Italy recommendations...

I had been asked for recommendations for a trip to Italy, and it was only then that I realized I never finished publishing my journals from my second trip to Italy. Lame! For now, I will do a little brain dump, and if you click the "Italy" label below or on the right, you can see the stuff from my previous trips (that I actually got around to publishing). If you want to read it in order, you have to start with the bottom post and work your way up. (it spans two pages, so hit "Older Posts")

Be warned, I have a heavy bend toward visiting churches and staring at art and architecture. I am too old or too boring to care about the nightlife, and too poor to give recommendations for "fabulous" places to stay or eat. I did drink an $8 coke while in Siena, and I guess it was sort of worth it, but I wouldn't do it again. I also like walking. A lot. And I think getting lost is a sport (incidentally, if you are driving in Italy, you *will* get lost, or at least, off of your planned route)

General note about accommodations: If you want a private bathroom, make sure it is specifically noted in the reservation/listing. Many, if not most, places have shared bath setups.

Rome:
Overall: I went to Rome on my first trip to Italy. We made the mistake of making Rome our last stop after several beautiful places in the country, and returning to Rome felt dirty, noisy, and just a little too much big ugly city. If we'd started in Rome, it would have seemed beautiful, but after two weeks in bucolic country, it just felt like a slap in the face. My fault, totally. I know a lot of people love Rome, but it wasn't my favorite. Here were some highlights:

• Where to stay: Don't stay near the train station. Every town has the crappiest and most overpriced accommodations near the train station, and depending which side you're on, it can be kind of a shady neighborhood. We chose to stay in Trastevere, (beyond the Tiber river) and I thought it was a great neighborhood. An older part of Rome, it has narrow streets and old shops, a little quieter, and the kids playing in the piazzas are from Roman families more than tourists. Specifically, we booked an apartment through http://www.rome-accom.com, and it was great.
• Interesting old church: San Clemente is a church built on top of a church built on top of a Mythraic temple. I jumped at the chance to walk back in time to see the history of one place, and in my mind, the story of the city and its people, develop in one spot. Your mileage may vary. It's a relatively quick tour.
• Catacombs: We definitely wanted to visit some, being history nerds (and papists, in my mom's case-- just kidding Mom!) and we chose St Calixxtus Catacombs. I enjoyed the tour. You need to take a bus out of the city center to see the catacombs.
• The Vatican: We had a pretty miserable time at the Vatican. St. Peter's Basilica is indeed big, and beautiful and, kind of overdone. I did really love Pope Alexander VII's tomb by Bernini. It was fun seeing preserved popes on display. We even saw the then new pope giving mass while we wandered through. But going to the Vatican museum, arguably one of the most important collections in the world should have been a high point of my trip and instead it just made me very angry. It was crowded. Not a little, but to the point where you were elbow to elbow getting moved through rooms by the force of the crowd. Asshats everywhere were taking flash photography, especially of the Sistine Chapel, while bored security guards droned on "no flaaash" like bleating sheep. I would love this museum if it were managed properly-- no cameras allowed at all, and only half the number of people allowed in at one time (other museums control how many people are inside at any time)
  
• Art & Architecture I wouldn't miss: Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa was magnificent in person. The Pantheon, if you're in the neighborhood, you really should stop to see this unique and beautiful building.
  
• Stuff I might skip: The Capuchin Crypts were a bit silly. Trevi fountain is nice and all but crowded and I wouldn't go out of my way to see it again. National Etruscan Museum at the Villa Giulia is a great Etruscan museum if you are into that kind of thing, including famous works that even I was familiar with, and then way way too many more pieces for my taste-- if you are into Etruscan art, it is a must. Otherwise, skip it.

Florence:
Overall: A beautiful city that balances big city with beauty and history. I've been here twice. Florence was the heart of the Renaissance and is exploding with important and beautiful works. Spending less than a few days is a mistake, but if you did, I'd say: Art lovers MUST do the Uffizi, wanderers should take the hike up to San Miniato, and everyone should have some chocolate at Hemingways. I did love Florence, so it's probably more detailed in my previous blogs, but here are my very select highlights

• Where to stay: The first time I stayed in the Oltrarno area (across the Arno river), specifically San Frediano neighborhood. It's a quieter area with families and students living there I guess. One or two nights we stayed at this place, and it was nice enough that I'd stay there again. We actually booked a B&B through this site, but after the first night or two, the owner moved us to the other place due to construction in her home. It sounds weirder than it was. I liked the neighborhood too, quiet, not touristy, but a five-ten minute walk to the Uffizi across one of the most famous bridges in the world. This does not suck. The second time I was in Florence, we rented an apartment that was across an alley from, and looking into the windows of the Bargello. It was fantastic, but it was up like four million stairs (old building) If you're staying in Florence or any town in Italy for more than a few days, it is WAY better to get an apartment.
• The most beautiful church in all of Italy?: San Miniato al Monte! The hike from Florence to this place is uphill, with beautiful gardens and views of the old city walls, on the way to a piazza overlooking the city, and then up more to this wonderful old church on the hill. From the outside, you see the same style facade, but when you get inside, it's so totally different from the rest. A dark, brooding place full of intricate marble patterns, carved gargoyles, and a mash of spaces and levels. Down in the crypt, the light from upstairs breaks through the gloom just a little. The second time I came here, a monk was practicing his organ playing, filling the gloom with grandeur. I wanted to stay forever. (note: there's another church on the hill there very nearby-- don't bother, I think it is italy's answer to the big-box church)
• Hemingway chocolate: this is about the only restaurant review I have: this place is awesome! And, if you go late, it is jam packed with students and locals. So go as soon as they open maybe. Nom, Nom, Nom.
• Oh! But gelato: Vivoli. Yes.
• Il Duomo: I mean, duh, of course. But actually prettier on the outside. The second time I was in Florence, I climbed the dome (accidentally got in the wrong line) and the view was fantastic. Across the street, there's a nice museum to visit to see architectural bits and history up close, with my favorite highlight being Michelangelo's heartbreaking Pieta, which it is said he intended for his own tomb. The baptistry next to the duomo is pretty interesting on the inside. (sparkle power!)
  
• Santa Croce is the place where all the important people wen to be buried, and is stuffed with cool monuments. I have been twice, and really like this place. My favorites here: Michelangelo's tomb and some memorial next to the exit.
• Uffizi: I missed it the first time and was heartbroken, but spent most of a day there the second time I visited Florence. Get advanced tickets, or get there early and wait in line. A fantastic collection of course, not to be missed.
  

Venice:
Overall: I LOVE Venice. A lot of people say to skip it, that it is just a tourist trap. Those people are soooo wrong, and I'm assuming they either: stayed near St. Mark's, stayed like one day, or just are terribly uninterested people. Getting lost in Venice is like wandering around the inside of a beautiful painting. And you WILL get lost, immediately. It's ok, you're getting closer to where you meant to be, and you're seeing something beautiful. Venice is a wonderful historic art project that you wander, and that people still live in. There is a university here, and once I was here at graduation time and witnessed a Venetian graduation hazing tradition of sorts all over Dorsoduro. There are locals, contrary to to what many tourists may think. You are doing yourself a great disservice if you plan to "see Venice" in a day. If that is your plan, skip it entirely.

• Where to stay: Do not stay near the train station or anywhere near St Mark's. It is miserable and expensive, and you will feel like you are living in a tourist trap. Both times, I stayed (again! across the river! OK, canal in this case) in or near Dorsoduro, a neighborhood known more for housing university students. The first time I stayed at Antico Capon, which had a hotel right on Campo Santa Margherita, which made it very noisy, and the rooms were a bit tiny and hostel-y, until they realized we were staying for four nights and were supposed to be in the apartment, which was a few blocks away and very nice and quiet. The second time I stayed here, which was nice enough and quiet. Venice is not a cheap place to stay, and I thought these were a good deal. Don't expect much service, just a nice clean place to stay.
• The FIRST thing to do when you get to Venice is to get a detailed map. You need it to get anywhere. I have a really good sense of direction, but I needed it immediately. Getting lost in Venice is really fun, but being able to pull out the map and recover is necessary. Everything is about a ten minute walk away, but you need the map.
• Venice is fun to walk around in, but many of the best mansions were designed to be viewed from the water. Take a vaporetto (water bus) around the Grand Canal loop to see these. It's way cheaper than a gondola or water taxi, and if you do the loop you will see parts of Venice not really touristed, to remind you that people really do live here.
  
• To Do: Just wander! Everywhere you look there is something interesting. Notice the sinking city, the towers leaning every which way as they settle back into the swamp. The canals and bridges, the beautiful entrances to homes on the water, the gondola workshops in Dorsoduro, and the low-slung tenements in the Ghetto. Some of the best sights in Venice are just things you stumble upon. Including, if you can, the sunset from the edge of Dorsoduro looking over Giudecca.
  
• Il Palazzo Ducale: The seat of power for a very powerful empire, the Doge's Palace is a fantastic museum to get you the rundown on Venice's history and arts, housed in a beautiful building, where you can also explore the bridge of Sighs and the prisons (including old prisoner graffiti!)
• St. Mark's Basilica: You've been to Disneyland, what's up with It's a Small World? Here it is! During high tide, you'll notice you walk over planks in the front due to flooding. There may be a line to get in, but it's worth seeing, including paying the Euro or two to get upstairs. This area and this church in particular, are notable also for being a sort of trophy room of cool junk and plunder from other civilizations, including the Tetrarchs, and the Greek Horses, which you'll want to see if you are an art history buff.
• Il Ghetto and Museo Ebraico: I strongly recommend taking the tour at this museum if you can. They will show you two of the synagogues in this place and talk about the history. I think this is one of the jewels of Venice that often goes overlooked. If you miss the tour hours, at least take in the history of the Ghetto, and visit the relief in the piazza commemorating the Jews who were finally taken from Venice by the Nazis.
  
• Want more art? Gallerie dell'Accademia is here for you.

Tuscany:
Overall: OMG, yes, it's cliche! Touristy! Well, yes, kindof, but there is a good reason-- it's beautiful and chock full of neat history.
You can theoretically see this by bus, if you maybe just want to see one town or something, but it's nice to rent a car and drive around getting lost and seeing some of the less touristed spots.

Where to stay: I recommend choosing the towns and areas you want to visit, and finding a farmstay or something like that, which is sort of central. If you really like one of the hilltowns, suck it up and pay to stay in one for two nights. They change drastically at night, and it's a totally different experience. If you're in one of these little historic towns, you'll have to leave your car outside, so either make a bus trip from Florence (or whatever town you last took the train to), or leave your car outside for a few nights.

My favorite? Hands down: Volterra. OMG. I hear it is in featured in one of these Twilight movies, so it may be ruined forever. But if not... This is a beautiful, gloomy old town on top of some famous cliffs (that I tried but never got to see, so maybe they aren't real). Volterra is a very old town, first settled by the Etruscans and lived on ever since. So there's beauty steeped in history everywhere. There are active alabaster workshops leaving dust on tiny cobbled streets leading to old Roman and Etruscan walls. We stayed two nights and explored and it was incredible. The tourists leave at the end of the day, and the locals come up to watch sunsets from the bus turnaround. As the sun goes down, the townspeople come out. There are Etruscan and Roman ruins, and a Medici fortress currently in use as a maximum security prison. It's fantastic.

San Gimignano is a well known and loved hilltown, famous for its towers. The best gelato in Italy comes from here. San Gimignano is as cute as everyone thinks it is, and there are the tour buses to vouch for it.

Siena is a big city to San Gimignano's little medieval town. It's a great place but packed to the gills with tourists. The Duomo is really quite beautiful, with incredible marble floors that are only fully exposed once or twice a year (we got lucky on my second trip and happened to be there for it) Otherwise, many of them are covered, but you'll get the idea. If you're into that kind of thing, and I am, you can go see Saint Catherine's head and finger in the Basilica of San Domenico.

Sorano: This is a tiny (really, tiny) crumbing thing of a town which we visited for it's Etruscan history. The town is not much but a crumbling pile of clustered homes and shops, overrun by cats. It wouldn't be worth mentioning, except I'd never seen anything like this, buildings crammed on top of each other on a crag, crumbling into dust in front of my eyes. Across the valley you can see Etruscan tombs where they were cut out of the rock. And if you have a day and need a hike, how's a trip to the underworld sound? The Etruscans had roads cut out of the rock that led to the underworld, and they dug tombs out there. We hiked, then ran, as far as we could. It was beautiful, it was overwhelming to see the axe marks from people who lived 2500 years ago! We finally found some tombs and climbed inside. Then I found some porcupine quills. It was magical. If you're nearby, stop here for an hour or less. If you're interested in a hike through Etruscan history, stop here for a few hours. Otherwise, skip it.

Bagno Vignoni: notable for it's hot springs, this is worth a quick stop if you are in the neighborhood, but don't go out of your way. It's a unique little town in that its piazza is actually a bath. If you get here at the right time of day, you'll catch the water evaporating off of the bath in a beautiful way. A short walk outside talks about the history of the springs, with the option for a longer hike if you wish.



There is so much more, but it's too much. Those are just the highlights.

October 3-5: Venice

This was mostly written whilst on the train to Florence, and I am just getting to it now...


In the canal by our hotel in Venice. The water is clearer than we expected, and there are FISHES!

On Day 2, our first full day after arriving, we got out in the morning to see the Basilica di San Marco. As we were in line, we saw the floods starting, first as a puddle in the front of the church, which grew as we were in line, so that the narthex (entry way) of the church was solidly flooded by the time we got in. They put out planks to walk on, as this is completely normal flooding. We paid the 6 Euro to go upstairs to the museum and loggia, where we saw the 4 Horses and stood out on the loggia just in time for the 12:00 bells, first from the Torre dell'Orologio, which is hit by a mechanical man with a hammer, and then across the piazza at the Campanile, a much louder bell. On the other side of the loggia, we looked down onto the top of two columns, one covered in dead pigeons, one with none at all. Is this where pigeons go to die? Some sort of pigeon executioner's square? Paul's theory was that people throw dead pigeons onto the one column, but I have my doubts.


It's a small world after all!


Where pigeons go to die?


View from the side of the loggia, out over the Piazzetta

The Basilica itself is amazing(ly overdone) but there are countless records of that elsewhere. We paid a few Euro to go to the Treasury to see a bunch of stolen and some legitimately gotten treasure, some very impressive Byzantine chalices, and, most importantly, reliquaries. I really can't get enough of this stuff: bones, teeth, the "True Cross," and best of all, a whole hand, apparently of Saint Martha.

On the way to the Basilica, on the Ponte Dell'Accademia



After the Basilica, we had some melty cheese sandwiches and headed to see the Ghetto. On the way, we had our first gelato of the day, and stopped to see St. Lucy in Saint Geramia's church. You can see her hands and feet, but the face is covered with a mask. There are several paintings and sculptures of St. Lucy in the church, which I always find funny because she is usually depicted holding a dish with her eyes in it, yet she always has eyes in her head. I suppose no one wanted to depict her with just sockets? Odd, since the religious art frequently relishes the grotesque.

We noticed the vending machines in front of the pharmacies offer all sorts of things you might need in an emergency.

We got to the Ghetto just in time to miss the last tour of the Museo Ebraico. I had done the tour last time and Paul said he just wanted to see the Ghetto. The buildings of the Ghetto Nuovo are close together, and stacked high with low-ceilinged apartments. You get a pretty good sense of the crowding just by seeing the dwellings. The Holocaust memorial in the Campo again nearly made me cry. Just as last time I was here, uniformed police were hanging around the Campo. Coincidence? Or because people have attempted some anti-Semitic crimes here? Either way, the history of his place is heavy. And? People still live here. As we left, we passed by several Jewish shops and bakeries, and on the way out, some guy said something unintelligible to us, and when we looked confused, asked "You speak Hebrew?" Uh, no. Not even a little.

We wandered around the Rialto markets and over the famed bride of tourists and knick-knacks. Heading back into St. Mark's Sestiere, we wandered and happened upon the Scala del Bovolo, a happy surprise sine I had been wondering where "that staircase" was but had no idea what I was looking for. As famous and sunning as it is, it is just stuck in a small backyard area, overgrown and hidden in an alley where no one can be impressed by it. I had assumed it would be posing on the Grand Canal, or an important piazza.

Scala del Bovolo

We also stopped briefly at St. Moise, generally thought to be Venice's ugliest church I'd been impressed by the dubious facade before, but this time we got to duck in and be astounded by the bombastic altarpiece. OMG. I wanted to get a better look at it, but some guy rang a little bell and a priest came in, so we scurried off.

Venice is beautiful everywhere you look.

Dinner was followed by gelato #2, and then we decided to go drink beers in the Campo San Margherita with all the adorable college students. We wondered if we were supposed to care when the Polizia pulled up in their bat and disembarked to walk the crowd. No one moved, so neither did we. The college students ranged from mall-punks to pegged-jean-unfortunate-hair metalheads to your run of the mill jeans-and-sweatshirts types. Venice is marred by more graffitti than you would expect, and we were consistently charmed by the earnest scrawlings against biotech and a "global Italy." On the square, we also had gelato #3, then retired for the evening.


day 3 we got out of the apartment even later, as I was starting to feel like I was coming down with something. The goal was to go the the Palazzo Ducale, and... success! We made it. The Palazzo tour gives you a close-up look at many architectural details, a lot of painting (some important, and others just over-the-top tacky) and a good background on Venetian history and the structure of society and government. you also get to tour the prisons and the armory. The weapons exhibit is large, with my highlights being the velvet-covered shields, weapons, and helmets, the funny artwork on some old rifles, and most importantly, listening to two children ask their respective parents "what is this?" in reference to a particularly gruesome chastity belt, and listening to the parents explain to their 5-8 year-olds in detail, in German and some other language. Where I didn't understand, I could tell by the looks on the little girls' faces that the explanation had been sufficiently accurate and detailed. I guess I'm a prudish America but I might have said "I don't know" and moved on. At least until they were a little older? It was hilarious and we were tempted to linger little longer for a third and fourth family.

The Palazzo Ducale from it's interior courtyard


Bling! The Scala del'Oro in the Palazzo Ducale

We spent several hours at the Palazzo Ducale and then puttered around for a bit before deciding to get warmer clothes and then take a few water buses to see Venice from the Canal and maybe visit Giudecca. Unfortunately we came to the realization that we were having banking problems, so after watching perhaps the most spectacular sunset ever, we spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get through to Paul's bank by phone. UGH. We seem to have figured out (no help from the bank though) the problem and may actually be ale to pay for our meals and lodging. I think. Given all of that and a lot of confusion with the bus information, we canceled on our idea to visit Giudecca in favor of having dinner (there's a small window of opportunity for meals at certain hours, and if you miss it, you are SOL) After dinner we saw a few more vistas, and called it a day. No gelato!

The most spectacular sunset ever

October 1-2, 2008

10/1-2/08
Caltrain->BART->SFO->JFK->MXP->Milan train station->Venice

What would get you out of bed at 3am? For me, Wednesday, the alarm at 3, out of the shower, dressed, packed, and out the door at 4am, and the sky was beautiful and the stars were *really* clear. And we thought "wouldn't it be funny to stomp around on our neighbors' roofs and stand in front of their windows laughing loudly to the same jokes over and over?" (which is what they do at all hours when we are trying to sleep) Then we saw that the neighbors were in fact, still awake and watching TV next door with the door wide open. Damn.

Then Caltrain -> SFO -> BART -> SFO -> JFK. All pretty uneventful. I like, when I fly overseas, to take Tylenol PM or something like it and sleep through the entire flight. But always wait until the flight actually takes off, because you never know how long they might keep you on the tarmac after leaving the gate. In this case it was about 1 1/2 hours, first because there were too many planes in line, then because while we waited the weather turned bad and we had to wait for it to pass, and then? Then because during that weather, one of the computers they use to direct traffic wen out, so they were sharing a single runway for all departures and arrivals (arrivals have priority) What. Ever. Once in the air, I slept like a log. Or a corpse, as Paul described it.

Either way, I woke up somewhere over, like, France. We then passed over the Alps, which were stunning, and descended over the red rooftops of Italy.
The view of the Alps from the airplane


Arrival was easy enough, and since Paul had the good sense to figure out in advance that we needed to be at a different train station, we took a bus to Milan's central station which is over an hour away. There we encountered our first food disaster in the form of a prepackaged sandwich, disgusting beyond our wildest dreams.

Worst. Sandwich. Ever.

The train ride to Venice was terrible, being seated in a compartment with a stinky man and a woman who alternated between sitting and flipping through her cellphone's library of christian rock and pop at full volume, and getting up and climbing over everyone to get in and out every five minutes. And it took for-ever. Finally we arrived at Santa Lucia Station in Venice and jetted out to get lost without a real map of Venice. We finally did stumble on our place but no one was there, so we ended up at an outdoor cafe for an Italian classic: really atrocious pizza and cheap wine. I wasn't at all surprised by this, having already established that Italians do not know anything about good pizza. (I'm a Chicago-style girl myself) The best thing about this cafe was the number and aggressiveness of the pigeons, who are accustomed in Venice to joining you at your table if you let them. As one family was in the process of leaving, they were swarmed such that the mother had to grab one last slice of pizza from the only non-pigeonated pizza as she made her hasty retreat. The pigeons then swarmed the table, knocking off a napkin holder and sending glass to the ground to shatter. Waitstaff appeared unfazed. In addition to the aggressive pigeons, there were also some very cute house finches and especially scream-y gulls. Also, lots of dogs some on leashes, many just wandering the streets (watch where you step) And so far, two not-very-friendly window cats.

After we checked into our hotel, we spent the evening wandering around and exploring the city.



Me in the neighborhood near our hotel.


Paul by the Grand Canal.

Italy, China, camping, and stuff

Italy was fun. That much I expected. I still haven’t gotten around to typing up my detailed (and boring) travel journals, but the highlights were like this:

San Gimignano: Highly recommended. Have gelato in the square, at the non-sit-down place. Skip the Torture Museum, wander the streets. Beware of the public toilets; there are no toilets there.
Siena: Also highly recommended. The Duomo is beautiful, and St. Catherine’s head is on display in the other church. Skip the convent.
Pisa: No.
Lucca: Nice, but not as interesting as San Gimignano, Siena, or Volterra. (but less hilly, for lazy people)
Volterra: I MUST go back.
Venice: fun wandering the streets and alleys. Skip the gondola and get a day pass for the Vaporetti, and just ride around. Palazzo Ducale is very worth seeing.
Florence: Beyond Piazzale Michaelangelo, there is a church, the prettiest one I’ve ever seen, called San Miniato. MUST go to Hemingway’s chocolate in San Frediano. Also, had a very good dinner at Napo Leone in San Frediano.
Rome: Overcrowded, touristy, a little hard to penetrate the real life, but we were also very tired and sick by the time we got there.
Vatican City: Big Suck. Can rot, for all I care.

It was a little grueling at the end, and I was glad to be back home. Then, quickly, off to China. China was fun. I enjoyed it. And if you’re going to Beijing, why not stay in a top-notch hotel like I did? You can actually eat the apples without too much fear of food poisoning, and there’s drinkable water and stuff. St. Regis hotel, and a lot of meals at the Hyatt, made the whole thing much easier for me to deal with. Being a vegetarian who never even liked Chinese food to begin with, I had a surprisingly good time there (Except for the “Bird Spit Soup,” which I refused.) Some Chinese people at the Great Wall wanted me to be in their picture, just because. Heh.

Beijing is growing and modernizing everywhere. No American city can compare to the magnitude. And it’s incredibly diverse; every type of cuisine, all kinds of people in the silk market from everywhere. Yes, the vast majority are Chinese, but there are expats from all over the world in large numbers in Beijing. I saw some of the Chinese government and communism, but I also saw a lot of consumer culture and emerging classes.

The traffic is pretty thick and unruly, but not nearly as bad as Rome.

Immediately upon getting home from my return flight, I threw a few things in a bag and went to go camping with Paul and his friends. I was, uhhhh, a bit jet-lagged, and the five or so hour ride up to the site was a slog. And maybe I wasn’t very useful, brain-wise, for the next two days. I tried. Camping trip was fun, but cut short by a day, I think, and we came home Sunday.

Which, frankly, was fine with me. I wanted nothing more than to be at home (at least in the Bay Area), and Monday, Paul put the new tires on my SV, to hopefully solve at least SOME of the bullshit handling. The old tires sucked. After talking a little bit with Jason about his SV mods and info, I’m leaning toward sending the thing to Phil. After all, I intend to take this thing to its grave. And if I’m not selling it, why just suffer with it for the next 60,000 miles? Gixxer front end? Complicates things, have to FIND one first, that isn't fuckered, and then I'd have to do all sorts of crap like re-routing speedometers, converting the clip-on setup back to hold my dirtbike bars, and worrying about how much I fucked up my geometry. Sell it and get a different bike? There’s no other bike I’m thinking would be right either, and anyway, I’d end up sinking another $1000 into that too. Easier just to invest in the Aftershocks magic and keep the SV. I like the engine quite a lot anyway.

But it has to wait. I have tortures in store for that bike in a few weeks. Tires are on, but I need to sort the handlebar situation out. So Thursday I need to re-examine the ProTapers I already have, and possibly put them on and cancel the back-ordered Renthals. Then the barkbusters go on. All this will have to wait until after the Cal24 if it involves longer brakelines. I still have that Scottoiler to put on, though I don’t think there’s time before the rally. So busy…

But damn, I am glad to be home, and glad that the hectic travel should die down for a bit. Weekends are filling up, and I’m SO glad to get some time at home, to stare at my navel for five minutes at a time.

This weekend: Riding Saturday, finally, remember when this was every Saturday and Sunday?

Sunday: West Oakland Riot. (that’s why I’m getting my “riding” riding out of my system on Saturday)

June 10-12: Cal24 Endurance Rally. Oh, yeah.

June 17-19: Kansas for the weekend. Yessir.

June 25-26: Free, but a camping/exploring trip has been discussed. Either the Sheetiron area or some other small town/fireroad excursion.

July 1-5: My brother and his wife are visiting from Seattle.

July 9: Laguna Seca. Yes, Saturday. I don’t give a rat’s ass who wins what on the superbike, etc. circuit. I only want to scratch the tanks on the display bikes, huff race gas, and eat funnel cakes.

Then there are a few free weekends. I’d really like to do some more camping and dual-sporting. Suggestions for dual-sport friendly trips or camping greatly appreciated.

5/5-5/6 Days 13 & 14 Rome and Vatican City

5/6
Yesterday, we walked over to the Vatican only to find that the museum was closed, and went to Basilica di San Pietro since we were there. It was mobbed, not really all that interesting, and full of fucking tourists. (12/25 note: One exception: Pope Alexander VII's beautiful monument, by Bernini) Went to the Vatican Treasury museum since it was there. It might have been a nice exhibit, except it was also mobbed, jammed full of people. Getting out of St. Peter’s was like being in a herd of 400 cattle getting out of a bread box sized hole in a fence. Ugh. Our other goal for Vatican City was to send postcards by the faster Vatican mail (supposed to be much faster than Italian mail) The first machine wouldn’t take our money, and the other one ate it without giving stamps. I was done. FUCK the Vatican, get me the hell out of this goddam place.
(Oh, and did I mention that as we were wandering around in St. Peters, we looked up at the mass going on and realized it was being given by the newly installed Pope? I don’t know if that had to do with the mob factor, as I don’t know that it was announced anywhere.)
Next thought was to get on a tour bus that would take us down Appia Antica (the ancient road) where we could get on and off at our own leisure to see the many ancient sights and catacombs. My mom really wanted to see catacombs, and I was interested in a few of the stops. So we took a taxi to Termini to catch this bus, but the operators were totally stupid and useless, so I decided that I would get us to a goddam catacomb somehow, in spite of these useless tourist things. Took a subway to a bus (didn’t really even know where we were going, but we figured we’d go until we’d see something and figure out where to get off) to a Catacombs (St. Callixtus), the first catacomb built. It was interesting, but not great. All the remains had been removed already. After some public transit adventure we found ourselves back at our apartment. Later in the evening, we even got hot water. Have I mentioned eyetalians are stupid? I mean, the hot water heater is attached to a switch. The switch is not marked at all, and it is placed between the light switch and the fan switch, but of which you flip on and off when you enter and exit the bathroom. The guy showing the apartment said the switch didn’t do anything. Why the fuck would you DO that?!?!?!?





Friday morning: resolved: we will see that goddam Vatican Museum, whether they like it or not. Still haven’t figured why it was closed Thursday. Bus to Vatican-- omigod, the line is like a mile long, literally. Obnoxious people everywhere, but t move quickly. That’s bad. Why? Because it means that they are just letting everybody in, all at once, just pack ‘em in like cattle. And that’s how it was. This was the WORST managed museum I have ever visited in my life. The litany of complaints will have to come later, but let’s just say fucking miserable. Great art, yeah, some of it, a few pieces I even got to enjoy, but FUCK THE VATICAN. Fuck their museum, fuck their crappy basilica, fuck the cafes there, fuck their museum, fuck their post office stamp machines.
After the Vatican Museum, we were both miserable and had a half-day to kill, so we grabbed a bus to Piazza Navona for lunch (sat in a room by ourselves quietly while the crowds enjoyed the sunshine outside), and then bused up to see the National Etruscan Museum at the Villa Giulia (the one at the Vatican was closed, in one of the many disappointments there). That was interesting, but too much, as by this point, we were both too tired. Took a grueling train/underground/bus trip home, and now we’re both utterly exhausted, and happy to be going home soon.


Rome really hasn’t been that good to us, and anyway, we’re tired and miss our boyfriends. The neighborhood we’re staying in is actually quite cute and lively; twisting lanes and trattorias with bands (stand up bass, accordion , singing, sometimes a guitar) playing for money in the many small piazzas/campi. Were we not so exhausted, this may have been tolerable, but now our legs and spirits have given out, and our feet and hearts are sore for a warm batch and a warm hug from our boys. I’ll need a vacation to recover from this trip.

5/4 Day 12: Rome

5/4 Wednesday
There’s a skylight (2, actually) directly over my bed in Rome, so I woke up with the sun for a few hours of coughing fits and intermittent sleep before my mom got up and into the shower. She found out that the water heater was rather small, so I waited about an hour then tried to shower, but still no hot water. Goddam. Indoor plumbing done right is a luxury we take for granted in the US.
The idea was to get on this tour bus, where you can get on and off at 1 different stops during the day. My mother especially was not up for walking. We stopped off at the pharmacy again to get better drugs (the cough syrup the last guy sold me didn’t do shit) and I had an interesting cocktail of croissants, espresso, cough syrup, and decongestant pill for breakfast. Within an hour, I was losing consciousness on the tour bus. Stopped at the Trevi fountain to try for lunch. Unsuccessful. We still haven’t figured out the whole procedure (it’s different in every single place), or maybe they just didn’t feel like serving us. Back on the bus.
Next stop, Barberini Plaza. Lunch at an “American Bar.” The server either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, tell us what made a bar “American.” It was good food, and pricey. Watched the Piazza from our table in the window. Rome is big, dirty, bustling, full of tourists. Too many people.
After lunch, we went to the Palazzo Barberini (beautiful building) to see their collection. Interesting Italian arts, especially late Renaissance. Lippi, Carravaggio, etc. Beautiful ceiling fresco in the first room. Stopped to poke around the Pantheon and Borromini’s Sant’Ivo Church.
Over to the Capuchin Cemetery, at Santa Maria della Concezione, to see their bones in the crypt, arranged into different tableaux. Another stop, we hike over to the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, to see Bernini’s wild Ecstasy of St. Theresa (even more enchanting in person than all the art history slides could have shown). My mother had decided by this point that she was finally catching my cold, and bought some Carmelite herbal cough medicine from the monk there. We’ll see who fares better tonight.
Last stop for us was the Colosseum. I was thinking, I could see the Forum in passing, but wanted to see the Colosseum up close. But the crowds put me off, and we hiked over to the church of San Clemente. Interesting church. On the street level, a twelfth-century basilica, similar to the many others, but perhaps a little prettier. But below that is an earlier church (392 A.D.) with some remaining frescoes. One more floor down are the remains of a Mithraic temple of late 2nd century, along with the rooms of a Roman house built around 64 A.D. And bits of the churches, fragments of statues and memorabilia, even an opening to the underground river. Pretty neat stuff.
By the time we got back, the Colosseum was not really open for tickets, and we were both wore out anyway. I’ve been sick for well over a week with no improvement. Really, all I want right now is a good meal, a warm bath, and some time with Paul to convalesce. Rome just isn’t working for me. Hot water would help, though.

5/2-5/3 Days 10 & 11 Florence to Rome

(photos: around Florence: scooters as far as the eye can see, and a beautiful door knocker)
































5/3
Yesterday we were in Florence, packed up our bags to move to the last night’s Bed & Breakfast (since our first B&B had to do work on their water pipes), then headed over to the Duomo.

Basilica de Santa Maria del Fiore. The facade was typically overdone, though the baptistry across the steps was quite nice. The doors of the baptistry are panels of reliefs showing bible scenes. Inside of the Basilica is oddly empty. It’s a huge space. Huge. But not a lot of decoration or interesting art. The dome, while impressive, was not an option, given my mother’s bad knee and blisters. Besides, we’d had a spectacular view from Piazza Michaelangelo the day before, and had limited time to see Florence.






















Second stop was the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, where relics, architectural bits from the church, Etruscan finds, and a few other things were on display. An interesting museum. Highlights were Michelangelo’s unfinished sculpture of the Pieta, which he intended for his own tomb, but mutilated and left unfinished. (12/25 note: Michelangelo has actually done two or three Pietas, but I found this one to be particularly striking and emotional. The other is in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, and was done by a much younger Michelangelo around 1498. An even earlier one is in Milan) Also, the reliquaries, bits of saints’ fingers, arms, jawbones, and so on were very colorful. The actual panels from the doors to the baptistry, Ghiberti’s “Gates of Paradise” are on display here individually; beautiful reliefs showing stories from the old testament.












After lunch, we headed over to Santa Croce, another huge church, this one filled with tombs and memorials. Massive reconstruction work going on here prevented us from seeing several of the most important works. Michelangelo’s tomb is here, not not with the Pieta he’d started and intended, but a memorial by Vasari. I see art weeping, sculptures that will never be let out of their marble without the master. But maybe they were supposed to be the muses. We couldn’t get up too close since the area was roped off for restoration of a nearby memorial. But it was quite beautiful. Dante’s memorial was scary. Not a nice or good-looking guy, from the looks of it. (he’s not actually buried there) Poked around at tombs and memorials downstairs.
Dinner was at a place called Napa Leone, near our B&B in San Frediano. It was really good. I recommend! Hemingway was, sadly, closed, so no chocolate.





Thus far, I’ve not been impressed with most of the food. Also, a few other things are kind of funky: Door latches/knobs. God forbid there be a fire in the B&B. Italians have a different sort of latch mechanism for every single door in the country. Push buttons, turn knobs, push buttons ON the knobs (WHY?!??!!), pull a latch, slide a lever, and so forth...

Locks. In the US, you turn your key, generally 360 degrees or less, hear a click, and it’s locked/unlocked as necessary. Not so in Italy! Insert the key. You may or may not have to also the key in (like an ignition key, but much harder), the turn the thing several time. Maybe as many as four full circles. Nothing happens? Go back and try it the other way, and at all degrees in between. Good luck getting your key out after. Keep in mind that you need the key to lock your room from the inside, so I hope you’re ready for this drill when the place goes up in flames.









Toilet. OK, first of all, the number of toilets should be ONE. Not zero, like in San Gimignano, where there was a flushable porcelain thing in the floor to squat over. If you’re going to put the plumbing and fixtures in, WHY NOT JUST PUT IN A TOILET?!? And with the bathrooms as tiny as they are here, let’s skip the bidet. It seems there’s a toilet shortage (see San Gimignano), so how about we just share the wealth? One bathroom, one toilet. Also, again like the doors. There’s no reason to have fifteen different types of flush-activators.
Cold medicine. The pharmacies are very, VERY charming, but this shit just does not work. I am so goddam sick of being sick. I just want Nyquil.
Today we got the train to Rome. Not a long trip, really. Upon arrival, we wanted a taxi, and got offered a 30 euro taxi ride, which seemed high. When I pressed him, the guy said it was a “private taxi,” and that the official taxis were on strike. Uh? There were people getting in and out of permit-ed taxis all around us. Ri-ight. Told the guy no, we’d just take the bus, grabbed our bags back (which he was already trying to whisk away) and headed to the (official) taxi line. Whatever. the cab ride in the real taxi cost 16 euros including tip anyway. Rome is a giant big stinky city. I’m not feeling well enough to deal with it, so we ventured out to a shitty dinner, poked into a couple of churches and headed back to our apartment to rest. I’m pretty sick, feel like ass. Italian cough medicine doesn’t do shit, and I pretty much wish I was home right now. Been sick for over a week now and not getting any better. And Rome seems stressful to me. Probably should have reversed the order of our trip, to taper off into a relaxing countryside vacation. Oh well. Tomorrow, I hope to feel well enough to scurry between the sights with the rest of the multitudes, filling up on art until it all blends together and I just don’t even want to stop to see a Botticelli. Hmph.
On the other hand, our apartment is nice. I have skylights to wake me up at an ungodly hour, but other than that, it’s nice.

5/1 Day 9: Florence

(actually, 5/2, 5:30 am)
I’ve been up for an hour coughing and shit, so I’ve given up on trying to sleep. Just getting sicker, or at least, not getting any better. Right now I just wish I was at home with my trusty bottle of nyquil. Yesterday, we set out on a bit of a walking tour of Florence, and got sidetracked. It’s really warm and sunny here, which doesn’t suit us all the well.


Saw a few churches and interesting buildings on the way over to Piazza di Signoria, and even bought a few pashminas from a little street market. Remember that it’s a national holiday, and the museums are all closed. So the Piazza is pretty mobbed. Here is where the David was supposed to be, before it was moved into a museum. But there’s a copy, and several other copies of well known works, so the throngs of tourists make do with what we can. The fountain doesn’t do all that much for me, though I do like the centerpiece of it. The piazza contained between the two wings of the Uffizi is neat because it has statues commemorating great artists, architects, and thinkers of Florence. The Pont d’Vecchio was crowded but all the shops were closed. Throughout this whole area, there were vendors peddling junk: very dark-skinned African men sell knock-off purses and sunglasses. Asian men and women sell these folded palm leaves, folded to make crickets, frogs, cranes, etc. Asian women of a different nationality (I’m not going to try to guess) sell these ugly crocheted/beaded shawls. And Asian men selling these weird little Pokemon and other character things that dance to music. And these other guys sell crappy art posters laid out on the sidewalk to step over (dark-skinned, perhaps Îndian or Middle Eastern, though not clearly so) I thought it was interesting how each nationality had it’s own crap to sell. And that, besides maybe the folded palm fronds, it wasn’t in any way a representation of traditional culture.

As we sat at a café with our sub-par gelato, a police-escorted, but very convoluted parade of cars came through. Mostly VW’s, bugs and vans, with a Carmen Ghia, a trike, and a few other oddities. They seemed to be having a lot of fun, but we couldn’t figure out the significance.




























We headed toward Piazza Michelangelo, because it didn’t look that far on the map. It wasn’t, but it was uphill. On the way up, we detoured to the Japonese Garden, which, besides the Koi pond, didn’t seem all that Japonese to me, and then to the Secret Garden (so secret that there were 5 other people there!), for a stunning and tranquil view over Florence. Then up to Piazza Michelangelo, a bustling vista point, where we found the VW parade parked. I’d read that the church of San Miniato was pretty, and again, didn’t look that far away on the map, so we hiked. Up a lot of steps (my poor mom!) But, it was beautiful. The prettiest church I think I’ve ever seen. (I’ve seen a lot of churches) Sat and looked around and admired the interior for quite a while. There’s also a rather charming old cemetery and book shop there. The whole deal is run by monks still.










(pictures of San Miniato outside cemetery, interior, and floor)



























































Back in town, stopped at Santa Croce, but my mother was too tired to tour it. We had tried to have lunch at a restaurant on the piazza, but, like many other places we’ve tried to eat here, they told us the kitchen wasn’t open when we got there. We’d been looking for food for quite a while at that point, and settled for cheese plates, wine, and bruschetta. The whole food things has kind of sucked this whole time. We’ve had a lot of overpriced not very good food, and we’ve had a hard time finding even that. There is some bizarre system of opening and closing restaurants, and certain hours you can eat. Dinner places don’t open until sometimes after 8. You can’t have a meal between 3 and 7:30 or so. I guess. And all of this “you’re going to love the food in Italy” stuff?????? Dinner in Florence on night #1 was like mushy gnocchi in spaghetti-o sauce. Frozen ones from Trader Joe’s are better. I’ve made better Italian food myself, and I’m one of the worst cooks I know. Good things? Gelato, and Hemingway’s chocolate in Florence. Wine is cheap by the bottle though I didn’t try any of those bottles. We had a decent meal one evening in San Gimignano. And some decent sandwiches at bars. By decent, I mean: bread, a piece of lettuce, a slab of mozzarella, and the occasional slice of eggplant. If you want good Italian, go to San Francisco. You’ll pay less and get more, and much better. Anyway, having said all that, we finally did have a good meal tonight by returning to one of the places that was not open last night. It was pretty good. Not omigod good, but very edible. Finally, a decent Italian meal, check that off the list.