Andiamo all'Italia!
I will now try to recount my ten-day trip through Italy. It will be impossible to tell everything, but I'll hit the high points. Also, I didn't take notes while I was there-I didn't want to be thinking about that while enjoying Italy-so I probably have forgotten most of the things I wanted to mention. But I'll try. Here's the rundown:
We flew into "Venice" on Thursday, October 20. By "Venice," Ryanair actually meant Treviso, a town about an hour northwest of Venice. Of course, it's impossible to fly into Venice itself, because Venice is an island, or rather, a group of islands. And when our hotel said it was in "Venice," it actually meant Mestre, the closest inland city to Venice. Mestre was about a 10-minute bus ride from Venice, so we had that going for us. We stayed in Venice (Mestre) for three nights, and here are some highlights:
The main attractions in Venice, as far as architecture and history go, are the Ponte Rialto (Rialto Bridge) and the Piazza di San Marco (St. Mark's Square), which has a famous basillica. If you think you've never heard of or seen the square, you're wrong. It's the one with all the pigeons. If a movie takes place in Venice, this square is where it happens. There are cafes, shops and string quartets lining the walls of the square, which is populated by 99% tourists. Our book said 70% of tourists to Venice don't get out of the square area. Anyway, the most memorable moments from the Piazza were feeding the pigeons--wait til you see the pictures--and dancing to live music at night.
Other stuff about Venice. We took a boat to the island of Murano, which is the home of Venice's world famous blown glass. It was fun walking in the first dozen blown glass shops, but after the 50th or so, it got a little boring. This is true, there is one main street on Murano, and every shop is literally exactly the same. By the way, there are no cars in Venice--there aren't even streets. The whole city is run through its canals-the taxis are boats, the buses are boats, and then of course there are the gondolas. Ah yes, gondolas.
You can't go to Venice and not take a gondola ride, can you? Well actually, you can. You see, a 50-minute gondola cruise costs 80 Euro (100 bucks). That just wasn't on the budget. In fact, everybody we talked to along our journey that had been to Venice said they didn't bother either. Instead, we took a few of the gondola taxis, which take passengers across the Grand Canal at points where there are no bridges to walk across. These journeys last about 30 seconds and cost 50 cents. That's good enough of a gondola ride.
Venice is the city of blown glass, masks and dogs. Dogs are everywhere. The streets are windy and make no sense. The city itself is about 70,000 people, and it's very crammed. You can do Venice in a day if you want.
The other two things we learned from Venice both had to do with restaurants, and were good to know for the rest of the trip. Number one: you cannot, under any circumstances, trust the English translation of a menu item. If the item says it is “bread and cheese” and you order it, at the same time pointing to a couple eating a plate of bread and cheese—sort of an appetizer, you might end up getting a grilled cheese. Apparently that’s what “bread and cheese” means in Italian. Don’t trust translations. The other thing we learned was not to try to estimate how much your meal would cost in total, because in Italy they charge you for everything, and it ain’t cheap. Most restaurants have a cover charge in the area of two Euro, a service charge of anywhere between 12-17%, and will bring you bread or offer you salad with your meal, failing to mention that it’s gonna cost you. Where does the money especially add up? Drink prices. Not uncommon to pay 3 Euro for a can of pop. And there’s no such thing as free water—you’re paying. This is how meals rapidly go from 12-15 Euro to 28-35 Euro. It’s frustrating.
After a few days, we were ready to explore Florence. Cheaper restaurants, more accessible streets, later hours of operation, our hostel was actually in the city—we had better results in Florence. Until we wandered into the Piazza Santa Maria Novella our first night. People were everywhere—I figured it was a popular place to hang out with a bottle of wine. Well, that night it was actually a popular place to hang out and watch a lunatic dangle from a construction crane, threatening to jump. We got outta there and spent the night drinking wine and eating gelato on the steps in front of the train station.
Highlights from Florence: the Duomo; a giant domed church, the Uffizi-a remarkable large collection of Renaissance art, by artists such as Da Vinci, Raphael and Boticelli. Florence also gave us some of the most spectacular views of the trip from high above the city. And the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge, or something like that) was bustling and romantic at night. It was in Florence where I really stretched my knowledge of Italian, haggling with merchants and bargaining at markets—good fun.
After two days in Florence, we spent a day and a half on the western coast of Italy, in a region known as Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre—“Five Terraces”—is a national park aimed to protect the terraced wine vineyards of the area. It also just happens to provide majestic views of the Atlantic Ocean. And the wine is phenomenal. Unquestionably the best afternoon of the trip was spent shoelessly climbing around the rocks and in the water while sharing a bottle of wine. Nothing like wading in the ocean in the closing days of October. Probably the coolest place I’ve visited in my life.
Rome. Well, sort of. Our “hostel” actually ended up to be a campground an hour outside of Rome. I won’t go over the details of our first night, trying to navigate through Central Rome and toward the campground, but I’ll just say it involved a train, two buses, two frantic phone calls, a little aimless walking, and a merciful employee picking us up. At midnight. Once we figured out where the heck we were and just how to get into Rome, everything worked out fine. We saw: the Spanish Steps, La Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon, the Forum, the Coliseum and the Vatican. And more, but you’ve never heard of them. The Coliseum was absolutely amazing, and we splurged for our only guided tour of the trip, which was well worth it. The Vatican was very interesting, if not gargantuan, and Kristie managed to sneak in a few illegal pictures in the Sistine Chapel. The only frustrating thing about Rome was the terrible public transportation. After living in London, which has fantastic coverage of the city, Rome seemed far worse than it probably actually is. But in Rome, there are only two subway lines, unlike the dozen or so in London, and they only intersect once. You may be a mile from your destination, but have to take four miles worth of subway rides. And they close at 9. Not a late-night city. None of them were. But by nighttime we were so tired and our daily budgets so gone that we were happy to spend the nights in our room. Our last night in Rome was one of the more memorable, though, as we spent a few hours talking to a couple from New Zealand and Australia. They were on a seven-week journey throughout Europe, after having lived in London for a couple years (literally down the street from Kristie!!). We chatted about London, Italy, Australia, and mostly, the U.S. Hearing global perspectives from very intelligent people was refreshing and enlightening. The knowledge foreigners have of the U.S. is simply astonishing, when you consider how little we know of their cultures. They know states, cities, how our government is organized, wars, laws—they know more than some Americans, I would imagine. And they also claim that the United States is the most religious country in the world. Interesting.
The wildest day of our trip came on the final day. But I don’t have the energy to write about that now. It will be its own separate post. I hope this entry wasn’t too bland, I’m not feeling very creative, but I need to tell of these memories before I forget them. Ciao ciao.
We flew into "Venice" on Thursday, October 20. By "Venice," Ryanair actually meant Treviso, a town about an hour northwest of Venice. Of course, it's impossible to fly into Venice itself, because Venice is an island, or rather, a group of islands. And when our hotel said it was in "Venice," it actually meant Mestre, the closest inland city to Venice. Mestre was about a 10-minute bus ride from Venice, so we had that going for us. We stayed in Venice (Mestre) for three nights, and here are some highlights:
The main attractions in Venice, as far as architecture and history go, are the Ponte Rialto (Rialto Bridge) and the Piazza di San Marco (St. Mark's Square), which has a famous basillica. If you think you've never heard of or seen the square, you're wrong. It's the one with all the pigeons. If a movie takes place in Venice, this square is where it happens. There are cafes, shops and string quartets lining the walls of the square, which is populated by 99% tourists. Our book said 70% of tourists to Venice don't get out of the square area. Anyway, the most memorable moments from the Piazza were feeding the pigeons--wait til you see the pictures--and dancing to live music at night.
Other stuff about Venice. We took a boat to the island of Murano, which is the home of Venice's world famous blown glass. It was fun walking in the first dozen blown glass shops, but after the 50th or so, it got a little boring. This is true, there is one main street on Murano, and every shop is literally exactly the same. By the way, there are no cars in Venice--there aren't even streets. The whole city is run through its canals-the taxis are boats, the buses are boats, and then of course there are the gondolas. Ah yes, gondolas.
You can't go to Venice and not take a gondola ride, can you? Well actually, you can. You see, a 50-minute gondola cruise costs 80 Euro (100 bucks). That just wasn't on the budget. In fact, everybody we talked to along our journey that had been to Venice said they didn't bother either. Instead, we took a few of the gondola taxis, which take passengers across the Grand Canal at points where there are no bridges to walk across. These journeys last about 30 seconds and cost 50 cents. That's good enough of a gondola ride.
Venice is the city of blown glass, masks and dogs. Dogs are everywhere. The streets are windy and make no sense. The city itself is about 70,000 people, and it's very crammed. You can do Venice in a day if you want.
The other two things we learned from Venice both had to do with restaurants, and were good to know for the rest of the trip. Number one: you cannot, under any circumstances, trust the English translation of a menu item. If the item says it is “bread and cheese” and you order it, at the same time pointing to a couple eating a plate of bread and cheese—sort of an appetizer, you might end up getting a grilled cheese. Apparently that’s what “bread and cheese” means in Italian. Don’t trust translations. The other thing we learned was not to try to estimate how much your meal would cost in total, because in Italy they charge you for everything, and it ain’t cheap. Most restaurants have a cover charge in the area of two Euro, a service charge of anywhere between 12-17%, and will bring you bread or offer you salad with your meal, failing to mention that it’s gonna cost you. Where does the money especially add up? Drink prices. Not uncommon to pay 3 Euro for a can of pop. And there’s no such thing as free water—you’re paying. This is how meals rapidly go from 12-15 Euro to 28-35 Euro. It’s frustrating.
After a few days, we were ready to explore Florence. Cheaper restaurants, more accessible streets, later hours of operation, our hostel was actually in the city—we had better results in Florence. Until we wandered into the Piazza Santa Maria Novella our first night. People were everywhere—I figured it was a popular place to hang out with a bottle of wine. Well, that night it was actually a popular place to hang out and watch a lunatic dangle from a construction crane, threatening to jump. We got outta there and spent the night drinking wine and eating gelato on the steps in front of the train station.
Highlights from Florence: the Duomo; a giant domed church, the Uffizi-a remarkable large collection of Renaissance art, by artists such as Da Vinci, Raphael and Boticelli. Florence also gave us some of the most spectacular views of the trip from high above the city. And the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge, or something like that) was bustling and romantic at night. It was in Florence where I really stretched my knowledge of Italian, haggling with merchants and bargaining at markets—good fun.
After two days in Florence, we spent a day and a half on the western coast of Italy, in a region known as Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre—“Five Terraces”—is a national park aimed to protect the terraced wine vineyards of the area. It also just happens to provide majestic views of the Atlantic Ocean. And the wine is phenomenal. Unquestionably the best afternoon of the trip was spent shoelessly climbing around the rocks and in the water while sharing a bottle of wine. Nothing like wading in the ocean in the closing days of October. Probably the coolest place I’ve visited in my life.
Rome. Well, sort of. Our “hostel” actually ended up to be a campground an hour outside of Rome. I won’t go over the details of our first night, trying to navigate through Central Rome and toward the campground, but I’ll just say it involved a train, two buses, two frantic phone calls, a little aimless walking, and a merciful employee picking us up. At midnight. Once we figured out where the heck we were and just how to get into Rome, everything worked out fine. We saw: the Spanish Steps, La Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon, the Forum, the Coliseum and the Vatican. And more, but you’ve never heard of them. The Coliseum was absolutely amazing, and we splurged for our only guided tour of the trip, which was well worth it. The Vatican was very interesting, if not gargantuan, and Kristie managed to sneak in a few illegal pictures in the Sistine Chapel. The only frustrating thing about Rome was the terrible public transportation. After living in London, which has fantastic coverage of the city, Rome seemed far worse than it probably actually is. But in Rome, there are only two subway lines, unlike the dozen or so in London, and they only intersect once. You may be a mile from your destination, but have to take four miles worth of subway rides. And they close at 9. Not a late-night city. None of them were. But by nighttime we were so tired and our daily budgets so gone that we were happy to spend the nights in our room. Our last night in Rome was one of the more memorable, though, as we spent a few hours talking to a couple from New Zealand and Australia. They were on a seven-week journey throughout Europe, after having lived in London for a couple years (literally down the street from Kristie!!). We chatted about London, Italy, Australia, and mostly, the U.S. Hearing global perspectives from very intelligent people was refreshing and enlightening. The knowledge foreigners have of the U.S. is simply astonishing, when you consider how little we know of their cultures. They know states, cities, how our government is organized, wars, laws—they know more than some Americans, I would imagine. And they also claim that the United States is the most religious country in the world. Interesting.
The wildest day of our trip came on the final day. But I don’t have the energy to write about that now. It will be its own separate post. I hope this entry wasn’t too bland, I’m not feeling very creative, but I need to tell of these memories before I forget them. Ciao ciao.
posted by Kristie at 12:11 PM
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