SB Discovery #6: Sometimes Rick Steves likes Ghost Towns

Varenna/Lake Como:

When we arrived in Milan we decided that we would check into our hotel and then make a trip out to Varenna, Rick Steve’s favorite spot along Lake Como. It was a nice day and we were worried that the next day might not be so we made our way to the hotel with the plan of returning shortly to the train station. The hotel was a completely different discovery which I have left to another blog entry. After standing for about an hour on the train ride from hell, we finally arrived. We had been crammed in a train car not even by the seat but in between the seating section at the doors of the train. We were all very happy just to get off no matter where we were.

When we exited we took a rest and after regaining our senses realized that Rick Steve’s suggestion did not look so promising. The town was basically vacant. I think we were the only four people on the train to get off at the stop. We began to walk around the town and saw a few people but the streets were basically vacant and everything was closed. I suppose it was off season because the town was small but filled with hotels and restaurants and hotel/restaurants. We had trouble finding an open restaurant though. Apparently it is a big tourist destination, but certainly not while we were there. We actually enjoyed the tranquility though, especially after being in a string of tourist-packed big cities.

We skipped some rocks on the lake for a while and just took in the views of the Alps lining the lake. Always keeping an eye out for George Cloony we attempted to find some lunch. Settling for a one-star hotel’s small attached restaurant we ordered from the waitress. She shortly returned to inform us that we could not have what we ordered because they did not have it that day. Rather, we were to pick from two types of pizza or lasagna. Ellen tried the lasagna, fearing that pizza would make her sick as it had in Florence, and everyone else tried the cheese pizza. Biting into the pizza we all realized that it had been cooked a while ago and microwaved. Ellen’s lasagna shared the same fate and was a dead ringer for a microwavable TV dinner: boiling hot on the edges and ice cold in the center! Delicious. We ate anyway and then made our way back to the train station where the ticket machine was broken and no attendant was working. We would have to buy tickets on the train (we actually were never asked to so we got a free ride!).

As we waited for the train we saw two other groups of people. Not surprisingly one person in each of the two groups was carrying a Rick Steve’s Italy. I guess the only people that would go to Varenna during off season are Rick’s readers, probably because he failed to mention that no one goes until the summer! Ha, oh well. This blog seems negative but we actually had a lot of fun in Varenna and it was gorgeous. The pictures explain. It was one of my favorite places so far. You don’t need restaurants and tourists to enjoy beautiful views!

SB Discovery #5: Sometimes you pick a winner and sometimes you don't

Cheap Hotels of Italy
In Venice we staying in an amazing bed and breakfast. We were off of a main road on a small side street. The building was nice and the room was great. We managed to get a room with just the four of us traveling together for spring break. When we entered the room we were surprised at how nice it was. We talked about it for a good half hour before bringing ourselves to get out and see Venice. The room had very comfortable beds... real beds. We were all used to simple hostel beds but these were really nice. The bathroom was nice, bidet included of course. The best part was that we had a kitchen and it was filled with all kinds of goodies. It was a bed and breakfast so we had paid for breakfast in the price and they just stocked the room before we arrived. We had cereal, cornettos (croissants), soft bread, hard bread, butter, jelly, nutella, juice, milk, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. The kitchen was fully equiped too! We had plenty of pans and dishes and a stove. On our second night we ate cheap and decided to go to the grocery store and then cook a meal. Nick cooked some shrimp scampi along with some butter and garlic pasta. He also made an Italian seasoned tomato salad, while the girls threw together a fruit salad and helped with the chopping along the way. It was great and we only spent about 25 euro total! We had fun making the meal and we got to eat at the small dining table in our room. It was great a great B&B and it only cost about 40 euro each for a two-nights stay. Emilie booked it so we have to give her props for this one.




Emilie also booked the two star hotel in Milan, which was... well... a two star hotel. Just joking, it's not Emilie's fault. It was actually really cheap and had a good location and she was able to find it at a busy tourist week. The room had enough beds for all four of us, so that was a plus and it was only a little more expensive than the place in Venice. The beds were not very comfortable, however. The funniest part of the room was definitely the bathroom. From the main bedroom you had to open the bathroom door, which seemed normal because it stretched to the bottom of the floor... like all doors should. But, surprise, when you open it, you have to take a large step up. The floor of the bathroom was raised above the floor of the main room. Well, that's a bit strange we thought, but didn't mind. Then we realized something else was off... something looked wrong... Sink? no, it looked normal enough. Toilet? nah it was okay the seat just shifted a bit when you sat down. Bidet? well it existed and that was all we needed to know about that. Shower? Check. Wait, Shower? Hm, that's odd the shower is really just the shower head sticking out of the bathroom wall aimed at the bidet. Only a small space was between the shower head and the bidet and apparently we would be showering with the beday. The curtain for the shower sectioned off the showerer along with the bidet... I suppose it would keep you company. Not only that but the floor seemed oddly level and no partition existed for the shower. We couldn't imagine that when you turned the shower on the whole room would just flood. The floor seemed even but it must be slanted toward the drain we assured ourselves. Well we were wrong. The first shower resulted in flood. With nothing to keep the water from running out past the vicinity of the drain, the whole room filled up. Luckily not deep enough to spill over past the long door into the bedroom. The curtain contained it a little bit, dragging on the floor, but some still escaped. After one flood we developed techniques to prevent future overflow. 1. the camp-style: quickly wet yourself by turning the water on then abrubtly off. Then soap up and then rinse again, on, off. You've got to be quick for this one and it won't keep you warm but it worked. 2. the swish: use your feet to sweep as much water toward the drain as possible while racing the clock to finish before your feet are overwhelmed by the amount. 3. the don't-move-the-curtain: we found that if for any reason the curtain was bumped in the slightest bit, what water that was blocked by it dragging along the ground would instantly escape across the rest of the bathroom. This one is not so hard but if you're relying on it and you happen to move too much you're done for. 4. The low pressure: I'm not sure if anyone ever stuck to this for the duration of the whole shower, but this one requires patience and finger nails. Patience to keep yourself sane as you wash your body in water sprinkling down like a light rain and finger nails to scrape off the soap that just won't come off in the steady dribble of water. I'm sure everyone can empathize with this one; everyone has taken one of these showers, not by choice of course. We were not always so orthodox in our ways, though. Most of us used a combination of techniques and we managed. It was more comical than really bad. One last observation we made that we found interesting was the McDonald's paper cup collecting the dripping water from the radiator in the bathroom. It did the job as well as any paper cup could, I suppose. Most of all it made us feel classy. Nevertheless we really enjoyed our time and our travels. We just thought it would be fun to write about where we stayed too.

SB Discovery #4 - Gondaliers know so much about Venice that you might feel like an idiot in their presence

Quite possibly our favorite city so far, Venice, was a really, really fun place. Many people say that Venice is dirty and smells and is not worth seeing, but we loved it. We had an amazing Bed and Breakfast in Venice which I have left to the next SB discovery. Upon arrival by train we began walking to our B&B and after dropping our stuff, we began to explore.

First we stopped in St. Mark’s Square where we decided that we had to
feed the pigeons. It was really fun. I’m sure that they were dirty and most did not seem to need food, but we enjoyed it anyway. After buying a 1 euro packet of seed we walked to an open spot and began to toss some seed out. The pigeons recognize the food packet and actually start to swarm you before you even open it up! Emilie and Ellen went together first while Elizabeth and I took photos of them and then we switched roles. We enjoyed walking around some more after this. We had a great meal with some tasty sea food of course. On our first day it became pretty cold and rainy so we did not stay out too late. Ellen and I took a nice night-time stroll when the rain had stopped though.

The next day we explored a bit and then took a Gondalier ride. Our Gondalier was a real pro and he told us all about the city. There are some 100 churces and some 300 bridges in Venice. We passed by Marco Polo's house and would have been totally unaware if Emiliano hadn't told us. His boat was named for his sister, Veronica. We loved our ride.

After we got off we explored some more. We traversed the Rialto Bridge several times and did some shopping. Then we went to the

grocery store to get dinner. We cooked in our room! It's in the next blog!

SB Discovery #3 - Galileo's middle finger might seem like a good idea at the time but...

Before leaving for Pisa, we explored a bit of Florence. We went inside the cathedral (duomo) and then went outside to get in line to climb to the top of the cathedral’s dome. The line was pretty long and we noticed people at the top of the adjacent tower. The bell tower right next to the cathedral is also open to tourists to go to the top. There was no line and it was the same price. We thought it’d be nice to see the cathedral in our view of the city anyway so we began the climb up the tower. The staircases were very narrow and difficult. At one of the break points we were resting when the bell began to ring. We could see it just above us and it was enourmous. It was pretty scary to see such a huge, heavy bell swinging so much. Everyone initially jumped because it was so startling but then we just froze. Ellen and I had to sit down for a minute until it was over. I felt like the whole tower would just fall over with so much noise, ha! The view from the top of the tower was awesome. It was great to see the dome in our view of the city. After climbing back down we decided to make our way to Pisa and when we returned we walked around a bit at night and enjoyed a kebab.

The next day we really explored Florence. We walked all over the city. We went to the Science Museum where we were fortunate enough to view Galileo’s middle finger! Haha! There was some interesting stuff in the museum mostly about cartography and astronomy. We were a little disappointed, though, especially when we realized that we did not make it in time to the Ufizzi mueum containing the most famous works of Italian artists… oops! We went to see Michaelangelo’s David in the Accademia. The statue is very large, bigger than we expected. No pictures were allowed in this museum unfortunately. We learned that David actually has a broken arm. There are a few cracks that developed while the statue was outside. Ellen read that for years the statue was outdoors but then was damaged and later moved indoors. We could hardly tell that there was a crack because the statue is so big, but close-up photos in the books in the gift shop show it. We also decided that David’s right hand is disproportionately large. It’s too big. Masterpiece? We think not! Ha, just joking of course. We were actually rather astounded by it and stared for a long, long time.

In between our museum adventures we shopped. We also visited Ponte Vecchio and traversed this bridge and a few others that span the river. For lunch we found this great place recommended by our Rick Steve’s guidebook. It was a little, family-run restaurant with a cheap menu and awesome food. We got desert too… the cake we had was chocolate with strawberries which was great. The cheese Emilie ordered was only half-good. We got two kinds and one was good but no one cared for the other except for Emilie. It was hard and dry and like most French cheeses but Elizabeth decided that it tasted like Elephants’ feet. At night we found a gelateria that was recommended to us. Tivoli’s had amazing gelato and a nice atmosphere. It was inexpensive too!

The next morning we got up early and left on the cheap, long, train to Venice…

SB Discovery #2 - Pisa

Ellen and I went to Pisa after arriving in Florence. There's a lot more to offer than just the leaning tower. We didn't go up it; however, Em and Liz did..30 euros later! The tower is definitely the highlight but we enjoyed walking around the other parts of Pisa as well. It's a small, quaint little town and we liked getting away from the city for a day.
People biked like crazy in Pisa. It was amazing. There is a whole network of streets designated only for walking and biking where cars are not allowed! We saw a lot of little shops and restaurants lining the streets. We wandered a lot but Ellen was really sick so we had to cut our time in Pisa short. Interestingly enough, on a main walkway of Pisa, we found condom dispensers! So much for sexual privacy and abstinence! Could you imagine the outcry in America if that was placed in a town like McHenry? Surely, surburban moms would panic. Ha!

Overall we really enjoyed our day-trip to Pisa. After hopping on a train, we arrived back in Florence at night.

Spring Break Discovery #1 - PASSPORTS

While more than half of the John Felice Rome Center travelled through Africa*jealous squinty eyes*, we explored more of Italy. Emilie (Ellen's sister) and Elizabeth (Emilie's friend) accompanied us throughout our whole trip to Florence, Pisa, Venice, Lake Como and Milan! Along our journey, we made several discoveries-discoveries that we would like to share with you all.

NUMBER ONE: When Emilie and Elizabeth were staying in Rome for a few days, Nick served as their tour guide. He possesses a copious amount of knowledge from his on-site topography class and he was generous enough to reveal his learnings to us. He'll make an excellent professor someday. Anyway, after touring Rome for a bit, we decided to go to Emilie's hostel. We sat around and drank some wine with their roommates from Portugal and Spain. Then, Emilie out of nowhere asks us, "Are your passports ultra patriotic?" We replied, "No, they are just regular. Blue and plain. I guess there's an American eagle on the cover but that's it." Then, Elizabeth whips out her passport. The cover looked the same but we had no idea what lay behind that hard blue cover. Ellen took it in her hands compassionately, opening it with delicacy. As she fingered through the pages, she trembled. Nick leaned over and thought, "My, the world has changed." So, here it is. New passports.



This is just one of the many patriotic scenes that are now in passports. Mount Rushmore, could you lend us anymore national pride?



This shot is just above the
head shot. Whoa. Eagle.







If you can read that, it says, "This document contains sensitive electronics. For best performance, do not bend, perforate, or expose to extreme temperatures" What are these special electronics? A tracking device? Maybe we're just paranoid but Big Brother is definitely watching us.




Perhaps, one day we'll take our passports to space? I can't wait to get my stamp on the moon!






New Passports. What a discovery. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Sociology of (Italian) Graffiti

"on the metro"

Graffiti in Italy takes on another name and it's "artistic expression." Here, it's not looked down upon but often encouraged! Whoa. It's everywhere. Even on monuments. The content of the graffiti varies. I've seen just as many political messages and I see..."Ti Amo.." Suprisingly, I've seen a lot of Anti-gay and Anti-God graffiti. "God is Gay"
Sometimes, I'll walk down the street and see a penis as big as a person's head. As for politics, they spray paint communist signs a lot. I wasn't so shocked by that. Although Italy as been under a democratic-pro capitalist conservative (DC) party since 1948, their communist party as had a lot of support and almost beat out the DC when the Italians elected the type of government that would replace fascism. Anyway, here are some pictures of graffiti in my lovely neighborhood. Check it.



"fuck the gays" "communism"