So, young traveller, you are touring Italy! How wonderful it must be! Except, of course, for the fact that no one speaks English. Oh, dear. How awful that must be, when you sit in a train compartment, staring out the window, bored, wishing that you could engage your seat-mates in intelligent conversation, except that you are afraid that if you ( Read more... )

I swear, I swear, I shall not skip the two weeks between Venice and here--I shall write about them soon--I shall! Sometime ( Read more... )

I have alighted on a new strategy to fend off the advances of overenthusiastic Italian men; pretending to only speak German, because they always speak Italian and English, and occasionally Spanish or Portuguese or French, but they never, never, speak German ( Read more... )

Something rather embarassing happened in Venice, when Hatsumi and I were walking around. We passed the Rialto Bridge, and she said "The Rialto Bridge! We turn left here." I asked her if she was sure, and she said, "Of course, it looks just like the one at Las Vegas." Now, that was bad, but not as bad as the time when I was in Switzerland and ( Read more... )

...there might not be too many entries for a while. Will be hyper-sightseeing in Berlin tomorrow, then its off to Copenhagen by night train, a night there, and out again by another night train to Köln, then off to Brussels and Amsterdam. So. There will be another update definitely by...Amsterdam ( Read more... )

4 August (Woohoo! Only a week behind!): Was waiting around at the train station for the train to Venice, feeling rather bored, when I saw Hatsumi run by. This was rather unusual, because I thought she had left for Vienna 4 hours ago. It tured out the the train she thought was going to Vienna had actually split and left her in Arezzo, so she came ( Read more... )

3 August: Got up early and went to the Accademia, home of Michelangelo's famed statue of David. First impression: It's BIG. One does not appreciate this from the ubiquitous photos. Second impression: What is so great about Michaelangelo, anyway? I walked around the thing. I stared into its eyes, which, according to my guidebook, "have a strong, ( Read more... )

2 August: Got to Florence around 2 in the afternoon and walked around the old town, saw the famous dome and bronze doors, and was walking the the Uffizi Gallery when some guy tried to pick me up. It was the most brazen thing, I was strolling along with a cup of gelatto when he just walked right up to me and said, "So, what's your name? Where are ( Read more... )

So, that night, Hatsumi and I took an evening walk over to ancient Rome and wandered around the Forum in the moonlight. It was all very romantic and camera-worthy, until we got to the Colosseum. While that, too, was very beautiful and all lit up in the night, the effect is ruined, ruined, by the gates and iron bars they put all around it to keep ( Read more... )

Oh, dear, dear, dear. The last time that I wrote I was in Rome. That was five days and three cities ago. So. I have been slacking off.

Anyway. Rome. This was...the 31st of July. Oh, dear. I am behind. (And this keyboard is screwed up, so in the following entry you will notice a distinct lack of: quotation marks, italics, and the letter ( Read more... )