Venice, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre (a.k.a. a lot of Italy)

A game of catch-up for all that we haven't yet shared about Italy.

Venice was a fantastic place to walk all day, getting lost in little alleys and dead-ends and marveling at the canals. The weather was a bit chilly, and not surprisingly, damp, so we had to keep moving to stay warm. Venice seems (to me) to be a very picturesque city, but a complete pain in the ass to live in. Everything is wet and waterlogged, not a lot of (if any?) grass, and so many tourists that it is an epidemic. We ate some exquisite food (lasagne), drank some great wine, and also tried some not-so-great food. For some reason, I thought that Venetian liver might be a lot better than the liver I've tried before. It was not. We only were able to spend a bit less than 2 days before we had to move on.

Venice photos HERE.

Florence was a mess of museums and sunshine, not a bad combination. We saw the statue David, by Michelangelo, at the Academia Museum. Gorgeous, much bigger than I'd imagined, and easy to stare at and absorb for a long time. It seemed to me that it was a perfect copy of the perfect human physique. Comparisons to my physique were quickly quieted by Emily, the museum workers, and complete strangers in the gallery. Next was the Uffizi Museum for (supposedly) the world's largest collection of Renaissance art....I do not doubt if for one minute. Very many beautiful paintings, but the important thing was that it allowed me to fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing artworks by all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in one day. The next day, we hit up an English language used bookstore and traded in 5 books that we'd been toting around for just such an occasion for 6 new (well, new to us) books. Then we checked out the Duomo, one of the largest Cathredals in the world. The outside was, truthfully, slightly ugly, but the inside was immense and filled with beautiful tile-worked floors, stained glass windows by Donatello, and a gia-normous frescoed dome. We looked at more old stuff, then settled down for some Italian espresso and gelato. Not a bad way to finish up Florence.

On the way to Cinque Terre from Florence, we stopped in at Pisa and walked 1 mile from the train station in the pouring rain to see what everyone comes to Pisa to see. Although I've seen many photos of the leaning tower, it is quite striking in person. They said 5.5 degrees off of vertical, but it looks like a whole lot more.

Cinque Terre (literally Five Villages in Italian) are a World Unesco protected area that are connected by a hiking path along the Mediterranean. We found a guesthouse after walking down the main drag of Rio Maggiore, the southernmost of the 5 that was superb. A little Italian guy who spoke some English, and his wife (?) who didn't speak a word of English showed us around their almost brand new room for at least 20 minutes (It was freakin awesome! -Em). It was a nice change of pace from the dorm rooms, and not much more than average price after we talked him down a bit (much less than some dorms, actually!). That night, we bought some wine and sat on the moonlit balcony of this sleepy, beautiful little town marvelling at it all. The next day, we were up early to catch the train to the northernmost town and then hike the ~20 km back. The only problem was that it was raining, and raining very hard. After walking about 4 km in 3 hours in all our waterproof gear, we were drenched to the point that long underwear were saturated, gloves had water running off the fingertips, and our shoes squished with each step. We ate lunch, managed to get back into our soaked and freezing cold clothes, and took the train back. We gave it hell, got some great photos and had fun, but in the end, the weather was a bit tougher. The rest of the day was spent drying one set of our 2 sets of clothing, and reading books in the room while the rain poured on.

Later on, while emptying the wet backpacks, Em discovered that she'd accidentally left her camera and her journal in the back(Whoa, this is because I am used to taking all of my valuables with me and never leaving them in a hostel where they might get stolen, they are always in there!). Both were saturated, but the journal is drying out, and the LCD on the camera is almost dry, at which point we will conduct the "power-on" test to see what's left! And, hopefully then we can share the Alps skiing pictures that are on it with everyone. The next morning, we made our way to Rome.

PS, thanks to Jora Deziel for suggesting Cinque Terre a long time back. She was the first of many to recommend it!

Florence, Pisa, and Cinque Terre photos HERE.