Missed a spot!

Oh my gosh, it is the 29th and I am finally posting my blog! :-( sorry. Anyhoo, we drove up to Prague today, stopping for lunch at a nice small town and then stopping for a beer at the 'Original Budweiser' brewery. The Czech Republic is not nearly as developed as Austria, but I am also happy to see that the countryside was not ravaged as I was expecting from the commies. The computer battery is running out, so enjoy the update for the last couple of weeks!

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Internet access was not easily accessible in Italy and therefore here I am now in Vienna with another entry. Let’s see if I can sum up Italy without leaving anything out, but also without becoming too longwinded.

It was a bit hair-raising being thrown into the organized chaos of the Italian road system and it was difficult finding the B&B, but eventually we were successful and managed to locate Drew as well. Genoa is worth skipping. It was merely a blue-collar port city and fairly dirty, nothing too exciting in terms of architecture (now that I went through more Italian cities) or sights. The best part was when we jumped on the ferry – part of the public transportation system – and traveled along the coast to the far western part of the city which ended up to be a very pleasant afternoon excursion.

Next was on to Cinque Terra. It is a string of 5 cities that are linked only by train or by foot trails. They are each unique with their own character and are quite interesting. The Italian Riveria (as the area likes to refer to itself) was extremely breathtaking. We had to park the car up on a hill on the side of the road in the first city (I don’t know how they handle the hordes of tourists, considering we were there during mid-week and before high season) and take the train in. After getting off the train we wandered around and found locals to rent rooms from. The city we stayed in was very small, right on the water, lots of tourists and restaurants, but quaint and laid-back. The next day we hiked to one of the neighboring towns and it was very beautiful, but quite a trek! The town was perched up on the hill and definitely an agricultural town, as opposed to where we were staying which was definitely a fishing village. We had a fantastic [romantic] lunch drinking local wine and eating local cheeses. During the afternoon we took the train to the last of the towns which was a pretty big (comparatively, probably ~1000 residents) and total beach resort. One thing we have over Italian beaches? Sand. The beaches there don’t have sand so much as very small rocks. It really isn’t very pleasant to walk on.

Our original plan was to stay one night, but it was a good thing we stayed 2 – it was a much needed break to lay around a bit and casually explore Cinque Terra.

Next we were off to Tuscany, in the area around Siena. We stayed at a working farm – well, really more a working estate – for a few days. The big thing in Tuscany (and Italy) now are these farm houses that are being opened up as B&Bs to travelers and it’s a great way to get to know the people and countryside better. Our hosts were an older couple, could speak English pretty well, and were very welcoming. He took us on a tour of the property and then arranged for us to do a cooking class in the evening. (It was one of the best meals we had in Italy). The next day we spent touring around the area and going to wineries.

Next, the boys were off to Rome for a few days and I spent more time in Tuscany. I first tried to find some old subterranean tombs (5-2 BC! So old!), but they were only available by prior arrangement with a guide from the University. So I took off to Bologna. Bologna is a small city, not very touristy, with a large population of students (the first university was established here). I need to mention here that after we hit Italy the navigation system got a bit flaky on us and didn’t work more often than it did. Jason has since figured out that the DVD copy he made wasn’t with the optimal settings; bummer, but it wasn’t going to work in the eastern countries anyway. So the 2nd night in Bologna I transferred to a smaller and cheaper hotel in the city and I must have spent an hour trying to drive to the dang place! Trying to navigate all those small streets, the majority of them oneway, while reading cruddy maps was no small feat! I finally managed, but not without our first car ding. I scraped up the back bumper a little while doing a 5-pt turn into the driveway for the hotel. L

Bologna itself was pretty cool. All the rich families built tall towers and vied for the tallest. The tallest surviving at about 500ft was open to walk up and it dwarfed in size everything in the city. They also had a huge cathedral that was magnificent, but never finished. I was in the cathedral with the Sunday evening service was about to start and so I stayed to see what it would be like to attend mass in latin. It was a little different. You could tell that everyone attending were visitors because none of us knew quite what was going on and whether to stand or not (there was no kneeling). But it was fascinating to get a glimpse of what it may have been like 1000 yrs ago attending mass. I had a restaurant recommendation from a local for good Bolognese food and found the place my last night. Utterly amazing!!! One of, if not the best meals I have ever had. The Bologna region is the birthplace of the following: balsamic, parma ham, parma-reggiano (sp?) cheese (Kraft coined “parmesan” when they were sued by Italy), chianti wine, and much more. Simply wonderful food!

I met up with the boys next in Verona. If you can’t make it there in the summer time for an opera or concert in their coliseum, then don’t bother. The coliseum was much smaller, but in much better condition than the one in Rome and I can imagine how beautiful it would be to hear an opera there with everyone holding their candles. There were a couple of rundown buildings that the city claimed were Romeo and Juliet’s homes, and even though we were a bit cynical, of course we visited them. But there wasn’t much else.

Last for Italy was a stop by Venice. Wow, there were a lot of tourists! Just hordes of them! And it was a weekday in May – not even high tourism season yet! We stayed outside the city because staying in Venice is horribly expensive, but I bet Venice is a halfway decent and probably romantic in the evenings when most of the people have left and it doesn’t feel so overcrowded and hectic. I guess I am glad to say I did it, but it was a little disappointing. To add to the mix, when we stopped for a cool glass of wine in the hot afternoon, my purse was stolen. Unfortunately I had just pulled out a bunch of cash, and they got my camera, but overall it could have been much worse (no passport, whew!). There was a couple sitting at an adjoining table and they somehow managed to slip my purse around the bench backs without disturbing my hat and signaling Jason. Poor guy, he felt horrible. I am just lucky that he is here to bum money off of or I would be in a huge world of hurt – I may even have had to go home cuz I don’t think the bank is going to send a credit card to some hotel address in Europe.

Ciao Italia!

In Vienna we dropped Kevin and Drew off to begin their tour. Jason and I took it easy, wandering around the clean and obviously wealthy city. We found a British bookstore where I replenished my book supply (one was in the stolen purse and the other was left on a train), had burgers at an Australian pub (we were both a bit tired of Italian food at that point and glad to have good beer again) and just kinda wandered. The 2nd night we went to the comedic opera Falstaff. It was entertaining and the opera house was very beautiful. I am also enjoying being able to speak the language again – it can be frustrating not being able to communicate well.

We are now in Salzburg, a city of about 100k east of Vienna. We went to an ice cave this morning and it was super cool. There is a 20 min hike, then you can choose to take a tram up (you betcha!) or take a trail by foot for another 90 minutes, then a final 20 minute walk to the cave mouth. The cave is almost 5000ft above sea level in the Alps and the views from up there were incredible. Today is a hot, hot day (~95) and there is no way we could have done the full hike, but inside the cave it is about 32 degrees and we were both blown away by the natural features created by the flowing ice. Really stunning. They don’t have permanent lights installed because of the heat that is generated, so the only light we had was by lanterns that we carried and the occasional flare used by the guide to highlight something important. We had a great time. I think we were also very glad to be out and seeing something other than cityscapes. It is for these kind of sidetrips that we bought the car and it was worth it.
I’m done. It has taken me 2 days to get this last post put together – sorry it took so long! My next project will be to update the pictures I have (luckily the morning before we went to Venice I downloaded all my pics) and add captions. Jason is also putting his pictures on the internet so I will add those links as he puts them together since I no longer have my own camera. Whew, I am typed out! I am sure I forgot a lot of stuff, but too bad.