Last Day in Europe, Part II

continued...
After sending out some postcards from the Vatican, we exited the museum, grabbed sandwiches from a street vendor, and walked back around to stand in line for St. Peters. Check out the obelisk in the center of St. Peters square --90ft of solid granite weighing over 300 tons. Thats....kinda heavy! It was originally built in Egypt over 2000 years ago and was transplanted to Rome by Caligula. Why is it all called St Peters you might ask? Well, the obelisk first stood in the center of a Roman chariot racecourse. For entertainment, they killed Christians in this circus course...one of them being Peter the apostle around 65AD. His remains were buried in a nearby cemetery -- which is the current location of the main altar. Constantine built the original St. Peters church around this site in 300AD. The church lasted until about 1500, at which time the new church was built around it.

We only waited for maybe 10 minutes to get through the security checkpoint. Once inside, you're greeted with a full length view of the church, and boy do you feel tiny. They say that the church is nearly 2 football fields in length...I don't necessarily agree with that, but it is quite long. Also very very tall (430ft to the top of the dome to be exact) with enormous sculptures adorning the columns--the ones at the top are nearly 20 feet tall. The lettering around the top of the church is 7 ft print. The words the letters form compose every phrase that Jesus spoke to Peter in the Bible. The church is shaped like a cross with a long nave and stubby arms. Around the outer edges are tombs of various popes--some much more interesting and impressively decorated than others. In the apse (back wall behind the altar) is an unbelievably large wooden throne built for a king and later encased with bronze. Above it is a stain-glassed window containing a dove --the symbol of the holy spirit. After looking at this window and then looking up towards the central dome, I started to realize how much light pours into the cathedral. And since the center dome has a bunch of windows ringing it, the light enters as beams, making for beautiful pictures.

Last, but not least, to the right of the entrance to the church is Michelangelo's Pieta. This area was mobbed with people...I didn't get very close, but managed to snap a couple of pictures. This was Michelangelo's first commissioned piece. Notice that despite Jesus being a full grown man, Michelangelo still depicted him as being much smaller than Mary -- oh and as in most church art we've seen, Mary never seems to grow old, no matter what Jesus' age.

After leaving St. Peters, we went around the side to head up to the top of the dome. Something was wrong with the elevator so we climbed the whole way. Just before you head outside near the top, you get to walk around the top interior portion of the dome...way above the people below. Up here you really got an appreciation for just how large the church really is. Climbing further takes you along a narrow, leaning passageway and then up a really tight spiral staircase. I can imagine that quite a few people don't ever make it to the top. It was a little challenging. But the view, once you make it, is outstanding. From the front you can see across the entire city --even make out the Colosseum off in the distance. Behind the church, you're offered a spectacular view of some of the Vatican gardens.


After snapping some pictures, we headed back down to an intermediate outdoor level where you can nearly walk right up to the statues I call "the Jumpers" that line the top of St. Peters. Believe it or not, they actually had a souvenir shop up here too. After a quick look, we walked the rest of the way down and headed back out onto the streets. Our intention was to catch the bus back, but we didn't know where it picked up. By the time we saw one go by, we had already walked pretty far and decided just to continue doing so. We made a beeline for the Pantheon, which, despite its enormity, is somewhat obscured by the buildings around it. I did a quick walk around and realized that the entrance is by far the most impressive. The back of the building seems to be in a state of disrepair--and by the looks of it wasn't ever really that impressive anyway. But...look again at the picture and how tiny the people look next to those columns. Crazy. We went inside to have a look at the famous, perfectly symmetrical ceiling. The height from the floor to the ceiling is equal to the diameter of the largest part of the dome. Our guide book said the ceiling is thinner at the top than the bottom to shed weight. Its amazing that they could build such a perfect structure back in 150-200AD. All without computers and modern manufacturing techniques. Makes you feel like we haven't come very far in 2000 years! The Pantheon is one of the few remaining ancient Roman buildings that has been consistently in use since it was built. Even while we were inside, a choir was singing in front of an audience, which sort of drove home this point and made it feel like a unique experience. One other thing to note -- Raphael's tomb was inside the Pantheon.

The day before, one of the guys staying at the hotel had recommended a gelato store called Giolitti near the Pantheon, so we decided to try it out. Good thing we did! BEST GELATO EVER! It blew away the rest of the gelato we'd had in Venice and Florence. They must have had over 50 flavors, and they gave huge scoops with whipped cream on top. I started with a cone of pistachio and bacio (which I now know is supposed to be chocolate & hazelnut) with whipped cream. It was ridiculously tasty. I wish I had one right now. We had to eat it outside in the 95 degree Rome sun so it was melting quickly. I forget what Kevin had, but we woofed them down and went right back inside for more. My second round was banana and chocolate, and this time I got it in a cup so I could take my time a little more. What was awesome was that there were Italian guys in suits just getting out of work who were also getting cones. Pretty cool. I just found this on TripAdvisor, "Giolitti - Via Uffici del Vicario 40, close to the Pantheon and to Montecitorio. This is a very old establishment -- it opened in 1900! -- and is often voted best ice cream in local polls. The high-ceilinged interior recalls the turn of the last century, with mirrors and marble and table seating; the staff are friendly and the selection vast. Try the crema marrone (chestnut), which was a favourite of Pope John Paul II, who sent his driver to pick up a tub whenever he was in the mood." After dropping about $10 each on ice cream, we moved on! The Trevi fountain was on our way back to the hotel so we stopped by to have a look. It was mobbed with people just chilling around the edges. The fountain is built right into a building. We just stopped long enough to take some pictures and then moved on. Looking back, I wish we had visited the fountain at night, I bet its quite a sight. I think we were just too tired to really enjoy it at the time.

Back at the hotel, we ran into the Boulder family that we had met in the morning. After chatting for awhile about the day's sightseeing, we decided to join up for dinner. We walked up the street a ways to a place that one of the girls had remembered walking by and sat down to eat right on the street. It was nice to have company, and it actually turned out to be inspirational as well! The older daughter, Lara, had just finished a year or two stint of working in NYC. Just before their Italy trip, she realized that life wasn't all about working until 2 in the morning and had decided to return to Boulder to get back to a life she enjoyed. Her mother was very supportive and it was refreshing to see somebody acting on a decision to get away from the rat-race. They tried to convince Kevin to take on his dream to write for a car magazine. Haha...I guess time will tell if they were successful. After dinner we walked back toward the hotel, took one last look at St. Peters off in the distance and called it a night since we had to catch a mid-morning flight back home. (It had been quite a day of tourism too!)

Last Day in Europe, Part 1

Thursday, June 18th, Part 1: Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel

I'm writing this on June 28th because I've been pretty lazy since I've gotten back home. From Friday night through Sunday, I couldn't sit still...then I went back to work on Monday and have been pretty lazy ever since. Half my travel gear is still strewn all over my bedroom. Oh well.

So, back to the last day in Europe, Rome to be specific. We'll see what I can remember...

I woke up first, grabbed a shower and went over to grab breakfast. As I was finishing a family sat down next to me -- a mom and two girls. They were from Boulder, CO and had just survived a scary attack on the train ride to Rome the previous day. They had been cornered by a bunch of thieves who tried to steal their luggage. Pretty crazy...Kev and I hadn't run into any problems like that, or even seen anything very suspicious. Kevin swears he saw a pickpocket dressed in Arab clothes, but that was about the extent of any trouble for us.

I started talking to the family about plans for the day and what would be good times to hit up different tourist spots. It was scheduled to be another 95degree day so it made sense to wait in the long lines at the Vatican early before the day reached its hottest point. After breakfast we must have spent some time blogging or reading because I feel like we sort of got a late start...it was past 10 before we left the hotel. We caught a packed bus to the Vatican and then walked to the right St. Peters towards the Vatican Museum. I expected extremely long lines, but we couldn't have waited more than 10 or 15 minutes. Luckily there was some shade along the building as well, so we weren't melting in the sun.

Once inside, you're first taken through a few rooms full of Ancient Egyptian art. The first room featured a few mummies, the bodies preserved with pitch. The next room contained Egyptian sculptures, many of which featured animal heads. Egyptians believed animals to be reincarnations of gods. You could take pictures in the Vatican museum, which I thought was pretty cool at first, but after a few galleries it became annoying as I started realizing how difficult it was to focus the camera w/out a flash with the low lighting conditions. Oh well, I'll post some somewhat blurry photos anyway. The last Egyptian room contained some more sculptures as well as some samples of writing--good luck figuring out what it says.

Next we moved into a courtyard that was sort of a 500BC-500AD Greek/Roman sculpture garden. The most interesting works were obvious, as people crowded around a statue of Apollo drawing a now missing bow and a statue called Lacoon. Lacoon supposedly tried to warn the town of Troy not to accept the Trojan Horse but the gods sent giant snakes to strangle him and his sons. The marble statue recreated this event, showing an extremely ripped up bearded man fighting with the snakes. Pretty cool.

Going back inside, the tour takes you past the "Hall of Animals", which contained countless statues of...yup, you guessed it, animals! Just before reaching a giant bathtub made out of a single block of porphyry, you come across The Torso Statue. I capitalize because this limbless but muscular statue was Michelangelo's inspiration. You'll probably notice the resemblance in his works. After the giant bathtub, you enter an EXTREMELY long hallway...decorated with papal splendor. Its just ridiculous...makes you think twice about giving money to your local Catholic church. The hallway featured statue after statue after statue....and every single one featured a fig leaf covering the private parts --courtesy of the Catholic Church from 1500-1800, when they decided that the bare human form was indecent. The hall also contained huge tapestries along the walls. The entire flat ceiling had been painted to look like sculptured reliefs...I would have never known if I hadn't read it in the guidebook. It was just unbelievable, check it out! Further down the hall, the walls switched to huge maps of Italy, showing everything from the foothills of the alps to the boot kicking of Sicily. It was said that popes could take their visitors through this hallway to show them the entire splendor of Italy.

Next stop was a gallery of Renaissance art by Raphael. The intent of the room was quickly summed up by one look at the ceiling. The ceiling fresco showed a beaming cross standing in place of a Roman statue that lay in pieces on the floor in front of it. The meaning was to show the transition from the pagan empire to Christianity. The walls of the room featured scenes of General and then Emperor Constantine. From left to right, the paintings first showed Constantine preparing for battle and seeing a cross in the sky, then showing him victorious in battle, then bowing before the pope for baptism, and finally legalizing Christianity and working side by side with the pope. Quite a bit going on in this room!

In the next room down (the pope's private study), Raphael painted the famous School of Athens, and across from it the Disputa --both took up the entire wall. Huge. I wonder how long it took to paint these... The School of Athens shows the great thinkers of ancient Greece on once side and the great scientists of
ancient Greece on the other. In the center of the painting, on their respective sides, are Plato and Aristotle. Raphael added in Renaissance thinkers (such as da Vinci) and painters (himself and Michelangelo) to show that they were on even par with the ancients. Every straight line in the painting leads back to the center of the painting -- the lines of the hallways, the decorations on the floor tiles. Very cool.

After passing through a few more rooms filled with paintings, you enter the Sistine Chapel. A place for silence and no photography right? Well...sort of.. haha. Uniformed and non-uniformed guards walked around asking tourists to be quiet and not to take photos...but you can't really stop 200 people from doing it. So I met them halfway and kept my mouth shut but snapped a few pictures. Standing in the Sistine Chapel was definitely one of highlights of the whole trip. To look straight up and see the uber-famous hand of God touching Adam's -- I don't even have the words to describe it. I remember first seeing it in high school history class. And that ceiling is really really high, I don't see how anyone could spend 4 years on scaffolding craning their neck to paint it. According to our guidebook, Michelangelo didn't even want to paint for Pope Julius at first because he thought of himself as a sculptor, not a painter. Julius wore him down, asking for 12 apostles to be painted on the ceiling. Michelangelo finally agreed on the condition that he be allowed artistic freedom. The result? Frescos of just about every single Old Testament story. Check it out on wikipedia, its just ridiculous! And thats just the ceiling. Michelangelo also painted the wall behind the altar as the Last Judgement. Jesus at the top center casting people down to a pretty nightmare-ish hell on the right while angels pull people to heaven on the left. And Jesus is not depicted as a happy camper --it doesn't look like he's particularly thrilled with doing the judging. Oh -- and his torso is modeled after The Torso Sculpture I mentioned earlier. Michelangelo also painted himself in as the face of the drippy soul hanging down towards hell on the right of Jesus.

After soaking it all in for at least a half hour, we pushed on through a few more art galleries that held some art by no-name artists such as da Vinci, Raphael, van Gogh, and Dali. Hard to believe that most people just skip these galleries after seeing the Sistine Chapel. If any of these were in any other art museum, they would no doubt be major pieces. The fact that these priceless works are last, when everyone is too sick and tired of walking around to really enjoy them just emphasizes the vast content of the Vatican museum.


to be continued.....

A Refreshing Change!

Rome - Weds June 17

Rome was only an hour and a half away from Florence by train. Joe departed around 6:30 in the morning for the airport. Kev and I slept in until about 8 and had turned our key back to Mama Lucia by 9:30 and headed to the train station.

Being the last stop on our trip, we were the least prepared for Rome. Kevin had done a little bit of reading from the guide book to know which sights to hit up, but I had only quickly browsed it and gotten a faint idea of the area I wanted to stay in. We sat in the train station and debated whether to stay near the station or near the sites and finally chose closer to the sites so we could get a better flavor for the city. After a few phone calls, we found one of the places from the guidebook with a vacancy for $115 a night, less than what the book claimed due to a last minute discount! See! Sometimes it pays not to plan...haha. The hotel wasn't extremely far away from the station, so we decided to walk there rather than figure out the metro. We picked up Roma Cards at the nearest Tabbaconist (cigarette & misc shop). These cards get you into 2 major sites without paying or waiting in line and you also get 3 days of unlimited metro/bus access. All for $23euro each. Not a bad deal, especially if you were going to be there for three days in the middle of the summer.

We pretty much walked straight to our hotel without getting lost. Rome, to me, felt similar to DC - everywhere you turn theres a statue or monument of something or other, there are tourists everywhere, and theres a good bit of traffic. Kind of a good last stop due to the slight familiarity. Our hotel turned out to be a really nice place; the room was probably one of the nicer ones we've had during the trip, the staff was very nice and extremely helpful, and we even got welcome drinks for free! Not bad! Its called Hotel Giardino if anyones interested in going to Rome.

After getting situated, we headed for the Colosseum, 7 or 8 blocks away. The Colosseum was completed in 80AD. Quite an impressive sight from the second we turned the corner and first saw it in the distance. We used our Roma Cards and bypassed the line. Your first view of the interior is the central arena just ahead of you. The actual floor was made of wood and covered with sand and no longer exists. An example of what the floor would have looked like was set-up to the left. What you see in the center is the multiple levels underneath the floor called the hypogeum that held the animal and gladiator cages. A complicated elevator system was used to raise the animal,gladiator or scenery to the arena floor level. It took as many as 200 people to operate some of the lifts. Crazy. In the arena, animials fought animals (for example beers, lions, cougars, rhinos), gladiators fought animals, and gladiators fought gladiators. Oftentimes the gladiator didn't even know what he was going to fight -- and then a bear or other animal would pop up behind him on one of the lifts and he had no choice but to fight it, or die trying. During the Colosseum's grand opening, it is said that over 2000 humans were killed and over 5000 animals. Perfume was used to mask the stench of blood and decay. The Colosseum could hold as many as 50,000 people. Can you imagine all those people cheering on such fights?! It must have been spectacular. Maybe that is what Michael Vick was going for in his house.

As you probably already know, the crowd was often given the power to decide whether a gladiator should live or die when his opponent had injured him severely enough to put him in a compromised position. If the downed gladiator had fought bravely, the crowd may give him a thumbs up, allowing him to live to see another day.

Seating was segregated by class. The emperor and his entourage front and center on the lower level as well as the Vestal Virgins--more on that later. The next level was for the Senate, the next the noblemen/knights, the next ordinary citizens, and finally the nose bleeds were for the poor and slaves. Admission was free, but they actually claimed there was a ticket system with assigned seating! Can you believe that! Not much has changed, except the free part of course. Guess they made their money on concessions. Ha. During archeological digs, they found tons of chicken and pig bones and other objects indicating what the people ate during the games. People also gambled in the stands, as evidenced by the finding of shells and dice. Much like today, some forms of gambling were illegal back then, so it had to be done discreetly. There was also graffiti -- people would carve outlines of their favorite gladiators in the steps of the bleachers. It is said that one of the crowd favorites defeated a bear, a lion and a rhino back to back. Not bad.

I didn't even realize that these things were real, but gryphons would perch on top of the Colosseum, waiting to fly down and get a free meal. They found bones of many different animals during the digs. Not a big surprise there.

Okay, back to the construction. Several of the stand sections are gone, as well as most of the steps leading to the top. You can still see where they were though. Earthquakes did most of the damage. Statues used to line the top of the stadium, long since gone. I told Kevin that Dan Snyder should build the next Redsksins Stadium to look like the Colosseum...what better place than DC?? It would be incredible for someone to recreate it in all its slendor. Maybe add a few more seats though. And some parking.

And then on the way to the forum....

Ha, next stop was the Roman forum... the religious, commercial and political center of the city. Once the center of the civilized world, now its a tangle of dilapidated columns and broken buildings. Back in the day, conquering generals led processions from the arch at one end to the arch at the other, now tourists scatter all over taking pictures of the evidence left behind. I don't know how they can tell what the buildings used to look like. I guess from paintings. I sure couldn't tell.

Our guide book explained the good guts of it -- which I'll have to refresh on because I wandered off without it and just took it all in. I remember one of the buildings was where the Vestal Virgins lived. The Vestal Virgins - 8 to 10 yr old girls from noble families could choose to be Vestal Virgins. They had to promise to remain chaste for 30 years, at which time they would acquire a substantial dowry and be allowed to marry. Meanwhile they were revered and allowed to sit opposite the emperor at the Colosseum!

Beyond the forum was Palatine hill, one of the oldest regions in Rome and where several emperors lived as well as some rich Romans. Amidst the debris we found the throne room where a slab of marble still marked the location of the throne, as well as a large stadium area that was once lined with statues & columns. By the time we finished walking through this area, it was nearly 7 and closing time. We headed back toward the hotel, stopping along the way to snap a pic of the gigantic Vittoriano building -- a monument to Italy's first king.

We took the recommendation of the hotel clerk for dinner, and headed to his 2nd favorite pizzeria. (The first was too far away). Probably the best pizza we've had in Italy -- Kev had some form of supreme, I had devil (spicy salami that wasn't that spicy). Afterwards we wandered up to an Irish-American bar, had a Guinness (what?!?), watched some soccer news, and then called it a night.

Joe's Last Day

Florence, Tues Jun 16

Tuesday marked Joe's last day before he had to go back to Lucerne to sell souvenirs. We made sure his last day was jam packed with sightseeing.

Started the day off at Florence's Accademia (I guess all Italian cities want to show off their sm-arts) By the looks of the building, you would never in a million years guess that Michelangelo's David statue was inside, but I digress. It was about 9:30 in the morning, and there was already a decent line ahead of us. A group of chatty Cathy's was ahead of us as well as an older guy dressed in slacks and a blazer -- he had professor written all over him. Later I saw him explaining some of the paintings as well as the illumination work to the ladies, so I think my guess was correct. We waited about 45 mins to an hour to get in. The first few rooms had some of the "typical church art" that we have become all too familiar with of late. We breezed through these rooms and quickly headed to the Michelangelo hall. This hall housed 4 of his Slaves and Prisoners -- works that he never completed. Some experts believe that Michelangelo intended for them to remain in this "unfinished" state -- as if the sculpture was still trapped in rock, trying to break free. The abdomens and torsos were essentially finished, but none of the limbs. In each you could get a sense of the power and grace he captured...even in rough form. At the end of the hall is his David, which stands at least 15ft tall, if not higher. The details can only be fully appreciated when viewed up close -- the veins in the biceps, the sling draped casually over his shoulder. As a student of anatomy, it is very interesting that he chose to oversize David's right hand. The explanation is that it shows the power he needed to overcome Goliath.

One of his unfinished works, the Palestrina Pieta also used this mismatched sizing -- the legs of Jesus are much smaller and weaker than his chest and arms. The description of this sculpture says that this work is now attributed to one of Michelangelo's students...but the mismatched features are consistent with what he did in David -- so I don't agree with the experts, Michelangelo carved this thing...or at least made the plans for it. And I must be right, because I have spent the last 3.5 weeks studying the fine arts. Ha. Who knows...

Lets see...what else was in the Accademia... There was an entire room filled with plaster casts of busts by some artist I can't remember and there were also works by New York photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. His photos were generally of the human form in various poses, and his works were displayed next to the Michelangelo works, as well as in an entire separate gallery. Interesting as a sort of compliment and contrast at the same time....but I wasn't particularly there for modern art.

After exiting, we grabbed some paninis at a small grocery store and walked over towards the small square in front of the San Marco monastery. (I never figured out why it was called that, because they obviously didn't have his bones there.) Here we ate standing up while pigeons flocked around us and a homeless guy sat across from us drinking a beer and people-watching. I always wonder whether its actually a rich guy who just wants to chill out and see how people treat him for a few days. This guy looked legit though...but content, not asking for $$ like most. Guess he already had his beer, at least for the morning.

We popped into the San Marco (he's everywhere!!!) monastery that featured frescoes by Fra Angelico in the monk's cells as well as around the courtyard. A lot of the artwork was repetitive from cell to cell, but interesting in the respect that it was in the environment it was intended for, and it seemed to be tailored to whatever monk lived there. There was some artwork in a few galleries -- all church art that we have become numb to.

Next we made our way to the Santa Maria Cathedral, Giotto's Bell Tower and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The Opera was the Cathedral's museum that had several statues by Donatello as well as Michelangelo's marble Pieta. Michelangelo actually carved the David statue in this building. I almost missed Donatello's most interesting work in the museum -- a dramatic and expressive Mary Magdalene -- actually quite scary looking! Much different than anything else I've seen. In the Pieta, Michelangelo gave Nicodemus his own facial features, check him out at the top. The description said that Michelangelo shattered the a piece of Madonna's elbow and part of Christ's leg when his tools hit an imperfection in the grain. He left the statue mutilated and unfinished. One of his students repaired the statue after his death. I wonder if he would have smoothed out this sculpture a little more if it hadn't shattered after making this much progress. Glad the David didn't shatter. Another interesting work was Madonna with the Glass Eye. Look closely. Can't remember who carved this one.


When we left the Museo di Opera we were into early afternoon...might even have been 4ish. There was no line for the Santa Maria cathedral so we went straight in. The interior of the cathedral was fairly stark -- I guess the sculptures in the museum once stood along the walls. The rather boring but large nave led to an impressive dome. The dome was elegantly painted with Jesus, Mary, numerous saints and angels, and what looked like a version of the last judgment -- hell at the bottom with souls in torture and heaven above, with Christ at the top. The very center was open to the sky.

Didn't stick around too long after taking photos. We headed to the bell tower and climbed to the top for a very impressive panoramic view of the entire city. I forget how many steps there were...but it was ALOT...broken up though by several platforms where you could stop and take pictures so it didn't seem as bad. The views were great -- we were almost directly level with the lazy folks who took the elevator to the top of the Cathedral.

Then we headed to our last stop of the day, the Uffizi. Our guide book said to get reservations a month in advance during peak season to avoid a 3 hr wait. I guess it wasn't peak season...or peak hours. We showed up around 4:30 or 5 and maybe waited 10 minutes and we were in. Now...this museum is no joke. It has masterpiece after masterpiece in it. So many great pieces that Joe and I ran out of time and had to blow through the entire 1st level, looking at one or two paintings a room (the tour starts on 2nd level). We lost Kevin in the first two or three galleries where the tour groups were the most annoying. Lets see, some highlights: Boticelli's Birth of Venus, Titian's Venus of Urbino, a few unimpressive Rembrandt self-portraits, Raphael's Pope Leo X, and da Vinci's Annunciation.

After heading back to the Mama Lucia room to regroup & refresh, we went back to the same area as the night before for dinner. Chose a different restaurant. We scaled our meals down a little from the night before. I had a mixed salad and I think spaghetti with meat sauce, but I could be remembering wrong. I remember thinking that I like to evaluate Italian restaurants based on their basic spaghetti...but maybe I ordered something else. Its all running together. Good food though! Afterwards we picked up Joe's last gelato (unless he got some at the airport) and headed back for sleep around 10:45.

See...in Italy, dinner is considered "going out" because a meal done right takes several hours, which ours did! So for those of you who are thinking we didn't do anything at night, sitting outdoors on a square for dinner WAS going out!

San Marco Basilica & Mama Lucia

Venice to Florence, Mon Jun 15

We checked out around 9:30 and left our gear at the hotel to run through the San Marco Basilica prior to departing for Florence. The line was slightly longer than when we saw it the day before, but it progressed fairly quickly. You could actually go into the Basilica and have a look around for free, but you had to pay to see any of the really neat stuff. They had cleverly hidden St. Mark's tomb and the altar piece with some columns and tapestries, so you had to pay $2euro each to go back and check them out. St Mark's remains were under the altar and just behind the altar was an 8ft wide by at least 6ft tall altarpiece made of gold illuminated scenes decorated with hundreds of rubies, topaz, and pearls and plenty of other jewels that I can't think of right now. Some of the scenes depicted how the Venetians acquired St. Marks remains from Alexandria, some showed scenes from St. Mark's life, and others covered Mary & Jesus and plenty of angels, saints etc.

Another $3euro got you into the treasury which housed a collection of booty stolen from Constantinople. The collection included ancient Egyptian pottery, glass & metal cups from the 800's and 900's, and plenty of 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th century holy articles such as monstrances, chalices, swords, and vessels containing holy relics such as bones and pieces of fabric from saints.

Finally, an additional $4 euro got you access to the upper floors of the Basilica and to the outer terrace. Being that much closer to the ceiling, you quickly realize that the entire ceiling is a mosaic -- tiny squares of multi-colored stones patterned to form religious scenes. I can't even begin to imagine how long it took to decorate using this technique. You could probably only complete a 5ft x 5ft area in a days work...and the total surface area of the walls and domed ceilings is about 8000 square meters -- essentially astronomical. Even with scaffolding, you would be craning your neck to look up at what you were working on. I take my hat off to both the original artist as well as anyone doing restoration work. Glad its not me.

Upstairs featured a museum area. The first part contained models showing how some of the mosaics on the ceilings had been restored using extensive scaffolding and supports. Just beyond were the original 4 copper horses that face San Marco Square. They were stolen from Constantinople during the 4th Crusade. I would guesstimate that these were roughly larger than life-size. A quick walk over to the outer terrace allowed for sweet buttock views of the replicas that now adorn the Basilica. Oh, and also a great view of the square itself. But back to the museum. Just past the horses were remains of the original frescos from the church walls. Most actually still resembled the original image, others seemed like a stretch of the restorer's imagination. Still pretty neat.

After climbing back down a now packed staircase (the same narrow staircase is used to go both up and down, brilliant), we grabbed our bags from the hotel and walked over to pick up a vaperetto to get back to the train station. After two stops, our boat was so packed that I half wished I was back in that crowded staircase. Ok, maybe not...but it was pretty annoying and I was stuck in the center of it. Oh well. In Italy, despite having a rail pass you still have to pay ~$10 euro to reserve a spot on the train-- so we booked our tickets and headed off for Florence, only a few hours away. Joe actually spent the extra $$ for first class! The train was one of the nicer that we've been on, so I guess it was worth it.

We made it to Florence in late afternoon/early evening without a reservation for a hotel. Kev took up the search for lodging this time around while Joe and I stood vigil over the bags at a park just up from the train station. Kevin was gone for over 40 minutes, at which point we'd come up with some scenarios for what might have happened --he either ditched us for the Cinque Terre, got lost, or was jumped. Thankfully none of that happened, and he came back with two options-- $140 a night in a hotel, or $70 a night staying in one of Mama Lucia's roomed. We opted for the later. Was an extremely basic room with one king bed and a cot, no A/C, and bathrooms down the hall. Crazy thing was that she had Wi-fi! Best part about this experience was that Mama Lucia (I kept expecting her to make us some pasta) insisted on putting the sheets on the cot. So the three of us guys stood and watched a 70yr old woman make Joe's bed for him. Haha. Felt like she was our grandmother or something. She also didn't speak much English, so it was fun trying to communicate. Kevin used hand gestures that I've never seen before, not even on ancient egyptian tombs. The room ended up being fine-- was kinda hot the first night and there were some mosquitos, but we weren't in the room much so it served its purpose just fine.

The only thing we did the first night was get dinner. We wandered down a couple sketchy streets to an area recommended by our guide book. Went into the first Italian restaurant we came across that had outdoor seating--it helped that they had employed a pretty attractive promoter girl who was pitching the restaurant to everyone that walked by. Ha. I didn't realize until later that there were 6-8 restaurants all around a small square just beyond this first place. We all ate WAY too much. Kevin had a 4-5 course chef's special -- it included wine, espresso, dessert, an appetizer and 2 courses. Both Joe and I struck out on our own, each selecting a first and second course. I had ravioli for the 1st, which was really enough for an entire meal. My second course was a steak with peppercorns in a cognac sauce. In Italy, they don't ask you how you want your steak, you just get it medium-rare --and it was quite tasty, I really enjoyed it. I finished my meal with a shot of espresso while watching Kevin eat pie. Afterwards we scoped out the other restaurants on the small square and got some gelato from a small shop there.

We took a slightly different route back to the hotel along one of the main streets. We walked past a bar that was showing the USA vs Italy soccer match, so we ducked in and caught the last 20 minutes. Intended to have a beer, but the tap wasn't working too well and the staff seemed content with not serving us..so we didn't have any! The score was 1-1 when we tuned in...and we had the pleasure of watching the staff celebrate 2 Italian goals en route to a 3-1 victory over the Americans. The last goal was incredible. A ball fake along the sideline by a striker, who took it to the end line and chipped it onto the penalty spot where one of the midfielders half-volleyed it into the corner of the net. Sweet. We ducked out at that point and checked off another day in Europe.

BTW, how many believed me when I said Mama Lucia had wi-fi?

A solid touristy day

Venice, Sunday June 14th

We woke up in Venice to a warm and sunny day. Sunday was intended to be a touristy day --there were about 5 places we were looking to check out: San Marco's Basilica, the Doge's Palace, the Correr Museum, the Friari, and possibly Accademia - an art museum.

Heres a little history to help make sense of everything. Venetian merchants stole the remains of St. Mark from Alexandria in the 9th century. The remains are in a tomb under the altar at the Basilica. This holy relic put Venice on the map -- and most venetian artwork in the Doge featured St. Mark, usually in the form of a lion.

There was quite a line for the Basilica so we went through the Doge's palace first. The tour took us through the beautifully decorated palace--each Doge seemed to have commissioned additional artwork during his reign, most of which were painted directly to the walls or ceiling. The majority of works had religious overtones, featuring the doge as one of the minor subjects --kneeling near Mary or somewhere near Jesus, with St. Mark hanging out somewhere in the picture. The rooms were not furnished, as each royal family took their belongings with them after their tenure. The rooms themselves were enormous, and many overlooked a large open courtyard. It seemed that the palace was less of a "home", and more of an executive and judicial building. For instance, there was an enormous senate room, judiciary waiting rooms, judiciary rooms for different types of crimes --similar to how law is broken down today. The paintings in these rooms were intended to both intimidate criminals and give the law enforcers a sense of power by portraying Venetians in the same pictures as the Virgin Mary, Jesus & the saints. The last part of the tour took us through the prisons in the basement. we must have gone through 3 floors of them, which was pretty repetitive, because once you see one cell, you've seen them all. This part of the tour also took you over the "Bridge of Sighs", named for how prisoners sighed as they crossed this bridge into the prison, taking their last look at Venice & daylight before serving their sentence. As a tourist, this was very underwhelming. You were on the bridge and over it before you even realized it. I'm not sure we ever even saw the bridge from the outside due to some construction in the surrounding buildings. If we did see it, I couldn't tell you what it looked like.


After the palace, we walked the streets for awhile and picked up some huge pizza slices at a small shop along the street. You get an enormous slice on some wax paper for $2euro. And its really, really good. Some additional wandering took us to some gelato, of which we partook, of course. Our destination was the Friari, a church that has Titian's Assumption as the main alterpiece, Donatello's Virgin with Child sculpture in the nave next to it, as well as a collection of many other Venetian works from the 15th and 16th centuries--in an environment in which they were intended for. At the other end of the church were a few tombs. One, called the Canton featured a pyramid with doors at the center leading to the crypt. Below it, larger than life statues climbed the marble steps, their robes and clothing draping over the steps. Very cool.

To complete our Venice tourism, we made our way over to Accademia. Here we saw more Assumptions, Coronations, Crucifixions, Pietas, you name it, than I care to see again for awhile. (although I'm sure it will continue in Rome & Florence). After awhile, it all starts to blur together as one artist after another tries to depict the same scenes, each with their own flair. The musuem took you through time, showing these sorts of images as artistic styles progressed from the 14th to 17th century. It contained many Bellini's, Titian's, and plenty of other Venetian masters. As the centuries passed, the art changed from pure portraits, to portraits with background scenery, to scenery with various scenes scattered throughout.

We were pretty beat after the Accademia, and we headed back to the hotel to refresh for dinner. We ate at the restaurant just next door to the restaurant we ate at the night before. Similar pricing --though this place didn't really have a "house" wine. Instead, they had $9 or $10euro 1 liter bottles--still pretty cheap for wine bought at a restaurant. After the huge meal the night before, we all tuned it down a bit for this meal. I had a calzone with mushrooms, ham, & cheese. Despite being slightly burnt on top (covered up by tomato sauce), it was really good. Step aside Ledos. Can't remember what the other guys had, but overall it was a great meal. Once again, we were all pretty wiped out by the time dinner was over, but we managed to walk out to St. Mark's Square where Kev and Joe had some gelato (I don't know where they fit it) before we called it a night.

A fruitless search and a new destination with plenty of canals & gelato

Lausaunne to Milan to Venice
Sat, June 13

Ohhhhhhh, what a day. Ha. The train ride from Lausaunne to Milan was uneventful. I cranked out a few blogs I was behind on and listened to some tunes. Our destination was the Italian Riviera -- just southeast of Genova. We didn't have anything booked though, and were really nervous that we'd arrive there and be out of luck since it was a Saturday during a summer weekend. If we just showed up and got stuck, it would not be fun because its sort of off the beaten path and was going to take 3 hrs just to get there from Milan.

So our plan was to try to book a place during our stopover in Milan. I spent nearly an hour and half calling different hotels throughout the entire Cinque Terra region with absolutely no luck. I did get to talk to about a dozen and half real Italians though! Ha. We gave up on getting to the coast and I started calling some places in Venice. I quickly found 2 places with vacancies --one expensive, one not so expensive. Knowing we'd have SOMEWHERE to stay, we went ahead and reserved tickets for the next train to Venice.

During the train ride I read up on Rick Steve's version of Venice and also touched on Florence, since that would be our next destination. In Venice, you're greeted by a canal as soon as you step foot out of the train station. We had targeted San Marco square as our destination for sleeping, which requires a vaperetto (boat) ride to get there (unless you want to walk 45mins with 20lb packs). Both our travel books failed us here. They said to take boat #81...but it did not exist, which we found out by walking back and forth several times between the two boat docks like idiots. We finally realized that it had changed, and boarded the #2 boat headed to San Marco. After a 20min ride, we arrived just outside the square. As you enter the square, you're rewarded with a view of the gorgeous San Marco Basilica and Bell Tower just ahead of you. We crossed the square and plopped our bags down around a fountain area. Kev and Joe guarded the bags while I struck out to find a hotel. The streets were extremely confusing when you were looking for a particular place. I didn't find any of the hotels that were listed in the travel book. I ended up just popping into different places and asking if they had vacancies and what their prices were. After some very professionally performed legwork, I had two options. Try a brand new hotel that had a triple for $170, or go with a pension that would split us up into 2 rooms for a total of $150 incl breakfast. Armed with my knowledge, I returned to offer the choices to the guys. We opted for the $150 a night place--glad we did. After checking in and coming back downstairs to head out for the night, the lady who ran the place offered us the triple for the next night for $100. Sweet. Good luck finding a non-hostel place in Venice for less than that. (The deal got better at checkout, she charged us $130 instead of $150 for the first night)

We went out and explored a little of the area down near San Marco and along the Grand Canal. We found a vendor selling local wine from one of those fountain machines you typically find filled with Hawaiian Punch or Slurpees. We bought in. $1.5euro for a small cup. Nice. After exploring we sat down to eat at a pizzeria that featured personal sized pizzas for about 8euro each and half-carafe's of house win for $6.5euro each. We ended up having 3 by the end of the meal. Great Italian pizza, good (not great) Italian wine. An outdoor square. A decent price! Hard to beat. Afterwards we drifted back into San Marco square to listen to the dueling orchestras that play there every night in front of some of the restaurants. Hundreds of tables are set out on the square. If you sit down you get charged a $12 "cover" charge on top of whatever your drink or meal costs. But if you just stand around and listen, its free! So we did that for awhile. As soon as one orchestra finishes, the orchestra at the next restaurant along the square starts up and the majority of the crowd drifts down towards it. After two performances, we sought out some gelato to satisfy our ice-cream cravings. After that...it was close to 10 or 10:30 and we were pretty tired from our travels so we called it a night.