Football and Beer

Day 103
I was excited to be heading to Zürich for a bunch of reasons. I was getting tired of Italy and was ready for a new country. Over a few different trips I have spent about 7 weeks in Italy. I have seen a lot of this country, even though I know there is still a lot more to see. I was just really ready for a change and something that would not be so very familiar. Secondly, I really liked Zürich the last time I was there. And, most importantly, I was looking forward to seeing Stu. Stu is a Bootsnall friend who also met up with me way back when I started this trip in London.

The train ride was easy, I read and slept for most of it. There was basically no border control, and once again I didn't get any new stamps in my passport. That's fine by me, the less stamps, the slower it will fill up and more pages will be needed.

Stu even met me at the train station. This was the first time during this trip that someone was somewhere waiting for me that I already knew. It was kinda nice. What was also nice was Stu's shower. It had lots of water pressure and hot water, things that I hadn't had in quite some time.

Once I had cleaned up and dropped off all of my things we Stu and I went to an American pizza place called Uncle Sam's for lunch. The pizza was good, and the American theme was a nice taste of home. Afterwards Stu gave me a walking tour of Zürich, even though it was familiar, it was nice to have a local (Stu has been in Zürich for about 7 years) show me around.

I've mentioned before that the Eurocup is going on. I've seen a ton of games at this point. The series was being hosted by Austria and Switzerland. Zürich was set up for a huge party and as there was a game on that night we decided to check it out. We also grabbed a couple of beers to walk around with. As I am American and this is allowed basically no where in the States it is quite a novelty for me to do this.

First we checked out the lake, the people swimming, and a park. We both watched the game out of the corner of our eyes while we caught up over beers.

Around 10 pm we realized that the alcohol consumption was a bit more tan either of us would have liked. We headed back to Stu's place and spent a bit of time chatting on his balcony before heading to sleep.

The Sun Returns

Day 102

When I woke up I randomly checked my reservation for Zürich. I about had a heart attack when it said I was meant to be on a train that morning. I checked with the hostel and I was meant to spend another night and then I called Stu, who was picking me up at the train station to make sure that I had given him the right date. Apparently the only person to not have the right date was the guy I asked to book the ticket. Right away I headed to the train station to make the change. I thought that because it wasn't my mistake that I would get the money back, but I had to pay again anyway. I'm sure that it had something to do with the language barrier and am not going to get too upset about it.

When everything was sorted Laura and I headed to the Sforzese Castle. It was originally built in the middle ages, but so many changes had been made that the structure would no longer be recognizable. We were going to check out the museums, but Lauras friends called her, they were waiting for her at the Duomo. I walked with her most of the way there, but then went off in search of some soda and a water. It was beyond hot and I was really dehydrated.

Finally, feeling slightly refreshed I headed off to the Museum of Science and Technology. This museum had some of Da Vinci's inventions on display, not the ones he made, but rather that they made from his drawings. It was a long walk and I was really feeling the sun by the time I got there. I was also really pissed off to find out that the museum was closed for the summer.

Hot, sweaty, and really irritated I decided to just go back to the hostel and get my stuff together to leave for the next day. After packing and some Internet time I had one last dinner at my local bar. Back at the hostel I started reading a wonderful book called The Book Theif before falling asleep early.

I had a great time in Italy, but it was time to leave. I was a bit tired of things not working well and the creepy attention I often was getting. I was also really looking forward to being back in Switzerland. And it was really time to leave this hostel. Milan is not really a tourist destination so no one was here for more th a night or so, in some cases only a few hours. I was looking forward to going to a more social setting.

Cheesy Day

Day 101

Today was the earliest day trip of the week. I was headed to Parma, the land of parmesan cheese. I wonder if the people are called Parmesans?

After grabbing a map I headed to the Reale Palace. I was working on a very short time period, everything seemed to close at 1 pm and had to move fast. The palace looked locked and I was about to give up with an older man asked me if I was here to see the palace. It turns out that it was also the local police headquarters.

The palace had about 6 room on display. It was easy to see that they usually were used as conference rooms. All of the rooms had large murals that looked more like they belonged on a theater set than in a very old palace. It was fun though to make up what types of stories they would go with.

My next stop was the local art museum. The museum was pretty good. Most of it was middle ages and early renaissance. There were even a few Da Vinci's. Most of the artists were local and I didn't recognize their names or styles. There was also a rather small collection of Roman statues.

Next up was a quick stop at the puppet museum. There were puppets that were several hundred years old and some from the past few years. I had a good time checking them out, but really, they were puppets and how long can you really spend looking at three rooms of puppets?

I had run out of time at this point. I thought that maybe I would get some cheese, but parmesan isn't exactly the kind of cheese you just bit a hunk out of. Instead I got a sandwich for the train ride.

Back in Milan I spent some time at the internet cafe trying to catch up on the blog. I kinda spent the time just screwing around though.

At the hostel I met a girl named Laura from Ohio. We went to a slightly more upscale place for a free dinner with drink purchase. The food was fabulous and we both stuffed ourselves. We had planned on just having a bit to eat at each place, but this wasn't going to work after the first stop. We ended up just grabbing a drink at the pub Kaitlyn and I had been to before. Afterwards we walked to the Duomo to get some pictures of it at night. By now it was late and we were both looking forward to getting back to the hostel and going to sleep.

Take thee to Mantua

Day 100

I'm not entirely sure why I picked Mantua. Maybe because it was in Romeo and Juliet, maybe because the train was at a reasonable time and I wouldn't have to be up too early.

When I arrived it took some effort to find the main area. The tourist office was closed and I could only go by poorly placed signs. The first place I managed to stumble upon was the Basilica of St. Andrew, built in 1492. It was definitely an attractive church. My interest was in the crypt. Apparently the Roman soldier Longino, who pierced Jesus's side as he was on the cross, took some of the blood with him. In 923 the Hungarians invaded and it was hidden. It remained buried until 1048 when the found it accidentally during a church expansion.

To visit the crypt I had to pay a euro and was guided by a really nice woman with ok English. We were the only people down there and it was a bit spooky. She actually gave me a brochure for free because I asked so many questions.

My next stop was the Duomo. It was rather boring and I was about to leave when I spotted the mummified body of a saint. I can't believe that I almost missed it!

I wanted to visit the palace but it was way more than I wanted to pay and the woman who told me the price was really very rude. I certainly wasn't going to visit after that. To be honest it wasn't just the money. I really just wasn't in the mood to go to a palace. I wanted a take a break day. I got on the next tratin back to Milan and spent the rest of the day chilling out and reading in my bed. I was lazy, but its good to be lazy on occasion.

Ocean Blue

Day 99

The next morning I was up again before my alarm. I was glad that I had gotten used to the early mornings. Today I was headed to Genoa. This is another city, like Turin, that I probably could have used more than a day to explore.

The first place that I had wanted to visit was the Genoa Reale Palace. The next tour wasn't for some time so I decided to check it out on the way back to the train station later on.

At the tourist office they had given me a brochure with landmarks and suggested walking tours. Over a cappuccino I highlighted what I wanted to visit and made my own tour. I think that Genoa is actually a pretty big place, however all the sites were located in the small old town. A lot of the places to visit were the facades of eloquent old buildings.

My first actual site was the Gusu cathedral. This was pretty much a typical church, however, it had several Rubens paintings in it. After enjoying the artwork I moved on.

Nearby is the Casa della famiglia Columbo, or Christopher Columbus's house. He lived in this house from age three until he left for Spain at 27. The house was quite small. He father had used the ground floor as a shop, he was a weaver. The foundation of the house dated back to the 5^th century. The house sticks out because it is the only one left in the row. All the other homes were torn down about 100 years ago. It looks a bit forlorn on its own. One of the bells from the Santa Maria is kept here. Apparently after his death a nephew of Columbus tried to sell it but the ship went down. It was later recovered.

The Porta dei Vacca, a city gate dating from 1155, is only a stones throw from Columbus's house. I imagined that climbing up it would give me a great view of the city and the port. The tower wasn't quite tall enough for this. When I climbed down the first tower and headed to the second I jokingly asked the woman at the ticket desk if there was an elevator for that one. She didn't get the joke and very seriously explained to me that the tower was 1000 years old and that they just didn't have elevators back then.

Once I had taken the stairs up I could see that even though the second tower was the same height, it was at a better angle and I had a much better view. I was also able to get pictures of the other tower.

After wandering aimlessly for some time through the cute medieval city I found a beautiful square with several restaurants and a bar with a good amount of beers on tap. My plan was to enjoy the sun that was finally making an appearance and write for a bit. The bartender asked me if I would like my beer to go. No one has ever asked me this before and I was a bit taken back. I think he thought that I didn't understand his English and he started to explain my options further. I apologized for my confusion, and just told him that no one had ever asked me that before and I was a bit surprised.

When I had finished my beer I headed to the port and the aquarium. For some reason the aquarium was ridiculously expensive and I decided that it could be skipped. I've seen fish before. I then headed back to the Reale Palace to get the next tour. To my surprise they only had the one tour a day and I had missed it.

I was at a loss at this point and decided to simply head back to Milan. On the ride I finished Catcher in the Rye. It's a wonderful book, you should read it. For dinner that night I stopped my my regular pub (at this point it was) and had the free food with beer purchase. I was exhausted by the time I got back to the hostel and simply fell asleep.

Small World After All

Day 98

For unknown reasons I was up before my alarm. I was excited, I was headed to the place I was most excited about in Northern Italy. I was headed to Turin, as in the Shroud of. This was basically the ultimate relic.

The holy shroud is not the only attraction in Turin. Turin is the capital of the Piedmont area and was the capital of Italy after unification in 1860, There is a lot of history here. There is also a tourist office right in the train station, always a good sign.

After getting my bearings and planning my day in a beautiful piazza with a fountain I headed to Palazzo Reale, this was once the seat of the Prince of Piedmont and I wanted to check it out. The next tour wasn't until 12:30 pm. I spent the next hour and a half checking out some of the nearby sites. I went to the Archaeological park that had some Roman ruins and even a current excavation going on.

When I had booked the tour I had been told that it would be in English. This wasn't quite true. They had info sheets in English, but the tour was in Italian. The whole thing was a bit odd. When there was a lot of stuff to read in English the guide would only talk for about 1 minute before moving everyone to the next room, when there was no info she would talk for about 10 minutes. There was either not enough time to check out the rooms, or way too much time to look at nothing. It was also sort of annoying when everyone would suddenly laugh and I would have no idea about what was going on. The tour lasted over an hour and went through 29 rooms. Along with only speaking Italian the guide yelled, a lot. We were only allowed to stand on a small bit of carpet, not nearly enough room to fit everyone. If you leaned too far you got yelled at.

The woman in front of me looked old enough to have actually attended balls at the palace during its heyday. Both her and her equally ancient daughter refused to acknowledge that there were other people on the tour. They refused to move up to make more room. They kept stopping short. I tried to get away by feigning great interest in some 18^th century knickknack, but I still always ended up next to them.

The castle was pretty, but other than dates and a couple of names I learned very little. Despite the crappy tour, the other things I had planned for the day and the short amount of time I had spent exploring already was causing me to really fall for Torino.

My next stop was the Resistance Museum. I have been to loads of WWII museums, but I know very little about Italy during the war. I was looking forward to learning about it through their eyes. The first part wasn't on WWII at all though, but on the dictatorship in Argentina during the 1970's. It was really quite moving. There were essentially before and after pictures. Only the after pictures were missing people.

The downstairs area concentrated on WWII. For some reason one of the women who worked at the museum insisted on going with me. She didn't speak much English and I couldn't figure out why. I mostly wanted numbers about Torino during the war. This museum completely lacked that. Instead I learned several personal stories. Whenever I walked close to a tv screen it would come on and someone would be talking, it was dubbed in English. At one point the woman directed me to watch a silent movie about Mussolini, but he never seemed to make an appearance and I was confused. Next I was directed to a room with a very large table. When I touched the different screens they came alive. Each contained a different set of pictures or a different topic. I was then lead down into a bomb shelter that 200 people would have squeezed into.

At the end of the museum a few of the movies told me that Turin had been used as a huge hospital at the end of the war. Many soldiers were sent here to recover. Despite the lack of information and the eerie silence (the English was subtitled), I liked the museum. It was interactive in a way that I did not know that WWII museums could be.

By the time I had left it had begun to rain. I was not in it for long as the Shroud of Turin Museum was nearby. This was one of the most detailed museums that I have ever been to. The shroud, in case you don't know, is said to be the one that was laid over Jesus's body. Mysteriously there is an imprint of the face and body of a crucifixion victim. Prior to coming to Turin in 1578 it had been in France. It had already been damaged by fire twice at this point. The shroud used to be taken out for all sorts of events, but now is only pulled out every few years.

A lot of testing has been done to figure out how old it is and how the face came to be. Several people have tried to replicate it but have been unsuccessful. Carbon dating places the shroud about 1000 years too young to be authentic. However, people argue that because of the odd circumstances that caused the imprint carbon dating may be wrong.

This museum is really an overabundance of information. I was there well over an hour and hadn't covered half of it. I think I would have been there all day if I hadn't just given up on it. I also couldn't really see myself listening to all the objects that had been found embedded in it and just what each person who had seen it thought about it.

The attached church was pretty interesting. It had been for people housed in an attached insane asylum. It is now the home base of the cult of the shroud.

While I was headed to the Duomo I ran into Jared from my hostel. He had come to Turin to meet up with his Italian penpal. Or would that be email pal now? They let me tag along and we headed to the Duomo that houses the shroud. You can't actually see the shroud, just the container that it is in. I took pictures and then quickly headed out.

Paul was a really good tour guide and he lead us around the city pointing out sites and giving us a history lesson. Perhaps he should drop law school and go into tourism instead. He took us to Valentino's palace, and a really pretty part nearby. The last stop was a fake medieval village. We only got there about 10 minutes before closing, but that was all we needed.

While on the train back it began to pour. At this point it had been about a week since I had had a day without rain. It was getting frustrating. Jerad and I ended up taking a bus back to the hostel instead of walking. Once we were there we grabbed Kaitlyn and headed to a nearby place to catch the Eurocup Italy verses France game. Italy won and it was really fun watching everyone celebrate. They were both leaving in the morning so we exchanged information and said our goodbyes back at the hostel.

Back in my room I noticed that there were two girls in a bed together sleeping. I couldn't tell if they wanted to be together or if one of them was sneaking in. It turns out that the later was true and and the hostel people caught them in the middle of the night, telling them to pay for the extra person or leave. Aren't hostels fun?

Sand Castles

Day 96

I was a bit upset with myself for having stayed up so late the night before when my alarm went off at 5:30 am. I figured that I would walk across the bridge and then get a cab the rest of the way. The only problem was that there were no cabs. It seemed like the people just coming out of the night clubs were grabbing them all up before I could. I was pretty surprised when I managed to walk all the way to the train station with my bag extra heavy with books.

As it was Sunday morning and no one with a brain travels at this time I was pretty much the only person in my train compartment. I took advantage of the space and laid across several seats to sleep. I feel a bit better about sleeping in first class for some reason. The conductors seem to pay more attention and walk through more often than in second.

When I got to Milan, the financial and clothing capital of Italy, I was shocked that there was such a large number of well dressed people at the train station. It took me some time to find the right bus for my hostel. When I got on it some guy on the bus decided that it was his job to make sure that I made it to where I was going. He actually took the address out of my hands. This really bugs me. Some people do just want to be nice, others stalk the hostel until they can catch you leaving. I tried to tell him that I was fine, but he persisted. I would just have to be extra cautious for the next couple of days. I didn't need to worry though, I never saw him again.

After dropping off my bags and grabbing a map I headed out. It was another rather gross day and I thought I would go see a movie. To bad, no movies in English. Stupid dubbing. Instead I bought myself a couple of new books, just what I needed to carry around. I don't care though. I love how much time I have to read. When I was younger I read all the time. Between college, two jobs, a social life, and the never ending draw of the dvr I haven't been reading much in the last few years. I feel like I've discovered a long hidden secret about myself. This trip isn't just about travel, but also about having time to relax, and reading is the best way I can think of.

When I found the Duomo I simply stopped and stared. It was bright white against the dark and dreary sky. The spires looked a bit like the top of a sand castle that you dribbled water over. The inside, however, was not so interesting.

I really didn't know what to do with myself at this point. I was tired, it was gross out. I ended up sitting for a bit in the Duomo square. There were a bunch of Africans approaching people to give them bracelets. This is a huge scam and when they came near me I just told them to get lost, they didn't bother me after that. However, I did watch as they ripped one tourist off after another. The scam is that once they give you the bracelet they expect you to give them money even though they said ti was for free. If you don't give them money they hound you until you do.

Eventually I decided that all I really wanted was some ice cream. I also went and checked my email for a while and watched ANTM. At this point it was just about dinner time. A bar next to the hostel gave you free dinner with drink purchase so I ate there. Back at the hostel I met a friendly Wisconsinite named Kaitlyn. She had just graduated and was traveling before starting her first job. We made plans for the next day before I fell asleep.