Today was fun…exciting…perhaps too exciting at times, though.
We started the day off at the Galleria Academia to see Michelangelo’s statue of David. It is impossible to imagine how someone can take a giant stone and turn it into something so incredible. The description in front of the statue had a quote regarding the Michelangelo’s masterpiece, it something like: “one does not need to bother viewing any other statue after viewing Michelangelo’s David.” I really can’t put it any better; the expression on his face all the way down to the details of the tendons and arteries in his hands are indescribably perfect (there I tried anyways). After seeing David we walked around Florence a little more, got some groceries, a pizza for lunch, and headed to the train station in time to catch the train to Venice…so we thought.
Yesterday we went to the train station to check on departure times for Venice and decided on the one at 1:36 pm. So we got to the train station about 1:15 with plenty of time to spare…once again, so we thought. When we arrived we looked at all of the departure boards only to find that there were no 1:36 departures to speak of. We frantically found the first uniformed train worker in site and showed them the itinerary we had printed yesterday, only to get the response “sorry, too late, wrong station”. We failed to realize that while most trains depart from the main station (which is where we were) that this train departed from the next station down the line. The lady told us we could try to take the train from platform 3 to the next station but that we’d only have 1 minute to transfer to the appropriate platform for our train to Venice. Since we didn’t want to wait two hours for the next departure we ran as fast as we could (backpacks and all) to the train on platform three…we got on the train, arrived at the next station at 1:33 and got on the train to Venice just in time…phew.
Our time in Venice is brief, just today, so once we arrived we got a pizza for dinner and then started walking the infamous water-laden town. One thing we definitely like about Venice is the price of the gelato, only 1.20 for a generously size single scoop cone. After pizza I got a caramel-chocolate combination and Erica got lime-strawberry (mine was better). Another thing we found out about Venice is that there’s no such thing as a straight path, and it takes a long time to get where you’re going. All we really did was walk to San Marco Pier and back to take in the sites of the town, but it was plenty to keep us entertained and definitely enough to exhaust us as well. On the way back we got what might be our last Italian gelato (very sad); I got strawberry and berry, Erica got mint-chocolate (once again I can say for certain that mine was better). Last thing about Venice…mosquitoes…it seems they enjoy us about as well as we enjoy our gelato.
Tomorrow we set sail for Greece!
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Fantastic Firenze
Today we got up early enough to take the 6:57am train out of Rome so we could get in to Florence (Firenze in Italian) before noon. Believe it or not, despite our record with transportation, we made it to the train without a hitch and once we got to Florence we made it to our hostel without taking any wrong turns…maybe we’re getting a hang of European travel after all (but probably not). Florence is another one of those towns that immediately engages you and entertains you without any real effort. Today we were able to just walk around the city and enjoy the sites. The one bad thing about Florence is that all of their exhibits and museums charge admission, where as most of the cities we’ve been to do have their fair share of free exhibits. Part of the reason, I suppose, that everything has a fee is because many of the museums and exhibits hold famous works from Michelangelo and DaVinci…so if you’re willing to pay the fees you’ll definitely get your money’s worth. We do want to see Michelangelo’s statue of David that is held at the Galleria Academia, but we are saving that for tomorrow morning when there won’t be any lines.
Anywho…back to what we actually DID do today. First we grabbed some pizza from a restaurant nearby that the hostel highly recommended…like all the other places we have tried, this one did not disappoint.
Brief aside…the pizza in Italy is not like the pizza in America, not entirely at least (I don’t want to mislead). Instead of taking at least 20 minutes for prep time and cooking, the time it takes from throwing the dough to pulling it out of the oven seems almost as fast as ordering at a McDonald’s…seriously sometimes it only takes about 5 minutes.
After getting lunch we went to Florence’s outdoor market; lots of leather, lots of jewelry, lots of cool stuff, and a fair share of knock off items…it’s definitely the best market we’ve been to so far. After the market we got gelato (I’ve lost count of how many times this makes), unlike most other times, where I’ve mixed two flavors, I got just chocolate (or cioccolata rather)…rich, sweet, great! From there we just walked to all of the main piazzas and locations in Florence that we were told we should visit. Eventually we made it to Pont Vecchio, Florence’s oldest and most famous bridge where we got our fair share of photos. The end goal of the path we took today was to make it to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a piazza on the top of a hill that overlooks the entire town of Florence. It took a while to get there, and the hike up was no cake walk, but once we made it, it was definitely worth it. From there we could see the hillsides, the river, the town and all of its old cathedrals and architecture…a very cool experience, another that offered many photo-ops. We ended the day at the same restaurant we got the pizza from for lunch; we started by splitting a pizza (salami, sausage, and ham I think) and then Erica had homemade spaghetti noodles (they were fatter than normal spaghetti) and Bolognese sauce, and I got normal spaghetti and meatballs; all accompanied by the house red wine. Of course after this we got another thing of gelato (strawberry and pineapple again, different than the time before but still great); completely unnecessary at this point, but totally worth it.
Stuffed, satisfied, sleepy…goodnight.
Anywho…back to what we actually DID do today. First we grabbed some pizza from a restaurant nearby that the hostel highly recommended…like all the other places we have tried, this one did not disappoint.
Brief aside…the pizza in Italy is not like the pizza in America, not entirely at least (I don’t want to mislead). Instead of taking at least 20 minutes for prep time and cooking, the time it takes from throwing the dough to pulling it out of the oven seems almost as fast as ordering at a McDonald’s…seriously sometimes it only takes about 5 minutes.
After getting lunch we went to Florence’s outdoor market; lots of leather, lots of jewelry, lots of cool stuff, and a fair share of knock off items…it’s definitely the best market we’ve been to so far. After the market we got gelato (I’ve lost count of how many times this makes), unlike most other times, where I’ve mixed two flavors, I got just chocolate (or cioccolata rather)…rich, sweet, great! From there we just walked to all of the main piazzas and locations in Florence that we were told we should visit. Eventually we made it to Pont Vecchio, Florence’s oldest and most famous bridge where we got our fair share of photos. The end goal of the path we took today was to make it to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a piazza on the top of a hill that overlooks the entire town of Florence. It took a while to get there, and the hike up was no cake walk, but once we made it, it was definitely worth it. From there we could see the hillsides, the river, the town and all of its old cathedrals and architecture…a very cool experience, another that offered many photo-ops. We ended the day at the same restaurant we got the pizza from for lunch; we started by splitting a pizza (salami, sausage, and ham I think) and then Erica had homemade spaghetti noodles (they were fatter than normal spaghetti) and Bolognese sauce, and I got normal spaghetti and meatballs; all accompanied by the house red wine. Of course after this we got another thing of gelato (strawberry and pineapple again, different than the time before but still great); completely unnecessary at this point, but totally worth it.
Stuffed, satisfied, sleepy…goodnight.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Really Bad Timing and Really Good Stuff
At the beginning of the day today we got mixed signals as to how the rest of the day would go. We stopped at a bakery at the end of the street where our hostel is located and got croissants fresh out of the oven, and they were delicious. However after snagging a morning bite we headed to the Colosseum, and once again we were foiled…this time for a service men parade of some kind. We couldn’t believe it, on day one we couldn’t see the Colosseum because of some bike race and today our plans somehow managed to conflict with a random parade. At this point we decided to head to the Vatican hoping we wouldn’t strike out there as well. At first we thought we did...
Let me enlighten you on something about the Vatican…there are people everywhere offering “skip the line tickets and tours”. While these are valid methods of entering the Vatican they are highly unnecessary. Almost immediately after getting off the subway blocks from the Vatican we were met by people trying to offer us this great opportunity to skip the lines, for a certain price of course. All these people ensured us that we’d have to wait for hours to get into the Vatican and that we should take them up on their tour offer. Now I know why they greet you blocks before the entrance; because they’re trying to convince you of a line that doesn’t exist…no line, no wait, no extra fee needed. Perhaps on “fee Sunday” when we were in a line at least a half a mile long paying the fee to skip the line would have been worth it, but not a normal weekday like today. So we felt good that we finally made it into the Vatican, and at a price that was reasonable. Before actually reaching the Sistine Chapel we were lead through hall after hall of statues and paintings, it was all very cool but we were there to see the famous room. The Sistine Chapel lived up to the hype, and while you’re not supposed to take pictures I was able to take some covert photos with the help of Erica as a blocker. After the Vatican we went to St. Peter’s basilica, the famed area where everyone gathers to see the pope. The inside of the basilica was ginormous and as impressive as St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. After the basilica we headed to the church where the chains that bound Peter while he was imprisoned were enshrined. Our final major stop for today was Palatine Hill, and yes, finally the Colosseum. It was crazy to see all of the ruins at Palatine Hill were you can actually still see the remnants of a society that existed 2000 some years ago. The same is true for the Colosseum, a massive arena that was substantial enough to last for all these years and still exist today.
Oh and as for the really good stuff; we found a pizza place by the Vatican that we ate at before St. Peter’s basilica…and afterwards too. And for dinner we walked around until we found a restaurant; Erica had spaghetti Bolognese and I had the lasagna. We got stuffed, it was great, and we finished it off with some more gelato…this time I mixed strawberry and pineapple, perhaps my favorite so far.
Let me enlighten you on something about the Vatican…there are people everywhere offering “skip the line tickets and tours”. While these are valid methods of entering the Vatican they are highly unnecessary. Almost immediately after getting off the subway blocks from the Vatican we were met by people trying to offer us this great opportunity to skip the lines, for a certain price of course. All these people ensured us that we’d have to wait for hours to get into the Vatican and that we should take them up on their tour offer. Now I know why they greet you blocks before the entrance; because they’re trying to convince you of a line that doesn’t exist…no line, no wait, no extra fee needed. Perhaps on “fee Sunday” when we were in a line at least a half a mile long paying the fee to skip the line would have been worth it, but not a normal weekday like today. So we felt good that we finally made it into the Vatican, and at a price that was reasonable. Before actually reaching the Sistine Chapel we were lead through hall after hall of statues and paintings, it was all very cool but we were there to see the famous room. The Sistine Chapel lived up to the hype, and while you’re not supposed to take pictures I was able to take some covert photos with the help of Erica as a blocker. After the Vatican we went to St. Peter’s basilica, the famed area where everyone gathers to see the pope. The inside of the basilica was ginormous and as impressive as St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. After the basilica we headed to the church where the chains that bound Peter while he was imprisoned were enshrined. Our final major stop for today was Palatine Hill, and yes, finally the Colosseum. It was crazy to see all of the ruins at Palatine Hill were you can actually still see the remnants of a society that existed 2000 some years ago. The same is true for the Colosseum, a massive arena that was substantial enough to last for all these years and still exist today.
Oh and as for the really good stuff; we found a pizza place by the Vatican that we ate at before St. Peter’s basilica…and afterwards too. And for dinner we walked around until we found a restaurant; Erica had spaghetti Bolognese and I had the lasagna. We got stuffed, it was great, and we finished it off with some more gelato…this time I mixed strawberry and pineapple, perhaps my favorite so far.
Monday, June 1, 2009
The Little Town of Siena
Today we took a day train to Siena, Italy. It’s a small town that still has lots of very old architecture and streets. A couple of the highlights in Siena were il Campo, a large semicircular shaped central area lined with shops and restaurants, and the Duomo, alleged to be Italy’s prettiest cathedral. The one unfortunate thing about today was the rain. Siena was very beautiful, but we feel that we missed a lot due to the umbrella traffic and lack of visibility to the beautiful Italian countryside. Because of the rain we spent most of our time at Siena’s Duomo and associated exhibitions and museums. While we were going through the Duomo museum we were able to go up to the top of a tower and where we could see all of Siena, or most at least because of the rain…Erica and I wonder how pretty the city and the Italian hillsides would be on a sunny day. Despite the weather we did manage to get our pizza and gelato (chocolate and milk chocolate combo) for the second consecutive today…mmm.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Bad Timing and Good Stuff
BTW: To this point Erica and I have sparingly indulged in sweets and food items that aren’t entirely necessary. In France we did have our fair share of crepes, in Germany we got a pretzel, but Italy is where we really wanted to take advantage of the local food items and treats.
We started off the day trying the Vatican because on the last Sunday of the month entry is free…well apparently if you plan to take advantage of this you need a tent and a lot of free time the night before. From there we tried the Colosseum and found out that apparently Italy’s equivalent of the Tour de France is going on, Tour d’Italia, and lucky for us the home stretch encircled the Colosseum…strike two I guess. Lucky for us on our third try we feel like we hit a home run. We went to the Spanish Steps that is infamously known as a gathering and eating place in Rome. By the time we got there it was lunch time so we found a nearby pizzeria. We found here that instead of charging by the slice they charge per kilogram; Erica got marguerite (basically just cheese) and I got salami (close to pepperoni). After getting our appropriate weight of pizza they fold it up and wrap it in paper. From there we walked over to the Spanish Steps and had our first real Italian pizza…yum.
After the steps we went to the Pantheon and Trivi Fountain. The Pantheon was incredible and still in immaculate condition. Everything about that building has a purpose: the central opening at the top of the dome provides all of the necessary light for the space during the day and also creates natural ventilation as the heat rises up and out the top. The opening also acts as a sundial, as the direct sunlight enters through the opening it hits the walls and the time can be determined based on location. The one problem that is caused by the opening is that it allows rain into the building; this isn’t really a problem at all actually….when you walk inside the Pantheon you can feel a slight slope in the floor. The very center of the Pantheon is the highest point in the building so when it rains all that needs to be in is to open the doors and let the rain drain straight out. All cool stuff…oh and the other cool thing was just outside the Pantheon is where experienced our first gelato. Up to this point we’d passed on ice cream because we were holding out for the gelato, I think it was worth it. The Trivi Fountain was very pretty, but also very crowded making the perfect shot hard to attain. We were patient and got some pretty good pictures, we also made sure to throw a coin backwards over our shoulder into the fountain to ensure our return to Rome. For dinner we had pasta at a restaurant on a side street, it was pretty good and well priced, but we’re still waiting for that plate of fantastic Italian pasta.
Arivvederci…?
We started off the day trying the Vatican because on the last Sunday of the month entry is free…well apparently if you plan to take advantage of this you need a tent and a lot of free time the night before. From there we tried the Colosseum and found out that apparently Italy’s equivalent of the Tour de France is going on, Tour d’Italia, and lucky for us the home stretch encircled the Colosseum…strike two I guess. Lucky for us on our third try we feel like we hit a home run. We went to the Spanish Steps that is infamously known as a gathering and eating place in Rome. By the time we got there it was lunch time so we found a nearby pizzeria. We found here that instead of charging by the slice they charge per kilogram; Erica got marguerite (basically just cheese) and I got salami (close to pepperoni). After getting our appropriate weight of pizza they fold it up and wrap it in paper. From there we walked over to the Spanish Steps and had our first real Italian pizza…yum.
After the steps we went to the Pantheon and Trivi Fountain. The Pantheon was incredible and still in immaculate condition. Everything about that building has a purpose: the central opening at the top of the dome provides all of the necessary light for the space during the day and also creates natural ventilation as the heat rises up and out the top. The opening also acts as a sundial, as the direct sunlight enters through the opening it hits the walls and the time can be determined based on location. The one problem that is caused by the opening is that it allows rain into the building; this isn’t really a problem at all actually….when you walk inside the Pantheon you can feel a slight slope in the floor. The very center of the Pantheon is the highest point in the building so when it rains all that needs to be in is to open the doors and let the rain drain straight out. All cool stuff…oh and the other cool thing was just outside the Pantheon is where experienced our first gelato. Up to this point we’d passed on ice cream because we were holding out for the gelato, I think it was worth it. The Trivi Fountain was very pretty, but also very crowded making the perfect shot hard to attain. We were patient and got some pretty good pictures, we also made sure to throw a coin backwards over our shoulder into the fountain to ensure our return to Rome. For dinner we had pasta at a restaurant on a side street, it was pretty good and well priced, but we’re still waiting for that plate of fantastic Italian pasta.
Arivvederci…?
Friday, May 29, 2009
A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush
Well I’ll start off by saying I’m definitely not disappointed with today…however things could have gone better. We arrived in Nice yesterday and today we set out for the beach. The hostel we’re staying at right now is a ways away from the coast so it takes a long time to get to anywhere where you can see the Mediterranean. We hear about a great beach a little ways from Nice at Cape d’Ail, so that’s where we headed first. It took forever to actually get into Nice to take the bus to the beach so we didn’t end up getting to Cape d’Ail until around 1 pm. And even once we got off the bus it took about 20 minutes to walk down the winding streets to the little cove where the beach, called Plaga Mala, was located. The area was very pretty but not as good as advertised by some others (it was still pretty awesome don’t get me wrong). We were there for probably 2 or 3 hours…then we saw a guy who had arrived at the hostel the same time as us yesterday and he told us we should go to Monaco because the beach there was awesome and so much better…so we went. Well Monaco was a little bit of a nightmare. The city is built for driving, not for walking…which I suppose is why their Grand Prix is such a big deal. It took forever to get to the beach, which is cool but no better than where we were before. We got back to Nice around 7:30 pm or so and were exhausted from all the run around…what we should’ve done, instead of hunting for beaches outside of Nice, is just stay put and be content. Nice is a very cool city and we wish we had more time here to take it all in. Tonight we grabbed a pizza from a take-away stand and headed to the beach where we ate our pizza on a bench. After that Erica got an ice cream cone and I had my last French crepe, this time cinnamon…which, by the way, was fantastic!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)