7.12.2007 Last Day in Europe

I had to go see the Boca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) because I absolutely love the movie Roman Holiday and had to stick my hand in the mouth and pretend to have it bitten off. Kyle wanted to get a little a Boca della Verita replica to use as a chip protector when playing poker. He thought it would be fitting to have the Mouth of Truth present while playing poker. He decided against buying one at the first place we went to because it seemed too expensive, but then we couldn’t find one the right size at any of the ten stores we went to afterwards. Sadness!

I also had to eat this amazing pizza at the Doner Kebap place on our street before we left forever. Their cherry tomato and mozzarella pizza is the best pizza I have ever had in my life. Others might not agree because I have strange taste in pizzas. It only has cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and small chunks of mozzarella (not melted cheese) but it was seriously the best. I tried something slightly different this day because they were out of my favorite. Kyle was not as impressed. As I said, I have strange taste in pizza.

We walked around some more, and went to the Theater of Marcellus, and then the monument dedicated to the Unknown Soldier. From the top of the monument we had a view of the Column of Trajan, Trajan’s market, and the Colosseum.

We home, cooked, packed, drank our wine, and tried to sleep early because we had to wake up at 5am for our flight. However that didn’t work too well for some reason we couldn’t sleep. So we played cards for awhile after lying in bed for close to an hour and then still didn’t get to sleep till 1am for Kyle and 2:30 for Jenn. Needless to say, we were quite tired the next day for our 20 hour flight to SLC where Kyle’s parents picked us up to go to his family reunion in Yellowstone.

7.11.2007 Pantheon and Other Sites

We wore our free shirts from the pub crawl because we were seriously running out of clean clothes. We were also both wearing black shorts so we were like twins.

We walked around and saw some random sites like Augustus’s Mausoleum, Piazza del Popolo and the Church of St. Ignatius. The Church of St. Ignatius was not much to my liking. It was gaudy (to a point beyond that of most churches) and the color scheme they had going on was terrible. Some areas of the church included green marble, gold sculptures, red tiles on the floor and other things that did not remotely complement each other.

We went to the Pantheon next, which has been converted to some shrine to St. Mary and other martyrs. The architecture was quite awesome and the inside was nice but we think we really have had an overload of religious buildings on this trip.

Our last stop was Piazza Navona, which was pretty, but there was not much to do. We wanted to get some coffee, but the prices were astronomical. It was about $4-7 for a small coffee at most places, which is extortion! We finally found a place about 50 ft. away from the others that had coffee for about $1 which was nice.

7.10.2007 Pub Crawl

I went shopping earlier in the day because Kyle was not feeling great.

We had a late start on our day, and went to see the Spanish steps in the early evening. There was a sea of people there, but it really was not much to see. The pretty building at the top of the steps was covered in scaffolding, and the fountain at the foot of the steps had trash floating in it. Totally attractive.

We got a flyer for a pub crawl and decided to go on it. From 9-10 there was free beer and wine, but it was some god awful stuff. We still drank as much as possible anyway, since it was free. We had some free pizza, and went on to other bars. The second bar we went to was Highlander. Kyle did a body shot off me, and I ordered a Jack on the rocks that was expensive as hell but it was like 4-5 shots. All in all, we had good time, and we had an AMAZING Kebab on the way home. It was probably the best we have tried. It had corn, some really good spicy sauce, various vegetables, and fresh grilled meat.

7.09.2007 Vatican City

We took the metro to Vatican City and stood in line for about an hour to get in. It was the longest and biggest line we have ever seen. It was probably 10 feet wide and half a mile long! Luckily it was just a security check line, and moved pretty fast.

Once we got in, we saw a bunch of Roman statues and listened about them on our audio guides. There are about 20 museums in Vatican City, and we were not able to see all of them. The three coolest things we saw were probably the Hall of Maps, the Raphael Rooms, and the Sistine Chapel.

We saw St. Peter’s Basilica afterwards, which was enormous and spectacular. It was a long day, and we went home to blog, eat, and drink. We decided to go out to an Irish pub at night. They advertised live Irish music which started at 10pm. We arrived at 12:15, and they said the music had stopped. We asked them what time it stopped, and they said it stopped….3 weeks ago…(???) We ended up going to another Irish pub where there were a bunch of 14-16 year old kids drinking Guiness.

7.08.2007 Trevi Fountain

We made our way to Quirinale. We didn’t know exactly what it was, but figured it was something dedicated to the Pope. It’s a nice plaza area with nice architecture, which is typical in Rome.

We went to the Trevi Fountain right afterwards, which is pretty huge and magnificent. We couldn’t take many pictures because the camera ran out of batteries, so we headed home for a quick shower and went to see Transformers at the theater.

We came back, cooked, drank, and lounged for the rest of the night. Actually Kyle got his nerd on by automating the process of adding captions to the bottom of our photos so that the captions are there when we print them out.

7.07.2007 The Colosseum and the Roman Forum

We walked toward the Colosseum, and stopped at various sites on the way. We saw the Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral, but Jenn could not get in because her shorts were too short. Kyle went in and took some pictures of the inside. Beautiful cathedral, but we have seen so many at this point.

We stopped by a sanctuary dedicated to Madonna next, which Jenn was allowed to go into because no one was enforcing dress code there.

We walked through Domus Aurea next, which is the ruins of some emperor’s palace. Interesting, but not nearly as impressive as what we saw later.

When we got to the Colosseum, we decided to take a tour because the tour guide promised that we could skip the line if we did. And on our walk there we saw various sites. The tour was pretty cool, but the Colosseum itself was much cooler than the tour. The tour was worth it because it was pretty cheap, we skipped the line, and we got a free tour of the Roman Forum.

The Roman Forum is a bunch of ruins that was buried under sewage and crap until farily recently in history. It took about 120 years to fully excavate it. We saw the temple of Romulus (founder of Rome) and other stuff. It was definitely interesting. We proceeded up the Palatine Hill after that to get a great view of the Roman Forum and see some other sites. It was odd that there was much more to see in the Roman Forum, but it was free while the Palatine cost money. The entrance fee was included with the Colosseum entrance fee, but it still seemed odd.

All in all, a good day. We cooked some amazing Mediterranean pesto pasta with shrimp. We went out again later that evening to see Triton’s fountain and the national museum. We tried to go out at night, but all the bars were more like cafes or restaurants.

7.06.2007 Arriving in Rome

We arrived in Rome late afternoon. Alex’s B&B is a decent place, and Alex is pretty nice and helpful. Of course the internet did not work, standard. However, unlike other places Alex got it fixed that night. There was no wireless as usual… is it that hard to buy a router?

We visited Repubblica square, and walked by some sites. Did not do much because it was late in the day and we were tired. The McDonald’s at the square had marble floors and was quite luxurious indeed.

7.05.2007 Last day in Certaldo

We spent the day slowly, started out cooking, and then watched The Incredibles. We then went for a bike ride into old town, but did not take the scenic route. The view was not as great, but it was a lot faster and easier. We had some delicious gelato in Old Town. We shared 2 scoops, I chose strawberry, and Kyle chose something he thought was probably chocolaty, but was in fact rum raisin, so it was like my 2 favorite ice cream flavors even though I do not even really like ice cream. HAHAHA.

We came home to cook dinner, and watched some EuroTrip with hostel mates since it seemed so appropriate.

We heard music from down the street for the second night in a row, and decided it would be fun to find the place and check it out. We followed the sound of Italian music until we came to an obscure bar, while the dog from the hostel followed close behind all the way there for some reason. I think he likes Kyle a lot. He’s got really thick, long, white fur, and he is grimy and sweaty from baking in the Tuscan sun all day. So he doesn’t get a lot of attention normally, but Kyle pets him all the time. We peeked inside, and it was a bunch of older couples waltzing. Neither of know how to waltz, and we thought better of going in. We did a little dance in the parking lot, called the dog back, and made our way home while people were dancing to “Fascination.”

It’s a fascination, I know…

7.04.2007 Independence Day Wine Tasting

We rented a car this day and went wine tasting with two other girls from the hostel. We went to 4 different vineyards, beginning with one called Melini. The Tuscan countryside is beautiful, and we stopped to take pictures at a sunflower field. This would be a place we could easily stay at for months. There were vineyards and olive groves everywhere we looked. We ended up buying a lot of wine today because the vineyards would charge 4 euro for a wine tasting, but it was free with a purchase of a bottle. Every place had a bottle for at least 4 Euro, so it was not worth it NOT to buy wine.

Melini’s had 11 different wines, all of which we tasted. We probably were only supposed to choose a few, but the woman let us try them all. The region actually makes some good white wines too even though that is not what it is known for.

Although there are a ton of vineyards along the countryside, there aren’t really signs for all of them, and there were a few we stumbled upon by accident. One of these was Il Cerreto, which had a gorgeous view and a bed and breakfast. They said they did “tastings,” but basically the guy opened an entire bottle for us, and the first pours he gave us emptied out half the bottle. When we asked if we should try some of the other wines, he said “oh, you want more?” and emptied out the rest of the bottle in our glasses, so we ended up buying it and 4 other bottles of Chianti Classico on top of that. He tried to give us the first bottle for free, but the owner was a party pooper. After Il Cerreto, we stopped by another tasting room that wasn’t as impressionable and bought some unique tasting chardonnay.

The last place we went to was amazing again. Some president on Wall Street had just purchased 2,800 Euro worth of wine, and the guy there was probably in particularly good spirits. We tried tons of wine again and had free food. There were expensive hams, bruschetta, and some really fantastic jams, which we tried to buy, but they were not for sale because the guy had gotten them at some obscure store elsewhere L. Some family came through, ate a tray of food (basically their dinner), and left without buying anything.

We came back, moved out of the hostel and into the villa next door, cooked some pasta, then joined other hostel mates for some drinks. We toasted with other Americans for the 4^th of July, and noted that most of us do not know all the words to the national anthem.

7.02.2007 Old Town Certaldo and Siena

We took bikes on the scenic route to Old Town Certaldo, which is up on a big hill and kind of looks like a giant castle from afar. It seems like it should be a tourist attraction, but in fact there are businesses and residences. The route there was great, with nice views of vineyards and the Tuscan countryside.

We got lost on our way to the grocery store, but eventually got home and cooked some really good pasta.

We left for Siena in the afternoon with some friends from the hostel, for a semi-annual bareback horserace event. Representatives from each of the 12 regions of Siena compete in a lawless race where almost anything goes. It took them about 20 minutes to even start the race because the competitors kept fighting each other for the inside lane. They false started twice, and had to start over.

Two riders fell off their horses, but apparently the horse can win without the jockey. One guy seemed like he got trampled, but looked okay when he got up. The entire arena was insane. It was completely packed and equally lawless. There was absolutely no organization, no bathrooms, no entrances or exits, just mobs of people in an enclosed area. It took me an hour to go to the bathroom because it was impossible to fight through the crowd, and Kyle peed in a wine bottle in the middle of the crowd. Fortunately, nobody seemed to notice.

When I was trying to get back into the arena from the bathroom, some idiot grabbed my ass. I turned around and glared at the three guys behind me and asked who did it. Of course, none of them answered, so I slapped the guiltiest looking one. It turned out to be the wrong guy, but I yelled at all of them, and then they tried to make peace and offer me a beer. I refused and glared and disappeared into the crowd.

Citizens of the winning township rejoiced and embraced each other in glee when the race was over.

By the time the event was over, the trains had stopped, so we had no choice but to partake in the street festivities. The winning township provided free kegs of wine in the streets and served wine to everyone standing around, including 10-year-old children. The winning township had a little parade of drummers and flag wavers marching through the streets the entire night. We did some bar hopping, and eventually took the 5am train back home in the morning.

7.01.2007 Certaldo (Near Florence)

We arrived in Certaldo around 1:00. We went swimming and laid out in the backyard of the hostel. Our place is really cool. It has a really big backyard with hammocks, benches, roses, and a pool. It used to be a monastery and a vineyard a long time ago.

We rode bikes into town and had dinner at a place called Delfino’s that had amazing pasta.

6.30.2007 Park and Eating

We walked through Milan’s city park which was nice. We had some pistachio gelato. We spent a while in the park, went home, and looked forward to leaving Milan.

6.29.2007 Unfruitful, uneventful, uninteresting

We had more kebabs today, which have become a habit for us. We had great plans to visit a bunch of churches today, including the Cenaolo Vinciani, where Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” painting is located. However, two churches were closed, and the Da Vinci exhibit was sold out for two weeks. Milan is lame.

We went to the Navigli area next, where there is supposed to be a nice river, a beautiful church and bridge. The “river” was more like a dirty stream or flood drain, and it was in a ghetto, dirty area of town. The bridge was 15 feet across and completely average. The church was nothing special and a waste of time.

We walked through a university which was really pretty. We gave up after that and rented some movies.

6.27.2007 Cimitero Monumentale

Today Kyle played poker and I did some shopping. Later we went the the Cimitero Monumentale which is some cemetery where all the tombstones are very extravagant. Apparently there’s a tombstone shaped like the “Last Supper”, but we couldn’t find it. It’s so big we probably only saw ¼ of the whole cemetery. Later we went home, drank some wine, ate some food, and watched a movie.

6.26.2007 First Day in Milan

Today was our first full day in Milan. Yesterday we flew all day, because we had a long layover in Brussels. When we got in we ate Doner Kebabs again, because they are so good. Today we ate at an Italian Pizzeria which was pretty good, but they charge a cover charge, which they also do in Prague, but in Prague you get at least bread and butter with it, and at most it’s $1.50, but usually only 0.50-$1. They charged three dollars a person for nothing. I asked him what the 6 dollars was, he looked at it and said it was the cover charge. Then I looked at the menu, and really small at the bottom it said two dollars. So he tried to screw us, and when I told him, he said, oh the cook must have made a mistake. Yeah right, mistake my ass. Also, our hotel is supposed to have Wi-Fi, oh but it’s broken, the internet café down the street is supposed to have Wi-Fi, oh but it’s broken too. I think everywhere in Europe they just tell you they have Wi-Fi, but when you go to use it, they just say, “it’s broken”.

Then we went and saw various sights of Milan. We saw the Duomo Cathedral which was very large, but of course we couldn’t go in, because we were wearing shorts, even though it’s 90^o outside. Then we walked up same expensive shopping street. It’s interesting in Milan, how you can be walking down the most rundown street where you wouldn’t feel safe walking at night, but then every store is ridiculously expensive shopping for clothes or $5 pieces of chocolate.

Then we saw Pinocoteca, which is some art school with a bunch of old Roman statues. Then we saw the Sforzesco Castle and the park, but we will go back there later, because we didn’t explore the park much, because we were tired and wanted to go home. Then we rented some movies, and ate some food and went home.

6.24.2007 Kutna Hora Bones

Today we went to Kutna Hora to see the Bone Church. It was rather peculiar, because there are the bones of 40,000 people arranged in various décor like a chandelier and a coat of “arms”. Apparently 500 years ago, it used to be a mass grave and they built church there and either to build the church or to bury new people there, or both, they had to dig up the old dead people. Then they had bones lying around for a few hundred years and the family running the church told a wood-worker to “arrange” the bones and he did.

On the way there we saw this guy with two hookers which seemed rather odd. Who takes hookers with him on the train to go sight seeing? From there we toured the town of Kutna Hora and had some great and cheap Gulas and Beer. Two good meals and 3 pints of great bear for $10, which would have cost probably $40 in the US after tax and tip. We saw a few churches and a Cathedral and the rest of the town which was cool to see.

6.23.2007 Karlstejn

We went on a short excursion 30 km southwest of Prague to see the Karlstejn Castle, which was built by King Charles in the 14th century. We walked around the village at the bottom of the castle, and had some delicious soup, goulash, bohemian dumplings, beers, and apple strudel dessert for about $6 each.

The village was charming, and the whole Karlstejn area was lush, and probably a perfect place to go camping. The castle was marvelous, but we did not take a tour.

6.22.2007 Night in Old Town

We didn't do much this day because we woke up ridiculously late. We went out to Old town at night and took some pretty nighttime pictures. It's some amazing sights at night, enchanting indeed.