later and upload it even later than that. Just know that I walked through Piazza San Pietro (the square in front of the Vatican), saw the Pantheon, and the Coliseum briefly (my Dad and I will go for a more detailed visit later) and checked out the Protestant Cemetary (and cat sanctuary!) as well as Piazza Popoli. It's very pretty, but Rome, on the whole, is quite dirty. You should see the subway.

Alright, I'm rambling and I'm running out of time. I'll post in a couple days :-)

Oh right. I forgot to mention that I finished Harry Potter on my first night in Rome.

October 13, 2007 19:48 +0000 | Italy 'Round-the-World Travel 5

I'd not meant for all of my RtW posts to be on days divisible by 5, but it would appear that fate has other plans for me.

I'm sitting on a map kiosk for tourists roughly 5minutes walk from my shitty hotel. I wanted a chance to write and frankly, the dim-lit "common room" in the building I'm currently staying just doesn't lend itself to light-hearted storytelling.

First of all, I would like to point out that my writing style seems to have been affected by reading so much Harry Potter. As I read my own text now, I hear a polite English woman's voice... it's rather disturbing. Incidentally, I'm currently on book 7 (can you believe I paid 27.50€ for the hardcover? I can). I just got to the point where it says:

The [omitted] has fallen. [omitted] is dead. They are coming.

It's really quite exciting. Seriously, if you haven't read the books yet, you should. I stand before you a man converted. The movies just don't do it justice. I have felt fear and longing reading Rowling's pages like I could never have imagined watching a movie.

As an aside, a neighbourhood cat just tiptoed into the bookstore nearby. They seem to do that here -- cats I mean... dogs too. People just seem to let their pets wander around and no one seems to mind where they go. I guess it's the fact that there's no cars around to hurt them.

So yeah, Venice. It's pretty cool -- if you're here for 2days. Stephen was right, this city is easily doable in two nights. Any more and you risk boredom and repetition. I however, due to my mad skillz of not planning my trip, ended up bunching everything into Italy and so this means more time here in Venice. But what to do?

I did the usual tourist thing and made the long, round-a-bout walk from the train station where my shitty hotel is, to Piazza San Marco. You might recognise it as the place in all the movies when they do a shot in Venice. It's where all the pigeons are. There were people paying 1€ for a small bag of dried corn that was then fed to the hordes of pigeons. They would swoop down from everywhere and land on the poor victim, waiting patiently for their dehydrated diet. It made for some funny pictures, but since I had no one with me to take pictures of my coated in birds, I decided not to participate. It was yet another example of why travelling alone can suck.

The bar down the street is full of people, spilling out onto the street. You see, there's a football game going on (England vs. France) and this is a really big deal. Somebody just scored because the street just filled with cheers. I'm not sure who Italians would prefer though, so I can't tell you who's winning.

Navigation

Venice is small, but incredibly complicated. The directions to my hotel, though really simple to follow, had me wandering for about 30minutes. What I hadn't realised, was that in Venice, as there are no cars, bikes or any land-based motorised transportation anywhere, the "streets" can really be as wide or as narrow as you like. My hotel for example, is situated on a narrow strip of cobble stone no wider than 2m. It looks like an alley from the wider, main street. But then, so does nearly every walk way in the city. Most are uneven and twisted, almost all are ridiculously narrow, and they randomly end with brick walls or yet another canal. If you're going to come here, bring a map, and a guide dog, and a GPS locator... you'll need them all.

Unfortunately, the big draw in Venice is really just Piazza San Marco. Outside of that, there's just the "fun" of getting lost in the city and paying the exorbitant prices. Everything from touristy masks (75€ - 500€) to internet (8€/1hr) to food (10€ - 15€ per meal) really puts the clamp on your carefully secured wallet.

They scored again... whomever they are, they're on fire tonight.

Dietary Woes

While I'm on the topic of food though, I thought that I'd mention that I'm going out of my mind. Everywhere you go, and I mean everywhere, the food is not just the same, but identical. For breakfast, everyone eats the same thing: a few cold cuts, some cheese and a dry role of some kind. Lunch is probably pizza or soup, or both and dinner is pasta and or pizza and soup. Occasionally, if you can afford it, some people put in some kind of meat in there, but for the most part, that's it.

Now those who know me, know that I tend to dig simplicity in my diet. I like having the same things for lunch every day 'cause I get off on predictability. But this... this is insane. If you don't want dry crusty rolls for breakfast, tough shit. If you could do with something a little less Italian for lunch or dinner, I wish you luck. There is nothing here. I never thought I'd be so desperate for a Chinese restaurant in my life. I may not want to eat there, but at least the option would be available! Seriously, I'm going out of my tree. I'm just glad that I'll be in Rome tomorrow. I've heard that it's considerably more cosmopolitain.

Where we Lay Our Scene

So, what do you do if you're in a pretty, but kinda boring little European town for too long? Hop a train and go somewhere you've never been of course :-) Remembering Baz's Romeo & Juliet, I couldn't remember if it was filmed in Verona, Italy or in an American city, so I thought: "why not?"

Damn, they scored again. This is crazy. Maybe both team's supporters are in the same bar? I could be hearing cheers from both sides... I dunno

I wasn't sure about what to do in Verona actually. My Lonely Planet book didn't even have a map -- I guess it's not significant enough to bother. So when I arrived in the train station mapless and rudderless, I had arrived with a new quest: find Harry Potter 7 and find it costing less than 27.50€.

Now you already know that while I did find it, I couldn't find it any cheaper than the aforementioned price. The "quest" however made my venture into Verona something with purpose, rather than just blind strolling. I saw the coliseum, a pretty bridge, some nice countryside and I even ended up in the neighbourhood of Juliet's famous balcony. It wasn't until I was shaking with hunger (5pm and hadn't been able to bring myself to eat yet the same thing again) that I broke down and bought "The Deathly Hollows" at full price (I'd seen it in 3 other stores for 27.50€ so my guess is Rowling has a cadre of house elves engaging in price fixing and racketeering or something.)

Ok, I think I've got it, they're not cheering because somebody scored. That can't be the case 'cause goals just aren't that common in football. No, I bet they're just getting excited about every little save etc.

Anyway, Verona was pretty and I had my book. I read 132pages before I got off the train in Venice, went up to my room, got my laptop and came here.

A Last Pigeoning

I just wanted to mention before I close up here though that I did in fact end up going back to Piazza San Marco and bought the pigeon food. They know it as soon as you approach the vendor and will swoop down before you've received your change. It was actually kinda scary, being surrounded by live birds all waiting for you to feed them. Given my less-than-muggle disposition, you'd think I'd dig the whole live animals thing, but I've never really dealt with them well (cats and some dogs a rare exception). It just wigged me out. It's just too bad I didn't have company at the time.

Alright, the game appears to be over and tomorrow I'm off to Rome, where I'll probably be uploading this post since internet in my shitty hotel is worse than the decor. If I have time, I'll also post my Venice and Verona pictures as well.

October 10, 2007 09:25 +0000 | Italy 'Round-the-World Travel 3

I've left Florence now and am now writing this out in my crappy little hotel in Venice. Internet is only accessible from downstairs though and costs a fortune so I'm not sure when I'll be posting this. Before I go out and see what Venice has to offer though I thought I'd write a little about Florence and the rest of Tuscany.

Florence

You might remember the tour I mentioned in my last RtW post. I had a reservation for Monday morning but got the times mixed up resulting in my missing the bus. Thankfully, I didn't pay anything for the trip or I would have been pretty pissed. It's probably better that I didn't go though 'cause I'd stayed up too late the night before watching Veronica Mars and was operating on just a few hours of sleep that day.

Due to the above, I didn't do much of anything that day. I walked around town, read some Harry Potter in the park and did some more laundry. Later that night I went out for gelato with a couple of girls from Bath and had a very nice time chatting about where we've been, and how great Bath is etc.

All was not lost on the bus tour though. If I couldn't make the Thursday run, I could still make it to the Monday tour, and so I booked another seat on the bus and took the following day to see David and the Pitti Palace. The line to see David was pretty short, as I was smart enough to hit in the morning, but the 10€ price tag was generally unwelcome. However, it was worth it. David is a brilliant work of art, well worth all of the fanfare it receives. No pictures were allowed however so you'll either have to take my word for it or go check it out yourself :-)

The Pitti Palace on the other hand will have to remain a mystery to me though. The palace, built by the Pitti family in an act of ego to best the Medicis was quite beautiful on the outside, but as it housed a museum within, cost 9€ to enter. Similarly, they massive gardens behind the palace were an additional 9€ and balking at the price, I chose to skip it. I'm sure there are pictures somewhere on the Internet.

That night, after chatting with the other hostel-folk and listening to the city's reaction when Florence beat Rome at a rugby game (you could hear the cheers from every window in the city), I was smart enough to try to get to sleep early and woke up with plenty of time to try and find the bus for the Tuscany tour. Turns out that I needed it 'cause it wasn't where I thought it would be, but I found it anyway. Our first stop was to be Sienna.

Sienna

Sienna's a tiny town with beautiful architecture and a long, rich history. Our tour stopped there first and then our guide walked us through town describing the way the city works. First of all, the city is broken down into (I think) 17 districts. Each district is named after an animal and is decorated as such as you move from district to district. Babies born to families living in that district become part of that district for life and even retain that membership if they move to another area and marry someone of a different district. So for example, a boy born in the goose neighbourhood can move to the rhino neighbourhood, then meet a tortoise girl and move to the Aquila district where they have a kid of their own. The boy will always be a goose, the girl will always be a tortoise and the baby will forever be an Aquilla.

Why do they bother with these distinctions then? Because while there's not much of a social divide between districts, they are competitive. Every year, there's a horse race in the centre of town: 17 horses and jockeys for 17 districts. Winner gets bragging rights for the year and there is, of course lots of partying.

Sienna's hospital has an equally interesting history. Apparently, it used to be so common for people to abandon their babies that the Santa Maria D'Alla Scalla hospital created a special system in which to accept the children. People could drop off the kids in a little half-cylindrical box built into the wall of the hospital, rotate the box to bring the kid inside which would then ring a bell and tell the hospital workers that there was a new baby at the door. As the children were often abandoned without names, any child being raised there would then be given the surname "D'Alla Scala" or just "Scala". The name is kinda popular in Italy nowadays.

The hospital is also host to the most beautiful painting I've seen yet and I don't even know what it's called and I wasn't allowed to take pictures. I just sat there for a good 15minutes looking at it: floor to ceiling, behind the altar... it was just plain pretty.

Lunch on the Farm

The next leg of our trip found us at a farm house about 45min outside of Sienna. The bus pulled up to a tiny little house on a massive acreage of olive trees and grape vines on top of a hill overlooking the rural countryside. Have you ever seen Under the Tuscan Sun? Well it was just like that. Lunch included pasta with fresh ingredients, bread, cheese and meat as well as salad and wine. The wine and olive oil were organic, picked and bottled on-site. The olive oil was very good, but the wine still tasted like vinegar to me. I tried all three: red, white and a desert wine with almond biscuts.

San Gimignano

A medieval town complete with huge city walls and lookout towers, San Gimignano is really just a tiny town in a sea of the Tuscan countryside. It was host however to a little ice cream shop that supposedly won an award as part of "Team Italia" in the world gelato championships. They claim to be the best in the world, so I had to have some... I can't say that it was any more impressive than anything else to be honest :-)

The city also seems to think that toilet seats are not required... ever. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Pisa

You may have heard this from other people, but I'll just repeat it for those who weren't listening. Pisa is lame. There's nothing there except an overpriced cathedral and the leaning tower. The rest is just sprawling suburbs. I got a couple good pictures of the tower though, and some dirt for my Mom's collection. We didn't have a hell of a lot of time there and climbing the tower was 15€ so I didn't try to make the trip.

And that's about it for Tuscany. My hostel, "Emerald Fields" was fabulous. Antonio, the caretaker there was super-awesome and friendly and the people I met there were also really nice. If you're going to Florence, you should really check them out.

I have a few more things I want to say about Florence, but they don't really belong here. I should have put them in my first Florence post, so I'll edit that one instead. I'm going to go downstairs now and see what's involved in posting this stuff online. Expect my next long post to be about Venice :-)

October 05, 2007 12:38 +0000 | Italy 'Round-the-World Travel 3

It's occurred to me recently that I'm not in a hurry. Unfortunately, this realisation came a little late or I might have spent more time in Berlin or Amsterdam but... o well.

Anyway, I have a little over 3weeks left in Italy before I head over to South Korea and only 3 places to visit... including where I am right now so I'm trying to relax a bit.

For the most part, my time in Florence has been me wandering around the city. My first day consisted of intentionally getting lost with my camera in-hand, and yesterday I took a 25€ walking tour to learn more about the history. Today I'm doing some laundry and relaxing on the balcony and maybe later I'll make my way over to the pretty merchant's bridge on the other side of town.

Tomorrow should be exciting though, I'm taking a bus tour through Tuscany. For those of you who don't know, Tuscany is the name for the region in which Florence, Pisa and Siena reside. The tour will take us around town, give us a chance to see the tower, take pictures of pretty things and then eat some lunch. It's a full 12hours so that should be interesting.

I also haven't seen Michaelangelo's David yet (though I saw a replica placed where the original used to be). Frankly, the replica wasn't that impressive, but I'll probably go see it anyway on Sunday.

That's it for now. The pictures of Milan are up, so if you're interested, you can check that out there. Melanie has requested that I write some comment code for the images so I'll see if I can find time to do that on the trip from Florence to Venice but for now, if you have comments on pictures, please just post them here.

September 30, 2007 19:10 +0000 | Italy 'Round-the-World Travel 4

Geneva++

So despite my dislike for the city, it turns out that I'd booked three nights in Geneva and not two. This came a great surprise to me when I tried to check out Wednesday morning and the woman at the desk said, "...but we have a booking for you for one more day. Are you sure?" Confused and worried that I might have booked two places at once, I checked my laptop. Thankfully, I'd just gotten my days switched up and no one was waiting for me in Milan that day.

However, now I was stuck with a new dilemma: what am I going to do for another 24hours in Geneva? I asked the woman as much, but another guest at the hotel answered for me in perfect English (I think she was American): "You should go to Nyon!" she said, "It's quite beautiful and only a short train ride away!"

Nyon

It seemed like a plan to me, so I tossed my stuff back up in my room and headed back out to the station, bought a 15€ ticket and hopped on a train. Exactly 15minutes later I got off the car in a tiny little town on the shores of Lake Geneva. The woman was right, it was beautiful. Imagine the Okanogan, but without the sand, dust and underbrush. Greens and blues and the sky came all the way down to the mountains, the mountains to the lake. It was absolutely stunning and a considerable change from the hole that was Geneva.

I wandered around for a few hours, looking for something open... not much really. This was a phenomenon I would run into a lot from this point on. I strolled through the town, encountering an old castle that had been converted to a museum, walked down to the water to get some sand from the shore for my mom, and then walked back into town looking for food. I found a nice little crepe place and had some tasty strawberry & whipped cream crepes for lunch. Then I wandered around some more, looking for some chocolate or ice cream (but hoping it wasn't too pricey 'cause I didn't have too many Swiss Francs left) and when I was done, hopped back on the train... there isn't much to do in Nyon other than that, but it's worth the trip if you can get out there.

Piazza Fontana, as seen from the roof of the Duomo

The Trip to Milan and the Train Station from Hell

As appears to be a habit with me, I met a pretty Italian girl on the train who was happy to chat about Milan. Celine spoke perfect English, with a slight Australian accent, since she'd lived near Melbourne only a few years ago. She taught me how to say "I don't speak Italian" and briefed me on the transit system in Milan. She also warned me that seeing The Last Supper was a difficult task and that it was often booked upwards of two months in advance. Her advice was to get in on a tour that has pre-set tickets otherwise I'd miss it. It was good advice. The other thing she said was to be very careful in the central station as there were thieves everywhere.

When we arrived at the Central station, I started on my usual process of find map, find hotel on map, get to hotel and ran into a number of problems. First of all, "the tourism office" appeared to be an old lady who spoke only Italian in a newspaper shop. She sold me the worst map ever (fluorescent pink!) and 1€ transit ticket. The map was enough though for me to find where I needed to go and what trains to take. It should have been as easy as putting the ticket in the machine and getting on the train... not so much.

I found my way down into the underground station, passing dozens of merchants all selling the same crap off a white towel on the floor, as well as some obvious thieves, some beggars and some reasonably slick con men with decent English. I evaded all of them, walked right up to the machine, put in my ticket, saw the green light and... the turnstyle wouldn't move. I pulled out the ticket with at "wtf" expression and tried again, this time receiving a red light and still, the turnstyle wouldn't move.

Figuring I'd bought the wrong ticket, I walked over to the nearby ticket booth, bought another 1€ ticket and tried again with the same result. Frustrated and sweaty from carrying my backpack through the hot, crowded, noisy and dirty station, I marched back upstairs looking for an information booth. Surely, in a city as large as Milan, there would be someone who could explain this stuff to me.

There wasn't. The "information booth" is nestled under the stairs and the friendly man behind the glass spoke just enough English to understand that I had a subway ticket. "Downstairs!" he smiled, pointing the way. I wanted to transform into an Ugly American, smash on the glass and yell "I know where the fucking train is, you idiot! Why doesn't my ticket work?", but instead, I threw my hands up in the air and walked back down into the Underground.

I had a new plan. I would stand idly by and watch other people do it. There had to be something I was missing. I followed a guy from the top of the stairs, watched him buy a ticket (the very same one I'd bought), and walk over to the machine. I held my breath, what had I missed?

He slid the ticket in the machine, the light turned green, he removed the ticket, waited a beat and went through. You won't find that tip in any travel book: in Milan, the turnstyles wait 'till you remove the ticket plus a half second before you can go through... sigh.

The Really Awesome News

After that I found my way to the hotel with few issues. I purchased 24hours of internet, got clean, checked my mail and called my dad to talk for about an hour. We had a lot to talk about since he'd managed to book a flight to Rome for the last week I'm there. That's right, my Dad is coming to visit me in The Eternal City and I'm really excited. Doing all this alone has taken a lot out of me and it'll be great to spend some one-on-one time with my Dad before landing back in BC. He's asked me to "do all the religious stuff" before he gets there, so I'll likely visit the Vatican and protestant cemetery in my first week. The two of us will likely hit all the big spots like the Coliseum etc. It's going to be great.

Milan

Milan is a lot like Geneva actually. I mean this in the sense that it's dirty, noisy, built for cars and Lonely Planet is right when it calls its city centre "charmless". The transit system is cheap (1€/75min going anywhere) and convenient, but dirty, crowded, sticky, noisy and sports (a TPSC favourite) ads that talk on the waiting platform. I can't help but think that if they doubled the fare to say, 2€ they could get rid of the ads and clean up the station in no time... who the hell runs this city?

There are some nice things about Milan though. The tree canopy is a lot more impressive than even Vancouver's in some places. You can tell that someone, a long time ago, set about making sure that Milan would have a healthy amount of shade in the summer. It's not everywhere, but some of the streets are quite impressively designed. Then there is of course the Duomo, a massive church in the city Centre that took nearly 600years to build. Trust me when I say that the pictures I have (inside and out) do not in any way do it justice.

The City Tour

Celine was right. Trying to book a chance to see The Last Supper is pretty much impossible unless you're wiling to wait about 2months. The only way around it is to book a 3hour, 50€ tour that runs every day at 9:30 except Monday. Of course I only found out about this on Sunday afternoon and I have to be in Florence on Tuesday so... I booked a tour for Tuesday and I'll be hopping on the train not long after I've seen Da Vinci's work.

I'd like to point out here by the way that CitySightseeing Milano sucks. I had some free time today and for 10€ it seemed like a good idea to ride around on a bus with a multi-lingual guide. Well the multi-lingual guide is recording triggered by the intersection you're going through. You don't slow down enough to see what the voice is talking about, the "guide" often can't tell left from right and it regularly got cut off and then restarted when we came around a corner. 10€ wasted really. Yes, I'm bitter.

Fooding

I've been pretty excited about the food here. Frankly, Germany (well Berlin at least) doesn't have much to speak of in terms of local food. In fact, I often ended up eating Italian while I was there. However, here in Italy, nearly everywhere you go, if there's food, it's pizza, some pasta. I had considerable trouble with the menu reading though, so I blew 8€ on a dictionary and now I'm ready to try and read one on my own. Just remember: pizza margherita = good, pizza bizmark = bad.

Something else I found kinda odd but understandable once you see the prices is that just sitting in the restaurant costs you anywhere between 1.50€ - 3.00€. The bill is for "cover charge" or pane coperto, the theory being I suppose that you don't have to stay, you can just get take out. The restaurant across the street sells a margherita pizza for 5€ and it's roughly 17" around. However, once you buy a drink (3€) and pay for pane coperto (2€) the total is 9€ ($13.50CAD) which is pretty good considering the size of the pie :-)

I'll likely not be posting 'till after I've settled down in Florence, and by then my Nyon & Milan pictures should be up. Here's hoping Florence is nicer than Milan, or I might just have a break down.