The End

Our bus leaves Florence in about 3 hours. We'll be heading to Rome and will catch a plane there. I should be home sometime Tuesday night, but I'm not sure exactly when. I'll miss Italy. I love it here, but I'm also exhausted at this point and need a break. Five weeks of non-stop travel and adventure can really take a lot out of you.

This will be my last post from Italia. I have thousands of pictures and hours worth of video, so I'll always have those to refresh my memory. I won't miss the keyboards though, that's for sure.

Transformers

I caught the world premiere of The Transformers at the Odeon in Florence last night, several days before it comes out in the US. It was fantastic and much better than I expected it to be. When you get a chance definitely go see this movie.

Today's Italian city is Siena. I consider it a letdown. The piazza is nice, the tower above it ooverpriced, and the city rather boring. Others gave it a reputation as being a beautiful Italian town, but it looked pretty much just like the other smaller towns I'd already visited. It isn't bad, but wasn't worth taking a day to visit.

Sicily

Sicily was just as lovely as I had imagined. Our night train arrived without much problem and our guest house was perfect. Unfortunately, we did arrive during some kind of freak heat wave. It wasn't unbearable, but it was much warmer than it normally would have been. One of the cafe owners kept telling me that it was too hot, but would cool down the day I would be leaving.

It was still an amazing time. I had great food, we ate lots of granite, and I stood at the greek theatre overlooking the sea while having a view of Mt. Etna. I swam in the sea and enjoyed the city of Taormina at night.

The train ride back was a bit of a nightmare. All of the night trains were booked or had disappeared from the schedule. We took a train leaving at 1pm expecting to connect in Rome. We arrived in Rome almost 2 hours late, after the last train to Florence had left. We got special S1 authorization to have a train to Milan stop in Florence, but the train was packed with no seats anywhere and people smoking in the cars.

Still, Iàm back in Florence, and the temperature has dropped. It's suddenly much nicer.

Pisa and the Weekend

Pisa was rather disappointing. It was nice to see the leaning tower, but there really isn't much of anything else in that town. It also isn't very big compared to most of the architecture I've seen here. If they hadn't built on soft soil I doubt anyone would even be visiting Pisa at all. We went, we saw, we took pictures, and we left. So, if anyone out there was planning a vacation in Pisa I would recommend against it. You'd be bored in a few hours.

This weekend I'll be headed to Sicilia. The trains are actually on a 24 hour strike, but mine is scheduled to leave at about midnight Friday night (6pm for you eastern time zone folks) so it should not be affected. I doubt I'll be looking at a computer while I'm there, so don't expect to hear from me for a few days. I'll update Tuesday sometime.

Florence and Things

Sorry I've not updated anyone in so long. It is very warm in Florence and the internet cafe does not have air conditioning. When it is 95F outside, you can imagine how it feels in a room full of computers. So, I've not spent much time at one and therefore, no updates!

Just to catch everyone up a bit...I've been in Florence for a week now. I spent the past weekend in Venice. I saw all of the major things, including the Basilica San Marco. I took pictures. You'll love them. Venice is a beautiful city, but it is crowded with tourists. It was nearly impossible to find a quiet corner during the day, except perhaps in the Jewish ghetto.

Yesterday I climbed to the top of the Duomo here in Firenze. That means more great photo opportunities, of course. This morning I went to the Uffizi Galleries. I'm more of an architecture person, but it was nice to see a few classic works of art from DaVinci.

I'm off now, as I'm heading to Pisa for the afternoon.

Firenze

Florence is a nice change after Napoli and Roma. It is much slower, quieter, and more relaxing. There isn't a ton I want to see here, but I'll be taking trips every weekend. Iàm just happy to be away from Napoli.

Napoli...The Sweaty Armpit of Italy

Two days in Naples and it felt like a week in hades. I hated that town with everything in me. I was robbed (don't worry, I'm fine), it stank, it was loud, and it was filthy. If I never go back to that place again it will still be too soon.

On to Florence...

Capri

Capri is easily one of the most beautiful places on the entire planet. Though we had to travel through Napoli (a complete hole) to get here, it was well worth it. I took a 12 lift to the highest point on the island and spent hours on top of the mountain just looking out at the sea and the town. Today I swam in the Blue Grotto and had dinner at an amazing little restaurant, seated in the garden. The family were the only other people there, but they welcomed us in to join them. After dinner we wandered the streets of Anacapri, lit by little yellow lights chained above the street. It was like something out of the movies. It is paradise here.

Final Day in Roma

Today is my last day in Roma. The group will be here until Monday morning when they bus down to Napoli, but a few of us are heading down early (tomorrow morning), taking a train to Napoli, and then a ferry across to Isola di Capri (that'd be Isle of Capri for all you English speakers). We're spending two days in what some seem to think is the most beautiful place on earth and then meeting up with the group to see the slums of Napoli on Monday.

On Thursday we saw an ancient tomb, had lunch at L'archaeologica (one of the most gorgeous resturants I've been on, and they had fresh pasta made at the restaurant9. We also visted the Baths of Caracalla, which was huge. After that we walked several miles of the ancient Appian Way, where you can still see the ruts and tracks left in the stone thousands of years ago. It was quite amazing.

Today we visited ancient Ostia (Ostia Antica), Rome's original port city. It was postitively massive and the theatre there had a great view of the city. Much of the city is still well preserved and you can wander the same streets that people walked from the 1st century B.C. to the 1st century A.D. Evan and I went under the Baths of Neptune and explored a tunnel system.

On Wednesday we visited Vatican City and St. Peteràs Basilica, but that was too amazing and needs its own journal entry...when I have more time.

Colloseum and Palatine Hill

Today we had a tour through the Colloseum and Pallatine Hill. Standing on 2000 year old stone pillars has a way of creating a sense of awe. It was an excellent day. I took a ton of pictures and video and can't wait to show everyone. So far I've taken about 4 gigs of footage altogether. At Palatine Hill I got a video of the ruins of bronze age huts that date to about 753 B.C. This would be about the time when Romulus and Remus founded the city of Rome in legend.

Rylan and I also went down to our favorite area of the city where we met a girl working in a pizza joint from Chicago. We're probably going to catch up with her tomorrow and let her show us around the city, as she's been studying here for about 2 years. I had some pizza there with fresh tomato, green olives, and capers. It was delicious. For dinner we went out to a place here in Ostia that was fantastico. I wish all of you could taste the pizza and pasta here. It is nothing like what we get back home.

Tomorrow we head out to Vatican City for a tour there and a visit to their museum. For now I'm out and on to bed. I've had only un piccolo sleep since arriving in Roma and it is beginning to wear on me.

Their keyboards are funny

First off I want to let everyone know that the keyboards over here just are not right. The question mark is beside the zero key. the at symbol has a special shift key required. The underscore is just left og the right shift. It's a mess. Every apostrophe requires effort, and if you fail it results in: à. I hope that explains some things.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. The weather was unpleasant, the streets were crowded, and we came back to Ostia early. This morning several of us went to Mass at a Catcholic cathedral here in Ostia. Obviously I couldn't understand anything (maybe a "Paul" here and a "Jesus" there). An elderly couple renewed their vows, which was nice. Other than that...lots of sitting, standing, and kneeling, but the building was obviously gorgeous.

I know it sounds uneventful, but I'm doing a lot of site seeing tomorrow. All of the typical stuff. It should be fun, but will probably be tiring.

Roma...fantastico

Today was the first day of class. After class we headed in to Rome and spent the day there. My group wandered in Rome without any plan, and managed to see many amazing sites. We found an empty path along a hill that gave us fantastic views of the Forum and other things. We visited private offices, museums, and a hopsital.

At the end of the day we had a fantasic pasta dinner and didnàt get back to Ostia until 11pm. End day due.

Watch Out...Ostia?

So, after much flying we-ve arrived in Italia. Due to the large size of our group we are no longer staying in downtown Roma as planned but rather in Ostia, outside the city. It is on the beach but a distance outside the city itself. Most of us spent the first day exploring the city and then took in some local dining last night. We finished off the evening by buying a few bottles of wine and enjoying them on the beach as the sun set.

And that was day one.

Exodus

The packing is done, I've found a temporary home for my cat (Kevin's mom is keeping her), and I have had my required 2 hours of sleep. Sounds like I'm ready to get this thing going. In about 12 hours of flying, 2 hours of driving, and 6 hours of sitting in airports, I should be in Italy.

Now let's see if the airline can keep their end of this deal.

In the Beginning...

I've never been much for blogging, but some people wanted to be able to follow my trip through Italy and here I am. I can't guarantee how often I'll bother to sit down at a computer and update it, but hopefully at least once or twice in the five weeks.

This is the last day before I leave for Italy. I have much laundry, packing, and worrying to do. Hopefully I don't forget too many things.