Italy

I hate to leave this blog incomplete, even though I've been back in Canada for 3 weeks now. Lets pretend that I'm still in Italy.


We touched down in Rome at around 9:00am and started working our way downtown. We wandered a few blocks from the airport in search of a subway station and were ambushed by a hail storm. It turned out that the subway station didn't exists, so we found an overpriced shuttle bus to take us downtown.


It was disappointing to have our first day in Rome limited by the cold rain. We made the most of it, found a crappy hostel, and did a bus tour of the city. The next day was much more productive. The skies were clear and we were geared up for some serious touring. We buzzed by the Colosseum and Roman forum., the City Hall/Unknown soldier memorial, and the Castello di San Angelo. I was pick pocketed twice on the way, though they didn't take anything (i guess they weren't interested in my laundry). We slowed down at Vatican City, wandered around St. Peter's Square, and did a tour of the Basilica. They were very impressive although the extravagance was somewhat hypocritical, considering it's the headquarters for a religion that demands humble, modest, selfless obedience. The Sistine Chapel was by-passed, I don't think it was open that day. I guess I'll use that as an excuse to visit Rome again.


We found lunch, and then the Pantheon, which was apparently a structural and acoustical marvel for the time it was built. Wandering into the very well preserved ancient Jewish quarter (the name of which escapes me at the moment), the bottom of my shoe was assaulted by well hidden dog poop. I hadn't finished scrapping it off before a pigeon, on a bombing run got me on the shoulder. After a long day of getting pooped on and pick pocketed by the locals, we spent an early night at the hostel, and arranged another couch surfing host in Napoli for the next day.

We arrived in Napoli and were immediately disgusted. Apparently this city has the 5th highest population density in the world. And probably also the worlds highest sales of spray paint, because every surface was tagged. We tracked down some food and an internet cafe and met our host, Dave. Dave was an interesting guy, a Texan, and member of the American military who was stationed at the NATO base outside of Napoli. He had a great house near the base. He invited us to watch his football game that night (american football) and afterwards he showed us one of the favorite local restaurants. It was a very interesting night.

We caught an early train to Sorrento, where, for an early christmas gift mom and dad arranged 3 nights in a posh hotel. It was a much nicer area than Napoli, although had a lot of British tourists. We used it as a base point to explore the area. The next day we took a more thorough look at Napoli, saw some museums and castles. It was an interesting city, but very dirty, and every person I passed seemed like a thief waiting for an opportunity.

Pompey was very cool, way to big for a day tour. We focused on the mansions, theaters and gladiator arena. The shops and pleb areas will have to wait until next time. We weren't the only ones there though, it was crowded.


It was tough to leave our luxurious hotel, especially the breakfast buffet. Our next stop was Florence. The train ride was long, but the hostel we reserved was one of the nicest so far. There wasn't time to do much besides eat and have some drinks. Florence was the epicenter for the renaissance art movement, and was littered with famous museums. We found the Palazzo Vecchio by accident, and toured it for a few hours. It houses the bronze statue of Judith and Holofernes by Donatello, which was the world's most celebrated statue, until David. Next door, the Gallaria di Uffizi is considered the most important collection of art in Italy. It was way too crowded. We saw a number of famous paintings. There were three different versions of "The Annunciation", the most famous by Leonardo Da Vinci was surrounded by mobs of school kids.

We spent some more time touring around the city. "The Acadamia" is home to Michelangelo's Statue of David, we walked by it but didn't stop.. museumed out. It was later pointed out that we clearly have some beef with Michelangelo, having passed up the Sistine Chapel, and now the Statue of David. We gathered a group from the hostel that night, and did a bit of bar hopping. I was pretty hungover on the train the next day.

On to Venice next.
More to follow