Come un Roamer (Pt. 2)

So yet again, I have put up pictures and left you hanging on the post. My apologies.

Fall break ended up being even more productive than we expected. Kyle and I managed to explore Rome, Pompeii, Venice, and Milan in 11 days.

After meeting Kyle in the airport, we returned home to drop his stuff and meet the room mates before we headed out for the first of what would be many rounds of gelato. Over the course of the week we developed a process known as Strategic Gelato Acquisition (SGA). It involves an evaluation of geographic location, presentation, texture, and flavor of gelato. He covered chocolate and coffee while I concentrated on raspberry, strawberry, and frutti di bosco. I think we have developed the hot spots of each of our destinations.

The next few days were spent visiting the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Vatican Museums, St. Peter's Basilica, Capitoline Hill, Forum, Colosseum, Pantheon, Vittorio Emanuele, Via del Corso, Trastevere, and Campo di Fiori.

We then decided to do a day trip to Pompeii. While I was thrilled to get a Harry Potter compartment on the train to Naples, I quickly realized that they are less fun when you share them with four strangers rather than Ron and Hermione.

I had been to Pompeii once before with a geology course, but I had forgotten how incredible it is. (As it turns out, I had also forgotten where the site was.) While we were a bit nervous when the guy at the train station pointed us down a long, and fairly barren street, we knew we were headed in the right direction when we started to pass people with cameras and high white socks.

With relatively few areas roped off, the site is fairly interactive. We walked down the cobbled streets that still have the impressions of cart wheels and walked through houses with frescoes, reliefs, and mosaics still intact. While it would go against my archaeology thesis statement to say that you get a feeling that the houses seem to have been frozen in time, it is fair to say that Pompeii really is unique in the insight it gives you into the design of the houses and the lifestyles of their inhabitants. On the streets you can see temples, a laundromat, and food stations that would have been their equivalent of McDonalds.

As we reached the forum, we saw plaster casts of people choking on the volcanic fumes and shelves of pots, bowls, and treasures recovered from homes. Sadly, pillagers of the 1800's took a lot of the pieces of art and valuables that would have decorated the more impressive villas, however, I find that the daily materials and human remains are even more valuable and precious than the lost antiquities.

The sun set behind a temple as we wandered around the collapsed columns and dilapidated government offices, taking pictures of a world that we are incredibly fortunate to see, but may never fully understand.

The next day (Wednesday) we set off for Venice, this time on a Eurostar train that was not too shabby and a lot more efficient than the local trains. We ended up sitting with two very nice, tolerant men who thought it was just hysterical when Kyle decided to interrogate me about the necessity of my diffuser after taking it out of my bag to display for the whole train. The people across the aisle from us enjoyed the show as well and continued to chuckle for the remainder of the ride as he unplugged my iPod mid-song when I dozed off, etc. It is never too late for the pocket rule.

We arrived in Venice in time for dinner on the edge of one of the many canals. We returned in the morning and took the boat from Piazzale Roma all the way down the Grand Canal to San Marco. On the way, we made friends with a group of 10 year olds, two of which took interest in our English. The one that resembled Harry Potter spent the entire ride practicing the few words he knew (glasses, good morning, thank you) while keeping up with his friends as they yelled "ciao, ciao" and waved frantically to all passing boats, gondola or otherwise. He saved the best for last, however. As he was getting off and lagging behind his group, he turned to me, flashed an adorable freckled smile, and said "Hello!" before scurrying off.

When we landed in San Marco, we checked out the basilica and stood in line behind a 70 year-old woman who, upon seeing my Rick Steve's guide, informed me that she just loves to read about all of the sites before she sees them and that he is just the best, most thorough writer. Kyle informed me that I was on my way to being her. I promptly put my book away.

The inside was beautiful, however, I found the outside to be just as incredible. The square as a whole is mind blowing. I even caved and played with the pigeons. I know that they are the rats of the sky, but we had a good time. There are swarms of them that assemble each morning. When Kyle opened the package of food, they literally swarmed around him. (They actually put birth control in the feed to reduce the pigeon population.) And no, they do not poop on you. Surprising, I know, but it is as though they know that if they poop on their nice things, that will be the end of the feeding operation.

We then set out in search of St. Barnaba, as featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. While the outside is correct, much to Kyle's disappointment, the inside is not the library we envisioned, but rather a sanctuary. After a bit of pouting, we got gelato and headed to San Rocco to look at glass and masks. The day ended the way it began, in San Marco, this time with live music rather than pigeons.

The next day we returned to the city and wandered over the Rialto Bridge and through the maze before hopping a train to Milan.

Now leaving the train station we were not sure that we would be impressed by Milan, but as we emerged from the metro station, our jaws dropped as our eyes met the Duomo. Elaborate and massive, Duomo is unlike any architecture I have seen during my time in Italy. It looks almost like a 3-D puzzle that was built in Milan. The inside of the basilica was also impressive, however I have no pictures as they are forbidden. We even got to see a 500 year old dead Saint. The skull of a saint protruding from under his blood-red robes is not something you get to see everyday.

We concluded the night with gelato and a performance by local roller bladers. We heard the smooth tones of R.Kelly's "Step in the Name of Love" as we approached a street that ran between two churches. There we found a group of people rocking out on rollerblades. They eventually set up cones through which they wove, whizzed, zig-zagged, and danced until a large crowd had assembled. Some were still learning, others were pros that danced on their skates with each other as Biggie replaced R.Kelly; one thing that they all had in common was how much fun they were having.

Over the next day and a half, we moved up and down the streets around Duomo, did some shopping (this resulted in a lovely pair of green pumps), and got to explore Sforza Castle and its sprawling yard, complete with duck ponds and landscaped trees, flowers, and bushes. If I had lived there, I like to think that my room would have been the balcony that faced the inside of the courtyard.

We also spent some time looking at a National Geographic exhibit that was set up in the street. Some of the images were incredible. They included the famous "Refugee" photo as well as other shots of humans and animals in an equilibrium with the earth. Kyle looked a little too much like one of the pictures of a monkey with a snowball that was clearly up to no good.

In other news, we are sad to report that there are NO Milano cookies in Milan. We checked the grocery store.

After a long day of walking, we ended our Milan tour and travel-filled week with dinner out. The next day, Kyle hopped a plane back to Greece and I boarded a full train to Italy and finished my otherwise great week sitting in the stairwell and luggage compartment of a train for 4 1/2 hours. I then had the pleasure of battling the masses to get on the Body Odor Express at Termini, which I rode for an hour before finally arriving at my apartment that had never before seemed so homey.