Naples = Evil Children

Location: Naples, Italy

I'll get to the evil children part... let's just start out positively :)

Yesterday started rather late, and after waking up, chatting with the boys and having some toast, I headed to Pompeii at about 2. My guidebook told me that the park closed at 6:30, so I knew I had a little time to spare. I grabbed some gelato and casually walked to the museum, getting there about 5 minutes after 5. I walked up to the ticket booth and the woman tells me that last admittance is a 5. She says I can't go in, sorry, you'll have to come back... No freaking way. So I get back on the train (it was about 2 hours ride back to Rome) and decided to stop in Naples on the way back (I couldn't completely ruin the day). The train rode along the coast and I got to watch the sun set across the Med. My first impression of Naples was great. There were lots of hills, the water, beautiful sunset, it was great. So I decide to get off at the central station and walk down this famous street past the duomo to this restaurant that has famous pizza (Naples is where pizza was invented after all).

I get off the train, walk about a km and then all of the sudden, out of no where, a pack of about 15 ten year old kids jump out at me and completely soak me with shaving cream, eggs and silly string. Then they throw confetti and flour all over me, screaming the entire time and then run away. I am literally covered, head to tow in nasty gross mess and I am just standing there in complete shock. THEN... they come back again!! I have absolutely no defense, I have no idea what to do and so I start running away and get away from them. At this point , I have had enough Naples. I almost get hit by about 10 cars on the way back to the train station, I smell like nasty eggs and my hair is soaked with shaving cream. I keep picking confetti out from behind my ears and hair and I am thoroughly grossed out. In the confusion, I get kind of lost and end up walking down some dodgy street that was so nasty and covered in trash. It was very gross. I find a pizza stand, pick up a piece (ham, corn, cheese and tomatoes) and then walk back to the train station, only to find out that I am late for the train and the next one doesn't leave for an hour.

Finally I get back to Rome at about 9:30. I get to the hostel and everyone has already left to go out. I get in the shower, and as I'm drying off, I see a brochure lying on the counter that says "Marti Gras pub crawl". I'm thinking, no way... That's where they are!! And it said that the crawl was leaving from the bottom of the Spanish steps at 10. It was like 5 til and so I start running. I ran all the way to the steps, and when I get there, there is no one there. There's a guy who tells me that the pub crawl has just left and that if I walk about a km down this street, I'll probably be able to see them. He says if not, just ask anyone where the pub crawl is going and they should be able to point me to the bar. Of course, when I get there, I ask around and no one has any idea what I am talking about. I keep asking people, bar owners, police officers, no one has any idea. So I walk around for about an hour, surrender to my lonely fate and decide to come back and get some sleep. Of course, when I walk back to the metro station, it's closed, so I find these two British girls who were also trying to get home and we catch a bus to the train station.

When I walk inside... guess who I find!! The Estonian girls. Apparently, they had not gone on the pub crawl, they had just walked to the Trevi fountain again at night and then the boys had continued on to the Parthenon and Spanish steps and the girls came back home. The boys got back about 30 minutes later and so I guess it was good that I didn't find the crawl because I would have been disappointed when none of them were on it. So, we all laugh about how messed up my day was, stay up in the dark talking from our bunks for an hour or so (just like Dwight) and then go to bed.

Everyone else left this morning. The boys all caught the train to Florence together and the girls flew back to Estonia. Adam went to Paris yesterday afternoon, so now its just me :) That's ok though because I have a big day planned. I'm not sure how long I'm going to have to wait for mass either, but they don't give out tickets on holidays, its just a first come first serve free-for-all. We'll see how that goes!!

XOXO

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La Via a Roma

Location: Rome, Italy

This one is quite a doozey, apologize for the lag... Since I got to Rome, things have been a little hectic.

Me and my new friend Adam went to the Vatican and to St. Peter's Basilica first thing Monday afternoon. The Vatican is unreal. I just saw St. Peter's square and it was already huge. Walking inside the church was completely unreal. The thing is absolutely gigantic and completely over the top. I mean, I guess I expected nothing less from the Catholic mothership, but it was a very amazing place to see. There were these Swiss guards who wore these ridiculous striped jester looking outfits that are the army of the Vatican. They stand everywhere to guard entrances and doorways. Apparently, they are actual soldiers that have gone through an extensive training program. There are all kinds of requirements. The boys have to be between 18 and 30, actual Swiss born Catholics and must go through a series of physical tests and training before being allowed to serve. There are only about 100.

Inside St. Peter's there is so much to see. There are quite a few tombs or memorials to various Popes and cardinals in the main area. The ceilings are all gold and there are tons of paintings by various famous artists including Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo. We looked at Michelangelo's Pieta which is a really famous sculpture of Mary holding Jesus after his crucifixion. It's a great statue.

In the middle of the cross is the tomb to St. Peter. It is a huge throne made of wood, bronze and ivory that sits a couple feet above the ground and then a staircase leads down to the crypt from here. Down in the crypt, there are so many tombs (probably 100). Most of them are of past popes. Some of them are elaborate, some not so much. We walked past John Paul II's tomb which was very simple but still covered in flowers and rosaries and other little tokens people toss in when walking by. I mean, his body is literally an arms length from the main walk way. It's incredible. Then at the end of the hall is the actual tomb of St. Peter. It is completely locked down, bullet proof glass (not sure why it needs to be bullet proof, I mean... he is already dead), and apparently, his actual remains are in a box designed by NASA that is un-breakable. For those not in the know, St. Peter was Peter Jesus' apostle and was the first Pope of the Catholic church starting (I believe) around 30 AD. He was crucified upside down (he did not want to die the same way Christ did) by the Romans after bringing about quite a bit of controversy (considering the Romans still believed in their set of Gods). I think this happened around 60 something (so he would have been quite old...). Anyways, it's a huge deal that this is literally his tomb. I mean, this guy was one of Jesus' BFF's and there he is, just you know... Lying there... Right there... So close. Craziness.

After this we walked down the Borgo to the Tiber River to look at the Castel Sant' Angelo (an old castel by the river that used to be kind of an apartment for the swiss guards) and the Ponte Sant' Angelo (which is the bridge that goes across the Tiber near the Castel. There wasn't much to see so from here I headed up to try and get up to these gardens by the Vatican. I couldn't find an entrance, so I walked in this parking garage and thought maybe it would come out higher, which it did, but just inside a Vatican office building... not in a garden. I knew I probably wasn't supposed to be where I was, so I walked outside and down past the Basilica from the backside before heading back down the Borgo, across the River and back towards home.

On the way home, I decided to head to the Trevi fountain (because I was told to go see it after dark for the best view). I sort of got lost part of the way there and ended up at the Pantheon (oh, darn). The building is amazing. And there is yet another obelisk in the front. There are obelisks EVERYWHERE. Practically ever church or piazza, I feel like, has one in the yard. (Check out http://www.romeartlover.it/Obelisks.html - it's a good site about all of the obelisks). Anyways, so the Pantheon is very cool. It is also, supposedly, some sort of anomaly because the dome is not supposed to be standing. It is the largest unenforced concrete dome ever built. It is a perfect hemisphere and almost 45 meters high. There is a hole in the top that allows the building to contract a little and it lets rainwater in that then drains in little holes in the center of the floor. They say that if the dome were reconstructed today with modern concrete, the whole thing would collapse under it's own weight. They think that the materials they used to create it were changed at different heights to make the concrete lighter as it got to the top. It's crazy. Here is also where Raphael is buried as well as some other notable priests, cardinals and important Roman figures.

After this, I actually found the Trevi fountain which is beautiful. It's this huge fountain on the side of a building depicting Neptune and some horses. You can hear the thing roaring from quite a distance and it was a site to see. There were SOOO many people there. At one point, this guy starts speaking to me in Italian and, (drum roll please) I actually had a conversation with him... in Italian!! I was very proud. It was mostly him talking, but I did reply and actually understood what he was saying. He basically just asked me if it was my first time to Rome and if I was studying or vacationing and how long I was staying and if I liked the fountain and then he started making suggestions of places I should go (he was so cute... probably around 70 and sooo nice - he even said that I did a good job trying to speak Italian :). I talked to him for probably 5 minutes before going down, throwing my coins in (you're supposed to throw 3 coins over your shoulder, 1st says you will return to Rome soon, 2nd says you will meet a nice Italian boy, 3rd says you will fall in love with and marry said Italian boy... Ehh... Why not?) and heading on back towards the hostel.

Once back at the hostel, I had some dinner (free pasta pomodoro), made some new friends and we decided to go out. We got the name of a bar from the woman at the front desk and she said there were sure to be quite a few people there. We got on a bus to head that way and a couple minutes on the bus it started torrential down pouring. We all jump off at our stop and run to a alcove shop thing with a canopy and stand there thinking maybe it will stop. After it doesn't for a couple of minutes, we buy some cheap umbrellas from a street seller and run down the street to the canopy of a closed tobacco shop. We stood there for a while, the rain is literally slamming down on the canopy. Then it starts thundering, lighting like crazy and then hail. So we see a Guinness sign on the side of a building about 100 yards away and we decide to just book it (our umbrellas had already broken from the wind). We got inside soaked and then just didn't leave this place. The bartenders were nice, there was no one else there, but we had a pretty substantial group (2 Estonian girls, 4 Aussie boys, 2 Argentinian boys and Adam my LA friend) so we made our own party.

After a decent night out (and I'm not sure how we all got separated) but me and one of the Aussies decided to walk back to the Trevi at about 4 AM. It was so gorgeous, and now, there was no one else there. It was so peaceful, just the sound of the water and nothing else. We made the long walk back home and met back up with everyone else who trickled in at various times in small groups and sat up for a little while talking before heading to bed.

XOXO

Roman holiday

Location: Rome, Italy

What a long day.

I started out by heading to the laundromat to do a load of laundry. I put the clothes in the washer, went to the train station to figure out which train I was going to take to Rome (there was a free 5:09 PM train that looked perfect), and then went back to put the clothes in the dryer. From here I walked the 20 minute walk down to the jewelry store where I had googled that said they had the Florentine Puzzle Rings. I get there, and of course, they are closed. Great idea to go shopping on a Sunday, Abs.

I walk back towards the laundromat and am stopped by a huge group of people. Low and behold, I had walked right into the path of the Carnival parade!! It was really fun (but I didn't have my camera, so I took some on my phone, but it may take me a while to upload those). It started with a really cool old band that was dressed as jesters and then there was a section for each culture represented in Florence. There was a Chinese dragon, some polish clogger people, some gypsies, an african drum band, a mariachi band, and some other stuff. Then at the very end there was this huge bus with people dancing and playing drums and all the kids were silly stringing each other and throwing confetti everywhere and they were all dressed up. It was so much fun!

After the parade, I got my clothes, checked out of the hostel (bye Leonardo and Ricardo!!) and walked to the train station. I got on my train and after about 40 minutes, it still hadn't left. I found some other Americans and we determined that the train was broken, delayed for at least another hour, so we decided to go run and try and catch the other train leaving just before 6. We literally ran up to it as it was pulling away. The conductor waved at us and everything. It was like a scene from a movie. So we went back in the station, found a train that left at 7 and got some pizza and waited. The train took forever to get here, we didn't get in until about 11.

From there, I checked into my hostel and then met back up with some people to go watch the Superbowl. We went to this really neat bar called Abbey Theater and it was standing room only. So, we stood, for the next 5 hours (at this point, I think it's fair to mention that my feet are still soaking wet from the rain in Florence, and they are REALLY starting to hurt). The game was great, although I really didn't have a preference as to who won. I picked the Giants b/c of RW McQuarters (good enough reason in my books) even though the Giants beat the packers and so I kind of hate them. Eli is pretty cute too. Anyways, it was fun, even though we were watching it on Sky so there were no commercials and no half time show :( I heard Tom Petty was great, but we did not get to see him.

Got home after the game close to 7, went straight to sleep (after letting my feet unwrinkle and thaw - they're still dead this morning - Had to ditch the cute boots and pull on the Meryl's for the first time on the trip) and now I'm not sure what I'm doing. I met a guy from LA this morning who wants to go to the Vatican so I think I'll head there. I need to try and get a ticket for Ash Wednesday Mass on Wednesday so I need to see if that's going to be a possibility.

Anyways. I think I am going to like Rome :)

XOXO

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Why would you ever want to go on a diet...

Location: Florence, Italy

Yesterday was an extremely productive day.

I woke up with a fever. I felt soo sick for about an hour and then I got some drugs and perked right up. Problem number 1: It was raining. This is the first day (saying this, I realize how lucky I have been) that I have had to use my umbrella since I've been here. It's really yucky and my feet are very sloshy from all the standing water.

So, what better to cheer myself up than to go shopping :)

I decided to seek out a new outfit. I was also looking for this Florentine Puzzle Ring and a new book in English. I found my shoes first. They're black mid-calf boots with tassel ties and some pretty decent sized heels. Next I bought a pair of dark skinny jeans and a gray low back top. Finally, to complete my new outfit, I bought a black puffy jacket with a fur collar (the Italians are OBSESSED with their fur lines puffy jackets) and a gray wool hat. I couldn't find a bookstore with English books or my ring so I am off to try and do that today.

After shopping, I went to get some glue to fix my Carnival mask and some other necessities. I did some more transferring of pictures to a DVD (and flirted with my now pretty steady friend that works at the music store and chats with me while I'm sitting there for an hour waiting for the pictures to transfer). From there, I walked down to the gallery Ufizzi which is a rather large museum near the river by Piazza della Signoria.

The story of the museum is that it was an old office building (Uffizi in Italian means Office) that was built in the late 1500's. It was owned by the Medici's and they used it to display a lot of their artwork that they had collected over the years (as a sign of power and wealth to those who visited the government buildings). After the last Medici (Anna Maria) died, the collection was turned over to the City and from there, it was turned into a museum because of the importance of so many of the works inside of it. I got pretty lucky, as I only had to wait about 20 minutes to get inside, but often in the summer, the wait can be up to 5 hours.

The paintings inside were great. I didn't get an audio guide so I was at the mercy of the small plaques at each painting but I did gain a lot from it. Including a new favorite artist (or artists)! Their names are Filippo Lippi and Filippino Lippi (father/son - that's why I can't remember who did what). The dad was Boticelli's master and their work is wonderful. They depict emotion better than I have ever seen in a painting. Their characters all have their own personalities and they do amazing things with their eyes. They all look at each other and usually only one of them looks out of the painting to the viewer. It's really interesting to follow their gazes from one ot another and to study their emotion. A lot of this also shows up in Boticelli's work, especially in "Spring." Boticelli's "Birth of Venus" was also beautiful. My other favorites were the special collection of Napoleonic large scale French murals that were on the 1st floor. There were these two with harbor scenes (supposed to be of Livorno I think) and they were so huge and so gorgeous.

So after the Uffizi, I came back and was chatting with Leonardo (one of the brothers who owns the hostel) and we decided that I needed to go get a real authentic Florentine meal before I left. He made me a reservation for this place called 13 Gobbi down by the river and I took a shower, put on my new outfit and headed out. He warned me that people don't really eat alone in Florence, so there may be a decent amount of staring, but after a pep talk from Karen in Prague, I realized that I can't pass up this opportunity for amazing food.

So I get to the restaurant and tell them that I am the reservation for 1 to which the host replies "Oh perfect, well it's your lucky day, I am getting off work now and I'll sit with you!! Date with me?" Ha, well he was kidding, but he did come talk to me quite often while I was eating so it was nice. Now, you get the details of my amazing 3.5 hour meal.

I started out with some white house wine. It was very good, probably a chardonnay, pretty woodsy, but nice. I had some crunchy bread with oil and vinegar and then came my salad. I had a Pecorino and pear salad with a balsamic reduction. It was served on a bed of lettuce and cabbage and was absolutely fantastic. The Pecorino was SOOO fresh and the pears were a little under-ripe and a little crunchy as well. It was perfect. They had sat me at this perfect little table by a garden and it had a great view of the kitchen so I got to watch them cooking everything. They had literal, whole pigs hanging from the ceiling as well as peppers and heads of garlic. On my other side was a huge crate of wine in the garden. The table next to me was a circle table of about 8 men who were all dressed in suits and they talked like straight up godfather. They were so funny, using their hands and kissing every person who walked in the door.

My first course was Spaghetti with grape tomatoes and tuna eggs in some sort of Parmesan sauce. The sauce was an Alfredo, but it wasn't as thick or overpowering as American Alfredo... it was almost buttery, but not too creamy and it just barely coated the noodles. Basically, you didn't just taste sauce when you ate them. It literally was the best pasta I have ever had in my entire life. In the mean time, I see them pull my cow off the meat rack. It was a whole cow back which they then cut the bones off and then filleted. The cut my veggies off of the vines they are growing on in the garden. Everything was so fresh.

At this point, they gave me 15 minutes to settle. We switched to red wine as well. The red was delicious. It was a little sweet and not too dry. My friend Donaldo brought me a huge knife at this point and said "This is to kill your boyfriend." I laughed and thought, do you really think I would be here alone if I had a boyfriend? So my steak comes out next. It was just a normal filet cooked perfectly and seasoned just enough with some oregano and pepper. The best part of this dish were the potatoes. They were grilled garlic potatoes which tasted like old fashioned McDonald's french fries but they had absolutely no breading or fried anything. They were just so buttery and delicious.

For desert I had a Crem Caramel which was very good (not as good as the rest of the meal). I think maybe I just don't like Crem Caramel that much so maybe that's why I didn't particularly care for it. The restaurant was very busy but they never rushed me out. I could see parties of two waiting at the door (even at 10:30) but they never once asked me to leave or anything. I had a cafe to end the night with a little milk in it and it was amazing. It was so rich without being too strong or overpowering. Excellent!!

When I was leaving, Donaldo asked me to go have drinks with him (and I actually wanted to because he was quite cute) but he said he probably wouldn't get off work for another hour and I didn't want to just hang around and wait for him. So I headed back up to the Fish pub (my now regular hang out spot) and started talking to the first people I saw inside. They were two guys from Ohio studying in Rome who were on vacation in Florence for the weekend. We ended up sitting and drinking there for a while before heading to a VERY American disco down by the Duomo. It was fun, but nothing special, so I headed back home around 2:30.

This morning I got up (feeling much better than yesterday, thank goodness) and decided to go to mass at the Duomo. I did not understand one word of the entire service, but it was a total experience. It is amazing to me that I don't speak that language at all but I still can follow mass. I basically said the mass in English in my head and prayed out loud in English when I was supposed to. They had a pamphlet with the readings and the gospel in English so that helped me follow along as well. I didn't need to understand the priest for the homily because I was just so entertained watching him. I have no idea what he was talking about but I could tell I liked this guy. He talked so much with his hands and was so over-dramatic. It was great!! At one point he did say something in English, but I think he may have been making fun of some people not paying attention. Taking communion was much needed and it was great to just sit there and stare at the huge dome and the amazing fresco on the ceiling. The echo inside the building was also unreal and I felt like I was in a movie it was so huge.

Today I head to Rome. My friends from last night have a nice sports bar that they're going to be watching the Superbowl in so I will probably hook up with them. It doesn't start until 12:30 AM so it's going to be a late night for sure.

XOXO

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Homecoming!

Location: Florence, Italy

Ok, well, as much as I love not being a vegetarian... I am CRAVING some veggies right now. Last night started with another bowl of goulash and ended with yet another fried cheese sandwich. I mean, give me some green. I would probably eat an entire head of lettuce if I was given it. We didn't even want to go get food. Toma was a little hungry and wanted some garlic soup (which we still have not gotten, three days in prague and no garlic soup) but then as soon as we found a place for her to eat, we all decided to get food.

After this, the plan was to go back to the beer factory (the place with the taps at each seat) and then to the discotech, but... we never made it to the discotech. We got in a race with these 4 Irish guys at the beer factory and didn't leave until almost closing time. We actually beat the four Irish guys AND a group of 4 English men as well. The English guys actually came up to us when we were leaving to congratulate us on a late start but a "noble comeback." We drank 16 liters of beer. 16 Liters. Not sure how we had room in the tummys for fried cheese sandwiches, but we made it.

Today started early. We chatted in bed while Toma and Ange got up and got ready to leave (their train left at like 11) and me and Karen laid in bed until we absolutely couldn't anymore. Got up, packed and started the journey for the airport. After saying goodbyes, I got on the plane, flew to Milan and then took the bus to the central station to catch my train back to Florence.

So, I go up to make a reservation and the guy says that all of the trains are booked until 6 (it was about 2:30). So I have to just suck it up and sit around until that train leaves. I find a nice little panino and park it on a bench on the far side of the station and start reading (by the way, I finished the book A Thousand Splendid Suns today and it was WONDERFUL - definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a read. It's an easy read, but extremely sad and extremely moving). I had been sitting there for about 20 minutes when this guy comes up and starts talking to me. At first, I think he's a bum and I'm not being rude but I'm watching my pockets and holding my purse in my lap. Turns out though, he was just this normal 20 year old kid who had been robbed like 3 weeks ago as soon as he got to Milan from Holland (he wanted to come work here) and he had no money, no phone, no passport, nothing and he had to get a job to make enough money to buy a train ticket back to Holland so he can regroup. He even got like beaten up when they robbed him and they took his shoes and his jacket as well. Craziness. I think he may have been on something, or maybe he was just messed up from the crazy emotional roller coaster he's been on, but he said he just wanted someone to talk to to keep him awake until his train leaves.

He was a very strange human, but the conversation was easy, so we talked for about 2 hours until I had to get up and go. I grabbed some salami, cheese, bread and chocolate and headed for my train. I snoozed a little, finished my book and ate my dinner and arrived in Florence at a little before 10. I'm back at Sampaoli and loving the familiarity of the place. Ricardo greeted me and we chatted about my travels since last week and I feel like he is a good friend now. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, but it will definitely be low key.

Maybe Ufizzi Gallery?

Maybe the laundromat?

Who knows.

XOXO

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Is everyone Catholic?

Location: Milan, Italy

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. I started off late because I slept in and took my time getting up as I was somewhat behind in sleep. I caught the bus to Piazza Santa Babila which is a large shopping Piazza in Milan and is the start of the nice street that leads all the way from my hostel to the Castello Sforzesco.

Nothing was open (because it was Sunday) which was probably a good thing, because I was definitely feeling in the mood to spend. I walked down the back side of Via Dante to the Piazza Scala which is a really nice little piazza with the Scala Thatre which is a famous Opera House and this great statue dedicated to Di Vinci. It is also the gateway to the backside of the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele which is the oldest indoor shopping mall in the world. It houses a bunch of upscale Milannese shops like Louis Vuitton and Prada and has a bunch of cute restaurants as well. It's huge and extremely nice. There are murals painted at the top of all of the junctions and the ceiling is made of glass.

From here, you walk out right in the middle of the Piazza Duomo. The piazza itself is huge. There is a large statue in the middle with a guy on a horse but other than that, there is absolutely nothing in it. Except... annoying men. There are these guys who will walk up to you when you're taking pictures or just standing admiring the Duomo and they will put bird seed in your hand and then ask you for money for the bird seed. Even though you didn't ask for it. Then there are these other guys who have these lame woven bracelets that they literally throw on you and then ask you for money for them. They literally drape them over your arm as you're walking by and then chase after you. You have to start just shaking them off on the ground and ignoring the swearing that follows it. It was quite a relief to go inside the Duomo.

First off... from the outside, this is the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It is so massive (the 2nd largest cathedral in the world) and so intricate. The spires that come out of the top are so massive and carved so beautifully and there are so many of them. The inside feels like being in an empty warehouse. I arrived just after mass had ended and so you could smell all the incense and it was still a little cloudy from it all. It made for the most eery atmosphere. I took a couple pictures of the main nave and then walked to the side to pay some respect - lit a candle and prayed for a couple of minutes. You would not believe how many people were praying. And it was so strange because EVERYONE is catholic. There was a certain place where they had holy water and if you didn't take it and know what to do with it, the little priest guy wouldn't let you pass. There were probably 20 benches full of people praying and there were thousands of candles lit at the ofteratory table. And the organ music in the background didn't help to make things less spiritual. It was strange but I just sat there in this ADD sort of state for the longest time. It was like I couldn't pray because there wasn't enough room in the air to fit another prayer. I waited for a long time kneeling on the pew before I finally got out a couple minutes of dedicated goodness and then got up so someone else could sit where I was. There were probably 10 people also saying the rosary in various places around. I can't imagine how it's going to be at the Vatican. I mean, this is close enough though. This is like the suburbs of Christian headquarters. I didn't take many pictures of the inside of the church although it was the first Catholic one I've been into where they let you take pictures. For some reason, I just wanted to keep this to myself. Ya, ya I know, I'm selfish, but I'm not sure a picture would do this place justice and I didn't want to try. I guess you'll just have to see for yourself :)

After I walked inside the Duomo for a good hour, I went up on top which was SOO much easier than the one in Florence. There were only 120 steps to the top and they were all in groups of 4 so I was never really scared. Once on the top, the views were great. It was a clear day and you could see all the way to the Italian Alps to the north. The city laid out in every direction (although you weren't as high up as you were in the Duomo) you could pretty much see everything. I think the reason it didn't feel as high up as well was because the buildings here are much taller than they were in Florence. Here, they will easily be 6 to 8 stories tall where as in Florence, there wasn't much over 3 or 4.

After I came down from the duomo, I walked down the Via Dante towards the Castello Sforezsco which is this huge old castle that sits right in the middle of the city. It has a ton of museums in it and has a lot of cool parts that were damaged during WWII (it was weird here, because this was the first place I was at where the Allies were the ones who did the damage...). On the way to the castle, I was stopped by a huge crowd that was watching a parade. Low and behold - a Communist parade!! It was thousands of people marching with Communist banners and crazy outfits on. They all walked to the Piazza Duomo and then had some sort of rally that, of course, I couldn't understand because it was in Italian. It was really interesting to watch though.

I walked down to the Castello and grabbed a foccacia to go. The castle was great, huge, big moat, big walls, lots of fake purses. There wasn't much going on inside though. The museums didn't house anything I deemed necessary of €20 so I moved on to the Parco Sempione which is this huge park that used to basically be the backyard of this castle. The park was really nice. There were some people practicing some form of Asian fighting where the guys were actually hitting each other (although it was more of a dance and was choreographed) and the girls were doing these really slow warrior dances with big swords. It was interesting, to say the least. I also walked down to see a group of black market purse dealers pretend to be playing soccer in the park with their bags of fake purses under the tree while they were waiting for the police to leave the Castello.

After this, I walked to the Piazza Sempione which is basically just the other end of the Parco and then back to the bus stop to catch the bus back to my hostel. On the way, I stopped for about 15 minutes to watch these break dancers dance at the base of a mall staircase. There were about 100 people stopped to watch them and they were just a bunch of guys in their early 20s dancing for fun. A couple of them were REALLY good and would get shouts and applause when they finished their little move, not only from the crowd, but from their own friends. I also caught a nice sunset down the Via Dante which was a nice finale to my evening.

Once back at the hostel, I learned that we had a nice dinner cooked for us thanks to Mido, the guy who runs our hostel (very close to Mimo, the guy at the last place). He cooked us this fantastic Penne with Peppers and Mushrooms and Zucchini in a really light tomato sauce and there was a big salad with REALLY fresh mozzarella and tomatoes on iceberg with a balsamic dressing. It was a really great meal!! And he gave me 2 stella artois' which was very nice :)

After that, him and his friends all went upstairs to hang out, so I may be currently in charge. He said he'd be back in two hours... Haha, not sure what that means :)

Anyways, I'm off to Switzerland tomorrow pending that the train strike is over. The Italian trains have been striking for the past day or two so I'm hoping that they've had enough and will let me ride tomorrow.

XOXO

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Masks rock

Location: Milan, Italy

Happy Australia Day!!

Haha, today is Australia's independence day and I happen to be in the company of 4 Aussie girls so it feels like it's my Independence day. The plan is to go to an Australian pub to celebrate later.

The next two weeks are going to be so much fun. Carnival was amazing and I can't believe that it's just starting. Last night was so much fun. We met a group of 12 guys from Notre Dame that were staying at our hostel last night and we all ate dinner and hung out until it was time to be out on the town. We all had our masks on (even the guys) and we had bags of confetti that we were throwing all over the place as we were walking down the street. At first, we just walked to this piazza down by the Grand Canal and stood in the square and drank wine from a little bar kiosk thing. After we had enough piazza, Mimo, the guy who owns the hostel, walked us back to this supermarket which apparently had a discotech on top of it - naturally. The discotech was great, we danced a lot and had a really great time until early in the morning.

Today has been a pretty boring day. I woke up relatively early and had our nice breakfast (which consisted of crunchy toast cracker things LOADED with nutella) and some tea. We walked to the supermarket (yes, the same one with the discotech on top) to get some lunch for the train which ended up taking us an hour (because we wanted fresh ham from the butcher man and they also had Russian salad so I had to get that). Since it took us so long to figure this out, we missed our train, of course, so we went back to the hostel and ate our train lunch in the hostel and said bye to all of our little friends. We walked down to the train station, and literally onto the train as it is pulling away, almost missing our second one.

After we had been sitting there for about an hour, the woman came to take our tickets and reservation... except, we didn't have a reservation because our little book had told us that it was a free train and not one we needed a reservation for. Well, guess we messed that up. All of the train people were talking to each other to figure out what to do with us and finally they just let us pay them for a reservation and we were fine.

The train ride was GORGEOUS. We drove pas the southern part of the Italian Alps the whole time. They were so big and huge and looked like they just came up out of nowhere. It was so beautiful!! And all the snow was amazing. I can't wait to get to Switzerland.

I haven't decided if I am going to go to Lugano tomorrow or the next day, but hopefully it will be clear :) It's been nice so far!!

XOXO

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Whoever invented cioccolato is a genius

Location: Venice, Italy

My hostel rocks.

So after I go back last night with my little picnic, I meet a group of people (its a small place so there's only like 20 people staying there) including 2 Aussie sisters, 2 Aussie twin sisters, a German guy, a guy from Chile, a guy from Washington, a girl from Jersey and a guy from Ft. Worth. So the guy who owns our hostel cooked us all dinner (which apparently he does every night) and it was this nice little plate of tortellini and we all went and bought bottles of wine and sat around and drank and ate and it was magic. Then we watched the beginning of the Italian Job (which was kinda cool, coz we are in Venice) and went out to this really neat little local Italian pub until like 3 then back to the hostel to chill until we finally went to bed at like 5.

Woke up this morning and walked with the Aussies and the girl from Jersey to the train station (because we had heard there was going to be a strike and wanted to make sure we could all get out of town ok in the morning) and then got some little sandwiches. We spent the ENTIRE day just casually walking around town talking. We stopped in almost every store especially the mask stores so we could find our masks for Carnival.

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention... tonight is the first night of Carnival which they apparently celebrate in Italy as well (I thought it was just a Brazilian thing) and Venice has the rowdiest Carnival in the country. It's like the New Orleans of Italy. So, we all bought masks that we are going to wear tonight (I really wanted a cloak as well, but they were too expensive). My mask is baller and pink with these feathers coming out of the top. It's great. I am so pumped.

So we walked down to San Marco square (it took us like 3 hours because we were walking so slow) and we shot some pictures. We went inside the church which is literally the most amazing church I have ever been in. It is absolutely breath-taking. The entire ceiling is made of gold. Real gold. There are mosaics everywhere and it was so huge. After this we walked down to see the sea and took some pictures near the main gondola station. After this we walked back down to the square to feed the pigeons. This was literally one of the most un-real things I have ever done in my life. You get this thing of food and then instantly you are COVERED with pigeons... Hundreds of them are just flying at your face, sitting on your head, your arms your legs, all over the ground. It was so scary at first and you kind of just stand there and scream for the first part of it. After a while though, you get used to it I guess and its not so bad. I didn't get pooped on, I was lucky, but one of the twins did, yuck!!

From here we got some gelato and then walked to the Rialto bridge which is one of the only bridges that crosses the main canal. We stood there for a while and took pics and then decided to take a gondola ride. Angie didn't want to, so she sat on the bridge and the 5 of us all went on a nice little 25 minute gondola ride. It was great!! It was actually really scary though, because the gondolas are not exactly the sturdiest boats and you rock the whole time and I kinda thought we were going to tip at least 3 times. The views from the water though, were amazing. Our driver didn't sing though :(

When we got back to Rialto, we got some cioccolato (which is basically melted chocolate, but they call it hot chocolate) and then sat on the bridge and watched the sunset. It was beautiful. We walked from here to this awesome little glass store to look at the figurines. I really wanted to get these little animals that were no bigger than a blueberry, but they were €7.50 each and I thought that was a little high. I'll have to make sure and get some when I come back here and don't go anywhere else.

I am absolutely in love with Venice.

I am so excited about carnival tonight.

XOXO

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