Aneclogues from Italia

Mio Italiano vacanza (My Italian Vacation :)
Rome->Sienna->Cinque Terre (Italian Riviera)->Florence->Tuscany (Chianti)->Pisa->Florence->Venice->Vatican City

Daily workout (and I thought I would miss gym):
Walking atleast 8 - 10 miles a day. That explains those well toned bellas sporting their belly buttons and shapely legs on skyscraper sized hoardings. A tower and a dome - ubiquituous part of Italy's ancient architecture...guess they had the foresight for a flourishing tourism industry. You climb up the tower to get a vantage view of the dome and the city in the backdrop.

This tower featured in the pic on the right was a climb of 487 steps to get a shot of the dome on the left (Duomo) and an aerial view of Florence.

The dome houses a magnificient church - but nothing in comparison the grandeur of the St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican City.


Never felt this good about binging on Gelato - Fragola (strawberry) and Pistachio....and not a breath of guilt felt eating this tartufo (in the pic below)- real dark chocolate covered with dark chocolate chips and a suprise berry in the middle of some plain gelato.

I should confess, its the best dark chocolate I have had...Thanks to Rick Steve's travel tip.

So, the next time you are in Piazza Navona, while gazing in awe at Bernini's work, dont forget to grab your Tartufo. Baroque and Cacao finds a divine resting place here.

And this Piazza is where I found out that asking the waiter for water means a big bottle of Pellegrino placed on your table...and fish comes served with the bone and its quite a knife and fork battle on your plate.


The desi entrepreneurs of Rome - I got off at Stazione Termini (the grand central of Rome)- the train that takes you to the heart of Rome from the airport. Its not always an encouraging sight to fly almost 14 hrs (transit time included) into a city only to be greeted by a heavy downpour. But, there he was - our Bangla speaking dada selling umbrellas. I obviously wasnt prepared for a rainy vacation, hence had to part with my first 3 Euros for an umbrella.

They were drenched, very persuasive to make those few bucks. Savings perhaps for a rainy day back home.

Was curious though what they would be hawking if it didnt rain...and there he was on a crisp, dry night by Fountain Trevi (another of Bernini's Baroque works - pic on left) selling red roses to radiantly proud men putting on their "look where I got you" faces, trying to woo their girl friends/wives for a lil something later that evening....oops!!! did I kill all that romance.

Speaking fluent Italian, looking for their prospective customers with a keen eye, the bengali babu is here to stay. One of them could be a Lakshmi Mittal in the making. I ran into this one guy who had graduated from hawking roses and fake Dior sun glasses to owning a Laundromat. Here's the kicker. Its a "Browse while you wait on your clothes" to dry Laundromat. Yes ! an internet cafe inside a laundromat. Very compelling entrepreneural story.

God bless starbucks - Breakfast essentials: an extra buttered croissant, blue berry muffins, red orange juice and capuccino. A common offering from every street side restaurant. Waking me up at 5 in the morning to catch outbound trains from Rome generally means "second cup coffee".
I need every bit of caffeine to lug my backpack and climb trains. Yes! climb trains, cus its not one of those 'the floor of the train is at the same level as the platform' type trains where all you have to do is step in. And No! trains dont have pre-scheduled platforms that they arrive at - you get to know the platform number like 10 -15 mins before it actually arrives. So you pretty much run to that platform Newyork style. So thats where all those croissants and muffins got burnt.

...and a third cup coffee to brace myself for the long hikes. At $3.50 for the smallest cup of capuccino, its a caffeine craving that had to be controlled.