{"id":55,"date":"2011-06-18T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2011-06-18T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.izaakrubin.com\/travel\/world\/?p=55"},"modified":"2018-12-01T19:11:31","modified_gmt":"2018-12-01T19:11:31","slug":"food-wine-and-plenty-let-the-good-times-roll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.izaakrubin.com\/travel\/world\/2011\/06\/18\/food-wine-and-plenty-let-the-good-times-roll\/","title":{"rendered":"Food, wine, and plenty \u2013 let the good times roll!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy really is a beautiful country. I\u2019ve spent the past several days seeing some of Rome\u2019s and Cinque Terre\u2019s most amazing sights, eating delicious food, and drinking cheap (but good) house wine; at the moment, I\u2019m rolling through the Italian countryside, enjoying the view of the ocean and the handsome guy across the aisle\u2026 maybe I\u2019m getting distracted. The point is, this country is turning out to be all I expected it to be, and more.<\/p>\n

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Rural Greece, looks familiar<\/p><\/div>\n

But before I get to Italy, I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t tidy up the loose ends I left in Greece. When I last wrote, I was ferrying back to Athens from the Greek Isles in one of the colossal ferries\/floating malls that troll the Aegean. Unlike some of the earlier ferries I\u2019d taken, this one was a slow, mammoth of a boat big enough to house a multi-level parking garage, a shopping mall, a food court, and an endless stretch of seats. A good opportunity to do a little writing =).<\/p>\n

I got back to Athens, took the metro toward downtown, and went out for dinner. After uploading the new post and photos, it was off to bed. And by 8am the next morning I was rolling away on a cushy tour bus toward Meteora and northern Greece. Our tour guide was a tall, muscle-y woman named Sarah who felt it was her responsibility to talk to us at almost every single moment. It was charming for the first 15 minutes, but quickly got tiresome. Granted, this was a conventional tour, where its commonplace to get lots of info thrown at you constantly. I\u2019ve just gotten accustomed to touring around unassisted, and this information overload (everything from \u201cthis is Phebes, it has 30,000 inhabitants; this is Marathon, it has\u2026\u201d to \u201clet me tell you the story of each of the Greek Gods\u201d) was just too much for me in my sleep-deprived state. I listened for a while, but then started blasting some Britney Spears through my headphones to drown it all out. I was happy enough to just watch the Greek countryside roll by.<\/p>\n

I did learn a couple things from the tour guide, which were also readily apparent from the view out the window. Greece is 72% mountains; the rest are plains and the sea. We spent a good amount of time winding up and down the sides of mountains, only to finally level out on some expansive land-locked fields for about 15 minutes of straight, flat driving. The plains themselves looked an awful lot like central California; flat expanses of various crops or fruit trees, dotted and striped with highways, farm houses, gas stations, and 10-wheel trucks.<\/p>\n

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The stadium at Delphi<\/p><\/div>\n

While we were stopped at a gas station, a handful of tourists started snapping away pictures of the flat expanse. Another American and I looked at each other and shrugged. \u201cLooks like home\u201d, I said. We both had a good laugh.<\/p>\n

What definitely didn\u2019t look like home, however, were the two featured stops of the tour. By lunch time we\u2019d reached Delphi (pronounced \u201cdel-FEE\u201d, as Sarah was sure to tell us about 27 times), a site that the ancient Greeks believed to be the center of the universe. We got a first-hand look at the ruins of the great temple that once stood at the very center of it all, the stadium, and the gymnasium high up on the hill. According to legend, Delphi also housed an Oracle who could predict the future. According to Sarah, the Oracle was a woman (well, a series of women over the years) who got high on geothermal fumes and bay leaves, blathered, and had special interpreters to translate her words into prophecies. No single Oracle lived very long; a life of being constantly high takes its toll.<\/p>\n

After our walk through Delphi, I took a time out to change tour buses; Sarah\u2019s bus was only a one-day tour to Delphi, and those of us on the two-day tour to Meteora had to transfer. The handful of us loaded up onto the new bus, and set off without time for a proper lunch. I got a bit antsy\/hungry, but survived on almond bars until we reached a food stop around 4pm.<\/p>\n

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Approaching Meteora<\/p><\/div>\n

That night at the hotel in Kalampaka (the closest town to Meteora), I got to know a family of fellow Americans on the same tour. The parents, Anna and Pete, have moved around quite a bit but currently live in Tennessee; along with them were their two school-age kids, Rebecca and Gavin, and Pete\u2019s father Earl. We had a great time chatting over the complementary buffet dinner, and trading stories about everywhere from Greece to Tennessee and India. Anna and Pete asked if I wanted to get a drink with them after dinner, but given that my stomach was still recovering from the food poisoning, I passed. We were in for yet another early wake-up the next morning, so I went straight to bed.<\/p>\n

The group reconvened at breakfast, loaded up the bus, and headed for Meteora. I\u2019d been looking forward to this for quite a while; Meteora consists of a series of monasteries and nunneries, perched on top of colossal rock pillars jutting straight out of the ground. Apparently, thousands of years ago when the central plains of Greece were lakes, the water eroded these soft rocks into their current forms. More recently, monks decided that for whatever reason (most likely to get some privacy, I\u2019d imagine) this was a good place to settle. Of course, now that Meteora is a major tourist attraction, the monks and nuns don\u2019t get much in the way of privacy after all.<\/p>\n

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A precariously perched monastery<\/p><\/div>\n

The sight of these quaint little monasteries, perched precariously on towers of rock, made the long bus ride to northern Greece worthwhile. After a few \u201cKodak moment\u201d photo pit-stops, we had a chance to tour around one of the monasteries and one of the nunneries. We had about an hour at each place to enjoy the ornate (albeit more recently re-painted) churches, and the sigh-provoking views.<\/p>\n

By noon, it was time to start the long return journey to Athens. We had a brief stop for lunch at a greasy road-side buffet, but otherwise drove continuously through the afternoon. Once I was back in Athens, I found my way back to the same old hotel (now my third separate stay there), grabbed dinner, and slept.<\/p>\n

The pace of the trip wasn\u2019t allowing for much sleep, and I was really starting to feel it. By noon the next day, I\u2019d already flown to Rome and was sitting on a coach bus headed for town. Exhausted, I checked in and started sleepily wandering around in search of lunch. Italy, unlike Greece, was a new challenge when it comes to food. Given my intolerance to gluten (a.k.a. bread, pasta, pizza) and dairy (a.k.a. everything else Italian), my options on most menus are limited. My first attempt at lunch was at a caf\u00e9 near the metro station, where the older Italian cashier spoke no English and I struggled to communicate my allergies. I eventually ordered a chicken dish, which the waiter told me moments after my first bite, had flour-based gravy. Oops. He took it back and offered me a Carpaccio instead \u2013 a bad idea for my still-recovering gut. I ended up eating a little plate of spinach, and getting some of my money back. I wandered off again, still hungry.<\/p>\n

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Haruki!<\/p><\/div>\n

I did eventually find a restaurant that understood my problem, and had a perfectly safe chicken dish for me to eat. But by the time I\u2019d finished lunch, it was already 4pm; I opted to spend the rest of the day in a supermarket, searching for gluten-free products (I bought some rice crackers and peanut butter), and at a local internet caf\u00e9 browsing the web for gluten-free options in Rome.<\/p>\n

I have to preface what happened next with a little back story. About a week earlier, I\u2019d gotten an email from a friend of mine, Haruki Oh. Haruki and I met last fall, when we were both TAs for an Introduction to Databases class at Stanford. Way back then, I\u2019d told Haruki about my summer internship at Google in Sydney \u2013 how much I loved it, and how highly I recommended it. Haruki took the recommendation to heart, and made a similar arrangement with Google to work in Krakow, Poland during this summer. When he wrote to me, he told me that he had a few free weeks before his work started, and was wondering if he might tag along with me in Italy and Switzerland. Absolutely! His plans weren\u2019t immediately certain \u2013 there were various complications with his Polish work visa \u2013 but when I was in Kalampaka, I got an email confirming that, indeed, in only two days time he\u2019d be flying into Rome. And sure enough, on the evening of my first night there, Haruki and I met up at his hotel (conveniently down the street from mine). How great to see him! It was the first time I\u2019d seen someone from back home (excluding via Skype) in over two months.<\/p>\n

We opted not to meet up again until noon the next day; this gave me a good 13 hours of time in bed, which I desperately needed. When we did finally meet up, the two of us set out for a restaurant I\u2019d researched online the previous day: one that\u2019s known for having a number of gluten-free options. And sure enough, within an hour, Haruki and I were sitting in a charming street-side caf\u00e9 eating pasta.<\/p>\n

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Stunning ceiling fresco<\/p><\/div>\n

This was the start of perhaps my favorite day thus-far on my entire world-wide trip. There I was, eating gluten-free penne and a delicious antipasto spread (olives, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, tuna-stuffed tomatoes\u2026), and having a great chat with a familiar face from back home. Unlike myself, Haruki lives to eat (whereas I usually eat to live); his love for food and wine has rubbed off on me, and starting with that meal, the two of us have been eating well and with plenty. I heard all about his woes with his Polish visa over lunch, and I filled him in on some of my stories from the past two months of travel. We took our time with lunch, and enjoyed the moment. It felt like I\u2019d taken a vacation from my vacation!<\/p>\n

After lunch, we started walking toward central Rome and saw some sights literally took my breath away. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain, which we came across purely by chance. What a great surprise to stumble upon one of the most famous and magnificent fountains in existence! Afterward, we popped into a church that happened to be on our way to the Pantheon. This somewhat random church (the Chisea di Sant\u2019Ignazio di Loyola) was captivating. It was my first time inside an Italian church, and I was more than impressed. The colors of the frescoes were so vibrant, and so beautiful. That, combined with the classic sculpting of the columns and the figures, left me speechless. I\u2019d seen similar churches in pictures, but there\u2019s no substitute for actually walking into one and staring slack-jawed at the ceiling.<\/p>\n

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The Pantheon<\/p><\/div>\n

After only another few minutes of walking, we arrived at the Pantheon; being yet another one of the structures I\u2019d studied in my History of Architecture class, I was thrilled to actually see it in real life.<\/p>\n

What I wasn\u2019t prepared for, however, was how special the experience inside the Pantheon would be. It was a crisp sunny day and the light streaming through the giant oculus was like a beam coming down from heaven. There was a choir performing inside, and the sounds and sights combined to make one of those truly memorable moments. I can still hear the song they were singing in my head, even now. I couldn\u2019t wipe the smile off my face; I could have sat there for hours. I was in love with just being there.<\/p>\n

To be honest, after I saw the Pantheon, I felt like I\u2019d seen enough for the day. It wasn\u2019t long after lunch, but I was happy and satisfied enough to last me the rest of my time in Rome. Haruki and I wandered around for a little while longer, stopping for some gelato (the fruit flavors were dairy-free \u2013 lucky me!) and resting outside the French embassy. We temporarily parted ways \u2013 Haruki went shopping for a few things, while I went and got a haircut \u2013 and reconvened later for dinner. I capped off the day with some delicious swordfish and a glass of surprisingly-good house wine. In all, I went from being exhausted and frustrated the previous day to well-rested, well-fed, and all-around thrilled to be here and now in Italy. Yahoo!<\/p>\n

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St. Peter’s Basilica<\/p><\/div>\n

The next two days had a hard act to follow, but Haruki and I continued to have a great time. The next morning we met up and took the metro toward the Vatican; after a quick lunch, we met up with a tour group and started a three-hour tour of the Vatican museums. Our tour guide, Jeannette, was a fun and entertaining Art History master\u2019s student, originally from Orlando (hence her perfect English). When it comes to impressive statues and monuments, the Vatican takes the cake. Or really, as I later discovered, it steals the cake \u2013 many of the items in the Vatican City were stolen from other historical sites (but depending on who you ask, they were \u201cgiven\u201d to the Pope). Either way, the Vatican has become home to a good chunk of Rome\u2019s historical treasures, including everything from statues that once lined the Coliseum, to porfera bathtubs and sarcophagi. Porfera, an incredibly hard purple marble only found in a few sites in Egypt, is one of the world\u2019s most valuable materials. One porfera column \u2013 of which the Vatican has many \u2013 is apparently valued at 120 million Euros. Yow.<\/p>\n

After our tour of the museums \u2013 which included the Sistine Chapel, a sight worth seeing \u2013 Haruki and I did a little self-guided walk through St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. It\u2019s definitely a different kind of impressive, unlike church we saw the previous day. The artwork and sculpture is certainly amazing, but what\u2019s more amazing is the sheer size and scale of the Basilica. It\u2019s really more daunting than anything else. When you\u2019re walking through its immense corridors, you get the sense that yes, this really is the very center of Catholicism, in all its might. It\u2019s one big, powerful, statement. After seeing the Basilica from the inside, we opted to do the several-hundred step climb to the top of the dome; the views from the top, as you can imagine, were priceless. Once we were back on the ground, we took a walk around St. Peter\u2019s Square and then bid adieu to the Vatican.<\/p>\n

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St. Peter’s Square from the top of the Basilica<\/p><\/div>\n

By the time we re-entered Italy, it was already getting on toward dinner time. We took a quick detour to an old Italian castle on the river-front, where I promptly whacked my head against a stone archway while reading a map on my iPod. Doh! After a few minutes to recollect myself, we continued on toward a restaurant near the metro station. I ordered a grilled bass, which the waitress filleted right in front of me and then drizzled with olive oil. It was one of the most buttery, delicious fish dishes I\u2019ve ever had. Have I mentioned that the food in Italy is consistently fantastic? It is. We paired the dinner with a bottle of wine, split between me and Haruki, which (combined with the bass) left me happy and tipsy. We managed to find our way back to the metro nonetheless, and I got back to my hotel with enough time to watch a movie on my laptop (\u201cBaby Mama\u201d, by Tina Fey) before bed.<\/p>\n

Haruki and I got a slightly earlier start the next day, starting off our morning with a trip to Rome\u2019s Termini train station so we could buy our train tickets\/reservations for the upcoming days. We then had a quick lunch at the station, and took the metro to the Coliseum.<\/p>\n

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The Coliseum<\/p><\/div>\n

Although our original plan was to just self-guide ourselves through the Coliseum, the gigantic line wrapping out the door got us thinking otherwise. We ended up paying the extra fee to join a guided tour, which began five minutes later and went straight inside without a wait. After the difficult-to-follow tour (the guide\u2019s English wasn\u2019t the best, and the large group and hot sun didn\u2019t help), we wandered around and enjoyed just how big, monumental, and old the place really is. About an hour later, we began a different tour of the Palatine (a portion of ancient Rome), which happened to be included with our tour of the Coliseum! This tour was much easier to follow \u2013 better English, more shade, easier to concentrate \u2013 and covered the section of ancient Rome that was once home to its emperors and the most rich and famous. From the impressive ruins lying about in this current-day park, you can tell the people living here 2000 years ago had money.<\/p>\n

Once we were done with the tours, Haruki and I went to see a few of the things we\u2019d missed over the last few days. We visited Il Vittorio, the monstrous marble building commemorating the unification of Italy into a single country, and the Bocca della Verita, a manhole cover carved with a man\u2019s face and mouth. According to legend, if you put your hand in the mouth and tell a lie, it will bite your hand off. Apparently priests used to put scorpions inside the mouth hole, to keep the legend alive\u2026<\/p>\n

Hunger started to catch up with us, so we took the metro out to the Piazza della Repubblica and ate dinner. After another bottle of wine, we managed to find the bus stop and rode on home.<\/p>\n

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Monterosso al Mare<\/p><\/div>\n

After three fantastic full days in Rome, our time was up. We packed up and rolled to Termini station the next morning, ate a quick lunch, and caught the train to La Spezia. By 4:30pm, we\u2019d arrived in the picturesque Monterosso al Mare on the Italian Riviera, one of the five towns of the Cinque Terre.<\/p>\n

Although the weather in Cinque Terre has been a bit cloudy and cool, it hasn\u2019t detracted from the charm and tranquil of the little towns. None of the five towns are very big \u2013 in fact, Monterosso is the largest and still only has one drivable road. The rest, much like the Greek Isles, is a twisting maze of cobbled alleyways lined with shops and restaurants. My room here is literally a closet: it\u2019s barely big enough for a bed, my bags, and the sink in the corner. I share a bathroom with the one other single room (closet) sitting in the courtyard behind this woman\u2019s house. It all fits with the overall flavor of the region: homey, semi-rural, and adorable.<\/p>\n

Once we\u2019d settled in, Haruki and I met up on the main road of town and sought out dinner. Some advance research led us to the one restaurant in town that had a gluten-free menu, much to my delight. I ordered pasta, we shared a bottle of local wine, and had an all-around great evening. I even got drunk and adventurous enough to try some shellfish \u2013 normally a no-no for me, given that I keep somewhat kosher \u2013 but I figured that in this setting, right by the sea, this was the time and place to try it. Sound at all like my reasoning for going skydiving in New Zealand? During the meal I tried shrimp, squid, and something else I can\u2019t remember\u2026 it had tentacles, but wasn\u2019t an octopus. Shrimp was surprisingly good, but I could have done without the other two\u2026 their taste didn\u2019t make up for their texture, as far as I\u2019m concerned.<\/p>\n

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View of Vernazza from the trail<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, Haruki and I had our one full day to enjoy what Cinque Terre has to offer. It was still a bit too cloudy to justify a beach day, so we decided to do a bit of the hike between the towns. In order from south to north, they are: Riomaggiore, Manarolo, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Starting late in the morning, we took the train to Corniglia and ate lunch. Unlike the other four towns, Corniglia is high up on a cliff; the wind-battered walls made it look like something out of a storybook about an old Italian farming villa. I kept hoping to see an old lady hanging her laundry off some high-up balcony, but alas, the town was a bit too touristy for that to be a reality. With a fresh Mediterranean salad in my belly, we set off by foot toward Vernazza; the hike took a little over an hour. Vernazza is perhaps the most classically beautiful of the towns, with a sea-side castle and a prominent yellow\/beige church tower. Haruki and I got gelato, and I was thrilled to discover that this particular place had a dairy-free dark chocolate flavor \u2013 needless to say, I ordered a double serving. We finished up the day with the more mountainous trek back to Monterosso, which left us a bit tired but satisfied. The views throughout both of these hikes were beautiful, and actually reminded me quite a bit of the California coast. Like Greece, the Mediterranean climate is very similar to northern California; there were a few moments on the trail where I forgot where I really was.<\/p>\n

Back in Monterosso, Haruki and I parted ways for a few hours and then rejoined for dinner. Now I\u2019m back in my little room, typing up this note and throwing pictures up on Facebook as quickly as my weak wifi connection will permit. Tomorrow we\u2019ll pack up once again and head for Florence, with a pit-stop in Pisa to see its famous leaning tower.<\/p>\n

So, to wrap up, I\u2019m having a fantastic time. Food, wine, fun, what could be better? =)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll close with my usual list:<\/p>\n