Europe 2007: Sep 16 - Sep 22

This week we make quick stops in Pisa and Florence, explore ancient history in Rome, church hop in Vatican City, and lounge in the sun on the Amalfi Coast.

Photos:
Pisa and Florence
Rome
Amalfi Coast

Sun. 09-16-07 -- Monterosso, Pisa, Florence, and Rome, Italy

This morning we got up at 7:30 am to pack up and catch an 8:45 am train. Our plan was to end up in Florence for the night with a short pitstop in Pisa. As the location of this entry shows, things didn't go exactly as planned!

We caught the train out of Monterosso, and arrived in Pisa around 11am. We checked our bags at the train station and figured out how to catch the bus to the tower (the tourist information office was closed, so we were on our own to figure it out). A bunch of other people must have figured it out because the bus was completely packed! Fortunately it was a short ride, and then we all filed out into the Piazza.

We didn't stay there long, just long enough to take some pictures of the tower, and walk right up to it. The tower is leaning pretty far, but it's about what I expected. It was neat to see, but it was mostly just a checkmark on my list of things to see before I die. We hopped the bus back to the station and tried to catch the next train to Florence which was leaving in 15 minutes. Unfortunately the line at the bag check slowed us down, so we ate McDonald's (they are in almost every station) and waited 30 minutes for the next train.

The train to Florence took about 1.5 hours, and on the ride over, I discovered that Accademia (where David is) is closed on Monday (tomorrow)! This was the main thing we were coming to see in Florence, so we had to hurry over there today as soon as we got in town! We didn't have a room reserved in Florence, so we checked our bags at the station and walked over to Accademia. As we walked up, I noticed big closed doors and an 8"x11" piece of paper taped to it. The paper said "The gallery is closed due to striking workers." The whole reason we came to Florence, and we can't see it! It was pretty annoyed so I said "F*** Florence, let's go to Rome... I mean if they won't even open up their museums..." I fear it was a rather American thing to say, but then I'm a proud American, so there!

We walked back to the train station, but passed by the Duomo on the way. Florence was crazy crowded and the tourbooks said it was pretty expensive, so I'm glad we left (sour grapes). We got back to the station and looked at the board for the next train to Roma. We didn't notice the express at first, so we thought we'd be waiting around for an hour. I was playing with one of the ticket machines when I noticed that an express (it would get us to Rome in a little over an hour) was leaving in about 15 minutes.

We ran to the ticket counter and got reserved seats (they were required), now we had 11 minutes. We ran to the bag check and got in line to get our bags, now we had 6 minutes until the train left. When I was second in line, I asked the guy in front of me if I could go first because our train left in FOUR MINUTES! He said sure, so we got our bags and RAN to the train as fast as we could! Fortunately we were in the first car, so we got on with 2 minutes to spare... SHEW!

The ride was nice and quick and around 5pm we showed up in Rome. We didn't have a place to stay, so we started wandering around. The first place had no rooms available. The second place only had dorm beds available. The third place only had a 3 person room for 140 Euros (ouch). The fourth place had a decent room with a private shower (toilet down the hall) for 65 Euros! We took it, but it was only available for one night, so we still needed to find another place. Because we gained a day on our itinerary (no Florence) we had to play with our schedule to see how many more nights we wanted to book.

This opened a whole can of worms, because the whole next section of our trip (Amalfi coast) was completely unplanned and was on my to-do list to figure out. While we were doing this, we figured we should nail down our Italy night trains too, so we could book them ahead of time... So basically we spent our fist night in Rome figuring out the next week of our trip. We decided to stay with 3 full days in Rome, and use the extra day in the Amalfi Coast/Mt. Vesuvius area. That meant a night train form Naples to Venice on 9-23 and a night train from Venice to Switzerland on 9-25.

With this stage planned out, we were eager to actually reserve these tickets. We walked to the train station, and we played with the electronic ticket machine until we had found exactly the trains and times that we wanted. Then we went to the ticket office (waited forever in line) and booked our next two night trains. Both of these will be in couchette rooms of 4 (our last night train had 6 beds) so that will probably be nicer. The only bad thing is we are arriving in Venice at like 5:30 am! I don't know what the heck we are going to do until everything opens, it should be... interesting.

We got the trains booked up (138 Euros) by 8:30pm so we walked outside to see if we could find a room for the next few nights. But it was getting late, the streets were a little freaky, we were hungry, and we could only find one hostel, so we gave up and had dinner instead. We found a little place, where I had pizza and Kara had tortellini. We finished our dinner, then went back to our hotel to shower and relax. Tomorrow morning, we have to figure out where we are staying, and I'm still not sure what we are going to see!

Mon. 09-17-07 -- Rome, Italy

I ended up staying up late last night planning out our 3 days in Rome. For today I planned for us to tour the ancient part of Rome, but first we had to find a hotel for the next 3 nights.

We got up at 8:30 and walked a loop in our neighborhood, stopping at hotels/hostels in our price range that were recommended by our tour books. The first place we found was booked, the second place didn't answer, but the third place had a drab room with two single beds and no toilet or shower in the room for 65 Euros per night. We thought about continuing our search, but we were eager to start actually seeing Rome, so we just settled on this place.

We walked back to our old hotel, and picked up our bags. We walked them over to our new hotel (maybe a quarter of a mile away) and dropped them off. OK, we were finally ready to see some of Rome!

We bought Roma Passes (3 days of public transportation and free/discounted entry into some sights) and hopped the metro to the Colosseum. As we left the metro station, it was right there in front of us, wow! We walked over, and there were tons of tourists all around. There were also a bunch of people harassing us to buy English language tours through the Colloseum. Because of the Roma Pass, we were able to skip the GIANT line to buy tickets and just saunter right in! It was pretty incredible to see this giant structure still standing after 2000 years! It looked huge from the outside, but somehow looked smaller than I expected on the inside. I guess that's a good thing, no bad seat in the house! We walked around inside and took a lot of pictures. It was pretty neat to see where the actual gladiators fought, but it was also weird to think about how people came to watch empire-sanctioned death and gore.

After the Colosseum, we walked around the outside a bit, then left to look for lunch. We found a little Italian place (I guess they're all Italian here!) and got pasta for lunch. Then we walked back toward the Colosseum and entered the Roman forum. This place was beyond description! There were so many building in various stages of ruin, it was truly breathtaking! There was one building, Basilica of Constantine that still had one wall up with 3 gigantic arches. I was in awe at how huge they were! We saw the spot where Julius Caesar's body was burned, and we saw the 8 remaining columns of the Temple of Saturn, built in 850 BC!

After walking all through the forum, we went up to Palatine Hill where the Roman Emperor's palace was. There were a lot of ruins here including some tunnels that we could walk through. We stood on the spot where the Emperor's throne was. We looked down the hill onto Circus Maximus where the chariot races were held. It was all pretty amazing to be seeing these places of ancient history!
We left Palatine Hill, passed through the forum once more, and climbed the stairs to Capitol Hill. On the way we stopped at Mamertine prison where Peter and Paul were held. They have a blocked off pillar where they claim Peter was chained to. Up the rest of the stairs to Capitol Hill, the square that was designed by Michelangelo. We sat there for a while to soak it in, then walked down the grand staircase also designed by Mike.

We were back in the busy city, but there was still one more site to see... the Pantheon. We walked for 10 or so minutes until we arrived at the back side of the Pantheon. We circled around to the front and backed up to see the giant entryway with the great stone pillars. We went inside and were amazed at the enormous dome way above us. This temple was built 2000 years ago and it still looks pristine on the inside. The dome has a 300 foot 'oculus' aka 'a hole' in the top to let in daylight (and the occasional rainstorm). We gaped at the dome for a while then wandered around before going outside to sit on the fountain steps outside.

We saw people eating gelato which made us want some! So, I looked up a recommended place in the tour book and we walked 2 or so blocks to it. We bought 2 medium sizes (you pay before you order it) and then we found out that medium gets you 3 flavors! I pulled out our Italian to English phrasebook and translated enough flavors until we knew what we wanted. Kara got chocolate, caramel, and cheesecake. I got chocolate, hazelnut, and pistachio. We both were very happy with our flavor concoctions! We slurped our gelato as we walked back to the Pantheon, then we sat back down at the stairs and just relaxed for a while.

When we were feeling ready to head back, we got up and walked through the Pantheon one more time. Then we walked to the main street and caught a bus back to Termini station. We settled into our room when we got back, then had dinner at the Italian restaurant downstairs. I got lasagna and it was REALLY good! Then we went back to our room where we hung out and got ready for bed.

Tues. 09-18-07 -- Rome, Italy and Vatican City

This morning we got up around 8:30 am and headed out to Vatican City. As we got on the bus, it started raining a little which didn't worry us much since we'd be inside for most of the day.

When we got to St. Peter's Basilica, there was a HUGE line to get in! We got in the giant line and started waiting, but then it started raining hard! It hadn't rained much since we've been in Europe, so we stopped bringing our jackets in our day pack, which means we had no way to stay dry! I left Kara in line and ran to the street to find an umbrella seller where I bought one for 5 Euros. I hurried back to Kara then we huddled under the umbrella.

The line moved an OK speed, and after a while we made it into the church. The church was absolutely gigantic and extravagant. Our tour book told us the size of things, but it didn't actually look as large as it said. An optical illusion or something (or no scale perspective because everything was so huge). We walked around inside, then we went below the church to the crypt/tombs of the popes. It was a bunch of dead old guys to me, but some people were really into it. When we passed Pope John Paul II's tomb, I saw people crossing themselves, a woman knelt, and one guy even rubbed a cloth on the ground near the tomb. I guess he was running low on magical pope dust...

We left St. Peter's and walked over (in the rain) to the Vatican Museum. We mostly wanted to see the Sistine Chapel but we figured the museum would be a good place to spend some time out of the rain. Apparently everyone else thought that too, because the line was freakishly long! We waited for a long time, then we finally got into the hot, crowded museum!

We walked around the museum, saw lots of statues, an unwrapped mummy, and a bunch of tapestries. We were plenty bored of the art by the time we finally made it to the chapel (they run you through a one-way gauntlet of art before they'll let you in). The Sistine Chapel was different than I expected. The ceiling was lower than I thought it would be, and the walls were all painted which I didn't expect. It was pretty cool to see Michelangelo's painted ceiling, though it was a literal pain in the neck!

After gazing at the ceiling for some time, we left the chapel and had to walk through countless rooms of more art before we were allowed to leave. Once we escaped Vatican City, we were pretty hungry so we walked to a Rick Steves' recommended restaurant. We both got pizza (Kara = 4 cheese, me = sausage & mushrooms) and it was SO GOOD!!! My pizza was on thin crust, with no tomato sauce, just cheese, lightly cooked mushrooms, and bits of very tasty sausage. YUM! But the place charged us 2 euro for tap water, and two euro each for a cover charge! We felt a little ripped off when the bill came to 30.50 euro for lunch, but then the food was so good that maybe it was worth it!

After lunch we hopped the metro and transferred to a bus to get to the Christian catacombs on Appian Way. We bought tickets for a tour of the Catacombs of San Callisto, but we just missed the beginning of the English tour, so we had to wait around for a half hour (it was nice to relax, the surrounding area was very peaceful). Our guide was an Indian priest that was very friendly and informative as he walked us through the catacombs.

These tunnels were built during the Christian persecution in Rome as a secret place to bury the dead. The catacombs are very big, four floors over 33 acres! We only saw a small part, mostly just tunnels and body sized holes in the wall. There were no bones there because the Christians eventually moved the bones to church grounds because tomb robbers had smashed up the tomb slabs in search of valuables. It was very interesting to hear the priest speak of "the time of persecution" and "the freedom" when talking of Christian history. I knew that Christians were persecuted and killed by the Romans at the dawn of the church, but actually being here while being told again made it seem more real.

When our tour ended, we emerged into daylight, and Kara & I walked down to the gate where we entered from the road. But when we got there, the gate was locked shut! We walked back to the ticket office and found our guide and asked him how to get out. He told us that we had to exit a different way and take a different bus. He walked us to this other exit, and we talked more about the catacombs on the way. He told us how the catacombs were rediscovered in the 1800's by sheer luck and he pointed out old air shafts and staircases that were built by the early Christians. It was a pretty cool little private tour we got, so I'm glad that gate was locked!

This bus ride was longer than the ride out, but we got to see the giant church of Saint Giovanni which was the Vatican before the Vatican existed. Then we rode the metro back to the train station and walked around until we found an internet café. We booked a room at a hotel in Sorrento and I sent a bunch of emails to hotels in Venice to see if I could find an available room. Then we walked back to our room, did some laundry, and relaxed our tired feet!

Wed. 09-19-07 -- Rome, Italy

This morning we got up "early" so that we'd get to the National Museum of Rome at opening time (9am). We walked around and looked at all the ancient art... there were two bronze statues that were really amazing. They were so life-like and detailed that we actually went back to look at them again before we left. The other really cool section of the museum was their collection of tile mosaics. I REALLY like this type of art, so I thoroughly enjoyed walking through this section and looking at all the large wall and floor mosaics.

After the museum, we walked up to the Capucin Crypt, a church that is decorated with the bones of 1400 monks. It was pretty creepy, there were all these designs and patterns on the ceilings and walls made from jaw bones, ribs, tailbones, vertebrae, etc. They also had cloaked figures with skulls for heads (some still with mummified skin on them). Creepy!

After the crypt we took the metro and bus to a section of Appia Antica, the ancient Roman "queen of roads." We rented bikes and rode down the bumpy road for about 5 miles and then rode back (1.5 hours). The road has ancient ruins of giant tombs and monuments along both sides. We slowly pedaled down the road and looked up at these giant ruins.

When we turned our bikes in at 2pm, we were both feeling worn out from going non-stop in Rome for 3 days, so we decided to head back to our room for a siesta. We rode the metro back, and then slept, read, wrote, relaxed until 7pm.

We were getting hungry, so we headed downstairs to eat at the restaurant by our hotel. But when we walked up, they were hosting a big party, and they said they were full. :( So we decided to do a recommended night walk (actually I planned for us to do a combination of part of two walks, optimized for metro stops at the beginning and end) and we'd just look for food as we went.

So we took the metro to Piazza del Popolo, a carless square where an Egyptian obelisk is (Augustus brought it to Rome and it originally sat in Circus Maximus). We walked down Via Del Corso quite a ways (no cars, lots of people window shopping at lots of clothing stores) and made our way to Trevi Fountain. There were TONS of people here, but we wormed in to take a few pictures. Then we tried, unsuccessfully, to walk to the Spanish Steps, but somehow wound up back on Via Del Corso again!

We were really hungry by now, and were only finding expensive restaurants with tricky pricing (service charges, cover charges) so we caved and ate at McDonalds. It was pretty gross, the only burgers they had were either a BigMac or a McBacon Burger (which looked nasty even in the picture). So, I got the BigMac, which I don't really like...

We ate our not-so-fresh food then set out for the Spanish Steps again (this time knowing how to get there). Once again there were tons of people here! But there was enough room on the steps to climb around people, so we climbed all the way up to the top. From up there, we could see church domes rising about the buildings, and palm trees in front of the moon. Our last big glimpse of Rome before we leave tomorrow morning. We walked down the steps and over to the metro. A quick ride back and a short walk to our hotel. We packed up most of our stuff tonight so we'll be ready to go tomorrow.

Thurs. 09-20-07 -- Rome, Sorrento, and Capri, Italy

Got up, packed up, checked out, walked to train station and got on train. Next stop, Naples. Our train compartment had some interesting characters. One lady apparently had a sick spell (pregnant?) because she had to lay down for a while and then some time later she could sit up but she started crying. I felt really bad for her, but I'm not really sure what it was all about. There was also an old man who must have been playing a game on his cellphone, but the volume was up, so we had to hear phone dialing tones over and over... earplugs didn't help.

The ride lasted 2 hours, then we went below the train station and caught the commuter train to Sorrento (about 1 hour). We passed through Pompeii and Herculaneum (which we are visiting tomorrow) and I thought "Wow, I am actually here, in these towns I've seen so much about on TV!"

When we got to Sorrento, I had no idea where out hostel was, so we did the (now common) tour of the city with our packs on. Eventually we circled around and found our road, and then our hostel. The desk manager gave us site-seeing advice, including that we must see the island of Capri. Our time is actually pretty packed with things to do, so if we were going to see Capri, it was today or not on this trip.

We walked through town toward the port, but stopped at a little café for lunch first. The town is up on a cliff, but there is a long staircase (or winding road) down to a little port area. We walked out to the cliff and we could see land way out across the water (Naples, Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, etc). We walked down and bought boat tickets (one person, round-trip was a painful 25 Euros) and got right on the boat.

The ride was about 25 minutes long, and had great views of the Italy coast, and the approaching cliff island of Capri. We arrived at a similar port area like Sorrento, but a bit bigger and more touristy. We had no guide book or any idea of what to do here, so we wandered around aimlessly for a while. We saw that there was a funicular, so we bought tickets and rode up even though we had no idea what would be up there. When we emerged, we found beautiful views, and the rest of the town!

We walked all around the town and got good views of the towering cliffs above and the shore on the other side of the island. We stumbled across a nice park that had overlook points down the coast along the see cliffs, it was all very beautiful. After a while of soaking in the views, we headed back to the funicular (long lines) and got on the next boat that was leaving (very crowded, standing room only).

Once back we hit a supermarket to buy water and coke (cans of coke are 55 cents in the supermarket, 1.50 Euros at tourist stores and delis, and 2-3 Euros at restaurants!) We went back to our hotel and relaxed for a while, then went back out to see the town and find some dinner. We walked all around the old town square (no cars allowed at night) and ended up stopping at a pizzeria for dinner. At the end of the meal, we ordered limoncello, a very popular lemon flavored liquor in these parts. It came in a chilled shot glass (VERY cold) and it tasted very sour and sweet and strongly alcoholic. It was a sensation overload that was very pleasant.

We walked home and used the internet at our hostel and were very happy to find that we have a room in Venice on the 24th. It's 105 Euros (about 40 Euros more than we've been spending) but we were happy just to find a place during this busy time (I probably got back 10 emails from places saying that they're fully booked!) Ok, off to bed, we're getting up early to see Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Mt. Vesuvius tomorrow. The street noise outside is loud, so it'll be an earplug night!

Fri. 09-21-07 -- Sorrento, Pompeii, and Herculaneum, Italy

Note to self, don't try cleaning earplugs off with water! I washed my plugs last night, and then they'd expand instantly which made them impossible to put in my ears! But fortunately we had another set because I really needed them last night!

This morning we got up early and took the commuter train to Pompeii. We entered the ruins right around opening time, so we had some time there before it got really crowded with tour groups! It was incredible how large the Pompeii ruins were! We had mostly free reign of the ancient city blocks, so we explored with our map and our audioguides. There were two theaters, a colosseum and tons of shops and houses. The forum was a cool place because it was pretty open and had lots of administration buildings and temples surrounding it. In one of the buildings were casts of human remains left by the volcanic ash that buried the city. The skulls were still in place, so the casts actually had teeth, which looked pretty creepy.

We explored the ancient city for about 3.5 hours, then we went back to the train station and caught the train to Herculaneum. This city was much smaller, but built more vertically and better preserved. We probably spent another 1.5 hours here walking through the 2000 year old streets and houses.

We weren't able to go to Vesuvius because there is only one bus that leaves from Herculaneum each day. We gave up on the mountain, and hope to be able to see it sometime in the next 2 days. With the two ancient cities thoroughly explored, we headed back to Sorrento where we hung out in our room for a few hours. We're pretty fatigued from being on the run every single day, so we've been spending more and more time each day just relaxing in our room...

When evening rolled around, we walked around the town and sat at a cliff-side bench to watch the sun set behind the cliffs. Then we walked around the streets a bit before returning to the same restaurant as last night for some yummy dinner. After dinner, we sauntered back to our hotel and hung out before going to bed.

Sat. 09-22-07 -- Sorrento and Positano, Italy

Burned out. This morning I woke up and I felt like doing absolutely nothing. Kara got up and took a shower at 7:30, but I stayed in bed sleeping until sometime after 8:30. Once I was awake, I still stayed in bed and just read, I just couldn't bring myself to get out of bed to face another day of sight-seeing.

I had a restless night last night with many dreams that followed the basic theme: We were on this trip, but Kara made us go home to Portland early for some reason. We were back in Portland, and I was trying to frantically find a way to get us back to Europe to finish our trip before our railpass ended and our return flight occurred. A little pop-psychology dream analysis tells me that there are two sides of me at war within. The dream-Kara is the side of me that is exhausted and just wants to do nothing or go home. The dream-Jake is the side that knows that this is the adventure of a lifetime and wants to get out there and see as much as I can before the trip ends.

Anyway, this all put me in a serious funk this morning. Kara was understanding, and we just hung out and read in our room until the maid barged in around 9:45am. She said she'd be back in 5 minutes to clean the room, so I was forced to actually get up and face the day. Part of my exhaustion is due to not having a place to just veg. When we're out and about, you can grab some rest on a bench, but you can't comfortably hang out there for hours. Instead we are bouncing from place to place where we are constantly being treated and charged like the tourists that we are. I told Kara as we left, "I just want a place where I can veg on the internet and drink free water for a few hours..." But unless we were going to rent an apartment and move in, that just wasn't going to happen.

Our original plan for the day was to bus along the Amalfi Coast, stopping in the little beach towns along the way, and eventually make it to the Greek temple ruins in Paestum. We were already talking about not doing that, but just taking it easy for the day, but we figured we might as well start the journey and see what happened. We bought all day bus passes and waited 30 or so minutes in the surprisingly long line for the Amalfi Coast bus.

The first town on the bus line was Positano, about 50 minutes away. The ride was in a large bus along a very curvy cliff-side road that was a bit too narrow for the size of the bus. Some of the turns we took were hair-raising to say the least. The bus had to swing wide around corners, so we'd head straight for the guard-railed cliff edge, then the driver would yank the bus to the left at the last second and barely clear the rail and a death by driving off the cliff.

Positano is a vertical town built between the water and the highest cliffs above. We got off the bus and wound our way through narrow streets to the water. We saw a private beach that charged 10 euro per person for a spot with a lounge chair and an umbrella, and that looked pretty great to me.

But we were hungry so we found a little lunch place and had sandwiches. Over lunch we decided that we would rent some beach space and just relax all day. We stopped by a store on the way back to the beach, and bought potato chips and beverages (Coke for Kara, beer for me) and then we spent many hours just relaxing in the beautiful weather on the Italian Amalfi Coast. This was exactly what the doctor ordered, and I said as much to Kara. Later, Kara said "screw work" and we both laughed it up for a long time. This perfect day at the beach in Italy wasn't our vacation, this is our lives! We don't have crappy jobs waiting for us when we return!

Later in the day, after a wonderful beer-induced nap in the sun, I smelled someone smoking a cigar, so I got up and walked through town to see if I could find a Cubano of my own. I found a tobacci shop that had a nice humidor, and picked out a relatively cheap cigar (4.70 euro) that was "Hecho en Cuba." I smoked it on the beach and while we walked on a cliff path to another beach.

The town was having a festival of fish later that night and we tried finding out where it was going to take place. We walked up to where I had originally seen the announcement board, and when we got there, we found a group of 5 people parading through the streets holding the festival banner and playing percussion instruments. There was a colorfully dressed marshal of this little parade that was making humorous proclamations in Italian (unfortunately I don't know what he was saying, but I could tell it was funny from his bombastic delivery, and the crowd's reaction). The banner holder, marshal, and drum section made its way through the tiny streets, and everyone followed them. We were part of the ever growing parade!

I really wanted to stay for the festival, but it was getting late, and we needed to catch the bus back to Sorrento. So we decided to abandon the parade and make our way back to the bus station in the dark. From the cliff edge bus stop, we could see the coastal town lights sparkling in the distance, and the bright moon leaving a light wake on the sea. It was the most picturesque (and romantic) time I've ever had while waiting for a bus!

The 50 minute ride home was no less hair-raising in the dark, and this time there was some tricky maneuvering required by the bus driver to get around oncoming traffic. Now we're back in our room, Kara's sleeping and I'm feeling 100% recharged. This was such the perfect day for how I was feeling this morning. Kara was singing "What a difference a day makes" while getting ready for bed, and man is that ever true. I'm ready for tomorrow, whatever it brings!