WE ARE ALIVE!

Hey sports fans,

We unfortunately didnt have internet when in Cinque Terre as you can tell by our absence on the blog :( We do have them typed on our laptop with many many pictures and were really excited to send out the blogs from our visit to Vatican City, and our 2 days in Cinque Terre. Unfortunately the wifi doesnt work in the hostel. Just our luck. Although they do have computers for us to connect with life back home, we don't have the time or patience to retype the post. If we can get to an internet cafe we will connect the laptop and post.

If not, see you in 3 days!

xo Heather and Janelle

Rome: Roads Well Traveled

We highly recommend you watch the new season of Jersey Shore for a thoughtful commentary on the role of diction and imported goods that has influenced the development of local food specialties in the Tuscan region.  Kidding. BUT you should watch it if you have too many brain cells and you can afford to lose a few for a glimpse of the tantalizing pizzeria we dined at. Like the classy backpackers we are we ordered our pizzas to go and sat on the curb to devour an entire pizza each. Janelle ordered the Pauly D’s Pizza with spicy salami and Heather stuck to the original margherita pizza. Alexandra’s choice did not disappoint the taste buds. With full mouths and pizza sauce all over our face and hands, we still managed to draw attention from talkative Italian boys who were quite surprised when they realized Ally understood their Italian. We knew there was a reason to keep her around!

After dinner we put on our faces and dancing shoes (finally we got to use the heels we packed!), and had a moment of bliss with the girls’ hair straightener. We shared some drinking games (Tourettes, Dutch Die, and Electricity) and “enjoyed” our boxes of 1.10 Euro wine (we only settle for the best boxed wine). We made our way to an outdoor club Ally had raved about only to find it was merely a park. Closed for the season? Did they not know we were coming?!

Figure 183

Rather than making our own party we went to an establishment known as SPACE. Canadian bars had not prepared us for the potent men and drinks the bar served. We let Stacey do her thing at karaoke and we managed to get into the VIP section and away from the flocks of Italians. Survival of the fittest at its finest.

The next morning we made the most of the hotel’s breakfast (aka stuffed our backpack with as many non-perishable items as we could) before boarding the train. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words (Figure 183)

Roman Forum (top) Colosseum (bottom)

Our hostel in Rome was fortunately only 152 steps from the train station so we dropped our packs and wasted no time before sight seeing. Holy tourist town. We checked out the Colosseum and almost got suckered in to a tour, or waiting in line. Heather’s impatience and detective skills proved to be of great use as we decided to find a faster way to buy our tickets. We bought them at the Roman Forum where there was a wait of -1.3 seconds and laughed maliciously at the mindless schools of tourists that wasted 3+ hours more than we did.

Rome: 0. Blonde Canadians: 1.

After admitting that we didn’t have our tourist legs on for the day (we probably left them in Space) we went in search of gelato and then stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain. No wonder that gelato was awful – it was a stone’s throw away from the fountain, and had ice cream cones for garbage cans. We didn’t think there could be such thing but there definitely can.  Rome 1. Canadian Blondes: 1.

We got an ego boost from the whistles we received while walking the streets, so didn’t have to eat our feelings. However we did anyway with a snack at the hostel before our nap. Re-energized we ventured off to the Spanish steps to take in a few more sights of the city before calling it a night.

Spanish Steps

Dear Rome,

You are impressive and much older and wiser than ourselves. We will see you in the morning.

Love, Heather and Janelle

Spanish Steps

With a good night’s sleep under our belts we ate breakfast at the hostel (chocolate crispy cereal was offered once again!) and then braved the crowds and sun in the Colosseum. We couldn’t help be think of how exciting it would be to be at one of the gladiator matches and have decided the next movie we watch will have to be Gladiator. We maxed out the volume and recordings on our audio guide before we called it quits and moved on to something just as ancient. The Roman Forum was impressive and thankfully not as packed as the Colosseum. The age of the ruins is profound and the impact they have is simply untouchable.

Trevi Fountain

We also visited the Pantheon and had lunch in Piazza Navona overlooking the stunning fountains, artists and pigeons. We went in search of a breeze and settled for the river lined with open air markets and more imposing buildings. Good thing we are always carrying our camera because you never know when a Kodak-moment will hit you. We put our maps away and decided we would just explore for a bit. “Do you want to walk towards that big building thing?” “Sure, why not?” And that’s how we arrived at the Vatican City. We apologize if we offended anyone and assure you we are adequately educated individuals. We decided that it was too late in the day to stand in the lines and will return tomorrow bright and early. We might even attend mass at 8:30 tomorrow morning!

Pantheon

St. Peter's at the end

Our evening thus far has consisted of wine of the 7.90euro selection rather than the 1.00euro, and will soon be made whole by a visit to La Carbonara a restaurant recommendation made to us by Caitlin and Heidi (our Canadian friends from Paris). Perhaps a stop to a local bar will cap off the relaxed evening. Talk to you soon, our hungry stomachs are calling! PIctures to come soon, the internet is slower than our patience can handle.

Florence: An Amazing Taste of Tuscany

This has probably been one of the highlights of the trip. I think this post needs to be savoured like some of the wine we have had so far. Sip by sip, letting the rich flavour spread across your body and seep into your mind until you can't contain it any longer and have to let out your inner Mona Lisa. Here comes the poetic painting brush, so sit back and hopefully our description of the past two days will allow you to enjoy our experience of Florence as much as we have.

We arrive after a short and sweet train ride and check into our hotel which is conveniently located next to the train station. Unfortunately Heather booked the reservation for August 1st instead of the 9th and 10th, so we were lucky to get a room at a good price. No sleeping on the streets for us! Well worth it for the location, air conditioned climate, breakfast spread, and fact that our friends are staying at the same place. We dropped off our packs before we reunited with Heather's high school friends Alexandra and Stacey. They are also traveling with a great girl named Tamara, so we have expanded our posse to five Canadian girls who have traveled the world over. Alexandra has been doing an internship near Florence all summer so she was the perfect tour guide for the city. Her fluent Italian is an amazing bonus! Making reservations, grabbing taxis, talking to locals, deciphering the menus, and simply being able to bridge the language barrier we have is handier than Janelle's new Swiss Army knife.

We went on a whirlwind tour of Florence stopping into some of the amazing churches (with our shawls to cover our shoulders). We went into Santa Maria Novello, San Lorenzo, and Santa Croce where Galileo, Michelangelo, Rossino, Machiavelli, and Dante are buried. Intensely high ceilings, walls covered with what remains of vast paintings, and light that streams through beautiful stained glass walls. Truly breathtaking cathedrals.

We also stopped by the Duomo, walked across Ponte Vecchio, and admired the replica of Michelangelo's David that stands where the original once did (now inside Academia which had a line we did not want to wait in). We appeased our stomachs with fresh sandwiches and amazing gelato. What have we been eating until now?! Probably not a great idea to eat such delicious food as there is a chance we could turn into gelato snobs. Oh wait, that probably won't happen. We'll take just about any gelato you feed us! After touring several churches, and side stepping the pigeons and tourist groups, we caught up on each others' lives as the Italians would: over wine. After some of the house wine we caught cabs up to the best view of town. We stepped inside San Miniato Church which overlooks all of Florence, and were hypnotized by the sound of chanting monks. We sat and listened to their beautiful, deep voices and got lost in their faith and song.

We snapped some photos with the unbelievable backdrop before walking down to dinner. Delicious meals were shared between our group: seafood pasta, traditional soups, ZaZa's salad, white beans, and bruschetta. We couldn't even finish our salad, which is saying something! After dinner we walked to an international summer festival where we chatted with vendors and admired shiny things.

This morning we woke and devoured a great continental breakfast at the hotel. Scrambled eggs? YES PLEASE! Cereal, granola, yogurt, watermelon, coffee and croissants. Heck yes! We then headed off to catch our ride into the gorgeous Tuscan Valley. Our guide/employee for the day turned out to be quite the music junkie, supplying us with great hits from Blink 182 to LMFAO to entertain us on our journey. Rolling through the country side, he stopped multiple times to let us out for "peecture tyyyme" to capture some shots along the way. Unfortunately our pictures don't quite do it justice.

About an hour or so later we ended up at the ranch where we slipped on some riding shoes, slapped on our sunscreen and got directer towards our muscular stallions who were to sweep us off our feet and guide us around for the afternoon (sadly these were not hunky men like you may be thinking). Janelle was feeling a little anxious, as she has never really ridden a horse before, however, to her great relief she was given the grandmother of the bunch who was blind in one eye (24 years old). Heather, a more experienced rider, was introduced to her stud of a horse who was equivalent to the grandson of Janelle's (a 7 year old with a good deal of spunk). We then rode off into the Tuscan Valley with our horses and we vowed never to return. All you need is love, wine and great conversation right? Done. So, as we sit here in an abandoned house on the countryside (where we luckily scored some free wifi) we are debating whether we actually brought enough wine to enjoy each others' company for much longer. KIDDING - if we haven't gotten sick of one another thus far, we are in the clear.

The hour and a half horseback ride turned out to be quite relaxing as we marched in single file, with some occasional horse back kicks and potty breaks. We made it back in one piece minus our sore tushes. Thankfully they had wine waiting for us on our return. Following our departure from the ranch they brought us to rustic little square that housed a few restaurants and shops, enclosed by what looked like a castle wall. We enjoyed some great bruschetta, cheese, bread, olive oil and prosciutto, followed by some delicious Italian pastas of gnocchi with ground meat, and tomato spaghetti. All followed by panna cotta with wild berries for dessert and a wine tasting! Amazing and everything only for 110 Euro. We definitely recommend :)

We are now about to grab some pizza at one of Alexandra's favourite joints, also made famous by recent Jersey Shore season (fist pump!), then come back and strap on our dancing shoes and dresses for a night on the town. Supposedly we are going to Central Park where they have an outdoor club to rave about. As long as they have great music and a dancefloor, these girls are set!

As the internet here is quite slow, we will post some pictures tomorrow when we get to Roma. Ciao for now!

Venice: Regaining Our Apetite for Adventure

Have no fear, we are both alive and well. Apologies for the two days without an update. Get ready for a swift summary of our last day in Interlaken and our time in Venice.

Beautiful Lake Brienz

After Heather came down with a virus, likely the same, we decided that canyoning would not be as much fun when you already feel like you want to die. Luckily Heather did not seem to have it as bad as Janelle did, or perhaps because she didn't try to eat or drink anything (lesson learned from the first incident) she wasn't as sick. She resembled a sloth for a good part of the day. Good thing Janelle didn't fall from a tree and need to be rescued! Nap on the hostel couch. Walk around town and take breaks. Attempt jumping photos. Nap on grass. Buy food for lunch. Attempt to eat soup, but briskly wave your white flag when your stomach charges again. Retreat to hostel couch to nap again. Wake up and switch couches. Nap another hour. Wake up and hear stories of how one person had been airlifted out of the canyons after breaking his ankle, a girl had crashed her moped and injured her hip, another person fell off their bike and ripped up the side of his face, and a final guy had smashed his chin canyoning. Maybe it was a good thing Heather had no energy to go canyoning (because we all know Janelle would have been one of those casualties)!

Poor attempts at timed jump shots

The Boys skipping stones.

Heather awoke to a note Janelle had left saying "I've gone for a walk, see you in a bit!" and soon joined Janelle with some new friends from Georgia Tech who are studying for a semester in Oxford. They had gone to visit beautiful Lake Brienz, one of the lakes of Interlaken (literally translated to mean "between lakes") and took some pictures to send home to mom. We celebrated one guy's birthday at Hooters (Yes, they have Hooters in Interlaken) before going out to the bar at our hostel. We decided that a good dose of dancing was just the treatment to kick the sickness, and got sweatier than RMC boys at Stages "Beach Slam". We got a few hours of sleep before waking up at 4:45am to make our early train to Venice. It was smooth sailing, but quite the long journey. We left Interlaken at 5:26am and arrived in Venice at 3:05pm. It feels a little like we've been living on the trains! We are so thankful that tomorrow's train to Florence is only 2 hours. Piece of cake!

When we arrived in Venice we followed directions to the hotel, which were misleading as Venice has the fewest streets signs and most convoluted streets. We stopped into a random hotel to ask for directions and a map, per favore! Much better! We then began the long walk along the main street of Venice (~ 30 minutes down narrow and over-crowded with people), only stopping temporarily under a store canopy to avoid the downpour of rain. We caught a bit of the shower before we were able to check in and take a proper one in our air-conditioned (WOOO!) hotel room. Well-priced and well worth it!

Our appetites slowly gained their strength and we have helped to fuel them with some pizza, fresh fruit smoothies, and gelato! We tried to make our way to a pizza joint that promised good food as Venice is known for having poor food at high prices, even by non-foodie standards. However that was simply too hard to find for our hungry, tired selves (Hungry Janelle = grumpy. Tired Heather = grumpy. Combination = Not likely to be friends when we return to Canada) and we settled for some pizza and house wine at a small snackbar. Perfecto!

Pizze and wine :)

Delicious Gelato

To-die-for smoothies

Taking the advice our mom's and pseudo-mom's had given us, we stayed in to rest and watched "Letter's to Juliet." A perfect tale of love in Italy with just enough plot to keep us awake but not make us think. Then we crashed for a solid 12 hours of bliss.

Dear Air-Conditioning, 
You were great last night. Keep up the good work. 
Sincerely, H Sizzle and J Tizzle.

Clock tower

Outside the Basilica

A picture we sneaked in at the museum

Today we started out with a natural kick of fruit smoothies to get our mojo going and help us navigate the streets and crowds to Piazza San Marco. From the top of St. Mark's Clock Tower we took in breath-taking views of the city, and caught a nice breeze to cool us off. We explored more of Venice's labyrinths and made our way to Palazzo Grassi. This is a contemporary art museum with displays of works that made you think. We also checked out Santa Maria del Salute, one of the most beautiful churches in Venice, and then took an AquaBus as a budget version of the gondola. Completely different. Probably not comparable in the slightest. Our ride: hot, sweaty, crowded with people who don't shower or shave. Our perception of a gondola ride: breezy, romantic, and 100 Euro more than we want to pay.

 We unfortunately missed out on St. Mark's Basilica because it had just closed by the time we returned to the square. We are devastated :( and kicking ourselves for not checking the time it closed. Since we depart at 9:30 tomorrow morning we won't be able to visit before we board the train. While we are disappointed that we missed this "can't miss" spectacular, we are very excited to go to Florence!

We are meeting up with two of Heather's friends from elementary/high school who are as clever as they are fun. Alexandra has a whirlwind tour of Florence's historical landmarks planned for tomorrow afternoon, which includes dinner at her favourite restaurant and gelato to blow our minds. Wednesday we are going on a Tuscan horseback adventure before indulging in some amazing pizza and then an outdoor club. It will be a great break not having to plan what to do or how to get around, as well as a perfectly marvelous reunion!

Now that our legs are rested, we have cooled off in the AC and teased our tummies with milk and cookies (yes, we bought milk and cookies at a corner store...we are children at heart) we are heading out for some wine and a small dinner. If we are feeling up to it we may stay up past 10 like grownups do and check out some night life in Campo San Magherita (as recommended by our Georgie Tech friends).

Salute, Prost, Cheers!