As I travel from Naples to Florence, with Utsavi tired and asleep I have nothing else but contemplate on the wonderful trip we had so far. I have always believed - life is all about experiences - good or bad. It's the experiences that shape you as a person and what an amazing experience we have had so far
Rome - the eternal city - The start of the trip was not great for us . As soon as we landed, the adventure began - how do we get to our hotel from the airport ? Though we had been planning the trip over And over again , trying to cover all the loopholes it still is different once you land. We managed to get the Leonard express eventually. As the train ran past stations whose names we can never pronounce,we just thought how close to india, Rome felt. We could see clothe lines hanging from apartment homes, graffiti on trains and stations, etc. We reached romo(as the Italians like to call it) central station - and the dreadful walks began. Our hotel description said just 1 km from the station :) we started our walk - sometimes guessing, sometimes asking strangers in some random languAge which can be best described as dumb charades :) after half an hour we finally found the key to the puzzle - the map of Rome. The problem was we took the wrong exit of the train station. Quick fact - train stations in Italy are more like airports. after passing through some shady areas, we reached our "hotel". Using that word again for the place we stayed at would be an insult to the word - no front desk , no ac/ heater/ fan, no soap, and we realized the next day - no cleaning :(
We decided that we had to stay out of that place to make the most of our stay which eventually worked for us.
Places visited - trevi fountain, Spanish steps(twice), pantheon, Vatican city ( museum, Sistine Chapel, st peters square ), piaza novano, fountain republica, colosseum, roman forum, palatine hill
The description of most of these places is beyond words, probably the photos will do a partial justice to it.
In adjectives
Vatican city - historical, must see , blows the mind
Colosseo - huge, gladiator ( I know it's not an adjective but it best describes the place)
Pantheon - outstanding dome
Roman forum, palantine hill - old, unbelievable , at times boring
Piaza novano - alive
Though the sites were beyond words, the walk around the city was brutal. Though we took some local buses we almost walked 6 hrs a day or more on average, add to that some navigation woes, getting used to the language and a really bad room and we were left exhausted at the end of Rome. We had to ourselves some amazing pics and things to talk about but needed more energy as we were just 2 days into our trip, and then came positano :)
Positano - amalfi coast
Probably not many people have heard of this quaint town on the amalfi coast but after a fast paced Rome this was what the doctor ordered :) slow, scenic and laid back. It took us 6 hrs to reach positano from Rome - 2 trains and a crowded bus. We were badly hoping for a better hotel this time. By now we knew our Italian English :p and were a little familiar with the road notations. Reaching the hotel was a breeze, and when we entered we saw great floors with floral designs, a nice lobby, and some cheery hotel folks smiling at us. All the travel fatigue melted away :) the rooms were spectacular with a view of the Mediterranean sea and the small town. After a long lunch at the beach (all the food we ate till date was a combination of pizza/pasta or both and the tradition continued) We decided to take it easy and relaxed till the evening. And were again ready for the great sunset on the coast. The colors were amazing and the colorful town added to the glory. Just like Rome we were hoping to get a postcard pic of positano with the lights on just by the sea but to our disappointment, the people of the village were not in the mood to oblige :) We decided to call it a day and got ready for our trip to the island of Capri
Capri - half day trip
After that relaxed day @ positano we were up early by 7 and wanted to catch the 1st and only ferry to the island. The experience at our hotel in positano kept getting better with the great breakfast they served us. And btw, we have never been more satisfied with our cappuccino. The coffee in this country beats all. As soon as we started going towards Capri we realized this was going to be probably the best boat trip we had ever had - tall limestone hills rising dramatically from the sea in formations we can never imagine. Nature was at it's full glory. We passed the famous farmigiioni rocks and some grottos (read sea caves), we even passed through one. :) As the boat captain showed us villas of rock stars and presidents we realized we were probably in one of the top places on this planet. We reached the isle and took the chair lift to the highest point on the coast of Naples - top of mount solero. Again can't describe it in words. :) got to see it to believe it. We wanted to visit a cave which is called the blue grotto but couldn't make it because of lack of time but no regrets whatsoever ..
And here I am sitting on the train to Florence, almost there .. One more day , one more city to explore
Florence/Tuscany -
We reached Florence in the evening, after leaving our bags and relaxing for a while we decided to go out for some food. Found a good place next door. By now, we knew all the menus - atleast the veggie part :) we roamed on the streets after dinner and decided to sleep early as the next day was going to be a long one and then began the adventure.
The best of Tuscany tour- we had booked this tour since we wanted to pack a lot in the couple of days we had in Florence. The tour went to - sienna, San gimmiogni (I still don't know how to spell/pronounce this), Pisa and a wine yard in the country side. It felt like a picnic as we were almost 60 people on the bus. The guide was Italian and had a great sense of humor- much needed when you are conducting a 12 hr tour. Each of the cities was unique and had something which left an impression.
Sienna - the traditional horse race. As they say - the race describes the city. If you understand the passion behind the race you will understand the people of sienna. The city is built on hills with no water nearby, hence the city is preserved almost in it's purest form. You can still walk in the streets , 500 years old and there are still horse parking spaces on the buildings. :)
San gimiogni - the medieval manhattan. Again city on a hill, again well preserved, UN heritage site. We have now started calling this cities - city museums as there is no way people can actually live here the whole life, it's more of an experience but it has shops, hotels, etc. The best part - it has the world champion gelato maker serving ice cream in this small town. Had the best ice cream of our trip here. Called medieval manhattan because - the medieval lords competed with each other on how tall they can build their tower. Higher the social status , taller the tower.
Pisa - leaning tower, of ofcourse. Pisa is a complete opposite of sienna, San gimignioni. Built on a river, sinking soil and hence the lean. Quick facts - lean of the tower is not designed but just happened because of the soil. The other 2 structures also lean but are not famous as they are not tall enough. Fun fact - Pisa has lots of research schools , but were not given the architecture faculty as people thought they can't even build a tower right. :) we now have the famous holding the leaning tower pic.
Tuscany- all these cities fall under an area called Tuscany- famous for it's lush green fields and wine yards. The landscape is breath taking.
A great overview of tuscany was followed by a slow relaxed morning. We didn't want to see too much art, architecture as we were full of it after Rome/Vatican so we decided to skip the statue of David and the museums. Instead it was time to shop. Till now we had found most of the stuff either too weird for our taste or too expensive. Finally, utsavi found a couple of purses :) thankfully those were not too expensive and saved us a trip to the bank. After the shopping, we decided to go up the duomo of Florence. The sign @ the door read - 463 steps, no elevator. We disregarded it and started climbing- with the camera bag and a couple of shopping bags:) the steps went from narrow to narrower and people coming down used the same stairs. I am sure a couple of people might have cursed us seeing us climb with those shopping bags :p but we made it. Views of Tuscany with the whole of Florence. Red roofs looked great in front of green landscapes and then the walk down. Well worth the climb. Next stop - the romantic city of Venice.
Venice - the city of canals. As soon as you reach Venice, you feel you have reached a place different from the rest. You see no vehicles and have a water equivalent of everything. There are water buses, water taxis, personal boats and for a rich limousine type experience - gondolas. We took a water bus to our hotel. The best part of our hotel - hotel bartolomeo was the location. It was right near Rialto bridge and minutes from St marks square. The rooms were decent sized and clean. However cool the water bus might seem, it was just ok and extremely over priced. A 10 min ride cost 6.5 euros, it was probably the sign of things in Venice. Venice in general is pretty overpriced. Though Venice looks great in pictures, it is not very clean. It is more of an experience - especially the old city. The old city is like pols in Ahmedabad. Very narrow lanes , all structures 500 years old and all connected by water. Since this is a city built on swamps we saw a lot of insects too along with many designer shops. The feel of the place is very vibrant because of it's narrow alleys filled with shops and tourists. Each alley looks the same and you can get lost very easily. But that's one of the todos in Venice - get lost on the streets ;) As each day went by our tolerance for pizza/pasta was hitting a new low. Now even the good ones looked drab to us. We were craving spices. We found that there was 1 Indian restaurant in Venice but was v. Expensive. Decided to have fruits instead. Just wonder how even the foods that you generally like can become so boring after an excess of it. We had no choice- next meal we were back to pizza :p Venice like all the places in Italy is a lot of walking- the schedule was walk for a couple of hrs, have gelato ( surprisingly 1 thing we never got bored of even after having it every single day) walk some more , if too tired head to the hotel - take rest for a while again walk. After all that walking the gondola ride seemed very sweet. We decided to take the ride in the evening so that the weather has cooled of a little. Our driver was a nice Italian guy with a good voice ;) after a bit of negotiating, we were on the boat slowly going through the internal canals. Suddenly to make the ride special the driver started singing. It was a great experience to feel the city of Venice. People who were on top of the bridges waved to us, probably thinking that it was our honeymoon or that I'll pop the question ;) but that made it pretty embarrassing :) one more todo in Venice checked off.
Murano- after a day in Venice , we wanted to explore the island of murano for 2 reasons - Venice looked all the same to us and we saw too many great glass designs from murano in Venice. Murano is filled with glass factories , they have free demos of how they blow glass and make all those fantastic stuff from chandeliers to wine glasses to home decoration. It was a quick 15 -20 min demo but it was great to see the talent of the glass artists there- made a glass horse in 2 mins flat.
As our stay in Venice was coming to an end, we started feeling a little home sick. We discussed that an ideal length of vacation should be 8 days. The italian architecture was looking all the same to us now. We didn't mind seeing one less basilica or duomo :p With that thought we left for our final stop in Italy - Milan.
Milan/ Bellagio - being techies, we had figured out the way to reach hotels without being lost now. Screen shots of google maps zoomed in all the way to even see landmarks like hotel names :) no wrong step and we reached our hotel in milan. Milan was extremely hot that day and the train ride had left us exhausted. But the plan for the day was - bellagio a small village on lake como ( one of the few lakes on the border of Italy and Switzerland). We were 2 days away from the end and all we had was 50 euros left from the money we carried. We thought we'll quickly get some cash from the countless exchange places you see on the stations. The exchanges charge a commission of a freaking 20% on each transactions. We were shocked and refused to give in to this outrageous rates. As we went to check for the train times for the train to the lake we figured there was just one train every 2 hrs and the train was leaving in 15 mins. We decided to go for it and there we were- every move from now on had to be precise, 1 wrong move and we'll literally have to beg.. Utsavi even suggested we sing jai ho on the streets to raise some money, in case needed :) in the end we survived and even took a very scenic boat ride to the town. Again pictures will speak much louder and clearer on the beauty of this place. But this was possibly the remotest area of Italy that we explored and that too with almost no money (we ofcourse had our credit cards, and would have possibly used them but it was still a thrill none the less ) Eventually we figured that ATMs were best to withdraw money. So we were rich again :p
The next day was a quick tour to the duomo of Milan, some shopping and a ride to the airport, it was time to bid adieu to Italy.
Things we loved - history, culture, tourist friendly ( they had tourist information centers in even the remotest areas), architecture, natural beauty
Challenges - language, lack of free Internet atleast in budget hotels, learning the public transport system ( though it's efficient it takes a while to figure it out), walking ( most of the older cities are walking cities, we literally walked an average of atleast 5 hrs everyday), food ( pizza, pasta is all you get.. Though I love them after 10 straight meals of just that you crave for spices)
Quick tour of Paris- we were happy that all went according to plan and the trip had been a very memorable one so far and then Paris happened. Possibly the worst 12 hours of the trip barring the 40 mins we got to see the Eiffel tower. If we thought language was somewhat of a problem in Italy, Paris was a disaster- not even bus drivers or hotel staff can speak proper English. Add to that there are not as many tourists ( or atleast we didn't see them ), the train route from the airport to our hotel was under repairs ( underground subways confuse the hell out of you if you don't know where to exit from) and the kind of people you see in the trains. Overall it took us 3.5 hours from the time our flight landed to reach the hotel. We were so drained by the time we almost decided to skip Eiffel tower. Somehow we managed to gather some strength and took the trip. We just had 40-45 mins viewing the tower but in hind sight am glad we managed to do it. The tower is gorgeous and it has a sparkle show every hour. On our way back we ate one more pizza possibly our last for some while now ( Paris unlike Italy has a lot of food options but we were too late and exhausted). Also we decided to skip all the public transits and booked an airport shuttle for the next day.
So now here I am 2 hrs away from SF looking back at what an adventure we have had. Lots of stories to tell and pictures to share. This trip though very much different to the relaxing Hawaii will surely be as memorable.
