Repent--Doing a 180

After doing some research into the next hostel I planned to book, I discovered I had to make a reservation 1 week in advance. Oops. I could still travel there and if they had rooms the day I showed up, I could stay. To travel 2.5 hours to Genova and another 2.5 hours to Cinque Terre and discover I had no where to stay did not sound very appealing. In true Lenten fashion I "repented" and did a 180 heading east instead of west. My new destination would be Bologna; a city known for great food having created lasagna, bolognese sauce/ragu, mortadella (i.e. bologna luncheon meat) and tortelloni.

I still had a ticket to the Giardino di Boboli including the Medici Silver and Porcelain Museums. After an early start (about 7:00am) with packing, breakfast and putting my luggage in storage at the hostel, I meandered to the park. That morning I noticed on the ticket that I had bought it on Tuesday and it was supposed to be good for 3 days. Fortunately the workers at the entrance didn't bother reading the ticket. The gardens were quite large and well groomed. No flowers or colors around, but the texture in the various greens, bushes, trees and paths provided nice scenery. One of the more strange features were very large, oval marble rocks. Two were laying flat on the ground like large, round seats and one was standing oblong titled "Secret of the Sky." I'm not sure what the artist meant to convey, but the stone was smooth, soft to the touch and nearly pure white. It looked like a large mint with a dimple/round indent on the one side. On the way out I breezed through the Silver Museum which had very little silver in it. It was more a collection of the Medici treasures and jewels.

I'm glad I walked through as this gave me a brief look at how sumptuous the Medici life was without paying another E10 to see the lavish apartments upstairs in the Palzzo Pitti. Necklaces, pins, crowns, bibles, paintings, fountains in each room and large highbacked, leather covered wooden chairs gave the impressions you were in the presence of a very rich family.

After picking up my luggage and waiting a good 20 mins. for the bus to arrive, I made it to the train station. I didn't see Bologna listed on the departures and I'm glad I checked with the information desk. I would never have figured out which lines to take to get to Bologna with my regional (slow/local line and cheap) ticket. With a quick 5 minute change of trains in Prato (just NW of Firenze I think), I was headed direct to Bologna in 1.5 hours. So began the trial of arriving at the hostel.

From the train station there are two options of getting to the hostel: bus 68 goes direct to the hostel, but only runs every 2 hours, or bus 25 runs every 10-15 minutes, but stops 1km from the hostel. Since I arrived at 3pm and wouldn't make bus 68 until 5pm, I planned on waiting near/at the bus stop until 5pm. I should have stuck to my plan. Instead I opted for bus 25 to get there closer to my suggested arrival time of 4pm at the hostel. The guy at the bus info station told me to turn right and walk about 500m. The bus stop is in near a crossing of an interstate and some random business which on a Saturday were all closed. Down the road is a bit of small town civilization and a hotel. I didn't see how I could "turn right and go 500m" so I asked a few people on the street if they knew of the street the hostel was on and they all looked incredibly confused. It's common for hostels to be on tiny side streets no one has ever heard of. I stopped at the hotel and the lady directed me to the road I needed. The only problem was that it was about 30-40ft long and had no numbers near 12 which is what the hostel is at. The next closest thing along the road (about 100m) is a huge sports complex. I asked a few people and an older man on a bike said the name of the hostel like he knew it well, whistled and pointed off to the left behind me. I headed that way and ended up at the interstate (probably another 500m). Suddenly the older man on the bike appeared from behind me and started asking me in Italian what seemed to be something like "What are you doing here? Didn't you see the road back there?" After a few minutes of telling him I didn't see a road and no sign only the sports complex--in my best broken Italian of which I maybe know about 30 words--he seemed to offer to ride along and show me the road that was plainly in view (to him). We ended up just down the sidewalk from the sports complex and he directed me onto a path with metal poles to prevent cars driving on it which became a road with cars. Suddenly there were brown signs for the hostel. Apparently if you come to the bus stop from the other direction there are signs all over the place. Mind you I'm still dragging all my luggage with me and now still have about 1km to walk.

I wandered down the road quite a ways following the signs when a car behind me slowed down. The man inside rolled down the window and asked where I was headed. After I indicated I spoke no Italian he said something about "you want to pass." I thought perhaps he said I had passed it. He had a clipboard so then I thought he worked at the hostel and knew where I was headed and was offering to drive me the rest of the way. Then he started to drive away. Huh?? I checked the buzzers at the house in case I had passed it. Definitely not it. By then he had driven back and in better English said the hostel was another 500m and would I like a ride (must have been broken English for "you want to passenger?"). I accepted and we drove to the sign for the hostel which he indicated was camping and not a hostel. We figured out his name was Tom and he was reading meters in the area and had just been at the hostel and campground.

He had traveled alone for 10 years when he was 25-35 so he understood the troubles of finding places on your own. After a few streets away we had cleared up that I was not heading to San Sistro hostel like he thought, but actually to the campground which online claimed they had bungalows and rooms to rent. We headed back with a few turn arounds, since one of the streets had become a one way, and stopped at the campground. He offered to wait in case it wasn't the right place. Turns out it was! I thanked Tom and he drove off back to work. That's what I call grace. Undeserved gift, but very much needed. I think this suffices for my Lenten Journey.

Turns out the place is quite nice. It's all very strange though. It is a campground. There are sites for RV's and tents as well as 4 rows of these pink/red brick buildings that look like military housing. They're pretty nice inside. It's like a tile floored cabin with two beds in the "living room/kitchen" and two behind a sliding wood door. Tonight I plan out my discovery of Bologna and hopefully find a way to locate a church with a Palm Sunday service.

It's A Long, Long Road

Mistakenly I didn't set an alarm and woke up at 9:30am--a half hour before lock out time for cleaning. After a quick rush to get ready I decided to keep things simple and get familiar with the town. Firenze (Florence) is quite a nice town. It's big enough to have plenty of sights and interesting people doing their thing, but not so big that you are constantly breathing exhaust or having motorcycles blast by you every second. The old part of town is quite charming. Most of it is limited access to vehicles so you don't get run over while you're staring up at the large bell tower or gawking at a fountain.

I started out at the Palazzo Pitti where I booked tickets for later in the day to see David and the Uffizi Gallery along with a ticket to some local gardens. With a half hour before my slot to see David, I took my time working toward the Galleria dell' Accademia by passing through the Piazza della Signoria. This is the place where Florence's political life took shape. On the south end of the piazza is the Loggia della Signoria where David originally stood until 1873 when he was moved to the museum. A marble copy is now in his place where you can take photos (unlike the real one). A long street of prime shopping leads to the Galleria dell' Accademia. You can find anything here displayed in the windows from underwear to ties to scarves to purses to...well, you name it! Italy is definitely the perfect place to window shop where the displays are intriguing and invite you to take your time walking by.

Most of the Accademia is filled with paintings depicting the various scenes of Jesus' and other saints' lives. I did happen upon a music room where I viewed a Stradivarius collection and noted that all the instruments had animal based strings unlike today's metal ones. I guess I never realized strings weren't always metal (and I played the violin too!). It all happens so quickly as you are padding along through rooms of paintings when suddenly you turn the corner and POW! There's David standing high on a pedestal at the end of the hallway glowing from the skylight above. I stopped in my tracks and lost my breath. It's absolutely stunning. There really aren't words to describe how breathtaking it is to see a statue of this magnitude and perfection finished back in 1504 when Michelangelo was just 29. That means he started long before that. I can't imagine doing a work of art like that at my age now. The hair on David's head alone is so intricately carved let alone the veins in the arms. Photos don't even begin to do justice to seeing the statue in person. It was near impossible to pull myself away and finish the rest of the museum, but to make my 12:30 time slot at the Uffizi, such was necessary.

I passed some time around the Duomo (main church in the old city) and on to the Uffizi Gallery. This place and collection of art was started by the Medici family and given to the city in 1743 with the condition that the collection never leave the city. I was expecting to see a mix of paintings and antique items such as furniture or family treasures. All I got was art and I really only liked about 25% of it. Some of the highlights included Albrect Durer, Lukas Kranach (painted Martin and Katie Luther--the originals which I got to see), Vecchio, Carpaccio, Van Cleve, Rembrandt's The Rabbi, Pannini's Pool of Bethsaida, Caravaggio's Medussa and then the true highlights of my trip to the Uffizi: Michelangelo's Holy Family with St. John (the light and shading on this made it the brightest piece in the entire gallery!), Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation and Adoration of Mary and Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera. I can remember doing a special project on Primavera in school. Still really love that painting. It was great to see the original in it's hugeness (probably 10'x15' or so). What I learned from this visit is that I really am not a huge fan of 13th-16th century painting. I truly enjoy impressionist and abstract works far more. I appreciated these works for their intricacy, age and hard work, but in the end they just didn't inspire me much. The comedy relief came in the Niobe room where a series of about 20 statues placed around the room all had various stretching and reaching poses. It was hilarious. As if somone had frozen them in the middle of their workout routine. On my way out I noticed that amongst the carefully painted scenes on the ceiling where a series of words including: poetry, academia, music, history, mathematics, theology, medicine, politics, eloquence, philosophy and love of country. Clearly the Medici were patrons of the arts. Thank goodness they were or much of these works would have been destroyed--probably in the name of Christianity.

Post Uffizi I located an excellent gelato shop which was in great need after such hard work. I sampled Rich Chocolate, Banana and Straccitelli (cream flavor with chocolate bits). I stopped at the Duomo and toured the inside. It's quite immaculate. There are inlayed marble floors throughout the church. Laying tile is hard enough let alone sizing and fitting pieces into a picture of people, etc. The last stop of the day was the Medici Chapel, but it was closed. Worked out okay since I was pretty tired by then. Before heading back to the hostel I decided to pass through the Piazzale Michelangelo for some sweeping views of Firenze. Good choice. I found the bronze version of David up there and got some good video of the area. On the way up I discovered the stations of the cross lining the stairway and I also learned that there is a protected feline colony along the stairs. Strange I know, but I kid you not.

After a nice rest I cooked up some strange concoction of steak strips, garlic, onion, zucchini, canellini beans, and some left over red pepper. It turned out quite good. Dessert was some peach yogurt which I haven't had in close to a month. Strange how you crave things like that. My only other discovery today was that one of the guys in my room has sleep apnea. Makes for a hard time sleeping.

Stating The Obvious

Another slow travel day through the countryside from Roma to Firenze (Florence). Today's scenery brought more sheep, goats, grapevines and farms. The change in scenery from Lazio (province where Roma is) to Tuscany was marked by an increase in hills turning to mountains and more houses built out of rocks from the fields. The majority of houses were still the classic Italian stucco or concrete sided multi-story houses, but I don't recall seeing many if any stone houses in southern Italy. Up in the hills you could see remains of stone towers and the old walled parts of cities. The green tones ranged from bright yellow-greens to deep verdant teals. More farms had freshly tilled dirt. It must be getting closer to planting time. There are far more deciduous (leafy) trees here in the hills. Down south it was definitely more conifers (pines).

Transit was relatively smooth today. The train ride was the usual--a few bumps and lots of pressure changes as the altitude shifted as well as when trains passed by us at high speeds. I ended up at the main train station, which is always helpful, and worked on finding the bus toward the hostel. I had to ask a very helpful Asian woman for directions as the place I ended up using the ticket counter guy's directions was not right. She had this fantastic, magical map of all the bus lines and exactly where they go. I wish I had maps like this for all the places I go and need a bus. I'm terrible with bus schedules and where they go. It's my public transit weak spot. In the end I found the right bus and made it to the stop I wanted.

The hostel is quite unique. It's a former convent from the 15th century. Walking around inside is like going through a maze or like being in the movie Labyrinth where David Bowie is walking upside down and such. There's no set 1st, 2nd floors and the like. A staircase can go up here, but to no other part of the building. To get to my room you take the added steps from the lobby through a door, up another flight that turns right, around the corner, up 1 step and down 2. The added bonus for this week is the opera being performed each night in the former church next to the hostel. Each night for a few hours I am serenaded with lovely music and very high notes.

I wandered around the local area to see if I could get tickets in advance to see Michelangelo's David and for the Uffizi Gallery. Everything was closed up tight. I did find a grocery store and picked up some staples for the week. Tonight I made a pouch of pasta e fagioli which turned out like soup because I had no way to measure 750mL of water. The kicker was that I started out with a leaky pot and it went downhill from there. It still tasted relatively well. Oh, and when I returned from my walk about I discovered that there is literally a grocery store right next door to the hostel. Good for future notice.