Its Halloween, I am too busy to write anything as I am eating Candy. This should do....

Men See You As Choosy

Men notice you light years before you notice them You take a selective approach to dating, and you can afford to be picky You aren't looking for a quick flirt - but a memorable encounter It may take men a while to ask you out, but it's worth the wait

How Do Men See You?

Italy Part 3

Florence or Firenze


Of all the places I have ever been and will ever be - Florence will always be my favourite. There is something about that city - it is the calm of the city, the winding streets, the buildings and the people. I am in love with Florence.

From Naples we took a 4 hour train ride to Florence. Florence is a wonderful city. It is just beautiful. Even if you dont do any site-seeing, just walking on the streets of Florence will be site seeing enough. It has all the makings of a romantic holiday! Cobble stoned streets, old buildings, wonderful winding streets, beautiful piazzas and delicious gelato. What more could you ask for?  


You can walk to one of the many bridges on the River Arno to just, well, hang out or sit in a cafe doing nothing. Let Florence work its charm on you.

  

The first day we got there we went to see the Duomo. It is hard to not see the Duomo just cause it is huge. It is a must. The inside is beautiful. There are free tours given by students. We met this awesome guy who was from US and gave his tour which was awesome! Duomo was awesome. Also, You can also go up the dome. The climb is about 400 steps and if you are claustrophobic - you might want to not do it. It wasnt too bad but if there are lots of tourists then - certainly you can get breathless. There are two levels to the dome. Level one takes you closer to the Frescoes on the dome and level two will take you even closer. The final walk is on top of the dome looking out at the city. Go up. Really, it was well worth it.

After doing the Duomo we walked around Florence and you have to do that. Florence is a city like no else. There is culture, beauty, art, history and a pulse - all together every where you walk. It is put simply - wonderful.

We ate a tonne of gelato in Florence. You cant really go wrong.

We also found the best pizza in the world in Florence. This place (again if you want specific details about this place email me and I will send you details) was amazing. You could only order 3 kinds of pizzas: marinara (tomato sauce, garlic and oregano), margarita (tomato sauce and bocconcini and basil) and napolitana (tomato sauce, anchovies, capers and bocconcini). We ate at this place the 2 nights we were there. The pizzas were cooked in this wood fired oven and was made right in front of you. I dream about those pizzas. They were sooooooooo good.

We also had a chance to go the local street shops. Near the supermercato in Florence there are tonnes of vendors selling decent to good leather bags, shoes, jackets, purses, belts and scarves among other things. Be prepared to bargain. It was very cool to do that. Spent almost half a day there. It was fun.

From there we went to Ponte Vecchio - you know the bridge, the very famous bridge! Just opposite the bridge was this awesome glove factory. J bought some real nice leather gloves for like a $100. They are beautiful. This place is where locals buy their gloves and it also ships gloves all over the world.

Hmm, the last day was for the Uffizi. We had already done the Gallaria della'Accademia for the statue of David. Now for both these places you need to buy tix in advance during tourist seasons - which now is like all the time in Italy. So, make sure you do that at least 2 or 3 days in advance if you going in October. Uffizi was disappointing. Very much so. It seemed like they took all the paintings and sculptures and just threw them in a museum. There was no order or anything to it. But seeing the 'Birth of Venus' was still amazing!

Obviously, see the statue of David. The original not the fake. It was very cool and you can see why it is so famous!

We also went to the scientific museum - not sure what the name is but it is very close to the Uffizi and was worth going to. You can see Galileo's original instruments among other cool and horrifying things.
Yes, horrifying! The museum has original terracotta and wax casts used by doctors to see and understand pregnancy. It was cool but also horrifying b/c they were so accurate that they looked real.

Anyways, all in all it was cool to be in Firenze. Next stop Lucca!

Damn it!

break

Apologies for being away. Now that I am back to work I will write more.

There are several pros and cons to being back to work...

Cons:
Being at work
Having to work
Getting up early and getting dressed and ready in a matter for 30 minutes.
Having to get out of the house when it is raining.
Using you brain again.

Pros:
Seeing work mates again.
Seeing my ex-crush again (donno if that makes him my crush again. I think not.)
Wearing new clothes that you bought from the outlet malls.
Listening to music while on the bus
Using your brain again.

Ok, hopefully I will have the Florence update the next time I log in.

Italy Part 2

We took the train from Rome to Naples. It took about 2 hours. Because neither of us spoke Italian, finding the train and platform on Roma Termini was interesting. We asked this train official, all of whom wear Green jackets, and he kept telling us the train name over and over again. It was funny.

Anyways, out of the train on Napoli central and we had to haggle for a cab. Naples is known as the Detroit of Italy. It can be a dangerous city, last year alone they had 200 deaths. So its not a good place to be if you are a tourist, at night and dont know what the hell you are doing. Cabbies are known for not giving the right price, trying to take more money off you and such. Anyways, we got a nice cab driver who took us to our hotel which was away from the centre of the city. Not a bad thing. The hotel, San Francesco al Monte, was on the mountain and was simply spectacular. It is highly recommended.

Naples might be a lot of things but it is also a very beautiful city. It is gorgeous. It is quite hilly and this makes the city even more interesting. Our view from the hotel was stunning. As you see in the picture apparently Naples was welcoming us with the rainbow!



Anyways, the first evening we decided to go to the archaeological museum. If you are remotely interested in archeology or Pompeii - go to this museum. The whole of the museum is mostly dedicated to Pompeii and artifacts found there. It was very interesting to see them. The museum itself was very interesting. It was unlike most posh museums you will see. It was a bit run down but it was a true museum unlike the cash making machines most museums now seem to be (more on that when we get to Firenze). Anyways, it was cool to see the artifacts from Pompeii before going to Pompeii.

The next day was the day for Pompeii. It took my breath away. Pompeii was amazing. Just truly amazing. We took a pre-guided tour which lasted from 10 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. If you like archeology, history and old cities dont miss Pompeii. I could have spent the entire day there. It was just awesome. Dont miss this.

The next day we were going to do Capri islands. Which we didnt. Mainly because there were thousands of tourists. It didnt seem to have the appeal after seeing a billion tourists.

I actually really liked Naples. It was a real city. Everyone you will talk to will tell you it is quite a dangerous city. Which might be true but I didnt see any reason not to go there. I mean the only way you will get shot or robbed is if you are stupid. We took the regular precautions - kept our stuff with us, didnt go walking around at midnight and so on. It was fine. This is one of the highly recommended cities. If you are interested in seeing a real Italian city - go to Naples.

The driving in Italy seemed to be mostly fine except in Naples. Driving was crazy here. If there was space for your vehicle you were expected to drive there. It was nutty. We also to the bus and that was crazy as well. Mind you I have lived in India and it was crazier than India!

The food in Naples was amazing. We actually found a small restaurant run by a family. The menu was in Italian and the waiter did not speak a word of English and the food was just amazing. It really was.

The only thing to keep in mind when traveling to Naples is to take cash with you. You bank card might not work, many places might not take credit cards and the banks only cash travelers cheques from 9 to 1. We found that out the hard way!

Italy - part 1

I am going to try to try a post about each city in Rome - Dont know if that will work but here is the first one.

We flew from Vancouver to London and London to Rome.

In typical Air Canada fashion, our flight from Vancouver to London was delayed "due to technical reasons". We were told this after checking in, boarding and putting on our seat belts. Something sounded fishy - in true form we left about two hours late with very little time to catch the connection. We did make the connection and arrived in Rome airport and took the train (an express train from airport to the city centre). Which was not bad at all.

Anyways, we step out of the train station and are trying to figure out where we should be going and ended taking a 10 euro taxi ride for a 5 minute walk. Oh well.

Rome was the worst part of the trip. The city centre of Rome is so touristy that literally everywhere we went - we heard nothing but English and saw nothing but English pubs. It was awful. I mean I didnt go to Italy to get the authentic experience but it would have been nice to eat some pasta without the same damned tomato sauce. Anyhoo, if you are planning to go to Rome - you wont need more than 3 days in the city. We saw pretty much all there was to see. The highlights were the of course the Sistine Chapel and the Pantheon. Both of these took my breath away.

We had to wait for 3 hours in the hot sun to see the Sistine Chapel but it was so worth it. A word of advice, do the Sistine Chapel and the whole of Vatican on a weekday. We made the mistake of going on a Saturday and it was a nut house. The weekdays you would get a little shorter lineup. Oh, yes, and do be there at 8 in the morning. We found that by the time we were done the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum in general we didnt really care about standing in another lineup to see the Basilica. We didnt even try. At that point we had had enough. The Chapel itself is wonderful. It really is. There is nothing that can describe it. I am obviously not a catholic in any way - but you have to see it.

The Pantheon was also truly amazing. We didnt have to stand in any lineups at all to see it. It was just amazing. It is one to things you dont want to miss.

Some of the other things worth seeing are, of course the Colosseum, the Capitoline Museums, The Roman Forum. We didnt end up seeing the Roman baths but I think it would have been awesome.

Rome, inspite of its touristy-ness will always have a special place in my heart for this one Enoteca we ate at. If you want the name - email me and I will send you details.

Okay, next up is Naples.

I am Back!

Well, I am back home. I will write a more detailed post when I get the chance, but I have to say - Firenze - which sounds much better than Florence - is the most beautiful city I have ever been to.

It is simply stunning. If you have been you know what I am talking about, if not, you have to.

Italy is a beautiful country. The food, the wine, and the people all just great.

Have to go - but will be back!

In Rome.

I have my coffee in a public square, had my wine, ate my pizza and had some ok pasta!

All seems well. However, man this place is expensive.

All good, all fair.

Ciao for now!