Florence!

Well I made it out of Rome and into Florence today. Note to self, take a more direct train next time. The one I jumped on stopped at nearly every station, whoops.

My last night in Rome I went down into the Trestevere neighborhood. I found some great gelato of pistacchio, coconut, and hazelnut. A nutty combination. I planned on walking from there to a Piazza up north and grabbed a pizza on the way. This one had tomatoes, potatoes, artichoke hearts and cheese, or at least thats what I think it all was. I really just point to the one I want and find out later what it is. I ended up actually walking all the way to the Spanish steps, enjoying the night atmosphere of people milling about, artists selling their wares, and a few musicians in the piazzas. I was going to jump on the subway back to Termini where I'm staying, but found out that the subway closes around 9, pretty early I thought. I ended up walking the rest of the way back, I'm sure there was a bus headed that way but I'm no good with the language and didn't want to head in the other direction when it's only a half hour walk away.

I arrived in Florence today about noon. The hostel I'm staying in is a 20 minute bus ride out of town so I checked my bag and headed for the city. First up, I planned on getting reservations for the two hot spots in town: Accademia (statue of David by Michealangelo) and Uffizi. It turns out you can reserve the tickets at other museums in town for a small fee, then walk up to the doors during your 15 minute window and stroll in. Not everyone knows this and there was a really long line down and around the block. My reservation for Uffizi is tomorrow but I went to the Accademia today.

The statue of David is definitely larger than life. Way bigger than I expected, he stands over 15 feet high. But not only that, the detail is amazing. The veins in the hands and feet can clearly be seen and the definition of the muscles is great. You forget you're staring at stone. I also toured through some museums with old frescoes and then tried to orient myself with the city. Everything I'm interested in is within walking distance so its a small place. But for some reason I kept on getting turned around today, which really hasn't happened in the other places so I'll just blame it on the layout of the city.

The hostel I'm staying out is a renovated 17th century place with many rooms, but not too full. We're pretty much out of the city and up on a hill and the surroundings are great. Well I'm getting hungry, off to find some chow, Ciao!

Pantheon and the Roman Forum

I met up with Rick and his family last night and had a great time catching up with them. It's a little strange to meet up with friends from Granger all the way over here in Rome. Rick, Tasha (his sis), and I all went out to dinner near the hotel and had a great time. Rick had to leave for Madrid this morning, poor guy, and I had to set out to find out where to stay for the next two nights. If you haven't caught on yet, I really don't have anything reserved for this trip more than a few days in advance. I lucked out though and found a spot for the night and when I came back to check in they had someone cancel and so I reserved it for another.

I wandered through many of the piazzas (town squares) today and saw the Pantheon and the Roman Forum. The Pantheon was all that I hoped. It is such an amazing dome structure and over 2000 years old. The Roman Forum was spectacular as well. This was the "main street" of Rome back in the days of the empire. Over the years it was gutted for the stone and marble but there are many ruins that still stand. It really is just great to stroll through and gawk at the columns and imagine the buildings that were once there and people with togas walking around.

I plan to go to the Holy See tomorrow and will get up early to make sure I don't have to wait in line. Saturday I plan to grab a train to Florence and it should be great. I added pictures to the Rome link so just click on the pic below in the last blog. Ciao.

The great city of Rome

I had to say goodbye to the wonderful Manucci famiglia this morning and set off for Rome to meet up with Rick. It was so nice to stay at the Manucci's family and spend time with them. I must say I had my best nights sleep so far on this trip at their house. The meals they made me were great and they fed me many different types of cheeses and treats. It's so fun to try new things in new places.

Waiting at the train station I ran into another American solo traveler. It was so nice to talk with someone having the same difficulties with the language and finding out how to work the train system. I found my train to Rome and was lucky enough to have my own compartment to myself for the 4 hour train ride. I used the time to plan what to do in Rome and where to stay.

I headed for the colloseum after I found my room and it is amazing. I imagined what it must have been like in the glory days of Rome with 50,000 people in the stadium. It is so impressive what Roman engineers could achieve back then and made me wonder where we would be today if Rome hadn't fallen. Well I'm supposed to meet up with Rick now and better get off. Enjoy the pics of the colloseum.

Roma

La Spezia and the Cinque Terre

I arrived in La Spezia yesterday afternoon and was met by Carlo, the dad of the Manucci family that was kind enough to let me stay here in La Spezia with them. The Manucci's have two boys, Andrea and Davide, and one girl, Letizia (which they said translates to Joyce, how about that mom). Alessandra and Carlo speak some english and have been a great in helping me get around the city and to the Cinque Terre.

This morning I got on the train to visit the Cinque Terre. I began in Riomaggiore and hiked all the way to Monterosso. Some of the normal trail was washed out and so I had to make a detour higher in the hills. The views were absolutely amazing. The Mediterranean was rough and so I didn't get to go for a swim in it (I probably wouldn't anyway since it was a little cool for that). I hung around in Vernazza for an hour or so. Its great just to walk the streets of these small towns with no car traffic. I also picked up some rosemary foccocia bread and later more gelato. This time I got a large one and had coconut, vanilla, and cherry (I think). Ellie, didn't get your comment until I got back otherwise I would have sought out the bakery. The hiking was wonderful and I'm glad that my knee is working great again. I took tons of photos and can't wait to see how well they turned out.

Dad, I'm glad we didn't have a vineyard like the ones they do in Cinque Terre. As you can see in the photos, the vineyards are terraced everywhere on steep hills and hard to get to. It does make for a great landscape though and neat to walk through.

Alessandra is making pesto for dinner tonight and I'm looking forward to it. Pesto actually originated in this area. I better wrap this up. I'm headed for Rome tomorrow to try to meet up with Rick Castaneda. Enjoy the photos!

Cinque Terre, La Spezia

Milan

Well the night train from Paris to Milan wasn't too bad. At first I had a little trouble locating the train station at night and began to wonder what my plan would be if I missed the train. Luckily, I figured out where it was, remebered to validate my EruoRail Pass before boarding, and got on the train with out any further trouble. The compartment I was in had six seats which converted into six beds, three bunks on each side. We only had 5 people show up in our compartment so it wasn't as crowded as it could be. I slept fairly well but generally woke up whenever we stopped. The train was 45 minutes late to Milan, which was fine with me because we were supposed to arrive at 5.45. So instead it was 6.30 which gave me some time to check my bags, find out when the train to La Spezia left and wander through Milan.

In Milan, most of the places in my guidebook were still closed. In fact, I went into a supermarket and had someone tell me that the store was closed after I was in there for a few minutes already. I ended up grabbing a croussant (sp?) in a bakery and it was great. I visited the Duomo which is very big and could be described as busy in my opinion. It has a great view from the roof though and they let you walk around most of the building.

After the Duomo, I found some gelato and meandered through the large park there. I planned on sitting down to eat lunch but lost track of time and actually grabbed McDonalds before catching the train. I know, not what I made it all the way to Italy for but it was quick and I knew what was on the menu. By the way, McDonalds is everywhere I've been so far, globalization at its best.

Milan

Last Day in Paris

Well it's been a quick three days in the beautiful city of Paris. Sad to be leaving so early but time to move on. I toured Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, and more. I think my favorite cathedral was St. Chapelle. It wasn't nearly as large as the others but has intricate stained glass windows all along the walls. Visiting the Arc and walking down Champ Elysees was great. I picked up a crepe for the walk down, dropped into the Puegot show room and eventually found my way in front of the Louvre.

The Louvre is very large, a converted palace actually. The 2 hours I spent there weren't enough to scratch the surface. The Mona Lisa is smaller than I expected, especially when there are 50 people crowded around it. It's great to see the originals of all these art works. The poster prints you see just really don't give it justice at all.

I also visited Sacre Couer, the Picasso Museum, and the Orsay Museum. Sacre Couer was nice but very much touristy. The Picasso Museum had few people in it and some interesting art work. He had a strange outlook of life for sure but I really liked some of his sculpture and collage work. The Orsay has more modern works of art then the Louvre. It's full of pre-Impressionist and Impressionism paintings like Monet, Renoir, and Manet. I really enjoyed the Orsay and would have spent more time there if I wasn't starving and needing to find some food.

Two nights ago I went on a bike tour from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame. They must have been a little short of hands for the night because I had to be the "deire aire" (sp?) and make sure we didn't leave anybody behind. Biking down the streets was great except that the chain on my bike fell off 4 times. After the bike ride we got to jump on a boat for a ride around the Seine River. It was a great way to sit back and see the sights lit up for the night. Made some friends on the bike/boat ride and went out to the Latin Quarter to finish off the night.

Last night I treated myself to some great French cuisine. I had a salad with chevre cheese toasted on a baget, cheese ravioli in a cream sauce which was incredible, and rounded it off with a dessert of a moist brownie filled with chocolate sauce with whip cream and a vanilla sauce on the side. My taste buds were swimming through it all.

Well there is no USB port on this computer so you'll have to wait for an update on the pictures. I know some people, including myself, were worried I wouldn't be taking enough pictures. Well it turns out I'm quite trigger happy and have over 550 already. Tomorrow I need to find a place to burn some CDs cause my 2GB card is pretty much full.

I better wrap this up so I can find out when to catch my train from Milan to la Spezia. I already booked my night train to Milan and just need to find out how to get to La Spezia from there. Talk to you next from Italy!