Tuesday, August 10

Hey all, sorry we haven’t been keeping up on the blog. The Internet here has been flakier than Sticky. Finding a good connection has been more challenging for us than it is for Gator to tie his shoes. The service is worse than his comedic timing. The wireless is splotchier than his senior year prom pictures. (We’ll get all the jokes out of the way early this post. On an unrelated note, miss ya Justin! Got you a sick tie in Florence) That being said, the postings won’t cover every day now, but we’ll try to fill you in for the most part and if things are slow, maybe we’ll fill ya’ll in on whatever we missed. Anyways, here it goes:

Florence: The Cinque Terre

We spent the day in the Cinque Terre, a set of five cliff-side villages on the coast with a hiking trail between them. The weather was premium, if not a bit hot, but the scene was unreal. We started at the Southern-most town, Riomaggiore, and worked our way north to Monterosso. The second town was basically a set of colorful streets and narrow alleyways. One alley in particular had a bunch of balconies looking over it. As we and other hikers walked through, we were bombarded with water balloons and kids dumping buckets of water out onto us. It was a nice cool-down for me as well as Max. I know this because until that point I had been practically wading through Max’s trail of BO (which was, in all honesty, most likely compounding with mine). Anyways…
When we finally made it to the last town, the sun was setting but we went for a quick dip before finding a place for dinner along the boardwalk. What I experienced next was one of the greatest seafood meals of my life.
I ordered mussels in a green garlic soup as an appetizer and fried calamari for my entrée. When the waiter brought out my appetizer, I was surprised to see linguine in my dish but you never know when Italians might throw pasta in something just for kicks and the linguine looked delicious so I just went with it.


Fig 1: My linguine. Looks pretty delicious, huh?

Well, let me tell you, the linguine was delicious. About three minutes in I was halfway done with my meal, as Shelman and I had worked up quite the appetite (the hike was just about 5 miles long.) But, here’s the best part—they gave me the wrong dish! Munching harder than ever, I received a tap on the shoulder from our waiter, followed by an explanation about how he mixed my dish up with someone else’s, an apology, and a huge, fresh bowl of mussels. Never has anybody apologized to me for doing something so nice. “Apology pending” I told him, and shot him a million-dollar smile (thanks, Jack). Anyways, I absolutely MURKED those mussels, then it was on to the calamari, which I also DESTROYED. Sidenote: The calamari came with no marinara sauce and when Max asked the waiter for some, he seemed confused (didn’t speak much English) and brought us salt (sounds like “sauce” I guess) and bread (who knows what he thought we were asking for). Eventually, a different waitress came over, again couldn’t understand what “marinara sauce” was, but after a while brought back cold meat sauce. Close enough, for Max, and not worth any more trouble. But is calamari and marinara an American thing? Lift-up on the sidenote: Isn’t marinara Italian? Why didn’t the waiter understand what “marinara” was? PS on the lift-up: Did you know that root beer is strictly an American thing. Not only is it not served in Europe, people here don’t even know what it is. When Max asked a waiter (separate restaurant in Rome) for some RB, the dude had no idea what he was talking about. How do you explain to someone what root beer is? It’s tough, believe you me.

Pictures: Max and me on the boardwalk, A view of one of the towns from the hiking trail (I believe this is Riomaggiore), Me climbing the rocks, Shelman taking in the view.

Monday, August 9

Rome

As soon as we woke up this morning we realized had been too focused on raging the night before and forgot to book our Ancient Rome Tour for today. After scrambling around for a bit, we found a bus tour that would take us around to the important sites with an audio recording that told us fun facts about each place. Maybe not as good as a real live tour guide, but on a hot Rome day (proximal to 95 degrees) less walking was more premium.
Our first stop was the Colosseum—-amazing in Gladiator but even better in person. The place is huge and mad old. After stopping for drinks (we were un-quenchable that day) we got back on the bus and visited the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and finally the Trevi Fountain, which may have been my favorite stop in Rome. The thing is massive and just altogether epic. Italy hasn’t rolled out something so awesome since Mario and Luigi. I guess it’s true what they say: When in Rome…
We stopped on the way home for some authentic Italian pasta and seafood (mussels, clam, and shrimp pasta):


Fig. 1: Delicious seafood from Rome for me and a pasta dish with many cheeses for Max.

then headed for the train station en route to Florence. Really it was a pretty long day, filled with lots of sight-seeing, but summed up pretty easily I guess. Any suggestions of things to do in Florence, Paris, or Barcelona, leave 'em in the comment sections please. Thanks -Sneaky 'n' Shel

Pictures: Me at the Trevi Fountain, Raphael's tomb at the Pantheon, Me and Shel at the Colosseum, Max on the bus tour with some nice gardens in the background.

Sunday, August 8

Rome

An alarm clock wasn’t necessary this morning; the second hand smoke was so strong we could see it seeping from the walls and Shelman was spooning me for the third time that night. Nevertheless at 10:50 we got a call from the front desk telling us to get out. Like, thanks Bro, but you’re preachin’ to the choir. You don't have to tell us twice--thx.
After riding a rickety elevator (felt safer sleeping on the Venice streets) to the first floor, we walked outside and were in Rome. Incredible.
On the subway to the Vatican, a kid was killing it on the accordion, playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow—Italian rendition (I didn’t know it was possible to rock an instrument from 1822 so hard). We saw the St. Peter’s square, St. Peter's Basilica, the Pieta, and a bunch of papal tombs (including the tomb of Pope John Paul II). From there we walked to the Spanish Steps, snapped a few pics, and decided to head out for some more authentic Italian pizza (the pizza in Venice was, how you say, dank). We sat down and ordered two slices each. Now, I’m more of an eater than a cooker so correct me if I’m wrong, but last time I checked this was not two slices:


Fig 1: Whatever this is, it's NOT only two slices of pizza.

What this is here is over 5 pounds of pizza. We know this because they charge by the kilogram and what we thought would be a small snack ended up costing over $20 each. Just ridiculous. Back when I was working at the Birchwood Snack Bar, if somebody ordered a bottle of water and I came out with a 5-gallon water cooler, I'd get punched in the tooth then get fired. No respect. I just don't know where this lady gets off serving slices of pizza that are more than a pound each. At any rate, you can be sure that Shelman and I have had our fill of pizza for a while.
After our meal we headed for our hotel (a nice one, for a change) to freshen up and wash our clothes. The hotel was great-—nice staff, clean rooms, and blizzard cold A/C. The only confusing part was the bathroom.


Fig 2: Bad-flushing toilet on left.

The second toilet took like 15 flushes to flush down number 2’s, and when Max and I were using them at the same time we were looking each other in the eyes. Anyways…

Now Sunday night isn’t the biggest night in the holiest city in the world, but Shelman and I still had a great time tearing up the pong table and absolutely lighting up the dance floor. At one point, Max dropped a move so hard I swear even the pope felt it, funny hat and all. We also met this kid, Harry, who dished out handshakes WAY too much. Like, once he gave me a handshake for giving him such a great handshake. Hilarious, but the dude needed to relax. We also met two Irish girls with funny accents and a bunch of other goofs n smokes.
Anyways, the night came to a close and after picking up our sweet free t-shirts (what’s better than a free t-shirt?) we stopped at McDonalds (classic Wieser) for some munch. There, like with the pizza, I was clowned on again. Now there’s no way of knowing for sure, but I’m almost certain I ordered two hamburgers. What I ended up with was a piece of cheese between two burger buns. After looking everywhere for my patty (could it have fallen out in the bag?) I devoured my cheese-and-bun-sandwich and Max and I headed home.

Pictures: Us on the Spanish Steps, Sheltod climbing around at the Vatican, The Pieta, Inside St. Peter's Basilica (the place is huge, this is just a corner of it)

Saturday, August 7

Venice

Max here (aka Lord of the Dance): After our train ride was conveniently changed to arrive in Venice at 3:40 am, we found ourselves with nothing to do, but sleep in the tunnel leading to the main terminal, which was closed. Other backpackers and bums were getting some shuteye. Pete popped his backpack on the ground, rolled over, and passed out. Being the more responsible character I am, I stayed awake and watched as rando's passed, keeping an eye on sleeping beauty. It struck 5:30 and I decided a warmer shelter was in need. Like most Americans, especially Wies, we started our day at McDonalds. Once the sun finally showed up we went into town to receive the first breakfast at an outdoor cafe. Off to St. Mark's Square, we thought, but the Venice streets were narrow and very misleading. After a solid wander-sesh and a few loser laps, we arrived. More food was on our minds after a long journey and a few kinks in our backs. Peter munched a raw ham sandwich (gross) and I took down some za. Next was to see the Grand Canal leading into the ocean. Watching the sun light up the boats and ports as the day went along, "made me realize something. The weather is amazing, even the birds are bumping." So we lugged our bags back to the square to feed the silly pigeons. Silly, they were, because without even feeding them one perched on my backpack. Peter giggled up a storm as we played like 4-year olds with these birds. Since it was only 10 am after our bird sesh (remember we started our day at 5:30) we left to check out the sites--the St Mark's Basilica, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, and the classic Venice bridges. On the way, pizza and gelati was a big hit and kept us going under the hot sun.
Pizza was primo--thin crust, but not too crispy like at V in Westport, chewy and tastey. An excellent snack by all means. Gelati is just as legitt, sweet and creamy with a sprinkle of Italian love. Trying to follow the canal was a challenge because of dead ends, so we would hit a pier every now and then. Two tall logs standing vertical in the canal as boat cleats struck my eye and I felt the need to climb and so I did. I'm about to fully stand up and I get the wobbles. I think to myself "I'm about to take a dip." Luckily I hop off and stomp the landing. Lastly, we wanted to get on the water because that's what Venice is all about. A ferry ride up the Grand Canal to the train station ended our Venice voyage.

Pictures: Us at the waterfront, Me gazing into the Grand Canal, Me balancing, Peter on a canal, Peter with a bird.