Chania, this is everyone

So there has been some demand for photos recently. I don't post many because I only have internet on my smartphone which means I have to remember to take photos with it instead of just my camera and the camera on my phone is not so good because if there is sun involved I usually can't see the screen at all and have to guess what I'm aiming at. But requests have been made to which I reply: Everyone, this is Chania.

Into the unknown

So I'm off to Crete tonight and I don't know what the internet situation will be like so I thought I'd do a short update before I go. Short because there's not a whole lot to report. I've been in Athens for the past few days. Got here in the evening so I just walked a bit to get the lay of the land and groceries. The next day I planned to get up really early to get to the acropolis just after it opened and manage to visit all the main tourist sights in the one day even though many of them close at 3pm at this time of year. But then I got sick so I only did the acropolis and the new acropolis museum before heading back to the hostel and spending the rest of the day resting. The acropolis was pretty spectacular. Everything I thought it would be but with more scaffolding. I don't feel like I have to say anything about the acropolis. Everyone knows enough about it already. The museum however I will mention. It's new (hence the name) so everyone who has been here before and thinks they know everything I'm seeing won't know about this if they came before 2009. It was clearly very carefully planned. 3 floors of displays, mostly sculpture but also some vases and such, with the whole thing leading to the top floor built specifically for displaying the parthenon sculpture. They set up the frieze, pediments and metopes as they would have been on the building except at eye level and with giant windows so that (from one side at least) you can see the actual parthenon while looking at it's sculptures. There were also several not very flattering mentions of lord elgin and the hope that the casts of things that they have at the moment might be temporary.
So that was my first day in Athens. I'd only planned on having 2 but decided to stay an extra night because I didn't want to have to travel sick. Luckily it turned out to be a one day thing and I probably would have been fine to travel yesterday. But I took the extra time anyway. Which meant that yesterday I could visit some of the things I had intended to see the day before including the flea markets, the ancient agora and the temple of Olympian Zeus. I also spent a  bit of time trying to plan the next few weeks and not figuring much out. I just don't like planning. Someone else decide what I should do for the next month and let me know.
Which brings us to today. Today I walked aimlessly around the city. Found the fish market and the town hall (not in the same place). Bought my ticket for the ferry tonight. Ate a pastry. Nothing that would be greatly enthralling to read about.
So now I head south once more to the Greek Islands (though getting to more than one might turn out to be too much bother at this time of year). And the rest of the story you'll have to wait for because I have yet to perfect my precognition.

Sicily and the Peloponnese

The extra bit at the bottom of each country. That's what I've been doing this week. Sicily was lovely. Warm but rainy which I mostly didn't mind. I stayed in Catania for the most part. I get why it doesn't get it's own listing in the lonely planet, there is not a whole lot there for tourists, but I quite liked the chance to be in a place where people actually live. I spent some time wandering the markets and such. But the reason I chose Catania was because it's fairly central and easy to do day trips to Syracuse and Taormina.
Syracuse was really lovely. I wandered the old town of Ortygia with it's windy alleys and ocean views. Visited their archaeological park with the greek theatre where Aeschylus premiered a bunch of his plays and a man made cavern thing that some tyrant built to have perfect acoustics so he could eavesdrop on the prisoners he put inside. I also found what I think was the tomb of Archimedes. It's the only thing in the area of the map that the tomb of archimedes was marked on but you'd think something like that would have a sign. It's Archimedes. He was a genius and you learn about him and his bath in primary school. Surely that would be worth a sign or 2. So maybe it wasn't really the tomb of Archimedes but I'm going to claim that it was until someone proves me wrong. I also paid a visit to the local archaeological museum which was a pretty decent one. So that was my day in Syracuse. And it wasn't even raining so it was perfect.
My last full day in Sicily I intended to go to Taormina (a pretty hilltop town) but it was completely pouring down that day and I wasn't feeling a hundred percent. Not a lot less than a hundred percent, just enough to make the idea of traipsing through the pouring rain really unpleasant. So I didn't. I stayed in and read all day. Only went out in the evening to get some food supplies. Which failed because it turned out it was Sunday and the grocery store was closed. But I found a bakery so I didn't starve.
The next day I began the trip to Greece. I may have mentioned the difficulty of getting from Sicily to Greece. It was somewhat complicated. I ended up spending 4 hours on one train the first day to get to some nowhere place called Lamezia Terme and then 8 hours on 3 trains the next day to get to Bari where I got on a ferry for a 16 hour trip to Patras. After which I was somewhat exhausted but just kept going and took 2 buses from there to get to Olympia.
I booked 2 nights in Olympia even though the only thing there is the historical site because I knew I might not get there until somewhat late and that after the trip from Italy it would be nice to have a day without any public transport. But there is a whole lot of nothing in Olympia. Especially at this time of year. Many of the shops close at random times just because there aren't enough people to bother staying open for. I got there in the evening and after a bit of a look round the town I settled in. Despite the fact that Greece is an hour ahead so I should be staying up later and sleeping in longer after the travelling and the not great night's sleep on the ferry it felt like bed time at about 7pm.
The next morning I got up fairly early to get to the archaeological site just after it opened and beat the tour groups. It was really good. I was almost completely alone for half of it and only a few small groups for most of it. About an hour after I got there all the big tour groups showed up. I spent about half the day at the ruins and the museum which left me half a day of wandering around a town that could be completely encircled on foot in under 20 minutes. So not a lot to report about that afternoon. I found a proper supermarket which was good because the place I'd been directed to the night before had a fruit and vege section consisting of lemons, cabbage and 3 kinds of onion. Not the most inspiring selection when you don't have a kitchen.
I also took the time to ask at the tourist office about the easiest way to get to Nafplio since there's nothing direct and I'd found conflicting things online. They told me to wait at that bus stop for the bus to Tripoli and showed me the list of times. On their list there was nothing between 7.35 and 11.10 but the timetable on the internet had said the first bus was 8.30. And that the last bus from tripoli to Nafplio was at 2 so I really had to take the earliest bus. So I got up and headed to the bus stop early enough for the 7.35 but prepared to wait for the 8.30. But neither ever came. So eventually I got on a bus to Pyrgos where there is an actual bus station with people to ask if something goes wrong. Then I got the bus to Corinth and from there to Nafplio. I still don't know where the Tripoli bus ended up. But I got to Nafplio early enough to have plenty of time to get lost on the way to the hotel. Got a nice tour of the town in my attempts to find a place to sleep.
The next day I headed out to Mycenae. Had a few more problems with the greek bus system and ended up walking the last 4 km to the site but it was a nice day for a walk and it cleared the frustration from the bus. Mycenae was pretty impressive. I've seen a lot of old stuff during this trip but I won't be forgetting Mycenae any time soon.
Then another bus (no dramas this time) back to Nafplio, a bit of window shopping because everything was closed and back to the hotel. The place is run by a lovely old couple who keep offering me tea when I get back but I'm not really a tea person and I'm starting to feel rude turning them down.
And that brings us all the way up to yesterday! That's practically caught up.
Yesterday was for Nafplio itself. I wandered the old town, climbed the way too many steps to the fortress, walked around the little peninsula thing, sat by the water, picked a restaurant in the main square and had ice cream and looked through some of the little shops. Nice and simple.
Today I headed out to Epidavros. Big theatre and the ruins of the sanctuary of Asklepios (greek god of healing). But the bus back only left at 1 pm or 4 pm so I had to either do it all in 2 hours or stick around for 5. So I skimmed through parts of it because there is nothing else out there. And now I'm on the bus back and have no plans for this afternoon beyond lunch. But if I pick a place with wifi you might even get to read this a whole day before I promised.
Is that enough of an update for you?

The peloponnese lacks in internet

So I've had some (read: one) demand for updates. I haven't really had internet in about 4 days now and the place I just checked into here in nafplio for 4 nights doesn't have it either. I'm writing this in a restaurant with free wifi after finishing my rather awesome hamburger (it's totally greek). So I will try to do the old write an update and post it later thing but later will probably be 4 more days. To tide you over I'll summarise a bit. Sicily: worth the hassle of getting there and back but take bug spray. Sicily to Greece: a very long trip. Olympia: the ancient site is great, the town is tiny and much of it is closed at this time of year. Nafplio: pretty so far but I got a little lost. They have good burgers and the people are nice.
That will have to do you for now. I have to do some research while I have internet.

Not bad at all

So apparently my last post ended up with a tone of travel is hard. I blame the night train. I don't function well on little sleep. Yes I had some complications in Naples but I still had a good time.  I enjoyed everything in between the complications. That's the thing about travelling this way, sometimes things don't go your way. But rest assured I am still having fun and am usually pretty happy. Yesterday I had an awesome day in Syracuse. Sicily is a huge bother to get to and I guess I communicated that fairly well but it is absolutely worth it.
So just a quick post to reassure people because the feedback I've gotten in the last few days had been along the lines of "sounds like it hasn't been easy". Well it hasn't always been easy. But it wouldn't be much of an adventure if it was.

Should I be saying Sichily?

Another day another bus. Though I suppose I've mostly been doing trains lately. I am now on my way from Palermo to Catania. In Sicily for those of you not up on your geography. I'm back to short sleeves. Slightly annoying. It's not really hot but I'd still prefer to carry a giant bag in the cold.
So what have I been up to since I last wrote?  Stuff. I have been up to stuff. Some has been good. Some has been not so good. That's travel for you. I spent a few days in Sorrento. Though I didn't end up spending all that much time actually in Sorrento. I'd planned in having two and a half days which seemed like enough time to do Sorrento, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Naples and laundry. But then I lost the half day. To get to Sorrento you get a train to Naples and then take the local circumvesuviana train to Sorrento. Nice and easy. Unless the train line between the two gets damaged somehow. Then you get a third of the way there and wait for 20 minutes and then hear an announcement in Italian and some people get off but others don't and a train full of tourists are looking around trying to figure out what's going on. Took a very long time to figure out that the problem was the track and the train was going back to Naples. Took even longer to find out that we could get a bus from there to past the problem and get back on a train to Sorrento. Then there was the finding of the bus stop and the waiting and then the shoving as a train's worth of people and their luggage tried to fit in one bus. I managed to get a seat (having had the back entrance to the bus pointed out to me) and spent the ride with my massive backpack on my lap. I've had more comfortable rides.
And then we got to Pompeii and everyone got off and I asked 2 people if this was where I could get on the train to Sorrento and they both said yes and so I got off too. But could not find the train station. There were zero signs. So I asked someone and he said there are no more trains today. You have to take a bus (which I just left) or walk to the next train station, 1km on the right. And I thought that's not too bad. Only about 15 min. I can do that. So I did. But after walking for about 15 min and not seeing any signs I asked someone again. And they asked which way I was going. Naples or Sorrento. And then they informed me that the train to Sorrento was back the way I'd come. About 1 km. On the right. The train station I was walking to only went to Naples. Why would the last preson have assumed I wanted Naples? I never said anything of the sort.
So I walked back. Still couldn't find the train station so I asked some different people and they said just up this hill here that looks like it doesn't go anywhere (I'm paraphrasing here). And I walked up the hill and still didn't see any signs so I asked once more and was told it's this building here. Because the only sign is only visible from pretty much right in front of the door.
So I got on a train to Sorrento. An hour trip took me 4 hours. Which also meant I didn't have time to do laundry or see Sorrento that day which made my stay on the Amalfi coast a bit rushed.
Next day I did the laundry thing then went to Pompeii. It was raining quite a bit. I walked around for a few hours. Saw the creepy body casts. Wandered the streets and looked in the empty houses. Then I got back on the train and headed to Herculaneum. I got there at about 3.29. They sell the last ticket at 3.30. But I got in (for free because their computer system was down so they couldn't scan the tourist card I got which gets you free entry to the first 2 places and then half off everything after that. I would have gotten it free anyway because it was only the second but it meant I got a third free too) and I'm really glad I went. Not only is it smaller and less crowded than Pompeii but it's dealt with a bit differently. It seems like most of the really well preserved stuff in Pompeii had been taken away and put in museums. And they only let you into a handful of the buildings. At Herculaneum they only keep you out of a handful of buildings. And most of wall paintings are there still and more second storeys. Some if the original wood is even still there. Apparently to preserve wood for 2 thousand years you have to bury it in hot mud. Some of the houses really made me wonder at how you excavate something like that. My guess is slowly.
The next day my plan was to get up early and go see sorrento for a couple of hours then head to Naples to visit the archaeology museum and eat some pizza (both are meant to be of the best in the continent). Because of the way the timing worked out I only ended up with 40 minutes to see what I could of sorrento. It was pretty. That's about all I got.
Turns out the Naples museum is closed on Tuesdays so I missed out on that one. Went and got an actual sit down meal pizza instead. It was pretty tasty but to be honest I think I like our home made stuff better. Then I went to a castle and the cathedral and wandered around a bit. Got a pastry thing. Looked at shoes. Headed back to the train station to wait for my night train.
The system for the night trains here is that you can get a 1st class ticket and choose what kind of bed you want or you can pay less than half the price and get a 2nd class ticket that doesn't have a reserved seat so if there are more people than seats you might not get one. I decided I'd take the chance. Get there early and hope not too many people wanted to go to Sicily.
Two big groups of army guys wanted to go to Sicily. And apparently the army isn't willing to dish out for the reserved seats. And in the whole long train there is just the one car for those of us with the cheap tickets. I managed to get a seat. But it was not the best night ever. At about 6.30 we got to Messina and there everybody split off. The train we were on was going to Palermo but most of the people  (including the army) were going to some other part of Sicily and had to swap trains. I didn't. The compartment went from full to only 2 people and the rest of the trip was much more comfortable. I got in before 11am. Spent a very long time trying to find my hostel. The instructions they gave didn't really start from the train station  but from 2 blocks over. But I found it. I also found some kind of protest. I don't know what they were protesting because it was of course all in italian but then they started playing the black eyed peas so I have doubts about the seriousness of their cause.
I did the wander the city thing for a few hours. Got some food. Looked at stuff. Then really needed a nap. Which was good timing because that's when the thunder storm started. Basically I ended up sleeping through most of Palermo. I could have taken a later bus today and seen some more of the city but I decided I just want to get to Catania and get settled. I have 4 nights there so should be able to relax a bit.
Then I have to figure out how to get to Greece. Not as easy as you'd think. Ferries only go from Bari or Brindisi, neither of which are easy to get to from sicily. Looks like I might have to have an expensive night in Lamezia Terme to make it work. But I will make it work. I'm kind of tired of Italy. Ready to move on. Maybe it's the traffic. Italy is just not pedestrian friendly. Except Venice which is all about pedestrians. Everywhere else you have to go with the they will stop for me if I walk in front of them technique at cross walks and even traffic lights. The problem being that sometimes they don't. So you have to walk with the confident I'm walking and you will stop gait but be prepared to stop if they don't.
Apparently I don't really have anything more to tell you about. So I won't.

Where's the other one?

I was half way through a blog and it had disappeared from my phone. Last time this happened it reappeared after I had rewritten the whole thing. So now I will try to remember where I left off and hope I can paste them together later.
So the old one did reappear but I can't be bothered cutting and pasting so I am just posting them separately. So if you are reading this one first you might want to find the other one.

I have just gotten on the train to Naples and the person who sat down next to me reeks of cigarettes. So even though it's pretty warm I have gotten out my scarf and wrapped it around my face. My asthma has not been so impressed with europe.
But I'm getting ahead of the story. I think I left you at the vatican. There is so much there. Too much to tell. So here were MY highlights. The Laocoon: it really is pretty amazing. A vase by Exekias that shows Ajax and Achilles playing dice which I studied at uni but photographs just don't do it justice, there is so much detail. One particular picture on the roof of one of the rafael rooms which had a picture of a statute of jesus on the cross up on a pedestal with a statue of Hermes shattered on the ground in front of it, which really sums up the early christian treatment of other religions. Now the vatican collects and protects ancient art of any kind but in Rome the only way old buildings and monuments survived was if they were turned into christian monuments. I suppose after the way they had to hide for the first few hundred years they probably resented other religions quite a bit by the time they were in power but why is religious tolerance such a hard idea to grasp? There were a hundred other amazing things as well of course. The sistine chapel was pretty impressive. I had expected it to be less than it's made out to be but it was rather good.
By the end of all of that my feet were more than a little tired so I took the metro back to my hostel. Found a grocery store to get some supplies and then gave my legs the rest of the night off.
The next day I again started fairly early because everyone else in my room started even earlier. I packed some lunch food and headed out to Tivoli for the day. Except I didn't technically get all the way to Tivoli. I got off the bus at Hadrian's Villa and after 4 hours wandering around there I decided I didn't need to go the rest of the way to Tivoli and just headed back to Rome. Hadrian's Villa was big. I remember learning about parts of it at high school but I'm sure they never conveyed to me the scale of the place. It just keeps going. I didn't see all of it. But I had a lovely day walking around out there. It was nice to get away from the crowds for a bit. That's probably why Hadrian built it in the first place.
I'd had a few pretty epic days by then and decided I would take that evening and the next morning off from being a tourist. Of course I didn't get back to the hostel until after 5 so I'd still had a bit of a day.
Yesterday I didn't head out until about noon. I headed to the ara pacis augustae. Which is in pretty good condition. They were doing another special exhibition in the basement which meant I had to pay an extra €3.50 even though I didn't really care about it. It was all about Audrey Hepburn in Rome which could have been vaguely interesting if it had been about her as a person or something but it was just her as a fashion icon. An entire exhibit on the clothes she wore. I got pretty bored by the time they got half way through the 60s.
I had planned to have another tourist day with a list of the things I hadn't seen yet but I decided that instead I felt like wandering aimlessly and seeing what I found. I found the synagogue and the portico of octavia which I really liked. It was another archaeological site but it was right in a neighbourhood. It literally went houses, shops, restaurants, ancient site, shops, houses, more ancient site. The old and the new together is great to see. People have been living and working and growing in that place for millenia. If you believe the stories the city has been constantly inhabited for 2764 years. And you can see it when you look at the portico of octavia.
So that was my day. I meandered for quite a while. Got gelato, tried to shop for shoes, tried to help other tourists who asked me for directions and just generally enjoyed being in Rome.
And this morning I got on a train to Naples where I am now writing this to you. And now I'm hungry so I'm going to eat some food.
So I made it to sorrento but not without difficulty. Tired now because of said difficulty so I will tell you about it next time.

A halfway decent excuse this time

For not writing anything for a while. The internet at my hostel here in Rome is very unreliable. I am writing this on their computer but I am really unused to this kind of keyboard (the type where you have to press quite hard on each button) so it takes me a really long time to write anything. I am writing a nice big update on my phone and will post it when I have more stable internet. Which hopefully will be in Sorrento but to be honest most of the internet in Italy has been somewhat pathetic.
Also, you have all failed me. It seems everyone thought my question about the David was either rhetorical or someone else would answer it. Or no one knows why it's so special. But I am sure there is a reason. There always is. I thought one of you smart people would be able to tell me. Are you enjoying keeping that information from me? You know I could just google it right? But you were meant to save me the trouble of reading through all the dates and specifications. Oh well, I didn't really see it anyway. Maybe if I found out what was so special I would regret not going. But probably not.

Unreliable internet

It's the bane of my existence. When there's none you just accept it and move on. But when it says that there is internet and it almost works a few times but really doesn't work then you spend hours trying to get it to stay connected so you can just send this one email or check train times. If only you could accept that it is not going to work and stop trying you could move on. Make a new plan for getting train times and go do something else. But then it says connected and you can't help but think maybe this time it means it. It's really irritating. But now I am writing this offline and you may not see it for 2 more days because that's how long I'm at this hostel with it's not very impressive internet.

So I made it to Rome. Very exciting. I got up fairly early on the 2nd and headed to the train station over an hour before the train was leaving because I thought the station would be very busy what with the holiday. Turned out I was wrong. No queue for tickets at all and I had to wait an hour for the train. But I didn't want to risk missing the train and I'd had some long lines before. Got into Rome, found my hostel and went to be a tourist. I visited the trevi fountain and the spanish steps and the mausoleum of augustus and the piazza navona and campo de fiore and trajan's column. I didn't start until about 3pm so by the time I got to trajan's column it was dark out. So I headed back to the hostel for some dinner.

The 2 girls in my dorm were getting up very early the next morning to try to get to the vatican before the crowds. They planned to get up at 6.30. I was planning on doing the vatican that day as well but didn't want to have to rush all the way over there in the morning to try and avoid lining so I decided to put my trust in the lonely planet which said that lunchtime was better than mornings. But I didn't get back to sleep after they left so I ended up getting up before 7.30 anyway.

I headed to the Roman Forum first because one of the girls had given me the very useful tip that since you buy one ticket for both the colosseum and the roman forum you can skip the massive lines at the former by starting at the latter. Good advice because there was no line at all into the Roman forum at 8.30am but the line for the colosseum at 10 was huge. And I walked right past it.

The Roman Forum was really interesting. There is so much long term history there. From back when it was a republic to when Christianity was the official religion that area was used for all sorts of important things. I wandered around in there for at least an hour and a half. There is just so much to see. Then I headed out past the arch of titus and the arch of constantine to the flavian amphitheatre (colosseum to you). It was pretty impressive in terms of scale and there is a lot of history there but I saw a much better preserved amphitheatre in Nimes and didn't really feel like I needed a whole lot of time at this one. So I did the loop and took some photos and headed forward the vatican. I got to st peter's basilica just after 11.30 and had to wait about 15 minutes to get through security. It is a pretty impressive building.  There's something to see everywhere you look. And those guard guys have the silliest uniforms I've seen so far. And I've seen some odd ones. Though mostly just in the hats. There are some very strange uniform hats out there. But these guys are stripey all over. And kind of poofy (I'm referring to the shape of the clothes there. No other meaning intended).

By the time I came out of the basilica at 12.15 the line was a quarter the length it had been when I went in. I went around to the vatican museum, getting there at about 12.30, and there was absolutely no line at all. Thank you lonely planet. I was through security and bought my ticket in under 5 minutes.

My battery is dying

Which is too bad because I am waiting in line to get into the Uffizi and will probably be here a while. I got here before 10 in the hope that I would get in before noon. Not sure how likely that is. So it would be a good time to write a blog but I probably won't get far before my battery will run out.  Now apparently.
So I inadvertently ended up in Florence on a holiday weekend. If possible I would suggest avoiding doing that. I'm sure places like the Uffizi are always busy but the crowds were just insane. Of course avoiding the holidays means being aware of when they are. Which I was not.
So I haven't really told you anything about Italy yet have I? Well I started in Genova. It was raining. Rather a lot. And since my hostel was 2 bus rides out of the city I decided that I could just stay in that evening and listen to the rain. So I did. The next day I spent the morning exploring the city. My verdict would be not worth going out of your way to see it. It's a fine place to stop to avoid spending an entire day on a train but there isn't really anything spectacular. Though it is the home of pesto. But since you can get genovese pesto elsewhere it's probably not necessary to go out of your way to get there. So I didn't stay long. Caught an afternoon train to Venice. Which was everything I thought it would be. Surprising in a place that's been so overly romanticised. I had just under 24 hours in the city so I started early in the morning so that I could get lost nice and early and have plenty of time to get found again. Which was surprisingly effective. I found the big piazza san marco and the guggenheim. Got my self a bit lost again then found the big bridge with the shops (don't remember what it's called).  Mostly I just meandered the streets enjoying the city.
But I had to leave for Bologna in the evening so I headed back to the train station.
Bologna was... a mission. All of the reasonably priced accommodation is a half hour bus ride out of the city. And I'd messed up my booking so I had to swap from one really hard to get to place to the other for my second night. Which resulted in other issues. So not the best time in Bologna even though it is a lovely city. Mostly because I felt like I spent half my time lugging heavy bags and sitting (or more often standing) on buses. But it is a very nice city so don't judge it on my difficulties.
Next stop was Florence. Had an incredibly difficult time (and a minor break down) getting there but the hostel I was staying at was amazing and made my day instantly better. Like I said, it's a holiday weekend so everything was very crowded. And crowds have a tendency to make me impatient so I didn't go into many of the sights but they looked pretty from the outside. The first day I just walked aimlessly. Found the market and bought some sunglasses. Found the duomo and the uffizi but didn't go in. Decided I couldn't be bothered climbing the hill then and that I would do the piazza michelangelo the next morning. But then I didn't. The hostel had free tuscan wine and snacks each night and bunch of us stayed up somewhat late talking and enjoying the free sustenance (if chips can be called sustenance). And then I started very slowly the next day and despite getting up before 9 didn't actually leave until almost 11. With the train to Siena leaving just after noon. So I didn't have time to climb the hill.
Siena was very pretty but also packed. Seemed like the entire region decided to head to Siena on a sunday afternoon. I didn't do anything specific. Just wandered the town. Which is very pretty. But mostly closed because it was Sunday.
The next day I started as early as I could because I had heard that the lines for the Uffizi took about 2 hours. I got in after about 2 hours 20. They seem to have one of the slowest security systems I've every seen and despite having hundreds if not thousands of people through in a day they only have one turnstile. Not the most efficient system. And when I did get in there were so many people I couldn't get near some of the art. So I only stayed for about an hour. After that I headed to the piazza michelangelo which is up a hill and has great views of the city. And a bronze copy of the David. Maybe this is a question I'm not meant to ask, maybe it will make me sound stupid, but what is so special about the David? I realise I only saw copies but is the original really that much better? not that it isn't a nice piece of sculpture but it's made out to be so amazing. Was it groundbreaking techniques? Because I studied greek art and there were sculptures that to my untrained eye looked just as realistic and detailed and amazing being made in the 5th century BC. So could one of you arty people let me know what I was meant to be seeing?
Anyway... Then stuff... Went to a grocery store. Good thing too because everything is closed today since it's the official holiday. And caught a train to Perugia.
It's a pretty place. They have a market going on in the city today. Not sure if it's a one day holiday event or something more long term. But the supermarkets are closed so I had to buy my food at the speciality stalls in and around the market.
I went into the cathedral and managed to catch the end of mass. Suppose it's not surprising since it is after all a religious holiday. Apparently all of Europe thinks all saints day is worth having off. We barely even knew when it was at home.
Now I am sitting on the edge of the fountain in the main square watching the world go by and writing my promised update. Which I will hopefully be able to post when I get back to the hostel. There. All caught up. No more complaints.
I've even (hopefully) added a photo because I know there haven't been a lot of those since Catie left with her laptop. So I took a photo of a view from Perugia just for you.