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| Nice is
nice but Florence is quicker! |
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Rating
:  (3.9)
(22 Votes)
Pros : Good
walking
Cons: finding suitable
accommodation
Florence, Italy
September 15 2004
The last few days have involved lots of train time. We left Barcelona
and took the am train to Nice. I might add that I woke up at 5am
that morning and went out to try and use the Internet...Let's just
say that the La Ramblas strip (Barcelona)is VERY seedy at that time.
(Unless you consider transvestite hookers and prostitutes outnumbering
tourists to be the norm. We had a 2-hour layover in Montpellier,
France and got lost for about an hour as we were wandering. A friendly
French pastry chef from Metz showed us the way back and used this
as an opportunity to exercise his use of the english language. We
arrived in Nice at night and were welcomed by a light drizzle So
much for our beach days in the French Riviera :( Nice has lots of
"budget" accommodations and we were able to find a hotel
for about 40€ ($60) I had no problems with the place, but its
appearance made Michal cringe. The weather forecast for the next
day was more rain so we opted to make it another train day.
Presenting visiting writer and chair of the University of Firenze
Geriatric Studies department, Michal Newman.
We decided to take the train to Cinque Terre to hike through the
five villages. The rain however decided to follow us there as well.
So we arrived in the third village, Manarola, but unfortunately
there were no accommodations for us. So we decided to go to the
last village, Riomagiorre, and luckily as we were walking a man
asked us if we needed a place to stay. He sent us to this nice old
woman called Lina. She did not speak any English but she was very
sweet and so was the room. It was clean and quiet. After we got
settled, we walked around and got some dinner and prayed that the
rain would stop so we can hike. The next day was perfect, no rain
and it was sunny and warm. We had coffee and started our adventurous
hike along a path by the Medditerranen Sea. The view was amazing.
Along the path were all sorts of fruit trees (apples,lemons,oranges,and
fig trees which we sampled and were delicious) We started the hike
at 9:40am and arrived to the last of the five villages at 1:30pm.
We were really hungry, so we hoped on the train to take us back
to the village where we had stayed for the night, bought some fruit
from the outdoor market, and headed on the next train for Florence.
Editorial Note
The 5 Villages that comprise Cinque Terre are noted for their terraced
hillsides. These stone walls were built by hand and no mortar or
other binding materials were involved. This process occurred over
the last 1000 years and has created a landscape most suited for
the growth of the above mentioned fruits as well as vegetables and
wine grapes.
Arriving in Florence around 6:30pm we called through all the potential
Hostel numbers in our book and all were full. As we left the train
station we were approached by several touts offering rooms but ignored
them. When we realized darkness was falling, we followed in tow
of a tout and 2 guys from Seattle. I can't say I trusted him, but
I didn't have a bad vibe at first (Michal DiD). He seemed to be
too Helpfull stopping along the way to explain things and warn us
of thieves...As we approached the "Hostel" he brought
us into a Laundromat and pointed to a group of Americans explaining
that they too were his guests. I was still skeptical. We went upstairs
and he showed us one of many rooms in the flat. It had 4 beds without
bedding. I asked to see the American's room. He stalled for a bit,
told me it was locked, and then showed me a "room just like
it". Come on...You think °I'm gonna fall for this scam?
The last thing we need is for are shit to get stolen...We said "no
thanks" and attempted to leave. He tried to sway us, but we
walked away...We looked in the book again and found a room in a
flat by the uffizi gallery. Once again, it's proven very hard to
actually find a hostel to stay in, but for an extra €5 is better
to have our own space and privacy. This accommodation expense is
KILLING our budget, seriously! All that being said, I probably won't
be able to "afford" the internet time required to post
lots of pictures. I'll just keep you in suspense for another week
till I get to Bangkok :)
Rome 18th September 2004
The evil witch who ran the establishment where we stayed in Florence
sent her armies of insects to nibble on our better parts as we slept.
Thats how I see it, at least. The witch even charged us for the
showers!! Enough about her.
I managed to pickup a doozy of a bug (not the bitting type) and
didn't sleep very much the first night. The next day my head was
full of foam and I wandered around the city. We checked out the
Duomo which is constructed of pink, white and green veined marble.
I ate more foccacia and re-started my habit of drinking real strong
espresso. Michal fancied the cappuccino. Nothing like coffee in
Italy, eh? We met up with Michal's childhood friend, Mindy, and
two of her friends, Katie and Audra(sp?). I tried to get better
and rest, but grew restless and did yoga in the room. It was the
first time I've practiced in a while and it felt great. Later on,
the five of us met up for our Italian dinner. Michal and I have
been going over budget on accommodations, so we've only sat in restaurants
3 times the whole trip. Dinner was OK as was the wine. The ladies
wanted to go out to some club later that night; I too wanted to
be sociable and decided that I wasn't gonna feel any better, so
I might as well enjoy more wine. We stopped off to get some Gelato
for dessert. (think Ice Cream but richer) Somehow, Katie asked for
Grande, and unknowingly received a cone with gelato and two wafers
piled high. The thing weighed at least 3-lbs and was as big as my
head.(picks to come soon) In fact, it was bigger than most of our
dinners. She also got charged 12€ ($15...Definitely ripped
off, but we had a good laugh. Shortly thereafter, we bought several
bottles of red, and sat on a bridge overlooking the Arno river.
The streets were full of people, we drank, and chatted and laughed
a lot. I spoke broken spanish to some (Disgusting, Michal says)Italians
who didn't stand a chance with the ladies, and he replied in broken
spanish and Italian. I felt that I was doing well and communicating,
but then I couldn't understand anything. I blame it on the wine.
We decided against the club and called it a night. Needless to say,
I had no trouble sleeping, but I was up at 6:30am.
The day was good for me but hard too. It was the first time since
I left Atlanta, where I had doubts about the whole thing. About
lasting 4 months on the road and 2 more living outside of the country.
I tend to get really overwhelmed when I'm sick, so that definitely
set the framework for my troubles that day. But, I dealt with it,
talked to Michal, and decided to just keep on taking things as they
come. Isn't this the way we should live every day?
6:30am i'm up. My head is full of snot, so I don't think I'm hung
over? We get out of the Witches den and trek over to the train station.
Dump bags. Buy Food. Get on Bus. Destination: San Gimignano.
San Gimignano rises on a hill (334m high) dominating the Elsa Valley
with its towers. Once the seat of a small Etruscan village of the
Hellenistic period (200-300 BC) it began its life as a town in the
10th century taking its name from the Holy Bishop of Modena, St.
Gimignano, who is said to have saved the village from the barbarian
hordes. The town increased in wealth and developed greatly during
the Middle Ages thanks to the "Via Francigena" the trading
and pilgrim's route that crossed it. Such prosperity lead to the
flourishing of works of art to adorn the churches and monasteries.
In 1199 it became a free municipality and fought against the Bishops
of Volterra and the surrounding municipalities. Due to internal
power struggles it eventually divided into two factions one headed
by the Ardinghelli family (Guelphs) and the other by the Salvucci
family (Ghibellines). On the 8th May 1300 Dante Alighieri came to
San Gimignano as the Ambassador of the Guelph League in Tuscany.
In 1348 San Gimignano's population was drastically reduced by the
Black Death Plague throwing the city into a serious crisis which
eventually led to its submission to Florence in 1353. In the following
centuries San Gimignano overcame its decline and isolation when
its beauty and cultural importance together with its agricultural
heritage were rediscovered. The construction of the towers dates
back to the 11th and 13th centuries. The architecture of the city
was influenced by Pisa, Siena and Florence. There are 14th century
paintings of the Sienese School to be seen and 15th century paintings
of the Florentine School.
The wine was very cheap so Michal picked up a couple of bottles.
They also had the most extensive selection of sausages I've ever
seen so I had to buy 100g of Wild Boar meat.
mmmmm...Sausage.....
We also checked out this pretty disturbing museum called the Museum
of Torture. Despite the disturbing nature of the exhibit,(lunch
was AFTER)the museum had several pluses.
1) It was small enough that I could see everything, and that gave
me a huge sense of accomplishment.
2)It had artifact descriptions in many languages including English!
It had many authentic and recreated instruments of torture, but
also copies of old paintings, engravings and wood cuttings depicting
the events. I also learned some neat and useless trivia. Did you
know that Edison, while competing against Westinghouse for patents
on electricity, submitted documents describing the danger of AC
current after testing it on guinea pigs? (Edison was plugging for
DC) Guess what happened next? The government said "thanks"
and used the AC technology in the Electric Chair. Thank god I was
born in the 20th century, cause some of histories torture methods
seemed rather unpleasant. I had a favorite though...The victim had
his legs put into stocks (wood block with holes) so that he couldn't
move them. His feet were then soaked in salt water. A goat, who
had been deprived of water for several days, was brought over to
the victim's feet and tied to a tree. Apparently the licking continued
all the way down to the bone! Goats must have strong tongues!
We came back to Florence and got onto a train for Rome. Aparently
some big event (unknown to me now) is going on tomorrow, and there
will be lots of parties and celebration. MTV europe is sponsoring
a free show with 4 DJ's right by the train station (and our bedroom
window). It should be an interesting night! |
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