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Published: November 9th 2010
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Venice We stepped off the bus in Naples and were confronted by piles of rubbish spilling from over-full dumpsters. Black, blue, white plastic bags decorated the streets, spewing old food, nappies and other forbidden detritus. We sprinted across streets perilously paved with sodden cardboard , straining to dodge unforgiving cars. The Metro train arrived in a cavernous station, all ghetto graffiti and dust. We stood in it for 20 minutes before it decided to meander further into the city.
Naples is an ugly whore of a city, but one we grew to love and would encourage to keep on the red light.
My parents had always heaped praise on Naples, calling it a sort of dystopian utopia. As we trundled towards our hostel, after experiencing the above, I thought they must've been tricking us into visiting a genuine hell-hole. Our hostel host, Giovanni, soon assuaged my doubts by giving us a 40 minute speech on the rich culture and history to Naples, which was once the capital of southern Italy. The talk concluded with a quick safety briefing, which largely consisted of statistics proving that Naples was much safer than people think (due to the benevolent Mafia), but ended with
Obviously, Venice Giovanni taking out a red pen and circling half of the city as no-go zones.
We ventured to Pompeii, which is as well preserved as expected. The plaster casts of unfortunate victims of the volcano caught in their death throes are indeed creepy, and the site is massive, by far the largest ruined site we've seen. The highlight for me were the dirty frescoes (good band name there) in the brothel, which came highly recommended by my mother.
We only had one afternoon to explore Naples, so took to walking the route that Giovanni has prescribed us. In terms of historical sites and architecture, we didn't really see anything remarkable (although I'm sure if we'd stayed longer, we would have learned/appreciated more of what we saw), but the feel of Naples is something else. It really does feel anarchic, but with a real passion about it. This is best summed up by the ubiquitous graffiti in Naples, which isn't offensive, political or artistic, just professions of love, lots of K + L forever. The whole city seems a crime of passion.
But everything in Naples paled in comparison to the pizza. Naples is the
Looking accross the head of the Grand Canal, Venice birthplace of pizza, and the best pizza restaurants in town have to adhere to certain standard in order to attain membership in some sort of pizzeria guild. Pizza in Naples was cheap (3-4 Euro per pizza), tasty, big and simple. Tomato dominated the pizzas, the paste being fresher, more viscous than anything we'd had on pizza before, but topped with specks of cheese and herbs. It was a shame that we started our pizza odyssey in Naples, because it really blew all the other cities' pizza away in every aspect.
Next we travelled to Rome, where we stayed a little outside the city. It hard to believe that Rome and Naples are in the same country, as Naples' cramped alleys are replaced by grand, sweeping boulevards crowded with ancient monuments. Rome was more spread-out than I was expecting, with less high-rises (although we did contain ourselves to the historical centre and our outlying accommodation).
A personal highlight was St. Peters in the Vatican. I fully expected to be a little disappointed by the grand church, but the sheer scale of the place was awesome. I read a 17th century description that mentioned people seeming to shrink
Venice "carparks" as they approached its walls and fixtures, and we entered at the same time as a Japanese tour group, and I swear a few of them completely disappeared. In general, the churches in Italy have been the most impressive we've seen, I suppose that's what thousands of years of Catholicism gets you.
It was in Rome that we first noticed Italian beggars, who are probably rarer than French beggars, but far more dedicated. The beggars would prostrate themselves and howl for change, they would contort their faces and grimace in pain as we strolled past. Many had deformities that they proudly displayed (putting their worst foot forward) next to a plastic cup, half-full with change. I'd like to see what they could do with a few Big Issues.
From Rome to Florence, a city with more art per km sq than any other city. It rained a lot while we were in Florence, which was a bit of a shame because we didn't get to see the city that well. It seemed a pretty standard, pretty European river city (see Lyon, Bordeaux) and had a generally good feel about it. The Duomo (cathedral) was a nice
St Mark's square, Venice visit, resplendent in unusual exterior tile-work, as was seeing Michelangelo's David, resplendent with a top arse.
We took a day trip to Pisa, stopping at the town Lucca, at our hoteliers recommendation. It absolutely poured in Lucca, that, combined with the hordes of costumed comic-book fans swarming the town for a convention, meant that Lucca was just a lunch stop, but seemed a pretty town.
Pisa was essentially a photo-opportunity. The city seemed an unassuming university town (I didn't know what to write about it, so I just stole that from Lonely Planet) and the tower, which looked like the photos I saw, was crowded with tourists using perspective tricks to take photos of them supporting the tower. I wanted to take one where it looked like the tower was my penis, but I lacked flexibility and nerve.
After Florence came Venice, which completely astounded us. If Venice had pavement rather than canals, it would be quite similar to Florence, but as is, the simplest street or most unassuming buildings seem masterpieces floating on emerald sea. I doubted that Venice would be particularly beautiful (I've seen buildings by the sea before), but its personality
The Doges' Palace, Venice and elegance really charmed me. Venice was the first really touristy place (60 000 a day) that, apart from the central square, didn't seem too touristy. Our river boat “buses” were as frequented by locals popping to work as they were tourist rubberneckers, traditional gondolas laden with foreigners had to compete with motorboats carrying building supplies and DHL delivery dinghies. One building seemed to mock tourists, with 'Something Strange Happened Here' signed in bold letters on the side. We will never know what. We did a lot in Venice, visited most of the museums and churches, but it was the average alley in Venice that really stole the show, partly from its individuality, partly for its impracticality, but mainly it just looked good.
This morning we took a train from Venice to Verona (10 minutes late, dirty), from Verona to Brenner (15 minutes late, dirty), then from Brenner to Innsbruck, Austria (exactly on time, immaculately clean) and instantly realised we had left Italy behind. We've both really enjoyed our time in Italy; it was exactly was we expected, and we expected it to be great. You should be able to tell I liked it as it inspired me
Venice to write this bloody blog on time (although maybe it was Jo's stern words).
Ciao belli (except for you ugly ones)
Drew
PS - will put photos up for this and the last blog when we have a steady internet connection and a few hours up our sleeves.
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