Northern Italy and Switzerland

We ended up staying in a trucker's motel in Slovenia because it was late and we couldn't find anywhere else. It was kind of like a decent hostel but my father was pretty grossed out by it. My mom accidentily put zit zapper in her eye instead of her eye drops. Thus was our night in Slovenia.

The next day we drove into Italy and stopped in Padua for lunch. At first I thought Padua was just a crappy city but once we found the old town with the giant square filled with statues and a little moat I decided it was quite lovely. We had lunch at a little restaurant off the square where no one spoke English. The food was pretty good. Afterwards my mother and I walked through the square and took some photos.

Then we drove on to Verona. We parked and walked into the old town, past the arena, which is the third largest Roman amphitheater to have survived antinquity. We strolled down the main shopping street into a big Piazza where there was a tourist market that my parents said was not there when they visited Verona years ago. We sat at a cafe and had a drink while people watching and then walked down to an archway to see the whale bone which hangs there. My dad claims there is mention of the whale bone in Romeo and Juliet but I can't find any info on this online so I'm not sure. Afterwards we walked up to see the supposed house and balcony of Juliet Cappulet. There's an archway before you reach the courtyard that is covered in love letters and graffiti to Juliet. I took a picture of my parents by the Juliet statue and the balcony. Apparently the actual story of Romeo and Juliet was written into two novellas before Shakespeare made it famous, so perhaps it is a true story afterall. Verona was quite nice and I'm glad I got to see it.

From there we drove into Switzerland. We passed Lake Cuomo and arrived in Lugano where we had a room for the night. We were all pretty exhausted from days of driving so we had a low key night with dinner at a local pizza place and then a nice stroll along the lake. Lugano seemed very beautiful sitting between the Alps right on a lake but we didn't really have a great chance to see it during the day as the next morning we got back in the car again and headed for Lucern.

I had a bit of a freak out in the morning when I couldn't find a room anywhere in Zurich online so I had to cough up a lot of cash for a double room in a budget hotel in Lucern instead. When we arrived at around 11 am we walked across the Chapel Bridge, the famous covered bridge for which Lucerne is apparently known. The outside was covered with flowers and the paintings on the inside show daily life in 12th century Switzerland. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant just across the road from the bridge, ironic because Lucerne is in the German part of Switzerland not the Italian part which we had just left. It was a nice going away lunch as my parents were leaving me there to head back to the states while I was on to visit Remy in Geneva.

After I was dropped at the hotel (Hotel Alpha, it turned out to be very nice and I was very happy to be alone for a night), I took the map I was given at the front desk and headed out to do some sight seeing. First up I walked up to the Lion memorial. It's a giant rock wall where a dying lion is carved. It's a memorial to the Swiss mercenaries who died fighting in the French Revolution. It's quite large and pretty intricute. I like the idea of a memorial featuring someone or something sad and dying instead of proud and solemn. The glacial garden was right next door. My mother had told me it was very cool but admission was too expensive for my blood so all I could do was peak in. Then I hiked up to the old city walls and climed two of the towers as the third was closed, for a nice view of the city. Next I wandered through the old town which is now the shopping area and sat by the river for awhile watching people feed the swans across the way. It was nice to just sit and write. I decided I was done seeing everything I wanted to see and walked back to the hotel. I had chocolate soy milk and a granola bar for dinner and started reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which Brian had recommended to me for plane reading. It was really engrossing and I stayed in my room for hours reading it until I fell asleep.

In the morning I left for Geneva on a very clean and prompt Swiss train. And that is where I shall stop typing.