Hanuman Chalisa with English translation

Italy

Day One: 

We landed in Milan around 11 am after a long overnight trans- atlantic flight, another 1/2 hour at the car rental pick-up (The Italian arm/ partner of Budget rent a car) and were finally on our way. Drove East towards Genovo and then South. I was in a Fiat (Yes. After such a long time!!!) and driving around 120 kmph but  I could have been stationary the way other cars were zooming ahead of me. Now  I really know what they mean about Italian drivers. 

After by- passing Genovo the terrain became mountainous but the highway was terrific. I have'nt seen any other highway in the world with as many bridges  and tunnels- and what that ensured was that the road was level- almost no inclines or declines never mind whether there was a valley or a  mountain under  us.

Reached Monterosso De Palma on the North side and managed to get a fairly decent parking despite all my fears regarding the lack of parking in Cinque Terra. I asked the parking attendant for directions to the hotel and he said it was al the way on the other side of the town and that we should drive back up the mountain to access the road to the  other side (The town itself does not allow any cars except local taxis so one had to circumnavigate around the town) To  cut a long story short, half  an hour  later we parked on  the other side, and could'nt find the B&B place. Finally, we asked a lady escorting her daughter home from school and she immediately fished out a cell phone and called the B&B whose owners she semed to know. She then gave us a directions to a parking lot said that Bread and Breakfast will send us complimentary taxi and when we arrived at the B&B place, we saw that we were 20 yards away from where we had oiginally parked on the other side! Anyway, many thanks to the  lady for all her help. (The next  day, we walked  into a  store to buy local artifacts, and guess what, she was the owner!)

Cinque Terra was beautiful. Reminded me of some of the villages in Himachal when I was growing up- except it had Vineyards on one side and the mediterranean on the other- and was ofcourse much cleaner. We had some wonderful local white wine that evening. People were amazingly friendly and all the locals knew each other. Ate decent Italian for dinner that night  at a rather expensive restaurant- but what a  view of  the  setting sun over the sea!

Day Two:

Took a train to southernmost village the next early morning (Yes, the day pass is cheap and allows unlimited rides so you can hop on and off) and walked North about six miles through two more very picturesque villages. The villages are basically connected to each other by a path that has gorgeous views of the mountains and  the Mediterranean and a re conveniently placed about three miles from each other. Saw many cruise ships  parked out at sea. We were lucky that  they were not many tourists out for a walk so early and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Before catching the train back to Monterosso- which was two villages North from here but the path now becomes difficult with many steps and the trek can take upto 3 hours and we didnt have the time, we picked a couple of  pebbles from the beach for  keepsake and almost got drenched  by a particularly  big wave.

Left for Pisa around 1pm and drove about an hour and a half . (Stopped at a Gas station to pick up a sandwich for a late lunch in between- it was absolutely delicious- why cant we have stuff like that  here?) The leaning tower was smaller than I had expected and had a whole load of tourists taking pictures with outstretched arms so that it would seem that they were holding the tower to keep it  from falling. We in turn took their  picture taking these pictures instead.

Left for Florence an hour later. Reached Florence as per driving instructions and took the exit that  said "Firenze". As it turned out, Florence has many exits, and the one we had to take was the "Firenze Sud" exit which was another 30kms away. We called our  hotel (Mediterraneo) and they put on an English speaking person who was on the phone with us for a full 20 mins guiding us towards the  hotel. The lady at the reception was terrific and gave us a super room with a view of the river Arno across the street- one could open the window and look across a terrace at the hill where we went to see the sunset the next evening. She also recommended a restaurant nearby for dinner and made reservations for  us. I ordered the Wildboar Sauce dish and I still crave for  another spoonful. (I found the recipe online and I will try and make it some day- provided I can lay my hands on wildboar meat somewhere).

Day 3:

We had pre-booked the tickets for the Uffizi online and had a 9am entry time. We had a pleasant walk about a mile and a half on the Arno river to the Uffizi and were grateful that we had pre-booked. The waiting lines for those who had  not stretched forever, it seemed. We picked  up an audio device for two and went through every room in detail. The paintings were truly awe inspiring.  One of the best  collections I have seen.

Next we went to the Duomo and into the church. Saw the gateway  to heaven doors. Lunch was at a tourist trap and the Pizza was microwaved in front of us! Ouch! Saw David' s statue and then walked back to  the hotel for a well earned siesta- on the way bought some pirated stuff, mostly ladies hand bags for gifts with Gucci, CD et al brands from street vendors who kept a constant lookout for the Polizei.

Walked to see the sunset from a hill, cant remember the name and then walked towards the covered bridge with shops on it. Discovered a small restaurant in a back lane where the wait was about half and hour- but a lot of locals seemed happy to wait so we decided to follow their example- sure enough, the place was truly awesome. They were rolling pasta in front of us- and making Pizza from the start in brick kiln ovens. Excellent stuff!

Day 4:

Spent the morning in Firenzi and drove up  to Milan (Crossed Palma- of the milk and cheese fame). Returned the car at Milan airport  and took the train into town. The hotel was located right next to the Duomo. Was a little disappointed that the Doumo was under repair and the front was hidden by ugly scaffolding- but it was beautiful inside and we took the stairs to the top. Great views! Window shopped the great european Brands. Fantastic prices.

Day 5: 

Took the 6am flight back to  NY. 

Good trip. Was not impressed by Milan.  Absolutely loved Firenzi. Given a chance would stay in Cinque Terra for longer- atleast three days. Will came back to Italy want to see Rome and Naples.

I am back

Its been almost 4 months  since I last posted on this site. The screen of my Mac cracked and I just did'nt feel like blogging on the Windows PC.  Apple just posted record sales in the Q1 of this year, and I am sorry to say that some of that money was mine- to repair the screen.

Anyway, here I am promising to blog more often. 

In the last few months,  I have travelled to Italy (Cinque Terra- loved it-, Pisa, Florence and Madrid), Spain (Barcelona- so many tapas!) and India (Bombay, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Sianna and Delhi- which was, surprise, surprise- most beautiful!). Will cover the trips in more detail in later blogs.

2007 with the Pathania family

Happy New Year 2008! Click on the title above to get a feel of 2007