I went to St Peters Basilica and the Vatican today. It was very crowded but worth it. I highly recommend going early so it is less crowded but no matter what time you go there are going to be crowds. At the Basilica they have guys dressed in dark suits who are enforcers and they dont mess around. Their job is to keep you in line and respecting when you can and cannot take pictures, that you are appropriately clothed and that you dont disturb quite sacred places. They mean business too. I seen them kick several people out while I [View Full Entry]

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July 11th Well if the train ride to Rome is any indication of how I will like it then Im off to a good start. I met a Fryer from the Francescian order and we talk all about his interesting life and about how his order came to be. As it happens St. Francis of Assisi started their order and Assisi is only 30 minutes from Perugia. In fact, I was going to go there but got side tracked by the Jazz Festival. We went right past Assisi on our train ride to Rome and he pointed out all the important [View Full Entry]

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July 9th I desided not to take up the girl from the conferences offer to take me down to Spolleto and the coast line. As much as it was tempting and I may even regret it later, I really wanted to forge my own ground and discover Italy on my own terms. For better or worse this is my trip my way. Perugia has vary little tourism compared to other cities Ive been to in Italy. This is great because I get to see the real Italy, especially since my hostel is in the middle of middle class urbia and not [View Full Entry]

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I always find it fasinating to learn how different people experience the world because each person lives such different realities, kind of like the blid men and the elephant. On the train ride to Pisa I sat with 2 girls from Sweden. They were backpacking across Europe as a high school graduation gift to themselves and to avoid the question "What are you going to do with the rest of youre life". After talking with they for a while I learned that they each knew 4 languages fluently and that they considered North Americans to be ill educated. Apartently their school [View Full Entry]

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So I desided to give Florence another try and instead of going to Volterra I stayed in Florence on Sunday and walked around. The thing about Florence is that you have got to be willing to get lost because it the only way to fined something really cool in the city. Sound weired? It did to me too until I got to talking to other people in the hostel and found out that it was not just me. The signs really are incorrect but thats OK. Its really not that bad when you have all the time in the world and [View Full Entry]

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My first impressions of Forence have not been good. I was warned that in Italy it was organized chaous and it is but some how it always works out. For example, there are very few traffic light and no four way stops so cars people just go when they find an opening and it seems to work at lest it did in Turin. In Forence there is very little street signs and the map that the tourist office made me paid 1 euro for was crappy. I walked around in a big circle with a hugh pack on my back in [View Full Entry]

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I was told that Turin had the largest exibit out side of Rome and since I was unsure if my time and/or budget would allow a visit in Rome I went here instead. It was OK but I expected it to be better especially considering the price compared to what I was paying to see stuff in France. Im glad I went though. It was cool to see all the items they had. There was a lot of scrolls from the book of the dead, mummys of course and all kinds of daily life items. Best part The animal mummys Worst [View Full Entry]

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I was very lucky when staying in Turin because I was on the top level and could look out the window and see the Mountians in the background. On top of this the place I stayed was by a school of music and wonderful music drifted in the widow from the time I woke up to the time I fell a sleep. I could also do a lot of people watching from the widow (well when ever it was not being occuppied by someone else). Turin has a very rich history dating back to Roman times all the way up to [View Full Entry]

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On the last full day of my workshop we were treated to a tour. I choose the farm nitrogen tour and got to visit a dairy farm and a field trial site. The average farm in Italy is very small only 9.5 hectars and their growing season is year round. For these reasons farming is very intense. We were told that dairy farmers make almost nothing when they sell their milk but the farmers we visited had good business sense and theyinvested in milk dispensors were anyone willing to drink unpasterized milk can buy it for a euro a liter. This [View Full Entry]

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I spent the day walking in Paris and boy are my feet tired! I planned on only visiting Musee du Louvre and then walking around downtown to see the remainning sight from the street as my budget is pretty limited on this trip and Europe is very expensive but One of the people I was visiting in Versailles highly recommened that I see Musee D'Orsay so I did. Unsuprisingly, being that he was a local, he was right. Musee D'Orsay is a must see when in Paris! The museum consist of 1800-1900 impressionism. Just so we are clear. I have no [View Full Entry]

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