Ciao

From Rome Mike, Kevin, Erik and I boarded a train for Florence. We arrived late in the afternoon on Easter Sunday with no lodging reserved. As expected on a holiday weekend, everything in the city was booked and we wound up walking around the city with our baby elephants (some call them backpacks) on our backs for three hours before finally trekking far outside the city to a campsite located near the Piazza Michelangelo. The campsite turned out to be great - the site was located on a hillside that overlooked all of Florence and it was full of young travelers like ourselves. Florence was a nice city - it was great after Rome to come to a smaller city with the small cobble stone streets that have become a permanent association of mine with the medieval villages of Italy. However, those small streets were packed with vendors catering to tourists and as we walked around, we heard more English being spoken than Italian, which was rather unfortunate.
Boarding a train for Venice, Mike, Kevin and I said goodbye to Erik who left for Munich to begin his study abroad program. The three of us arrived in Venice around 6pm and somehow found our way to our hostel, which was far out in the boonies of the city. After a relaxed night, we awoke early on Friday to explore the alleys and canals of Venice.
Venice is an enchanting city - its pastel colored buildings, winding canals and stone pedestrian streets provide an incredible image of a city right out of a fantasy book. The gondoleers slowly paddle (they don't actually use poles) their passengers (for the price of 66 euro!) down canals, their guttural Italian voices reveberating off the buildings that spill right to the edge of the water as they sing classical Italian songs. Mike and I spent two and half hours in the Peggy Guggenheim museum ogling over works by Picasso, Earnst, Jackson Pollack, Dali and many more (we also had perplexed, confused looks several times as we tilted our heads trying to grasp the meaning of some surrealist or cubist work, or a painting of straight lines that apparently symbolizes the laws of nature.) After one and a half days exploring Venice, we departed for Cinque Terre, a cluster of five quaint fishing villages in Italy's northwest.
The three of us stayed outside the Cinque Terre, in a small hillside village overlooking the nearest city, La Spezia. It was so refreshing waking up to a small cathedral's bells and smelling the fresh air that was sweeping off the foothills of the Alps. The five villages that comprise Cinque Terre are connected by a 12km path that climbs and descends hills tiered with grape vines, shooting straight down to the blue Mediterranean. Mike and I awoke early on our first (and only) day there and caught the 7:20 bus to Riomaggio, the town farthest south of the Cinque Terre. Approaching each of the towns, they appeared the same as the last - the same pastel buildings and terraced restaurants overlooking the sea. However, as we veered off the path to explore the villages, we discovered that each had its own, unique mystique. The terrain of the path also progressed to display unique differences, moving from a marshy field of bamboo, through a deep greed meadow dotted with olive trees to a slope of grape vines, climbing, falling and wrapping around the massive hills. We reached the final town around one in the afternoon and were pleasantly surprised to find a long stretch of beach at the base of the village. The beach occupied most of the rest of our day: laying out, tossing the frisbee, eating gelato...I didn't realize how much I missed the beach. If any of you readers find yourselves in Italy, go to Cinque Terre.
Last night, the three of us arrived in Nice, France at a great hostel that has a view of the entire city and free internet!
Ciao Italy. 10-4 out.

Pictures...scattered

When in Rome...

Onwards from Siena, Mike and I caught a train to Naples where we met back up with Kevin and Erik, who had stayed in Croatia several days longer. We were all expecting Naples to be a romantic, coastal city, but we were dissapointed - the south of Italy is much more impoverished than the south and it shows in its biggest city. Naples was littered with trash and filled with corroding buildings of bland architecture. Perhaps it was so dissapointing since we've been so spoiled the last month, visiting the most beautiful cities in Europe, but regardless we were not impressed with Naples. Upon advise from a local, we took a bus far out of the city to a little park that provided a view of the entire city. It was beautiful - but in a more industrial way than what we're used to.
Our last day in Naples, we worked a connection made the previous day and got a pass to the front stage for a filming of MTV Italy's Total Request Live show. There we were, Mike, Kevin, Erik and I, in a sea of screaming 14 year-old girls...an interesting experience, to say the least. We did, however, get to see a live performance by a British artist, Sky, which was quite impressive. After that, it was off to Rome.
Coming to Rome from Naples was a drastic change. Rome is a pristine, clean city. There is ancient history around every corner and the architecture dwarfs the individual, everything is on such a grand scale. Today we toured the Colloseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Saint Peter's Basilica (which we saw yesterday as well), saw Trevi Fountain and more...it was somewhat overwhelming taking it all in in one day. Whereas yesterday was filled with more aimless roaming, today was focused on all the sights, which actually was a nice way of seeing a city in such a short amount of time - soaking in the general atmosphere on day one, and filling in the sights on day two. Fortunately, we have all day tomorrow as well. Mike and I are getting up early to see the Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel, and then will meet Erik and Kevin for the Catacombs.
Rome is bustling this weekend, it being the Easter holiday. Today, while at Saint Peter's, we completely lucked out and got to see the Saturday mass - we were a mere 100 yards from the big Papa himself!! We saw the first hour of the service and were blown away by the chants and hymns - the basilica is incredible in itself, as we experienced yesterday, but seeing it packed with people and filled with the beautiful voices of the choir was amazing...simply amazing.
Well...I'm going to try and download a couple pictures now...I am sorry, I forgot to bring the cd with photos from Budapest, Greece and Prague, so these will only cover from Dubrovnik on.
10-4 out.

A romantic ride...with Mike

After arriving in Ancona early Friday morning, Mike and I sprinted onto a train bound for Siena, Italy, a small city with corkscrewed, cobble stone streets located in Tuscany's country side, just west of Italy's mountainous spine. Saturday morning, we caught an early bus to Radda, one of three hill-top villages in Tuscany's region of Chianti. Radda was a beautiful town. Like all of the villages of this area, it was a fortified town sitting at the crest of one of the countless rolling hills, looking down on miles of green fields and textured vinyards. From a little deli, we got fresh Foccacia bread and sliced salami and cheese. A nice women at the tiny office of tourism located several bikes for us that we could rent from a hotel located on a vinyard just 800 meters outside of town. We strolled along the stone wall at the edge of the country road and met Leonardo at the Hotel La Vina, where he greeted us with a smile and two mountain bikes. It'd been a long time since either of us had ridden a mountain bike but picking it back up is like, well, riding a bike - so in no time we were off with our bikes, lunch and xeroxed copy of a terrible map to tour Tuscany's landscape. We quickly detoured on a dirt road we thought would connect with the main causeway and began climbing and descending hill after hill lined with fields of grape vines. This was the point that we began to distrust our map and realized we had no clue where we were, but it was so beautiful that we continued onward, guessing our direction at every intersection. I wish I could do the panoramic landscape justice in this entry, but you will have to bear with me: the endless hills textured with grape vines and olive trees, dotted with old, stone vinyard houses and villages of two or three houses of the same stone, was simply breathtaking. Eventually, we spotted a paved road in the distance and began to guide ourselves through dirt roads and vinyard drive ways until we finally met the road, found several signs and realized how far off we had been in estimating our location. We had gone half the distance we thought we travelled, and had horse-shoed around a valley to end up only 10 kilometers from our starting point. All the same, we were happy to have a smooth road and a good idea of our placement...besides, we were in constant awe of our situation, bicycling among these enchanted valleys, that there was nothing that could dampen our spirits. We continued up a long, gradual hill and, once at the top, found a nice spot to sit among some olive trees with an incredible vista and eat the first half of our lunch. The next several kilometers were downhill and we happily cruised through vinyards and village's alley streets, resting our tired legs and sore bottoms. The next major climb we took led us to a castle where we purchased a bottle of it's vinyards wine and sat in the castle garden to finish our lunch. Almost five hours had past since our departure and the bruises on our tail bones from the small, narrow, hard mountain bike seats were taking there toll. We found an 8 kilometer route back to Radda, had one more relaxing descent and tireing ascent, enjoying the views equally each way, before we finally cruised back to the hotel where we returned the bikes to Leonardo. To top off the romantic ride, we enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner back in Siena at a restaraunt we located the day before: bottle of wine, three courses - a pasta with salmon, chicken and mushrooms with boccocina sauce (whatever that is, it's delicous), finishing off with a salad. It was a great day to enjoy with your lover...but a good friend was a fine substitute. 10-4, out.

Bruno

Tue. April 3...Still enjoying Dubrovnik. Last night, after Mike, Kevin and I cooked a huge pasta dinner and drank a few beers, we started the long walk to Old Town to see about the night life - though we'd heard that the whole city was pretty quiet except for weekend nights. A few local girls who were coming back from an orchestra concert directed us to a local bar with cheap drinks. After hanging around there for a while the girls came in to join us. We were all chatting when we were approached by an old fisherman - a classic looking guy with his beenie cap cocked sideways, a dirty flannel shirt and an enormous, bushy beard - his name was Bruno. One of the girls explained that he is a very quiet man who has lived here most of his life. She had hardly ever spoken to him, though she informed us that he was close friends with her father. After a while, Bruno suggested that we buy a bottle of wine and accompany him back to his 'house.' Bruno's house was actually, and quite literally, a hole in the wall. It was a small one room apartment, about the size of an average homes laundry room, situated inside of the city wall, facing out to the harbor, where he'd lived the past 35 years. We drank and talked with Bruno until about three in the morning (which was actually about 30 minutes after I fell asleep sitting on his bench/bed.) He was an amazing character - he had everything he needed in his little home. Fishing line carefully balled up into three different sized orbs decorated the wall next to his guitar and one painting, an arial view of old town Dubrovnik. The girls had said that he did not speak any english, but Bruno suprised them when he excercised his broken but comprehensable english. Bruno was just quiet, but when he spoke it was precise and meaningfull. He explained to us that he only works when he needs to work, and that style of living had clearly treated him just fine. At the end of the night, Bruno gave Kevin the flannel off of his back. He hardly had enough possessions to fill his little home, but insisted that we take his shirt as a momento. Incredible. After that, I began the walk home and Mike and Kevin stayed with the girls a bit longer. After I made a slight detour by jumping a fence to jump on a giant trampoline with high inflatable walls for a while, I finally made it home and got to bed around 4:30. A memorable night, to say the least. 10-4 out.
-Sam

Onwards

Hello all!
In Dubrovnik, Croatia right now with Mike and Kevin - we are having a great time. Dubrovnik is a beautiful city on the Adriatic Sea with an old town that is still enclosed by its original fortified walls reaching as high as 25 meters. Leaving Michelle in Budapest was difficult, as saying our goodbyes always are. When we reunite it feels as if we never left one another, but when we part it creates a huge void in our individual lives and getting used to that seperation is always a tedious process. However, I cannot complain that much - I am travelling all over Europe for the next 5 weeks with two of my best friends - and when it is done I return to Michelle in Budapest for one last week together before we fly back to the states.
Mike, Kevin and I are currently deciding whether we are going to travel south to Greece, or get a ferry from Dubrovnik to Italy...the difficult decisions we face in our lives. Right now we are going to pay 50 kunas (about 8 dollers) to walk the perimeter of old town on top of the walls. We have rented a cheap arpartment (cheaper than the youth hostel) and are cooking all our own meals to save money. Hope this message finds everyone well. Mom - tell Grandpa he had a postcard to be sent today, but apparently it fell out of my bag and is lost. I am falling behind and need to make it up soon. Send my love.
-Sam