Well, I'm back from my kick ass adventure around the Mediterranean. It was a great trip, and I got to accomplish everything that I set out to do and see. I started off in Milan, where our flight came into, and spent just a short while wandering around the center of town, visiting the duomo (the main cathedral) and a few other sites before moving on. It was only a short amount of time, but at least enough to get a glimpse of the city. I would have liked to have stayed a bit longer, but I wanted to devote most of my limited time to the other cities on my list.
My next stop was Venice. I have to say that Venice is just as cool as I imagined it to be, although I don't think that I would ever want to visit during the summer when tourist season is at its peak. The city is spread out on a series of small islands connected with bridges and canals, and apart from the main bridge that connects the city with the mainland, there are no roads in the entire place. I went two days walking around a city with out ever seeing a car!
It is also a very confusing city at first, since there are no real main roads and all the walkways are split by a seemingly endless system of waterways. I eventually figured my way around, but the first day I spent a great deal of time with my face buried in a map trying to figure out where the hell I was. It got even more confusing one night when we were trying to get back to our hostel because it was high tide and a lot of the paths were flooded, so we had to take the long way around the city, at night and in the rain. In fact, the entire main plaza (Piazza San Marco; the famous one with the bell tower and all the pigeons) actually flooded every night we were there. at midnight it was completely underwater, up to my ankles in some places! This city will be in serious trouble if the ocean levels rise even a few inches.
In order to save a bit of money (volunteering doesn't really pay the best) we got most of our lunches from markets and only went out to eat for dinners. This was completely fine by me after I saw my first Italian market. I don't think I have ever seen so many awesome cheeses in one place before in my life. Not to mention handmade pesto, fresh Italian bread, and three euro bottles of wine. I ate better market lunches there than I usually do from restaurants here in Bulgaria. We had a different cheese every day and never even came close to trying them all; asiago, parmesan, elementar, gorgonzola, brie.... the list goes on. I love Italian markets.
Actually, while Venice was the start of our market adventure, it was in Milan that my quest to eat as much Italian cuisine that my body could physically handle began. Over the course of the week that I was there I had pizzas, cream ravioli, spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli in tomato sauce, cannoli, lasagna, tortellini, spaghetti, Tuscan brushetta, gnocchi, gelato, calzones, and pizza again. One of the Italian couchsurfers that we stayed with even invited a bunch of friends over for a big dinner party and two of these friends were professional chefs. That is what is called the 'Jackpot'. It was the biggest Italian feast I had ever seen and lasted no less than four hours and included at least three rounds of homemade deserts.
The next stop after Venice was Florence, right in the heart of the Tuscan hills. It is a really cool city, nestled in a small valley surrounded by lush grape vineyards and olive groves. There was a bit of rain the first day, but the weather cleared up for us and it was nice and sunny after that. Florence was pretty relaxing since we were there on a Sunday and Monday, and turns out that most things are closed those two days, so we had plenty of time to just wander around the city and explore. I did get to see the statue of David though, and it really is the most impressive statue that I have ever seen. The amount of detail in it is amazing, you can even see veins in his arms and legs. I guess that Michelangelo knew what he was doing.
From Florence we took a train down to Rome and started our city tour at the Colosseum. that thing is bigger than most modern stadiums that I have been to, its amazing to think that its as old as it is. Right next to the Colosseum is the old Roman palace for the emperors and the Roman forum where the senate met. Its one huge complex full of old structures, columns, statues and plazas. Some of them had been severely damaged, but it still gave a pretty good feel for what it would have been like to be there 1700 years ago. Just the sheer scale of some of the structures shows the might of Rome, and makes it easy to see how it was the most impressive city in the world.
By chance we also stumbled upon an exposition for one of my favorite aritsts, Hiroshige, while wandingering around Rome. It was a fantastic collection of over 200 of his works, and it even included my favorite piece, which I was excited to see. It also made for a refreshing break from seeing ruins.
We stayed in Rome for three full days and did a short half-day trip to the Vatican city to see St Peters Cathedral and the Vatican museums. We showed up in front of St Peters early in the morning to find the entire place completely packed with people and the cathedral cordoned off. Turns out the Pope was scheduled to speak in another half hour, so we waited around to watch his speech. He showed up riding in his little pope mobile, which is actually just Mercedes SUV with a giant bubble top so that he can stand and wave to people as he goes by. Kind of a silly looking car, and it didn't help that there was cheese vaudeville-esq organ music playing in the back ground as he putted around at five miles an hour. I tried to take a picture, but I was thwarted by the mass of people in front of me. I didn't stay long into the speech because the only part that I was able to understand (my Italian and Latin ain't the best) was him reiterating how condoms wont help stem the tide of AIDS in Africa. After that, I was ready to go. I did get to see the Sistine chapel though before I left.
Im still waiting on my pictures, but I should get those posted and the blog about greece up in the next day or two. sorry about the wait.
My next stop was Venice. I have to say that Venice is just as cool as I imagined it to be, although I don't think that I would ever want to visit during the summer when tourist season is at its peak. The city is spread out on a series of small islands connected with bridges and canals, and apart from the main bridge that connects the city with the mainland, there are no roads in the entire place. I went two days walking around a city with out ever seeing a car!It is also a very confusing city at first, since there are no real main roads and all the walkways are split by a seemingly endless system of waterways. I eventually figured my way around, but the first day I spent a great deal of time with my face buried in a map trying to figure out where the hell I was. It got even more confusing one night when we were trying to get back to our hostel because it was high tide and a lot of the paths were flooded, so we had to take the long way around the city, at night and in the rain. In fact, the entire main plaza (Piazza San Marco; the famous one with the bell tower and all the pigeons) actually flooded every night we were there. at midnight it was completely underwater, up to my ankles in some places! This city will be in serious trouble if the ocean levels rise even a few inches.In order to save a bit of money (volunteering doesn't really pay the best) we got most of our lunches from markets and only went out to eat for dinners. This was completely fine by me after I saw my first Italian market. I don't think I have ever seen so many awesome cheeses in one place before in my life. Not to mention handmade pesto, fresh Italian bread, and three euro bottles of wine. I ate better market lunches there than I usually do from restaurants here in Bulgaria. We had a different cheese every day and never even came close to trying them all; asiago, parmesan, elementar, gorgonzola, brie.... the list goes on. I love Italian markets.
Actually, while Venice was the start of our market adventure, it was in Milan that my quest to eat as much Italian cuisine that my body could physically handle began. Over the course of the week that I was there I had pizzas, cream ravioli, spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli in tomato sauce, cannoli, lasagna, tortellini, spaghetti, Tuscan brushetta, gnocchi, gelato, calzones, and pizza again. One of the Italian couchsurfers that we stayed with even invited a bunch of friends over for a big dinner party and two of these friends were professional chefs. That is what is called the 'Jackpot'. It was the biggest Italian feast I had ever seen and lasted no less than four hours and included at least three rounds of homemade deserts.
The next stop after Venice was Florence, right in the heart of the Tuscan hills. It is a really cool city, nestled in a small valley surrounded by lush grape vineyards and olive groves. There was a bit of rain the first day, but the weather cleared up for us and it was nice and sunny after that. Florence was pretty relaxing since we were there on a Sunday and Monday, and turns out that most things are closed those two days, so we had plenty of time to just wander around the city and explore. I did get to see the statue of David though, and it really is the most impressive statue that I have ever seen. The amount of detail in it is amazing, you can even see veins in his arms and legs. I guess that Michelangelo knew what he was doing.
From Florence we took a train down to Rome and started our city tour at the Colosseum. that thing is bigger than most modern stadiums that I have been to, its amazing to think that its as old as it is. Right next to the Colosseum is the old Roman palace for the emperors and the Roman forum where the senate met. Its one huge complex full of old structures, columns, statues and plazas. Some of them had been severely damaged, but it still gave a pretty good feel for what it would have been like to be there 1700 years ago. Just the sheer scale of some of the structures shows the might of Rome, and makes it easy to see how it was the most impressive city in the world.
By chance we also stumbled upon an exposition for one of my favorite aritsts, Hiroshige, while wandingering around Rome. It was a fantastic collection of over 200 of his works, and it even included my favorite piece, which I was excited to see. It also made for a refreshing break from seeing ruins.We stayed in Rome for three full days and did a short half-day trip to the Vatican city to see St Peters Cathedral and the Vatican museums. We showed up in front of St Peters early in the morning to find the entire place completely packed with people and the cathedral cordoned off. Turns out the Pope was scheduled to speak in another half hour, so we waited around to watch his speech. He showed up riding in his little pope mobile, which is actually just Mercedes SUV with a giant bubble top so that he can stand and wave to people as he goes by. Kind of a silly looking car, and it didn't help that there was cheese vaudeville-esq organ music playing in the back ground as he putted around at five miles an hour. I tried to take a picture, but I was thwarted by the mass of people in front of me. I didn't stay long into the speech because the only part that I was able to understand (my Italian and Latin ain't the best) was him reiterating how condoms wont help stem the tide of AIDS in Africa. After that, I was ready to go. I did get to see the Sistine chapel though before I left.
Im still waiting on my pictures, but I should get those posted and the blog about greece up in the next day or two. sorry about the wait.
1 comment:
Only one cheese a day, hun? That's too bad, I just had a four cheese Totinos pizza, and it only cost a dollar. Ah, to be American.
Seriously though, I can't wait to see the pics and hear about Greece.
E
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