I've migrated the Italy blog to my website so that I can customise it a bit more, i.e. add pictures, etc. See: Italia Blog.

In addition, this is where I will also post my pictures from the trip: Italia Pics.

Enjoy! :-)

Oh, and to those who have e-mailed me. I apologise. I'm really slack when it comes to replying to e-mail... Nothing personal, don't read anything into it. I am determined to reply though... :-) Thanks.

Home is where the heart is...

Well everyone... There won't be many posts here for a while now. My trip is over.

Italy was brilliant. I really enjoyed my time there and I can't wait to go back... next time with someone and maybe with a bit of the language under my belt.

I started this adventure quite nervously and not knowing what to expect. I come away from it, a little wiser... All of it was apparently "part of the experience". The world does seems smaller. I think I have a taste for travel and thus I can only conclude that somewhere along the way I must have been gnawed on by a roaving insect.

Among many things, I learnt:
- Tours are a brilliant way to see the sights without the stress.
- Travelling alone can be lonely.
- We take breakfast for granted.
- Luggage isn't guaranteed.
- Foreign people don't look foreign.
- Currency conversion is annoying.
- Phones, toilets, a laundry & the internet can be luxury items.
- Scams can work once even on me.
- Living out of a suitcase can take its toll.
- No bed feels better than your own.
- No amount of negative experiences can deminish the awesome experiences.
- It's great to just relax in a foreign country & not worry about seeing sights.
- The world is a big place.
- Home is definitely where the heart is. And no, that's not Canberra! ;-)

Anyway, life in my home town goes on. I'm back at work again. Back sleeping in my own bed. Trying to settle into a routine after such a brilliant trip is difficult.

But...
My next big trip... Egypt.
Big trip after that... Maybe the south of Italy.
Next small trip... Likely New Zealand. :-)

In regard to this site: I've been considering reviewing the purpose of my blog and thought I could possibly move the Italy posts to my website and keep the blog open for general blogging... Oh, I don't know... Thoughts anyone?

I'll post some of my pictures soon... I have to weed through the 1,918 and pick out my favourites... so give me a little while.

Thanks & good night! :-)
T.

Does Luggage Feel Jet Lag?

Hello to those who are still frequenting this little page of mine!

Well, the good news is that my bag arrived 7pm last night, looking relatively the same as when I had last seen it in Rome a little over 5 days ago. Where had it been for the 75 hours it was missing? It had obviously been opening itself up to other people (it's lock was no longer in the same place), it had obviously been drinking as it still smelled of alcohol (my small bottle of Imperial Drops had leaked a little more... likely due to atmospheric pressure) but it must have been trying to locate me (it had extra tags and notes attached) so that's comforting. Someone was saying that at any one time, there are a million bags in the sky. I guess it makes sense that some would get lost in the heat of the moment and get caught up in a bout of drunken flirtation. As someone else once told me, what happens on holiday, stays on holiday. So I guess I won't pry into my bags affairs. I'm just glad it's here now. :-)

It was mostly overcast yesterday with some showers but it's raining a lot here this morning as I contemplate leaving the warmth of my dunah and entering a 14 degree atmosphere.

Since I hadn't felt jet lag in Rome, I kinda wondered what it was... Going the other way has taught me a little of what it's like. It's really weird. Every day so far, I find myself waking up a couple hours earlier, this morning it was 7am. I was waking up 5 times per night, it's down to 2 now. But the worst part are the heavy waves of sleep that come over me at around 4pm, and again at 7pm and 11pm. I haven't managed to overcome them all but yesterday I pushed through the 4pm one only to find a stronger pull at 7pm and couldn't resist 11pm. I'm worried when I go home how long it'll take to get back in sync...

Well, it's Friday and despite the weather, it'll be another brilliant day in New Zealand.

Take care,
T.

Sydney, Where all Good Luggage goes...

The amazing thing is that I received a call last night to advise that my luggage had turned up... in Sydney! Yay! The odd part was when he said, "so... would you like us to send it to Canberra?" Hmmm... I thought for a moment... You see, I leave for Canberra on Sunday, that's only 3 days away. Therefore it could be worth having it just go ahead of me. But instead, I've tempted fate and asked them to forward it here... Technically this means it will arrive tonight. Here's hoping. :-)

It's pretty cool though. Every day so far, various members of the Morris family have come to the shops and helped me buy clothes. :-) So losing my luggage isn't that bad. And, there's plenty of Billabong stock to choose from over here. Plus, I love shopping, especially for clothes. :-) You see, I have an allowance of $500 after 24 hours of my luggage going missing to purchase things I need. After 72 hours, the allowance doubles to $1000. This, of course, hinges on getting the report from the airline backing up the fact that the luggage went missing. I'm sure that'll be fine.

It's overcast here today but I'm still having fun on my last few days of holidays. Today's agenda may have ice cream involved so that'll be cool. :-)

Take care all,
T.

Luggage is a Luxury

Hi all,

So, I made it to New Zealand safely yesterday afternoon. My luggage on the other hand didn't make it to the flight out of London. I had only just made it to the flight myself... I put this down to dumb luck - Heathrow security lines are ridiculous and their random decision to allow people to push in past the long line was just stupid. This just proves the old adage that it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. I just stayed dutifully in the line. I knew that they'd work it out if I missed my flight so there was no need to worry.

For some reason the flight went through Thailand rather than Singapore so that was odd. And I spent ages looking for a snack only to resign myself to the reality that there was nothing to be found. I just wanted a chocolate bar! While I was waiting there, I bumped into the two girls who were sitting next to me on the initial leg of the flight. One of them looked just like Dave, Ash's friend. She had the same looks and had a similar accent - she was from Cardif, Wales. It was quite freaky. I wouldn't be surprised if they were related in some way. I'm not sure whether I should have told her that she looked and sounded like a guy I knew. Hmmm. Anyway, they were nice and didn't mind. Turned out that she liked Doctor Who and had seen them filming it a number of times, including the recent Christmas episode which was filmed in summer but had the streets covered in snow and Christmas decorations. :-)

Anyway, when I got to Sydney, I was directed through Customs by mistake and thus I found out early that my luggage had been lost. After being given the the literal run-around I was able to sort the missing luggage out and organise it to follow me later. Although they did say that it was possible that it had caught up with me - yeah right! It should be delivered here tonight, around 6pm... my luggage will be taking the identical flight I took, only a day late, so that'll be nice for it. :-)

Since I knew in advance, and given the warning by Kerrie that NZ was cold, I stopped at a surf shop and purchased another shirt and two jumpers. Both Billabong, which is brilliant. The shop assistant was really nice and explained to me her theory as to why Billabong always fits correctly for me, as opposed to the other brands... she said it was to do with the shape of their clothes and that they make it for real men - well there you go, I'm a 'real' man! :-)

What's cool is that I was given an "overnight bag" from Qantas. It has PJ's (admittedly not appropriate for cold weather, but still cool) and a razor and shaving cream, shampoo and conditioner, baby toothpaste and a toothbrush, a deodorant roll-on (although I don't like roll-on's - it feels like someone has licked your underarms) and a comb! It's pretty good considering. Oh, and it had a small note from Qantas apologising for the inconvenience. How nice is that!

Getting out of the airport was good. I was one of the last to leave 'cos I had to explain the whole luggage thing again giving a third full description of my bag and explaining why I'd ticked most every box indicating I was carrying prohibited substances. It's funny, souvenir's made of wood and me having chocolate seemed to mean I ticked everything. Anyway, it felt great to look around and find Kerrie and her dad Mike waiting for me. I think I was talking too much on the way back... I was thinking it at the time but I just kept talking - I guess this is understandable considering how long I'd been away.

Let me just say that New Zealand is brilliant! It's a bit nippy here this morning with a frost and similar temperatures to Canberra. The Morris family have been brilliant, welcoming me into their home. Last night, I had my first real meal with vegetables and baked potato's (my favourite) and this morning I've enjoyed Cocopops and Vegemite on toast - my goodness, that was great! How I've missed Vegemite! :-) I'm really going to enjoy my time in New Zealand. It's good to be among friends again.

To all my readers, take care!
T.

P.S. I realise that you haven't heard about my time in Rome with Joe yet, or San Gimignano for that matter, but I'll update you all with some detail soon. Unfortunately, I can't post pictures yet 'cos my iPod containing my photos is formatted for a Mac and thus are stuck in there until I get home.

Relaxing Day then the Arrival of Joe

The next morning I was debating whether to stick the "do not disturb" sign on the door & continue sleeping. I didn't. This decision had quickly turned to regret when I found that breakfast was exactly the same as yesterday. I just got a cup of tea.

After a quick search for a newspaper and something substantial to eat I soon realised I was dreaming... Breakfast is never substantial & I'd have to go to Termini to get a paper. Coke-a-Cola will suffice... Anything else was too much effort. You know, I wish other towns were as organised as Canberra.. Then I'd just go to the equivalent of Kingston or Manuka and pick the restaurant. Easy. Oh well, apparently I'm not in Kansas anymore.

So I spent the the morning writing blogs as I relaxed in the park across the road. It's amazing how many people just sit around and how often the rubbish collection is done and how thoroughly they clean up. It's pretty impressive.

I had a mean man want me to move over so he could fit on the seat but, rather than attempt to communicate, just got louder saying the same phrase over & over that I couldn't understand. A young guy tried to make chit chat and we established I couldn't speak much Italian and we agreed that it was hot.. I knew the word Caldo! Anyway, I moved to follow the shade a couple times and another time 'cos I was down wind from a smelly person. There was a strange man who came past twice preaching something or other and I had an old guy sitting on the bench next to me drinking what I think was white wine from a coke bottle. At one point he turned to me and asked for two Euro with some sob story about losing his passport and being stuck... I knew it'd go to booze but he seemed nice so gave him 1,50... He disappeared but I saw him later two benches up with a renewed coke bottle full of white wine... I couldn't help but wonder how he got his hands on it and why it came in such a container. Odd. When I left for the afternoon I passed him as he got up and with his crotch in the nearby bush, pretended to be in a urinal... This would explain why his wine smell had a hint or urine too! Charming. It wasn't all drunks and smelly people, don't get me wrong. There are a lot of respectable, well dressed, pleasant, people too in the park. It's just the others have a lasting impression... or was that their aroma. :-)

My phone battery was dying so I went back to the B&B to recharge myself and my phone. After a nice nana nap, I was ready to go and find Joe at the airport.

On my way, I found two young girls looking much like I had two days earlier as I looked for my accommodation. I stopped to help, hoping I could. Within a few minutes I had the address they were looking for in my phone and directing them two blocks down and to the right. Look at this! I'm a regular do-gooder... First I give change to the drunk man, now directions for lost girls! :-)

After convincing the ticket machine that I really did have a 10 Euro note, I got a baby-sized ticket for the train... I haven't seen them this size previously so it put doubt in my mind as to whether this was a valid ticket or a way to get a ticket... The writing on it was in Italian and German... Helpful. I decided it was and stuck it in the Validating machine... Both ends to be sure. :-)

While on the train I worked out it must have been a ticket 'cos it had validation info on the back (I may have validated on the wrong side too) and from what I could gather it was valid to transfer once within an hour. My Italian is crap but I'm pretty certain that was the gist.

Anyway, 10 more minutes before Joe lands... I wonder how keen he'll be to walk to the Forum tonight and see it in lights? I'm sure it'll look cool, not as good as the Colosseum but still. Hmmm.

The Roman Forum and Oceans

I slept well last night. What was great was that the shower was hot and the light didn't turn off this time. It's the little things. :-)

The B&B technically is just that... A bed and 'breakfast'. I guess the facilities that are here are good enough. Again, I wish I had a phone, the internet and some washing facilities. The second B in the title is a stretch though. The breakfast consists of a basket with a sugared packet role and a sweet chocolate biscuit thing and one of those packet toast things. I'm not sure what the little butter and jams would go on but on the bright side you can have a tea or a coffee and there's some water and juice on the other table, so that's nice. I made the mistake of eating the sugared role (damn the habit I have of needing to finish everything on my plate) but luckily the biscuit thing was better and I had that with a cup of tea. Not sure it was worth getting up for though. Not to worry.

It's funny, I keep waking up thinking I'm in Sydney rather than Rome. Every so often I'll be walking along and think the same thing. It's a little surreal.

On my agenda for today was the Roman Forum... Well, what's left of it. They say you should have a guide or get the audio guide if you want to understand what you're looking at. This time I didn't need help to get to the Colosseum (since it's next door), I'm old hat at that now. :-)

So I headed to the Forum. The Colosseum is packed with people and the path to the Forum isn't any better. I kept getting held up by groups and old slow people. Why is it that when you're in a hurry an old couple can take up the room of five people and have the extrasensory ability to head you off continually as you try to pass, you know, like you see race car drivers do, only slower.

As you walk up the path (made of very large loosely 'interlocking' river rocks - difficult to walk upon) past the columns, your first sight is the Arch of Titus celebrating victory over Jewish Rebels. You can feel you've got a lot more in store as you see things scattered around the area in the distance.

The audioguide was pretty good but sometimes it was difficult to work out which direction it wanted you to face thus its "to your right..." style directions were lost for a little while as you found your bearings. But you get a lot more out of the experience than without it. I overheard an older couple say, as they stood in front of what was the House of the Vestal Virgins, "looks like someone's house, they must have been nice houses back then, looks like they had columns all along the front". Hmmm... Really... Every year six girls aged between six & ten were chosen in a lottery and spent 10 years in training, 10 years serving (ensuring the Fire of Rome remained lit) and 10 years training the new virgins. But they were treated very well, like queens and could marry after their 30 years of service. If she did something wrong during that period though, particularly losing her virginity for example, the punishment was being buried alive & the guy would be flogged to death!

Anyway, the Arch of Septimus Severus was cool. It celebrated victory over the Parthians. It had three names on it but when Caracualla killed his brother Geta he removed his brothers and replaced it with words saying how good he was.

It seems if something was converted to a church then it was safe from history. The Temple of Romulus has thus faired well. There's so many ruins here.. From the Temple of Saturn to the Basilica Giulia, the Temple of Concord, the Temple of Vespasian and the Temple of Castor and Polux. Also the remains of the Basilica of Constantine which may have been some of the inspiration of St. Peter's Basilica and then you have the Temple of Julius Caesar built by Augustus Octavian on the site where Julius' body was burned after he was stabbed in the Senate. A lot of interesting stories made more realistic as you stand before particular ruins. It was a good excursion and took me two hours to get around the whole area.

After that I went to the bus stop and waited for the 101open tour bus... Finally I worked out that the road had been blocked so there'd be no busses passing any time soon. I took the train to Termini, a bargain at 1 Euro... so I could then take the bus from there. It's one of those open air ones that you can take all day, hopping on & off whenever you like. It was good value (I think)... at 13 Euro.

I got the ticket for the bus but it's amazing how often you can get part of the way... Where do I go? The young lady tells me the terminal at the front, at least I think that's what she was saying. Now that'd be helpful if I knew the context of the where 'front' is... I just wandered around and watched more people get the vague instruction and finally I spotted one of the busses over at a stand in front of all the alphabetised stands... The others seemed to follow me and finally see the three busses all lined up too. Why does it always seem so difficult?

The tour bus was a good idea once I worked out that the secondary input for the headphones had been installed because someone had jammed chewing gum in all of the original ones. It was good 'cos you pick your language and it gives you a commentary as you go past things. When the stop comes, it says what you can see if you get off there.

I was just enjoying the ride really. It was hot though. I was wondering whether my neck, forehead and scalp may have been getting burnt. When we passed a temperature sign, it said it was 30 degrees... That would explain why it felt hot. It was hot!

I was getting hungry so I got off at the Trevi Fountain stop... Walked there... it was packed. Then I walked passed the Temple of Adrian (whose huge columns were still hidden by the large printed sheet) to the Pantheon where I had Pizza... It was alright but they weren't listening, I didn't get my water (remember it was really hot) or my chili flakes. I was getting annoyed by then so after paying I stopped at the water fountain and filled my bottle... It's cool how there are fountains and water things everywhere so you can quickly find drinking water... It's good when it's so hot.

I next walked to Piazza Navona where the Fountain of the Four Rivers was hidden when I was here before... It was still being cleaned and restored but now it had viewing windows so you could see the parts of the fountain not obscured by scaffolding. Imagine the maintenance of a city like this. It explains why there's always something being restored. The fountain was built by Bernini and the cool thing was that I could now see the Nile sculpture shielding himself from the ugliness of the Church of St. Agnes built by Borromini who's angel sculptures on the facade are turning away and closing their eyes so they don't see the fountain. :-)

I got on the bus at another stop. The ride reminded me that I should visit the Sant'Angelo Fortress at some point. I traveled along... I regretted not liking hats and overlooking the need to put sunscreen on today. I got off at the Museum of Augustus' Alter of Peace (Ara Pacis). It has since been moved but the huge sundial used to cast its shadow on the alter whenever it was Augustus' birthday. The alter was impressive particularly when you find out how much detail was in the floral pattern on the outside (it described almost every known flora at the time) but inside the museum was a small model of the buildings back then and likenesses of the family and a genealogy chart. Downstairs was further sculpture depicting some of his triumphs too and his famous last will & testament (which is also on the outside of the building).

What was interesting too was that in the adjacent showroom there were really old PC's over history... that was cool. And they had quotes on the wall like one from Dvorak explaining how the mouse used by Apple was a fad that wouldn't catch on. :-)

I did a bit of a lap round the Mausoleum of Augustus then got the bus again. Of note, a homeless man had put various things on each of the posts along the path next to the road, each with a little note or sign - there had to be around 20 of them. Some were quite funny. You could put money in a box if you liked them.

When I got back to Termini & walked home I had a shower... It was so good after such a long hot day. I then realised the extent to which I was sunburnt, particularly my neck. Woops! :-/

I looked up Cinema's in my Lonely Planet book. It seemed to indicate there was a cinema down from Termini in Republic Square so I thought that was worth a look...

After more walking... My legs! Anyway, I found the cinema and as it turned out they had Ocean's 13 showing in English too (once I worked out that the times are printed on colourful leaflets on both sides of the foyer)... I decided to go after I ate something. I couldn't work out the other conditions of the cinema, something about 20 minutes and no free tickets after 6pm. Anyway, I found a pizzeria and got a Pepperoni pizza. It was alright and they were pretty quick with regard to service. Got out of there with just enough time.

They seemed to be allocated seats so I took mine as soon as the people sitting there realised this as well. I met two girls from Perth just in front and talked briefly about stuff, one worked with Perth Tourism now so was trying to convince me how good it was over there.

The ads were loud and annoying and they used the loony tunes characters for their announcements which I couldn't understand except maybe the one about checking you're in the right seat. The Transformers preview looked really cool as did Harry Potter and Silver Surfer one despite them being dubbed in Italian.

Anyway, the movie was surprisingly good but as the Perth girl was saying, hard not to be with so many stars... Although Charlies Angels 2 was pretty bad due, in my opinion, to the number of cameos. Either way, I enjoyed it. The Perth girl, not her friend, had the loudest laughter in the cinema! It was good she felt so comfortable despite being asked to move when they turned out to be in someone else's allocated seats. :-)

It was just on midnight. I casually walked home. My legs hurt from all the walking. They were soooo sore! I was glad to go to bed.

Rome & the Colosseum at Night

So, Finally I made it to Rome around 4:30 in the afternoon on Saturday. I was so tired by this time, and hungry as, but thought I'd find the hotel first.

There were a lot of Cabineri around. Just like there were in Florence. In fact, when I went outside there were heaps of them around with riot gear and everything. Not too far away the sound of a guy on a microphone... Obviously the demonstration, apparently against Bush, was continuing. This didn't bother me, looked like some excitement was brewing. :-)

Ok, so I had the address and I'd pre-planned this time with my GPS so I'd know where to go. That plan didn't really work since, for some reason, I couldn't get a signal outside the station, even though it worked the last time I was in Rome. It really wasn't my day. So I decided I could use it like a map as soon as I could found out which end of the station I was on. That took longer than I thought but was finally on my way with my large bag in tow.

I finally locate the piazza half an hour later. It's a big square with a park in the middle... This is where I sat with those people & waited 'til it got cold three weeks ago. Now, my mistake was going right and not left so after circumnavigating the piazza I finally ask another lady in a takeaway shop where it is... Next door, she indicates. Now the number 55 next to the big doors should have given it away I guess... what I hadn't noticed was "Mai" written on one of the intercom buttons. It's so obvious now. My mistake was looking for some moderate signage. If you can't pick up on the sarcasm then I apologise for my lack of effort in conveying it in the written word. Here it was apparently "200 metres" from the station but it took me an hour to find.

The man though was nice as his voice blasted out the intercom to greet me & ask if it were Mr. Craig and then he became extremely quiet as soon as he was providing directions. Outside, just two big brown doors. The foyer of the building inside looks kinda like the building hasn't been finished. I went up 3 flights in the old lift instead of just one so walked down the other two to the sound of his French accent. My bag is heavy!

Once I was inside the B&B foyer, the place looked better. It was very nicely decorated with the feel of being finished. Phew! The outside had me worried!

I had a quick shower. The light turned off half way through and I was in the dark. I couldn't get it going again so I just left the door ajar & finished up. I wasn't about to let that phase me. It wasn't about to become the pattern of what to expect. Plus, the light started working again about five minutes after my shower. See, no issues at all. :-) Also, I worked out that if I place my phone on the window sill I still get reception in the room. How good is that!

I went looking for food. To be honest, I kinda wanted to go back to the train station to look at the bookstore and the clothing stores. Plus it looked like they had a restaurant upstairs as I passed it earlier so I decided to go back.

It doesn't take too long when you know where you're going & don't have to drag luggage around. I browsed the shops then got this gross coffee drink before I found the restaurant. It was quite reasonable... I had risotto & two types of pasta. It was nice. After that I browsed the bookstore... I must have been in there for at least 40 minutes... It was really big and they had cooking books and heaps of art books on different styles of art & art history books & comic design. It was pretty cool but I decided I better not buy any - in the interests of money, luggage weight and likely availability online.

When I decided to go, the Cabineri & Trenitalia staff were directing everyone through one exit. I think they must have been looking for someone. Outside it looked like the demonstration had run its course. Except for a number of Polizia & Cabineri still around you wouldn't have guessed anything had gone on.

Anyway, back to the hotel, ok, B&B...

On a side note, I still don't see the issue with the Terminal area... Yeah, there's weirdo's and the homeless but I still haven't had an issue. Silvia from the reception desk back in San Gimignano agreed with me... as she's stayed in this area too... if you're aware of yourself and your surroundings you shouldn't have an issue. Others will be easier targets for pick-pocketing and since they won't be aggressive then you can just ignore anyone else.

Once I got back, I thought... Hmmm. Technically the Colosseum isn't far... I mapped a route on my phone headed off again.

It didn't take too long, say 20 minutes. It looked very cool at night with the blue & orange internal lighting and white and orange external lighting. It looked fantastic and if I took photos with a longer exposure it looked even cooler in the photos... Like a burnt orange with flecks of blue. I took heaps of photos... Say two every couple metres as I went about 90% of the way around. Some of the Arch of Constantine too.

I didn't make it all the way round 'cos I wanted to go back to the entrance where a guy had set up his electric guitar and was playing rock. He had some recorded backing but I don't think he needed it. I just sat listening to him for half an hour till around 11:30 I think it was. He was pretty good and I liked it when he played some Queen songs too. There were quite a number listening to him. And it's funny but I hadn't thought about it till then that Rock was a good genre for the Colosseum considering its past. At the same time, you could get away with something more classical due to the beauty, serenity and age of the building too since it had been there, done that. Quite versatile. If Pisa was an old woman with a girdle and a bad side, I could imagine the Colosseum was an old man who had seen a lot of violence in his life but now likes to sit peacefully in his old age.

Ok. Well, I had an uneventful trip back to the B&B. I was stuffed by then so I slept soundly.

Blogging... A New Strategy.

Those who know me will agree that I'm slightly obsessive compulsive and a bit of a perfectionist.

That said. I've decided that a Blog should be true to my thoughts as they come rather than be chronologically accurate - which is what I've been aiming for till now.

You see, it doesn't work... I last wrote about the tour ending and that was almost two weeks ago and as much as the last two weeks' activities are coming ('cos they're in draft) I don't feel I'm being fair to my readers. That'd be you!

So, you're going to have to accept that stuff happened in Stresa and San Gimignano. San Gim (as I fondly refer to it) was by far my most favourite time. I'll post stuff about those couple weeks in due course.

My next entry will be about Rome since that's where I arrived yesterday... If you didn't already pick that up from my venting about the train system.

[Oh, I must apologise to those in my tour group who obtained my blog address from me 'cos it occurred to that I gave you the incorrect address. If you managed to work it out, please e-mail me 'cos without the list (I think I've accidentally mailed it home with my books and posters) I don't know how to contact anyone to let them know. Thanks & sorry about that! :-/]

Public Tranport... My impressions...

Ok. So most of you know I don't swear very much. But I wish I got Euro for every time I uttered such words today... Let alone thought them.

So, the Public Transport System is fine if you're used to it, don't expect too much and have plenty of leeway between connections. My tip: Don't buy online... Just get the ticket at the station.

Otherwise, it's utter poo! And I mean the smelly kind.

Finally the train arrived... Three trains to Rome were delayed like mine... This could explain why seat allocation went out the window & the conductor didn't come through asking for tickets.

I guess I should be lucky, I made it to Rome. They apologised for the three & a half hour delay when we arrived. It's nice to know they care! :-)

Italy's Public Transport System

I have some stories to tell in regard to Stresa and San Gimignano but I just have to vent... I've vented to Joe a little already when I accidentally rang him on my mobile... I'm literally going to pay for that call. Oh well! Apparently, it's all part of the experience.

My first experience with Public Transport was when I had to take a train from Stresa to Poggibonsi. I walked there the previous day so that I could get a feel for the distance. When I arrived they didn't speak English (which I know isn't their fault) and since I hadn't traveled on a train I wanted to know how I stow my luggage and how I get my ticket tomorrow. Finally he understood and indicated that I stow it above me but then he said he could stamp my ticket now... I'm like, I don't even have my ticket, how could he stamp it. I'm thinking stamping means validating... I finally work out that stampe is the word for print... He prints my tickets for me. All good.

Next day I turn up on time but there's so many odd machines with slots and Italian words on them and warnings about needing to validate but no "validate here" signage. I sat around till someone did it before me. Turned out it was the unmarked yellow boxes and I since worked out it just prints numbers on the end rather so it doesn't need to go in a particular direction... Crisis over.

First train... Turns out after 5 stops that I'm sitting in First class, not second. Feakin' hell, there are no signs. So I have to take my bag off the shelf above and drag it to the other end of the carriage. I can tell you now, there's not much difference except First class smells air conditioned and you have a fold out cup holder... That's all!

So, I arrive in Poggibonsi, there's no one there. The hotel said the bus comes past every hour so I'd just take the bus. The timetable could have been a test for tourists... I couldn't understand it. The first bus arrived after 20mins, the driver says the one to San Gimignano is in 15mins... 10mins later another bus arrives... I ignore it. Another 15mins go by and the San Gimignano bus arrives... No markings to confirm this. I just asked. The next problem was that I was supposed to know to get a ticket from the ticket office... Of course! This is 300m up the road... Naturally! I should have known! The driver looked extremely frustrated. But after finding out it was just me he gave me a break and fished through his bag for a ticket for me... The cost? E3,00. I've since found out it only costs E1,70. Ok, ripped off! I arrived safely, I guess that's the main thing...

Till today!

I got up early, made it to the bus stop with time to spare. The bus came 15mins early but I caught it. All good. Arrived at Poggibonsi station with 45mins to spare... Plenty of time! I was assured I could print the tickets I bought online at the station. That would be misinformation. The station isn't manned and there is no way to obtain your ticket. I ask at the bar, they know nothing, I ask at the newspaper shop, he suggests the tourist office up the road. I drag m bag to the tourist office... Down to 30mins before train... The tourist office normally can help but the system is down and the guy before me has been there for 20mins himself already. 15mins before the train... They send me to the ravel agent up the road... 10mins left... They can't help because my ticket is designated "self service" but she might be able to print my first ticket, not the second. Fine. The system is down. Freakin' wonderful. Meanwhile they can't tell me what happens if I miss the train. Finally she says I can get the ticket from the machine at the station... What the hell! 5mins left... Back to the station. There is no way I can even read the machines in the station! Suffice to say my train is there... Next minute my train is gone... Back up to the tourist office... She confirms that there is no machine in the station to help me! Oh, yay! Freakin' flyin' Argh!!!! Ok, so she explains that I can catch the next train to Florence in an hour and twenty minutes or the bus in 20mins. Right, so I establish the first ticket is gone but either way I will be too late for my next train... The she finds out I can transfer the ticket within three hours. Wonderful but this still means I loose out on the first ticket since the system is still down! So, the bus it is. Yay! Well that was relatively easy since I could buy a ticket for the bus right there... How convenient! So, I take the bus and surprisingly arrive in time for me to get my train if I can get my ticket. With 10mins to go, I find the appropriate machine and get my tickets... Now, which platform? The big paper schedule says 11... Good. But wait, it's empty. Hmmm. Right. The electronic board indicates it's not here and finally after another 10mins it's updated with a delay of 2 and a half hrs due to demonstrators on the track... Funny! So after a feeble attempt at swapping my ticket for an earlier train, I resign myself to wait for 2 and a half hours. Here I am, still sitting on my suitcase and the board now shows a 3 hour delay. So, only another half hour of waiting to go... I'll believe the board when I'm sitting on my train!

I don't think you can appreciate how impressed I am with public transport!

I'm not sure how many times I can tell myself that it's all part of the experience!

Oh... And welcome to the blog Beth. I hope you're not having this particular experience yourself.

Palazzo Borromeo & Lunch in Switzerland

I woke up... It's odd, every so often I'll wake up and take a minute or two to work out where I am. This particularly happens when I've been dreaming of home... Right! I'm in Italy, in Baveno. Unfortunately, the view from my balcony still wasn't any good 'cos it was rainy & visibility was poor... It's a pity 'cos it's supposed to be a very beautiful area.

I thought I felt better but wasn't too sure, I was a bit wary. When I arrived downstairs a number had expressed concerns about my wellbeing last night since I wasn't at drinks. Hmmm... I still don't know what the gift was for people who have been on a previous Insight tour. Anyway, I hadn't realised I had inherited so many mothers. A few were going to call last night to see whether I was OK & whether I needed anything but decided against it since I was likely asleep... Which is lucky 'cos I probably was. It was really nice that people cared so much. We'd obviously become a close group. And here it was, our last day together! :-(

We gathered together & set off for the boats. I was unsure about travelling on a boat since I'm prone to motion sickness at the best of times. I got on the second boat with the other half of our tour group. Further queries regarding my wellness. It's nice they missed me last night.

We were staying in Baveno, one of the towns on the shores of Lake Majore. Within the lake are four islands, Bella, Madre, Pescatori and San Giovanni, collectively called the Borromean Islands. We were on our way to see the Borromeo Palace, Palazzo Borromeo, on Bella island. The island was named after Carlo the 3rd's wife, you guessed it... Isabella... der! The Borromeo family were originally bankers, now their money is in industry. The palace was built in the 17th Century for the family. Only the first floor and the extensive garden at the rear of the palace are accessible to tourists 'cos the family still use the upper levels as a holiday home, it's not a museum. It's someone's house. Upon closer inspection, while we were waiting under the entrance at the front courtyard, you could see that some of the windows, doors and the columns on the opposite wall were actually fake! This theme seems to run through the building... I'm not sure on why, I forgot to ask. Anyway, up the marble stairs, following our guide, 'the princess'... Not sure why she was called that. There were rooms with books, paintings and weapons. Of note was a small table decorated in extreme detail of flowers... all mosaic. Impressive work! The ceilings were of note too since they used the same impressive fake 3D decorations. Everything seemed to have the symbol of three interlocking circles - indicating the union of the three wealthy families at the time. Even our guide had a pin on her lapel with the symbol. I wonder what happened to the other two families? I was feeling a bit unsteady inside, it made me realise I wasn't as well as I thought I was. Anyway, there was the bed that Napoleon slept in as a guest of the family, a really high music room with bad acoustics & I swear fake doors on the second floor balcony! There were sculptures by Canova and a treaty document signed by Mussolini attempting to end WWII. Oh, and a selection of the Countess's doll and marionette collection. Downstairs to the grottoes... These were studded with volcanic rock and pebbles. It took 25 years to complete them. This was used originally used as an internal garden due to the climate... now it houses armour and weapons and the remains of a 3000 year old boat... which to be honest could have been the remains of a tree that washed up in the rain yesterday... it was encased in glass so it must have been special. Before getting to the garden, we got to see the Flemish tapestries with cool optical illusion things. They seemed obsessed with animals and I don't think the weavers really knew quite what a monkey looked like. Anyway, I wondered whether the upper levels of the palace were all modern with LCD screens and surround sound? This could explain the fake windows and doors! Hmmm. Out to the garden with its various fauna and white peacocks... I saw one fly in and land on the lower patches of grass... it was pretty impressive! I also got to see one of them be a little upset with it's tail feathers all fanned out... I couldn't get the camera ready in time. Oh well! Even with the rain, I think I got a few good pictures in the garden.

I was a little cold by that time so I needed a hot drink. I asked for a hot chocolate at a little café that seemed packed... I think I got just that.. it wasn't milky at all, it was heavy like melted chocolate & seemed to be getting thicker as it cooled. I think it was actually a packet thing... It was alright, would have been better if it weren't so rich. I picked up a dessert snack too, they were like wafers.

It was really pouring down by then. On the way out we passed these little stores. I picked up a small raincoat since I was getting drenched.

We boarded boats & went back to Baveno. We had a bit of a rest before needing to get ready to go again.

I went downstairs early & sat on the chair near the window... typing on my phone again. This way I'd be ready to go when the group gathered. It wasn't long before we were all assembled & ready.

We boarded the bus & were heading for Switzerland. We all did the quick check to make sure we had our passports... Just in case the bus was stopped at the border. Apparently it can happen.

Ray was concerned we may need to do a song together later so he sat with me at the start of the trip and asked whether he had the words written out correctly for the song Words. The issue was that whenever I sing it, I sing in the style of Boyzone, not the Bee Gees. They have less words, excuse the pun, in their version and I like Boyzone's better. Nevertheless, I corrected it without the "la da da da da da da" lines and otherwise it looked fine to me. But he was clearly not happy with it, particularly with one line I'd written again... Not to worry. If we did do it, I could adapt.

I slept most of the way otherwise, writing had kinda made me nauseous anyway. At the border there seemed to be a lot happening. Apparently the bus that was holding everyone up had Belgium citizens on it. They just waved us through like it'd be an inconvenience to look at a bus mostly filled with Australian's.

I remember Alison talking about the characteristics of the Swiss, e.g. good time keepers, known for watches, chocolate & army knives and other things and how the world would be better if the European countries all used their strengths but how bad it would be if they were all confused - there'd be chaos.

I don't know how it came up but Alison was explaining how she didn't understand muesli... Apparently it was created by poor people who had run out of food and they only had an apple core, some oats from the horse feed, etc... She seemed to believe that it wasn't meant for general consumption... that there are better things to eat these days. I agree but Italian's have overlook the value of a Big Breakfast! :-)

More sleeping on the trip... Not that I have any objections to that... Gotta love sleep!

When we arrived at Lugano it was raining still. So we got to take Insight umbrella's from under the bus. These are the huge type. They have on them "Insight Vacations"... Alison wasn't sure whether it was a good advertisement, having so many people with such umbrellas... It certainly looked like someone was making a statement. :-)

Lugano was kinda dead. It was a holiday or something. I hadn't realised till we were sitting down for lunch that we actually traveled to Switzerland for the sole purpose of having lunch. How odd is that! I was with some of the others when we decided on a restaurant. I had a nice pizza with pepperoni, I think it was the equivalent of Mexican & I put some chili flakes on for added spice - I wasnt gonna let my stomach stop me from enjoying it. It's funny, when you order Pizza it comes unsliced... It then becomes a full-on meal with a sharp knife & fork. I don't mind it at all but it's almost as if slices were only ever designed to facilitate take away... on-the-go eating. Anyway, I enjoyed lunch. It was really warm under the clear awning of the restaurant.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time for dessert or to stop & buy Swiss chocolate though.

It's funny, if you pay in Euros here you'll get Francs in change. Which means if your meal is 9,00 Euro, you pay 10,00 Euro and therefore would get 1,50 Francs... Weird. Remembering that decimals are represented by commas and thousands are represented by periods. :-)

Lunch was done & we were returning to Italian soil... Dinner was at the hotel on our last night. It was good that Alison swapped the dinner nights 'cos otherwise the group wouldn't have been together again after this bus trip back to the hotel. On the way, we filled out feedback forms for Alison and there were a few airport transfer things for people that needed sorting.

At some point Lyn came over and asked if she could compare notes... with her Journal to mine. She started reading hers but then wanted to hear mine. So I quietly read her my blog entry for the second day of our tour (I no longer had the first)... She liked it so much she said I had to read it to the others. So I did that from my seat. They liked it so wanted the next day too... Midway through Alison told us about something we were passing... she didn't know what was going on at the back of the bus with my storytime. So Lyn thought that Alison and the rest of the bus should hear it so she told Alison... So I then went to the front of the bus and read my completed blog entries to all the bus over the microphone. Unfortunately, I had only written to the point where we had seen David in Florence. They liked it and even though I'd screwed up some of the facts Alison liked it too.

While I was at the front, Alison convinced me that going to Milan for a rest didn't make sense since it was busy and there wasn't anything to see except a church. When I got back to the hotel I organised a hotel to stay in Stresa, the neighboring town, for four days. That way I had some rest time and a chance to work out my plan for, what I hadn't realised till then was, 18 more days in Italy.

There was going to be a little pressure to sing a song for the group that night so I was preparing to sing something. The Italian songs were ruled out but when I was listening to Goodbye My Lover by James Blunt that morning I realised I could sing that or Lyn wanted Perhaps Love by Denver & Domingo.. there was a section in that song where I couldn't remember the tune so I rang Lyn before we had to meet for dinner and asked if she could listen to the songs and tell me which was better... She still liked the latter and helped me with the problem section. I guess that was it then... Hell!

Anyway, down to dinner... Everyone was "quietly" slipping Roberto and Alison their gratuities in envelopes... Let me digress at this point...

I still don't see the point of tipping. I think that if it's expected then it should be added to the cost, this includes waiters and taxi drivers and tour guides... I don't see why it's necessary since all these people are being paid anyway... Just increase their wage or the cost of the service. It'd definitely make it a heck of a lot easier for visitors who haven't been brought up with it as a standard practice, like Australia. The whole idea is foreign, I mean from when and how to leave it to how much to leave. What happens when you pay by card? What if you don't leave enough... Is that offensive? We have no basis for which services are meeting expectations and which are exceeding and what dollar amount this equates to... Also, when I stop for lunch and it only costs 10 Euro... How does 1 Euro in their pocket help? Yay, you're half way to buying a coffee! Whoopdidoo. Well, I did digress didn't I...

Anyway, The first course was good, the potato soup was great. The second course, the fish, I didn't like. It tasted fishy. Fish shouldn't taste fishy in my opinion. Others at the table didn't know what I meant and commented that it tasted like fish 'cos it WAS fish... I hold to my belief that fish shouldn't taste like that... I'm sure some of my readers will know what I'm talking about. The ice cream for dessert more than made up for it though. It was also Hazel's birthday so the usual fuss was made at some point during the meal. Then coffee was offered.

After getting a photo with both Alison and Roberto we all migrated to drinks... I got some Benedictine to sip. The next thing you know, I'm being asked for a song... So I sang for them Perhaps Love. The place kinda went quiet while I sang. It came across OK I guess, my breathing and resonance wasn't right but they still liked it so that was nice. A couple seconds of sit down time and on to two songs with Ray in the lead... He had us all in a circle singing them too... I didn't know them so couldn't. Apparently the staff and other people in the bar area didn't know what to make of it... a bunch of people in a big circle singing songs. It was nice though. We'd all gotten a little closer by the end. Anyway, I had a extended conversation with Mark and everyone seemed happy talking with one another. Eventually, the crowd dwindled with hugs kisses and handshakes. It was difficult to believe that the tour was over... Then it was just myself, Fred & Lindy left.

Time for bed. Onto the unknown!

Juliet's Breast & Lago Majoré

It was a misty morning and I had decided to skip breakfast again. I'm not sure but I think I was kinda avoiding people in general. You see, normally, I achieve some quality alone time, a day to myself every so often, just to chill but on a tour it's difficult. That's where my new speakers came in, if I couldn't get a day of alone time, I'd have music to keep me going, and now I could have it in the shower too. Ah... quality time. :-)

What was interesting was that news seemed to be spreading about my performance last night. I guess news travels fast in a group of 38 travelling in a metal box for extended periods of time. It seems some felt cheated since they'd missed out... the pressure will be on to do another song for the group as a whole. Why'd I open my mouth!

As I was saying, it was a misty morning as we boarded the bus, working out which was our seat for the day. The clouds had descended during the night and were still clinging to them. On our agenda today was a happy snap at Lake Misorina, then we were off to Verona for a brief visit before heading in the direction of Milan, stopping at Lake Majore.

We were passing through the Lavaro Mountains, the ones that embrace Lake Misorina. Apparently, there is a witch in the mountains when it rains. Oogada-boogada!!! Fine, I hear your groans. Anyway, unfortunately, we couldn't see the lake yet 'cos of the cloud but apparently it reflects the blue of the eyes of a woman's love. But then, when she sees her love coming down the mountain on the other side, it reflects her tears of joy. Ahh how romantic!

There were a significant number of people along the side of the road... apparently a cycling race was coming through the mountain. Unfortunately, our plans for a stopover and happy snap at Lake Misorina were dashed when we were headed off at the pass (actually called something like 'five roads') by the Polizia. Apparently the TV vans were in a mess up the mountain blocking the road and we weren't allowed through despite it being reported as being fine to pass this morning before 10am. We turned around and headed back where we came from. I believe it was Abby who commented about the odd behavior of the young men on the side of the road as we passed, they seemed to poke their tongues out really long and down... like one of those mauri masks. It was really quite ugly. One guy, who looked like Anthony, had a pink umbrella hat on! So, we tried another way round... again, no luck, blocked. Only one way out... we weren't seeing the lake at all. It would have been good to see where they have horse racing on a frozen lake every year and ice skating too. Oh well!

Driving through the mountains, it was so serene, calm... lonely. I missed Kerrie and the people back home. Not long before the tour is over and I can more readily call and e-mail people and get a chance to send postcards I couldn't arrange to send.

Before I get onto another love story, I need to relate a gruesome, yet interesting one, it involves a 5,300 year old man. He was found in the fountains and 'hacked' out of the ice. Initially, they didn't know he was so old. Apparently, he came from the copper age. He taught historians a lot about people back then. He died of a wound in his leg or was it his shoulder, whatever. He was stabbed with a spear. His last meal was of deer, grain and spelt. His shoes were layered, deer skin, hay then deer skin again. It took a while to work out what it was but he also had a backpack made of bear skin, how modern! They say though that he carries a curse 'cos everyone who has touched the body has died suddenly of various ailments... but the families have discounted the curse saying that they were just coincidences. But were they? :-o

Now, back to soppy love stories... the question came up... Is the story of Romeo & Juliet true or false? Fact or fiction? Well, evidence seems to indicate that it's true. You see, the Copoletti family moved into Verona, they were supporters of the pope. They had a daughter. In Verona was a very well respected family of nobility who supported the emperor, this was the Motecio family. They had a son. Hmmm, food for thought. :-) I mean, how can it not be true, there's a balcony and everything!

Since we had two and a half hours drive ahead of us Alison decided to play Verdi from her iPod over the speakers... I didn't mind it but this was soon drowned out by Linkin Park, my iPod saves the day again... I've said previously that I like to choose what goes into my ears. I don't like beg force fed aural stimulation.

Another question, why is it that when you ask for pizza, the reply is not, what flavour? That's because there is technically one flavour... the Margarita. This is named after the queen if Italy at the time and only has tomato, mozzarella cheese and basil. It's only us westerners who have made toppings such an artwork, who have made it a meal in itself. Interesting.

Anyway, Verona is famous for its pink marble and Amarone wine. Oh, and white chocolate. The Adjir river runs through Verona. It was one of the original places which used to force visitors to leave weapons at the entrance gate. The entrance gate is of pink marble, naturally. And all of the footpaths are of pink marble too!

When we arrived, we got off the bus and walked into the old part of the city. The first thing of note was some ruins a couple metres below ground and an arch which was up against a building. This was reminiscent of how Rome had proven to have been built upon over time. Not too exciting but interesting nonetheless. It's not like they're gonna find something like that under a footpath in Canberra I guess.

Next thing you know, we've stopped at a random location and Alison is asking which balcony above us is Juliet's... We all look up but none of them look that impressive and it's not like this spot is crowded or anything... She was trying to trick us... it was further along.

Along what could have been just any alley, there was a dark archway and a short tunnel. A soon as you enter, you can see that this is the place, there are people everywhere on the other side. As your eyes adjust you notice that the arch seems to be covered with chewing gum and little notes stuck on the wall with people expressing their love for each other. In fact, it's notable that you can write to "Juliet of Verona", like you can with "Santa Claus". She's a bit of a relationship expert it seems. She'll even reply to your letter, I think it's panel who answer, she doesn't respond herself 'cos that'd just be creepy. Anyway, the arch leads to a small paved courtyard with a tree or vine and you can go into the 14th Century house and up to the famous balcony for 5 Euro. I didn't see any point in checking the view. I'd live. I took a photo of the statue of Juliet just below her balcony. She was quite a small young lady, she was on a pedestal, she was a gold colour, not sure what she was made of. I declined having my photo taken with her. Apparently the thing to do is have your photo taken and touch or rub her breast... This explains why one, her right, is very shiny. You see this is the breast that was promised by Alison since she mislead the males of the bus when she promised a breast and it turned out to be a sign saying "chicken breast" outside the Pisa wall. Juliet was to make us even with the women who got to see Michaelangelo's David in Florence. As soon as Alison learnt I had declined a picture with Juliet, she insisted that I must have my picture taken with her. So, now there is a picture of me with Juliet. Unfortunately for Alison, the battery needed changing in my camera and it wasn't focussing too well. So both are blurry. Not to worry. It was corny anyway. But everyone laughed when I needed to pose again for the second shot... it was fun I guess! :-)

After that, we could all go our separate ways for a wander around. In a large courtyard there were those two poles again... it seems consistent that one of them is the lion with the book under foot... the other symbol seems to change depending on where we are.

I found the arch with the whale bone, I cant remember what the significance of that was, which led to the other courtyard which had a statue of Dante Aligerie, the father of the Italian language, the poet most remembered by the third section (Inferno) of his famous book, The Divine Comedy. The other sections being Paradiso and Purgatory.

My next object to find on this treasure hunt was the Roman Arena, said to hold 26,000 people and depending on where you get your information is the second or third largest in the world! Now, I knew we passed near it on our way in the bus but I must have been spun around a little 'cos I headed in what must have been the wrong direction. After finding the river and getting a nice picture of the bridge I decided to head back in-ish and then suddenly by accident I stumbled across it (from the opposite side I should have... hmmm)... and after only 20 minutes of walking and searching! It was reminiscent of the Colosseum in Rome with its three wall construction except this one was missing its outer wall 'cos it fell over relatively recently, I think 'cos of an earthquake. There seemed to be something going on 'cos it was walled off and had netting around the area but I at least got a good picture through the netting.

I needed to get back but I needed a loo & something to eat. To use the loo I needed to buy food, to buy food I needed money, to get money I needed an ATM (or Bancomat) which seemed to have all disappeared. Meanwhile, I still didn't know where I was or how to get back. So I madly rushed back in what looked like the right direction and just when I'd given up hope, I found a Bancomat, then to my surprise the square. Yay! I was saved! Anyway, I ordered a panini & so could then use the bathroom, what a relief. So, ready to go... I grabbed my Panini and soon worked out what a panini shouldn't taste like... it was really disgusting and so it made friends with the bin the next chance I had to extricate it from my person. I was hoping my coke would sustain me until I found real food. I should have been able to judge their food quality by their bathroom hygiene!

On the trip to Lake Majore it rained outside and I didn't feel very well. At one point my leg hurt in a weird way and I know this is gonna sound odd but it was at this point I regretted not writing a will before I left. I was reminded of Chris' words, "everyone should have a will"... I thought... that quote will be my last thought when I die of DVT! Oh well. So I wrote a small note in my phone that I would leave all my stuff to Ash since he'd benefit most from it & then I thought... this is surely not legal and binding! ... In any case, I still felt quite sick & this was likely why I was having such thought processes so I decided to ignore it, give in and sleep. zzz

I thought I felt a bit better when we arrived at the hotel at Lake Majore but I went upstairs to my room and even when I rested, I felt unwell in my stomach and quite dizzy. This was a pity 'cos even though it was raining, I had a good view from my little balcony. That evening I slept rather than go to drinks with everyone. When I woke later I tried to go out for dinner but couldn't so had room service instead, luckily I still had 15 minutes to order something... I had chicken & veggies. The chicken was nice except I expected breast not half the animal. I hate eating around bones, fat & skin! It's so carnivorous! Plus, I hate the texture.

I felt like talking to someone back home & since the NZ timezone was already too late, I messaged Ash to say I was thinking about calling. I obviously fell asleep soon after and subsequently didn't call when I said I would. What was brilliant was that Ash called me so that boosted my spirits somewhat. It was good to hear from someone I knew since I hadn't heard anyone's voice from home since Rome almost two weeks previous. It was a brilliant end to a miserable evening of feeling sick.

It didn't take long before I was asleep again.

Austria & the VPN Mystery

Well, we had a storm last night. It's really fresh this morning. I decided to skip breakfast and spend more time sleeping. :-)

Today we cross the Alps. For some reason I was quite tired and thus was giving in to the urge to sleep. I only picked up on some of the stories and info that Alison was imparting. [Sorry Alison]

When Austria gave back this area to Italy, Mussolini made them change all of the Austrian town names back to Italian names. Also, they say, when the Euro was introduced, it not only made everything expensive but it took the character out of the countries. It made them "European". Alison was also giving us a brief history lesson and explaining how the assassination of Fernando and Sophia Hapsburg led to WW1 and she also explained events that culminated in WW2.

We were going to exit the National Park of the Dolomites soon.

Alison explained a bit about the three police... the Polizia who are the general, local police with the red stripe on their leg, then the Cabineri who are the military police with the pink stripe down their leg and the Finance police with the yellow stripe, who were brought in to curb the laundering, corruption and tax evasion. These latter ones are interesting. It is because of these ones that you must get a receipt for every transaction and why shops give you it even for a 30 cent postcard. They have the power to intercept you as you leave a shop and ask you to produce the receipt for a purchase you've made. If you can't, you can be fined heavily for not having one and the shop will have to pay three times the value and a fine for not providing it in the first place. Interesting.

We went through the Brena Pass and the Brena tunnel. This is supposedly where Mussolini and Hitler met. This is also where Hannibal crossed the Alps with his African elephants. The poor elephants, they actually made it over the alps but died soon after. They still served their purpose though. Before they died they were seen in action by the Romans and word got back about the beasts but they didn't know they died. It gave Hannibal time to get through the territory. He advanced so far and could have beaten them but for some reason went back. I forget the name of the commander who witnessed his army get slaughtered but he went back with intelligence on how Hannibal fought and with this information taught a new army and when they fought again, Hannibal was defeated.

Since we're heading to Innsbrook, there's an important story to relate... During the Austrian occupation of Switzerland, the Swiss were supposed to bow three times a day to this hat, thus showing their allegiance to Austria. William Tell wouldn't bow down. Himler heard about this and heard he was a good archer. They arrested him and Himler forced him to shoot an apple off his son's head... he'd be free if he could do it, if not, the son was to die. William took two arrows and aimed the first one... he successfully shot the apple. All was well, except that Himler asked why he'd taken two arrows.. he replied with honesty that the second was for Himler if he'd missed. Naturally, he was arrested. He was sent away on a ship. He was apparently a good sailor too... when the boat was in trouble the crew asked him to take over so they wouldn't hit rocks. He steered away but at the last minute steered back and abandoned ship. The ship was lost but he survived. Himler came after him. While William was waiting for him, he fashioned a new bow and arrow... When Himler arrived, he was shot in the heart... this ended the Austrian domination of Switzerland.

It was still raining when we stopped at the AutoGrill for our "pee pee break". I was kinda getting used to Italian numbers but now the cost was being quoted in German! It was OK, just took a second to adjust.

Over the Austrian border we came across Innsbrook, our destination. Innsbrook means Bridge over the river Inn. The town has the reputation of not being very sophisticated.

Our local guide was Angelica. Our first stop was a church done in Rococo style. Rococo is just after Baroque architecture. We could see the onion domes of the baroque churches as we came into the town. Rococo is more frilly and in my opinion ugly and unnecessarily busy. The decorations inhthe church were pink and gold and although the paintings were good, I don't think they were conveying the 3D look the artist was after. Maybe I was just in a critical mood, maybe I had seen too many churches but it didn't really impress me too much.

While we were outside, people were posing with this fake dancing Austrian man... there was a hat to wear too. It was causing quite the commotion.

Next we stopped at the base of the new Ski Jump. When we were outside the church, I took a picture of the jump wondering what it was. It was a strange looking structure on top of the hill. This is where all the ski champions come to practice their jumps. While we were there a skier did a jump. We couldn't see him land but we assumed he was OK. It looked pretty impressive. At this stop there was a statue of Franz Joseph and another huge statue, I forget who it was. This was also the location of a shooting range.

On the way through the town we were told about the longer than average life expectancy of the residents, and the annoyance this causes for owners of apartments 'cos the rent can't be increased. Angelica said they live longer 'cos they eat a cake a day... but it only works if the cake comes from Innsbrook. It seemed this was a place that families had been passing on their businesses for generations... whether it be cannons and bells or candles or even crystal.

We were taken to Old Innsbrook. The old city entrance gates were quite impressive, even though we only got a brief glimpse as we passed by. We were shown a cafe where famous people had eaten... they had their names on the wall outside. They weren't written chronologically 'cos some people needed to die before they were famous. Among them was Maria Augusta (Von) Trapp in 1958 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1773.

We walked to the famous Golden Roof. When we got there, there was an oompa-loompa band playing underneath it. Angelica seemed to have been timing the tour perfectly, we saw the skier, now a band was playing. She was very pleasant. She showed us the church of St. Jacob, the candle shop and the Maxamillian Palace of yellow and white.

It's funny, every so often you'd see a tall snow white guy with shorter than acceptable shorts, socks and sandals... Hello Austria! :-)

Next stop was the crystal manufacturers, Shwarovski. [I think I spelled that incorrectly, whatever.] We got to see their exhibition and showroom. I think some in the group really had a field day. I thought that the animals, the dragon particularly, and the turtle were the best and the crystal birds were brilliant too. Lindy gave me some advice just in case I didn't know... she said that "girls like silver, women like gold". Interesting. :-)

It was getting cold and I was concerned that I wasn't prepared for such weather... so I bought a wind jacket and a long sleeve t-shirt. The shop assistant was very friendly. I must have tried on about 10 jackets and 7 shirts. They had a little waiting area in the back where you could sit, have a smoke (if you do that) and they'd give you a coffee... I just had a glass of water. We chatted a bit about various things. Apparently smoking was still allowed inside and he thought the slogans and pictures on cigarettes were a good idea since they don't have that. It was pleasant.

I had some fruit salad and a pastry of some sort for lunch, I didn't have time to sit. It started to shower a bit as we waited at the rendezvous point.

On the way back, as it rained outside, my shoulder was really tense and giving me a headache so I took some Neurophen Plus and listened to my iPod rather than Alison... Woops, did I just say that?

When we got back to the hotel I had a hot bath for my back and neck. For those who know me well enough this says something since I don't like laying in water at the best of times.

When I got out, I went to find some small speakers for my iPod so I could listen to it without headphones... I was feeling serious withdrawals from music after almost two weeks. I found some cool Sony ones that didn't require batteries. I also looked in the supermarket. My bathroom products weren't there, neither was there any Vegemite (I knew it'd be a long shot but can't hurt trying) but there was peanut butter, it was called Skippy... I didn't get it.

Just before I had gone out I was advised of drinks and the intended dinner plans of some of the group. I met up with the others in the bar and ordered my JD and Coke. It's always the same process... they don't know what JD is, so I have to say Jack Daniels... all good until it comes out... the JD is in it's own tall glass with ice, a lemon, two straws and a curly stick thing, once it even had a sparkly silver thing too... the coke, on the other hand, is usually in its original glass bottle.

The group decided on dinner in the hotel restaurant... This was very, very good food. It had to be... I found out they had two of the best chefs in the world! After a few others had left dinner, Lyn asked about me singing a song for them. Alison was there too on a table with Roberto and I looked to her to see if it'd be acceptable to the restaurant staff if some random person started singing in their establishment... She seemed to indicate to just go ahead so I reluctantly got up and sang Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps for them. I could tell all the way through that Alison knew the song, I don't think many others had heard it before. I was relatively happy with it considering I hadn't sung in ages and my nerves at one point could be heard. Oh well, they were appreciative of it anyway, which was nice.

Before I went up to bed Abby and her dad requested my assistance in the lobby with connecting their Mac to the hotel wireless network. It seemed that the login page for the hotel somehow triggered the VPN to be set up on a PC. On a mac I could get the timer going but of course the Mac needed further configuration changes that it wasn't getting automatically. In the end, I tried all sorts of things but couldn't get it going. I failed. When I get home I might play with a VPN so I can figure out what I was missing. It was quite difficult without knowing the nature of the network setup. It was apparent that the designer of the network wasn't counting on Mac users.

Anyway, I fell asleep straight away that night.

On the road to Cortina...

On the road again... I can't wait to get on the road again...

While driving along we passed by San Sovino, the birthplace of Piladio and the location of an extensive library... since lost... if I recall correctly. Many days have passed since so forgive any inaccuracy.

I also recall a story from Venice where an explosion out to sea caused part of a wall to collapse. The architect was blamed since it fell down and was sent to prison. They wouldn't believe him. I'm not sue how this story was related but it shows how back then, when you created something, you really invested yourself in your work.

We also passed Padova where Casanova was in the monastery causing immaculate conceptions. This is also the location of the Scaveni Palace, painted by Joto.

I think there were more stories... anyway...

First stop, Vicenza. This is the Silicon Valley of Italy. Just a quick visit. Andrea Piladio designed their square, Piazza dei Senore, and their forum which until recently was still being used for this purpose. It's being renovated at the moment. There was a big statue of him in the town. He was bald and looked all pompous and aristocratic. The people of Vicenza were quoted as saying that "everyone else has museums, we're a living museum". This was a very nice town, quiet. There were few tourists. It was starting to heat up. After coffee with the others, I decided to find the Theatro Olimpica.. the Olympic Theatre. After much searching, I asked a shop assistant where it was. I got the question out OK but then I couldn't understand the response. Luckily the other assistant could translate. They were happy and friendly. The theatre was pretty impressive. They had three entry ways to the main stage, one in the middle and two at the sides, and even these forked. They built in some perspective into the set too... It would have been quite good to watch since they'd be able to hide characters among the streets and alleys in the set. I've not seen anything like it before.

Back on bus, travelling along the Brenta Canal... we were running ahead of schedule since it only took an hour to get out of Venice rather than the normal two. It was great to get out of the heat and into the air conditioning of the bus.

Next stop, Marostica. It is famous for asparagus, including the white kind. Human chess is a big thing here too. Yes, it's what it sounds like. It's a big event. Everyone in the town will back a side and the winners will obtain great honour. Marostica is one of those walled cities up in the Alps. When you stand within the square, you can see a hill in the background with the protective wall running along it. It has watchtowers every so often along it. I decided to go have a closer look. Unfortunately, I couldn't get as close as I would have liked, my path was blocked. I got a few pictures of it though. How cool would it be to have a wall like that around your property. :-) That was a quick visit but I was glad I got round the back.

Time for a snooze before the next stop... Bassano. This is the town with the famous bridge by Paladio, the great renaissance architect. Bassano is also called Bassano da Grappa. The "Grappa" was added to the name. Grappa used to be given to soldiers to give them more energy... I'm not sure about the practicality of such a move but I guess if it worked. They get a lot of flooding here. They even have a castle. I decided to go for a walk before eating, trying initially to get a better shot of the bridge. I walked along the river bank as far as the path went. I then followed a narrow path with walls either side, about five metres in height. At this point I thought I'd just wander till found a nice place to eat. I found this brilliant Pizza place... it was just what I wanted margarita with pepperoni. I was starving by then and the weather had decided for sure that it was going to be hot. The coke hit the spot. Oddly, I still had slightly fat fingers... hmmm.

Everyone seemed to have already met up by the time I arrived back at the bridge. They were commenting on the particular grappa they had tried. I didn't feel like it. Apparently something to try here was Appero Spritz (I forget the exact name). Time for a "pee pee" break... I had the wonderful experience of seeing one of those ceramic "holes" for the first time. I can't even think how one goes about a number two and still maintains some form of dignity... I don't wanna know. It's all wrong. It's up there with the bide no one uses. Anyway...

Back on the bus... Another two hours to Cortina, capital of the Dolomite region, heading toward the ski resorts. On the way, we passed Pesangno, birthplace of Antonio Canova. No breaks on the way. This is where they have a horse race on ice and where you can find eagles. Since it's reasonably close to the border of Austria, Austrians come here... naturally.

This is an area of secrets, it's where people would cross to go on their pilgrimage to Rome. Subsequently they'd be robbed for their money and the tools of their trade (this is how they would make it to their destination, using their trade) and they'd then get killed, never to be seen again. Apparently the area is full of secrets and bodies! This is also the place where hundreds of children just disappeared, still with no answer - this incident is the where the story of the Pied Piper comes from. This is also where, for sport, the British would come to cause avalanches and see if they could cross the valley before it hit the valley floor. Paragliding, hanggliding and rock climbing is quite popular these days in the Dolomites.

There is a lot of proof that there was great influence from the borders over the Alps. Apple Pie or Strudel for example and with the opera house in Milan. In Balsamo, even still, menus in restaurants are in Italian and German.

The Italian's loved Napoleon for kicking the Austrians out. He then pronounced himself king. Napoleon was apparently a crude, disgusting man. Another side of him was shown in his obsession with his love. He would write three letters per day to her. His riders were taking too long to deliver the letters so he decided to build a tunnel through the alps... thus the Simplon Path. It saved 300 miles for his riders. What love can't do! :-) They then started blaming him for it being so cold in Milan 'cos he was the one who put a hole through the Alps. Even now, bad weather is blamed on him. On a different note, I find it amusing that Napoleon stole everything he could lay his hands on. Like a painting in the ceiling of the Doge's Palace back in Venice and the horses on top of St. Mark's Basilica. Although he did give those back eventually. In fact, for statues of horses, they've certainly traveled more than some real horses, they went everywhere! :-)

Another tragic story was of the damn that was built in the region. The three architects advised it was a bad idea but it went ahead anyway. There were strict instructions though that it should never be filled. There was a lot of rain one day and they ignored the advice, allowing it to fill. As a result, there was a landslide and 90% of the 6000 inhabitants were drowned. One architect hung himself, one was killed and the last went to prison but didn't last long inside.

We were also told about the selection of the lead cow... Every year they select the strongest cow from the herd, it's the one that will have the bell attached and since the others are trained to follow the bell, this lead cow will 'lead' the other cows to higher ground. I wouldn't have cows were so smart!

Anyway, as we're bussing it through the Alps, we have brilliant views. My simple words can't capture the strength, and at the same time calm, that the peaks convey combined with the greenery of the tall trees.

After much snoozing, we arrive at our hotel, il Ancora in Cortina d' Ampezzo. It felt like a ski town. Interestingly, seven dogs live in the hotel, they're quite the pampered lot. One of the youngest, I forget her name, a boxer, came to say hello when we were admiring the view from Lyn & Dave's patio. Later, when three of them were taken for their walk, the other four were on the roof barking, likely disappointed at not being included. Dogs seem to be quite acceptable in the area, people seem to walk into shops with them too like it's not a problem at all.

I decided to go for a wander around the town and take a few photos. Then, before I knew it, I had decided to see how far up the mountain I could go, to see if there were better pictures to be taken on higher ground before I needed to get back for dinner. Since I got to Italy, walking seems purposefully to find a better shot, no matter the distance, seems to have become my thing. After taking what I found out later to be the long way round, I started to ascend. And no, not in some odd glowing wispy light thing like Daniel Jackson! More up. I went past all the residential houses and past the final ski resort hotel.

Along the way, I noticed an old man tending to his garden at the base of one of those ski lifts. I didn't interrupt him, it looked therapeutic for him. Until then, I had been receiving my own therapy... I was listening to Linkin Park's album Minutes to Midnight again. It really is quite good in my opinion. By this time the track I was taking resembled more of a four wheel bike track but just as I could see the final lone house on the hill, I was noticing a thickness in the air and the clouds were descending fast. I was getting cold and I had to go back. I had got far enough that in front of me was only the one house about 100 metres away and a huge mountain towering over and around it whilst behind me you could see the cluster of houses in the valley and directly opposite, cottages among the green of the valley hillside. It was peaceful up there. Just as I was leaving the clearing again, the residents from the house I hadn't conquered drove nearby and honked their horn. I guessed they were just saying hello.

I decided to gamble taking the bike track back 'cos it seemed to be heading in the right direction and I didn't want to take the long way back. Eventually I made it back to town. First I found our bus so I knew I was in the right area but it took an additional 15 minutes to find the hotel. When I arrived, I thought I was 20 minutes late but it turned out that I still had 10 minutes to spare... Brilliant! Just enough time for a brief shower.

The meal that night was really good. And dessert was exceptional. It was cool 'cos there was a lot of effort taken in the preparation. The used the silver covers on our plates and uncovered them in unison, this required four waiters.

One particular waiter stood out. I forget his name but he spoke broken English but was very personable and friendly. He also liked to talk and have a joke with people. The women thought that his appeal was in the expression in his eyes. He was a funny little Italian man.

So after dinner, bedtime!

Queen of the Adriatic

Ah, to wake up in Venice!

It's so good not having to get luggage ready. It's funny how such a thing as piling everything back into your suitcase can become such a chore when you've done it a billion times, give or take a million.

We boarded boats and headed to St Mark's Square. It was funny how we took boats there since it's technically 20 minutes walk and three bridges away from the hotel. Not that I'm complaining. If we had gone to Venice and never had boarded a boat then we'd have missed part of the experience. Let alone that all of us were glad not to walk any more than we needed to.

Every time we start off from somewhere Alison will point out some landmarks so we know how to get back. This time it was a clock on the corner of a building and the fact that it was five bridges from St. Mark's square. Sometimes it's a sign that says "chicken breast" or a yellow building, or even a name at the corner of every building. I guess it works since we never lost anyone.

The morning's first photo opportunity was the Bridge of Sighs viewable via one of the bridges along the canal. This bridge was given the name by Lord Byron. It was the last chance that a prisoner, heading for the cells, would get to see their loved ones, and sigh. They could peer through these little windows to the bridge we were standing on. I doubt they'd know if they'd been seen unless they called out too. How sad is that! The prison in question was the one that Casanova escaped by digging through the roof.

Along the way we noticed pink, or more accurately fuchsia, crocodiles. These were going to decorate the route of the regatta to be held in a couple of days. Also, the little stalls and stands weren't open yet so the bank didn't look as cluttered as it usually does. It was, on the other hand, impressive to find the statue people already standing on their pedestals, posing, holding out for someone to pay them so they can relieve that cramp they've developed.

When we got to St. Mark's Square it wasn't too busy, quite quiet. I think it was another of those tricks, ala Alison, to give us the best impression. I think she orchestrates more than we realise in order to give us the best experience possible.

In the square at daytime you can see more of the detail, like the shops surrounding the square, most of which weren't open yet. You could properly see the clock whose designer had his eyes gouged out to prevent him from making anything better. How disappointing a result for him, not being able to design things anymore! They were a little harsh back then. Moral of that story: Don't make clocks for people who are big on eye gouging!

I decided to go up the bell tower for a bit of a look. While I was up there, I got someone to take my picture but I made out I couldn't speak either English or Italian. Not that I can speak Italian but you get the point. I communicated via gestures. It was cool. The view from up there was quite good. You could see that the island we were on was actually very big and you could see some of the closer islands. The one we were on was covered in a sea of terracotta roof tiles. The view was worth the six euros.

I must have been day dreaming when we were given instructions about out next meeting point. Lucky thing though was that the meeting point was at the exit of the bell tower. I ran into Herb and Jane who also confirmed that we were meeting there in 10 minutes. I don't even have to try sometimes!

On to the glass blowing across the square... we squeezed into this little room on some steps so we could all see. The heat coming from the furnace was quite toasty. The guy made a small vase or something, I forget. The horse he made next, on the other hand, was memorable. It didn't take long to make either! Very impressive. They also explained that due to the risk of fire, the actual furnaces, etc. were on a different island. Upstairs we got to see some of the impressive things they had made in their showroom, like tea sets, animals, modern art stuff and mosaic vases - which to be honest were quite ugly to say the least. I think the vases weren't quite as bad as the chandelier that looked like a candy cane had procreated with some wild jungle flower. One of those god-awful things graced our hotel foyer. Why people? Why?

Anyway, we were given a map with meeting times written on it just in case we forgot... mine had 11:45 rather than 1:45 though, not sure what happened there. Maybe she was trying to give me the slip... hmmm. I was onto her plan!

Our next excursion involved a visit inside St. Mark's Basilica with our tour guide, Anna. The names Anna and Maria seem so common here. I think Alison was explaining it once, about how the firstborn of the family gets the saints name of the region and the next one gets Anna or something. Anyway, she was very pleasant. She was this short older lady who hummed songs to herself (and the rest of us via the Whisper system) and she would say "woo-who" as a way of directing us to her. She said she now does this out of habit since she'd been doing it that since before the Whisper system. It was warming.

While we were waiting outside to get in Anna told us about the king tides... something Alison mentioned to us the night before... that cause extreme flooding... we're talking significant heights... I forget exactly but it's like my height or something... which mean the first floor of people's homes are uninhabitable, let alone the shops and churches. I think it's all fine and well to say that you can then get around in boats but that kind of flooding would put a stop to many business while it's happening. She said though that they're used to the cleanup! Another thing she pointed out was that there were no cars and bikes on the island... I hadn't noticed that there weren't any bikes too... therefore, just like in times past, people are still only getting around by walking... amazing really.

Whilst in the church, those who are unbaptised need to make sure they don't stand still. You need to keep moving. At one point, Anna reminded some older women that it was forbidden to stand still. It is of note that apparently god doesn't want to see a woman's shoulders or anyone's legs from the knees up. So, scarves were turned into skirts and shawls and particular shorts were pulled down a touch. :-) Not mine! I hate shorts that high, or shorter. Knees are a good judge of length in my opinion. :-)

Inside the basilica of St Mark you find gold everywhere including gold mosaics. It was pretty impressive. It just looked like a church otherwise. Of note were the floors which had significant dips and bumps in them. This is where the mosaics on the floor helped in Venice since they allowed more movement. This reminds me about what she was saying about the foundations in Venice. Apparently, they are primarily a specific oak laid out in spirals. You see, wood provides for better movement, and provide more give, and thus you find most structures are wooden.

Next we were taken to the Doge's Palace, the symbol of Venetian power. Further humming from Anna. :-) I forgot to mention previously that although the Whisper system is brilliant, it was starting to drive me insane. Not the earphones but just having someone else's voice directly piped into my head. I've got enough thought going on in my head without additional sources. I digress... In the palace we saw many paintings on ceilings. The good thing was that Anna was selective and only spoke about the important pictures. Much of the palace was wooden, thus why so much had been lost in the past by fire. I personally thought the map room was interesting with its upside down map, as was the large room (notable for its use of trusses rather than pillars) where the murderous' Doge had his portrait painted over by a black veil. It was all very over the top. But I guess when you had power and money back then, you could do almost anything. We were then taken downstairs to the prison, this time seeing the Bridge of Sighs from the inside. The cells were like concrete and were really thick and the bars interlocked, the vertical bars alternatively going through the horizontal ones. The bars were quite ingenious, I pondered their construction at length but still don't know how you could achieve such weaving of thick metal bars. Back we went over the Bridge again, I took a quick snap out through one of the little windows of the bridge we were on earlier in the morning.

Anyway, we decided to get a snack before lunch... I think it was a panini but I forget. We then snuck a visit into the museum (i.e. Napoleon's Wall at the end of St. Mark's Square) before we had to get back to the clock on the wall, across the five bridges. I got separated from Fred & Dave 'cos I got distracted a number of times, like when I found a book by Dante Aligerie and in the sword room. Before I knew it, it was time to get out. I hadn't realised that the place was like a rabbit warren. The guards seemed to all recognise my confused look and silently pointed toward the exit.

When I got out, I was on the wrong side of the building and so the five bridges were more like seven. I ran for some of it 'cos I didn't want to miss the boat but as I approached the clock everyone was getting ready to get on the boat a little further up and Alison said it was too hot to be running.. too late. I was glad I made it though.

The boat took us to Burano for our late lunch/early dinner. On the way, we passed Casanova's house and other famous people's houses. We also saw the cemetery island... land is understandably scarce so there are specific arrangements with funerals... I forget the detail. Something about it being reserved or only for limited time. Whatever, you get the point. Speaking of limits, it's interesting that the speed of the boats is limited along the way, 20km in open water, 7 in other areas. What is impressive is how these guys can maneuver a boat as accurately as a car. There seems to be a lot of double parking though, I not sure how they keep track.

On to Burano. The island is quite cool, has a nice feel to it. The individual houses each have different colours. This dates back to when particular families had specific colours and of those, specific shades. This was quite fascinating and it has a very cool look about it. When we got off the boat, we walked around all these buildings, in back streets. On the way, we walked past a good view of their leaning tower. I also got the answer as to what all the little square lettered tiles were on the ground (I'd seen them previously on the other island)... as expected they're all the services... electricity, sewerage, water, etc. Alison explained that "everything is pumped out". How lovely!

On to lunch. I'm glad to say it felt like a normal lunch... I can't stomach seafood so I had the alternate meal... I had chicken, spaghetti, lasagne and dessert. It seemed I drank a significant proportion of the cola on the table... I felt thirsty. Then, of course, we were given these small bottles of alcohol... Well, you've gotta have your digestive!

At this point Alison also told me a bit about the masks and what some of the faces are and how the good ones are of paper machete, not pressed paper like the stuff from china. Interesting.

With a few minutes to poke around at the shops and a couple of happy snaps of the coloured buildings, we were back on the boat... I have to agree that a photographer would have a field day on Burano. I think I fell asleep on the way back. Any travel will have that effect on me. Once at the hotel, I had a bit of a nana nap then got the call from Dave that some were having a drink down the alley a bit so I joined them... it was a nice evening.

During the evening, I was asked when I was going to sing for everybody. (Hmmm, there's an episode I forgot to write about a couple days ago... I'll edit the blog for "Michaelangelo's David & the City of Florence" with the backstory later) Anyway, before I retired to the hotel I checked some stuff at an Internet cafe and tried to remember some of the titles of songs I used to sing... this was obviously gonna come up again.

Ravenna & Venice

Back on the bus...

Along the way, we heard many stories...

The story of Galia Placidia and the Goths... Galia was very beautiful and seemed to be able to manipulate men at the drop of a hat. She married Atila the Hun, who was raping and pillaging his way over the alps. It was he who forced the locals to move down to the marsh lands and settle, thus the first Venetians. When Atila was killed she moved to the second in command. When she was sick of that, she asked Rome if she could come back... since she was so beautiful, how could they refuse... so they took her back.

Italy's greatest writer, Dante Aligerie was expelled from Rome because of his book "The Divine Comedy". He was buried in Ravenna, or was it Venice? I forget... anyway, they weren't happy about him so they decided to dig him up to make sure he was dead. All they found was a note giving instructions in regard to how to find his body. It turned out that it was hidden in the walls of the monastery by the monk.

In Istanbul at the time, women could teach at University if they were behind a screen or behind a veil. The Venetians thought this was a brilliant idea and saw it as being quite the fashionable thing to do. Thus, masks and veils were introduced.

Balonia... I think this is where Michaelangelo requested that he be able to cut up bodies to find out how they work. The head monk was appalled and asked that it never be spoken of again, in fact the conversation never happened. But the head monk left the key out so Michaelangelo could do it at night, "without him knowing". Thus the reason we have the detail in the sculpture 'David'.

We were entering the Modiner Region... Mussolini drained it and got rid of malaria and found the ground was rich in minerals needed for good crops. Thus fruit trees are in abundance. Asparagus here is also a big thing. I think they're wasting their time since it's a disgusting vegetable but whatever. Apparently there is a saying here, "as quick as boiling asparagus", since they are prepared within seconds. Mussolini did a lot of good things before things went sour.

Since we were being told about food, Alison explained that there is minimal sauce used with pasta. Pasta is only seen as a starter meal thus it only involves tomato and basil, very subtle. The Antipasto is supposed to take the hunger off. Bread comes after that. You see, at this point the stomach is prepared for carbohydrates, the meat course. Then comes dessert which sends endorphins to the brain to assist with digestion. And finally, a nice Grappa is had as a digestive. All quite scientific really.

We were also told about the origin of Parmesan cheese and of Balsamic vinegar (as in the real stuff which comes from particular grapes and is very expensive and only comes out on special occasions, if at all since it takes over 50 years to make and only 70 30 centilitre bottles are produced per year)

Since we were on the road between Bologna and Modena, it was notable that this three lane highway is the place where Ferrari test drive their cars.

After descending the Apennine Mountains, we came across Ravenna... It was made Capital of Rome when the empire, at the time, was split in two. It has a mix of Roman, Christian and Byzantine cultures. It is known for its beautiful mosaics. When we stopped, we were taken to the church of San Ditale. I must admit that the majority of us are a little over churches now. I know my internal monologue was saying "not another freaking church!". Our guide was Verdiana. This church did have something different, like I guess they all do, the fresco's were impressive I guess but I just thought they looked a little too cartoonish. They had a lot of gold incorporated though. I guess they were good. We had lunch and I had a chance to test SMS functionality at the Three shop. It worked but they thought that those people who couldn't send me messages were with carriers who didn't have an agreement with the carriers here... sounded plausible.

Before we entered Venice we were told some more stories. For example, Marco Polo was apparently referred to as the "man of a million" 'cos he had a million stories which he kept telling. I guess he was a bit like Alison, except he was apparently trying to prove himself whereas Alison was trying to distract us from noticing we were on a bus for an extended period of time. Marco brought back noodles, not spaghetti, and also the fork... to be used with spaghetti.

The Venetians were well known for their glass blowing since the method was still secret. In fact just having this knowledge was enough for a criminal to avoid a harsh sentence. As a society the Venetians would go out of their way to cause shock so that even more people would want to come visit. They had an interesting law stating that if someone wasn't recognisable then they couldn't be charged for anything. Thus, if they wore a mask, they were safe. This wasn't too helpful for having affairs but it did enable people to go gambling. In addition, since having an affair was near on impossible with a mask on, the solution was to invent covered gondola's, obviously!

The Venetians were quite smart. In case of attack, bell towers would sound the alarm and they'd escape through the canal system on boat. The bell towers never exceeded the height of the buildings, therefore the enemy could never use them to find where the Venetians had escaped to and thus they could escape in safety. Tricky!

On the way, we had a bit of a temporary seat swap 'cos Hazel wasn't too well. It was cool sitting at the front again, it's definitely a better vantage point. I got to talk to Abby, who is the youngest of the tour group, about music and other general chit-chat, including my sandwich at lunch... You see, I couldn't recognise the third ingredient... it was white, didn't have a particular taste and kinda looked like a cross between egg white and processed chicken... Alison couldn't believe I was describing the local specialty cheese this way, especially since she had gone out of her way to choose it for her lunch. Mama Mia! :-)

It was funny how not long after someone, I think Abby's Mum Viv, mentioned the lack of motor homes on the roads, we started to see more and more of them along our trip. :-)

Back to Venice... the city has had an interesting history. Its had Napoleon take over, the Austrians had taken over too. Oh, let's not forget that they weren't getting the recognition they thought they deserved so in an attempt to address this, they stole the body of St. Mark and switched it for a fake! As you do! By the time it was found out, it was too late... they had him. Thus, they could now claim the namesake and get the recognition from the Pope, etc. They were a funny lot.

I was full of questions, like how are the islands held up? how much rubbish ends up in the canal system? When is Carnivalle? Can we see how the masks are made? I wanted to know whether we'd see how buildings were held up by balloons like on James Bond... Apparently there's none like that, apparently it was just a movie! Apparently James Bond's private boat wouldn't have been allowed on the Grand Canal. Movies! You cant believe anything these days! I ask you, what else is there to believe in if movies are fake?

Anyway, to get to the city, the city referred to as the "queen of the Adriatic", you'd commonly take the Bridge of Freedom, this is the bridge that connects the mainland to the major island. Before its construction, you could only get there by boat. For this reason they say this bridge took away their freedom. To use this bridge, you need permits so our first view of Venice was the industrial area where you get the permit.

Getting the permit didn't have the Venice feel anyway so, really, our introduction to the city started when we got off the bus and boarded the gondolas. Let me just say that it's sound advice to wait to board until the person before you has sat down comfortably. I hadn't quite steadied myself and it felt a bit hairy when the next person boarded.

It was cool travelling along under the bridges and along the canals, looking at all the losers deciding walking along like it was as fashionable. I must admit, I would have enjoyed it more if I weren't in the side seat. I hate boats at the best of times and it didn't feel that stable. My fear of water, though illogical, may have something to do with that I guess. I shouldn't be too worried, the majority of the canals (other than the grand canal) are only one and a half metres deep. Knowing this doesn't help. I must admit, it kinda felt like we did a big circle, almost coming back to where we boarded. Hmmm... I think we did.

Everything arrives via boat into the city, including our luggage. When you recognise what this actually means... groceries, store stock, bread, milk, ice cream, clothes... it's just amazing. A boat full of luggage is a sight to see though... I could imagine it going into the water.

The cool thing is that we were staying on the island rather than on the mainland like common tourists. This was one of the main reasons why I chose Insight. How cool! :-) Our hotel is cool, the rooms are of an older style. The hallways are a bit like a rabbit warren, up stairs, down stairs, up again, but once you get used to it, it's fine. It adds to the charm. :-)

I decided to explore a bit before the evening's activities. I was kinda deliberately trying to get lost. It'd be easy to get lost. A number of times I found I was confronted with a dead end... these are true dead ends... the path just ends and the next step is water! I tripped over once, that hurt like hell. Anyway, the bridges enable you to cross the canals so it'd be easy to forget which part of the island you are on. To get from island to island you go by boat so at least you know you wont get too far on foot. These islands are waaay bigger than I thought they were though... they're well established and very large. While I was walking, I realised I had fat fingers. Lyn said later it was to do with how much walking we were doing and that it was water retention, like how people get in their ankles. Odd. I felt like Homer Simpson when he got fat and wore a moo-moo and couldn't dial the phone and the recorded message said "your fingers are too fat, if you require a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad now!". If I had to get my ring off in a hurry, there'd be skin involved! I digress... some of the buildings here have had clear movement... the brickwork curves and there were a number of clearly uninhabitable buildings. It was cool. At his point, I wanted to go back to the hotel but I was kinda spun around. I decided to follow others since they probably knew where they were going, unlike me. The first attempt prove unsuccessful when this young guy led me to a church entrance and another dead end but on the bright side this nice old lady smiled at me. :-) While I'm on the subject of churches, it's notable that getting married in Venice has become very popular for foreigners. So much so, they've had to stop foreigners from booking their churches on weekends so that the locals can book their weddings too, otherwise they have to wait another year or more to book. I digress again... I came across a university and noticed that the majority were leaving via a particular way... I followed them until things looked familiar and made it back. The weather was quite hot but it was nice to wander in and out of shops selling glass and masks... the mask shops were very fascinating. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell a good mask from a bad one. The ones hanging from the stalls outside must have been inferior and the dedicated shops must have had the good ones but then there were the different styles... very cool though. Just seeing these made me want to come to Carnivalle and get dressed up and go to a fancy to-do with a cool mask.

That night we boarded boats and headed to St. Mark's Square. On the way there was time enough for those funny photos where you try to take picture of yourself and someone else by holding the camera out in front... the results are most amusing. We were fast approaching lovers bridge or kissing bridge, I forget the name but what you're supposed to do is kiss under the bridge or close your eyes and make a wish if you're on your own... it's supposed to bring you good luck or something. It was funny seeing some of the photos of those who tried to capture their kiss... even with practice, they turned out to be pictures of foreheads. :-)

We arrived at St. Mark's square and it was a great sight at dusk with no one around, particularly when the lights all turned on. I think Napoleon was right to close the square up with a wall... it adds something to the experience. Not that the sight moved me to tears or anything like it was supposed to do but it did look elegant yet wondrous. How girly is that for a description? Anyway, at the other end we could see the two poles, one with the lion and book, the other with the guy and a dragon. I forget who he was.

The night was great. I had a hot chocolate which tasted like it was just that... hot melted chocolate, it was brilliant. It started raining but that didn't stop the enjoyment. There was live music and dancing was started by the Coonabarabran folk which was great to see. I got dragged up at one point by Lyn. It was cool seeing Herb get up with Jane too. There was even a conga line which Abby was roped into by Lyn. :-)

On a completely different note, it was fascinating to watch the foul-tempered waiter. His first mistake was spilling some white wine, then he bashed it down in frustration only to make a mess of the nuts too... clearly he had a problem with something. This was highlighted by the way he was scurrying about rearranging chairs and tables. He'd even rearrange your chair if you got up for a dance. Odd... it was like he was justifying his existence. Then there was the odd lady with the small dog, clearly a fashion item rather than a living creature. All in all, it was a nice evening especially if you include not only the entertainment with the band but the characters around about too.

Soon it was time to go back to the hotel and sleep...