Historia de una

Hi everyboy!!

The previous day of coming to Spain in august, I still had the opportunity to travel a bit more and discover a new city in north Italy.
Ali had the idea of going to Geneva, at first I thought it was too far away for going in the day but I was surprised when I checked the trains because it is reachable from Milano Centrale in an hour and a half and there are a lot of trains.
So Ali, Ayman and me took at 7 am a train to Milan and around 10 we were in Geneva.

I was surprised!!!
Geneva is very beautiful. As I saw it, it has charm, I was not expecting too anything special or different but I was wrong. Maybe it is not included in the main tour around Italy, as Florence or Venice are, but it deserves a visit: beautiful streets, the sea, majestic churches and buildings (Via Garibaldi, Via Balbi are considered World Heritage).

Here you have the prove of that nice day!

Barb, Ayman & Ali	Galleria di Palazzo Reale
Aquario di Genova
Do you guys remember “Finding Nemo”? We found!	We are allways having fun…
The other side from a port
We got lost and found ourselves in the hightest part of the city

That’s all guys. I wanted to order in a summary all the post of the Italy tour. It has taken time to write about every single day but it may be useful to future travellers. I am on holidays now, so now I have the time to spend.

I will remember this trip with affection because, unlike Berlin trip for example, it was organised by me and we did it in our way. Besides, it ends a stage in my life.

My first year of my Italian adventure is over…

First and Second day: Florence (Firenze)

Third and Fourth day: Rome (Roma)

Fifth, Sixth and Seventh day: Naples (Napoli)

I hope you to enjoy it as I did.

30th July: Pompei-Napoli

The last part of the trip is coming. The 30th July was Ayman’s birthday, actually it was exactly at 11 am, right Ayman? So we had a big breakfast in our terrace and later we went to our dearest Central Station in order to travel to Pompeii. From the train we enjoyed the views of the sea on the one side and of the Volcano in the other.

Pompeii was a Roman city that disappeared under the eruption of the Volcano Vesuvius. Through the ruins that were discovered and restored you can imagine how life at Roman Empire was. It is a must see, and I guess that also one of the most visited places in Italy. We spent several hours among the ruins until we got exhausted and starving.

Back in Naples we had the main parts of the city to discover.
We took the subway (without paying… all machines were broken!!) to Amedeo, where we were very close to the sea and there are beautiful places to stroll. The walk leaded us to the Castel dell’Ovo and then to Piazza Plebiscito. All the interesting places and the “good “ city centre are there. It was a pity that it was late at night when we discovered all these nice places, and I do not have any photos.

31st July: Napoli… Como

And we came to the last day! As our plane was in the evening we could continue discovering more parts of Naples, such as the Mergellina Port and the Spanish Quartier, which is the most unsafe, impoverished but “colourful”. Ah! And it is so so cheap, commodities at prices that you can never imagine!

We arrived to Como at midnight having spent seven busy but amazing days.

Porto Mergellina

Spanish quartier

29th July: Roma- Napoli

The fifth day of our trip we had to travel from Rome to Naples.
I was looking forward to getting in that train, because it was a new high speed one. It leaves at 10:25 and it is scheduled to arrive at 11:52 at Naples, the 300 kilometres per hour lets the train to arrive even before!

The luxury of the train was not corresponding with the poverty of the city where we were arriving.

Getting out of the station we realised everything was a mess. It is true that the surroundings of the central rail station are not often the best place of a city, but in this case I was shocked!

Some Naples Buildings

.
Arriving to our hotel and in particular discovering our room was more shock for us! It was “a bit” disgusting; in this case I will not go into details. To make things worse they have pre-payment policy, that is, you pay in arriving to the reception the whole stay, and then they lead you to the room… At least we had a big balcony in a corner of the noisiest street of Naples, Corso Garibaldi.

Some other typical thing of Naples is the traffic; in some occasion I have commented that the Italian traffic it is quite crazy and chaotic, I would say even dangerous. Well, Naples is different, it is the jungle, I am not joking. The only traffic rule is that the stronger goes first! That is valid also for pedestrians, as traffic lights are useless, you just put your legs in the middle and pray for the cars to stop on time not to crash with your legs. Drivers are used so they stop in the middle of the avenue, let you pass and then go on their way as it was the most normal thing in the world. In fact there is just a few of traffic lights, mostly useless!

After trying unsuccessfully to rest in the room, we went out to discover Naples, leaving behind the Central Station surroundings we went into the “Mercato” quartier. There you can find literally everything in the street. All the possible items are sold in the street, it is amazing!
Again, we were not choosing the best part of the city to see… but we found a restaurant and Naples Italian food is really good! Then we reached the port Beverello and we check some ships to run away to Capri or Ischia islands but it was not easy.

“Mercato” area

.
Tired of the hot, and disappointed we went back to the hotel. Already in the night we were walking forward what is called the Historical Center. I would like to recommend the street “Via dei Tribunali”, it is very scary…

We ended up in Piazza Gesú Nuovo drinking some wodka, and we had later to go back home under a hard rain.

Summing up, desolating landscape, a lot of poverty, homeless people, dirty streets, and a different standard of life… I am afraid that for the moment I am not describing Naples as a nice city, but by the first day we had just discovered a few parts. The city itself is very big and it is beautiful, it is a place to be visited because if you want to know Italy, the country is not what I am used to experience in the Nord. Naples is totally different, but it is very Italian too! In the end it was a great experience to go there, and the city has its charm.

Corso Garibaldi

28th July: Rome

This day was the time to disvoer Rome on foot, and see as much as a horribly hot day let you see. The route me made it is not important, wherever you go in Rome, you find a lot of monuments! Some places we saw (besides repeating those seen from the bus the previous day): Piazza San Pietro in Vincoli, Parco del Celio, Piazza di Spagna, Piazza del Parlamento, Pantheon and all the beautiful area around.

We walked in the morning, we rested and tried to sleep in the afternoon and we walked and walked again in the night! Definetly, Rome is great.

Fontana di Trevi

27th July Firenze – Roma

At eleven in the morning we had our regional train from Florence to Rome. Although it was supposed to be an uncomfortable and slow train, we travelled comfortably and cheap. Actually, Italy has a quite good service of trains, especially because it is possible to find good offers to travel cheaper.The train station of Roma Termini was refurbished some years ago and now it looks like an airport.

We arrived at around 3 pm and the hot was almost unbearable. We had some time to go around before meeting Javier in the evening. Javier is a Spanish friend who was hosting us for the two days we were in Rome. Not knowing how to start visiting the city, we though that the best option was taking a tourist bus. Rome is huge and has so many things to see that this bus it is worth, at least it gives you an idea of the art dimension that the city holds.

On the bus we passed through the must-see of Rome: Piazza della Republica, Quirinale, Colosseo, Palatino, Circo Massimo Fori Romani, Bocca della Verità, Piazza Venezia, Piazza Navona, and we arrived to the Vatican.
While staying two days for visiting Florence is more than enough, unless you wish to visit all the museums, Rome is different, without intention to entering museums, it deserves several days to see it all. It was my second travel to Rome, but I should go again!

Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II

Foro Romano

Colosseo

Castel San Angelo from Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II

In Piazza San Pietro we almost had a bath in the fountains because it was too much hot. We wanted to go into the basilica. To get into there are a lot of controls, and they are very strict with the clothes that you are wearing, it is forbidden to show the shoulders for example, so I had to take my big foulard and cut it in two pieces and people around could make fun of our style, Aymy and me covering with a piece of cloth…

Inside the basilica we had the privilege to attend a Misa, it is not like I am a religious person, but I considered it as something special.

San Pietro basilica

Anyways, after the religious moment we continued our tour in the tourist bus: Castel San Angelo, Piaza Cavour, Fiume Tevere, Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Augusto Imperatore, Piazza Barberini and Via Vittorio Veneto.

We arrived exhausted to Termini where Javier was already waiting for us accompanied by Raffaelle and Manolo (It is not necessary to say that they are Italian and Spanish ).
Javier apartment was close to Termini and just a few steps form Coliseo, and he is so privileged, because the place was great, totally decorated and in the heart of Rome.

We stayed for a while resting and chatting (mixture of Spanish, Italian with some English).

In the night Ayman and me went for a walk around, we were not far to Fontana di Trevi, so we went to throw the coin. Then along Via del Corso arrived to Piazza Venezia and the great Monumento a Vittorio Emanuelle II. This monument is probably what impresses me more of Rome. Next there we found a fountain and decide to have a small bath. Maybe we had the best moment of the trip, deep conversations with our feet inside the water. Then we strolled around the Coliseum and went to a terrace where Javier and Manolo were waiting for us to drink something.

26th July Ancora Firenze

Our whole stay in Florence was very pleasant. The city center is small, so everything can be reached easily on foot, and besides our hotel location was really the best.
After going the day before around all the side of the river where Duomo is, the second day was for discovering the opposite side. In the morning we went around the areas of San Frediano and Santo Spirito which are not turistics but there are beautiful churches too. Then we approached Piazza dei Pitti and Palazzo Pitti.

We were about to get into the Palace, but unfortunately the reduced entrance was not for students, for example, but for just under 25 an EU citizens. None of us comply with these requirements so we decide better not to pay the full entrance. In the middle of the day the hot was unbearable so we just wanted to find some nice gardens (and with free entrance, if possible) but going around it turned out that the gardens of Boboli and Torrigiani were walled. We got exhausted of walking under the sun so we went back to the hotel to rest.

In the afternoon we went up to Piazzale Michelangelo. It is pretty high, so that there is a panoramic view of Florence. It is a very nice place specially to witness a sunset from there. In the way back we again went around the center, where there was some kind of procession, and in the night we tried to find some night club, in particular I had a guide with an address but there was nothing there. Instead, we found the Piazza S. Croce and one more church. Weak point of Florence… night life!

25th July Milano-Firenze

Our trip started waking up very early in the morning for taking a train at 6:20 from Como Borghi station to Milano Cadorna. In Como we can use two different train companies to go to Milano: the national one trenitalia and one regional that is called Ferrovie Nord Milano. We chose the second one, because I live very close to one station; otherwise we had to walk till Como San Giovani Station which is pretty far away.

At 8:15 am out Intercity train left from Milano Centrale to Firenze S. M. Novella, it took three hours and a half, but the train is very comfortable, just too much cold because a very high air conditioning.

From the first second we realised that Florence was really hot and full of tourists. We went towards the river Arno because our hotel was exactly in the river side with its windows looking to the river and just a few meters away from the famous Ponte Vecchio.

Luxury location and a great hotel. We were really very comfortably, because our room was not small and we had air conditioning an a TV with international channels (so, much more that what we have here in Como!)

After resting a bit, and waiting for a summer storm to pass, we went out to discover Florence, the center, the great Duomo (see the two pictures below), Piazza della signoria. The Duomo of Florence is my favourite, at least from outside, because of the different. Milan’s one is also great, and the interiors are the amazing.

But going back to Florence, it is very “Italian style” but with a special charm added, besides the rich richness.

Typical Florence street

Fiume Arno from one side to the other

Ponte Vecchio

From the middle of Ponte Vechio

One more picture of the river side, I love this kind of pictures!

Galleria degli uffizi (wiew from the river)

Palazzo Vecchio tower in the back

The afternoon, after hours of stroll around, finished in a typical Italian trattoria to taste the Toscana cuisine . And, in the night, a drink in the banks of the river Arno, while enjoying the night view.

Ciao ciao

Some day I should start writing in Italian…
Anyway, it is time to talk about my holidays in Italy. After getting rid of exams Ayman and me went around Italy for a week, a really tiring tour because we intended to visit Florence, Rome and Naples within seven days!

And we did, and I have beautiful photos to show you all. For me it was the second time in visiting Florence and Rome (I always through the coin in the “Fontana di Trevi”, to guarantee that I will return again some day); but such cities deserve a second visit, and a third… Naples was totally new for me, kind of discovering, at least a great experience because it is totally different to the Italy I am used to.

Well, Italy is just great, but I think that I am not telling everything new, because it is totally full of tourists.

I will start with some beautiful photos of Florence, and more details are coming soon!

By the way, I wander if you have realized how much I like cities with river crossing them, perhaps it is that I am from Saragossa, perhaps that it is so romantic, but I just like to go in the middle of a bridge and look to the river along the city.

Hi everybody,
I will apologize again for not updating my blog, sometimes I was not in the mood but most of the time I have been extremely busy.
If I am not busy, this is not me, the activity is part of my character, but lately I have been overdoing a bit.

Finally I am on holidays! exams are behind, and a long month of august is ahead, and now that I expect to have some free time I will go back to post about some things I have been up to.

To summarize a bit from the 14th July I took a plane to Saragossa, I really was looking forward to meet my friends and family, so I went just for a short time, because there was some days without exams scheduled. When I returned to Como I knew about the lasts marks and my exams had gone very well, so I didn’t have to retake any exam.

I had in mind to make a trip just finishing exams, at the end of July and so I did. From 25th July to 31st July, I visited Florence, Rome and Naples, three must see of Italy.

So, pay attention to this web because nice things are coming!!