Ummm, a little bit about our time in Rome two months after the fact.

While I realize updating our time in Rome at this point is leaning towards the self-serving side of things, I had to do it.....mostly because I miss the idea of our trip and I guess this takes me back in some way. Weakly esoteric I know, but here she goes.

We arrived in Rome with the heavy hearted knowledge that this was our final destination (well kinda) before heading back to the confines of California. When we arrived, our first contact with a Roman "local" was actually with a girl from the United States as she invited us to take part in "Rome's hottest pub crawl". As silly as it sounds, we actually wanted to partake in a Euro pub crawl but just never got to it to fit into our travels to that point. After we assured the young lady that we would in fact be in front of the Spanish Steps the next day at 9pm, we headed to procure our apartment. We arrived a few minutes early to the apartment, which gave us time to revel in the absolute awesomeness of the location. We were ON Via Del Corso, within a 5 minute walk of the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona and the Trevi Fountain. It was fantastic. By the time we had fully grasped that fact though, the gentleman that was supposed to meet us was 15 minutes late. We gave it a bit of time to account for the inevitable Italian account of "on time", but after 45 minutes we realized there must have been a problem. The buzz of our fantastic location begand to fade. After a few phone calls, we finally got through to the apartment leasing company, who in turn were able to get ahold of the now infamous (in our hearts) Simone. Five minutes later Simone arrived, sweat on brow and full of apologies. So we had our apartment, with air conditioning, and made sure to let Simone know that we HAD to leave at 7:00am on the day of our departure (that's called a set-up) and it was now time to do it up in the city of romance.

After we got settled in, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to the Spanish Steps in anticipation of our experience as a part of the finest pub crawl in all of Rome, which would put it in line to be the finest in the whole of Italy. As we arrived early, we were privvy to the absolute deluge of people that crowded the steps over the following hour. In that time, we made a few "pub crawl only" friends and sipped on a few beers purchased from gentlemen darting through the crowd with grocery bags stocked with beer that I could only assume merits a comparison to Schlitz, though I don't think this beer made Italy famous. We finally got the call from a woman in an oh so official STAFF shirt to let the 300 of us know that the crawl was about to start. I realize this was a long introduction to a pub crawl, but that's only because there isn't much more to say. There were a few perks in the way of pizza and free drinks, but other than that it was an absolute disappointment. Kaylin and I both felt like the only people not on some form of a high school or college graduation singles fest. Not to demean the process completely, but I guess we should have known better. Also, Kaylin totally did a John Travolta knee slide a la Saturday Night Fever down a flight of marble stairs. She went unscathed, though, and it is something we can now laugh at.

Naples Pictures - Post Below

The Altar At The Duomo Of St. Januarius (His Remains Are On Display Underneath)

Statues In The Chapel Of St. Januarius, They Are Made Of Solid Silver

If You Look Hard You Can See Graffiti Of Hitler And Mussolini, It Was Actually Meant As Support For The Two Men And Was Found In The Naples Underground

Kaylin Squeezing Through The Napoli Sottoraneo

The Entrance Hill In Pompeii

By the way, we are actually home now, but wanted to finish the blog anyway.

The Hustle And Bustle Of The Greco-Italian City And An Admiral Sighting

The Admiral, The Guy Behind Him Is Actually 6'5" For Reference (Lie)

A View Down One Of The Main Roads In Pompeii, As Well As Up The Sleeve Of My Shirt

A Section Of The Fresco In The Villa Of Mysteries

Upon arriving in Europe, there were only two days of our entire trip that had not been entirely mapped out. We knew that we wanted to stay on Elba Island, an island off the coast of Florence, at the behest of my brother Patrick. We had not been able to find a place to stay within our price range while still in the States, and we had the same luck whilst in Europe. As such, we decided that a trip a little further into the south of Italy would be possible after a few reservation adjustments. We were able to accomplish this, and so our travels took us to the fine city of Napoli (New City in Greek). Naples is extremely famous for two things. The first is pizza, and the second for being the most chaotic city in the entire boot of Italy. First the pizza. On our first night we were able to snag a table at Pizzeria Sorbillo, which is noted as being one of the finest, if not THE finest pizzerias in the whole of Naples. There are magazine articles adorning the walls, as well as local art placed in intermittent niches. There is also the supported claim that it was Gino Sorbillo’s ancestry that invented the calzone. Either way, the pizza was like nothing we have ever had before. The crust itself was so good that it could easily be eaten and enjoyed on its own. But when you add toppings like proscuitto, mushroom, corn, mozzarella and cream sauce, it is nearly impossible to not grin in delight with every bite. Also, the pizza was misshapen and billowing over the sides of the plate, which was the perfect aesthetic. Paying only 6 euro for something this amazing seemed like a crime on our part…but we did so happily and ended up eating there more than once. Now for the chaos and the city itself. In doing research, I learned that the mafia presence in Naples is actually still quite strong, so much so that just a year ago the sanitation service (run by the mafia, very HBO) stopped picking up the garbage. Instead, the people took the garbage to various yards outside of town where mounds of garbage began to form and were eventually burnt. This did not lend to a pleasant smelling city, adding more credence to the whole boot thing. While walking to our hostel, it was very apparent that the actual sanitation folk were back on the job. Picture two of the most stereotypical looking mobster types with greased back hair donning garbage man attire, leaning out of the truck and shouting to shop owners sitting on chairs at their storefronts. It was almost too perfect, and at that point we both agreed that it was our goal to not look cross at anyone as stepping on the wrong toes, no matter how trivial, could lead to a very messy situation, though I have seen many a mob flick, so I figure I could pull out some of my vicarious experience to diffuse any situation. As for the chaos, lets just say that traffic lights go relatively ignored, scooters have what equates to the typical pedestrian right of way, while pedestrians are forced to keep their head on a swivel at ALL times. The sound of scooter horns in a surrounding area can easily be recorded to form some sort of eccentric background music. We actually sat on a busy street corner while eating gelato, mesmerized by the insanity of it all: mother’s speeding by on scooters with helmet-less toddlers, cars and scooters continuously speeding through intersections despite an obvious red light, some weird guy helping people park their cars on all four corners of a busy cross street, possibly a made man, but just as easily an entrepreneur who decided he was sick and tired of cleaning windows. Couple this with casual conversations that sounded like two people trying to talk over a jackhammer that wasn’t there and you will get somewhat of an idea as to the ambience that surrounds Napoli. This definitely has what reads like a negative tone, but I assure you, it is not meant to be that way. We got a kick out of everything that was going on and really felt like we were in the “old country” that all of the aged wise mobsters talk about in Goodfellas and The Godfather.

Our first day was actually spent 40 minutes outside of the Naples visiting the ancient city of Pompeii. The city was essentially buried by the effects of a violent eruption from the still active Mount Vesuvius (Or Mount ‘Suvius if you are a White Men Can’t Jump Fan). The sight has since been excavated; exposing most of the original structures as well as many clues as to how the town operated. There are various temples to pagan gods, amphitheaters, standard housing, houses of the rich, a gladiator stadium, and of course a brothel with a painted menu lining the walls above the rooms, and of that I will speak no more. One of the coolest things we saw on the day though was not a what, but rather a who. While we were making our way through one of the structures, we turned a corner to one of the “highlight” sights, when all of the sudden I saw a very tall gentleman that I immediately recognized as David Robinson, most know who that is, but he is an NBA great that retired a few years ago. I turned to Kaylin and started saying “that’s David Robinson, that’s David Robinson, that’s The Admiral”, to which she replied, “the Admiral of what?” No one was really bothering him, so I didn’t want to be the guy to cause any heads to turn, so we didn’t really meet him or get a picture with him, but I did take some mildly creepy pictures of him when he wasn’t looking. In hindsight I should have just introduced myself it because it was a ridiculously random occurrence, and he probably would have remembered me for the rest of his life, but it was pretty cool either way. Our last stop in Pompeii was the Villa Of Mysteries. The main draw in this house on the outskirts of the town is an enormous three-paneled fresco that looks as though it could have been painted only a few hundred years ago, rather than its dated age of about 2,500. As a side note, Kaylin and I both had no idea how intense fresco painting was, we both admitted that we just thought the artist painted onto a wall. Although I’m sure this is not news to some, they actually paint onto fresh plaster. If they paint the plaster when it is too wet, the plaster will mix into the paint and turn into a soupy mess. If the artist waits until the plaster is too dry, the fresco will merely be superficial and will flake off and fade over time. There is a perfect time to apply the paint that will allow it to act almost like the ink in a tattoo. Rather than being on the wall, it will actually seep into the wall and become a part of it while maintaining a vivid and clear look. It is for this reason that only master artists were to be commissioned for such works. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper is a fresco, and is in absolutely horrible shape because he waited to long, which is a testament that even master artists have struggled with the medium. That evening we enjoyed pizza at the pizzeria President Clinton visited during a tour of Italy in 1992. It was very good, but not quite to the level of Pizzeria Sorbillo.

The next day was spent seeing a few of the sights within the Naples city limits. We visited the extravagant Duomo of St. Januarius, which contains the remains and two vials of blood from the church’s namesake. Apparently, every Tuesday morning there is a display wherein the vials of dry blood actually liquefy in front of the church faithful. Next, we visited the Napoli Sottoraneo, which is a series of underground tunnels dug by the Greeks to mine for tufa rock, and then used by the Neapolitans as a series of aqueducts. The temperature in the aqueducts is a steady 58 degrees, which was a welcome escape from the humid 86 degrees we were immersed in on the surface. The tour was very informative and detailed, and there was actually a point during the tour where we had to carry candles and squeeze our way sideways through 300 feet of extremely narrow paths. We spent the rest of the day walking through some of the historic streets before finishing up once again at Pizzeria Sorbillo. Because our reservation in Rome was not until later the next day, we decided to spend a little more time in Naples. We woke up early and headed towards the Bay of Napoli. In doing so, we were able to steal a look at two of the three royal castles, a historic opera house that is considered to have the finest acoustics in all of Italy, and the gorgeous and expansive Church of San Francesco di Paola in Piazza Plebiscito. With that we hopped onto our train to Rome, with the knowledge that it would be our final destination weighing heavily on our shoulders.

Mark and Kaylin

The Hilled City Of Tuscany

Arched View Of Torre del Mangia

Us On Top Of A Section Of The Duomo

I Wasn't Stuck, I Promise

Entry To The Duomo

The Altar Of The Baptistry

As has seemed to be epidemic for us in Italy, the directions to our lodging in Siena were more of a hindrance than an aid. After finally figuring out where it was we were going, we had to make the climb up one of the three major hills in the city in blazing sun…whoa is us. As we had two nights, we did what we typically do on the first night and got the lay of the land and planned our sightseeing. The sightseeing included Il Campo, the enormous shell-shaped piazza that is highlighted by the Torre del Mangia, which is a towering brick bell tower that looms above a matching civic museum. The piazza is also converted into a horse track twice a year to house a bareback horseracing bonanza. We then made our way up to the Duomo, which contains works by Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo; Splinter was commissioned to do one of the frescoes, but had to decline because he wouldn’t accept Parmesan cheese as payment…zing! The Duomo is complimented by a recently discovered crypt, which houses the original layout of the cathedral as well as centuries old frescoes. There is also a baptistery built into the hill below the Duomo, which was based on designs by Bernini. Finally, there is a museum housing relics of the church, including original façade sculptures by Pisano and medieval works by Duccio. We also spent about 2 hours in a doctor’s office, waiting to be seen for various ailments. When he didn’t arrive, we posited that it must have been his day off, but more on medical excitement later (nothing bad, more in line with being hilarious). We ended our stay in Siena at a very cool restaurant, and one that had newspaper clippings near the front door, so it had to be good. We feasted on bruschetta, bunny rabbit with some awesome sauce, pasta with wild boar sauce, and chicken smothered in a mustard-chili sauce. We ended the meal with a glass of the national Italian spirit grappa, which due to its intense nature needed to be chased with bites of crème catalana, which is much like crème brulee with a hint of lemon. At this point in the trip we are down to two more cities, first we are off to Naples and then the closer in the city of romance.

Mark and Kaylin

A Walled City And Our Twenty Minutes With The Leaning Tower And 20,000 Other Americans

A Snippet Of The Wall That Surrounds The Whole Of Lucca

Torre Guinigi

Side View Of The Duomo In Lucca

Alicia Keys' House

Kaylin Holding Up The Leaning Tower Of Pisa

When we arrived in the walled city of Lucca, we had zero clue as to the whereabouts of our lodging. As such, when we were introduced to the walls as we exited the train station, we weren’t sure if we were on the outside looking in or vice-versa. A quick trip to the tourist information office near the station straightened us out and we eventually got our act together. We visited the Duomo di San Martino, which was constructed starting in the 6th century. We also checked out the Torre Guinigi, which is the tower in the middle of town that is lined with trees along the top. Finally, we visited Piazza Anfiteatro, which is a giant circular piazza that actually played host to a fight between Apollo the Sun God and Hulk Hogan…okay, I made that up, but the piazza was neato.
As the population in the city is only 9,000, we figured it would be a nice relaxing evening, but boy were we wrong. We were in town for the Lucca Music Festival, which brings various performers to the city throughout the month of July, and just by a stroke of pure luck we were graced by the musical stylings of the one and only Alicia Keys. Those of you that know our musical tastes will attest to the fact that, well, ummm, we aren’t necessarily fans of hers, so we actually just went and got dinner during her performance. We were actually kind of bummed because we missed Chicago by a day and were ahead of Leonard Cohen by two days, but no tears were shed, as Lucca was everything we expected and a perfect one-night excursion.

Our next scheduled stop was Siena, but because we had to change trains in Pisa, it seemed fitting to take a couple hours to take a look at the old tower and its surroundings. We made it to the enclosed piazza to come face to face with what looked like Tomorrowland during the dead of summer, meaning a sea of sweaty Middle Americans surrounded us. After joining our sweaty friends in doing the cheesy “hold up the tower using super clever camera angles” trick we walked around the tower and the Pisa Duomo until heading for the bus. The bus was about 20 minutes late resulting in us missing the train we had hoped to catch to Siena, meaning we had to wait another hour which explains our 20-minutes of admiration turning into a couple hours in Pisa.

Mark and Kaylin

Seeing The “Five Lands” Meant More Exercise

A View Of Manorola From The Trail

Sitting In Our Designated Seats In The Tunnel Of Love

The View Of Corniglia From Our Apartment Window

A View Of The Oceanside On Our Way To Vernazza

View Of Monterosso From The Trail's End

I was lucky enough to visit Cinque Terre the last time I traveled to Europe. Kaylin had not yet reveled in its glory, so I knew it was a must see on our journey. Cinque Terre is composed of five towns sprinkled along the Italian Riviera within about a 6-mile stretch. We stayed in the central village of Corniglia, which was kind of nice as it allowed us to break the hike up between two days and spend a little more time in each of the towns. When we arrived at our apartment a gentleman who was in charge of hooking up our stove and refrigerator, and who also spoke zero English greeted us. This seemed to work in our favor, as it seemed every verbal exchange ended with him bringing us something. The first time he brought us beer and wine, and the next he brought us tomatoes from his garden along with olive oil and salt, to which we added some excellent buffalo mozzarella for a tasty caprese. I was afraid to alert him when the hot water didn’t work for the fear that he would turn over the keys to his car.
On the first day, we headed south for the easier trek to Manarola and Riomaggiore. The basic theme for all of the hikes is traversing elevated mountain trails dotted with lemon trees and vineyards, all the while staring down at the gorgeous rocky coastline. Aside from that, each leg bears its own characteristics depending on the town’s specialty and terrain. The one-hour hike to Manarola was probably the most straightforward as the vegetation was somewhat sparse, while the view of the ocean was never obstructed, leaving us with views of the various swimming coves for which the town is known. From there, it is only 20 minutes to Riomaggiore, but this short walk is considered to the most famous as it contains the “walk of love”. At the start of the tunnel, there is a two-person bench with designated seats for “lovers” to sit/have their picture taken. The tunnel is covered with various works of art, the sad thing is that amateur “artists” have pretty much scrawled all over much of it leaving only a few signs of what once was. After walking through the town, we hiked back and ate at the Pizzeria & Foccaceria that would be our base of consumption during our time here.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to tackle the 3-½ hour journey to Vernazza and Monterosso. These hikes were much more hikey, leading to a lot of sweat, turned ankles and stops to take in nature’s beauty. There were points in the hike where the path was merely one-and-a-half feet in width, with nothing but a nice brushy mountainside to cradle the fallen trekker. There were also opportunities for us to taste wild blackberries; at least we thought they were blackberries. Much to our delight, there were no Into The Wild occurrences, as the fruit did prove safely edible. We passed through Vernazza rather quickly as it is considered the upscale town and even the foccacia was out of our range. We eventually made it to Monterosso, which is the hub for the collective. It is also the town with the most accessible and plentiful beachfront. After walking through the town, which included a search for some amazing looking caprese that turned out to be futile, we decided to settle down on a private beach to bask in the sun and take a dip in the uber salty Mediterranean Ocean. We finished our stay in Cinque Terre by going on some self-led vacation home hunting; unfortunately there wasn’t anything in our budget of free and the owners were not willing to barter for bad jokes. Oh well, we will just hold onto our memories until we make another visit.

Mark and Kaylin

Putting Our Foot Into The Boot

Towers In Bologna

View From The Higher Tower

A Castle-y Street

Me And Julio Down By The Old Port (In Genoa)

An Original Entry Gate To Genoa, Christopher Columbus's House Is Out Of Frame To The Right

Our departure from Switzerland led us into the final country of our journey. In terms of Northern Italy, we decided to skip Venice and Florence, as we have both been before and know what it can be like in the middle of July in terms of the tourist crowds. We opted instead for the less traveled, but still renowned cities, with the first stop being Bologna. As for most of the trip, we booked our lodging in Bologna through Hostelworld, which is essentially Expedia for hostels. As such, we expected to find ourselves in our familiar hostel surroundings. What we were greeted by though was a 3-star hotel with all the fixin’s. Not to say we were engrossed in luxury, but having a stocked bathroom in an air-conditioned room was a nice change of pace. We gallivanted through the piazzas; saw the basin where Pontius Pilate absolved himself of Christ’s death, saw a pair of medieval towers (one with an 8 meter lean), saw a piece of the all-but-gone former city wall and moat, but most importantly we dined at a legit trattoria. Bologna is considered to be the gastronomic capital of Italy, so we decided we had to ditch our backpacking habits and dig in for a meal not handed to us over a counter. I took a minute to look up some restaurants on a food fan website and found that Trattoria Tony was very popular for its down home nature, good prices and excellent eats. The meal was fabulous, AMAZING Bolognese meat sauce, grilled eggplant soaked in olive oil and a plate full of boiled tongue and roast that absolutely melted in our mouths. Pair that with a nice liter of house red and an espresso to finish and we were two stuffed and extremely satisfied travelers. The only downside to Bologna is that we both started to feel the itch in our throats and the congestion in our heads as a nice cold has stricken us both, no worries though, I figure we can just ignore it for the next two weeks until we get home.

Our next stop was Genoa, a city synonymous with the creation of Pesto, as well as being one of the most notable port cities of old Italy. There was a tad bit of frustration in locating our hotel, but again the presence of air conditioning in the room came to the rescue. On the first night we just strolled around a bit, ate some pesto pizza and planned the next days itinerary. We awoke the next morning, took advantage of the hotel’s free breakfast and set out to see the city. At one point, Genoa was walled-in, so we started the day by checking out some of the remaining fortification and gate, as well as the residence of Christopher Columbus which was nearby, quite weathered, but definitely still intact. We then made our way down to the port that is awash with fish markets and eateries, as well as the largest aquarium in Europe and a full-sized pirate ship. We then found ourselves meandering through the streets and alleys of the old town, which our guidebook said was beautiful but eerie. That description was right on the money as the alleys were very narrow and dark, yet from time to time opened up into piazzas full of people and beautiful architecture. We definitely ran into a giant rat (think R.O.U.S’s) in one of the alleys, which was enough cause for us to turn around and take an alternate route, I can neither confirm nor deny the fact that I uttered a less than manly noise upon almost kicking the creature (It wasn’t a scream, just a weird utterance). It was very neat, but Princess Buttercup and I agreed we wouldn’t make the trip after hours. We eventually made a visit to the most glorious of the palazzos in the city, Palazzo Reale, there are palazzos at nearly every turn in this city, but this one is the crème de la crème. It was basically a much smaller scale version of the main palace at Versailles, including a hall of mirrors that was designed to resemble the same hall in Versailles, though the artistry adorning it was quite different. There were portraits of the most noted Greek, Roman, Assyrian and Austrian emperors with corresponding frescoes depicting the reason for the fall of their empires. It was even cooler because you could see each depiction as a mirror image, so you sort of got both points of view? We also saw the outside of some amazing churches, but because they were closed when we were there, we had to move on with only a view of the façade. Our next stop will be the gloom and doom of the Italian Riviera.

Mark and Kaylin