Thursday, April 28, 2011

Italia, here we come! Trip preview


Well, it's about that time - time to travel the world again!  This trip's destination is Italy.  I'm leaving later today.  There's a nice-sized crew of us going - seven people, converging from Chicago, Detroit, and DC! Although I already went there in 2006, you can usually count on Italy for great culture, food, and weather.


This trip will be another wild-and-crazy trek through Europe (see my Oktoberfest Euro-Trek articles).  Last time in Italy, I did a tour.  This time, we will be our own tour guides.  We will go roughly from south to north, visiting the following places:
  • Rome (3 days): Our entry point.  Once the center of the world.  All roads lead to Rome!
  • Amalfi Coast (1 day): Beautiful coastal resort area just south of Naples
  • Florence/Tuscany region (4 days): Home of the Italian Renaissance, with lovely hill towns and wine throughout the area
  • Venice (1 day): One of the most romantic places in the world, with its distinct canals
  • Milan (1 day): Big city.  Flying back to the State from there. 


Determining what time of year to visit Italy is always tough.  Americans usually like to travel in the summer.  But I think Italy is a little less crowded and not as hot in the spring or fall.  We figured that going in April, just after Easter (not during Easter!), would be good.  But there's a wrinkle - they decided to throw a Beatification ceremony for the last Pope John Paul II while we're visiting the Vatican.  Beatification is step 3 of 4 in becoming canonized as a Saint in the Catholic Church.  Pope John Paul's ceremony will be the fastest ever done - sometimes it takes a couple hundred years before you get your props.  I appreciate the Vatican's desire to include us, but really, I would much prefer to see the empty seats in front of St. Peter's Basilica (see photo above) than a horde of 1 million+ believers in the Square.  Never fear though - I watched the movie Angels and Demons last weekend, to prepare for the experience.


Europe is full of royalty events this upcoming weekend.  In the UK, we have the Royal Wedding.  In the Vatican, we have Pope John Paul II's Beatification.  I honestly don't care for either event, especially since I was not allowed to vote for either position.  But hey, when in Rome....

You may be wondering why I lumped the Pope in with monarchy.  Not only is he the leader of the Catholic Church, he is also the king of a country.  Yeah, the Vatican is a tiny country today.  But it was once a larger nation called the Papal States, with its own military and everything.


When you think of Italy, it's hard not to think of all the history in that area.  U.S. history pales in comparison.  But what is ironic is that Italy the nation is actually 100 years younger than the United States.  What??  Yes indeed.  Since the downfall of Rome (about 1500 years ago), the Italy region became a bunch of different feuding city-states (Florence, Siena, Rome, Venice, etc.).  Later they consolidated into nations: Tuscany, Genoa, Venice, Papal States (see map above).  Italy didn't become a single nation until 1896.  The Vittorio Emanuele II Monument in Rome (photo above) symbolizes this reunification.  You can definitely see the regional differences as you travel around Italy.


But enough of history and politics.  We're on vacation, and it's time to relax.  Our first spot for peace and relaxation will be a day trip to the Amalfi Coast.  It's a little south of Naples, which is south of Rome.  I haven't been the Amalfi Coast yet, but it's supposed to be beautiful coastal region with pretty towns, cliffs, and coastline.  The photo above is from Lerici, near Cinque Terre, which is a completely different region in Italy, but should be somewhat similar in scenery.  The bus and ferry rides to the coast are supposed to be amazing.  We'll also stroll through some of the towns there: Amalfi, Positano (seen in the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley), and Sorrento (you know the song "Return to Sorrento"?).


Our next stop, Tuscany, is perhaps one of the most beautiful and interesting regions to live in the world.  It's full of rolling hills, vineyards, medieval towns, and sun.  Not to mention, the region is anchored by Florence, the capital of Italian Renaissance art and culture.  We are renting a cute apartment in Florence plus a rental car, which will allow us to meander about.


We plan to visit a few places in Tuscany.  Siena is a must - an medieval town with a beautiful city square (above).  We'll also visit Lucca, which I haven't been to.  We'll probably stop by Pisa for a quick "Kodak Moment" too. 


Did I mention food and wine??  Yes!!!  We'll visit a winery in the Chianti region for some Tuscan goodness.  Oh yeah, last time I was there, I wasn't much of a foodie yet.  This time, look for some food photos! :)  I may have to dump all my clothes and just bring wine back in the suitcase...


I haven't been to Venice yet.  I'm very excited to see it.  But I've stayed at the Venetian in Las Vegas many times.  I can't imagine the real Venice to be much different, no? :)  Unfortunately, we will only have a day to spend in Venice, so our experience will be short.  I've watched the movie The Italian Job a few times though, so I think I know what to do...


Our final stop and return flight is in Milan.  Milan is a big city, Italy's business capital.  I don't think it's well-known for landmarks or anything.  But I hope to meet a supermodel there and marry her.  Maybe buy some clothes I can't afford.  The highlight will be catching a football match featuring Inter-Milan, the 5-year reigning Italian League champions.  I have never seen a football match in Italy before - should be super exciting!  Though I hope not to get trampled by hooligans...

Stay tuned on my blog and on Facebook for more photos and commentary! :)

Saturday, April 23, 2011

All is good in the world again: I finally got an iPad 2!


When the iPad 2 was released in March, I wasn't that excited.  Yes, it's a newer, better product, but was it worth shelling out another $600?  No way.

But a few weeks later, everything changed.  My parents came down to visit.  I let my mom use my iPad to check a few things on the Internet.  I didn't think much of it, since she had used various laptops, netbooks, etc. before.  But with this device, she had fallen in love.  She immediately became an Angry Birds addict.  She was on the iPad all day during that visit.  After that, I decided to part ways with my iPad.  It became a retirement gift for my mom.

My good deed for my mom created a void in my life.  What to do?  No little tablet thingy to play with on the couch, in bed, at the coffee shop, etc.  Time to do some shopping.  I had looked at some of the other tablets on the market.  The Android-based Motorola Xoom looked like a strong candidate.  Gearheads could probably argue for hours on which tablet is better in terms of hardware/OS/features.  But iPad blows away the competition when it comes to apps.  I could care less about the specs; I just want to be able to do cool things with my tablet.  Hence, I decided to go with an iPad 2.

Getting an iPad 2 was a pain in the neck, however.  It's been over a month since they released it, but supply is still very low.  You usually have to get in line at an Apple store around 8am or earlier, to hope to get one.  No thanks, I'm not waking up for that.  And although they advertise it at Target, Walmart, and Best Buy, these stores hardly carry any.  You could order online, but it'll take you 3-5 weeks to get one.  Maybe I should have done that anyways.  But just last Wednesday, I called up the Apple store on Michigan Ave. in Chicago a little before noon, hoping to find out about a shipment the next morning.  Surprisingly enough, the dude on the line told me they had a few iPad 2's currently in stock.  I hopped on the bus and arrived there 15 minutes later.  No line, no hassle - and I suddenly had my hands on a 32GB black wifi iPad 2!  Praise the gods!

To celebrate this momentus achievement, here is my Flava Flav hip hop pose, with an iPad clock around my neck. This goes out to Dan S., who originally came up with the idea :)

If you are curious, here are some of my favorite apps:
  • Angry Birds: Forget World of Warcraft or Call of Duty.  This simple little app would be my vote for the game of the Decade!
  • TD Ameritrade's iStockManager: Powerful, fast, responsive app for stock trading.  It puts a lot of info at your fingertips for trading, and it's easy to use.
  • Netflix: Netflix streaming movies + iPad app were a match made in heaven
  • Air Video: Allows you to stream videos from another computer.  This gets you around the 16/32/64GB limit of your iPad.  I have many gigs of TV shows and movies on my main PC's hard drive.  I installed Air Video Server on that PC (works on Mac too).  Then I run Air Video on the iPad to stream movies over wireless from the PC.
  • Dropbox: Sync files between your iPad and other machines.  Apple tries to force you to use iTunes for everything, even though it sucks at managing anything besides music.  Ideally, iOS should have its own file manager like Windows Explorer or Apple Finder.  But no.....
  • Keynote: Great way to display Powerpoint presentations, even thru a video projector.  Now I take my iPad to present at customer meetings, rather than my laptop :)
  • Piano Accordio: The main app that sold me on the iPad originally.  It may be the most playable music instrument app on the market today.
  • Pro Keys: Piano/keyboard app.  There are lots of these, but this one is pretty solid.  I used this app the other day in my "New Wave Ensemble" class, in which we played some David Bowie, The Cars, and The Replacements.