Both Hallie and I had friends from school studying in Perugia. Hallie's friend Adam had spent the weekend in the South with some friends, so met us at the train station for our ride north. Visiting Perugia was arguably the best decision we made all week. We had debated it, knowing that there wasn't much there in the way of big-ticket sights and tourist attractions, which, ironically, made it as great as it was. When we arrived, we met my friend, Rebecca, and the four of us went on a brief tour of town. Perugia is called the city on a hill, which is very apt. We were very high up, making for great fews and MANY steps. There are even escalators in some parts of the city to make it accessible. It also had a "mini metro" which was a tiny metro car on a small track that went to a few places in the town. Here's a photo I grabbed from google (I was trying my hardest not to look touristy in this town, so no original photos...)
Cute, right? Anyway, one of the first views we saw was this:
The city at the base of the hill in the background is Assisi. By the end of the evening, we were becoming a bit jaded by the expansive, green, fairy tale views. Here is an aqueduct that was converted into a foot path, we used it on our tour.
Here is the other side of Perugia - I believe this is the more residential area.
That evening we (okay, Adam) cooked dinner at Adam's house - homemade pasta from his family, with pancetta and a delicious homemade spicy marinara sauce he made, with salad and bread on the side. Amazing! We were lucky to have some really good home cooked food during our break, we don't make the effort enough in Istanbul...
The next morning Hallie and I woke up and did some exploring while Rebecca and Adam were in class. Here's a photo of some of the stairs in Perugia. I forgot to mention, Adam had to climb something like 250 steps to get to class... A lot of work, but they'll all have amazing legs by the end of the semester!
Adam had told us to find this museum complex on the edge of town. Below is a small church that we found on the way. Rebecca told us that Martin Luther (father of Lutheran Church) preached here once on a journey.
Next to the church, there was a small castle-like building that held a museum of Perugia. The museum was interesting, but the best part was that you could climb to the roof and soak in a view of the entire city. Here are some shots:
That was about all the time we had in Perugia. We grabbed sandwiches and cannolis for the train ride to Florence and headed to the train station... We were on our way again!
We arrived in Florence around 4pm. Our hostel was within walking distance of the train station, and not too far from the major sights, so we dropped our luggage and headed out. Our first stop was Il Duomo - the famous cathedral that steals the skyline of Florence. Here's a photo from the outside:
You climb 463 steps to the cupola for a panoramic view of the city.
We then continued our exploration by crossing the river on the Ponte Vecchio. It's one of four bridges in the world with buildings built across the entire length. Another is in Bursa, Turkey! I believe the other two are both in Sofya, Bulgaria. Anyway, the bridge is filled with gold and silver shops, so we ogled a bit before moving on. After a long day and a long climb at the Duomo, we decided it was time for dinner. We headed back into the center of town and grabbed some pasta (shocker!) at a little bistro. Here's the Ponte Vecchio from the next bridge:
The next morning we woke up and got in line (in the rain...) at the Galleria dell'Accademia to see Michelangelo's David. The line took about an hour, but we'd made a lot of our goals for Florence the day before, so we didn't mind waiting. It was worth it - everything in the gallery was interesting and worthwhile, but David was truly amazing. The statue was about three times the size I thought it would be, and unbelievably realistic. The hands especially were crazy detailed. Unfortunately, no cameras in the gallery!
That afternoon we shopped our way through Florence, had lunch at the Piazza della'Republica and climbed to Michelangelo's Piazza. The piazza is a public terrace on the edge of the city that most people told us had the best view in Florence. It had rained on and off all day, but mother earth was nice enough to break up the clouds when we reached the top! It was a great way to end our stay in Florence!
We had dinner that evening at a restaurant that Adam had recommended, before grabbing some gelato and heading to bed. The next morning we had breakfast, did some last minute shopping, and headed to the train station - We were off to Venice!
When we arrived at the train station, we needed to take the water bus to our hostel. It was so neat!
When only had about 24 hours in Venice, so we dropped out bags and headed out. We immediately headed to the Grand Canal, finding Piazza San Marco, and the Cathedral of Venice. Here's a view from the Piazza out over the grand canal:
I would guess about half of the streets in Venice are canals, like in the photo below. As a person who loves boats and water, I was in love. I could see how difficult it could be to live there without a boat however, especially as the water bus is 6.50 euros, about 9-10 dollars, per ride. It could get expensive!
Our evening in Venice was a bit of a roller coaster. We found a restaurant on our Lonely Planet Italy App (yes, there's an app for that...) that looked promising on paper. However, when we arrived, we were the only ones in the whole place, and the family who owned it was sitting in the back half of the restaurant, looking as though they were having a family meal. We were told we could choose a table, and this woman in a dirty t-shirt came out and asked us a few questions. "Ravioli o Tagliatelle? Pollo o Carne? Salata? Vino?" We were a little concerned, especially when our wine came and tasted watered down and old, but our fears were allayed when a man came back out with two steaming dishes of delicious and fresh looking pasta. It was amazing - I don't think I've ever had a more fresh marinara sauce. The rest of dinner was not quite as good, the chicken (we both had the pollo) came on a huge plate with just a small piece of unflavored chicken in the middle. The restaurant itself was decorated with (I can't make this up) what looked like happy meal toys, and one corner had a display of cellphones hanging from the ceiling. I wish we had taken a photo, but it was really awkward with the family staring at us in silence throughout the entire meal. We quickly grabbed the check and headed out when we were done. Throughout the whole meal we kept looking at each other trying desperately not to laugh or crack an awkward smile so as not to be disrespectful to the family. The rest of the evening was a great success - we walked around a bit before grabbing some wine and cannolis to enjoy on one of the gondola docks (don't worry, there's no open bottle policy in Venice - or Italy, I believe...). We just relaxed and admired the city lit up at night.
The next day it was pouring, so when we woke up and checked out of the hostel, we bolted to a cafe and settled there for a bit. When we left, we visited a museum and grabbed some lunch for the train before heading to Santa Lucia Station. I would have loved to have spent more time (in the sun!) in Venice, but I think we did a good job with the time we had! Here I am right before we left, during a break in the rain.
After Venice, we were headed to Milan - our last city. Our train to Milan was the longest, about 3.5 hours, so we didn't arrive until about 7pm. When we arrived we dropped our luggage and headed out in hopes of finding the Cathedral of Milan. After walking a long way in the rain and darkness, we realized that we were heading in the wrong direction... Funny now, but not amusing after a long day (week!) of traveling and rain. It was fine, we just headed back and stopped for dinner. We got back to the hostel around 11 and decided to go to bed.
The next morning we slept in, then headed to a cafe for breakfast. We had, what we'd been having all week, an Italian breakfast - cappuccino and a pastry. For some reason, it was the best breakfast we'd had all week. The cappuccino was amazing, and we both had nutella croissants (yum!). After breakfast, we headed to the Duomo (to which we had excellent directions this time). I didn't take too many photos because it was raining, but this gives you an idea of how ornate the Cathedral is. Beautiful! It was free to go inside, and raining, so we decided to explore. It was gorgeous inside - large stone pillars and dark wood made it very warm and relaxing.
After the Duomo, we headed to a gallery nearby. We were able to see an exhibit of Di Vinci's Atlantic Codex - primarily including his sketches of wings and flying devices. The man really wanted to fly! There was also the famous fruit bowl still life (I don't know the title or the artist... for shame!), and a few other interesting pieces. Hallie and I agreed that, while we enjoyed Italian art, we were done with Madonna and child and awkward renaissance babies by the end of the week...
After the gallery, it had cleared off a bit, so we grabbed some lunch at an outside cafe. We then walked through a large park, arriving at the Arch of Peace, below.
There is a small plaza around the arch (as you can see), and there was a group of people gathering there to have a giant pillow fight. If I remember, the kids in the photo above were heading over with their pillows to join. We would have stayed to watch, but we had to head to our big finale - an AC Milano soccer game! We hopped on the metro, found the stadium, bought our AC Milano scarves, bought our beer with the rest of the Italian men, and picked up our tickets - we were ready to go!
We found our seats, a little early, but we did some people watching.
This was the loud section - we're guessing they're season ticket holders... We were ecstatic - we'd heard stories about how awesome Italian soccer games are, and we couldn't wait to experience it first hand. I think that Italians could give Turks a run for their money in regards to loyalty to and excitement for their soccer teams.
And then... guess what? The match was postponed. Apparently something had happened on another team and the umbrella soccer organization had ordered that all matches be cancelled that weekend. We were bummed. Not only that, but it was raining, and we had to wait outside to see about refunds. After about an hour or so, they handed out slips of paper with a number to call. Right now we're working on proving to them that we were at the game so that we can be refunded... Not a great way to end a fabulous week, but it didn't darken any of the wonderful memories!
We found some dinner quickly that night and headed back to the hostel (after we'd navigated the hoards of people leaving the stadium). The next morning we slept in, had breakfast, then headed to the Airport. Aside from the 2 hour delay, everything else went smoothly. We were in our rooms in Sariyer by midnight.
I honestly think that we couldn't have done it better if we'd tried. It was the first time that Hallie and I both had planned and executed a trip like that by ourselves, and I'm really proud of us! We named our trip "A Taste of Italy" - which is exactly what it was. We didn't want to leave and wanted more time in all of the cities, but we saw so much, and are both dying to go back.
This weekend, CIEE is going to Ankara, Turkey's capital, and then spending a night at a Sufi Lodge in Konya, where the whirling dervishes originated. Wish me luck - I'm almost travelled out!
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