When in Rome, park as the Romans park

From Florence we took the train to Rome. I am constantly amazed at the size of the country, so small. The ride from one major city to another is sometimes as short as three hours by train, less than the distance from Vancouver to Kelowna or Vernon. The train station in Rome is vast, 30 some odd platforms which stretch endlessly from the terminal towards their various destinations. We took the metro to our hotel. The metro at the terminal is a subterranean maze of one way staircases, dead ends and oversized escalators. After a sardine style ride we arrived at Piazza Barbarini, the nice central square which our hotel was on. Unfortunately due to the location of the piazza, the noise of the 6 roads which converged there continued strong into the early hours of the morning. There was also a rather unpleasant odour of human waste. Not much of an issue though, because we were rarely at our hotel. Rome offered us a myriad of sights, tastes, and experiences. In three days we checked off the ‘must sees’ of Rome: The Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Palatine hill, Spanish steps, the Forum, and more churches than I can name or remember. On one of our other days based in the eternal city we took a sojourn in a rented car to Anzio, and drove along the coast to the Roman port of Ostia. On foot and in the car one of the most striking features of the people of Rome is the way they drive and park. Motorscooters and motorbikes dip and weave through solid streams of traffic, narrowly avoiding fatal accidents and busses. I have decided to give three awards to the intrepid parkers of Rome.
First place goes to the man who decided that parking in the middle of a 4 lane road was a good idea. No flashers, no emergency, no smoke, just what seemed to be an honest attempt at a legitimate parking job.
Second place goes to the car parked on a corner, on the sidewalk, in a crosswalk, the wrong way on a one way street. This was also the only person I saw in Rome receive a ticket from the traffic police. Prior to this, I thought that any parking spot was fair game; on a corner, on a sidewalk, upside down, however you managed to stop your vehicle.
Third place is a tie to most of the other inhabitants of the city, those people parked on sidewalks, doublewide, and infront of clearly delimitated no stopping zones.
Bravo.
Roman food was quite good, but rather pricy. We had a hard time finding the small, cheap and delicious trattorias that are our usual haunts. We managed to stay well fed and afloat in a sea of house wine, and olive oil.
The last highlight of our time in Rome was going back to the Pensione where my father stayed for two months back in the 1960s (it is now an apartment building). It was fun seeing him awash in memories the whole time we walked around the city.

The home of pizza, Naples.

First thoughts about Naples are not flattering. This is a dirty city, the garbage crisis that started in 2007 shows no sign of ending. The people of the city just pile their trash on the sidewalks in a fashion similar to the larger and dirtier cities of India, but India has one advantage in that they burn their garbage piles every now and again to reduce their size and abundance. You can hardly go two blocks without having to change sides of the street to avoid a mountain of horrible smelling refuse. As if the city is the polar opposite of Rome, the hotel we stayed at was quite nice. The AC and TV worked, and there was even complementary internet. Joy!
The non-culinary highlights of our time in Naples with one exception focused on our daytrips to its environs. We took a subterranean tour of the Neapolitan aquaducts, which had been converted into air raid shelters during the Second World War. This was very interesting, wandering about hundreds of feet below the city in the cool tunnels, which would be the darkest pitch black except for the halogen lights. This is not a place for those with claustrophobia. Part of the tour involved squeezing through extremely narrow passageways with candles as our only source of light. Fun!
Our first daytrip took us to Pompeii and Herculaneum, and to Vesuvius, the culprit of their annihilation. It was extremely fascinating to wander around the cities with their walls, mosaics and in some cases frescos preserved. Climbing Vesuvius was great, being a geologist and having written a paper on the volcano for a class it was a real treat to peer into the steaming mouth of the mountain.
Our second daytrip was to the Amalfi coast. As they saying goes, sometimes life is about the journey rather than the destination. This is fairly true for the Amalfi coast, the winding roads and sheer limestone cliffs make for a memorable drive.
The best thing about Naples proper is its food, mainly its Pizza. Naples is where Pizza is from, and they know what they are doing. These are easily the best pizzas I have ever eaten, with fresh ingredients, and a crust like Greek pita bread, not hard, but soft and delicious. The pizza is the saving grace of the city, and made it an acceptable (if pungent) home base for our last few days on the Mediterranean before heading across the country to the Adriatic side.

Crooked towers, straight-laced galleries and curving roads

After the Cinque Terra we moved along to Pisa, made famous by its hordes of tourists and vendors selling souvenir junk. Wait, that’s not right, it’s famous for its failure of geological engineering! I actually found it more amazing that the tower hadn’t fallen over, than the fact that it was leaning at all. More interesting than the tower were all the people either pretending to hold it up or push it over. Very original. Pisa wasn’t a total failure though; we ate some pretty tasty lasagne and drank some nice wine.
After Pisa we took the train to Florence. Florence is famous for having the highest concentration of religious art in the world. Probably. We saw all of the musts; we met David at the academy, we saw the birth of Venus (aka naked chick riding a clam shell) in the Uffizzi, and admired some of what the Italians call ‘modern’ art (17th-19th century) in the Pitti palace. We also went to the best of the museums: the Science museum. That’s how we roll. Any idea what an astrolabe is? Neither do I, but those crafty old bastards from the 16th century sure did.
Because we have been eating a lot of gelato in Florence and our attention span has shortened accordingly with the amount of sugar, we needed a break from all the learning. We accomplished this with a couple of daytrips, the first to Sienna, and the second to Fiesole. In Sienna we received a little bit of a surprise. That day happened to be a portion of the Mille Miglia, a thousand mile, thousand car marathon of mechanical glory. We watched the seemingly endless parade of expensive or antique cars drive by over wine and pasta, from less than 5 feet away. I thought there were more cars than you could shake a stick at, until my father managed to wave his flag at every single one. Our second daytrip was to Fiesole, or Fiasolanum, if you happen to be a Roman. We went and toured around the restored amphitheatre and Etruscan ruins and the local archaeological museum (staffed by an amusing British curator who gave us a personal tour [we were his only visitors]). Fiesole has an enviable view of Florence, being perched on top of a nearby hill.

Cinque Terra

After all the fun and bustle of Nice and Monaco the placid Italian coastline is a welcome change. Life for the citizens of the Cinque Terra moves relatively slow, up and down the steep roads of these sunny fishing villages. We are staying in Monterosso, supposedly it is the most touristy of the 5 towns due to its nice beach, but I did not find it particularly different from the other villages, which were all packed with travellers and sightseers during the day. The Cinque Terra is famous for its rugged coastal walking trail, which links the 5 towns. The Cinque Terra is also famous for its fish. Forget everything you think you know about anchovies, because this is the place they are done right. Freshly caught early every morning and grilled with a little lemon for your meal, they are delectable. These places also offer a mean gelato. The Mediterranean is extremely refreshing, if a little chilly at first. One of the trails was closed due to a minor slide, expecting a speedy solution we were shocked to find that it would likely be more than a year before it was opened again – some work ethic!

Monaco: Bond, babes, boats, and a Bugatti

Our second full day in Europe brought us to Monaco, the most opulent and affluent place I have ever been. The most common type of car in the principality is either Rolls Royce or Bently. Any car under 100 grand appears to be scorned. The sheer amount of money in the place is mind boggling. The huge 100 ft yachts are dwarfed by the larger personal vessels in the harbour; nothing in Vancouver could compete for any kind of prestige at this mooring.
The Montecarlo Casino is a beast all its own. The building is extremely grand, reminiscent of the palace at Versailles the paintings and the gold gilt ceiling are regal and magnificent. In this monument to money, a drink of vodka will run you 18 Euro, while the tables offering blackjack, baccarat, poker, and roulette will almost certainly relieve you of any other extraneous money you happen to have. This is clearly the sort of place James Bond would be in his element.
People here take losing with good grace, while I was playing with chips in denominations of 5 euros; more adventurous people around me were losing thousands and still smiling. You pay for the experience, and if you win it is an added bonus.
In addition to seeing the yachts of my dreams like the Wallypower sailing yacht, I got another treat. One of the patrons at the Montecarlo casino decided to drive his Bugatti Veyron, while several others took their super high end or rare sportscars.

also blogspot is still hating on me, so no pictures yet, I will try facebook and see if they take more kindly to Italian internet.

Have a Nice day

After 26 hours of continuous travel we arrive in Nice. The compensation for our long journey is immediately obvious at the exit from the airport. The cab we enter is a Mercedes SLK in fine condition, and our driver is a moustachioed Italian man in a nice suit. It is also sunny. The short drive from the airport to our hotel showcases the affluence of the lower city. Nice is clearly a prosperous town with a thriving tourism industry. I contrived to catch a head cold on the plane, and both Jonn and I were excessively tired when we arrived, so we decided to sleep in lieu of exploring the town with our parents on our first night. Having gone to sleep at around 3pm local time, we were ready to experience Nice early the next morning. We spent our first full day taking in the sights and sounds of the city: visiting the beach, enjoying gelato and baguettes, and generally absorbing the flavours of the place. We climbed the hill with the old chateau on the edge of the Old town, and were rewarded with a stunning view of the city. My first dinner in Nice consisted of a seafood pasta and wine in the center of Nice’s old town, under the stars.

Internet here does not want to upload pictures, so sadly you will have to wait for them :(

Intro

Hey folks,

I have decided to resurrect the travel blog to document my family's trip to Europe. We will be visiting the south of France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and England. We hope you will tag along with us over the next two months, living vicariously through the pictures and stories we post here!