May 15th
Went to Il Pirata for breakfast and enjoyed a couple of delicious Sicilian pastries, and then we caught the train to La Spezia then Pisa and finally on to Florence, having to change trains at each station. Carting luggage up and down stairways onto the wrong tracks and then finally to the correct Binari.
Arrived and exited the Firenze train station, but exited the wrong side of the station, and then started walking in the wrong direction away from the city of Florence. Oops. 400 yards away, we asked for directions to the Duomo, and was told to go back the direction we came from.
We found our way to the hotel, and it was a beautiful hotel in which part of it was a museum as it used to house a roman bath, a jail, and a lookout point. It definitely was the 4 star hotel that it advertised itself as–at least compared to the other places we have stayed.
After checking in we took a little stroll to Piazza Republica and ate a pizza and some wine. Following that, we headed towards the duomo, to check out its graceful, colorful beauty.
After our 7 hour hike yesterday, we were kind of interested in a massage, and so when we stumbled across a place that looked like one, we headed in to examine it. But it was mainly a tanning and waxing place that was a little odd, and they had no openings for massage.
Spent some time on the Internet, and then walked towards the River Arno to find a restaurant. We went down the street next to the Arno, but there wasn’t anything interesting there. So we crossed the Ponte Vecchio to the other side, and guess who I saw at the base of the bridge?
I noticed the back of his hair and the side of his face first. I’m less than a foot away from him, and I realize that it is a Wold brother. Was it Josh? Jeremy? I don’t recollect the name at first. I say “Josh Wold!” but didn’t get a response. Then I said “Jeremy Wold” and didn’t get a response. But then I realized that it was Josh, and said it even louder. This time he turned around.
Josh is the brother of one of my dearest friends, David Wold whom I met and lived with in college. Josh was currently living in Holland, and was merely in Florence for the weekend.
We had a short conversation and then continued on our ways. Why is it, when travelling on trips like this, that it is bound to happen that you run into someone that you know? That has happened to me frequently. When has it happened to you? and with whom?
I took a picture of the Bibo restraunt where we all ate 11 years ago. They weren’t quite open yet so we went to a nearby restaurant where our waiter Victor entertained us with his friendliness.
9 hours of travel yesterday, today we had planned what eventually became a 7 hour hike. That is right, we are officially crazy.
Our first walk was about 20 minutes of length,from Riomaggiore to Manarola on the edge of a cliff over looking gorgeous blue water. It was really pleasant. In Manarola we sampled a couple of different focacia breads. One with olives, and one plain. The walk between Manarola an Corniglia was about 45 minutes. In this town 3: Corniglia, we had to walk up 400 stairs as this town is high above the water on the cliffs.
The italian man kept turning over, eventually facing himself directly towards us. I didn’t fully trust him, and therefore unfortunately, had to keep my eye on him. He was definitely trying to show off for the ladies (or was it me), and I decided to call him the Italian Sausage.
We didn’t traverse the entire town of Vernazza, since this is the town we were sleeping in and had already explored it. However, we did stop at Il Pirata (the much famed Il Pirata-at leas the owners “the Cannoli Brothers” would tell you). Here we refreshed ourselves with some fresh granita: half strawberry, half lemon, with a touch of cream on top. Refreshing, delicious, and just what we needed before beginning our final 90-100 minute hike to town #5.
We ordered the antipasti mare which was a cold and a fried plate of seafood appetizers. There was octupus, swordfish, prawns, mussels, anchovies, fried anchovies, and many other strange looking items, most with bones or eyes still attached. All this to go along with, of course, some wine and a terriffic view.
We had a lovely time and as the rain started to go down, we walked up to the other side of town to Il Pirata and ordered 2 cannoli for take away. Took them to our rooms, ate them, and slept peacefully.
We walked a few blocks and then realized that we needed another water bus, and found our way to San Giogore church. Lisa enjoyed the beauty of this one more than the last. It is a gorgeous church with a large campinelle. It housed great works of art, and we could take pictures more freely, and explore more depths of the choirs and main basillica. We took the elevator up the campinelle for great views of Venice. As Dr. Carlander would have said, “beautiful.” Lisa must be getting at least slightly annoyed, as I keep reminicing about when I was here last, travelling with school, enjoy the friendship of Andrew. Some things that we are doing, such as visiting these 2 churches, were things that I did and enjoyed so much before.
We traversed over bridges, through alleys, across squares and then more bridges and found our way back to our room. I did some Snide prep work and we rested. Then, we went back to the itnernet cafe where I spent a frustrating 2 hours trying to publish my Snides. The attempt to upload a video to youtube kept failing, I would get typed and insert a bunch of photos and tags, and then the computer or server would freeze and when I would re-enter into the right page, I’d find that I lost 20-30 minutes of work. We kept buying 30 minute increments, and eventually I completed (all but the youtube video) of my posts up until Venice.
The gentleman took us to our room which was around the corner. We were given a keychain with 4 keys on it: the street-side door, the hallway door, the bedroom door and one to stick into the light socket to power the lights. Our room was funky and colorful with bright burnt orange curtains on 3 windows that overlooked the street and would become noisy at night. It was a cozy room and we didn’t see the landlord again. It had a bidet, and this time I used it, but mainly as a refreshment from long days of walking and getting lost.
We came across a street vendor, and I bought a pair of joke boxers for Cameron–the statue of David’s genital area.
Woke up around 6am this morning after about 4 hours of sleep. I felt smokey, and grimy and sweaty. It was a gross night of sleep. Packed up our things, and then had some breakfast. Hotel complimentary breakfast’s sure do beat the continental breakfast’s in the US. We checked out of the hotel, and caught a cab to the train station. Got in line at 8:20 am to catch the 9:30 train to Venice. However there was one leaving at 8:35 so we got that instead. Pulled out our slick tiny computer and have been typing in notepad these journals, for website postings later. Its a great way to spend the 2.5 hour train ride. Too bad there isn’t wireless on this train in order to streamline the process. But I am grateful for the chance to catch up on some journals. I am caught up now,for now, and we just passed the Vicenza train station. We have approximately 30 minutes left of this train ride, and then a walk to our hotel in Venice.
We found our seats and they were awesome. We were just north of the penalty box. The stadium was much different and better than I ha expected. On TV, you see these glass walls and a lot of fencing behind the goals, but this was not bad in person. We had wondered if they had stadium food, and what it would be. Would it be hot dogs and cokes? Pizzas and pastas? It ended up being a lot of panini’s. Lisa was disappointed in the women’s bathrooms, as it was just a hole in the ground. I didn’t make it to the men’s to find out. We sat in our seats for 2 hours before the game. The stadium still had a ton of people in it, and they were all ready chanting away and lighting their flares, and loud booms of gunshot like noise filled the stadium. It was quite a spectacle. The stadium was filled with banners, and people wearing red and black. There was one section of Juve fans, behind glass walls, and when they would chant, fans would stand up swearing and cursing and flipping them off. You’ve gotta love European football.
Eventually the players came out for warm ups, for announcements, and then the game began. I was saddened that Del Piero-one of my all time favorites-was not in the starting 11. As well as that Inzaghi was for Milan – not one I like. There were a few series of tricky passes in a row, but not a lot of opportunities. I was disappointed in Kaka’s play, but Beckham was delivering some nice balls. Milan easily could have been up if Inzahgi could finish. The score was 0-0 at halftime, and then all the fans around us started lighting up their cigs.
We then continued on towards the Duomo where lisa gave a 
