my final adventure during this trip to italy was at the bergamo airport. i left lots of time for the drive there, but got into a traffic jam so started cutting it a little close. once inside the check-in area for my ryanair flight to malta, i became aware that the thousands of people in line weren’t moving at all. apparently, all of ryanair’s bag tag machines had crashed and were rebooting. as time to the bag check time cutoff inched closer, those who were about to miss their flight, including me, started to panic. i made friends with a russian couple who were on their way to ibiza, and we began asking people ahead of us in line if we could move in front of them so we wouldn’t miss our flight. of course almost everyone said no, one middle-aged woman so forcefully that her and the russian woman started hurling superlative insults at each other, almost leading to a fistfight. eventually, with three minutes to cutoff, the russian couple decided to get go for it and push through to the front of the line, and i followed in their wake. the machines were finally reboted and i was able to check my bag 30 seconds before the check-in cutoff. whew!
a roadtrip to liechtenstein and sauna rituals
i had one final day with a car before leaving italy, and liechtenstein was was a nearby country i had never been to, so of course it beckoned irresistibly! liechtenstein is a doubly land-locked micronation nestled between switzerland and austria. i drove through switzerland to get there, which ultimately took significantly longer than expected as the road was narrow and it was heavily snowing in the high mountain passes. one can buy a swiss motorway vignette for a rental car allowing travel on swiss expressways which would have made the journey much faster, but i decided i didn’t want to spend the money just for one day. some amazing scenery on the long drive though! i finally got to liechtenstein at about 4pm and explored the capital of vaduz a little. it is a fascinating principality which has impressively managed to maintain its independence for many centuries. there is a national castle perched on the mountain where the royal family still lives, and hosts annual parties for local graduating high school seniors, etc. there is also a famous covered bridge connecting the country to switzerland.
after all that driving i needed some r&r, so i went to the nearby swiss town of bad ragaz to experience their amazing thermal spa pools called termino. the admission is a bit pricey, but worth every cent. there is an indoor and outdoor thermal pool with jets and fountains, and it was raining outside and it was glorious.
i then went even further into the spa and found an amazing outdoor sauna center, with about ten different types of saunas and steam rooms surrounded an idyllic central courtyard, each varying in heat and humidity levels. all participants were required to be naked; when initially i was unaware of this rule i was yelled at in german by a staff member until i complied. every hour on the hour there was a german aufguss sauna ritual! ritual goers including me silently congregated in the sauna at the correct time, claiming our spot. the sauna rock heater was then turned to maximum, and german deep house music blasted through the speakers as a bodybuilder sauna master entered the room, wearing only a small towel (to differentiate him from the rest of us). as the german deep house tunes intensified, he ceremonially crushed essential oil-soaked ice onto the central sauna rocks, which immediately turned to hot steam and infused the room with scents of eucalyptus, mint and licorice in succession. after each new essence, he moved about the room whipping a towel in the air, blowing hot air and scent onto skin. each lasted about 20 minutes, and at the end there was a rush for the ice-cold outdoor showers because everyone was so close to passing out from the heat and the epicness. i went to a few of these, and it was amazing!
a day in torino!
after sadly dropping ann off at the milan malpensa airport, i made the game day decision to drive the 2.5 hours west and visit torino for a day! torino is the capital of the alpine region of piedmont, and hosted the winter olympics in 2006. it is a very nice city filled with wide streets lined with arcades, and surrounded by mountains.
near the main square, i visited the church which holds the shroud of turin, famous among many catholics who believe it to be the actual shroud in which christ’s body was wrapped when he rose from the dead, and which now has an imprint on it resembling christ. it is now hidden away, but was last out for public view in 2013, when ann actually came to torino to see it! in the church courtyard is a nice clocktower that can be climbed for 2 euro for amazing views over the cityscape!
i then walked down to the po river and chanced upon a gelato festival that was touring around europe! there were about 40 different gelato purveyors from around the continent, and one ticket let you try all of them!
i then took a long walk along the river po, to the base of a nearby mountain, atop which is the imposing superga cathedral, which provides amazing views over the torino valley. i took a little, once-per-hour train up the mountain, which takes over 30 minutes to get to the top. immediately behind the superga cathedral is a touching memorial for the grand torino professional football team, all of whom were killed when their plane crashed into this mountain during a blizzard in the 1950s. one can climb to the roof of the superga cathedral and look out over the sunset.
a great day in torino!
an italian wedding!
we had two main reasons to come to italy – a wedding, and ann used to live here! the wedding was in the city of brescia, east of milan. it belonged to my friend matt from college and his new wife adeola, and i was one of the groomsmen! it was great time. it was at a little estate out in the countryside, and the reception was composed of at least 16 courses of amazing food and lasted from noon to 3 am, which is apparently the italian way! it also had some nigerian flair! it was really fun; congratulations matt and adeola!
another day we went to the city where ann lived for 2 years, vicenza! it was great to see where she lived and what she liked to do around the almost perfect old city streets. we hung out with one of her italian friends laura and her parents, who run a small coffee shop across the street from ann’s former apartment. they provided us with copious coffee, took us to a nearby museum, and took us out for a passegiata (walk around town at dusk to see and be seen), which is the italian way! even though i made a fool of myself by mistiming the goodbye italian cheek kiss, accidentally making it into a kiss on the lips, hopefully they remember our visit fondly. they were really nice to ann while she lived there and really wonderful people.
one more place we visited in the area was a touristy town called sirmione, on a the very large lake garda. a very nice town to walk around, without any shortage of gelato!
ravenna mosaics!
en route from umbria to lombardy we stopped in ravenna, a town with four famous churches filled with awe inspiraing mosaics!
umbria!
ann and i got to spend about a week in italy, which was really nice! we had a rental car, which is definitely the way to go when traveling around italy, though the highway tolls do add up pretty fast. first we spent a few days in the region of umbria, known as the heart of italy, partly due to its geographical borders which resemble an anatomical heart in the center of italy, but also probably because of how much character and soul it has. there are many hilltop towns with tremendous history. we stayed in a town called spoleto, known for its annual arts festival. the region is known for its truffles, which were really amazing on some perfectly cooked fresh pasta.
we went to one picturesque little town called spelo, perched on the side of a hill.
we also went to the main town in the region, perugia, which is on the top of a large hill. there was a special street market occurring that day with many samples of free cheese and meats!
near assisi, we visited a nice little winery for a tasting. we then hiked up into the walled town of assisi, which is also on the crest of a hill. this is the assisi where st. francis, one of the most venerated christian saints in history, lived. we learned about his franciscan philosophy which prioritized care for the environment, which sometimes conflicted with the benedictine philosophy which prioritized work for human flourishing; surely there is a good middle ground. in assisi there is an amazingly ornate st. francis of assisi church which was built shortly after his death.
we also went to a little town called panicale, where they have an annual cheese rolling competition! the men of the town form teams and roll a wheel of cheese around the town, seeing which team can get there with the fewest rolls. the whole town came out to watch, and it was a very festive vibe!
tunisia!
welcome to tunisia – the only true democracy in the middle east/north africa! tunisia sparked the arab spring in 2011 when a merchant set himself on fire on the streets of tunis. its autocratic government was quickly overthrown, and it has impressively remained democratic since, though things haven’t been easy. the economy has basically always been struggling and continues to – hopefully things move in a positive direction in that regard because the people really deserve it.
i stayed in a great little hostel in the old medina of tunis called dar yas. it had a central courtyard with an excellent breakfast, and friendly owners. the medina of tunis is a few kilometers in diameter and completely car free. at night it is almost completely abandoned and mostly unlit, which made for some adventuresome explorations. in the daytime it is teeming with shoppers, but not too many tourists these days.
there is a definite french feel to the slightly newer central part of tunis, where a wide boulevard is lined with french cafes, a theater, and a cathedral. before its independence, tunisia was occupied by the french.
i took a very crowded lightrail train to the bardo museum, tunisia’s most famous museum. it houses amazing full wall and floor mosaics from tunisia’s history, especially from the roman era when nearby carthage was one of the empire’s most important cities. the bardo unfortunately gained more notoriety in 2015 when a terrorist gunman massacred 22 people, mostly tourists, within its maze of mosaics. in the main lobby now there is a touching memorial to the victims. terrorism is exceedingly rare in tunisia, and it is painful to see how one attack like that can decimate an entire country’s tourism appeal for years.
in the evening i met up with a friend named mae, who recently moved to tunis to learn arabic. it was great to catch up and learn more about tunisia from someone who lives there. we took a taxi to the nearby mediterranean seaside, past the ruins of old carthage and a roman amplitheater, to a white and blue-hued town called sidi bou said, where we watched the sunset and got some tea and dinner.
leaving tunis ended up being an adventure as well. my flight to milan on tunisair kept being delayed and delayed for hours, until it eventually disappeared off the departure boards all together. when no answers were forthcoming from airline staff, a very vocal passenger started an uprising, which led a cadre of people who were supposed to already be in milan to block a terminal walkway so no one taking other flights could board their flights either. chanting and a fistfight broke out, and the protest eventually dissipated into us still waiting for our flight. we finally left 12 hours after schedule.
overall, it was a great couple days in tunis!
monaco
in april ann and i went to italy, and i decided to go to a bunch of places on the way! the first brief stop was in warsaw poland, where i availed of the palludium airport lounge, one of the nicest i’ve ever been to, including an amazing polish buffet and free hot shower! i then continued to nice, france, where i slept in a budget hotel near the airport, and then took the 17 minute train ride to monaco the next day!
monaco is the smallest country in the world other than the vatican, and is a playground of the rich and famous. it was fun to walk around for half a day, but that’s about all it takes to get to know the place. it is a very beautiful area, with high rise buildings along the side of a seaside hill. while i was there they were setting up for the monaco grand prix. on the plateau of the country’s only hill is a castle and a nice town square, with views over the mediterranean in two directions. there is also a large cement wharf jutting out into the bay from which there are nice views of the harbor containing extravagant yachts. there is also the monte carlo casino which one can’t get into without a suit. overall a fun couple hours in a new country before heading back to the nice airport to catch my flight to an arguably more interesting country… tunisia!
long weekend in st. kitts!
in march, ann and i decided on short notice (ie. late the night before) to burn some of our hard earned airline and hotel points and fly to st. kitts for three nights! it was a very good decision! we got in late and stayed the first night at the island’s only budget hotel, located in a crumbing colonial boarding house in the suburbs of the capital, basseterre. the host was a super nice dreadlocked guy who has met nearly every country-counter in the world, as his is the only cheap place to stay on the island. the next day we explored basseterre and ate some to-go fish for lunch in the main square, before heading to our points-redemption prize for two nights, the marriott! it was great as one would expect a marriott on the beach in st. kitts to be, though be prepared to eat off-site if you are on anything resembling a budget. this is not hard as there are some great barbeque joints along the beach.
st. kitts and nevis is famous for a few things – it is the smallest country in the western hemisphere, and offers citizenship to anyone from anywhere if they make a large investment in the country. the island of st. kitts is shaped like a cricket bat. just to the south of it is the smaller volcanic island of nevis (pronounced neevus, like a mole), which interestingly has a nascent independence movement of its own, and was the childhood home of alexander hamilton, one of america’s founding fathers. it was also the home of frances nesbit, a plantation widow whose allure inspired the british naval legend horatio nelson to sail the 90 km from his base in antigua with regularity, so the story goes. i went on a glorious run to the top of a hill near the marriott for amazing views over nevis. great weekend!
the amazon! – manaus
everything is bigger in the amazon. the scale of the river is unbelievable – it is up to 50 km wide, has water level variations of 60 feet based on the season, and discharges more water volume than the next seven largest rivers in the world combined. manaus is the largest city in the amazon basin, with about two million people. it feels like an outpost fighting back the rainforest. huge plants break through the asphalt. i got the feeling that the fauna would take over in days if the people gave up and let it.
manaus is a working class, spread out city of concrete, famous for its rubber. the rubber wealth allowed the construction of its iconic opera house, ornately constructed with materials from all over the amazon. sadly, tours were shut down for a private event when i went to visit. i decided to take a public ferry across the amazon river, which crossed the “meeting of the waters” – after the black, more acidic rio negro and muddy, more basic amazon rivers meet, their respective waters continue to flow side by side for some kilometers before beginning to mix. the ferry passes over this meeting of the waters and it was definitely worth the three hour excursion! manaus also has the largest urban park in the world, measuring over 100 square kilometers. i went for a hike through the rainforest there, and climbed a wobbly viewtower which afforded spectacular views over the forest. even from the city, the amazon is awe-inspiring!
