Last month I took my first vacation in a long while down to Rome. We drove from Berlin, through the mountains of Austria, to the city where an empire was built on some deep familial issues.
We drove from Berlin through Munich, down to Innsbruck (butthole of Austria), by the coast down to Cinqueterre (where I was convinced I was going to meet my maker in a thunderstorm), passed by Pisa, camped out by a gorgeous beach town called Vada, and spent a few night in Rome, then back up the Adriatic Sea where we camped in a campsite where a train passed us by every 5 minutes, up to Bologna for a hot minute, witness the consumer hell known as Venice, ate at the only restaurant open past 9PM in Trento and back up to Berlin in 12 days.
With that said, it was one of the best road trips I’ve been on, partially because I haven’t been on many. The nice thing about being Europe is that you can pass borders of countries in just a few hours where it takes days to get through provinces in Canada. The drive itself was quite nice as you pass by some really stunning views along the way. Such as this castle in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere:
The second night was when we drove down to Cinqueterre, which is supposed to be one of the most amazing places along the cost. However, as luck would have it, we hit a thunderstorm and had to drive through some next level mountain roads in pitch darkness looking for a decent place to set camp. To demonstrate (please excuse my filming abilities):
The spot we found was by some construction site. It was so dark and stormy, but it was the best option we could find. The I barely slept because the rain got worse and worse, and thunder/lightening seemed to get louder and brighter the later it got. Of course, as soon as the sun came up, the storm calmed. For the first time ever I understood what they meant in by the “wrath of gods” in the Greek and Roman mythologies. We got up and out of our tents soaking wet, but happy to be alive.
Zeus seemed less pissed at us the next day, as a local surfer directed us to a beautiful sandy beach. It was still stormy, but we made a fire, cooked some fish, set camp and woke up to white sand and blue skies in the morning:
Pisa, was busy and full of tourists. It was pretty amusing to see the entire grass patch in front of the structure full of couples and families trying to achieve this optical illusion:
And I’m not sure what was happening here, but I’m guessing this is their favourite print:
We finally arrived in Rome, and my hair had taken a life of its own. Salt water and no conditioner = uni-dred. Though it looks more like Astro Boy then anything else in this picture:
In Rome, we didn’t quite do what Romans do. However, we were full on tourist mode:
Rainbow in the middle of the sky, why not:
The Vatican was pretty spectacular, but we didn’t get a chance to climb to the top. I doubt they needed my €7 anyway…
Then we rented vespas for a day and rode around the city and had our own version of the Roman Holiday.
Then we got a little lost and the army boys were rather nice about pointing out directions to my friend Jaz:
After a certain point I stopped taking photos because there was just too much happening. So just a few more…
Dolce Gabbana editioned car:
Venice, me pretending that I wasn’t surround by 24,999 other tourists:
A month later, I’m still missing the fresh tomatoes and cheap pasta. Not sure when I’ll be able to go back, but definitely sometimes before I get kicked out of Europe…
Awesome Jeff, Rome is the best
Peace
M
hope u liked italy!
next time be my guest in cremona!!
I loved Italy! I had been to Milan before for the furniture fair, but this was a nice relaxing holiday… Tutto benne!