Amalfi Coast

Today was a driving day where we drove through the long and windy road along the coast which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The drive was really nice and it was a clear day so we had a fantastic views. We stopped in 2 towns along teh way. In the first town as I was walking through the touristy shops I stopped and smelled an incredible smell of baked goods. I followed my nose and ended up eating a delicious ball of lemon cake stuffed with lemon custard coated with a lemon frosting and topped with some lemon rind -absolutely amazing.

On the drive back to Rome they played a very famous academy award winning Italian movie - Life is Beautiful - one of the best. It also managed to downpour in Rome and on the way back we were on the bus, so that makes 3 times that I totally missed rain on ths trip!

Island of Capri

We took a boatride to the Island of Capri. It is about 18 square kilometers so it is quite small. The boat ended up taking us all the way around the island so we were able to take in all the sites. We got off the boat and had 5 hours to explore. We took a cab up to a chairlift that took us to a lookout point over the island. The chairlift was a single person chairlift thatclimbs almost 600 meters in elevation and its duration is 14 minutes. The ride up offered some amazing views and they keep getting better as we got higher. The view from the lookout was breathtaking. On the way back down I enjoyed the views again as I ate my sandwhich. It was a great combination - awesome views and awesome sandwhich.

After the chairlift I walked out to a villa of an ancient emporor which also had a fantastic view. I was then introduced to a new Australian craze called planking. Planking is the act of lying down completely flat (like a plank, duh!) on an odd object or interesting location and taking a picture. Once you have the pic you upload it for the world to see.

My best attempt at planking

I had some amazing gelato and lemon cookies before heading back to boat and back to Sorrento. When we sat down to eat dinner it began to pour cats and dogs. Luckily by the time we were done the rain had stopped (second time this trip I avoided the rain!).

Pompei

I took a 3 day Busabout tour of souther Italy heading to Pompei, Sorrento, the Island of Capri and the Amalfi Coast. The bus was mostly split between Canadians and Australians and I was surprised that there wasn't a single American! Our first stop was Pompei which was an ancient Roman city that was bruried under 7 meters of ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The city was extremely well preserved and they are still continueing with its excavations. We took a 2 hour long tour and were able to see some of the enormous city. When the ash came and burried the city the people were frozen in time and their skeletons were preserved in shape and now their moulds are on display. The highlights we saw were 2 amphitheaters, a bathhouse, the forum and even a brothel! All the locations were excellently preserved. The brothel was hilarious - it had sex pictures on the wall that were still preserved. There were even direction throughout the city pointing towards the nearest brothel . The engravements on the walls and floors were of a penis that was used instead of an arrow to direct people to the brothel.

All sorts of artifacts including a dude!

From Pompei we were off to Sorrento where we were to spend the next 2 nights. There wasn't much to do in Sorrento buch check out the awesome view of the coast. The thing that makes Sorrento and this part of the country famous are its lemons, which are humormous - humungous and enormous. From these lemons they make all sorts of pasteries, candies or a lemon liquor called lemonchello, which is quite nice.

View from Sorrento

When in Rome...

After waking up on the wrong side of the train I tried finding my hostel in the hopes I could leave my bag there for the day before I was scheduled to check in. My hostel was only a 10 minute walk from the train station if you walk there in a direct route. It took me 35 minutes to get close to and confused enough about the location to the point where I called the hostel to speak to them ehre is the ensuing transcript of our converstaion:

Me (A): Bonjourno, I'm trying to get to the hostel and I'm a bit lost. I'm at the intersection of X and Y, can you please direct me to the hostel.

Idiot Hostel Worker (I): Where?

A: Street X and Street Y.

I: umm... I don't know where that is.

A: STREET X AND STREET Y!!!!

I: yes, street X.

A: yes, okay - street X AND street Y.

I: yes, on street X.

A: yes, I have the address of the hostel and I know its on street X but how do I get there from here?

I: Where are you?

A: STREET X AND STREET Y!!!!!

I: I don't konw where that is. You have to go back to the train station and...

A: No! I'm not going to the train station. I am literally 2 minutes away from the damn hostel and I want to know how to get there for X and Y!

I: You must go along street X.

A: I have been on street X for 10 minutes! Where do I go from X and Y?

I: Turn left.

A: WHAT??!?!?!?!

At this point I said okay and hung up the phone beacuse the direction 'turn left' can make me turn in any of the 4 directions. Looks like I'm on my own. I immediately found some touristy looking people who happened to be tourists staying at the same hostel. They directed me 50 meters down the street and up to the second floor of a building that did not have the name of the hostel on the outside. It sounds sketchy, but it wasn't - just poor marketing and signage.

I dropped off my bag, relaxed a bit and then headed out with a map and explored Rome. My first stop was about a 10 minute walk form the hostel - the Colloseum! This was by far the highlight in Rome. I took a tour of the colloseum and they covered the interesting history of it. One of the many things I didn't know what that the colloseum was built by Jews who were enslaved by the Romans.

The colloseum

After the colloseum I spent the remainder of the day walking around the city on my own and seeing the sites. Many of the nice and famous buildins were churches named after 'so and so' and statues of 'that guy'; not terribly exciting walking around the city not knowing whats up. I walked around the Jewish ghetto and saw the synagogue. This one was of Italian influence and extremely different than those in Florence and Venice.

After a long day I headed back to the hostel for a nap. In the evening the hostel did not dissapoint when its opening info line on its description was 'if you don't like to party don't stay here.' After hanging out in the hostel until about 130AM the managerwho was chiling with us politely encouraged us to go find a bar. This was after he had alrady received his second call warning him that the police had been called. After less than 2 minutes of searchingfor a bar we decided to change plans and head to the Trevi Fountain. Much hilarity ensues and I got to see the Trevi Fountain without the mobs of tourists.

Trevi Fountain

The next day I took innercity transportation for the first time this trip to the Vatican. Not too many interesting things going on over there - I saw the main square and walked into the Church. The interesting part of the morning was the converstation I had with the 2 British couples who I stood in line with for a half an hour to get into the church. I learned that Brits are rediculously politically correct. I learned that pets get offended if they are not called animal companions. If there are nay pets that read my blog I just want to say I do not give a crap if you have been offended by any of my blog content. The term sly as a fox and the nursery rhyme ba ba black sheep are also off limits.

From the Vatican I walked back to the hostel via the remaining few landmarks I hadn't seen. On my walk back I was quite sure I saw the pope out of the corner of my eye and that Barack Obama and Albert Einstein were on the pope's side. After a double take I realized I was misten and it was Obama in between the pope and Einstein. Wax museum! I got back to the hostel to grab my bags and move to a campsite right outside the city where I would catch my 3 day tour the next day.

Venice

I don't know much Italian but I'm going to say that I'm quite sure that Venice translate to 'maze' in English. Once I got off the train I started wondering around. Venice was really neat - nothing like I had seen before - no cars! There were a lot of boats and a ton of canals at every turn. Quickly I had ended up finding myself on the way to the Jewish Ghetto. One good thing about Venice is that the main attractions and bridges have sings well posted on the walls in order to direct you. The bad news is that just because you might see a sign does not mean your anywhere close. The signs will send you turning at every corner for about 10 minutes until you manage to get to that destination. I walked around the Ghetto for a bit and followed around some Hebrew speaking tours.

I realized it could take me quite a while to find my hostel, and I was ready to get rid of my bag. I started to wander again until I got to the grand canal where I was able to take a boat to my hostel whichw as on a different island just off the main south island. On my wandering journey I witnessed something that I found to be quite funny. I only laugh because I can relate to it when my tank was getting stuck in the mud. I saw a boat sink! I'm guessing it was the owner and some sort of fireman/first responders that were looking on not really knowing what to do. I wonder how often taht happens in Venice but it totally sucks to be that guy!

I left my bag in the hostel and continued to explore. I was recommended to check out the Island of Burano, so thats where I headed. It was about a 40 minute boatride from the main island and it felt a lot less crowded and touristy. It had the look of Venice with the canals but the buildings and homes were painted flourescent colours - and each one a new colour! I found Duff beer in one of the shops and I absolutely had to try one. If it hasn't clicket yet - it's Homer Simpson's beer of choice. It wasn't that great of a beer, but the important thing to note is that I drank a Duff beer. Random fact - Duff beer is brewed in Germany.

The streets of Burano

After Burano I went to Murano, which is famous for their beatiful glass blowing. I got there late in the afternoon so there weren't any people working on the glass but I walked into the stores. Some of the things they made were awesome, but aside from that ther was nothing else to see on that island. I wasn't terribly impressed. I spent the rest of the afternoon using the public transit as a tourboat. It took me around the periphery of the entire city as well as up the grand canal.

The industrial area of Venice

Bridge over the grand canal

The thing to do in Venice is just to get lost. Wander the city without a map and explore. You only run into a problem when you actually need to get somehwere specific. After dinner I took a boat back to my hostel (they run like public busses). The drections to the hostel were simple - get off the boat at the CORRECT stop turn right, walk about 80 meters and then I'm there. It was about 10PM and I was ready to get back to the hostel. I asked to get off at the stop Zutoppi and someone corrected me and said Zaputi and I said yah. I got off at the stop, turned right and walked my 80 meters only to not find my hostel. Hmm... Retraced my steps, looked at the boat stop and realized that my stop was actulaly Zuppoti - not Zapputi or the mispronounced Zuttopi. So I ask someone for directions to the other station and they point and say down there. I walk for a good length of time and don't find anything or anyone who knew anything. Maybe somehow I had already passed it. I backtracked until I found someone who told me that the orignally I was in fact heading in the right direction, so I turned around again. Shortly thereafter I bumped into other lost tourists, but they had a map! They didn't havea clue where the station was but they did provide me with a critical piece of info. After having been lost for about an hour I found out that i was on the wrong island!!! That revelation was followed by a long series of swear words and negative remarks towards the city of Venice. I walked all the way back to the boat station and ended up heading to my correct stop which was across the water. I also realized that when people told me that the boat stop I needed was 'over there' they were correct; they failed ot mention that in order to get 'over there' I had to take a boat to a different land mass! After about an hour and I half I finally made it back to my hostel.

The next day I went to the main square and entered the cathedral. Walked around and got lost again until I eventually found my way to the Jewish Ghetto where I took a tour. The Jewish Ghetto is the first ghetto in the world founded in 1516. The ghetto was locked up at night and Jews were only allwoed to hold one of the following professions - money lenders, second hand clothing salesman and doctors. (Some people wonder why so many Jews are in banking and doctors). Since the ghetto was such a small area the Venetian skyscrapers are located there. There are not many tall buildings in Venice, but these ones are 8 storeys high. In fact, they have shorter ceilings so they can fit in more room without in fact building much taller.

I hung out in the area for the rest of the day until I caught my night train from Venice to Rome. I expected the night train to be similar to the night train-train-bus-train-train I had taken earlier - it was not and in a bad way. So the ngiht train happened to be a real night train where people had assigned seats. So because I wasn't aware of this, I did not get a seat. There ended up being fold out chairs that folded out of the side of the train and into the aisle. When I sat down I took up 80% of the tiny aisle and was therefore frequently interrupted by people passing through the aisle. My ticket ordering ignorance led to me only catching less than 3 hours of unconsecutive sleep that I was not prepared for.

Cinque Terra: The Stairmaster From Hell

I woke up at 830 and realized I forgot to charge my camera! Big oops. That delayed my start time for longer than expected but it allowed me to take my time getting ready. I even managed to bump into a friend from university that I havne't seen in 4 years. The forecast called for rain throughout the day, but it had only rained early in the morning . By the time I had woken up it was only clouds and a bit cold. After I had finished my hike I found out that it had rained in the last village in the afternoon, but I never would have guessed it. Venice to the east (and also my next destination) was also hit hard by rain. This would be the first time but not the last time this vacation where I avoided the rain.

By 10AM I began my hike of Cinque Terra. It is a network of 5 villages located on the coast which are connected by train (and now train). The hike is magnificent and it has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. There is a main trail and several secondary trails that are longer and more difficult.

The first hike was a piece of cake. It was a stroll along a coastal boardwalk which only took 15 minutes and it was super crowded by groups of slow people. Once at the second village, the main trail was closed due to landslides so you either had to take the 2.5 hour alternate hike or catch the train to the next village. This is where the real hike bag. I started walking up the steep road until I got to the steps which continued for a long enough workout on the stairmaster. Along the way I met a nice couple from the states and decided to slow my pace beacuse I wasn't seeing too many people on the trail and I needed a photagrapher. Most of the people had opted to take the train instead of the alternate hike. The hike was totally worth it as it offered some great almost birds eye views of the two villages.

Manarola - the 2nd village

Corniglia - the 3rd village

Once I was close to the third village I made my first wrong turn. Somehow I ended up down at the train station instead of the village itself. Once I got back to the point where I had turned I was greeted by a sign that said 'CONGRAGULATIONS! you have climbed 382 steps, you are in Corniglia, the center of Cinque Terra. WELCOME'. FML. I grabbed a pizza for lunch then made my way down to the marina hoping that there would be a good view - there wasn't. I wouldn't have walked up one step for the view - I did MANY more! The hikes to village 4 and 5 I did alone and was able to go at my stupidly fast pace. These walks carried the same theme - great views and tons of stairs.

Vernazza - the 4th village

I hike the 5 villages but my day wasn't done there. Beyond the last village was a cliff peak that I was told had an amazing view. After hiking for the better part of 7 hours it was anotehr very intense 30 minute stairmaster with the speed on fast. The view was totally worth it but by the time I had gotten back to the hostel I had hiked for the better part of 9 hours! That is what happens when I only give myself one day to see Cinque Terra. Most people I met on the way were spending 2 or 3 days there, not one. My legs felt like Jell-O and I was off to catch my night train-train-bus-train-train to Venice. A train-train-bus-train-train is the series of vehicles I took to eventually end up in Venice 11 hours later at 9AM. Fun fact about the train station in Florence - it is closed between the hours of 3-4AM. I was surprsied to find out that it didn't operate 24 hours a day as it was a major hub in the country.

The things I will do for a picture... Monterosso -the 5th village and San Antonio, the mountain I climbed to the left of the village.

The view from San Antonio and the view of the entire hike!

Tuscany on crack

Today was my day of putting a check mark on the places I went to. I never intended to do anything at any of the places - just see them as quickly as posible because I had to check into my hostel in Cinque Terra before 6PM. The places I went to were ones that I was told that there really wasn't anything to do there, just to walk around and take some pictuers is enough. So my day started with a 530AM train to Sienna.Sienna is a very Gothic city. I walked around at a stupidly fast rate and managed to see the popular sites. Personally, I didn't like the city. You probably will say thats because I did it at 730AM on a Saturday and beacuse of that htere were no people, or that I walked it in an hour and did not actually stop to appreciate it. However, I simply did not like the dark gothic architecture. Aside from all the major sites in the city I saw a sign for the Sinagoga Ebraica - the Jewish synagogue. I followed the sings and boy was it difficult ot find. Aside from a placque in Italian with 2 lines of Hebrew there were no other indications of a synagogue or Jewish building of any kind. The building was not a stand alone and it was connected to other appartment buildings (I think). I managed ot catch an earlier train out of Sienna by half an hour and headed to my next destination - Pisa with a train transfer back in Florence.

Once off the train in Pisa I had enough time to slow my pace down to a brisk walk. The streets were narrow and every building a different colour. It kinda felt like Florence with fewer tourists. I got to the leaning tower and it was really leaning! I took a bunch of pictures and walked around the area as there was a huge cathedral next to the tower. I bumped into 2 other Canadians from Calgary who happen to also be engineers - one of them a civil and he was able to give me an explanation of why its leaning and hasn't fallen over. It was built on crappy soil and it started to sink. The construction was interrupted due to a bunch of wars. The tower continues to sink but over time its rate of sinking slowed down. Once the construction continued the addional weight of the tower only had a minimal effect on the amount of sinking that could continue. I got back to the train having checked off Pisa and was off to Lucca.

The reason for going to Pisa

Lucca is a city enclosed in a 12 meter high wall. There is a paved road along the wall where you can walk, jug, bike, collerblade, etc. around it and get great views of the city wintin and the greenery in the distance. The train schedule provided me with one houra nd 10 minutes in Lucca. However if I could knock it down to an hour my next train ride would be 40 minutes shorter. So off I went, without time to physically stop to take a picture I powered through the walk around half the city then I had to cut through the city streets to get back to the train in time. I was cutting it REALLY close. I bet your wondering how close is REALLY close. Well it means that after a non stop power walk with my 12kg bag I had about a 400 meter sprint into the terminal, run to the ticket desk straight to the front of the line and ask in a panting voice which platform I needed. I ran to the platform just as the train doors were opening. Later I bumpued into other people whohad been to Lucca and they said that the second half of the city was much like the first half (no surprise there), therefore I wasn't terribly upset that I only saw half of it. It was however a very nice town and I was glad I stopped there.

I ended up in Cinque Terra at about 430PM which was earlier than I had anticipated. If your doing the math, ya I was just in 5 cities in 11 hours, having toured 3 of them. In hindsight with that extra time I would have liked ot have spent more time in Pisa just wandering around. I also would have completely avoided Sienna and spent the day split between Pisa and Lucca.

After an intense day of running around with my backpack, I ditched it in my room and began exploring the villiage of Riomaggiore - one of the 5 villages in Cinque Terra. I'm not sure which was worse - running around all day with a 12kg back on my back or now climbing the stairs around the village after running around all day. I ended up getting a descent night's sleep before my big hike the next day. The minimal stair climbing I experienced was just a tiny taste of what was in store for me tomorrow.

The village of Riomaggiore

Florence Day 2

I woke up early and headed to the train station in order to plan the next few days of travels and check out the train schedules. After creating a plan I went to the local market and saw all sorts of fresh ingredients and butcher shops. I walked to the synagogue again and got to go inside this time for a tour. No phatography was allowed but it was really big and amazingly decorated inside. They had a museum with a lot of really old artifacts. My next stop was the Leonardo da Vinci museum. Inside they had replicas of all sorts of his machine designs. There were things like an odometer, table saw, mortar launcher, machine gun, etc. but by far the coolest thing there was his design for a tank! It was a conical shell with 3 cannons and 4 independent wheels that had to be cranked manually.

Pretty cool stuff, but I'd say my merkava 3 is a lot nicer, wouldn't you?

On my way back to the hostel I stumbled upon an art exhibit in a random building which was a whole bunch of masking tape twisted inbetween the pillars in the building's foyer. It was super weird but I guess thats why they call it art.

Masking tape art

I headed back to the hostel to relax by the pool and sauna before heading back to the synagogue for shabbat services and a dinner at the local Chabad house. At the pool I randomly met another Jew from outside Toronoto and convinced her to join me at Chabad - small world! The services at the synagogue were very low energy and the massive synagogue felt eerily empty. It was interesting however to see how the services are conducted in a place like Florence, Italy. At Chabad there were about 50 people and we sat next to two couples - one Israeli and the other American.

The synagogue in Florence

Florence

I landed in Rome at about 8AM after my 4AM flight from Israel. I booked my flight 4 days ago, and I had my first 2 nights in a hostel booked as well as a 3 day tour booked at the end of the vacation. With my 12kg backpack a travel book, and a mostly blank piece of paper called my itinerary I arrived in Italy for 12 days of adventures! Fast forward to about 1PM when I arrived in Florence after having bought my Eurorail pass. I started walking around somewhat on my way to the hostel. I passed by the Duomo which is the ginormous cathedral in the center of the city. I waited in line to go inside only to find out that I had to take my backpack back to my hostel and then I could go inside. Once I checked into the hostel I began exploring. I went back to the Duomo and walked around the outside, the inside and then climbed up 484 steps to the top of the dome that offere an amazing panoramic view of the city. Once I walked up a circular staircase and got dizzy for a while we did a half loop in side the cathedral at the base of the dome. I got a great birds eye view overlooking all the people who looked like ants on the floor of the cathedral. I also got a much closer look of the painted dome. I'm not going to comment on the painitngs for fear of getting myself in trouble but the paintings were of the style of man getting eaten by dragon, and man getting a torch shoved up his ass, etc. Aside from the graphic nature of the paintings they were well done. I continued up until we reached the observation point at the very top. The view was incredible and aside from the tower right next odor which was slightly shorter this was by far the tallest structure for as far as the eye could see.

A view from the Duomo. The turquoise dome on the left is the synagogue.

As I continued my wandering around I was stuck in a jam of traffic because the police had blocked off traffic. People were taking pictures so I took some as well. It just so happened that the picture that I took was of the Italian President's car as well as the original statue of David just as they were closing the gates. Later in the day I managed to snap a few more pics of his car as he was passing by a different part of the city with his entourage.

I spent the day wandering and exploring the city. In Florence there were lots of very fancy shops in a very nice area of the city. I crossed the famous bridge which is lined with shops and jewlery stores. On the other sode of the river after a descent hike uphill I got to a replica statue of the David but even better - another fantastic view of the entire city. I then continued my wantdering around in search of the big and famous synagogue. It was surprisngly difficult to find despite the fact that it was huge. I planned to take the tour tomorrow but I had the time now to figure out where it was and explore the city. I took my picture and headed back to the hostel. I had some awesome pizza and gelato and called it enough for day 1.

The famous bridge

A view of Florence from the lookout point with the David. That huge massive thing in the center is the Duomo. I climed the domed part.

AEPi North-East Conclave

Another conclave - this one at Rutgers in New Jersey. On the way down there, we made a detour to Manhattan to visit two guys from our chapter that now live in New York, Tim and Sheldon. We left Waterloo at noon and finally got to Rutgers at 1AM, which made for quite the long trip which included the 2 hour pit stop in NYC.

L-R: Dale, Kyle, Harris, Phil, Me, Sheldon, Matthews, Tim, Cory

While everyone else was staying at a hotel for the weekend, I stayed at the AEPi house. One of the guys on my last trip to Israel was in the Rutgers chapter of AEPi, and he let me stay on his futon at the AEPi house. We had a few drinks and then went out for sandwiches called 'fat sandwiches', which are famous at Rutgers. I had a Fat Darrell, which consisted of chicken fingers, french fries, marinara sauce, lettuce, tomato, and onion on a roll. it was amazing. The next night I went out to a house party with Felix and a bunch of other people from the house.

Fairly uneventful conclave, but a good time nonetheless.