So, my trip to Italy was awesome although I am also glad to be home with a nice warm comfy bed and easy access to water. Apparently there's this idea in Europe that Canadians waste more water than anyone else. Oh well, we have lots of it.
Anyways, I flew out of YVR Friday morning and landed near Rome on Saturday morning around the same time of day but just 14.5 hours later. The flight went north over Hudson Bay, Baffin Island and Greenland and then down south over Ireland and France.
There was a stop in Barcelona, Spain to let some people off.
When I got to the airport I had some problems communicating with the guy at the express train booth but eventually had to go to the other train booth because I couldn't take my bike on the express. The guy there was really nice and gave me tickets to get me all the way to Florence. The local train into Rome had a lot of graffiti in it and looking out the windows it seemed Rome itself had a ton of graffiti. In the end I would say Italy has a big load of graffiti.
Transferring within Rome to the train to Florence was a piece of cake and then it was a long train ride on the regional (slowest train) up to the main train station of Florence. I hop off with my bike and transferred all my gear onto it. Here it is before my very first ride in Italy. My mission...to get to the other train station and meet Greg, Jon, Beth, Gordo and Alex.
I messed up that mission pretty bad. The streets of Florence are hard to navigate, what with the only street signs being on the actual buildings or non-existent and a lot of one-way streets. When I did reach the station I somehow didn't see them and went on to our backup plan, a hostel. This is in the nearby Piazza della Liberta. My first look at some big arches and fountains of Italy.
The view from the back window of the hostel where the others eventually arrived late at night. This was taken the next morning when were deciding what to do.
We decided to start biking that day and made our way through the city. This is a bridge called Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) which has a lot of jewelry and leather shops on it. Apparently Florence is the leather capital of the world.
Greg, Jon and Beth shortly after the bridge.
After some small problems with my bike and a lot of biking through suburbs we climbed up out of town along switchbacks between olive groves. You can still see the top of the Duomo, Florence's central cathedral and Italy's largest dome, in the distance.
We were on our way...
Anyways, I flew out of YVR Friday morning and landed near Rome on Saturday morning around the same time of day but just 14.5 hours later. The flight went north over Hudson Bay, Baffin Island and Greenland and then down south over Ireland and France.
There was a stop in Barcelona, Spain to let some people off.
When I got to the airport I had some problems communicating with the guy at the express train booth but eventually had to go to the other train booth because I couldn't take my bike on the express. The guy there was really nice and gave me tickets to get me all the way to Florence. The local train into Rome had a lot of graffiti in it and looking out the windows it seemed Rome itself had a ton of graffiti. In the end I would say Italy has a big load of graffiti.
Transferring within Rome to the train to Florence was a piece of cake and then it was a long train ride on the regional (slowest train) up to the main train station of Florence. I hop off with my bike and transferred all my gear onto it. Here it is before my very first ride in Italy. My mission...to get to the other train station and meet Greg, Jon, Beth, Gordo and Alex.
I messed up that mission pretty bad. The streets of Florence are hard to navigate, what with the only street signs being on the actual buildings or non-existent and a lot of one-way streets. When I did reach the station I somehow didn't see them and went on to our backup plan, a hostel. This is in the nearby Piazza della Liberta. My first look at some big arches and fountains of Italy.
The view from the back window of the hostel where the others eventually arrived late at night. This was taken the next morning when were deciding what to do.
We decided to start biking that day and made our way through the city. This is a bridge called Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) which has a lot of jewelry and leather shops on it. Apparently Florence is the leather capital of the world.
Greg, Jon and Beth shortly after the bridge.
After some small problems with my bike and a lot of biking through suburbs we climbed up out of town along switchbacks between olive groves. You can still see the top of the Duomo, Florence's central cathedral and Italy's largest dome, in the distance.
We were on our way...
3 comments:
1. I'm jealous of your trip.
2. Welcome back :)
3. In the small photo I thought Greg was Jon and Jon was Greg. Damn them for changing hairstyles/wearing helmuts.
4.
I got no 4.
Dunno why I left it there
I have visited this site and got lots of information about part-time job than other sites that i visited
part-time job
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