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Ciao readers,
So, since the last blog entry, we've actually been pretty productive...some of the highlights:
-Our two days in Rome were frenetic and jam-packed. We saw all the Rome-y things, walked for hours, and only treated ourselves to gelato once (a day, that is). Towards the end of our second day, we decided we wanted to see Old Pope's tomb...however, we were stopped after security found my swiss army knife (Liz, after: "What? He's already dead!"). So that was sorta disappointing, as was discovering at 10:30 p.m. that the Metro was closed for repairs. I would like to say that we instead walked back to the hostel, but that would be a lie...we took a cab.
-Next day, we boarded a train for Florence. Twenty minutes into the ride, this sour-faced man trudged down the aisle and asked for our tickets, which we obligingly pulled out with our polite Canadian smiles. Mr.Man examined them, in broken English informed us that we hadn't stuck them into some stupid yellow machine to validate them, and then fined us 25 euros each. He even wrote out little tickets! We were both so stunned, and tried to explain that this was the first time we'd ever taken a train, we had no idea, have some compassion, etc., to which he abruptly grunted "No English" and the conversation was over. I took some comfort in telling him he was a "mean man" as I forked over my hard-earned savings, and Liz and I spent the rest of the trip alternately cursing our own stupidity and figuring out ways to punish him (I was going to trip him as Liz snapped a picture) but unfortunately, he never came back through. So, moral of the story: Always validate Italian train tickets.
-Florence was pretty, if a bit touristy. We stayed in a nice hostel and saw the David (Liz is now crushing hard). After F-town, we headed to Siena, a small town in Tuscany. Our first day there, for various personal reasons, we drank from morning to night. The entire day was spent in a suspended state of perpetual intoxication and eating anything we wanted (I won't even go into the details). It was fabulous at the time, and then not so much the next morning. Oh, also in Siena, we met -- get this -- an Australian newscaster. Awesome.
-After a couple of days chillaxin' in Siena, we headed to Riomaggiore, (stopping only to see the leaning tower of Pisa...it was, well, leaning) one of five small towns that make up the Cinque Terre. There's a path that connects them all, and because we are totally amazing, and perfect, we wpent the entire next day hiking between them. It took, like, seven hours -- although we did stop for treats in each little town. By the time we were done, we were dirty, and smelly, and parched --because we foolishly ran out of water -- but we felt pretty freaking awesome about ourselves for the rest of the day. Constant self-congratulation, that is the theme of our trip.
-In the evening we met some people at our hostel and had a few drinks with them -- they were very nice, but one was seriously one of the biggest tools I've ever met. He was from Louisiana, and clearly just wanted to argue with us for the sake of arguing. Sample nugget of wisdom: "I think it's kinda cool that I'm from the most powerful country in the world. I mean, I'm not saying that we should actually blow everyone up, but at least we'd be on the winning side." I wish I were exaggerating, but I'm quoting him directly. It's people like that who ruin an entire country's image. Blech.
-So we're in Venice now, which is definitely the most striking place I've seen in Italy. We spent the day rambling around, taking water buses, and admiring all the things that we're too poor to buy. After a couple of days here, we're off to Croatia, although we don't know when we're going, where we're going, or how we'll get there. Details in the next blog....(dum dum dum)
Peace,
Pia
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anonymous
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You two are turning what could've been a very ordinary grand tour of Europe into a real adventure. Stay safe and healthy (if not sober). - Mum