It really doesn’t seem that far on the map, but it took nearly five hours on the train to get from Agrigento to Catania, on Sicily’s east coast. Catania, like most of Sicily’s cities was originally a Greek city, going all the way back to the 8th century BC. The first thing I noticed while walking to my hotel, however, was the remains of the 2nd century Roman theatre. Most of it is buried underneath the modern buildings, but this…
Just a quick update from Agrigento on Sicily’s southern coast. I originally planned on visiting Selinunte as part of my stay here, but since the buses are uncooperative and since I ended up seeing it from Palermo in my one day rental car, I found myself with some extra time. So I visited the ancient city of Akragas, also known as The Valley of the Temples, and the only other thing I had planned, at a much more relaxed pace….
My eleven hour train ride from Naples turned out to be just the rest I needed, and it rained most of the way, so it was a good day to avoid that. Finally around 7:30pm I arrived in Palermo in Sicily and found my hotel for the night, slept, and then hit the streets first thing in the morning. Just a little sidenote, Sicily has what has got to be one of the craziest flags in the world. The three…
Strap in everyone, this is gonna be a long one. I left Spoleto in the wee dark hours of the morning and made my way down the narrow streets to the train station. Once the train started I promptly fell asleep and didn’t wake up until everyone had almost disembarked at Rome’s main terminal. I guess I was tired. I quickly got up and figured out where my connecting train was and about two hours later, I arrived in Naples…
Not too far from Orvieto is my next medieval town, Spoleto. Spoleto was also an important Roman town, but it’s real claim to fame is as the Lombard capital from the 6th century on. It has a lot of narrow medieval streets and it’s also very hilly. Walking around Spoleto involves plenty of up and downhill hiking. The restaurant in the pic below left is where I ate both nights here, Taverna dello Spagna. They had the best pasta noodles…
From Viterbo it was two very quick and very very early morning train rides to get to the beautiful hilltop medieval town of Orvieto. The train station is at the bottom of the hill and my hotel is up top in the historic center, but that’s not a problem here. Orvieto has its own funicular that runs from the train station straight to the top where a bus is waiting to drive you to the center, and all for just…
After a fairly quick train ride north, I arrived to calm and sedate Viterbo, a primarily medieval built city with lots of gothic architecture, still standing city walls, medieval gates, and amongst the narrow stone streets are the occasional peaceful piazza. After my super busy time in Rome, the slower change of pace was very welcome. Viterbo is mostly famous for it’s Papal palace and was the home of most of the popes during the 13th century. The Palazzo dei…
Well, it’s about time for another adventure. It seems like I just got back from the last one. Anyway, this time I decided to go to a country that I had planned on visiting three years ago, but got derailed by global insanity, Italy! I finally made it! After around 24 hours of flying, I arrived in Rome in the evening, found my hotel and crashed for the night. I woke up early my first morning and hit the streets….
I’m at it again! Greetings and salutations from Mongolia in the central Asian steppe! After roughly 38 hours of flights and layovers I finally arrived in Ulaanbaatar, the capitol of Mongolia, extremely tired. The ride from the airport took a little over an hour in Ulaanbaatars notorious traffic, but I made it to my hostel, checked in and headed to the main square, Sükhbaatar Sq, just a couple of blocks away to wander around with what was left of the…
I think I’m pretty well known for refusing to work on my birthday, but this year I took it a step further and took the whole week off to visit Yucatan, Mexico. Yucatan is a pretty small state and I know I can accomplish a lot on what is definitely the shortest international trip I’ve ever taken. I based myself in the Yucatan capitol of Mérida, dubbed the safest city in Mexico. Let’s hope so. Here’s a funny speculative story…