I'll admit, at this point in our trip I was actually starting to miss home (and our two kitties) and the thought of exploring another city made me tired, but as soon as we arrived in Venice, all those feelings were washed away. Venice was not nearly as crowded (away from the main sites) and I felt relaxed by the constant gentle lapping of the water in the canals against the crumbling brick foundation. We settled into our canal-view room that had two tall windows, high ceilings and the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. We stopped for lunch at a Trattoria with outdoor garden seating. As the afternoon waned, the sky became brilliant orange and we walked to St. Mark's square to enjoy the sunset at the beautiful view. We walked across the Rialto Bridge and got lost among the winding streets. We stumbled upon the Alta Aqua Liberia where books are piled into bathtubs to avoid the flooded floors. I befriended more cats along the way. We had dinner at another outdoor restaurant and we explored the streets a little more in the dark. I loved all the textures of the buildings and the melancholic romance of a city literally crumbling into the water. The next day we took the Vaporetto (no cheesy Gondola rides for us) to the island of Murano to explore the streets and see the famous glass blowers making delicate creations. We bought a beautiful jellyfish suspended in glass and I found a tiny blue bottle to add to our tiny thing collection. We had lunch at a small place on the island and we rode the water taxi back to our hotel. After a nice nap in the extremely comfy bed, we once again took a long winding walk through the streets before dinner. We wished we had a little more time to stay in Venice, but at the same time we were ready to go home.
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After a long day of travel, we finally made it to Florence, just in time for all the food places to be closed (it also happened to be Assumption Day) after a very light lunch of vending machine BBQ chips and Gatorade, we went to the Academia to see the famous David. The Academia is a very small gallery with David being the main attraction, but also a huge collection of brilliantly bright altarpieces. We snapped some pictures of the Duomo and the Bell Tower and decided to treat ourselves to a Florentine-style T-Bone steak dinner and you guessed it- another cheese board! Our hotel was The Student Hotel just down the street from the train station. Although this place had an amazing rooftop view with a pool, its hipster, too-cool for school vibe kind of turned us off- we preferred the quaint guest houses run by the locals. The following day we spent mostly inside of museums since Florence has so many of them! We started by walking up the claustrophobic- nightmare stairs into Brunelleschi's Duomo. Thank goodness we were first to go up because I can't imagine being stuffed in those stairwells with people also going down the opposite direction. We also climbed the Bell Tower because what else do you do after two whole days of hiking in the cliffs? After we caught our breath, we decided to check out the Bargello for Donatello's lesser-known David. We had tickets to the Uffizi Gallery in the afternoon and a chunk of time to kill before our time slot. I opted for the Galileo Museum which did not disappoint. It contains not only a collection of Renaissance-era scientific tools and machines, but also some of Leonardo Da Vinci's books filled with hand written notes and sketches as well as Galileo Galilei's actual middle finger under a glass dome. By the time we went into the Uffizi Gallery we were both a little museumed-out, but we pushed through. Although we needed to endure mobs of tour groups to glimpse Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and Titian's more brazen-seductive Venus of Urbino, I was pleasantly surprised to see Artemesia Gentileschi's Judith Beheading Holorfenes around a more quiet corner. Gentileschi was a rare female Renaissance artist and her violent rendition of the myth of Judith is much more powerful than versions by her more famous male counterparts- possibly because she was a rape survivor and her anger and triumph shows through her work. Before our long walk back to our hotel over the beautiful Ponte Vecchio we stopped at a small wine shop/restaurant overlooking the river. Later on that night we ate a big meal with fried dough balls as an appetizer. After being completely stuffed, the cook kept handing us shots of Limoncello! The next day we had an all day excursion planned to different Tuscan villages, Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa with a traditional Tuscan wine lunch at a local farm. Although it was nice to finally have someone else take the wheel and bring us around different places, the two of us realized that group tours are really not our style. Preferring to explore on our own and walk at our own pace (which is fast) we found ourselves trying to disassociate from the large embarrassing tour group whenever the guide would stop in the middle of a busy street to explain the history of something. Our first stop was Siena where the annual horse race called the Palio is held in the sandy square. We arrived the very day after the race, so flags of the winning horse's village were hung around necks and from windows everywhere. Our next stop was a vineyard tour at the farm that would be serving us lunch. The Tuscan countryside was simply beautiful, especially under the crisp blue sky. We sat at a long communal table and shared bottles of wine and ate bread, pasta and pecorino cheese. We bought some lemon balsamic glaze to use at home and we enjoyed the last beautiful view of Tuscany from atop the hill. We could just barely make out the violet silhouettes in the distance of the medieval towers of San Gimignano. Once inside the village we made a beeline for the Medieval Torture Museum where we saw some very gruesome wax reenactments of the horrible things people were subjected to in the dark ages. I wish we had more time to explore San Gimignano, but because we needed to get back to the bus to head to Pisa, we were only able to walk up the center street and back. By the time we made it to Pisa the sun was beginning to sink lower in the sky, casting an amber glow across the bright white marble of the leaning tower and the surrounding buildings. As it was late and dark by the time we finally reached Florence again, we were both hungry and didn't care enough to research another restaurant, so we stopped at the first pizza place we found and had some ok pizza. (Even bad pizza in Italy is better than good pizza back home). We called it an early night so we could wake up and catch the train to Venice in the morning.
We left Rome bright and early for the Cinque Terre in the Italian Riveria. After navigating trains with our luggage we fortunately made it into Vernazza without a hitch- although as soon as we got off the train it was evident that the Cinque Terre is a very popular place to travel in August- we were shuffling slowly through narrow streets shoulder to shoulder with enormous crowds. Fortunately our bed and breakfast was tucked away in the cliffs away from the main strip near the ocean. We unloaded our luggage and stopped for a quick pesto sandwich with tomatoes and mozzarella on Foccacia bread. I decided to go for a dip in the ocean, so we walked down the pier to the rocky beach and I jumped off the cement block into the crystal cool blue of the Ligurian Sea. I scraped my foot a little as I was sloshed by waves against the cement wall while trying to wait my turn for the ladder. Cooled off, and a little bloody, we embarked on our hilly journey to Monterosso- the beach village over the other side of the cliff. This section of trail is definitely not for the weak, especially in the heat. I found myself stopping more than I would like to admit to douse myself in cold water, but you are rewarded with amazing views! After what seemed hours of uphill-downhill walking and trying not to slip down the rocky, cactus-grown cliffs we finally made it to Monterosso where we were able to sit down for a cold drink. We decided after that sweaty journey to take the train back instead into Vernazza for dinner. We explored the village at night and had one of my favorite meals of the whole trip- trofie pasta with pesto sauce! The next day was supposed to be our hiking day, we planned to take the train straight to Riomaggiore and then hike until we made our way back to Vernazza. Unfortunately trails between the villages were all closed due to landslides (that apparently happened over 10 years ago) so we decided to spend a little extra time exploring the villages and take the crowded trains in between. Riomaggiore was sleepy and quiet in the morning so after a quick croissant and a look around we moved on to Manarola where we spent most of the day (I should tell you a huge part of that time was spent lost trying to find the Trattoria de Billy- GPS does not handle the tight streets and buildings piled on top of one another well) I ordered the grilled catch of the day- which happened to be swordfish, but not after sharing an enormous cheese platter. Stuffed from lunch we stuffed ourselves into the train to reach Corniglia, the last of the villages we hadn't yet explored. This village is high up on the cliff, with a wide staircase that zigzags up from the train station. Corniglia was beautiful, but very small so we snapped a few pictures and made our way back to Vernazza for a much needed late afternoon nap. As the sun was slowly starting to drop in the sky we climbed our way up narrow streets and staircases to the Vernazza Wine Experience- a cliff side restaurant that seems like a little hidden secret with amazing views of the sparkling blue sea. We tasted four different Cinque Terre local wines and ate yet another cheese board for dinner. This place ended up being our favorite part of Cinque Terre.
After a six-hour overnight flight with a layover in Dublin, we finally landed in the Eternal City. We arranged a ride to our guest house in Trastevere- a quaint authentic Roman neighborhood on the other side of the Tiber River. After enjoying an espresso on the balcony we headed out to explore the area. We decided the best way to start our trip was to climb up Gianicolo Hill where you can glimpse amazing views of the city. We stopped at a small bar to enjoy a refreshing drink at the top of the hill. It was very hot walking around, so we decided to go back to the hotel and shower before going out to dinner. We walked through the square where Santa Maria Basilica stands in Trastevere and ate at Cajo & Gajo and shared a bottle of the Vino della Casa. That night we decided to walk around the major monuments at night where we could see the lit-up Colosseum and the Trevi fountain (which was packed with people!) The next morning after a light breakfast of croissants and espressos, we headed out early for our timed tickets to Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately no photos are allowed of Michelangelo's masterpiece, but seeing it in person was breathtaking, especially how vibrant the colors were after all this time. After changing into shorts and a tank top (Vatican requires shoulders and knees to be covered, so I had opted for a long flowy black dress in the 100+ heat!) we walked to the Colosseum for our evening tour time. Thank goodness for the water fountains placed strategically across the city because the heat was almost unbearable. The Colosseum and The Roman Forum stand on opposite sides of the street, but the tickets were eligible for both sites. It was amazing to stand among the fallen columns and arches filled with such great detail. Seeing the bustling modern city in motion around centuries-old remains of the Roman Empire was surreal. As it began to get dark, we just barely made it to the Pantheon before the building closed where we could see the sky all the way up through the center hole in the lava-rock dome, so perfectly engineered. On the walk back to our hotel we happened upon Torre Argentina- the Roman archaeological site that is said to be the site where Caesar was brutally stabbed to death- and now fittingly is home to an empire of rescue cats! I stopped to pet a blind elderly black cat who purred as he laid down on top of the broken columns. The next day we had planned an excursion to Pompeii in Naples so we were up before the sun to catch an early train and beat the sweltering heat. Pompeii was enormous and sprawling, I felt I could have lost myself in the labyrinth of ruins for weeks. We walked through the Villa of Mysteries which is so beautifully preserved that I could have been walking into a modern Italian hotel. It is amazing that had it not been for Vesuvius, many of these things would have been long looted and destroyed if left in the open rather than being buried in ash and debris. We had fantastic Naples pizza and of course more Vino della Casa before taking the train back to Rome. Once showered and refreshed we had an appertivo-style dinner at Bir & Fud, pasta with anchovy and marinara sauce, arancini with a variety of dipping sauces and "meatballs" which were made of shaved steak breaded and fried. The following day was our last day in Rome so we wanted to see all the leftover things that we didn't make it to. We finally slept in to remedy our jet lag and we headed to the Capitoline Museums above the Roman Forum. We saw the famous sculpture of the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, the statue that signifies the beginning of the Roman Empire according to legend. We stopped for some gelato and headed to the Capuchin Monk Crypt underneath the Santa Maria Della Concezione. Out of respect for the dead, photos were not allowed inside the crypt and just like the Vatican, shoulders and knees needed to be covered. I pulled on a light kimono over my shorts and tank top and we walked into the cool crypt where the skulls and bones of the Capuchin Monks were artfully arranged on the walls and ceilings. We ventured to the Spanish Steps and then back to Vatican City to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica which had a line snaking around the piazza the day we went to Vatican Museums. (the Basilica is free, but the security line still makes planning ahead essential) Fortunately it was later in the day and we were able to get in without much of a line. Our last meal in Rome was at Ombre Rosse, an outdoor Trattoria in Trastevere. I tried the Cacio de Pepe (delicious!) and Brad ordered the Bolognese Ravioli which was equally delicious. We also had thin Foccacia bread lightly glazed with olive oil.
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AuthorI believe that travel is essential to exist in this world and that it is the perfect medicine for staleness. Archives
August 2022
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