I woke up at 7 am hoping that I could stay a little longer. I didn’t get a chance to change my reservation at Alessandro Palace back in Rome, so I couldn’t extend my stay in Florence. Feeling the hunger pang, I went down to the diner to get some food. Mmm.. cereal and coffee!
By 9:10 am, I checked out and left for Rome. I hope I have some cool or nice roommates back at Rome. I am going to be there for three more nights, what am I going to do for three more nights? I should have planned my last days better. When I booked my ticked back to Roma Termini it was 51 euros. ouch! It wasn’t that much when I left Rome to Florence! :(
Oh well. The train was filthy too. Well I have a two hour train ride so time to charge the gear and download the CF cards. I started thinking about my boudoir clients that I had and will shoot in a couple weeks. This is going to be fun, especially building the albums!
Three more nights and then I will be flying back home. Very depressing!
I am glad that I opted to go to Italy this time around. I listened to U2’s “I still haven’t found what I am looking for” live from milan and it got me curious enough to want to come here. He was talking about the Duomo’s in Milan and then he slipped an “Excusi Moi” in French, instead of Italian. I was talking about this with Giovanni and he mentions that Milan being closer to France and also being a fashionista city, French is used very often. Oh. Before going to Ireland I was listening to “Bad” and like that I decided to go to Ireland. :) In any case I am glad that I went to Italy, so much great food, great memories, and gelato!
I got back to Rome and checked into Palace Alessandro at about 12. The heat seemed to have up’d the ante! It was really hot! So I stayed inside to sleep. When 1 pm rolled around, I attempted to go out.
I went out to do some city shots and to go back to Termini to buy water and bananas.
By 3 pm my room was ready, from what I was told, so I went up to go sleep. But the cleaning ladies went back to clean again. What? Whatever, back out I go to get some nail clippers. I need to remember to bring nail clippers from home next time. argh!
When I came back, the cleaners were done and I clipped my nails when my new roommates started to stroll in . Melissa and Jessica from Chicago came in first and then about 20 minutes later, Danny, Chris, and Cody from Colorado came in. We spoke for a little while to introduce ourselves and got settled in.
Not sure what I would do for dinner, might as well go for the free pizza that the hostel offers. But then I recalled the taste of it before and changed my mind to go out to look for dinner. I went to this place Luke and Jaclyn recommended earlier. It was pretty good, decent portions, started me off with a huge bruschetta, lots of bread, and nice wine. I really liked the pasta with its mixture of vegetables and light marinara sauce!
Afterwards I went to get some gelato and headed back to the hostel. When I got back, the pub crawler folk started to come out to get people to go on their pub crawl. But that really didn’t sound like fun. So I went back to go to bed.
:: grumble ::
I had to check out and stash my stuff in the storage hold today. Hopefully, hopefully, they will have a room for me. After I checked out, I got ready for my wine tour in Florence. First time having wine and a wine tour! I thought it would be a very interesting experience.
I grabbed my journal and camera gear and sat down in the lobby to write and relax a bit when I met Catherine, Amy, and Louisa. Louisa and Catherine were from Melbourne and Amy was from New Zealand. So I had to ask, after being told by three individuals from Perth, “Are the real Australians from Perth?”
Catherine and Amy were traveling for five weeks and Lousia is on a 6 month journey. Long voyages… I am somewhat envious! As much as I love traveling, I am not sure I would be able to take more than 2 months of traveling at one time. Well money – wise definitely not! haha! But I would get home sick. Maybe.
Well the tour guide all guided us to our bus, which was pretty far away from the hostel. So we took a hike across the city to the bus, to board into a large tour bus. And we boarded.
Our first stop was a wine tasting spot to try 3 vintages of wine – supertuscan, (I love this name!) and the rest I don’t remember. All from the local Chianti Classico region. They taught us how to taste the wine. Uhm .. lift, swirl, look at alcohol content, sip, swoosh, swallow, repeat. hmmm.. maybe there is a trick that I am missing. Oh well. Sip.
The symbol of the area, the rooster!
After about half an hour of wine tasting, the tipsy-ness came in. We stopped by a small town to look around and shop. Did my post card shopping here!
Afterwards was lunch! We went to a really nice place that was a little out of the way, but it was definitely a gorgeous place! I hoped we could have stayed there longer.
I had a bruschetta, bread, and cheese, but seemed to forget to bring the pasta! They brought that out a little later.
By 3 – 4 pm, we headed towards our last drinking site. Grappa. It was a really high alcoholic content drink. And it burned, I should add!
When we got back to the hostel, I was able to get a room! I would later be meeting Louisa, Amy, and Catherine for a night out at 7:30 PM. We bought some wine and went over the bridge to watch the sun set with some snacks.
After drinking three glasses of wine, the sun finally set. I was sad that today was my last full day in the city that I love. Well we stayed there till about 9 pm and headed back to the hostel.
We got some drinks at the hostel and chatted till midnight when we all left to go back to our rooms.
And then parted ways.
I woke up at 7 am, because I really wanted to leave. I went to brush my teeth, while I charged my iPod and camera batteries. I found an electrical socket by the sinks of all places.
I came back to my tent and packed, which was relatively easy since I packed light! It feels good leaving this place. It isn’t like I dislike the place, it’s just that three days was good enough for me.
By 8:05 am, all my stuff was ready and I was set to check out. The price of the site was thirty nine euros for three nights, a tent, mat, and blanket. Not bad!
The bus arrived at 8:43 and the bus sped its way to the train station. Maybe I should have slept in a bit or waited, because my train wouldn’t leave till 11 am. argh. Well the view was interesting to say the least. The teens ahead of me were going “at” it.
The train arrived and the number one car had issues with its AC unit. So there was a delay. ….
I arrived in Bologna and I already disliked it. A subjective feeling came over me, it was like entering Cork in Ireland. I hopped onto the bus, which was packed like sardines and what made it worse was that I had all my gear!
I got to my B&B, which was located in a shady spot. BIG QUESTION MARK popped into my head as I pressed the door bell. It was a bed in a family’s bedroom. A bed in a family’s house? Whoa! The website sounded like it was a hostel! I have a personal distaste of staying in another family’s home, like this. Really weirded me out, so I told the guy that I didn’t want to be here and paid my supposed night, apologized, and left.
Back at the train station again, I thought about looking for a real hostel in this area. I checked it all out and they were well over a hundred euros a night. Well back to Florence it was for me! That was my decision, I called Plus Florence and they told me they have some rooms for me and booked my train ticket back.
Ugh! Worst decision ever to go to Bologna and booking that place! I mean the couple sounded extremely nice and gracious, but that was really unexpected, at least from the web-ad. But I am really uncomfortable in staying with an unknown family.
I made it back to Plus Florence. I really love Florence! They let me stay one night, but were unsure for the following. I would have to check again tomorrow. But that was ok! Once everything was straightened out, I went to the laundry room immediately to wash my clothes! Whew!
Those clothes were so full of sweat and grime and now they are being washed! And, now I can have fresh clean clothes!
And while that was being cleaned, I was off for my gelato run! On that run, I bought Vincent a t shirt and a Venice mask for 5 Euros!! hehe! I also have a rock for him to from Cinque Terre. Every journey I take, I bring a rock back for him! 
When I came back, I tossed my newly washed clothes into the dryer. Fresh clothing! And dinner was here!
I had a nice vegetarian pizza! Mmm! I devoured that pizza! By now my clothes were all done and I brought them all back to my room.
With my clothes fresh and clean I went up to the terrace to get something to drink and then off to bed. I have a wine tour tomorrow to go to! Excited!
I was listening to NJ 101.5 this morning on the way to work because my carpool had it on. To answer a few questions, I am a liberal democrat, but this one thing stood out after this lady spoke about how would one give incentives and rewards to excellent teachers given that it depends on how well the teacher is doing. Taking in consideration that that teacher could be teaching a whole smorgasporg (sp?) of classes- from honors to remedial classes. How would one standardize or make an accurate assessment? The big question. I am not here to debate, just ponder. The radio host quipped back later on a really simple retort, about a teacher who always hoisted his feet on the table during class and smoked in between classes. Obviously that is a mark of a not so stellar teacher and his example does not help the proposed argument at all.
I am not arguing against incentives, I think it is really really important to reward stellar teachers, the question is how to go about it. They commented on the fact that the union is against this against that, etc. I am not part of the teacher’s union nor am I a teacher, but is that the most they can do? Argue that it is because of the unions?
In any case, one of the things that could help, and not help, is the students and what they are learning from that teacher. That would probably be a base start to look. It won’t help if the teacher was somewhat lax and the students all proclaim the teacher as awesome and phenomenal because the said teacher let them off the hook. But more likely a teacher that really shakes them to the core, (got that from Dr. West! ha!) who is difficult in grading but still enforces and reinforces the learning process. Lofty ideals, I know.
An issue is that we are all looking at the grades and scores to be As and/or some exemplary digit. Don’t get me wrong, I think those are important, but a question comes to mind, are students learning for learning or are they learning for the grade. Longitudinally, what is the information that the students learned over the course of the class year? What are they doing with that specific information to incorporate into their being? How has that one teacher sparked that intellectual curiosity? I believe grades and scores should be included with the determination the decision to give incentives and rewards to stellar teachers, only on the condition that those grades translate longitudinally. How many of us crammed for the test just to get an A and then forget? Cramming is great for short term memory recall, but is forgotten afterwards. Would those standardized tests that high school students take help or work to that? Maybe. There was an article about the creator of the Princeton Review, state that the SATs are useless. Which I also believe as well.
So I am curious on how they will go about towards giving rewards and incentives to the stellar teachers. I really want those teachers to be rewarded, but the real interesting part is how they will determine it.
This morning I woke up for the first time with rooster calls! Whoa! I was heading to Venice for the first time. My left knee sill ached and my right foot made it extremely difficult to walk. I stayed in Verona this long to do a day trip to Venice. There was no way I could afford to spend a night in Venice. I checked out the prices and wow! EXPENSIVE! So I would stay in Verona for three days and one of those days would be a day trip to Venice.
I had to take a major dump. The toilets were squatting toilets. I remember Eric telling me about his adventures in Asia when he had to use the squatters too! ha! Oh man, I don’t want to get graphic here, but boy oh boy!
Ok censoring the nasty graphic nature of pooping, I was already prepared to go to Venice. My stuff was already packed and ready. Feeling lighter, haha, I went down to the bus station and got dropped off at the train station. Bought my tickets for Venice and my trip to Bologna for tomorrow, two birds with one stone!
The train took about 2 hours to get to Venice. On the way I saw the absolutely hottest Italian girl that I have ever seen! She was literally sparkling! Light brown brunette, with a dazzling smile, she was a goddess among mortals. Be really strange to whip out the camera to photograph her. I failed. ha!
After she left, my stop for Venezia S Lucia came. Once I stepped out of the train I headed straight to the bathroom to take a piss. And then the exploration and photographing moment!
I passed by a souvenir shop to buy a couple post cards. Really the only thing I buy from souvenir shops are post cards. Sure I can make my own when I get home, but I liked buying them in the country. Then I saw some really awesome Venetian carnival masks that were for the winter carnival. Totally awesome! I wanted to buy one for Vincent, but for 50 Euros and up? forget about it.
I checked out a lot of the river by ways and went to look for places situated on huge wooden pillars, but I wasn’t there yet.
I bought and consumed a kilo of bananas. Oh bananas how I missed you and Potassium! But then I had to go to the bathroom.
1.50 Euros to use the bathrooms. Oh. Snap.
Oh snap!
Then I got lost in a residential area of Venice. Not a place where I would want to be exploring. Not that it was a bad area, just that it was very far from the train station. Back tracking, I realized that my map wasn’t helping me.
By 1 pm, I fond my bearings and got into proximity of the train station. I withdrew a 100 in euros (OUCH!) as I was running out of cash. As it was getting hotter and hotter, I decided to leave Venice. I seen everything that I wanted to see. My knee and feet would thank me because they were in a lot of pain.
Train ticket purchased and set for Verona. And sleep settled in.
Waking up, we were at Verona and I caught the bus in time. The driver had the petal to the metal! He was a really stop and gun it driver, which made me a little sick. ha! When we finally got to my stop, I rushed to the site to drop my stuff off and relax. I had to reapply my sunblock. It was getting seriously sunny.
By 5:30 I went back to the city center stopping at another awesome gelato spot! And then bought a vegetarian pizza. Their dough was so soft! It probably has eggs, I hope not.
The waitress was a tad busty, but wasn’t very cute. She looked really bored. So I just ate my meal and went on my way.
Trekking my way through the city center for the last time, I thought about teaching English in Italy, then old faithful snapped! My camera bag for five years broke! The strap just broke off of its connector. I bought that bag when I bought my first camera!! My canon G5! Its death was so sudden and saddening! It went with me to Thailand and Ireland!
The remorse was so great that I didn’t think much about my last trek back to the campsite. Returning back to my tent, I immediately went to go shower. I really need to wash my clothes, I only have clean pair of undies to use. So tomorrow when I check into the hostel in Bologna, I will have them washed.
Speaking of broken bags, my dad’s Old Navy bag was also on the verge of breaking. Both have been on my international travels and Italy broke them.
I saw my last sunset in Verona on the terrace.
