Tag: Italy

From Cinque Terre we headed to a quick stopover in Pisa. You have to see the Leaning Tower when you’re in Italy right? I had been years before but I had been incredibly hungover and visited during August when the temperature was in excess of 115 degrees. It was amazing how little I remembered about the actual city. I must have been a zombie the last time I came. Pisa is actually a pretty big, nice city. And they have amazing gelato… but I guess pretty much everywhere in Italy does. I’m addicted to pistachio gelato. I pretty much want to have an IV of it inserted… but not in my veins… maybe a Camelback of pistachio gelato I could wear on my back and just suck off of whenever the mood struck… Mmmm…..

 

From there we headed on to Florence for the weekend.  Unfortunately we didn’t think about how hard it might be to find accommodations in Florence for a Friday and Saturday night. When we arrived around 10PM that night, it seemed that every reasonably priced hotel/hostel was booked full.  We ended up going to a computer lab to try to book something online instead of wandering aimlessly, walking in to random hotels and wasting time.  As we were checking in to get a computer the man working there said to me, “You’re not a real American”.  I was a little confused, but then I realized that he was commenting on my ethnicity.  So I told him that I’m Afghan and he was very pleased.  Turns out he was Pakistani and started in on this whole spiel about how if we needed anything just to let him know because we are “neighbors” and being gracious hosts is very important in our cultures. We thanked him and got on the computer and booked the most affordable place we could find… which wasn’t really all that affordable at all.  We ventured out to walk what, according to the booking site, should have been a .3 mile walk to the hotel. When we arrived at the location though we could find no trace of the hotel. We looked around for a minute and then raced back to the Internet spot because it was the only one open late (it was now just after 11) and the man working there had been so nice to us.  When we arrived they were getting ready to close but once we told the man working there about our predicament he immediately asked for the phone number of the hotel. He called them and it turns out that the map on the booking website was completely wrong and the hotel was actually located 28Km away! I spoke to him on the phone and he seemed really nice but we had to cancel the reservation because of the mix up.  So then we were left back at square one with no place to stay and it getting later and later.  Knowing the situation was getting rather dire, the man working there (who we found out was named Avri) invited us to stay with him in his home! It was so nice of him that my eyes instantly welled up.  We thanked him profusely and told him that we would just take a quick look to see if there was any other hotels available in town so that we didn’t have to put him out.  (Not to mention the fact that were exhausted and just wanting to pass out… ).  The fact that he stayed open late for us to help us and made phone calls and everything for us was so touching, and at the end he gave us his cousin’s kabob store information so that in case we had trouble we could stop by there and use their Internet all night.  (Being ambiguously brown has really come in handy on this trip. The Spanish thought I was Portuguese, the Portuguese thought I was Spanish, the French thought I was Italian and the Italians think that I’m Spanish).  It turned out there was a Holiday Inn available a little outside of the city center. It was an amazing gesture on his part, but seriously I have never been happier to see a Holiday Inn in my life! It was by far the most expensive place we’ve stayed, but it was a nice respite to have a room that reminded us a little more of home- big rooms, big shiny bathrooms, hot well pressurized water, cable TV… It was so nice!

So, we’ve just been hanging around Florence for the weekend. It’s really nice, but the crowds can be overwhelming at times. The weather is great- it’s the hottest place we’ve been. My shoulders are actually peeling! I don’t think that’s ever happened before to me. 

The craziest thing happened yesterday on the bus though.  We were trying to take the bus back to our hotel so that we could drop some things off and change before going to dinner.  The bus was insanely crowded and we were seriously packed in there like sardines.  I had some man pressed up against me like we had been dating for years… Then at one stop these people who had been standing by the door were getting off when this rather large woman (probably in her 60’s) barreled through the crowd and shouted “GO!” and seriously shoved the other lady off the bus! Then the other lady who was probably around 40 turned around (after landing) and shoved the old lady, who in turn ran back at her with her arms flailing! Then the 40 year old’s son shoved/punched the old lady! Then everyone started yelling at each other in Italian… And the younger guy was like “Es me Mamma” and started gesturing emphatically. It was crazy!

Gotta run!

Hey, hey, hey! Thanks for sticking it out…

I only have a minute but just thought I’d write a quick note to tell you that we had a fantastic time in Cinque Terre (Five Lands), Italy! There are five villages perched among the cliffs on Italy’s Northwestern side. They are about 12Km apart in total and for many years this coastal path was the only means of connection between the villages. Today there are still few cars, because accessing the towns by road remains difficult. The trails on the otherhand, have been fully discovered. I can’t imagine coming here during the summer. It must be loony toons! Since it’s still the off season though we managed to enjoy some very lovely hiking between the villages. It was absolutely spectacular! We first took the train into the third village, figuring that we could split the hike easily that way over two days. We started to become concerned about finding lodging though when we had to physically fight our way onto the train and then stand with our packs for the duration. Upon our arrival we headed to the shuttle bus stop only to find another crowd of people pushing and shoving for position. Corniglia is the name of the town and it is the village located at the highest point of the five. The train station was at sea level so no one wanted to make the trek on foot up to the village. Not wanting to fight another group though Jon and I instead opted to go up the 356 steps up to the village ourselves. Ummm…. it wasn’t exactly fun, especially with packs, but we made it and headed off to find whatever accommodations we could.

Here is where we really lucked out: Virtually everywhere was booked, but the first place we stopped I was able to speak enough of my Spanish/Italian hybrid language to have her agree to let us stay at her rental apartment for a night. We were so pleased that we wouldn’t have cared if it was a shoebox. We just wanted to get those fucking packs off by that point. When she opened the apartment doors though we were blown away! It was HUGE! Probably the size of our place in Chicago, with a kitchen, bedroom, living room and unobstructed view of the water! All for the price I paid for a Motel 6 next to a homeless park in Southern California!

Here’s the view of the sunset from our window:

After we threw down our stuff we got a quick bite to eat and then headed for the trail. It was not a trail like I had imagined- it was cleared, but cut right out of the mountain and had jagged rocks for the path. But it was absolutely beautiful! We hiked a big chunk of the trail heading North that day and then the next morning hiked the more traveled “Lover’s Walk” in the Southern portion. The Lover’s Walk part is the most famous and it was therefore much, much more crowded. It’s also a much easier, shorter hike on a paved path… It’s more like a stroll on a sidewalk that just happens to be on the edge of a mountain. There were full on tour buses pulling up and unloading people at the trailhead. I highly recommend going, but do not bother unless you are going in the low season! It was wonderful, and beautiful but it won’t hold the description of being “undiscovered” for much longer, if it even does anymore.