Italy and Oopsies

After our exploration of Rome, we headed to Florence, where we checked into an 18 bunk room in a hostel with a creepy older man who never left the room and appeared to spend all day jerking off. At least the hostel had hot water and a functional kitchen! Florence is a beautiful city, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore – the famous Duomo – makes for a stunning centerpiece. I visited Italy with my parents 9 years ago and, unwilling to wait in the line, we entered the church through the prayer entrance and stole glances at the artwork around us. This time we bought tickets to the church, the museum, and to climb the belltower, which was probably the highlight. It was over 400 steps to the top, and we had a stunning view of the city. We were also quite high up, which I had no problem with… Travis on the other hand has a fear of heights that kicks in at unpredictable moments, such as at the top of this tower. He spent most of the time hugging the inner side of the wall and clinging to the bag with our water bottles. At the end he ventured closer to the edge though and enjoyed the view.

I went to the Uffizi gallery by myself and saw some famous artworks. Some of them are very pretty and some are just weird looking – Renaissance artists definitely had some interesting ideas of what people, especially babies, look like. I also saw an abundance of penises on statues and in paintings, although vulvas were quite uncommon.

After Florence we went to Pisa for a night, where we stayed in a private 2 bunk room. Of course the main attraction in Pisa is the leaning tower, but surrounding the leaning tower are a very nice church and baptistry and Camposanto with some very interesting paintings that read almost like comic strips if you know how to interpret them.

From Pisa we went to Genoa, arriving on Sunday evening. We quickly learned that almost all museums and attractions in Genoa are closed on Mondays. The weather on Monday was gray and cold and windy, but we nevertheless took the funicular (tram that goes uphill) up the hill and went for a nice walk with some good views of the city. In the afternoon we went to a museum of an old General’s house and had a quiet evening at the hostel, where had a very nice private room with shared bathrooms and kitchens.

While waiting for the (late) flixbus to Turin, we decided to do some googling about driving in Italy, since we were a few days away from picking up the car we had rented. This was a big uh oh moment, since we learned that to drive in Italy, you need an International Driving Permit, which is basically a translation of your license. Acquiring one of these in your home country takes several weeks, and shipping it abroad takes weeks to months. Fines for driving without one are €400-€1600 if you get pulled over, but you can rent a car without one (which is weird in and of itself – you just have to sign a paper acknowledging that you’ll pay any fines you receive). Uh oh. In Italy, however, you can have your license translated by a sworn translator – only a US license though, not a New Zealand one. Ok, fine. Once in Turin I spent the afternoon hunting down someone to do the translation, and finally figured it out after a long conversation with a very confused receptionist who spoke no English. €100, a headache, and 24 hours later, I had my translation, truly a miracle.

In Turin we took a bus up the tallest hill by the city and walked to the top to get a view of the mountains – our first true view of the Alps. They are beautiful, but don’t have quite as much snow on them as we had hoped – hopefully it snows a lot very soon so we can go skiing. We ran down the hill to catch the bus, and I had a (very predictable) asthma attack – thank goodness I had my inhaler with me.

In the afternoon we went to the chocolate museum in Turin and learned how chocolate is made and the history of chocolate in Europe – there were some interesting recipes for chocolate, including some that contained (ambergris – a substance formed in whale digestive tracts).