Prossima Fermata: Italia

I remember how I got so excited planning my itinerary in Italy to the extent that I forgot about my research papers. (You know how it works, you open one tab, then another, until you have 50 tabs open and your computer crashes and all the promising leads for your research paper just went poof, and then they're all gone).

But, when I landed in Milan, my excitement was dwindling. Exhaustion took over. The night before I slept in Porto's airport. And sleeping in airports is never fun, especially when you're alone. And the sad thing is, I didn't actually have to. I was being careless and I misread my boarding pass such that I arrived (1 a.m.) way too early for my flight to Milan (9 a.m.) - yes, 8 hours early and I could not go back to my hostel anymore. To make things worse, my flight was delayed for another 2.5 hours. I just really wanted to punch myself in the face then. As a first-time solo backpacker, I made so many blunders and bloopers in every country that I visited. I'm sorry I just had to whine about it. I feel much better now, thank you.

Anyway, Italy was all worth it. I wish I could've spent more than four days there. There was so much more that I wanted to visit in Italy but given scarce resources, I only got to visit Milano, Firenze, Napoli, and Roma.

 

My friends had told me that there was nothing to see or do in Milan. I planned on following their advice but since I missed the earliest train to Firenze, I had 2 hours to walk around and see the Duomo di Milano. Unsurprisingly, as I was exploring the area, there was always a fellow Filipino within a 50-meter radius.

In Milan, even the malls and not just the churches exhibit grand architecture.

 

I was waiting for my platform number to appear on the screen. It usually turns up 15-30 mins before departure but less than 5 mins was left and I still could not see it. I almost missed my train because it turns out I was looking at the wrong column. What happened next was the sprint of a lifetime.

I arrived at my hostel in Firenze at about half past 10 p.m. I was starving and tired. They say Firenze is really awesome at night but I did not bother wandering anymore. Good thing a nearby restaurant was still open. That night, I devoured a huge plate of pasta and drank red wine.

This is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.

 

These are the bronze doors of the Battistero (baptistry) of San Giovanni. I was wondering why people were so crowded at this area. Apparently, the Baptistry is famous for its doors with its sculptures. Michelangelo called these doors the "the Gates of Paradise".

At the Piazza del Duomo, I envied how kids just... go for it, you know, without hesitation.

 

By the River Arno, I sat down and.. almost had a heatstroke.

 

Buongiorno, signore! I'm sorry for sneaking behind you just like that. Nice bridge, by the way.

 

I've never seen anything like this before. At first I thought it was a cycling competition for physically handicapped people. But apparently they weren't and this is what they call "low rider recumbent cycling."

Okay, let's talk museums. I was walking around what is known as the birthplace of the Renaissance famous for its painters and inventors like who else but Leonardo Da Vinci. I couldn't go to all of them so I decided to choose one. And I chose this because Galileo is my favorite scientist.

Galileo was excommunicated and died as an outcast because he was able to prove that the earth moves within a heliocentric system which was contrary to the Church's teachings. It took a hundred years or more before the Church finally believed his discovery. God bless the outcasts. (Anyway, that huge model of the universe is actually the Ptolemaic geocentric system that Galileo rejected.)

Maybe with the help of youtube, I can build my own telescope.

Apart from the telescopes and globes, there were other collections of medical tools and apparatuses. I snapped a photo of this one just because I found it amusing.

It's a weighing scale.

Then, I had to say goodbye to Firenze and move on to Napoli.

To be honest, I really didn't know what to do in Napoli. I chose to book a hostel in Napoli for the silly reason that I might as well have a glimpse of the Mediterranean sea while I was in Italy. Anyway, when I arrived, the hostel gave me a brochure of what to do in Naples and I could not believe it when I read that I was just 30 mins away from the Pompeii site.

 

What's really amazing with the Pompeii site is that it's like a humongous open-air museum and tourists can touch these relics at the Necropoli which survived the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius's eruption about 2000 years ago.

Speaking of the devil, hello Mt. Vesuvius! (at the Tempio di Giove)

Walking for 6 hours around the site under the glaring sun without sunblock is the perfect recipe for skin cancer (knock on wood). So I was so happy to see trees in this part of the site as I was searching for the Anfiteatro.

I like to keep my distance. And since Pompeii is a huge site, there were ways to avoid other tourists. I would be walking aimlessly and my innate ADHD tendencies would lead the way (at Via del Vesuvio).

At the Quadriportico dei Teatri.

I was wondering why there were tiny vineyards within the walls of Pompeii. Perhaps to supplement government income from tourism revenues? I don't know. Look at those earthen jars. What would a person with OCD do?

 

I was really enjoying my solitary walk around the Necropoli. An hour would pass and I would not see another tourist. Felt like Pompeii was my secret garden.

That's Porta Nocera, by the way.

 

At the Teatro Grande of Pompeii. Obviously, it has been reconstructed.

At the Temple of Apollo.

 

More earthenware and an unfinished scuplture of a man locked away from tourists.

The Basilica at Pompeii.

Goodbye, Pompeii. Thank you, not for the sunburn, but for the moments of solitude and a glimpse of what was once a magnificent and wealthy city 

during the ancient Roman civilization.

Rome was just an hour and half away from Naples via TrenItalia's high speed trains which were running at 300kph. When I arrived at the Vatican, I realized that it was Pentecost Sunday, which explained the seats outside St. Peter's Basilica and that platform where the Pope was seated.

 

Seeing this statue reminded me of several jokes that Filipinos make involving St. Peter. I especially like the Bisaya versions, of course.

 

At St. Peter's Square, I began counting how many statues were perched on the Apostolic Palace, when my ADHD kicked in.

 

The Arch of Constantine near the Palatine Hill.

The Colosseum at night.

 

The Pantheon was originally built for the purpose of worshipping the ancient Roman gods.

 

But now, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church.

This is the site of the famous Trevi Fountain. No, I did not make a wish. That's probably why it did not stop raining until after five hours.

 

I decided to go to the Vatican Museum and endure the incredibly big crowd. Later on, I was twisting my neck to see Michaelangelo's paintings at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. No cameras were allowed inside that part of the museum.

 

I kept seeing this image of a staircase inside the Vatican Museum while researching about attractions in Rome. I couldn't actually find it so I had to ask one of the personnel. He didn't understand me until I said, "You have a beautiful spiral staircase somewhere, right?"

 

Ciao, Vatican Museum!

 

Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. At this point, I was debating with myself whether I should go to the Villa Borghese or not. My heart said yes, but my feet said no.

 

Ruins of the House of Augustus at the Palatine Hill. Okay, I have to admit that on my last day in Italy, I think I have had enough of ruins. I think the lesson learned there is to not visit ruins sites for three consecutive days.

NEXT STOP: Belgium

Próxima Estação: Portugal

After Switzerland, I went to Paris. But I'm going to post about France only after my séjour here in Bordeaux. So, my next (3rd) stop was Portugal. Luckily, I knew (and came to know) Filipinos studying in Portugal as Erasmus Mundus scholars which is why, again, I did not care to research on what to do or see in Portugal. I met with Tantan and Dee in Paris and we flew to Porto. Thanks to Ryanair, I only had to pay EUR 19 for that flight.

So, what do I know about Portugal? Perhaps only the fact that the Portuguese crown refused Ferdinand Magellan's proposal to sail to the Spice islands during the early 1500s and also that they were one of the countries who got hit by European Union's banking crisis. Anyway, I was just expecting Portugal to be my sweet escape from Paris' horrible weather. True enough, it was warm and sunny when we were there. But more than that, I discovered that Portugal is underrated. No, it is not just the country next to Spain in the Iberian peninsula. It is an incredibly beautiful country.

May 23 - Porto and Guimarães
May 24 - Lisboa

  Porto is the second biggest city in Portugal next to Lisbon. Bom dia, Senhor! 

 We decided to walk along Via Catarina, which is sort of Porto's shopping district.

It was the perfect day to get lost and the perfect opportunity for Tantan to practice his Portuguese by asking for directions.

And here's another opportunity to learn more Portuguese! After one ride at the metro, we became self-proclaimed expert commuters in Porto.

We found JP (leftmost) after getting a bit lost. He's also an Erasmus Mundus scholar doing his MA in Chemistry (or some other more advanced subfield of chemistry, I forgot) in Porto. By the way, Tantan (center) is studying Physical Exercise and Health, while Dee (rightmost) is doing his PhD in Mathematics. Needless to say, I was in the company of nerds. Just kidding, guys! You are all awesome.

Porto's Duoro River. Look at all those orange roof tiles.

I want to learn how to sail a boat. Or if that's too much, I hope I'll have a friend who will take me sailing.

Seeing any body of water always lifts up my mood. I think this has something to do with the fact that I grew up on an island.

Then, JP took us wine tasting. We had three glasses each of Vinho do Porto. This was just wine tasting so nobody got drunk. Right?? Haha.

Part of the wine tasting experience was a quick tour of their wine cellars. That's our guide.

By the way, that bridge behind me is the Luís I Bridge (Ponte Luís I), a metal arch bridge that spans the Douro River between the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal. We crossed this bridge to go wine tasting at the Nas Caves.

After the wine tasting, we walked by the wharf for another half an hour.

I could not get enough of this place. I imagined these sailboats to be the tiny versions of the ships that Magellan used in his voyages.

After our Porto tour, JP had to leave because he had to "study" (haha just kidding). It was too early to go back to the hostel. We discovered that Guimarães was just an  hour away from Porto, so I forced the boys to go with me even if we were all dead tired.

Translation: This is where Portugal was born. As it turns out, this city is a UNESCO world heritage site and is one of the popular tourist areas in Portugal. I could not believe our luck.

Apparently, Guimarães was elected by the New York Times as one of the top places to go in 2011 and called it one of the Iberian peninsula's emerging cultural spots. Again, how lucky were we?

This is the Gothic Church of São Francisco, built in the 1400s and reconstructed in the 18th century.  

 Whenever I see clothes being hung outside to dry, I always think of home.

This is a 14th–century Gothic shrine of Padrão do Salado at the Oliveira Square.

 If we had enough time, I would have wanted to hike and see what's up there. But unfortunately, the last train back to Porto was at 9 p.m. so we had to hurry back to the station. We got lost again and I think it was my fault. I'll spare you the details.

So, we went back to Porto. I think it was already past 10 when we arrived. We decided to go back to the pier. Tantan and Dee were explaining to me that these men are college students and that they're wearing their alma mater's uniform. Did I get it right? Or were you talking about something else?

The Luís I Bridge at night. So, as explained to me, the architectural firm that designed and constructed this bridge also built Eiffel Tower. That's why there are some similarities in material and design.

 The following day, I decided to go to Lisbon by myself. When I arrived in Lisbon after a 3-hour train ride, I was annoyed that I had to buy a map because other cities just gave them away for free to promote tourism. I didn't buy one. Once again, I was determined to get lost.

I walked out of the station and randomly decided which direction to go. Dee was giving me instructions the other night on where to go but I totally forgot about them. I should've taken down notes but I was too exhausted. Anyway, I was lucky with the choce I made which led me to this place. So now I could figure out what to do.

I had arrived at the Parque das Nações (Park of the Nations) which is a huge public open space that has all sorts of things - the largest oceanarium in Europe, modern buildings, stadiums, and gardens. And there was just so much to see. These sculptures were being exhibited at the Jardim Garcia d'Orta.

I did not have superior lens so I was only able to capture this part of the Ponte Vasco da Gama - the Lisbon end. This bridge is actually the longest in Europe.

 Who doesn't love cable cars? There were so many of them.

I had my own cable car! And I waved at tourists from other cable cars. They probably thought, 'Poor girl. Riding a cable car by herself probably drove her crazy'. On the contrary, I was having the time of my life. I was screaming and no one could hear me. There are only a few places on earth where I could do that.

View of Lisbon from my cable car. 

 The cable car ride brought me at the far end of the park where there was a beautiful garden. I sat there for an hour. I did not even take a single photo. I was just so relaxed, I was afraid I might fall asleep.

For me, Lisbon's Gare do Oriente had the best train platforms I had ever seen. Anyway, it was time to go back to Porto.

When I arrived at around half past 9, the guys had just finished cooking dinner and were waiting for me. You guys are the best. Thank you very much, or as the Portuguese would say, muito obrigada. Technically, I was just piggy-backing off your trips in Paris and Porto. In any case, I would like to believe that it was more fun when I was around. HAHAHA. Just kidding. Study hard! Make the Philippines proud!