Historia de una

Hello,
the other weekend I went to “cotè d’azur” ( blue coast) in France (an in good company). As usual, I repeated destination and this was my second time in Nice. But it’s worth.

Nice can be the perfect place to live. Small city but full of interesting things, beautiful landscape and the sea. Besides, good weather, can we ask for something else? (of course yes, but it is still a “nice” place).

From Milan it is rather close as to go for a weekend, we took the train early in the morning and around 6 hours later we were lying on the beach. And walking along the sea side, as there is a great promenade, and walks are more than recommended!
Our hotel was 5 minutes walking from the sea and less than 10 minutes walking from the main train station, moreover the room was very nice (it is an advantage of traveling in low-season, it is not crowded and it is easy to find good deals).

We had also time for shopping, french dinner and enjoying the evening. On Sunday morning, after having breakfast on the beach we went to discover the old city which is up up up. Then we got to some new parts of Nice with modern constructions. We enjoyed asiatic food which is also a very good alternative.
Summing up, a great weekend out of routine.

Hola a todos!!

No puedo retomar el blog sin antes comentar que gracias al link en el blog de Javi Moya en las últimas horas han pasado nuevos visitantes. Gracias a todos y bienvenidos!! (ya veréis que este blog no es muy pretencioso, tan solo un lugar donde conectar con la gente que tengo lejos y otra tanta gente nueva por conocer)

Y volviendo a mi vida de por aquí, como últimamente hace tan buen tiempo (la sequía ha llegado a Italia, para ser exactos), hace unos días decidí darme una vuelta por los alrededores de Como. A todo aquel que venga a pasar el día a Como le recomiendo que, una vez visto el lago y el casco histórico, cojan el funicular, en el lado derecho del lago, y suban a Brunate, que es un pequeño pueblo que está en lo alto y que se ve desde cualquier punto de Como. La vistas desde Brunate valen la pena Está ahí arriba del montículo de la foto

Dando un pequeño paseo (aunque en los móviles dice que estás ya en Suiza ) se llega al Faro Voltiano. En Como muchos monumentos están dedicados a Alessandro Volta, ya que era un “comasco” (habitante de la provincia de Como). En particular éste faro es una torre de 29 metros construida en 1927.

Y desde allí se alcanza a ver una parte del lago de Como, con algunas de sus Villas y pueblecitos.

Aunque no se vaya al faro, el paseo por Brunate vale la pena, el pueblo en sí es muy bonito, casas preciosas, iglesia, etc, pero su ubicación lo hace más especial si cabe. Allí arriba parece que se ha dejado la civilización atrás y se ha llegado a un mundo a parte. Calles estrechas por las que difícilmente puede circular un coche, cuestas, escaleras… Aunque sinceramente yo no podría vivir en un sitio tan tranquilo, pero conozco a un señor alemán que es el guarda de una casa de Brunate (creo que tienen cosas de mucho valor dentro) y su misión es cuidar de la casa y hacer meditación. Y se le ve muy feliz.

Esta foto está tomada desde donde se coge el funicular y se ve todo el casco histórico de Como, se distingue muy bien la catedral, el estadio de fútbol y el puerto.

Ciaoooo

Como adelanté, este año no se me han escapado los carnavales de Venecia (el año pasado no pude ir por un fallo técnico que fue que me dieron un billete de tren de un día equivocado y me di cuenta cuando era demasiado tarde).

Un consejo, si lo que queréis es ver Venecia no vayáis en carnaval, si queréis en cambio ver el carnaval de Venecia, entonces sí.

Yo estuve solo un día para ver el ambiente, ya había estado años atrás así que ya me había paseado por las calles y visto los escaparates de cristal de Murano. Fue una pena que nos lloviese durante casi todo el día. Pero a pesar de la lluvia y de estar echa polvo por no haber casi dormido la noche anterior, el encanto de Venecia y la buena compañía hicieron que fuese un día especial.

Por cierto, una curiosidad del italiano, así como “Calle” se dice “Via” a las pequeñas callejuelas entre canales se les llama “Calle” y los a los canales que no son principales se les llama “Rio”.

Ahora os dejo mi selección de fotos (que no están tomadas por mí, ya sabéis que me da mucha pereza tomarlas, aunque luego me gusta tenerlas)

Haciendo click en cada foto se puede ver en tamaño grande.

As I told some time ago, at the end of may I went to Berlin

Fue un viaje de cinco días (de los cuales dos fueron en autobús) y cuatro noches, en el que tenía grandes expectativas y salí bastante defraudada, de ahí que no me haya explayado tanto en el blog. A pesar de que fui al viaje en uno de mis mejores momentos en Italia, las cosas no fueron como esperaba, mal tiempo a pesar de ser casi junio, muy mala organización en el viaje, etc
Aun así no es que fuese un mal viaje, sino que durante este año loco los he hecho mejores.
Con esta recopilación de fotos termino la saga de post de viajes, porque por otro lado me estoy dejando muchas cosas en el tintero, y me gustaría hacer balance del año ahora que ya se puede dar por terminado puesto que el nuevo curso se avecina.

Un abrazo desde Como

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.