Prancing about Italy

My friend Jen Hobbs (whom I haven't seen for four years!) and I have long dreamed of prancing about Europe together. It was always a maybe, someday, sounds like a good idea...

But she, in a spirit of Carpe Diem, took off two months this summer to travel extensively through nine European countries. And I, after a failed attempt in planning a trip to Italy with my parents and sister last spring, was still eager to see the fabled land.. taunting me from across the Mediterranean Sea. So we went to Italy.

Or Paradise, shall I say ... even on a slim budget.

Itinerary of Seven Days:

Fly into Milan and hop on a train for Venice.
Two days in Venice.
One day in Florence.
Three days in Cinque Terre.
Fly out of Milan.

Jen and I on Academia Bridge in Venice

Walking those cobblestone streets for the first time, passing over little bridges to see gondolas floating through the canals below me... I was positively sure I'd stepped into a fairy tale. I thought this place only existed in picture books. Tales of olden days...

Imagine your front door opens to a lamppost sticking out of water, your garage a dock with a rowboat at your feet. Let's row to a cafe for the afternoon!

And then one steps foot in the San Marco Plazza and discovers where all the tourist groups were ushered to. It's as if it was our designated roosting area... us and the pigeons.

Grandiose finery adorned every column everywhere you looked.

San Marco Cathedral was certainly a colorful spectacle to behold. It's amazing to consider the time and craftsmanship once invested in churches and institutions of State.

Ahh... masquerade balls. I think I belong in Venice. Jen and I went to try some on for fun... and the lady was quite keen on helping us find the perfect mask as if I had a masquerade ball to run off to. We played along. Imagine a world where your morning task constituted finding the perfect mask to match your gown for an upcoming event ...

The suburbs...

And the pricey way to travel... (we just rode the vaparetto ferries around for an hour instead)

One evening, wandering through the streets agonizing over having to make a choice between all the scrumptious (and overpriced) cafes, we heard euphonious melodies floating down the streets. A cellist played to an impromptu audience sitting on marble steps of a church. We grabbed a few slices of pizza, Bacardi Breezes and sat for an hour, drinking in familiar classics. I longed for my cello.

He's a New Yorker who travels all over Europe every summer, playing for ten days in one glamorous city after another ... the lady sitting next to us was also from NY, and met him last summer, playing in Venice. She came with him this time.

Seeing Jen was splendid. Meeting her in Venice: spendiferous.

We gasped at the shimmering sun hovering above the canals ... just as we were boarding a Vaparetto.

I credit the chance to take this shot to my lack of direction... or lack of straightness to Venetian streets. After dinner, confident I remembered our course back through cobblestone alleys and bridges to the hotel.. we meandered in a complete "U-shape" pattern and found ourselves back at Academia and burst into a fit of giggles. And then drew our breath, quiescent in the pulchritude before us. I leaned over the bridge gazing at the glowing lights and passing gondolas for a good while.

Finally we boarded a train to Florence leaving behind this island world. I was convinced that it was an evanescent dream that would vaporize as the train pulled away.












The Tower of Santa Maria del Fiore

I am not including a photo of the Santa Maria as a whole. It's enormous. A photo could not capture the grandiose acreage of this monument, completed after 170 year's work by Brunelleschi's Duomo in 1436. As we approached our eyes grew large. Never had I seen such a massive structure, so intimately fashioned together. Marbles of teal and pinks and whites, the rose window, the statues, carvings, columns, on and on it went for an entire block... It really is pointless trying to convey it's glory in words. One simply must go to Florence.

The famous Bronze Doors of its Baptistery, in the words of Michelangelo, the "Golden Gate of Paradise"; the gateway from Gothic to Renaissance eras ..

A random side door. Now fancy a building stretching hundreds of feet in each direction ... composed of such masterpieces.

In the morning, crowds stretched all the way around the Duomo for a glimpse of the inside (despite the fact that we'd heard the outside was the main event). However, at 5pm, we walked right in.

Jen gazing at prayer candles.

A side facing the tower.

The ubiquitous pigeons.

In the evening we took a stroll across the Arno River and up the hillside to Michelangelo's Piazza. The hike was worth it. Florence at dusk, was itself a spectacle to behold ... and an entire audience attested to it.

We sipped white wine, savored delectable pasta and spiked (we're convinced, though the waitress adamantly denied it) fruit salad ... watching the lights of Florence pop on, one by one.. highlighting domes, rivers, cathedrals.

And then we hopped on a train again... after getting up at 4:30am for the second day in a row; discovering a country-wide train strike that canceled virtually every destination but a little city near Cinque Terre. We hopped on, and to our delight, found a connection immediately upon arriving to La Spezia/CT. I think we were the only lucky tourists that day.

Apparently Italy is full of fairy tale villages. Cinque Terre boasts its own magical qualities.

We hopped off in a little village called Vernazza, descended to a leisurely cafe atmosphere with Oleandra flowering trees lining the cobblestone streets. Following the path, a little harbor full of colorful rowboats opened up before us... and to the left, the roar of waves pounded a stone pier.

Curious, we wandered over the cliffs to the crowds standing at the water's edge. We wondered why a whole row of people floated in the water, lined up off the concrete pier's edge. Then a huge surge swooped the whole mess of people up and thrust them out onto the pier. Hands and feet and legs clung to the edge as the waves pulled away again. So it was a game. Jump in... float along and let the waves roll you back onto the concrete platform.

We sat on the cliffs sunning ourselves and screaming in delight as waves rushed maybe 15 feet up the cliffs to tickle our toes and splash our cheeks.

I have never seen such aqua transparent water in my life. I thought the color was just edited for photos luring tourists to exotic lands. No folks, it actually looks like this.

We spent out afternoons hiking the steep cliff trails between the five villages, stopping for cappuccinos, gelato or pasta along the way.

They were charging for spots of sand to lay out.. so we wandered to the boulders and made ourselves at home.

Looking down to Vernazza..

blue turquoise blue aqua blue

A couple of Americans we met along a trail and spent an afternoon with (from the crowds and language, you would think Cinque Terre was an extension of America) ... Dan's in the Coast Guard and spends his days flying helicopters over the Caribbean on rescue missions. Nate is studying Environmental Science. We had a good many laughs watching Dan jump off ridiculously high cliffs.

And then went to dinner for Nate's birthday, only to discover all the cafes charged 16 Euros a plate or (the one we settled on) had literally two remaining slices of pizza and focaccia to split between us. We shrugged, and figured it could be our first course. And then the city went black. So we sat in the dark, chuckling and wondering if they were ever going to come back on. And trying to picture the street performer on his unicycle flopping around in the dark and crashing into frightened tourists. The lights came back on.

My new favorite place in the world.. Vernazza, Italy.

Go to Italy. It's necessary.