01.06.09

Italia!

Once I arrived in Roma I had a lot to figure out (Roma is huge and a bit overwhelming), and a few errands to get done (buy a new camera, find a hostel, and book a room for Cinque Terre) before Bri arrived the following morning. I spent most of my first day in Roma figuring out the huge city and getting my errands done. Luckily for me I arrived two days before the Champions League Final (held in Roma). Barcelona was set to face Manchester United for the Champions League cup (one of the biggest futbol, or soccer as we call it in America, games of the year). The fans were everywhere and Roma expected an extra million people to be visiting the city for the match. Needless to say I didn’t prepare for it and all the hostels were booked. I ended up finding this shady hostel to stay in for a few nights (better than nothing). When I say shady I mean shady! The shower was just a hole in the wall that sprayed water strait out in your face (luckily I am tall or it would have sprayed right over my head), there were no lockers to secure my belongings, so I spooned with my bag each night in a single bunk bed and then locked it at the train station daily.
My first day in Roma I headed strait for a guided tour of the Vatican. I was anxious to visit the Vatican because I heard a rumor that the pope might be speaking near the Sistine chapel. I also wanted to research my aunt Sister Barbara Ann Mudra (who served the lord for 53 years before her life was taken in Liberia during the civil war, her assignment was precious blood). Once arriving at the Vatican I felt a sudden calmness over me. It was an extremely religious experience. Nuns and priests filled the grounds walking to and from their studies. The walk up to the Basilica St. Pietro thru Piazza St. Pietro was breathtaking. What a city; the Vatican is an independent state from Roma governed by the pope. Inside the courtyard I met with my tour group (highly suggested to get a guide because you skip all lines and learn a lot more than an independent tour). Once inside the Vatican museum I quickly realized why it has to be the largest, richest museum complex in the world. It was stuffed with booty from every period of the city’s history. I started off at the Stanze di Raffaello. The room was decorated by Pope Julius II. Next I headed t the Galleria Chairamonte (a superb collection of Roman statues), and then the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche and it had some incredibly precious, richly pigmented maps of Italy. While inside the museum I purchased some gifts for the ladies in my very close circle (I couldn’t buy much because it was extremely pricy). Unfortunately I only had enough money in my budget to purchase gifts for Mom, Kara, Aunt Ditz (lol), and Aunt Poot (lol).
Next stop was the Sistine Chapel. It was built for Pope Sixtus IV in 1481, and it serves as the pope’s private chapel. The Sistine chapel hosts the conclaves of cardinals for the election of each new pope. The paintings down each side wall depict scenes from the lives of Moses, and Christ by Perugino, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio among others. But Michaelangelo’s ceiling frescoes of the Creation is the most spectacular painting I have ever seen. Executed almost single handedly over a period of four years for Pope Julius II it is truly a masterpiece. Then the west wall of the chapel was painted by Michelangelo over twenty years later (loincloths were added several years later because the nudity caused conflict so I didn’t get to see it in its original state). I have to say Michelangelo is a genius. The paintings appeared three dimensional. Jesus’ eyes followed you where ever in the room you stood, and the legs of people sitting looked as if they were hanging off the wall (really neat illusions). I spent an hour or so just admiring his work and taking some pictures (with no flash of course, I didn’t want any part of destroying this magnificent creation).
After leaving the chapel I headed for the stairs to ascend the 500 stairs to the top of St. Peters Basilica because I heard the view was well worth the walk. But I was briefly detoured into the tomb of the previous popes (which was really cool and made for great pictures). I then began the grueling walk up a narrow staircase that leaned severely to the right, it was a stairway in a dome, and I couldn’t help but feel disoriented. I arrived at the top and took some of the most beautiful pictures of the city of Roma as well as the Vatican. I came across a gift shop at the top that was run by the nuns of the Vatican and started a conversation with one of the few that spoke English. I spoke with her about Sister Barbara Ann for a bit and she informed me that I could research her in the Vatican library. The nun told me she would more than likely be listed as a saint under Pope John Paul II, so I set off to do some research. Once inside the library I immediately knew I was in over my head. I haven’t used a card catalog since grade school, everything was written in Italian, and it was the largest library I have ever set eyes on. After about two hours of frustration and no help from any of the staff I had to give up. I will try again another day. I will get back to Roma and the Vatican one day and find her in the records.
Now, extremely frustrated, I set off to see the colosseum, the Coleseo! I took the B line metro train to the stop for the colosseum and as soon as I exited the train station it was staring directly at me, Holy Shit! Begun by Emperor Vespesian in 72 AD, and completed by his son Titus in 80 AD this was an impressive structure and engineering feat to say the least. After completion in 80 AD it was celebrated by 100 days of games. The arena is about 500 meters in circumference, and could seat roughly 50,000 people. Romans flocked here for gladiatorial contests and cruel spectacles. The arena could also be flooded in minutes when mock sea battles were staged (How cool it would have been to live during this period and witness the games). After the games were outlawed in the fifth century it was pillaged for building material destroying it, so all I saw was a little more than a shell of the original creation, however the colosseum has served as a model for stadiums around the world ever since. The most impressive part of the colosseum to me was that it was created in 72 AD! Our country, the United States of America, has only existed since 1776, and Columbus discovered the land it in 1492, but the colosseum was built and thriving in just plain old 72 AD.
As I sat admiring the colosseum I was asked by a group, of what seemed to be Spanish travelers, to take a photo of them. I snapped a few pictures and we started to talk. It turned out that they were from Barcelona and one of the guys was an executive for FC Barcelona. They were in town for the game and had a box at the stadio olompico for the Champions League cup. They hinted at the fact that I could join them in their box. I had Bri arriving in the morning so I didn’t pursue the invite (I’d rather not know for sure).
That night I ran into a great guy named Andres Garcia (who was staying at my hostel also) and we decided to walk around Rome, see the sites and grab some diner. He was from Washington and had been studying in Spain the last several months. His school was finished for the year so he was spending a little time in Italy before heading home. We grabbed some great Italian food, drank a little red wine and saw some more of Rome. The Pantheon was really cool; it hosts the tombs of Raffaello and the Kings of Italy. We also walked by and got great pictures at Piazza Navona and the fountain which was created by Bernini, and is decorated by four statues representing the Danube, the Ganges, the Nile, and the Rio de la Plata (supposedly if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain it is your destiny to return to Rome so I did, I have to continue my research on Sister Barbara Ann). From there we headed by the Spanish steps, the monument to Victor Emmanuel II, and the Roman Forum which were all impressive to see and take photos of. I also came across a street named Via Sforza, which happens to be my ex-girlfriends last name. We hadn’t spoke in months so I decided to give her a quick call (I thought she might be interested) even though I thought it would be awkward for her. I snapped a photo of the street sigh for her and off I went. By this time it was about 22:00 (10pm), and we had a long day, so we headed back to the hostel to get some rest. I had to pick up Bri at the airport at 7:55am and that meant I had to be up by 6:00am.
Once I picked up Bri from the airport we were off to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre stands for 5 villages (which perch off the northwestern coast of Italy) Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare. We stayed in Riomaggiore which is the 1st of the five villages when arriving by train. Once we got off the train we were greeted by some of the most beautiful coast I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot of coast lines in my day). I did my research, so I stopped at the tourist info point to get our passes for the walking trail and scenic boat tour right away (I wanted to get that out of the way). We headed to drop our stuff at the room, then had a nice quiet dinner at a local restaurant, drank some great Chianti, and sat on a secluded cliff top to watch the sunset. We were both tired from our extensive travels so we grabbed a bottle of red wine at the market, some fresh cheese and sat on my home made futon to relax. We went to sleep early and planned to hike the trail to all five villages the following day. After our leisurely breakfast we started out on the first path connecting Riomaggiore to Manarola, neither of us knew how beautiful this place was actually going to be and we were both in awe as we set off on our journey. We arrived at Manarola in about 15 minutes and I thought to myself that it was going to be an easy hike thru the five villages. We stopped to take several pictures along the way, and of course I had to get some crazy pictures climbing in trees and such. From Manarola to Corniglia took a bit longer and the terrain was a bit more challenging but we were still on pace to complete the entire path in a timely fashion. I set the pace and not many could keep up with me (I’ve been doing a lot of hiking over the last month and I’m in the best cardio shape I’ve been in since college), but Bri held her own and kept right along side of me. We arrived in Corniglia after about an hour or so of hiking and neither of us were tired so we kept trucking (in retrospect we should have looked at the map, because the next section was 4 kilometers along an isolated coast with no places to get water). The views were absolutely stunning (I have lots of photos) so the four kilometers seemed to go by pretty fast. We came across a lemon orchard along the way and we spotted the biggest lemon either of us had seen, it was hanging from a lemon tree. It was so big I thought there was no way it could be real. I had to get a closer look so I scaled a fence, dropped down a wall and walked thru some dense shrubs to pick it from the tree. This lemon was literally the size of a football. I picked the lemon got some great pictures and showed it to every passer by for the next several hundred meters. About 1 kilometer into this section we came to a clearing and saw the beautiful little town of Vernazza, and it was really far away. We were both running low on water and we had well over a mile to go. Neither of us let that get us down (later we agreed that this stretch was by far the most beautiful stretch of the coast) and we enjoyed the picturesque scenery as we took pictures and continued along the trail. Shortly before Vernazza we came across a quaint little restaurant in the cliff top and we stopped for water (we both envied the guy that owned the store because he had the most beautiful view from the window, and he seemed to be the happiest guy in the world and had no material possessions). We chugged down about a liter of water a piece, enjoyed the view from the window for a few minutes and continued along. When we came up to the town of the Vernazza we were both hungry so we decided to stop for lunch (we had walked 6 kilometers, over 3.5 miles thus far). After a great lunch on the coast we decided to head for the final destination of our hike, Monterosso al Mare. Monterosso had the largest beach of the 5 villages and that was to be our reward for a long days hike. Shortly after leaving Vernazza we both wished that we hadn’t stopped for lunch because we were ready to relax after eating. The first section of trail we came across had a stone staircase carved into the edge of the mountain (it was over 1000 stairs on uneven ground wrapping around the mountain) and neither of us could see the top of the stairs. Every time we thought the staircase was about to end we came around a bend to yet another set of stairs (this was by far the most difficult section of the path). It wasn’t long before we were both back in the zone and determined to make it to the beach. I have to admit, the scenery made the hike a lot easier because every time we got discouraged we just looked out along the coast and said to each other, “wow, look how beautiful that is...” Once we started to descend into Monterosso we could see the beach and we were ready to jump into the Tyrrhenian Sea to cool off. As we were approaching town we came across a lemon farmer that had a fresh squeezed lemonade stand along the path (a true entrepreneur, I loved to see it) and he was the only one selling any fluids along the path so I’m sure he did quite well. We paid a whopping 3 Euro (5 bucks) for a 6oz glass of lemonade, but it was well worth it. We continued on and arrived at the beach about 20 minutes after. Bri went to put on her suit and I sat waiting on the stairs. After a few minutes I couldn’t wait any longer (plus I was starting to cool down) so I jumped into the sea without her. As I jumped in I looked to my left and a school of jellyfish were right on top of me. I quickly got out of the water and warned Bri when she arrived; she didn’t seem to mind because a local told her they didn’t sting. She swam off and I stayed on the shore like a pansy (I grew up in Florida and I know jellyfish stings suck) taking pictures. We relaxed for a while and headed back to our village around sunset by train (no way we were walking the 9 kilometers back). We decided to stop by Manarola for dinner and I had fried shrimp (in Italy they fry shrimp with the shell, head and legs) and it was not so good. That night we sat drinking wine and eating cheese.
The next day was much more leisurely as we used the boat for transportation along the coast. I had my heart set on cliff diving and I was set on finding a cliff along the coast to jump from (safely of course). I asked the boat captain and he told me of a 24 meter (about 90 feet) cliff off the coast of Porto Venere (just outside of Cinque Terre). That seemed a bit high for my skill level but if that was the only cliff then I would have to evaluate the drop and see if it was in my comfort level. We took the boat from our village Riomaggiore, to Monterosso (and it took about 20 minutes, and the walk took 5 hours), and it was beautiful seeing the coast from the water (a different, yet equally as beautiful experience). Once in Monterosso we soaked up some sun on the beach for a few hours, had some lunch and started to plan the rest of our afternoon. While at lunch we learned of a cliff just outside of our village that was only 15 meters (about 50 feet) which was right up my ally (New Pass Bridge in Bonita Springs is the same height and I’ve jumped from there several times). We arrived in Riomaggiore and could not find the cliff so needless to say I was bummed. We soaked up some more sun, splashed around in the water and set off to clean up for dinner. On our way from the beach I spotted the cliff, I don’t know how I had missed it before. I handed my camera to a person we had met on the beach, explained what I was going to do and they agreed to film my jump. Bri and I both jumped (I was impressed with her courage), but of course I was the Guiney pig and went first (I have it on video). After that exhilarating jump we were both starving so we had a great authentic Italian dinner (Bri treated, thanks Hun), a bottle of Chianti, and watched some Italian TV. The next morning we had a train to Pisa so we crashed early.
We arrived in Pisa about 11am and set off to see the infamous leaning tower. We agreed that the tower was the only reason to go to Pisa, so we took some great pictures and headed back to Roma (her flight back to the US was in the morning). We had a great time together in Italy and now I am off to Florence, and then headed to Parris to Rolland Garros to watch the French Open and its going to be a blast, I can feel it. My trip is coming to an end and I am glad for all of my wonderful experiences and the knowledge that I have gained. I know this will benefit me and I am grateful for the life that I have (not to sound arrogant but it feels great to be me). I am one lucky person. I owe it all to my mother and father for the great job they did raising me (I can be a really difficult person to handle and they are probably the only two people on the planet that could have done it. I guess that’s why I ended up a part of their family). Thank you for always being there for me and believing in me.

Things to remember:

I came across a gypsy that knew how to say, “Do you have coins for something to drink” in 22 languages while I was in Hungary. That’s an impressive career beggar.