Italy Holiday

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy..."

Yes, the first lines of Bohemian Rhapsody were caught in my head the entire vacation. I couldn't believe where I was or where I was going next..two countries in one day or on the coast or wherever, it was incredible. This picture to the left is of Manarola, a village in Cinque Terre in Italy. There are five villages in the cliffs like that and are 9km apart. The thing to do is hike through all five villages along the water, taking in the sights - the blue blue water, the cliffs, cacti, rose bushes, orange and lemon trees, and just imagine you're somewhere in heaven. At least that is what I did.
When we met up with Maureen in Nice, we realized we couldn't get onto the train to Genoa (we had to trade there to get to La Spezia, then a 7minute train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore, the village we were staying in. Rio-ma-JOUR-ay!) The thing with Eurail passes is they only allow a certain number of people with a pass on every train. So the ticket woman in Nice told me I had to buy an 80 euro ticket if I wanted to get on the train ($120!) When Maureen arrived, we went back to the ticket window, this time a guy, and decided just DO IT so we can get to Italy. Then the French ticketman said, just get on this local train to Ventimiglia over the border, then go to Genoa. What? This is okay? So we got on a local train to Italy and then bought tickets (or in my case, a reservation) on the SAME TRAIN coming from Nice...how was this going to work? We were confused, but if we had read our tickets which said No guaranteed seat we probably could have figured it out......we stood the two hours from Ventimiglia-Genoa. I imagine that is what a cattle car looks like.
We finally got to Riomaggiore around 8pm. Our landlord (we were staying in a holiday apartment) decided to go home, so he left us a big sign that said: MAUREEN. YOUR KEY IS HERE (big black arrow) UNDER THE FLOWERPOT WITH DIRECTIONS. Hmmmm....
Cinque Terre was absolutely beautiful. We only did 4 terre, we skipped going to the last town because the 4th was beautiful and it looked like rain. So we did what everyone does in Italy. Ate pasta and drank lots of wine! The three of us loved it.
After two days we woke up and took the first train to Florence and began the journey! Kym and I had been there already, but it was Maureen's first time. We tried to go as many places as possible. My favorite was the Uffizi Gallery, so I could see the Botticelli. Seeing something like that in person makes everything sort of fall away and out of focus and for one minute you realize that Zephyr was painted 500 years ago and Venus is one of the most famous paintings in the world--
We also went to a wine tasting on Saturday night. The four of us, we were staying with a friend Danielle, went to a place, 4 wines, proscitto and bread for 10 euro. The building was part of the old prisons in Florence, so the basement was all brick and arched, you could see the windows and where people would be walled up into little cells (now it's just all open). The wine was delicious! and I think at a traditional wine tasting you are literally supposed to taste the wine - like have a sip? This old man must have liked us, because between the 5 of us we must have drank 3 bottles of wine. There's no way. He was very generous with his wine! Then he decided to open a new bottle of the same wine but a different year so we could taste the grape difference (I think we may have had too much grape to really care by then). It was definitely cool, though. We went out for dinner after that and had some Florentine adventures! Those are funnier in person.
The other thing about Italy that I totally forgot -and was warned about by a South African woman living in Italy on the train- is Italian men give new meaning to the words pushy, forward, flirting, and intense. Especially if you are walking through the markets!

Here is a scene that happened multiple times:
Katie and Maureen walking through the market to buy food for dinner. They are walking through pashmina, leather, knick-knack stalls. Men are catcalling and trying to get their attention. All of a sudden-
Random man: You dropped something!
Katie and Maureen think: Oh, no, did we? Let's look just in case...
Random man: My heart.

Wow.

Wow.

There are hardly words (except if you're an Italian man, of course).
More later on Germany and Austria my eyes are tired (I actually WROTE a paper today! A real one! Five pages! I was in the library and everything..maybe I should win a prize). The sun is still out and its almost 7, it doesn't get dark here until 9PM. Someone once told me Ireland really is a little piece of heaven that fell into the sea, and every day it's easier to believe that.

Art highlights in Florence:
The Birth of Venus, Botticelli
La Primavera, Botticelli
David, Michelangelo
Brunelleschi's duomo
Four unfinished captives, Michelangelo
Adoration of the Magi, da Vinci