Blog post Rome to Florence

Blog post Rome to Florence

On the train from Switzerland to Germany...

Keeping a web log of our Europe adventures has been way more difficult than we realized it would be because of the high rate of adventures we experience. There is minimal time to sit down on a computer for an hour and send in a post. Also the fact that Internet can be $2 for ten minutes is killer to our pockets. Instead of blogging at a computer We will try it from the iPod touch while riding the train. The next time we get free wifi somewhere the iPod will email the log to the blog. Hopefully this works!

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This post is written by both Ryan and Troy.

The last post was from Rome. We are currently on our way to Buchoe from Switzerland.
A lot has happened in the last week, so we'll give an overview of what we did.  We knocked out Rome in one day and saw everything it has to offer - the Vatican, the Colisseum... everything.  So to all you haters out there, it can be done.  Just skip all the silly art museums that you can look at on Google anyway.
Now what you can't experience on Google is...

Walking miles through the epic Roman architecture. It is something beautiful to see in a modern world where usually the strength of a building is found hidden in it's frame. With the old Roman architecture the artistic and mathematical frame is plain to see. The powerfull columns holding the weight of the structure are what also lead our eyes up to the grand paintings and carvings found all over the sky high cielings. While we were saying wow in reaction to how massive the structures are we were also being captured by beautiful, bright paintings. It was an awefull experience in the true sence of the word.

Once we had seen everything we wanted to see in Rome, we had a difficult decision to make.  We could either drop another €25 on the hostel we were staying in, or hop on a random overnight train and sleep for free... we opted for the latter and the next morning we awoke in the Olympic city of Torino.  After a brief stroll around the city, we got back on the train and headed for one of the most beautiful places we've seen thus far... the five small towns on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea that make up the area known as "Cinque Terre."

This was a place totally different than any other Italian location we had visited. Cinque Terre is the kind of location that any low budget film could take place at and the movie would be a spectacular romance. The best way to view the five towns is on foot through a government kept trail that runs between the towns and along the vinyards and cliffs which lie above the sea.  However, we didn't take that route since the Italian's charged a whole €5 per person. Instead we took the rails from village to village and toured each one to our liking. One of our favorite activities was cliff jumping into the Mediterranean Sea.  We heard rumors of other crazy kids doing it in the past so we decided it good to take our turn. It was amazing and safe thanks to the understood truth of being invincible in this young age. Plus, the sea was the perfect swimming temperature.

We ran into a similar predicament in Cinque Terre to the one we had in Rome, having to decide between paying for a hostel or free sleeping, and again we decided to save our precious Euros.  How, you may ask?  We simply hiked up the mountains into the firefly-lit fields of grape vines, found a level clearing on the side of the road, threw down the space blanket, prayed for protection, and slept under the stars.

The next morning after waking up early before anybody had any idea we slept or even came through we went down the steep hills to the train station and headed back toward Pisa. We didn't expect too much out of Pisa but we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was more to the area than a silly architectural error. Along with the leaning tower were a few majestic pure looking cathedral buildings with a castle wall that enclosed the special structures. We favored the purple columns that were added with the usual tan ones that hold up most the old roman cathedrals. We finished our enjoyment there within a couple hours and headed for Florence.

Of all the bigger cities we have visited,  Florence is easily a favorite.  A major part of the reason we had such a pleasant stay was because of our beloved Couchsurfing host, Massimo. We sent out 30 last minute requests, and only Massi responded.  He warmly opened up his home to us, gave us his own bed, cooked us dinner with his Italian friends, and showed us around town.  We could tell right away that Massi was a popular guy.  Just on a short walk home he stopped to talk to almost everyone we passed, from younger kids to sweet old ladies, all of whom were very excited to see him.  He is a university student, so we also got to hang out with a few of his friends.  They took us to an art show and a popular hang out spot for university students in Florence.  It was awesome to get to know some locals and really experience Italian culture.  One day in Florence we rented bikes and rode to a big plaza that overlooks the city.  We decided that Florence is in pretty much the ideal location for a city, in a lush valley surrounded by beautiful rolling green hills.  Combine that with the amazing Renaissance-style architecure, and you've got one epic town.



Sent from my iPod