Naples

Me at the gates of Pompeii

As a (former) classicist, I’ve been most excited to see the classical sites down south. I’ve patiently tolerated all the Renaissance art from Venice, Florence, and Siena, but once moving south I vowed the only non-classical thing I’d do would be the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Today was our first full day in Naples, and what we thought would be a three hour trip to Pompeii turned into a seven hour stay at the ruins. This place was amazing. From the preserved bodies in their twisted torment to the lively frescoes to the giant theatres, I loved every second of it.

The small amphitheater

"Beware of Dog" floor mosaic

These three stones were both a raised pedestrian crossing in times of flooding, and a way to prevent carts from entering the main shopping street

For those who don’t know, Pompeii was a thriving Mediterranean town until 79 A.D. when nearby Mt. Vesuvius erupted, sending a rain of ash and pumice stone to completely bury the town. Thus, in the late 1700’s, the town was re-discovered, very well preserved thanks to the volcano. You can see the bodies of those who tried to escape the volcano. Their grimaces of pain and horror are so moving, especially when you see the bodies of the children. There was even a dog whose final moments on earth are preserved in an awkward position.

Among the many treasures of Pompeii were the frescoes of the house of Tiburnius. The frescoes showed various scenes from Ovid, including Pyramus and Thesbe and Actaeon. There was also a beautiful garden and little fountains.

Seeing the brothel with the pictorial descriptions of services offered was also really cool, especially the stone beds inside the many cubicles.

All over Pompeii there are ancient "fast food" stands, basically long marble or granite counters with holes in them where the big pots of food would sit and be kept warm for customers. We snapped a picture in front of "Nicole's Cafe."

Our second full day in Naples was a little disappointing. Andrew was really sick, and I was starting to come down with something, too. We got a later start than we planned on, and thus arrived in Sorrento, a nearby beach resort, during the hottest part of the day. Hoping for a swim, we were disappointed to see that the shores were very rocky, and the only places to swim required renting an umbrella and chair on a crowded stretch of gravel.

Sorrento

We instead went a little farther north, to Meta, and snagged a free space on a very crowded beach. The water was wonderful, though there were umbrellas stretched along the coast for miles.

Meta

After a quick swim, it was back to Naples for lunch and the Archaeological Museum. The museum was a total disappointment. Supposedly the museum contains many of the treasures of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but out of context the scarce amount of artifacts and frescoes didn't awe in the same way as the original site did.

Chez Meagan

Meagan, Keith, Gary, and Rachel

We spent our last morning in Siena hanging around the pool of our campsite before getting on the train to Faenza, the closest train station to Meagan’s house up north. Her fiancé Keith and his teammate/housemate Pete met us for the short 20 minute ride back to Ragone, where the team lives. Our first stop was across the street to Bar Floria, a cute little restaurant where a three course meal, including wine and bottled water, was only a measly 10 euros a person. Meagan and Keith generously treated us, and after dinner we spent a while talking with the couple and the other members of the household, Gary and Rachel. The next morning we drove to Ravenna with Meagan and took a short walking tour. The cost to see the world-famous church mosaics was a little out of our range, but as luck would have it, a nice woman on the street happened to have an extra combined entry ticket to three of the five famous sites in Ravenna. Andrew and I took turns using the pass to gain entry to the Archaeology Museum (where he and Meagan managed to sneak in, anyway), a baptistery, and a church. The mosaics were very pretty, but not out-of-this-world. Then again, I think I’ve been seeing too much too quickly for me to appreciate anything at the moment. After a picnic on the grass and a quick gelato, we escaped the heat and headed for home, where I cooked my famous penne and shrimp prosciutto in a lemon cream mint sauce. It wasn’t my best performance, as the sauce wasn’t thick enough, but it was tasty enough to satisfy everyone.

John the Baptist mosaic

Meagan and Andrew in front of Dante's tomb in Ravenna

Our second day chez the baseball team was a long trip to nearby Mantua, birthplace of Virgil. I was really excited about this, because Virgil is probably my favorite classical author (it’s a tough decision between him and Ovid). Apparently I’m more excited about Virgil than the town of Mantua, because the only evidence of his relation to the city is an unmarked bust of him on the side of a church.

Virgil

The coolest thing about Mantua was the Palazzo Te, a palace with amazing frescoes and paintings. Our absolute favorite was the Room of the Giants, an enormous bigger-than-life painting that stretched the entire size of the room depicting the epic fight between the Titans and the Olympians. It was amazing. They had some other cool rooms in the palace, but none compared to that one.

Room of the Giants

Our tour around town showed us the rings where prisoners used to be hung by their wrists, and the small wire cage about 100 meters off the ground that was also used as a punishment. We ate at a little bistro and sampled the local specialty, pumpkin stuffed ravioli. It was sweet and delicious. We admired the giant lake that surrounds Mantua before beginning the 3 hour journey back to Ragone.

See that tiny cage on the side of the tower?

Our final day here was one of rest, relaxation, preparation, and extreme heat. After a late start to the day, Andrew and I accompanied Gary, Rachel, and Pete to the beach in Ravenna for some surf and sun. It was boiling hot, but the Adriatic Sea was a wonderful temperature, even if it was a little dirty. We couldn’t spend too long sunning on the sand because it was boiling us alive, so we spent the three hours hopping in and out of the water. The past couple of hours here back at the house have been spent packing and arranging things for our departure tomorrow. Coincidentally, Meagan and the team are also headed south to play in Rome, so we’re lucky enough to ride along with them as far as Nettuno before transferring to Naples.

Siena

Siena is a small medieval city in the heart of Tuscany. I’d first heard about Siena when I decided to study abroad in Italy. I was wavering between Siena and Rome, and in the end decided to pursue my classical education as opposed to my Italian language and culture, and I applied to the Rome program. The situation was moot after a while though, as Andrew and I decided to instead study in Denmark. Even after all these years, Siena still held a fascination for me, but upon arriving, I was happy that I didn’t end up there: the whole city is a labyrinth of winding streets that climb and drop, worse than San Francisco. It’s a real strain on the muscles as anywhere you go requires both climbing up one street and then down another to reach your destination.

Our arrival in Siena was a little disappointing as there was a bus strike. This meant that even though our hostel was less than 2km away, we couldn’t reach it as 1) we only had directions by bus and 2) we had way too much baggage to be attempting serious hiking in the heat. Luckily there was another couple traveling to the same campsite as us, and we commiserated together about the horrors of European strikes, which happen frequently and always inconveniently. After 1 ½ hours of waiting, we had just decided to get a taxi when the bus showed up. Figures. We rented a mobile home for the weekend, which was a nice change from the hostel, even though it was obviously more expensive. We spent some time around the pool before heading into town. The walk into town was about 40 minutes by foot, and a little taxing in the heat. I really liked the old medieval walls, the tall buildings, and the winding cobblestone pedestrian streets that make up the city. We stopped by the town hall and city square, El Campo, to find that they were setting up for the famous Il Palio horse race on July 2^nd. We’re a little disappointed that we won’t be there for the race. We also drooled over the Duomo, or cathedral, with it’s green and pink façade and black stripes that make me think that if ever Tim Burton designed a cathedral, it would look like this. It’s simply one of the most amazing churches I’ve ever seen.

For dinner that night we stopped at the nearby grocery store and stocked up on sandwich fixings. We had salami, prosciutto, and smoked mozzarella cheese, and added in the sun-dried tomatoes and basil olive oil our French friends gave us as a parting gift. With a nice bottle of white wine and blackberry pie for dessert, we stayed up late talking to two Australian travelers in the camper next to ours.

Our 2^nd day in Siena was a lazy day. We slept in late and then headed to town around lunch time, where we took advantage of huge slices of pizza for only 1.50. We headed to San Domenico church, where Saint Catherine took her vows and left pieces of her body. She died in Rome, but Siena felt left out so Rome sent the city Saint Catherine’s head and thumb, as well as the whip she used to flagellate herself. I have to say, Catholics are strange people sometimes. We hope to see her body in Rome when we visit next week.

The highlight of our day was a visit from Meagan, a friend with whom I worked at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Meagan has also been trotting around the world, and has been in Italy for a couple of months as her fiancé Keith was signed to the baseball team here. She lives near Bologna, but was in Tuscany for the weekend because Keith had a game. She drove up to Siena to wander the streets with us and eat dinner. Tomorrow we’re heading north to her place to visit, relax, and hopefully take some day trips to Verona and Mantua.

Sidenote: My spellcheck won’t accept “prosciutto” as a word. It keeps trying to change it to “prostitute.”

Florence

After two drizzly days in Venice, we headed south to Tuscany. Known for Chianti wine, medieval hilltop castles, and Renaissance art, the Tuscany region has been on my to-do list since I saw “Under the Tuscan Sun” so many years ago. We couldn’t find a CouchSurfer to host us in Florence, but we did find a cheap hostel, centrally located, called Ostello di Rifiorenze. For only 15 euros a night, we got to stay in a converted convent. Because the hostel is a cooperative, they’re also CouchSurfers (which is where I found them) and they allowed us to stay one free night! The second we arrived in Florence, we dropped our bags off and immediately headed back to the train station to go to Pisa. We had been told by many people that Pisa wasn’t anything special, and that it wasn’t worth it, even to see the famous Leaning Tower. Thus we were pleasantly surprised to find Pisa a charming little town with many pedestrianised streets, cheap food, and a marvelous square that holds more than just the tower, but two other stunning attractions set against the backdrop of old medieval walls. The Tower itself was very interesting, but I found the cathedral and the baptistry equally beautiful.

After a couple of hours in Pisa, we returned to Florence late and slept the first of three mosquito-filled nights in a tiny cubicle that reminds me of a shipping crate. The next morning, we got an early start to Florence and began our tour at the Piazza della Signoria. Here you find the world famous art gallery, the Uffizi, and a replica of Michaelangelo’s David standing outside the square.

For us, the replica was enough, especially since it’s standing in the exact same spot it stood hundreds of years ago before Italy decided to capitalize on every single piece of art and charge a ridiculous admission fee to see it. Nearby we stopped and visited the Porcellino and rubbed his snout for good luck.

We then headed to the Duomo, or cathedral, to bask in the over-ornately gilded interior and to make the really long trek up the stairs into the dome for a great view over Florence.

Along the way we got a close look at the frescoes decorating the ceiling, which shows some interesting torture methods.

In need of refreshment, we stopped for our daily gelato and then did some more uphill climbing in the Boboli Gardens. Not so much a garden as an exercise in climbing stairs, we had some more great views but not enough shrubbery to satisfy my definition of a garden. The nearby Garbini Gardens were much better at fitting this description, though at this point I was really sick of climbing up and down (little did I know the torture was to intensify in Siena).

Since Andrew and I are on a strict budget of 66 euros/day, we saved on dinner by buying some pasta and cooking it in the microwave. I had no idea this was even possible, and while not the tastiest thing I’ve ever had, it was one of the cheapest, bringing our dinner total to about 2 euros. Until you added in the bottle of Chianti we also bought.

Day 2 in Florence began by standing in line at the Uffizi. Despite our lack of interest in Renaissance art, we knew that if we didn’t visit we’d probably regret it later. Thankfully, armed with our teacher cards from France, we scored a 50% reduction on our tickets, thus only paying 5 euros each. We also downloaded a free audioguide by Rick Steves, which was excellent and worth paying money for. We understood a lot more of what we saw, and his sense of humor and appreciation for his audience was nice. He told his what rooms were completely boring and useless to see, and he explained the reasons for which so many of the paintings were world famous. Among the jewels of the collection were Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Caravaggio’s Medusa.

It happened that that day was the festival for St. Giovanni, or St. John the Baptist, and thus there were parades and fireworks throughout the town.

For lunch that day we stopped by a cheap panini place called Fratellini, where we received sandwiches stuffed with ham, cheese, eggplant, and tomatoes for only 3 euro. They also had wine by the glass for 1.80.

Refreshed, we continued our walking tour of the city. We had another microwave pasta dinner and headed to the famous Ponte Vecchio for sunset.

The bridge used to be a marketplace, but the noise and smell were bothersome so the vendors were cast out and a new law was created, making it illegal for vendors to sell their wares on the bridge, with the exception of gold merchants. The law still stands today, and all the shops that hang periously over the side of the bridge are jewelry stores.

Around 10pm the fireworks started, which were really beautiful and fun to watch as they cascaded over the River Arno. We spent one last night at our wonderful hostel, and in the morning we continued our journey to Siena.

Au revoir France and Buon Giorno Italia!

We finished American Village on a good note. The kids were sweet, even if they didn't really want to speak English. For our last Carnival night, Easy E made us all into Question Marks. It was a little bizarre but kind of fun. The kids weren't too freaked out.

After finishing AmVil we headed to Lyon to the night and stayed in a very cheap, interesting hotel. The room was tiny, and at first we were confused as to where the toilet and shower were located. But like something out of a sci-fi futuristic movie, our closet swivelled open to reveal a toilet and combination shower/sink. Weird.

Saturday morning we headed to the train station to catch our train to Venice.

Despite the fact that our tickets said "train" on them, we were in fact on a bus that took us to Turin, or Torino in Italian. There we had a short break before transferring two more times, through Milan and Verona, to get to Padua, or Padova, just outside of Venice, where our couchsurfer was located.

Alfredo was an older gentleman who cooked us a big plate of pasta and then took us on a tour by car of Padova since it was raining. The next morning we left early and took the short train ride into Venice. As soon as we arrived, there was a massive torrential downpour that soaked us through and through on the 50 minute walk to the center of town, St. Mark's Square.

We were completely unprepared for such weather, and we spent the rest of the day wandering around trying to keep warm and dry. We even popped into a cafe for drinks, only to find that one espresso and one tea were 7 euro! Lesson learned: always ask the price before ordering, no matter how cold and wet you are.

We then forked over even more cash to visit the much acclaimed Ducal Palace.

13 euro for one museum seemed really steep to me, and the visit didn't come close to making up for the cost. It was nice to see the prisons and some of the artwork, and Andrew particularly enjoyed the map room, but I've seen nicer castles in France that cost half the price. After a couple of museums, we headed back to Padova early to prepare chicken pot pie for Alfredo. After dinner, Alfredo took us to two nearby villages in the countryside to see a lovely villa and a medieval walled city called Cittadella.

Monday morning we dug out our jackets and water-proof shoes and headed back into Venice, determined to enjoy the city despite the dire predictions of more rain. Probably because we were so prepared, it didn't rain all that much yesterday, though there was a steady drizzle the entire time we were there. We visited the Basilica, which was pretty for all its gilding, but again, not as impressive as some of the churches I've seen in France. My favorite part of the day was wandering amongst the canals, getting lost and admiring the beautiful architecture.

We did a pretty good job of avoiding the souvenir markets, though the gorgeous Venetian masks kept calling to us. We kept it simple and bought birthday presents for my mom and sister and something for my grandmother since I've been so bad the past three years about sending gifts for special occasions.

The best part about Venice was the delicious, cheap food, and the cheap clothes (though I haven't bought anything yet). Trains are also cheaper than in France, though you pay more for faster trains, which makes sense but is annoying. It sucks having to transfer three times to go to a city that's not that far away. But it's worth it to save some money because we haven't had any luck finding couchsurfers in Florence, Siena, or Rome. We're really stressed because we won't get our AmVil paychecks or Andrew's university check until the first week of July. We'll eventually have money to pay for this trip, but in the meantime we have to use credit cards and lots of places don't accept them.

Venice is such a beautiful city that we were disappointed to have to hide indoors all day. I can only imagine how beautiful it must be when it's not pouring rain. Today we're leaving Venice and heading to Florence and Pisa.