Milan

I was luckily able to find a relatively cheap (40euro) flight from Milan back to Istanbul and so after my fun, brief stint in Cinque Terre I hoped an early morning train to Milan. Despite being some what invigorated by the hikes around Cinque Terre I was still pretty exhausted when I reached Milan and the plan was originally to take it easy and do nothing. Instead, I met a great pair of girls fresh off the plane and in Milan for 2 nights before starting study abroad in Florence.

Being worn out of tourist mode I gave my camera up to the girls for photo taking. I tagged along with them and we wandered the city for a few hours, through squares, and parks, long narrow alley ways and streets lined with uber-expensive shops before we came across a quaint little cafe. We split a bottle of wine and enjoyed the free happy hour tapas and spent the evening chatting about travel, studying, people, relationships, music, and a refreshing array of other topics.

After a few yawns and a check of the watch to see that it was 1am, we said our good-byes and headed to sleep. I arose early the next morning to head to the airport for the flight back to Istanbul.

Photos: Milan

Video: Cinque Terre

I had heard nothing but great things about Cinque Terre (the sun, beaches, food, hiking) and was really looking forward to doing some good hiking, getting the heart rate up and a good sweat going after so much flat city walking. I am happy to report that I was not disappointed and of all the places that have been so abundantly praised Cinque Terre lived up.

I was very surprised to have met more Americans in my first 12hrs in Cinque Terre than I had in the rest of the previous 2 1/2 months combined. Not surprisingly most of them were study abroad students on a short trip from Florence before the year got started. I made the aquaintance of Anna and Claire and spent the next two days hiking around and exploring the area with them.

Cinque Terra consists of five small towns along the cost with houses built into the sheer cliff sides, and connected by great hiking trails as well as railroad. The hike from the first to last town was great and took just over 4 1/2hrs, the last section definately got the heart pumping and made me realize how much stamina I've lost since leaving CO. At the last town, Monterosso, we were greeted by a small but sandy (finally!) beach and wrapped up with some splashing in the cool water, before heading back to the hostel with pesto pasta in tow. Apparently Cinque Terre was the place that pesto was 'invented' and it's everywhere. I had the chance to try some strange, but tastey, pancake looking pasta with an amazing pesto sauce.

Photos: Cinque Terre

Video: Florence

I have to admit that leaving Venice after several days of rest, to get back on the road of travel was a bit more difficult than I had expected and I wasn't really in the mood to do much touristing/walking once I got there. As a result I spent a fair amount of time drinking coffee, catching up on journal writing, and finishing off another book.

Stepping off the train I was fortunate to meet a trio from Hong Kong traveling around europe, and I tagged along with them to their hostel and was able to snag a bed. This is the first time I've ever really traveled without making any hostel reservations, planning what I'm going to see, etc. While being somewhat nerve-racking at times, mostly it's been very liberating.

Florence is definately American tourist central. I heard far more American accents there than in Venice (which surprised me), I think in part because it is a very popular 'study abroad' destination. In fact I met a young American from NYU, in an internet cafe, who was fresh off plane to spend a year studying in Florence. We spent the day chatting and walking around, which I would have done otherwise, and I used the opportunity to snag a few obligitory photos.

Photos: Florence

Video: Verona

One of the touristy things that I manage to get to during my second stop in Venice was an Opera in Verona. I really knew nothing about Verona but Emilie had mentioned that there was an old arena there where they still performed Operas, so we decided to go check it out. The old arena is an old colloseum-esque place, built roughly 1000 years ago (I think), that is still largely intact/restored and can still hold roughly 20,000 people.

We showed up a couple of hours before showtime and were able to get tickets to 'Carmen', that nights opera, for about $20 up high on the old stone, unnumbered bleacher seats which provided a great view. Waiting for the opera to start the atmosphere was similar to that of a baseball game, with the sun setting, people talking, and young men and women walking around selling drinks and food from coolers slung over their shoulders. Once the sun went down and the lights extinguished, everyone lit the small candles that were handed to them upon entry, as part of the tradition of lighting the stage with candles (something started during the fist re-inaugural opera in ~1913).

The opera was amazing, with over a hundred people in each scene, live horses and carts on stage, and an incredible sound from the orchestra and singers alike, despite no microphones. Unfortunately, Emilie and I neglected to check the times for the trains returning to Venice and missed the last one by over an hour. As a result we passed the time in the 'Green Bar' until 3am, listening to dated techno music and munching on flat bread sandwiches to keep us going and prep us for the remaining 2 1/2hrs in the train station on hard stone benches until we could catch the next train at 5:30am. Despite the night in the train station it was a great nite.

Photos: Verona

Video: Return to Venice

Venice was even better the second time around. Not having to stay in a hostel was a very nice change, I could sleep late, cook my own food, lounge around all day reading without being kicked out, and other simple pleasures that hostel life doesn't really allow for. It was also nice to be shown around town by a fluent Italian speaker that knew Venice considerably better than I did.

For the most part my time was spent sleeping, reading and writing, doing a bit of cooking and cleaning (to make sure I don't lose those all important domestic skills), lots of aimless back street wandering, and generally taking it easy. In my wandering I did come across the Mask shop that provided the masks for the movie 'Eyes Wide Shut':

Photos: Venice

Italy: Venice

Several people had told me in the past that Venice was not worth seeing and so I never really had much interesting, but seeing as my train had to pass directly through it to get to Geneva I decided to stop off for a couple of days and check things out. I have to say that those people were wrong! I loved Venice. Admittedly, the major tourist spots (Rialto Bridge, and San Marco Square) were certainly over run and made me want to get away fast, but the beauty and charm of Venice is getting lost in the maze of narrow streets among small hidden restaurants, cafes, and squares while enjoying the multitude of different buildings all in varied states of decay. I certainly could have spent more than the three days I was there and may soon go back.

While in Venice I also visited the nearby islands of Murano (famous for glass blowing) and Burano (with an amazing array of different colored buildings), where I spent an afternoon doing even more wandering, filled in with some reading and writing here and there.

After only 3 days in Venice I caught the night train to Geneva, which was a mistake.

Photos: Venice, Burano
Videos:

• Panorama from Venice Train Station
• Live Music in Venice
• San Marco 1
• San Marco 2
• Burano Panorama
• Glass Blowing 1
• Glass Blowing 2
• Glass Blowing 3