Sixth AND Seventh Day, DEC 21, 22 - Oh the places you'll go!

I am the luckiest man on the Earth.

That's what I said to myself as I roamed the streets of Venice, Italy, wondering how the world could be any grander, any more exciting, any more beautiful and surprising.

There are moments and then there are moments and as I wandered through the streets of that sinking city, I felt the kind of pleasure that only a true "aficionado" can experience, that is, someone whose enthusiasm for what he does is only matched by his outlandish behavior and his sublime love for adventure.

When I arrived in Venice, I did my best possible job to get lost from the very beginning. After all, it's a giant island, so who wouldn't want to get lost? Anyway, there were about a million different streets, all convoluted and misshapen in their own very unique ways. Many a time I turned a corner only to be encountered with a lonely dead end where the concrete met the water, descending in a pair of moss-hewn steps. The best thing though was that because I was on my own and not following the tourist herd, I would often find myself in parts of town where I was literally the only soul in sight.





I rejoined the main street and, hungry for the first time today, haggled with a street vendor for an apple. I also stopped by a small cafe that was selling the exciting deal of a "croissant and a coffee (expresso)" for two Euros. The two bartenders looked like they had been cast for the role in some movie, joking with the locals and showing off strange accents. One of them was singing "American Woman" when I came in.





I noticed too that there was a "revolutionary" feel to the air - Occupy Venice, anybody?




I finished up my time in Venice and took the later train - around 7 o'clock - to Florence, where I figured I would spend the night before travelling to Cinque Terre.

I knew that I had a lot of time to kill once I arrived there, since I didn't have anywhere to sleep and it was only 9 o'clock, so I decided I would go out and explore the city.

I'm glad I did, because Florence is simply an astounding city.

If the beauty of Italy's Cathedrals are in their ability to astound with their height and magnificence, that same beauty is shared by every street in Florence. Renaisance Architecture at its finest, where every building rises high into the sky and both arches and palaces encase you as you wander around.




Whole plazas are set aside as "walking-only" so that people can gather in the shade of their most beautiful works, such as the looming church in the picture above or the museum below.



I thought it was amazing how the statues that might be the most significant piece in some art exhibits were simply left outside, as if to flaunt the fact that the true scope of Florence's cultural treasures is so vast that they can afford to put such treasures out as a teaser for what is to come.

I went inside the museum, paying the 4,50 Euro entrance fee for students, and was met with a palatial room that chronicled the successes of the royal Medici family, Florence's most influential banker-family.

While there were many pieces of art and I took many pictures, it would take too long to chronicle that whole story here, so here are my highlights:





After that, I wandered around the city and I contemplated where I would sleep for the night. There were quite a few options, including a park bench, a grassy knoll and finally, heading back to the train station (the sad thing is that I am that perfect combination of crazy that while you probably wanted to think I was kidding there, you know that I probably spent a good amount of time thinking of actually doing those first two things).

I headed back to the train station around 2 o'clock, to find that they actually close the station down at night. This left me in a parking lot with a bunch of crazy (no, really, crazy people) in the middle of the night, in a country where I didn't speak the language and it was approaching very cold temperatures.

There was the homeless man sleeping in half-a-cardboard box, "Crazy-Eyes", who walked up to me and started looking at me with his crazy eyes before talking in some intense, tribal language (I assume a form of Italian), and then mumble girl.

Mumble girl must have been homeless. I felt really bad for her...maybe she was mute? Anyway, as I paid fifty-cent for a hot chocolate to keep me from freezing to death, she approached me and started mumbling and motioning with her hands. I gave her enough to get her a coffee since I knew that it was super, super cold out and she was in it just like I was.

Of course, later on I decided to try and pull out my blanket, set up a small "camp" and hopefully just wait out the cold. I locked my backpack to a table and huddled under my blanket, which was basically doing nothing. As I tried to sleep from beneath two scarves and a beanie that was pulled down to just barely over my eyes, I kept on looking around as I heard noises and Italian men joking around in the parking lot.

At one point, mumble girl came back and started mumbling at me, asking for money. I just shook my head sadly and repeated, "No, none left." until she disappeared. She had already shook me down for all I had. That's the last I saw of her.

The train station finally opened at 4 a.m. and everyone rushed in, but it wasn't any warmer inside. I was able to grab a 6:10 a.m. train ticket to La Spezia Centrale, which is the closest big city to Cinque Terre. I shivered my way to 5:57, when the train finally pulled in.

I slept for two hours on the train ride, until I arrived in La Spezia, a beautiful city full of people and houses built into the mountain side. From there, I took the hourly train to the first town of Cinque Terre's "five towns", Riomaggiore. I was also informed that the last three towns are closed because of flooding, which I was bummed about, but it turned out to be fine.

Cinque Terre is a beautiful five-village spread that is built against the Western Italian Coast. The cities are difficult to reach by car, so the train that runs through them hourly is essential to getting between them all, as well as the beautiful walking routes.

I got off the train at Riomaggiore and was instantly surprised by the complete and utter beauty of the place. It made me think of a writer's haven, a place where one could separate himself from the world and just enjoy nature. It's hard to describe, but you know I took a few pictures:







After getting my fill of Riomaggiore, I took the Via Dell'Amore or "Love Walk" to get to Manarola, the second city. This 25-minute walk between the two towns was similarly breathtaking.





Around noon, I ate my first true Italian dish and I asked the waittress, who I think was the wife of the owner, to get me what she liked best, plus a glass of white wine. I was surprised because while I don't like wine at home, I really liked this wine. It might have been me just trying to romanticize the moment though :). She came out with a spread of green, seaweed-looking noodles surrounding a large shrimp that still had its eyeballs. It actually was really, really good and definitely met my expectations of an Italian dinner.

I had already searched around and was really worried because it seemed as if there wouldn't be any hotels or hostels open. There are no big hotels here, only small homes willing to put people up for a night for a fare. Almost every one of these people had a sign on their window saying, "Gone, won't be back until...(some date)." Should have known better then to try and go without a reservation near Christmas, but I also hadn't been able to get internet for an extended period of time the last two days.

I finally found a woman named Nicolleta who had a room available, but she wanted 70 Euros for the night, which she explained by saying, "In the summer, it is 80 but in the winter, it is 70!" I looked at her sadly and told her, "I'm really sorry, but I can only give you 50." She shook her head and I swear she sounded more Greek than Italian when she said, "60. I cannot do 50."

Now I really only had 67 Euros to my name at the time (I'm waiting to exchange my backup money soon - I had 220 dollars saved just in case, to transfer over later. I'm also waiting on a 100, so I should hopefully be okay).

I decided to try to find my luck somewhere else, or, if I had to, sleep outside again ( I wasn't looking forward to that, though at least it would be safer here, though even colder because its the mountains).

However, as I walked away, an old woman looked down from an upper window and said something, and a few seconds later, Nicoletta said my name again.

"Nicola! Come here."

I came back.

"I can do fifty. My mother, here, she says I should do this for you."

As she walked me into the apartment, a very nice and modern set up with a downstairs kitchen-area and an upstairs room, she added,

"I have two kids, studying in Milan. My mother says I should think of the kids, think if they were you!"

We talked some more, I gave her the fifty Euros, and she gave me a complimentary glass of wine, giving me two glasses in the last hour.

Salute!




Exhausted after having been up pretty much all night, I slept from 1:30 to 5:00, finally getting up to write this post at the local wifi spot. I don't imagine I'll be doing too much tonight - maybe take a walk along the coast before calling it a night.