Our Amalfi Coast Day

**This post on our visit to the Amalfi Coast should have appeared a few days ago, but I didn't get around to posting it until today. It was a bit of a disappointment so I think I didn't want to reflect on the details; recapping some of our more recent better events has been way more fun. :) Nevertheless it was still a really awesome experience to go from having seen something on tv (House Hunters International), arranging to go there, and then having everything become reality. Too cool! **

Our day trip to the Amalfi Coast started with a rush to the Naples train station (about a 20 min walk) to put our backpacks into storage for the day. We stopped by a small pastry shop for breakfast near the station and had the most wonderful cornetti (croissants filled with marmalade) and caffe lattes for breakfast. We headed back to the BNB and our driver was there awaiting to take us to the Amalfi port. We decided to go with a quasi-limo service because it was too difficult to make it to the port for 10am without spending a fortune on a different hotel. The cheapest place to stay in Amalfi for example was somewhere around $600 or Euros (I don't remember which) a night. Ha!

The drive was a little less eventful than many other people have made it out to be. Yes the roads were windy and yes the streets were very very narrow, but all in all it wasn't too nerve wracking at all. Our driver didn't speak much English, but he did point out the little towns we passed as we went by.

We arrived in Amafi about 1 hour early, so we explored the shops for a little while. We went to the meeting point about 15 minutes before our scheduled departure and they told us we'd be leaving about 10 minutes late. Long story short, this happened 3 more times and then once we finally did get going we had to stop back at the harbour to pick up another couple that was late...

The boat tour itself was a bit of a disappointment. I was anticipating that our guide would point things out as we went along and tell some stories, similar to all of the other cruises I've been on, but because of a language barrier/lack of enthusiasm, we only caught the names of the places. That being said, the scenery was still every bit as wonderful as we could have asked for, the weather was perfect: warm with a slight breeze, and we had some excellent company.

We stopped at the infamous Blue Grotto and paid an extra 5 Euro to go and have a row boat tour of the inside. This was pretty cool. It's a large cave inset from the coast, and is about the same size as a small house. Inside it's pitch black except for this blue-y green bright colour of the water. This happens because there's a tunnel underneath the surface of the cave walls that brings in sunlight from the outside. Quite an interesting natural phenomenon if you can call it that.

After the Blue Grotto, our next stop was the island of Capri. We were only supposed to stop for an hour for lunch according to the schedule, but it ended up being 3h45... We had some over-priced food and explored the shops, but again, it wasn't quite what we expected. The island is oriented towards people with a LOT of money, so it just wasn't really for us. Beautiful views though!

The ride home was a little more interesting in that we could see a HUGE rain storm approaching. Sure enough we spent the last half hour of the boat ride crammed into the hull of the boat trying to avoid getting drenched. We arrived back 1h45min late which meant that we had missed both possible buses to make our connection to the appropriate stations to make our overnight train connections... Both Lenny and I were not impressed. After telling our sob story to another cruise line operator, they helped us to stop the last ferry of the day, run to it, and then speedily make it through the town of Salerno for a train connection. We made it, but it was quite a stressful end to a fairly peaceful day in the sun.

The 10/11-hour journey from Salerno to Catania, Sicily by train was quite cramped, very cold, and did I mention cramped? Neither Lenny nor I got up once during the night simply because we'd have to crawl over two sleeping sick kids and an old sketchy Italian man. All in all though, we made it, it was cheap, and we would survive even if we did it again.

Da Vinci

Today we took a combination of train/bus to Vinci, the birthplace of Leonardo Da Vinci. We spent a measly 4 Euro per person to enter the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum which basically takes up about 50% of the town of 1500's space.

The museum was really cool. There weren't any artifacts of his, but there were dozens and dozens of working scale models of some of his inventions. They included many types of cranes (that's how they got the marble up the sides of giant churches), weapons, flying machines, boats, textile machines, clocks, etc.. We were both really impressed with the scope, detail, and explanation (iTouch guides!) for all of the exhibits.

I should also mention that half of the museum is housed in a 15th-century castle with some original frescoes still remaining. The top of the castle also had amazing views of the Tuscan landscape.

After visiting the gift store and having a quick lunch, we headed back to the bus stop to return home only to find out that even though buses arrive and finish in Vinci every 20 minutes coming from Empoli, they only return once every 2 hours! Luckily we only had 1h55min to wait for the next bus... Thankfully we found solace in a gelato shop for a while only to hear some loud-ish engines running outside. I went out for a peak to discover a bus for Empoli had arrived! We ran and had an excellent shorter-than-anticipated trip back to our place in Florence.

We decided to do a bit of laundry when we got back. It was a bit of an experience in that the power kept going out in the laundromat we were using, however, 1h30min later we had lots of much better smelling and looking clothes. I don't think we've mentioned the weather recently, but it's about 34 Celcius here in Florence. Ick. Especially after climbing stairs all day. Ick.

After laundry we went out for dinner. I don't recall where we went exactly, but we had some wonderful pizza and Florentine Steak. We've been told that this is a must while in Florence, and we were not disappointed. It was a succulent thick T-bone steak seasoned only with salt and pepper and grilled rare. The special part about it is the actual cow it comes from: it's very meatier and less muscle-y. I'm not really too sure how to describe it, so perhaps google it if you're more interested or that doesn't make sense!

Tomorrow we have our last full day in Florence and hope to see the statue of David as well as lots of other works of art.

Ciao for now!

The 5-minute Tuscan Recap

Hi all,

It's 1am here so this recap will be a brief one.

We chose to take a tour provided by Walk About Tours through a handful of Tuscan towns today. There was a coach full of other like-minded travelers and a guide who sort of spoke English.

Our stops were Sienna, San Gimignano (sp?), an organic farm and winery, and finally a stop in Pisa. Sienna had one of the most beautiful churches we've ever seen with a lot of multi-coloured marble work, San Gimignano had some Delicious gelato, the lunch at the winery was Delicious, and we climbed 294 steps for some fantastic shots from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa.


More of a recap tomorrow, I promise!

-Heather

Sicily - Mt. Etna and area

Sicily – the Guided Tour

It's Lenny here, and today we've arrived back from our guided tour of some parts of Sicily, focused on Mt. Etna, as well as local food and wine. We were picked up by our driver/guide Antonio, who was the sweetest person I have met so far. He spoke impeccable English, as well as German, so we were right at home conversing mainly in English, though for some practice we attempted Italian.

Antonio gave us a narrated tour everywhere he took us, with our first stop to the lava fields before Mt. Etna. As we arrived this morning via overnight train to Catania, Sicily, it started to rain (a lot). Due to the rain, we no longer planned hiking any portion of the mountain, however the scenery and stops were just as breath-taking.

The lava fields we saw were from every major eruption from the 1600's to present day, and if I'm not mistaken the major dates were: 1630's, 1880's, 1910, 1982, 2001. The entire island is described by its volcanic geology – hard volcanic basalt became weathered and eroded until it yielded a very fertile, mineral-rich soil. This soil is what sustains an unbelievable amount of agriculture (wine, citrus fruits, nuts) as well as a great biodiversity of plants.

On the drive up to Mt. Etna proper, we stopped in at the Silvestri Craters, named in the 1910's for the discovering geologist. They are a series of craters that were once active lava tubes, and now a tourist attraction. I got a picture at the peak of the tallest one (1950 m above sea level) wearing my Vibrams. =D (Also, beacause it was wet and unseasonably cold, about 7 degrees Celsius, I ran barefoot up to the top to snap some pictures, then ran back down just to keep warm and to say I ran up a volcano). To see these craters, point your Google machine to the following coordinates: N 37 degrees 41.841 minutes & E 15 degrees 00.333 minutes ( click here )

Today, access to the crater of Etna is tightly controlled. Tourists are required to get an official guide beyond the 2000 m elevation point so that deaths from stupidly climbing an active volcano are avoided. The last deaths were in 2008 and 2010 from people being unsafe and climbing alone, or falling into canyons as the earth under them gave way to an abyss.

On our way to lunch, we made two pit stops. The first was on the side of the road, and is an access point to (one of the many) lava tubes. These tubes are remnants of old eruptions, but now exist as caves. The one we went into was filled with large volcanic rocks, and was about 200 metres long, and varying heights and widths. We only went in about 40 metres to get a sense for what these caves are like. Beyond that point and special climbing gear is required.

The second pit stop was to a town on the other side of the mountain, Zafferana. This town is known for its artisan crafts and agriculture, particularly for its honey production. We went to a local honey making business, the largest and most famous of the town, for a tasting of 10 different honies (such as chestnut, orange, various flowers, strawberry, mixed berry, pistachio), 8 flavoured oils they also make, as well as 5 different regional wines. One wine I have to point out which was a sweet dessert wine is make from almonds, and tasted very similar to Amaretto liqueur, but is in fact wine.

Our final stop before a winding drive to our hotel was to the Gambino Winery (no connetion to the Gambino crime family). This was a charming little villa where we had a special tasting menu arranged for us by Antonio and the owner of the winery. The winery started off as a joke, just to see if they could grow wine in the region's soil, and it turns out they have one of the oldest DOC classified vinyard in all of Sicily, dating to the late 1960s. There are 22 DOC vinyards and another 20 or so IGT vinyards on the island.

The menu featured 5 locally produced wines, paired with a selection of local vegetables, cheeses, sausages, and was finished with a almond cookie dessert and espresso. This was SO delicious and I would highly recommend this place to everyone. I ended up buying a couple of bottles of wine to consume along our way North. =)

Time to get some dinner, cheers everyone.

Sicily

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you know we arrived in Sicily safe and sound this morning. We had a wonderful day touring wineries and Mt. Etna, but due to only 3 hours of sleep last night and 5 glasses of wine today, an update will have to wait until tomorrow.

Ciao!

Day 9 - Naples, Pompei, and Sorrento

Heather here again. I let Lenny take over the posting for the past few days because he truly knows a lot more about ancient Roman history and is able to give a better description of everything. Today's adventures were a bit more easy for me to grasp after a few crash courses already in Italian history, so let's see how this goes.

This morning after another delicious breakfast brought by our BNB hosts (see the pic on Facebook), we took the train out to Pompei. We bought this Naples Artecard a few days ago that gave us unlimited access to the equivalent of Go Transit (suburban travel around Naples) and unlimited access to all of the sights you could ever want to see (the archeological digs, museums, etc). The train to Pompei was about 40 minutes long and was standing room only but eventually with about 10 minutes to go we both got to sit down :).  We were both pleased that the train we got ot in Naples actually went to Pompeii because the smart Italians decided to have four trains leaving from one platform (they're not labeled) in stead of having one train per platform, which you'd think would make more sense.

So Pompei. after having only a so-so time in the 40-degree weather at the Herculaneum yesterday, I convinced Lenny that it'd be good to have a tour guide for the visit to Pompei to keep me focused and less likely to complain (ha!).Anyhoo for only 10 Euro each we ended up with a fantasticguide who took us around for 2 hours. We saw the casts of bodies that we didn't see at the Herculaneum yesterday (and wwere kind of expecting to), as well as some recently discovered bronze chests, carts, and pots. There were also plenty of ruins and columns to see as wwell but no statues (they are all at the museum). There were a LOT of tourists and it was pretty warm, but all in all it was a good visit. There's something like 40 acres to explore and even thought we only did something like 5, it was still an amazing experience. At the end of the tour we were offered a trip to go 30 minutes through the city to view a few more buildings including the arenas however after walking for 2 hours on Roman roads at high sun, I don't think anyone in our group of 14 opted for that. FYI, the most common things you'll see at Pompeii are: old bakeries including the mills they used to grind flour and ovens, homes including some original frescos and tile flooring, a handful of brothels with rather entertaining "menus" painted on the wall, and some ruins of temples.

After a very expensive, over-priced, and yet oh-so-delicious lunch outside the Pompeii ruins, we decided to spend the rest of our day in Sorrento, which at that point was only an additional 20 minute train ride. Sorrento, turns out, is Awesome. It's very similar to Niagara-on-the-Lake or Westport, in that it is really catered to tourists and super clean. This was SUCH a welcome change from stinky stinky dirty dirty Naples (you'd honestly think they were on a garbage strike here and that no one knows or cares if there's graffiti on 3000 year old buildings). Once we got off the train at Sorrento there wwere rows and rows of high end and average price clothing stores. The next street down had lots and lots of touristy shops and we picked up some gifts from there. Sorrento is known for its lemons and I saw some of the biggest I've ever seen in my entire life -- some about the same size as my head! There were a lot of lemon products for sale for this reason: lemon soaps, lemon napkins, and of course lemoncello (an alcohol). We sampled some of the lemoncello and while it's not really my cup of tea, Lenny liked it.We got some beautiful pictures once we made it down to the coast and also stopped for some caffe lattes and gelato.

Tomorrow we're being picked up at our bnb by a driver to take us on the infamous Amalfi coast drive for which I've been forewarned that my knuckles will turn white for about 2 hours... Around 10, however, we get to go on an 8-hour private boat cruise of the coast including stops at the Blue Grotto and other grottos I'm blanking on right now. This was one of our splurges for our trip and after something cumulative like 40 hours looking at ruins over the past three days, I'm really looking forward to it :)

Ciao for now,

Heather

The Underground, Archeology, Volcanoes and Viagra!

After our first two full days in Naples, Lenny has decided to condense two days into one. After initially arriving here in the mid-afternoon and wandering the streets well into the night, we started off fearing a little for our safety. After all, we were warned to be on guard for petty crime. I'm happy to report that the daytime life here is quite vibrant and family friendly, albeit crowded and crammed with vehicles (even on the sidewalks).

Yesterday (May 18^th) was a day devoted to touring sites around the city. Naples has a wonderful art, culture and bus pass system, called Artecard, which integrates fares and admissions all into one card. We hit up the National Archeological Museum, spending our whole morning there. Within the museum are many artefacts primarily from 3^rd Century BC to 2^nd Century AD. There are three galleries of note: a historical account of monies and economic affairs; a wing of many famous marble sculptures mainly curations of Pompei and Herculaneum; and last but not least, the “secret room” housing all things erotic (mostly fertility idols and lewd art).

The afternoon was kicked off by pizza and a tour of the Naples Underground, quite literally the subterranean city. We started off by seeing an ancient Greek theatre, that went into ruin after the fall of the Ancient Greeks, was built back up by the Romans, fell into disrepair again, and was built on top of in medieval times. At modern street level, the anient theatre lay 10 metres below ground, and what would have been the original dressing rooms, became encased by newly constructed buildings and used as private family dwellings until as recently as 10 months ago. We continued to see a detailed tour of Roman and Greek aqueducts which were in use until after WWII, and were even able to squeeze along tight water tunnels to get to some of the existing aquifers and wells. During WWII, the tunnels were used to house approximately 1000 families, as Naples was one of the most frequently bombed cities in Italy (due to its harbour). The coolest thing I found was the pozzolana, or water impermeable covering, coating the waterways was still very much in tact.

Today was our second full day in Napoli. We headed out immediately to see the Ercolano (Herculaneum) archeological site. This site is the best preserved site compared to Pompeii, and I am told more detailed in the remaining architecture. The archeologists found remains of organic matter, including plants, bread loaves, and fabrics which are typically the first items to decay. The overall city was quit impressive, literally laying at the bottom of a crater within the town of Ercolano. Originally, the city was built on the coast, situated between two rivers and the shore. Today, it lays 60 meters below ground level and encased by volcanic rock on all sides. Only about 20% of the site has been excavated, and the remainder is largely under the existing town and will probably not be excavated.

The last stop of the day was really special. Since we've been getting around a lot via my GPS, I decided to look aruond for a geocache in the area of our B&B. I came across a site in the town of Pozzuoli, 10 km west of Napoli. This town is built around a sulfur volcano mesa, called Solfatara (Sulfur Mine). The mesa is approximately 600 meters by 700 meters in area, and is now a dormant volcano. It was once mined for sulfur, but today remains a site of geological study, still venting sulfur gas (H2S – the stuff that gives rotten eggs and natural gas their odour). There are natural ponds of boiling mud and water, rich in various rare earth minerals, that at one time were famous for their healing properties and used by spas. The age of Solfatara is not precisely known, but it is assumed that the crater was created during the activity phase from 36,000 to 38,000 years ago. The most recent large volcanic activity dating back to 4000 years ago. The 12th Century AD, phreatic eruptions are known. The volcanic activity of Campi Flegrei ends in 1538 with the outbreak and the formation of Monte Nuovo. The eruption was preceded by an elevation of the area by several meters during the previous decades. Since the 1970s there were several periods of seismic activity associated with uplift and subsidence of the area by up to 200 cm. During the activity period from 1982 to 1984 there was an elevation of two meters in the range of Solfatara, due to the formation of a small magma chamber and the associated heat input at the base of the aquifer. The greatest amount of uplift there was in the area of Pozzuoli.

Lastly, this volcano is famous for sex, or rather, the effect the sulfur gas has on impotency. In antiquity, this spring was said to cure infertility, and it took Italian researchers and now a Nobel prize winner to realize the connection between sulfur gas and impotence, and ultimately inventing Viagra. Isn't science fun?

On that note, it's late, and we're off to Pompei in the morning.

Ci vediamo!

Day 4 - To Naples

Today was a short train ride to the city of Naples, or Napoli. Napoli is situated on the Wet coast of Italy, about three-quarters of the way down the boot of the Italian peninsula. The area is famous for its gastronomy, specifically pizza ("invented" here) and fresh seafood. By the time we checked-in and ventured out into the city, two things were immediately evident: walking distances are further than within Rome; and the city is incredibly filthy. Seriously, there are trash piles littering every street, so much so that it reminded me of the time the garbage collectors went on strike in Toronto.  I wanted to ask the owner of our B&B about it if it wouldn't be so rude. Something else that is cautioned in all of our travel books is to be alert of pick-pockets and petty criminals (this is the capital for theft) and not to wander minor streets during siesta hours and after dark. During the day I'm not so worried, but at night it's a little scary. Overall the city is supposed to be fairly safe, but given these facts, I disagree.

Our B&B is very posh for a cheap accommodation. We have a real North American style mattress (spring-based) and the bathroom is exceptional. The shower is a combination nozzle and steam shower and (eventually) gets very hot, which has made these past windy cool days seem better.

When we ventured out today, we had no particular sights in mind, since we will be doing our real touring tomorrow. We ended up stumbling upon a number of beautiful, albeit rundown anddefaced, baroque and medieval churches and monuments. We ventured through a cool archway that looks like it was once the entrance to a castle. We happened upon some famous piazza's and took photos where we could.

I've tried uploading photos and will try this public link feature Facebook has provided:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100265045643781.2663230.58001381&l=f4755b299b

That's all for now. Tomorrow we are off to see the Napoletan underground catacombs/tunnels and the National Archeology Museum

Day 3 - Roman Tour

Lenny here. I'd like to start by saying that we are still very much jet-lagged, accomplishing 3 hours of sleep each of the past two nights. Today has been both the most strenuous, longest and andrenaline-fuelled day thus far.

We started the day in our usual Roman manner, leaving our hostel eating a breakfast of and apple and banana as we make our way to the local train station a few hundred meters away.The weather was un-expectedly cool and windy, and didn't really warm up until 2 pm, despite clear skies and bright sun all day.

Today consisted of 3 tours: the Roman Fora tours; the Vaitcan and religious tours; ending with a casual night life and baroque monument tour.

The many ancient ruins in the Fora consist largely of altars to gods, and government buildings. The chronology spans a few hundred years, encompassing the Roman Senate building, to triumphal arcs of Emperors, an altar to Julius Caesar and some unknown structures. Our tour guide, Giovanni, was most knowledgeable about the area, and illuminated the major influence the Catholic Church and religion had in shaping the design of Rome. He is writing up a post-graduate thesis in ancient Roman archaeology, and was involved in archaelogical digs for two sites in the Forum. The tour continues through the Forum to the Colliseum. In a word, the structure is awe-inspiring. Scholars estimate the maximum capacity was between 35,000 to 50,000 people, over 4 seating levels (1st class for politicians and patrons of the state to nose-bleeds for the indigent). Much of the structure, like the rest of Rome, has either eroded away, been burned down, or has been stolen/vandalized/re-purposed for other projects. Still, the vastness of the arena imposes upon the visitor a sense of pride and dominance.

Our next tour was led by Laura, a Masters student of art history, specializing in ancient Roman art. She led us through the Vatican city-state, where we saw much of the Catholic Church's diverse collection of art and sculpture. Among the many pieces and styles, were works by Michelangelo and Rafaello. We were also allowed to tour through the Sistene Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica (which constitutes the original structure of the Vatican), the Rafaello rooms and the Borgia apartments. Needless to say, there were many beautiful works of art, and so much to take in.

Our last tour for the day was a somewhat more relaxed walk during the evening. Our guide was another archaeologist named Nicole. This tour led us by the Trevi Fountain, Church of S. Maria della Minerva, Hadrian obelisk, Pantheon and a few other sites that escape me right now. By far the coolest site was the Pantheon, which is the best preserved Roman temple in all of Europe. Though the Pantheon has been rebuilt twice, it still retains the original inscription denoting who built it, the original marble in-lay floor (lots of the coloured marble was imported from Numidia and Egypt), as well as original niches of the central dome room. The most interesting structural feature was the concrete dome, which has an approximate diameter of 50 metres (believe me, this is HUGE, and an especially impressive feat of engineering the hoist a concrete dome of that size onto the roof of a building). The tour concluded with coffee at the best place in Rome (tour guide's endorsement, but it was pretty damn good), and an apperativo. The apperativo is the Italian version of a pre-dinner snack: it includes an alcoholic beverage and buffet-style finger foods meant to stimulate your appetite for dinner.

To cap off the evening, we decided to walk by the Trevi Fountain for the third time to see it lit up at night. It was pretty, however I don't think it was worth the extra soreness from sleep-deprivation and a whole day of walking. On our last tour guide's recommendation, we went to the "Jewish Ghetto" district to the best restaurant for fried artichokes (carciofi all Giudia), at Il Portico. The artichokes and food were SOOO delicious, and well worth the detour.

Well, that's all for now. It's late and we may finally be able to get some sleep.

Day 2 - Roma Awaits

Today was our first full day in Italy (still in Rome) and it was just as good as yesterday despite a rain storm this afternoon. We started our day around 9 with some fruit we bought from a street vendor last night (don't worry mom: I took my allergy pill this morning and didn't have any reaction to the banana). We headed over to the train station and bought bus tickets out to see the Catacombs. The bus ride was fairly uneventful with one hiccup consisting of us getting off at the wrong stop only to catch the same bus number 2 minutes later to continue on the correct path. One transfer at Piazza San Giovanni later and we arrived in no time.

The Catacomb tour was great and totally worth the 8 Euro per person (pp). The Catacombs were the first Christian burial site in Rome (c. 50 A.D.) and go about 30 meters/4 stories (our best guess) below ground. The area is maintained at 15 degrees Celcius year-round and housed something like >100,000 bodies at some point including a handful of popes. The hardened volcanic rock felt great under the Vibrams. :)

After the Catacombs, we took a bus back to Piazza San Giovanni. We met a couple from Nebraska at the bus stop who informed us that we really weren't that far from the Colloseum so we decided to forgo the bus transfer and head out that way. A couple of blocks from the Colloseum, we stopped for some lunch. Lenny and I both went for a pizza boscaiollo (with sausage and mushrooms on it) as well as some of the most delicious caffe lattes that have ever touched our lips. As we neared the Colloseum the Heaven's opened and we started what would be a very wet afternoon.

The Colloseum was great. We didn't visit inside because we think we're doing that tomorrow with our tour group, but the massive four-storey structure outside was pretty amazing. Each storey has its own unique design and must have been one Extremely fascinating structure to build, in 8 years, in 72-80 A.D.. We slso learned that they had a cloth covering that would have covered the entire top, much like the Skydome. How cool is that?! There were many actors dressed in Centurian guard costumes that would allow you to take your picture with them for a fee. We didn't do this, but it was still neat.

Very close to the Colloseum is the Roman Forum which is where we headed next. The Forum is largely all ruins and without a guide, guide book, or any extensive signage, wasn't all that interesting. Again it's something we'll visit tomorrow on our guided tour, so more to come on that.

After the Roman Forum we headed up to the Trevi Fountain. This was VERY busy with people but we were still able to get pretty close and admired the beauty of the architecture for quite some time. It is amazing how lifelike the statues seemed and how peaceful the area was because of the water despite all of the congestion.

On our way to the Spanish Steps we decided to take a break from the rain and partake in our first gelato experience for the trip. We kind of chose the wrong spot in that the gelato came to 15 Euro for only 2 scoops each, but it was really tasty and provided us a much needed break from the rain. As a side note, I tried to go to the washroom in the restaurant only to discover that it was a squattie potty (no seat)... I didn't really have to go so I did not attempt it and decided to just wash my hands but had the darndest time trying to figure out how to get the tap to turn on. Turns out that foot pedals were the trick with a quick lesson from Lenny. Ah adventures in a different place :)

Ok, so after the gelato and bathroom fun, we headed up to the Spanish Steps. I still haven't quite been able to grasp why people find these so exciting, but the top of the 6-ish stories of stairs do give quite the amazing view of Rome. At the top of the stairs while we were taking pictures, a guy came over and gave me 3 of his 2 dozen roses saying “I love you, I love you!” Which I thought was really odd. We protested/said “no no” quite a few times, but he insisted I kept them and then walked away. At this point I noticed that while the flowers themselves were in great shape, the stems were moldy! He came back as I was pointing this out to Len and asked him for some change. Ha! After we'd already said no like a thousand times. Anyhoo, it ended with me insisting that the man take back his moldy flowers. Him not understanding our Italian/English didn't help the situation much, however, it was still a funny experience. FYI we were also not pick-pocketed at this time ;)

Well that's pretty much all for now. Lenny is having a nap and I'm writing a multitude of post cards for the fam. We should be able to find some Internet tonight after dinner so with any luck you'll be seeing some pictures soon.

Day 1 - First Impressions

I'm writing this post just a few hours after having arrived in Rome. Lenny, who slept on and off over the entire 8-hour plane ride is having a nap, and me who slept for about an hour of the last 26 hours is higher than a kite and basking in the warm weather.

We got through customs and collected our baggage within half an hour which was Awesome considering our flight was completely full. We took the train in from the airport to Rome and had a lot of fun noticing how different the vegetation was, all the abandoned buildings, and how probably one out of every five apartments had their bedding hanging out to dry. Electricity is very expensive here so we're told.

After arriving at the train station in Rome, our first order of business was finding some filling food. After a bit of a trek and a few “no comprendo tua italiano” we came across a pizzeria with some DELICIOUS pizza. I don't know if my extreme hunger or recent air plane food experience (which wasn't bad at all, but still) played a role in how great it tasted, but it certainly hit the spot.

As we were walking to where we are staying, we discovered that alcohol is cheaper than water at the convenience stores and that Italians don't really believe in making street signs really visible. When we got to our building we got to go in an elevator from the beginning of time which was a wee bit nerve-wracking and confusing at first, but fun in the end. How often do you get the chance of manually closing your elevator cage doors in North America? The hostel we're at seems perfectly adequate considering we're not spending a lot of time here and everything appears safe and clean.

Well I'm off to pursue some of our travel books to see what we can do for the rest of our day. We left it blank because we weren't sure how'd enthusiastic we'd feel after a long flight, but so far so good! Perhaps some gelato or cappucinos are in order :)

Leavin' on a Jet Plane!

Lenny here. Heather and I made it safely to the airport, courtesy of one wild ride from Mom and Mark. Check-in was incredibly fast and friendly, and I already had 3 customs and security agents inquire about my Five Fingered feet.


We should leave here by 10:30 pm and arrive in Rome at 1:30 pm local time.

See you all later!

Blogger is back!

Blogger has been unavailable due to maintenance for practically an entire day and it was so weird to not be able to share when I wanted to!

Last night Lenny's family all came over and it turned into a surprise happy graduation party for myself and Vanessa, Lenny's brother Zac's girlfriend. Silvana got us a really cute cake with graduating rubber duckies on it as well as some gifts to mark the occasion. I got a necklace with eighth notes on it, and Vanessa got a ruby ring. Lenny's grandmother, Matilda, gave us each a beautiful picture frame for our grad photos.

The preparations for departing this evening have been going well. We've fit everything into the two backpacks that we're borrowing from my sister and her friend Kris, we're underweight by 30 lbs each, and we still have lots of room to put souvenirs in. After finishing the packing this morning we took Dakota out for a good two hour stroll while we did some geocaches in the area. We didn't have much success with that having only found 1 of the 3 we were looking for, but our legs did a big stretch before they'll have to be at rest on the plane for a few hours.

Well I'm off to see if I can upload the rest of the photos on the camera so we have a blank memory card for the beginning of the trip. With any luck I'll be able to upload some from last night!

Monday migraines

Well my trip back home has come and gone. I had a really good visit with my mom, dad, three sisters, and Starsky. Normally we're only all together for a few days around Christmas, so it was kind of nice to have another opportunity to catch up.

Today was a beautiful sun shiny day so after some sleeping in, I decided to unpack the bike and take it for its first spin of the season. Everything was going well until about 20 minutes in when my hands became very pins and needle-y and my legs felt like jello. I dismounted and watched the ducks go by for a while and once my heart rate was back down to normal I turned around and headed back. While I was stretching at home, I developed a pretty intense headache, which is still kicking 8 hours later. I've had post-exercising head aches like this before, but not since last summer. So sad that they have returned. Here's for hoping that eventually I figure out whether its too much water/food/salt, not enough, etc. I was secretly hoping that the daily antihistamines I've been taking for the oral allergy syndrome would help if my problem was an outdoor allergy related one.

Tomorrow I will work at the store for a few hours and Lenny will present his Masters-PhD reclassification presentation (at 1). After that, much celebration and packing will be had as we're planning on heading out on Wednesday to spend some time with his family before heading to Italy.

Well I'm off to find some more stumbleupon finds and finish watching some terrible tv. Ciao ciao!

Saturday, the day after Friday

Here's a pic of me chilling with the pooch that Keely took this afternoon. The pic is pretty good with the exception that I look a tad like a turtle that's pulled its head into its shell.  Anyhoo, Starsky is Very happy to have so many people home and has been getting lots of attention as demonstrated above.

This afternoon Paula, Keely, and I went to see Something Borrowed. It was a fairly cute movie about a girl who falls in love with her best friend's fiance. The part that stuck with me was that "sometimes nice and good people do stupid things." Ain't that the truth. Sometimes (ok a lot of the time) I'm too hard on myself and every time that I do something stupid, I'll get down on myself that I'm not a "good person". It's good to have a reminder every now and then even if it is from a movie.

I didn't finish any books today but I did spend some extra time with my mumsy. I'm going to forgo my bus fares and catch a ride home with Paula and visit my grandpa en route tomorrow. Here's for hoping for an uneventful car ride.

It's Official!

It's Official! I am done my current educational experiences! The last of my grades have been posted to the Registrar's Office and I will graduate in June with a Masters of Music in Literature and Performance, and a Bachelors of Management and Organizational Studies in Organizational and Human Resources. This will leave my with 16 letters after my name: CUTL, BMus, BMOS, MMus. Ideally sometime within the next few years I will add CHRP (Certified Human Resources Professional) to those designations.  It does seem a bit silly, even to me, to have so many degrees but I am starting to identify with the small sense of pride I should probably feel for having finished so much. Right now I'm just going to concentrate on the fact that this huge investment of time and energy is finito bandito. Thank you all for your support.

The Optimist by Laurence Shorter

I finished this book by Laurence Shorter last night. The beginning and middle presented a lot of really interesting approaches to optimism, but by the end I felt as though I was reading a really bad biography. He was apparently a comedian in a previous life but the British humour wasn't really obvious to me. Still a worthwhile read for many though I think.

Today I did a bit of shopping with my mom (clothes for me and a few books for her) and then I washed the windows. After my sister Paula arrived, we took the pooch out for a walk and then had pizza will the fam. Keely is also home for the weekend which is kind of fun; it's probably the first time all four of us have been home for a non-Christmas/Easter holiday for about 8 years. Talk about an out-of-the-ordinary Mothers' Day present!

Books

I finished this book last night. The Shopaholic series is one of the only sets of books that I've really ever been able to get into. Sad but true. Many thanks to Lenny for getting it for me. He knows me well and this book warmed my heart just as he does when we're together. Thanks honey buns :)

Wow

I am confused and very surprised by the election results. Wowsers. Not what I expected. I'm still quite shocked and don't have much to say.

Polling-wise it was a long day of having people state their name and address and listening to grandchildren stories told by my poll clerk. Everything went really smoothly and I only had one nutso who preached conspiracy theories at me for about 10 minutes... fun times.

Well it's bed time for me. Catching the bus fairly early tomorrow to go back home for a week so must go log some zzzs!