Italy

It's not every day that you get to visit a sinking city, but that is exactly what a visit to Venice entails. A short ride up the canals on the barges makes this evident as many of the houses right on the canal are right level with the water level, and high tide would raise the water even more. Apparently, during times of high tide, you can take gondola rides through St. Mark's square, my only question is where would all the pigeons go then?

Our experience in Venice was filled of meandering through the streets, perusing the little shops and just enjoying the atmosphere. After our first day we enjoyed it so much we decided to spend another night at Johnny's and explore the islands surrounding Venice.

Murono, about a 45 min boat ride from Venice, is where the famous glass blowing of Venice occurs. Here you can watch experienced Venetian glass blowers (they saw hammerhead sharks and horses being made). Murono was very quaint and had much less of the hustle and bustle than Venice. If I were to come again, I would definitely get a hotel here as it cheaper and so typical of what you think of Venice, without all the tourists.

The second island visited was Burono (Seriously, they've got a rhyme scheme going). A bit further out, Burono is famous for making the lace often associated with Venice. Watching the lace making was also amazing, but the best part of Burono was definitely the variety of colors on the houses.

It seriously looks like a Crayola add.

Laundry time in Burano.

After a long day or sight seeing, we enjoyed another Italian dinner, full of all the staples, pasta, pizza and over priced water.

After Venice, we headed out on the train to Milan. In Milan we were able to stay with a couch surfer. Nini lived at home with her family (Mom, Dad, Sis, and Grandma) and they were fabulous. Grandma would always try to help us and would explain everything to us in Italian, even though she knew we could not speak any Italian, it was really quite funny. In Milan we started out at Sforzesco Castle.

The castle used to house the ruling family of Milan in the 15th and 16th centuries but now serves as a home for various museums and art galleries.

Clock tower of Milan, just outside the castle.

After the castle we went to see the Milan Cathedral. The Milan Cathedral is the largest Cathedral in Italy and the second largest gothic cathedral in the world. With 100s of spires, it is an amazing view to say the least. Instead of paying to climb the stairs we opted to enjoy lunch outside the Cathedral.

After lunch, I took a short nap outside the opera house (as I chose not to pay for the tour and instead slept a bit while waiting for everyone else just outside), we went to visit the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. This is the church that houses Leonardo da Vinci's famous Last Supper. The original church was built in the 14th century, however during world war II it was bombed and nearly all of the church walls were destroyed. Luckily for all, the wall containing the Last Supper was relatively unharmed during the bombings as it had been sandbagged for protection and has been quite well preserved. The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by the apostles when Jesus said one of them would betray him. Because the painting is very old and has been damaged over time, much time and money has been spent in attempts to restore it. Because of this, to view the painting you have to book tickets months in advance. Since we are no where near that on top of things, we did not have tickets to actually see the painting, but we went to see the building\church anyway. We checked breifly on tickets, but as they were booked until the end of August we had little hope- that is until a guy came up asking if we wanted to buy tickets for the 5:15 showing (one hour later). Being slightly skeptical, we had to go in and check the price and validity of the tickets with the office staff but finding them to be legit, we purchased the tickets and were able to see the mural.

The amount of security surrounding the painting is surreal. Each 15 minutes, 25 people are allowed to go in and view the painting. Before entering the hall, you pass through two different climate controlled rooms that measure for various things that could harm the painting. Of course no cameras are allowed in the room, but once through security you are able to view the painting for 15 minutes. The painting in itself is brilliant. The depth and perspective is fabulous and each of the apostles have distinct expressions on how they reacted to Jesus saying that one of them would betray him. While much speculation surrounds the painting and exactly who each of the apostles are, viewing the painting was brilliant, even if for only 15 minutes. Once you leave the room, you are also placed in a temporary holding room, to stop any outside air from entering into the hall (these guys are serious about this painting, which is a good thing as it is rad).

An interesting point I found was that even though viewing the painting is booked out through August (with 25 people viewing every 15 minutes all day every day at €8 a piece), the restoration of the painting was so expensive that private funding was used to pay for the process.

On a side note, I have gone to the bathroom in the Mona Lisa. Seriously, this is the highest class Port-a-Potty I have ever seen, and I could not leave Italy without making my 'mark'.

Following viewing the Last Supper, we went to explore the gardens behind the Castle. The garden is huge and except for the obscene amounts of mosquitoes are very beautiful. We found a cute amphitheater with chairs cemented in, along with a huge Soccer\Football field, Donovan Frankenreiter was actually preforming the night we were there, but sad for him, I don't think anyone was there as it was very quiet, it kind of sounded like he was singing to himself.

After the depressing concert (we didn't go either, as the last train left in about an hour and the tickets were expensive) we hit up the grocery, where we got food for dinner and an entire bucket of gelato which we devoured in a matter of minutes on the train ride.

Arriving home marked our end to Italy, all in all we had a fabulous time and saw many amazing sights and buildings. We payed to climb three different sets of stairs and ate about a kilo each of gelato. We ate lots of pasta and pizza and met some fabulous people. We learned a bit of Italian, including my personal favorite, 'excuzi' (excuse me), said by the little old women when they are bustling about. We only got one pay phone to work in the entire country (we tried to get many working, which resulted only in our getting frustrated and losing all our change every time). I definitely recommend a visit here, even though it is a bit expensive and I look forward to returning and exploring the southern half of the country as well. Ciao.

For all the Italy photos, CLICK HERE.

Three major Italian tourist cities in one day is not a task for the slight of heart. We started out in Pisa in the morning, and caught a train to Florence. In Florence, Nicole and Brenda spent the day exploring the Uffizi Museum, while Brooke and I instead opted to, again, pay to climb the steps of the Duomo and shop around the food markets of Florence. As they say, pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are some shots to give a glimpse of Florence.

The real David is actually located in a museum in Florence, but due to time constraints, we opted to pose near the David replica, which in my uneducated opinion of art is just as good, better actually, because it is free.

The Duomo is a very famous cathedral in Florence (it is the Cathedral Lucy\Sandra Bullock wanted to visit in While You Were Sleeping) and is huge. The dome is covered in a huge painting depicting the last judgment, and was very gruesome. The dome itself is huge and was built without a wooden sub-structure and is the largest masonry dome in the world.

We definitely had fun posing in the stairway... Cosmo here we come.

After ascending the Duomo, Brooke and I head out to find a grocery store. On a side note, the best people to ask directions in a foreign country turns out to be money changers. First, they speak very good English, and second, they have very little bias in telling us where the best restaurants, shopping areas or supermarkets are. After a bit of a goose hunt, we were able to find the Florence food markets. This was a huge building filled with individual food vendors, selling a myriad of foods. The first level was mainly meats. In Italy you can buy many varieties of meats, some more gruesome than others.

My personal favorite was the entire rooster with feathers, sick, and the pig leg, with hoof still attached.

On the upper level of the market was every type of fruit and vegetable imaginable. Brooke and I shopped around getting the best deals and purchasing a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Our final purchase was that of a huge watermelon half. A little Italian woman tried unsuccessfully to sell us a 7 kg watermelon (granted she was going to give us a deal, but seriously, how we would eat it is beyond me) and we eventually conceded to buy a piece nearly as large that was slightly more manageable.

This was my favorite dried fruit stand. So tasty.

After a slight mix-up with train stations and tickets, we got our tickets to Venice and enjoyed a marvelous feast of fruits and vegetables in the train station. Once we had finished our lunch, we left for Venice, because Brooke and I were less interested in the various museums and cultural pleasantries Florence had to offer, we opted to leave early for Venice and get accommodation's figured out before Nicole and Brenda arrived later in the evening. As luck would have it, July 14th was the Feast and Regatta of the Redeemer, which translated into English meant a huge party, chock full of fireworks, tons of tourists and sky high accommodation's. For over an hour Brooke and I unsuccessfully gained information on local hotels, none of which were below €40 each. Eventually we opted to stay just outside of the city in a gem of a one star hotel dubbed 'Johnny's' (personally I think the one star was a bit generous, but hey, it's just me).

Johnny's, the fab villa above a gas station. A bit dodgy, but cheap at only €20 each.

Even with the sky high prices however, Venice is amazing. Picturesque houses line the canals, and it is remarkably quiet, even with the hoards of people for the festival, because there are no cars.

After dropping our bags at Johnny's we headed back into Venice to see the festival fireworks and experience the masses of people. Even with all the people, Venice is fabulous. Built on a number of small islands, transportation is done either by foot or boat in the various canals connecting the city.

Here we are on our first boat/bus ride in Venice. See how I have embraced European fashion trends?

It was wild as there are no cars and instead of buses, they have barges and smaller 'taxi' boats. Because we arrived late in the evening, we enjoyed our boat ride to St. Mark's square, followed by a gondola ride throughout the canals of Venice.

Side note, when bargaining for a gondola ride take note- if your gondolier is angry about the price he will not give you as long a ride, and will be quite grumpy... I may be speaking from experience.

After our gondola ride, we booked it to St. Mark's square to see the fireworks. They were marvelous, and as I love fireworks more than most, enjoyed every bit of the 45 minute display which was choreographed to various music. Particularly interesting were the types of fireworks used. Many I had never seen before, and they were absolutely wonderful. America should get on the band wagon of some of these fireworks as they are great.

After the fireworks were finished, we made our way back to the bus station to catch our bus back to Johnny's. Generally, buses stop running in Venice around midnight, but due to the festival (the fireworks didn't even start until 11:30 pm) a few buses were on extended schedules. In our defense, we had received various opinions on whether the bus we needed to take would run late. After sitting at the stop for nearly 20 minutes, our bus did finally show up, but it read 'limitado' under the number. Dismissing this we got on the bus and started off towards our hotel. After the bus had driven about half way to Johnny's, the bus stopped, and the driver, in Italian was telling us 'finito', 'get off'... apparently 'limitado' meant the bus was only going half way. With few options, we began the trek back to Johnny's. Joined by a Kiwi, we made the rather dangerous walk back to Johnny's (dangerous in that roads in Italy have no shoulder, and as I posted earlier in my Rome experiences, Italian drivers drive wicked fast, at one point, I think my arm would have been ripped off had I stretched it out even a bit).

Following the earlier train escapades, we were all able to uneventfully board the train to Pisa at 4:30 am and arrive in Pisa at 6 am. Being the frugal\poor travelers that we are, we again opted to hike through town to the tower. This was not a horribly long walk but was exacerbated by the fact that we had all our gear with us.

Pisa is quite terrifying... or maybe she was scared at how awful we looked... we hadn't slept in a few days.

Pisa Fortress

After a short stop-over at an old fortress, we arrived to the tower. Let me tell you, the tower is not a disappointment, it really is leaning quite drastically and it, and the surrounding cathedral and baptistry are very impressive.

The tower, which is leaning at an angle of about 5.5 degrees, differs in height by about 3 feet from the highest to lowest points respectively. In 1990, the tower had to be closed as it was increasingly sinking\tilting at an alarming rate. 10 years and many man hours and dollars later, the tower was deemed to safe to re-enter and still had its original tilt.

Keeping with tradition, we opted again to climb the 294 steps to the bell tower. Climbing the tower was fabulous, as you could really feel the slant. Also, once at the top of the tower, the view was fabulous, which was accentuated by the fact that their was nearly no barricades obstructing the view.

Atop the Tower

After climbing the tower and exploring around the other buildings, we decided to stay in Pisa for the night, instead of jetting back straightaway to Florence. This may have been the best choice we made during our entire stay in Italy. We found a great hotel, and at only €25 each located less than two blocks from the tower, was a killer deal. Once checked in to our room, we headed out for a relaxing day the beach. The beaches we found were fabulous, with incredibly soft sand and perfect water. I found it amusing that people were attempting to surf the two foot waves, but hey, they can try right?

Waiting for the bus, after spending a marvelous day on the Mediterranean in Pisa.

A refreshing two hour nap later left us happy, tanner than before and ready to eat. Returning to the tower, we found a nice restaurant where we enjoyed another (and pointably cheaper than Rome) Italian meal.

Brooke snuck the water bottle back to the fountain so we wouldn't have to pay the ridiculous prices for more water at dinner. Slightly sketchy? Maybe, cost effective? Definitely.

All in all, Pisa was my favorite stop in Rome. It is cheaper and has marvelous beaches, oh, and did I mention how cool the leaning tower is?

For those who say nothing crazy ever happens on Friday the 13th, I have a counter example. After a packed day in Rome, we got on a 9 pm train for a 2.5 hour ride to Florence. Arriving in Florence very late, we opted to, instead of getting a hostel for 5 hours, sleep (or nap rather) in the train station and catch the 4:30 am train to Pisa the following morning. We walked around the station, staking out our preferred sleeping spots and layed down for what we thought would be the evening. Little did we know our night was just beginning.
About 45 minutes into our 'naps', a security guard came to tell us the train station was closing in 5 minutes, and we had to get out before the 'polizia' came and arrested us. At this point it was 12:35 am and we were slightly disoriented from our albeit short naps.

Right before the chaos began...

At this point things began to get crazy. The last train for Pisa left at 12:37 am... two minutes to go. The other girls grabbed all our stuff while I ran to the ticket machine to buy all 4 tickets to Pisa. Time 12:36 am. Having a slight issue with the ticket machine I grabbed the tickets and began sprinting to the train deck, just in time to see the train pulling out from the station. So there I was, stranded in Florence, with only my wallet and my pajamas (I had been napping remember, and they grabbed my stuff). This was a fun predicament, and because the police were coming, I and the rest of the backpacking bums were forced to leave the station. I decided to make the best of my unfortunate situation and began staking out a new piece of concrete real estate. I chose a prime location just outside of the station, across from some girls from Norway and a group of girls from Spain.

I was preparing myself for a long night when the police came out to tell us all to 'not fall asleep' as people would rob us if we did (like I had anything to take seriously, all my stuff was on a train to Pisa). Luckily for me, after the police left, one of the girls from Spain came up to me, inviting me to sit with them, as she had overheard my unfortunate experience of being left by my traveling companions. I was very grateful, and soon settled in between the Spaniards (from Bilboa by the way) and began playing cards when what to my wondering eyes did appear, but my long lost traveling companions.

It turned out that after I had missed the train, they had all been so concerned about my well being (mainly due to the fact that they had my bag, and all I was wearing were shorts and a t-shirt and it was cold) that they got off the train at the next stop and then proceeded to hike back for over an hour to the station in Florence. The hike was made even more exciting as it was in the dark, they did not have a map AND they had to carry my pack as well (which Nicole did like a champ). Needless to say, by the time they made it back to Florence they were quite exhausted and were excited to pull up a comfy piece of concrete and take a nap until the next train left in 2.5 hours... leaning tower here we come.

The fateful camping spot, where we waited once we were kicked out of the train station.

Our second day in Rome began with an early start and exploration of the Vatican Museums and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel (not before however we waited in line for 1.5 hours and witnessed a moped-er crash into an unsuspecting tourist).

Seriously, the line was insane!

The Vatican Museums were filled with all sorts of relics, paintings and sculptures. The highlight of the museums was definitely Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine chapel. The ceiling is absolutely gorgeous and huge and took Michelangelo three years to complete. The ceiling depicts nine books of Genesis, and most notably God's Creation of the World. A very famous portion, showing God reaching out and giving life to Adam is one I tried to capture (semi-illegally) in the photo below.

Too bad the only one that wasn't fuzzy has my face in it... ah well, Murphy's law.

The ceilings in the Vatican Museums were phenomenal.

The lonely nun, the only one I saw in the Vatican.

After exploring the Vatican Museums we continued on our whirlwind tour of Roman sites (not before I was left however... I fell asleep in the museum and got ditched... but don't worry, I found an internet cafe and met up with everyone in a few hours... which turned out to be a general theme for the trip).

One last shot of St. Peter's Basilica

Where are all the people, pigeons, markets... as dead as you will ever see St. Peter's square.

First up was the Spanish Steps. Apparently these are the widest and longest staircase in Europe and we had planned to get lunch and eat on the steps, the blazing sun however, deterred our desires to eat on the steps and instead we enjoyed lunch and gelato in the shade followed by some fun in the fountain.

Our next stop was to see the Trevi Fountain, the largest fountain in Rome. Legend says that if you throw a coin into the fountain, you will return to Rome. In order to ensure our speedy return, we all fully supported the tradition and threw good money into the fountain. On a side note, apparently throwing two coins means a marriage will occur soon, and three coins means divorce, sorry mom, I only threw one coin in. A cool fact is the 3,000 Euros thrown daily into the fountain are collected each night and used for Rome's needy.

Following the fountain, we headed to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was built in 125 AD and is remarkably well preserved. It was originally created as a building for all of the Greek God's, but is currently used as a Christian church. The Pantheon is huge and is the largest non-reinforced concrete dome in the history of architecture. Originally, the Pantheon's ceiling was covered with bronze, but as with the Colesseum, it too was melted down to create St. Peter's basilica. Along with being a church, the Pantheon is also the burying place for many famous people, including Raphael (of course I am generally only interested in where the TMNT are buried). Of interest to me, was the Pantheon's draining system. Because of the hole in the ceiling (which allows for better air circulation) there are many small holes in the floor allowing for water drainage.

After asking various souvenir vendors for food recommendations, we headed to grab a quick dinner in Rome. Per recommendation, we found a great place, slightly outside the city centre and enjoyed a great family style Italian dinner which proved to be a great finale to our Rome experience.