Richard: Arrived in Turin (the NorthWest) at 11:30pm to find out that no trains or busses run after 11pm. After an introduction to Italian driving thanks to our taxi, we made it to the hotel in record time. Italian driving is pretty much go wherever you want, whenever you want….as long as your car is bigger than the next guys…..there is no such thing as worrying about the limited amount of lines on the roads. My kind of driving. The next day we were heading to Venice but had a few hours to kill with nothing to do. We knew we had heard of Turin before for some reason but couldn’t remember why for a while and then it hit us…The Shroud of Turin. For the non-religious or non-Christians, apparently this is what Jesus was wrapped in upon his death. You don’t actually get to see it as it is in some box somewhere, probably the Pope’s Attic, but you do get to see a life size photo with some “negative” pictures which show it better. As carbon dating shows it came from the 11th century, lets just say that I did not run off to become a monk. Not sure if Diana is going to become a nun either.

Then we were off to Venice. What a maze of a city, little streets everywhere, not one of them straight for more than 100 meters. Very interesting, no cars or bicycles on the island anywhere. Everything is done by boat through the canals. We just sat there on one of the bridges for a hour watching the flury of activities. Boats lined up four across, specialized garbage boats, ambulance boats, everything. Totally different world. That night, went for the inevitable romantic gondola ride. Sorry mum and dad, no grand kids yet, but at least we got a deal on it when we walked after he told us it was $120euros for an hour- it may be romantic, but I don’t need to spend $180 CAD to get some lovin’.

From Venice it was off to Pisa for the day. Apparently we have not gained to much weight yet as it didn’t tip over when we climbed it. I won’t give the technical details of the angle etc as it doesn’t sound like much, but once you are in it and on top, it is leaning pretty good. Then it was off to Naples via a 2nd class sleeper train (6 people in one compartment).

I am pretty sure the family we shared the compartment were real happy when I took off my shoes, been sweating in those babies for 18 hours straight. Even I had trouble sleeping! Got into Naples at 6:30am. Yikes, never seen such a dirty city in my life, not a garbage can to be found anywhere, and a lot of people sleeping on cardboard. We thought it might improve when we got away from the station, actually really hoped as our hotel was pretty close, but it appears the whole city is that way. Went to Pompei and saw the ancient city from around 50AD. It is huge, in five hours of hustling, we only saw about 50% of it. Highlights had to be the brothel with it’s individual rooms, each with a descriptive picture above it in case you were at a loss of what to do. Even seen one pictures for some hot girl on girl action, it was just like surfing the web! Apparently civilization hasn’t really advanced that far in 2000 years. I am sure when we make it to Mars, the first thing we will find is some Martion porn. Next day, we were all pumped to see this great mountain that covered Pompei with ash: Mt Vesuvius. It is the only active volcano on the European continent, which we both later learned only means that it should blow it’s top every 30 years or so (it’s been 60 since the last one though), not that there was going to be molten lava pumping like Hawaii. Instead it is a massive crater….or so we guess from the postcards. It was cloudy, and they fail to tell you at the ticket booth that you will only be able to see 15 feet in any direction. So it was a good hike in the clouds.

Next to the capital, Rome. After Naples, we were a bit worried. It is night and day, cleaner, but still see old men peeing in public anywhere they choose…I am trying to get a picture, but I have not been quick enough yet. Plus with the Italian passion, I think they will try to kill me if the catch me taking a picture. They speak very expressively and loud, it seems like everyone is angry with each other, and based on the driving, I can see why. You take your life into your hands crossing some of the major roads, a game I have come to enjoy and Diana to loathe. Have gone to the Forum, Colosseum, Pantheon etc. All very impressive structures when you realize that these were made hundreds or thousands of years ago….I can’t even figure out the Caramilk secret and these guys have done stuff that baffle the experts now. So far that is where we are and more to come…..

Diana: Who can beat that entry? Not me, just wanted to add that we met Tracey in in Rome and we dragged her around to all of the places we wanted to see. We also went to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. You can get quite a sore neck from looking at the ceiling for an hour. The Vatican museum had a lot of nice ceiling paintings that looked quite 3D - Richard didn’t believe us when we told him they were only painted. I liked those ones better than the ones in the Sistine Chapel - they looked more real, and not as cluttered.

We went to the Spanish steps, but no one wanted to climb them since they didn’t look exciting enough to make us want to see what was at the top. We went in search for the Aquaducts and found some of its ruins near the city walls. After that, we decided to go out to the Catacombs to see what they were. Kind of interesting seeing underground tombs and places of prayer.

Finding a place to eat here is always an ordeal. We keep thinking that the next place we find will be better, so we keep walking till we’re so worn out we’ll pick the next thing that comes along. I think by the time we leave we’ll have had our fill of ‘real’ pizza, and pasta. Looking forward to Greek food…

Next to Greece

On arriving in Lisbon, we decided to leave right away and go straight for the beaches of Lagos, a small tourist trap town in the Algarve area of Portugal. Lagos (pronounced ‘lagosh’) was quite confusing with tiny streets covered in mosaic patterns, all inside ancient fortress walls.

Our little room had a balcony and was clean and comfortable, but was not very secure. The door to the balcony did not lock.

Each day we got up late and meandered down to one of the beaches and sat there, smimming/reading/people watching and, of course, speculating about what all of you are doing there while we are working so hard on our tans. Very exhausting!

On the third day, we found new accomodations - an ‘appartomento’ as Sr. Viana called it. Very nice! Complete with full kitchen, full bath, living room, balcony, TV (sitcoms are very weird in Portugal).

One day we wandered down to Ponte de Piedade where there are nice grottos (caves and interesting rock formations caused by the tides). We wandered around the point and then found another beach to laze around on before the trek home.

Richard’s comments: Pretty much, we did nothing here except take it easy as Diana indicated above. Once again, my lack of culture will show as I found different things interesting. The bus station half way to Lagos was my introduction to non-Canadian plumbing. After 2.5 hrs on the bus, I needed to use the washroom, so after finding it, pushed open the door, and at first thought that this stall was out of order, so went to the next one and after opening the door found it in the same state..I was expecting this later in our trip, but not in Portugal…a squat toilet; a simple whole in the floor. Upon a close look, I decided that I really didn’t need to go that bad considering the guy before left me a present courtesy of his bad aim. Not to get to graphic, but it looked as if a cobra was about to strike. Look out Immodium, I think I found a better cure to diarrhea. Too bad I didn’t have my camera, but I am sure India will give me ample opportunities for pictures.

Diana failed to mention one stop of interest in full detail. On the way back from the grottos, we first saw a little sign for a beach, so decided to check it out. After a 20 minute hike down the cliff on this little trail, we came to a beautiful beach among the cliffs. But that was not all that greeted us, there were about 10 old naked Portuguese men. These were not the Adonasis’ as Diana was probably hoping for as they were not carved out of stone like a statue, but rather were wrinkly old men. Too make it even better, there was one poised like a supermodel right at the entrance showing off what God had endowed him with, and apparently what he lacked in a penis and modesty, he made up for in testicles. I grew up in a farming community, and have seen some large nuts on pigs and cows, but this guy put them all to shame. Needless to say, we were out of there pretty quick; well, as long as it took me to pry Diana away. The nightmares have are slowly subsiding.

After 8 days in Lagos, we were quite relaxed for our next trip - on to Italy.