A Shot in the Arm

2012 Prospective

2012-01-22T18:58:00.000-05:00

Welcome to another edition. I did a little something in 2011 and 2010, and I found it helpful to recap and look forward. I tell people that I don't do resolutions, but that's mostly a semantic distinction. Coincidentally, it's taken me until the fourth Sunday in January each of those times to hammer something out. The turning of the year itself is always too busy with holidays and birthdays for Serious Contemplation.

First, a little look back. It's very satisfying to look back at last year's anticipation of "this music project", now that said project has resulted in a couple more public radio appearances, decent blog traffic, a couple hundred album sales, and a three city tour that raised nearly $7,000 for charities. It was very satisfying to go beyond the "what if" and really make good on a somewhat harebrained project. We're looking forward to continuing the project on some level, but its current chapter may have run its course.

In hindsight, last spring was something of a blur. I was settled in DC life, doing my thing, and anticipating a change, one way or another, that summer, so I think it was natural. I made a conscious effort to keep my head in the game because it would have been so easy to check out. I really enjoyed my time in DC, but I was ready for a change. Amanda planting her flag at Northwestern made the choice easy.

I am so grateful to have been able to take a month off of work this summer to spend in London, Italy, and France with Amanda between her fellowship and the beginning of med school. It was an amazing trip and vacation, and it was nice to be able, somewhat, to disconnect for that amount of time. There's never enough time for everything, but we did damn well if I do say so myself.

I had been hesitant to leave DC without a job lined up, especially given how difficult it was to land my first. There was a moment, however, in the late spring or early summer, when a switch flipped and I realized that I had to go for it. It happened while taking a shower. Most great epiphanies and life choices occur during showers. Although I did a lot of work that summer looking for and applying to all sorts of things, I wasn't surprised not to gain much traction from afar. I left both CSIS and DC on September 1st, flying to Boston that evening. It was hard to leave, but it was the right call.

I had a pretty good list of things for funemployment between DC and Chicago. It was really nice to have a good amount of time at home and around Boston. I'm glad that I was able to build that in. As for the list, I was able to get most of the things done that I wanted to, although the list of books to read and movies to watch only gets longer.

Chicago has been great so far. For the first few weeks, I was helping to set up the apartment, applying to things all day, trying to meet everyone I could, exploring my new surroundings, and enjoying the transition to fall weather. This is the first time that we've been solely responsible for the outfitting of our living space, which is fun.

I started my current role at Groupon on October 17th, and it's been great. It goes to show how random the work hunt can be that the one job that worked out resulted from a simple online application with no contact or connection for a job I didn't consider myself particularly qualified for. It is a good fit though, and it's the type of work that I most wanted to be doing after non-profit public policy analysis and conference management. It's also really nice that work is a fifteen minute walk from the apartment. These are interesting times for the company and the industry, making it a great time to be involved and learning new skills.

We also adopted a dog. This is a first for any Thompson-Westra, who heretofore have strictly been cat people. Although I was originally bribed toward Chicago with promises of an orange kitten, the advantages of a pup began to grow upon my arrival. I have been largely effective at flat-out denying any allergy to cats my entire life, boosted by the fact that said allergy (if it exists!) only manifests sometimes and with some cats, but the prospect of adopting a kitty that wrecked havoc on my sinuses (helped by wall to wall carpeting in the apartment) and knowing that I would never allow us to return it felt risky, to say the least. Any pet is going to be a change, and a dog probably a bigger one in terms of needs, so I characteristically hemmed and hawed over getting a pet until we met a two or three year old white husky at PAWS Chicago this fall.

I mean, just look at this guy. Beckett has been a wonderful addition. The fates conspired to give me as close to the ideal dog as reality allows in terms of temperament, personality, smell, and dashing good looks. It's nice to have a creature so desperately happy to see you after work that you can tell it almost hurts them. It's nice to be woken up (at the appropriate time) by an inquisitive nose and beautiful black eyes poking over the side of the bed. And it's nice to have an additional companion both eager to explore the city and curl up to relax. Although I haven't been able to run with him the last couple of months, I look forward to hitting the trails at a pace above walking soon. And we both have visions of piling into a car for a day at Starved Rock or a long weekend in the Badlands. Amanda's dad had a dog, worthy of several epics, that followed him from Israel to Cameroon and across the US. I think Beckett will be ours.

One alarming development of 2011 was that, for the first time, I've been asked if I'm Canadian. This has happened on perhaps four or five independent occasions regarding my pronunciation of "about". I don't hear anything funny with it, which is more worrisome than the alternative. The only explanation seems to be that, somehow, I've had my own Great Vowel Shift this past year. I'd be ok, but still confused, if I were to develop a strong Maine accent during the twenty sixth year of my life, but unfortunately I'm sliding a little too far north.

2012 has been great so far, springboarding from a great holiday break back home with a solid New Years in Boston, a nice birthday back in Chicago, and a definitively successful Recession Sessions tour through Chicago, Boston, and New York City. Work has picked up now that I'm on larger cities, and I'm at the point now where I'm no longer playing catch-up. I'm looking forward to pressing forward at Groupon and seeing what the year has in store for the industry. This year might require a little more decision-making on the MA, MBA, or PhD side as well.

It's nice to be able to keep a foot in the door of the policy world through YPFP. I'm looking forward to seeing how that organization continues to grow. With the election year shaping up as it is, I have never been more glad not being involved in campaign politics.

A goal from last year was to put more effort into maintaining and improving my Spanish. Attempts to regularly read Spanish news turned more into regular attempts to read Spanish news, so either I need a new plan of attack or a more concerted round two. I still occasionally and inexplicably feel what I can only describe as homesickness for Madrid, so maybe I can prod that nostalgia, as well as positive occasional random Spanish conversations, into actionable guilt-avoidance. It is reassuring that comprehension hasn't slipped much at all. Johanna will be in Barcelona this fall, and visiting her would be nice.

I am jealous of people who really enjoy cooking. Every once in a while I get a glimpse of that world, but it is always fleeting. I wish that I enjoyed it more, because I think it's a really appealing activity in theory and a moral good. In practice, however, nine times of of ten my urge will be to pour another bowl of cereal rather than put thirty minutes into food preparation (my historical odds of cooking versus cereal for every meal are vastly better than that, I'll have you know). I will continue to fake it in the hope that I'll make it and, in the meantime, be a loyal sous-chef and somewhat less sporadic culinary helmsman.

It was nice and enjoyable to keep up running a good amount. I really didn't anticipate to be at a point where, at the drop of a hat, I could run eight miles without thinking much of it. Unfortunately, somewhat randomly my knee started to hurt a lot this fall and vehemently remind me that it's still upset every time I try to run again, so it's been a while. I suppose I might be past the point where simply waiting for it to heal itself is a reasonable course of action, so yes, I should do something about that. The Chicago marathon is in the fall, and I'd really like to cross that off the list. It's just a matter of my joints holding together long enough.

Having a gym in the apartment is nice too. Pull ups and push ups, or activities that mirror those motions, keep me pretty satisfied, although occasionally the thought of boxing, CrossFit, or Krav Maga is pretty appealing. Once it's nice out again I might look into a sport. I've been on hiatus from ultimate for a while due to agility-limiting injuries and I waffle on whether, damn the torpedoes, to pick it up again on a somewhat serious level. We definitely need to find some good hiking areas around Chicago as well.

Although Recession Sessions has been a great experience, I need more regular group playing. With my recently purchased Seagull S6, I'm looking forward to finding something more regular here in Chicago and overall working more music playing into my routine. Not only playing around but also some more regularly concentrated skill-building would be ideal. I need to get my charango repaired again too. I'm considering looking more seriously into an orchestra to play with too, but the time commitment may be too much for that one. Working up the pipes for the tour was fun, but I don't think I'll be joining a chorus any time soon.

I want to make sure to write more too. I really enjoy it, but don't have the urge to as much as I'd like. If I can be better at working regular writing in, I think it would click, whether it be blogging or writing more op-ed style pieces. It might be a good goal to keep up an article or two a year published in a newspaper or journal, which has been quite manageable so far. My high school debate days are calling to me, and reading a lot of Hitchens around the time of his death drove home most recently how beautiful language can be. Writing, rhetoric, and appreciating language are nice things.

I still periodically consider moving forward with more presentation design. Before getting a real job here, I did a decent amount of talking to different small business people and entrepreneurs at conferences to test the waters, and the waters appear pleasant. There's obviously a good amount of planning that has to go into it, but probably not as much as I pretend.

What are the tentative big travel plans this year? Amanda will spend six weeks working this summer in Senegal at a hospital in Dakar, so I just might have to meet up with her afterward for some adventuring. I'm also looking forward to stepping foot in California this spring for the first time. I'm sure we can work a few more things in this year too.

It's hard to find time to do everything in the world, I'm told. In this 26th year I think I'm getting a better idea of what kind of things I want to focus on in work and play. I'm looking forward to seeing how this year plays itself out.

Pokey Lafarge

2011-12-10T17:00:00.004-05:00

The Dirt Daubers opening for Pokey Lafarge at Schubas Tavern last night.

Movember

2011-12-02T15:35:00.001-05:00

A successful first year of participation. This was the first time I'd shaved in two and a half years, but it's nice to change it up sometimes. And I have to say that after a month of wearing some fur on my upper lip it started to look, dare I say, normal.

There was a Movember gala the night of December 1st to celebrate finishing the month. The founder of Movember, an Australian, was there, and it was neat to hear about how it started just as an excuse with some friends (before the hipsters made it semi-popular) to grow mustaches. The following year, they decided to make it into a fundraiser, and from that year on have been by far the largest single donor to prostate cancer research in the world. This year capped off with 850,000 participants and $100,000,000 raised worldwide. Not too shabby.

Day 1

Day 8

Day 16

Day 25
The old man participated too!

Day 30

Beckett was a big fan.

December 1st
This was her favorite part of the month.

Home for Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T15:34:00.000-05:00

Took the bus up from Boston with Johanna coming over from Brown. There wasn't any snow until Portland.

Back home it looked like it should be Christmas.

The kitties were very brave.

Mighty Fort Andross on the mighty Androscoggin.

I like locks.

I hadn't used the walking bridge in a while. It swayed less than I remembered.

That evening was a beautiful sunset.

It's hard to tell here, but not only was the sky brilliant but mist was creeping across the fields already. It was a nice pairing.

Puppy!

2011-11-19T17:47:00.011-05:00

Meet Beckett, a twoish year old husky (mix?) from the wonderful folks at PAWS Chicago. We got him Thursday night and he's been settling in very nicely. He's very friendly and a great runner, but also content to curl up on the carpet while we're around.

This is another one of his favorite positions:

It's too bad that we'll have to drop him off with a friend for Thanksgiving break already, but hopefully he won't forget us in the few days.

It's pretty exciting. Amanda has grown up with dogs her whole life, but this will be my (and a Thompson-Westra) first. He's going to be a great running buddy and loves to be around us. He's even got a few key commands down pretty solidly already. And it's nice to be greeted back from work with a happy puppy jumping up to say hi. We are investing in a good dog brush and lint roller for that lovely hair. The amount collected by the vacuum after its first run post-arrival could have been its own little dog.

Winter is coming.

To-Do Lists

2011-11-06T11:15:00.012-05:00

I've been cleaning out my Gmail to-do list this morning of various links and pdfs that at one point would have seemed useful but don't any longer. I've tried a few different times to make it useful, the most successful of which has been the past year, off and on of course. I think it helps that Gmail is almost always open on my computer, so having the "tasks" staring back at me was an easy way not to overlook them.

If I'm not careful, the number of articles I find online and stash away for the time being will grow out of control very quickly. Likewise, I have to be careful what feeds I add to Google Reader. I'm not going to be able to read everything, but even with knowing that, having too many unread articles staring back at me can be overwhelming mentally (same reason why TED turned me off). Of course, too much information in lists (or too strong adherence to lists) can be paralyzing. In the best of situations, though, hopefully a list can help to organize thoughts, prioritize action, and remind you of what you could be doing.

I've read and heard some stuff about Getting Things Done and even know a couple people who try to implement it. I don't think it's for me, at least right now, but it did help to underscore the usefulness of getting ideas and tasks out of your head and onto any recording medium. There's always a lot to discover.

I had the idea to look into audio books before the long drive from Maine to DC, then DC to Chicago, this fall. I remembered that Audible had some kind of deal for listeners of This American Life, so I started poking around their collections and trying to remember a book I've been meaning to read for a long time. I knew about how long the drive would take (26 hours), so I hoping to find a book that would take about that long to listen to as well.

In the process of finding the perfect driving companion, though, I realized that the book length information could be used to compare the amount of time required to absorb different books. Now that I put that into words, it seems like less of a profound discovery than it felt like at the time. But with knowing how long it would take to listen to, say, War and Peace (61 hours), you could see how many times The Grapes of Wrath could fit into it (roughly three times). I find it hard, then, not to ask myself whether reading War and Peace one of these days is worth the opportunity cost of not reading three classics the length of The Grapes of Wrath. Although the amount of time it would take to listen to something is different than to read something, I assume that the ratio would be similar enough across works for comparison to work. For the record, I ended up listening to The Grapes of Wrath on my drive, thoroughly enjoying it.

Part of it might come down to how we conceptualize the units of media that we consume. For reading, the unit is most directly just the book (although the length of the book does help it feel weightier). The accomplishment of reading The Great Gatsby (less than 6 hours in our audio book metric) feels somehow on par with finishing The Brothers Karamazov (37 hours). It seems hard to make reading articles have the same mental weight as books. I could read The Economist cover to cover every week, taking in on average 100 pages of dense text per issue, but somehow my mental default seems to weigh that less than a comparably sized book. I'm constantly reading articles online, but that doesn't feel the same either. Does that mean I should read more books or try to care more about the number of pages read?

TV series versus movies can be tricky too. Watching an epic TV series like The Wire (60 hours) is, I'd argue, a good use of time, but with 60 hours you could probably watch every Werner Herzog film (I haven't tallied this). Watching The Wire for that period feels easier, I think because there's only one title, even if the length of that one title is enormous. But I'd hedge that in terms of satisfaction and literary self-actualization, Herzog is the better bet. There seems to be some kind of conceptual roadblock that biases us toward not making that comparison in terms of concrete time required, even though time is the most precious commodity any of us have.

Now, clearly, with both writing and film, comparing like this assumes that the unit of quality or information density is uniform across authors, forms, and works. It clearly isn't. Shorter works are fundamentally a different beast than longer ones, with different constraints and rewards. There is something beautiful about grappling with a single long work, enjoying slower or more complex character and plot development or exploration of ideas. A class on Dostoyevsky and a class on Hemingway are going to be fundamentally different, maybe too much for comparison.

I had a good Funemployment List going for the period I knew I was going to be unemployed this fall between DC and Chicago. Some of the stuff was pretty logistical, others were project-based. All in all, basically I wanted it to be a little way to make sure that I wasn't just sitting around all day with nothing to do. And it was very effective in helping me organize. A few things that I didn't get to I'd still like to do, such as listen to David Bowie's entire discography. Music can be difficult because it requires a set amount of time and, if you're really going to experience it, it can't just be in the background of three other tasks that you're doing concurrently.

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn--pure science, the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a milliard lifetimes in biology and medicine and theo-criticism and geography and history and economics--why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again on mathematics, until it is time to learn to plough."

At the end of the day, there is far too much to read, watch, hear, visit, experience, or learn. It's easy for a to-look-into list to spiral out of control because there will always be another thing interesting to explore. Having too much, though, is much better than the alternative.

Second Citying

2011-10-24T21:47:00.006-04:00

Welp, this whole funemployment thing was cut a little short. I started last Monday with Groupon as a City Planning Analyst, which should be a blast and a half. It's a good mix of business strategy, analysis, and working with sales, so it should be very interesting and keep me nice and busy. On top of that, it's a fifteen minute walk to the office downtown. Can't be beat. The energy is pretty enthralling. The open office plan and lack of dress code is quite the change. And you couldn't ask for a more interesting time to be joining the company.

The past month getting to know Chicago has been pretty great. It's a really fun city, and although I know I've only explored about 5% of it, it's starting to feel like home.

Having a good roommate helps that a lot. We watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off a few weeks ago, and it's funny how sights of a skyline that even six weeks ago would have elicited absolutely no feeling or recognition now feels familiar and personal.

Running north along Lakeshore Drive and looping back through Lincoln Park, or south through The Loop, has been a great way to get to see different parts of downtown.

It's nice to have water around. The lake is big enough, and often turbulent enough, to forget that it's not the ocean.

Jay and Jay were here a few weekends ago visiting Ted, which was good times. Be jealous that WhirlyBall exists.

The Lincoln Park Zoo is nice too.

This was the Michigan Ave Apple Store a couple weeks ago. Notice the apples. Yes, they had been bitten once each.

Apple picking in Indiana.

There have been rainy and windy patches, but a few weeks ago it was warm enough to get some time on the beach. Otherwise, even when chilly a clear sky can really warm the place up.

And now it's getting further and further into fall. Hopefully the cold weather holds off a little while longer. I'm still enjoying being outside as much as possible. I haven't been to any museums here, which I really need to do. And opportunities to explore farther from downtown have been limited. I also need to find more music, stat (although on the guitar side, I'm working up some mean fingerpicking).

Recession Sessions stays active with blogging and a short but sweet appearance on Morning Edition (13m weekly listeners making it the most-listened-to public radio show). Stay tuned for news on a small East Coast tour this January.

Looking forward to hosting more guests soon.

Around Town 9

2011-10-05T00:09:00.005-04:00

N Wabash and N LaSalle

Chicago

2011-09-22T16:13:00.004-04:00

Made it!

I'm on the 13th floor of a building hidden by the buildings two to the left of the Hancock Center, but only a handful of blocks from Northwestern Medical and the lake. There's a nice urban expanse out the windows, but pictures of that and the put-together apartment are to come. All the boxes are unpacked and I'm starting to figure out my way around downtown at least.

My days are surprisingly filled with errands, organization, and job stuff, but I'm looking forward to have some time to explore further. Definitely the most urban living I've done, but I'm looking forward to it. Being in DC the past two and a half years has conditioned me toward short buildings, so I have a feeling I'll still be gawking like a tourist six months in.

I drove from Maine to Connecticut, seeing my uncle and grandparents for the day. Friday morning was driving to DC. Saturday morning was getting the Uhaul, loading it up, and seeing some peeps before the voyage. Sunday was starting off early to meet Jordan and Raquel in Columbus for a quick lunch, then getting up to Chicago around 8pm.

I know I've been through it before, but western Maryland is really pretty land. Lots of small farms and rolling hills. Pennsylvania was pretty boring, West Virginia is everyone's friend for 70 mph speed limits, and there's not much in Ohio before or after reaching the midpoint. Indiana was very flat and filled with corn and wind farms, but it again gets bonus points for the 70 mph speed limit.

The Grapes of Wrath free audiobook kept me company for all of my drive, and I just finished it up today. Thoroughly enjoyable. It's only the second Steinbeck book I've read (?), but I'd like to get my hands on more. The voice actor did a good job with all the different characters, even if Tom Joad came off sounding a little like John Wayne and several of the men like Sheriff Andy from True Blood.

Thankfully, the weather isn't too chilly yet, although it might be getting too late to utilize optimally the outdoor pool. Eh, who am I kidding.

Funemployment

2011-09-14T22:17:00.004-04:00

So, I quit my job on September 1st in anticipation of moving to DC and am just wrapping up a great couple weeks of Boston and Maine. I was in Boston for Labor Day weekend, enjoying the end of New England summer. A whole slew of people were in town from various parts of the countries, so it was great to see them all in addition to DC friends now in Boston and high school friends in the area.

Really superb weather for beer gardens, walking around Somerville/Cambridge/Boston, pools,cookouts, late night ultimate/ninja.

I also ate an enormous sandwich at Dave's Fresh Pasta.

Then it was up to Maine with my parents for a solid ten days. It was rainy for a few, but then really opened up into perfect summer/fall transition weather.

I was mostly just relaxing at home, but spent a couple nights in Portland too. It's pretty embarrassing not to know the city better, but after living in DC and walking around just a couple times, I have a pretty good sense of the layout already. There are a good amount of high school people who have ended up there, and it feels like a nice place to be. It reminds me some of the Somerville/Cambridge area, although I can't quite put my finger on why. It was nice to catch up and see some people I haven't seen since high school.

I did have my first laptop and coffee accident, but was able to save the computer. Unfortunately, the keyboard still refused to work after multiple attempts to clean. A replacement one is on its way from China, so hopefully the problem isn't with the connection to the motherboard. Thankfully, Jay is a tech hoarder and still had a wireless keyboard from the Bowdoin dump and run maybe six years ago. My current configuration isn't quite as portable as a laptop should be, but hey it's working.

My parents and I did a nice little hike up to the Poplar Hut, near Flagstaff Lake, for a night. The cabin is just a few years old, and they're looking to expand the system soon. We got a nice tour of its energy/environmental systems, and it was good to get up to that area.

We did a walk along Flagstaff Lake itself in the morning. Great weather.

Otherwise, my mom and I built a bench for Chicago, I did a bunch of website work for Recession Sessions, some job hunting, some windy sailing, helping to shingle the garage, seeing people and Brunswick, hanging out with the parents, and playing with the kitties. I got in a nice little bike ride down and around the bay too.

The air was warm, the water not too cold, making it perfect for a swim.

So being at home for a little while has been great. And tomorrow morning I start the drive to Chicago. I'll be seeing relatives in Connecticut, driving to DC on Friday, loading up the Uhaul Saturday, making my way to Chicago (or at least Columbus) on Sunday, and moving in Monday. There will be lots of driving, but I have The Grapes of Wrath queued up on the ipod to keep me company. It will be good to have the drive broken up a few times as well.

The moving will be a lot of work, and then there's the unpacking. My beard has gotten a little woolly so I'll probably have to get that back under control. Regardless, I'm looking forward to exploring a new city and seeing what I get my hands on there.

Wrapping Up

2011-08-31T16:10:00.000-04:00

And, full circle, we were in London, navigating the transport system like the back of our hand.

We dropped off our stuff back with Sarah and went out for Amanda's (second) birthday dinner with her and Alan. I accidentally almost ordered a dish with lobster, which would have killed me, but Amanda saved the day. It was really nice to see both of them and a great way to cap off the trip. On the walk back, we saw a fox hanging out in the neighborhood, which was pretty cool. Champagne and dessert back at the house, and then to sweet sweet slumber.

Early in the morning, technically Day 32 already, I had a dream where someone was attacking me from behind, which caused me in my half-sleep to grab at Amanda. That is not usual. She yelped and successfully defended herself, so good job!

We were up really early for our flight from London to Boston and, despite a little delay, were still into DCA in the evening. We cabbed to MD, said hi to the animals, and crashed.

The following morning, we went for a nice long run in Rock Creek Park when we couldn't sleep any longer. Good to stretch out the legs.

-

And that was that! Quite the month-long trip. It was really great to get away and spend a solid amount of time in each place. There are, of course, plenty of places that it would have been great to see if we had had 5x as much time, but I feel very satisfied in how we organized the journey (hat tip: Amanda).

A month was a great amount of time to be away. I don't know if I could sustain concentrated travel for much longer. Done right, I think, travel is exertion, and I think it would require a different style to go around the world for half the year. I'm not saying I wouldn't want to try that at some point, but yeah. I suppose it's a little like running. A month of straight travel is the 5k run.

Since getting back, I've been trying to appreciate my summer in DC and preparing to leave for Chicago, which is now just in a day. I've really enjoyed my time here, but I'm ready for the next adventure.

But yeah, great trip. I'm already itching for the next one. Who's game?

Paris

2011-08-31T12:33:00.024-04:00

Our first day in Paris was Day 29 (July 5) of our adventure. Last time I was in Paris, it was only for a couple days during the spring break of my semester abroad in Madrid. It was a whirlwind visit in between San Sebastian and Prague. We saw a lot given the time we had, and did a very good job of the excellent Pompidou, but I was looking forward to having a little more time to wander. Amanda's family lived here for a year when she was younger, so it was nice to be with people who knew their way around.

First things first, we hustled over to the Eiffel Tower to try to beat most of the crowd. That isn't really possible, though.

It really is an impressive tower. We got up to the second level and opted not to wait the hour and a half necessary to get to the very top. We had things to do!

We had a nice stroll along the Seine, getting over to the Pont Alexandre III.

We cut in and had lunch near the Assemblée nationale, surrounded by military men.

The Basilique Ste-Clotilde was nearby.

After that, we went to the Musée d'Orsay, located in a nice old train station, which is really a great space for art.

There was a ton there, great paintings and sculpture, including a special exhibit on Manet.

From there, Amanda and I made our way by metro up to Montmartre, which is one of the other areas I did pretty well last trip. It's a really pretty area, and the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur is a really pretty building.

Climbing up to the top is especially nice too, since instead of an interior staircase you're scampering around the outside. It offers up great views of the city too.

We got some tea to rest our feet before making the trek back into the city proper.

That night for dinner, we went to a crepe place that Amanda went to when younger, accidentally ordering hard cider and subsequently having a fun day at school. Their cider is still really good, as were the crepes. Mmmm.

The following morning, we all went to see the Sainte-Chappelle on Île de la Cité. The upper chapel is almost entirely stained glass, and despite the mostly overcast weather was really remarkable.

Across the way is the Notre Dame.

Must not have been a popular king. Inside is very nice, and we had the luck to be there during a choral performance. France was fortuitous for catching music in churches.

From there, we strolled west, dodging gypsy children left and right.

Yum.

I didn't go into the Louvre last time because we didn't feel like we had enough time to do it any justice. And I made the same decision again. I kind of like the idea that I haven't seen one of the major things in Paris twice. I guess it gives me a reason to keep coming back.

So we had a little picnic on the grass nearby and went up the Champs Elysees.

The Arc de Triomphe is at the top.

We took the metro back over the river (a musician in the metro car played Champs Elysees, of course), where we descended into the depths of the sewer system - the Égouts de Paris.

They were pretty sweet, and not too smelly. A lot about the history of sanitation in the area and the massive push for public works in the 19th century. Having recently finished The Ghost Map, which focuses on the sanitation of London, I can say it's pretty amazing stuff and one of the only reasons that cities survived into the 1900s.

Afterward, we went back to the hotel, where Amanda's uncle and grandmother met us from Geneva. After a little musical chairs-style apartment switching, we went out for Amanda's (first) birthday dinner at a nice bistro. The three men split an enormous hunk of shank meat, which literally melted off the bone. Incredible.

The next day, our last in Paris, was Amanda's actual birthday. I got up a little early to get some fresh brioche for the lady, and the thing about fresh bakeries everywhere is as great as it sounds. We had breakfast proper with her uncle, then were over to the other apartment to round up the troops.

Amanda, Sara, and I went over to Montparnasse for some walking around and shopping.

We all met up for a good lunch, and then it was time to start getting ready to move on. Amanda and I power walked along the Seine, stopping to get a few more pictures of the Eiffel Tower (overhearing a Scottish dad explaining to his teary daughter why they weren't going to go up: "I'm sorry, but look at the queue! We'll come back when you're older". Ok, imagine that in a great Scottish accent. Yeah. Heartbreaking).

We still got back by walking before the older folk via metro. We finished some last-minute throwing together of things and then were off for a 6pm chunnel. That's right, the channel tunnel. Getting to it and getting situated worked great. I think we slipped in and out of nappytimes a little, but I remember a decent period of darkness going between France and England.

Northward

2011-08-29T17:38:00.000-04:00

We were heading north, final destination Paris, but would be stopping for the night (France is pretty big, and Paris is more northern than I had in my head). We timed nicely an organ concert in the basilica of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.

It was nice to hear some music, especially the kind that reverberates for seconds through the building and allows your eyes to wander all around.

We completed the scenic drive, passing fields of sunflowers and lavender, to a castle house in Arpaillargues-et-Aureillac, where we had a very nice dinner and spent the night after walking around for a bit.

The following day, we went on a nice little run outside of town before breakfast. It took us by grape, olive, and lavender fields, and it was nice to use the legs after walking so much every day in Italy and being unused to sitting in a car.

We were on the road before noon for the long drive up to Paris. Before too long, we made a stop in the small town of Florac for lunch, where the driving was pretty curvy and mountainous.

Before too long, we were off, but not before picking up some local honey. Elton John kept us good company, and the scenery was very pretty. We made it through a good amount of France just in that drive, passing through mountains, gorges, plateaus, and fields.

We reached the outskirts of Paris close to ten, got situated at our hotel, and had dinner nearby. With only two fulls days in Paris, the next day would be back to Italy-style tourism, so we needed all the sleep we could get.

Saint-Clair

2011-08-25T20:32:00.000-04:00

Before too long, we were at the France-Italy border.

We actually went over the line a couple times driving on windy roads through the mountains, going through and by small French towns, then small Italian towns, then back again through the Alps foothills. One of my great-grandmothers might have been from around here. She always said she was French but the birth certificate said Italy. I can see how you could get confused.

Eventually the mountains dwindled down into the sea, which we followed along, passing Nice and Cannes, until arriving in the small town of Saint-Clair by evening.

View France in a larger map

Amanda's parents stayed in their apartment, which they'd be working on for much of the stay, while the two of us were in her uncle's next door.

It was strange to unpack and know that we weren't going to be moving within the next couple of days. But it was very nice to know that we could start up some laundry. Italy was a great place to move every few days and pack our days to the brim. Saint-Clair called for a different traveling lifestyle. And I was ready for it; a certain amount of travel fatigue had set in and I was looking forward to relaxing.

We walked the 200ft to the beach, took a good look around, and got dinner at a nearby restaurant. Lots of delicious seafood, fish and mussels. Unfortunately no crustaceans for me since my body decided to become allergic to them in the last couple of years.

The following day, we had a nice leisurely breakfast on the patio. The sky was cloudless, and we went for a good little run through town while the washing machine worked non-stop.

We began our beaching in the late morning. Apparently in August there's hardly room to place your towel, but late June is still plenty sunny and warm. The water is usually nice and clear and a great temperature for swimming. There's a good little pontoon to swim out to too. It was great to relax, get some sun, read, swim, dry off, repeat. Then for lunchtime, just hop back to the house, then right back out there. It's really not a bad way to spend your time. I guess you'll just have to trust me on that one.

In the evening, we walked along the waterfront to Le Lavandou, a larger town next to Saint-Clair. There's this great path over the rocky shore that connects the two waterfronts.

We got a drink before making mushroom pasta and stuffed zucchini from their garden for dinner. The nights were lovely.

The next morning, we drove to the nearby town of Bormes-les-Mimosas. There are sizable outdoor markets that move from town to town during the weekend, so we were tracking down one of those. Bormes is also famous for its flowers. We had breakfast there before wandering around the market. Lots of food, linen, clothes, and much more. We had our eyes out for some stuff for the upcoming Chicago apartment.

We strolled through the town, which is nice and compact and old. We picked up some postcards, checked in online, and headed back down the hills to Saint-Clair for the good ol' beach-lunch-beach routine. Except I think this time we mixed in a little tandem kayaking with some gear from the house. That night we got yummy pizza (because no way we had enough in Italy) and topped it off with ice cream (see last parenthesized comment).

The following morning, it was Le Lavandou's turn for the market, so we got there at a good hour after breakfast at the house. Amanda and I then spent the day on the island of Port-Cros, part of the three island Îles d'Hyères. Port-Cros is a national park, so we were looking forward to that. It has some small forts dotting it too.

We did a nice little hike to one of the beaches there (Baie de la Palud), where we could also use our snorkeling gear.

This little hero was chasing seagulls like it was his job.

There aren't many ferries back and forth, so we made sure to get back to the port in time, getting a cool beverage nearby. It would have been a nice island to explore further.

Back at the house, we had a relaxing evening of food. Ratatouille, leftover pasta, steak, mmm.

The next day was Day 25, July 1st. We all went to Saint-Tropez, a substantially larger and ritzier Riviera town not too far away.

In between the absurdly large yachts-for-hire and the trendy people, it's actually quite a pretty place. It was also the first town in Southern France to be liberated in WWII. Joseph Heller's B-25 bombed gun platforms not far away.

We went to a nice impressionist museum there.

Lunch was more delicious seafood. On the way back to Saint-Clair, we stopped to pick up groceries and more hardware supplies for the renovation. Then it was clearly the time for more beaching. That evening was really good risotto and leftover chicken.

The next day, we thought that the market was back in Le Lavandou but were incorrect. Oh well! Back to the beach. This was our last full day there, so we really had to beach hard. And eat up a lot of leftovers for lunch.

A couple of days there were the most adorable little baby twin boys in matching blue onesies and bucket hats. They were barely starting to walk, but scampered any way they could all over the place, leaving their mom and grandmother to keep them from killing themselves. In my mind they looked considerably like mini Philip Seymour Hoffmans. If that's not cute in your mind, make it cuter and then you have it.

We went back into Le Lavandou for really good Moroccan food that night. Then we had to follow it with ice cream.

The next morning we did some last laundry and a big clean so that we could close it up nicely. We had enough time to say a little goodbye to the beach by means of lying on it and swimming before starting the drive north in the late afternoon.

Turin

2011-08-23T20:42:00.001-04:00

And we've reached Day 20, June 26. Early in the morning, we boarded a train to Milan, our way point to Turin. We packed a lunch of cheese, bread, cherry tomatoes, and basil, found a train car that didn't have a broken restroom stinking up the place, and settled down.

The ride was relatively uneventful, and we had a little layover in Milan before the second half to Turin. Not quite enough time to take a peek outside, what with our packs and all, but I'm ok with that.

When we arrived in Turin, we made our way to our hostel, which was on the Piazza San Carlo.

We had more of a proper room and setup than at the grandmother's place in Venice, which was refreshing. We were both feeling a little antsy after being in the train for a while, so after dropping off our packs we headed out for a little run/walk to see what we could see, knowing that we'd most likely be back later with cameras.

We looped up to the Piazza Castello, down Via Po through the Piazza Vittorio Veneto, across the River Po, and up into a nice little park area. We followed a road up the hill to a church (Monte dei Cappuccini and Chiesa di Santa Maria al Monte, respectively, it turns out), where there happened to be a public fountain with excellent water pressure. It was a hot day, so it was very appreciated. Nice views from the hill too.

From there, we went back into the city toward the giant Mole Antonelliana, which completely dominates the skyline. We talked to a tourist booth there about a fabled Chocopass (Turin being the birthplace of the chocolate bar (and Tic Tacs!)), were sent to another information site in the Piazza Castello, and found out that unfortunately it wasn't worth it for a Sunday. We did get a couple nice maps there in a bag made out of leftover pennant-like material from the 2006 Olympics.

Armed with this information, we showered and followed a walk that took us back toward the train station and past numerous notable chocolate and coffee bars.

We picked up some nice pieces and enjoyed them in the grassy Piazza Carlo Felice.

We checked out the Palazzo Reale and the Armeria Reale from the outside, being content with our museuming so far, then followed another walk back from the Piazza Castello, winding around to the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano.

The Palazzo Reale.

Hehe.

The front facade of the Palazzo Madama. Turin was the head of the House of Savoy, which ruled parts of Italy and France for a long time, then all of united Italy from its founding in 1861 through WWII.

The back of the Palazzo Madama. Can you tell that different parts of the building were built at different periods in history?

Being dinnertime, we sat at a place off of a nearby square, Piazza Carlo Alberto, outside of the Palazzo Carignano, where they were setting up a dance floor and sound system. The food was great, and the dance floor was soon populated by excellent tango dancers. We watched them for a while afterward.

This guy is a hero.

We had a nice stroll that evening around the Piazza Vittorio Veneto, which was positively hopping. We got our last Italian gelato and enjoyed the scenery.

The tall tower in the background is the Mole Antonelliana.

That's looking up to the Monte dei Cappuccini and the glowing Chiesa di Santa Maria al Monte.

The next day, we were up at a good hour and had breakfast at a nearby cafe with a nutella croissant and a bicerin, which is really just the most decadent drink possible.

Traditional to Turin, a bicerin is made of carefully layered (not mixed) espresso, hot chocolate, and whipped milk. So. Good.

Properly pepped, we followed another nice walk from the Piazza Vittorio Veneto down along the Po River. It took us through the Parco del Valentino, which contains a little historical representation of a medieval town as well as university and exhibition buildings.

We walked all the way south to Lingotto Fiere, the former Fiat factory that now houses all sorts of shops. There was a place called Eataly too, with all sorts of yummy looking food.

But no time! We scampered back north to our hostel to pick up our bags and check out. We were due to meet Amanda's parents at the Trattoria Anaconda at 1pm, and the hike over there took a little longer than expected and took us through some seedy areas. We did pass some Roman excavations, which were cool.

We were successful in finding her parents. Unfortunately, the restaurant no longer exists.

We threw our stuff in the car, sat down for the first time in a while, and were on the road, picking up some food off of the expressway. With that, we continued the drive toward France.

Earthquake in DC

2011-08-23T15:09:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure everyone mulling outside of tall buildings is actually better than being in the buildings.

Interruption: I Flew a Plane

2011-08-18T15:46:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I flew a Cessna 172 (1984) out of Washington International Flight Academy in Gaithersburg.

Thanks to WIFA and Groupon, I had thirty minutes of ground instruction, then thirty minutes in the air. And yes, I was in the pilot's seat.

Under instruction, I taxied, took off, and flew around for a little while averaging 2,000 ft. It was a little too hazy to see DC proper, but we could see Bethesda and others.

It's pretty cool during a bank to look out the window and just see ground.

After a while, we descended and I gave over the controls for landing (that is ok with me). We taxied back to its parking spot and backed it up manually like a Volkswagen. I'm basically a pilot now. Highly recommended. It was hard to keep a stupid grin off my face the entire time.

Venice

2011-08-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

The craziest thing about arriving in Venice is when you step out of the train station and see this:

No roads, just water, and 117 small interconnected islands cut through with a winding Canal Grande.

There is no way to get around aside from boat or walking. That's pretty cool, gotta say. We crossed the Ponte degli Scalzi, one of four bridges over the entire canal.

It's hard to take a bad picture in this place.

We found our place before too long, only getting moderately turned around in the myriad of paths, squares, tiny bridges. At times it appeared that you simply can't get there from here.

Our place was basically just one of a couple rooms in an old lady's apartment off of a square. Her English wasn't great, and she requested the piece of paper that I brought confirming our reservation. After seeing the room, we wanted to double-check that we were getting the bed that we paid for, so we asked to see our piece of paper. She informed us that we couldn't and disappeared. She then got it into her head that we didn't want the room, so returned to berate us, then disappeared again. She returned with her daughter on the phone, whose English apparently was a little better. Amanda had a lovely conversation with her in a mixture of Spanish-informed Italian and English, where we eventually were able to sort out that 1) we just wanted to see our paper 2) we never said or implied that we didn't want the room or wouldn't pay. Once her money was again secured in her mind, the old lady was nothing but pleasant. Her little rat dog, Dante, still sucked. View from the window:

The location was nice though. It was far enough from the center of town that we weren't surrounded by tourists but close enough to be a quick walk, once we learned our way/paid attention to the signs. The square itself had a grocery store and several restaurants, making it a pleasantly lively scene in the evenings.

So we took our first wander down to the Piazza San Marco, the center of town. We had to cross back over the Canal Grande to get from our place to the Piazza, over the Ponte di Rialto.

(Disregard the split gondola at the bottom) Until the 19th century, this was the only bridge over the entire canal.

The Piazza is pretty huge.

The Basilica di San Marco is very impressive. Lots of gold, colored marble, and Byzantine mosaics.

You can tell that Venice was a big melting pot of different cultures.

We walked alongside the Palazzo Ducale and through the Piazetta, an extension of the Piazza that sits on the water and contains two statues emblematic of Venice: Saint Theodore (with slain dragon) and Saint Mark (symbolized by the winged lion).

There was a little green park area nearby. Didn't see many of those.

We wandered along the water and wound up near the old Arsenale di Venezia, the complex of shipyards that managed Venice's strong fleet through much of its history.

Keeping an eye on the map, we headed back in the general direction of home to see what we could see (and find dinner). We ate at a place right off of our square, where we met Joe the puppy, who became a common sight tableside.

I had fegato alla venezia (calves liver), which was enjoyable, but I'm quite happy keeping my consumption of organ meat to a minimum.

Clearly, it was gelato time afterward, so we went to find some of that and ended up back by the train station for a beautiful sunset.

Stopping home briefly before acquiring gelato, we ended up on a hunt for an internet cafe or calling card for far too long due to people trying to get hold of us back stateside for pressing Recession Sessions business. I'm not sure if we ever ended up getting gelato that night.

The next morning, Day 18, June 24th, we headed back to the Piazza San Marco. As you get toward the center of town, the high end stores and packs of tourists become overwhelming. Overall, though, I was impressed by how much old Venice felt like a living city despite the enormous tourism it has always had. Early in the morning, trash collectors would be out, and boats would be ferrying lumber and other supplies around. And there are definitely working fish markets.

Back at the Piazza, we spent the morning in the Palazzo Ducale, the former residence of Venice's Doge, the leader of its strange traditional governmental setup. It's a beautiful complex of buildings and contains lots of great stuff.

The enormous paintings in this room depicted Venice's many naval victories. The most famous is probably the Battle of Lepanto, when a coalition of Mediterranean Catholic nations destroyed the Ottoman Empire's main fleet. It also "was the last major naval battle fought almost entirely between oar-powered galleys". If reality was anything like the paintings, it must have been quite the sight.

You also get to follow the path of old troublemakers and cross the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs).

We wandered westward in the afternoon, finding some interesting churches and buildings. It turns out that Pisa isn't the only place with a leaning tower.

The Chiesa di Santo Stefano is famous for the interior of its roof, which invokes a ship's keel, paying homage to Venice's heritage.

A smaller church held an exhibit on Vivaldi and other music history of Venice, which I thought was a nice way to use a nice space that no one wants to use for its original purpose.

We looped around the southern arm, which hugs the bottom and end of the Canal Grande. The Ponte dell'Accademia took us over.

Notice the shape of the windows.

There was the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute, which has a crazy design.

Inside the sacristy, there was a bunch of works by Titian.

We went to the Museo Correr, which is on the main Piazza, for a little while since it came with our Palazzo tickets. It had some cool stuff in it.

Afterward, we made a quick stop at an internet cafe, and then wandered north through the Cannaregio district.

The Jewish ghetto is there, and they do their part to keep Venice famous for its glasswork.

As the evening game, we stopped home for a shower so that we could be presentable for dinner for a change. We had reservations (!) at a really good vegetarian place nearby, and it did not disappoint.

We picked up some cherries and cookies and enjoyed both in the square near home. Joe was up to his usual mischief.

The following day, we started off with the Museo Storico Navale, down near the Arsenale.

Another leaning tower on the way. The naval museum has artifacts from Venice's entire naval history and was pretty sweet.

Captured swords.

These are big rings by which Venice would "marry" the sea.

And who knew that gondolas aren't symmetrical? They're designed that way to account for the rower working on one side.

From there, we took a water bus (vaporetti, how cool of a word is that) to the nearby island of Murano, which has been the heart of Venice's glass industry ever since the glassmakers were moved there to avoid burning down the entire city. It's still basically what the entire island is geared toward.

Piazza San Marco (basilica, campanile, doge's palace), Piazzetta, and the little park from the water.

There was lots of crazy glasswork in each window, showcasing each artist's prowess. It was nice to walk around, looking in windows and getting a few things for ourselves.

We picked up some cheese, basil, tomatoes, and bread from the grocery store, which made a great picnic lunch by the water. This would be a recurring meal.

On the way back to the main city, we passed the Arsenale from the outside. These vaporetti operate on different colored and numbered lines, stopping fairly regularly, just like buses would in a normal city.

We hopped off back near the main Piazza and took the elevator (no stairs option!) up the campanile for a nice view of the city.

Unfortunately, not quite high enough to see all of the little canals separating the islands.

Amanda remembered getting and subsequently breaking one of these little cornstarch men being sold for one euro by countless people, so we picked one up as another travel buddy.

We hunted down the bakery Pasticceria Rizzardini to recharge with meringues and marmalade-filled Venetian doughnuts before making the trek back to our place. We recuperated for a bit and planned for the next day, when we would leave Venice for the long train across Northern Italy. We had dinner at a different place in our piazza, and it was another beautiful night.

It's kind of crazy that Venice even exists.

Florence

2011-08-15T17:39:00.000-04:00

The next morning, Day 15/June 21, was the first of our days dedicated to Florence. And Florence was dedicated largely to museums.

We crossed the river over the Ponte Vecchio, which is a famous medieval bridge and was close to our hostel. It still has stores on it, as in the old days. However, back in the day the bridge was used for butcher shops. Those made way for jewelry stores once a certain ruler became fed up with all the carcasses and the stench.

First on the list was going to the Uffizi, one of the largest and oldest art museums in the world. We did a pretty good job of beating the worst of the line.

It was originally a palace built for the Medici family, which ruled Florence for most of the Renaissance. It holds numerous famous works, including Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, and many works by da Vinci, Titian, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, and many others.

The piazza outside is adorned with statues of Florence's best and brightest. And the Ninja Turtles.

The nearby Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall but famous for its Romanesque crenelation. It sits on Piazza della Signoria, which isscattered with great statues, and is where Michelangelo's David originally stood guard.

For lunch, we got sandwiches from I Due Fratellini, a sandwich shop that's been open since 1875.

I had a wild boar and butter sandwich. It was delicious.

From there, we headed to the central square for the mammoth duomo, but were dismayed to find the line equally gargantuan in size.

And, unlike other places, there was no way to purchase tickets ahead of time. Having seen our fair share of churches already and wanting to have time to do many other things, we ended up passing on the interior.

We did climb the adjacent bell tower, which offered great views.

Afterward, we headed back over the river to the Palazzo Pitti (a family rival to the Medicis), which was just across the street from our hostel. Its large garden complex, the Giardino di Boboli, was nice to check out with our combined ticket from the Uffizi.

This an unfinished state of Michelangelo that is used to great effect in a man-made grotto, where all of the figures appear to be emerging from the walls.

This is simply one of the best statues known in the Western world.

After Pitti, we walked along the river and up the hill to the Piazza di Michelangelo, which overlooks the city.

There was one of several copies of Michelangelo's David in the square that we would find throughout Florence.

Nearby the square was a hidden gem, the Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte.

There was hardly anyone there, and the atmosphere inside was very nice and dimly lit. As we wandered, Gregorian chants filled the air from a small service taking place. Quite nice.

This church, as with much of Florentine religious architecture, certainly started to show off trans-Mediterranean influences. The alternating marble colors remind me of the Arab influences in Cordoba and Granada in Spain.

We strolled down the hill, alongside the river again, taking in the streets and architecture. We managed to find an internet cafe for a brief check-in and had a great dinner not too far away. Our tip may have been too good, because we got a free half bottle of wine out of it.

That was followed by enjoying some gelato in Piazza Pitti. The nights were really pretty.

The following morning was our time to hit the other big museum, the Galleria Academia, which is most famous for housing Michelangelo's David. And it's quite the impressive statue. I didn't appreciate beforehand the intended message of David, with his sling and his stance, being a warning to Florence's potential aggressors.

The museum had several other statues by Michelangelo, a little exhibit on musical instruments, and a bunch of other interesting stuff.

We walked through the San Lorenzo marketplace, where you can buy anything you want, and saw the Basilica di San Lorenzo (from the outside) and went into the Cappella Medici (which, I suppose, is technically part of the basilica).

It celebrates the family's power, and inside is a impressive mix of artwork and beautiful marble.

From there, we cut over to the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, which is surrounded on all sides by old buildings and churches.

Nearby is the Mercato Centrale, an enormous indoors market with delicious looking food at every turn. We grabbed some lunch at Nerbone (since 1873), where I had really good meatballs.

We also went to the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, which is back up near the main train station. It has a very nice facade and is filled with frescoes and statuary. It also has a pretty cloister attached.

We swung back by the Mercato Novo, near the bridge over the river, to rub the snout of Il Porcellino. We are thereby ensured a return to Florence. You can tell that his snout sees a fair amount of action.

On the south side of the river is the small church of Santa Felicita, which contains some frescoes that Amanda studied in school. It's also one of the oldest churches in Florence.

Last on our list of churches was the Basilica di Santa Croce, where many famous Italians are buried (giving its other name, the Temple of the Italian Glories).

This is another one where I'd like to know the story:

After that, it was time to buy some pistachios and peaches for a snack while people-watching on a curb. That night we had a great meal of canelloni, salami and cheese, wine, and assorted biscotti. It was hard to go wrong with food in Florence.

The following morning, it was our plan to leave Florence right away in order to get to Venice. However, there wasn't a train scheduled until noon, so we used the extra time we had to go to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, another palace and museum that had been on our list if we had had the time. The guards there begrudgingly let us store our bags.

There was a very nice central courtyard, artwork, and some Roman excavations.

Of most note is the Cappella di Benozzo, which is a room with near 360 degree frescoes depicting the Three Magi and many other figures. Pictures weren't allowed, but there was a cool interactive room later on that traced your gestures with multiple cameras so that you could point out specific areas of the painting that you wanted to learn more about.

We had enough time to return to the Mercato Centrale to grab some ravioli, caprese, and salami for lunch on the train. With that, we hurried to the train station and hopped aboard for the next stop: Venice.

Pisa and Lucca

2011-08-11T16:31:00.000-04:00

That evening, we arrived in Florence. Thankfully it is a relatively compact city, so it didn't take long to get to our hostel, walking past its enormous duomo. We had dinner nearby and got to bed, because the following day we were actually doing a day trip out to Pisa and Lucca. Thankfully we learned back in the States that basically everything in Florence is closed on Mondays, so we were able to use that day for this side trip instead. So that morning we took the train over to Pisa and got there nice and early.

Side note - this is why Italy is in trouble:

But here's what you're looking for!

Definitely leaning. You can tell from this angle too that, once they realized it was leaning and only halfway done construction, they tried to build upward, giving it a slight curve.

Look to the post for what an upright structure should look like.

It was reassuring to have learned about Pisa's history as a strong maritime republic, and also nice to know that the Torre Pendente is only one of three cool buildings in the middle of town here. There's also the Battistero and the Duomo.

Climbing the tower was pretty cool.

And the steps are pretty worn down.

It feels like you're on a boat, because without windows your brain tries to make the level of the stairs its point of reference, but as you walk around the spiral staircase you alternatively feel pulled toward the center or pushed toward the outside.

And every once in a while when you pass a window and the horizon is not where your brain thinks it should be, your inner ear freaks out for a second.

After that, we got lunch nearby and tried to go to a good maritime museum a bit away from the center of town, but what we found appeared to be shuttered. Too bad.

With that, we hopped on a train back in the direction of Florence to Lucca.

Lucca is a good little Tuscan city that's famous for an intact city wall, one of the style that's significantly wider than it is tall. At some point, presumably after the defensive properties of the wall were moot, it was converted into a tree-lined path that offers nice views of the town and an easy way to get around. What's the best way to get around, you ask?

Tandem bicycle rental, without a doubt. We rode around for an hour, which was a lot of fun, and then walked into the city to see what we could see. We found yummy fruit and ate in one of the central piazzas.

And with that, we caught an evening train back to Florence and had dinner on the way back to our hostel.

They're keeping us safe from giant guinea pigs. I really like this style of building:

I'd been reading The Once and Future King so far this trip on Amanda's suggestion and was close to finishing, so I stayed up a little longer to finish. Tangentially, it's been very interesting afterward to read more about the circumstances in which it was written and published. And it's a very good book. Highly recommended.

Assisi

2011-08-10T11:31:00.000-04:00

The morning of Day 13, June 19, was a Sunday. This made the train schedules less frequent than we would have preferred. The plan was to have the day in Assisi on the way from Rome to Florence, and it ended up working out. We took a train to Foligno, where we had enough time to hike into town with our bags for a bite to eat and a bathroom. Then we were off to the town of Assisi, where we took a short bus from the train station.

Since it was a Sunday, the train station locker rooms weren't open, so we were carrying our packs. On a whim, we asked one of the young workers at a cafe near the town bus stop if there was any chance we could leave our bags there for a few hours. We had planned on how much we were willing to offer for compensation, but it didn't even get to that. With one look and an of-course head nod, he put our bags in their storage cellar. A literal big weight off of our backs. Goes to show: never hurts to ask.

Assisi was the birthplace of St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan order, and the town and surrounding area exude his influence.

The Basilica di San Francesco is relatively modest, compared to what you would find in larger cities, but very pretty. It is separated into upper and lower parts, and beneath it is the Crypt of St. Francis, which I found nicely lit and very meditative. No pictures, and the pictures online don't do it justice.

The town itself is filled with old buildings and windy roads.

We climbed up to the main castle, Rocca Maggiore, which served to protect/subjugate the town throughout the ages. Periodically, the town would rise up and destroy the castle, the ruling lord would promise improvements and not to rebuild, and a few decades later the castle would be rebuilt.

The surrounding Umbrian countryside is beautiful. It was a calm and peaceful day.

I couldn't help but think of my Capri friend when we ran into this pack of guys. They were very busy taking pictures of each other in completely serious model poses, looking at the results, and then making suggestions for the next picture on hand placement, sunglasses, etc.

Bros will be bros.

After some time at the castle and wandering around the city, it was time to hop on a bus back to the train station to make sure we didn't miss the next leg of our journey.

Back at the cafe, we picked up our bags and bought a few snacks as thanks.

Rome

2011-08-09T15:50:00.000-04:00

Day 10, we woke up at the crack of dawn the following morning for a long trip back up the coast to Rome. We took the SITA back to Sorrento, the Circumvesuviana back to Naples, and Trenitalia to Rome. All in all, not too bad, and we had dropped our stuff off at the hostel and were hitting the pavement around noon.

Bam! It was a quick walk to the Colosseum, and the guidebook proved its worth by recommending going to the Palatine/Roman Forum first as the only ticket is combined and the lines at the latter nearly nonexistent. Thanks, Lonely Planet.

Emperors are fans of victory arches. There are no less than three monumental ones within a mile of each other in Rome.

The Palatine was cool, especially for two closet archaeology and history nerds. It was hard to imagine how everything must have looked back in the day. Wikipedia has a nice picture of what this area was like in the Imperial era:

Things are pretty thoroughly ruined.

Especially the Circus Maximus.

It's crazy to think how advanced the planning and infrastructure was. Quite the engineers. And like most old European cities, the original plan and scope of Rome have been obfuscated by centuries of history.

The Colosseum was originally covered in shining marble. And they could hold mock naval battles inside. And the opening ceremony back in 80 A.D. lasted 100 days, and conservative estimates place the number of animals killed during that period at 6,000.

The Catholic Church has tried to make the Colosseum somewhat a symbol to Christian martyrdom, although apparently no systematic killing of Christians has been documented there. One Christian who was most definitely (or not) martyred there was Saint Telemachus who, in 404 A.D., rushed onto the field during an event, imploring people to stop. The enraged crowd stoned him to death. Lesson: don't do that.

After that, we went to the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli to see Michelangelo's Moses.

Moses was originally part of what was supposed to be a much larger tomb decoration for Pope Julius II, but then they ran out of money. Michelangelo depicted him with two horns, which is based on the Biblical translation of Moses descending from Mount Sinai ("horns" are probably more accurately "rays of light", which is how Moses is often depicted in painting, or even simply "haloed"). Horns were a symbol of power back in the day, so that probably helped too.

This church also has the chains in which Saint Peter was supposedly bound.

From there, we walked around to try to get a good view of the Colosseum as the sun began to set.

We walked down to the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, which is one of the most garish monuments imaginable.

I like his hat plume.

Nearby is the Capitoline Hill, whose present configuration is thanks to Michelangelo.

The only reason this statue of Marcus Aurelius survived medieval Christian destroyathons is that people used to think it depicted Constantine. Because of that, it's the only intact bronze statue of a pre-Christian Roman emperor. Lucky break!

We continued along the road to the Teatro di Marcello, which is very impressive.

These ruins were incorporated into a church wall. Better than nothing, I suppose.

From there, we found the synagogue in what is now a very nice looking part of town.

And close to there is the Bocca della Verita, which will bite off your hand if for some reason you decide to tell a lie while placing your hand in its mouth.

We crossed the river into the Trastevere neighborhood to find some dinner.

After that was a long search for a particular gelateria, but it was so worth it because they had rice flavors. Rome is a nice city for night strolling anyway.

The following morning confirmed that I had a little cold, but there's no time for that in Rome. Thankfully, with some vitamin I, it would only last a day or two. This was our day for the Vatican (thank you, pre-booked tickets), so we took the metro over there after a quick and increasingly normal-feeling Italian breakfast at a nearby cafe.

The Vatican museums have so much stuff, it's a little crazy. At least someone was saving a tiny fraction of ancient art and sculpture.

The buildings themselves are beautiful.

Laocoön and His Sons, getting owned.

The Belvedere Torso.

Paganism pushed aside. Metaphor for Rome, hmm?

Lots of frescoes by Raphael, who is an absolute beast. Michelangelo is a good painter too, don't get me wrong, but there's a clear first place here. Besides, I'm sure that Michelangelo was a better painter than Raphael would have been sculpting.

The School of Athens.

Haha, Botero. Yes, they have some modern stuff too.

The Sistine Chapel is pretty breathtaking. Absolutely every surface is covered with a different story. Michelangelo overall paints like a sculptor, with people tending to look like muscly sacks of potatoes. He may be playing some anatomical games as well; I can't see anything but a brain now in The Creation of Adam.

There's good ol' Moses with rays of light instead of horns.

After the museums, we went to St. Peter's Square and his Basilica, which are both impressive. The square was adorned with remembrances from Pope John Paul II's life, and throughout our trip we saw lots of homages to the former pope. The current pope, not as much.

Michelangelo's Pieta.

This is a very large building.

We could have spent another hour waiting in line to climb the dome, but we were hungry and had other things to do.

We walked by the Castel Sant'Angelo on the way to lunch. Its first use was as Hadrian's mausoleum. We got some groceries and ate in Piazza Navona, where the Fountain of Neptune and Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers are, among others.

From there, we hunted down some Raphaels and Caravaggios in the nearby Basilica di Sant'Agostino. I didn't know anything about Caravaggio before this trip and can say that he was a good find.

There are numerous paintings throughout this trip that must have a great story behind them:

Following the Caravaggio vein, we went to Chiesa di San Luigi dei Francesci for three additional paintings. The Calling of St Matthew might be my favorite.

At that point, we went to the Pantheon, which is a pretty incredible building. Thankfully, I suppose, it was Christianized at some point, which is why it still exists.

Then it was over to the Piazza della Minerva for Bernini's adorable little Elefantino.

Finally, we went to the Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva for Michelangelo's Christ with the Cross.

With that, we went back to the hostel where I rested for a bit and Amanda got some laundry done. We went for dinner nearby, which helped to rejuvenate me, and had a bit of limoncello afterward. We went for a nice stroll with some gelato (because what else are Italian nights for?) before turning in for the night. Whew.

The following day we were out and about early again because we had to get all the way to the south of Rome for Via Appia Antica, one of the oldest roads still in use. It took a little bit to find since we didn't have a map of the area, but we passed through the Porta San Sebastiano to exit the 3rd century Aurelian Wall of Rome and kept going.

We found the Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis along the way, which is built at the spot where St. Peter, fleeing Rome, had a vision of Jesus walking in the opposite direction. Peter asked Jesus where he was going, and Jesus responded that he was going to Rome to be crucified again. Peter decided to turn around and return to Rome, where he was promptly killed.

He was not killed in a friendly fashion.

These are Jesus's footprints.

Further down the road, we came across the Catacombs of San Callisto, which were really cool. They were the first all-Christian catacombs outside Rome, although apparently the stories of secret meetings there are myths: Rome knew where they were and wanted them to bury their dead, just not worship. Something like 500,000 people are buried in Rome's catacombs.

The catacombs are immense and deep. They've also been built into each other as they've expanded in all directions. A lot of early Christian art has been found in them, and it was interesting to learn that originally they would have been substantially better lit than today by means of light shafts, most of which have been closed to better preserve the catacombs. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos.

It was a very pretty area and a great place for a picnic lunch. From there, we walked back toward town and swung by the Terme di Caracalla, an enormous public baths complex from the 3rd century.

Again, it's hard to imagine how different it looked during its heyday. Multiple floors, sculptures in every niche, mosaic floors, complex hydraulics, and enough capacity to serve 6,000 people a day.

After that, we got back into the city.

We stumbled across what turned out to be a very important church, the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. This is the Pope's seat in Rome and is one of four Papal Basilicas.

Jonah wants out of that whale.

Nearby is the Sancta Sanctorum and the Scala Santa, which are supposedly the steps from Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem that Jesus once climbed. Somehow the turned up in the 4th century and were brought to Rome, according to legend. Miraculous!

You get points from the Catholic Church for climbing them on your knees.

We then took the metro to find the Capuchin monks' Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, which is one of the strangest places you'll ever be. Again, no photos allowed, so have fun Google imaging it, but here's a sneak peak:

Someone thought it would be a great idea to decorate the crypt, containing 4,000 friars, with the friars' bones. The bones are sorted by type and arranged to make intricate patterns throughout six rooms, and here and there are skeletons still in their monk garb just hanging out.

The Catholic Church insists that it's not meant to be macabre, but I have a hard time believing that a well-balanced group of individuals thought that this would be a good and godly idea.

After that experience, we walked over to the Spanish Steps. They were preparing for some sort of performance, so there wasn't as much to see, but it was a good point to relax. Coca-Cola, I don't know what it is, but a Coke can be just about the most refreshing thing possible.

From there, we walked down through the edge of the Villa Borghese down to the Piazza del Popolo, which features another nice obelisk.

The nearby Chiesa di Santa Maria in Popolo had two very nice Caravaggios, including The Conversion on the Way to Damascus.

We strolled down the Via del Corso, with lots of shops and performers.

There was a very intricate column that used to hold Marcus Aurelius but appears to have been Christianized.

And from there we went to the Fontana di Trevi, which is enormous and very impressive.

We had dinner off of the Piazza del Parlamento, which was delicious.

The place was owned by a guy who had lived in California for a while before returning to Rome. We finished it off with gelato from Gelateria Giolitti, which is apparently the Pope's favorite.

And with that, we finished off Rome with a lovely walk back to the hostel, stopping of course at a fruit stand. Clearly, Rome could take up weeks, but I'd say we did a very good job with the time we had.

Amalfi Coast

2011-08-05T15:20:00.001-04:00

(Here's where a map starts to become handy)

So we hopped back on the Circumvesuviana and took it to Sorrento, the end of the line. From there, we got on the first of many SITA buses that we would take the next several days. It was a great ride, even though it took over an hour longer than expected. It reminded me some of a couple careening bus rides I did in the mountains of Catalonia after study abroad.

The coast, however, made this particularly dramatic.

We eventually arrived in downtown Amalfi, figured out the bus to take up to a road near our guesthouse, and climbed down from the road.

Despite the late hour we were greeted with a glass of blood red orange juice, which really hit the spot. It was a nice, small place, and they had overbooked, so we were in their suite for all but one night. Not a bad break.

For dinner, we wandered to find a place that the guesthouse owner told us about, but stumbled into La Taberna instead for what turned out to be a full five course meal. We were one of two couples there, so we got a good amount of attention in broken English from the owner. She was a good Southern Italy nationalist and made sure to point out a document on the wall asserting that Southern Italy was much more rich than North before unification.

That's four different kinds of meat right there. The opening bruschetta was killer, wine was flowing. I was satiated. The owner brought over some homemade cherry liquor to finish the meal off. We stumbled home and collapsed.

Day 7, June 13th started relatively early with breakfast on the patio looking out to the sea. Downtown, we got a map of hikes in the surrounding area with the aim to do the well-known Walk of the Gods. We managed to figure out the SITA to get us to nearby Bomerano (Agerola on the map), the starting point, and set off.

The path was beautiful and, considering that it went mostly alongside cliffs rather than up and down, not very strenuous.

Pictures, of course, don't do justice to the scale of things. You can see some boats down there, though.

That's a perfectly fine place to build a house, and I won't hear any more of it.

After a few hours, the trail ended in Novello. We then descended to Positano, like Amalfi a well-known shore town and one of the favorites for your insanely sunburnt, designer sunglasses, Captain Morgan tourists.

It's insanely pretty, though. We walked around, hung out on the beach, and had the first of what would be many gelato breaks. So good.

We made our way back to Amalfi by SITA and, before too long, it was dinnertime. This night we did manage to find the original recommendation, Gerry's Pub. The food was good, and the handful of middle-aged Anglo tourists there were amusing.

When it was time for bed, we asked the server who wasn't Gerry for the check. Gerry, for the last while, had been setting up some sound equipment and a keyboard on the patio. We were told by the server that Gerry was just going to play a few songs and then we could have our check. It seemed like a strange stipulation, but sure, we're not going to push.

Gerry proceeded to play piano and croon some classics like That's Amore and at least one Frank Sinatra piece over a prerecorded backing track. It became clear what Gerry really had wanted to do when he grew up. It was bizarre but entertaining to be held hostage while the owner played some songs, and frankly I'd like to see that idea extended into other businesses. "Hold on, before we end this meeting, I'm just going to pull out my guitar, lock this door, and play you some things I've been working on".

Anyway, that was fun.

The next day started similarly to the day before. After breakfast, we went downtown to figure out how to get to Capri, playground of the emperors, and planned that for the following day. We relaxed on the beach and swam a bit before filling out a first batch of postcards over lunch. We also established that Italy does not accept my debit card at ATMs. Good thing I had a travel buddy!

I should mention that throughout our stay in Amalfi, there was periodically loud celebratory cannon fire that would reverberate down the coast and into the mountains. We were there during the time of the Regata delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare, which is a big competition between Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, and Venice. Amalfi crossed first, so we thought they were celebrating in style. Well, we thought it was for that, until I read that there was no winner this year, so now I'm just as lost as you.

Despite some afternoon rain, we went for another good hike, this time from the nearby town of Atrani straight up to Ravello. Nothing like endless stairs to get a good quad workout.

No weather can dampen our spirits, and the views were still incredible.

After hiking back down to Atrani, we grabbed dinner at a restaurant associated with the guesthouse (more pizza, mmm). Dinner ended with a complementary enormous cannoli for two, and we did not complain.

In the morning, we were up early to catch the first high-speed ferry to Capri, as well as our bus tickets for the following day's departure from Amalfi.

Seeing the coast from the water was pretty great.

These are the rocks from which the sirens called to Odysseus.

There's our guesthouse!

Capri itself is very impressive but also very expensive and touristy, more so than the mainland. After exploring the main town, we set out to try to get to a castle on top of one of the peaks of the island, continuing one of the themes of our trip: wanting to climb to a tall place everywhere we went. We couldn't quite get to the castle, but did stumble across amazing views of the other side of the island.

After heading back down, we figured out buses to the Grotta Azzurra. We had heard that it was pretty cool, but questioned all the excitement around it.

Despite it being a hugely overpriced racket, it is still pretty cool to be inside.

Doing it again, we'd probably find a different grotto.

From there, we decided to walk all the way back to the town, which brought us by some cool stuff.

This church floor was pretty cool.

Until the ferry that would take us back to the mainland, we hung out on the beach, where I swam some and Amanda napped. I also played fashion photographer...

When we first arrived at the beach, I noticed without interest who I assumed to be a friend taking a couple pictures of this Indian guy in front of the water. A few minutes later, however, the "friend" was gone and the Indian guy was asking me if I could take some pictures of him.

Sure, I said. First I'll take some with my shirt off, then I will wet my shirt and put it on, and you will take some more, he said. ...Sure, I said, sensing that I had stumbled into a hilarious moment. The guy proceeded to do, completely earnestly, his best bad-ass and model shots, shirt off, then wet shirt on, being true to his word. I was just riding the wave and playing along, taking close ups, framing shots differently, with more than a pinch of Will Ferrell-style hamming it up that was lost on the subject.

When he paused to wet his shirt, I accidentally made eye contact with a thoroughly amused couple watching from a distance, who probably saw him start with his first "friend", and it took all of my concentration not to break character and burst out laughing. After twelve or so shots, we parted ways, and I was so pleased that Amanda had surreptitiously captured the experience. My only regret is not exchanging email addresses so that I could have some of the pure gold I captured. Oh, and then he came back and wanted some pictures with his designer "specs". Who could say no?

When it was time, we picked up some groceries, snacked on the pier, and took the ferry back to the mainland. Overall, Capri was nice, but I wouldn't put it on my must-see list. I suppose it's a testament to the rest of the trip that Capri would be relatively uninspiring.

There were some imposing clouds for the afternoon and a brief sprinkle. What did that give us? DOUBLE RAINBOW.

And I have to say, a dinner of yogurt and cereal that evening on the patio hit the spot.

Herculaneum and Pompeii

2011-08-01T19:02:00.012-04:00

The best part about a beautiful long weekend in Maine followed by a 5 hour delay at the airport? Plenty of time to write.

-

Our whirlwind day through Naples left us in good shape for the rest of the trip. The following morning, we took the Circumvesuviana local train from Naples toward Sorrento, gateway to the Amalfi Coast. That route allowed us to catch both Herculaneum and Pompeii along the day.

Herculaneum is better preserved than its more famous cousin, being closer to Mount Vesuvius. You can still see original wooden beams from 79 AD. Since it wasn't discovered until fairly recently, the town isn't as fully excavated, however, due to the modern city of Ercolano sitting on top of it.

These places were for lunch.

All of the frescoes that survived are pretty amazing.

Interestingly enough, Herculaneum is the site of many of the first physical remains of Romans since otherwise they were often cremated. Most of the bodies were found on the shore; people were able to flee from the town but had nowhere to go. An underground tunnel from the town to the shore provided quick access, but unfortunately the chimney effect took its toll.

After a few hours, we had to move on to make sure that we had enough time for Pompeii, the next stop on the journey.

Pompeii is enormous. The sheer scale of the city was very impressive. Although a major earthquake seventeen before the large eruption drove much of the population away, it was still very much a functioning urban center at the time of the disaster.

There was a stadium, big amphitheater, necropolis, and much more.

We easily could have spent a few more hours, but unfortunately we had to be in Amalfi before too late to make sure that we could get into our hostel.

Naples

2011-07-24T12:51:00.000-04:00

Landing in Naples, we hopped on a bus to the rail station and found our hostel without much difficulty thanks to a fruit vendor still out and about late at night. I’m sure the many ladies of the night patrolling the area would have been just as helpful. Regardless, we got to our room, shrugged off our bags, and got to sleep in preparation of a blitz the following day.

Day 5 (6/11) marked our first day in Italy. It started off in a proper way with grabbing a cappuccino and croissant at a nearby cafe, gulping both down in a handful of minutes while standing at the bar. The idea was Italian even if the speed wasn’t. With that, guidebook in hand, we set off to get what we could out of our single day in Naples.

It took us a little bit of time to orient ourselves, but in the process managed to find an interesting church tucked away that also had a bathroom. Hurray!

We doubled back and found the duomo, which was hosting a wedding at the time.

From there, we set off to find a bevy of other churches. First was the Chiesa Santa Maria delle Anime Purgatorio Ad Arco, which you could easily pass by without noticing. It was the center of a particular cult of purgatory in Naples that, although is officially banned, appears still to be practiced. Lots of skulls and other symbols of death.

In the Piazza San Domenico Maggiore area, there were several churches. We saw one baroque church that may have been San Paolo Maggiore. That was before successfully finding the Capella Sansevero, home of the Veiled Christ, famous for its verisimilitude.

The Piazza de Gesu Novo has two facing churches. First was the Basilica de Santa Chiara, whose interior decoration clearly has not survived as well as others.

Opposite that was the Chiesa de Gesu Novo with interesting pyramidal texturing on the facade.

It's really crazy how big these churches are, and the fact that they used to be filled with people. Nowadays, practically the only people in any of the churches that we saw over this month were tourists. Sometimes a church would still have a little chapel area cordoned off for services, but largely churches are museums. I imagine there is a good amount of argument over what to possibly do with all of these buildings that no longer are needed for their original purpose.

We had our first pizza for lunch that day. Let's say it lived up to expectations.

So, by the way, does Naples's reputation for trash collection.

From there, we wandered down toward the harbor to see the Castel Nuovo.

Like most fortifications, it's been rebuilt and redesigned several times. Excavations were under way to examine the Roman fort that originally stood there.

It started to rain, but that doesn't deter people like us. We hid here for a second, and thankfully the storm passed before too long.

We headed up the hill by funicular to Piazza Fuga and ate cherries. Nearby is the star-shaped Castel Sant'Elmo, which holds an art museum and is a great place for views of the entire city.

And looking toward the harbor (yes, that's an aircraft carrier).

Also up there is the Certosa di San Martino, formerly a monastery and home to some beautiful spaces and art.

This one felt particularly real because of the figures stepping out of the frame. There are complicated wooden mosaics and some incredible old dioramas made with intricate little figures too.

From there, daylight was fading, so there was nothing left to do but take a long walk back down to the town and find a pizza place.

That, and stop to look at a couple adorable strays being fed by a couple helpful people.

Mmmmm food time for all.