Italy! Italia!!

December 7th, 2004, Florence, Italy

Firenze! Nate and I were getting tired of Germany and Austria, as well as any relations with the Germanic culture. We were searching for something warmer, friendlier, more relaxed type of people. Pretty much, we wanted Latin culture. It killed me to think or feel this way, but at this point I was over Germany. For almost a week before taking off for Italy, we were unsure if we would go to Milan, Venice, Genoa, or Rome. So many places and yet so little time to enjoy any of these places. In any case, we were going somewhere south of Germany and Austria. After asking other people’s opinions and reviewing hostels around Italy, we decided to head to Florence. Our train ride down to Italy was nice; we had a cabin room all to ourselves. We packed our meals for this trip, considering that train meals were expensive and not as filling. Hours passed by, and the train was getting crowded, however, we got lucky, two hot italianas entered our cabin. It was great to have good looking, positive and confidant women around. The lovely Italianas left on the second stop and they said “Ciao Bellos!”

We arrived in Florence one hour later. This city was once home to Dante, Machiavelli and Michelangelo. We walked around the city and it was full of historical buildings and the vibe of the city was unlike what we experienced in Germanic world of Austria and Germany. Italy was the beginning of the Latin world, like Spain it was full of people in the streets and the people talked loud and very helpful. I actually picked up some Italian phrases and expressions. We first stopped by one hostel, but there were no rooms available. However, we got lucky when a well-dressed Arami suited man approached us and asked if we need a room for the night. We said yes and gave us a map of the city and gave us directions to this hostel, if you will! Via Ricasoli was the street we had to find and some person was going to meet us when we get to the street.

“Hello!” A tall pasty woman said to us. I guessed she was the person were supposed to meet. We followed her to some sort of apartment building. Nate and I said that we would check out the place and would decide then to take it or not. As she opened the door, there was a young curly-hair guy from New Brunswick, Canada named Luke. Luke was traveling with one of his best friends, named Pat also from Canada. There was a blond-hair girl named Buffy from New Zealand and one guy who spoke good Italian from California named Phil. “we will take it!” we said. This apartment was just a mid-size one bedroom, with a very small kitchen, a balcony outside, one bathroom and five sets of bunk beds and one bed for our hostess. These were the people or travelers we were hoping to meet for a long time. We all agreed that we should enjoy this night by getting some beer and food. I already fell in love with this group.

Later that same night, we had more travelers in this small apartment room, one guy from Brazil, one guy from Mexico, one guy from China, another guy from Japan and one beautiful fräuline from Germany. This was Italian Real World. Even our hostess was happy to have such a successful match of people. She only charged us €16 Euros each, which was not bad for such a city like Florence. This apartment was in the perfect location, supermarkets down the street, the infamous Dumo Cathedral (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore) and other tourist spots and the train station within walking distance. Nate and I decided to pay for an additional night. Even our new friends were also considering leave the following day, but with all the positive vibes, they all decided to stay an additional night as well. It didn’t look like anyone of us were going to get any sleep anytime soon. Loud music and loud conversations and playing cards were the themes of this night. Later, eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Loud conversations and music were getting to a minimum and soon enough everyone was getting underneath their blankets. With everyone being quiet, someone finally had to get the last nightly laugh before crashing out.

The following morning, I got up early to walk around the city and buy some breakfast from the Supermarcati and I took some pictures of some beautiful buildings and churches before the city was fully awake. When I came back to the apartment, I got Nate out of bed and gave him some yogurt and some bread. We talked about what was our plan for the day. Phil got up as well, and he also wanted to come along with us. The others said that they already made their plans. In any case, we all agreed to meet back at the apartment and have one more night of fun. We left the following morning for Germany and go back to work.

December 13th, 2004, Venice, Italy

Venezia! Not as pricey as Florence, but this historical city had something to offer. There were probably more canals than streets and the architect was something to stare at for hours and hours. We arrived in Venice around 7pm. As we immediately walked outside of the train station, the historic beauty of this city hit us right away. Large pointed cathedrals and the canals and small boats passing by. Even with all this historical flare, we had to first find our hostel. Venice was not as warm like Florence, this was early wintertime. Though no snow falling from the sky, but it was still cold enough. Finally, we arrived at our hostel. It was nothing special nor there weren’t any other travelers to meet like back in Florence. Our room had two beds and a broken heater near the window and the room was cold. We left our room to find a market to buy some cheap wine, large green olives and some bread. For only €. 56 Euro cents, we found a small carton of box wine, which worked perfectly on our world-traveling cheap budget. We walked around the city as much as we could, but we already knew that there wasn’t much to see, especially at night and with the cold weather. Small narrow streets, dark alleys, stone apartment buildings, cold wind blowing off the canals and the scarcity of people, these were the images of our night walk around this city. We went back to our dorm room and went to sleep.

We got up early the next morning and left our keys with the receptionist. She told us that we would be staying in another room when we return and that the room will not be ready at least until 1pm. We figured that would be a good time to check out more of the city until our room was prepared. We checked out almost every corner, alley and stared for hours and hours at canals and old buildings. We also did some people watching too. While many of the tourists were taking rides on the gondolas, Nate and I found another way of checking out the city without paying the high prices. We took from what it appeared to be a bus route, only it was by boat. Much like taking a bus, this fast boat would make stops around the city, letting people on and people exiting the boat. We didn’t have to pay; I guess there was a free fare during certain hours of the day. Using this boat ride around the city, we were able to take pictures of certain angles, which we probably couldn’t take while walking around the city. Hours passed, we headed back to our hostel to get some rest, because we were going to take the early morning train back to Germany and work another graveyard shift. Upon returning to our hostel, we were met with two Australians in our large dorm room. A guy named David and his friend Anastasia. We exchanged names and what we were doing and where we were going and so on, usual travel talk. The Aussies spoke to us for a while but wanted to head out to find a place to have dinner. Nate and I stayed in the dorm room and had our cheap meal of bread, wine and green olives. When the Aussies returned, we exchanged e-mails and said our good-byes the following morning.