Enchanting Italia

Julie, Mickie, our lovely hostess, and moi in Florence at Sunset

Three weeks into my tough job as an assistant it’s already time to celebrate Toussaint, which means a two week break for me and my band of exhausted assistants.  A fellow assistant, world traveler Julie enticed me into a 12-day trek through Italy, but really, I wasn’t too hard to manipulate.  So Friday after work, we set out flying first to Venice to spend Three days then subsequently crossing Italy to see Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Siena, and finally Rome.  It was a depleting attempt at extreme traveling, but with limited time to spend in Europe and Italy alike, we pushed through the exhaustion to experience every incredible element Italy has to offer; from gelato to the Uffizi we wanted to taste and see it all.

Sorry, but this is going to be and extra long post.

Venice

First to Venice, a maze of a city even as a small island.  Confusion considered, we were immediately enraptured with this city built on water.  Venice is unpredictable in the sense that maps are rendered useless on this fish shaped Island.  Our first attempt at map reading failed miserably.  Initially, we carried with us a google map in which we placed our faith.  Google maps are not to be trusted.  We quickly found ourselves to be in what my English friends would call the “dodgiest” corner of Venice.  In actuality, we were in the ghetto.  Not just the ghetto of Venice, but historically the first ghetto in the world.  Our first night in Italy and already we are confronted with a history lesson.  It was a quite peaceful edge of the island and rather unlike a typical American ghetto.  The next three days in Venice were spent searching for the perfect Venetian glass pendants, stopping to gaze at the mesmerizing, adorable canals, and scarfing down gelato and cannoli–the only Italian words I learned.

View of Venice from the Rialto Bridge

Cinque Terre

After a quick stop in Verona to visit what else but Juliet’s balcony, we crossed Italy towards Cinque Terre “the five lands”.  Cinque Terre is on the Coast of Italy, the Italian Riviera, and is comprised of five little villages.  One of the most beautiful places I have ever and may ever have the experience of visiting, Cinque Terre boasts of both mountainous and seaside terrain.  It is incredible to experience the vast sea as it meets the base of a mountain covered in weaving olive groves and vineyards.  The only downside, the hike.  You may be surprised to learn that I actually enjoy hiking when I’m prepared as in, I have the right shoes and the right jacket to block the freezing mountainside wind, but being the poor planner that I am, I was yet again unprepared.  This is why a huge suitcase and a duffle bag stuffed to the brim are necessary for any get away, even if it is just a weekend.  Aside from the exhaustion, blisters, and crying feet, one day was not enough time to spend gazing at the beautiful landscape of Cinque Terre.

One of the five Villages of Cinque Terre. The most beautiful place on earth.

Florence

I was excited to move further into the heart of Italy.  A short pit stop in Pisa.  A few hours in Pisa is all that’s necessary (I feel guilty belittling this city who lost its prestige to conquering Florence, but it was lame) for the quintessential tourist photo-op, then on to the reason for going to Italy, Florence.  Florence is my dream city.  It’s been on my list since that first Art History 102 lecture on the Renaissance.  It was for a time my reason for studying Art History.  It is the birthplace of the Renaissance, the birthplace of Michelangelo, and the center of Tuscan life.  We stayed with a friend of Julie’s, the sweetest and most generous person, Mickie, who invited us into her life and cooked the most amazing pasta dishes for dinner and cappuccino and lemon cake each morning.  We lived as true Italians in Florence.  We spent our days wandering the city, scarfing down gelato and paying 5 euros for hot chocolate as thick as pudding at Chiaroscuro Cafe.  We toured the city on bikes, found our way to the leather and scarf markets, and gawked at the Uffizi’s collection of Botticelli’s including Birth of Venus and Primavera and finally Michelangelo’s masterpiece David, an unadulterated vision of the perfect man (men are just not made that way).  Is it sacrilege to say such a thing about a biblical character?  Oh well, I’ll take my punishment.  I was sad to leave Florence even in spite of being the most expensive Italian city we visited, but on to Siena where I spent 11 euros for a plate of 4 ravioli… yes, that’s right, 4 mediocre ravioli.  I ate better ravioli at the small, family owned, invisible to amateur tourists (we are travelers; there is a difference)  trattoria in Florence, sitting on wobbly stools, squeezed into a corner table making small talk with two German strangers in town for a computer conference.  In this case, the food was so exquisite I would have made conversation with a slobbering pig if I was privileged enough to take part in this meal.  Siena was a charming city and our hotel was a nice break from hostels even if the shower was above the toilet.

Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, FLorence: Home of Masaccio's Trinity. Life Changing.

Rome

On to Rome, the final stop on our Italian adventure.  Rome was bursting with people, bursting.  There is no other way to describe the absurd amount of people we encountered everywhere.  It was a feat to take pictures anywhere without outsiders creeping into the shot.  After a quiet few days in Florence, Rome was to say the least, overwhelming.  In spite of this, we managed to cram ourselves into the subway car with the other overwhelmed and overexcited tourists and make our way across the city to discover the brilliance that is Rome.  It is a strange feeling to stand in the ruins of the once greatest empire on earth.  It is even difficult to imagine the grandeur that was Rome.  It remains, but in pieces, in countless stones and overgrown grass.  What is left crumbles or is supported by concealing scaffolding.  My pictures of the great forum become confusing images of bricks and rubble.  What exactly am I looking at?  I have no idea, but a great man once stood here to control a great empire.

After visiting the forum, we made our way to the Colosseum.  We were in Rome for Halloween and if there is one haunted place in Rome it has to be the Colosseum.  Think of the atrocities committed there and with the help of Hollywood’s Gladiator, it’s not too difficult to imagine.  My favorite thing about the Colosseum is the droves of people standing before it to take a smiley picture.  It has become the landmark of Rome; does no one else think that funny or maybe a little disturbing?  No matter, I too took that same picture, smiling ear to ear because I was in Italy after all and standing before a structure that was the end for so many.

But my favorite place in Rome is, without a doubt, the Pantheon.  It is an awe-inspiring once polytheistic temple and now the final resting place of Raphael.  It is a known fact that when traveling through Europe one risks the monuments they’ve ventured to see being in a state of repair and possibly closed or covered in scaffolding.  The first time I traveled to Europe it was the Venus de Milo and this time it was the Pantheon.  Half of it was hidden beneath analytical eye of a conservator, but despite this minor misfortune, the interior was untouched and I basked in the splendor of the coffered dome flooded with light from the oculus and stood before the tomb of Raphael.

Dome of the Pantheon.

Raphael's tomb, Pantheon

We left bustling, overcrowded Rome and headed back to Douai and back to our routine as English assistants pants tighter and hearts heavier forced to live in a gelato free world.  Rich with friendly people, bright sunshine, and scrumptious cuisine, Italy stands out in my mind as one of favorite places on earth.  Have I mentioned that I was supposed to be Italian?  Maybe I can be an honorary Italian.

 

I know Italy was sad to see me go