Venice (5/10/08)

We woke up to absolutely gorgeous weather (which I heard was unusual for Venice) and mobs of people (not so unusual). We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in our very tastefully decorated breakfast room in the hotel. Delicious chocolate filled croissants and yummy yogurt and cheese. After breakfast, we met Kristen and Kimberly and took the vaporetto over to Saint Mark's Square. If we thought the part of Venice we had been in was crowded, it was nothing compared to Saint Mark's Square. Posing for pictures was nearly impossible because you could almost guarantee that someone would walk in front of the camera just as you snapped the picture. There was a mob of pigeons circled around a few people with bread crumbs and it reminded me of some horror scene that would come out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." I don't think that the pigeons in Europe are afraid of anything. It would probably take a gunshot to actually get them to fly away, (and even with that, I'm not so sure). While we were wandering around aimlessly, and man came up and offered us a free boat ride to the island of Milano to see the glass factory. We knew that there would be some spiel we would have to listen to in an attempt to get us to buy glass, but we were ready to avoid the vaporetto. The boat ride was wonderful. It was just the 5 of us and we didn't have to stop at all to get there. The boat took us right to the glass factory. It was extremely interesting to see how glass was made. (although I think the people that work there must lose pounds and pounds of weight because of how much the sweat in there. The furnace room was sweltering and I was almost ready for a break when we were ushered into their show room. Wow. I have never seen so many things made out of glass in my entire life. Glass chandeliers, vases, birds, flowers, even the railing to the stair case was made out of blown glass. The man showing us around tried to prove to us that the $12,000 glass and decanter set was really a good deal. We were unconvinced. He then tried to sell us some chandeliers and said that they would even ship to the US for free. (and they would deliver straight to our door). The only problems were the $5000+ price tags. He told Mrs. Sitler if she bought a certain chandelier by 4pm, he would give her a special deal of $4000. I don't think she was convinced either. Finally we were able to get away from his sales talks, I'm sure he was getting a little tired too. We walked around and found a place to eat lunch. I ordered a 4 cheese pizza which I regretted the moment I took a bite. There was one particular cheese on it that was like nothing I had ever tasted, (and that was not a good thing). I was thankful that mom and I had decided to order two different things and split them. She liked the pizza and I was thankful for the lasagna. After lunch, we walked around shopped. We found some cool shops with Murano glass beads and jewelry. It's actually amazing how many things can be made out of glass. We caught the vapporetto back to Venice and caught a bite to eat before walking to St. Mark's Square after dark. There were two cafes open with live music. A lot of classical and folk songs. In order to sit and listen to the music however, you have to order something. After an $8 cover charge per person, we fought back the chokes while looking just at the coffee and dessert menus. A cup of hot chocolate was $18+ and a cappuccino about $20. Dessert was at least $30 a serving. We decided to just stick with the hot chocolate and cappuccino and figured that we would order and not worry about the cost (how often does someone get to enjoy live music in St. Mark's Square beneath the starlight?). Almost right after we ordered, it started pouring rain. The musicians stopped playing and we were stuck there with no umbrellas or rain coats. After about a 5 minute downpour, it stopped raining. We kept waiting for the musicians to keep playing but we had to wait about 10 minutes. They would play 2 songs, and then take a 10 minute break. 2 songs, 10 minute break. It was more than slightly annoying since that was our main reason for coming and paying that much. It was a slight disappointment especially between the small showers of rain that kept occurring. Ah well. It was an experience I'll never forget whether or not for the reason that I had originally intended. The walk back seemed much longer and the conversation was scattered with many yawns. It had been a long day and we were tired.

Trip from Cinque Terre to Venice (5/9/08)

Well the sound of the alarm really was wretched come morning. I could barely drag myself out of bed and Mom and Mrs. Sitler weren't much better. While in the middle of repacking my bag up Mrs. Sitler suddenly said, "The train we are supposed to take leaves in 5 minutes!" We rushed to get everything finished. However, getting 3 suitcases down 100 stairs that early in the morning was not easy. Mrs. Sitler couldn't carry her suitcase down the stairs so I carried both hers and mine down as fast as I could and then ran back up as fast as I could to help get mom's. Mom still wasn't quite ready and I knew that there was no possible way we could make the train unless it was fairly late. I ran down the stairs with mom's suitcase and we ran all the way to the train station. More stairs to get to the platform. We found that the train was delayed by 15 minutes and were we ever relieved to hear that. My lungs were burning and I thought that I was going to keel over any second. I'm not exactly used to running 300 steps first thing in the morning. We were able to make it all the way to Pisa on the train before the 9am beginning of the train strike. Apparently there was a train stopping in Pisa around 9:30 and so if we could catch that, we would be able to make it to our next connection to Florence after the 1:00 end of the train strike. (we were glad to have found that the train strike was not going to go past 1pm) Were we ever thankful for that. When we arrived in Florence, we still had a few hours to spare before our next train so we decided to do some sightseeing. Kristen and Kim went to wander around the entire city, but the rest of us we not feeling so brave. We didn't want to wander too far and then have to rush to catch our train. We had done enough running in train stations to suit us. We went and saw a cathedral and shopped around a bit. We stopped at a pizza place and ordered some pizza by the ounce. I found some chicken, green onion pizza that looked fabulous. Well until I bit into it. Apparently what I thought was chicken was actually tuna fish. Oh well. It wasn't as bad as it could have been I guess. We made the train in plenty of time and enjoyed our leisurely trip to Venice. After we arrived at the train station we made way to the vaporettos. It was odd to have a main transportation system of a boat. It also took a little bit of getting used to as seats weren't readily available and there wasn't anything to hang on to while we were standing. We managed to make it to our stop and found our hotel quite easily. We had to laugh when there were a bunch of stairs up to the main office. The hotel was beautiful with a bunch of antique furniture everywhere. We went out to walk around to get a view of the city and find Kristen and Kim's hotel. The crowds were outrageous and we ended up losing mom and Mrs. Sitler somewhere along the way. We looked everywhere, but were unable to find them. After finding Kristen and Kim's hotel, we went back to ours to find Mom and Mrs. Sitler waiting for us. We decided to have a meeting place from that point on in case we got separated. We found a little restaurant and enjoyed a full dinner. At that point in the night we were all so tired we decided to go our separate ways and go to bed. In our hotel room we didn't have our own bathroom so we had to share one down the hall. A little tough if someone was in the shower and you had to wait your turn behind a person or two. It didn't actually end up being too much of a problem which I was grateful for. We all fell asleep almost immediately upon climbing into and looked forward to what the morning might bring us.

Cinque Terre Day 3 (5/8/08)

The day before, mom had asked if we could possible come and watch the owners of the pastry shop make pastries. They were very accommodating and told us we could if we wanted to get up that early. We had to be there at 6:30am which really wasn't too bad. Kristen and Kim had to catch one of the trains to get to our town and they couldn't be there until a little after 6:30. Mom and I arrived (Mrs. Sitler decided to sleep in) and went back into the kitchen. I was shocked to find it was tiny. They had one little oven smaller than most kitchen ovens people have in their home. The counter was maybe 2 1/2 x 5 feet. Only Gianlucca was cooking that morning and I watched him for only a moment before he told me to try it. Suddenly I found myself making pastry after pastry right alongside him. He kept telling me how fabulous a job I was doing (although I think he was just partly being polite). I was amazed that he could actually make that many pastries each morning in such a small space. Kristen and Kim arrived and so there were now 5 people all crammed in a tiny kitchen. Massimo made us cappuccinos and everyone watched while Gianlucca and I made about 15 different types of pastries for a total over 100. We then moved on the bruschetta. The bruschetta is the best I have ever tasted in my whole entire life. (Now I just hope that when I come home I duplicate it somewhat similarly). That has probably been the most memorable part of my trip thus far. I had no idea that I would actually be able to cook with him and the most I was expecting was to get to watch him. The brothers were so nice and very animated. Not only did they do pastries, but they also made marzipan (an almond paste shaped and then hand painted). Shapes such as shrimp, starfish, strawberries, apricots, tomatoes, and mussels. The mussels looked extremely real. Gianlucca had done the marzipan the day before so I missed that which was a little disappointing, but he said if I came in the afternoon he would show me how to make a few. We enjoyed pastries and coffee for breakfast and before we went back to our hotel room, made reservations to eat dinner there that night. Apparently they get really busy at night so people have to make reservations. Later that morning Mom, Kristen, Kim, and I took a hike from Riamaggiore to Vernazza. It was about 3 1/2 hours and the views were absolutely amazing. Hiking to the last two towns were the most difficult and one part we had to walk up 382 steps. (I think that Europeans must be big on large numbers of stairs because they have them in huge groups everywhere.) The views were well worth the hike though. We arrived back in Vernazza and had some glorious Foccocia bread with pesto. The pesto there was amazing because most of the ingredients were so fresh. We then enjoyed some gelato. Kristen and Kim went back to their apartment and Mom and I went back to our room. Mrs. Sitler had apparently gone to the next town above us to see what was there. We went back to the pastry shop to see the making of the marzipan. Well I suppose that perhaps I have a natural talent for making pastries, but such was not the case when it came to marzipan. Gianlucca was making shapes as if it was the most natural thing in the world while I fumbled around. Mine tended to look more like shapes a kindergartner would make. They had a few molds, so I decided to stick with using those, although even that was not the easiest. Mrs. Sitler returned to tell us that she had the most glorious time in the other town. I guess there was a nice beach so Kristen and Kim came back to Vernazza and we all went there to FINALLY enjoy the water. This was the first time I got to go swimming on our whole trip so that was quite exciting. The water was a little chilly at first, but it didn't take long to get used to it. We swam out to a huge rock out in the water and climbed up it. The only bummer about the beach is that it didn't have much sand, mostly gravel sized rocks. Not quite the same on bare feet. Once we dried off we ended up covered in a white powder which proved to be salt. By the time we finally got back we had no time to take a shower before dinner so we had to clean up the best we could for dinner. Massimo and Gianlucca had given Kristen, Kim and I shirts with the patisserie name and told us to wear them that night so we could take a picture with them. Dinner was fabulous (I don't know what else could be expected from them) and of course we had to get more dessert and hot chocolate. We all posed for a picture and said our sad goodbyes as we were leaving early the next morning. They were both so sad that we were leaving and gave us a bottle of the best wine they had in the entire restaurant as a token of their affection. It was so sweet of them especially as I am sure that wine cost a pretty penny. We decided to get to bed as early as possible after that because we knew we had quite an early start the next day. I don't exactly remember when we found out about the train strike, but it was some time that even. Apparently there was going to be an organized train strike the following day from 9am to 1pm. Just what we needed as that was our day of traveling. We debated what to do and asked a few locals what they thought. Several of them said that the strike would actually go until 5pm and we would most likely be stuck in a train station if we made any distance at all. After much debate, we decided to try and get as close as we could to Venice and hope to not get stuck in a train station all day. That meant that we had to get up even early than originally planned so we could get more of a head start. One of the girls we had talked to said that not much can be done when train strikes happen so people don't even go to work or to school those days. Things were not looking super bright for the future, but we decided to see if we could make any distance at all. We bid Kristen and Kim goodnight at the train station and made our way back. Of course we dreaded the 100 stairs back up to our room, but managed to make it to the top without passing out from exhaustion. It was well after midnight, probably around 1:30am before we finally made it to bed (so much for our idea of getting to bed early) and set our alarms for 5:30am, dreading that wretched sound come morning.

Cinque Terre Day 2 (5/7/08)

We woke up early the morning of the 7th, but that was not something we wanted to do. Apparently there was construction going on on our building and so we had a rude awakening of hammering. Not quite what I was planning for a relaxing morning, but it was a morning none the less. It was absolutely beautiful with the sun shining. The day before when we arrived, things had been quiet in the city. That morning that was not the case. There was quite a bit of hustle and bustle going on and people rushing to go places. I didn't think it was possible to have so many people in such a small town. We did return to the patisserie for breakfast. The pastries were heavenly. Kristen and Kim who were staying in another one of the 5 towns had said they were going to meet us sometime that day so we could hang out together. Mom decided that she was going to go for a hike from Vernazza (town #4) to Monterosso (town #5). Apparently it was supposed to be the hardest hike of all the towns. Mrs. Sitler and I took a small nap down by the water, thoroughly enjoying soaking up the sun. Suddenly it got really loud around us and when we opened our eyes, we were surrounded but a huge groups of Jews who had just hiked from Riamaggiore (town #1) to Vernazza. Suddenly there were children crawling around us and lunch baskets set up around us. We decided to leave after debating whether we should help ourselves to their lunch since they had helped themselves to our wonderful little spot of sun. Oh well. We then walked around the town and visited the little shops in Vernazza. Everything was extremely expensive, but we enjoyed looking at it. We then walked up to the patisserie for a Sicilian slushy with fresh strawberries. Kristen and Kim arrived a little later and we walked around and looked at the shops again. Mrs. Sitler decided to sunbathe some more and us 3 walked back up to the patisserie to have more good food. We were definitely addicted to their good food. Mom returned from her hike completely exhausted. She said it was much harder than she thought. Straight up a hill and then she had to turn around and come straight back down. Kristen and Kim had invited us to their apartment for dinner. They were staying in Riamaggiore so we took the train and enjoyed some fabulous tortellini. We then walked around their town to see the sights (there wasn't much to see) and then took another train back to our town only to climb the 100 stairs yet again. I suppose that the stairs were good for tiring us out so we could fall asleep easier.

Cinque Terre Day 1 (5/6/08)

Well it has been too long since I have been to a computer. I felt slightly out of touch from the world over there. Let me see if I can remember all I've done since I last left off.

Vernazza.
We had to get up early so that we could make our train to Pisa and then connect to Cinque Terre. Trains tend to stress me out a little bit because we seem to be late and so we have to run around and try to find our platform. The platforms change all the time and so you have to really be on top of things to figure out where you are going. They do announce it over the intercom, however usually it is kind of garbled and fuzzy. You can only ever understand anything if they say it in Italian and then in English. No guarantee for the English part. I started to get the hang of how the trains work so that was nice. Kristen, Kim, and I went to a grocery store that was in the train station and got some 'snacks' for the train. We ended up with box wine. (In boxes the size of juice boxes), cheese, grapes, green olives, and potato chips. Not exactly super nutritious, but yummy none-the-less. On the train we sat with on old Italian couple and enjoyed communicating with them even though we couldn't understand Italian and they couldn't understand English. When we originally bought tickets for this trip we left our leg of the trip from Pisa to the Cinque Terre open so that we would have time to see the leaning tower. It was about 90 degrees and I was in jeans, a long sleeved shirt and shoes because it had been raining in Rome and rather cold. We had to walk about 1/2 hour to get from the station to the tower and I was roasting by the time we got there. Luckily there was shade. It was not as impressive as I would have hoped, but fun to see it anyways. We took some fun pictures and grabbed some gelato on our way back to the train. We then took a train from Pisa to La Spezia and one from La Spezia to Vernazza. It was a scenic trip and quite fun. We thoroughly enjoyed our snacks on the train. Vernazza was absolutely gorgeous. We got right off the train and barely had to walk before we were at our hotel. The only thing that wasn't so nice was the fact that we had exactly 100 stairs to climb up to our hotel room. Most of the stairs were about the height of 1 1/2 normal stairs. Our room was nice. A little small, but quite nice with a wonderful view. By the time we had actually arrived it was pretty late and so we ate dinner and then walked around to try and find a place to have dessert and coffee. We wandered around and up a narrow street and found a lively little patisserie. We had read about it in Rick Steves' Italy book and were surprised to have found it by accident. The owners were two very animated Sicilian twins, Massimo and Gianlucca. They constantly joked about having the best pastries, but no view. Most of the restaurants in Vernazza were right on the water or had a view of the water. They also joked about not being rich and told us if we wanted to be rich not to make pastries but to open a McDonalds. They had the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my whole life and panna cotta and strawberries to die for. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and promised to come back for breakfast. They told us not to forget because many people had promised the same but never returned. The city was closed up for the most part about 9 pm, but the lights reflecting on the water we absolutely beautiful. Quite a picture perfect place. We climbed up our 100 stairs yet again to crawl into bed and fall asleep almost immediately.

Rome (5/5/08)

Well we made it to Rome safe and sound. We left Saturday morning to take the metro to Naples and then a train here to Rome. The train ride was quick and quiet so it was a nice break from the normal means of transportation. We walked around the Rome train station forever trying to find a restroom. Here in Italy signs to find something are scarce. Half the time no one knows what you are trying to find and the signs are far and few between. We took a bus to a stop near our hotel and then walked the rest of the way. Our friends, Kristen and Kimberly Kallstrom had arrived in Rome a few hours before and met us at the hotel. After sitting down, enjoying a good cappuccino and catching up, we went and walked around near the Colosseum. There were a lot of people although apparently it was not as crowded as it gets. For dinner we went to a nice Piazza although I didn't particularly care for the restaurant. They had a sign up for a happy hour dinner special and when we ended up paying for dinner, they didn't give us the special price, which would have been half the cost. The waiter or manager (I'm not sure exactly what he was) did'nt speak very good English and so he couldn't understand what we were trying to say. Ah well, these things happen. On the walk back, we enjoyed some gelato and then caught a bus to near our hotel.

Sunday we went to the Coloseum itself and had a tour. We then went to Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps. We met my aunt Carla on the Spanish steps so it was nice to see her again as it had been more than a year since the last time I saw her. (she is going to do a tour of Italy and then we meet her in Paris. She is taking me to London with her at the end of our trip) We came back to do laundry at the laundramat, but since it was Sunday, they were closed. We went to the grocery store and got a picnic dinner and enjoyed it in the nice garden here at the hotel.

Today we went to Vatican City. The line to get into the Vatican was blocks and blocks long. We ended up doing a tour and so we were able to get in while avoiding the lines and have someone tell us the history of the Sistene Chapel etc. I really liked our tour guide and he did a great job of explaining everything. He was also very passionate about it which made it exciting for everyone else. Everything was completely crowded though. When we were done with our tour we went outside and it was raining fairly hard. Of course, this morning before we left, I took my poncho out of my bag because I was tired of carrying it around and the weather has been so nice. All the street vendors suddenly came up with a million umbrellas and tried to sell them to everyone without one. I managed ok without although my feet did get quite wet because I was wearing flip flops. We stopped and had lunch at a nice pizza place and then came back to the hotel. We took our laundry to the laundramat and now I am sitting here waiting to go back and get the laundry once it's dry. In fact I think that I will need to do that now before they close.

Tomorrow we head to the Cinque Terre. I think that it will be a nice break from the go, go, go that we have been doing. Until then, arrivederci.

Amalfi

This morning we had a laid back start so we got to sleep in. We almost missed breakfast by the time we finally got upstairs. We took the bus to Sorrento and walked around town for a few hours before we took my dad to the train station. His plan was to take a train to Rome and stay in the airport overnight for his early morning flight. Hopefully everything went ok and he will make it home in one piece. Us 3 came back to the hotel and then decided to take a bus ride on the Amalfi coast. That is not a trip for someone who gets carsick easily or who is afraid of heights. We we right on the edge of the road in a huge bus on a road that was equivelant to a one lane with cars whizzing by. The view however was gorgeous. Tomorrow we head to Rome. I'm a little sad to leave here but am looking forward to seeing a new place. Well, it's nearly midnight and I have an early start, so I think I'll head to bed. Hopefully we will have a computer in Rome so I can still be updating my blog. Until then....