Elba

La Isola d'Elba: A Lovely Place for Exile

Napoleon didn't do too badly when he was exiled to Elba as part of the peace treaty enacted when France retreated from Russia in 1814. This was after Napoleon had pretty much annexed the rest of Europe. This small island off the west coast of Italy is shaped like a rather twisted United States:
Notice "Florida" for instance. Seriously, doesn't that peninsula on the south look somewhat like Florida? And to be sure, it is edged with sandy beaches. I definitely see the Pacific Northwest up there, and I can even stretch the bay near Portoferraio in my mind's eye to represent the Great Lakes. But - let's recount the myriad ways in which Elba is different; that is far more interesting. The first and foremost difference that strikes me is the presence of palm trees and beaches on *all* sides. Then, of course, there is the rampant use of the Italian language, and the delicious, strong, creamy Italian espresso. There seems to be a lack of any real traffic jams (or perhaps we just didn't get stressed out by them because we were on a palmy island in the Mediterranean off the coast of Italy?) and, pleasantly, a lack of 8-lane highways. Perhaps the only deficit of Elba is that there is just one wine appellation on the whole island (albeit one that produces tasty wines and even puts pictures of Napoleon on the labels).

Yay for Friends!

Before I extol further virtues of Elba and tell of our enjoyment there, it must be said that the *most* marvelous thing about Elba is that it had our wonderful friends Mez and Natalia on it at the very same time we were there. Yay for friends! Russ and I arrived with a hotel address in Marina del Campo clutched in our hands. It took us two trains, a ferry, a bus, and a walk to get there. If only we hadn't been distracted by the purveyor of local wines and tasty goods on the way from the bus stop to the hotel, we wouldn't have been caught in the torrential downpour. We were grateful that we'd be spending two nights in the same place, and that it wasn't a youth hostel dorm, so that we could empty our packs and hang everything up to dry. We had plenty of warning from the sky and the air pressure before the rain began... but we justify our mishap with the *entire wall* of wines produced on Elba. I suspect the storm was Nature's way of scolding us for letting our Bacchanalia delay us from connecting with our friends. The old man who owned the shop kept pointing at my backpack, and then at the clouds, saying "Forza! Forza!" It was very sweet of him. We waddled off into the storm with smiles on our faces and a few extra pounds in our packs. Mez and Natalia had come from a wedding in Lucca - Russ and I were wondering whether the Tuscan wedding was an outdoor one... we were relieved to hear that all went well for the wedding.

I just realized that in all these words I have only covered about an hour of our time on Elba. I will try to speed things up, but it is such a pleasure when I actually am staying in a place where I can take out my laptop and leisurely walk through a part of our journey in my mind...

We were upstairs, relaxing and drying out, when Mez and Natalia returned from the beach (taking cover from the rain near the beach, actually). It was so wonderful to see them! We have seen so many amazing sights in our travels but laying our eyes on family and friends trumps them all.

Napoleon's Villa

Portoferraio, the port town of our inbound ferry, is where Napoleon lived (er, was "exiled" in his villa with lavish French furnishings). We (Russ, Mez and I) saw his iconic black felt hat
and learned more about this incredible force in European history. Napoleon was responsible for substantial improvements in Elba's civic life, including public works such as road systems as well as government style (Napoleonic code). Russ shared a story with us of Napoleon's 100-day return to power upon escaping from Elba: He arrived on the southern coast of France, and Louis XVIII sent an army of a couple thousand to fend him off. When they arrived, Napoleon presented himself to them unabashedly, and dared them to strike him down. His legendary charisma won them over, and Napoleon, fortified now by the army sent to keep him away, moved toward Paris. Upon hearing this, King Louis XVIII sent another, larger force to accomplish what the last had not. Napoleon won them over as well and continued to move north. In a snarky but probably well-earned episode of "I told you so," Napoleon sent a letter to his cousin, who was the commander of France's army saying "Thank you cousin for the troops, I have all I need, please don't send any more." What a great story.

As we left the villa, the sky darkened and then burst on us, so we waited it out before returning to the south side of the island. As we drove back, I jokingly suggested that Natalia had been sunbathing on the beach in perfect sunshine all day. Well, that *is* the nature of islands, and when we returned to the hotel, we indeed found a note from her directing us to her spot on the beach! Not a drop of rain had fallen there.

Island Clubbing

Or not. Both nights we spent on Elba, we intended to go out and hit a few of the dance clubs--perhaps Inferno with its funky mosaic bar, or Morumbi the Brazilian style club or Club 64, tucked to the side of a main road in the middle of the island like a club on Ibiza. Both nights, after big dinners and the requisite "when in Rome" carafes of wine, we tired out. We even powered down a few espressos after dinner to rev us up. All we got out of that was restless sleep. But hey, we are on vacation here, and that means relaxation!

Beaches and Vistas

We had two main objectives for Sunday: 1) explore Capiloveri, a town on the southeast portion of the island, and 2) find one of the nude beaches indicated on our map. Capiloveri is a town that has been known historically for its artistic, fresh culture (I say fresh, some say hippie). It was a gorgeous spot, with hills that afforded novel views at every turn. From one high point, we could see the Mediterranean coast on both the north and south sides of the island because the land narrowed so much.
We strolled through shops of local artists and enjoyed some gelato. It was a quiet, pleasant Sunday. That is, after I got over my nausea from all the incredibly twisty roads that make it possible to get from one town to another over the naturally mountainous terrain. I am grateful that Mez's response to my carsickness was to simply toss me the keys for the rest of the day (I am certain it made things easier for all of us).

We left Capiloveri and aimed for the nude beach on the east side of "Florida" (see map above ;) An hour and about 20 turns-around later, we finally learned from two returning sunbathers that the beach we were seeking was in fact where we had tried to find it--it was just the small matter of a dead-end road and an hour-long hike. Well, it was pretty hot outside and suddenly the regular ol' beach sounded just right. We enjoyed the sun, the salty spray, and the antics of children on the beach. Eventually, our weekend in exile had to come to an end... Soon we were back on the continent, with the four of us and all of our baggage crammed into the sporty little space-pod Fiat Mez and Natalia had rented. They were sweet and dropped us off in Pisa on their way to Milan so that Russ and I could catch a series of trains into Siena. That lift to Pisa allowed us to arrive in Siena two hours earlier than we would have if we had parted ways at the ferry dock!

Rome - Marble Madness

Our visit in Rome was like a marathon...exhausting in that we had to get up in the a.m. and walk around all day, stumbling back into the hostel after a 15 hour day, only to do the same the next day. This was the only way to ensure that we would leave Rome feeling that we had at least done it *some* justice. Half of our time in Rome was spent sharing it with my (Russ) cousin, Father Alan. Both of us thouroughly enjoyed spending time with Alan after we've been traveling alone for almost a month after parting from our parents in early August.

After checking into our hostel we had a hard time figuring out what to see of the panoply of sites Rome has to offer. We decided to start with the Colosseum and Roman Forum. We were amazed at Rome's mixture of buildings. Buildings and parts of buildings erected hundreds of years apart were neighbors and sometimes meshed into the same structure. A perfect example of the dichotomy was the first time we walked out of the bustling metro station--replete with its advertisements and litter--to see the Colosseum looming up into the sky right across the street. We were also shocked to see a huge stage being set up in front of the Colosseum along with several sets of massive speakers and gigantic video screens positioned throughout the nearby streets. We knew something big was going on but we didn't know what... Imagine our bewilderment to discover from our hostel-mates that Elton John was performing the next evening, using the Colosseum (with a flashy, all-colors-of-the-rainbow light show) as his backdrop.

Once we were satisfied with our marathon for the day, we returned to our hostel to find it full of mostly young, energetic English speakers (Irish, Scottish, English, Canadian and American). Emphasis on "young." This was one of those quintessential Youth Hostel Experiences. Russ joined several of the merry hostelers out that evening (after rounds of shots in the dorm room. Ahhhhh, hosteling) while Lesley stayed back to get some much needed rest for her strained ankle after the day's marathon. Russ had a blast spending most of his time chatting with a nice Texan named Omar and a couple girls from England. It was a fun, social night, but unfortunately our hostel experience only downgraded after that first evening.

The hostel was a dirty, dorm-style place where we slept in separate bunk beds in a room with 12 people. We shared two bathrooms between 30 people. On our second evening there a large Austrialian guy checked in who snored. SNORED. Poor Lesley had her head right next to the fellow and tried several times to stir him--even shook him and picked up his head to turn it to the side--to stop his snoring. It was hopeless. The man was a SnoreBot. Unfortunately this one guy cost us MANY hours of sleep over our last three nights there (not the best recovery environment for our daily marathons). On our last night there, we were assaulted by a new noise in the middle of the night: a very drunk Scottish guy actually FELL out of his bunk an hour or so after returning at 3 am from the bars (fortunately he was ok).

Saturday we spent the day walking through the streets and piazzas of Rome admiring the many fountains, statues, and ruins all made out of marble. The protected areas of ancient ruins of Rome are famous for being home to a plethora of stray cats. They safely lounge around the ruins in the mid-day sun like kings of their own ancient domain. Those cats were lucky to be on the side of the wall *without* the throngs of tourists.

In the evening we met up with Alan outside of the Croziers residence where he was staying for a few days until he could move into his own. The Croziers are a Christian sect mostly focused on Christian missionary work. Alan befriended several Croziers back in seminary school and they were kind enough to have him stay with them in Rome. We joined Alan and a few of his Crozier friends (including Tom, who was one of his professors in seminary school!) for a short evening prayer followed by a drink outside in their beautiful courtyard. During our prayer we prayed for Alan and Russ's Aunt Dorothy and her loved ones since she had passed away the previous day.

That evening we lingered over a delicious Italian meal in a cozy, tucked-away piazza with Alan and his Crozier friend Father Jim (Ristorante La Taverna degli Amici, www.paginegialle.it/tormargana). Getting to the restaurant required the somewhat terrifying task of crossing a many-lane road swarming with fast cars and motorcycles. To our surprise, Jim just stepped out into the crosswalk even though a continuous string of cars were advancing. As we crossed he told us the key to crossing Italian streets: make eye contact with the driver and watch to make sure they see you. Jim has been living in Rome for 12 years so he educated us on many Italian things including the satisfying after-dinner bitter drink Amaro ("amaro" in Italian = "bitter"), used for settling the stomach. Jim also recommended wonderful wines to go along with dinner: a Syrah from the immediate region and a Chianti Classico. He suggested that we focus on the Chianti Classicos when we visited the Chianti wine region, and he didn't steer us wrongly... our subsequent traipsing through Tuscan wine country confirmed that the Classico was indeed the superior stuff. After several hours of stimulating conversation over wonderful food and drink, we parted ways. On our way back to the hostel we actually heard Elton's last song of the evening. We had a great view from our perch high atop a hill--imagine seeing the purple-pink-green Colosseum, a video screen with Elton John's face on it, a cascading hillside covered with various Roman columns and other ruins, and thousands and thousands of people standing in the streets all within one vista.

Sunday morning we got up early (again without much sleep due to SnoreBot) and met Fr. Alan at the Metro station to head down to see Pope Benedict XVI at his summer home in Castel Gondolfo. After some confusion figuring out which bus to take, we arrived in the small beautiful town which is located on the top of a cratered mountain. A small swarm filled the square outside the Pope's home in anticipation of his brief, weekly speech and prayer. As noon approached the crowd started chanting something which sounded like "Aih Benedicto!" over and over. The cheering, banner waving crowd reminded us of gitty fans waiting for a celebrity or super-star musician. The Pope started and finished with a chanted prayer in Latin and addressed the crowd in several different languages with different prayers addressing concerns for each region of people (Italian, English, German, French, Spanish and Polish).

We stayed in Castel Gondolfo for lunch and sat outside overlooking a massive crater lake. We wandered around the quaint town for a while but the clouds were darkening and a storm threatened... we headed to the bus stop and had to wait for more than an hour for a bus back to Rome. During our wait, we got pelted by heavy diagonal rain and even hail! The drop in temperature was startling. Our tiny 5' x 10' roofed structure over the bus stop without any walls didn't provide much cover for the seven of us who were waiting there. But, we can't complain much when we got to witness a dramatic storm in the Italian countryside after seeing the Pope. That evening we walked around Rome for several hours and found a great little pizzeria with jovial staff just two blocks away from the North American College where Alan is studying this autumn. It was a wonderful day together, but eventually we had to head back to our dreadful hostel. We hoped SnoreBot had checked out but no such luck.

On Monday (and our last day in Rome) we toured the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican contains probably the largest collection of marble sculptures in the world. The paintings, mosaics, and sculptures inside the Vatican and the Basilica are stunningly beautiful. Russ gained a new appreciation for the magnificence of the Renaissance master artists like Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini. Throughout this trip, we have both been repeatedly blown away by the artistry, the devotion, the skill, the craftsmanship and the creativity we have seen in sculpture, painting, architecture and so on. The one problem with being exposed to so many masterpieces in such a short time is that you start to gloss over them after a while, not giving each one the contemplation you would ordinarily want to. "Wow, look--it's another amazing masterpiece. Oh, hey, there's another one! Let's get going because there's a whole other roomful of them as well!" Lesley found that she experienced an interesting shift in her perception in Rome: feelings of awe bubbled up upon observing the sheer quantity of majestic works. That is, the magnitude of her awe did not change--its direction did. The amount of marble that is crafted into sculpture within the city limits of Rome is just staggering. A visit to the Vatican museum is exhausting for a variety of reasons, not least of which is how tiring it is to have your breath taken away repeatedly upon observing objects of beauty and mastery.

That evening we met up with Alan once again and explored yet more of Rome. We stopped for some antipasti and a bottle of wine (Morellino di Scansano) in the Piazza dei Popolo while chatting it up. We had all spent so much time together in the last few days and it was easy to dive into personal, valuable conversation. We strolled around some more through a bustling shopping district and past the Spanish Steps, finally stopping at a beautiful Italian restuarant with frescoes all over the walls. Here Lesley introduced Alan and Russ to their first Brunello di Montalcino (Banfi, 1996. YUM!).

Russ is really grateful to have spent so much time with Alan in Rome--getting to know his cousin better as an adult. Previously most of the time Russ had spent with Alan, he was a teenager or in his early 20s, and would mostly see him during large family functions like weddings or when his parents would stop by Alan's parish and spend the day with him. It was great to learn about his life and his parish. This portion of our trip made a significant impact on Russ spiritually and religiously. Seeing the pope, spending time with priests, and being at such a historically important place of the Catholic church increased his appreciation of the Catholic church and faith.

Venice - the Lovely, Gaudy Old Starlet!

Before I (Russ) continue on with our Italian travels I wanted to say how amazingly beautiful Prague is. Despite heavy air pollution, Prague has an air of class and elegance. Prague is filled with tourists, terra cotta rooftops, symphonies and black light theatres. Seeing Prague's castle and learning about Prague's history gave us new respect and admiration for the Czech people. This is one city I wish we could have spent more time in.

Venice brought an image to mind for us: an aged starlet clinging onto her dwindling elegance and yesterday's adornments. The city still possesses a unique beauty which no other city in the world provides; however, many of its buildings are weathered with cracks and crumbling facades. Venice is trying to protect and save its monuments and artworks from the degeneration of a variety of several ailments, like floods, neglect, pollution and salt-water corrosion.

Hundreds of millions of Euros are being spent trying to save the sinking city from an unhabited death. Tides, Venice's steady subsidence and a rising sea level create around 250 flood occurrences in a year. Water bubbles up through drains and sometimes completely covers St. Marks square and many of the low-lying walkways around it. Huge flood barriers are being installed into the lagoon to prevent these floods, but if they fail the city could be uninhabitable by 2100.

With only 24 hours in Venice we spent most of our time along the Grand Canal in the San Polo and San Marco sections of town. Lesley (being a trooper with a strained ankle from dancing at Machac) and I spent most of the day walking through the narrow, windy, difficult to navigate streets of Venice. We spent part of the afternoon observing beautiful and diverse collections of modern art at the Peggy Guggenheim museum which featured works by Picasso, Dali, Bacon, Ernst, Chagall, Miro and Pollock.

At sunset we walked to the famous St. Marks Square and were breathless as we saw the glittering gold mosaics which cover the front of St. Marks Basilica. The square was also packed with tons of the bravest pigeons I've ever seen. They'd actually fly onto the head, arms, and hands of tourists who would stand completely still.

WB = 61 (We are now in Siena about to embark on a 3 day tour of tuscany towns.)
ps. We've added new pictures for Copenhagen, Berlin, and Poland to our online gallery.