Firenze

Hello Florence. Hello to a city that specializes in steaks. This is my kind of place. I'm here for 4 days and I'm very excited about it. The italian name for Florence is firenze. I'm not sure if the centaur in harry potter is related. Aside from the steaks, Florence is kind of a heaven for women. The main activity to do here is shop. Florentines have a knack for jewelry and leather goods. My mother and sister have discovered this rather quickly and I'm now watcing them get fitted for leather jackets and it's a several hour process. My only solace is the coke the shop owner gave me and Italian MTV (which still shows music videos, unlike it's American counterpart). I'm now a fan of British techno. It's evidently very popular around here. After the shopping we made it to one of Florence's main attractions: the Basilica of Santa Croce. Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante, and Machiavelli are all buried in this colossal church. It's amazing to be in the presence of so many people who contributed so many different ideas to history. We also visited Michelangelo's statue of David today. It's one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. It's so much bigger in person of course, but somehow I wasn't expecting David to be the size of Goliath.
Day 2 of Florence and ive discovered something incredible about this city. They have the best ice cream in the world. It's as if God brings it down to then each day. so they can sell it to American tourists. there's a flavor called straciatella that is unbeliveably good. I think it means chocolate chip, but I could be wrong. The best part of all this is the frequency with which one can acquire gelato. You know how there is a starbucks on pretty much every corner in America? Well multiple the number starbucks in an average American city by about 5 and that's roughly the number of gelaterias in Florence. Sometimes there will be 3 next to each other. And I sample from each store. It's glorious. Although I admit I look somewhat ridiculous with an ice cream cone in each hand while walking down the street.
But it's totally worth it. Somewhere in between my 4th and 5th gelato of the day we traveled to the uffizi museum to see boticelli's Birth of venus. While the rest of the museum was frankly a little monotonous, this piece did indeed stand out. I'm starting to think my brain can only handle so much exposure to art before it starts to all look the same. The obsession with painting Mary holding baby Jesus in like 300 different poses hasn't helped either.
On re 3rs day in Florence, we took a road trip to some surrounding towns, specifically Siena and San Gimingnano. We saw the cathedral of st. catharine, who was from Siena. Part of her head was mummified there and on display...and really really really really a thousand times creepy and weird. Not to mention unpleasant to look at. The rest of the day trip was very enjoyable though. The Italian countryside is very beautiful. It pretty much defines the word "picturesque". It has more hills than France, but they look very similar, so it reminded me of my MUS in Europe trip to Dr. Dalle's chateau. On a side note, we drove right past Volterra, the town from the twilight series. My sister and I thought that was pretty cool since we've both read the books. I boo the movie though.
The main event of out final day in Florence (other than ceaseless shopping) was a visit to the Petti Palace, the ancestral home of the Medici family. It contained a lot of art similar to the Uffizi, which made it feel a little repetitive. That night I had a phenomenal dinner at this restaurant called Aqcua. The played techno music over the speakers the entire time an the lights were pink, so it was a pretty interesting place. I had tagliatta (sliced beef) on a bed of rosemary and rockets, all of foccacia bread. It was one of the most flavorfull meals I've ever had. And ive eaten at restaurants with 3 and 4 michilen stars. Not that that particularly gives me the right to determine which food is good or not. It's such a subjective art. Anywho, tomorrow we take the train to Rome for the last leg of the trip. Rome is the city I'm most looking forward to as it has most history. Should be fun!

Venezia Part 2

I finally have a good internet connection and some free time, so I'm going to play catchup since I'm four posts behind. I'm using an Italian keyboard, so please forgive any grevious typos, because this thing is unbelievably confusing. I was in Venice for two and half days, so I was able to see pretty much everything there. Here are a few of the highlights. We visited Harry's Bar, a pub that was frequented by Hemmingway during his time in Venice. They are famous for making the city's best Bellini, Venice's signature drink. It was a bit coincidentally awesome since I'm currently rereading The Sun Also Rises. We also visited several art museums, including one devoted entirely to glass. This glass art was all very abstract. My favorite was a a huge mirror laning against a wall. This piece was titled "A Mirror Leaning Against a Wall." Very creative... However, the glass museum did have one particularly creepy piece of art, made by a South Korean artist whose name I can't recall. It was a video made on a computer that depicted a Chinese dragon, a woman, and several pink bunnies all running through a forest of giant glass dildos. So yeah...fun stuff. My favorite art exhibit, however, was the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Ms. Guggenheim was the daughter of the famous billionaire who died on the sinking Titanic. She inherited his fortune and moved to Venice, where she vowed to buy a new piece of art each day. In order to expand her collection, Ms. Guggenheim had a habit of sleeping with young, rising artists. She even married several of them. Naturally, I'm a fan of this woman. The art she collected was mostly very Post-modernist. Mr. Eikner would have been very proud. Perhaps the most impressive place we toured was the Palace of the Doges. The Doges were the royal family of Venice (think like Czars in Russia). Along with several councils of elected officials, the Doges governed the Republic of Venice and all her territories. The biggest highlight of the expansive palace was the Bridge of Sighs. This bridge, which spans the Grande Canal, connects the palace with the dungeon, and appropriately receives its name from the despair of the condemned who were forced to cross it and never return. By far, the most disturbing artifact left in the palace was an actual Chastity Belt. It had enough spikes on it to give me nightmares for the next four years. Finally, we took one of the famous Gobndola rides on the last night. It was remarkable how the Gondolieri navigates the canals without running into other craft or whacking his head on one of the many low-hanging bridges. The ride itself was fantastic, as we got to see most of the city and even voyage through the heavily traveled Grand Canal. We ended the night by dining at a restaurant called Europa, which overlooked the Grand Canal. The food (mostly fish such as turbot)was excellent, as expected.

People who want your money

I feel I should write a side note about the various people in Italy who are determined to take the money of unsuspecting American tourists. Nigerian purse salesmen are the most prominent. It's unclear why they sell only purses or how they even exist in Venice or Florence at all, seeing as what they're selling is illegal. Venice is not a big place and since there are few black people there, the Nigerians stick out like a sore thumb. Also, they only seem to set up shop directly in front of Prada, Gucci, and Chanel. Its not like they're hard to find. Occasionally the police come down the street and the Nigerians flee en masse to another part of the city like a herd of wildebeest migrating. My only guess is that the police are somehow in on the deal, because that would the only way that these people could operate freely. Most Americans are dumb enough to think that the bags the Nigerians sell are authentic, but they actually want the replicas because they look so similar to the real thing. Sadly for those of that school of thought, purchasing a counterfiet bag can result in a fine of several hundred euros to the buyer. Bottom line: dealing with the Nigerians at all can be hazardous to your wallet.
Some other fun people are the flower guys. Their MO is to shove a rose in your face as you walk down the street. The upside is that you can get a free rose. The downside is then they want 20 euros for it. These guys are pretty easy to deal with most of the time cuz they back off after one "no grazie." Their most annoying quality is their tendency to sneak into restaurants and stealth attack the diners. However, my favorites are the street beggars. Some are creative, while are less than imaginative. One lady showed me a picture of a baby saying she needed the money for baby food. Unfortunately for her, the baby in the picture wasn't the same race as her...and I doubt she adopted. The most bizarre beggars, however, are a group of women who dress up in all white, wear veils, and paint their faces white. They never speak but instead make clicking noises. They're pretty aggressive and won't leave you alone until you give them something. I have found the best way to get rid of them is to take a euro out of their bucket when they shove it in your face and say thanks. They don't like that very much.

Venezia

I've been in Venice for about a day and a half now, and the first word that comes to mind about the experience is surreal. Venice is a beautiful, yet strange city. The whole city is the size of central park in NYC. There are no cars, no buses, no bicycles, no streets, no traffic lights. If u want to go somewhere, you walk. If it's far you take a boat. If canals are equivalent to streets here, then boats are cars. There are taxi boats, police boats complete with sirens and lights, ambulance boats, and fire boats. And yes one can get a ticket for boating too fast from the cops. Just getting here was interesting. From the baggage claim we walked out of the airport to a dock instead of a garage and got on a taxi boat, which took us to our hotel. It should be noted that boat traffic is much different than car traffic. There are no lanes, so boats just swerve past one another like a crazy game of Chicken, only there are 40 boats playing. It gets especially bad when a larger boat passes and you get caught in the wake. The journey was definitely not for those who suffer from sea sickness. At night the city becomes somewhat treacherous. Venice is essentially a giant maze of canals, alleys, and bridges. The city is also constantly sinking into the ocean. As the moon rises, water floods sections of the alleys and even submerges entire courtyards. There are very few street lamps, and as the sun sets the city becomes very very dark. Navigating Venice at night feels a lot like playing a board game. You can round a corner only to lose a turn thanks to a lake blocking your path or a Nigerian man trying to sell you a fake purse. Not that any of this detracts from the experience. It in fact adds to it.
In keeping with the city's aquatic location, Venetian cuisine involves a lot of seafood. Shrimp, or scampi as it's called here, is very popular. The food is excellent in every kind of restaurant even the touristy ones. Hopefully I'll be able to talk more about the food later. I have another day in Venice before I ride the train to Florence.

Amsterdam layover

Well this blog should be interesting since it will be updated entirely via iPhone. Anywho, I haven't slept in close to 26 hours and it's starting to get to me. I stayed up the entire plane ride from Memphis by watching Quantum of Solace, Doubt, and Slumdog Millionaire in one sitting. Now we have a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam. Even though the bathroom smells like someone puked up a Hershey's bar, this is a very nice airport, complete with chocolate stores the size of a Dilliard's. There's also an entire store devoted to whisky and cigars, which I found interesting. While I'm sitting at the gate I asked my mother to refresh my memory on a few origin stories about my family. She is 100% Italian, whereas my sister and I are only 75%. There is something strangely comforting to me about knowing one's genetic roots. The first member of my family to come to America was my great-grandfather. His name was Pietro Villani and he traveled to the US on a ship seeking the American Dream as a shoemaker in Chicago. He worked for the Capezio company making ballet slippers by hand. I can only imagine the kind of patience it would take to do that job. However, Pietro was a proud man and he wanted a bride. But not just any girl would do. He desired the perfect Italian bride: dark hair, dark eyes, olive complexion. In pursuit of this prize he entered into an arranged marriage with the DelCampo family for their oldest daughter, Sophia, who fit his idea or perfection. Ironically, she died of pneumonia while he was still sailing back to Italy to marry her. With his dream shattered, the DelCampo family attempted to make the best of the situation by offering their younger daughter, Rachalina. However, Pietro had a serious choice problem with this...his new bride had bright red hair and freckles (God forbid). This part of the story makes me laugh hysterically. It would seem my fundamental distrust of redheads is genetic. Interestingly enough, Pietro's reservations didn't stop him from having 6 kids with the woman, the first of which was my grandmother Maria who was born on the ship back to Chicago. Well my flight has finally arrived so this is all for now. Next stop Venice!