May 30, 2000

We left Barcelona via the overnight Italian "Gran Navi" ferry, which was sort of like an empty loveboat ferry but with only middle aged Italian couples and a couple of german familes. we had a "butaca" which is basically a airline style seat in an over air-conditioned deck classe cabin, plenty of room but like being in a floating refridgerator by the time we woke up in the morning. The cruise over through the Mediterranean Sea was quite nice as the warm and humid sea air made the chilly AC night wear off that much quicker.On the ferry as we neared Geneva we met Lalit, a very interesting Indian man who finally found someone else who he could speak English with. We struck up conversation regarding our intended travel to India later this year and he offered to meet us at the airport, quite a cool chap! who was carrying a 501b pack that he traveled from South America in. When we got to the Geneva port, it seemed that no one really knew where the actual port terminal was located as everthing seemed to be torn up and thrown around in the usual ferry port haphazard way! All three of us ended up crossing this shipping dock and then climbing over a series of increasingly large concrete barriers, crossed a busy road full of buzzing scooters and made a dash into a concrete building that looked like it might be the ferry terminal. This was to be our entry into Italy. Genova, immediatly came upon us as a place that we liked since there were few tourists, good bookshops and great pesto. Davi and I found this little out of the way trattoria that was down this small narrow side street. Inside was like being in someones crowded home at dinner time. We got the Pesto Al Genovese menu of the day served by the original characters of this mom and pop place. It was complete with the old man and his dangling cigarette grabing the plates, orders being shouted down, and the food flying out from the dumbwaiter.

VERNAZZA/CINQUE TERRE, ITALY

June 4, 2000

This little strip of five scenic coastline fishing towns was a nice treat from the heat of the cities, the one we stayed in, Vernazza, was the sweetest of them all. Lots of local vino, olive oil and gelato shops. We took the local train there which took about 2hours as to the usual 45 min. faster local train (lots of sitting in stations waiting for who-knows-who..). Upon arrival, we strolled confused as to where to stay because there were no camere/room signs. An old man then assissted us and gestured us to several of his friends asking if there was a room available in this small town. we ended up in a brand new pensione that had a huge rustic green barn door as the entrance and very steep steps (at least with a heavy pack on) and wood beams exposed in the ceiling and birds chirping outside our window, oh so sweet! We explored the towns via a narrow trail along the coastline -1 1/2 hours this way, then 1 1/2 hour that way, all lined by terraced grape vinyards and sweet smelling herbs of the hot summer greenery in the sun. we were told some of these trails were rugged and a "resonably fit person" could do them. but, there were all types on these trails - classy Italian couples complete with very high-heels to young americans abound, (i think the boyfriends had to lovingly carry their "bella un amante" over some of these rugged parts.), you could take the train, which took about ten minutes between towns, but that was cheating, and certainly more crowded, the small beaches and gelato gave us insentive to keep going in the heat to the next town. each town had its own flavor - either middle class quiteness with old towers, bigger beach areas for lots and lots of Italian sun worshipers, college crowd, or tiny town set high above the water, in all, it was very nice to have the blue water very nearby to cool off in.

PADOVA. ITALY

June 5, 2000

This will go down as "the day of trains." After sitting in the sun and contemplating several routes to take after the coast, we decided to head for Padova, an affordable alternative very close to Venezia (venice). We knew we had to get to La Spezia (next bigger town south after Cinque Terre) to catch more trains to head north again. But, what we thought would hopefully be a direct train route north, ended up in connection after connection. In La Spezia, immediately got on a train to Pisa (hoping for more options to go more directly north) and then contemplated almost too long if we should just run into town and get a quick pix of the leaning tower, but instead dashed onto a leaving train to Firenze (Florence) with hope of more connections, jon just barely made it on in one piece, as his pack got stuck in the closing doors and both of us standing on a train without tickets, well, maybe the conductor will not come by and we will not have to pay (as this happens many times on these local slow trains we started to find out.) but no luck. we got charged an extra 10,000 lire for not buying tickets in advance. In the big station in Firenze, we finally headed north to Padova, except on a EuroStar faster train a bit more costly than we wanted and without a seat for part of the ride. But, in all, we got there and started the search again for a room.

Padova had its selection of interesting churches and culture which we were sorry to only walk by, because we were only planning to stay two nights just to hit Venezia. Well, one full day in Venezia was enough for us. Lots of tourists at this time of year. by this time we have become gelato inficionattos and seeked out the best in a town. we got tricked by one here and were very bummed (too much ice, and little flavor - there is a difference!) and vowed to not buy some on a crowded tourist street again. The highlight was taking the ferry taxis, "vaporettos", around the grande canal and walking around the quieter side streets. We took a slight deviation from delicious pastas to try Chinese food served by elegantly dressed women speaking Italian with a Chinese accent, which was a slightly less expensive dinner in a very expensive town. we ordered a tofu dish (toufu con chili in Italian) and it had a bolognese meat sauce a la Italian style, it was actually tasty and a nice change of pace.

FLORENCE (FIRENZE), ITALY

June 10, 2000

Firenze, (I do not know how they got florence out of this) is a cultural mecca. We started with the main art museum, the Galleria degli Uffizi, and waited on line for 1 1/2 hours to get in. (next time i will get tickets via online and jump the queues!). Most of the master works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Leonardo were closed so we absorbed all the rest - frescos and portraits galore. They were doing a lot of restorations to these classics and fixing damaged areas of the museum from the 1993 Mafia bomb set off outside. Also, all over Italy there have been wonderful old wooden doors with layers of varnish and dense ironwork, especially on the Ponte Vecchio bridge (the only one not destroyed in WWII). One night we watched a woman have her portrait drawn in charcoal just over the bridge, it gave us the idea of making an animation of portraits done from around the world by street artists. During a dinner at our favorite local trattoria, we met a woman who asked how travelers knew about this place. Under our breath, we said it is in "the book". She was a tour guide, born in S.Africa, living in London now. After our conversation, it further confirmed our readings that southern italy and Sicily were less traveled by "Canadians" (americans with Canadian flags on their backpacks or Canadian t-shirts). So, our itinerary has immediatley changed to heading directly to rome (whereas we were going to stopover in Perugia), then naples, (gotta see the roman ruins) then to sicily, before crossing over to greece. now off to see Michelangelos David for one last Renaissance infusion.

ROME/NAPLES, ITALY

June 19, 2000

Rome the eternal city they call it....we must agree...i was now in roman ruins heaven as this city is full of them. lots and lots of cool and crumbling buildings, medevil churches, hidden piazzas and plenty of street activity to keep one visually stimulated for quite awhile. We mostly planned to stop here for only a few days to see all the usual stuff (colosseo,vatican,neros pad.etc...) but the city itself was a real change from the over-touristed Florence and other parts north. We found a hostel (2 beds in a 10 room dorm) since the city was quite full with pilgrams for the 2000 jubilie. It was like staying in a college dorm with lots of late night kids comming back from the Julius Ceasar Pub... but we were always the ones who came in last! In Rome we met up with our friend Kelly who used to work with Davi at radium in SF. She was a big help in the fact that we now had someone to hang with who knew alot of the local stuff to check out. We also met up with another traveller who was comming from southern Italy and was heading north. Since we were heading south and she needed a guide book, we decided to give here the top part of our LP book by cutting it in half with a knife. We ended up sitting on the Spanish Steps, drinking beer, cutting the book in two and swapping stories from where to go and where weve been.

We ended up staying for 5 nights and then caught a train down to Naples with the main intention of seeing the ruins of Pompei. Naples is quite a different flavor of Italy from the north. You now feel like your in it! Naples is very frantic and kaotic, with traffic jams on every street, wall to wall people and just plain insanity. Actually its a lively change from the "reserved" northern part of the country as just about anything seems to go down here. The food is much more spicier, sweeter and the pizzas more heavier. We had our first meal here in a wood-fired family pizza place that only had 2 kinds of pizzas on the menu, very easy to choose...the next day we headed off to Pompei, where in 79 AD this roman city was covered and buried in volcanic ash from the eruption of mt.vesuvious. Its like a step back or two in time as the place seems frozen from the roman empire days. It is almost entirely excuvated and the city as it was has been partly restored. There were loads of mosaic tile floors, fountains, murals and ancient roman graffiti. It has to be one of the most preserved examples of roman life to date. As we were leaving this small puppie dog began to follow us and walked behind us all the way to this restuarant, sat while we ate and then followed us to the train station. Sadly it did not get on the train with us, but instead was more like our guardian from the city. if we had planned it better we could of tried to stay out there but we had to get out of Naples! We are heading down to Palermo, Sicily and to catch a bus to more remote southern parts of the island before heading to Siracusa and then back up to Brindisi to Greece.