First of all, Italy was nice. Yup, nice. Can't say it was the best vacation I've ever been on, but a good getaway nonetheless. Most of the time, I was in Tuscany. We (5 friends and I) rented a villa out in the countryside (near San Gimignano, in case you actually know your Italian geography). The best word to describe this region is "stunning". Rolling green hills, rows of grapes and olives, cypress trees and really old towns. Here, I'll prove it to you with a pic:
The villa property itself was beautiful too - great views, patio, pool, and even a little lake. Most days started off with a few cappucinos at the restaurant across the street from the villa. And by street, I mean the two lane highway that runs through this area. And I don't mean a few cappucinos between the group of us, I mean a couple of cappucinos each. They're only 1 Euro apiece, so if you are used to American coffee prices, you have to drink at least two or three in order to feel like you spent enough money on coffee.
After coffee, we'd hang out on the villa grounds, either lounging by the pool, reading on the patio, or sometimes even going for a jog on the grounds if we felt particularly motivated. Then we'd move right into lunch, where we'd put out a spread of standard Italian fare (salamis, tomato & basil and stuff like that). Then maybe we'd venture into a nearby town where we would roam around and eat gelato. Finally, we'd stuff our faces with a big restaurant dinner at night. A pic from my favorite restaurant:
This gluttony went on for an entire week, and by the end of it, most of us were so sick of over-eating, that we practically fasted the last few days.
While staying at the villa, we took two day trips worthy of mention: a trip to Florence and a trip to Cinque Terre, five tiny cities built into cliffs along the coast. First Cinque Terre. I did some of the most efficient sight-seeing of my life on the way there. You see, the highway to Cinque Terre goes by Pisa. I had no desire to stop in Pisa just to take some lame photo of someone pretending to hold up the leaning tower, but the rest of the folks in the car felt differently. So I caved. We exited the freeway (yes, I drove in Italy) towards central Pisa and followed the signs towards the leaning tower. Just so you know, in Italy, there are about a hundred signs on every street corner, pointing in a hundred different directions. Signs pointing towards the next town, the highway, and all the various hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions within a 5 mile radius. So following the signs is not always a straightforward task. Anyway, these signs led us straight through the middle of Pisa, where by some amazing stroke of luck, I managed not to run over any of the many pedestrians, bicyclists and vespa drivers that were constantly darting across the street and through traffic. Finally, we approached some city walls, with a "no cars" sign on them. But I could see that the tower was inside those walls, so I ignored the sign and drove inside. There is was, just half a block to the right. I turned into the road that led right up to the tower plaza, and pulled into the very last parking spot, about 10 feet from the "Piazza dei Miracoli", where the leaning tower stands. Kathy was so impressed, she took a picture of my parking spot before she even bothered taking a pic of the stupid tower. Haha!
Then back on the road towards Cinque Terre. I'll skip ahead here and just say that it took us a while to actually get to the first town in the cluster. We accidentally went to far, and muddled around in the hills above the towns for a bit, but we eventually got there. Cinque Terre is a group of five towns that are built right into crazy-steep cliffs, so there is no road between the towns. Just a trail and a really slow train line that goes through tunnels blasted into the cliffs. We hit the trail, which is cut right into the cliffs and is very scenic. I enjoyed this a lot because I actually got some exercise, and because there weren't the throngs of tourists that we were encountering in every other city and town that we visited. It was getting late, so I only made it to the third town before having to turn around. Here's a pic of one of the towns:
The drive home was long and arduous. I don't really want to go into it. I'll just say that we were forced to take a long detour that extended the trip from 2.5 hours to 5.5 hours. We got home after midnight, and I was wiped out from driving the whole way in the horrible traffic. Not the best end to an otherwise nice day, but after a good night's sleep I got over it.
Florence was a fun outing, but mostly just for wandering around and window shopping. I am not into the museums in Florence at all. We went to one when we first got there, but it sucked. So we stuck to wandering the streets. Of course we got gelato. We bought sandwiches and wine at a tiny street shop. We had a humongous dinner. And the drive was only 50 mins door-to-door.
After spending 7 days at the villa in Tuscany, I decided to make my way down to Sicily with Dave and Nicole while Kathy and Shantal headed to Rome. Although I wasn't there to experience it firsthand, they had a pretty rough day. Their rental car broke down on the freeway and they had to wait several hours for a tow truck. When the truck finally arrived, they had to sit in the car while it was hoisted up onto the flatbed truck, and then remained in the car, on the truck, while the truck drove down the highway. I feel like maybe that is illegal in the US. When they arrived in Rome, they had numerous other difficulties getting a cab from the tow yard and getting into their hotel room. Let's just say they had a very long day, and that Italy does not seem to believe in customer service. I think they had a pretty good time after that though.
Back to me, Dave and Nicole touring around Tuscany. The first night, we shared a big bunk room at a youth hostel with an older couple that we named the "fartsy twins" for their nocturnal gasiousness. The second night we headed down to Rome to catch a night train to Sicily. We met up with Kathy and Shantal for dinner. I ate what I will later refer to as a "dubious Salumi platter", consisting of various types of cured meats. We caught the night train to Silicy. Of course the air conditioning didn't work, so we spent a long night alternating between window closed (roasting alive), and window open (loud train track noise and billowing wind). The cool thing is that the train actually gets onto a big ferry to go across the channel between the Italian mainland and Sicily. The next morning, as we approached Catania (our stop), I did not feel so good. At first I thought it was just the lack of sleep, but I quickly realized that I was going to puke. I made a run for it, but could not get to the bathroom. Luckily there was a washroom (sink only) in the hallway of the train, so I ran in there and puked in the sink. Bad news is that train sinks are small and have tiny drains. The puke would not drain. Totally gross, but I was feeling so horrible that I couldn't really deal with trying to solve that problem. I stumbled back to my train cabin. We got off the train at our stop, and I was still feeling nauseous. Also, I was shaking and sweating, and felt really weak. I was trying to pull my suitcase and carry my bags, but was going really slow. Nicole and I sat in a cafe in the train station while Dave went to get a rental car. During this time, I puked twice in a garbage can, and then once in the sink of a very nasty bathroom. There was no way I was getting anywhere near that toilet. In fact, the smell of the bathroom triggered another round of puking. Finally we got a car and headed to our hotel. I was trying to keep keep things under control in the backseat, but halfway there, another wave of nausea come over me. There was no time or place to pull over, so I rolled down the window and puked out onto the highway while we were going full speed. Not only did I splatter vomit all over the side of the car, but the cars behind us had to swerve to avoid being rained on as well. I felt too shitty to care though. I puked in the bushes when we arrived at the hotel, and after we got our room, I puked in the bathroom there too. Then I passed out in bed. Later, my body became even more efficient in cleansing itself (I'll spare you the details). At this point, I was completely empty on the inside, and totally wiped out. So I basically slept until the next morning.
When I woke up, I still felt weak, but I managed to eat a tiny bit of peach granita - so good - and a bit of bread. This helped a lot, and I started to feel like myself again. I had this peach granita several times while in Sicily. It's basically pureed peaches, sugar, and ice. It is frozen and has the consisency of a grainy sorbet. It's awesome, and perfect for the warm By this time, I felt well enough to even go for a swim in the sea, which also helped me feel better. There is pretty much nothing that I enjoy more than swimming in the ocean.
My recovery was complete. I still didn't really eat anything until the next day though. So that makes two days of fasting, which I have never done before. The next day, we went to the local produce market, and I bought tomatoes, basil and mozzerella, and feasted on that for lunch. Sadly, the next day, I had to return to Rome to catch my flight home. I was done with Italian trains, so I coughed up some extra money for a plane ticket from Sicily to Rome. Best decision ever. Met up with Shantal in the Rome airport and began the very long trip home.
