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...