We stayed in Bologna that night and slept well, Brandon on the floor with cushions and me on the couch. The next morning we headed to Florence. Florence was a nice city, but the most touristy of places we had been to so far. We went to the center plaza of town and it was swarming with tourists. There was a church that could claim to have the first renaissance dome atop it. When the church began construction the technology didn't even exist to complete the massive dome. But the Pope had faith and sure enough an engineer came up with a way to pour the dome. This dome supposedly jumpstarted the renaissance architectural movement.  We also went to the Academia Museum where the Statue of David is kept. It really is heads and shoulders above any other marble sculpture ever created. The attention to detail and the porportions of the statue are spot-on. You can see why this was such an important symbol to Florence, who was surrounded by more powerful city-states at the time but used it's arts and sciences to move beyond their neighbors. David, with his defeat of Goliath, epitomizes these ideals. From there we went to another town plaza where the Statue of David originally stood. During this day, Brandon ate gelato about every 2 hours like clockwork. We left Florence that night to return to Bologna to stay. We were intent on milking this Bologna thing for as long as we could!

The dome

dome from the outside

After another night in Bologna we decided to sleep in and spend the day in Bologna, which we figured would have a few sights to see. Also, since it wasn't a big tourist trap we hoped to get a better feel for Italian culture. We went to a flee market in the morning with Joan, the girl we met at the airport. From there she took us to the main plaza of the city and we saw the towns main church (churches in Europe are unmatched). From there we went to what is arguably the oldest university in the world, with the argument being between it and Oxford. We went into the first autopsy room ever used in the world for the study of medicine. The hallways were lined with frescoes and some considerable amount of money went into building it. I believe it was commissioned by the Pope... Bologna happens to have two leaning towers, and since we opted not to go to Pisa because the only thing to do there is take a picture with the tower we thought we better see these. With 3 leaning towers and wth another city built entirely upon clay which is slowly sinking (Venice) it's safe to say Italy doesn't have the best architects in the world. By then it was around 2:00p and we were out of shit to do. Our local map had some landmarks on it so we decided to see what they were. what they were was the most pathetic landmarks we had seen (admittedly, maybe we have become a little spoiled with all the significant historical sites we have been to). So we decided to kill 2 hours until Joan got out of class and we could get back in the apartment.

Joan got out of class at 5pm and told us their graduate program was having a fairwell party tonight that started at 7pm. Brandon and I split a bottle of wine we bought the day before and headed out to Joan's class party. There was a large amount of Americans in the program and w also talked at length with someone from Georgia (the country) and met someone from Kosovo. The program was through John Hopkins University so we were in the presence of some pretty intelligent people. it was enlightening to talk to them, specifically the person from Georgia, about their culture. She said that in Georgia if you bump someone's shoulder on the sidewalk you run! Otherwise they are going to confront you. Also, no one smiles randomly to other people on the street. You are looked at as weird if you do. Brandon chatted up a kid from Beirut who invtied us to come out. his selling point was that it was "fun, there are hot girls, there is a beach, and every so often you get to see shit blow up." While at this party Joan's roommate, Meredith, after liberally enjoying some booze posed this question to us (and this is word-for-word what she asked), "Are you guys really who you say you are?" After Brandon and I stopped laughing we asked what that meant. She said that sometimes people make up stories when you meet them and she was skeptical that he was an actuary and I was going to med school. After pulling out our student IDs and driver's licenses her skepticism subsided. When we got back to the apartment Brandon pulled up his transcripts to drive the final nail in that coffin. Night 3 in Bologna.

Outdoor Flea Market

                                            World's first autopsy room

We planned to spend today in Cinque Terre. it is a series of 5 small towns, the smallest of which has a population of only 240. These towns are right along the Mediteranean on the cliffside and 7 miles of trail along the cliff connect them. We tried to catch the early train to Cinque Terre the next morning, but failed. We arrived in Cinque Terre at 1pm. The walked the path from the first, Rio Maggore, to the second town, Manarola. This was only a 20-25 min flat hike. The view was fantastic! At the second town we busted out our Rick Steve's Best of Europe book and followed his walking tour of the second town. The main commodity of all these towns is wine and you can look up in hillside above these town and see how they carved into the hills to be able to plant grapes. these hillside gardens looked as if they were stairtcases built for the Jolly Green Giant. Each step was about 4 feet wide and just as tall with a retaining wall of rocks keeping the integrity of the step. The second town had a path along its hillside, and through the jungle of grape vines and fruit trees, where you could look down upon the town and the sea. This town also had an above-ground cemetery that we were able to walk through. We met a group of kids from Penn State that were studying in Roma, further solidifying the fact that we messed up by not studying abroad while in school.

It turned out the path was closed to all other adjoining town. We would have to use the train to get to the other 3 towns... and so we did. The next town was Corniglia, which was the smallest of the 5 towns. Brandon and I missed the turn for the tourist path up the hill to the town and found ourselves walking up the snaking road that the locals used to get to and from town. We were in town for 30 min before we decided it was time to move on to the 4th town, which is the biggest of the 5. Just when we turned to leave we ran into our buddy Andrew, the surfer from California who we met on the ferry to Italy and spent 2 days in Naples with. Brandon had been keeping in touch with him through facebook so we knew we has going to Cinque Terre today, but the meeting was still suprising. So we sat with him and someone from his hostel that was going to Stanford. He hung out in a little restuarant and were having a good time, but we spent more time there then I would have liked. By the time we left town, after waiting 45 min for the next train, it was 6:30p. We also had to take the 7:30p train out of Cinque Terre to make our main train home at 9:20pm. So we only had an hour and still had two town to see. We obviously only had time for one and so saw the 4th town, Vernassa. We walked to their harbor, the only town of the 5 that possessed a true harbor. We quickly walked around, loaded up on food, and headed back. We got back to Bologna at midnight. In total, we spent 8 hours on trains today. It took it's toll on us. The following day, Venice! And then out of italy.

Another city and another train missed. We tried to make the 11:10am train and we were at the station on time. The problem was they didn't have a free seat for us. So we boarded the 11:56a train and got into Venice at 2pm. The train station opened up to the Grand Canal, the backbone of Venice. We hopped on the ferry right out front for 6.5 euros and took it to the end of town where the canal opened up. Rick Steves had a tour for us on this trip so I tried to read along to point out important buildings as we passed them on the Grand Canal. We arrived in the city during hightide and it was crazy to see water right up to people's doorsteps and a few houses where the water rose above the bottom of the door. Our last stop was St. Marcos' Square, the main plaza of the city.

From St. Marcos' Square we walked into St. Marcos' Basillica; a beautiful church and the main one for Venicians. While in line a couple girls noticed my Detroit Marathon shirt and guess where they went to school... UofM. So more Wolverines! The church was dark, but beautiful. it was littered with mosaics and trophies that traders returned to Venice with from around the world. We had to use a back entrance and walk on platforms in certain areas of the church because it was high-tide, which formed puddles around the front of the church and inside one of the rooms. You are not supposed to take pictures here, but either were you of the Statue of David or the Sistine Chapel and I refused to have my streak of disobediance broken here. So, I snapped a few more shots.

Right next door to the church was the Doge's Palace, "the most powerful 1/2 acre in all of Europe for 400 years" (Rick Steves). We toured this place and the prison attached to it, that was still used until 1930. The Palace favored oil paintings with dark colors. One of the rooms actually held the largest oil painting ever done. You think American beauracracy is bad? It seemed like every room we walked in, and that was a lot of rooms, was meant for some council, committee, or board. This palace was richly decorated and very impressive, which I'm sure was it's intended purpose to visiting foreign dignitaries.

As we exited I realized I did not have my Eurail ticket in my pocket. You know, the pass that allows us to go on trains for 2 months? Also, and I have no idea why other than to scam backpackers, they don't keep an electronic record of when you buy a Eurail ticket. So, when you lose your ticket you are shit-out-of-luck. It must have came out of my pocket when I pulled my wallet out. I would keep them in separate pockets, but since you can't use your back pockets unless you want to get pick-pocketed i'm left with two pockets for all my things. Anyway, I began to walk back to the Doge's Palace to see if I dropped it where I last used my wallet. After going through 2 people I find someone that speaks English well enough. As I explain what I lost I light goes on for him and he comes back with my pass. He tells me a little kid saw it on the ground and grabbed it. After giving the random security guard a hug and leaving him probably jsut a little creeped out I met back up with my brother and started to walk back along the Grand Canal to the train station.

We didn't follow right along the canal on our walk back. We took Rick Steves' advice and got lost in Venice. It has a series of small streets zig-zagging every which way. I recommend wandering off. You get away from the tourists and see the true Venice, which is a nice place. We got some food, saw the Rialto Bridge, and had our final gelato fix. We sat outside the train station for an hour and overlooked the Grand Canal as we waited for our train. As night swept in the light posts along the river began to glow and the romantic ambiance of Venice set in.... too bad I was here with my brother. We people-watched and then boarded our 15-hour train to Budapest, Hungary. Ciao Italia!