between the lands

Believe the hype. Venice really IS one of the most beautiful, romantic, and tragic cities in the world. Tragic because it is slowly crumbling and will most likely be submerged for good one of these days. I just hope that fate is still centuries away.

Yes, the canals are dirty. Yes, the buildings and streets frequently flood (with nasty sewagey canal water, ugh!) And, yes, many of the once-colorful and ornate stucco facades have long since crumbled to expose algae-covered brick walls. It doesn’t matter. Even covered with slime and stinking and sinking into the sea, the canal-front doorsteps of Venice are an invitation to my soul. I could sit and stare dreaming at them for days.

     
Don’t get me wrong – there is still LOTS of amazingly gorgeous architecture that hasn’t fallen apart. Moorish arched windows, (more…)

Some thought it couldnt be done…

we made it all the way around the mediterranean sea.

But we aint done yet.

1 week in london, then back to NYC on October 30th.

YOUR JOB:
–Email us with things to check out in the UK, and spots for halloween parties..

–stay tuned for more–past, present, and future…

We’ve been in Italy for 1 week, now and we have been stuffing ourselves silly!

We started in the Cinque Terre, and then moved on to Florence (Firenze) where our friend Christina had been lent a spacious and comfortable apartment by her friend Banditto. It was us, Christina, and Signor Paolo, the gracious occupant of the apartment.

Since we did not have to rent a room, we felt somewhat free to eat the amazing food available in the restaurants of Florence. Pizza, lasagne, pasta bolognese, grilled chicken, steak florentine you name it! And of course, the wines are wonderful. One goal has been to eat gelatto every day, and for the most part, we have been successful. Florence is a beautiful city, with many gorgeous plazas, churches, sculptures, and even just really pretty details on the buildings.

Then, we moved on to Turin (Torino). Here we have friends that Andrew knows from his J-School days in Bolivia. Manuela and Fabio have introduced us to the wonder that is aperitivo of Turin. It\’s like Spanish tapas: you go to the pub, buy some drinks or a bottle of wine, and help yourself to a generous spread of delightful italian snacks. You eat as much as you want, or until they run out. It is good to arrive early! ***APERITIVO PICS UNAVAILABLE–CENSORED ON ACCOUNT OF GLUTTONY***

Then we went to the Big Eating Event: the combined conferences of the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre.
ANDREW SEZ: well have pics on the food festival later, but it basically it was like the UN of food. Farmers and food producers from 120 countries, meeting(and offering free samples) to discuss the obstacles to their growing and producing it themselves. one of the major issues facing some of the attendees is that they cant sell unpasteurized milk and cheese to the US and many european nations, even thought theyve been making it for thousands of years.

We checked out the museum of the history of cinema today, a really cool experience in a great old building(actualy a synagogue that was never finished)
***the lights along the side are numbers–its the fibonacci sequence for all you math nerds

we spent some time this morning being interviewed on radio blackout, a long running community radio station where kilia and elettrico are volunteers. well get some pics up soon, but we just wanted to give a shout out before we head up to paris…see yall on the banks of the seine..

5 towns that is…Cinque Terre. On The north part of Italys west coast are 5 little towns that are somewhat frozen in time. All of the stereotypes of “the old country” as they say, are in full effect. the old women hanging out their wash to dry:

Men picking olives in the fields and making fresh olive oil(and pesto–oh yeah!)

men and women sitting on benches and talking smack all day long:

The towns themselves are amazingly beautiful. there are no cars allowed in them, so you really have to take a train from one to the next, or hike along a centuries-old path which is mostly made of steps carved into the mountain, or stone paths made by hand.
[jn sez: until the railroad in the last century, these foot paths were the ONLY way in, out, or between the towns. all the crops were grown out in the countryside terraces and carried on the people’s backs into the the towns. HARDCORE!!!]

Each town is a few miles from the next along cliffs that overlook the ligurian sea.

We hiked from town to town through terraced fields where people have been growing food for a long time….

We stayed in the town of Riomaggiore, one of the quieter ones, but it also had a beach.

The daily menu in Cinque Terre for us was basically tomato, mozzarella and foccacia(invented in this region), with pesto smeared all over it.

And to end, in a sense, one leg of our journey, we swam in the Mediterranian sea.

heres a video, featuring that famed body of water, which was still quite warm in late october. there are some pics in the movie too..

We are in florence now, along with 8 hundred million other tourists. We’ll be here for a couple of days, then headed to Turin, where well be checking out the International slow food festival, and a worldwide gathering of food producers who want to be able to control the production and distribution of that food. Salone Del gusto, and Terra Madre.(click for info)

Meanwhile, a couple of radio stories I produced in Iceland were on the air in your hometown last week.(well many of your hometowns). one about the US military base that recently closed there, and one about the giant dam/smelter project thats being built in the last wild land in Europe. You can listen to them by downloading the programs linked here, Ill put the individual stories up here on the site soon.