 |
| Sammy in Rome |
After encountering a float of
bears in Rome, an exploding river in Pisa, and an airborne attack in Venice I
have been obliged to conclude that Italy is
slightly less predictable than Paris.
For those interested in traveling to Italy, I highly advise going in
June, it's open season on festivals. And
in case you hadn't heard, festivals are spectacularly fun, as I will attempt to
show in this blog, along with the more traditional fun of museums and churches
that on permanent installation in Italy.
For those who have no interest in floats of bears feel free to skip to
my time in Rome, or in airborne attacks skip Venice and so on, as I won't be
mixing my cities in this blog, I find the idea utterly wrong somehow.
Rome
Okay so, here's the fast
forwarded version of Rome. I did all the big touristy things, they're pretty
cool and as I'm sure you've heard at some point, everything in Rome is quite
old. My hostel, for instance, was in a
refurbished convent. If Rome has
anything in abundance it is churches and gelato. I advise you take great advantage of both.
However not at the same time, it seems the nuns frown upon that type of thing,
something about the sacredness of churches and worship. However I can assure you it is worth it to
put down your gelato for a moment to go enjoy the churches, as they are all
together magnificent. In general,
Florence churches excepted, churches in Italy aren't much to look at on the
outside but once you go in, it's a whole new world. As for me I went on a scholarly search for
depictions of Christ, and a personal search for paintings of Carravaggio.
Now we come to the float of bears. No I don't mean Winnie-the-Pooh, lives in a
zoo, bears; I mean the slang term for gay men who happen to be particularly large and hairy. These bears happened to be singing Lady
Gaga's caught in a bad romance in overbearingly strong Italian accents (pun intended). I know, I know, it's an odd picture but I
promise it makes sense. You see I
happened to be exploring the Coliseum one day, as one is apt to do at some
point in Rome. I was just about to make
my way back down to the ground floor when I chanced to hear something odd. It was a song, it was, "Fun to stay at
the YMCA, it's fun to stay at the YMCA".
"What the (word inappropriate for this blog)!" I spun around and marched back to the second
floor arches. A crowd had,
understandably, already gathered.
Cursing my shortness I searched around on tiptoe until I found an
unoccupied spot. Oh. My. God. I have never seen so much glitter in my
life. And people, so many people, they
fill the street in what seems like an endless parade of rainbows. In case you haven't gathered yet I had
stumbled opon a gay pride parade. And
not just any parade, the gay pride parade for all of Europe. The gay pride parade that happened to
have... "Is that, um, is that Lady
Gaga?," I asked the girl standing
next to me. "Yeah" she replied
blandly, as if Lady Gaga showing up in her life was a regular occurrence.
"She's performing later tonight." "Oh, cool" I replied
because honestly, what else can you say in a situation like that?
Florence
Simply put Florence is the place
for you if you like Renaissance art. It
is everywhere. A stunning situation if,
as most of us are, you are from a country that didn't even exist when this art
was created. And it's very picturesque.
Florence looks like what you expect Italy to look like. They also have a famous Renaissance parade
mid-June. There are drums, and people in
costumes, flag throwers (whatever you call them) and horses, and monks that
look like they came straight out of Monty Python. All in all Florence is a lovely town that I
would recommend.
Pisa
Most people go to Pisa for a
day, which is usually enough. Pisa is
small, and a bit dingy, and for some reason smells of what I eventually
identified as pickles. But for all this,
I loved Pisa. Then again, I saw her at
her best, during festival time. Let me
just say that I cannot recommend the festival of San Ranieri enough. It's like if you mixed Christmas, and the
fourth of July, and a carnival all together, and stuck it in Europe. In other words, it's awesome. What they do for the festival is light up the
entire riverside with candles. The
candles are in these glass holders on these wooden frames that make patterns,
and are posted up on the houses all along the riverside. They spend all day putting them up, and then
come evening, everyone goes down to the river.
There are street vendors with toys, and food, and gifts. Both kids and adults fill the streets, and
there's a certain air of happiness that comes with festivals and
carnivals. Make sure you get there
before sunset, so you can get a good seat on the walls lining the river. Then about a half hour after sunset, the
fireworks start. And it's not like we're
used to, where the fireworks are far away, and you only see the end result of an explosion of light in the
sky. No, in Pisa, they fire from the
water. They have these barges all along
the river, and that's where the fireworks shoot from. It's amazing to get to see them go off,
reflected in the water. Even if you're
not the biggest fan of fireworks, trust me, this is a show that is not to be
missed.
Venice
I've saved the best for
last. Although I loved every single town
I visited in Italy, Venice was far and away my favorite. And this is partially because of some
excellent advice I got, wander the back streets (especially in the early
morning). Before you do anything else,
wander the back streets, go into the small churches, find the nooks and
crannies that make Venice so wonderful.
Do not, I repeat do not spend your time in the middle of the day at the
big tourist attractions. Though they are
beautiful, it will be so crowded you will come away like so many before you,
hating them and hating Venice. I advise
going in the early morning, or afternoon, after the cruise ships have
left. I was also there during their
biannual art festival, the best part of which is actually not the art, it is
the buildings. The way the festival
works is the exhibitions are housed in these very old palaces, and houses that
are generally not open to the public. At
times the buildings have been modernized, but at other times they have not, and
you are allowed a glimpse into the past glory of Venetian houses, for
free. But this blog has gone on long
enough, so let me get to my last anecdote.
The
seagulls are fearless. I repeat. The seagulls have no fear.
As I've explained, much of what
is beautiful about Venice is not in museums, but in the back streets of Venice
itself. For this reason I spent very
little of my time sitting down in Venice, even to eat. I couldn't seem to tear myself away from the
mystery I felt sure was hiding just around the next corner. So when I wrenched myself away from the
residential Dosoduro neighborhood, deciding I should probably see St. Mark's
basilica before I left, strolling the square eating my sandwich was not
unusual. I suppose I should say eating
half my sandwich, as it would be more accurate.
Because on my way to get a closer look at the pillars, there was a
sudden flash of white in my face, and a firm tug on the sandwich clasped in my
hand. The next thing I knew my sandwich
was gone, and there was a squawking flock of seagulls having an epic battle
over my prosciutto and mozzarella. I did
the only thing you can do when a seagull steals your sandwich.
I laughed.
My slight embarrassment at being unable to
defend my lunch from airborne attack was diminished, when I saw the exact same
thing happen to another girl the next day. Apparently this is a fairly common
occurrence, which is why I must warn you, when in Venice, keep an eye on the
skies.
