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Published: November 22nd 2007
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Hello all. Well I have a couple of friends that are using this sight and I figured what the hell, why not copy them. Now that I have it set up, perhaps the updates will come faster.
Jenn and I left Anchorage for Milan last Tuesday and on the way were able to squeeze in a morning trip to Amsterdam on an extended layover. It's, for lack of a better word, as cute as advertised. Yes there are bridges and canals, but the mobs of cyclists and scooters garnered quite a few laughs from us.
Our first communication challenge was getting from the airport outside of Milan into Milan. We fared well enough and found Madalyn before she was completely worried about us. Yeah Madalyn! We were so stoked to be able to see Madalyn and get to travel a bit with her too. Milan has a very large and impressive Duomo(cathedral) built as many things we've seen so far, over hundreds of years. The last phase of the facade having been completed by Napolean. I think the best thing we did in Milan was crash one of Madalyn's classes on the history of the modern movement
Vernazza, IT
From the hillside terraces walking from Monterosso towards Vernazza. of architecture.
If you've noticed, most of these pictures don't look like a large industrial city. That is because we didn't spend long there before taking off for the Liguirian coast. Ah Cinque Terra, or the 5 lands. Bellisimo. Cinque Terra are a close knit collection of 5 ancient agricultural and seafaring towns cut along the cliffs of the Ligurian Sea. They are linked together along a somewhat rigorous trail system. In some of the shots you can see how the hillsides were carved into terraces to create arable land which generations still farm today. There are plenty of lemons, olives, tomatoes, and of course basil. Liguiria is reknowned for its pesto. Better still are the anchovies. I know that there are some anchovie lovers out there that know my excitement. There regional specialty is anchovies, potatoes, and onions. They cook it in a little croc with a little bit of tomato and plenty of olive oil. In a word, supersweet.
We stayed in the second of the five villages, working from north to south, the village of Vernazza. If it wasn't for the internet cafe and the bad techno music at the café, there would be no
telling if the year was 1907 or 2007. Come to think of it there may have been a couple of plastic pizza signs, but you get the idea. Enjoy the adjoing photos, they do it way more justice than I can.
From there we tearfully left Madalyn behind as we had Florence on our minds, and Madalyn had prior commitments, school. Pisa happened to be on the way so why not stop by to see the hallmark leaning bell tower. For you trivia buffs the "leaning tower" is now formerly the most leaning structure in the world. I forget what the Guiness Book gave it up to, but the king is dead. The baptistry on the Campio d'Miracoli, or field of miracles was perhaps more memorable than the tower. We learned the acoustic function of those great domes with a brief, but powerful demonstration by the same dude who took our tickets. He had a great booming voice and as he sang he was able to harmonize with his echoes. The straight dope. On a tangent we stayed at this B&B that understands the power of down comforters. Very nice.
Pisa was just a way into Florence, known
locally as Firenze. Our first day in Firenze was, and I can't help myself, frenzied. We saw Michaealangelo's David in Academia, went to the Science Museum and saw Galileo's finger, and the Birth of Venus at the Uffizi, along with many, many, other paintings, sculptures, and original 16th century scientific instruments. My feet hurt sitting here days later just thinking about it, but it was a lot of fun. Frienze is a city of art, no doubt. The Uffizi gallery itself has been there for more than 400 years.
All but one bridge in the city of Frienze, all dating to medevial times, were destroyed when the Nazis retreated. The one that is left is covered in jewelry stores and professional tourist hustlers. As we were walking back from the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens enroute to get our stuff and head to the train station, it occurred to me I haven't consumed nearly enough gellato. So we see one that looks good and ask the polite lady, who spoke perfect english, for a flavor that looked delicious. She than grabbed the biggest cone from the rack and stuffed it with a little gellato, and handed me the cone.
Vending
I certainly do enjoy a good beer vending machine. She than asked for us to come inside to pay which was clue number two. Then she pointed to the register which read 9.00. I thought she hadn't rung it up yet. This is about 3 times what a gellato regularly costs, and after just seeing that the dollar just took another shit, it felt like she was asking $50 for an ice cream cone(actually closer to $14). I told her there was no way I was paying that and she could take it back. She kept saying no it is possible, I suppose as in I could reach in my own pocket to complete the robbery. She refused to take the cone from my hand and luckily I spotted a cone stand next to the register before I had to plant the cone on the counter.
Well I think I have written you all more than enough for now. We are currently in Napoli(Thursday 11/22) having arrived last night. This was pretty high on my all time list, the land of my ancestors. So, stay tuned, Napoli, Pompeii, Vesuvius to come.
I should also make two notes. I still need to edit the uploaded photos. Those of
you that know me know I can't spell and this thing doesn't have a spell check, embarrassing.
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CRAZY
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sweet
yo that shit looks cool as hell. good luck be safe and tell you sis i said what up.