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So what is never knows best...? It is what Mamimi, from FLCL, has written on her cigarettes. And now, I co-opted it for this stupid blog.
2/01/2007 08:45:00 PM
The trip is done, but I'll continue with my summary... in part because I think I'll forget what happened myself if I don't write it down now...
* Nice (continued) *
* Cinque Terre *
* Rome *
* Florence *
* Nice (continued) *
So the sleeping and wheaty crepes (Amy only wanted to get one, but we got 2 because I was feeling extra hungry after skimping on lunch). The wheaty crepes were a wheat tortilla, and not folded over quesidilla-style as most crepes are, but instead folded into a square shape with the center part uncovered.
The next day, we walked around the old town part (Vieux Nice). They have a park on top of this large hill/chateau that has the rope jungle gym thing, like the one in Berkeley in Ohlone Park, that Amy and I climbed around on while Amy was feeling envious of the people in the park playing badmitton.
Because the beach is all rocks, I tried skipping stones on the ocean. I'm not sure if it's because I suck at skipping stones, or the waves suck at being skipped into, or the stones suck at being skipped, but the stones wouldn't skip. Still fun throwing rocks into the water though.
* Cinque Terre *
The trip to Cinque Terre was more stressful because we the first leg of the journey was late, and we didn't have lots of time to try to figure out an alternate route. Plus I got confused about where to go. Our route ended up as Nice -> Ventimigilia -> Genova -> La Spezia (missed the earlier Riomaggiore stop, so had to then backtrack) -> Riomaggiore (town we were staying in in Cinque Terre), with me pissing off a few ticketing people and Amy to some extent in the process.
When we got there we had to wait awhile to check in because there was nobody at the hostel. We were helped by a local townsperson (I guess) who I still think looked kinda shady. I guess the innskeep wasn't very apolegetic because it's a pretty laid back area, nobody seems to be doing any work, and the streets were pretty empty anyways.
We were able to walk the first part of the hike from Riomaggiore to Manarola that afternoon. Since it was the off season, most of the shops/restaurants were closed, so we went to the only restaurant in Monterosso that seemed to have other patrons. We got a good helping of pesto pasta and a huge helping of seafood risotto. Another table nearby got the risotto before us, and after seeing how large it was, I was dreading that our's would be the same size (we didn't really know if it was the same or not at the time). It was just as large.
Citing horrible weather, which was almost as bad as Brussels', we spend more time in Cinque Terre, and instead headed out to Rome.
* Rome *
A more leisurely Riomaggiore -> La Spezia -> Rome trip.
We saw Vatican Museum (for the Sistine Chapel), St. Peter's Basilica (climbed up the dome, saw the Pieta), Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Santa Maria degli Angeli church (for the bath ruins, and some sculptures), outside of the Coliseum, Spanish Steps (exceedingly devoid of life at 10:30 PM), Roman Forum, and Capitol Hill.
The hostel we stayed at was notable for apparently hiring a bunch of Indian people to run it, and for loud snoring (Amy says it's the old people that snore). We changed to a different hostel for the last night.
The Rome train station is notable because we probably spent around 1.5 hours looking for lockers and eventually had to settle for pricey bag check-in. We believe that although there are signs and indicators on the map, lockers do not exist. The Autogrill cafes were good though.
Food was good overall. From the Autogrills (what with their good cheap coffee and fresh orange juice, and as an establishment I like almost as Monoprix) to other restaurants it was all tasty and a good value (especially compared to earlier eating out costs). We did eat at a Chinese restaurant, and it was pretty bad.
* Florence *
High tailing it to Florence for our flight, we took the direct train.
We walked around the big market area. Admired some pirate goods, which Amy thinks aren't as nice as Rome's. Saw David. Wandered the streets down to Ponte Vecchio and Palazzo Vecchio.
That's basically it. I'll try posting what pictures I have once I get them all sorted.
* Nice (continued) *
* Cinque Terre *
* Rome *
* Florence *
* Nice (continued) *
So the sleeping and wheaty crepes (Amy only wanted to get one, but we got 2 because I was feeling extra hungry after skimping on lunch). The wheaty crepes were a wheat tortilla, and not folded over quesidilla-style as most crepes are, but instead folded into a square shape with the center part uncovered.
The next day, we walked around the old town part (Vieux Nice). They have a park on top of this large hill/chateau that has the rope jungle gym thing, like the one in Berkeley in Ohlone Park, that Amy and I climbed around on while Amy was feeling envious of the people in the park playing badmitton.
Because the beach is all rocks, I tried skipping stones on the ocean. I'm not sure if it's because I suck at skipping stones, or the waves suck at being skipped into, or the stones suck at being skipped, but the stones wouldn't skip. Still fun throwing rocks into the water though.
* Cinque Terre *
The trip to Cinque Terre was more stressful because we the first leg of the journey was late, and we didn't have lots of time to try to figure out an alternate route. Plus I got confused about where to go. Our route ended up as Nice -> Ventimigilia -> Genova -> La Spezia (missed the earlier Riomaggiore stop, so had to then backtrack) -> Riomaggiore (town we were staying in in Cinque Terre), with me pissing off a few ticketing people and Amy to some extent in the process.
When we got there we had to wait awhile to check in because there was nobody at the hostel. We were helped by a local townsperson (I guess) who I still think looked kinda shady. I guess the innskeep wasn't very apolegetic because it's a pretty laid back area, nobody seems to be doing any work, and the streets were pretty empty anyways.
We were able to walk the first part of the hike from Riomaggiore to Manarola that afternoon. Since it was the off season, most of the shops/restaurants were closed, so we went to the only restaurant in Monterosso that seemed to have other patrons. We got a good helping of pesto pasta and a huge helping of seafood risotto. Another table nearby got the risotto before us, and after seeing how large it was, I was dreading that our's would be the same size (we didn't really know if it was the same or not at the time). It was just as large.
Citing horrible weather, which was almost as bad as Brussels', we spend more time in Cinque Terre, and instead headed out to Rome.
* Rome *
A more leisurely Riomaggiore -> La Spezia -> Rome trip.
We saw Vatican Museum (for the Sistine Chapel), St. Peter's Basilica (climbed up the dome, saw the Pieta), Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Santa Maria degli Angeli church (for the bath ruins, and some sculptures), outside of the Coliseum, Spanish Steps (exceedingly devoid of life at 10:30 PM), Roman Forum, and Capitol Hill.
The hostel we stayed at was notable for apparently hiring a bunch of Indian people to run it, and for loud snoring (Amy says it's the old people that snore). We changed to a different hostel for the last night.
The Rome train station is notable because we probably spent around 1.5 hours looking for lockers and eventually had to settle for pricey bag check-in. We believe that although there are signs and indicators on the map, lockers do not exist. The Autogrill cafes were good though.
Food was good overall. From the Autogrills (what with their good cheap coffee and fresh orange juice, and as an establishment I like almost as Monoprix) to other restaurants it was all tasty and a good value (especially compared to earlier eating out costs). We did eat at a Chinese restaurant, and it was pretty bad.
* Florence *
High tailing it to Florence for our flight, we took the direct train.
We walked around the big market area. Admired some pirate goods, which Amy thinks aren't as nice as Rome's. Saw David. Wandered the streets down to Ponte Vecchio and Palazzo Vecchio.
That's basically it. I'll try posting what pictures I have once I get them all sorted.
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\ nick /
