Venice

I got into Venice in the morning, and caught the night train to Ljubljana, Slovenia. I didn’t want to stay long in Venice due to prices, and the romantic atmosphere.

And I was right. I was able to see all I wanted to in Venice in one day. Beautiful and unique, but packed with tourists. A lot of Americans, especially. The feeling of it being packed with tourists was accentuated by the narrow streets. A lot of people licking ice cream cones. Yum yum.

Besides all the little lanes and canals, the coolest thing I saw there was St. Mark’s Basilica, where St. Mark is dead and buried. I got a free English language tour and there were only 3 others in the group, so we got special attention. The guide was great, giving lots of details about all the artwork and meaning in the cathedral.

The best thing I saw on the streets was these African immigrant guys selling knockoff purses. They laid out a white bedsheet and laid their bags on it. They would always be looking around for cops. And then one of them would spot a cop, and they’d all pack up and migrate to another location. Pretty funny, really shifty.

I had made arrangements with this CouchSurfer guy who was really into “home wrestling.” He’s 41 and his hobby is setting up matches between CouchSurfers. I had contacted him and told him I was interested — I thought it would be an interesting memory. He asked me my weight. Then he seemed really pushy, saying that he’s not looking for someone to “use” his couch, and that he’s refused other CouchSurfers because I would be coming. He was really putting on the pressure: I must wrestle as a payment for a place to stay. Pretty weird. So then I looked at his profile more closely. He had a bunch of negative references, which is a terrible sign. People who have stayed with him said that he makes you wash the dishes you hadn’t even used, asks you to pay for his meal, and you have a feeling of being enslaved while staying with him. I contacted him and said it wasn’t going to workout; I made other plans. He flipped out and gave me a bad reference on CouchSurfing. Why should he care if I’ve decided NOT to stay with him? What a freak.

Florence

In Rome, Eleanor and I parted ways. It was tough saying goodbye. She got on the train to the airport, and I was left in Italy. Pretty weird. I had some tears as we parted, and then sat down to kill time and watch people. I had some fries left over, and a few of them were sad fries, that kind that you kind of choke on.

I got the train to Florence and had a good talk with two American girls, really young, sophomore in college, and high school senior. My first solo attempt at that travel small talk. It worked out pretty well and I really needed it at the time.

I got to Florence and checked in at the campground up on Piazza Michelangelo, which is on a hill overlooking Florence. Everyone had a tent, or a caravan. I had a sleeping bag on the ground. Spartan.

I walked around that night and saw the city, which was beautiful. I was feeling weird, trying to adjust to solo travel. I felt sort of out of place or something. I struck up a few conversations with people, but the talks were pretty shallow.

The other problem with solo travel is photos. I like people being in them, mostly me. Asking someone to take a photo of you kind of sucks. Plus, most people suck at taking photos. While I was standing in front of a David replica, I asked this guy. He didn’t even get David in on the first attempt, and the second attempt sucked hard. I decided to take photos of myself from then on.

The next day was my day to see Florence. I wanted to get out of Italy asap because of the expense. I got up for the opening of the Uffizi museum (10 euro) which has a lot of paintings, including Boticelli’s Venus de Milo and Primavera. I got an audio guide (5 euro) because I wanted the full experience, but the information sucked. I saw everything but it took me 3 hours.

I saw the Duomo, which is the cathedral in the center of Florence. Pretty cool. A church with a huge dome. What I thought was great was how they made women wear big paper shawls if their shoulders were exposed, and charged them 1 euro. Wearing a paper cape is much more respectful! Then I went to the museum with all the sculptures. Not great. And I think I went to something else too. Whatever, a lot of musuems.

I did see some tiny penises though.

I was considering skipping going to the museum with Michelangelo’s David because of the long line and the 10 euro to get in. But I was thinking that’d I’d kick myself later. Going to Florence and not seeing the David. That would suck. So I went, and it was worth it. David was very impressive, although Raphael’s David sucked (below right).

Oh, the gelato was amazing. I think I read that Florence is the birthplace of gelato … and also the renaissance. I also found a sculpture of myself in a headband.

I had to catch a 4am train to Venice so I camped out at the train station.  I found some cardboard boxes and slept on them in an enclave.  I wish I had taken photos.

Rome: Final Days

On the third day, we got up early to go to the Galleria Borghese.  This place was really hard to get into.  We had to reserve our tickets online for a two-hour time slot.  Then they kick you out.  We went to see the Bernini sculptures like Daphne and Apollo, Pluto and Persephone, and David.  I discovered I had an opinion about art.  I got to like Caravaggio’s stuff.  Really dark.

Then we went to the Capitolini museum to see some ancient stuff, like an Etruscan sculpture of Remus and Romulus with the she-wolf, apparently a story about how Rome was founded.  Also, an equestrian sculpture of Marcus Aurelius; legend has it that the sculpture will turn to gold on the Day of Judgement.

The rest of the day, we messed around.  One of the highlights was dipping our scorching feet into a fountain.

We got back to our hostel to pick up our bags because we were heading outside town to a campground.  As Eleanor was getting the bag, she sprained her ankle!  We took it slow and she limped all the way to through the metro station while I carried both bags, mine in back, Eleanor’s in front.  That was a low point.  Eleanor made it through though.

We took it easy the next day at the campground, hanging poolside and chilling out.  It was actually a lot of fun and a good break from Rome.  I put Eleanor in a laundry wagon to get her around at one point, and then gave her a piggy back ride another time.

Rome: Day Two

We went to the Vatican and saw St. Peter’s Basilica.  It was huge.  We also so the tombs of all the dead popes which is in the basement.  St. Peter is in there!

Then we went to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel.  There was a bunch of other crap in there too.  We had to walk really far; the chapel was at the end of the museum!  Sorry, no photos.

We went to this vatican fortress called Sant Angelo.  It looked cool but we got robbed; we paid about 7 euro to see the boring stuff inside.  Shitty.

I think the rest of the day we just walked around to different squares, and entertained ourselves.

Rome: Day One

We got into Ancona, Italy at 7am, and got a train to Rome at 8am, 14 euro each. We arrived at Rome’s Termini station at noon and found our way out to our hostel, 20 euro each per night. There were 3 guys from NC State who were staying in our dorm-style room. It was good talking to them, but we later figured out how disappointing they were. Good thing we skipped out on their invitation to “tag along” with them to the Pantheon. We overheard the main fat talkative one asking the hostel guy where they could get a bottle of wine because “we might want to get a little crazy later.”

We headed to the Colosseum first thing. It was massive and impressive, and pretty ruined, especially the inside. Loads of tourists. We both thought it was more interesting from the outside. My dad, who LOVES Rome, said that it was originally adorned in marble and gold, but all that finery was stolen when it started falling into disrepair.

 

We walked through Fora Roma, which is a load of Roman ruins, the downtown of ancient Rome. It was mostly columns and ruined structures. It felt a lot like Washington DC; wide streets, hot as shit, a load of monuments all together within walking distance but spread out enough for it to be kind of a pain in the ass. The best part was thinking about all the history in that small plot of land.

 

We didn’t get far before feeling a deep deep hunger. I got a huge headache. Hunger and severe heat. We cut off to a side street and walked into a Pizza Pasta bar. We were trying to look at prices and then we got ushered into seats. We got the menu and saw 4 euro Cokes. We got the hell out of there. We asked around for a grocery store, and found one not too far away. Man, we feasted. Bag of cookies, bananas, yogurt, flan, pizza-style bread, baked dessert cookies, off-brand orange soda. ~8 euro for both of us! Self-catering is the way to go, and it’s fun. We sat on some alley steps and gorged. No spoons again, so we dipped fingers into the flan, and drank the yogurt.

 

 

Refreshed, we headed to the Pantheon. It was awesome. It’s a domed church-style building dedicated to all (pan) gods (theo). Raphael’s tomb is in there too. The dome is impressive to look up at, and it’s got a hole at the top for the gods to look down into, I guess. Eleanor and I saw a feather floating down from the top. We followed it, waiting patiently as it descended. I wanted to catch it on my nose. We placed ourselves under it and at the final moment it drifted towards Eleanor who caught it on her nose. However, we weren’t alone. Two middle-aged GE guys said “Hey, we were watching that. We wanted to catch it.” They were cool guys, pretty cynical, so we messed around a little with them. They were thinking that it’s a cool dome but nothing like the Astro Dome or the Georgia Dome. We wondered if we could kick a football through the roof of the Pantheon. One of them asked where all the other Turtles were buried. It was fun being assholes about Rome.

We walked over towards the Spanish Steps and Trevi’s Fountain. There’s nothing all that impressive about these, but they’re pretty popular. The steps were loaded with people. We sat down and judged people for a while, scoping out all the eurotrash with their complicated jeans. We also spotted a seemingly new fad: girls wearing loose jersey-cotton things that are all baggy in the ass. All soft and floppy, looking like shit.

 

These jobless guys kept pestering us about buying some dried-out dead old roses, shoving them at Eleanor, and offering me a warm beer out of a grocery bag, and another jokester guy had all these toy pieces of crap. They kept coming around and no one was interested. Walking around Rome, we saw a lot of this stuff. People with shitty fans, sunglasses, knock-off designer bags. We also saw a lot this street entertainment where a guy is dressed up as a gold Egyptian mummy with a can in front of him for coins. We watched a few of these guys for a while and no one gave a shit. They’re wearing an oven standing around like fools for a little euro change. They must all go to the No Job store to find a shitty thing to sell.

We got back to the hostel and saw our NC State friends again. They were in the room all sad on their beds drinking wine all sleepy and shitty. I guess “getting a little crazy.” Pathetic. The fat dude started telling us how he snores a lot, and then how he smokes and can’t quit. Then they got into a conversation about how there’s a great toothpaste that works all day and makes your teeth white, which was followed by how one guy has allergies, then another guy upped him by saying “I just hope I don’t get a sinus infection because then I’m out of days.” So boring. And shitty. Then the fat guy told the two others that they have to do something crazy for Bastille day when they’re in Paris. “We’ve got to grow mustaches and have like a fro-hawk. We’ve got to go crazy or go home.”