The second day we were in Rome my good friend
Celia came to visit! She was already in Italy visiting someone else, and she got a ride from Bologna to Rome. We all had a great time going to the Vatican, Trevi fountain, eating a lot, wandering around late after all the tourists had gone to sleep, etc. We found that going around at night is much nicer since it's cooler and there aren't many people around normally crowded places like the Spanish steps.
When we were at the Vatican we saw the
tomb of the recently deceased Pope. We also climbed to the top of St. Peter's Basilica
where there's always a nice view. In the afternoon sun I got some beautiful shots
inside the church such as this one. The Vatican is really in interesting place. During our time in Rome I was reading
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. So it was interesting to see the Vatican and other sites which were part of the story. I even saw a tour being offered that's themed after the book. They take you to places described in the book and give you more background on them. On the third day we also tried to visit the Catecombs on the outside of Rome, but they were closed around noon, and we were running out of time before Celia had to take the train back. Next time.
When Celia left it was just a couple of days before my birthday and Felicia and I decided to go to
the island of Capri to celebrate. This is one place that Europe's celebrities go to play. It is a really beautiful island, which reminded me of
the Greek island of Santorini that I went to a couple of years ago. We first went to Naples from Rome and then took a one-hour ferry to the island. We stayed in a nice hotel
with a great view of the ocean. Every night when we dressed up and went out for the evening, photographers from various photo stores would take pictures of us. They wanted us to come to the store to look at them and buy them. Many of the restaurants on the island had pictures of celebrities whom had come to eat there. I loved walking around with Felicia at night because the temperature was perfect and everything on the island (buildings, plants, people) looked so nice. One of my favorite parts of staying there was taking a two-hour boat tour around the island. And, I can thank the island for popularizing the combination of tomato and mozzerella cheese, known as
caprese, in salads and sandwiches.
After returning from Capri and my wonderful birthday celebration, we stayed in Naples for a couple of days. Other than a nice classical art museum, there wasn't much to see in the city. So we ate pizza. Naples is supposed to be the birthplace of pizza, and the style is thin-crust. We went to a restaurant which my Lonely Planet book claimed was the best pizza in Naples. They only had two types, but they were good! There were only locals there, and we sat at a table with an Italian couple. The place was totally low-brow with bad lighting, cheap prices, and excellent food. My kind of place!
Next we to a day trip to
Pompeii, a ancient Roman city buried under the ash of a nearby volcano in 79 AD. This was really interesting because the city was quite preserved under all of the volcanic material, so that visitors can see what life was like at the time. This is Italy's most visited tourist attraction.
The next day we went to Rome where we did laundry and spent a night there before continuing on to our next destination,
Genoa, the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. We stayed the night there and took a day trip the next day to
Le Cinque Terre. This is a set of five beautiful little towns set against cliffs overlooking the ocean and connected by footpaths and train. It's quite romantic. We had good pizza there.
After returning to Genoa and spending one more night there we took the train to our last destination,
Venice. This is a beautiful city. Even though it's made up of mainly tourists, it's such a unique place. Everyone should see it at sometime in their life. We loved wandering around the twisting streets away from the crowded areas. And of course the food was great! One the third day in Venice, Felicia and I parted ways. She went off to visit friends in Germany and I returned to Barcelona. Returning back to Barcelona from somewhere else made it feel like a home for the first time.
