Week 12: Como - Verona - Venice - Rome

Como

We visited Como on our our last full day in the region, on our way over on the express ferry to Como we saw many beautiful and excessive homes, including (I think) the one from the end of the bond film…I’m hoping I have a picture of it on my back up at home, because I don’t have one now.

Como is surrounded by hills, with a Funicular that heads up one such peak overlooking the lake region, this allows you to see the aerial views of this town/the lakes and see what it had to offer. The result is a stunning view of the beginning of the Como region. Take my word for it, being there is surreal.

Walking around the gardens at Villa Calotta was interesting as they had all types of sections including a sub tropical artificial rainforest created with a high canopy and sprinklers on the trees to get the humidity up. (I know, it’s shocking I know this stuff, thanks mum!)

The highlight of our last day, by far was dinner. Now if you ever find yourself staying in Abbadia, go to a restaurant called Viccolo. Now the food is not the cheapest, but my word, it is absolutely delicious and has a awesome atmostphere, being underneath a house, with cobblestone walls which was used as stables once upon a time. Best Risotto I’ve ever had…

Como had been so nice, we were contemplating scrapping Verona from the itinerary, but the lure of the home of Romeo and Juliet proved too much.

Verona

First word of warning... Do not try to do your washing at a Laundromat! Chances are you will lose your clothes, no water will come into the washing machine, so you’ll end up with hot, detergent soaked clothes and the owner of the dry cleaner maybe Bulgarian Italian and not speak a lick of English! Note, this may happen to you, hopefully not. It did happen to me, so I spent my afternoon (only one) in Verona trying to sort this out. Thank goodness for the other customer, who hadn’t spoken English in 10 years, but did a bloody good job at getting me out of the mess I was in, by that night, I had my clothes sorted, washed and dried. But am sure, I am now missing a few items. Oh well, just cotton right?

I finally caught up with mum and Mark to grab dinner and have a walk around Verona, despite the terrible weather and my terrible disposition when considering my experiences, it is another gorgeous place, has a colloseum (small one) and is the home of the greatest romance known to teenage girls and adult women alike, Romeo and Juliet!

Venice

A short train ride, turned into a long train ride after some misscomunication taking place. Another book was downed (False Impression – Archer). We were ready to see what the world’s “most romantic city looked like”.

The ferries are chaotic and it’s actually quicker to walk around Venice than to hop on and off a ferry as there are no express ones until late at night. Mum had a run in with a local on one of the ferries, lets just say the other lady was not very pleasant...

The hotel we’d booked had 8-10m high ceilings with artworks all over the ceiling, with mum being the first to point out that “there are lots of breasts on the ceilings boys”. Gotta love her. Along with Chandeliers and massive windows, made for quite the historic room/hotel, felt quite fitting.

San Marco is unbelievable, especially in the evening, with each café/restaurant having it’s own band of musicians usually playing a mix of classical and classic jazz tunes. Gelato in hand, we went for a wonder around, was tempted to have a little boogie, but didn’t want to end up wearing my gelato! Rialto is a short stroll and is basically a bridge with markets, but has a spectacular view down the “Grand Canal” over which there are only 3 bridges. This is a must for any tourist as it’s the most picturesque view without being up a tower of the canals and a lot closer up.

In the Rialto region early every morning there are fresh produce markets, full of seafood and fruits and vegetables. After stocking up with plenty of fruit, we headed off to Burano and Murano, 2 islands off the coast of Venice that specialise in producing lace and fireblasted glass sculptures. The weather took a major turn for the worse, so we abandoned seeing Lido (A beach just off the coast of Venice) and headed home, mum with her new Pashmina and despite the ferry braking down in the middle of the canals, (we thought the driver just liked repeatedly going backwards and forwards for 10 minutes!) we hit up a little market run by a Venice Nonna for cheese, wine, some fresh meats and sundried tommies and headed back to our room for a little dinner party. This was a repeated theme throughout our stay in Venice!

Venice was absolutely stunning and I was looking forward to heading back there in a few weeks for another quick romantic stint. I think it’s a place you need to go with a significant other, otherwise, it gets pretty old, pretty quick, just shopping and San Marco and Rialto at night and museums etc.

Mum and Mark were off to Bologna, for Bolognese. As you do! Mark was excited. I had to wait for a train for the first time on the trip and waited on the front stairs of Venice train station looking over the canal and participated in the sport of people watching. Pretty interesting, seeing the comings and goings of tourists and locals alike, baffled faces about what to do next and locals willing them to get out of the way! I met a Canadian couple on the stairs and just talked about travel, what to see in Venice etc. Hopefully they had a good trip, have no idea now who they are! To the right, there had no amassed about 20-30 police with riot shields and batons, a few moments later an undercover detective came and questioned me about what I was doing, he then proceeded to tell me that there was a protest scheduled for 4pm and that it might get ugly. Thankfully my train was scheduled to leave at 3.45pm. As I was boarding I heard shouting and what I thought was a really loud “Hail Hitler!” So, I was quite happy to get the hell out of there ASAP!

Rome (No Pics of my first days there without mum and mark!)

Whilst Mum and Mark were enjoying Ragut or Bolognese, I was heading to Rome ahead of the original schedule to meet up with Mara for 2 days before she went to Pescara and Bari to visit her folks and extended family. On my first night, I was in a different hostel to the one I’d be spending the bulk of my time at. This is where I met Dave Luc (“Hipster” from Seattle), Jarrett and his brother who had come to Europe, amongst other reasons, to see UEFA cup final (GO Barca!). So drinking games, Jack Daniels and a movie night commenced. This was all initiated by me seeing my bunk with a pair of large Indian feet resting on my pillow. Rather than sleeping with those in my face we stayed up to watch the Rock, Wedding Crashers and Casino Royale. Was the first “movie night” I’d had in a really long time and was just awesome to feel in a homely place after so long out on the road! (almost 3 months at this stage!)

So with no sleep, Jack Daniels on the breath, a quick shower I was on my way to meet Mara at the airport, unaware and a little nervous about how things would go down. As 3 weeks with anyone that isn’t family is usually hard to cope with and I can be a really annoying person at times! So it was all smiles and roses at the start, then came the bumps that were inevitable and out the other side. Was an interesting first day! But it’s safe to say it was necessary and paved the way for a clear minded next few weeks of fun in the European Sun!

The first night we headed out to grab dinner and gelato and chill near the Trevi fountain, walk along the street that was the 4 fountains on the one intersection that are lit up and just around Rome in general. It was beautiful to see it all. The following day we caught up with the colloseum and the surrounding ruins are just purely amazing! So scary that most of these buildings were built more than 2000 years before Sydney or Australia even had it’s first Western building! There is a massive tribute to Emmanuel Vittorio, which looks like it’s related to the White House in the states with all it’s white stone! Given jet lag and catching up the first 2 days were kind of chilled, Mara would be back in Rome in 2 days, Mum and Mark were arriving the next day and there was plenty of time to explore the rest of the city.

Whilst I was on my own, I made plans to hook up with Dave Luc from my first night in Rome, my new dorm mates, 2 Canadians (Gary and Holly) and one of their new friends Bernadette (also from Seattle) and we headed out to grab some drinks & dinner. We unknowingly had an ace up our sleaves, Bernie had studied in Rome a few years before, so new the best places to drink. That night a lot was achieved, a Vancouver/Seattle Road Trip was planned, a night on Capitol Hill at the bars and a burger joint dash @ 2am was planned and Holly’s fear of those mimes all round Europe was conquered in order to win a bet of 10 Euros. I’ve never seen such a terrified face in my life as she hugged the statue of liberty! With a big night in the bag, I was ready to tackle Rome with Mark and Shario the next morning, get a close up of Rome’s main sites and get some culture!

Ready to Roll onto Rome, Sorrento and then Santorini in the week approaching!

Speak soon

Guy