Hiccup

Well that was fun (he says, his voice dripping with sarasm).
So far my train rides from destination to destination witin Italy have been trouble-free. Regular, fast services. In Venice, okay, I missed the train I had booked the day before. It was seriously like in the movies - running up to the platform just as the train starts to move off. However, I was easily able to change my ticket for the next one, an hour later, and the ride only took about two hours. In Florence, realizing how often trains ran and how many free spaces were on them, I didn't even bother booking one beforehand to Rome, I simply showed up and got one within twenty minutes. Same deal getting to Naples. Now, with the experience I'd had so far you would expect that I should have been able to show up at the train station in Naples to catch a train to Brindisi - no futher away, I might add, than any of my other destinations had been - to get to the port with plenty of time for my ferry at 6:30, at 10:00am and still have plenty of space to breathe. (If that last sentence was a bit of a word salad, I'm sorry. Read it again and imagine it twice as long with twice as many commas and hyphens and you'll get some impression of what the book I'm currently reading - the Turn of the Screw - is like, but I digress)
Unfortunately this was not the case. The next train going in even vaguely the right direction was leaving at about quarter to three and, after a change of trains in someplace in the middle of nowhere called Caserta, I could expect a nearly four hour ride that would leave me in Brindisi at quarter to eight at night. So, unless I was keen to swim after my ferry that already had over an hour headstart, I was pretty much screwed.
After weighing up all my options, the best one left to me was to try and change my booking to the following day at the same time and simply cancel my first night in Greece. I then decided rather than risk missing an appropriate train again I would travel that night to Brindisi. At this point, fortunately for me but unfortunately for you readers (drama is exciting to read after all), everything seems to have gone perfectly well. I've changed my ferry booking, and I don't thing I even have to pay a surcharge. I (relatively) easily found the hotel I had hastily booked in Brindisi. I even changed the booking for my hire car to a few days later in Athens and got a refud for the part of the money I had already paid!
So now I'm sitting in an overpriced, slow internet cafe in Brindisi wondering what I'm going to do with five or six hours.

Oh, one more thing: if you read this blog but don't comment, I urge you to please do so. It gets a bit hard to have the motivation to write something every day when you don't know if people are reading. Yes, you need an account to write a response, but it's free and relatively painless. Please start commenting and let me know I'm not alone!
(Insert sad violin)

Naples

The famous Pompeiian fresco

Naples is a vibrant city, the people lively and spirited. Hardly surprising - one glance at the traffic in this city (not to mention the murder rate) has the ability to make one acutely aware of one's mortality. Often potentially imminent mortality. After a few minutes of shrinking away from the traffic like a frightened bunny, however, mania sets in and you brazenly plunge into the swarm of vespas and, miraculously survive.

Entrance to the X-rated section...

I came to Naples mainly for one reason: the national museum of archaeology. And let me tell you, this one is huge (though not as big as the Vatican). It also houses the notorious "X-rated" exhibit of erotic ancient art. It's quite an experience to be able to stare openly at what really amounts to porn and not only not feel guilty, but even feel cultured.
I'll keep the pictures off the blog, however, lest it attract ... certain kinds of people.

My time in Rome in a nutshell.

Trevi fountain

Well, I'm just going to squeeze everything into a little post. In short, Rome is a beautiful city. Here's a tip about Rome though - they say throwing a coin over your shoulder into the Trevi fountain will ensure you return some day. I say that's a waste of money - I was here four years ago, I didn't throw a coin in and yet here I am again!

Some random ruin I saw.

First off, some things I didn't visit this time - the Colosseum, the Forum and Castel Sant'Angelo. I would have liked to visit them, but I only made a particular effort for the Castel but it was closed at the time due to a strike. As for the Colosseum and the Forum, they are nice but having seen them four years ago I was only going to visit them this trip if I had time, which I didn't (I was too busy pouring Guinness into my face)

the Vatican

I did visit the Vatican, the Trevi fountain (obviously), the Spanish Steps, the Saint Sebastian Catacombs and the Appian way. There's little to say about the fountain and the steps - they're very nice locations, but that's about it. The Vatican, well, I could either write one hundred pages or nothing at all. I did visit the sistine chapel whilst there, but unfortunately that is one of the few things where photos are not allowed, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows what it looks like anyway, and if not Google is your friend.
I will spend some time talking about the catacombs and the Appian way. The way (also known as via Appia Antica) is one of the most famous in Italy, having been a very important route in Roman times. It's an immensely pretty road, although closer to the city it's narrow with walls on either side, no real footpath and cars driving way too fast. Walking along this part is like an extreme sport. Further out though it's very quiet and lovely, and looks just like you imagine the Italian countryside.

Appian way

The road is also the location of many catacombs. The ones I visited are situated directly beneath the church of Saint Sebastian, and are in fact the very catacombs where the name derives from. They began in the second century as a pagan necropolis in an abandoned quarry, and in the third century the christians expanded it and began using it to bury their dead. In Greek, the christian language of the time, Catacomb means "near the cave" or "quarry", and I'm sure you all feel much better for knowing that. In the fourth century Emperor Constantine of course legalized christianity and built a church above the catacombs. The necropolis, however, was filled with sand and only rediscovered in 1917.
I like catacombs and necropolises and mines possibly even more than caves, but they also make me wistful as I look down dark passages and wish I could wander off down there by myself. Oh well - probably for the best I don't - apparently there's seven miles of passages in this one alone.

Florence pictures, (finally)

Fear not! Your long wait is over!

Several goldsmiths on a bridge.

View of Florence from Piazzale Michaelangelo

View of Florence from the bell tower

Torrential rain, taken about 15 minutes after
the last picture.

Photoless Florence post

Again I'm using a hostel computer that doesn't allow me to attach my camera. I'd love to be uploading all my pub challenges right now, but maybe I'll get a chance later tonight. Instead I'll decribe all the things I've done in the meantime.
Yesterday I got up way too early due to a stinking hot room after having gone to bed at 4 in the morning. So what did I decide was the best thing to do whilst incredibly tired with a headache in 30+ degree humid heat? Walk across the whole city and climb things of course!
Leading across the river, Fiumo Arne, is a fascinating bridge, lined on either side by overpriced goldsmiths. Originally the shops on the bridge had been stinking butchers, but as it became a main throughfair the then ruler of the city decided to replace them with the more sanitary jewellers that still take up residence there today.
Walking along the far bank one comes across a steep road leading up into the hills and to the Piazzale Michaelangelo with yet another copy of the statue of David and offering spectacular views of the city.
Heading back into the city I passed by the Cathedral - Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Flore. That's the tastelessly ornate cathedral in my last post. Thinking I hadn't looked at the city from above enough yet I decided to climb the free-standing bell tower. I wasn't disappointed by the climb this time, unlike the boring elevator in the tower in Venice. In fact it was an incredibly hard slog, and I was thoroughly soaked in sweat by the time I got back down.
And then the monsoon came. About five minutes after I stepped back out onto the street the heavens opened up and it bucketed down like I haven't seen it in a very long time. But whereas everybody else hid under their umbrellas and tried to find whatever shelter they could, I marched gladly into the refreshing rain as if I was reenacting that scene from the Shawshank Redemption. I became thoroughly saturated, but utterly refreshed. Those wimps hiding under the shadow of nearby buildings didn't know what they were missing out on.
So then I returned to the hostel, hung my dripping wet clothes next to a pedestal fan and had a long nap. When I got up I went to a pub. That was my second day in Florence.
This morning I decided to actually go into the giant Cathedral. I waited in line for about twenty minutes, and the interior was kinda boring. However entry was free, so it didn't bother me. I did have to pay 3 Euro for the crypt though, but at least that was interesting. It wasn't actually so much a crypt as the excavated remains of the original 5th century church which the current 13th century building replaced. Large sections of broken mosaic floor lay about everywhere and it was interesting to try and reconstruct in my mind how the original church looked.
Stay tuned later for an update with pictures, pub challenge and the rest of my day today in Rome!

Florence day 1

Well, now I'm in the famous Florence. Is it more beautiful than Venice? Probably not, but I would say it's more grand. The streets are wide and straight, and the churches and imposing and impressive. And as far as art goes it's probably only second to the Louvre.

You're not allowed to take photos in the museums,
but luckily there's a handful of replicas of David's
willy around the city.

If you haven't guessed, I spent today visiting galleries. The first one was the Galleria del Accademia which houses the celebrated Statue of David by Michaelangelo. For those of you who have been living under a rock their whole lives, the David is a sculpture of a big todger with a guy attached to it. Renaissance Italy clearly had a different sense of modesty to these days, but being brought up in a period and place that frowns upon grown men flouncing around naked in public, waving their willies at all, I can't help but trying to avert my eyes from the most famous sculpture in the world. Other men like me, avoiding their gaze falling below waist-height, might be prone to feeling a little inadequate compared to his unnaturally handsome features and (literally) chiselled abs, but if they threw their embarassment out the window for one moment they would notice Michaelangelo wasn't completely unaware of realism. These hypothetical men might then salvage a scrap of their self esteem when they realise poor David isn't quite so well endowed, and his two veg are even a little lop-sided. The other thing I couldn't help but notice is the irony of how huge the statue of little David the Giant killer is.
Now enough of describing a naked man. I didn't just visit the gallery for the statue. Well, okay I kinda did, but I also went in the hope of finding some other gem as interesting or even moreso, and as such I wasn't disappointed. There was also a series of unfinished statues attributed to the same Michaelangelo. These were the most interesting part by far, as you could still see the chisel-marks imparted by the artist before he got a chance to smoothe them all out. They felt more real in that way, and made me feel closer to him. This is possibly not such a great thing - Michaelangelo was an arrogant, grumpy, spiteful man, but I daresay I'll say more about that when I get to Rome.

This is what Florence looks like

Apart from the Galleria del Accademia I also visited the Uffizi gallery. All in all it was much better - one of the best in the world, containing such masterpieces as the Birth of Venus. The only problem is the whole thing seemed a little self-absorbed. Usually around two thirds of the descriptions of the paintings tended to focus on how and when the gallery acquired them, and there was even a big exhibition of nothing but models of the gallery building. However, as I keep mentioning galleries and museums aren't that exciting to write about, so now I'm going to visit some pubs which this city, in comparison to Venice, has in abundance.

Venice, day 1

Well here I am in the most beautiful city in the world. I had hoped that, coming to the mediterranean I would leave the rainy weather behind, but barely an hour after I arrived I already heard a peal of thunder and a few minutes later it was pouring rain. It's like the bad weather is following me! However, the rain didn't last long, and the sun came out very soon. But something funny I noticed was the huge, deep puddles left at Piazza Santa Marco. Who would have thought Venice would have such bad drainage?
Venice of course is an island in a lagoon criss-crossed by narrow canals. I have yet to see a road, and the last car I saw was at about 9 o'clock this morning on the mainland. Travel is strictly by water or foot, and to call the lanes labyrinthine would be an understatement. However, you can't walk five metres without being astounded at the beauty of the city - if someone in Venice tells you to get lost, take it as a compliment.
Anyway, I spent most of today so far just wandering around, so I have little in the way of stories, just pictures. One thing I was surprised at was prices. People keep saying how expensive it is, but it's really not as bad as I expected. Now Venice isn't exactly a bargain basement city where you can live on small change alone, but this internet cafe aside I was surprised that it wasn't more expensive.

You can get to the top of that tower, but disappointingly
it's via elevator, not stairs.