The Global Guy

Venice is a beautiful city, and I can’t wait to come back! Unfortunately I wasn’t really able to spend much time here at all. I took an overnight train from Florence and got in around 8:00 am. The night before I’d checked with the hostel association, and found that all the hostels were full…no big deal I figured; I’d heard that the Venice hostels were nearly impossible to get into at the last minute. Well, what I didn’t know was that this was the weekend of the Venice marathon. For the first time in this trip, I wasn’t able to find a decently priced hostel or hotel anywhere! I did find several rooms over a hundred euros a night, but I just really didn’t want to pay that. Instead I figured I’d just take in as much of the city as I could before catching an overnight train to Vienna.

Right outside of the train station there is a water taxi service that runs the length of the Grand Canal. I grabbed a cheap tourist day pass, and proceeded to get lost. I hadn’t really done any research into Venice, so I figured I’d just wander around. I was amazed when I turned a corner and found myself in front of St. Mark’s square. The square is one those places that I’ve seen a million times on movies and magazines, but the sight of it in person was still amazing. The first thing that jumps out at you are all the pigeons. Thousands and thousands of them! Wandering around are feed vendors selling pigeon food for the tourists to use to tempt the birds just a little closer for that one perfect photograph with their kids. At the end of the square is St. Mark’s Cathedral. Next to that is the town bell tower that mysteriously collapsed in 1910 in the early morning with no warning. Luckily no one was hurt, and the town rebuilt it brick by brick over the next 10 years. I took the elevator to the top and the views from up there were amazing. After getting a few photos I wandered down and had dinner at one of the cafes lining the square. Finally, I wandered back to the train station watching the sun set over the canals. Amazing!

I decided to take a day trip out of Florence to see the leaning tower of Pisa and the walled town of Lucca. The Italian train system is usually extremely efficient and it makes taking these type of quick trips a pleasure. However, I didn’t realize that every so often the workers tend to go on strike and totally stop the system for a day or so! So, my quick day trip ended up being a quick trip to Pisa and an overnight stop at Lucca. Pisa is a modern small university town that if it wasn’t for the famous tower really wouldn’t be much of a stop at all. However, the town really makes a big deal of the tower! It’s about a 15 minute walk from the train station, and when you see it for the first time it’s really special. One of my favorite things about Italy is the abundance of famous landmarks that I’ve been told about all my life. Seeing one of these in person really makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something by finally getting here.

After spending a couple of hours at Pisa, I hit the train again for Lucca. This town’s claim to fame is that it is the only Tuscan town to still have its original city walls. The city itself has outgrown the walls of course, but the are still there with proper gates that traffic and pedestrians still have to go thru to get to the historical area. It was here that I found out about the train strike, when I ran into all the transportation workers in the area protesting in the city center. They were waving signs and placards and seemed to be having a great time. It had more of the feel of a holiday type occasion rather than a highly charged labor dispute. 24 hours after the strike began, most trains were running late, but at least they were running. I was ready to head to Venice after another night in Florence to catch a connecting train.

The Tuscan region is fantastic. I’d heard that one of the things that you had to do was to take a bike ride around the area, so I hooked up with a local biking company. I was the only backpacker, which was kind of interesting. Two of the people on the trip were from the DC area, and it turns out that one of them will be in Warrenton for Christmas at the same time that I’ll be there.

Anyway, we spent the day cycling around the hills, checking out olive groves and vineyards. We stopped for a while in the town of Fiesole and then had lunch at a local vineyard. The scenery was so beautiful, and the green is a nice contrast to the dusty dryness of Africa.

After the bike ride, I was feeling pretty energetic so I topped off the day by climbing the 463 steps to the top of the main cathedral in Florence. Tomorrow I’m planning on getting an early train to Pisa and then on to Lucca.

Getting here took longer than I thought it would…I missed the train by about 3 minutes, and had to wait for the next one. That one ended up being about an hour late, so I finally arrived in Florence about 3.5 hours later than I had expected. Luckily I found a GREAT hostel, and had time to go out and see Michaelangelo’s David. I had honestly thought about skipping this, but I am so glad I didn’t. I had no idea of the actual size of this sculpture. Every picture I have seen doesn’t do anything to show the scale of the statue. I figured that it would be about life size, or maybe a little larger….WRONG! This thing is about 3 times life size, and up on a pedestal that adds another 10 feet or so to its size. They’ve just started a restoration project to clean it, but they’re doing it in full view. That’s the way art should be saved!

One of my favorite things to do in this town is to wander around after the sun goes down. In the narrow winding streets, you really get the feeling that this is a true medieval town, and that you could be 600 years in the past. Of course even that can get old after a while, so I headed across the river to see some of the shops and outdoor art. After a while I found a building that looked amazingly familiar…it turns out that it was the setting for a scene in "Hannibal" where Hannibal Lechter kills an Italian cop by hanging him out of a window. Kinda cool!

I had forgotten how expensive Europe is! Luckily, I am only spending a few days here…I can’t believe I’ll be home in 9 more days.

After a long flight from Cape Town via London I arrived in Rome around 4ish. It took a while to find a room and it was getting dark by the time I got settled in. The hostel is right next to a subway station, and when I looked at the map it was obvious that I had to head to the Coliseum stop for dinner. The first sight of the Coliseum was breathtaking! I walked around it for an half hour or so just taking in the sense of antiquity. Right across from the building I found an outdoor restaurant with a perfect view of the whole area. I had a blast eating an amazing dinner, drinking cheap wine and just watching the tourists wander around.

I’ve spent the next day exploring the city proper. It was the perfect day to see everything except for Vatican City. Mother Theresa was being beatified which meant that the 300,000 tourists were all crowded into St. Peter’s square instead of the usual scenic spots. That evening I went on a night walking tour..it started raining half way through, but it was still a lot of fun. We ended up seeing a few sights that I hadn’t gotten around to yet like the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon.

The following day it was raining in Rome so I figured I head out of town to check out Pompeii. I think the rain decided to follow me because it was pouring when the train arrived! It was lousy for photography, but the rain really added to the atmosphere. Between the rain and the ceremony in Rome the previous day there were hardly any tourists. Wandering around the deserted streets, seeing the ruined homes, bath houses, and theaters was surreal. One day I’ll have to come back and spend some more time exploring here and around the whole region of Vesuvius

Finally the next day I wandered over to Vatican City and spent the day wandering around the museums and chapels. Photography isn’t really allowed, but most people have seen reproductions of the artworks anyway. You know, with all the money that the Vatican has tied up in art over there, it makes me wonder why the hell I had to give away part of my allowance every week as a kid to the local parish!