Here’s the thing about Italy: It is as amazing as everyone says. The food, the people, the landscape, everything. Although I was by myself (because I went after my academic program ended and after everyone else had run out of money), it didn’t matter so much because I had Italy to keep me company. I am so happy I saved this trip for last.
The first destination in my two-week Italy tour was Milan, strictly because flights there were cheap. A lot of people told me how ugly Milan is… and they were right. It seems like a city in black and white; every car is gray, black, silver or white. Even the major attraction, the Duomo (which, I will admit, is striking) is made of white marble. In general, it seems like a place where people actually do work, which so NOT Italy.
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| The Duomo of Milan |
Despite the unpleasant city landscape, I had some amazing food in Milan. Almost every restaurant, trattoria or bakery I went to in Italy was based on recommendations through people I knew or online. I know, I know, so NOT spontaneous and in line with the Italian lifestyle. My mindset was (and is after the success of my research) I was in the culinary capital of the world, so I didn’t want to mess it up.
The Pizza I ate at Spontini was a delicious pan pizza style, cooked in a brick oven with perfectly browned mozzarella cheese and some lovely Italian men serving it. The gelato I had near the Duomo, complete with a pool of melted milk chocolate in the bottom of the cone and real pieces of pistachio in the gelato was incredible. The extra dark chocolate gelato at Grom, a family owned chain where everything is made by hand, was, frankly, pseudo-orgasmic. Both the spicy ham and parmesan and the ricotta and spinach panzerottis I had at Panzerotti Luini were worth much more than the 2 each euro they cost.
In addition to eating my face off, I also got to see the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. The process of viewing the painting, located in a church with nothing else of interest, was, well, a process. First, I had to make a reservation for a specific time three weeks in advance. When I got there, I had to wait in a room to be let into a waiting area, then wait there to be let into an airtight room, THEN led into the room where the Last Supper is held. Of course, the painting itself is very impressive and I was happy to have an audio-guide explain the process of its restoration and why it is such an important piece of art. Thanks Rick Steves free itunes audio-tours!
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Obviously NOT a real picture of The Last Supper (even I couldn't break those photo rules)
but it looks exactly like this, down to the damaged part at J-dog's legs and feet. |
I was very happy to leave and Milan and go somewhere I KNEW was beautiful: the Cinque Terre. Cinque terre means five lands in Italian and it consists of five villages on the sides of cliffs facing the Mediterranean Sea.
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| Monterosso, Italy in the CInque Terre |
While staying in Monterosso, I became friends with a gelateria owner and he invited me to help make gelato for his store the next morning (oddly asking literally nothing in return)! If you can call helping taste-testing every flavor as it came out of the gelato maker, I definitely assisted a whole lot. While fresh-made gelato doesn’t exactly sound like it would be anything more special than 5-hour old gelato, I can assure you it IS. Every flavor was the best gelato I had ever eaten.
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| Making Stracciatella gelato |
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| Caprese NOMMMMM |
The hike between all the towns is 10KM and includes a lot of cliff-side and aerial views of these beautiful villages. Everything I read about the hike said it is physical and you have to be athletic to do it. No problem; I’m totally athletic! Well it turns out, a year in Europe had caused me to deteriorate into a much less athletic state than to which I was accustomed. Let’s just say the amount of sweat involved in this hike was… excessive.
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| Vernazza, Italy |
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| Vernazza, Italy |
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| Pesto comes from the Cinque Terre originally. Score. |
Although there were an unnatural amount of tourists (especially Americans) in the Cinque Terre, it still had a neighborhood feel. Even all the baseball caps, mom-cargo shorts, and chubby adolescents could not distract from Cinque Terre’s charm and beauty.
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| Riomaggiore, Italy. Favorite. |
After Cinque Terre, it was off to Milan for one night, then in the morning to…. VENICE. I feel like every time I say VENICE there should be chimes and a little melody to go along with it. This place is just that magical. When you walk out of Santa Lucia train station, you see the grand canal immediately, it’s like a slap of beauty right to the face... and it hurts so good. Even though I think everyone knows Venice is a city built on water, it’s hard to believe to what extent it is really on/in the water. Let’s just say the homes, hotels, and restaurants on the grand-canal look like they are literally floating, the bottom a little green just like a dock in a river. It literally looks unreal.
Unfortunately, Venice is as expensive as it is beautiful, which kept this city from being one of my favorites. I feel like Italy, especially Venice, takes advantage of its destination status and over-charges visitors for museum-entrances, transportation and food. Apart from making me more broke, I started to resent the country’s tourism industry tactics. With that said, NOTHING could undermine the beauty of Italy’s cities.
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In a traghetto gondola (which costs 0.50 euro cents per person instead of 80 euro per boat.
I guess this makes it a trag(ically poor and)ghetto? |
I headed to Burano, via Murano, for a half day. Murano is an island off the main land famous for glass-blowing. I got to see a free glass-blowing display in a room that was about 110 degrees, and ran away before they tried to pressure me into buying anything (as if anyone could pressure me into buying something).
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| Murano Glass factories |
Thankfully, the rain stopped just before I reached Burano, an old fisherman’s village with brightly colored houses. The special look of this island is so important, in fact, that anyone who wants to paint his or her home must have the color approved by the government.
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| Burano, Italy |
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| Appropriate outfit for the occasion |
The next day, I explored the main island of Venice, ate gelato for lunch, peaked in the hundreds of stores with carnival masks and blown glass, and got lost amongst the canals.
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| Free entrance to a store with ugly souvenirs. Awesome! Thanks! |
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| St. Marks's Square |
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| PASTA |
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| Carnival masks in Venice |
There truly is no place like Venice and it is somewhere you MUST see before you die… or before it sinks.
I boarded yet another train for Florence and practically s soon as I arrived, I fell in love with the Duomo, engineered by Brunelleschi. It is the largest dome in the world made of a brick and even though some say the green, pink and white facade is excessive, I think it provides a stark and interesting contrast with the deep, warm brick. Basically… Florence Cathedral exterior= So. Amazing. We won’t talk about the interior or how long of a line I had to wait into see how disappointing it was.
As if this centerpiece to the city were not enough, Florence has a ludicrous collection of art, famous dead people and cheap food.
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| Pizza by weight. THATSWHATIMTALKINABOUT. |
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| Gelateria dei Neri. Best gelato I had in Italy. |
I visited the Uffizi Gallery first and was so happy I got a reservation online, since the wait in line was an estimated 2 hours (!!!!!). This gallery has the biggest collection of renaissance art in the world, most notably (in my opinion), it holds The Birth of Venus by Boticelli and Medusa by Caravaggio. I took an art break to have a beef, parmesan and arugula panino with chianti wine at ‘Ino, an AMAZING sandwich place near the Ponte Vecchio.
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| Ponte Vecchio Bridge |
Next, it was time to go to L’Accademia and meet The David. I had heard so much about him and while waiting in the reservation line, it was hard to contain my excitement. I hoped his butt was as beautiful in person as it was in pictures.
I couldn’t have prepared myself for the sculpture I saw at the end of the hallway of “slaves” by Michaelangelo. DAVID IS BEAUTIFUL. The sculpture is so multifaceted and even though every angle, vein, curve seems so calculated, Michelangelo carved David free-hand (like all of his statues), as opposed to with a certain plan like most other sculptors. Michelangelo used to say “every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
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| Totally illegal picture. Totally worth the scolding I got. |
While in Florence, I took a day trip to Pisa, an easy hour train ride away. I have to admit, I was incredibly tired, and cultured-out, so I just saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa, took some pictures and ate lunch (albeit a FANTASTIC lunch at Antica Trattoria il Campano - homemade spaghetti with parmesan, tomatoes, garlic and olive oil) before going back to Florence.
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| It's the one leaning, not me. |
There is so much to see in Florence: Santa Croce Church (where Michelangelo is buried), Piazza Michelangelo (where the bronze David is displayed), Piazza della Signorina (where a ridiculous amount of sculptures stand) Pitti Palace (the unfinsihed Medici palace) and too many churches to name. The student vibe and walkability of the city reminded me so much of Boston, giving me just a tinge of home-sickness. It came just in time though, because I would be meeting my mom in the next city, ROME.
