In the past few weeks Steve and I have been doing some more country hopping between Hungary, Italy, and now Spain. We had a great (but very cold time) in Budapest, and we even had the chance to rent a car to get out of the city for a day. It was great fun to get to explore a few of the smaller towns, but the first couple of hours of having the map in my hand brought back some painful flashbacks of Australia and New Zealand (accidentally navigating us to an RV dumping station instead of a campsite in the middle of the night, crazy confusing toll road interstates with no toll booths to pay at....) BUT, after cruising alongside the Danube for a while I managed to relax and we enjoyed the beautiful countryside. Our trip was cut a little short by a freak snow shower- one minute completely sunny and the next minute it was snowing giant snowflakes. Bad news- no Hungarian spa visit this trip- good news, we didn´t get stranded, we made our flight the next morning to Italy, and now there´s a perfectly good reason to go back to Budapest.
After Hungary we headed to Italy and spent a couple of weeks having a blast traveling around with Mary Beth and Drew Lake. We started in Rome, and I have to say this go-round was much more pleasant than last time I was there (picture in the middle of July, as a student, dragged around by a crazy architecture professor completely oblivious to the fact that it was 100F in the shade, with an EXTRA million visitors as someone was being canonized as a saint that weekend.) This time the weather was nice, we actually got to sit down in the Sistine Chapel for a few minutes without just being ushered through, and the company was fantastic. Next we headed to Sienna (claim to fame- one of the scariest horse races in the world, done on a tiny track in the middle of town, riders dont use saddles, horses can finish even if their riders fall off- we were not there to witness this said spectacle.) It was a quick stop-over but definitely a place I would love to revisit. Then to Florence, home to the most amazing restaurant in the world (Il Latini)- at least that is my biased opinion. We toured all the sites- saw Michelangelo's David, the Ufizi Gallery, the Duomo, several gelato stands....
Then to one of the most amazingly beautiful places in the world- Cinque Terre. Arriving via the train from Florence, stepping off the platform was literally like stepping into a postcard. Beatifully steep cliffs dropping straight into the clear ocean, quaint little towns built into the hillside, lemon trees growing on the steeply terraced hills. We stayed in Riomaggiore, one of the 5 (Cinque) towns in the area. We completely lucked out, finding an apartment, complete with a kitchen, with a balcony that opened out to the water. We took full advantage of the kitchen, cooking dinner (for the first time in months, literally) with ingredients we bought from the local market just around the corner. We spent one day hopping between the different towns, each equally charming but still having their own personalities. If you ever have a chance to visit this area of Italy, I would HIGHLY recommend staying several days, it really is amazing.
A funny side note about visitors to Cinque Terre- we saw more people with walking sticks there than anywhere else in the world. Not just your average "I picked this up during a stroll in the woods" kind of walking stick- think serious high performance low weight carbon trekking poles that mountain climbers use. We didnt make it to the "rough" part of the trail between the last two towns so I admit that I am a little in the dark about its degree of severity, but it seemed to me to be a bit of overkill with the gear. Seriously. Maybe Rick Steves recommended bringing trekking poles, so all of his fans followed his advice and they all happened to be in Cinque Terre when we were there. If any of you reading this have been on that part of the trail, please let me know how it is, it has been the source of much debate for us! :-)
We bid adieu to Drew and Mary Beth in Milan, and as was the case when Mom and Sue left in Istanbul, the weather quickly turned from beautiful and sunny to cold and rainy, staying that way basically until we left Venice 4 days later. If we have any more visitors on this trip, you're not going to be allowed to leave because of this trend! Venice was great, as it always is, a little harder to find a restaurant with a menu that is not translated into at least 4 languages, but still beautifully picturesque and fun to get lost in its many winding streets.
A few days ago we flew from Venice into Barcelona (where we are now.) It has been an adjustment switching from Italian to Spanish. Well, at least with the few Italian words we picked up- since being in Spain I keep saying thank you / hello to everyone in Italian, maybe that just makes us look more cosmopolitan (and helps them overlook the fact that we're obviously tourists in our zip-off pants and quick-dry wicking shirts!) Today we did some serious sightseeing from the eclectic "History of chocolate" museum (complete with large displays, all of chocolate, of characters ranging from Disney's Bambi to Don Quixote) to the just downright confusing "La Sagrada Familia" church designed by Antonio Gaudi that is only 50% complete despite the fact that folks have been building it for around 100 years. So many conflicting adjectives come to mind after seeing the structure- or semibuilt structure- tacky, unbelievably creative, confusing, beautiful, mildly creepy...... Several of the spires are topped in technicolor larger-than-life bunches of grapes.... need I say more? Really, without seeing it for yourself, it is impossible to describe what it's like. Millions of visitors visit this church every year, dubbed by the guide books as the "most visited construction site in the world."
We have enjoyed this brief stint in Barcelona, and tomorrow we head to Valencia to hopefully sample some amazing paella (and see some cool sites, too.) In only a couple of weeks we switch continents again, the whirlwind tour continues!
Anna
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