Day 23-Princess for a night

We took the Eurostar train again from Florence to Venice, and this time we got busted for not having a "reservation," so we had to pay an 8 Euro fee (it should have been 20, but he cut us a break). We arrived in Venice around 11pm, and followed the directions of our guidebook and about 24 people on the street to navigate the pick-up sticks style street patterns towards the hostel we selected. After finding it, we learn that they were booked full. We had been walking around with our motherload backpacks on for about a half hour at this point, and stopped at a bar/cafe to figure things out for a minute over some refreshing gelato. A nice man there escorted us to another hotel that was full, then we got directions to a fourth hotel from the front desk man. It took us over an hour of aimless wandering to finally just hop on a water taxi and go directly to the bridge by our hotel. Fifteen minutes and a group of young Venetian escorts later, we arrived at our hotel safely around 2am.
The hotel is a three-star beauty called Hotel Americano (which I would usually never stay at a hotel with a name like that, but at this point we were not at all picky) for 100 Euro. We were put in a suite (the only room they had left) that usually costs 300 Euro. This place had upholstered walls, matching bedspreads and chaise lounge, and a full sized bathtub (not at all common in Europe). We took turns taking steaming hot baths, I talked to my family (finally!), then slept like happy little rocks-Bob Ross style.
This morning, we woke up in time for the free breakfast and feasted like princesses (or piggies) like we havent done in nearly a month. They had fruit (apples, kiwi), croissants filled with apricot, rolls, jams, nutella (chocolate spread thats very popular here), tea with honey, coffee and steamed milk, rye bread, soft cheeses, ham, hard boiled eggs, granola cereal, yogurt, juices, milk, and more. We ate and swiped a few items in Hannahs bag for lunch, and thought that after the bath, sleep (could have used more), and breakfast, the 50 Euros each seemed pretty worth it, and agreed that going to a hostel dorm from here may be a little difficult. Tonight we are going to try to find a less expensive place, though we discovered that we happened to arrive here during high season.
Today we will see the Peggy Guggenheim Collection museum, and some gardens. We are definitely churched-out for the time being and will be taking it easy today.

Day 21-462 Stairs, 463...

Stairs seem to have become a theme on this trip with Hannah and I, and the higher, the better. We arrived in Florence (Firenze), Italy last night around 10:30 pm on a train from Rome. We decided to take a chance and hop on the 8:30pm Eurostar train, which is faster and more luxorious (cookies AND juice?!) and also costs an additional 12 Euro on top of the Eurail pass that we bought. We didnt cough up the Euro, but got on the train anyway, hoping for the best. They came around and checked our tickets, and as nervous as I was, we got away with it.
From the train station we walked to the hostel we had chosen: booked. Great. They recommended the hotel next door, a clean, new 3-star facility that I figured was out of our budget, but we tried it and scored a 160 Euro room for 50 Euro. We are in heaven: four beds, privacy, quiet, our own CLEAN bathroom. Sweet deal, kind of makes me feel bad for the kids in the hostel next door.
We woke this morning and headed out, wandering the not-so-organized streets. We stumbled upon one of our destinations, the Duomo, or Dome. This cathedral has the third longest nave, rivaled by St. Peters in Rome and one in England. The dome is 100m (330 ft) high, and you can climb it via 463 dark, spiraling stone stairs. Of course we had to do this and after waiting in line and paying our 6 E, we started our ascent to Michelangelos Lantern, as it has been dubbed. The stairs take you to two tiers where viewing the domes painting is ideal, then finally, you arrive at the Cupola. This is the highest point in Florenze, and therefore has an amazing view of the city with its boardering mountains and many uniform burnt orange roofs topping butter-yellow buildings.
After the dome, we split a nice 4-course lunch and proceded to wander into a pastry shop and a chocolateria, both of which proved amazing.
We were exhausted and needed a recovery day, so after getting information on the Ufizzi Gallery and Accademia for tomorrow, we saw the Baptistrys Gates of Paradise (where Dante was baptized) and hopped on a bus to nowhere. We rode around, half asleep and afterwards went back to our fabulous hotel and napped.

The days between-filling in the gap

After my last post, I had a little pause, sorry to those who are faithful readers.
Apologies for the lack of punctuation. I cant find the apostrophe anywhere. Also sorry for lack of pictures. I guess we will just have to go without since my digital decided to die in the Sistine Chapel.

Day 15
We spent the whole day gawking, impressed by gargantuan ancient ruins. Temples, stadiums, and the Acropolis all were amazing to see, as we tried to imagine what life might have been like at that time. The Acropolis also has a museum where beautiful sculptures, friezes, and reliefs are housed. I piggy backed on as many tour groups as I could; I am so thirsty for knowledge right now. Reading up on more history is definitely a must when I get home.
We did end up going back to our little Greek man the next night for wine, as we promised. He seemed thrilled to see us and 6 tin canisters of wine, bread, cheese, meatballs, fries, fruit, ouzo, coffee and hours later, we get no bill. Completely on the house, just because. Its hard being us. We scurried home, arm in arm, in the drizzle, in disbelief that we didnt pay for a thing all evening.

Day 16
We woke up early and hit the amazing Archaelogical museum in Athens. Sculptures of the human form that are over 6000 years old, marble statues corroded from years of seawater following a shipwreck, and other gems; half a day might be enough time there. I was so grateful for my art history education (and have been the whole trip so far), and desparately wanted to have Professor Gensheimer, my Survey 1 prof at my side. I think I may get my doctorate in Art History one day. Ive been talking about it for years, but I really think I might. Of course, a masters has to come first.
We caught a bus to the train station, a 5 hr train to Patras, Greece, a 20 hr ferry to Ancona, Italy, a 3 hr train to Rome, and a metro to our hostel. After 34 total hours of travel time, I must say we were glad to arrive in Rome late on Friday night.
We did meet some interesting characters and had a fun time on the ferry (slept in a childrens area, etc- see Hannahs blog entry). And Hannah had a goofy young suitor who wanted to marry her on our Ancona-Roma Termini train. Green card? Nice.

Day 17
We arrived to Rome, and despite the little bit of preparation that I tried to do with our hostel situation before we got off the train in the huge, busy city, I still felt unprepared. After paying the equivalent of a dollar to use the restroom, we wandered around, trying to figure out how to get to this hostel that we chose. I stopped a 60 yr old blonde Romanian woman named Niki, who spoke not a bit of English, and when I showed her our map and the address, she motioned without a word for us to follow her. She took us around to the metro (which had just closed), bus, etc, for about 10 minutes before finding the appropriate bus by asking several people, waiting with us, putting us on it, and telling the driver where we were getting off. An angel if I ever met one.
We walked to our hostel down a dark street late at night, feeling like sore thumbs with our packs on. We made it to Pensione Ottaviano, which is in Vatican City. We chose this hostel after reading the guidebooks description as having a good nun-to-tourist ratio.

Day 18
We started the day off easy, sleeping in a little and running errands. Around noon we set off for our sight-seeing, which started with a metro ride to the Colesseum, then we walked around Palatine Hill, found some excellent gelato (which started an awful trend), and continued to stumble upon great sights that we meant to see anyway. Our resting place was Piazza Navona, a square with an Egyptian obelisk and a Michelangelo fountain and a lot of night life. We found a little restaurant on a side street and shared words over a few glasses of wine, pizza, and sea salad. Two more gelatos that night before we found our way home by foot since all of the bus lines had stopped running. Otta-vi-an-O! and For-ty Ny-na! Were two things we kept humoring ourselves with as we mimicked the very drawn-out Italian accent.

Day 19
We got a late start, and headed to the Vatican-on a Sunday. Thats a recipe for disaster, but after a little creative line jumping (we had to! time was limited) and only a 1 hr wait, we were in the tomb of the pope, then St. Peters Basilica. This is where the remains of St. Peter are housed, under a large bronze monument by Bernini. There is so much to look at-gold leaf, painting, sculpture, marble-that it is difficult for ones eye to find a resting spot. All fascinating work, though, and I was most in awe of Michelangelos Pieta sculpture, which is Mary cradling a lifeless adult Jesus body.
Next stop was the Castle di SantAngelo and the sculpture-lined ponte (bridge) below. We again wandered around to several piazzas and fountains, in between which we had our first rotten encounter at a cafe (again, read Hannahs blog for more). We recovered quickly after more sight seeing (presidents house, fountain di Trevi) and gelato. We took the metro back since it was dark and we were not quite as brave or energetic as the previous night, then had to battle loud Dutch girls in our 6-bed hostel room as we tried to sleep.

Day 20
We woke up with every intention of spending our last day in all museums. We started off with the Vatican museum/Sistine Chapel. The museum had maps, tapestries, mini mosaics (3000 tiles per sq in!), frescoes, and paintngs. The Sistine chapel was, of course, amazing. It took Michelangelo 4 straight years to complete, his eyes and neck never to recover from the strain of craining backwards. It was at this point that my camera decided to die, which was just lovely. After seeing more sculpture, including another of my favorites, Laocoon and his Sons, and some really awesome Egyptian sarcophaguses and a mummy with hair and fingernails intact, we headed out. A quick stop at the hostel to get my stone-age 35mm camera, then back to our day. We took the bus to one of our first sights of the day, the Pantheon. This is a feat of architectural genius-a semicircular poured-concrete dome with no vaulting. (I really suggest google-imaging any of these if youre curiuos.) We then headed to the Capitoline Museo, which I was upset to learn was closed on Mondays. Of course. And I also learned that the Galleria Borghese was closed. There went my day. I kept a positive attitude, and just took it as an excuse to come back to Rome. Instead we saw another Plazza (Repubblica) and more churches, including one that houses another favorite of mine, the Ecstacy of St. Teresa by Bernini. We took the metro to our hostel, picked up our bags, grabbed a bite at our new favorite cafe there, and metroed back to the train station.