Italy: Venice, Florence, Rome

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So far the Italian portion of my journey hasn’t been as evocative as the first half. I can’t report on any strange experiences that leave me with feelings of awe, humility or some other gut check; though Rome did include some pub crawls that rivaled Edinburgh’s first few. In fact the only unique moment I distinctly remember occurred after walking out of the train station onto the aqua-streets of Venice. I couldn’t help but drop the Indiana Jones quote, “Ahhh Venice.” ...Or was it Bugs Bunny who said it first?

Relaxing in the sun and beauty of an Italian spring is hard to beat. Seeing the Statue of David and the various other sights in Florence has been a treat. I caught the Rome-Florence football match, which was fun and very intimate. My sense memory from Florence will be the smell of cigarette smoke. Sitting in the stadium we were sitting so close that I was smoking the cigars and cigarettes of the people sitting next to me - it certainly didn’t help my asthma.

Rome will be on my hit list again when I am not so tourist weary. I hit all of the major sites, but my patience ran thin and I generally rushed through everything simply because I don’t like being surrounded by that many people. The full sun season has started. I felt the annoyance of small children everywhere, which reminded me of the National Museum in London. The sites themselves are very interesting, and reading about Roman history has taken on new meaning now that I have walked in the places discussed. The Vatican was incredible; however, my tour guide was shit. Never use When In Rome tours. Their guides are unprofessional and rush you through the exhibits even skipping some very important portions of the Vatican Museum.

Recalling Robin Williams‘ lines from Good Will Hunting, the feeling when looking up at the Sistine Chapel is truly indescribable. It is magnificent and impossibility difficult for me to fathom how Michelangelo did his work on scaffolding by candlelight. St. Peter’s Basilica could consume hours even for this atheists. The artwork and sculptures toy with my perception of the human form. As a rule I detest organized religion, but it has produced the most beautiful artwork in the world - for that I can respect its contribution to humanity.

And here I sit, in an ancient garden / cemetery, writing this blog entry while listening to the sound of a fountain drip on a warm summer day. While I am not leaving Europe quite yet, I am done with being a tourist. I head back to London tonight and I hope it is a very long time before I subject myself to this type of herding experience again (with the possible exception of swinging through Germany to do some WWII history). I am still on budget and have plenty of time, but I feel this tug to go back to work. To do something productive. I have the wanderlust to travel indefinitely, but I am weary of speaking chicken English and I constantly long for a meaningful conversation about anything other than travel related topics. In so much that this is the case, I need to get back to an English speaking country as soon as possible. I might be going a little mad.

To those that told me there would come a time when I would get lonely or home sick... I haven’t reached it, nor do I think I ever will at this point. I simply feel isolated as a tourist and underutilized. It’s been an education, traveling to the places I have been fortunate to see, but most of my time is spent looking at things and burning memories into mind out of fear that I may never see these places again. There is a certain boredom that accompanies this type of tour of Europe. The tour that takes you to the places on the beaten path; that leads you down streets choked with Americans, Brits, Aussies, and so on...

When I go back to London I am going to get serious about working out a visa with employment options. If I don’t see results on that endeavor, or I exhaust the options to make it work, then I am going back stateside rapidly. Either way, it’s time to start over. I won’t rush it, because it’s going to take some planning, but the tour for tourism’s sake is officially over!

Here is a very small sample of my photos. I didn’t pick the most scenic or beautiful photos. These are the iconic scenes.

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