Le Cinque Terre

Le Cinque Terre, or "The Five Lands" is a section of the north-western coast of Italy. It is a series of small towns punctuated by cliff-bordered bays and beaches. There are many walking tracks between the towns, as well as horse and mountain bike tracks. We stayed in the town of Levanto and spent a day walking Le Cinque Terre.

The town of Levanto:






The beach about 100m from our pension. It was a very hot day. However, it's not summer so the heat from the sun quickly diminishes towards early evening and can become quite chilly.




The sunset at Levanto:


The next day we took the train to the far end of the Cinque Terre national park and began our hike.


Much of the track consists of narrow paths along the cliffsides. It's not dangerous but you do have to pay constant attention to avoid tripping over.


Lots of little rocky coves exist between each village.


Here's one of the prettiest villages, perched on the cliffs.




The track climbs reasonably high in parts.


The view as we descend into another town.


Hmm, this was actually much higher than it looks in the photo.


We walked a total of 12.8km over the day - a worthwhile but fairly straightforward hike. It's certainly a very beautiful part of Italy.

The Art Of Pickpocketing

I've caught two people practicing their art in Europe so far. They weren't very good and obviously needed the practice.

The first was a weedy little man who looked about 18. He was circling our group on a railway platform in Vienna. We were all facing each other discussing one thing or another. His intentions were very clear to me so I simply stood in front of him and stared at him. He looked rather uncomfortable, signaled to a friend down the platform, and then backed off.

The second was a teenage girl of about 16 who I caught with her hand in a friend's handbag just as we boarded a metro train in Prague. I think I actually slapped her hand away - don't exactly recall. Anyway, I scowled at her and she backed off, smiling sheepishly.

They seemed pretty incompetent to me.

That said we've been very careful, especially in busy tourist areas, and not had any other problems. I think the secret is to make other people look like better targets.

I haven't had anyone throw a baby at me either.

Firenze & Lucca

The situation is very unstable. Internet cafe prices are ridiculously high at the moment - up to $20 per hour! I managed to find a small place for only $7 an hour but I'm trying to back up my photos and the USB hardware interface on this computer is very flakey.

Because of this, I'm not going to risk posting any photos at this time, in case I upset the balance... I may post another entry later with photos. But I may not.

Interestingly, I had to present my passport (which was then photocopied) in order to use the Internet. This is standard practice in Italy due to (Anti?) Terrorism Laws. I consider it only a short step from this to recording everything you ever receive or transmit from a public terminal against your name. Not a good thing. I'm not sure having my passport photocopied is very reassuring either.

Anyway, we've spent the last four days or so in Florence, or Firenze as the Italians like to call it, and Lucca.

Florence is a very nice city on a river (like any respectable European town). We had a good look around and made it to the Uffizi art gallery where we saw some wonderful art works. The feel of the city is more relaxed than Roma and there are some good markets. P had already seen Michaelangelo's statue of David. I had not. I thought about standing for an hour or two in a queue, but in the end I settled for walking up to the copper replica on one of the nearby hills. There's also a concrete-coloured replica in the original standing place but it was obscured by scaffolding. We also visited a museum where instantiations of some of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings have been constructed (recently) and are on display.

We noticed that the exterior of the American Consulate was heavily defended by armed police 24/7 and all the roads around it had been blocked off permanently. I guess that's one way to keep the neighbourhood quiet but I can't help but feel sorry for the poor locals who used to use those roads to get around the city.

Lucca is a pleasant walled town north of Firenze. It's actually the first European town we've seen so far that has a 100% complete wall. It's nicely maintained and you can cycle around it. This we did. Today we took a train to Pisa to see the famous tower, Baptistry and Duomo. The tower is quaint but the Duomo and Baptistry are far more interesting buildings. The Baptistry leans a bit too.

The rest of the time we've spent eating amazing food and wandering the streets. Tomorrow we head to the coast where we will explore the Cinque Terre.

Pompei & Vesuvius

Today we took the train from Roma to Napoli (Naples) to visit Pompei as part of a guided tour. We arrived in Napoli about an hour early, so we spent some time trying to avoid being stabbed, shot, ripped off, or run over.

Then our tour van arrived and we made it to Pompei:


When Vesuvius erupted extremely violently in AD79, it covered the surrounding area with a massive pyroclastic cloud. Pompei, originally a harbour city, was covered in seven metres of ash and the coastline moved 900 metres away.


The ruins were discovered and excavated over the last three hundred years or so. Almost all the artifacts have been stolen or moved to museums so just the ruins and a few bits and pieces remain. However, the layout of the city is clear and it's easy to make out where buildings such as the arena, shops, squares and baths were.

Here is one of two theatres. This is actually used during the summer for live theatre.


Some ancient Roman grafitti... actually this wasn't a lewd drawing because at that time, the Romans worshipped the phallus as a god of fertility and virility.


The equivalent of 4 euros got you 15 minutes with the girl of your choice in the brothel district. Everyone could afford this so it was a popular afternoon activity. However, if you couldn't speak Latin (perhaps you were a foreign merchant or traveller) then you might run into some difficulties explaining what it is you'd actually like to do. Hence the pictorial menu. Here's one entry...


The roads sloped downwards so that waste would be washed away during the nightly downpours. This city also had reticulated water supply via lead pipes. In fact, Pompei was one of the most modern cities in the world at the time it was destroyed. Large stepping-stones are visible, used to avoid stepping onto the road if the rains were late.


Our guide - he was hilarious. You had to be there but I'll never forget him. He was great.


The main street - please note the life-like wax statues of Pompei citizens performing their daily tasks, such as hanging outside shops smoking cigarettes, or trying to sell dodgy iPhones to passing tourists.


There's the volcano that ruined the party. It's about 10 km away.


The guy on the shelf should probably not have slept in that day...


The Temple of Apollo - there's a sundial on top of the white column to the left. Diana was around somewhere.



After exploring the ruins all morning, we had lunch and then were driven to Vesuvius where we climbed to the top. The road up is very windy (as in, many corners) and narrow in places. At one point a bus had broken down. We managed to sneak past in the van and had great fun stopping every bus that was heading down and telling them about the massive jam below. The reactions from the drivers were priceless. Further up we came across two buses trying to pass each other. There was chaos and traffic everywhere. The only thing missing was chickens. Anyway, somehow, they managed to squeeze past each other. Amazing. Italians are such passionate people and it's fantastic to see them live their lives with such drama and expression. Great stuff.

Here's a pic looking out towards Napoli.


Some lava.


Out towards Pompei - we are just below 1200 metres elevation here.


The crater is 300 metres deep and looks like a giant hole in the ground. I had a photo but I can't find it right now... there was a bit of steam too.

So we made it back to the train station, hopped on an earlier train and we were back in Roma by early evening. A fantastic day.

Just a small note to finish up - I was under the impression that Central European drivers were the worst you could find. I stand corrected. Napoli drivers are so incredibly bad at it that they've turned it into a comedic theatre of sorts. For example, the highway speed limit was 60kph in most parts due to many roadwork sites, but we cruised through in our tour van at over 120kph. Lane markings are not guidelines, they are mere suggestions. The horn is to be used as either a musical instrument or as a friendly greeting for every vehicle you pass or find yourself behind. Classic stuff actually and I really enjoyed being a part of the madness. I'm just glad nobody got shot.

As I mentioned in a few posts earlier, my 'perfect storm' of free Internet access, usable keyboard and spare time has come to an end. I doubt I'll have the opportunity to post so much again in such short time. I hope everyone is enjoying the blog and it would be great if you could leave a comment or two so I know people are reading it :)

Roma

Here are some photos of Roma.

The Spanish Steps, at about 8am before the hordes of Romans arrive to eat their breakfast pastries. Italian breakfasts are almost useless - you tend to eat them standing up (or else pay more) and they consist merely of a croissant (chocolate-filled if you're lucky) and a cup of coffee. Unfortunately I'm not keen on pastries or coffee so I've been resorting to muesli bars. I miss my cereals...


The Villa Borghese - site of the most fantastic statues I have ever seen.


No photos were allowed so I'll just have to describe them. All three were masterfully created by Bernini in the 1620s. He is regarded as the best sculptor ever. Here are pictures from another website, but please realise that these do not do ANY justice to these amazing pieces of art.

"The Rape of Persephone" - the texture of the skin and the dramatic dynamics make this sculpture absolutely stunning. The photo does no justice at all.


"David" - just before he slays Goliath. You can't see the sling in this picture but the tension contained in this work is astonishing. When you see it you immediately expect David to unwind instantaneously and violently, sending the lethal stone into Goliath's skull. Another amazing sculpture.


"Apollo & Daphne", or why Sun God's shouldn't chase after Nymphs because they turn into trees...


All of these sculptures look amazing from any angle. If you visit Roma, PLEASE go and see the sculptures at the Villa Borghese.

A bridge over the Tiber.


This is the Belvedere Torso in the Vatican Museums. It's supposed to be the most important piece of art held within because Michaelangelo used it as inspiration for many of his works, including the Sistene Chapel. He didn't sculpt it himself, but apparently he used to blindfold himself and feel it up with his hands...


The 120 metre long "map hall" in the Vatican Museums. Those frescos on the walls are maps of various regions of Italy. This corridor was extremely crowded.


The ceiling above part of the Map Hall. All 120 metres is decorated like this. Astonishing.


A Swiss Guardsman I assume. No doubt he has a Toblerone hidden under that cloak.


The front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. This photo really doesn't illustrate just how huge the building is.


Same building, better view. The obelisk is supposedly the last witness to the crucifixion of Peter, even though it is a pagan Egyptian column.



Yes, we did get to see the Sistene Chapel. We had an excellent guide who ran us through all the symbology beforehand, so we knew what we were looking at. The story behind the Chapel is quite interesting, and led to numerous accidental and deliberate mistakes within the frescos. Lots of 'in jokes' are present if you know what to look for.

Budapest Photos

Since several factors have conspired in my favour today (free Internet access, we caught an earlier train back to the accommodation and the keyboard is fairly normal being Italian) I've decided to post some more photos. I don't know when the next opportunity to do this will arise so I shall post some photos of Roma and Pompei as well.

But for now, some photos of Budapest.

The Hungarian Parliament Buildings, across the Danube.


A view down the Danube from the middle of the Chain Bridge (it's made out of giant bits of bicycle chain, honest...)


The Opera House. Note the guy swinging on a rope...


The Budapest Jewish Synagogue - the second largest in the World.


P making a new friend.


Unfortunately the cat got it.


The Fishermen's Bastion that overlooks the city.



That's all for Budapest at this time.

Budapest then Roma

Right! We finally made it to Roma! We were a bit worried for a while there with Alitalia and their ongoing financial woes. That'll teach us not to check the operating balance sheet for an airline before we purchase tickets in future, won't it? Anyway, their license to fly was renewed until March so we got to Roma and we'll probably never fly with them again.

But would you believe it... at Roma airport we were waiting for our luggage and mine turned up but P's.... well, didn't. I felt so bad for her. It was such a nightmare in Vienna and here it was happening again in Roma. How could one person be so unlucky? The flight was very empty so everyone else had quickly retrieved their bags and left. We stayed around for a bit longer and then suddenly, there is was! Yay... but... how strange.

We made it to our accomodation by bus - I found the traffic very amusing. There was a large roundabout where the rule appeared to be "if you're on the roundabout, give way to anyone who wants to get ON to the roundabout". Now, I'm no Queuing Theory expert (I wish I were) but it doesn't take a genius to figure out what you end up with if you implement that kind of rule. You end up with a horrendous mess. Fortunately, it was hilarious and once again we didn't die.

We had some pizza for dinner (as you do) and bought some umbrellas from the friendly but abundant umbrella sellers because the absolutely torrential rain threatened to dampen our spirits (and our clothes). Apparently when it's sunny the umbrellas turn into roses so I'm excited to see what my new umbrella will smell like tomorrow if the weather fines up...

Anyway, BUDAPEST... that's what I wanted to write about now I've got access to a sensible keyboard.

Budapest is the result of a union between two old cities - Buda and Pest. Now, I have no idea if that's actually true but it sounds good and besides, Prague is named after the discovery of some random dude who was building his front door lintel at the time (Praha means door threshold) so it's hardly out of character. There may have been a third city involved too... but it's obviously not important. The Danube river runs through the middle of it and it looks beautiful in the dawn light.

The city is huge - about 2 million inhabitants and geographically the city is too big to walk around. All the other cities we have visited so far are small enough to walk around and see all the main sites. But Budapest is huge. Which leads me to getting around.

The public transport seems to work pretty well but it's a bit expensive. It's also dangerous because if you make a mistake you can get a nice big fine from a friendly Hungarian Metro Inspector. At one point we decided to jump off a tram and make a run for it because we couldn't get the ticket machine onboard to work...

The language is nuts. I know a bit of German, a little Czech, a little Polish even. They all have things in common because of their Latin roots. Unfortunately Hungarian is completely alien to me. Absolutely nothing looks familiar. Apparently it's derived from whatever they speak in Finland which explains the lack of Latin influence. The people (mainly the Magyars) seem like a nice bunch. Most I talked to spoke English, otherwise the conversation ended very abruptly. I did learn one word - mosoda - which means laundrette - that I got to say many, many times during the course of one morning. We did find one eventually.

Interestingly, the Magyars have the same blood type as the Japanese. Their language contains sounds that (along with whatever they speak in Finland) sound Japanese too. There may be some sort of connection there...

Hungary lost the largest number of Jews in the Holocaust by a huge margin. Out of interest, we visited the main Jewish Synagogue, the second largest one in the world. That was interesting as I've never been in a synagogue before, at least as far as I can remember. It resembled a church in many ways, but lacks the pictures and statues so common in Roman Catholic churches. It's also much simpler externally, with no elaborate decoration. It's still a very impressive place however.

Both P and I really liked Budapest. We would have loved to have spent a few more days there. Unfortunately, it's not possible to do everything so we'll just have to come back one day instead!