Venice
Venice was our first stop in Italy and we had a tame few days here. We visited S. Marco's square, listened to music at the cafe's each night, and visited Murino one day to see them blow glass. Venice is a great city to walk through and we saw markets, shops, and even took a short gondola ride to the Guggenheim museum here. It was really hot though and we were happy to only be spending two full days in Venice. We left to Florence in the afternoon.
Sunset over the city
I left Malta and headed back to Milan. After a day or two I left for Florence with a big crew of friends, all of whom graduated with me. Florence was great but it is one of those cities that you can't spend too much time in unless you really know your art and history. I visited a cool palace with Mark (one of my friends from Ivey) and had a great lunch. There are lots of these little sandwich shops around with cured meats, cheeses, tomatoes, and bread. You get to pick whatever you want in your sandwich and the shop owner slices your meat and cheese and then builds your sandwich right there. I think this sort of concept would work really well back home.
The lunch spot
The picture below is of the Duomo in Florence. The Duomo here was huge and really beautiful. We went inside as well as climbed the adjacent tower which has 414 stairs from the bottom to the top.
Florence Duomo
Florence - The Palio in Siena
On our last day in Florence we were looking for something else to do. At first we wanted to do a wine tour but because of logistical issues that was out...Another option was the Palio. I didn't know anything about the Palio before this but we went to find some more information about it. As it turns out, the Palio is one of the biggest events in Italy. There are many regions around Siena and each has its own history, coat of arms, flags, and rivalries. Twice a year there is a race in the center of Sienna where 7 of the clans race bear-back on horses to complete three laps of the course with no rules. There are 50,000 standing in the middle of the circular course and another 30,000 lining the buildings and balconies surrounding the massive square.
We decided to head out to the event and see what it was for ourselves. The hostel sent a bus and we all booked a spot for the trip. We were given Orange shirts, along with everyone else from the hostel, to help us identify each other (although it would also prove a liability later on). Once inside the city we walked straight into a parade. Each clan marches its horse around the city and sings chants. We saw one clan (Lupa) with Orange in its colors and jumped on their bandwagon. We bought bandanna's and a big flag to associate ourselves with Lupa. The city was loud and everyone seemed to be jovial until we noticed that many of the marching clans gave us extremely long stares. We would later learn that Lupa is the clan with no ally's and only enemies...For now at least we decided to keep our Lupa apparel on but the looks were making us all a little bit more nervous.
We had to wait several hours before the actual event but once it started the crowd was insane. Our clan was left out of this race and we had to support the only other orange clan (the Unicorn clan). Once the race started we noticed our new rider was in second place. This didn't last long as he slammed into the railing on the first lap and flew off his horse. One the second lap that same horse (our riders horse who has kept running after losing its rider) clipped the fence on the same corner and stumbled into a heap. Unfortunately it brought down another rider and his horse at the same time. One of these horses would end up dying as a result. We were so caught up in the spectacle of all this that we didn't even really notice who won the race (I believe it was the Caterpillar clan).
After the race we pushed through the crowd and tried to find a way out. We took the first footpath and had a general idea of our direction. It wasn't for a few minutes though that we noticed a consistent path of blood on the road that we selected. We ended up in the Unicorn section of the city (entirely by accident) and were yelled at by extremely emotional Italian men to get out. When we finally got out and regrouped we decided to lay low for a while. I can only assume that the blood we saw was from their rider and that we stumbled upon an extremely emotional group of Sienese citizens. Our affiliation with the Lupa clan certainly did not help us in the situation with the Unicorn clan.
Palio Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC1fiv07Fr0
Our next stop was Rome...
When in Roma...
Although we went out the first night, I got up early to attend the morning mass at the Vatican with Mark Vasey and one of the other girls who is actually Roman Catholic. This was a very cool experience and although I didn't understand the Italian service, I am glad I experienced it. For the rest of the day I slept and recovered from the night before.
Spanish Steps at Night
Pantheon
On our second full day everyone wanted to go to the Vatican Museum. I elected to sit that one out since I had already seen it and I looked up one of the best coffee shops and gelateria's in Rome. I spent the day walking around, visiting the markets for lunch, and actually ended up seeing each of the obelisks in Rome (entirely by chance).
My Gelato Spot
From Venice to Rome was great but the part of my Italian trip that I was really looking forward to was Positano and Amalfi coast.
Positano
We trained from Rome to Napoli and then took a taxi through the somewhat derelict city to the port where we left for Positano. I can't even start to describe how amazing the Amalfi coast is. The best I can compare it to is a Cinque Terre with much more dramatic and stunning cliffs. We stayed at the top of the hill overlooking the bay. I went for a run up the side of one of the mountains one morning and when I ran out of trail I turned back to run along the curvy cliff side road. The rest of our first two days lying on the beach and kayaking along the massive cliffs and caves that make up the shoreline. One our last full day we took a day trip to Capri.
Capri is where the Caprasi salad was invented and is very similar to Positano but is an island and has even taller cliffs. We took a chartered tour of the caves, grotto's, and towering cliffs. The driver stopped in a bay and we swam in front of an amazing backdrop. The water was clear enough to see 50 or 60 feet down quite clearly. We snorkled around the cliffs for a while and then headed back to Capri. The town proper is located on the top of the island and we took a sort of gondola on rails to it. Capri is really expensive but we still enjoyed the views and shops in the town.
Capri Coastline
We left Positano after 3 nights and aimed to get to Anaconna to catch our ferry to Croatia. This travel day would turn out to be one of the most intense so far but I will save it for the next post.
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