#thevaricks

Munich, Germany! 

We only spent one night in Munich.  We wanted to see it, but were more excited about getting to Prague.  I never regretted spending only one night in various locations.  The alternative would usually have been to not see them at all, and to travel longer between stops.

This is the Marienplatz and is the center square of Munich.  It was a hub of activity but our tour guide made sure to point out that it wasn’t just visitors, locals like the area for shopping and don’t mind the crowds.

One of the main reasons for stopping in Munich was to watch one of the stranger spectacles in all of Europe.  The surfing in the city center, on the edge of Englischer Garten.  Years ago, the river that ran through the town was buried because of it’s connection with pollution and disease.  The river still runs below the city and pops out here at the edge of the park where you will find a natural wave.  On the weekends there will be as many as 50 surfers waiting their turn to surf in the city.

 Innsbruck, Austria! 

We were very excited to escape the heat of Italy and get back into the mountains.  The train ride to Innsbruck was a beautiful one.  We traveled through some lush, gorgeous valleys with mountains on either side.  This is really our only experience with the Alps since we decided to cut Switzerland from out itinerary.  We have both loved the mountains and are coming back soon.

Innsbruck has a great viewing area at the top of the mall in the center of town.   It gave you a 360 degree view and even had a telescope that pointed out various mountains and landmarks.

This was our Airbnb for our stay for two nights.  It was right on a glacial river with a bike path running alongside.  We walked from our place to the mountains beyond.  We could definitely see ourselves living in a place like this.  The weather was a bit more chilly and rainy than we had thought, but it was unseasonable. The mountains had been clear of snow just a week before we arrived.

I could wake up to this view every morning! 

The mountains make a an appearance in almost every picture I took. We wandered through shops on this main shopping area. We even went to the flagship Swarovski- everything glittered!

It was nice to wear a coat after sweating so much in Italy!

We went to a little place around the corner which had the best schnitzel and spaetzle that we had on the trip.  It was very reasonably priced too! 

We really enjoyed Innsbruck, it was a great mix of the mountains, great food, and a very active lifestyle. We said this is a place we could live.

  Venice, Italy! 

From Naples we took the 5 hour train all the way to the top of Italy.  We were only staying in Venice for one night, because we wanted to stay on the island and it’s pretty expensive.  We were also excited to get to Austria where it would be much cooler.  One night ended up being perfect for our trip.  We stayed up late wandering through the streets once most of the day tourists had left.

I was very surprised at how much I liked Venice.  We knew going in that it was going to be crawling with tourists but once you turned the corner off the main drag, you were by yourself.  It was impossible not to get lost.  There are winds and turns throughout the entire island- sometimes just forcing us into a dead end. 

St. Mark’s Basilica is right on the main square, but we did not tour the inside. Lots and lots of hot, sweaty tourists were waiting in line though! A little fun fact though- there are enough mosiacs to cover 1.5 football fields (85,000 feet), and they were done with mostly gold tiles! 

This is walking into Saint Mark’s square, where most of the tourists can be found. 

We sat off a smaller canal for an hour or so to watch the gondolas float by. Unfortunately it seemed the gondoliers have decided they wanted another job because none of them were singing- or the least bit enthused!   

As the sun sets, it gives you all sorts of interesting shots like this.

This is the Grand Canal.  It was impossible to take a bad picture of it.  I have seen pictures of Venice a million times so it was a surreal experience to see it in person.  We sat here for an hour, watching the sun go down and looking at all of the intricate buildings “floating” above the water.

The Grand Canal is the main thoroughfare through the island.  It is filled with classy water taxi’s, pleasure boats, tour boats, ferries, and gondola’s ripping off their customers for 80 euros for 30 minutes! We also decided against that budget buster! 

A storm passed north of Venice and gave a great lightening show in Saint Mark’s square. Unfortunately for the drought stricken city, the storm didn't produce a single drop of rain. But it was beautiful for us to watch! We stood on the main bridge over the canal and watched the sunset and the pretty lightning storm pass before making our towards the square for some prime symphony night life!

Venice has some really fun tourists traps to avoid if your on a $100/ day budget like us. In the evenings at St Mark’s square, there are lots of fancy restaurants with live performing five-piece symphony, jazz, and classical bands. We thought it was very romantic, so we had a seat at one of these outside restaurants- just for a drink. Well, we took a glance at the menu and lo and behold- it was 15 euros to sit and listen and just a coca-cola was 10 euros. So we decided we could stand and listen to music, which is exactly what we did. It was free and the ambiance was perfect!

The next morning, we went for a stroll on the north side of the island. There are less canals and more residents in this area. We sat in a funny little park, watched some crazy expensive boats float by, and enjoyed the morning before hopping back on the train in the early afternoon.

This is the only floating veggie market we have seen!  He had a great selection of fresh, tasty produce. We spoke with a sweet family on the train en route to Innsbruck about grocery shopping in Venice.  They said it is a “full-time” job buying groceries because you need to go to each respective store for every item of the meal- bakery, butchery, fish market, and fresh produce etc. Also there are no cars in Venice, so you walk to all the different markets to get ingredients for dinner!

Naples, Italy! 

Pizza Pizza Pizza!  I convinced Liz that we should take the 2 hour train ride down to Naples for the night to eat as much pizza as we could!  Neapolitan style pizza has been my favorite for a while so I wanted to go to the birthplace of the perfect pie.  

We hadn’t even checked in to our Airbnb before we stopped at the first two pizzerias on our list.  This was our first stop, and we ate here while waiting for a seat at the most popular place across the street.  It was the perfect appetizer to….another pizza.

This is the most famous place in Naples (L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele) and was well worth the wait.  The whole crowd stands outside waiting to hear their number called in Italian.  We had a hard time understanding him, but luckily the crowd was in good spirits helping others find the right number.

We were right near the ovens.  The pizza’s are only in the oven for 90 seconds, thrown on a plate and then rushed to the customer.  The old guys in charge of service are fast and stern, but that’s how it’s done in Naples.

We probably didn’t need our own pizza’s, but it made great leftovers a couple hours later:)

We both had the pizza margherita’s (mozzarella+marinara+2 basil leaves), the only other choice is pizza marinara which doesn’t have any cheese, just sauce and dried herbs. You can see him making one of those here.

Naples is one of the more run down places we visited.  It is fondly called the “bad boy” of Italy, because it is known for crime and not so pristine environments, We ended up really enjoying walking around though.  There just seems to be more to see when a city isn’t in perfect order, the character shines through a little more.

This was our only view of Mount Vesuvius.  We were hoping to make it to Pompeii but it didn’t fit into our schedule for this trip.  We definitely want to come back to travel the Amalfi coast. We will miss out on the Eastern side of the Italian coastline, so it will be on the list.

This was our last pizza of the day (yes, we were only in Naples for one night).  Liz ended up getting a fried pizza, which is similar to a calzone with ricotta and sausage on the inside.  It was really good, but you can only eat so much fried dough.

This was the alley that we were staying down. It does seem to exude a bit more “character”!  

This was the door to our Airbnb.  We had to walk through a tiny door within the largest door we have ever seen. It was like a Alice in Wonderland door!

Rome, Italy

Rome in the middle of July, what could go wrong?  Some cities have taken some time to get used to, and Rome was one of those.  Liz and I like to walk wherever we go, and Rome is just too big to get around by walking, especially when it’s 95 degrees out.  We always have a hard time deciding whether we want to fight with the, often times confusing, public transport or just hoof it, but not this time. 

The first thing we did in Rome was wake up early and go to the Colosseum.  It’s a very tangible piece of history that is hard to replicate in pictures.  When you are inside, it’s much easier to imagine it the way it was 1,900 years ago. We downloaded a free audioguide tour by Rick Steve’s to get the more in-depth walking tour, and hey it’s free!

It’s mostly dilapidated now, but there is one section that they fixed up to it’s former glory.  After the Colosseum closed for good, people would come and take the stone and bricks for their other projects around town.

The Romans were an industrious people and somehow hauled numerous obolisques from Egypt to their city. We got a city map and made our way to all the “quintessential” sites around the city, it was a nice a steamy day! 

Most major sights in cities are pretty easy to find because they are either tall or they are surrounded by a lot of space.  The Pantheon is neither of those things.  It is however, a very cool building. I also appreciated that it was free to enter. The Pantheon was originally a house worship for every god, Pan-every Theon-divinity. It is now a Christian church, and the famous artist is buried within its’ circular walls. 

Most things in Rome look like they are slowly, slowly falling a part.  The colosseum doesn’t look very stable here but I am sure they aren’t going to let it fall down!

When in Rome….you eat pasta!  We ate at a few of the highest rated, but cheaper, restaurants around and weren’t very impressed. The pasta was very gloppy (if that is even a word in the dictionary).  We need to go back and eat at some nicer restaurants in the search for the best pasta.  I don’t mind the task though......

This is the Trastevere neighborhood.  It is the most popular neighborhood for 20 and 30 somethings to hang out and get dinner or a drink.  It was absolutely buzzing with people and there were quite a few impressive street performers, including a depressed magician!

We decided to walk past the Trevi Fountain again at night.  I am glad we did because it is very nicely lit and more impressive.  It just finished its’ 2.4 million restoration thanks to fashion house Fendi.  We were lucky we didn’t hit the 17 month reconstruction where the fountain was covered with scaffolding. 

Walking around Rome you see all of these random ruins.  This is one of the more impressive and well lit ones. Walking around at night is where Rome really shines.  Not only have the crowds gone home for the night but the temperature drops just a bit, too.  The city of Rome had to decide how to light the streets at night, and they decided to light it with the same yellow hue of a fire burning lantern. So you will not find fluorescent or “blue” LED lighting in Rome. It is a noticeable difference, you know to look for it! 

Since it was so hot, Liz and I walked around the city looking for shade and water.  Luckily they have tons of these nifty drinking fountains around on most street corners. Those darn industrious Romans have perfected accessible water, although there is no “off” switch. They spill water 24/7, which seems like a waste. 

We had a jumping contest on a Sunday morning in Vatican city, we will let you decide who won.... 

Look at that air! Brian is going for the full-on gymnast air splits! 

This is Bonci pizza behind the Vatican, made famous by Anthony Bourdain.  It was very tasty and personifies Roman pizza for me now. Here we have marinara with mozzarella, roasted eggplant, steak and spinach, and beef with roasted potatoes! 

Florence, Italy....

and a wee bit of Pisa, Italy!  Post 1 of 2!

I promise this post is about Florence, but our train was making a stop in Pisa so we had to stop!  After laughing at all of the people taking the quintessential Pisa picture, we swallowed our pride and got some of our own!

On our first night in Florence, we walked up to Michelangelo’s square to watch the sunset.  It has the best free view of the city. We didn’t get there in time so I snapped this picture of the Ponte Vecchio and the river of Arno while we were walking.

Looking over the city, we noticed a big screen in the park! So we decided to leave the hill to go watch the Euro Cup game in the park. As these things go, the sky exploded with one of the most colorful sunsets I have ever seen. I wish I had still been at the top!

After Portugal put away the game, we walked back up the hill after the game to get some night shots.  We got plenty of exercise that evening! 

We have had gelato a few times so far on our trip, but Florence was the start of our obsession.  I read an article of how to spot a really good gelateria, which sparked our search for the best gelato in Florence!  Some things to look for are: metal containers, served with a paddle, not mounded up above the surface and realistic colors (no fluorescent lime!).  You can see that this place ticks all of the boxes.

Gelato stop #2, and our favorite in all of Europe so far.  We got mango and lemon at the last stop (our usual), so we went decadent on this one.  Chocolate fondant, marscapone and pistachio to top it off.  Real gelato is not very stable so you have to eat it like a mad man to not make a mess.  This one made a mess though, but a very worthwhile mess :)

The Duomo is to Florence what the Eiffle tower is to Paris.  You can usually get glimpses of it and orient yourself from there.  Florence is not very large so it was easy to walk around a corner and “bump” into it.

Liz had been to Florence before, but didn’t have a chance to hike up the Duomo, and the second time is the charm!  The dome was the largest in the world when finished in 1436, and is still one of the largest in the world.  When the architect, Brunelleschi, was chosen for the job, he didn’t even know how he was going to accomplish the feat! After all, he was a goldsmith with no formal architectural training! 

He landed on the dome within a dome design, which is still an amazing feat by today’s standards. Walking up to the top was crowded and extremely hot! 

I really tried to keep my eyes open for this one! Liz had the advantage of keeping her eyes closed until the last second.

Our ticket also gave us access to the bell tower, which was much easier to get up and had the added benefit of a front row seat for the Duomo.

Rolling hills spotted with beautiful houses and vineyards surround Florence.

Florence, Italy! 

Post 2 of 2! 

Florence has the best sandwich culture of anywhere we have been.  If you love a good ole’ fashioned sam-wich, Florence should be on your itinerary!  This little shop was right by the Duomo, which we are usually skeptical of (red flag for tourist traps), but it was supposed to be one of the best in the city.  Before you order you get a choice of 5 cheeses, 5 meats and 4 breads.  She told us the region (Tuscany) of origin for each of the products and then let us try them all!  We then told her our “perfect” combo.  The next step was going to the topping side and choosing what looked good!

I don’t remember exactly what we had but it was amazing! For only 4 euro’s I wish I could eat here all of the time.

A couple hours later we decided to stop by a tripe shop.  I had read that they were very popular around Florence so why not eat a cow’s stomach (literally the first 3 stomachs of a cow) !  The best one is tucked back in an alley with a little window where you order one type of sandwich, tripe or tripe. :) 

He pulls the tripe out of the broth and slices it up thinly.  He then tops it with an herb pesto and sprinkles it generously with dried chile flakes.  After assembly, he dips the edges of the sandwich back in the broth.  It is one of the best sandwiches I have ever had!  We went back the next day to get another before hopping on the train.

Insider tip time! If you want to beat the crowds, heat and see an amazing exhibits go to the Duomo museum.  It’s right next to the Duomo, free with your ticket you probably already all bought, and barely anyone goes there!  The museum was recently finished and is beautifully presented.  Everyone crowds outside in the heat to take pictures of the Gates of Paradise, but it’s only a replica.  The original is right here!  You can see it’s the busiest part of this room with maybe 6 people looking at it.  Outside there are probably a 100 people crowding around it in the heat.

The gates were created by Lorenzo Ghiberti and it took him 21 years to complete them.  After it was done people came from all around to marvel at his use of depth of space.  He pioneered the idea of 3D realism on a 2D space, and this masterpiece changed the industry.

Bonus insider tip, Michelangelo in a free museum?  Don’t mind if I do!  Michelangelo grew up with the Medici’s in Florence when it was the center of the Renaissance, which explains his influence in art history. 

The man holding Jesus in this statue is a self portrait of Michelangelo! Supposedly, he kept finding flaws in the marble during his carving and he actually destroyed this precious piece of artwork (after 8 years of hard work)! Years later, someone put all the pieces back together! It is truly an amazing sculpture, even though it was never finished. 

We had an apartment with a full kitchen, so we made a nice dinner.  I went around the corner to the Italian equivalent of an IGA and got fresh pasta, fresh mozzarella, ripe cherry tomatoes, arugula and pesto.  It is amazing what you find in run-of-the-mill Italian grocery stores! We had some extra eggs so I threw a poached egg on top for good measure!

We decided to go back up to Michelangelo’s square for the sunset.  We aren’t sure what we stumbled on, but it’s one of the more bizarre things we have seen in Europe.  There were probably 250 people in this spin class.  There was a live band rocking out and a woman was getting everyone psyched up.  They would have hopped off their bikes and followed her into war if she asked!

It was another great sunset, and we stayed up top for the whole thing this time:)

The rolling hills of Florence. Exactly as it should be! 

Next food stop-porchetta! You may ask what is porchetta? Well, wiki tells it best- the body of the pig is gutted, deboned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood. So yes, it’s a whole darn pig! This is by far the best porchetta I have ever had!  You can see how large it is next to the guys right hand.

We weren’t the only ones who knew about this place, it’s known as the best porchetta in the city. Everyone sitting on the street has a porchetta sandwich, too!  They have two locations right across the road from each other. They are always running across the road to bring more ciabatta bread to the other shop.

Cinque Terre, Italy! 

We made a pit stop in Genoa, Italy for a night on the way to the Cinque Terre. The trains have been an amazing way to get around the coastline. Brian was brave enough to get a pic of the outside action of the train. The views from the train are amazing!

Genoa is right on the coast, although we did not have time for a beach. Even though we didn’t accomplish the beach, we did find some pretty amazing pizza! Our first day in Italy and we are already eating some pizza.

Welcome to the Cinque Terre! It was incredible.  The steep hills fall right into the sea, and all the towns we hiked to are situated right on the cliffs. This area is a World Heritage site, or UNESCO site. This area might be more difficult to get to in the future because tourism has taken its’ “destructive grip” on the region. It might become a lottery scenario to see and hike in these mountains.

There are 5 cities in the Cinque Terre. We stayed in the middle and smallest town of Corniglia. We really enjoyed staying here because after 5 pm most of the tourists are gone to spend the evening in the bigger cities on the coastline.

Corniglia is also on the highest situated town (300 ft), so you have to climb the ‘Lardarina', a long brick flight of steps composed of 33 flights with 382 steps from the train station to the town. This is our hike to the rocky beach below.

This is our “beach,” no sand in sight, just rocky outcroppings. We did some cliff jumping off the rocks and swam around after our train ride. We are gearing up for the hike tomorrow! We are going to see the other 4 towns in a day!

The sunset on our balcony. We got some amazing food at the market and put together a picnic to watch the sun descend! Sun dried tomatoes are our new favorite way to spice up a sandwich or just as a snack!

We got an early start to beat the heat! It sort of worked, although it was still nice and humid! The town of Corniglia is over Brian’s shoulder. We headed north on the trail at 8 in the morning. The trail is falling apart in places, but we saw a few work crews improving the rocky and steep staircases. The maintenance of the trails are sort of a controversy because the farmers are getting the bill for the upkeep of the trails even though it is a National Park.

Vernazza! We were drenched with sweat by this point and we were very excited about jumping in the water. Which is exactly what we did, we swam right in the cove! This is a very photogenic place, and I’m pretty sure you can’t take a bad picture!

Now we are onto Monterosso! We were ready for a swim! That is the best part of hiking between the towns. Every few miles, you just jump in to cool off!  This was the largest and our least favorite of the towns.  We only walked around for 45 minutes before deciding to hop on the train to the farthest most town and continue our hike north.

We were ready for some lunch, and squid sounded amazing! So we found a great, cheap little take away fried seafood restaurant in Riomaggiore. We even found a perfect little squid!  Grabbing takeout food and eating on the water is usually the way to go.

We decided to take the train to the most southern town, Riomaggiore, and then make our way to Corniglia through Manarola. Brian did some amazing cliff jumping here, he is getting geared up to do some higher ones later in our trip!

The perfect dinner picnic up on our balcony! Fresh bread, pesto, burrata, prosciutto, and sun dried tomatoes! I already want to go back :)