So here is my attempt to log my travels.
We planned our trip during the off-season so that flights and accommodations would be cheaper. Our flight was practically empty so we both got a row to ourselves.
We got into Rome and immediately realized that we forgot our International Driver's license. Which was a huge issue seeing as we had planned a few days in Siena / Tuscany region and that required a car to get around.
We spent the first several hours of our time in Italy running around Rome trying to figure out how to get a replacement. We finally cut our losses and decided to re-plan our trip. Luckily it wasn't too difficult to bypass the area we were thinking of staying in and re-route our transportation. For our first day in Italy, we went to the Spanish Steps and had dinner in the Travestere region.
Travestere is in the southwest side of Rome. The reviews online made it seem like that area was sketchy and dangerous. but I found it to be pretty charming. There were street vendors everywhere and the weather was warm so a lot of tourist and locals were out. We didn't stay too long as we had to be up bright and early for the next day.
The Colosseum was one of my favorites. I could not wrap my head around the fact that this building has lasted for centuries. It really put into perspective just how great man can be.
The entrance to the Pantheon. The square in front of the Pantheon was our favorite spot to hang out. After our initial visit, we came back that night for some gelato and night entertainment.
I'll be honest and say that Rome was filthy. Like smells-like-a-public-bathroom dirty. There was cigarette butts, trash and bird poop everywhere. But even with all the filth, the city was magical.
The next day, we headed to the outskirts of Rome to tour the catacombs. It was really cool and less creepy than I thought it would be. I have no photos as they encouraged us not to take photos sine this was still considered a burial site and we should respect the dead. Plus, it was super dark and tight underground so the photos would have turned out poorly.
Since we were already in the outskirts, we made our way to Villa d'Este. A few of the estate in the area were occupied by Cardinals and they were ritzy. We toured only one of the villas and it was pretty awesome. The gardens were my favorite part.
We woke up really early the next day to avoid the lines at the Vatican. Turns out everyone else had the same idea. We ended up paying a little extra to jump the lines with a tour group. The museum was giant. We only toured a section of it and it took over an hour. We had the option to continue wandering the museum or head to the Sistine Chapel.
We chose the Sistine Chapel and it was really odd to see a group of people just standing, staring at the ceiling. I knew what they were all looking at, but the imagery was still pretty funny. Up to that point, it was surreal that we had been to the Colosseum and the Pantheon -- things that were built in 70 AD. And now I was standing right below Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel painting. I was in awe that I was able to see these things in person.
St. Peter's basilica was shockingly cool. I've been to my fair share of cathedrals and I knew St. Peter's was big, but it wasn't until I was standing in the middle of the cathedral that I realized just how cool it was. I can't imagine the effort and man power it took to build this back before we had the technology we do now.
On a side note, I will have been to St. Paul (London), Notre Dame (France), St. Peters (Vatican) and Santa Maria (Florence) by the end of the trip. These four are in the top ten cathedrals to visit in the world. I guess I'll just have to keep working on the other six ;)
We rushed to our last stop -- the Borghese Gallery. It was a ways out from where we were staying so the walk was a bit miserable. We also had to make it back in time to catch our train to the next city. I will confess, unfortunately, that I didn't care or pay much attention to the things in that gallery. There were a few cool art pieces, but throughout the trip I've come to learn that my appreciate for paintings is limited.
We headed out to the Tuscany region and spent a night in Chiusi. It was a cute, picturesque town. The getting to was not easy -- most of the towns people spoke limited English so trying to find our way to our hotel was difficult and frustrating. We got a good night rest and enjoyed the morning in the countryside.
We didn't say in Chiusi for long -- we were on the next afternoon train to Florence. In all of our planning, I have been looking forward to Florence out of all the cities we would be visiting. Mainly because I took a few philosophy classes in college and some of my favorite philosophers lived and died in Florence. We climbed over 800 steps to both the bell tower and the dome of Santa Maria. The view was amazing and we definitely got our cardio in. We were also able to see a Gregorian chant in a cathedral near Piazza de Michelangelo.
The crypt of Machiavelli -- he is one of my favorite philosophers.
Aside from the art held in the museums and cathedrals, they had massive sculptures (like the one above) in public squares. This country is an art lover's dream.
We went to the Florence Art Museum in which the famous Statue of David was housed. He is 3x the size of a regular man and the detail was extraordinary. In the museum were samples of unfinished statues and just seeing how the pieces started was crazy.
Pisa is a pretty small town. The only thing there is, well..the leaning tower of Pisa.It was quaint and made for a great day trip.
So I realize that I have yet to post pics of food. It was not on purpose, but I was not a fan of the food in Italy.
GASP.
I know, I know. How can one not like Italian food?!
Easy. When one is presented with only the three Ps. Pizza, pasta and panini. The pizza was good...for a few days. The panini was usually too hard for my American taste buds and the pasta was just not.
I'm just as disappointed as you are, trust me. But that whole Eat Pray Love thing. Well, the eating part didn't exist. Everything was cooked or served in a variation of mozzarella and tomatoes. That's it. Sometimes they threw in some arugula. We tried different dishes of pasta and found all of it to be lackluster. There were a few times that I swear someone had opened a can of Chef Boyardee and served it to me warm.
So we ate a lot of gelato and pastries. Like gelato everyday -- some times twice a day.
That is what they call hot chocolate. I would say the name Melted Chocolate with a dollop of heavy cream is more fitting.
It was some good stuff.
And then we were at Cinque Terre.
We met a "sea man" on the train and while his English was not great, we chatted for the duration of the train ride.
We got off our train, dropped off our stuff and then proceeded to hike for 2 hours. Cinque Terre consists of five major villages. These villages are nestled right up to the sea and while you can catch a bus or local tram from city to city, hiking gives you the best views.
Like I said, we ate a lot of pastries. The Italians love hazelnut. They have hazelnut everything.
I. Love. Venice.
All of Italy so far in our trip had been amazing. But we are talking about a city built on water where people row to and from places. We attended a Vivaldi in Venice concert and I loved every minute of it.
Violin concerts always make me regret not being more studious in my violin days. There were a few islands near Venice that we had heard about so we made an afternoon trip of it. We stopped at the island of Burano. Burano was known for their hand-made silk products, but I think the tourists go for the colorful homes.
On our last day in Italy, we pretty much had gelato with every meal. Oh man, just looking at it makes me miss it.
Did I say that Venice was our last city in Italy? I lied. We had no intentions of stopping in Milan. There was nothing that we wanted to see and we wanted to spend more time in Switzerland.
Up to this point, we have used every form of public transportation in Italy. And here are a few things we learned:
1. No one pays. Ever. Being the good people and the naive tourists, we paid for tickets for the first few trips. Until we realized that no one else was paying and no one was checking for tickets. So near the end of our trip, we decided to live like the locals and just jump on.
2. Dirty dirty dirty. Careful where you sit and what you touch because chances are you will need to disinfect your butt and hand after.
3. There is no concept of time. The schedule said that the bus would be here at 1145? Just wait until 1215.
Our initial train from Venice to Milano was late, causing us to miss the train from Milan to Visp. So we had a few hours to kill and were forced to tour Milan. It wasn't unpleasant, but we were ready for Switzerland and the waiting was killing us.
Our first city was Zermatt -- home to the Matterhorn. Zermatt is uber tourist friendly. It's a resort town so the general population are skiers who are spending the holidays. But we didn't even care that it was probably the most tourist town, we loved it.
So after a slight bump in our schedule, we made a later train to Visp. Visp was on the border from Italy to Switzerland and had a direct train to Zermatt. At least...that was our plan.
We get into Visp at 10 pm and rushed to the ticket office for our train to Zermatt. Little known fact, train stations are the hip place to hang out if you are a teen in Switzerland. I kid you not, the train station could have been mistaken for a bad house party. There were young girls throwing up everywhere and teenagers hiding in a corner trying to pour their vodka into water bottles.
Another known fact. Ticket offices in Switzerland are closed even if trains are scheduled to run later at night. We had no idea where we were or how to get to our hotel that night. A nice older man pointed to a bus and said that we could take it.
So we took it and the entire time we thought that we were going to be spending the night on the streets of Switzerland.
Luckily, the bus took us straight to Zermatt. And we couldn't have been more relieved. Because, really. We thought we were going to be spending the night with some drunken teens at the train station.
We got to our hotel and a nice women greeted us, told us we were upgraded to a suite and gave us all the instructions in English.
We could have kissed the grounds from the joy in our hearts.
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have changed our trip to Italy. But people in Italy just yell. So. Much. And if they didn't speak English, they just yelled in Italian. I think I met three nice people in Italy. Two of which were the people we stayed with.
And I hate to be that person. The tourist that complains because not everyone around them speaks English and things are not going their way, but I don't think Italy was this case. I've been to several countries in Europe and never felt that way. I've been to several countries in Asia where the social manners are much different. And I still think Italy was just plain rude.
So after 10 days of being yelled at in Italian constantly, we were pretty happy to just hear a someone speak to us calmly in English.
Breakfast. And we were so happy that it didn't contain tomatoes, mozzarella or prosciutto.
Switzerland is super cheap said no one ever. We obviously had to visit the Matterhorn and the only way there was by train (again). Don't worry, I could have bought a full-price ticket to Disneyland with the money I spent on the train ticket. I won't even put the exact price here because it hurts.
But boy, the view was worth it. The train ride was about 30 mins each way and the view was gorgeous. Going to Switzerland in October was perfect.
After spending a happy day in Zermatt, we were off to Interlaken. It is a small ski town between Zermatt and Zurich. We had heard a lot about the castle in the area and decided to stop for a night.
This is real life. Sheeps just hang out near the slow moving creek in the middle of town. Cows actually worn cowbells and would let you feed them grass. By this point we decided that Switzerland is not a real place.
One of many, many castles. We took a boat tour on Lake Thun to see them all and it was pretty enjoyable for the first hour. The next hour or so became slightly torturous.
We were off to Zurich. There were a few stops to change trains and one of the stops was at Speiz. We got off the train, walked through the station and our jaws dropped.
People live here. With this view. Everyday. We couldn't believe it and fell head over heels in love with Switzerland.
We got to Zurich and wasted no time in exploring the city. We took the user-friendly tram to one of the peaks in Zurich and hiked through a small forest. Then we rented bikes and toured the city on bike. Although it costs an arm to buy food, I loved it. We stopped at a small park that had a slight beach. We played with some ducks and skipped rocks into the lake.
We ate a lot of chocolate and had some interesting calamari. All in all, Zurich was a great way to end our trip. We headed to the airport early the next day and our return plane was just as empty as our initial flight.
But I wasn't heading home. Our flight had a stop in NY and instead of taking the connecting fight, I stayed in NY. I spent another five days in NY, working and eating. I was pretty proud of myself for having lived out of a medium-sized suitcase for three weeks.
I had Banana Pudding from Magnolia's and an amazing cookie from Levain Bakery. Food was delicious and I enjoyed NY more than I have in the past. It could have just been a homesick thing.
My favorite part of traveling is coming home. When the airplane is about to land and I can see the mountains from my window, it fills my heart with happiness and comfort. I love seeing new sights and experiencing new cultures, but I am always glad to see my bed.
I'm so glad I was able to visit Italy and Switzerland. There were pros and cons, ups and downs to our trip, but it made for a memorable trip and we had fun.
Until next time...
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