The Honeymoon Part 4: Italy, the journey ends here..

Yes this will be the final post where I bore with the non-important details of my honeymoon!

We "did" quite a lot of places in the land where the food is colourful and the people more so!

To list them down they were Venice, Pisa, Florence and Rome. Each place gave me something to come back for, like every other place I've talked about. Now I know in all lags of the journey I have stated I liked the next destination as much as the last. This could mean 2 things, either the entire Europe I saw is brilliant or that I'm easily impressed. I think it's a healthy mix of both J

Why don't I begin with the one that amazed me the most. Before I saw the place I had no idea what it's claim to fame was (Well I never said general awareness was my forte, did I?) It was Florence.. for it had the most amazing and picturesque cathedral I have ever seen,  Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore: Popularly known as Il Duomo . It was magnificent! I'm not lying when I say this, it is a sight to be witnessed, no camera would ever do it justice, we tried from every angle, none could capture the brilliance. Such was the stature!

I'm not sure if I'm breaching a religious line here, but it's even prettier than St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. But before you raise your eyebrows, a brief history: This Cathedral in Florence is said to be Italy's addition to the renaissance, the original structure was only half finished for a very long time until two architects, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi (A goldsmith by profession) came to the rescue and completed the dome, whose design and ingenuity even to this date is a mystery to the best architects in the world. The locals say this beautiful structure was the inspiration and competition that drove Michelangelo (Who was born in the city, and is rumoured to have been buried there, another local story. And his most prized creation the David is also housed in a Museum here). He vowed to make a bigger, better, more magnificent counterpart which we now know as the Vatican City just to match its beauty. All that might be true, but then there is some beauty that only come from spontaneity that is visible only in Florence. Another claim to fame this brimming with romance place has is, it is the birth place of the enigma that was Leonardo da Vinci. It is also the birth place of Amerigo Vespuci, the explorer where America got its name from. Enough said about the place, lest I give out information on this blog! It is totally against the very essence of this blog. My motto: No info, no outflow J

Oh I completely forgot the best thing about the place. The most amazing, I repeat the most amazing ice cream.. ooops!! Gelato I have had in my entire life!!! No Kidding!!! It was like everything before that scoop of ice cream was just a scam. You have to believe me, don't go on believing anyone else who says it's over hyped, they have got no taste buds. If you ever happen to be in Florence around that square where all the fancy statues and the fountain is, I think it was the Museum complex or something. The street that comes from the cathedral to the fountain, just at the turn is that divine scoop of ice cream. The flavour you have to try musk melon, Yeah our humble kharbooja... but only one lick would tell you how it has been transformed into this frozen delight!!! It was like love at the first lick! This and the passing comment that a really pretty assistant in the shop communicated to me despite the language barrier by finding an Indian assistant who spoke Italian (Surprisingly easy to find, we are everywhere) in the shop, that I've got really pretty eyes <blink blink> J

It was such a cool place, in the fountain complex, a band randomly came and started playing. For no reason! And then as if by design there is a group of some amazingly good looking couples (What else do you expect? It's Italy!) come and start dancing! Are you convinced I'm in love? Or I need you bore more?? 

OK I'll leave it at that, and then move to Pisa. It was alright, the leaning tower (It should just be that called that here..) is not as leaning as the movies or the caricatures make it out to be. We ate the pizzas there, had to! You go to Italy and not eat a pizza? That's sacrilege!! It was alright, nothing to write home about.. Let's just it was a bit too bland for my tastes.. but the restaurant was fancy enough, it was worth the experience that's for sure!

And then there was Venice.. For reasons I can totally relate to Venice is amazingly expensive in terms of real estate. One more local gossip that was shared with us by our local guide was that Johnny Depp had once tried to own a house (while shooting for The Tourist) overlooking the square, and turns out it was so expensive that even he couldn't afford it!! Ya! That much! Then he took solace in some other by-lanes of the pretty city, but even that cost him 8.6 MM pounds! How's that for expensive? Now that I've laid the premise, let's move on to understand what makes this place so worth every pound the star spent. Venice is a city in north-eastern Italy consisting of a group of 117 small islands separated by canals and linked by close to 400 bridges. There is no way to get around the islands except your own two feet, or two wheelers! You seamlessly glide from one islet to another without realizing much difference. Every little piece of land is beautiful, general tourist entry begins at the Piazza San Marco, which was the principal public square and housed all the monuments of historical importance like the parliament, the court, the prison, the church. 

During it's time in history Venice was the centre for all sea trade owing to its ports and strategic position. There is enough evidence to showcase that dominance even today. The entire city is a declared world heritage site, if that doesn't get your curious on, nothing will J



All the history and world awareness lessons aside, let's get to the obvious: The gondola ride! Worth every bit of money you would spend (and trust me it's a lot!!) the highlight of the ride for me was when the gondolier broke into a song (this of course costs money, but then this was another gondola with richer riders. You never understand positive externality quite as much until you experience this one), Of course I didn't understand the lyrics, it a scene straight of the movie! And then when he suddenly at the end of small rivulet we suddenly turned into the huge grand canal.. it was just magnificent! A word of advice though.. don't get too carried away and start splashing the water in the canals, it’s as dirty as the Yamuna if not worse (How they keep the appearance up, that's something that probably we can learn) I dipped my hand for a brief moment (and withdrew it almost immediately when someone shouted at the sight of that!), even though it was barely a second and I sanitized immediately it still itched long after the ride was over. Just a friendly advice.. feel free to experience it first person if you must J. And what to buy from this pretty city? I can tell you.. Those amazing papier mache masks which are the staple for the carnival. You can see them everywhere! Adds to the magic. The authentic handmade masks are (goes without saying) a bit on the higher side, but then you will have to see them for yourselves and decide whether they're worth the keep (I decided they are :)).

And now for the last stop of my not long enough holiday: Roma!! This is the first place I have seen where I actually felt I was walking through history: a ruined temple, a half there half gone Colosseum at one street, a still functional Trevi fountain at the other. And a slightly modern monument Il Vittoriano bang in the middle, it was a huge Marble monument which shone amidst all the worn out brown. 

And yes.. The Vatican, frankly speaking for someone who does not follow Christianity would miss the point. I was feeling bad on being all touristy in St. Peter's Basilica, there they were praying with all sincerity, and I was staring at them trying to guess how it’s done, and again staring at the ceiling and marvelling at Michelangelo’s ingenious design and art. But then as I said earlier, it’s not as beautiful as its older cousin standing in Florence, but still you can’t go to Rome and not visit the Vatican City. But for all the faith in the city, my heart belonged to all the old world relics that were so liberally scattered at every turn. Goes without saying even this place deserved more time.

Writing these series of blog posts (Albeit over a period of almost an year) to recount those 10 days brought back so many pretty memories. And also that it ended too soon and left me with this urge for travel. This urge would not be quenched until I have hopped all around the globe. But for that.. I need some money.. and for that I need to work.. and because of that I can’t take a vacation at the drop of the hat.. and therefore I can’t travel as much as I’d like to! Man! Talk about a vicious cycle.

But even so I’m so glad that I finally finished this post! It has been in my drafts for like EVER!! While I’ve been contemplating on what to write here, so many other things have happened. I’ve taken 4 separate mini-vacations around the city and almost forgotten enough to not be able to write back about them. But guess what? My anniversary is up next month.. How time just flies… and before I start losing my trail of thought let me conclude this post by saying: And I’m done!!