Menace in Venice.

Any little street or alleyway in Venice is on the map. No matter how wide or how narrow...or how filled with water, it's on the map. The picture above, for instance, is one of the many little streets that you may miss if you keep thinking under North American terms: streets have to be big enough for cars to drive on them. But not in Venice!

We've also been brought up to think that these timy little alleyways are unsafe to go down...but in Venice, it's just any other way to get from A to B. In Venice, we felt so safe walking around at night that we didn't think twice about going down there without any lights. The only problem was finding where we were on the map with the lack of light.

We took the train from Florence to Venice, and were amazed at how all of a sudden, there was so much water! On either side of the train tracks was water. There was a parking lot on the mainland, as Venice is a no-car zone.....which leads us back again to how safe Venice is and we've come full circle. End of blog post. No, just kidding.

You may be wondering, well then how do people get around?? Well they walk, of course! Venice really isn't that big, you just have to learn the fastest ways to get where you're going. It can take you 45 minutes if you go one way, or 15 minutes if you go the other way*. There are very few bridges that cross the Grand Canal and you may have to backtrack before you can actually cross over. That is why they have the Vaporetto! Vaporettos are essentially water buses. Not many locals use them, they are mainly for tourists, but they are cool nonetheless. For 6.50 Euros, you get one trip....and I thought the buses in Ottawa were expensive! However, for about 18 Euros, you have a day pass, so go for that.....and word of advice: give yourself plenty of time to get off the vaporetto (ie, by making your way through all the people to get to the exit). They can't just stop again farther up in the Canal to let you off. They have to go to the next stop and it may be on the other side of the Canal!


As Venice is a no-car zone, everything has to be on a boat. The buses, the taxis, the shuttles to the airport (unless you go to the actual bus station which is at the entrance to the city near the train station). The next picture is a shuttle to the airport.

Even the police and ambulances are on boats! And just like everywhere else, everyone has to move to the side to let them through as they have sirens and lights.

Ok, I've gotten sidetracked. We took the train from Florence to Venice. We took out our map and put on our huge packs. *It took us maybe 45 minutes to find the hotel (after a couple days it took about 15 minutes), but once we did, we were instantly happier as we could walk the narrow streets without 16 kg on each of our backs.

Up one street, over a small bridge, down another street, over another small bridge. The Grand Canal has lots of mini-canals that cut Venice up into little pieces. But going over the little bridges gives you these great views that are so typical of Venice.

The Gondoliers are waiting at almost every main intersection, but they are pricey! 80 Euros for a 45 minute ride...when you can just take a Vaporetto. Of course, it won't be as romantic, but just think of this. You save the money you would have spent on the gondola and have a nice romantic dinner!

Speaking of dinner, we had the most amazing mozarella balls!!! They were like little bites of heaven, and totally worth the rationed lactaid pills.

The morning of our only full day in Venice, I woke up with a sore throat. I knew I wasn't coming down with a cold. I knew I was coming down with Tonsilitis. I had the 'itis 3 times in 2008 so I knew really well how it felt. I started getting a fever too, but was determined not to let it ruin our trip, so I pumped myself full of Italian Echinacea and Vitamin C in the hopes that it would go away. But it only got worse...what a menace tonsilitis is. And with travelling, you are touching so many things that everyone else has touched, that the 'menace' was probably following us around since we arrived in Rome. Another word of advice? Carry around some hand-sanitizer.

So back to our only full day in Venice. We went to the market! The Rialto Bridge is one of the few bridges that cross the Grand Canal. It's so frequented that there are tons of little shops and a great market at which you can buy lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and seafood. We tried some fresh fruit, and only looked at the seafood. Strawberries are romantic, eels are not.

After our little snack, we gazed over the Rialto bridge at the continuous traffic on the water.

The Vaporettos were running, there were taxis all over the place, there were boats filled with goods, and then the gondolas were in the mix too. We were surprised that we didn't see any accidents, but people really know how to steer the boats in Venice!

After the Rialto Bridge, we took the Vaporetto to St. Mark's Square. We had learned from our experience in Rome and we dressed to see the Basilica. Once we got there, we made our way up the Campanile, and saw a bird's eye view of Venice.

Later that night, after a nap and even more Echinacea and Vitamin C, we took the Vaporetto back to St. Mark's Square. St. Mark's is the main tourist attraction in Venice and even at night it was filled with people. Each restaurant in the Square had a live band playing well known songs like Moon River and Que Sera Sera....it would have been really enjoyable had my fever not gotten worse. Totally recommended though, just leave the tonsilitis at home. On the way back, the city lights were lit up and we took a few pictures from the Vaporetto.

There are several little islands of the coast of Venice, even one which has the cemetery. The islands, from what we hear, have some great beaches and had we spent more time in the area, I would have insisted we spend a day on the beach. However, our time in Italy was over and we had to catch a plane to Prague. Perhaps we will go back some day, but as short as our time was, we got a feel of how people live there. So despite the menace, we really loved Venice (and perhaps the tonsilitis was a good thing otherwise I wouldn't have a good rhyme for Venice).

Next up? Prague!

The Importance of Florence, with a memento of Sorrento

My husband J finds hairpins everywhere. In the bathroom, on my dresser, on his dresser, on the floor, even in the washing machine. It drives him crazy. Of course, when I can't find the one I was using I just go get another one...anyways, there is a point to this story. See the first picture? That's a super-mega hairpin turn in Sorrento. So even in Italy, J couldn't escape the hairpins!
On a morning filled with thundershowers (and not regular Canadian thundershowers, these were full-blown Italian thunderstorms) we found out over breakfast that our day trip to Mount Vesuvius had been cancelled. It's a crater up there, and the rocks get slippery when it rains, making it a pretty unsafe trip on such a day. We are both planners and we immediately had to figure out what we were going to do that day. This is how it happened: the man that was serving breakfast (who also owned the hotel) had broken the bad news to us....in body language. He didn't speak any English, but a simple "Vesuvius?" and us nodding our heads led him to start shaking his head and fluttering his fingers as if it were raining (which it was!). So we understood that the tour was cancelled. He saw the sad expressions on our faces and immediately said "Cappucino?" and we nodded our heads and smiled. We could hear him making the cappucinos in the next room and we started thinking what we could do. Pompeii was so small a town that there wasn't much to do, but we new there was a tourist information office just around the corner. When he came back with the cappucinos, he said "Sorrento! {insert more italian...lots more italian....and then} Cirsumvesuviana!" We knew that Sorrento wasn't too far, we just didn't know how to get there. From what we understood, he was saying that we could take the Circumvesuviana Train to Sorrento. The man left again....only to come back with a bottle filled with yellow liquid and he exclaimed "No Vesuvius? Limoncello!" and gave us the bottle as a way of saying "Sorry, your trip was cancelled". We thanked him (thanking people is one of those things you always learn in a foreign country) and went to our room to do somemore thinking. We decided that we would go to the Tourist office, see if they have a map of Sorrento, and then walk to the Circumvesuviana Train station (not Senturio, but Scavi) and catch the next train. For 3 Euro 50, it was definitely worth it.
The train took about 45 minutes to get to Sorrento. The city was beautiful! Ocean front, small town feel, and lots of little shops. Unfortunately, we hadn't read up on the city before-hand and didn't really know what to see, but we spent some time by the water and had a nice afternoon. From what people tell me, Sorrento and Capri are absolutely gorgeous, so you should make a stop there if you're in the area.

We arrived back in Pompeii in the evening, had dinner, and then packed. The next morning, we caught the train back to Naples, then caught the Pendolino to Florence. Ok, I have always heard that the Pendolinos are these fast trains that only travel in Europe, but I didn't know they went that fast! No joke, at one point the train was going 250 km/hr! I'm surprised we didn't either a) take off into outerspace or b) go back to the future.

Our hotel in Florence was right near the train station, so it didn't take long to find. We stayed at the Hotel City, and it was quite nice! Old style rooms, lots of character, and minutes from everything. We dropped our bags, showered, and went to take a stroll to get our bearings.

One of the most beautiful things in Florence is the Duomo. It's a church that looks like no other that we've seen before. It's so big and the streets are so small, that we could only get pieces of it in photos, but it was amazing to see.

Next to the Duomo is a Campanile (tower) up which we went. Lots and lots of stairs, allowing us to continue our Rome diet into Florence. At the top, we got some gorgeous views of the city, including one of the top of the Duomo.

The city's most popular piece of art is the statue of the David, by Michaelangelo. The real David is in the Academia museum, to which be bought tickets. However, before we got there for our set time, we saw the David twice in other locations in the city.

These were, of course, replicas of the statue....but we learned that we really didn't need to spend the money on those museum tickets. I think I've mentioned before that we've decided we're not really 'museum' type people. All the busts and sculptures and regligious paintings were beautiful, but after we saw a couple they all started to look the same. One thing we've heard over and over again is that the Ufizi museum is great, but we didn't go so we can't comment. We can only comment on the line-up....it was loooooooooong.

We made a stop in the Santa Croce (I laughed everytime J said this). The Santa Croce is like a huge mausoleum where important people were buried. People like Michaelangelo, Marconi, Galileo, among others. This place is huge and it was definitely a bit chilling to be in the burial place of such historic people.

J told me about an amazing look-out that he had heard of from someone at work. It was Michaelangelo hill. We had to cross to the other side of the river to get there, and on the way, we saw the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte is a really cool bridge that doesn't look like a bridge at all. From the outside, yes it's over water so it does look like a bridge. But from the inside, the shops on either side of the bridge hang over the water and obscure the view, so it just feels like you're in another small street full of shops....shops with lots of expensive jewellery.

We made it to the base of Michaelangelo hill and started up the shallow stairs to the top. We were both breathing a bit harder by the time we made it to the top, but the view was so fantastic!

There were even two brides with their grooms getting their wedding photos done with the beautiful backdrop. I will have to convince J that next time we go to Europe, I'll have to bring my dress, he'll have to rent a tux, and we'll take our wedding pictures over again....

After we climbed back down the hill, we went to the Piazza with the replica of the David and sat near the fountain. We'd already been there a few times to people watch. It was such a fun thing to do! We first made fun of the municipal police uniforms, complete with hard hat and purse (check out the awesome pigeon in flight!!):

We even set my watch for 60 seconds and counted all the gladiator-type sandles we could see. We got up to 18 pairs! Crazy!

Our last afternoon in Florence, we went to the Boboli Gardens. I'm not sure how big they are, but these gardens are breathtaking. Lots of fountains, lots of greenery, it made us forget that we were in a European city.

We bought some sandwiches, chips, and Fanta and strolled the grounds. It was a very peaceful afternoon and totally worthwhile.

Oh my gosh, I nearly forgot to mention our big night out in Florence. Our second of three nights in Florence, we decided to go all out and have a big dinner. We went to Za Za, the restaurant recommended in Fodor's 25 Best of Florence...only to see a huge line-up. So, we went to the place next to Za Za. We must have spent about 5 hours there, eating dinner, drinking wine, joking around with the waitor, and meeting a nice couple from England. The husband is one of 6 whisky barrel makers in the world! He made the barrels for the new Robin Hood movie (which we had to watch on the plane ride home "Oh look! There's a barrel!....Oh look! There's another barrel!"), and has made countless barrels for window displays in Marks and Spencer stores, and for the display in the Guiness factory in Dublin. Awesome!!! I think that was one of my favourite nights in Europe.

I've heard that when you're in Rome, it really feels like people live there and work there. But when you're in Florence, it has such a touristy feel that you don't really get the impression that it's a real working and breathing city. I'm not trying to say anything bad about it, but everyone seemed to speak English, so you didn't get that authentic italian feel. However, it is still a city worth experiencing and if we hadn't been run down from Rome, we probably would have stayed longer to experience the true Tuscan landscape...maybe renting one of the villas on the hilltops in the distance...

Next up? Venice!

A Romp in Pompei?

There you have it. The Eruption of 79 AD and how it buried the city of Pompei, among others. Ever since I was young and I read about this famous disaster, I was fascinated with the city that was preserved in time. There are 45 hectars of Pompei that have been discovered, but another 21 that are lying in wait. Excavation is slow so as to not 'ruin the ruins', but the 45 already uncovered are amazing. Everything is covered in pumice, the cooled lava filled with holes where airbubbles would have formed.


One of the first sights you see is the Pompei colosseum. Gladiators used to fight for their lives in this smaller version of the Rome Colosseum.


When you go to Pompei, you pay your 11 Euro ticket and enter the gates. Then you are strolling the streets from 2000 years ago. You enter into homes where people used to live. There are paintings on the walls, paintings from 2000 years ago!!! 2000 years!!! I think it was at this point where we started saying 'Wow, that is messed up!' to everything that we saw. Canada has history, sure it does. But Italy has History, with a capital 'H'.


One of the things that was most amazing, or messed up, was the fact that as we walked the stone streets we could see the grooves from the carriages that used to travel up and down transporting goods. See those elevated stones near the top of the picture? That's a pedestrian cross-walk, elevated so that people didn't have to step in the raw-sewage flowing down the streets. Awesome.

After weaving through the houses and streets, you'd come across the 1st MacDonald's ever. These little snack shops were set up with little bowls where different foods would be on display. You could pay different units to eat there. One unit was considered a portion of wine.


If you've been to the Roman Forum, here's a smaller version, the Pompei Forum. See that cloud in the background? It's hiding Mount Vesuvius...it was so hard to get that perfect picture of Vesuvius in the background of the ruins...it was early afternoon and I still hadn't gotten it...


One of the things I wanted to see the most on our entire honeymoon was the plaster casts of the people that had died in the tragedy of 79 AD. Below, you see two pictures of people who were buried in lava and rocks, whose bodies decomposed to form pockets of air in the rock. When the city was uncovered by archaeologists, they poured plaster into these pockets of air and voila, a plaster cast of a dead person. Seriously folks, it was messed up. I only put two photos so that you can go and see for yourself just how cool these plaster casts are. Behind the bodies you can see all the jugs and pots that were used to carry water or to cook.


Now, as in every society, there were women of the night that also needed a place to work. Hence, 'A Romp in Pompei'. One of the most popular places to see in Pompei is the 2000 year old brothel! People were actually lining up to go in, and it took maybe 30 seconds to see it. There are 8 rooms, each with a bed (nicely preserved for us by Vesuvius):


AND, when you got in there, much like MacDonalds, you put in your order. Position #1, #2, #3 and so on and so forth! A night with a woman of the night cost you 8. That's right, 8 portions of wine. You can just make out that the next picture requires viewer discretion!


Like I said, all day I was trying to get a perfect picture of Pompei, one that we could eventually have blown up and put on our wall. By mid-afternoon, the clouds had cleared and we went back to the forum to get that perfect picture. Unfortunately, I waited too long for some tourists to get out of the way and my camera died. It was devastating. Almost as devastating as the Eruption of 79 AD.
But it's ok! The next day, as our tour of Mount Vesuvius was cancelled due to early morning thundershowers, we decided to go to Sorrento instead and on the way to the Circumvesuviana Train station, I caught that perfect picture!

For me, Pompei was definitely the highlight of our trip. So, if you are looking to go to Pompei, take the train from Rome to Naples, and then hop on the Circumvesuviana Train line and get off at Pompei Santuario (with the church symbol - Alternatively you can get off at Pompei Scavi, a different entrance to the ruins). Walk about 5 minutes and you'll find one of about 10 hotels in the city. Word of advice, spend a little more money for a hotel. You won't be spending as much as Rome and you'll get a pretty nice room. If you have a craving for MacDonald's after seeing the 2000 year old version, there's a Micky D's just down the street. There's also a Burger King to create some nice competition. Seriously, Pompei has turned into a tourist hub just like Rome, but at least you'll never actually see the golden arches in the ruins themselves.
Next up? Sorrento and Florence.