OK.. Onto blogging.. We last left you in Switzerland, happy and free and singing the sounds of music while spinning on a mountain top. Yah , now we are in Italy.. the only spinng we have accomplished now is getting out of the way of the masses of vespa scooters without being flattened . This is a task that you cannot take lightly.. your very survival depends on it!
We started in a very beautiful region called Cinque Terre. Lovely, touristy as hell, but very nice. The name literally means 5 lands, corresponding to five towns in the region. The houses all cling to a side of a cliff over- looking spectaular ocean views. Here is a nice example. The town is bigger than it looks and continues on the other side of the cliff.
The terrain from Cinque Terre proved rather difficult. We arrived in the first Cinque Terre town, Riomaggiore, at 8pm and was told that our room was given away.. but "not to worry we have another place for you to stay across the street" and up a million stairs. Hot, sweaty and overall annoyed, we settled into our room to find that our sink was out on the balcony and our bathroom was in another person's room... wierd ????Here is a great photo of Bob doing his morning rountine out on the balcony.
The view is great though.. not sure what the women below us thought of our morning routine...
We walked a few of the trails that connect the towns. The area is beautiful and not to be missed for anyone who visits. Here was the beginning of our first taste of italian culture.We have learned while we are here that all of the italian stereotypes are true. They are loud, argumentative and love to flail their hands wildly.. to those of my wonderful relatives reading this... I wonder where we got it????We also did a quick day trip to Pisa, this is all you need to know..This is not the nicest town we have been to. We went to see the leaning tower and left. The tower is an impressive structure and you fear for the people that spent their hard earned 13euros (yah thats alot, $20USD) to climb it. Here is a nice picture of it peeking out from behind the church to say, "hello".
ONTO ROMA!!!! (insert flailing italian hands while saying)Spent the next 3 days touring around Rome. I am not sure what I was expecting but it lacks the "european feeling" that you get so well in Paris. There is a ton of grafiti on thousand year old relics.What there is to see is impressive. We spent a day in the Vatican museum and learned very quickly that we should of gotten a guide to help.- There is just room after room of priceless art. Far to much to look at all in one sitting. Honestly, you get tired of looking up after awhile. Take a look at this picture, you can see the complexity of the art on the ceilling.Exhausting. There is easily 100 rooms just like this one, and yes that's real gold. We were amazed at the amount of wealth at the Vatican.
The Pope's guard, who by the way are from Switzerland, have some interesting outfits. They haven't been changed in a LONG time, and it shows.
We spent the next day at the Coliseum and the Roman forum. We got a guide for this, which paid off in the end. The factoids of this place make you appreciate the niceness of modern day sports. Just as a spectator... women were expected to stand on the top deck. The Vestal Virgins, however, got a place of honor to sit. The Coliseum was decked out with all the modern conviences of a game today, it had food stands, bathrooms (this ironically was only for the men), etc. Of interest... the women because they did not have any bathroom facilities were given "doggy bags" which they then deposited their waste into... now a lady can't be expected to hold onto her waste for the rest of the match so she throws it over the side onto the walking crowd below. What a fun treat if you are having a nice stroll outside. Don't even ask me how they used the bags, under all the togas while standing up...Too bad they didn't let us in on the trick, it would make camping a whole lot easier. Sorry I disgress, here I am near the Coliseum.
Bob had a run in with a gladiator.. errrr
From Rome we headed south to Naples. Not the biggest tourist attraction. It is fair to say that we are the only ones. We decided to use this as a base to get to Capri and Pompeii. The area here is not nice at all. You are lucky on an hourly basis while walking the streets to not get killed by oncoming traffic. We keep thinking at each place that "this is the worst traffic".. but I think Naples has won the prize. You are not even safe on the sidewalks from the Vespa scooters, if there is a free space to ride on, it is their right to occupy it, apparently.Spent today in Capri. It was nice to leave the hustle and bustle of Naples and head out into the ocean to the pretty island of Capri. The geography of the island is ridiculous. All hills and houses clinging to the mountain, makes you wonder how they live here. There isn't enough flat space for even a soccer field.
We took a boat ride to see the grotto's. Now, for those of you who don't know what a grotto is in this context; it is a cave built by the sea erosion. The reason people travel far and wide to see these is you can actually travel inside them. The cave entry is very small and the water is very deep, and the only light that can enter the cave comes in through the water. This makes for some pretty amazing colors. Here is a picture but the camera doesn't do it justice.What you see here is boat coming in the entrance. The ride inside comes complete with your own italian singer\rower\tip grubber. (a very well rounded man)
This catches us up for now. We are heading to Pompeii in search of Mount Vesuvius, tomorrow. Hopefully, that will yield some nice photos. We are heading to Venice, after that.
In closing, the blog title. I have been trying to use my spanglish to communicate with the italians. This doesn't always work, you get to spend the rest of the time saying only one word to each other hoping that by the 7th time one of you will get what the other is saying or magically learn the other language. This usually means you yell louder after each time, thinking that surely by yelling this will help. I tried to call a hostel to get a booking for a room.. he said "Pronto" (I thought this meant, "faster"... I learned later this is means hello) I said "ENGLISH"... he said (even louder) "PRONTO"... so I said louder.. "ENGLISH"... ahh after all this time through evolution these are our communication skills. Then he hung up.
---Gina
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