Firenze aka Florence - Full of Sketchy!

Oh Florence, how we developed a love-hate relationship with you. We arrived into Florence at 11:30pm and had a short walk to our host Emanuele’s apartment. Emanuele and his roommate Valentino were great to let us stay with them, but they are not the type of people that we would make friends with on a regular basis... AND they smoked...inside; so their apartment and all our stuff reeked after a few short minutes of arriving. Emanuele also wanted us to go to a protest with him to help save a Square that the students like to hang out and party in. When asked if we’d get arrested he said “What happens, happens”. Ya, no thank you! Being as though we’d had a long day, both Julie and I really just wanted to go to bed, but we couldn’t do that before meeting Ellie from Alabama. Ellie arrived drunk as a skunk after having aperitivos with a friend, then proceeded to pass out on the couch where I would be sleeping. After two hours of chatting (but not with Ellie for obvious reasons), Emanuele finally put her to bed and let us go to sleep.

Us in front of the Cathedral & Julie eating "Breakfast"

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed out to view the city. Did I mention that it was another holiday and most things were closed? Well they were. Our first order of business was food. What ended up being breakfast was yogurt, Twinkies, and red bull. Breakfast of champions, I know!

Uffizi Square & Ponte Vecchio

On our walk, however, we encountered the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, The Bell tower of Giotto, the Baptistery, the Golden Doors, the Cathedral, Dante’s house, the Cathedral (at this point we decided that the Cathedral- which isn’t really that impressive in my books, was stalking us), and Signoria Square. This is the part where I’ll admit that even though we both knew that Michelangelo’s David was in a museum, when we saw the outside version we took pictures and thought “is this it?” I know, I know, I’ll let you laugh at us, but just for a moment.

Giardini Boboli

Up and over Ponte Vecchio (a bridge), and then we starting doing what Julie and I do best while traveling…wander. At the point when we thought our wandering had come to a dead end, a security guard convinced us that the park he was guarding was worth the euro that it would cost us to get in (normally this park would set you back 10 euros). So into the Giardini Boboli we go, and let me start by saying this was probably both mine and Julie’s favourite part of Florence…THANK YOU security guard! So we wandered through the gardens for a long time and eventually came out at a museum where there was a nice long lineup of people waiting to get in; if only they’d know to walk a little further and into the park first! Oh well…on we went, into the Cathedral, through Uffizi square, and then we attempted to go and see David. Well being as tho it was a holiday in Italy, the Museo Dell'Accademia (which houses David) was closed for the holiday. So we decided to head up to Piazza Michelangelo, where the views of Florence and the Tuscan region are amazing.

More Giardini Boboli & Rooftop view of Florence

Next it was off to dinner, where we treated ourselves to a 3-course meal complete with dessert and café. The server was in a hurry to get us out of there though, and before you know it we were on the streets again. Not wanting to go home because of our sketchy hosts, we wandered the streets and ended up at…you guessed it, the cathedral. So we took some pictures and then met an Aussie who wanted us to go to a pub crawl he worked for. We agreed that it would keep us out of the apartment longer and headed to the bar where everyone was gathered…and by everyone I mean 5 people. Once our host was gone, we left the bar to go get money and just never returned. We didn’t plan to escape, but we ended up getting distracted by a street performer in Uffizi square, who was giving an impromptu concert. The acoustics in the square were amazing and we ended up watching this guy for a good half hour before we decided it was probably safe to go back to the apartment.

Watching the street performer in Uffizi Square

When we got back, only Valentino was home, as Emanuele had gone to a party in the countryside (and nicely returned at 5am). So, we talked to Valentino (what an Italian name eh? This guy fits the bill of the most stereotypical Italian lover type, you know all hugs and poetry? Not like the Italians in NY, who are more Italian than those in Italy. HAHAHA If you've seen Russell Peters, you understand this joke) for awhile, before he decided to go get gelato and to look at the moon (at midnight til 2am, just gelato and the moon?) and we were able to go to bed. This is probably the point where we decided to officially peace out of Florence first thing in the morning (one day early) after seeing David.

Valentino - told you typical Italian

So up bright and early (we said goodbye to our hosts via a note, being considerate of the fact that they didn't go to bed until 5am and woke us up while doing so) to be one of the first 10 people in line (without tickets) to see the statue. We got in after probably a half hour wait, saw David, snuck a picture ("No Photos") and then headed to the train station for our long ride home; and when I say long, I mean WAY long.

David- the real one!

The regional train back only cost us 12.90 euros, but took 8 hours because we stopped at EVERY stop between La Spezia and Ventimiglia, including 12 stops in Genoa. This also wouldn’t be the last time we took this train (see Cinque Terra post once it's written). On this particular day it was extra torturous given that it was the first really warm beach day of the season and we were stuck on a train watching the beaches of the Italian Riviera pass us by. We made it home safely though, and with plenty of time to relax for a day before heading back to work on Monday.

Would you want to be on a 6 hour train when the weather looks like this?

Oh and I should also mention that we got a phone call from Jon and Ryan at 3am after we got home asking if we could come pick them up because they were walking back from Juan les Pins (23 km away from Nice). The fact that a) we didn’t have a car and b) they thought we were still in Rome, didn’t seem to concern either one of them! Thanks for thinking of us boys!

When in Vatican City....do as the Pope does?

Our next day in Rome began with an early wake-up and a trip to the Vatican to visit our bud Benedikt XVI! Unfortunately, there was a little communication error between us and he was busy... so we couldn't meet up - next time dude! I saw JPII (10m away) a handful of years ago, so I've seen the Pope... it wasn't that essential that Benny and I hung out this day.

"Pope! I know you're home! Come out and say hi!"

We were told to get there early because, well, it's the Vatican and it's busy! Yah well... so's the rest of Rome but we did alright hahaha. We thought we'd go and visit St. Peter's Basilica and the square to start our adventure... so we got in line. We thought the line was pretty long - it took us maybe 10-15 minutes to get through security and into the actual basilica... I guess that's short? I dunno.. but the basilica was full of tourist nuns and it was beautiful!

Ooh! St. Peter's Basilica from the front

Now here's a story. We were wandering through the basilica taking photos (no flash of course) and admiring the beauty all around us when we came upon the (glass) tomb of Pope John Paul II - remember him? Anywho, all of a sudden I felt an incredible heat/burning along my upper right stomach/rib area. "What the!?" I thought. I checked my satchel (if anyone knows the bag I carry around... well, it is my satchel. Yes, it's a fanny pack - but worn in a cool way by me so that it doesn't actually seem like a fanny pack...err bum bag. Don't worry, I wasn't a fanny-pack-toting-sweater-around-my-waist tourist that day... that was yesterday). Back to the burning... my satchel was BURNING HOT!! Thinking it was maybe my cell phone overheating, I freaked out "It's on fire! It's burning! It's HOT! I'm burning!" - maybe not something to be doing in such a holy place - but c'mon, it was burning!!!!! I tore into the bag and realized it wasn't the phone, it wasn't my camera.... it was... it was... here's a good time to point out that I carry spare batteries in my bag with me.... it was one of my spare batteries that just so conveniently exploded in a church. Problem solved! Did I forget to mention that April thought I had actually gone crazy during this whole episode? Well, she did. Thanks for your confidence... BEST friend. Mmmhmm...

Ju and her satchel covered in battery acid in St. Peter's Basilica

So anxious to find a trash can to clean out my satchel and toss out the battery (yes I know they are supposed to go in a toxic bin thing, but I don't think they had one anywhere nearby), we finished our tour of the basilica and headed out to the square. Not before a few photos though.

"Lookin' good ladies!", "Thanks Pope!"

By the time we left the basilica, it was maybe 9/9:30am and the lineup that we were in was now about 10x longer and the wait would probably be more like 1/1.5hrs - lucky us, sucky them. Unfortunately knowing our fate for the Vatican Museums, we venture forth, prepared for our long wait in line - luckily it was only 45 minutes!

In front of us in line, there were a group of Canadian husbands and wives (you can tell since all Canadian tourists wear Candian flags -duh). As I was talking to April, I kept saying things like "I wonder where they're from.... hmm maybe Toronto like everyone else" etc etc. in hopes that they would turn around and tell us where they were from. Luckily (clearly my plan worked), they turned around and asked where we were from. As we said London - they were taken aback because... well they hate London. No.. that's wrong - they were from London too - small world! So here we were in line with a thousand people and randomly the people in front of us were from London too - "NO WAY!" as the alpha male had declared. Astonishing.

After playing the "I'm a student - here's my UWO student card with no expiration date (yes!), now can I have the student discount - card", we were finally free to roam around. The museum was everything you could ever imagine - completely jam-packed with people so that you could barely move.... along with the idiots who don't turn the flash off on their cameras - seriously!? We waddled our way along to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel where there were surprisingly even more people - and security guards yelling "SHH! NO PHOTOS!". You would have never guessed you were in a chapel - I think I've heard less noise at concerts. Nevertheless, we snapped a couple of illegal shots and took off to avoid the rambunctious crowd.

Yes, we're the type of people who take photos when you're not supposed to.
No flash, don't worry.

We wandered a bit more and were satisfied with what we saw.. so we "peaced out" (get it?) and walked our way back through the streets of Rome to grab some lunch at the grocery store.

We sat just outside of a castle on a bench enjoying our lunch and the sunshine (normal, non?).... but definitely not enjoying the couple macking on each other across from us. OH WELL!! We each laid/lay/lied (stupid grammar) down and took a small nap only to wake up to see the couple across the way still going at it. Time to go.

Some more wandering, and on the way back to the metro station, we realized something was dripping from our little lulu bag. Drat! The jar of olives had busted open and the juice was everywhere. Just add it to list - I honestly blame the cats for the bad luck (if you only knew the extent of it - I forgot to mention a few details in Milan). We grabbed our packs and headed to the train station (not before going on a 45 minute walk to find gelato). We then boarded a packed full train... with people standing in the aisles and a dirty French boy with no space issues sitting beside April, we were off to Florence!

When in Rome.... do as the (most obvious title ever) Romans do

Oh Roma...... what a hectic start to this city!

Our flight arrived around 8pm and we had no place to stay when we got in. We were hoping for a couchsurfer to host us, but got no luck. A quick euro into the computer (yes 1 computer) at the tiny airport and we had 5 minutes to check our email and book a hostel. This 1 computer was very slow, and we had just enough time to write down directions to an available hostel hoping that they had room for us that evening. Luckily they did.. but only for 2 nights - we would have to adjust our plans a little... but it worked out in the end!

We grabbed a map and planned on getting up early the next morning to venture out into the city like only Apes 'n Ju know how - walk around til you see something interesting, check if it's free to get in, if not, snap some photos of the outside and move along.... but then again, there are free things too...

Apes at the Forum wishing it was free

Ju and a really large statue just hangin' out and Apes at the Pantheon

I would just like to point out the fact that April and I walked everywhere... except from the hostel to the main downtown area. That means, we spent, on average 7-10 hours a day walking... in sandals. We are champions!!

So when we were near the Colosseum (first thing in the morning), I sat down for a second in my white shorts... and then stood up only to realize that I had sat in bird turd. GREAT! Now here I was in Rome with bird doo doo on my bum - what to do? I had to be "supercool", yes I say that in quotes.... and tie my sweater around my waist. So not only was I a tourist in Rome, I was a cool tourist too. YAH! Jealous?

Cool tourist Ju with her awesome sweater tied around her waist

Moving along... so we saw this big pit construction-looking thing and a man leading a tourist group through it... other than the tourist group there was no one else there (well, some little Asian man trying to sell sunglasses, but that's beside the point). We thought "What a joke! This man is leading this group through nothing!". We took a photo of them for fun and proceeded along the way, later realizing that this giant "waste of space" in our eyes was actually Circus Maximus. OOPS!! Our bad. As you may now realize, Apes 'n Ju aren't the brightest tools in the shed! To our credit though, "The site is now a public park and retains little evidence of its former use". Thank you Wikipedia.

The tourist group at Circus Maximus

As the day progressed, we started to get hungry! Mmm food... we found a small grocery store off of the main strip and bought delicious cheese, apples, yogurt, and red bull - a feast fit for a queen... or two cheap backpackers. We then decided that we were going to find a lovely spot outside to eat it all! We wandered around looking for where the best place would be, and stumbled across a crapload (refer to the definition of a crapload in April's previous post) of people... "So THESE are the Spanish Steps!" hahahaha. What a perfect place to dine! Apes 'n I hiked up close to the top, plopped ourselves down on the steps and began to feast on our exquisite lunch. Ten minutes in, an angry security guard approached us and says "NO MANGIARE! NO EAT!"... boo! So we packed our things and moved up further... to discover that there is an amazing panorama of the city! What an even better place to eat! So that we did.

The Spanish Steps AND a crapload of people

While wrapping up our meal and enjoying the breathtaking view, a small entourage came near and needed us to move over a bit. No problemo!! It was a photo shoot hahahaha - with a male model! Zoolander would have a hey day! :) Look for this ad in upcoming fall magazines:

It's hard to be that ridiculously good-looking

To steer clear of the craploads of people (which we tend to not enjoy), we discovered the Borghese park - so beautiful and so massive!! I think we spent at least 2 hours in there and still didn't see it all. And when we wanted to leave, we kinda got lost - but that's just what happens when you're Apes 'n Ju!

Off to the Trevi Fountain!! In a small sqaure in Rome there is a giant fountain - literally taking up half of the square - and guess what takes up the other half!? You've got it -PEOPLE! People from all over the world!! But we wanted to get right down to the water so we could toss a coin in - out came the French in us as we pushed a shoved our way to the front! YAY! We each tossed a coin in, snapped some photos, and left the crowd just as viciously as we'd entered it!

Tossin' a coin in the Trevi Fountain for good luck!

We thought we'd seen enough for the day, so we made our way back to hostel, bought some groceries and proceeded to have some wine and cook risotto in the microwave (no flames allowed). It turned out amazing and the hostel-goers were impressed. We spent some time chatting with a nice guy from California and fun chap from England! April also had a reunion with one of the girls that was at the same hostel as her in Porto - small world indeed!!

Fabulous Rome - an early morning meant off to bed so we could head to the Vatican the next day!

Venezia aka Venice, Italy!

On a cold and cloudy Monday two girls take a train from Milan to Venice. After getting rid of their luggage and tricking the men into thinking that they only have 1 backpack instead of two, and purchasing a city map (2.50 euros = tourist rip off) they head out of the Train Station to discover the Grand Canal and a crapload of people. And by crapload, I mean THOUSANDS, most of which are gray-haired and following people carrying flowers, i.e. tourist groups. Deciding that the plan of attack should be to get away from the "tourists" as fast as possible, they head for a bridge, but not before getting distracted by a Patisserie. Bread stuffed with green olives and cheese? Count these girls in! 7.50 euros later (1.80 euro per 100g...tricky Italians), they're over a bridge and taking lots of pictures.

Then it happens, the rain kicks in and lots of it. Being that the city is AT sea level, more water poses a problem to this small city. Oh well, these girls aren't made of sugar and won't melt (after all they haven't had an umbrella or rain coat in the 6 months they've lived in Europe, why start now?). They continue on their unconventional tour of the city. Heading in the direction of Piazza San Marco via the Rialto Bridge, they finally cave and purchase a 5 euro umbrella. After all, what fun is it to be soaking wet and miserable in the City of Water?

List of "to sees" in Venice:

• Piazza San Marco - check
• Doge's Palace - check
• Bascilica San Marco - check (the girls will actually go inside at a later time thanks to the LONG lines)
• Campanile di San Marco - check
• Biblioteca Marciana - check
• Grand Canal - check again, oh but this time it's starting to flood the shore and all the gondolas are tied up!
• Bridge of Sighs- check and covered with a GIANT advertising campaign for Chopard watches.

The girls continue to wander for a few hours before deciding that it's best to go sit in a coffee shop and dry off a little, while mapping out where they still need to go in the city. Oh, and one of them needs to go to the bathroom really badly (*cough* Julie *cough* Didn't you're mother ever teach you to go BEFORE you leave the house? LOL).

After a good break, they're off again. Is this the best idea? Probably not considering the wind has picked up considerably and they're walking along the shore. This is the part of the story where I'm sad to report that the 5 euro umbrella starts to break and the girls are driven into hysterical laughter while people walk by and stare.

They can't let this little setback deter their plans however, so off they go to see some churches (there are some 97 odd churches in Venice, you ain't getting the names of the ones we saw, cause even we don't know them!). Before long, these two girls find themselves back in Piazza San Marco, and one of them gets the bright idea that the other should feed a pigeon while she takes a picture. Après, they head into the Basilica, but don't stay long thanks to the hundreds of people who never seemed to learn that it's not nice to push.

Off and running again, they head in the direction opposite of all the tourists and proceed to get lost in "suburban" Venice (or just the part where people actually live and tourists don't venture). Oh well it's an experience, and once they find themselves back on the main streets, they hit up a Gelateria as a treat!

To the train station they go, and into the tiny town of Preganziol, where they will be staying for the night. This town has one restaurant that is open, and despite being a little more fancy than what they are dressed for (being as they are soaking wet and have been wearing almost the same clothes for 4 days now), they eat pizza and pasta there anyways. They stay with a nice girl named Lucia, who's a little "off", but still lots of fun.

Day two for these girls is pretty chill (because they've seen most of what they came to see) and thanks to the rain finally stopping, they are able to throw out the broken umbrella and see some Gondola rides in progress. They also head to Murano on a waterbus to see where all the Murano glass is made (i.e. those too expensive to use glass blowing pieces). This trip costs them 13 euros each thanks to the expensive waterbus tickets that no one checked. At lunch time, they eat crackers, cheese, salami, and fruit that they bought at the grocery store and they feed a mangy cat and pigeon that seem to be unlikely friends.

Sadly 3:00pm rolls around and the girls must head out of the city to catch a flight. This is easier said than done, as they miss their stop on the train and arrive at the airport 15 minutes before their flight is scheduled to board. This isn't a problem however, as these girls are experienced travelers and they catch their flight to Rome with time to spare.

The end.

On and on and on.... we are now in Milan

CHOO CHOO!!

Off on another adventure - and this one's by train!
CHOO CHOO!

April and I arrived in Milan on Friday, April 24, 2009 around 1pm... with plenty of time to kill before we are to meet up with our couchsurfing host, Matt. So, out and about we went... to stroll the streets of Milan without a clue (as per usual).

Knowing very well that Milan itself is not a very popular tourist destination, we weren't really expecting much. April had written down a few sights to see, but our goals for the visit were a little different. We wandered with our packs for about 3 hours... from visiting the Duomo church, to the Giardini Pubblica - we saw it all haha. No, literally that was all we saw! On the way into the park, we passed through this castle-ish thing, and inside the moat we saw a cat. This was cat the first of our journey - with many more to come. It turned out that cats are NOT good luck.

Duomo church on the left, the evil cat that started it all on the right

Inside the garden (giardini), there were numerous Italian couples.... we're in Italy, so I can let you imagine what we saw going on. We had a lovely stroll and used the immaculate toilet facilities that were provided - don't forget to bring your own TP! :)

Classiest toilets in all of Milan - hey, at least we didn't have to pay for them!

By the time we had seen it all, it was about 5:30/6pm and we had to head out to meet Matt. Matt lives in a small suburb of Milan - about 7km from the city's centre - on a dairy farm! We hopped on the metro and then on the bus - ready for Matt to greet us at a gas station. Expecting some dude in a car to show up, we are kinda creeped out by this guy that says hi to us on a bicycle... turns out, that's HIM! Hahaha - oops! Only now realizing that the farm is right behind the gas station, we stroll the 5 mins to his apartment.

We got a tour of the dairy farm - chickens, chicks, a pony, a donkey, cows, calves, an angry bull, and a 3-legged dog later, we are back inside cooking dinner and preparing for our adventurous Saturday.

Apes 'n Ju with baby cows!

One big problem arose - turns out that April 25 is a national holiday and pretty much everything is closed down.. along with limited public transit. After some quick deciphering, we find that the best thing to do is to walk to the nearest train station (6km away) to catch our train to Cossato - where we need to be by noon so we could make our appointment at 1pm. So Apes 'n I head out at 8am on our 1.5hr hike to a small town called Rho. Once we got there, however, we had no clue where the station was! After a little jogging and talking to the locals we finally made it with barely any time to spare.

Cossato

We arrived around 10:30am - just enough time to head to the grocery store, get some food for lunch and then march the 10km to where we needed to be. Luckily the grocery store was open (for the morning anyway), so we purchased enough food for lunch and dinner that day. So, like I said, we were going to walk 10km to get to our appointment, but after talking with a clerk at the store, we realized where we needed to be was actually 25km away - yah, we're not hiking that thanks! By now, it was 11:30 - so we ate our lunch til around noon and decided that we would call a cab. Just to reiterate: the town of Cossato is very small.... it's a Saturday...AND it's a national holiday... you do the math. Needless to say, it was quite a feat... 1. Trying to reach a cab company on the phone. 2. Trying to speak Italian (when you don't know the language) to a cab company on the phone 3. Trying to get another Italian-speaking person to speak to a cab company on the phone.

April unimpressed by our 4 hour hiatus in Cossato

By now it's 1pm, our appointment time has passed and we have no cab. We call our "appointment" and after another hour of calling back and forth, they tell us that a cab is on the way. 30 minutes pass and a kind sir shows up and takes us where we needed to be - 50€ later that is. Boo.

We ended up waiting about another 2 hours before it was our turn to go... to go where you may ask? Well, see for yourself:

All that hassle just for that!! Hahaha... what an experience though! Phew! April claims that mine was more of a fall than a jump, but I beg to differ... the photos prove that it was the other way around.

Jump or fall? Okay, I think we both fell.... let's check out the video replay

We luckily made it back in time to catch the next train to Milan at 7:15pm, and ate our glorious sandwiches on the train. Getting back to Matt's place turned to be a difficult task since the bus we needed changes stops depending on the day.. and well, we ended up at the wrong one (obviously) based on instructions from our host. Thankfully we had our cell phone and Matt had the Internet.... and well, we got home.... eventually, and basically went to bed to gear up for a football-filled Sunday.

Sunday... if the name of this day couldn't be more opposite....

You've all heard that David Beckham was on loan to AC Milan for the remainder of the season right? SO DID WE.... and who so happened to be playing on Sunday? You guesssed it!! Our mission for Sunday - AC Milan vs. Palermo football game at San Siro Stadium! Woot woot. Too bad it poured rain literally ALL DAY. Blegh. The walk to the game (an hour) was a cold and wet one indeed, but we made it!! Now if only Eurpeans knew how to queue properly... then there wouldn't have been such a disgusting mob at the ticket counter full of cigarette-toting, beer-drinking fans. Boo!

San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy - oh and David Beckham's bottom!

AC Milan ended up winning the match 3-0... and we ended up getting our glance at Becks - yes Amber, you are jealous.

After the match, Apes 'n I headed down to the canal area for some dinner... and YES it was still raining. The restaurant that looked appealing did not take credit cards, so it was our mission to find an ATM. It only took 45 minutes - that's quick in European time haha - ya right! Back to dinner - it was a lovely meal, with lovely wine, and lovely homemade gnocco fritto - not gnocchi, gnocco. Look it up!

Gnocco Fritto!

Encountering yet ANOTHER bus problem - the 10pm bus never showed up!! AH! We had to wait an hour at the bus station for the next one! Finally one shows up, we wait around a bit.. watch a gang come on the bus and try to start a fight with this guy in a pink shirt....bus driver finally notices and kicks them off... and ahhhhh we're headed back to the farm for a good night's sleep before heading off to Venice the next day! No big deal.