Gracia! That has just exhausted my Italian vocabulary. When there was a language problem we used a mixture of pictionary and charades to get our ideas accross. We have spent some time having a steller experience in Venice, Cinque Terre (the five cities), Florence, and Pisa. Im warning you this is a heary post so grab a snack and enjoy.
We arrived at night in Venice because we took a beautiful bus ride through the Italian Alps to get there. The whole city is made up of 118 little islands connected by little bridges. I was really tempted to see if I could jump some of the canals, but I refrained.
Our tiny, rediculous expensive, no toilet hotel also didnt include a breakfast. I just had to scoup oatmeal out of my shamy cap while it was cold. The first time I had to add some crackers to sweeten it up a bit to the point of bearable. Dont worry, on the second day I found some sugar packets to add in and I used warmer water.
The labrynth of streets were impossible to navigate without a map. With my backpack on I couldnt get through this "street" but no buses, trams or cars are allowed on the island.
We found a couple from Virginia that was willing to split the cost of a gondola ride. It was pretty fun to see the passageways and I didnt even have to row! The city is sinking and we saw some areas where the first floor had been abandoned because of flooding.
This is the most North(#1) of the five cities (Cinque Terre) where we hiked. They are located a little north of Pisa on the west coast. People were shocked when we told them we hiked all 5 of them in one day (6 or 7 miles). We took a long time and made sure to play on the beach and wander through the towns.
The area is not only amazingly beautiful because of the ocean crashing against cliffs and cities perched near the water, but there were acres of grape vines. These were used anciently to help stabalize the slope from sliding into the Mediteranian.
The lady taking our picture was paranoid that I was going to fall because I crossed over "the chain." If you look closly I am sure you can start to see sweaty arm pits and foreheads because of the humidity and heat.
I was indicating the size of the wave, but unfortunately you can tell I underpredicted by about three times. The rocks were slippery, and the return current nearly had me going for a little swim. I am way too skrawny.
This is town number 4 and in regular European style has a castle on the highest point in the area. We went down to the beach on the other side and spent an hour body surfing and drinking lots of salt water... yummy.
This is town 4 where we did some cliff jumping. There were some people checking out a cliff, and I had already seen people jump earlier, so I knew it was good. I walked right past them as they were looking timidly over the edge. They thought I was crazy, but that is what I thought about them when they didnt jump. Sissy pants.
On the "romance walk" we found bike and luguage locks around anything. Tradition is that if you secure a lock it is a symbol of your love being connected forever. A modified tradition should be to throw rocks in the water, but for some reason I dont think it is going to catch on.
City 5 was the biggest of them all where we had some amazing Gillato (somewhat comparable to ice cream). We also went snorkling with the fish and that was really different for me. I almost grabbed one, but right then a wave covered my blow hole and I gulped down a tasty treat.
On to Florence, the great city of art. Unfotunately by this time we were less than excited to see more art. The cathedral in the back was designed without knowing how to make the dome. It sat for some time topless until a new method of double brick reinforcement was developed... I will spare you non-geeks with further details of how it was done.
Out door shoping markets will forever haunt my sleep after a morning of shoping. It was amazing what people were selling like sunglasses without lenses and purses that could only be used for bowling. Crazy stuff, but we had fun looking around. Ba restrained herself and that was very nice.
Gillatto again... Happiness again... Craving for more...
That is not a peace sign I am showing, but an indication of the meal quantity. Like Hobbits, Italians have second dinner. They also slightly undercook their pasta, but I guess since they invented it we overcook our pasta. We bought an Italian pasta book, and sticking to the ceiling is no indication of readiness. Now I find that out after so many years.
"White Night" is a huge festival once a year where all sorts of fun food is served like the kabose of this boar. Original population is 400,000 but on this night there were well over 2.5 million people in the city.
Romantic sunset in Florence over the river. What a beautiful night.
This was by far our favorite band during white night. Total we listened to over 20 groups throughout the city, and we didnt make it to many more. Some of the concerts went until 2:00am but we are old party poopers and decided to go home around 12:30.
What a FAKE. The tower isnt leaning... according to this view. The leaning tower of Pisa actually started to lean right after they built the first two floors. They continued the next 5 floors later and the very top was added quite a bit after that. Each of those three sets are built at different angles. Differential settlement gets em everytime. Who would of thought a total failure would be so great.
We had a long day so Ba decided to "bask in the sun" and take a nap. It seemed to be a pretty popular thing to do. It was funny to see signs that mentioned specifically... "No ball games or frisbee on grass"
We didnt want to get a hotel because our flight from Pisa to Munchen left at 7:00am. We got this flight because it was rediculous cheap (30 Euro for both of us). We decided it would be easier just to hang out at the Aerporto (pretty good Italian eh?). We took this picture when they closed the airport and asked us to go outside.
The sprinklers woke our neighbors up at this time to let us know that the facilities were now open again. Why they made us go outside for 3 hours is really a mystery to me, but I liked sleeping under the stars.
We took a few naps here and there, but really didnt get any super sleep during our non-hotel non-airport stay.
We love cheese bread and are eating it as much as we can before we have to go back to the land of lame bakerys on July 2nd. We just love it here so much. Oh well, we do have to work I suppose.
We arrived at night in Venice because we took a beautiful bus ride through the Italian Alps to get there. The whole city is made up of 118 little islands connected by little bridges. I was really tempted to see if I could jump some of the canals, but I refrained.
Our tiny, rediculous expensive, no toilet hotel also didnt include a breakfast. I just had to scoup oatmeal out of my shamy cap while it was cold. The first time I had to add some crackers to sweeten it up a bit to the point of bearable. Dont worry, on the second day I found some sugar packets to add in and I used warmer water.
The labrynth of streets were impossible to navigate without a map. With my backpack on I couldnt get through this "street" but no buses, trams or cars are allowed on the island.
We found a couple from Virginia that was willing to split the cost of a gondola ride. It was pretty fun to see the passageways and I didnt even have to row! The city is sinking and we saw some areas where the first floor had been abandoned because of flooding.
This is the most North(#1) of the five cities (Cinque Terre) where we hiked. They are located a little north of Pisa on the west coast. People were shocked when we told them we hiked all 5 of them in one day (6 or 7 miles). We took a long time and made sure to play on the beach and wander through the towns.
The area is not only amazingly beautiful because of the ocean crashing against cliffs and cities perched near the water, but there were acres of grape vines. These were used anciently to help stabalize the slope from sliding into the Mediteranian.
The lady taking our picture was paranoid that I was going to fall because I crossed over "the chain." If you look closly I am sure you can start to see sweaty arm pits and foreheads because of the humidity and heat.
I was indicating the size of the wave, but unfortunately you can tell I underpredicted by about three times. The rocks were slippery, and the return current nearly had me going for a little swim. I am way too skrawny.
This is town number 4 and in regular European style has a castle on the highest point in the area. We went down to the beach on the other side and spent an hour body surfing and drinking lots of salt water... yummy.
This is town 4 where we did some cliff jumping. There were some people checking out a cliff, and I had already seen people jump earlier, so I knew it was good. I walked right past them as they were looking timidly over the edge. They thought I was crazy, but that is what I thought about them when they didnt jump. Sissy pants.
On the "romance walk" we found bike and luguage locks around anything. Tradition is that if you secure a lock it is a symbol of your love being connected forever. A modified tradition should be to throw rocks in the water, but for some reason I dont think it is going to catch on.
City 5 was the biggest of them all where we had some amazing Gillato (somewhat comparable to ice cream). We also went snorkling with the fish and that was really different for me. I almost grabbed one, but right then a wave covered my blow hole and I gulped down a tasty treat.
On to Florence, the great city of art. Unfotunately by this time we were less than excited to see more art. The cathedral in the back was designed without knowing how to make the dome. It sat for some time topless until a new method of double brick reinforcement was developed... I will spare you non-geeks with further details of how it was done.
Out door shoping markets will forever haunt my sleep after a morning of shoping. It was amazing what people were selling like sunglasses without lenses and purses that could only be used for bowling. Crazy stuff, but we had fun looking around. Ba restrained herself and that was very nice.
Gillatto again... Happiness again... Craving for more...
That is not a peace sign I am showing, but an indication of the meal quantity. Like Hobbits, Italians have second dinner. They also slightly undercook their pasta, but I guess since they invented it we overcook our pasta. We bought an Italian pasta book, and sticking to the ceiling is no indication of readiness. Now I find that out after so many years.
"White Night" is a huge festival once a year where all sorts of fun food is served like the kabose of this boar. Original population is 400,000 but on this night there were well over 2.5 million people in the city.
Romantic sunset in Florence over the river. What a beautiful night.
This was by far our favorite band during white night. Total we listened to over 20 groups throughout the city, and we didnt make it to many more. Some of the concerts went until 2:00am but we are old party poopers and decided to go home around 12:30.
What a FAKE. The tower isnt leaning... according to this view. The leaning tower of Pisa actually started to lean right after they built the first two floors. They continued the next 5 floors later and the very top was added quite a bit after that. Each of those three sets are built at different angles. Differential settlement gets em everytime. Who would of thought a total failure would be so great.
We had a long day so Ba decided to "bask in the sun" and take a nap. It seemed to be a pretty popular thing to do. It was funny to see signs that mentioned specifically... "No ball games or frisbee on grass"
We didnt want to get a hotel because our flight from Pisa to Munchen left at 7:00am. We got this flight because it was rediculous cheap (30 Euro for both of us). We decided it would be easier just to hang out at the Aerporto (pretty good Italian eh?). We took this picture when they closed the airport and asked us to go outside.
The sprinklers woke our neighbors up at this time to let us know that the facilities were now open again. Why they made us go outside for 3 hours is really a mystery to me, but I liked sleeping under the stars.
We took a few naps here and there, but really didnt get any super sleep during our non-hotel non-airport stay.
We love cheese bread and are eating it as much as we can before we have to go back to the land of lame bakerys on July 2nd. We just love it here so much. Oh well, we do have to work I suppose.
I still can't believe all that you've been doing and seeing! (I think I say that every time I comment, but it is true.) I should have had more gelato/gillato or whatever. We did have some double caramel magnum bars in London though- thanks for the recommendation- yum! I am sooo excited to see you guys again and want to see your pictures! That is if you aren't too cool to be our friends now :)
ReplyDeleteHI guys! you might be flying over the ocean right now as I'm writing this comment. I can tell you guys are having a blast from all your pics. Brianna, did you jump off the cliffs too? I am so jealous that you got to go to Cinque Terre, that is so awesome!! I can't wait to hear all about everything!!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like so much fun! I'm so jealous.
ReplyDelete