Bloody computers

Ok, I have been trying for the last week to post photos. But it doesn't seem to work. Either they wont load, or the page wont display.... ARRRGGGHHH!

Anyway, I'm in relaxing Bologna right now. It's got a huge student population, as well as being a fairly wealthy city in a region reknown for it's food, so it's a nice spot. On top of that, it's known as the Red Capital of a country which has the largest democratic communist voting blocks apparently - all I know is that there is a museum of Communist propoganda here. So I'm off to join the Reds this afternoon.

An update of whats been happening...

I went to Gubbio (in Tuscany, the same region as Florence and Pisa) on Tuesday to see the Corsa di Ceri. That was what I really wanted to post because it was one of the most impressive and entertaining things I've seen in ages. There are three teams, each with a patron saint, of about 60 men who carry these huge ceri up a hill. (A ceri kind of looks like two vases stuck end to end, about 3 metres tall, with shoulder rafts and it takes at least 10 guys to carry it around... on top of the ceri is a little statue of the patron saint of each team)
I say 'hill' but it would be more accurate to describe it as a cliff-face... and they run with the ceri full tilt up the hill. The first team into the basillica gets to slam the doors on the other team... of course, by tradition, the yellow St Ulbino team always wins but that didn't seem to bother anyone.
There were marching bands, and fairy floss and tons of randoms running through the streets... I had a great time. And the best roast pork.
Really wish I could put up the photos... will try and see what I can do.

Only have one day in Bologna and then I'm off to Venice to join up with my topdeck tour. I'm not sure how often I'll manage to post but I'll try and keep it up.

Uffitzi

I'm having a lot of problems with these computers - they like to do random punctuation, I can't attach my memory stick and they wont accept CD's so I have no idea if if the 5 euros I just spent were actually buying a disk with my photos on it or a table coaster...

Anyway, went to the Uffitzi today which is THE museum in Florence (apparently). And it was free because it's culture week or something so woo hoo. Spent three hours there - well worth the money :o)
It's got over 50 rooms dedicated to various artists, periods and styles... Caravaggio, Raphael, Botticelli... it was pretty amazing. It's home to the 'Birth of Venus' (the one with the naked chick standing on a shell) and some other classics as well as the scariest medusa head I've ever seen.

Then I finished my book on Hadrian, had some vegetables for lunch and proceeded to get completely lost. Eventually (after two hours) I managed to find my way home. All in all I'd call today a sucess. Except that it's only 3:30 but that's the problem when you wake up at 6:30 to visit an art gallery. Maybe it's time for a quick siesta and then I'll once again resume my endless search for a cheap, decent place to eat in Florence. Then it's off to Perugia tommorrow.

Pisa

Sublimely ridiculous.
That pretty much is how I'd describe the leaning tower and it's surrounding environment - I spent a good while just sitting on the grass watching it. And the people posing around it. Briliant.
There is something about that tower that I love. I'm not sure whether it's the fact people continued to build it taller despite it leaning, tried to correct it and inevitably made it lean in the opposite direction and then topped it all off with a tilted 'hat' at the top to balance it up or perhaps it's the habit that Italians seem to have of beginning a project with one material in one style and finishing with something completely different... but it's great.

Then I visited the Duomo and Baptistry which are next door. I wasn't that impressed until I listened to the commentry - and I would put money on it being Sybil from Fawlty Towers or one of the Python girls reading a rough interpretation of the Italian description very quickly. And just so you'd realise when it was over, she finished with a 'end of description'. What more could you ask for.

Anyway, I'm off to wander around the town a little bit more.

Florence, Firenze, it's all the same thing...

*just a note if anyone is struggling because the blog page is in Italian, which happened to my mum... go to the homepage (www.blogger.com), look at the bottom of the page and click on 'lingua' - then you can change the language to whatever your heart desires*

Well, a quick list of the museums\galleries\churches\stuff I've been to in the last two days...
1. The San Lorenzo Church - has a few tombs designed by Donatello (it's also where he was buried), a painting by Fillipo Lippi, a painting which is an exact replica of the sky on July 4 in 16-something and where I was yelled at by a curator for leaning on the marble railing to look at the exact replica of the sky on July 4.
2. The Bibliotecca next to San Lorenzo - designed by Michelangelo, it has the coolest staircase ever. I want a library in my house just like it. There was also an exhibition which displayed medieval manuscripts (the highly decorated ones) with various fantasy images like dragons or griffins which was pretty cool.
3. The Leonardo Museum - not worth the €5 euro although if I wasn't convinced that the man was pretty damn smart I am now. And he was obsessed with war machinery.
4. The Bargello Museum - home to some of the greatest statues in the world, with a room dedicated to both Michelangelo and Donatello. My favourite was Michelangelo's earlier David statue, which was the first nude 'done' since the Roman classical era and looks like a transvestite. If I could have taken a photo, I would have.
5. The Historical Science Museum - two levels of science equipment from around the 14th century onwards, including Galileo's finger (yes, his actual middle finger from his right hand). Was much more interesting than it sounds - a gallery on sundials, on chemistry, on mechanical devices... ok, I'm a nerd. And one gallery which made me glad to be a 21st century woman - the surgical obstetrics waxworks. Eeewww.
6. Piazza Spangoli - basically an outdoor museum which statues dotted around everywhere, including a replica of the more famous 'David' (the one that doesn't look gay) - the original is now safely indoors. I did take a photo of this one but I can't get them onto the computer at this stage. Will keep you posted when I do.
7. Ponte Vechio - the only bridge the Nazi's didn't raze during WW2 and full of goldsmiths.

I was planning to visit the Uffitzi today but there are staff meetings, tour groups... plan to go on Sunday instead. So am really enjoying Florence.
Oh, and the coolest clock at the Science musuem - a ball came down a spiral and when it got to the bottom, it was thrown back up into the air and the clock reset itself. Pretty damn cool. Almost as cool as the one which wrote a set phrase every day (the clock movement moved a mechanical hand attached to a nib and inkpot.)

Firenze

Finally made it to Florence - I left the hostel at 10:15 and got to Florence at roughly 7pm without much waiting around so it was definately a travel day. Spent the whole time on the train eating chips, biscuts, other stuff... and missing my iriver who is sadly out of battery and guess who forgot the charger while packing hungover in the UK??? (Give you a clue, Taryn was there :oP)

Not much to write really as a result...

Oh wait - I met this girl called Rosalba on the bus to Amalfi so on Tuesday night I went to Ravello and met her. She ended up having to work late so she invited me around for dinner which was really nice of her. Talked a bit about Italian politics, made fun of George Bush, and then I wandered back to the bus station to find that all the buses had stopped for the night. So I ended up paying 25 euro to get a taxi to Amalfi! D'oh.

Yeah, am off to stand in queues for hours on end. And, like me, perhaps it's time to let maths2 go. Good luck with the next tour all you travelling showpeople.

Le Scale d'Amalfi - The Stairs of Amalfi

I heard about this hostel from the guys at 6 small rooms in Napoli (see last posts) and it sounded pretty promising so I decided to stay for a few nights. I spent one night in Ischia (which I loved but more later) and then caught the ferry to Napoli, bus to Salerno and another to Amalfi. Luckily I met a local who works in the art gallery in Ravello (nearby) and she was catching the same bus so I chatted to her for the whole hour and a half trip... it was pretty amazing road, it's very very narrow, very very windy and it's right along the edge of the coast. At one point, the bus had to reverse back up the road because there just isn't enough room for cars to pass each other at the corners.
Eventually we got to Amalfi, caught ANOTHER bus to the hostel and then the fun bit. Walking up 296 stairs with my backpack. Luckily, I'm a fairly sensible woman and only packed what I actually need (as opposed to what I may want) so I made it ok(ish). Another girl staying here had a pack that weighed 23kg plus another backpack weighing 8kg. Crazy.

Today we went to the beach - an extra 746 stairs. So that's (ooh, pressure for the maths girl) 1042 stairs one way. Which we had to climb back up again. I think the words 'a lot of stairs' don't really give justice to it. Ooof.

Ischia was gorgeous - full of germans, all the signage was in german. But at night I went to a restaraunt overlooking the ocean, ate magharita pizza while the sun set and had a grande birra (a pint). Then, to top it off, the hotel just to the left of us and a little below had a fireworks display that lasted for about 6 minutes. Sitting there, drinking my beer, watching a ocean sunset and then fireworks... pretty damn good.

They also have a garden on Ischia belonging to the composer William Wallace which was stunning. It even had banksias. They also have a Victorian lilly, which opens in the morning as a female to catch bugs and then shuts its petals and reopens the next day as a male. Pretty damn cool as well. The only bad thing about it was that it must have been the mating season for the frogs because every single pond had frogs madly going at it. It was bordering on pornographic.

So now I'm off to Ravello tommorrow to meet the local girl for lunch and help her with her English. Then I head up to Florence, which from all accounts is like a giant gallery and pretty impressive, so I'm looking forward to it.

Hope you're all happy and healthy.

Pompeii

Thankfully, Napoli has improved on further inspection...
Yesterday I visited the archeological museum, which has most of the statues and relics found in Pompeii, as well as a pretty cool Egyptian wing (Egyptian stuff was apparently very 'cool' in Roman times). I couldn't take my camera in which is a pity because some of the statues were over 3 metres tall (maybe ;o)) and pretty impressive.

I also visited the excavations underneath the Church of San Giovanni, which were amazing - much better than the museum. I walked along a Roman road and you could wander in and out of the buildings - a bakery, a treasury, a laundry... and I had the place all to myself which was even better. I think it's been one of my favority places so far, and they don't advertise it at all so you'd never know it was there. You can hardly even tell where the churches are in Napoli.
Anyway, here's a photo of me in front of the bakery - in the background are the ovens.

Then, after spending the night drinking beer, eating pizza and watching Spanglish, I went to Pompeii today with two guys I've met at the hostel (it's called 6 Small Rooms and it's brilliant) - Pompeii is so well preserved that you can see the murals on the walls, the rooftops, the fountains... it's like walking through a town that's been neglected rather than buried under ash and dirt for around 2000 years.

A couple of pictures:
This is the amphitheatre which could hold 20,000 people (although my guide book reckoned that the population of Pompeii was 20,000 so that seems strangely convenient...) and is one of the best preserved in the world - it looks like it does in the picture the full 360°.






This is a mural that we spent a good 10 minutes hunting for because it's pretty famous. It shows a young girl being inducted into the cult of Dionysus (and I'll leave you to work out what that entails).

This is Mt Vesuvius in the distance, which is the volcano that destroyed both Pompeii and Herculeum in aruond 62 (72?)AD.

And this is me, Greg and Hamza.

All in all, been a pretty good day. This hostel has been really lovely and rejuvenated my travelling enthusiasm, mostly because I met a few people who enjoy sitting around and having a chat, which is what I was missing most of all. Am off to Ishia tommorrow, the island of hot springs and spas so should be good :o)