september 1 2006 : naples, italy
We spent all of our second day in Palermo just walking the streets. We checked out a few of the sights around town, most of which were amazing churches or ornate fountains. Around pretty much every corner was something else interesting to look at. There were also a couple of street markets that stretched on seemingly forever. We wound our way through as many back alleys as we could find and had lunch at a tiny little trattoria, more pizza followed by more gelato. Really just a fun day exploring the city.

This morning we were back on the train for an eleven hour marathon jaunt up to Naples. The ferry was just a little more expensive and only took four hours, but we get enough of boats and wanted to see the countryside. The train had compartments for six people each and somehow we ended up with the two next to the window facing each other which was nice. Even though the train ride was eleven hours I don’t think we exchanged more than about four words with the others in our compartment; grazie, no grazie, and Napoli. Lots of smiles and nodding but no talking. Not that we think that everybody should speak English, but we do find Italy amazing in that they have to be the most doggedly determined country we have ever visited in their effort to avoid English. There is not one word of English printed anywhere, not even street signs which are always in two languages wherever we go. And that fact definitely shows because absolutely nobody seems to speak it. Anyway, I just find it interesting, it’s something I probably would have expected in Arab countries but not here.

The train ride was pretty nice. To cross to the mainland from Sicily the trains actually drive right onto a ferry, which we thought was pretty slick. Sicily was extremely dry but as soon as we hit the mainland things greened up. The farther north we went the more dramatic the landscape became as well. After a while it seemed like we were spending more time in tunnels going through mountains than we were spending outside of them. Again we saw hundreds of old stone homes in the countryside. The types of homes and settings that make people want to run away to Italy, buy a vineyard, and make wine for the rest of their lives.

We arrived in Naples well after dark and hadn’t eaten all day so we went straight for the train station food court. Naples is credited with being the birthplace of pizza and it is supposed to be the best in the world. I had a couple of slices and I must say they were excellent. And that was from a train station, tomorrow we head out in search of the actual restaurant serving the world’s best slice.

Naples after dark was not a very pretty sight. The city was absolutely filthy. To the point that you had to walk around the piles of garbage. We’re hoping the garbage men are just on strike and that the place isn’t always like this, but maybe in the light of day it won’t look so bad. We were a little concerned we wouldn’t find our hotel or that they would have given our room away but somehow we walked right up to the place tucked away in a dark alley without one wrong turn and they were still holding our room. It took Ali about ten minutes to get into bed and fall asleep which is what I’m going to do right now.

september 3 2006 : naples
First thing in the morning yesterday we walked back across town to find ourselves a better place to stay. The hotel we found the night before turned out to be pretty bad. We found a new place, dropped off our bags, and set out to go to church. That’s what you do in Italy, visit churches. It seems every cathedral is also the site of some amazing miracle. This one held a couple of phials of San Gennaro’s congealed blood which mysteriously liquefied when his body was returned to Naples, thus saving the city from some unseen disaster. Thus assured that Naples was safe from danger, at least for the day, we moved on to the next big tourist site, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale.

The museum was huge, spread out in a sprawling 1700’s building. The first floor was the best, with a ton of Roman sculptures in excellent condition. Being the immature couple that we are we found ourselves giggling at the seemingly disproportionate size of the male anatomy. Michelangelo certainly didn’t help these guys out at all. Upstairs we realized that they must have had the same problem with immature people back then as well because all of the paintings on display showed naked men wearing only a flowing red cape while in battle. But now, amazingly, a small portion of the cape would always flow around the body and cover up the sensitive area. Problem solved, no more giggle fits. Unfortunately, seeing as all the information was in Italian, that was about the extent of our art appreciation education for the day.

After all of that culture we needed some nourishment. We went to Da Michele, the most famous pizzeria in Naples. We walked right by the place twice before realizing that the huge crowd of people hanging out in the street were actually in front of the restaurant waiting to get in. There were close to one hundred people outside as we made our way through the crowd to the door to pick up our ticket. Number 31. They were now calling number 4. It took about an hour to get in but the wait was worth it. Inside there were tables for eight and they packed every seat. The menu consisted of only two kinds of pizzas, beer, and coke. We devoured each pizza and downed a few beers, but there was no lingering there with another hundred people waiting for our table.

This morning we caught the train back to Pompeii about twenty minutes away. Pompeii was literally buried in AD 79 when nearby Mt. Vesuvius blew. The remains of the city are now unearthed and it is pretty remarkable how well preserved the place is. We expected a handful of buildings but instead found that there is literally an entire city full of homes, with wide streets, and marble covered buildings. The walls inside the homes were covered in paintings and the floors in tile mosaics. The big draw for most people are the mummified, stone like remains of people who were buried in ash from the explosion. Their bodies lay perfectly, still wearing sandals and robes, exactly as they died. But the best building in my opinion was the brothel. Inside were murals depicting exactly what was on offer. All a young man had to do was walk in, point to a painting, and head for one of the tiny rooms with nothing but a bed inside. Again, there was plenty of giggling going on, but this time there were plenty of German and Japanese tourists doing it as well.

Being a Sunday we just made it back to Naples in time for more gastronomic pleasures. This time I dragged Ali across the street from Da Michele to Trianon, a true Napoli institution serving up delicious pizzas since 1923. Again tables for eight were lined up and there was absolutely nothing on the menu but pizza. Excellent as always, but we have to give the nod to Da Michele.

After walking around every inch of Naples we must say that it is truly the filthiest city we’ve ever been to. The streets look as if there was just one of those big World Series parades being held, but instead of piles of confetti there are piles of food, cardboard boxes, beer bottles, and dog crap everywhere. We had to leave the sidewalk in places in order to get around it. Despite that though we liked the city, it has a much different vibe than Sicily. The difference here seems to be in the makeup of the population. There is a huge African presence here and during the day they’ve got the sidewalks lined with tables holding every item imaginable for sale, giving the city a little rougher, edgier feel, but also a much more interesting one.

Interesting fact: the average Italian male lives with his mommy and daddy until he is 34-years-old.

We have to laugh at one of the measures the Italians have taken in their fight against terrorism. They have decided that they can control the internet. When we go to an internet café here in Italy we have to hand over our passport so that the proprietor of the establishment can note our names and passport numbers. I assume that they must be tracking what we view on the internet as well. Do they really think a terrorist isn’t going to find a way around this little system? But the amazing thing to me is that they have apparently outlawed wireless internet as well. We are in the heart of Naples and can’t pick up a single wireless connection on our laptop. In a comparable hotel room anywhere else in the world we would be picking up at least a dozen signals. So it appears that the terrorists have finally won. They’ve reached their ultimate goal, to stop bumfuzzle.com from being updated.

Something else we’ve found a little strange are that there are emergency alarms in all hotel bathrooms. They are strings that disappear into an outlet in the wall and say “Pull in an emergency!” I was in the shower yesterday and realized I forgot to bring a bar of soap in with me. I thought to myself, “Yeah I think this qualifies.” So I gave the cord a pull. Thirty seconds later our door was smashed in by police dressed all in black and carrying machine guns followed closely by the fire brigade. Boy were they pissed when I asked them to grab the bar of soap off the sink for me.

september 5 2006 : rome, italy
Yesterday morning we took the two hour train ride up to Rome. When we got there we quickly found a hotel near the train station. The first thing we needed to do was get some laundry done. We found a place, dropped off our stuff, and went for a walk around the city. We were pretty well exhausted from the last week and didn’t feel like going all out to see the sights right away so we just wandered. We couldn’t avoid seeing them though, they were literally around every corner. We’d be walking through a dark back alley and one street later find ourselves standing in the middle of a giant piazza with a huge cathedral towering over us. After a few hours of that we called it an early night.

Today we set out for the one site that totally defines Rome, the Colosseum. Along the way we stopped at a couple of more piazzas, another church, and the tomb of the unknown soldier. The church, Chiesa del Gesu, was beautiful, but fairly typical aside from the ceiling which had the best frescoes we’ve seen yet. The mixture of paintings and sculptures was amazing and was so three dimensional that it seemed like there were actually little angels flying around up there on their way into heaven while the devilish heathens could only look on menacingly.

Before the Colosseum was the Roman Forum just down the street. The Forum covers a vast area and is where the heart of ancient Rome was centered. There are a lot of ruins, most of which take quite an imagination to figure out, but there are also still plenty of towering columns and blocks of marble with Latin inscriptions on them, as well as a couple of large nearly complete buildings. It was a nice area and it was free as well which made it a very popular place to be. For the first time in a long time we found ourselves amongst Americans again. We met quite a few throughout the day as everybody was asking everybody else to take their pictures standing in front of one ancient monument or another.

After the forum we wound our way down the street to the Colosseum. It really is a beautiful building and I was stoked to be there. It’s one of those places that we’ll see pictures of for the rest of our lives and will remember being there. And the history of it is an awesome story as well. Opened in 89 AD the place held close to 50,000 spectators and inside it feels just a little smaller than a pro baseball stadium. At one time games were held for 117 straight days in which over 9000 gladiators fought to the death. Most of the gladiators were POW’s and didn’t really have a choice in the matter, but that didn’t seem to matter to the crowd. Standing inside you could get a feel for what it would have been like to be in the crowd wagering your entire crop on the big guy with the spiked steel ball on a chain, while also trying to get the attention of the beer vendor walking up and down the aisles. Good times I’ll bet.

Next up was the Palatine which is yet another vast complex. This one holds the remains of the imperial palace, but really isn’t much more than a bunch of empty brick buildings with no roofs. Not very interesting to look at compared to the visual stimulation everywhere else around the city.

By the end of the day our legs were aching and we were exhausted. We jumped on the subway for the quick ride back to our hotel area, looked around for a bit for a proper pizza joint that wasn’t going to cost us $50 for a meal and a couple of drinks, gave up on that, and went to a pizza fast food joint. The pizza streak lives on. There are tons of little café type places around town that have relatively cheap food, all pre-made and heated up for you after ordering. But go to that same place and sit at a table and suddenly the prices double on the food and drink and they tack on a big service fee. All of which means it is virtually impossible to find a cheap place to just linger with a beer and people watch. If you want to do that you have to join the whinos in buying a beer to go and sit out in the shade under a statue somewhere.

september 6 2006 : rome
We had a big day today. In the morning we checked out of our overpriced flophouse by the train station and took the bus across town to the area near the Vatican. There we found a hotel for 10% more that is the nicest place we’ve stayed in a long time. Rome definitely is not for the budget traveler. This place cost 90€, or about $120 USD, and is a budget hotel. After checking in we set out to visit the Vatican. Unfortunately the Pope wasn’t available to show us around so we toured by ourselves, well, us and about 500,000 others. St. Peter’s Basilica was first on the list. This is where you see all those shots of the Pope standing up in the balcony giving his blessings to the thousands below.

The Piazza San Pietro down below is where all those thousands are standing. It’s a huge piazza with giant columns nearly encircling it and from anywhere inside your eyes seem to be drawn to that balcony high up above. There was a long line of people waiting to get inside the Basilica but it moved along quickly as we all filed through the metal detectors, which never seemed to go off. Security here didn’t feel very tight but I imagine there were plenty of eyes on all of us that we didn’t know about.

Inside the Basilica is enormous. They say it seats 60,000. There were tons of amazing works of art but the central feature is Michelangelo’s dome which soars 119 metes above you. I’ve never seen so many people taking pictures at one time. At one point I found myself in a line being shuffled along until I was deposited at the feet of St. Peter himself. Actually a famous 13th century bronze statue of him where pilgrims have worn his feet smooth by touching and kissing them. I gave his toe a little squeeze myself before moving on. Minutes later we were walking around the place trying to take it all in when suddenly a light from above engulfed me and I felt my feet leave the ground. For just a second. I think. Maybe. I’m not sure I guess. Ali spun around and got a picture of it but when we loaded it on the computer later we realized that my lower half had mysteriously been cut off and our proof was inconclusive.

Back outside we joined the throngs of tourists sending postcards from the Vatican Post Office before continuing on around the corner to the Vatican Museums. The amount of fine art in the museums is astounding. A true connoisseur of art couldn’t possibly appreciate the place in a lifetime. Of course, most of us zip through in about two hours. All of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were heavily represented. The thing that surprised me about the paintings were just how violent the majority of them were. It seemed like we walked for miles looking at giant paintings of death and torture; stabbings, hangings, drownings, burnings, mothers bashing in the skulls of their babies. All touching moments in time. But after all of that you come to the Sistine Chapel which of course holds Michelangelo’s ceiling, and also The Last Judgment down the end wall. There it seems all those that died in the earlier paintings now got to head on up to heaven or for some, down to hell.

Inside here there were supposed to be no pictures. Guards were all over the place yelling “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” and “No pictures!” But despite that we were practically blinded by the flashes going off. It was fun watching people take pictures in stealth mode. The favorite ploy was to set the automatic timer and then hang the camera around their neck facing the ceiling. I’m sure the guards never figured that one out. Seems to me they should have just grabbed somebody and violently roughed him up. That would have stopped the seventy-year-old grandmas from taking their pictures I’ll bet.

All that walking around was exhausting so we went back to the hotel for a couple of hours before heading back out again for yet more sightseeing. We walked across town to the Pantheon. The Pantheon isn’t the most beautiful or elaborate building, but it is the best preserved and inside it is pretty amazing. The guidebook says that the dome is considered the most important achievement of ancient Roman architecture, which is saying a lot. Afterwards we made our way over to a nearby piazza to meet a Bumfuzzle friend of ours for dinner. We were early so we grabbed an outdoor table overlooking the piazza.

At night the piazza’s just fill up with people meeting and hanging out. It’s a nice scene. Our friend, Alberto, grew up in Rome and as always it was great to get a locals perspective. He now splits his time between New York and Italy so he was able to draw a lot of comparisons. One thing he told us that we found interesting was that since Italy became a part of the EU prices here have quadrupled. I’m not sure if that included normal household type things, but definitely restaurants and hotels. When we were in Turkey we kept hearing that same thing since Turkey is trying to become a member right now as well. It was fun to have an Italian with us to order food too. We had some great appetizers followed by, what else, pizzas.

september 7 2006 : rome
Today was a more relaxing day. Originally we had planned to visit the Borghese Gallery but when we called to make reservations we were told they were booked right through the end of the Rafael exhibition next week. So instead in the morning Ali went out and got her hair cut. Always a slightly nerve wracking experience in a foreign country, but she seems to have fun with it and it always seems to work out fine.

After that we just spent a couple of hours wandering around another new neighborhood seeing more churches and piazza’s. In the evening, finally tiring of pizza, or at least in the search for a relatively cheap pizza restaurant, we made our pilgrimage to Macca’s. About the only thing of interest there was that they actually charged us 10 cents for a little packet of ketchup. That’s a first. What’s wrong with the big ketchup tubs with the pump on top? Simple, free, and incredibly bacterial. They do serve Italian draught beer at McDonald’s here which I thought was a nice touch. I didn’t ask but I’m sure you can probably get a nice Tuscan Chianti in a wax paper cup too.

september 9 2006 : florence, italy
We took another train up to Florence yesterday. Actually, it’s Firenze. There are two main stations in Firenze and we had thought we had bought tickets for the one downtown. So when the train stopped at the other one we just sat there in our seats and waited. Then we stopped at a couple of small stations before the train really got cranking again and we realized that we had just completely missed our city. About a half an hour out of town the train stopped again and we got off, bought new tickets and stood back on the other side of the track. Finally, a couple of hours late we arrived in Florence.

It was immediately evident that this was the busiest tourist city we’d seen yet. The streets were jam packed full of large herds of people, generally with a shepard at the front of the flock holding up a flag on the end of a stick. We made our way through the crowds to the center of town where we were turned away from the first hotel we tried, but quickly found another right across the street. Accommodation prices just keep climbing here in Italy but the quality of the rooms is also climbing so it doesn’t feel quite so bad.

After checking in we walked a couple of blocks over to the Duomo (Cathedral). The outside of this place was incredible. It’s made out of pink, green, and white marble, and is the most beautiful we’ve seen so far. Unfortunately the big dome at the top was covered in scaffolding which is a pretty common sight wherever we go. The building is squeezed in amongst the rest of the city with just a tiny piazza out front, which is quite different from most of the large cathedrals that have a sprawling square out front to give you unimpeded views. For such an elaborate building the inside was quite a contrast. There is almost nothing inside. A few stained glass windows and a couple of small statues and paintings along the side wall. Like those people that buy a house that is way to big for them and then can’t afford to furnish the place.

We walked around a bit more before deciding to grab our bag of laundry and get that project done. This was the second time we had to do laundry already, but you should see how light we packed. For a three week trip of Italy we have a small backpack, a computer bag, and two small handbags. Twice we’ve had hoteliers ask us where our luggage was as they were showing us their room. The laundromat was right across from a nice restaurant with a wide selection of Scottish beer on tap so we got a couple of pints and “worked” on the laundry.

Our hotel is just nice enough here that the front desk person will call and make reservations for you at the museums. They told us it was a good idea so we had them make reservations at the two main sites for us. Our first stop today was the Galleria dell’Academia. The hotel was right, the line was down the block and was about a two hour wait, but we walked right up and through the front door as if we were a couple of stars getting into the hot new club, and all for three bucks a ticket. The gallery is full of 600 year old paintings and a few unfinished statues by Michelangelo. But the thing that everybody was waiting to see was David, the famous statue by Michelangelo in which the naked David is standing there with a sling over his shoulder soon after slaying Goliath. The statue is about 20 feet tall and is perfect. They say it is one of the most proportioned statues ever and the detail on it is amazing. With veins in the forearms, wrinkles in the knuckles, and even that weird little shape of the pinky toe that everybody seems to have.

We walked around the city a little after that. There is one piazza in town that is almost completely surrounded in marble statues and was again one of those perfect Italian settings in which to just sit back and watch the world go by. But soon we had reservations for the Uffizi Gallery where we again bypassed a huge line and walked right in. This place was huge and was used primarily to house the Medici family’s collection of art. We saw paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, and pretty much every other major name in art ever born. By the end we were burnt. No more museums for a while.

Creatures of habit, we made our way back to the same restaurant as the night before for pizza and beers before heading home. With of course the now obligatory stop for gelato along the way.

september 11 2006 : lucca, italy
After a couple of busy days in Florence we decided to take the short train ride over to Pisa. Home of course to the World Speed Knitting Champion. Oh, and a building they call the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The square that the tower sits in is full of the towns most beautiful buildings and the whole place is a really nice setting. Of course, no visit to Pisa would be complete without taking a corny, yet somehow funny, picture of yourself holding the building up. After taking our pictures we sat down in the grass and spent an hour or so watching hordes of other tourists do the same thing.

Today we took another quick trip to the next town north, Lucca. Our strategy of just showing up in a town without reservations sort of backfired on us today though. Our first two hotels were on opposite ends of town and both turned out to be booked. We then got on the phone and started calling around. Finally on the last place we had a number for they had one room available. It was an apartment and seemed to be the only thing left in the entire town so we booked it. It turned out to be pretty nice. It really is a local apartment, across the street from the rest of the hotel and right in the middle of the old town. Lucca is completely surrounded by castle like walls that are in absolutely perfect condition since apparently the area was never really attacked. There aren’t a lot of sites in Lucca, it is just a scenic little town to spend the day wandering around in. And that’s exactly what we did.

Back in our hotel tonight we’ve set up our very own laundromat. First we had to run the power cord for the washer through the middle of the bathroom. Then after washing the clothes we had to figure out a way to dry them. There was a fan that wasn’t working, but after a minute of messing around with that we had it running. Then we took down the curtains in order to set the curtain rod across two chairs in the middle of the living room for the clothes to hang on with the fan blowing on them. At one point we blew a fuse and lost power to the entire apartment. Fortunately we tracked down the breaker before having to call the lady at the front desk. I doubt she would have been too impressed with the rearranging we did.

september 12 2006 : bologna, italy
Another train ride this morning and we were in Bologna. One of the nice things about Italy has been how easy it is to get around. The trains run constantly, relatively on time, and to every city you could want to visit. We’ve been traveling about an hour a day lately as we move along up north. When we arrived in Bologna we decided to book our trains and hotels for the next few days since we are coming to the end of our trip and we know for sure where we’re going to be.

I called a hotel in Verona and an old lady answered. She sounded like she spoke fairly good English, but when I asked her if they had any doubles available for the next night she said, “Call in morning, no English.” That was the first hotel we’ve talked to that didn’t know what “double room tomorrow” meant, so I grabbed the guidebook looked up a couple of sayings in Italian and called back. The sayings were a little more complicated than I’m used to trying out, especially over the phone, so I must have sounded like a complete idiot, but suddenly she knew exactly what I was talking about. And then towards the end of the conversation she said to me, “O.K. see you tomorrow, 12 o’clock.” It seems like some of these Italians speak perfect English but just don’t want to admit it.

Remember that Seinfeld episode with the European carry-all? Here in Italy they actually use them. Usually a LV or D&G knockoff, and they really do look just like a man purse.

Bologna is a university town and there was definitely a younger vibe to it. We walked around the university and most of the rest of the town as well. Our hotel room actually looked right out over two of Bologna’s more famous buildings, the Le Due Torri, two more leaning towers. One of them is 150 feet tall and leans 10 feet. They were going to build it to 300 feet or so, but once they got half way they realized they’d better quit there. The amazing things about them are that they are 900 years old and that somehow the city still lets them hang right over a busy pedestrian area.

After walking around all afternoon we had worked up a pretty good appetite so we started to search for a place to get some of the hand made pasta that Bologna is famous for. The problem we’ve been having in Italy though, is that there are pretty much two kinds of restaurants. The first and most common is the trattoria which generally seem to make a bunch of food early in the morning and then it sits in a display case all day until you order it and they heat it up for you. They’re popular and cheap, but not exactly the best food. Then there is the ristorante, which have white table cloths and waiters wearing bow ties. Some of them aren’t overly expensive, but most of them are. However, the food is cooked fresh, so you’re getting what you pay for. The hard part for us has been finding something in the middle of these two extremes.

We finally came across one place, a pastaceria, which seemed okay. The seating was outside, but we had a look around inside first to make sure there wasn’t a day old plate of spaghetti behind the counter. It looked clear, but to make sure we asked the owner if the pasta was fresh. He looked a little offended and assured us, “Yes, fresh, hot.” We sat down and ordered two plates of tagliatela ragu, the Bologna specialty. A couple of minutes later we heard the telltale dinging of a microwave and then Ali watched as he scooped our food out of plastic grocery store containers onto our plates. Officially the worst meal served in all of Italy that night. We would have felt like just a couple of idiot tourists if the place hadn’t been packed with locals and tourists alike. Feeling disappointed and underfed we decided to boost our spirits before going back to our room by grabbing a couple of Macca’s cheeseburgers. Good ol’ Ronald, he never disappoints.

september 13 2006 : verona, italy
Today we found ourselves in Verona. A city just an hour or so west of Venice and reputed to be one of the most beautiful in Italy. It really is beautiful too. So much so that you can’t really decide if the entire town has been mass produced strictly to serve as a handy day trip from Venice or if it is just genuinely that nice. I suppose since the place has been around for hundreds of years that it is real.

The train station was a bit out of town so we took the bus the rest of the way in. Our bus stop was right in the middle of one of the best piazza’s we’ve seen in all of Italy. On one side is a pink marble Roman amphitheater, the third largest ever built. Around the rest of the square are big Roman buildings with long marble staircases full of people and pigeons, and in the middle of all of this is a miniature park with huge trees to provide some shade. You can really appreciate a little shade after seeing all of these piazza’s in which the only shade available anywhere near them is underneath a restaurant umbrella.

After checking in to our scruffy little hotel we set out to wander the city streets. Verona is a pretty small place and within an hour or so we found ourselves repeating streets. Eventually we came across the home of Juliet. Verona is the city that inspired Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and despite the fact that it is fictional there is still a home with a famous balcony. We joined the millions that came before us by proclaiming our love on a note stuck to the wall in the entryway to the home and then had a look at the statue of Juliet. Apparently if you are looking for a new love you are supposed to rub her right breast for luck, and judging by the shiny brass of her breast a lot of people have been looking for some luck.

september 14 2006 : venice, italy
Our last stop on the train trip across Italy. It was just another quick hour and a half hop up to Venice this morning and we came out of the train station to find ourselves standing right in front of the Grand Canal. Our hotel check in office was just on the other side of the canal and after leaving there we came outside with a map and some rather vague directions. Venice is an absolute maze. It’s definitely best not to have a destination in mind here but to just get lost and hope you end up somewhere interesting.

We got on a ferry for a ride down the canal to the Rialto bridge. Venice really is an amazing city and the Grand Canal is lined with the cities best buildings. Unfortunately today was the first time we’ve had rain in what feels like months and it doesn’t look like it is going to let up while we are here. We did catch a few breaks in the rain showers today though and were able to walk around a bit. We found our hotel room fairly quickly and were immediately off to check out St. Marks Square just down the street. The square was huge and was packed with thousands of tourists as well as thousands of pigeons. The pigeons were hilarious. They are so used to being fed by people that they just fly up and land right on you. If you point at something there is immediately three of them sitting on your outstretched arm. And if there is no arm out they’ll just land on your head. The square was full of squealing women and crying children. What could be funnier than that?

After the square we just started walking. We were almost immediately lost and spent a couple of hours just doing a big meandering circle around the island. It really doesn’t matter where you go since every street crosses a canal and you are compelled to just stop and admire it for a few minutes before walking to the next one. And that was really about it for our first day in Venice.

september 15 2006 : venice
Today we had one of those dark rainy mornings that encourage lying in bed until noon. When we finally did head out we found Venice had disappeared underwater overnight. It really rained hard last night and this town has got some serious drainage problems. It’s amazing what they have to go through to live and work here. All of the stores that surround St. Mark’s Square had six inches of water in them. Nice jewelry stores and glass shops trying to act as if there was nothing strange at all about having their customers wade through their stores with their pants rolled up to their knees. We hung out there for a while playing with the killer pigeons again before heading into the alleys to try and lose ourselves again and find a restaurant that wasn’t quite so mega-touristy.

We finally found a place a little out of the way and went inside. For the second day in a row we found ourselves in an Italian restaurant that was completely Chinese owned and operated. After lunch we walked around a bit more, checking out the nearly overflowing canals and watching the gondolas. Their passengers had to lean to get the boat to tilt way over on its side so that it would fit underneath the bridges. The regular water taxi boats weren’t even able to run at all. Eventually we found ourselves back at St. Mark’s again, but this time we went inside to check out the cathedral. At this point we’ve completely lost interest in religious art so we made our way pretty quickly up the stairs to the roof of the building where we could hang out and just watch the goings on around the square from a new perspective.

Venice is a pretty amazing, and certainly unique place. Although it’s hard to imagine that it will still be here in a hundred years. It seems like a good solid week of rain followed by some nasty offshore weather could pretty much sink the place once and for all. Most of the buildings look as if they are only a week or so away from completely crumbling into the water. Yet despite all of that when you compare them to the old black and white photos of the place they look exactly the same as they did then, and people were probably thinking the same thing then as well. Another thing that struck me about what it would be like living in a place like this was how musty it felt. Inside the buildings they all felt like the basement of my grandfathers house. Not to mention the amazing amount of mold everywhere. Our hostel was being renovated and you could see mold an inch thick inside the walls. Didn’t we have a big mold scare in the U.S. a few years back? They better not have one of those here.

september 18 2006 : valetta, malta
The other day we woke up to more puddles and overcast skies and made our way over to the Rialto bridge where we caught a ferry through the city over to the bus station. The bus brought us to the airport where it seemed every flight on the board was delayed. Somehow ours wasn’t and we were quickly on our way to Rome. A quick transfer there and by one o’clock we were back in Sicily where we had about six hours to kill before our ferry carried us back to Malta. We spent the afternoon lounging around airports, train stations, cafés, and parks. Pretty much any place we could blend in with the rest of the bums. At one point we thought we had finally found a couple of nice chairs in the train station, unfortunately “Mr. I Just Peedmypants” found the third seat open and joined us.

At the ferry station we had to pick up our tickets at the ticket booth. It wasn’t open yet but the “line” was already forming. Something we’ve found nearly the world over is that nobody forms a nice straight line like us Americans. The line here was actually a crowd of about a hundred throwing elbows and jockeying for position. McDonald’s lines are the same way, we’ve actually had people standing behind us try to yell their order over our shoulders as we finally got to the counter. And people don’t even try to be sly about budding into a line, they just figure if there is space enough for their body to fit in then that space should be filled. It’s all quite comical but can sometimes make you wish for a little orderliness. We’re old pro’s at this now though and managed to snake our way through to be served fourth. An admirable finish I thought.

The ferry was running downwind that night so we didn’t have the normal pukefest that usually accompanies these rides and 18 hours after setting out in the morning we were back at the boat. As always Bum was sitting untouched right where we left her. The only thing amiss was the dinghy which had filled with rain and was hanging a little cockeyed.

The next day we spent sleeping and washing the boat. That was really about it for the day. We were both exhausted from the last couple of weeks and it just felt good to be home again.

Today we went into Valetta to run a few errands and clear out. Unfortunately when we got on the internet we found that the weather was looking pretty bad for about three more days. So we didn’t clear out and instead spent the day pretending we were at home having a typical Sunday afternoon in Chicago, eating at Macca’s (whose lines were the craziest mob scene we’ve ever witnessed) and catching a movie. The only difference with that Sunday back home was that it was Monday, and we were in Malta, and we live on a little boat.

september 21 2006 : en route to spain
We had meant to be on our way a couple of days ago but the weather was terrible. The wind was howling and the waves outside the breakwall looked huge. So instead we spent a couple of easy days around the boat and hanging around Valetta. We scored some duty free fuel for about $2.50 a gallon and filled up the boat for the first time since Egypt, changed the oil, and gave the boat one last good washing inside and out. Then this morning the weather finally turned and we got underway again with no wind and only a bit of swell left over from the last week of strong winds.

september 23 2006 : en route
After a couple of days with no wind we have finally shut the engines off on day three with a nice 8 knot breeze directly behind us. The passage has been pretty easy going so far. There has been a lot of shipping traffic but we haven’t had to do much maneuvering. Our first night out we were invaded by bugs. We had loads of moths of all sizes, a bunch of dragonflies, and even a big cricket managed to land on my shoulder at one point. There were a lot of bugs wrapped in kleenex and sent to a watery grave that night.

The second day out we finally got some dolphins. We had actually heard them all night the night before but with absolutely no moon we couldn’t see a thing, only listen to them. These guys were a pretty playful bunch and hung out for a while. One thing we found a little disturbing though was that at one point we were all cruising along when a plastic garbage bag came floating towards us. One of the dolphins immediately drove himself straight into it like it was a game. We didn’t give it much thought until another bag came along. This time when he swam right through it the bag glided down his back and got all wrapped up in his tail/flipper. It stayed on for a minute before it finally slipped off. You have to wonder how many times it gets wrapped up and doesn’t come off.

The watermaker has been acting up today. It will be running just fine and then suddenly an error occurs. It seems the problem is air in the line, but I don’t know why this would suddenly be happening. We bleed it at startup and then it runs for anywhere from five minutes to an hour before an error occurs again.

The dinghy is making trouble for us as well. The first day out it was leaking pretty bad, so we stopped the boat mid ocean, dropped it in the water and patched up two seams. The next day it was leaking again, a new spot that I was able to reach and patch while it was hanging up.

We’ve also had air in the fuel line on the port engine again. Not sure why this seems to happen so regularly on that engine, but I’m a professional fuel line bleeder now so it doesn’t present much of a problem. Other than that the boat seems to be running pretty well. A little overloaded with fuel and water at the moment which seems to be slowing us down a bit, but a couple more motoring days will take care of that.

september 25 2006 : en route
The other day the wind showed up, and before we knew it we had thirty knots howling up behind us. Fortunately it was a straight downwind ride and wasn’t too bad. Ali’s no fan of the big following seas that look like they are going to swallow the boat whole, so she didn’t care for these conditions much. But we did make good mileage with the sails triple reefed and flying wing-and-wing.

The boat handles those conditions amazingly well. I’ve read a lot of stories about people in monohulls that have to hand steer their boat whenever they are running directly downwind. Yet we never have to touch a thing, Bum just carves a nice straight line down the face of the waves, one after another with the autopilot humming away.

By dark on day four the wind had started to shift around, eventually putting itself on our nose. We tacked off and sliced through the waves, while the big seas flattened out and played catch up with the wind. By midnight the waves did just that and we were pounding into twenty-five knots and big rolling seas. We both caught catnaps on the couch while the other one stood outside keeping an eye on everything.

Darkness also brought storms. We had lightning storms in every direction. Sometimes they were so intense they even lit up the pitch black sea, giving a quick glimpse of blue. At one point I woke up to find Ali chanting, “I hate this, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.” That didn’t seem like a very good mantra, so we tacked off and tried to calm things down a little bit.

By eight this morning conditions hadn’t changed at all, and in fact were probably a little worse. I was sitting at the helm wearing the foul weather gear for only about the third time of our entire trip, getting absolutely soaked, when the idea to heave-to suddenly dawned on me. We quickly cut the wheel hard over, backed the jib, let the main way out, and cranked the wheel all the way back over to the other side again. And just like that it was total calm onboard. Twenty-five knots of wind whistling by, and big breaking waves rolling under us, but we were just bobbing up and down in peace. We could sit here for a week like this. That is, if we had any food, and our watermaker was working.

So here I sit typing away as if we were anchored in some extremely secluded bay. We have to remind ourselves to go outside every once in a while to make sure no cargo ships are bearing down on us, but other than that we just sit and wait for the wind and seas to calm down.

september 27 2006 : en route
I don’t know what our problem is, but this passage is turning out to be one of our hardest. It may be that we’re just getting tired of passage making, because the conditions haven’t really been all that trying. Or maybe it’s just the never ending list of things that seem to go wrong on the boat that we just can’t seem to solve. Whatever it is we’re definitely looking forward to making landfall in a couple of days.

After eight hours of heaving-to the other day the wind shifted rather dramatically in the right direction and even settled down under twenty knots. We got going and sailed for about an hour before the ugly weather surrounded us again. Dark clouds and rain were everywhere with just a sort of doorway of blue sky in the middle. We pointed the boat for the blue and somehow made it through without getting rained on. The wind had kicked back up over thirty knots, but we were moving the right direction. By evening though, the bashing had taken its toll on us and we were exhausted. We heaved-to once again while Ali made dinner and I tried to get some sleep. After a few hours the wind dropped and allowed us to get moving again.

Not long after this our port engine really started to cause us headaches. There was air in the fuel line almost constantly, causing the engine to sputter and die. I’d bleed it and all would be fine for an hour, before it bogged out on us again. I’ve probably bled it ten times, and just as I was typing this, about to finally claim victory, I heard it start to hesitate again. It worked through the problem on its own this time, but I would guess that within an hour I’ll be firing up the other engine and bleeding this one again. On the plus side the watermaker is working. Apparently we’ve gotten the air out of that line. One out of two isn’t bad I guess.

After a day with ten knot headwinds yesterday, the wind finally gave up completely and we had calm today. It was a good thing since I spent the majority of it with my head in the port engine compartment. Ali even took the opportunity to whip up a batch of pudding; guilt pudding. Back in Malta we had bought a 12 pack of those little individual pudding containers. Yesterday I asked her where she put them and all I got in response was a sheepish look. Like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar. I had to laugh though because our food situation right now is truly pathetic. We are so uninterested in cooking that we left on this passage with essentially nothing to eat. At the store we bought two loaves of bread, pudding, and nacho chips. That’s it, not even a fruit or vegetable. So who can blame a girl for eating the only sweet thing on the boat? Sadly, our saving grace has been the canned meatballs we stocked up on in Greece. We’ve made a meal out of those five nights out of seven so far.

This afternoon when I was filling up the fuel tanks I did some calculating and realized that we were going to be about a hundred miles short of our destination unless we did some sailing soon. Unfortunately that isn’t going to happen with no wind in the forecast for a couple of more days at least. So now we’ve altered course to stop for fuel before carrying on to Malaga on the southern coast of Spain.

We did receive an email from a friend of ours that brought a big smile to our faces. It was concerning Charter Cats and here is what he told us: “Charter Cats was shut down by the Marshal in South Africa, and they had taken approximately five clients money with them as their boats were far from completion. The sheriff had to cut the doors open to remove the boats, as Eric did not want to let them go. Apparently they took $3 million of clients money with them down the drain.” Obviously we don’t like to hear that people have lost their money, but just hearing that they’ve been shut down does brighten our day.

september 30 2006 : costa de sol, spain
That second day of calm weather we were supposed to have didn’t happen. Instead we again found ourselves pounding head on into short seas. The wind was only twenty knots but we were having a heck of a time pointing the boat anywhere near where we wanted to go.

On top of that we were having problems with the engine dying on us, and our charging system malfunctioning. We were unable to charge the batteries for more than a few minutes before the battery alarm would start blaring and shut down the alternator. But just for a couple seconds at a time; beeeep, two seconds, beeeep, five seconds, beeeep. Then as a final slap in the face the bilge pump switch stopped working. The reason it needs to run at all is the fact that we’ve got a fairly steady drip of sea water coming through our port rudder post. That is the fourth Rule-A-Matic bilge pump switch that has crapped out on us, despite the minimal use.

With all of this happening, our mental health was quickly going downhill. Until finally, a breakthrough. While reading the troubleshooting section of my Nigel Calder Diesel Maintenance book I noticed a throwaway sentence right at the end. It said that if nothing else worked to check that the fuel tank vent hose wasn’t blocked up. Problem solved.

While I was crawling around in the engine compartment I was staring at the alternator wiring wondering what could possibly be the problem. I noticed that the field wire from the alternator to the regulator had an extra four inch piece of wire spliced onto it, so instead of just one connection there were two, one of which had no real use. I grabbed my tools, cut off the extra piece, and reconnected the two ends. When we started the engine there was no more beeping. Cautiously, I claimed a second victory.

Yesterday morning we finally reached Spain. We were out of diesel with over two hundred miles to Benalmadena, where we are meeting family in just a few days. So even though what we really wanted to do was to get off the boat, all we did was go into the marina, get diesel and a couple bags of chips for sustenance, and leave again.

About this time the engine started to sputter again. I was devastated. I really thought I had it that time. I bled the fuel line yet again, but within an hour it was sputtering. Ali suggested I check the fuel vent hose again. I balked at the idea at first. We had been pounding into rough seas, but what were the chances that water had clogged up the hose again already? Back into the engine compartment I went. I dutifully unhooked the hose and blew, not really believing that could be it. But Ali was right, water poured out the other end. A quick bleed and the engine was perfect again. Now I just have to figure out a solution to keep water out of that hose in the first place.

At the moment we are still a hundred and fifty miles from the finish line, motoring at a pathetic three knots against a strong Straits of Gibraltar current, and directly into a little ten knot wind kicking up just enough waves to keep the boat bouncing up and down uncomfortably. We’re seriously going crazy. Maybe we should have spent a couple nights back at the marina.

Later…the wind just wouldn’t die down today. It was forecast to be five knots but instead we had twenty-five on the nose. It feels as if it has been on our nose for a week straight. Our track hasn’t exactly been the shortest route to our destination. So when we finally reached the southeast tip of Spain and were about to go around it, into the Strait of Gibraltar, we decided to instead pull into the small bay and anchor for the night. We didn’t have a chart for the area but it turned out to be perfect, well protected, shallow, and sandy. It felt great to drop the anchor and stop moving.

The problems weren’t over yet though. While Ali was making dinner the breaker for the propane popped. Then popped again. I went and emptied the chain locker, crawled inside and started poking around. I took a bottle of soapy water and sprayed all the fittings, immediately identifying the problem. Our very rusty solenoid was leaking. I pulled the entire fitting apart, took the solenoid out of the middle, and reconnected the fitting without the solenoid. After another jury rigged bypass of a safety device, dinner was saved, along with our sanity. Sort of. We may have been better off without having another meal of meatballs and rice.

With a hundred miles to go, we are really hoping that tomorrow’s weather forecast proves correct and we can finally finish this passage. We need to get there before something else on the boat breaks.

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