Jumping @ Innsbruck (With Agnes)

Innsbruck is not a touristic city at all. There isn’t to see. The city attracts people that love sports, mountains and snow. Like Carlos and Agnes, the beautiful couple that hosted me in Innsbruck. Carlos is an Argentinian guy with a strong passion for the mountains and the snow. He lives for skiing! It was a very good experience, they showed me around and we cook dinner together.

Surfing @ Innsbruck

I loved my train ride between Austria and Germany. It was a sunny, clear day and the views from the train while crossing the alps were amazing. Definitively Tirol is a natural paradise, and they have great music also! Check this out!

The consequence is that there is a massive difference between Trentino and the rest of Italy. The capital, Trento is surrounded by mountains, and looks cleaner, better organized and wealthier that other northern Italan cities. Here the Council of Trento was held and there is one of the best Italian universities.

Jumping @ Trento - This is the cathedral where the Council of Trento was held

Bolzano (Italian) also known as Bozen (German) is the capital city of Süd Tyrol, an Italian region where most of the people speak German. This city is very interesting because the streets and the buildings look German and all the signs are written in Italian and German. I went to a a traditional Tyrol restaurant and the menu was 50% Italian (Different kinds of Pasta and cheese) and 50% German (Knödel, spatzle, lots of dry meats and beer). The main attraction of Bolzano is the museum where you can see the Iceman Ötzi but unfortunately it was closed.

Jumping @ Bolzano - Amazing views from here!

Verona city of love

What I most like about the city was Julietta’s house where people use chewing gum to stick love notes on a wall. I found this absolutely fascinating because the people write very profound feelings they are normally not able to express publicly. Most of them are simple, but there are amazing notes like a guy that use the note to break up with his girlfriend because he has discover his true love living with another guy, the man of his dreams. My favorite love note is this note dedicated to Bruce Willis.

Bruce Willis lover

In Verona I met some people in the hostel I will never forget, for example the scary Moldavian guy that was unable to speak anything but Moldavian. I don’t understand how can somebody like him reach Verona traveling alone!

Beautiful Verona

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Colombus home

Even if there were just some ruins, I was pleasantly surprised. This must be the only relevant place in Italy you can visit for free!

I visited the city with Paulina and Gabriela, a couple of Mexican exchange students I met on the train. Together we walked over the city, explored the port an jumped all over the city.

Jumping @ Genoa

I love Gremlins (Cinema museum)

Nowadays Torino is an important city of technology and industry. FIAT headquarters are here. I visited the Egyptian museum, which is supposed to be the biggest museum dedicated to Egyptian culture after Cairo’s Museum. I also visited the national museum of cinema, which is located on the Mole Antoniana, the most emblematic building in Turin. This museum is absolutely gorgeous and it’s really worth to visit. Other museum I wanted to go is FIAT museum, but its currently closed. It will open its doors again in 2011. The original Holy Shrud is also located here but its only shown in very special occasions. Apparently the next time will be in April and the cathedral is already getting ready for that event so it was closed. I couldn’t even see the copy!

In Torino I was hosted by two hosts, first by Maria Amor, a courageous Spanish 19 year old woman with 2 beautiful daughters, a lot of energy and a incredible positive spirit. She introduced me to her friends and together we had a Milanese aperitivo with lots of snacks. I was also emergency hosted by Massimiliano, Paula and Mimo.

Maria's couch

Surfing Paola & Massimiliano couch

Jumping in Piazza del campo

Beautiful Siena

In Siena I was hosted by Giulia. She fed me with homemade tiramisú that was even better that the one that my grandmother cooks! She also introduced me to her friends and together, we went out to a cuartel (a Palio’s team) party. It was great!

Surfing Giulia's couch

David with Michelangelo's David (The copy)

More interesting is Florence’s architecture. The city is full of nice buildings. I love the Ponte Vecchio bridge and Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral. This cathedral is multicolored and clean, really beautiful from outside and completely different to the older, mostly Gothic Spanish churches.

Brunelleschi's huge dome

On Florence I surfed Alessandro’s couch and he fed me with a non-so-Italian Curry Risotto and an amazing Tuscan Bistecca a la Fiorentina. It was great!

Surfing Alex's couch

Postico street with colored houses

Wikitravel says that if you point yourself on the point where several big avenues cross, you can’t see any tree on the streets. It is true, you can just see beautiful, old buildings built with stone. In Bologne is where the oldest Italian university is located, which is also the oldest university in the western world. I’ve been there and it’s impressive. I had a similar thrilling feeling when I visited Pavia’s university. You must feel something different when you go to classes on this old, historic buildings. After listening so many lectures even the old stone walls are full of knowledge.

Venize main channel from Rialto Bridge

A good experience was to get lost in Venice. Without a map and with a poor knowledge about the city – I must admit I thought the city was 10 times smaller and that there were only a few streets with channels – I just started walking and after a while I was completely lost with no tourist or local trying to sell something around. It was just me, the city and the occasional boat and that was fantastic. Another nice experience was to wear a mask and a robe and took pictures with the people on amazing costumes all over the city, particularly on San Marco square. My best experience was at night, when I took a boat from San Marco’s square to go back to the train station sailing thought the big channel. It was absolutely magical.

That's me, on St. Mark Square

I couchsurfed with Massimo Benelli, a very well know couchsurfer that require their guests to wrestle against each other. I heard from this guy when I first joined CS and I’ve been hearing from him from time to time since then. And I finally met him! He taught me how to wrestle and I fought against Amin, a Turkish couchsurfer and also Jürgen, a huge German. Obviously they kicked my ass but It was a different, kind of weird, experience. At least, I learned  wrestling!

Carnival's masks are amazing