Off the Map

Italian Blitz

[Ed. This is a continuation of the post below...]

1:27 AM and its time to board the night train from La Spezia down to Naples. Small, crowded and sauna-hot are the best adjectives for this Italian sleeper car. Only my sheer exhaustion from hiking on cliff slopes all day allowed me get some solid sleep. Feeling somewhat rested, we stepped of the train in Naples, greeted by a beautiful and sunny day. The previous evening we'd heard a bevy of horror stories about crime and the mess that is Naples, which put us on our P's and Q's, but had one of my comrades in virtual jitters the whole day. Of course nothing happened, and I had a great time! The city feels much more hectic and wheeling than Rome. I would argue the traffic is worse. We saw Police everywhere, which was esp. Entertaining when they drove past street vendors with stolen goods, who had systems in place to be packed up and in an alley in 30 seconds flat. I managed to land a great deal on a vintage German military jacket, and the others snagged some sunglasses. There isn't a ton of tourist attractions in Naples - rather the city is an experience in and of itself.

That evening we rolled into Pompeii, where we would lodge the next 2 nights. Right off the bat we gelled with 2 guys in our hostel room, who would turn out to be our travel companions for the next 2 days. Their company was perhaps the most unexpected blessing of the whole trip thus far. They were both US Military (one an Army soldier, the other an Army tank mechanic - both with management over others), just a week off the boat from a year in Iraq. They had just started their month decompression before release processing, as they had served out their contracts. Both had seen more combat than they cared to relate: night raids, day patrols, air strikes, IED's, SNAFU's, mortars, fire fights, Iraqis RPGing their own school children... And these were not your stereotypical meatheads - both were college educated and very well spoken (one's dabbled with engineering, the other with journalism). Hearing first hand and unfiltered about what's going down in that dusty country was striking, and I'll carry their stories for a long time. Their biggest point: don't believe what you read.

Pompeii was fascinating! To be able to wander thru fields of well-preserved Roman city blocks was not only educational, but beautiful. Not to be missed on any trip to Italy, it does wonders to put the foundation of the empire and current nation into perspective. I suppose it helped that one of our companions is a Classics major, meaning his job is to know as much about the Roman Empire as possible - thus we had a personal tour guide who had studied specific houses and structures found in the old city. Rome is known for its citizen stray cats (protected under law), but Pompeii has wild dogs all over - esp. Camped out in the maze of ruins. The modern town of Pompeii is small and pretty relaxed, which allowed for some relaxation and lengthy discussions with our travel companions.

Next stop: Rome (again)...

posted by Jason @ 6:27 pm 0 comments

Brief Blog from Italy

I've always loved pizza and pasta, but after a couple weeks in Italy, one develops a much finer taste for a true work of art...

We're back in Rome now (which is why I have internet) after a blitz around this beautiful but hectic land.

• After Rome we headed up to Siena, which has one of the most beautiful and distinct churches I've yet seen, and I've seen a lot of churches...
• From Siena we ended up in Bologna, where we met up with another friend (still with us). The town itself has a lot of life, and would be a good place to work, although there isn't much in the way of "Things to See"
• After Bologna we headed down to Florence. Florence is almost as crazy as Rome, but a bit smaller and easier to take in. We were picked off the street 20min after arriving by a vivacious Italian Pensione owner, who set us up with a great room with Frescos on the ceiling for hostel rates! He later showed us around the town a bit and personally escorted us to his recommended Trattatoria. Michelangelo's David was stunning, albeit expensive. There is a beautiful outlook of the town, much akin to the view from NCAR of Boulder, with such a pull as to be host to a double Chinese wedding on the morning we stopped by. One of my favorite memories was a 3 hour stroll and discussion around the city and river at night. Florence must bring the world together: we ran into some Italians we met earlier in our trip (by chance), and I bumped into Laurel Kalish, high school and college friend (after a double take on both sides) outside the Akadamia! Neither knew the other was living in Europe...
• From there we went to Pisa (where I came down with a bad cold). Pisa is a sleepy town, with only the leaning Tower and Cathedral as attractions. Allow me to say that the title "Leaning" is not an overstatement.
• The next day found us in Cinque Terra. It was a bitterly cold day too. Cinque Terra is a collection of 5 (Cinque) tiny villages precariously clinging to cliff faces and mountain valleys ending directly in the Mediterranean. Its amazingly beautiful. Really, I can't do it justice. We spent the afternoon exploring the labrinth alleyways and napping on cliff-sides in the sun, wherever we could get a wind break. The following day was much warmer, started off right with a fantastic fresh seafood-pasta lunch (the motherly owner of the joint came out and stripped the fish of bones and the tail at our table). The rest of the day consisted of lounging on the beach and hiking thru sea-side cliff-side vineyards = breathtaking. Hands down the best afternoon so far.
• I managed a quick recovery from my cold due to a tactic I've recently learned, consisting of eating half a bulb of garlic in one sitting. Cut it up, stuff it in some olives and chase it with great Italian cheese and you'll feel better the next morning. Apparently they used it to counter Black Plague way back when... well, at least it worked for me.
• Then it was off to Naples and Pompeii on the night train...

posted by Jason @ 4:07 pm 0 comments