Italy!

We rode the train through the alps and arrived at Florence train station where we hitched a ride on a bus up into the northern hills of Florence. We got off the bus and the only thing the directions to our hostel said was to walk up the hill about 10 minutes. I think by hill they meant mountain, but when we arrived at the top of the hill we came to a beautiful Italian villa in the hills with an amazing view of Florence. Actually this was no villa, is was a hospital then a monastery which could very well mean that it was haunted but this place was beautiful and medieval looking so we didn’t care. The only other guests were a group of Belgium school girls and some more aussies. We were pretty sure that these girl were around the age of 15 but I think to attract our attention they puffed on cigarettes as they gave us sharp winks, silly girls everyone knows winks are unattractive. The hosts of the hostel severed us dinner in the garden and we had one of the most relaxing evenings of our trip in the garden talking to the aussies and sipping on wine.

The relaxation continueed the next day as we all got up a little late and walked down to the town that our hostel was near to pick up some wine, cheese and meat to enjoy back at the hostel. Here we saw for the first time the PDA that Italians are known for as a boy and girl who were with a group of friends began shamelessly making out in the middle of the checkout line. We brought our purchases back to the hostel and enjoyed them while discussing the discrepancies between American’s and Aussies. Ever since we have got here to try and get anyone to fake and American accent and apparently this is a stupid question because I only get blank stares in response. I don’t know why this is such a difficult question. To Pat and my delight we also learned about some new Mcdonald’s terminology. The first is a McFu**, this is a Big Mac which has one of the hamburger patties replaced with a chicken patty, yum. For those of you on the, “ I want to be as American as possible” diet, the Mc Gangbang is for you! This wonder of a sandwich is a double quarter pounder with, you guessed it, a MCchicken in between the two patties. We have honestly missed McDonald’s here in a way that we were not expecting. IN Europe McDonalds is slightly high class. You want a double cheeseburger in the US? You will likely fork out around $1.20 or roughly one euro. How much in Europe? 3.50 euro. The one euro menu which exists in select locations only has single cheeseburger. Hey you want ketchup with your fries? That’s 20 euro cents per package. There are some upsides however, the ketchup comes in dip-able containers which I have always thought is far superior to the ketchup packet while both are inferior to the pump and cup. In addition the McDonald’s are all huge and nice so they have been our safe havens while waiting for long periods of time at train stations.

We ate dinner at the hostel again, which was again wonderful. It is difficult to explain how wonderful this place is, so I attached a video to give everyone a glimpse of this slice of heaven.

The next morning we took our sweet time leaving this wonderful hostel and headed back to Florence to catch another bus to our next hostel which was located approximately 40 km away from Florence. We checked into our hostel and walked down a path in the Tuscan and more specifically Chianti country side. This was wine country, everywhere you looked you saw rolling hills of grape vines. We made it to an old castle, which just happened to be having a medieval festival. For all the ladies who have seen Under the Tuscan Sun, we saw what I can only describe as flag throwing? I think Lauren Day shed a tear of joy at this sight. We then looked around the town some more and stopped into a restaurant overlooking the Tuscan hills. Lauren and I looked around and everyone speaking Italian was eating pizza so naturally Lauren Day and I got huge pizzas. Pat got a miniscule serving of pasta, he also may have shed a tear at this bad, but delicious, deal. We also got a bottle of water for the first time in Europe. Now in the US you expect to get a glass of ice water just for sitting down at a restaurant. Not in Europe you have to pay for that stuff, you want it cold? Extra 50 euro cents. Even though we were upset with having to purchase this, we thought we had not had such good water in our whole lives. In Europe they also refuse to serve you anything cold, its extra, so cold water was incredibly delicious. We headed back to the hostel for some rest. There we talked to the hostel manager who said he would tell us what he thought we should do some wine tasting and he would tell us where to go in the morning. We arose to the hostel manager being gone, he would not return till 4 pm. With no plans, we decided we would walk aimlessly and we ran into some other people staying in the hostel who happened to be from Mercer Island in Seattle. One of the girls had been living in Italy the past semester so was nearly fluent in Italian and helped find our way to a nice little Italian restaurant in another town. After our delicious lunch we decided to take a bus back into Florence to try and go to the annual gelatto festival. We took a bus into town and found the area where the Gelatto festival was suppose to be but the festival had closed down a few hours prior to our arrival so we decided to get some of the delicious Italian ice cream at a store close by. Florence is a beautiful city, like all European cities, and we eventually made our way back to the hostel to sip on some tequila sunrises.

The next day we moved to our hostel that was located in the heart of Florence. This hostel was a carnival, it had a pool, dance club and an amazing terrace which you can see in some of the pictures. We dropped off our bags and made our way to the market where we found great deals on ties, pashminas and leather goods. To my delight the vendor pulled the old calculator trick to attempt to convince us that he was in fact giving us a good deal. Of course, we were the wiser group of bargainers and I snatched that calculator from him to do a little math of my own. Fighting fire with fire, we offered up our best deals via calculator, convincing him to cut us some serious deals- we will have a few happy friends. We went back to the hotel room where we talked to a couple of our roommates, Patricia and PJ. PJ is a good old southern boy, (well man, he’s 30) who agreed to go on this trip with Patricia (Trish) because her friend bailed on her last minute and by last minute I mean PJ only had to pay $150 to change the name on airline ticket AND the eurorail pass, so essentially free trip to Europe. Trish is an Uhhmerican, in all the wrong places. We all decided to go to dinner at a place the hostel recommended, problem was this place only served booze and potato chips, clearly we exude an image of tourists looking for some fine Italian dining. After dinner we went back to the place who provided little in the way of food, but plenty in the way of euro shots. We went home because Lauren Day was super sleepy, I woke up with my shorts ripped down and Pat was unable to utilize the breakfast buffet. Yes, you heard right, Pat did not stuff his face at a breakfast buffet.

The following day we toured around Florence with a couple more of our roommates. We went to Brunelleschi’s dome, which was enormous. It was the Machiavelli family who wanted its construction, pretty much because they wanted to have a dome that was bigger than another family’s dome. Obviously it paid off because I can recall the Machiavelli’s and not the other family who put up a little dome. It of course, in European fashion, was being worked on. Scaffolding on great buildings is a constant in Europe. We chose not to climb up the dome because it was 8 euro to climb up some stairs, but the dome was none the less spectacular. We went by the museum that the David is located in but it was like 15 euro so of course we are not going to pay to see a big rock, we just went and saw a replica of the David in its original location. The David is absolutely enormous and it’s amazing to think Michelangelo carved the entire thing from the head down and was able to keep the proportions of the body correct the entire way down. We actually passed what was supposed to be an “American Dinner” while passing through the streets of Florence. In the window on display there was, hotsauce, ranch dressing, maple syrup and Patron, apparently theses 4 items sum up America. Patron by the way means Boss, like mob Boss in Portuguese. We went with our group to grab some lunch then went back to the hostel to hang out for a bit. While we were enjoying some wine and conversation we noticed that the pub crawl had a free buffet. While the pub crawl was not of particular interest to us, the food was, so Pat and Lauren walked over to the table and sheepishly grabbed a couple pieces of Bruchetta, which is incredible in Italy. I was a bit more hungry than that and went over and began to shovel as much food as possible into my mouth. A employee came over and asked if I was on the bar crawl and I am no liar so of course I said no and continued to eat. The employee said he didn’t think I am allowed to have the food, I asked him to make sure that it wasn’t ok because no one else was going to eat the food. He agreed to go call downstairs and at this moment all three of us began to munch on this delicious Italian food. Turns out we are not allowed to have the food, they resell it to customers at the restaurant, I think we did everyone a favor. We finally met up with Dawn and Avril again and enjoyed a delicious authentic Italian meal with our good friends.

The following day we made our way to Cinque Terre National Park. Cinque Terre is a grouping of 5 small Italian towns that are located on the western coast of Italy. All of the towns are connected by trains and walking paths. Some of the paths are hardcore hiking trails straight up and down the mountain side, some are more leisurely. This area was hands down the most beautiful we have seen thus far, the views are spectacular and the water was so incredibly blue. We wished we could have stayed another day just to relax on the beaches of some of the towns but we did enjoy the 5 hour hike between towns and took hundreds of pictures. We enjoyed some sea food in local restaurant, for those of you who know of my allergy, I did NOT throw up. We then went to the only bar in our town and got some gelatto and drinks. We felt very old, this was a hot spot for under 21 year old college kids. Also Pat and I agreed that the caliber of IU girls is far superior to anywhere in the world. To be honest we have not been impressed by the women that we have seen backpacking, I miss IU. We then ran into, you guessed it, more aussies who invited us down to a rock outcropping where we sipped on a drink before we headed to bed. Lauren Day went to bed early.

The following day we made our trek to Rome, which according to many visitors, is busy, crowded, dirty, and expensive. We chose to stay in a camp ground that was outside the city because it was cheap(11 euro a night as opposed to 33) and because it was well reviewed. One review of the place said that you were essentially living in a shed, which Pat and I were while Lauren Day relaxed in her private room with bathroom attached. The place was sort of like a low budget resort, it had a pool, dorms, restaurant and RV parking, the whole package. This place housed retirees who were RVing through Europe, who knew anyone outside America thought this was a good idea, and a ton of 15 year olds who came to the bar to drink. I have never seen kids try to look so cool as they slammed down sweet sangria and Bacardi premixed drinks. We turned in because we were about to have a really long day in Rome.

Our Frommer’s guide book said Rome was not built in a day and so we wouldn’t be able to see it in a day either. Well Frommer- we did it. We started our day off however on the completely wrong foot. Of course, I had lost my metro ticket so I was going to have to buy a new one at the station, goodbye 4 euro. We got to the train station where I bought my ticket and we got on the above ground metro into town and we got off the train to be greeted to be greeted by some Sad little Italian men. We showed them our tickets and they let Lauren Day and Pat pass, I however had not had my ticket validated because our little train station did not have a gate to go through to have your ticket validated, instead there was a machine located on the train somewhere. Showing absolutely no discretion these little man, looked at my ticket which was marked as being purchased less than 30 minutes earlier and told me because I had not had it validated I owed them 50 euro. Funny thing is Pat and Lauren’s tickets were not valid either because the 24 hour pass in Rome only lasts till 24 oclock( military time) and they had bought their tickets the other day. Rome sucks, these men were clearly trying o catch tourists unfamiliar with their system. Let me buy another ticket, take my ticket, 50 euro’s is in no way equivalent to such an honest mistake. Rome sucks. We then got on the underground metro, where to say the least I was not happy to have just given away more than my whole days budget for the day. Rome decides to add insult to injury as once on board the train a little kid playing the accordion parks himself within 2 feet of us. Rome sucks.

We eventually get off at the stop located near the Vatican City and we quickly hop into line for the Vatican Museum. The line is approximately an hour and half long and we eventually get into the treasure chest of Catholicism. We decided not to have a guided tour because we were being pestered by advertisers the entire time we were in line but I would recommend one. There is simply so much art and history in this place and explanation are often needed. We managed to scheme our way into following tour guides as they described the history of many of the pieces. It was interesting to see all of the stuff the museum had “bought” aka stole. There was a huge rooms of Egyptian art and sarcophaguses and they even had the tomb and body of Amanhotep from the Mummy on display. They also had thousands of Greek and Roman works of art which had more history involved with them then I am sure anyone would like to read about. We also saw the famous fresco of the School of Athens and of course the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is a bit of an odd experience because no one is suppose to take pictures or speak while in the Chapel. Of course I took pictures because there is no reason our followers should not get a glimpse of this amazing work. The mood is sort of ruined however because many people are talking and to subdue this the Swiss guard or rent-a- cops at the chapel think the best solution is to yell “No photos! Silencio! No Pictures!” the entire time you are in the chapel. In addition there is a recording that comes on every two minutes telling everyone to not take pictures and to be quiet. No exactly effective, everyone is taking pictures and talking about how annoying it is that these guys keep telling everyone to be quiet. Oh Rome. Seriously though the work is amazing and ridiculously intricate, sadly the few images I was able to grab of it will not do it justice. We moved on to the next section which was modern religious art and I don’t think I have seen a group of people breeze through an art gallery so quickly.

We moved onto St. Peter’s square which smack dab in the middle of it there was a giant Egyptian Obelisk with a giant gold cross strapped to the top cross symbolizing the triumph of Christianity over Paganism. Seriously? After the cold war did we take a bunch of the soviet’s communist statues and put American flags, Bald eagle and Jeff Gordan 24’s all over them? We continued on into the tombs of the popes which was interesting as some popes clearly got better tombs than others, John Paul’s tomb had a large group of pilgrim’s around it which was fairly moving. There was even a sacred area which I really wanted to take a picture of but I think the Swiss Guard knew of my intentions and shooed me away, the room was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen. We continued on to St. Peter’s Basilica, you think rappers have bling? Check this place out! Seriously one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been inside. Its massiveness dwarfs anyone who is inside. Michelangelo’s famous Pieta sculpture of Mary holding Jesus is there behind bullet proof glass because some guy thought he was Jesus and started smashing the sculpture with a hammer. The story goes that people actually picked up the pieces that he managed to knock off before being apprehended. The Church got them back by saying anyone who kept them would be eternally damned, it was a quite effective strategy, they got all the pieces back. Another cool thing about the place is that nothing is actually painted in the basilica it is all mosaics of marble and precious stones, I can’t imagine how long this could have taken, check out the pictures this place is huge. They also had the bodies of St. Peter and another pope in the Basilica as a demonstration of how Saints don’t decompose. I think people were catching on to the fact the bodies are definitely not looking to fresh so one of the bodies is covered in Bronze. Overall the Vatican was quite a site to see, though a tad bit ridiculous in its splendor.

We then made our way to the Trevi Fountain in the heart of Rome where we threw in a couple coins and made some wishes. Lauren Day wished for something that seemed pretty serious, I just think it was more gelato, and Pat wished for Meat. We then went to the Coliseum where we ponied up for the guided tour. The coliseum is pretty interesting in that nearly 700,000 people and nearly 3 times as animals died there in the name of entertainment during its 400 years of operation. What is also interesting is that it was only a place of entertainment for a short part of its existence, it was actually largely abandoned for much of its life. All that remains of it is its brick in mortar skeleton, the marble which used to cover the whole thing went to building churches and the Vatican. The Vatican actually took 4 of the primary pillars of the coliseum and put them in St. Peters square. We also went to the emperors palace on the hill where Romeulus founded the Roman empire according to Roman history. This sprawling palace shared a similar fate to the coliseum which was also stripped of its marble for use in the Vatican and surrounding churches.

We returned home for another fine dinner and turned in early because we were going to have to get up at 5:45 in order to make our train from Rome to Brinidisi. While Rome may not have been our favorite place, the Tiber Hostel and the man who unexpectedly offered to drive us the 2km from the hostel to the train station at 6:00AM may have warmed us to the city a bit. From Brindisi we will take a ferry to Patras in Greece where we will catch a train to Athens where we will catch another boat to Santorini. The majority of places in Italy, along with many other European countries charge you to use the restroom. Pat actually paid to use a restroom, 1 euro the priciest we have seen here. Rome sucks. Wish us luck!