Italy

For those of you who thought I fell off the face of the earth, I apologize! things have been crazy on this side of the Atlantic: moving out of my apartment, ending work (finally), starting my hostelling for the month of May. Julia and I were going to begin on Easter Sunday but realized that with all the holiday stuff and hotels being booked, we'd rather avoid sleeping on the street and leave on Monday after. So we arrived in beautiful Genoa, immediately got a gelato on the port (pistacchio and cioccolatte) then the next day saw the important things like the cathedral and big piazzas, Christopher Columbus' house, and the shopping district before we hopped the train to Florence (which took a ridiculous amount of time in slow, regional trains covered by the eurail pass). Our train to La Spezia, where we connected to get to Florence was a full hour late, so we were in a completely exhausted state. Somehow, this charming Australian guy convinced my roommate and I to go out for an Argentinian's birthday, so as luck would have it, I got about 2 hours of sleep that night before getting up to climb the Duomo the next day. After 4 nights there, I have to say that Florence is one of my favorite cities in Europe; not just because it was beautiful and we met some amazing people there. I saw breathtaking art I had only imagined seeing in person. I remember freshman art history, seeing slides of the frescoes in Santa Maria Novella, imagining myself standing in the church in front of them. Actually making it there, I almost started crying it was so cool.

We met some great folks in our hostel with whom we went out for a big Florentine meal. We had some excellent tuscan chianti, and I tried a steak florentine: the most rare piece of beef I have eaten aside from tartar, one of my roommates and I shared a giant t-bone steak that just melted in your mouth. Our second day there, we went to Pisa, where we took the obligatory photo then looked at the obligatory leaning tower of Pisa souvenirs a little old man was selling beside it. This sweet man was so excited to talk with us that he gave us these little wooden Pinocchio figures and said in Italian, "sometimes, children know it is better to tell a lie than the truth".

Yesterday we arrived in Naples, where it was pouring absolute buckets. We couldn't access the internet in our last hostel, so I couldn't get directions to our Naples hostel. Ergo, we were trudging through the rain and puddles in Naples looking for an internet cafe. Finally we made it to the hostel, soaked from head to toe (including our suitcases), and desperate for food, since we'd barely eaten in trains all day. So we ordered a pizza and went to bed, then this morning woke up to sun and birds chirping outside our window. So we walked around the city and had REAL neapolitan pizza at Sorbillo's. Sorbillo's is this famous pizzeria owned by like the biggest family in Italy. Not only are they famous for their pizza, but there are news clippings in the restaurant about how each generation has sick amounts of children: the great grandfather is quoted saying that the secret to good pizza-making is having at least 20 children to help make it. By the way, the pizza was INCREDIBLE

Then we wandered around again until we found this little limoncello factory because I wanted a little bottle to take home. They see us looking and immediately offer us a free tour of the factory, followed by a free tasting of their liquors that they make. Folks: I tried arugula liquor today and it was SO GOOD. It sounds disgusting but it tastes like caramel or Dr. Pepper or something with a bitter aftertaste. SO good. After that we wandered down by the port, got a little lost, then made it back to the hostel to plan our next move.....

CORFU!!!! We're leaving for Bari, then tomorrow night taking the ferry to Corfu where we'll live the dream in the Pink Palace, one of Europe's famous hostels. I'm paying 24 euros a night for basically a resort on a Greek island. You should google it. And wish me luck with my 24 hours of travel tomorrow!