Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Monday 11 November 2013

Venezia

17th January 2013
Venice was the second most anticipated city. It was a 4.5 hour train ride from Rome. For some reason, the overhead baggage storage was incredibly high and I couldn't actually reach it. So there I was, with my 10kg hiking backpack and on my tippy toes trying to shove my backpack into the compartment. No one helped. No one at all and it was just strange because on every flight that I have been on, someone has always helped me. Just bizarre; everyone was just watching me struggle. Ah well, finally I suceeded and settled into my window train seat.


It was quite hard to look for an adequate hostel and one that didn't cost a fortune. Out of all the cities that I stayed in, Venice was the most expensive which was surprising since it was low season (don't want to imagine how expensive it would cost during the summer). I stayed at Ca' Contarini which in hindsight was sort of a bad idea. It was on the other side of all the islands and almost the furthest from the train station. Getting from the train station to the hostel was a nightmare. Firstly, I caught the wrong water bus (well it was right, but apparently there are two water buses with the same number but they have different destinations) and it dropped me off in the wrong location. I got off and tried to ask for help, no one could help me. What? I went into so many stores asking for directions and no one seemed to have any idea of the outlay of the entire city which was incredibly frustrating. Finally, I stumbled upon a bunch of tourists and asked to look at their tourist map and had to awkwardly ask for my current location. Finally, I found out where I was and headed in the right direction. But that was only the beginning. The buildings in Venice aren't ordered by street names but only by numbers. Their numbering system would have been 'fine' if there was actually an order. It would start decreasing from 100 and once you turned a corner, it would start increasing from 300 with 200s probably 3 corners down. Finally I found the hostel and the person there was really nice. Although I think he was hitting on me. Hmm. I didn't have anyone in my room which was lovely as it was the first night that I had a room to myself. Although half way through the night someone* did turn up which wasn't a problem, except for the fact that I had scattered all my stuff onto the other bed. Including my bra. Whoops. But overall, I would not recommend that hostel. It was fine as I was only there for one night, but it just wasn't worth it and it was also potentially quite problematic (although not for me since there wasn't anyone there basically).

Back to Venice.

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When I was booking my inter-continental flights back in Sydney, my travel agent actually told me it was a good thing that I was travelling to Venice in winter since there wouldn't be a) flies and b) sewer type smells from the canals. The water was unnaturally blue, more of a turquoise than a blue.

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San Marco

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No photography allowed but I managed to sneakily take some photos as it was just incredible.

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Not entirely sure why everyone was so interested in having the pigeons on them. Pigeons just freak me out.

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I am actually surprised that I didn't get lost. The paths in Venice basically looked like the picture above. From a distance, every path appeared to be a dead end but it actually wasnt since every path had a sharp 90 degree turn.

I eventually stumbled upon a church and tried to warm my freezing hands using the candles.

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It got a little creepy walking around Venice at night. Honestly, it felt as though Jack the Ripper would have just popped out from around the corner.

 

Actually, I think I was alone in most areas of the city.

 

* The person who turned up late at night was an Australian guy from Perth! He was super lovely and it was really nice having a decent conversation with someone. He went on exchange to South Africa and was also travelling around Europe, although he was nearing the end. It was a scary moment when he hauled his 15kg! backpack onto his shoulders and the entire room shook. He learnt something from me (to use a cable management pouch) as I did from him (to buy those super large carabinas to ease the load from my front backpack).

I left on the 18th January and I thought I could just casually stroll to the train station. Oh boy no. I got a little lost and asked for help. Apparently I butcher "Santa Lucia" (name of the station) although every time the Italian person said it, I honestly could not hear the difference in pronunciation. It got to the point where I actually started to see a road. Yes, a road. Venice is a pedestrian only city and somehow I managed to find the only area of Venice with cars (it was near the ports). I actually got really stressed since I thought I would miss the bus, miss my flight to Prague and everything would just start to fall apart. Finally, I met this gentlemen who took me most of the way to the train station and I thanked him profusely. I didn't miss the bus and made it onto my flight to Prague.

My Overall Thoughts
Venice was nice and it was as I expected. I really did like travelling in the low season since it felt as though I had the entire place to myself. Venice was very cool, and that is honestly all that I think when Venice is mentioned.

Would I re-visit?
For Carnivale, yes. Otherwise, I am not entirely sure. 
Sunday 10 November 2013

Rome Pt 4

I am on a roll! Mainly because I don't want to be studying for my exams or completing my take-home final.

16th January 2013
After yesterday, I was just fed up with Rome and I had already visited everything that I wanted to see. I was tossing up between visiting Lido di Ostia or heading down to Naples. But people's comments on Naples seemed incredibly mixed and, as it was a last minute decision, train tickets were quite expensive. In the end, I decided to head to Lido. Lido is part of Rome and is Rome's beach and coastal area. The journey required an interchange and I still don't know if my pronounciation was so poor that no one understood me or if people were just rude, but when I asked the people who worked at the station, no one helped me. Or refused to. Actually, now that I think about it, I also had a rude experience with the person at the train station at Pisa. Finally, I found the right platform and the train. I stood out like a sore thumb. Again.There was also a random person singing (poorly) on the train carriage and everyone just ignored him.

It was a short ride and upon leaving the station, I was almost blown away. Literally. Just my luck that there were gale force winds.

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Perhaps I have been spoilt by the beaches in Australia, but the beach was very ugly with brown sand. Although I did find it very interesting that there were summer huts, for lack of a better word. It seemed like a very small version of a beach house but they were all in rows.

Eventually I headed for Ostia Antica, upon Exchange dude's recommendations. Put simply, it was disappointing. It cost € 6,50 to enter and I also bought a guide for €2,50. The biggest waste of €2,50 in my entire life since it was bloody pointless and all the information was identical to the information provded on the signs at each location. Grr.

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The place was so disappointing, although it would have been an amazing location for a game of hide and seek. The entire area was deserted and then it started to hail. Yes, it was hailing and my flimsy umbrella did not really provide me with much protection. Eventually I retreated back to my hostel.

The hostel I stayed at was Legends Hostel. The people who ran the place were from the Phillipines (they actually thought I was from there) and they were super lovely and super helpful. The hostel itself was so-so. There was free dinner of pizza and wine every night although it wasn't the best. The bathroom was so-so, although the shower was interesting. The water from the showerhead seemed to come out in a V formation so if I was careful, I could actually put my hand in the middle and my hand would still be dry. It was also the first hostel where I socialised properly with the people in my dorm. There was a Canadian girl called Alice from Canada who was backpacking in Europe for 6 months (she had previously backpacked around South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand), a girl who had just completed her exchange semester in Spain (who was from Brazil) and a Korean girl. They were all so lovely and it was just really nice having a talk to people's travelling experiences and ranting about Rome (and the whole 'ciao bella' among other things). At one of the free dinners, Alice and I were talking to this guy from, allegedly, a southern area of Italy who was so incredibly dodgy and also an alleged Luxembourger who was also dodgy (apparently he had a masters in economics and as a hobby, he drove people's cars to other countries. It honestly sounded like some black market thing). But it was really lovely and the girls were nice and respectful. I guess if I was paranoid, I would have felt a little hesitant about the fact that there weren't any lockers in the room, but honestly, perhaps I was too trusting, but I never carried my important documents (i.e passport and a lot of cash) with me and left it in my hostel room. Whoops. It was all good though.) I also picked it because the location was good and reviews weren't bad.

My Overall Thoughts
Rome was disappointing. So incredibly disappointing. It was one of the cities that I was most excited to visit and yet nothing seemed to be interesting.I believe it was a variety of different factors that resulted in my dissatisfaction; the people on the streets, the fact that I got lost, the gloomy weather/ rain/ hail and generally, the vibe of the city. I don't believe I mentioned it previously, but another thing that frustrated me to no end was the traffic. Traffic and traffic accidents are notorious in Rome and I can completely understand. There is something quite frightening when you literally have to bolt across a road because the cars just don't slow down. Not even a little bit. In fact, I was convinced they actually accelerated. And if they did stop for you, it was literally 30cm away from your legs. I was so scared of crossing any roads and only crossed if there was someone else crossing at the same time, and even then, I made sure that I was on the other side of the person (so the other person was closest to the approaching car). One of the hardest roads was right in front of the Monumento a Vittorio since you needed to cross 4 roads.

Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II 2
Not mine.

Would I re-visit?
No.
Saturday 9 November 2013

Rome Pt 3

15th January 2013
Today was the Vatican! Exchange dude also recommended that I climb the dome. Which I didn't, but more on that later.

I had every intention of taking a short cut to the Tiber River and then to enter the Vatican. Oh boy. From Day 1, I had this issue where I could never end up where I wanted. I'm not entirely sure why. Actually, that is a lie. I could always end up back at my hostel because I knew this one long route and every time I deviated from it thinking, "oh yes, I think I can go down this one instead, it will take me there faster'. Nope. I would get lost and resort to retracing my steps to follow the long path. The problem was, I wasn't even entirely sure why I got lost at least 5 times a day. My sense of direction was completely off and everytime I thought I was heading north, I was almost certain to have been heading in every other direction which was completely bizarre. In every other city that I visited, I had never truly gotten so lost to the point where I wasn't even sure which direction I was heading. I always knew roughly where I was. Perhaps it was the streets which just curved everywhere or the little laneways or roads that weren't documented on any map. I don't know. Or perhaps my mounting frustration got the better of me. [/rant for now]

Finally, I made it to the river and crossed to Castel Sant'Angelo before eventually making my way to Vatican City.
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The thing about travelling in low season is the significantly fewer people at attractions. But I forget that when I read travel guides or articles on the internet because everything mentioned waiting in line for hours simply to enter. Yes there was security and I breezed through it without any hassle.

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Perhaps it was my increasing disappointment with Rome or perhaps the attractions really weren't special. But St. Peter's Basilica was so underwhelming. It was somewhat impressive upon immediate entry, but the further I walked, the more meh it became. Especially when I looked at the painting inside the dome. I couldn't help but compare it to the one in Florence which was infinitely more impressive. And it was because I was so apathetic towards the cathedral that I didn't even bother climbing up to the dome, even though it would have been perfect due to the absence of queues. At every major attraction in Rome, I was listening to my audio guide and even that didn't make anything interesting which was so surprising.

I ended up wandering outside the Vatican and I laughed when I saw a Durex (condom) machine a mere 50m from the church.

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I stumbled upon a local market and bought some fresh fruit. My plan for the rest of the day was to head back to Tiber River (not via the route that I took to get to the Vatican) and to explore more of Rome on the other side. Boy was I wrong. So I walked in a straight line, down this one road that I was certain would take me to the river.

I eventually ended on a road that looked like this.

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Note the absence of a footpath

I walked past a lot of gated mansions with - I kid you not- armed security guards outside the gates. Whilst I was walking up the road that did not have a footpath.

I walked to the point where there weren't any shops and it was purely residential homes. And I could not find the bloody river. I was lost in that residential area for 2 hours I believe. It didn't bother me too much since I knew I had plenty of daylight left and there was no way that I would have walked out of Rome. My peak of frustration was when I finally found a road that looked promising and then ... it curved, and curved some more because the road was more a crescent than anything. So basically I ended up in the same direction where I started, but further down. Finally, by some miracle I stumbled upon some students and I followed them becauase I presumed that they would be heading towards the main road. And that assumption was correct because I finally found the main road and after taking 2 more roads, I finally reached the river. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

I crossed the river.  By the way, the bridge that I crossed wasn't even on the map that I was issued at the hostel; it was that far south. Truth be told, when I crossed the river, it was one of few times where I felt unsafe. There was not a soul to be seen and the area just had a dodgy feeling. Feelings reminscent of West End of Atlanta with the double locks and barred verandas.

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But I knew that if I followed the river north, it would take me back to where I wanted to be.

Just did some quick Googling of the area: Testaccio (well more the fringe of that area)

[...]the border between the poverty of squats and homeless hiding and living on the banks of the Tiber, an area all but safe where illegal activities occur daily (they are probably the only activities occurring at all), and the richness of the inhabitants of the residential area of Testaccio
 Apparently there are a lot of amazing restaurants in the area.

The further I followed the river (or stream of dirty water), the 'richer' it became and the buildings became nicer.

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Tiber Island

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Naturally, upon reaching the central part of Rome, I got lost. Again. Again.  The most frustrating day. The upside is that I saw more of Rome than I would have ever seen if I didn't get lost as I was off the beaten path. Plus, I have a lovely story to tell. Sort of. The armed men still freak me out a little. Also, I listened to Taylor Swift's album on repeat and what I discovered was that after every 2 songs, there was a song that was actually decent! I fell in love with 'The Last Time'. (Just listened to a live version. Oh dear this one part. Though I actually think it is the guy and not Taylor. Wait, I'm not sure. And what is she wearing?!).

And a rough map of where I walked (although I did get lost so I am not entirely sure what happened when I was on the lower left hand side of the map).
Just for clarification, the white ellipse is where the main attractions are located. It's hard to say how far I did walk, but it is in the vicinity of 25km.

When I was in the US, I did gain some weight (probably 5kg) but I lost it all when I went to Europe which isn't surprising considering I didn't really eat and walked a lot.