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For as long as I can remember, whenever I was asked, "if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?", my answer was always the same - "Italy." But, now that Shortpants had arrived in Europe, Italy looked like it wasn't going to happen. We soon discovered, after a couple of days in Geneva, just how crazy expensive Europe is. This wasn't a huge surprise, but we realized travelling through Italy for a month or so would put an end to the entire world trip. However, all soon changed after we landed a sublet in Chamonix, France - the alpine capital of Europe - for the rest of the summer, saving us precious dollars. Italy was ON! We gave ourselves 11 days.
The reason I was so desperate to do Italy was FOOD. I love homemade pasta more than anything else out there. On the flight out I said to Chris, "the calorie budget goes out the window on this trip. Don't let me start complaining about eating too much." Of course, I was complaining by the end of day 1. Never, have I eaten as much as I did in these 10 days and never have I had food this good. Click Read More below...
Rome In 3 Days
So all the guide books say, "To do Rome justice, you must spend at least a week." I think that should be re-written to say, "if you spend longer than 3 days in Rome, you will want to shoot yourself."
Now, while one half of Shortpants greatly enjoys broadening her mind through reading and other somewhat cultural pursuits (while the other half is happy to play computer solitaire and Polar Golf for hours on end), Shortpants as a whole does not really go in for museums (or anything else than ends in "eum."). But, when in Rome...(we said this about 300 times on this trip, typically when trying to decide whether or not to order another another plate of proscuitto) we figured we had to see some of the sites.
Site #1 - the Colliseum. We had three points against us already. One - that morning, off the train, I had rolled my ankle stepping into a pothole on the way to our hostel - it hurt. An Italian couple who watched it happen apologized profusely for the state of their city. Two - it was 2pm in the afternoon, NOT a prime site-seeing time unless one enjoys mass assemblies of American tourists. Three - Colliseum ends in...
Okay, its pretty cool. And, its right outside the Metro station, so you don't even have to walk to it. You could just get back onto the metro and keep going. Beleive me, it was discussed. We walked around it and had a good laugh at the hoards lined up in the sun to pay their 20 Euros to walk around it inside the fence. But all I could think about was, "hey, this is what the Vancouver library looks like." We saw some more ruins, watched a short video on the Forum (we really needed to use their bathroom) and within an hour, were pretty much ruined-out.
Site #2 - The Trevi Fountain.
This was much better. The fountain is very pretty, I think Michealangelo did some of the statues, the hoards weren't too bad, there were many places to stop for Gelato, coffee and glasses of wine and great people watching to be done. The gelato is divine, the coffee even better. Because people-watching is the closest most tourists come to sport in Rome, the restaurants have wised up and charge 3 times the price to sit outside on their patios versus sitting inside the restaurant. We spent hours drinking 4Euro coffees (worth every cent) and passing judgement on all who crossed our path.
Site #3 - The Parthenon
Rome is definately a walking city and the cobbled roads wind every which way so there really is a surprise around every corner (a pretty garden, a cool jewlery shop, a super cute kitty, etc.) Around one of the corners was the Parthenon. It was pretty cool. But what made it a little more compelling was the political demonstration out front. We settled in with a glass of wine to enjoy some Italian politics. While the crowd was small, it seemed passionate and we assumed they were discussing the importance of organic biodiversity, or some other forward-thinking European ideal. Turned out, it was the far right. What we thought were tatooed "alternative lifestylers" were actually skinheads. Of course, this made the demonstration all the more interesting until Chris became convinced that he had lost his moneybelt and passport and that he would have to stay in Rome for the rest of his life. We ran the 3 or 4 kms back to the hostel (which probably explains why my ankle still hurts.) Of course, the moneybelt was lying on the bed. Grrrrrrr.
Site #4 - The Vatican
Interspersed between all these things was heavy consumption of pasta, wine, cheese, salami, proscuitto, bread and olives. We ate even when we weren't hungry. The food was just so good. But, we had more thing to see in Rome - the Vatican. I can't say we were looking forward to it, it just seemed like something we should do. When in Rome... And you know what? It was okay! We paid for a tour (it would be way too overwhelming otherwise - the place has 1200 rooms.) If you are into statues of naked people or pictures of the Madonna (Madonna with child, Madonna with olive branch, Madonna with dove, Madonna buying groceries), it truly is an embaressment of riches. We had a wee panic on arrival - we assumed the 5000+ people line-up to get into S.Peter's basillica was the line for the Vatican - but we ended up being able to walk right in. With the economy, the number of tourists to the Vatican has been cut in half. Normally they do 20,000 people a day (at 30 Euros a head, this surely partially explains why the Pope is so rich). So, we saw lots of famous statues and some paintings we actually recognized and learned lots from our very friendly tour guide. True, we did resort to taking pictures of kitties in the various tapestries and paintings for a while, but then the tour ended in the Sistene Chapel. Okay, this was super cool. That painting of David touching the hand of God is front and center and the paintings really are amazing - they are almost 3D. I remember being taught something about Michaelangelo and perspective in grade 8 art class, and now it made a little more sense. Of course, one cannot take pictures or talk in the Sistene chapel, but this didn't stop the hoards from snapping and muttering away. They have guards who shush the room every few minutes (silence lasts for about 8 seconds until someone's cell phone goes off) and we had a good time watching security get in the face of Japanese photographers.
Slow Food in Casperia
Aside from being a very big city, the worst thing about Rome is that there are no green spaces. We needed some countryside...with more food. Searching for olive oil tours, we stumbled across La Toretta B and B (www.latorrettabandb.com) on the Internet and very luckily, were able to book a room. Casperia is a teeny medieval walled hillside town 45 minutes outside of Rome. Casperia is seriously old school - there are no cars allowed in the village, all the houses are part of the same castle-like structure and there are maybe 3 or 4 shops. La Torretta (circa 1500AD) is a renovated home, complete with the original frescos. [NOTE - anyone going to Italy MUST stay here, it was a world highlight for us.] They have 7 rooms and offer one of the only cooking schools in the region. There was no room in the school for us, so we just enjoyed the fruits of the pupils' labors. We ended up getting to know these (mostly women) quite well over the next couple of days. Meeting people is so easy when bottles of wine are involved.
Olive Oil Tasting
While we missed out on a tour of the olive farms and presses, we did join in on the olive oil tasting at Johnny Madge's wine bar. A tiny little space tucked away in the castle wall, this Englishman's wine bar provided us with one of the best nights we've had over the entire year of travels. Everyone at the B&B came along to taste oils and chow down on the meats and cheeses that accompanied each oil. Copious amounts of wine were consumed, guitars were brought out and we sang for hours. Taking our wine outside, Chris found "Awesome Kitty" who became his new best friend. We had the best time chatting, laughing and singing with these women and getting steadily drunk. Yes, the next day hurt, but a little swim in the tiny "sportclub" pool helped. As did petting the CUTEST jack russell puppy ever.
Floundering in Florence
By this point, we were pretty full. But, when in Florence....! Luckily, our hostel had a kitchen for us, so we were able to save some bucks and some calories by cooking for ourselves. When the Central Market is across the street, cooking becomes an absoloute joy. We would go each morning and choose our pasta, our produce, our meats and cheeses and wine and walk out with bags of stuff we didn't ask for - the purveyors would always give us little presents like extra heads of lettuce or beets. So, while we ate healthier, we still ate a lot of food. In all seriousness, what I liked best about Florence was having our own kitchen - this was the first time since NZ that we were able to cook for ourselves and it makes all the difference.
I had done some research into the "must-sees" of Florence and by the end of our 4 days there, managed to cross 2 of these things off the list. Okay - I'll admit it. I don't care about art. Statues all look the same to me. Frescoes look like they were made by small children and enough with the Jesus paintings - wasn't there anything else to paint? But when in Florence, you must...see...some...art. So, one morning, we, beleive it or not, were first in line at the Academia Galleria, home to the most famous statue in the world - David. And he indeed, was super cool. He is displayed in a beautiful room and he is very big. Also in this museum are the famous Michealangelo "Prisoner" sculptures. These are blocks of marble in which partially sculpted men are "imprisoned." On the one hand, it really does look like these statues are pushing to get out of their marble blocks. On the other hand, Michaelangelo may have just gotten bored with the project and done some really good marketing for himself. We have no pictures of the museum because they weren't allowed. You'll have to take our word that we did actually go.
The other thing we had to see was the Ponte Vecchio (a famous bridge covered on both sides with goldsmith's shops.) The bridge was so heavily overrun with tourists, we pretty much had to force our way across it and made a beeline for the first bar. All those images one conjures up about obese American tourists in Italy are absoloutely true. Quickly tiring of Florence, we took a day trip out to Sienna on the train which was beautiful. We lazed away the day with a long wine-soaked lunch and a lie-down in a gorgeous park complete with small farm and crazed farmer.
Foregoing what is supposed to be the ULTIMATE European museum, The Uffizi (side note - as I write this, I just asked Chris what the name of this museum was and he said, "oh that was the one with the famous thing in it") we spent our last day at the Boboli Gardens. Basically we spent 10 Euros a piece to lie under a tree with our picnic and it was worth every penny. I'm sure the grounds were very nice, but we were just so happy to just hang out in some green space away from the hoards. Soon, it was time to get the night train back to Geneva and our Italian experience had come to an end. It was expensive, and we both felt like we had done nothing but eat and drink (probably because we had) but Italy was idyllic and I would go back in a second. But no more "eums."
Individual albums for all the pics from Rome, Casperia and Firenze.
Next update: Life in Chamonix.
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