padova

We went to padova my last day in italy...again, boyd and mandy each took a day off work, and it was awesome...

before heading to padova, we spent some time in sportler...it's an italian sporting goods store, very similar to an american REI, or australian/new zealand kathmandu...in other words, one of my ideas of heaven...all sorts of sports clothes and equipment...it would've been very very easy to spend a lot of money...as it was, i restricted myself to a rain jacket and a pair of sunnies...i remember having some sort of water resistant jacket when i was a kid, but this was my first real rain jacket...i know it's silly, but i was/am excited...

after sportler, we drove to padova...it was a roman town, and you can still see the outer walls in a few places...one of the highways along the way has been rebuilt, and the GPS doesn't know it yet, so for a while it appeared as though we were driving in the unknown...fortunately, we joined back up with the 'old' road, and everything was fine...it's funny how doing that drops an hour off the expected arrival time...phew!

The fun part was in figuring out where to go in padova, and then finding parking once we arrived...in the middle of an old italian city, with one way streets, it isn't always easy to find what you are looking for...especially because other people have already taken all the parking places you see...every now and again we thought we could see a place, but just as we got closer, we figured out it wasn't a place at all...actually, all of that was boyd and mandy...i sat quietly in the back seat, since i had no idea where we were going, and i'm somewhat lost without a map...

after finally finding parking, our first order of business was lunch...somehow, it took us yonks to find a place to eat...i'm not sure how that happened...we did stop for gelatto along the way, though that should only have taken 5-10 minutes...

we saw the university of padova, which was pretty neat...one stairwell was painted with frescoes, and there was a statue in there...other hallways had crests painted on the ceilings...i'm assuming they were the crests of the families of students who attended the school? We saw a couple other statues, we saw a giant market area...we saw a couple piazzas in the middle of town...it was quite the nice town for wandering...we saw a giant clock tower...

once we finally did find lunch, it was at the very end of lunch time...VERY END...in italy, many restaurants have lunch service, after which they take a break before dinner service...

showing up at the end of the time for lunch service means you don't get served...which is not good if you're really hungry...the idea of doing anything for the customer isn't the same as it is in the states...they simply say no, and you move on...the restaurant that finally seated us only had two iteams of food left...steak, and some sort of lasagna...i hadn't had steak yet, and it's what boyd eats every time he and mandy go out to eat...(he's not a foodie, she is)...the steak was tasty, mandy was okay with her lasagna...

after lunch we wandered a bit more...i found a gelatto place that had (among other flavours) pink grapefruit gelatto...a flavour i'd never had before...as far as i know, it isn't a common flavour...it tasted exactly like pink grapefruit...yum...

during the entire day, i found only one place that sold postcards...i'm usually able to spot places by the dozen, but this town didn't seem to have them...padova is known as a university town, but not so much as a tourist town...the postcards i ended up with weren't the greatest, they left a lot to be desired...

the last place we saw was a park...we didn't end up there on purpose, it was just what seemed to be the specific location of a tree giving off cotton...i have no idea what kind of tree it is, but when it blooms, it floats through the air, and covers everything...crazy...as much as anything, it was fun taking photos...on the way back from the park (and i'm not even sure it was a park, it might have just been an enclosed yard next to something or other) we crossed the "river"...

i put 'river" in quotes because it wasn't big...more like a moat, or canal...back in roman days, this was just outside the city walls, and served as one of the city defenses...

from there, mandy and boyd took me back to the airport...sad...i had a great week with friends, i was sad to leave...great weather nearly the entire trip, gelatto every day, native english speakers, relaxing, new sights, etc...what more could a girl want during holidays?

barcis

a beautiful lake town, surrounded by mountains...barcis is slightly north of pordenone and aviano...it's a small town, and doesn't take long to drive through...the reason people go to barcis is to be around the lake...it's a beautiful colour...
we started the afternoon by trying to keep me up to date on my goal of eating gelato every day during the trip...i'm not sure it was real gelato we had, it tasted an awful lot like ice cream...oh well...i tried...
this was the first town in which i saw magazines named after me...woo hoo!! i wanted to add to my collection of things around the world named after me...it's getting to be a bigger collection than i ever expected!

we walked along one edge of the lake, just enjoying the lovely weather and the beautiful scenery...there is a bridge across the lake, it's a VERY narrow bridge...just barely big enough for a single lane...when i stood in the middle i was almost able to touch both sides!! i hope traffice never gets backed up there, it would take foreva to wait for a queue to cross the bridge...
after walking around for a while, we tried to go to a store to get postcards for me...the sign on the door said it would reopen (after the siesta) at 1600, so we waited...we waited until 1615, and still no one was there...so i didn't get any postcards from barcis...gutted!

mandy decided she wanted to drive back by going a way she'd never driven before...up the mountain on the other side of the lake, and down the other side of the mountain...a very very switchbacky road...i was motion sick pretty quickly...i managed to keep my head up for a while, but then i put my head down, and closed my eyes...that made it all much more tolerable, though i missed out on a few great views...argh...i hate that i'm so susceptible to motion sickness...i envy those who don't have the problem...
dinner that night was home made...steaks on the grill!! YUM YUM YUM...after dinner mandy and i pedaled into town for gelato...after the fake gelato earlier in the day, i wanted the real stuff:)

venice

mandy and boyd took a day off to show me venice...yay!!
we started the day by waking up w/out alarms, which is always nice...we drove about ten minutes down the road to a town called pordenone, which is the nearest train station to their house...the train took about an hour, and the final station was in the middle of venice...you walk out of the train station and there is a canal right there! i wasn't really expecting that, i'm used to having to get to the city centre...there were tourists everywhere as soon as we got off the train! waiting around, posing for photos, chattering away, eating gelatto, etc...

the city of venice is built around canals...before the city existed, the area was basically a malarial swamp...one of the reasons the city was founded was that locals could deal with the mosquitos, but the constant invaders couldn't...a natural protection of sorts...now the city is famous because of the canals, though i can't begin to imagine being there in the middle of summer, when it must be sweltering...one of the most famous things tourists can do is take a gondola ride, though i didn't do so...the lowest price i've heard was 70 euro, and i bet most people pay more than that...it's crazy expensive...sure, it's an experience i'd love to have, but would i really appreciate it that much? i doubt it...
our general plan was to walk to the platz (san marco square, i think it's called?) and find a restaurant nearby for lunch...walking there ended up taking an hour or two, as we had to walk down the same streets and alleys as every other person in the city...i didn't have a map, but if i had, i doubt it would've been very useful...just follow the people...along the way there are heaps of stores, gelaterias, etc...

most of the stores we saw were geared toward tourists...it's amazing that they all succeed in staying open, and making money, because they all sell the same stuff!! venice is known for it's glass, so every third store sells glass...in every way imaginable...jewelry (earrings, necklaces, bracelets, etc) and vases and wall decorations, and plenty more...i loved all the bright colours, and could've spent hours browsing...needless to say, much of what is available isn't cheap...and many of the stores had signs saying they were having a sale...which made me wonder, are they ever not having a sale? i wanted a ring, so i ducked into quite a few of the stores...mandy and boyd tolerated me, mandy was looking for a vase...in some ways it seemed as though there was a huge variety in styles, but when you want something specific, it seems like everything you see is the name, and not what you want!!
we finally got to where we wanted to be for lunch...just outside the restaurant is one of the areas gondolas congregate and take on passengers, which meant it was great for people watching...we ended up having to wait to eat about 30 minutes, so we watched a lot of people...

after lunch we went back to san marco's piazza...(i finally remembered the italian word, not the german word:)...san marco is a big church and museum...i would've enjoyed wandering inside the building, but the queue was long, and i had no desire to wait...neither did mandy or boyd...while walking toward the church boyd said he saw someone famous...mandy and i didn't see anyone we recognized...as it turned out, boyd recognized a couple people who were filming an episode of "an idiot abroad"...a dwarf known as willow, and karl somebody or another...clearly, i still don't know who these two are...
on the walk after lunch, i finally found a ring i wanted to buy:)...yippee:)

from the piazza we made our way to the rialto...it's probably the most famous bridge in the city...considering there are heaps of bridges in the city (it is built on water, after all) this is saying a lot...i took pictures off each side of the bridge, then got (more) gelatto from a vendor nearby...YUM...
after that, we took a water taxi back to the train station, and bought tickets for the next train back to pordenone...it was a slow train, and took over an hour, but i didn't care...
i think i'd go back to venice, but i'd rather be there in the middle of winter, when there are far fewer tourists!!

cinque terre

woo hoo!! a full week of vacation!! despite potential visa issues i booked a holiday out of the country, i decided to go to italy...(dubai was also on the list, but because i procrastinated too much, those tickets ended up being out of my budget)...a friend of mine from when i was a lifeguard lives in italy with her husband, so i knew i had people to see...i hadn't met the husband, but mandy is awesome, so i figured the husband must be awesome too...
i flew budget airline wizzair to oen of the airports in venice, they picked me up, and we proceeded to drive across the peninsula to an area called cinque terre...it's a national park, and absolutely gorgeous...it's 5 towns on the coast, there is a hiking/trekking trail between all of them...i don't know how long it would take to walk the entire thing, but it must be gorgeous...

we stayed in a town called la spezia,  it's just outside cinque terre...one of the reasons mandy chose the hotel she chose is because one of the hiking paths starts right by the hotel...perfect...the first part of the drive was flat and easy...it wasn't until the last part that i knew we were going through mountains, as the roads were really curvy, and it was impossible to hold a steady speed...we rolled into la spezia at 2300 or so? i'm not sure exactly, i just knew i was really tired...(especially because my body was still telling me it was an hour later)...
breakfast was included in the hotel price, and i loved it...a european buffet breakfast...rolls, bread, cheese, meat slices, yogurt, cereal, milk, tea, juice, jam, hard boiled eggs, meusli, etc...i ate too much, as i always do when confronted with a buffet...
the guy at the front desk of the hotel told us where we could find the trail head, so as soon as we had water for each of us, we took off...the trail was easy to find, thank goodness...the front desk guy told us we'd go down a little, then up and over the mountain, down into one of the towns in cinque terre...he showed us the map, the trails seemed fairly obvious...plus, he said the trails were marked with what i think of as the polish flag...we found those markings easily for the first while...then we came to a fork in the trail, and we didn't know which way to go...so we chose the right fork...a little while later, we found another of the trail marks, we knew we'd chosen correctly...phew...

i'm not sure exactly when it happened, but we found ourselves on road instead of a trail, we thought the road would wind down the valley into the back side of the town we were heading for...as it turned out, that was not right...instead, we walked around the back of the valley, never going down at all...ooops...on our way back to find where we thought we'd lost the trail, we found a couple gates, there seemed to be paths going down...the first one led only to a house...hmmm...the second seemed to be going well for us, then it just stopped...argh...at that point, we didnt want to go back up to the road, as we'd run out of water, and didn't know how much farther we'd have to walk along that road...we elected to try to forge our own path...

i'm not sure that was the best decision i've ever made, but it was definitely an adventure...(on a side note, hiking through areas with brambles, while wearing chacos was also probably not my best decision)...eventually, we made it down to a proper trail, it connected with a road...from that road, we could see the town we wanted...as it turned out, we didn't get that option from that road...argh...at this point all we could think about was water, and how badly we wanted it...
after asking someone the way to the next town, we walked along that road for what seemed like ages...i don't know how long it was, but it took foreva and eva...FINALLY, after seeing the town from a couple angles, and wondering if we were going to walk past this town as well w/out intending to do so, we made it into manarola...not riomaggiore, as we intended, but at that point, anywhere with water and food sounded amazing...

there isn't much to see in any of the cinque terre towns...they're just cute...brightly coloured buildings and houses, small streets...lots of gelaterias...lots of restaurants...tourists...i found postcards straightaway, and bought 40...mandy and boyd thought that was a lot...i assured them i'd be buying more as my italy visit kept going...hee hee...i am an addict...i also had gelato, AWESOME!!!!
we ate the most fabulous meal i've had in a loooong time...i don't know if it was the food, or the waiter, or what, but it was great...i'd be happy to go back there regularly...too bad italy isn't closer to kyiv...after lunch (which we had at 1530,) we walked out to a viewpoint of the city...beautiful...beautiful...beautiful...mandy and boyd like to take photos as much as i do, thank goodness:)

at that point we figured we'd seen everything there is to see in manarola...
we'd thought about taking the train back to la spezia and going back to the hotel, but mandy had seen on her phone that the predicted weather for the next day was cloudy/rainy, so we to stay out and take advantage of the beautiful weather to take more photos...we took the train to riomaggiore and wandered around for a while...as it is another of the towns in cinque terre, it's similar to manarola, but not the same...the same colours of buildings, but the streets are a little different...we were able to walk around, check out gelaterias, buy postcards, etc...
none of the towns in cinque terre require much time to see, we didn't stay long...only about an hour, actually...then we hopped the train and took it back to la spezia...each train ride was only a few minutes...i love public transport!!
by the time we got back to la spezia it was dark, so we took a taxi back to the hotel, and crashed for the night...since we'd eaten "lunch" so late, none of us was at all hungry to eat again...

the next morning we got up a little earlier, and again overindulged at breakfast...a quick hotel checkout, and putting our bags into the car...our drive to the train station in la spezia included a mini tour of the city, since there are a bunch of one way streets, and we weren't too sure exactly where to park...i think the whole day of parking was only a few euros:)
this time we took the train to the farthest town in cinque terre...the very last town...the weather wasn't so great, so i was doubly glad we'd stopped in two towns the previous day, and gotten heaps of pictures...no matter how beautiful or ugly the town or setting, every place looks better when the photos have blue skies in the background..

the last town in cinque terre ended up being the town i liked the least...it wasn't nearly as cute as the others...there was a good gelato stand, of course...the lady who sold the gelato asked where i am from, as i was buying at 10am...she said italians don't eat gelato in the morning...hee hee...as far as i'm concerned, there is never a wrong time to eat gelato:)
after an hour of wandering (during which we spent most of the time in cafes checking out various snacks) we took the train to town #4, veranazza...again, a quick ride, only a few minutes...

veranazza seemed to be the cinque terre town hardest hit by the storms last october...quite a few buildings seemed to be abandoned, even six months later...many of these abandoned buildings had plywood doors, and on those doors were murals...no two murals alike...i took heaps of photos:)...the "port" area (i don't know what to call it, as there is water, and there has been a protective "arm" built of rocks, but there are no boats in the area) hasn't been fixed yet...it's slowly happening, we could see the construction equipment, and the big mess of rubbish and dirt...i wonder when it will be finished?
lunch that day wasn't nearly as good as the day before...still good, but not AS good...oh well...
after lunch we stepped into a couple more shops, as i still needed postcards, and mandy wanted wine...from there it was back to the train, this time to la spezia...we got in the car, and started driving back across the peninsula...4 hours later, my weekend in cinque terre was over...it's an area i would love to see again...maybe the trails and buildings will all be repaired...as far as weather goes, this was the perfect time of year to see cinque terre:)