tripski:
and so it begins:
the trip to italy began at 11:00am on thursday the 17th. we were supposed to catch a 4:25pm flight from chicago to stockholm, stockholm to milan. HOWEVER, a bus -- yes, you heard me, a bus -- crashed into our plane and scandanavian airlines pushed us off to various different airlines. after having several (read: many) different travel itineraries, it finally ended up we got a flight on kuwait airlines to geneva (which i figured was in a mythical place i liked to call convention).
and so we were finally across the ocean (after being on a 7 hour flight, which included a not-so-pleasant experience with diaper changing). but, luck be it, our airfrance flight was delayed, making it impossible for us to fly into italy that day. this was not cool since we'd booked in advance tickets to see the last supper friday morning. walking back and forth across the french-swiss border numerous times, we finally decided to take a 5-6 hour train to milan from geneva.
we arrived in milan around 10pm.. about 10 hours after originally planned.
milan:
we only have a half-day in milan now, since we were delayed so long. we start the day off by trekking around milan (with our backpacks, mind you. and yes, mine is about half my weight). we go to the famous duomo, which was pretty cool minus the scaffolding on the front. stevo and i got scammed into getting our pictures taken with birds:
we walked around the city until we reached out destination, being the santa maria delle grazie - home of the last supper. this was simply amazing. i found out that during wwii most of the church was bombed yet both the last supper and the crucifixion (on the opposite wall of the church) survived. the fresco was a lot larger than expected and in a lot better shape. it was one of those experiences that's hard to describe but impossible to forgot. i'd learn in time that my vacation would be full of these.
shadow shot of me and my bag:
and we were off to venice:
venice:
first off, let me just preface the venice section by saying this town was beautiful. in no other place did i take more pictures of just the city itself. in addition, there's this ugly rumor that the city smells like feet. this is not true. there were a couple canals that smelled but all in all my nose was fine.
venice was especially cool because the only means of transportation on the island are walking and taking a boat. it's very easy to get lost because the city's much like a maze of tiny streets and rivers, but it was also very enjoyable. the city was awash with various random churches (as were most of the cities in italy we were to visit):
we wandered among them, visiting the gallerie dell'accademia. there was a lot of cool stuff in this museum, including the "feast in the house of levi" (a last supper painting renamed because the church didn't like jesters and animals at the feast), "creation of the animals", and "miracles of the true cross." with that under our belt, we got an upclose view of the church of santa maria della salute and the grand canal.
from there, we were off to st. mark's square. this was pretty sweet. we got to get into the basilica which was just covered in gold. we also paid a couple euros to see a piece of the thorn crown of jesus. i didn't see it though.. everything was labeled in italian. the square was pretty impressive itself. there were a lot of people there. and a lot of pigeons:
the rest of the day, we walked around the city, weaved up and down canals and sampled the food. we had our first taste of gelato, which would come to be a daily, sometime twice-daily, tradition. all in all, venice was a great day journey.
and then.. to florence!
florence:
we didn't have a lot of time in florence either, actually. we spent the morning waiting to see the famous david. he was crazy awesome. i never knew he was 16 feet tall. the detail was amazing -- you could see the veins in his hands! on the way out, there was also this disturbing wall hanging that was a picture of michelangelo's final judgement with a scary naked man in front of it. there was nothing on any of the walls explaning this and so it still remains a mystery to me.
the rest of the day we took a mini-journey to pisa. although we got some cute shots of us holding up the tower and such, the picture of the day was of this guy nerdin' it up in huge sunglasses:
then, it was back to florence and our camping village. the village was like a small resort, complete with a swimming pool, hottub, exercise room, fancy tuscan restaurant, and horses! the only downside was that our cabin had a heating problem that left our sleeping conditions less than pleasant.
the second day in florence was another bag-carrying day. we left the village around 8ish and headed over to the baptistry and the florence duomo. we also went inside the museum where the original baptistry doors were kept among other things. there was also this crazy wooden sculpture of mary magdelene with scary teeth. the duomo was cool too. the facade on the outside was amazing. i'll never understand how anyone could accomplish something like that.
with that, we were off to our last and biggest stop: rome.
rome:
day one:
we had a good full four days in rome. and many sites to see. day one woke us up bright and early to make it to the vatican museums at 8:00am. the museum didn't open until 8:45am, but there was already quite a line.
once inside, we made a mostly straight line to the sistine chapel. along the way we saw tons of different kinds of art. it seemed a little shady that the church had so much various arts from so many civilizations.
we got to the sistine chapel and it was pretty extraordinary. i can't believe the detail in it. i can't believe it took him four years of painting on his back to finish it. on the front wall, there was a painting he did three years after the ceiling, the last judgement. ..after the chapel, we explored the rest of the museum. the raphael rooms were pretty cool. we saw the school of athens:
which is neat because it has aristotle, plato, euclid, and epicurus in it. as well as michelangelo and raphael himself (in the black beret). the museum building itself was a work of art. the one room, the galleria dell'carte geografiche had an amazing ceiling:
the ceiling had a lot of detail. a close-up of one of panels:
from the vatican museum, we went to saint peter's square and basilica.
we went into the church itself and saw where all the popes were buried. there was this cool altar-looking thing that was designed by bernini marking the spot where saint peter was buried. and again, immaculate ceilings and walls adorned with gold and marble. after this, we were tired.
but we trudged on.. we walked through the piazza novena, where a bunch of famous fountains are, and by the kitty colosseum (the argentine ruins that is converted into a stray cat home):
and ended our day at the pantheon. i didn't know that it too was a church -- with a dome! and it's the resting place of dear raphael. so that was pretty sweet.
but before we were done, a trip to the famous trevi fountain. we sat on the edge and wished to come back.
and after a full day of walking (7-8 hours) we retired to our camping village.
day two:
day two was nice because i got to sleep in for the first time in a couple days. we got up later than normal, and headed to the train station. we wanted to make sure we got a hold of all the train times on sunday so that we could make it back to milan at a reasonable time. and that we got on a train that we didn't have to pay extra for. that done, we headed to the spanish steps. it was crowded and not very picturesque.
we also journeyed to a nice not-so-populated piazza popolo. it had some cool statues and obelisks as most of rome does, but it was also situated below this lovely park.
after that, we went to this cool place called the crypt of santa maria della concezione. it was a cemetery building that had 4-5 rooms all decorated in the bones of 4000 friars. it was weird because they had one room made out of skulls, one out of pelvic bones and so on. even the hanging lanterns were fashioned out of femurs and finger bones. creepy but cool. they didn't let us take pictures though, which was disappointing. .. and being tired from the previous day, we cut it short and headed back to the village.
day three:
day three was semi-lazy again. we started about 9-10ish, and were off to the tomb of the unknown soldier. from the building, we could see an overview of the ruins and the forum. we could see the colosseum in the distance, which was super exciting for stevo.
when we got to the colosseum, there was a long line to get in. we were approached by a friendly tour guide who offered us a guided tour of the colosseum and the forum, a free pass to palatine, a picture with a roman gladiator guy (which i declined), and no waiting in line. we couldn't pass this up, so we followed our crazy tour guide and his stupid 5 euro colosseum book in:
from there, it was through the arches and onto palatine.
palatine was pretty amazing. there were pretty orange trees lining the sidewalks. and ruins galore. they were ruins of all the great rulers of rome and their palaces. this is the foundation where augustus built his home:
and that's about when my camera died. after going through a pack of batteries, it wanted more, and i wasn't having it. we walked through the forums and got some random souveniers. back to the spanish steps for a rest. it was as crowded as ever. the people took over the streets and cars had to fight their way through. being the day before easter, i suppose it was to be expected, but it was still a site.
day last:
we got up early to get to saint peter's square for easter mass. the crowds were spectacular. unfortunately, my camera sucked hard and wouldn't take any pictures for lack of batteries. after the hour+ mass, the pope came out and waved to us for six minutes. i took what i deem now my "miracle shot" -- being the only picture my camera would take all day and throughout the rest of the trip. a picture of a tiny pope in a faraway window:
with that, we were off to the train station. we got there only to find that in italy they have daylight savings time a week earlier than we do, so consequentially, we missed our train. we ended up paying an extra 12 euro each for a faster train and arrived in milan about 6ish. that night we had easter dinner in an italian restaurant run by chinese people that knew little italian and no english. it was pleasant though. we went to bed early in order to wake up at 3am to get to the airport.
milan:
arriving at the airport at 4am in a crazy fast 25 euro taxi, we find it closed. we wait 'til 5 when the doors open. we then spend another 50 minutes waiting for employees to show up. by 6:10am we're on our plane. by 8 we're in copenhagen. 6 hour layover: crazy 8's, gin rummy, reading, and lego building bided our time.
chicago:
by 4:25pm we were back in the u.s. and through customs. all that was left, was to get to naperville, pick up my cat in aurora and drive to milwaukee. after all was through, we got back at 11pm. we had now been up for over 24 hours straight.
in all, i'm glad to be home. i missed the following about america:
* getting water with your meal
* getting a cold beverage
* not waiting twenty years for the check
* orange juice.. or any other kind of real juice
* public restrooms
* an outlet that my hair dryer would work properly in
i enjoyed:
* pasta every night
* experiencing new culture
* not having to tip waiters/cab drivers/etc
* the fact that taxes are included in prices
i guess it's all about the little things -- the comforts of home.
to see all my pictures visit: http://community.webshots.com/user/triptoitaly and
http://community.webshots.com/user/triptorome