Italia: A land of both ancient history and new experiences

(written on the ferry to Greece, Nov 10)

I believe this is the longest I have gone without posting a new blog during my trip, and so much has happened.

My trip through Italy started in Ventimiglia when I crossed the border from France. It was dark by the time I reached Genova, where I had a short stopover and took some night photos. After that, things took a turn for the worse.

First off, my train from Genova to Pisa stopped in the middle of nowhere. Nobody I was sitting by spoke good enough English to explain to me what was going on, the train announcements were only in Italian, and it was pitch black outside so I couldn't see anything out the window. After about an hour of just sitting in the same spot, not at a station or anything, I became agitated that I would miss the last train of the night from Pisa to Firenze (Florence in English) where I had a hostel for the night, and got up and asked around. Finally I heard in broken English from a lady that the train was stopped because of "the weather," which was strange because (naturally, being a weather man) I had checked the satellite images before I left Nice and the sky was completely clear everywhere and looked like it would stay that way. I reasoned that it had to be an a flood or mudslide of some sort caused by rain a few days before. When the train started moving again I looked out the window and saw (in the dim light around the next station in Monterosso) a bunch of emergency vehicles and then further along I looked down when we were crossing a bridge and saw that the river was full of debris and almost at the level of the tracks. Luckily, my train made it to Pisa just in time for me to catch a connecting train to Firenze. Using the internet in the hostel, I realized that I had just witnessed the aftermath of one of the worst recent disasters in Italy (which you can read about here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/world/europe/mudslides-and-flooding-ravage-areas-of-scenic-beauty-in-italy.html) and was lucky to make it to Firenze that night.

Second, Firenze was filled with rich American girls wearing expensive designer clothes who were studying abroad and looking to hook up with Italian guys (according to their conversations). I know this sounds judgemental, but its just astounding how many there are. I'm pretty sure they outnumber the Italians, at least in the city center. I met about 20 American girls from all over during my time in Firenze, and all of them were ditzy. In the same time, I didn't meet a single American guy who was studying there. I think they scared all the American guys away.

Third, I got sick; not as bad as Amsterdam, but I had a fever overnight and naturally there were drunk American girls screaming and slamming doors until 8 AM. Go figure.

Fortunately, my last few days in Firenze were much better thanks to some awesome Argentinians and Mexicans who checked in. One of the guys who worked at the hostel spoke Spanish too, so we all had a mate party together on Halloween, complete with dancing and Spanish-style acoustic guitar. For those of you who don't know, mate is a loose leaf herbal tea that you drink from a hollowed out gourd or similar object. It was an understatement to say that the party, taking place in the hostel's kitchen, was a blast.

The next day I went out and explored the city, seeing sights like these:

Dante Aligheri's house. He was famous for epic poetry like the Divine Comedy which describes how he envisioned heaven, hell, and purgatory. I had to read the part about hell in high school, and it was quite good and creative.

The Duomo, which looms over the city with its ridiculous size. I met a nice old lady from New Jersey in line who refused to let me pay the entrance fee and then invited me to dinner with her family. She told me that she had some connections at the Vatican and I met up with them again in Rome to go on a personal tour, more on that later.

Ghiberti's bronze doors, located on the front of the Duomo's baptistry. (Shh... they are only copies, the real ones were taken off and put in some museum thanks to a generous donation from the country of Japan)

The Palazzo Vecchio, where lots of important Renaissance-starting people lived and worked.

And of course, David.

That night I went out and got some of the best night photos yet on my trip of the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge which has shops lining the sides.

The following day I decided to take a day trip to Pisa to meet up with a Couchsurfer who invited me over after we talked on one of the the trains. He was busy so I hung out with his German flatmate for most of the day and she showed me around town. We spent quite a bit of time at the tower and again I was surprised to find, like the Eiffel Tower, that I was taller than it.

Anyways, some interesting facts about the leaning tower of Pisa:
1) Its not the only thing thats tilted, everything around it is too because the ground is moving
2) As it was being constructed, the builders noticed it was getting tilted and tried to compensate. Thus the top part is not as tilted as the bottom part
3) It could fall at any time with an earthquake and the people who live there are somewhat scared of this happening
4) Its a bell tower for a church nearby

After eating gelato and talking a lot about European languages (my new German-Italian friend could speak all of the major ones well: English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian), I headed back to Firenze, slept, and took off for Rome in the morning.

I will always remember Rome. The hostel I stayed at was amazing; it was a great place for backpackers but had lousy internet. I met so many people in that hostel, some of whom made me reflect on my life and the world in general. In particular, I met a girl from Latvia who was a supermodel but also one of the most humble people I have ever met. At the end of the week she told me her life story and it was pretty rough, but she looked at it optimistically. She told me that if she hadn't been through everything she went through, she wouldn't have the kind heart she has today, and I agreed that this was probably true.

I ended up not leaving the hostel very much while I was in Rome, just because there were so many great people there. Besides the Latvian girl, I met an Australian guy, two Dutch girls, an Argentinian, a South Korean girl who slept all the time, a Californian, a crazy Egyptian, an awesome guy from Cuba who was just starting a year-long trip around Europe, and David Tennant from Doctor Who's old manager, among others.

Although the hostel was fun, I also started getting extremely homesick. Part of this was because I didn't have internet except for brief periods of time, but I think it had been building up the whole trip and it just all came to the surface in Rome because of a few things that happened back in Seattle. I was very grateful to at least have some people to talk to about this in the hostel - thanks Latvia and California! (fyi everyone called each other the country/state/city where they came from - I was Seattle.)

On the days I left the hostel, I went to the Colosseum and the Roman ruins around it, the Pantheon, and the Trevy Fountain. The Pantheon is a big dome with a hole in the top which is 2000 years old. Trevy fountain is very beautiful and apparently if you throw one coin in with your right hand over your left shoulder you will have a good time in Italy. If you throw 2 coins in you are supposed to meet an Italian and if you throw 3 in you are supposed to get married to an Italian. I threw 2 coins in for good measure, but I'm sure my mom would have wanted me to throw in 3, since she always jokes that I should get married to an Italian woman.

I guess one of the guys in the last photo has already met his Italian woman.

So now for the Vatican tour with the lady from Firenze I was talking about. It turned out she was very involved with the Catholic church, so two guys studying to become priests at a nearby seminary gave her family and I a personalized tour of the Sistine chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica. I learned so many facts about the chapel that I can't list them all here. One of my favorites was that although the Catholic church had to approve everyone that Michelangelo painted in heaven in The Last Judgement, he had the freedom to put whoever he wanted in hell. So when one of the cardinals started accusing Michelangelo of being immoral for painting nudes, Michelangelo snugly responded by painting him burning in hell with donkey ears. I couldn't get any pictures of the chapel but it was beautiful. And you have to walk down like a mile of decorated hallway before you get there.

The basilica is very large; it is about the length of 2 football fields and the ceiling is much higher than that of other cathedrals. Notice the size of the person in the first photo below. The Jesus' disciple Peter is apparently buried beneath the altar,  one of the popes decided to excavate it a few years back to make sure and there was a grave marked "Peter is here," with human remains nearby.

Also, the pope was home when we were there, as can be seen by his apartment windows being lit.

After a week of craziness in Rome, I took the train to Bari in the south to catch a ferry to Greece. Unfortunately I missed the ferry and got stuck in Bari for a night. Luckily I checked into a hotel with good, free internet and used it until 5:30 AM, mostly talking with friends. I decided to book another night in the morning because I wanted to keep sleeping after the check-out time of 10 AM.

And now I am on a ferry on my way to Patras, Greece, using satellite internet. Kind of cool. Even cooler is the fact that because its not completely booked, I don't have to sleep on the floor like I'm supposed to with "deck passage," but I get a reclining seat. Or I guess I can have a whole row of seats. Sweet.

Future plans:

Take a train to Athens
Take a train to Thessoloniki
Hitchhike or bus to Skopje, Macedonia
Fly to Venice to meet Abbi on the 17th

In some future post I will talk about the food in Italy, but for now lets just say I've eaten a lot of pizza, pasta, lasagna, and gelato. I didn't think it was possible to get tired of pizza or gelato, but I have proven myself wrong.