My sense of home has become skewed,

I'm excited to find out where I belong.

Fish & chips has made me fat.

Euro trip-out part 3-Italy and the Great Train Adventure of 2011

Gosh too much time has passed since I have returned from my European adventure, in fact I'm already embarking on my second tour next week when my lovely family arrives! Anywho I suppose I should write about Italy a bit.

So I believe I left off on a flight to Bologna! Upon arriving in Bologna Morgan, Rachel, and I hopped on a bus to our hostel. However we quickly realized that our directions were just slightly insufficient as they only took us to the bus stop with the description of the hostel being "right around the corner" So, after searching around a bit Morgan finally conjured the courage to ask someone for directions, and boy, were we lucky she did. She went into a small pizza place and pointed to the address on a piece of paper, no one spoke English but an old man smelling of wine gestured for us to follow him, now this isn't something I would normally do (i.e. follow drunk old men down alley ways in a foreign land) but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures. The old man took us around the corner from the bus stop and pointed to a green sign and indeed, there was our hostel. We celebrated and thanked him and made our way to the door. Now, this small and seemingly meaningless experience speaks volumes about the Italians, they were truly some of the nicest people I have ever met. This sort of warmth and kindness reoccurred many times throughout our trip.

When we reached our hostel we were very pleasantly surprised as it turned out to be a bed and breakfast and was truly one of the prettiest places I have ever stayed. It was called B&B Romina, and the innkeeper's name was of course, Romina, a very sweet Italian woman who didn't speak much English, but with my little knowledge of Italian we communicated quite well and I think she was very pleased to have us.

Inside the B&B Romina

That evening we walked just a few blocks away from our hostel and found a small wine bar and decided to have dinner. Very timidly, Morgan approached the waitress and in Italian that she had learned from a guidebook asked "Una tavola per cena?" The waitress looked at us endearingly and said "Okay, ask in English," we let out a sigh of relief to the fact that she spoke English and asked if we may sit down for dinner, she then instructed us on how to say it properly in Italian and sat us at a lovely table. By the way, if you're ever in Italy the correct way to ask for a table for dinner is "Hai un posto per la cena?" We ordered the best bottle of wine I have ever had, it was a red wine from the Tuscan region and I had eggplant parm to eat, it was molto delicioso! here are some pics:

The restaurant/bar

The best eggplant I've ever consumed.

The next day, since we had no direction and no expectations we spent the day wandering around Bologna. Now, Bologna is a very small city with very few tourist attraction sites, in fact it is more known for its food that its atmosphere. This of course did not bother me because I love food dearly, so we decided to visit the Medieval marketplace and try some fresh goods.

Fresh bread, tomatoes, cheese, and strawberries oh my!

After our wonderful lunch Rachel and I did some more exploring and happened upon some of the many ancient churches that Bologna harbors. They were all lovely but one stood out in particularly. Rachel and I found la Basilica di St. Stephen and decided to enter. The church was very old, from the Medieval era I believe. The church had within it a mausoleum, which you could walk up and look into, as well as the tombs of many long deceased people. It was creepy to say the least. Also within its walls was a cloister of monks who made a number of different products including limoncello and chocolate! In the gift shop (yes they have a gift shop) I was searching for a homeopathic elixir to bring home to my mom as a souvenir. When I finally chose one the monk working at the register made sure that I knew exactly how to take it and what it was to be used for. This conversation went on for over half an hour, but was actually one of my favorite moments of this entire trip. He was really one of the kindest people I have ever met, he was a French monk who spoke English fairly well and was trying to learn Italian. He took great care in making sure that I had very detailed instructions to bring home to my mother on how to use this elixir. I walked away from the conversation feeling somewhat surreal as I had never imagined that I would ever meet and have a long conversation with a cloistered monk. Here's a picture of the Basilica from the outers and innards:

outer

these were the cloisters I think. They had a gigantic dog that roamed the upper hallway.

That night we got some pizza from a place called Nicola's (or something like that) and here is what it looked like:

Thus began the pizza portion of my tour.

The next day we packed up our things and made our way to the train station to head for Florence. The train ride was absolutely beautiful and filled with Tuscan countryside. here's a shot from the train:

When we arrived in Florence we easily found our hostel, however we quickly learned that the hostel we booked was not where were would be staying as the innkeeper told us in broken English "You no stay here, a short man will come for you." Sure enough a few minutes later a short guy smelling of body odor told us to follow him to where we would be staying, now again this is not something I would suggest doing (following strange men to places you don't know, in a country you've never been to) but I figured I was with my girls, and the three of us together are pretty tough cookies , and Morgan has been known to take women's self defense classes so I would NOT mess with her. Shadiness aside, the place we stayed was actually quite nice and very close to the Duomo, a beautiful church adorned in jade and marble. Here's some pictures of our hostel and the Duomo:

The Duomo

view from our hostel window

window and bathroom, word.

Seriously, this girl could kill you.

To our surprise and delight we were just around the corner from the Academia, the museum that holds the infamous David statue by Michelangelo. So this is what we did on our first day and man oh man was it spectacular. I was truly awe-stricken by the detail and beauty that statue holds, Michelangelo really knew what he was doing. We spent the rest of the day wandering and on a carousel, oh and of course getting gelato and pizza.

this isn't the actual David, but this is the one in the town center

happy as two clams

thus began the gelato portion of our tour.

The next day we went to the Uffizzi gallery and saw the famous Botticelli paintings "Spring" and "Venus" both were beautiful and it felt incredible to be among such beautiful works of art.

"Venus"

We spent the rest of the day doing some more exploring and found our way to the Ponte Vecchio, where we met a lovely older couple from Canada who took a picture of us. Here's a picture of the Ponte Vecchio:

it's a bridge!

The day after we decided to take a small trip into the countryside and see the city of Siena. It was really beautiful and it felt a lot like the "old country" here are some highlights:

awesome chalk artist

countryside

Church on Palm Sunday

That night we decided to get pizza (what a surprise) at a place called Gusta's Pizza. Now this place was an absolute tourist trap for American students, in fact I think half the student body of NYU was present that night, but man-oh-man if that wasn't the best pizza I have ever had I don't know what is. We took our pizzas to go and sat on a bridge that overlooked the Ponte Vecchio. It was one of those moments that you look back on and think "wow that was truly a perfect moment" the pizza was perfect, the friends were great, the weather was warm, and the view was magnificent. It was really a perfect moment that can never be recreated or captured, but here's some pictures anyway:

the pizza

the Ponte Vecchio

The next morning we gathered our things and hit the road to Rome. The train ride to Rome through the Tuscan countryside was inspiring, I've never felt luckier or happier to be alive and where I am. I had to remind myself every hour of our journey that I must be one of the luckiest people in the world to be able to have such an experience.

When we arrived in the grand city of Roma we checked into our hostel and realized that we had some very friendly neighbors, three Austrian girls named Fabi, Vroni, and Kati. They hung a sign on their door with their names on it and in an attempt to be friendly we did the same, here was the result:

That night we were awfully tired so we decided to go to the "travelers" bar across the street where we met some friendly fellow traveling folk like ourselves. The next day we met up with my cello-playing friend Mr. James Mitchell who had just been in three countries and two different continents in a matter of just two days, and we made our way to the sites of Rome. Here's some memories:

I thought this statue bore a striking resemblance to somebody I know.

OH NO! IT'S RUINS!

Our gang at the Colosseum after we slaughtered some lions.

Trevi Fountain, legend has it if you throw a coin in this fountain it means that someday you will return to Rome. So far it has held true for 3 people I know.

The Spanish Steps, surprisingly out of all the awesome sites in Rome this is the most photographed.

When we returned to our hostel that night we were delighted to find that we had 2 new Danish roommates Karen and Kat. These were two of the funniest girls I have ever met, the theme to their trip was bubble blowing, so everywhere they went they got people to blow bubbles, this included nuns at the Vatican as well as street performers and...

Rachel! and...

me!

Anyway that night we were joined by our Austrian friends as well as our Danish roommates and we drank wine and got to know each other. The whole night was full of laughs and I learned a Danish drinking game called "Buffalo" it was great fun. I hope to stay in touch with these people for a very long time!

The next day we decided to be responsible and book our train in advance (i.e. for the next day) to get to Paris from Rome. To our shock and horror we learned that doing so on Easter weekend is simply impossible and that every train to Paris was booked for the next month. Scared and confused we got tickets to any French city that would bring us closer to Paris, and thus began our great train adventure of 2011, 26 hours of pure train joy with a quick six hour stop over in Marseilles to sleep. Our journey began in Rome and brought us to Ventimiglia (Italy), where we hopped on a train to Genoa which took us to Nice (France), from there we took a train to Marseilles where we stayed for the night because the trains has stopped running. The next morning we got the first train to Lyon and from there we got on a train to Dijon (the mustard capital of the world) where we FINALLY got a train to Paris! Now the journey was long and grueling and there were times where I didn't think we would make it but when I look back on it I am so thankful it happened. I got to see the Amalfi Coast, the French Riviera, the Tuscan countryside, and the French countryside. It was completely lovely and I accompanied it with the tunes of Sir Cat Stevens, which made it feel like a scene from a movie. Let us relive for a moment my great train journey through pictures:

our first train, spirits are high and not yet broken

losing stamina, but excited about the coastal line outside the window

spirits are broken, hope is lost, we will never make it to Paris.

Alas! this train is Paris bound, we are really going to make it huzzah!

So my friends I hope you tune in next week to read about my experience in France, here's a preview: it was spectacular. Have a wonderful week everyone!