Venice and Viareggio

Carnevale

What is it?

Carnevale is a two week celebration starting 40 days before Easter, a last fling before Ash Wednesday. Carnevale is Italy's version of Mardi Gras. There are a series of masquerades, ceremonies, music and all-round festivities. Carnivale is one of the most celebrated and fascinating events in Europe. Millions of people put on elaborate costumes and masks and party in the streets.

Venice

The plan was to take the train to Venice on Friday, February 24th and hopefully stay for the weekend. Again, I waited too long to book a hostel/hotel and everything was sold out. A couple of my friends booked a hotel so I planned on crashing there.

I went with Joe and...Brittany, Amelia, Claire, and Megan (a.k.a. “The girls from California”). Now, most of you are probably wondering why I would travel with girls again after the Milan fiasco. Well, I thought about it and maybe it was me last time, or maybe it was the girls I traveled with. So, I thought I’d give it another shot with a different set of girls. Plus, there isn’t much shopping in Venice…except for food.

We arrived in Venice at 11:00 AM and it was raining, what else is new. I walked outside the train station and immediately saw the Grande Canal. I stood there in awe for 5 minutes and then we took a water taxi down the canal.

On the river we saw a bunch of cool shops with Carnevale masks so we jumped off the water taxi. I didn’t know what to expect because I’d never seen a Carnevale mask before. The masks aren’t scary like the ones you’d find on Halloween, but more colorful and artistic. They are all hand made and very detailed. None of us bought a mask, but the girls did buy umbrellas and even they came in bright colors.

Now comes the stressful part. We were really hungry because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We all agreed on sandwiches for lunch and a restaurant for dinner, but the girls had the mandate on where we ate. We stopped into a few sandwich shops, but they didn’t have seats and the girls needed to sit (I thought we were sitting on a train ride for 3 hours). A few places turned into a lot and this went on for a half hour.

Keep in mind, these girls are from Southern California and they are $$ loaded $$. I was getting frustrated because they still couldn’t find a place to sit and then they started looking at restaurant menus. I looked at one of the menus and it was like 10 Euro for an appetizer. I just wanted something quick and inexpensive. Hell this is lunch and we have a lot to see.

So, we’re walking around and I’m literally crossing my fingers in hope that they don’t pick an expensive and slow restaurant that would waste half the day. We were just about to enter one of those restaurant when I tell them that we should take one last look around the corner. Thank god there was a perfect little café with seats. I ordered a sandwich and the girls ordered a “Sando” (That’s what they call it in Cali?!). By the end of the day I swear it felt like I was on the TV show Laguna Beach.

After lunch, we did some exploring around Venice. You have to be careful because if you don’t watch where you're walking you may end up in a canal. We saw a cool looking gondola guy, but it was raining and no one was riding in a gondola today.

We passed a few signs for concert events going on that night. I figured we should see something related to Carnevale..like the Shanghai Costume Tango, but the girls really wanted to see the Vivaldi Concert. I was outnumbered so I was forced to buy a ticket for the 8 PM Vivaldi Concert.

The action started picking up in the afternoon. More and more people in costume were walking around. We went to Piazza San Marco, the biggest square in Venice. They had a big stage set up with people showing off their costumes and most of them were really wild looking. There were also smaller stages with people putting on acts. We felt like we didn’t fit in so we each bought some cheap masks.

Me and my cool mask:

There were a lot of people in the square, but I noticed one group in particular. Many times, kids at school ask why we stand out as Americans.

Here is a prime example:


You’ll notice a typical group of seven American students taking numerous pictures in Venice. If you look closely, there is a gorgeous building in the background and Carnevale is in full effect, but these people are taking pictures of a guy with pigeons on his arm.

In the square, there were a bunch of vendors and one of them was selling a zeppoli type pastry and "hot wine." I was the first on line. The hot wine was really good. I’d describe it like a mixture of apple cider, cinnamon, and wine.

After the square, we went to the Vivaldi Concert and I had a blast. All of the old people were getting into it. There was an Asian woman sitting next to me and I couldn’t stop wondering why she wasn’t at the Shanghai Tango.

It ended at 10 PM and we went to dinner at a fancy restaurant. After dinner, we walked around again. It’s totally legal to drink out of an open container in Italy so we stopped at a liquor store and we each bought a bottle of wine for the walk. It started raining again so we went to Campo San Margarita, an area with a lot of bars. Surprisingly, most of them closed at 12:00AM.

We get lost at least once on every trip:

A bunch of us tried sneaking into our friend’s hotel, but it was too obvious and they kicked us out. It was like 1 AM and we were searching all over Venice for a place to stay, but there were no vacancies anywhere. We stopped into one place and the girls told the hotel manager that they’d pay any amount of money for a room (and they were serious, lol). I thought it was an offer he couldn't refuse, but he declined.

The weather was supposed to be cold and rainy for the rest of the weekend. So we decided to take the 3:30 AM train back to Florence, but I definitely plan on going back to Venice in about a month when the weather gets nicer. I guess I didn't learn my lesson about traveling with girls the first time. Whether it's shopping or food they find a way to make something difficult, but they keep the trip interesting and I guess I'll have to live with it.

Viareggio

What is it?

Viareggio is located on the Tuscan coast and has one of the biggest Carnivale celebrations. Viareggio's Carnivale season starts February 12 with a masquerade, promenade and parade of huge paper maché floats and performers. Festivals, cultural events, and masked balls take place throughout the Carnivale season and restaurants have special Carnivale menus.

On Sunday, I took off on my own for Viareggio. I felt like getting away from everyone for a day. It's only about an hour and a half from Florence. The train made a stop in Lucca and there was a bunch of screaming and yelling going on outside. I peaked outside the window and there were hundreds of people with Lucca soccer jersey's, flags, and horns. They ended up getting onto the train. I asked one of them where the game was and he said Pisa. Since historical times, Lucca and Pisa have been political, social, and military rivals. These people were pumped up and roudy as hell. They were banging on the train windows and singing loud chants the whole train ride.

The streets were decorated with tons of flags, ribbons, and banners. A bunch of people were walking around decked out in face paint, funny hats, and other wacky outfits.

Here is a picture of a wacky guy in a wacky outfit on a bicycle:

I didn’t know where the actual parade was in Viareggio so I just followed the people in costumes. It wasn’t long before I reached the shore. I noticed a familiar aroma of salt water, pizza, and Italian sausage. For a second, I thought I was down in Seaside Heights, NJ.

I walked down a long pier to get a good view of the scenery. As I was walking, the weather turned dark and cloudy. I took a few ocean pictures with the stormy clouds in the background. In a matter of seconds the weather turned nice again and I took a few land shots.

To my surprise, the parade is totally sealed off and you have to pay in order to get in. I took one step inside when a little 10 year old kid runs up to me and throws confetti all over my face. I was about to run after him to kick his ass when I realized that everyone else was doing it, too. I also saw an old lady get nailed so I thought it must just be part of the celebration.

This was one of the perpetrators:


I walked around for awhile until the parade started at 3:00 PM. There were thousands of people at the event. A bunch of fireworks were set off and the parade started. The floats were absolutely incredible. They were enormous and each contained moving parts. All of them had music playing and people dancing on them. I saw a guy in his late 40's on one of the floats and he was sneaking sips of beer in between dancing (I guess he had to loosen up a bit).

Carnevale in Venice is more formal with elaborate costumes and elegant events. Viagreggio is more casual and a family type atmosphere – more like an actual carnival you’d find in the states.

February 14th - Valentine's Day

Well, it was another typical Valentine's Day for me again this year.

My four dates took me out to a restaurant known city wide for their Sangria and live entertainment. I bought them each a small box of chocolate truffles and a couple rounds of Sangria. Stay tuned for next year.

2006 Olympics

2006 Olympics

February 18, 2006

Short Track

Torino, Italy

On Saturday, February 18th, we hopped aboard a 7:51 AM train to Torino for the Short Track competition at the 2006 Olympics. A week ago, I bought a non-refundable train ticket online. Acting like a typical mamaluke, I bought a train ticket for the wrong day. I wasn’t about to buy a new one for 32 Euro. So, I designed a good plan. You see, anyone can get onto the train, but eventually someone will come around to check your ticket. Well, I kept a good lookout for the ticket checker and when I saw him coming, I snuck past him real quick and hid out in the bathroom for like 20 minutes. It worked!

The train ride to Torino was horrible and you’ll see why in a few seconds. I’ll post two pictures which I feel best represent the conditions.

This was my seat for the five hour train ride:

This was my view from my seat:


Actually, apart from the seating arrangements it wasn’t that bad. For most of the ride, the train traveled adjacent the north western coast (near Genoa), the view of the ocean and hanging cliffs was magnificent. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any good pictures while the train was moving.

We arrived in Torino at 1:00 PM and you can see the athlete village from the train station. It is a quad of brightly colored apartments with a big cafeteria in the middle. The train station was decorated with the infamous “Torino 2006” signs everywhere.

We made our way outside the train station and it was raining pretty hard. We didn’t know where to go, so, we just hopped on the first shuttle bus that came. We rode the shuttle until we saw some action. We walked down a few streets for awhile and grabbed a bite at a small pizza place. In Italy, most of the pizza is thin crust (I’m not a big fan of the thin crust), but this place had thick Sicilian slices. I had a sausage slice and a fresh mozzarella w/ tomato slice. I think it’d give V & J’s a run for its money.

We cruised around for awhile up and down the streets. We saw the Medal’s Plaza and found a few crazy fans.

The people with the drums were really annoying. I don’t know which country they were from, but they were yelling some stupid chant. After bearing witness to this, I stopped walking and put on the USA gear (face paint, headband, glowing earing, flags in head, etc.)


The Olympic sites are far in between so you have to take a shuttle from one to the other. Finally, the weather cleared up and we took the shuttle to the Olympic Stadium to see the torch.

Our event’s start time was 7:30 PM, but we heard from some people that security takes awhile to clear. We took another shuttle to the Palavela Arena at 6:00 PM. We entered the arena and found our seats, which were in the nosebleed section! We paid a lot of money for the B tickets (There were three price levels – A, B, and C), so I was pissed! Well, we went down to the lower tier and luckily found two empty seats.

I must have looked pretty cool because a bunch of people were taking pictures of me. We made a makeshift USA sign with some extra face paint that I had. The people behind us had a big O H N O sign for Apolo Ohno (USA).

It was really interesting seeing so many people representing different countries. Looking around and observing people of diverse cultures, with separate flags, colors, languages and customs - all merged into one place. It surely makes you proud to put on that red, white, and blue.

We saw the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final for the Women’s 1500 Meter and Men’s 1000 Meter. A bunch of Koreans ended up winning most of the medals, but Apolo Ohno (USA) finished in third with bronze!


We had no place to stay after the event ended at 11:00 PM. All of the hotels and hostels in Torino have been booked for months. The earliest train back to Florence was at 4:50 AM. Fortunately, there were no girls with us this time and I didn’t care about hanging out all night. I thought there’d be absolutely nothing to do, but it ended up being a lot of fun. It turns out that the 18th was Olympia Night and there were a bunch of events going on from dusk till dawn. There were thousands of people in the streets, it was crazy.

Here is a picture of one of the streets at 2:00 AM:


Here is a picture of a 6 foot cotton candy stick for 5 Euro:

To my surprise, the 4:50 AM train was packed. I guess a lot of kids studying in Florence had the same idea. We had to change trains in Milan at 7:00 AM. The train was running late and we got into Milan at 6:59 AM. So try to picture an all out sprint of 50 half-asleep American students running frantically through the train station. We made it with like 30 seconds to spare. I didn’t get much sleep because there were a lot of sketchy people on the train and I was worried they’d try to steal something. The Olympics were a blast and I got back to Florence at 10:00 AM on Sunday.

The Shower Story

We finally have heat and hot water after 5 days without it. One day last week it just stopped working. We don’t have the landlord’s phone number so there wasn’t much we could do about it. When we notified our school, the lady told us “Sometime this week someone will come to look at it.” Thanks lady!!

Anyways, I wasn’t about to not shower. So, the day it happened I entered the bathroom like a warrior. I was about halfway to the shower when suddenly I stopped for a second and my confidence quickly dissapeared.

I had my usual long gaze in the mirror, but something hit me this time... I thought...SHIT!…maybe I should start working out again...its been about 2 months and all I’ve been eating lately is mozzarella, proscuitta, sausage, pizza, canoli’s, etc etc…but that’s another story.

Nevertheless, I continued…

At this time, we didn’t have heat either so I was shivering before even touching the water. Initial contact was the worst part, but after a few seconds your body is numb so you don’t feel much.

By the third shower, I had a consistent strategy down. You have to attack it like you're washing a car. One section at a time, using a consistant range of motion, and most importantly, making sure the soap is completely washed off before it dries. For example, start with the left leg and then hit the right arm, or you can switch it up and start with the upper back (worst section) and then hit the left shoulder. Trust me, it’s an adrenaline rush.

Meanwhile, none of my roommates even attempted to take a cold shower and they thought I was crazy for doing it. Maybe it's because they are from the easy going midwest and I'm from New Jersey where "only the strong survive."

One of them went to a friend's apartment to shower, another was on a ski trip for 3.5 out of the 5 days, and lastly, the kid I share a room with..yeah…he didn’t shower at all…and that story is too long.

Saturday - 11 February 2006

Armani, Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, Prada, Zara....

MILAN!

I went to Milan this past weekend. I thought it’d be a good trip to get out of the way while the weather is warming up. It ended up being me and three girls from school…that was a mistake (I’ll explain later). One of my friends was supposed to go, but he felt sick Saturday morning (I called bullshit, but later found out that he was actually sick). I met the girls at the train station and we got on an 8:28 AM train to Milan. The ride was smooth and it was nice to see northern Italy. I used the bathroom on the train and I was shocked to see that the toilet was just a hole that led straight down to outside. Three hours later we arrived in Milano.

Milan is Italy’s most industrial, populous, and prosperous city. It serves as the capital of commerce, finance, fashion and media. And, it’s also the most expensive city in Italy.

I’ve mastered the NYC subway system so I had confidence that I could handle this one. Go figure, the hardest part was buying the tickets. The rail system is very clean and there were big screen TV’s on the tracks. Overhead monitors told you how long until the next train arrived.

Our first stop was the cathedral. It is the 2nd largest church in the world. It has a capacity of 40,000 people and is decorated with 135 marble spires and 2,245 marble statues. Nearly every inch of the exterior surface contains marble that was dragged from mountains near Lake Maggiore. It’s also one of the most Gothic structures ever created.

When you enter the cathedral, it feels like you are stepping into another world. It is very dark, the ceilings are extremely high, and you are overcome with a sense of dominance and power. Pictures are allowed, but you cannot use a flash. Unfortunately, most of my pictures came out blurry, but I did get a few good videos.

We were in there for all of 10 minutes and I could sense the girls were bored already (I knew it’d be a long day after that). We paid a few euros and went up on the roof. Here, you can really see the detail and precision of the marble statues and spirals, not to mention the incredible view.

Afterward, we went to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. This is a late 19th century glass topped tunnel which is one of the world’s earliest shopping malls. There were a lot of small restaurants and designer stores inside. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and went back outside to walk down a few streets.

Now comes the part that I hadn’t been waiting for…shopping. We were in Milan so I guess it’s natural to shop around a little. I followed the girls into the first store. It was a cheap looking store called Urban Style. The first thing I saw was a belt for 50 Euro. I was in there for a good five minutes.

Next, the girls went into another store and I told them that I’d wait outside this time. I wanted to do some people watching and I saw a whole bunch of characters while I was in Milan. I was really just looking for some models, but in between, I noticed that every person had their own style. You can’t tell what's in and what's out. There are no trends in Milan. However, I did see a bunch of guys with mullets.

Ok, I must have been standing out there for 45 minutes and still no sign of the girls. It was another couple of minutes before one of them came out and she didn’t even buy anything! I already had enough of this shopping crap..I wanted to explore the rest of the city. They finally came out and I told them that we should start walking toward the church that houses The Last Supper. Unfortunately, we found out that you need a reservation to see the painting so that ruined our plans.

BUT, you don’t need a reservation to SHOP!

And at this point we were in the center of the fashion district..Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Prada, etc. Ok, I needed a way to escape. So, I asked them if they wanted to go see the financial district (I knew that they’d say no, lol). I was free at last! I saw the many of the major banks and passed the stock exchange.

Next, I was supposed to meet up with the girls at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e Tecnica, but they didn’t make it because they were busy buying wine for the train ride home. The museum was amazing. It houses exhibits based on technical drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. Basically, there are a collection of models based on his inventive sketches. English descriptions interpreted Leonardo’s ideas behind the inventions. Most of his inventions were never developed, but they were so ahead of his time.

The day went very fast and I felt like I didn’t get to see everything, but I plan on coming back for an AC Milan game in a few months. After all was said and done, I learned a few good lessons about traveling with girls. To sum it up: they enjoy eating, shopping, and complaining. The night finished off nicely..we finished two bottles of wine on the 9 PM train back to Florence.