Secrets of Italy Travel Tip #1

Italian bathrooms generally suck - or at least their toilets do. When you see your first Italian hotel toilet, it looks slightly odd in shape - a very rectangular oval, but no big deal. The water level is low, probably for water conservation, so ok. Flushing is always via a push-button either on the top of the toilet or on the wall - and sometimes it takes a few tries to work. No, all of that is quite acceptable when you realize there is no liftable toilet seat. Yes folks, you have to sit on the bowl!

Now have fun taking a shower. Two hotels have had baths with a very low-placed detachable showerhead to shower, but no curtain to contain the water splashing. One bath had a little half-glass partition, but that didn't help much. Another bath had a shower curtain, as well as a detachable head that was carefully placed so I that could just barely raise it on the wall high enough to stand under it and wash my hair two-handed. Our current hotel has a shower stall, no tub, which is about two feet square. The shower head is tall enough for either of us to stand under (good thing Eric is 5'11" instead of 6'), but the water pressure (or lack thereof) doubles the time it takes to wash my hair.

Then of course there is the ubiquitous bidet. The thought of touching the working parts to operate it leaves me nauseous, so I just leave it alone.

Oh, but you're not planning on staying 24/7 in your hotel, are you? You want to explore Italy? Well, good luck with non-hotel toilets! Good luck finding a stall that locks, a toilet with a toilet seat, a toilet paper dispenser that doesn't rip off one square at a time, and/or an automatic flusher that doesn't keep flushing while you're still sitting on the pot. Every city so far has had public WC stations (Water Closet) where you pay 0.6 to 1.0 Euros for cleanliness and a good stock of TP, but every other annoyance is still a possibility. Restaurant toilets are just as bad, including those at the highway reststop restaurants. Autogrill & My Chef are life savers - but beware their bathrooms!!

Bright spot: two churches have had toilet stalls with spray sanitizer and universal symbols explaining how to rip off some TP, spray it with sanitizer, and wipe the toilet seat (yay toilet seat!) before you sit down. Hooray!!!

No Swiss Prison, just Ravenna

It's a little hard to read, but hanging from the Palazzo Vecchio (near a copy of the David) someones hung a red sign saying "human rights in tibet". The building is official City of Florence property and the sign stayed up for the last two days we were in town, so we're pretty sure it was approved by the city.

And then below is us having dinner on our last night in Florence.



Lake Como was a bit of a bust - it took longer to get there than we had imagined, but we still took the time to rush out on a boat to see Bellagio. Still, we had a great view of the Alps!



So why was Como a bust? Because despite being a bigger city than we thought, there didn't seem anything to do but ferry out to take pictures of other towns! So instead we packed up first thing the next morning, drove over to Switzerland (10 minutes away) where stayed long enough to buy a postcard, then drove back into Italy and took the scenic route over to Ravenna.

Ravenna is a blessing. Up until now, Italians have been all about rush-rush-rush. They pay you no mind unless they are looking at you with disdain or curiosity. In Ravenna there are fewer tourists, and yet we are treated nicer. Things are a bit slower paced. It feels like it's some community in the far-reaches of Seattle - a small modern town surrounding a smaller center of ancient buildings. Yes, people are still curious and/or disdainful. But they have also been interested, friendly, helpful, and flirty.

But in the end, Ravenna comes down to her mosaics. They are phenomenal. Each time we walk into a sacred place and see these mosaics, I am left breathless and astounded at the amount of time, labor, will, and devotion required to complete them. San Vitale especially lived up to all my expectations and then some - they were piping in a very quiet recording of a woman singing hymns, something no other place we've visited before or since has done. I stared and stared at the Empress Theodora, hearing that music, and I wept.

I only wish I had been able to capture a better picture.



Tomorrow we head over to Siena for one night, and then it's Rome for four nights (I think - maybe five?). Wish us luck on the Chianti Road! Eventually, I'm hoping to list all sorts of tips for travelling in Italy that they never tell you in the travel books - like how to put a Fiat Punto into reverse!!!

Ciao Florence, Buongiorno Lake Como!

This is our last morning in Florence. :( I have to admit that seven nights here was just about the perfect amount of days, but I'm still sad to go. We finally saw the (original) David on Thursday, as well as the wonderful crypts at the Medici Chapel. Still, I have to count our visit to Santa Croce as my favorite stop so far. A close second was our trip to San Miniato and Michelangelo Piazza on a hilltop with a glorious view of most of Florence. We caught some of the Vespers being performed by the monks, which was just sublime.

But it's time to move on to Lake Como. Probably the most beautiful lake in the world, if all the pictures I've seen mean anything. Then another important highlight of that leg of the trip: San Vitale at Ravenna. I can't wait!

Oh, now would probably be a good time to mention that we will probably try to pop into Switzerland for an hour or so this afternoon. The map shows the border is just a short drive from Como, so why not? But still - if you haven't heard from us in a few days, check the news to make sure Switzerland hasn't given up their neutrality and decided to burn Americans at the stake or anything...

Finally, there are a million pictures I could display here, but someone has cast doubt on our actual presence in Italy. So to prove them wrong, here are boring old pictures of us.

Firenze, Day 4

We arrived in Florence (Firenze) late Saturday afternoon, which was a bit of a nightmare. "The Big Book" we've been carrying around from Frommers told us that our hotel is in the "Medieval" city center where most cars are restricted, unless you have permission or a hotel confirmation. Having the latter, we drove around looking for our hotel. HUGE MISTAKE. Our hotel is on the Via Calzailione, a major shopping road - a cobblestone road chock-full of pedestrians. If we had arrived a few hours earlier or later, it wouldn't have been so bad. But 5 pm is the high point of afternoon strolling here, and driving through these pedestrians was quite the ordeal.

Our hotel is quite nice though, we've been doing fine with feeding ourselves, and the city is just... it pretty much leaves you speechless every time you turn a corner. Our first day here, I had to question how on earth anyone ever manages to get to work - they should be dumbstruck in the streets just like us!

Yesterday we visited... the Basilica of Santa Croce I believe it's called. It was a Franciscan church, so much of the artwork was about St. Frances. There were Byzantine altars galore, the best picture of which is below. The most important of Florence's (dead!) citizens are buried here, so we saw the decorated tombs of Michelangelo, Donatello, Galileo, Machiavelli, Dante (empty, because he was exiled from Florence and thus buried elsewhere), and many more. Yet after all of that, it was the courtyard that I found the most stunning - for its serenity.

Today we spent over four hours at the Ufizzi, communing with Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Parmigiano, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, and Rembrandt (his room was closed, but we were able to have a peak in at this self-portrait). The main Rubens collection was closed as well. :(

Now we are a bit tired and waiting for the restaurants to reopen for dinner at 7 pm. We understand restaurants closing between lunch and dinner hours, but ALL of them remaining cosed until exactly 7 pm? So strange.

Tomorrow was supposed to be the day of our pre-paid excursion to Assisi, which was cancelled due to lack of interest from anyone other than us. :( We think we will instead spend it in a leisurely exploration of the Oltrano, the other side of the Arno River, which is a bit more residential, but with the gorgeous Boboli gardens.

Thursday is the Accademia gallery, Friday the Duomo and Medici Chapels, Saturday we drive to Lake Como. If Lake Como wasn't so freaking beautiful, it would be so tempting to just stay here in Florence for another day!

Buona Serra ai Venizia!

Well, our four days here are almost up. After a terrible journey from the airport to the hotel, every day has been better than the last. It seems everyone here speaks at least a little English, so I have become lazy and stopped consulting the phrasebook. We'll see if Florence proves to be so accomodating!

I don't have the time for a real post, I just wanted to give a wave to everyone and post a pic - the first picture I took in Italy. And it is so quintessentially Venice, it's ridiculous. Ciao!



ps: all mistakes in Italian are mine and mine alone!

Language Barrier

Yes, I took one year of college Italian. That was... about 12 years ago now. At the end of my final quarter, I did manage to pass the final (an informal conversation with the Prof on a random topic with no dictionary or notes!) by the skin of my teeth. Today... well, I remember enough to kind of know how things are pronounced when I read them. But then when those words come out of my mouth, they still don't sound like what's in my head.

So because Italians don't walk around with flash cards attached to their chests, I have memorized a few key phrases:

Sono allergica peperoni.
I am allergic to peppers.

Non mangia pesce.
I don't eat fish.

Non mangia equina.
I don't eat horse meat.

Dove si trova l'internet point.
Where is the internet cafe?

Accettate la carta di credito?
Do you accept credit cards?

Parli inglese?
Do you speak English?

Non parla italiano.
I do not speak Italian.

Non sono d'accordo con President Bush - sono liberale.
I do not support President Bush - I am a liberal.

Quando e aperto il museo?
When does the museum open?

Dove il bagno?
Where is the bathroom?

Italy 2008 Itinerary

Here is a brief Itinerary of our trip.

3/31 Monday - Depart Seattle
4/01 Tuesday - Arrive Venice
4/05 Saturday - Leave Venice, Drive, Arrive Florence
4/12 Saturday - Leave Venice, Drive, Arrive Como
4/13 Sunday - Leave Como, Drive, Arrive Ravenna
4/15 Tuesday - Leave Ravenna, Drive, Arrive Siena
4/16 Wednesday - Leave Siena, Drive, Arrive Rome
4/21 Monday - Depart Rome, Arrive Amsterdam
4/22 Tuesday - Depart Amsterdam, Arrive Seattle

We should be checking our email regularly - all our hotels have some sort of on-site internet access (no small feat!).

Maiden Voyage... er, Post

I used to worship the mighty genius of Michelangelo - that man who was great in poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture - great in everything he undertook. But I do not want Michelangelo for breakfast... I like a change, occassionally.

- Mark Twain, from The Innocents Abroad

So I might as well start things from the beginning, and the above quote about sums me up quite well. I adore Mark Twain and Michelangelo, and I just couldn't have expressed the sentiment any better. I discovered Mark Twain as a preteen, and then Michelangelo my senior year of high school.

Mark Twain didn't make me keen to tour the Mississipi (although I have visited his hometown in Missouri) - but Michelangelo left me desperate to visit Italy. Especially Florence. But that was just a daydream for years, completely unreachable in my mind. So in college I chose Italian to meet my language requirement, and took a class in Renaissance Art History. All this did was fan the flames of lust, not quench them.

So here we are, 17 years later, and I'm finally going to see my dreamboat. Well, his art anyway. Eric and I are going to Italy for three weeks! I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop - I'm so paranoid that something catastrophic will happen to keep me from that plane, that when it snowed on Friday I almost giggled like a lunatic. Can you imagine, Seattle getting snowed in when I'm supposed to finally make my pilgrimage?! The feeling was exactly the same as the moment the doctor told me I had Pink Eye two days before my wedding. All of the planning, and who could foresee something like that? So snow. Three days before we leave. You either have to laugh or cry.

I will leave you with an image - probably my favorite piece of art ever.



The original full-sized image can be found here.