more Europe summaries!

Jun 11, 2006 12:09


Monday 5/29: I arrived in Switzerland and was greeted by trilingual cousins.

We were picked up at the train station by my aunt-in-law (half aunt in law? She’s married to my mother’s half brother …) and one of her two sons. She’s Austrian, and speaks Swedish, German, French and English. Her sons speak Swedish, German and French, and are starting to learn English. Intimidating, to say the least. My uncle was out of town at this point (he’ll meet us when we come through later), so we just hung out with my aunt. She’s incredibly sweet, and fun to talk to. The boys sat around, not talking but clearly wanting to hang out.

Tuesday 5/30: I was on a boat on Lake Geneva.

My aunt and her sons had stuff to do, so Ilya and I went to Geneva. We took a rather unimpressive boat tour and then wandered around a bit. The city was pleasant, but without planning, we didn’t really know what to do there.

Wednesday 5/31: I fell in love with the Italian countryside.

We took a train from Switzerland to Rome, and just going through the northern Italian countryside I knew I’d love Italy. I never really thought I’d go there, I thought everything I enjoyed about Italy (i.e. ancient Rome) was long gone … but that’s simply not true. The countryside, however, is beautiful because all the houses are this dark red color and they blend in with the green landscape. Switzerland is silly. They paint their houses all these bright colors and they get in the way of the view sometimes.

Thursday 6/1: I walked on Roman streets dateable to Cicero’s time.

We paid for a tour of ancient Rome, which was a good introduction to the area. The weather was windy and cold, still, but we had fun nonetheless. On a visit to the Pantheon, Ilya decided that Hadrian is favorite Roman emperor. I think it was this night that we found the Aurelian wall. We were on our way to a restaurant we’d read about in the guidebook, far from the part of the city where “ancient Rome” is located, and we run into this city wall (it’s not complete, but some parts stretch for blocks and blocks). And here’s what is so crazy about Rome. There’s this wall, partially complete, and nowhere along the wall is there any description, any indication of what you are seeing. I had to poke around online to find out that this is the Aurelian wall, erected in the 3rd century, to help keep out barbarians. Sure it’s broken in parts, but much of it is still intact … this 3rd-century wall, touched up but not torn down throughout the centuries … and listed in no guidebook I read. 3rd century. So cool. I love Rome.

Friday 6/2: Even hail didn’t stop us from reaching Augustus’s mausoleum.

A professor of mine happened to be in Rome at the same time, leading around a group of students. We managed to get a room at the same hotel, and so on Friday we joined his group. We followed them to the metro station, and by time we got out of the station it was hailing! There had been no forecast for hail, as far as we knew. We managed to find a place to stay dry while waiting for the hail to end, and then we visited Augustus’s mausoleum and his altar of peace (dedicated to him for the peace he brought to the empire). We then made our way to the Pantheon, but by then Ilya and I needed lunch, so we had to leave the group and roam the city on our own.

Saturday 6/3: We got inside the Vatican gates, but were prevented from going further by hordes of the faithful.

Saturday we had intended to visit the Vatican museums, but when we got there, the line was so long it took us over 10 minutes just to find the end! We followed the crowd going into area around St. Peter’s basilica, and saw thousands of people packed into the plaza. Some were even camped out with lawn chairs … some were chanting and singing songs. We had absolutely no idea what was going on. There was some kind of special event. Later we learned that Sunday was Pentecost, but we still have no idea what was going on specifically on Saturday, the day before Pentecost. We stood around for a while people watching and seeing if anything would happen, then we left to go get lunch. After lunch we visited Hadrian’s mausoleum.

Sunday 6/4: We explored the Palatine Hill, despite the frustrating absence of signs and maps in the area … in other words, we saw stuff on the Palatine Hill, but we have no idea what any of it was.

Really, you’d think all this ancient Rome stuff would be clearly explained on some sign somewhere at the location, even in Italian, but often there’s just nothing. My book had some information, but we couldn’t find any of the sites that the book listed. So we wandered, slightly frustrated, but intrigued nonetheless. Then we did some more wandering down in the area of the forum, and went back to the Pantheon so Ilya could take pictures.

Monday 6/5: Train conductors should be permitted to exert violence on stupid and arrogant tourists who complain that everything hasn’t been clearly explained to them in English … especially in Rome, where everything is clearly explained in English.

We took the train from Rome to Venice, and were perturbed and amused by this pretentious woman who kept bitching that she could get to sit wherever she wants on the train (despite the system of reservations) because everything hasn’t been clearly explained to her in English. When the conductor tried to get her to move to second class (where her tickets were), she complained that no one would listen to her and that all these train people spoke only a bit of English. Really, I hate the fact that I don’t know Italian just because I don’t ever want to be mistaken for one of those people. She was such a terrible bitch. Rome is so easy …. pretty much every sign is in English, French, German and Italian. She’s from Australia … I doubt they have signs in four languages there! Nor do they in America. But anyway, I wanted to throw her out the window. But it was also highly entertaining.

Tuesday 6/6: A bird stole Ilya’s croissant.

We arrived in Venice late Monday night, and only had time for dinner. In the morning, we got breakfast at the hotel, outside in the patio, and when Ilya left the table to get more food, a bird stole his croissant … well, we think it tried. The croissant was on the ground. Ok, it was funny at the time. He had to ask the waiter for another one. That day we got a tour of Venice by a very amusing tour guide. She was so tense and she enunciated every word more than she needed to … like an emcee for the circus or something. But anyway, we saw Venice. And what a disappointment. Sure, it’s beautiful, but one can only marvel at so many small streets that dead end into a canal. It’s a tourist town now, and nothing more. The tour guide said there are 64,000 residents and 10 million tourists each year. All there is to do there is shop at these overpriced gifty stores. And the food is terrible and expensive, since they cater to rich tourists. There was one good restaurant though. We’ve been trying to remember to write down good restaurants (and some bad ones) so I can review them … that info will be useful if we go again, or if any of you go.

Wednesday 6/7: I wandered around Venice, the city-sized mall.

Ilya and I split up for a morning. I looked at some of the stores. They’re nice, but so many of them sell the same things. I got small trinkets for those of my friends who like jewelry (::grins::). I even got two Christmas presents! It was a great idea, since there’s nowhere to shop where I live and some of my family members are sick of just getting books from amazon.com. In the evening we wandered around for almost two hours trying to find a restaurant that was open, had vegetarian food, and didn’t look terrible. Finally we had to give up and eat at a terrible one. 44 Euro for two tiny servings of pasta, a coke and a beer!

Thursday 6/8: Verona has two Roman amphitheaters, both of which are still in use.

I wouldn’t have gone to Verona, but Ilya has a colleague who is from there and wanted to show us around. And it was a good place to stop on the way from Venice to Switzerland. I’m so glad we went. Verona is absolutely beautiful. There are these two Roman amphitheaters, both of which are mostly intact, and there are still shows put on in both of them. One of them is home to the Verona Shakespeare Festival (since Shakespeare made Verona famous), and the other has all sorts of shows (no gladiator matches, sadly). And there’s a 12th-century castle, right on the river. It’s just amazing. And Ilya’s colleague, Riccardo, is very fun to hang out with. I definitely want to go back to Verona, and now I’m thinking I need to do more reading on where the interesting towns are so I know where to visit (besides Rome) when I go to Italy again.

Next up: Switzerland! And pictures, finally!
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