Wow. Our last day of our vacation was PACKED.
After grabbing the WORST breakfast in all of Italy (extremely stale corn flakes with warm milk) we hit the streets to make like Huns and conquer Rome, all in a single day.
First on our list was The Coliseum. This humongous (colossal?) ruin must be seen to be fully appreciated. It is magnificently large, steeped in history, and haunted by hundreds of thousands of ghosts.
When we first arrived we were accosted by a pushy salesman offering to 1) help us skip the two hour line and 2) give us a guided tour. We decided it was our last day, and we'd like to see as much as possible, no matter what the cost. It was 25 Euro a person. We agreed. From there, we were directed to a second man, who took our money, told us the tour would start in 10 minutes, and asked us to wait "over there, in the shade". I did so, with GREAT paranoia. "Give me 50 Euro, then go sit way over there. See my official looking badge?" Would have been a great con, but turns out this wasn't the case. Not today anyway.
From there we were introduced to our tour guide, Paola. She gave us a tour of the Coliseum, complete with colorful commentary. We learned a LOT about the history behind the Coliseum. One of the most interesting things we learned is about the sea battles. Originally the Coliseum had a sand floor. When the sand had soaked up enough blood that the place needed to be cleaned they flooded the entire floor of the Coliseum, deep enough to float boats on. They would then have battles on little boats. This meant an interesting day of sport, plus a cleaning of the Coliseum. Later they took out the sandy floor and replaced it with a series of underground tunnels with a wooden ceiling, so that animals and combatants could be raised into battle. Both showier and quicker than entering them through the outside every time.
Apparently the Coliseum was also originally covered by a linen awning that would be angled by ropes to cover the crowd from the sun. Pretty freakin sweet.
The Coliseum was REALLY impressive, and our tour was GREATLY improved with the knowledgeable guide.
After the Coliseum we took a break for lunch. Elly and I hunted down an Internet Point to pre-register our seats on the flight the next day and to grab lunch from a grocery.
After lunch we met back up at The Coliseum to continue our tour. We got a new guide, Jason, who showed us The Forum, Palatine Hill and surrounding ruins. More massive stone ruins and beautiful gardens. Again, our tour was much improved by the guide.
Among the beautiful trees, vines, flowers, etc. were the umbrella pines. Rome imported these trees from the Middle East and lined their roads with them to shade their armies as they marched. These trees have extremely tall trunks topped by a wide canopy, perfect for the purpose of shade.
We learned about the significance of the ruins, the history of the founding of Rome and the start of the Roman Empire, of Mussolini building his palace on Palatine Hill amongst the ruins of previous emperors during World War 2. Our guided tour was WELL worth the money spent, I recommend it to anyone. The admission costs of the sites alone was worth 18 Euro a pop, and we had WAY more than 7 Euro of added enjoyment.
After the Roman ruins we moved on to Catholic Churches. We saw Saint Peter's Basilica and The Pantheon. The Pantheon was originally a building of the Roman Empire but was later remodeled by the Catholic Church. It used to sport a huge bronze dome, but now it has the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.
The Pantheon was impressive, but it was NOTHING compared to St. Peter's. A huge piazza encircled with columns and statues stood in front of the entrance to this huge church. Inside were many memorials to dead popes, erected to mark their burial sites, tombs, and urns. There were also several churches inside the basilica. Many of the ceilings had painted domes around a sky light, and ALL of the walls and ceilings were illuminated with paintings, gold, intricate carvings, and the like. It is also the site of Michelangelo's "La Pietà", a statue of Mary holding Jesus's corpse. The basilica really must be seen to be understood. I'm not catholic myself, but the church shocked into me a deep sense of reverence.
We saw the Trevi Fountain, a pretty awesome fountain built into the back of a building. It features Oceanus, the god of all water. By this point in the day we were both near dead from exhaustion, so I don't remember it all that well.
Finally we declared ourselves too exhausted to go on. We still had a 30 minute hike back to our hotel. we barely spoke to each other as we plodded back, we were SOOOO tired.
I took a quick shower to reenergize and we went out to dinner at "Sette Oche". Sette Oche is a great little restaurant. Elly and her parents went there for dinner when she was in Italy the first time, and it was good enough she wanted to take me back there. One of the memorable things about Sette Oche is that it has its own cat. This chubby cat wandered around from table to table offering affection, but (unexpectedly) scorning offered treats.
The waiter could tell we were both pretty exhausted, and suggested some wine. At first we turned him down, but thought better of it. After a few glasses of wine and some food we felt much better. After the rest of a liter of wine and a glass of limoncello (on the house, served in the traditional style) we were drunk. Fortunately we were on the same block as our hotel.
After drunkenly stumbling back to our hotel, we packed for leaving the next morning. Somewhere during our drunken packing Elly broke the pinky toe of her left foot. Somehow we got most of what we needed accomplished before crashing to sleep.
We woke up at 5:30 the next morning, finished packing, and hiked 25 minutes to the subway. Subway to Roma Termini station, train to the airport, jet to London, another jet to Denver. Bus from Denver to park-and-ride, then a ride with our friends Woggy and Karen to Buffalo Wild Wings. Karen had spent the last two weeks keeping our kitties company, feeding them, cleaning their box, watering our plants, and otherwise house sitting. We owed them BIG TIME so we treated them to dinner. Also, I was seriously craving spicy food by the second week in Italy, so the pain and suffering of BWW Blazin' sauce was appealing.
Over 24 hours after we woke up, and suffering from hallucinations of all our senses, we finally crashed in our own bed, Westminster, Colorado, USA, North America.
Ciao l'Italia!
Photos
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Roma - June 3rd, 2010
More trains today. The ride from Florence to Rome took us four hours. There was a two hour train, but that one was considerably more expensive. So we plugged in headphones to Elly's laptop and got our dose of American TV for the day.
We took a (crazy, nightmarish) taxi ride to our hotel, which is pretty cute. For whatever reason, the hotel has only rooms with a single bed, or a "triple" bed, which is a double and a single. So we have a bed just for our luggage. At least it will sleep well tonight.
We went out for a walk, using Google Maps to try to get to a specific shop to buy some stuff. We didn't actually make it. About half way there we got caught in the rain. Umbrella salesmen, people running around shrieking and laughing, umbrellas blown inside-out by the wind, streets running like rivers... Elly and I had one coat and one umbrella between us. We both ended up soaked, but it was fun and a bit romantic walking back to the hotel in the warm Roman rain.
Then we went out for dinner, and accidentally picked a restaurant. Most restaurants have a menu posted outside. We've found that you can eat REALLY well for under 10 Euro per plate, but it is basically impossible to tell the difference between an 8-Euro-a-plate and a 30-Euro-a-plate restaurant without seeing the menu. Well, we were walking close to the entrance to one restaurant and a little old man swooped in, asked us where we were from, sat us down, handed us menus, and wheeled over the buffet. We were both a bit flustered, but we decided to just go along with it. Apparently we made a few mistakes pouring wine, ordering food, etc. etc. etc. which they were quick to point out.
We were both under-dressed and out of our league. The prices weren't insane but were still pretty expensive, not quite double what we usually pay. Still, we had a delicious meal, and wine, and dessert. Not at all worth the difference in price, but it was still kind of fun and wild to be so far out of our element. Each table in the restaurant had its own waiter, who did nothing else.
After turning down secondi, and caffe, and "schnapps", we were each poured (not offered, just poured) an "on the house" dose of liqueur called "amaro". Turns out "on the house" means they bill you six Euro under "corrispettivo non pagato" which means "fee not paid". A bit frustrating. Twice now in Rome and once in Florence we have clearly been given the "American discount". It is sad and frustrating, but I'm not letting it get me down. Our dinner was still quite nice, and even with all the byzantine check gymnastics it came out to be about what I would have expected to pay for a similar meal back home.
Tomorrow we're going to suck the marrow out of the last of our trip. We're hitting up a couple of Roman ruins and squeezing in a bit more shopping before we call it quits. Then the day after that we're checking out early to bus to the airport to get on an 11:45 flight home.
Photos
We took a (crazy, nightmarish) taxi ride to our hotel, which is pretty cute. For whatever reason, the hotel has only rooms with a single bed, or a "triple" bed, which is a double and a single. So we have a bed just for our luggage. At least it will sleep well tonight.
We went out for a walk, using Google Maps to try to get to a specific shop to buy some stuff. We didn't actually make it. About half way there we got caught in the rain. Umbrella salesmen, people running around shrieking and laughing, umbrellas blown inside-out by the wind, streets running like rivers... Elly and I had one coat and one umbrella between us. We both ended up soaked, but it was fun and a bit romantic walking back to the hotel in the warm Roman rain.
Then we went out for dinner, and accidentally picked a restaurant. Most restaurants have a menu posted outside. We've found that you can eat REALLY well for under 10 Euro per plate, but it is basically impossible to tell the difference between an 8-Euro-a-plate and a 30-Euro-a-plate restaurant without seeing the menu. Well, we were walking close to the entrance to one restaurant and a little old man swooped in, asked us where we were from, sat us down, handed us menus, and wheeled over the buffet. We were both a bit flustered, but we decided to just go along with it. Apparently we made a few mistakes pouring wine, ordering food, etc. etc. etc. which they were quick to point out.
We were both under-dressed and out of our league. The prices weren't insane but were still pretty expensive, not quite double what we usually pay. Still, we had a delicious meal, and wine, and dessert. Not at all worth the difference in price, but it was still kind of fun and wild to be so far out of our element. Each table in the restaurant had its own waiter, who did nothing else.
After turning down secondi, and caffe, and "schnapps", we were each poured (not offered, just poured) an "on the house" dose of liqueur called "amaro". Turns out "on the house" means they bill you six Euro under "corrispettivo non pagato" which means "fee not paid". A bit frustrating. Twice now in Rome and once in Florence we have clearly been given the "American discount". It is sad and frustrating, but I'm not letting it get me down. Our dinner was still quite nice, and even with all the byzantine check gymnastics it came out to be about what I would have expected to pay for a similar meal back home.
Tomorrow we're going to suck the marrow out of the last of our trip. We're hitting up a couple of Roman ruins and squeezing in a bit more shopping before we call it quits. Then the day after that we're checking out early to bus to the airport to get on an 11:45 flight home.
Photos
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Firenze - June 2nd, 2010
Today was Florence "culture day". Elly and I hit up a few world-renowned sites of artistic and/or architectural merit. We visited Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, Galleria dell'Accademia, Ponte Vecchio, and Palazzo Vecchio. For the uncultured (that's all of you, heheh), it means we visited some museums, some churches, and a bridge.
The basilica and the cattedrale were impressively large, stone churches, equipped with expansive, beautiful piazzas. The cattedrale was especially impressive. It was made from several different colors of polished stone, and adorned with relief carvings and gold illuminated paintings. One huge door of the cattedrale was made entirely of golden relief carvings, depicting various biblical scenes. I'm fairly certain it was real gold, too. The church was extremely impressive, to the point of being overwhelming.
On our way to the Galleria d.A museum rain started coming down pretty hard. Umbrella salesmen came out in droves, and soon the streets were filled with brightly colored blobs. We spent an hour waiting in line in the rain, huddled under a single small, blue umbrella that I'd brought with me from Colorado. We snapped some pictures and chatted, and the rain wasn't very cold so it wasn't too bad.
The museum featured renaissance and pre-renaissance paintings and statues, most notably Michelangelo's David. Most of the art was pretty skippable (especially pre-ren paintings, ugh.), but I was quite impressed by the statues. One large room featured full statues and shoulder-to-shoulder busts, all lifelike. I think most if not all of them were plaster casts, not the originals, but still quite impressive. Especially in such large quantity.
The David was definitely the prime attraction. It has a very commanding presence, to the point of seeming to be a living person in the room. This is due in no small part to the amazing detail on the statue, down to tendons and veins visible on his hands. The statue is just under 500 years old and has been hanging out in that same room for nearly 140 years, standing 17 feet tall. It kind of makes you feel insignificant looking at it.
We passed through the cattedrale piazza again and then headed out to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The Ponte Vecchio appears to be a normal street, lined with shops, but is actually a bridge over the Arno River. We snapped some good pictures of the river from the lookout on the center of the bridge and then walked down and took some pictures of the P.V. from another bridge upriver. Apparently when the P.V. was first built back in the Roman Empire, most bridges were lined with shops. Seems like a lot of work.
We then viewed some more impressive statues outside the Palazzo Vecchio and Galleria degli Uffizi. Elly's favorite statue (which was also viewable as a cast at the Galleria d.A.) was "Rape of the Sabines". The statue is really interesting, in that it was carved to be viewed from every angle, offering a different piece of the story as you spiral around it. It is also a single statue that features three full figures, which is apparently pretty rare.
My favorite was Perseus and The Medusa. It is a pretty bad-ass statue featuring greek champion Perseus decapitating Medusa. It looks like the action shot from a movie poster, and is actually pretty gory, as the decapitation isn't very clean, and there are are these gross dangly bits. Heh.
We had intended to hit up the Galleria degli Uffizi, but by the time we got around to it they had closed for the day. I guess it would have been sort of a bummer if we could actually suck out all of the culture Florence had to offer in a single day. I guess that'll just have to be our excuse to come back soon.
After a long day of culture, we stumbled upon this very cool, quirky restaurant. The place was painted up in black, dark reds and greens, and featured unique, weird lamps at each table. The food was really good, as usual in Italy, but the unique atmosphere was the best part. We were pretty hungry and exhausted by this time so we didn't get more than a couple of pictures.
Still pretty exhausted now, actually. Culture makes me tired, whew. I think its time to rot my brain with a couple of episodes of American television and then get some sleep. Tomorrow we have to check out early and catch a train to Rome for the last two days of our trip.
Photos
The basilica and the cattedrale were impressively large, stone churches, equipped with expansive, beautiful piazzas. The cattedrale was especially impressive. It was made from several different colors of polished stone, and adorned with relief carvings and gold illuminated paintings. One huge door of the cattedrale was made entirely of golden relief carvings, depicting various biblical scenes. I'm fairly certain it was real gold, too. The church was extremely impressive, to the point of being overwhelming.
On our way to the Galleria d.A museum rain started coming down pretty hard. Umbrella salesmen came out in droves, and soon the streets were filled with brightly colored blobs. We spent an hour waiting in line in the rain, huddled under a single small, blue umbrella that I'd brought with me from Colorado. We snapped some pictures and chatted, and the rain wasn't very cold so it wasn't too bad.
The museum featured renaissance and pre-renaissance paintings and statues, most notably Michelangelo's David. Most of the art was pretty skippable (especially pre-ren paintings, ugh.), but I was quite impressed by the statues. One large room featured full statues and shoulder-to-shoulder busts, all lifelike. I think most if not all of them were plaster casts, not the originals, but still quite impressive. Especially in such large quantity.
The David was definitely the prime attraction. It has a very commanding presence, to the point of seeming to be a living person in the room. This is due in no small part to the amazing detail on the statue, down to tendons and veins visible on his hands. The statue is just under 500 years old and has been hanging out in that same room for nearly 140 years, standing 17 feet tall. It kind of makes you feel insignificant looking at it.
We passed through the cattedrale piazza again and then headed out to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The Ponte Vecchio appears to be a normal street, lined with shops, but is actually a bridge over the Arno River. We snapped some good pictures of the river from the lookout on the center of the bridge and then walked down and took some pictures of the P.V. from another bridge upriver. Apparently when the P.V. was first built back in the Roman Empire, most bridges were lined with shops. Seems like a lot of work.
We then viewed some more impressive statues outside the Palazzo Vecchio and Galleria degli Uffizi. Elly's favorite statue (which was also viewable as a cast at the Galleria d.A.) was "Rape of the Sabines". The statue is really interesting, in that it was carved to be viewed from every angle, offering a different piece of the story as you spiral around it. It is also a single statue that features three full figures, which is apparently pretty rare.
My favorite was Perseus and The Medusa. It is a pretty bad-ass statue featuring greek champion Perseus decapitating Medusa. It looks like the action shot from a movie poster, and is actually pretty gory, as the decapitation isn't very clean, and there are are these gross dangly bits. Heh.
We had intended to hit up the Galleria degli Uffizi, but by the time we got around to it they had closed for the day. I guess it would have been sort of a bummer if we could actually suck out all of the culture Florence had to offer in a single day. I guess that'll just have to be our excuse to come back soon.
After a long day of culture, we stumbled upon this very cool, quirky restaurant. The place was painted up in black, dark reds and greens, and featured unique, weird lamps at each table. The food was really good, as usual in Italy, but the unique atmosphere was the best part. We were pretty hungry and exhausted by this time so we didn't get more than a couple of pictures.
Still pretty exhausted now, actually. Culture makes me tired, whew. I think its time to rot my brain with a couple of episodes of American television and then get some sleep. Tomorrow we have to check out early and catch a train to Rome for the last two days of our trip.
Photos
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Firenze - June 1st, 2010
Yesterday I ran out of laundry. I packed for 5 days, wanting to travel light and knowing that we'd get a shot at doing our laundry at some point. In my dreams we would come home after a day of seeing interesting sights and load our laundry into the washer and dryer convienently located next to our bed. It turns out INSTEAD, that when your clothes start standing up on their own around Day 11 out of 5 the closest self-service lavanderia is ten minutes away, and washing and drying and folding a single load of laundry is something that takes about two hours. This mundane, household chore took up our entire morning. I'm not sure if the benefits of traveling light outweigh the drawbacks of actually doing laundry while on vacation. If I had it to do again, and had some extra Euro jingling in my pocket, I guess I'd still travel light but pay someone else to do pickup, cleaning, and dropoff. Champagne wishes and cavier dreams.
With the laundry out of the way, we hit the streets of Florence to do some shopping. The store fronts were nice, and we bought a couple of things there, but the more interesting experience was the street market. A dozen blocks or more of little booths, selling goods made of leather and venician glass, lots of other random things. Silly trinkets abounded, such as 3 inch tall David statues and last supper placemats. There was also a great proliferation of "foreign" stuff, especially (inexplicably) Simpsons and Hello Kitty t-shirsts, posters, mugs, etc. The streets were packed with tourists, beggers and peddlers of the beautiful and the profane. All of this was going down in a piazza outside of a cathedral, which gave the market a bizarrly biblical atmosphere. We turned down many "half price" leather jackets, wrong-color 1up mushroom t-shirts, boxer shorts printed to look like the David ("down there"), etc, but we managed to buy a few things.
Today was "shoppin day" and tomorrow is "culture day", but our walking still took us by a couple of pretty amazing churches. Gigantic, intricate, colorful buildings that you kind of have to see in person to really believe. I snapped some photos that I know aren't going to do them justice at all. More to come tomorrow when we visit cultural sites on purpose.
Two more excellent meals for lunch and dinner today. Every real meal we have eaten here has been excellent. The meat is a bit too tender and fatty for our tastes, but the pasta and dolci are amazing. For lunch Elly and I got brave and ordered "Tris Dello Chef", which is the Chef's selection of three pasta dishes. All three were something we probably would not have ordered given the choice, but were quite good. We were both happy to have taken the risk. The highlight of dinner tonight was the dessert: fresh strawberries with marscapone cheese, sprinkled with chocolate nibs.
Today is running a bit short, so a word on tipping:
I'm not sure I've got this entirely figured out, but I think you basically never, ever tip here. All sit-down meals have a "coperto" cover charge per-person, and when you pay your bill at the end you pay the register directly, usually cash. I'm used to tipping a bit above 20% at home, so no additional tip at all has taken a bit of getting used to, and has left me feeling guilty and ashamed most of the time.
Tonight at dinner we had the best service we've had so far in Italy so I tipped 2 Euro on a 30 Euro tab. The coperto was 2 Euro per person, so I basically gave a 50% bump to the required cover. Only two euro and the server was all "Grazie mille! Have a good night! Grazie, good night, thank you, thank you." and clearly QUITE happy about the tip. This has both cemented my belief that tipping is a rarely-or-never sort of thing, but also showed me what a difference a Euro or two can make to a server's night. I'm not really sure how to proceed in the future. Ah well. A concern for the morning. Good night Internet!
Photos
With the laundry out of the way, we hit the streets of Florence to do some shopping. The store fronts were nice, and we bought a couple of things there, but the more interesting experience was the street market. A dozen blocks or more of little booths, selling goods made of leather and venician glass, lots of other random things. Silly trinkets abounded, such as 3 inch tall David statues and last supper placemats. There was also a great proliferation of "foreign" stuff, especially (inexplicably) Simpsons and Hello Kitty t-shirsts, posters, mugs, etc. The streets were packed with tourists, beggers and peddlers of the beautiful and the profane. All of this was going down in a piazza outside of a cathedral, which gave the market a bizarrly biblical atmosphere. We turned down many "half price" leather jackets, wrong-color 1up mushroom t-shirts, boxer shorts printed to look like the David ("down there"), etc, but we managed to buy a few things.
Today was "shoppin day" and tomorrow is "culture day", but our walking still took us by a couple of pretty amazing churches. Gigantic, intricate, colorful buildings that you kind of have to see in person to really believe. I snapped some photos that I know aren't going to do them justice at all. More to come tomorrow when we visit cultural sites on purpose.
Two more excellent meals for lunch and dinner today. Every real meal we have eaten here has been excellent. The meat is a bit too tender and fatty for our tastes, but the pasta and dolci are amazing. For lunch Elly and I got brave and ordered "Tris Dello Chef", which is the Chef's selection of three pasta dishes. All three were something we probably would not have ordered given the choice, but were quite good. We were both happy to have taken the risk. The highlight of dinner tonight was the dessert: fresh strawberries with marscapone cheese, sprinkled with chocolate nibs.
Today is running a bit short, so a word on tipping:
I'm not sure I've got this entirely figured out, but I think you basically never, ever tip here. All sit-down meals have a "coperto" cover charge per-person, and when you pay your bill at the end you pay the register directly, usually cash. I'm used to tipping a bit above 20% at home, so no additional tip at all has taken a bit of getting used to, and has left me feeling guilty and ashamed most of the time.
Tonight at dinner we had the best service we've had so far in Italy so I tipped 2 Euro on a 30 Euro tab. The coperto was 2 Euro per person, so I basically gave a 50% bump to the required cover. Only two euro and the server was all "Grazie mille! Have a good night! Grazie, good night, thank you, thank you." and clearly QUITE happy about the tip. This has both cemented my belief that tipping is a rarely-or-never sort of thing, but also showed me what a difference a Euro or two can make to a server's night. I'm not really sure how to proceed in the future. Ah well. A concern for the morning. Good night Internet!
Photos
Treni! - May 31st, 2010
There isn't much to say about today. We rode trains. We had to get back to Perugia to pick up Elly's abandoned power cord. The trip from Biassa to Perugia to Florence wound up taking all day.
I'm going to use this otherwise empty blog post to say that Elly's camera kicks ass. She's got a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS. It isn't a photographer's camera by any stretch of the imagination, but as a snap-shot camera it excels. It is fast and responsive. Its "auto" mode pretty much always takes perfect pictures, but if you want to get into tweaking settings to get a wild shot just right it has plenty of adjustments. If this one ever bites the dust I'd definitely buy another, or its younger sibling anyway. My only complaint is that 3x zoom never seems to be enough if I'm trying to take landscape shots of something far off. For everything else it works like a dream.
Though today's batch of photos really don't demonstrate its excellence, lulz.
Photos
I'm going to use this otherwise empty blog post to say that Elly's camera kicks ass. She's got a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS. It isn't a photographer's camera by any stretch of the imagination, but as a snap-shot camera it excels. It is fast and responsive. Its "auto" mode pretty much always takes perfect pictures, but if you want to get into tweaking settings to get a wild shot just right it has plenty of adjustments. If this one ever bites the dust I'd definitely buy another, or its younger sibling anyway. My only complaint is that 3x zoom never seems to be enough if I'm trying to take landscape shots of something far off. For everything else it works like a dream.
Though today's batch of photos really don't demonstrate its excellence, lulz.
Photos
Biassa e Riomaggiore e Manarola - May 30th, 2010
Our room at the hostel was private, which was great. The front desk guy was extremely helpful, providing us bus schedules and other conveniences. The breakfast there was "così-così" (so-so), but otherwise our stay was quite pleasant.
We slept in a bit, but we were fed and on a bus to Cinque Terre around 9:50. Cinque Terre ("five lands") is a series of five villages that have collectively become a national park. We took a bus from Biassa to the closest town, Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore is a bit bigger than Biassa, and completely tourism focused. The town is almost entirely shops, restaurants, and walking paths. We wandered around Riomaggiore for awhile, snapping pictures. Some other tourists were discussing a nearby beach, which we wandered around for awhile trying to find, but never did. After our short walk we decided to move on to the next of the five towns.
All five towns are connected by train and foot path. We bought a day pass and took a train to Manarola, the next town. Manarola had some better options for eating and shopping, so we spent considerably more time here than Riomaggiore. We wandered around, buying locally made wines and liqueurs from the tourist shops.
We had lunch at a nearly-sea-side ristorante. It was only one door down, had a clear view of the sea, and the menu was about half the price of the sea-side restaurant. Elly had salmon ravioli and I had "seafood spaghetti" which wound up being a Lovecraftian plate of spaghetti, eyes, legs, shells, tentacles, and unrecognizable fleshy rings. I sent my imagination on a break and chewed everything that seemed intended for eating. Incredibly fresh, quite delicious, but not necessarily the sort of thing I'd do on a regular basis. Elly and I worked out what most (but not all) of the items were: whole shrimp, octopus, squid, and mussels. Her lunch was also really delicious and easily identifiable, but I'm still glad I got what I did.
Cinque Terre is an interesting experience. The towns are quite beautiful, but are somewhat tarnished by the level of tourism. It gives off the aura of being both comletely authentic while also having a nearly Disney-esque level plastic fakeness. I think we got a slightly lop-sided view, though, because Elly was not feelng up to taking the famed walking trail between towns. The trail's beauty earned it the name "Via Dell'Amore", after all.
We didn't want to wait around for the bus to Biassa, so we took a train to La Spezia and bussed to Biassa from there, saving us over an hour. Between the train and the bus we enjoyed another cappuccino in the late-afternoon sun.
Once back in Biassa Elly switched shoes from "cute" to her more practical Keens and we went on a hike on the trails around Biassa. "Always follow the red and white" advised Luca, the front desk guy. Nearly an hour up the side of the mountain to a rest stop. The beauty of this trail is undescribable, and hundred or so photos I snapped do not do it justice. The entire hour hike is paved with ancient stone steps, winding its way up the mountain through arcane, untamed forest. Deep, healthy green entangled us all around. It was absolutely, incredibly awesome and I don't see the point of stumbling around the English language trying to describe it. It felt otherworldy and magic, like something out of a fantasy story.
Then there was benches and a refreshments booth at the top. The juxtaposition was surreal.
The hike really is worth more than the few messy sentences above, but this blog isn't the place for poetry.
Back to Biassa for anchovies, pizza, and lemon torte. Then back to the hostel for much-deserved sleep.
Photos
We slept in a bit, but we were fed and on a bus to Cinque Terre around 9:50. Cinque Terre ("five lands") is a series of five villages that have collectively become a national park. We took a bus from Biassa to the closest town, Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore is a bit bigger than Biassa, and completely tourism focused. The town is almost entirely shops, restaurants, and walking paths. We wandered around Riomaggiore for awhile, snapping pictures. Some other tourists were discussing a nearby beach, which we wandered around for awhile trying to find, but never did. After our short walk we decided to move on to the next of the five towns.
All five towns are connected by train and foot path. We bought a day pass and took a train to Manarola, the next town. Manarola had some better options for eating and shopping, so we spent considerably more time here than Riomaggiore. We wandered around, buying locally made wines and liqueurs from the tourist shops.
We had lunch at a nearly-sea-side ristorante. It was only one door down, had a clear view of the sea, and the menu was about half the price of the sea-side restaurant. Elly had salmon ravioli and I had "seafood spaghetti" which wound up being a Lovecraftian plate of spaghetti, eyes, legs, shells, tentacles, and unrecognizable fleshy rings. I sent my imagination on a break and chewed everything that seemed intended for eating. Incredibly fresh, quite delicious, but not necessarily the sort of thing I'd do on a regular basis. Elly and I worked out what most (but not all) of the items were: whole shrimp, octopus, squid, and mussels. Her lunch was also really delicious and easily identifiable, but I'm still glad I got what I did.
Cinque Terre is an interesting experience. The towns are quite beautiful, but are somewhat tarnished by the level of tourism. It gives off the aura of being both comletely authentic while also having a nearly Disney-esque level plastic fakeness. I think we got a slightly lop-sided view, though, because Elly was not feelng up to taking the famed walking trail between towns. The trail's beauty earned it the name "Via Dell'Amore", after all.
We didn't want to wait around for the bus to Biassa, so we took a train to La Spezia and bussed to Biassa from there, saving us over an hour. Between the train and the bus we enjoyed another cappuccino in the late-afternoon sun.
Once back in Biassa Elly switched shoes from "cute" to her more practical Keens and we went on a hike on the trails around Biassa. "Always follow the red and white" advised Luca, the front desk guy. Nearly an hour up the side of the mountain to a rest stop. The beauty of this trail is undescribable, and hundred or so photos I snapped do not do it justice. The entire hour hike is paved with ancient stone steps, winding its way up the mountain through arcane, untamed forest. Deep, healthy green entangled us all around. It was absolutely, incredibly awesome and I don't see the point of stumbling around the English language trying to describe it. It felt otherworldy and magic, like something out of a fantasy story.
Then there was benches and a refreshments booth at the top. The juxtaposition was surreal.
The hike really is worth more than the few messy sentences above, but this blog isn't the place for poetry.
Back to Biassa for anchovies, pizza, and lemon torte. Then back to the hostel for much-deserved sleep.
Photos
Biassa - May 29th, 2010
With our bags in hand we waved goodbye to Hotel Fortuna at 7:15am Saturday morning. Somehow we managed to leave Elly's laptop's power cord plugged into the wall, which is where it will stay until Monday evening. Doh. Each of us had a bag in each hand and a backpack on our backs. The two of us and all that heavy luggage had a long journey ahead of us.
We rode a bus down the hill to the train station, where we had breakfast. Breakfast was a chocolate croissant each, a cappucino for me and a hot chocolate for Elly. The croissants and Elly's hot chocolate were considerably lesser quality than we had become acustomed to at the pasticceria near Fortuna, but were still VERY good. The croissants were filled with chocolate mousse and even train-station, powdered hot chocolate is better here than in the US. And only 5 Euro for the whole breakfast. For the few of you who know what I mean by this: the chocolate croissants in the train station rival Jean Pierre's in Durango for deliciousness.
We bought two tickets to La Spezia, but neglected an important detail. Here is a bit of advice that I wish someone had told me: always know your transfers in advance! We made it okay, but it was pretty hairy there for a bit.
From Perugia we caught a train to Terontolo, from Terontolo to Firenze (Florence), Firenze to Pisa, Pisa to La Spezia. From La Spezia we took a taxi to Biassa. All told, the day consisted of four train rides, a bus, and a taxi, and took 5 hours. Except for Firenze to Pisa all of the transfers went pretty smoothly. When our train got to the end of the line in Terontolo we found a train destined for Firenze and hopped on. Same for the La Spezia train. The Pisa train was a different story. In Fierenze we got off the train and couldn't find ANY trains destined for Pisa. This is because the trains are named after their final destination, and Pisa is just a stop along the way. We couldn't find anyone to ask and the line to the ticket booth was too long to risk it. Elly and I each took 5 of the departure tickers and watched for "Pisa" in the list of stops. I didn't see any on my five, and Elly didn't see any on hers. As a last ditch effort, Elly got in the long line for the ticket booth and I double checked the the departure tickers. PISA. There it was. Platform 3, with only 2 minutes to make the transfer. I grabbed Elly out of line and we ran to the far side of the station. If the trains in Italy ran on time we'd have missed it. As it was, we had only JUST gotten our bags onto the train with us when the train pulled out of the station. LOOK UP YOUR TRANSFERS IN ADVANCE, you'll thank me later.
The cab ride to Biassa was another exciting story, though it is one you've heard many times before. Cab drivers are maniacs! The highlight of the ride was when the cab driver took a blind turn too quickly and nearly rear-ended a police car in his lane. He responded by cussing out the cop, shaking his fist, passing the cop in a no-passing lane, and speeding off many kilometers over the speed limit. The cop just watched it happen, too, I dunno WTF.
At the end of that harrowing ride, we wound up in the tiny mountain town of Biassa. Biassa is this super small, adorable little town laid out on a switchback on the side of the mountain. It has one hostel, one restaurant, one market, one church, and one B&B. We stayed in the hostel, but somehow wound up landing a private room though we didn't request one. Pretty freakin sweet.
We got to Biassa between pausa and dinner, so despite having not eaten since breakfast, Elly and I had to wait another two hours to eat. We laid out a plastic bag as a picnic blanket and ate some of our snacks. Our meal was comprised of kiwis, mozzerella, and crustini with pesto. We took a short walk, then napped until the ristorante opened. Another delicious italian meal and then straight to bed with us.
Photos
We rode a bus down the hill to the train station, where we had breakfast. Breakfast was a chocolate croissant each, a cappucino for me and a hot chocolate for Elly. The croissants and Elly's hot chocolate were considerably lesser quality than we had become acustomed to at the pasticceria near Fortuna, but were still VERY good. The croissants were filled with chocolate mousse and even train-station, powdered hot chocolate is better here than in the US. And only 5 Euro for the whole breakfast. For the few of you who know what I mean by this: the chocolate croissants in the train station rival Jean Pierre's in Durango for deliciousness.
We bought two tickets to La Spezia, but neglected an important detail. Here is a bit of advice that I wish someone had told me: always know your transfers in advance! We made it okay, but it was pretty hairy there for a bit.
From Perugia we caught a train to Terontolo, from Terontolo to Firenze (Florence), Firenze to Pisa, Pisa to La Spezia. From La Spezia we took a taxi to Biassa. All told, the day consisted of four train rides, a bus, and a taxi, and took 5 hours. Except for Firenze to Pisa all of the transfers went pretty smoothly. When our train got to the end of the line in Terontolo we found a train destined for Firenze and hopped on. Same for the La Spezia train. The Pisa train was a different story. In Fierenze we got off the train and couldn't find ANY trains destined for Pisa. This is because the trains are named after their final destination, and Pisa is just a stop along the way. We couldn't find anyone to ask and the line to the ticket booth was too long to risk it. Elly and I each took 5 of the departure tickers and watched for "Pisa" in the list of stops. I didn't see any on my five, and Elly didn't see any on hers. As a last ditch effort, Elly got in the long line for the ticket booth and I double checked the the departure tickers. PISA. There it was. Platform 3, with only 2 minutes to make the transfer. I grabbed Elly out of line and we ran to the far side of the station. If the trains in Italy ran on time we'd have missed it. As it was, we had only JUST gotten our bags onto the train with us when the train pulled out of the station. LOOK UP YOUR TRANSFERS IN ADVANCE, you'll thank me later.
The cab ride to Biassa was another exciting story, though it is one you've heard many times before. Cab drivers are maniacs! The highlight of the ride was when the cab driver took a blind turn too quickly and nearly rear-ended a police car in his lane. He responded by cussing out the cop, shaking his fist, passing the cop in a no-passing lane, and speeding off many kilometers over the speed limit. The cop just watched it happen, too, I dunno WTF.
At the end of that harrowing ride, we wound up in the tiny mountain town of Biassa. Biassa is this super small, adorable little town laid out on a switchback on the side of the mountain. It has one hostel, one restaurant, one market, one church, and one B&B. We stayed in the hostel, but somehow wound up landing a private room though we didn't request one. Pretty freakin sweet.
We got to Biassa between pausa and dinner, so despite having not eaten since breakfast, Elly and I had to wait another two hours to eat. We laid out a plastic bag as a picnic blanket and ate some of our snacks. Our meal was comprised of kiwis, mozzerella, and crustini with pesto. We took a short walk, then napped until the ristorante opened. Another delicious italian meal and then straight to bed with us.
Photos
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