Venice

We left Cinque Terre very early in the morning, and took the train through La Spezia, Pisa, and Florence on our way to Venice. In the Pisa train station, we took the obligatory photo of Jer holding up the... Pisa train station sign. 

We reached Venice at 2:00. Stepping out of the train station in Venice really is like stepping into another world. We walked over beautiful bridges and down narrow streets to reach Hotel Henry, where I had booked the cheapest possible accommodation in Venice. When we reached our room, we had to take a photo of its rather hilarious size. There was no furniture beyond two tiny beds in a room so small that Jeremy could actually lie down across the two beds with his head touching one wall and his feet against the opposite wall.

There was major construction going on one floor above our tiny room, and with all the hammering, the plaster from the ceiling started to fall. The hotel had tacked up some plastic sheeting on the ceiling to catch the falling plaster, but there was far too much falling plaster for the sheeting to hold, and we soon found that our room rained plaster. The dust was covering everything, and it was actually rather scary with the falling ceiling and loud hammering, so Jeremy informed the lady at the front desk. She seemed fairly complaisant and uninspired to improve the situation, so I joined Jeremy and with my most serious teacher face. After a bit of discussion, we were given a beautiful well-furnished and spacious room with queen bed and en suite. In the end, Hotel Henry ended up being a lovely place to stay for a very low cost!

We spent our first afternoon and evening in Venice exploring!  I was in pursuit of the snail staircase, a famous but also infamously hard-to-find piece of unique Venetian architecture. But we were also happy to take our time and wander over any bridge that looked interesting. After considerable effort and challenges using google maps (GPS doesn’t work when you are in a meter-wide alley between very tall buildings), we found the snail staircase! I had hoped only to see it, but we learned that you can also walk up it too. Another family was there already, so we overheard them asking how much it cost to walk up the staircase. It was 7 euros per person! So we looked at it for free.  

For dinner, we found a cute place called “We Love Italy” that sold reasonably-priced fresh pasta for take-out. Just down the street was a little windowsill that overlooked the canal. So we ate our delicious pasta and watched the gondolas go by. We ended our day walking north from Hotel Henry, crossing beautiful canals as the sun set behind them. We reached a vaporetto dock (the boat version of a city bus), and we watched the sunset while reading.

On our second day, we walked the long way towards San Marco, going past the bus station to buy our tickets to the airport for the next day. We stopped at a fabulous café for breakfast which had fantastic pastries. We enjoyed breakfast so much that we bought another pear and chocolate pastry to go.

After a few hours, our meander ended in the San Marco square at 11am. We had booked a tour of the Doge’s palace and San Marco. The guide was a little rough around the edges, but it was a very interesting tour. The Doge’s palace was full of art – much of it by Tintoretti. One painting was the largest canvas in Europe – it covered an entire wall and showed people raised to life in paradise. They had created it by sewing together three canvases.

We crossed into San Marco’s cathedral walking over a makeshift bridge as a little bit of the square in front of the church was flooded. It is a very unique cathedral. I remember my architecture prof describing it as a basket of oranges because it is all domes! It is shaped unusually like an addition sign instead of the elongated cross of gothic churches. The onion domes clearly show the eastern influence on Venetian architecture, caused by the trade route which made the Venetians so wealthy. The ceiling is all mosaics. The background of every mosaic is gold, created by sandwiching a piece of gold leaf between two pieces of glass. In total, our guide told us that the ceiling contains 60 000 square feet of gold leaf.

After refilling our water bottle at one of the fabulous taps in the city, we boarded a boat for Murano. The museum we went to did a glass-blowing demonstration and then showed us to a gallery of insanely expensive glass sculptures. We were rather afraid to breathe lest we break something.

After taking the boat back to Venice, we wandered east in the city and found an armoury which, while having decorative historical-looking gates, also appeared to be very much still in use. We ate at a little diner, and then found a nice spot to sit on the edge of a canal. We half-read and half enjoyed watching the gondolas go by. People watching on the side of a canal is pretty great. There was the awkward couple who we decided were each wondering what they had got themselves into; three laid-back guys eating calzones contrasted with a dressed-up lady drinking champagne; a gondolier trying so hard to tell interesting stories to a family who couldn’t possibly look more disinterested and bored; a newly married couple in their lovely wedding clothes; two gondoliers coordinating their boats to be close enough to pass a cigarette from one gondolier to the other, and so many others.

When we finally got home, we set the alarms for 5:40am and fell into bed. Our journey to the bus station was quite pretty as the streets were mostly empty and the sun was rising over the grand canal.

Cinque Terre

Before getting on the train to depart Florence, we obtained one final delicious mozzarella shish kebab at the nearby market. When we arrived at the platform, we learned that the train to take us from Florence to La Spezia was a Bombardier! It was a lovely smooth ride with stunning views of the mountains.

In La Spezia, however, we changed trains for the last leg of our journey into Riomaggiore. The second train was most definitely not a Bombardier. The windows were all open to provide some fresh air, and it rattled through the long tunnel with considerable screeching, squealing, shaking, and the general feel of flying through the darkness in a crazy tin box.

We arrived in Riomaggiore, the most southern of the five towns in Cinque Terre, at dinner time. Getting to our hotel proved more challenging than one might expect – we first climbed a hill to reach the check-in location. The friendly staff then showed us to our room, down the street and up many many steps through little alleyways. It was beautiful for me, but quite a workout for Jer who was carrying our suitcase.

We had three dinners for Jeremy and shared them all – a delicious swordfish, then an amazing slice of pizza with the freshest tomato sauce, and finally a paper cone filled with fried cod and chips. In between dinners, we explored the town.

I had previously wondered why google maps didn’t have streetview for the majority of the “roads” around Cinque Terre. It makes a great deal more sense now – each town has only one main road, which is so steep that it would take considerable skill to drive down. Everything else is tiny alleyways, just over a metre wide, and steps. So many steps. The villages are each built right into the mountain, so every house is at a different elevation. The town has so much character – every alley brings a new surprise to explore.

The rock formations are also fascinating here. They have the stark lines of years of sedimentation, but these striations are vertical instead of horizontal!  When I have a bit more time, I am really curious to look up the geological history of the area. These rocks were quite popular for people to dive off into the water below. One dive showed so much talent that the people watching from the opposite side of the cliff applauded the diver.

We bought a few groceries for our breakfast on the following day because we planned to leave before the hotel’s breakfast opened. We took a short train ride out to Monterosso al Mare, the most northern of the five towns. While Riomaggiore has a young hipster vibe, Monterosso has a more resort feel – you can rent a beach chair and umbrella for a fee of 25 euros. 

We didn’t stay long in Monterosso because we had arrived early with the intention of completing the day’s most challenging hike while the sun was low enough in the sky for the mountain to provide us with shade. The hike was to go over one large mountain to reach the town of Vernazza. It took us through beautiful vineyards, terraced up the mountains.  All the terraces are built by hand, skillfully placing stones to make walls without any concrete and filling in the gaps between large stones with pebbles. The terraces are still maintained and farmed largely by hand as it would be impossible to get machinery up the mountain. Grapes were the most abundant fruit, but we also found several lemon orchards.

The most unusual thing that we found, however, on this hike would make mom happy - there was a cat commune! People had made cute houses for these cats who looked fairly healthy, and it was impressive to think that there must be someone willing to climb so far up the mountain to take care of them.

The views were incredible and the climbing very steep. However, we succeeded in completing the climb up in the shade of the mountain. The climb down had a bit more sun, but fortunately the vineyards still provided shade and we had lots of water with us. The mountain is also covered in flowers of all different kinds that grow out the rock walls. 

By the time we reached Vernazza, our water bottles were empty, but – like Rome and Florence – the towns in Cinque Terre all have taps that provide cold refreshing drinking water to the public. A few old pictures we found suggested that these taps have been part of Italian culture for a long time. We found a nice spot to rest our feet by the picturesque marina, and read a bit more of our book. Then we climbed up through a number of alleyways to reach the castle that protected Vernazza. From there was a stunning view of the town, the mountains, and the sea. We grabbed an drink of exceptionally fresh lemon, ginger, and grapefruit at a cute place called the Lunch Box.

Our next hike was from Vernazza to Corneglia, the only of the five towns that is on top of a mountain instead of by the sea. While the hike to Corneglia was a bit shorter than our first hike, it felt more challenging because it was the hottest part of the day. We considered walking down to Guvano beach, but the side trail was very steep with little to hold on to, and we decided our wobbly legs would not do so well, so we continued directly to Corneglia. It was a lovely little town, and – like each of the five towns – had a sweet little church to visit. On many of the alleyways, there were also small shires to Mary.  Catholicism is certainly not restricted to the Vatican in Italy. 

We decided to take the long walk down from the town of Corneglia to the ocean to put our toes in it. The waves were too powerful for us to swim, especially after hiking so far, so we found a tiny stone bridge to sit on and let the waves splash up over our legs. 

After a bit more exploring, we walked down a dozen or so flights of stairs to the train station. There appeared to be the familiar face of a biglietteria, a ticket machine. We started to press the usual buttons and at first, it appeared to work. And then the screen went completely dark. We were quite surprised, until we realized that it was literally the face of the biglieterria – and only the face. A man popped out from behind the face of the machine to say he was working on it. We laughed pretty hard at our silliness.

Back at Riomaggiore, we showered and headed to Mamma Mia’s for dinner where we shared a very tasty pizza. At many restaurants in the tourist parts of Italy, it costs an extra 3 to 5 euros to sit down, so we took our pizza to the marina and sat by the water to have dinner. There, we got to witness a rather humorous exchange.  A man had a very slow but effective system for bringing his boat up the ramp. He would pull a rope around a pulley system a little ways, move the runners under his boat ahead, hook the pulley on a little higher up, and then pull a bit further. One young guy offered to help as it appeared to be a fairly painstaking process for just one person. However, the man was determined to pull his boat up on his own and turned down the help. Eventually, a very burly fellow came by and offered his assistance. The man turned it down again, but eventually the second fellow convinced him to accept a hand. In one huge pull, the second man brought the boat all the way to the top of the ramp. 

The next morning, a glorious thing happened in our hostel – the hot water was magically turned on for the showers!  We got to have the breakfast with the hotel, and it included delicious cappuccino… so I got to have both my own and Jeremy’s.  We thought it would be cool to swim in the ocean, so we walked down to a rock beach following an up and down path carved out of the cliff.  Jeremy was successful in swimming, but I lost my footing with the strong waves and cut my ankle on a rock which left me a little too intimidated.

We grabbed another pizza from a new place and a refreshing lemon beverage for the journey ahead, and we set out to find Beccara #531. This is a trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola. There used to be a smooth walk between the cities on a flat path carved along the cost near sea level. However, several years ago, it was closed due to major landslides.  The alternative it to either take the train or hike the #531. We did a little research online, and learned that the trail was a bit infamous for being exceptionally steep. It had recently reopened – just two days before – since landslides had temporarily made it impassable. None the less, we decided we had to see the last of the five towns, and the train is ridiculously expensive, so we went for it.

We found the trail fairly easily. Unfortunately, the route to the trail gave us a clear view of what we were planning to climb: a set of narrow rough stone steps almost as vertical as is possible for steps. Up we went, occasionally pausing for a photo of the stunning landscape of a gulp of water. When we reached the top of the mountain, we were so happy to break out the lemon beverage in celebration. However, we did still have to go down the other side. The way down was much more difficult than the way up. The steps were sometimes 2 feet tall, slanted, or non-existent.  Fortunately, there was usually a tree, rock, or a rope to hold on to. About half way down, we came to the conclusion that the train was not so expensive after all, and we vowed to take the train home.  Despite the challenge, it was a very beautiful hike through the vineyards with stunning views.

When we arrived in Manarola, our first order of business was to obtain gelato. We shared a delicious combination of lemon, yogurt, and cookie gelato. We walked around town and found a nice bench to read and rest our feet. For dinner, we had a delicious pesto and tomato bruschetta, a pesto pasta, and a simple salad. 

On the train back home, my teacher self came out accidentally. I saw a teenage boy pretend to push his friend off the train. Instinctively, I made eye contact and gave him my sternest teacher glare. Once back in Riomaggiore, we sorted out things with the hotel because our train was leaving before the desk opened in the morning, and we packed up our suitcase. We will miss this absolutely beautiful part of the world! 

Florence (part two)

Our second day in Florence started with great news - Jeremy and several friends in the Christian graduate student group at OSU had applied for a Templeton Foundation grant, and they won it! This means they will be able to invite some great Christian speakers to OSU over the next couple years.

After a celebratory breakfast, we visited the Uffizi gallery. It was a beautiful gallery, and we had a helpful audio-guide on my phone to tell us a bit more about the most significant works in the gallery. It has an amazing collection of art - from Michelangelo's Holy Family to Botticelli's Birth of Venus to Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation. After three and a half hours of exploring, we were quite hungry, so we found a place that our hotel had recommended for lunch.

After lunch, we meandered over to a nice park to do a bit of reading. From there, we saw a beautiful Synagogue. There are military everywhere in Italy, but in this particular neighbourhood, they stand inside small glass prism shapes that jut out from buildings into the sidewalk so that they can see both ways down the street.

While we were walking, we bumped into a nice family from Belgium who was looking for someone who spoke French to help them find their way to city centre. Fortunately, Jer remembered most of his high school French and we were able to walk with them until they could easily see the Duomo rising above the houses.

We returned to the fabulous mozzarella shop in the marketplace for a fresh mozzarella, grilled zucchini, and fresh cherry tomato shish kebab. This shop is amazing. They also have wraps, not filled with mozzarella, but made of mozzarella - what would normally be the bread is actually cheese.

We wandered a bit more to discover an incredible chalk artist creating excellent figures on the ground. We walked back past the Duomo to say goodbye. As we left, it was fun to see new people who had just arrived round the corner and be in awe of the magnificent church for their first time.

Florence

We arrived in Florence and found our accommodations at Hotel Savonarola to be much lovelier than we expected for a discount hotel! The room has tall ceilings, lovely yellow curtains that hang down the tall old fashioned windows, a little sitting area, super comfy bed, and... air conditioning! Thank goodness for air conditioning. It has been in the mid 30s every day, and our Canadian bodies have trouble adjusting! Interestingly, it is also a fully accessible room with a walk-in shower.

On our first evening in Florence, we wandered around downtown. We found the first orphanage in Europe, with lovely blue roundels depicting the orphaned children. In one church, we found a free concerto... which included an adorable clergyman conducting a little choir and a talented soloist. In the evening, we walked up to the top of Piazzale Michelangelo to see the view over Florence. It is a stunning view, especially as the sun was setting. It was also a nice way to get our bearings as it was easy to pick out all of the major landmarks from the hilltop.

We found the most excellent gelato shops - La Carraia. It has every flavour of delicious gelato, is affordable, and was a perfect way to cool down after a lot of walking! Yesterday's dark chocolate flavour is the richest chocolate I've ever tasted, and today's mix of lemon, cheesecake, and chocolate mousse flavours was the perfect blend of sweetness and freshness.

Waking up the next morning, we walked straight to the Accademia where we felt rather fortunate to have purchased tickets in advance as the line stretches far down the street. We sat near Michelangelo's David and listened to an interesting audioguide that I'd downloaded on my phone before we left. Michelangelo's Prisoners in the hall leading up to David were fascinating and really showed the virtuoso brilliance in his freehand artistic process. David was of course beautiful. In the adjacent room, we saw Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Woman - an incredible sculpture that Giambologna originally intended as merely an exercise demonstrating how three figures could be cut from a single marble stone. In another room of the gallery, we found the first upright piano!

We considered visiting the Duomo, but the line wrapped around the church and into the square, so we went to the Bargello museum instead. It is a lovely museum full of lovely sculptures. We decided we would visit the Duomo at 6pm for mass to both avoid the long lines and also appreciate the cathedral in the way in the context it was designed for. The guards outside were quite imposing and gave the suggestion that the church was closed. Fortunately, Jeremy knew how to say "posso entrare per messe" (Is it possible to enter for mass?) and we were allowed in. It struck me as sad that while thousands of people had visited the church during the day, there were only a handful of people attending the actual service. It was of course conducted in Italian, but we were able to recognize references to "I am the way, the truth, and the life" and a few other familiar parts of the service.

For dinner, we ate mozzarella. So much mozzarella. We found a great marketplace with lots of vendors, and one vendor wisely offered us samples. We bought a mozzarella and tomato shishkebab, and then we bought another one because it was amazing.

We ended the day reading by a lovely manmade lake with a large fountain. It was a great place to watch the last touches of colour from the sunset fade.

Jer endeavouring to take the Anneke pose

The original Anneke pose

Rome

Rome is an amazing city - old orange and yellow shuttered buildings line cobblestone streets with frequent fountains that are free to the public to refill water bottles (a life-saver in the mid-30s weather!)  Perhaps even better still, Rome has a gelato shop on nearly every corner!

We started our second day in Rome walking to the Colosseum. On our way, we passed Trajan's column. We marvelled both at the incredible detail work on the column and the fact that Rome is full of so many historic treasures that there were no other tourists there. This city is packed with archeological, artistic, and architectural wonders!

When we reached the Colosseum, the line to buy tickets was about an hour's wait, but fortunately I had read online that there was another place to buy tickets at Palatine hill which had no line at all! The ticket covered entrance to the Colosseum, Palatine hill, and the Roman Forum - where we decided to start. It was like stepping back in time to walk along the same streets that Caesar would have walked along and see the place he was brutally murdered (no pun intended). It is hard to imagine how such a powerful and technologically advanced society could fall - a real Ozymandias moment. The way the sunlight hit the white worn columns was stunning.

We left the Roman forum to grab a bit of lunch at a nice little pizza shop. It was a good chance to get out of the sun however briefly (despite wearing sunscreen, we both got a little sunburned in the Roman forum). We returned to check out the Colosseum, but discovered that - even though we already had our ticket - the line to go through security after buying a ticket was still very long. So we headed up to Palatine hill, laid out my scarf on the grass, and I read Pride and Prejudice to Jeremy.

When we returned to the Colosseum, the line was very short and it was a breeze to get inside. Also, it was literally a breeze as the high arches allowed for great air circulation. As opposed to the intricate art of San Pietro, the Colosseum was primarily a feat of engineering with travertine stone arches and brickwork. However, it was decorated with artistic elements - all three greek columns types surround the outside of the building: Doric on the bottom, Ionic on the next level, and Corinthian on the level above. Inside, most of the main floor is gone, but it is possible to imagine what it would have looked like filled with cheering or jeering fans watching terrible "sports".

I really wanted to see the church of St. Clement that I'd studied in my architecture class, and it was fairly close to the Colosseum, so we walked there next. It's a unique church because it contains four levels of architecture. The foundations are an ancient Roman house which was destroyed in a huge fire that burned Rome in 64AD. On that was built a 1st century church, and you can still see the arched brickwork from that church in a few places. On top of that was a 4th century basilica, and on top of that a 1100AD medieval church. From there, we walked up to Capitoline hill to see the Piazza del Campidoglio which I'd also studied in architecture class. The pattern on the ground is like the spirograph toys that were popular in the 90s.

At this point, Jeremy's tummy was growling and our feet were pretty sore, so we walked across Isola Tiberina to explore the Trastevere neighbourhood for food options. We found a place that made quite possibly the most delicious salad that I have ever eaten. It was the brie. Such glorious brie, slightly warmed, with blueberries, turkey, arugula, and walnuts. We shared this delicious salad along with a simple but tasty pasta, and it hit the spot. Our waiter was also a lot of fun.

As we walked home, we passed a lovely church where a large group of nuns were on their way to go out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. I photographed the group as they walked past the military, of which there are many in every major public center. It represents one of the contrasts that we've seen in Italy - assault rifles and habits.

From Trastevere, we walked back along the river to St. Peter's. We found a quiet bench on the street that leads to St. Peter's and read Pride and Prejudice while the sun went down behind the beautiful church.