ATMs, the Pope and el Pared del Amor

After returning from traversing a continent that I have been on for barely more than two months, there is quite a bit to cover. Granted, there is no possible way to tell every detail, both chronological and mental, of this 10-day excursion that covered Italy and France. Thus, the following piece of writing will be a strange mix of shorthand, a list or two and the occasional thoughtful outburst.

So. Let's begin.

First off, Easy Jet is a terrible airline to fly on. Their baggage restrictions are horrendous and resulted in us having to pay extra to check a bag or two. Stupidity at its finest. Once we got on our 6:45 a.m. flight (we got up at 2 a.m. to catch it), we flew into Venice and took the bus to the place we were crashing in: Hotel Centrale. From there, it was a 15-minute bus ride to the actual island/city of Venice. Our experience was nothing short of enriching, complete with bus drivers who jacked up prices and Middle Eastern men trying to sell you brightly coloured squishy toys for a euro. Cynicism aside, Venice was a great city. Although gondola rides cost the equivalent of $70 per person, it was still worth it to wander along the narrow cobblestone streets following the salty scent of the Adriatic Sea's waters to the open spaces along the Grand Canal. The Piazza del San Marco was a sight to see, especially covered in hungry pigeons, as was the Guggenheim Collection that featured modern art galore. Hardly any nightlife, but a good day of walking, shopping in the markets and a full Italian dinner with gelato on the Grand Canal more than made up for that.

A few quick facts I learned about Italy:
- Italians love their underwear. Ads and shops are everywhere; it is literally every other store.
- Speaking loudly is acceptable in this city. Guess we're just used to the French and the English.
- All stop signs say "Stop" in English, no matter what country you're in
- The Pope has a PopeMobile. Literally.

After that, it was off to the city of Florence, home to the Arno River, Michaelangelo's statue of David and many, many other large naked men carved out of rock. This had to be my favourite city out of the four I stayed in. It had the sights to see with Piazzale Michaelangelo and Ponte Vecchio (Michaelangelo Square and the Old Bridge), the marketplaces and old streets, as well as a ton of good food and tourist attractions. Since we were there from Sunday to Tuesday, I figured it might be nice to get up early and go run on Monday morning. So I got a chance to do a great 5.5 mile run along the river across 5 bridges and saw a lot of the city I wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise. There were a lot of cathedrals (here known as basilicas) and museums, but we stuck to the cathedrals and outdoor statues for the most part. Forte Belvedere, which was on top of a large hill, had the Boboli Gardens behind it. And even though most things, including the Gardens, were closed on Monday, it was still sunny and warm enough at 70 degrees to let us walk around the city at will. This was also part of the reason that Florence was so great; we roamed around for an entire day and saw so much, from the "safari" trees, as Mary called them, to the sun setting over the fiery stones of the Duomo in the center of Florence itself. It was awesome...aside from losing part of Monday morning to my debit card getting eaten by an ATM because I had forgotten my PIN and apparently it didn't want to give back my card. As a result, I spent two hours inside of a bank waiting for some snobby middle-aged Italian accountant to take me to someone who would get it for me. Eventually I got it back, but I was unable to withdraw money from an ATM for the next two weeks. Oh well. Whatevs.

Next on the list was Rome! We booked 3 days in the city and it was definitely needed. From the crowded St. Peter's Basilica filled with crazed Catholics seeking a glimpse of P Benny himself to the Colosseum to the Pantheon, we were always walking somewhere. The weather was quite cooperative for the first day and the sun smiled upon us and kept the wind at bay. Our hostel was a bit small, but the people who ran it were more than accommodating and suggested places for us to eat, go out and have something to eat in between meals. The people who ran the place were a hodgepodge of nationalities: French, Italian and Australian. Before going out for the night, we all sat down and discussed the finer points of learning languages over a bottle of wine...and then we watched The Simpsons in English. Great way to end the evening.

My only caveat about Rome is that it was far too commercial. The Vatican had gift shops every 500 feet, not to mention the Umbrella Men who watched you with such vicious scrunity to see the slightest shiver. You had to man up for a walk in the rain because if you so much as twitched in their presence, their sales radar bleeped causing them to sprint over to you and shove a cheap umbrella in your face. I totally wanted to pull a Jesus and start flipping over tables and screaming to get out of my Father's house, but international law and some shiny objects deterred me. Highlights of Rome included: the Colosseum, Monumento del Vittorio Emmanuel III, the Trevi Fountain, The Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, the Gallery of Maps and the Pantheon. There was also some really wigged-out guy about my age who started singing and pointing at the Pantheon, then turned and walked four times around the fountain in front of it, still singing, then stopped and started pointing at the Pantheon again. He reminded me a lot of Bobby Smith. Oh yeah, and some girl totally checked me out in the marketplace. It was weird.

Although it rained for the next few days and it was a bit taxing, we managed to leave for our separate flights on Thursday night after making a fruit run in the marketplace. I snatched up some quality nuts and dried apricots for the flight and we made our way to the airport. At this point, I should probably mention that Mary and Luke's flights left Thursday night and mine left Friday morning. Since I am too cheap to pay for another night in a hostel, I chose to spend 15 hours, most of which were overnight, in the airport. My bed ended up being a fairly hard marble window sill. I slept pretty well until 3 a.m. when a security officer came up to me and asked me in Italian if the suspicious looking black duffel bag next to me was mine. I muttered a sleepy "Si" and he walked on; an hour later, I moved to a vacated bench with cushions and cuddled with my luggage.

Friday morning brought cloudy skies and a slight drizzle at Rome Fiumicino Airport, as well as a half-hour delay on the flight to Paris. However, when we touched down, there was nothing I wanted more than to set my bags down and begin exploring Paris. Josh's careful directions got me to the Luxembourg metro stop and it was there that Norah, Laura, Josh, Megan, Alli and I exchanged greetings and made our way over to the hotel for a brief rest before embarking upon the day's adventures. Josh has to be the best tour guide ever. He's fluent in French, so he talked to everyone for us, he knew an incredible amount of the city's history and what he didn't know, he wrote out on notecards to tell us! He also planned out every day so that we could see the best parts of Paris in the time we had there...and fed us insane amounts of food that left our stomachs feeling like a reawakening Mount Vesuvius. We started at the Eiffel Tower and moved on to Notre Dame, then ate dinner at the Hippopotamus before getting closer to Notre Dame and passing under le Arc de Triomphe to walk down Champs Elysses, all in the first day we were there!

Saturday, we got up and immediately popped over to the Louvre. Mixed feelings about the Louvre, actually. While it owns more than 380,000 works of art, including the Mona Lisa, and has great chocolate chip muffins, the staff are pretty stuck-up. Laura went to get a spoon and sugar for her already-paid-for coffee and the woman behind the counter yelled at her, telling her that she should have asked first. Wow. Way to make a good impression. After three hours, we had conquered the Louvre and were promptly rewarded with a visit from Callie!! Place de la Concorde, an artist's corner atop a hill next to the Basilique and the Basilique de Sacre Coeur itself were next for us. The view from the forecourt was incredible. Along the way to dinner, Josh took us to the Abbesses metro stop, which had a feature that made me smile. Next to the stop, there was a small park. Within the gates of the park, there was a large, blue-tiled wall with white writing all over it. The wall, which I call El Pared del Amor (The Wall of Love), has "I love you" written in every language from around the world. Small gestures like these are the ones that make you stop and smile and realize that there really is love in this world, true love, if you only put a little time into sharing it. And yes, I got a picture of it...and Norah and I also got a picture with it. :o)

Aaaand then it was dinnertime. Refuge de Fondus, the fondue restaurant we ate at, was tiny, crowded and probably one of the most fun places I've eaten at in a while. We were served wine inside of baby bottles with a huge pot of cheese fondue with bread to dip it in...and meat. The meat was supposed to be cooked in a pot of oil, but they didn't give us the oil for a while, so we thought we were supposed to just eat it raw in the fondue. We later found out this wasn't the case. Haha, we are dumb. From there it was off to the Moulin Rouge; an hour later, we were tired and on our way back to the hotel.

Sunday was a slightly less hectic day with not much planned. Part of the reason it was like this was because of the pouring rain. I didn't have an umbrella and Norah didn't feel like sharing hers. She likes me, I can tell. We ate brunch together before Alli and Megan left to go back to Florence and then sauntered over to Musee de Orsay, the impressionist museum, to see some Monet and Manet and Van Gogh, among others. Norah and Laura left shortly after that and I got back to London around 10:30 p.m.

All in all, it was a fantastic spring break and will probably be really hard to top, if not impossible! The single most prominent impression I was left with from this trip was the notion that, in every city we were in, I came in with certain expectations of the city, people, shops, etc. and left with completely different ones. It wasn't a matter of good expectations or bad expectations. It was seeing pictures of a postcard or in a travel guide of Venician canals or the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower and then actually living it. It takes just a moment to quiet all the noise within you and steal a piece of the city for your soul so that you can own that moment forever. I suppose that's what happened with me wherever I went.

After this, I don't know what else can be written about, but the next update will most likely be something really random that you'll skip over. Oh yeah, and if you're reading this, just leave a quick comment or something. It's cool to see who's reading this out there. Just thought I'd ask and be vain. Cheers! :o)

p.s: I have links for pictures below!

Spring Break: Italy
Spring Break: Italy (cont.)
Spring Break: Paris
Spring Break: Paris (cont.)