City of water...

Princess and I arrived into Venice at half past one in the afternoon, after a smooth and quick ride up from Florence.  The sky was clear, the temperature comfortable and adventure lurked in the mist. 

Venice, save for a single highway to the mainland, is completely surrounded by water.  I don't mean just on the outside; it is filled with small and large canals, making for about a hundred small islands, linked either by footbridges or vaporettos (water buses).  There is bus and car traffic on only a few of the islands, making feet the primary method of transportation.  You can get a taxi or gondola if you need it, but both only go by water.

 From the train station, we picked up a pair of 48-hour water bus passes and headed out towards our hotel on Lido, a long slender island with beaches, cars and bicycles.  I can't say the passes were inexpensive (28euros each) but compared to the 6.50euro price for a one-way ticket, it makes for quite the savings.

Our hotel was a scant 40 minute ride on the water bus, and along the way Princess busied herself with the camera, snapping pictures of all the beautiful churches, steeples and waterscapes.  We landed on our island weary and lost, but eventually found our hotel after a bit of walking.  Instead of rushing back out to sightsee, we opted to stay inside, taking hot baths and catching up on our books and the blog.  Since our hotel faced the beach, we decided to get up before sunrise and take it all in from the shoreline.

The alarm went off at 7:15, and after turning off the buzzer I dozed on accident.  We have been using my phone as an alarm clock, so I have to slide open and close the phone to turn off the noise.  When I fell back asleep, the phone was still open, and as my body relaxed, so did my grip on the phone.  It fell out of my hand and crashed to the floor, snapping off the front of the screen in the process.  The phone still worked, but the faceplate was no longer connected to the internal computer, meaning I couldn't make or receive calls or access anything out of the menu.

Instead of moping around after the phone, Princess and I headed out to the beach and watched the sun rise out of the ocean, beginning another day in Venice.  We took off running down the beach, heading nowhere but enjoying every moment.  Within 200 meters, I began to feel a sharp pain in my lower back that crept higher and higher with every step.  Five steps later I was bent over, both my back and chest muscles seizing against each other, inhibiting my breath and comfort.  Princess walked me home, drew me a bath and massaged away the pain.  I'm very grateful to have her around, both as a friend as well as a lover.  She is very kind and warm to all, and I've slowly discovered how much she means to me, as well as how much I enjoy having her always near.

We finally left the hotel just before noon, catching the regular bus just as we walked through the lobby.  We headed straight to St Mark's Square, which I found to be much blander than I expected.  Perhaps it was the cool weather or even the time of year, but I didn't get the awesomeness that I've heard so much about.  From there we headed out through a corner, beginning our canal adventure.  We soon discovered a vendor with hot spiced wine...delicious!  We walked along the canals, through the piazzali, over the bridges, pausing at the famous Rialto Bridge, and finally stopped for lunch next to a bridge.
We ate a sandwich of Tuscan cheese and aged meat and watched some locals decorate their house for the holidays.  The water smelled there, reeking of sulfur.  One can only wonder what gets put into the waterways, as I saw no sign of fish whenever I peered into the water.

After lunch we continued through the catacombs, coming out at a vaporetto stop.  We hopped on for an excruciating 60 seconds and got off on new island.  One thing you have to understand about Venice: not every island is linked to the next by a bridge, and not every street leads to another.  Therefore, it is quite easy to get lost as well as tired if you don't know exactly where to turn at the fork.  Our main goal for this afternoon was to just see stuff from the outside, versus checking out all the intricacies of churches, buildings and plazas.  My stiff back and Princess' sympathy pains were too much for all that.  Besides, Mom said we needed to go slower.

After wandering across another isle and getting lost in the crisscross of streets and bridges, we arrived at the outskirts of the center area of Venice.  Across the way lay Murano, the famed island for Venetian glass blowing.  We hopped out there for a look, but the factories were already closed for the day.  We peeked into one of the stores and were instantly amazed.  For one, the art and level of craftsmanship is amazing: 24k gold, platinum, red, blue, green, animals, cups, plates, vases...it is all there.  You want it, they can make it.  However, such availability and craftsmanship is not cheap; we found a not-so-expensive plate that we liked, but it would have cost over 200euros, including shipping to California.  True, we don't necessarily have to ship it, but do you really want to carry around something expensive AND fragile if you're not going to use it for at least 3 months?  We'll stick to the Tuscan truffle oil...

From Murano we headed back to one of the main islands, getting off near the old fort and trying to walk into it.  We found one of the walls, but it was surrounded by a moat (go figure).  Then we got lost over and over, but finally figured out to follow the masses.  We arrived back at St Mark's Square and hurried back to Lido, passing the gondolas on the way.  On our way into St Mark earlier in the day, Princess had inquired what the price of a ride was.

I had heard they were not inexpensive, usually ranging from 80-100euro for a 40 minute trip.  The price she received was very similar and so we continued on our way.  Not 3 steps later, we were asked where we were from. (California!)  They then gave us the California discount, offering 70euro.  Wow...not bad!  It was still too high and we left.  Ten steps later we were stopped by another operator, this time offering us 60euros for a ride.  Incredible!  Still too high, though.  Just before the bridge we were stopped again, with the price bottoming out at 50 euro for a guy that just wanted to go home.  I then realized that I could almost name my price, and had they accepted credit cards, I would have taken a ride.  They didn't, so I couldn't and we missed a trip.  So...if you ever don't need something but someone wants to sell it to you, remember to not be afraid to walk away; it's always in your benefit!

Since my lovely phone had kicked the bucket that morning, we stopped off at a Vodafone shop on the walk home.  I purchased a new quad band phone for myself, for use in Europe and the USA, and Princess picked up a dual band phone for communication while in Greece.  We ate dinner that night in the hotel, and the next morning packed up to head out.  After checking out of the room, we left the bags in storage and borrowed a pair of bicycles for a leisurely ride around the island.
The temperatures were quite brisk at 7 Celsius, but the hour-long ride made it bearable.  We finished Venice with a vaporetto ride around the city and boarded our train for Turin.

I would like to come back to Venice when it's warmer, though that probably means it'll be packed, too.  Oh well...

Chaos

Many of you know that we have been using (or attempting to use) Couchsurfing as a means to keep our costs low while traveling.  I have been mingling with internationals since 2007, and this year is Janet's first trip staying with friends before they are friends.  We have been planning to couchsurf as much as possible, but it isn't always possible because you are dealing directly with people, their schedules and lifestyles, compared to hostels and hotels with many rooms available.  Sometimes you can't find a person that fits your ideal, or perhaps there are not many hosts in the area where you are going, and perhaps there are no hosts available.  However, the great benefit of Couchsurfing is also its downfall: you don't have anything until you have something.  For us, this has been very positive; and very negative at the same time.

From Nice we wanted to go to Milan and from there to Verona to see Romeo & Juliet and then off to Venice and Florence.  After much research and many couch requests, we received zero positive responses from Milan; there were only a handful of quality couchsurfers in Verona and no one in Venice that matched our needs.  From there we began to look at hostels and hotels, and they were very expensive in all cities, especially in Venice on a weekend.  All three days in Nice I was worried sick about what to do in the future; I am the kind of traveler that enjoys having set plans as far as transportation and housing, so leaving things to the last minute made me very nervous.  Initially, we changed cities, canceling Verona, moving Venice back to midweek and instead of Milan we were hoping for Turin, and for three days instead of two.  What happened?  Absolutely nothing.  We received zero responses, negative or positive, and couldn't find a hostel with availability all three days in Turin.  Merd!   So how did we fix the problem?

We went to Florence!

Firenze...fast and hot

Florence is a wonderful town, usually busy and very compact.  We trained in over eight hours, first taking the bus from Nice to Monaco.  From there we caught a train to Ventimiglia, just over the border in Italy and bought our reservations all the way to Firenze.  We are using a Eurail Italy Saver pass while in the boot, so we only have to pay for seat reservations instead of tickets; some trains don't require reservations, and so we don't have to pay anything.  It really is quite a saver...we figured it would cost us about $1000 for the both of us, over six travel days without passes.  However, we were able to purchase two passes for $406, which included a 20% off special for just Italy.  Pretty cool, huh?

From Ventimiglia we went to Genoa, and then on to La Spezia and Florence.  Because we planned for Florence the night before (at 23:30) we were not able to couchsurf but had reserved a residence just outside the city.  The advent of a residence versus a hotel is that the residence has a fully-stocked kitchen with pots, pans, cups, silverware, etc, so you can cook your own meals to save money, instead of venturing out to the busy and potentially expensive restaurants.  With that, we spent 26 euros at the supermarket for two dinners, lunches and breakfasts for two people.  I can't even begin to guess what that would have been out in the wild...

We happened upon a 'local's favorite' pizza place our first night (we were looking for the grocery), and then climbed into our big bed for a nice long nap.  We awoke the next morning at 10:30 (we're on vacation, right?) and began our day.  I went shopping, Princess made some ColaCao and before we knew it, we were off into Firenze.  We got off the bus at the end of the line and headed to the Piazza Repubblica.  The piazza is huge...most in Italy are very large...and it was busy with people.  We had accidentally happened upon a long weekend holiday, so even on Monday during the day the square was packed.  From there we went directly to the Duomo, the dome of the Santa Maria Nuova church.  The facade is amazingly ornate and the church bigger than my eyes could take in.  We didn't go in though...aren't most old churches all the same?

We did a half loop around the Duomo then took off down the street towards San Lorenzo.  San Lorenzo is the mausoleum and old living quarters of the Medici family, so we thought it would be interesting.  Upon arriving at the Piazza SS Annunziata, we encountered a very inviting scene.  A huge wine tasting!  There were over eighty wineries from all over Europe, showing off their Slow Food skills.  How could we not join in?  We paid ten euros for one glass to share, and then began our day with whites.  We went straight to the Mosel area, sipping some very nice Rieslings.  One of the Riesling tastings included eating chocolate first and then sipping the wine.  Amazing!  The first one started with Venezuelan dark chocolate, and the second with a Saffron and Curry White Chocolate...OMG (yes, Hollywood said OMG)...our mouths exploded with that one, first with the chocolate and then with the amazing flavors of the wine pairing.  We bought a bar for future testing...  We moved onto reds and olive oils from there, tasting through nearly 30 wineries over the whole day.  We bought a bottle of five-year old Vin Santo, and later had to purchase some soft aging cheese (because it was delicious and it was "born" on Hollywood’s birthday!) and rich smoked meats.  Unfortunately, my palate was shot after all the reds, so in the evening we tasted through a dozen other Vini Santi for comparison.

It’s safe to say (and to assume) that we missed the San Lorenzo.  We took off from the plaza, and bee-lined it for the Galleria degli Uffizi, a giant museum at the edge of the Arno river, for a 16:15 reservation we'd made earlier in the day.  The reservation was not free, though it was quite inexpensive compared to the other option: waiting between 1-2 HOURS to get into a museum that took 2 hours to see and closed in 2 hours...any questions?  Before going into the museum, we stood proud in front of the statue of Michelangelo's David, gazed up at Perseus clutching Medusa's severed head and witnessed Hercules conquering a Centaur.  The many statues in the area are quite impressive, especially given their individual history or the history they refer to...a must see!

The Uffizi held quite a bit of art, much of it relating to artistical interpretation of the time of Christ.  We have nothing against art of that kind, but it tends to fill most of the European museums, so day after day, museum after museum, of seeing the same thing can make it get very old very quickly.  Besides the Christian art, there was much art referring to the gods of our history, both Roman and Latin - Princess' favorite was the Birth of Venus painting, as well as busts of emperors and leaders of ancient Rome.

From inside the Uffizi we had a picture perfect view of the Ponte Vecchio - the old bridge that used to be the gold storage of the ruling families and is now completely filled with jewelry stores...coincidence?  After the museum we walked by all the stores and then slowly made our way back home for pasta, sautéed pork with peppers and a nice salad made by Princess herself.

Before starting dinner, Princess ran off to do a load of wash at a nearby laundromat.  Instead of paying an extra 4 euros to have our laundry dried immediately, we opted to let it all hang out.  For this we borrowed an iron and ironed every piece of clothing that wasn't a shirt or sweater and then hung it up.  Socks, underwear, jeans...you name it, we ironed it.  Whatever wasn't dry in the morning was ironed again in the evening.  Now this is what I call living!

The next morning we arose early for a tour of San Gimignano, Siena and Montalcino.  We were picked up at our hotel and then boarded a very full tour bus at the main square.  The tour was comprised of four Americans and two Timor(ians?)...yep, all of them squished into an 8 passenger Mercedes van...horrible!  During our tour, our guide Alejandro, originally from Chile but a resident of Italy for the past 14 years, educated us about the local area, landscape as well as Italian life.  Our favorite topic of his regarded Italian marriages...if you're not fighting at least once per day, it's because one of you is sleeping around.  Hilarious...but is it true?

We stopped first in San Gimignano, a wonderful old village referred to as the "Manhattan" of the Middle Ages.  It's where every rich family in Italy went to pronounce their wealth and power, principally by killing off any potential local challengers, and then building a taller tower than any standing (or by destroying any taller tower in the city). At one time some 72 towers stood tall in this "Manhattan" of Italy, but only perhaps a dozen remain. We walked through the village, taking lots of pictures (petting the puppies and kitties) and then basked in the immense views of the countryside.  The village was decked out in Christmas ware, including the pigs...

From there we went to Tenuta Torciano, where we tasted Chianti - regular, classico and riserva as well as olive oil and truffle oil.  Princess immediately fell in love with the truffle oil, much to my dismay, and demanded that a bottle be taken along to Crete.  I vehemently said no, and so we left the winery with a new bottle of truffle oil.  (Yea! Yummy! ;])

Our next few hours included lots of picturesque landscapes and an absolutely gorgeous sunset, as well as a tour of an abbey where monks still chant daily.  The Abbita di Sant'Antimo is very beautiful, and almost devoid of traditional religious art.  It was very nice to see something so simple, with just nice architecture and stonework, versus seemingly overzealous shrines and statues made of gold, with storytelling stained glass windows and the traditional run-of-the-mill church decoration.  Outside a brother walked with his parents around the grounds, and we took in the green grass and olive trees.

The last stop of the day was at another winery near Montalcino, where we toured the facilities and tasted more wines.  The Manager of the winery, Nonno Mario, who only spoke Italian, and loved the ladies, made a point of having Hollywood model in front of the casks and cased wines.  And yes, Hollywood lived up to his name, entertaining all present.  This time around we tasted through i rossi Montalcini, starting from a very simple IDG red, which means there are no ultra-specific laws regarding production, to a rosso Montalcino and finally to a pair of Brunello di Montalcino.  Brunellos are very sumptuous and tasty, mainly because they are required to be barrel-aged for at least four years and then aged a further six months in the bottle.  They are usually quite expensive in the US, but the cost of shipping from Italy doesn't make up for the difference in price.

We ended our tour back at the train station, a whole nine hours after leaving.  We very much enjoyed that tour, and recommend a similar one to anyone visiting the area.  We purchased our train reservations to Venice on the way through, and then ran home for a quick dinner and a restful sleep.  Ciao!

So nice in Nice! ;]

A cool, wet Avignon bid us farewell when Daniel dropped us at the TGV station on Thursday morning.  Our journey to Nice was pleasantly uneventful; I had time to read a book that Dr. Brown was kind enough to give me, and Hollywood put into words the last few days of our adventure.  Upon arriving in Nice, we wandered in the rain for a bit - looking for the tram which would take us toward our hostel.  Mission accomplished, we then shivered while waiting for the hostel shuttle to pick us up.  I'm glad we did, for it was quite an uphill trek!  After settling in, we were ferried down to the Casino Supermarche to pick up the makings for dinner.  Pasta was the ticket, with curry sauce and a mixed green salad.  We enjoyed a nice inexpensive bottle of local red, and vanilla yogurt for dessert.  We turned in soon thereafter to rest up for a day of exploration...

Sunshine greeted us for our trip along the coast to Cannes, with a stop in Antibes.  The French Riviera is quite beautiful, with each seaside town full of charm and vistas to help relax the soul: the sun was soft upon our faces, the waves lapped at our feet.  Antibes was quite similar to other seaside towns we've seen, with a castle on a hill, a harbor full of boats, and narrow winding cobblestone streets in the old town.  We wandered in search of the Picasso Museum, along the waterfront and past quaint shops.  Mother Nature did her best to entertain us, throwing out a few lightening bolts in the offshore storm.  Upon locating the museum, we realized it was lunch time and we would have to return later in the day when it re-opened.  So we scurried back to the train station and continued on to explore Cannes.

Just 10 minutes further along the coast we disembarked in Cannes, full of excitment to see the stars!  Unfortunately they were not out...as the Cannes Film Festival does not occur during the beginning of December...when is it??? Well - we won't be there!  We made our way to the sea, and sat on the shore to enjoy the view and a picnic lunch.  Fishermen were trying their luck, but I think the shags were more successful.  Once sated, we headed for the hilltop castle, oooh'ing and ahhh'ing at the yachts in the harbor along the way.  The museum housed in the castle was closed, as many things have been, for remodeling or the winter season.  So we made our way back to the train for Antibes to view some of Picasso's later works of art.

We arrived just shy of sunset and were able to enjoy it on the terrace of the museum.  Sculpture by sunset is lovely...  Hollywood is a big fan of Pablo Picasso, and I found a new favorite myself, Georges Mathieu.  Bright and bold colors, striking brush strokes and textures of thick paint.  I fancy I could do that too....ya right!  The museum sat atop a hill, inside Chateau Grimaldi, overlooking the harbor, and from our elevated vantage point we could see Nice, the airport, and all the way up the seashore to Eze.  Beautiful twinkling lights, reflecting off the Mediterrean for as far as the eye could see.  We were perusing the gift shop when it came time to leave, and were silently encouraged out.  We thought of stopping for a Guinness while admiring the Christmas lights decking the streets, but decided to return home for more pasta and vino.

Sunrise was ignored...and slight technical deficulties ensued!  After our complimentary breakfast at the hostel, we hopped on the tram and barely missed the main bus to Eze.  So we boarded the bus to Monaco, which has a stop in Eze, Bord de Mer (on the sea).  Well, since we were a bit off kilter, we missed that stop but got off at the next and walked back.  Eze is a hilltop town high above the water, and we discovered that the hike up the hill could take up to an hour and a half...so we took the bus.  No Half Dome's this trip!  Atop the hill was a castle...imagine that!  The highlight was the Jardin Exotique that crowned its peak and the views it afforded.  Exotic? I suppose cacti are exotic to some, and adorned with beautiful sculptures of women, elegant by vurtue of their simple designs.  We consumed a picnic lunch of pate, chorizo, bread, hummous and nutella.  Eze has a history of greenhouse floral production and is home to Fragonard, a well known perfumery.  Fortunately we yearned for Monaco more than the expensive smell-good stuff, so off we went! 

Soon we stood gape mouthed and wide eyed at the over-the-top wonderfulness of Casino Monte~Carlo, Hotel Paris, and the Theatre.  The front gardens were super festive with multitudes of christmas trees and colorful cyclamen.  The 'parking lot' was a who's who of elegant rides and speedy sportsters.  BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Maserati, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Lotus, Ferrari, Bentley, and believe it or not - Ford!

 Not your run of the mill of course, we're talking Shelby GT 500 and a classic Boss.  Ok - enough of that!  Once again we found ourselves drawn to the seafront, strolling through a rooftop garden (we encountered Adam and Eve), overlooking fishermen and the harbor.  Ohhhhh....the yachts!  Along the harbor we wandered through the festive stalls and enjoyed a crepe and a cup of tea.  This time we were in search of the hilltop Palace (since we were getting tired of castles).  So up we climbed to discover a beatuiful courtyard, with a guard posted at the entry.  We observed the low-key changing of the guard, and another beautiful sunset. 

With grumbling bellies we headed home, but were thwarted by the local soccer match being played in the stadium at the bottom of our hill.  We took the long (and unknown) route home, where we enjoyed one more delicious meal of pasta, bolognese this time, with broccoli and a split of red.  Off to bed after packing, since daylight would take us on our next adventure.