What can I say about Italy, except "Mama Mia!" I knew this country would be completely different than the others we have visited this year. Italy is passionate-the people, the cities, the food, the gelato! We had so much fun and I can't wait to tell you about it. I hope you enjoy my story and I hope it inspires you to travel there one day yourself (if you haven't already been, that is). We flew into Marco Polo airport in Venice, which is where the adventure begins...
Venice
I had mixed feelings about visiting Venezia, the city of islands (117 to be exact). Once a stronghold for shipping, it's been a tourist haven for hundreds of years. Because Edgar and I generally try to experience the authenticity of the places we visit, we purposely seek out the roads less traveled and avoid the pull of the masses. But it's Venice. If you travel to Italy and pass up Venice, you might as well visit Texas and not eat the BBQ (for shame!).
We flew in late on Wednesday evening, which means we were thrust into the world of water buses (vaporettos) in a foreign city in the dark. It wasn't so bad though. The vaporettos have line numbers and routes in the same way as buses on land. There is only one main Grand Canal, so you can't really get lost.
We stayed at the Le Mansarde B&B (sorry, they don't have a website, but are very popular with Rick Steves gurus) in the Cannaregio area, the original ghetto. No seriously! "Getto" is the Italian word for the process of casting, which happens at a foundry. During the 16th century and because of their beliefs, Jews were forced to live in this isolated area near the foundry (or getto), where officials could lock the bridge connecting them to the outside world at night (only Jewish doctors were allowed out to treat the Venetians). The word has now evolved into ghetto, which is generally descriptive of a run down area of town occupied by a minority group. However, this area is far from a "ghetto" now. In a city as small as Venice, one would think the entire place would crawl with tourists, but this little region is often overlooked and undervalued. It is here that you can get a taste of authentic Venice...street markets, local shops, bakeries, and no crowds. It is in a perfect location, close to the train station (which means a shorter lugging distance for bags), the Rialto Bridge buzzing with market stalls of all types, and only about a 15 minute walk to the more visited and famous area of St. Marks's Piazza.
We did not take the famous gondola ride. Sorry to disappoint. It's $125...that's alot of wine! Maybe if we were on our honeymoon or proposing a certain question, it would have been worth it. We opted instead to take the No. 1 vaporetto, which sails the entire length of the Grand Canal and costs only about $10. Just have your sweetie sing in your ear and you'll get the full experience. We armed ourselves with the Rick Steves Italy guidebook and had full descriptions of every important building we passed along the way. We landed at Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) and took a trip to the top of the Campanile (bell tower) to get a towering view of the city...highly recommended. We then checked our bags at a nearby church, which allowed us to skip the very long line at St. Mark's Basilica (good tip-otherwise you'll wait for hours). You can see from the photos that the basilica is amazing on the outside...very ornate with multiple domes. We weren't allowed to take photos on the inside, but it was equally as beautiful. When laying the foundation, they used the best marble on the outside perimeter and of lesser quality further inward toward the center. Therefore, the floor is not level, in fact it rolls...kind of cool to see. We were then off to the island of Murano, famous for glass making. You could spend days strolling through the different shops. Surprisingly, even though they all sell the products of the master glass makers, each shop has something a little different. Very rarely will you see the same thing twice. After getting a few souvenirs of our own, we stopped off at the Glass Factory to see how it's done. It's pretty amazing to see these guys bend and shape this delicate glass into ornate designs...lots of fire.
Before jumping on the train bound for Florence, we made one last site seeing stop at the Frari Church. It's a little known church, but contains one of the largest collections of fine art in situ, which means it is displayed as it was meant to be before getting carted off to galleries or museums. Inside is the tomb of Titian, and several of his famous paintings which rose him to stardom, and a famous Michelangelo wood carving of St. John the Baptist.
Florence
Florence is considered the birthplace of the modern world, where the Renaissance began. It was the home of Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and the Medici family. It is full of art, history, culture-you can hardly wrap your fingers around it. The Duomo is truly amazing. When I first walked up to it, I was speechless. So decorated, so huge, so much detail. It's really hard to imagine how something so grand could have been built so long ago (1296, but took 150 years to complete). A competition to design the dome was won by Brunelleschi, the first dome of its kind since antiquity.
With one single phone call, you can reserve an entry time into the Accademia Gallery, home of Michelangelo's David, and the Uffizi Gallery. Please do this. I don't know why people DON'T do this. As we waited a fleeting five minutes to enter the Uffizi, we scoffed at the long line of people waiting to get in without a reservation. It was easily a 2 hour wait-during the off season! We took an audio guided tour through the gallery and exited around 4:30pm. Our Accademia reservation wasn't until the next day, but we wanted to rent a car and tour the Tuscan countryside instead, so we hopped over just to see how the wait was looking. It was nonexistent. We just walked right in. I guess if you don't have a reservation, just go really late in the day when the coach tour buses have left and everyone else is taking a gelato break. I couldn't believe I got to see David with my own two eyes. It is truly amazing that a sculpture towering 13 ft. in height can be so perfect. He was carved out of a single piece of marble, which is also mind blowing that someone is this talented. Because what do you do when you accidentally chisel off too much chest muscle? You can't really put it back on. Every single detail was perfect from his curly hair to his toenails. Some of his body parts are out of proportion, such as a too large head, eyes, and hands, but some critics say that the sculpture was meant to be for a rooftop, so he did it on purpose to make these features stand out. Other critics say "Big giant (Goliath), big hands"-kind of like the biblical story represented in marble.
We decided to rent a car on our second day in Florence so we could explore the Tuscan countryside. We drove through the Chianti region, which is famous for its wine. We saw beautiful vistas of vineyards and olive groves, little towns perched on hillsides, and lots of villas I wish I could recreate for my own home one day. We looked at the map and realized we were really close to Pisa, as in the Leaning Tower of...I had heard some bad things about this city, but what the heck, I'll be a total tourist for a day! So off we went in search of the tower. It is actually a very pretty tower and, yep, it's leaning! The town was not as bad as I had heard, but I wouldn't plan a trip to Italy with the intent of staying here, there's just not much else going on.
Rome
Rome-the eternal city, all roads lead to Rome, when in Rome....I didn't know quite what to expect of Rome. I knew it had the Colosseum and the Vatican, but I didn't' know much else. This was, by far, my favorite city in Italy. If I was amazed by the ancient ruins in Athens, this was like the Acropolis on steroids. The whole city is a conglomeration of ancient and new. It is a city of layers with the ancient on the bottom and the modern on the top.
Our first stop was the Colosseum for a tour. We aren't mass tour people, but when I don't know alot about an important site, I like to have a tour guide to tell me about it. It just makes the experience that much richer. Otherwise, you leave with a visual image, but nothing to back it up. Plus, joining this tour group allowed us to bypass all the non-tour group people waiting in line (saved us around an hour and a half of waiting-in the cold wind, nonetheless). The place is massive, and partly crumbled, so to see it as it once was must have been quite awe-inspiring... except for the over one million people (and countless animals) who were murdered for shear entertainment! It was inaugurated in AD 80 and had a seating capacity of 50,000. The events were free to the public, and they were even given free food, water, and sometimes gifts. The emporers came to the conclusion that they would rather have the masses of people in one place, enjoying themselves, with everything they needed, than wandering on the streets getting it any way they could.
After taking a tour of Palatine Hill (which was included with our Colosseum ticket) and seeing the exact hut where Romulus founded the city of Rome in 753BC, after killing his brother Remus and seizing complete control, we wandered back through the Forum, which is free. The Forum was the ancient marketplace and main hangout of the city so to say. We had not done a tour of it, but just kind of looked at the buildings and used our imagination. We came upon the beginning of a free tour led by a young American (New Orleans, actually). He was explaining a building I had been curious about, so I decided to stop and listen and then move on. But this guy was so captivating and within 5 minutes it was obvious that he knew more about this stuff than just the name of the building and what people did there. Come to find out, he has a Masters degree in art history and theology, is an expert on religious history, and was named by the New York Times as the BEST tour guide in all of Rome. WHAT LUCK! We wound up staying for the entire 1 1/2 hours. He began the tour with around 10 people and was like the Pied Piper adding more and more as we went along. By the end of the tour, there were around 40-50 of us, sitting on the steps of an ancient church overlooking the Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum, hanging on every word he said as he quoted Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I was sad the tour was over...I wanted to know more! Lucky for us, we were headed to the Vatican the next day (Wednesday) and found out he would be leading a tour of the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, SIGN ME UP! As it also happens, Wednesday is also the day the Pope makes a public appearance and the entire area is 70% less crowded than all other days. Could this have worked out more perfectly? His name is Jason Spiehler and he is with Roman Odyssey tours. Please promise me you will seek him out and take his tours when you go...your experience will be so much better.
We arrived to Vatican City around 10am, since the Pope would make his appearance around 11am. Out he came in the Pope-mobile and made several loops around the plaza in front of St. Peter's Basilica waving to the crowd of 1000's of fans. After he made his way to the stage, he gave a short speech in German (he's German) and then the shout-outs began, or at least that's what I call them. You see, thousands of people flock to St. Peter's Basilica to see the Pope. Somehow, their names, or their group name, gets passed on to the clergy leading the appearance. Priests will then head to the microphone and say something to the effect of "The people of the United States and Canada are honored to be here today and seek your blessing, etc., etc. Those with us today are pilgrims from St. Mary's Church in Gatesville, Texas *the group from St. Mary's church cheers and goes wild, the Pope waves*, pilgrims from St. Peter the Divine in Des Moines, Iowa *more cheers and shouts and waves*...you get the idea. This goes on in many different languages, with each priest speaking in the native language of the group he is giving shout-outs to. As you can imagine, this takes a while! The best groups are the nuns. They come from everywhere. One group made banners and signs and started singing a song to the Pope after they were called out. It made him cry and he was so touched. The whole thing is like a pep rally with the Pope as the star quarterback.
After the English and Spanish speaking groups were called out, we left for a bit of lunch before our 1pm Vatican tour with Jason. The Vatican Museums are huge and it is advised to get a good tour guide to lead you through the expansive galleries and point out the important items. The main attraction is, of course, the Sistine Chapel. I couldn't take photos, but there are plenty out there that are better quality than I could take anyways. This thing is amazing. Michelangelo painted the frescoes on the ceiling as well as The Last Judgement on the back wall. The crazy thing is that he didn't even like to paint. He considered himself a sculptor, but he spent years of his life painting. The ceiling fresco took 4 years, and the Last Judgement took 6 years. The ceiling is divided into 9 sections representing stories from Genesis. Contrary to popular belief, he did not lay on his back to paint the ceiling. He stood and bent backwards....try doing that for more than 5 minutes! We saw other great works by Raphael, tapestries, the Map Hall, and plenty of marble statues. For those who are interested, the Sistine Chapel is where the cardinals meet to elect a new Pope. They install a chimney by removing a window panel that sends out the white or black smoke.
In case this whole thing couldn't get any better, our tour ended around 4:30pm, just in time for the 5pm Wednesday Mass! There is nothing like walking into St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world, and drooling over Michelangelo's Pieta while the choir's beautiful voices fill the air. It is something to be experienced.
I could go on and on about Rome, but I must move on to the Amalfi Coast...
Positano
I purposely planned a nice respite from big cities and site seeing at the end of our trip. I knew we would be tired, but I didn't think I would be so mentally exhausted! When you are thrown into these cities, there is so much to see and learn and it can get a bit overwhelming. Makes me wish I would have had some more effective history and art history teachers throughout my life.
The Amalfi Coast is considered the most beautiful coastline in Italy. It is pretty breathtaking with cities perched on hillsides, looking as if they will fall forward at any moment. Even more breathtaking are the bus rides along the winding roads hugging the side of the mountains with nothing but a rocky coastline hundreds of feet below you! The drivers of these things are good, I mean really good. There were times I thought there was no way we were going to round that corner without 1) tumbling over the side, 2) pushing that oncoming car over the side, or 3) me throwing up. At some points the road is so narrow that one car has to back up to a wider spot to let the other car through. There is also alot of honking to warn oncoming traffic. I would much rather have taken the ferries from city to city, but they closed for the season about 3 weeks ago. If you tend to get motion sickness, just be prepared. Also, don't scream...the drivers don't like that. I finally just had to look out to the ocean and imagine my happy place.
We stayed at the Albergo California in Positano, which was a good base for exploring the other coastal towns of Amalfi and Ravello. There are many other towns, we just checked out these two. Our last two days were spent lazing about our ocean view terrace drinking wine, shopping for pottery, and taking in our last bit of Italian scenery. The perfect ending.
Tidbits
*Italians are very expressive. They really do say "Mama Mia" with that hand motion thing.
*It can be an expensive country, but the house wine is cheap and good!
*Please don't attempt to drive, just train and bus it.
*Avoid restaurants near tourists sites unless recommended by a local or a guidebook. You can get bad Italian food.
*It's southern Europe, so think bread, bread, bread. It's for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you stay at a B&B, don't expect bacon and eggs.
*The coffee is good. Try to learn to use one of those stove top espresso makers.
*Save Rome or Amalfi for last...it's doesn't get better than these two places.
*At any given time, I believe that the population of Italy is 50% Italian citizens and 50% American tourists.
*Call me before you go!
