365 Days of Solitude: Taking Italy By Storm(trooper)

Gabriela thought that Carnivale was a different type of costume party....

Plan: Michael and Gabriela meet in Venice on February 2nd at 10:15 at Marco Polo Airport.

Reality: Gabriela misses flight on the 2nd. She gets there on the 3rd instead. Michael fails to catch the right bus and is late to meet her at the airport.

Assessment: Looks like we got all the travel hiccups out of the way up front, oh yeah except for that one in Verona....oh! And that one in Rome....whoops, make that two in Rome.

Assessment #2: It was a great time, with some memorable misadventures!

Slacker of the Month Award: The customs agent in Ancona seriously stamped my passport without using ink - I guess the motion, not the actual inking, was what counted for him.

Those two weeks went by fast! We decided that Venice would be a good meeting place since Carnivale was set to start that week. This decision did not disappoint! The place was hopping with costumed Venetians and tourists alike, which was of course great for photography. I kept telling Gabriela every time we got lost that it was what is supposed to happen when you're in Venice - I'm not quite sure that she believed me. In any event, if getting lost was authentic then we should both nearly be native Venetians at this point. Other than attending the Carnivale festivities, we also made a trip to Murano which is another canal city to the northeast of Venice. This city is famous for the glasswork that it produces. Gabby was particularly excited to see a demonstration of glassblowing because one of the characters in a book she read was trained as a glassblower here (Ashley and Ben - you know the books I'm talking about).

The next stop on our trip was Verona. I'd been to the city before, but just as a train connection point so I was excited to finally see the city. It was more of the "typical" locations you could go but what the heck? It's the off season and therefore not the insane amount of crowds to deal with. We trekked around the city to Juliet's window, her tomb, the cathedral, and the arena. At her house, I thought it was ironic that her balcony was originally a sarcophagus. Of course, the house, balcony, and tomb are all props because the story is just that - a story. But for tourist purposes and a nod to the historical significance of the story these sights have built.

After Verona, it was a mad dash down to Rome (literally, because I thought we were late for our train and made Gabby, bags and all, across the train station and down the platform to try and catch it - turns out it wasn't our train :) ). We were just there for one night because we were heading over to Martinsicuro on the east coast to meet up with her host family from two years ago. While we were in the big city, we decided to go on the hostel's night tour which was cool. Both of us had seen the majority of the sights where they took us but hearing the history and stories associated with the locations was new. Also, our tour guide Julia provided us with joke material for the rest of the trip once we heard her speak italian. To be fair, I have no delusions as to the shortcomings of my ability to speak italian, but I can at least pronounce the words I know without sounding like Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds. Unluckily for Julia she pronounced "grazie" more like "gratsiyeah" and for someone who had been living there for the past two years with Italian relatives I felt she might not be making the greatest effort towards improvement. Both Gabriela and myself found this terribly funny and therefore started using it at every opportunity.

The next day the joke was on us, as we navigated the city of Rome by car. It was the perfect plan - a partial map of the city, no GPS, and only written directions about where to go (I should seriously write this stuff out before it happens because I swear it sounded like a solid plan prior to leaving - on this end it seems slightly more ludicrous). Gabriela had warned me that she doesn't like when other people drive and would therefore not be in the best of moods until she got comfortable with me behind the wheel. Her confidence in me had a setback about 10min after leaving the rental office when I missed the turn onto the freeway (let it be noted that up to that point, things were going great), subsequently sending us off the map, and off the very particular path that our written directions had laid out before us. The holes in this plan were quickly becoming evident to me. Thankfully, a U-turn (legal) within the next five minutes saved the day and another (legal) U-turn got us back on course - whew! Two and a half hours later we arrived safely in Martinsicuro to meet Mario, Barbera, and their son Nicola. I mentioned earlier that they had hosted Gabriela two years prior for a summer while she taught them english and they taught her italian. So far in the trip she had made me do all the speaking to people, which was okay because I'm comfortable asking for things like food, hostels, and train tickets in italian but when I heard her speak with Barbera and Mario I felt betrayed! Here she was conversing with them, no big deal and I was trying to keep up with what was being said. I did manage to explain that I understood more than I could speak, which must have translated into "speak faster please". Despite my language troubles it was a great day with them - we ate nonstop, went to visit nearby towns, watched Nicola play tennis and found us a place to stay. Unfortunately, that was the only day we were able to spend with them as they were leaving for vacation the following day. Since we had the car for the next two days, Gabriela and I decided to do some driving around to the nearby towns of Acquasanta and Ascoli.

Driving back into Rome was (thankfully) uneventful. We had decided to stay here for the second week of her stay and do a combination of sightseeing here and in the surrounding areas. Since neither of us had seen the Sistine Chapel, we made the Vatican our first destination. We figured we'd see that and maybe a few other things, but not spend a whole bunch of time there. No one can accuse the Catholic Church of a lack of craftiness - they kindly place signs everywhere showing the way to the Sistine Chapel, but they don't inform you that the signed route takes you through what seemed like every other part of Vatican City before arriving at the actual destination. I kept myself entertained by making jokes about going to "find some crackers and wine - oh excuse me, I mean body and blood" to curb my appetite, which I thought was hilarious but I don't think I was able to convince Gabriela. Nevertheless, we eventually made it to the chapel (and I wasn't struck down by lightning for my jesting). Of course you're reminded to "please don't take photos" but there were so many people packed in there, the guards were helpless to do anything about it. And in spite of my complaining, it was worth the wait to see. But after, it was a drag race to the nearest source of food!

Our next stop was Pompeii. Sadly, this train ride took us through Naples where we had to change trains. To kill time while we waited for the train to Pompeii, we decided to go walking. After about 10min in the city, or at least the neighborhood surrounding the station, we were ready to head back! There was nothing good to see other than piled up trash and a conglomerate of disreputable looking street kiosks. So back to the station it was to wait for our train. Pompeii, on the other hand, was beautiful. The new part of town was deserted and the archaeological was only slightly less so. It was pleasant to have the place mostly to ourselves but we weren't able to see has much as we would have liked because a large portion was closed for off season repairs. Even with these closings, it was still an incredible place and we were occupied for a couple of hours walking around the ancient streets and wandering into the dwellings and shops that were open to the public.

For Gabriela's second to last day, we took the train up to Florence, which I was excited for! I love Florence and I will always jump at the opportunity to return. After taking trips to the Galleria Accademia to see Michelangelo's David, the Duomo (of the times I've been here, I've never actually been on the inside of the main cathedral), the Ponte Vecchio, and the Uffizi (just the outside - we couldn't handle another renaissance art gallery for the day) we went on a mission to find gelato and a place to chill. Once dusk started to set in, it was time to head back to Rome, which I was also excited for because we were planning to meet up with my friends Jason and Kyle who were newly arrived from Croatia!

And then the two weeks was at a close - whew that was a lot of ground covered! Both of us were flying out early on the morning of the 18th, but our flights were from separate airports so we had to say goodbye at the bus station. The bus ride to the airport and flight were thankfully uneventful and the travel day was going so well too, that is, until I showed up in London and went through customs....but that's a story for the next blog!

Look who is in Venice!

One of the quieter canals.

There has to be a good joke about "seeing the light" here.....

Holy St. Marc's Piazza!!! That's a lot of people!

Dressed in black and white...

....shot in black and white.

The Doge's Palace.

Gondola helmsman - better look ahead to that boat you're headed towards.

Collection of Carnivale masks.

While lost in Venice...

....still lost....

...hey this is cool! But still lost...

Ah, back on a main street! I love the Venetian style of windows.

End of Day 1 in Venice.

Start of Day 2: the inside of the Basilica San Marco. Yes that is real gold. Apparently the Venetian trading business was something of a profitable enterprise.

Side trip to Murano.

Murano dooryway.

Demonstration of Murano glass blowing.

Water shuttle back to Piazza San Marco.

The costumes keep getting more elaborate....

....this is my favorite one....

....and this one is mildly disturbing!

Time to head back toward the bus station.

The Basilica and the Doge's Palace.

The Campanile and a lamp.

Are we going the right way?

Yes we are! Sunset from the Ponte Rialto.

Minstrels and musicians entertaining at the Rialto.

Verona cafe.

They actually still use this place for events, concerts, etc. The Giro d'Italia actually finished inside this arena three years ago. That's more than the Colosseum can say.

Outside of the Arena.

Juliet's balcony.

Flowers inside the Capulets' house.

Juliette's tomb - no body though? It can only mean one thing - zombie.

Night walking tour of Rome.

Official Name: Fontana delle Api
What People Actually Call It: Fontana delle Puttana.....I'll leave you guys to figure out what that means in Italian.

The Spanish Steps at night - apparently named so because the Spanish embassy used to be at the base of this hill and the French one was at the top. According to the tour guide they had this "Spy vs. Spy" type thing going on and to finally put an end to it the French built the steps and dedicated them to the Spanish.

Trevi fountain by night.

Doorway in Acquasanta.

Acquasanta - "Oh look it's nice and sunny! Oh look now it's snowing!"

Someone doesn't like the cold....

Snow storm rolling in - time too book it out of here.

But not before we stop and get some food....today's lunch will consist of cannoli, meringues, and cream puffs!

Inside the duomo in Ascoli.

Does this picture make it look like it's cold in Ascoli? Because it was freezing when I took this.

I wasn't about to miss a good shot just because I was driving! Only joking, Gabriela took over photo taking while I was keeping my eyes on the road.

The mountains at sunset.

Our little Fiat 500 (aka the Clown Car).

Sunset, now time to head back to Martinsicuro.

At the Vatican, on the way to the Sistine Chapel. Little did I know that I was two hours away from my destination at the point this picture was taken.

Posing with one of the Vatican's modern art pieces.

Something is missing....

These two photos go together, the plaque describes the above statue - I couldn't believe how old this was!

Man, even the floors here are incredible! Like Gabriela kept saying "What was that whole thing about a Vow of Poverty?".

Still, definitely some beautiful things to see.

Collection of statues.

I think I was more into the floors, ceilings, and buildings than in the actual art pieces because so many of the pictures I took are of those things...