Beyond The Hole

Italy to Nice

July 22, 2002 @ 08:39 AM

Bonjour! The last couple of weeks have been a blur, and I am falling seriously behind on keeping you all up to date. Apologies to any who’ve sent me email and haven’t yet received a reply. You will, that is when I find a cheap net cafe.

So let’s play catch up here. When last I wrote I believe I was in Venice. Mike and I have since been to Florence, went to the Uffizi museum, didn’t see the David. Then to Siena, a day trip to the hill town San Gimingano, four nights in Rome, where we stayed at a hostel, Michaelangelo’s Palace, which might just have been a flop house! One of those days we went to the Vatican where my camera mysteriously stopped working in the Cathedral — coincidence I hope.

South to Sorrento, where the hostel lost our reservation and we ended up camping hobo-style on some luxurious cardboard boxes we found behind a dumpster. Another day trip, this time to Positano on the Amalfi coast, where it rained, a lot, then was sunny, go figure. Then back North for nine hours by train to Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera up by France.

Mike left for Barcelona after a couple days, myself staying behind. The food, the scenery, and the weather were so idyllic I could hardly tear myself away. But depart I did, just the other day. I already miss my morning cappuccino. Just as I was growing accustomed to Italy and getting by quite well, its time to move on.

I now find myself on the French Riviera in Nice for the day but staying in a great hostel in Cap D’ial near Monaco. The place is right on the water, must be worth a fortune. It amazes me someone decided to make a hostel out of it and then only charge 13 euro a night. They even serve three course dinners for $8.50.

In my two days in Nice I’ve visited the Musee D’Art Moderne Et D’Art Contemporain, fun exhibit there: a Niki de Saint Phalle collection. You’ve probably seen some of it, she creates a lot of stuff with paintball guns, as well as some rather cartoonish sculptures of large women with small featureless heads and limbs in bright bathing suits. My favorite piece was what looked to be a rather Christian looking bronze shrine, complete with Jesus on the cross, yet also sporting lots of toy rifles and machine guns, random doll parts, and one very ugly spread-winged bat in the middle framed on either side by a sneering weasel heads. Wish I had a camera.

Shortly thereafter I stumbled upon a free orchestra concert outside, good opportunity to rest my feet. That night I went to the annual Nice Jazz festival, but only for a little bit as I then had to run back to the train station to make it back to the hostel by midnight (ick curfew).

Today I went to the beach :-) Highly recommended, bring a picnic lunch, and watch women of all ages bath topless while you eat (I am here to observe French culture). Whats up next: I leave on a night train for Barcelona the 23rd, arriving early in the morning on the 24th. Cheers for now.