Day 140 Wednesday sick day

Today I feel ill. It reminded me of the beginning of the sinus thing of Burma and so I took the entire day to sleep and recover. By no means will I have a repeat of that hell. There aren't any pictures or niceness from today.

Day 139 Sorrento! Lemons, Sunshine and Beaches

Today was a day-trip day. I ventured out of the hostel with a Canadian guy I met the night before and my enthusiastic travel young buddy. We headed out on a longer train journey than we thought it would be but were delightfully surprised at the outcome. A cute little town with lots of color and a coastline.

All three of us are not on short journeys and were a little churched out. We then grabbed the next cold beer we saw and began our quest for the beach. After a longish walk past gorgeous hotels and tour groups we found ourselves in this adorable little cove where we hung out on the beach, had a good lunch and enjoyed the view.

Afterwards we headed back up to town and tasted limoncelo in a lemon grove. We paid for the liquor but might have borrowed us a huge lemon. Happy and satisfied with our tour of Sorrento we headed back to our hostel, made dinner and hung out in the bar. Three euro bottles of red wine won't last for long.


cute area where we had lunch.




lemon grove


the evening

Day 138 A day in Naples

Today I met up with a girl from the hostel that couldn't have been a day over 19. I think she was Canadian....we decided to take on Naples as a set. We walked from place to place finding little of inspiration after leaving such amazing cities like Rome, Venice and such Naples just seems a bit off. Not bad but less inspiring.

Museo Archeologico Nazionale. I was going to put this big one off till the weekend but felt that after yesterdays nothingness I should tick something off the Naples list. It was smaller than I would have thought. But just enough museum for a Monday. This museum is famous for its displays from Pompeii. It houses sculptures, paintings, murals, signs, housewares, personal affects, pretty much anything they could find that displays the advancement of this civilization. The items themselves aren't breathtaking until you remember the times and circumstances they were created under.

After a few piazzas and churches we grabbed lunch, wine and headed back to the hostel.

There I read a bit of my book and started talking to a few other travelers. I still don't tire of hearing stories from the road.


Cupola


One of the bigger piazzas


Painting from Pompeii

Day 137 Is there anything open??

I am at a loss. It is Sunday. I have gotten up, showered, planned a route only to find that NOTHING is open. You can't buy groceries. You can't visit places. You can't get coffee. You can read books in the common area because it is raining. You can make friends with another traveler who has been out of the states for a couple of years. You can catch up on Grey's Anatomy. And finally you can go to bed early and wake the next day with big plans.

Day 136 Napoli Churches

Santa Chiara Monastery was the first place I stumbled into for an escape from the rain. At first I was a bit skeptical. The museum was not interesting and had lots of rocks with Italian explanations which might make them cool if you understood, but I still challenge that one too. When the rain subsided you step outside and there is a large collection of murals, tiles and an adorable courtyard. It made up for the museum's shortcomings in my book.


I found more tiles....


Pretty courtyard


Tile pillars of awesomeness

Rain, rain and raining I did a little bit more walking to find some more churches. There was no photography in one and the other was huge and left a lot to be desired in the way of lighting. But in person they were beautiful and you will have to take my word for that.

That evening I sat in the bar and talked to a few travelers, caught up on some emails and phone calls. So far Naples hasn't been gangbuster exciting but it has given me a few days to regroup.

Day 135 Napoli bound

Cool old church outside my hostel

I arrived in Naples conflicted. What was supposed to happen: Jamie and I spend the week on the Amalfi Coast. What is happening: I have a week to wait in Italy before I leave for Poland.

On arrival I settled in for the evening. I went to the grocery store. I found coffee. I walked a bit. I did laundry. It was fabulous and tomorrow I resume touring.

Day 134 Jamie and Erica are off and I have another day to take on Roma!

After an early morning drop-off at the train station (one of Jamie's requests for taking a bit of stuff back to the states) I returned to the hostel to get a bit more sleep and then who knows.

At about noon I found myself lunched and ready to hit the town. It was weird to be back at the solo traveling thing, but nice too. A totally selfish afternoon where I get to decide where to go and what to do. That being said I was headed towards Vatican City. I find that place mesmerizing and one of the places that caught my eye in the guidebooks was as of date left unseen.



Castel Sant'Angelo. A place that every Dan Brown fan knows about and a point in Vatican City that boasts the best views of the Vatican. I got in and climbed to the top pretty quickly. There are lots of interesting rooms with frescos and antique fixtures but all of the blurbs were in Italian and after a few rooms that started to look the same I was more interested in the sights of the city.


pretty statue! Great clouds!


fresco


St. Peter's Bascilica

After the Castel I walked back to the shopping center for another run by the stores in search of sandals. Following that a stroll back to the hostel and dinner prep. The hostel that had be dead all week was now brought to life and I spent the evening chatting with a few travelers before repacking my now much lighter backpack for tomorrows travel to Napoli.

Some pretty views from the walk.

Day 133 Last day with my travel buddies!

Today is the day. The last day that Erica and Jamie will putz around Italy with me! Sad but I guess all good things have to come to an end. As today was the last day we got out of our icky hostel and saw a few of the sights we had left on the must see list. First we headed to the Spanish Steps. There we sat for a bit and discussed all sorts of pleasant things like religion, politics...who knows why......

The steps convienetly led us to the shopping district. I am now officially on a mission for the perfect sandals and Erica wants to get some clothes from Italy to wear back home. While Erica had some success I came out empty handed.

We then did our I think third trip to the Trivi Fountain and Gelato place that Erica loves. I just can't really wrap my head around the idea that it is gelato when everything else is so different, and well more like ice cream. But Erica is over the moon about it so we are frequent visitors.

The final stop for the day was a nice meal out and some packing. While it is sad to see them go my back is stoked! My heavy bowls from Morocco and smelly leather puff pillows are headed back with the girls and off my back. Also, it seems like a pivotal part of the trip. I spend a week longer in Italy head east for a few weeks and then to the company of friends and family for the final month. Can't be too sad about that!

Day 132 Off to the Papal State

Vatican City fascinates me. I am not sure why. The colorful history and gossip about the Catholic Church makes every nick and crany a story. Unfortunately the Pope was away on buisness during our visit. While attending the blessing or any other address isn't my thing, I could have used a visit from the Pope mobile.

Surprisingly the line wasn't that long and after a short wait we were in St. Peter's Cathedral. The place is too massive for words. Thanks to Rick Steves we had a tour guide on an ipod and wandered around stuck together by a headphone cord. I only fell once....




St. Peter´s Square


St. Peter´s Bascilica


Pieta sculpted by Michelangelo

Next we were off to the Vatican Museum. Wow, the word ginormous does not start to explain the size of this place. We had two or three hours till they shut the place down to meander and find the Sistine Chapel. It took us two hours to walk there with little looking after we hit the entrance. Now in the Chapel there are no pictures allowed. I actually saw one guy get kicked out for his attempted covert photography. The room was breathtaking. We listened to Rick Steves tell us the history while we gazed at the beauty of it all.


Confused at the size of this cabezza!




The infamous stairs

Day 131 When in Rome, see everything in one freakin' day.

No, not really......we had a few days and tried to space out our activities accordingly. However, we picked up a.... lets just say, enthusiastic traveler at our glorious hostel and she was hurrying us along for what seemed like all day. Blurg. What can you really do, turns out just do what you want.

First stop was the Roman Forum. Lots of old stuff. But great. We saw frescos with age old stories of some of the atrocities that took place in Rome. Climbing the hill you can see a smaller stadium and a great view of the Colloseum.

Right on cue, stepping out of the Roman Forum we were bombarded with rain. Can't catch a break in this country I guess.





With our good friend Rick Steves' audio guide we entered the Colosseum. I am pretty glad we had the extra guidance as the place wasn't all that interesting to me without the background story. At times I feel like visiting some of these places is such a waste because we don't shell out of the tour or audio guide..but what can you do. Here we have a few freebies from iTunes and so Rome should be well explained.







With the rain still coming on and off we headed to the Trivi Fountain and then off to the original, authetic gelato place that we were directed to by a few friends. It was crazy good, but not so much like ice cream. They won't use cones and well, there was no mint chocolate chip.

Day 130 Caio Florence!

Today was our last full day in Florence. We awoke in the morning to do a little shopping at the leather market and just hang around town.

The leather market was fun even for those of us who are trying not to fill our backpacks to the brim. Lots of colorful leather goods and trinkets alike.


It is said that if you rub the nose of the pig you will one day return to Venice.


Through the streets of Venice cars new and old were tearing through the streets in some sort of competition, show???

After lunch we headed up the hill to Michaeangelo's park. Great views of the city to be had with another David reproduction, this time in green.


View from the Park


David a la Verde

Next Erica and I hit the streets of Florence to find us some new clothes. I have caved from almost two months of no new clothes to spice up my backpack a bit. I think reading this blog and seeing the frequency of some of the shirts I like began to bother me.....more than a little.

Last, but not least, we headed out to a popular student restaurant to get some all-you-can-eat food. It was good, cheap but not as good as the night before the girls with us explained. Packed and ready for the train the morning we had a few drinks with some of the hostel guests and called it a night. Tomorrow Rome!

Day 128 James Bond Day

Siena was a must see for me ever since I saw the latest James Bond movie. You know the first scenes when he is driving through a town in Italy...it's that town! So cute and so beautiful! However, the theme of Eurotrip 2010 is rain! Rain, rain, rain. So instead of wandering the town we did more of the sites. Like all other Italian cities there are the standard Duomo, cathedral, etc. In Sienna there were famous tile artworks in the cathedral, so that added a nice twist.


The town center, sad day it was raining....


The Church, note the 10 seconds of sun


The cool tile




Some cool frescos

We also visited the Church of Saint Catherine of Siena. She is the patron saint of Italy. She had a small but beautiful chapel and I purchased what has to be one of the best souveniers of the trip so far. A 2 euro calendar of the pope himself. So me and Pope Benedict XVI will be hanging out through 2011.


Couldn't take pictures in the church but here is a picture of the view from the courtyard

Day 127 Nice to meet you David

Off to see David. Suprisingly he lives only down the street in the Museo de'Accademia. The line was long when we got in it and I am not sure how I managed to keep Erica and Jamie there so we wouldn't have to pay the stupid expensive booking fee that was as much as the ticket itself and I was convinced that the line would move soon. I was right. In museum time we weren't there long at all. It is quite small. However, we were caught in a spontaneous downpour exactly three minutes before we got in and therefore were more than damp while we meandered through the museum.


Erica being a good neighbor during the monsoon

Next we did the church circut. Now I have seen a lot of churches but the Duomo in Florence had to be one of the best, mind you still got Rome to go. I took about 108 pictures of the Basilica and maybe three of them turned out. Damn darkness!


The church


Candle Trees


The Duomo


Frescos

After David and the Duomo we did some booking for other galleries and a little shopping. While we were walking around we got some gelati, italian ice cream. Unfortunately we accidentally ordered the largest quantity of gelati ever and therefore spent a small fortune on a delicious stomachache!