The ups of Fascism

After the Eternal City we went to an area on the northern Italian coast called Cinque Terra. It was totally opposite from the first part of the trip where we ran around all day and collapsed in the hostel. In Cinque Terra the only thing to really do is hike through these 5 tiny towns. The only bad thing about Cinque Terra is the whole place is filled with Americans (and some Germans), and tons of Americans. It was cool at night when we hung out on the (one) street and talked to people. But its not so cool when your in Europe and everyone is American. Kinda like being in Texas and everyone is Mexican. Now we're in Venice and last night as we were wandering back to the hostel (more on that later) I heard a guy semi-yell "Bar hopping in Venizia!". They guys are making me hate Americans (more than I already did).

I always heard the thing about Italys dictator, Mussolini, atleast made the trains run on time. After trying to catch trains in Italy, you wonder if the Black Shirts werent so bad. In Cinque Terra we decided to hike to the 4th town from the 5th town and catch the train to the 1st town where we were staying. Hiking in the moon light through vinyards is fun until you try to go down a moutain with the mountain hiding the moon, and thus, dark "steps". We ended up getting there 30min before the train was supposed to come, only to have it be delayed for some reason for almost 2 hours. The next day trying to get to Venice was a series of missing connecting trains cuase ours was 20min late, and some how the one we needed was actually on time. It was awesome getting to see the train stations of Pisa, Bologna, and Florence. I think I liked Florences the best.

Florence brings me to another point. Jane has been pickpocketed once (took some maps out of a pocket in her day bag) and Ive been robbed twice. The first time a Gypsy girl (I think all the beggars are Gypsies, they seem Gypsy-ish) wanted money while I was eating lunch. A simple "I dont have money" didnt work, so I thought I would be clever and offer my sandwich, she didnt want it but pointed to my coke. I was like "You want the coke?" and stuck it out thinking she would go on. Except then she just took it and walked off. If the Mafia needs tips on extortion, they need to watch Gypsy women. The second time happened while I was eating quickly in the Florence train station, this time two kids come up saying they want change. I tell them we dont have any and leave. So the maybe 7 yearold boy points his 4-5 year sister to my Pepsi and she grabs it and takes a swige and walks off. Atleast she was kind enough to leave the can.

And a short thing on Venice. Once you kinda walk around the city, you get the feel of it, and its cool. The "streets" are little more than a series of connecting alleys that randomly open up into squares, then more maze alleys. When we got in last night we decided to take a quick walk over to Saint Marks (where the Venetians smuggled Marks bones to) and come back. Getting there was pretty easy. Coming back was a 2 1/2 hour ordeal. The streets in Venice are so small, and the buildings all about 3 stories high, its basically a gaint human maze, and no cheese. The map we had was crappy, which encouraged blindly looking, which encouraged more getting lost.

Next, Switzerland.