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Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 03:11 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

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A Tent In Florence

Not having had Internet access for a period, some details may already have been forgotten, and as such the following recollections may have become even briefer. A summary of the places visited - Venice on the 16th, then Florence, two days in the Cinque Terre (sleeping in Riomaggiore), and then a stopover at Pisa en route to Naples.


16 June



The toga party last night (which we obviously didn't participate in) mercifully ended sometime about midnight, and I managed to get going after an early morning bath and an egg sandwich [1]. Stocked up at the local co-op supermarket, and with a full day ahead of us we got a 12-hour pass for unlimited travel on the water taxis [2] for 16 Euros. Think of them as Venice's buses, just buses that have to be hauled in by rope at every stop.

Our first destination would be St. Mark's Basilica [3], which stands next to the Doge's palace, and might just be the definition of a tourist trap - other than the masses thronging the Sant Marco Plaza, the line to enter the Basilica stretched as far as the eye could see. This was where our guidebook proved its worth, as we crept about the corner [4] to deposit our bags for an hour and get a number tag - which enabled us to skip past the uninformed baking in the midday sun, right into the Basilica itself. Its interior was, well, fairly golden (no photography allowed).


Working glass-on-a-stick
(photo credit: alvin)
(photography possibly not allowed, but what the heck)


A burger with ham [5] for lunch and an ice-cream [6] for the heat, then it was out to the surrounding islands for a more leisurely peek into Venetian life. Having been forewarned that the glass-blowing factory at Murano would close by four, we still barely made it, but in any case we could only watch from a distance [7, see little speck of light] as a few men thrust misshapen globules into an oven. It seems as if their glass products are quite famous, though Chinese imitations have cut into their market too.

More island-hopping to Burano (known for its lace, with framed embroidery examples prevalent) and Torcella [8] with its brightly-painted houses, among other places. The oppressive heat kept up, and caused all of us to fall asleep on the water taxi, requiring a wake-up call by the conductor.

Went looking for dinner back in Venice, and came across a Chinese restaurant where we ordered lemon chicken and tofu, while I chose some seafood (prawn) fried rice [9] to go along with it. The food was palatable, but the size of the portions less so, and the price was disappointing - 20 Euros together. That's what one gets for dining in a restaurant.


17 June



Baked our clothes in the dryer before we left our cabin, and caught a bus to Venice's train station, where we had time to pick up breakfast (chocolate buns [1] for me) at the co-op. A train ride, and we were in Florence (having given up on Siena due to the difficulty of finding accomodations). Having one's lodgings described as a "Three-man tent", and a price of just 12 Euros each, conjured up images of rolling about a canvas sheet spread on bumpy ground, but in reality the beige tent [2] that they drove us to in a golf buggy was huge enough to comfortably contain the newest double-decker bed [3] that I have encountered thus far.

We were never going to have much time in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Town (think Michelangelo and Leonardo especially), and it appeared prudent to skip right to its most famous attraction, the Duomo [4, reminds me of the opening screen for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword] (or Santa Maria del Fiore). I have more or less taken my fill of cathedrals, and the Duomo isn't particularly large or ornate compared to the others I've seen, but its stolid simplicity made for a refreshing change. The dome [5] (the first one of the Renaissance age) is lavish in contrast, gorgeously (and neck-achingly) depicting the Last Judgment.

Got an SMS from the other four and joined them at the top of the nearby La Rinascente shopping centre for a cup of coffee [6]. Since it cost money just to take a seat, they apparently decided to make the most of it by playing cards; this may be an opportune time to introduce their new game of choice - Minimizer Dang Dang Dang!.

The game is probably best with three people, fine with four, and technically doable with two and perhaps even five or more, but as the number of players increases it gets discouragingly hard to call and win (and correspondingly less fun).

The deck (52 cards, no Jokers) is shuffled, and five cards are dealt face-down to each player. The top card of the deck is then revealed to start a face-up pile.

Play then begins with the player who dealt the cards, who must take one card from either the top of the (face-down) deck or the top of the face-up pile. The player must then discard onto the face-up pile one of the following options:
  • a single card
  • a pair (e.g. two Nines)
  • a straight flush of length at least three (e.g. the Three, Four and Five of Spades)
This ends his turn, and the player on his left can begin his turn.

There are just a few extra rules to remember:
  • a player may not discard a card taken from the face-up pile in the same turn (e.g. he may not take a Jack of Hearts from the face-up pile, and then immediately discard a straight flush of Ten, Jack, Queen and King of Hearts, or discard the Jack of Hearts as part of a pair, or even by itself).

    The player may, of course, discard the card as per normal on following turns.

  • a player may only take a card from the face-up pile that was discarded on the previous turn by the player before him (e.g. if the previous player discarded the Ace to Five of Clubs, the current player may take any one of those five cards, and no other cards, from the face-up pile; if the previous player discarded only the Five of Clubs, the current player may take only the Five of Clubs if he elects to take his card from the face-up pile)

  • Aces are low (so a flush of Queen, King and Ace is not permissible)

  • if the face-down deck is exhausted, the player who next wishes to draw from it takes the face-up pile and shuffles it before placing it face down to create a new face-down deck (his discard then becomes the new face-up pile)
And how does the game end, and the winner decided? There are two ways:

  • any player with two cards or fewer at the end of his turn may call Minimizer! The other players then each take one final turn, after which everybody reveals their remaining cards.

    Each hand of cards has a point value, which is simply the values of all the cards added together, with picture cards counting as ten (e.g. a player with an Ace, Six and Queen remaining would have 17 points).

    The player who called Minimizer! must have a point value lower than all the other players to win - the player stuck with the highest point value then loses. Otherwise (if any of the other players has a point value equal or lower than his), he loses, and the non-calling player with the lowest point value wins.

  • alternatively, any player with three cards or fewer at the end of his turn may call Maximizer! The other players then each take one final turn, after which everybody reveals their remaining cards.

    This time, the player who called Maximizer! must have a point value higher than all the other players to win - the player stuck with the lowest point value then loses. Otherwise (if any of the other players has a point value equal or higher than his), he loses, and the non-calling player with the highest point value wins.
If there is a tie for winner or loser by points, it may be resolved by examining their hands - for Minimizer!, in a tie for winner, the player with the fewest cards, then the lowest individual card, wins (e.g. two players have one point to the caller's five. One of these players has the Ace of Diamonds, and the other the Ace of Spades. Then, since the rank of the suits is Diamonds-Clubs-Hearts-Spades, the one with the Ace of Diamonds wins). In a tie for loser, the player with the most cards, then the highest individual card, loses. The opposite occurs for Maximizer!. Determining an individual loser takens on added significance when we play, since that unfortunate player has to shuffle for the next round.

Minimizer Dang Dang Dang! is a deceptively complex game despite its few easily-grasped rules. Firstly, memory of previously-discarded cards (and who discarded what) is quite important, since it offers clues on the probabilities to drawing required cards, and the strategy of the other players. This advantage diminishes whenever the face-up pile is shuffled into the face-down deck, though that does not happen often in practice. Note that it is even possible to know the composition of another player's hand if he keeps drawing from the face-up pile!

One might imagine that it is advantageous to discard additional cards (pairs and straight flushes) whenever possible, in order to get down to two cards quickly and call Minimizer! while other players are still stuck with many cards in their hand.

This is often true, especially when one's initial hand supports it, usually by containing a couple of pairs, or more rarely, a straight flush, and perhaps a low card or two. Quickly discarding pairs and grabbing low cards whenever possible can then yield a fast win, though it may be that one fails to draw low enough cards for one's taste.

In general, the more quickly one can get to two cards, the higher one's remaining cards can be - calling with a point value as high as ten has a good chance of success if managed in a few rounds. As the game drags on, it's foolhardy to try with anything much larger than a pair of Aces, especially as a popular strategy is to accumulate a long straight flush and just wait for some poor soul to call recklessly.

The best possible point value is zero, which occurs when one draws from the face-down deck into a pair (with one card remaining) or a straight flush (both are not easy). This is usually enough to win, but is still not unbeatable since some other player may draw into his own pair or straight flush.

Calling Maximizer! is more tricky, though this addition (by twc) to the original Minimizer! game adds another layer of strategy. Rushing to call Maximizer! rarely works, since the maximum point value the caller can have is 30 (as he has three cards at most), while the other players will probably still have four or five cards and more than 30 points.

The optimal time to try is after a number of rounds, as the other players struggle to assemble low hands, perhaps even dropping down to two cards or fewer; note that in this circumstance a 21 point or higher Maximizer! is sure to succeed, and in rare cases even a two-card Maximizer! is plausible.

The risk is of course getting caught by a Minimizer! while one holds high cards, but this is mitigated if one manages to collect a high straight flush, for instance the Jack, Queen and King of a suit. Such a hand works either way - if a Minimizer! happens, one will have at worst 10 points (and probably less) by drawing and then discarding the straight flush during the final turn. Any stray Maximizer! is automatically defeated - and of course, one can call either option as the opportunity arises.

A last word on the final turn, if one does not call: There are generally two choices - to discard a high (low) card(s) when a Minimizer! (Maximizer!) is called, to try and avoid defeat; or to discard low (high) card(s), if one thinks that one's own hand is hopeless anyway, and the next player has a chance of defeating the caller (usually by having a straight flush, as he could then take the good card from the face-up pile to boost his hand, instead of depending on a lucky draw from the face-down deck).



The New sat before the Old
(photo credit: alvin)


After kopi and gelato [7] (Florence's the best in Italy, supposedly), we wandered about [8] (sighted a copy of Michelangelo's David), got dinner, and visited the four-man gang's hostel [9], where we booked our accommodations for the last few destinations through the Web.

To their dismay, the champion snorer who had taken up residence in their eight-man bunk had not moved out, and another night of irregular (probably worse than the regular type, since one can't get used to the rhythm), mega-loud snorts, punctuated by the hapless Japanese guy in the bed below the snorer banging his head in agony, awaited them.

Not that I didn't have issues of my own, such as finding the right tent (11) in darkness. If I were ever to run a campsite, remind me to a) add more lights and signs b) never reuse numbers in the same area c) give out cards, if not keys, with guests' tent numbers on them. I can have no complaints about the bed, though - it was inviting enough for me to sleep with my shirt off, even if I had to once again wake up freezing in a few hours.


18 June



A McDonald's cheeseburger [1] for breakfast on the train to the Cinque Terre (literally Five Villages) via Pisa, as I was finally forced into wearing my uncomfortable jeans once more as my khaki long pants were still damp with sweat. I would soon suffer for that.

The journey (via Pisa, which we would revisit later) was enjoyable as the groups finally combined permanently, and we found the reception area of Mar Mar Rooms (with creative cacti arrangement [2]) easily. We had a 4-3 room split, and I ended up with twc and csq in the three-man room [3] (which did however have the fridge). There was even a kitchen and toilet en suite, and a good table, but sadly no Wifi, not even encrypted networks. Boo.

We had sped through all the five villages from La Spezia to Riomaggiore by train, and gotten sneak previews between dark tunnels, but the hiking between villages would have to wait as the trails between them are part of a National Marine Park, meaning that it costs five Euros for tourists just to walk from one village to another. Who said going on foot was cheap? Ironically, as we had used one of our flexi-days on our railpass for the trip here, catching a train between villages was free of charge.


Like little Lego bricks


A pizza lunch [4] was followed by an exploration of Riomaggiore, where I eventually got accustomed to the astounding architecture of the villages - think houses of every colour piled haphazardly atop one another, with no indication of how they are to be accessed, and you'll have some idea of the place. Clambered down to the rocky beach [5, a very rocky boat landing], before breaking for cheap 0.70 Euro coke lolly [6].

Village two, Manarola, was next, with the same superbly scenic views [7, overlooking the small cemetery, where even their dead lie in layers], and precious little else. Saw the modest "swimming hole" and peeked into the mostly-empty San Lorenzo church, heard the buried stream, got close to some grapevines... and that was about it, really.

Ended the day in village five (Monterosso), the only one with a proper beach [8] (if created with imported sand), but the best was yet to come. Irritated by my jeans throughout the day, I shelled out 13 Euros for a pair of shorts that were nice, if a little too short, in preparation for the next day. For once, we were prepared to spend big (okay, medium) on dinner, and sat down at the Ristorante Belvedere by the seaside. This is one meal [9] that probably deserves a photoessay of its own.



There was the usual debate about ordering separately or together, with the main attraction being the amfora belverde, a 45 Euro stew that our guidebook says "can easily be shared by up to four" and their waiter suggested maybe feeds three. There was talk of sharing two of those, but in the end we ordered just the one, supplemented by three pasta dishes while we waited for the amfora belverde to be ready.

The pasta was decent, but our meticulous division of the individual bits only served to highlight how meagre servings are when split seven ways. We gave up on accuracy when it came to the spaghetti (somehow black on one half and pale on the other), and having eaten our initial allotment of complimentary bread, could only hope that the main course would be more filling.

It was.

The waiter first places a large bowl, close to qualifying as a tub, in front of us. He leaves and soon gingerly walks over again, his oven glove-encased hands holding an amphora (a huge vase with handles). It is clearly an effort. Slowly and very carefully, he tips it into the bowl. An abundance of mussels falls out, then large chunks of anonymous fish. Big prawns. A bigger crab. And, with one last shake, a whole baby octopus, all bathed in a deep, thick, red stew.



(photo credit: alvin)


It is, quite simply, huge - even given the appetite of some of us. It was not just the seafood, however, as the waiter plied us with garlic bread throughout the meal, and the bread dipped in the extremely rich stew was heavenly. We just about managed to eat the lot, which leads me to marvel at the groups of three or four, whom it seems routinely consume the lot. I can see where food crises may be coming from.

Very satisfied, we caught the 10-plus train back to Riomaggiore, where we found the time for a game of Citadels (twm brought it) before sleeping.


19 June



Hiking day. One of the things to do in Cinque Terre is to walk from one of its ends to the other (approximately 11km), and having paid our five Euros each for the privilege, that was exactly what we did.

Five villages means four stretches between them, and the first between Riomaggiore and Manarola [1] was high, but scenic [2, attempted emo pic] and simple. So far, so good. We passed through tunnels liberally decked with graffiti, and also some lovers' throne [3], the railings beside it weighed down with hundreds of locks left by dreamy couples.

Having already explored Manarola the previous day, we didn't stop for long, and continued towards Corniglia, the third village. It was still decent going, until the last stretch, which was a 365-step (or 382-step, depending on who you believe) climb [4]. We counted only 200-plus, but either way it is probably enough of an achievement that some small congratulations [5] are in order.

A rest was declared, and we collectively demolished another kilogram of gelato [6, 500g box]. I ate a slab of pizza, and with not all that much in this tiny village (pop. 200+) either, we went on our merry way. There is rumoured to be a nude beach hidden somewhere close by [7, hinted at on a red-and-white trail marker], but we found no trace of it. I had far bigger problems on my mind in any case.

I have never liked heights much, but the previous trails, while mostly cut into mountainsides maybe a hundred metres up, were at least well-paved and protected with railings. We may have taken the wrong (and longer) trail to Vernazza, and it was littered with stretches where the trail is a dirt path barely a metre across, with a craggy wall of stone on one side, and a sheer drop off the other. Not my idea of fun. But it can get worse - imagine now that instead of a path, you have steps that are none too even. Yes, it would probably be nothing much at ground level, but halfway up a cliff is another matter.

Let's just say that I didn't enjoy it, and spent much of the time slowly crab-walking, pressed against whatever solid objects I could find. The thought that a single loose stone or misstep could well be Game Over weighed heavily on my mind. We did meet a Singaporean Indian family along the way, though.


occ and I
(photo credit: alvin)


It was a great relief when we arrived at Vernazza in mid-afternoon, where we had more ice-cream and refilled our bottles from the communal tap [8, spring water direct from the source]. It seemed as good a time to take a dip as any, and while Vernazza's beach (right by its harbour) isn't much compared to Monterosso, four of us headed for the delightfully cool water. alvin and twc stayed only awhile, while I lingered with occ somewhat longer. Note: swimming trunks make great underpants.

Worked on a tan floating in the saltwater, and swam about a bit, though we didn't venture much further out after I saw that the seabed was already a few stories below us. Having goggles (which, surprisingly, few of the other bathers or swimmers appeared to have) was priceless in the clear water, as I watched small schools of fish swim right by, even in shallow water. Spent the last twenty minutes or so lounging on a bench with my sunglasses, as my T-shirt dried rapidly under the sun.

The final stretch was from Vernazza to Monterosso, and unfortunately it was like the last section of trail. Rough and narrow, the guidebook warns, and so it is. It began with a seemingly unending climb up through multiple steps hewn into the rock, but thankfully at the end of a sapping hour or so the stairs down were proper stairs, and a gentle, sweeping path down into sensible Monterosso - where the people actually build on flat land.

Felt hungry enough to down a whole ham & mushroom pizza [9] at the Bar Birreria Il Brigantino , and it was back to Riomaggiore by train, a bottle of cold Coke in the fridge, and another game of Citadels before sleep.


20 June



We had a long trip down Italy to Naples on the agenda, but first we had to brave the rain [1, twc and alvin]. csq's huge laundry bag served me well here. A breakdown in communications led to us making our way to Pisa in two batches, but we made it there and continued snacking on the biscuits [2] we had for breakfast.

The key attraction of Pisa [3] is, of course, its Leaning Tower [4], which might well be the motto of software engineers everywhere:

"It's not a bug, it's a feature."

Just think, if the builders had bothered to do proper soil surveys and laid the right foundations, Pisa would have a charming little ten-storey tower, to which no-one would have given a second look. Instead, they messed up and got a squat base that listed sideways. They could have corrected it, or maybe taken it down and started over. Instead, they had the bright idea of patching the error by building the pillars on the sinking side a bit taller, so the top of the next floor would be level with the ground; unsurprisingly, that slanted too after awhile.

And on it went as the top of the next floor, and the next, was built to cover existing mistakes, until one day they must have thrown their hands up and admitted that the tower was irrevocably leaning, and no amount of fixes built on top could correct it. This corresponds to the point in the life cycle of a software application where the programmers realise none of them really knows what the heck is going on any longer, and they (or better, a convenient scrapegoat) will have to explain to their managers that the project has to be scrapped.

Except that there sometimes is a happy ending, as someone in Sales realises that he can push the flawed product onto users with a heavy dose of marketing. And thus it was that a badly-built shambles of a tower was touted to be cool, people decided that it actually was since it was such a big cock-up (given extra meaning by Deuce Bigalow) that it wrapped around the threshold of Epic Fail into Win, with the result that it is world-famous and probably pulls millions of dollars a year into Pisa today.

Somewhere out there, the ghosts of dozens of respectable and conscientious Italian architects are banging their heads in despair.

This didn't bother the masses of tourists, who posed themselves pushing, pulling, leaning on, supporting, kicking [5] (difficult move) and swallowing [6] the Leaning Tower, perhaps unaware that they could obtain the same effect with any Properly Straight Tower by rotating their camera a bit. We couldn't very well be spoilsports, could we? The antics of the tourists may [7] in fact be the true draw of the attraction, come to think of it.

Took a late lunch was a hamburger, a cheeseburger and iced tea from McDonald's, then settled in for the long trip to Naples via Rome. There was some drama as occ got bumped at the crowded train platform, and immediately felt his wallet missing.

occ accosted the young woman who had collided with him quickly enough, but the wallet was nowhere to be found. He made one last-ditch attempt as our train threatened to leave, after the woman linked up with her probable-accomplice, who was cradling a baby (a good hiding place for stolen valuables). No luck. At least there wasn't that much cash in the wallet, and the credit cards were cancelled in a hurry.

We had to split up as the six-seater carriages were mostly filled, and I ended up back with alvin and sel. The carriage cleared after a few stops, and we began playing Minimizer Dang Dang Dang!. Our programme appeared to be set - until an Italian guy got on and began trying to converse with us in Italiano - an endeavour doomed to failure.

A lot of shoulder-shrugging, hand-twisting at the ear and bemused smiles later, he likely got the drift, and sat down watching us play for a bit before leaving for more entertaining companions. A while later, the next guy, who had been sitting quietly, tried to talk, and very importantly, he knew a smattering of English. But alas no, we didn't play Texas Hold'em.

occ (who had taken some classes in Italian) was called in, and it transpired that our new friend was a 22 year-old (though I would have guessed he was closer 30) sailor in the Italian Navy, returning home on break from his base in La Spezia. We made painfully slow conversation, with him using his handphone's translate function, and us occ's English-to-Italian dictionary. He traced with his finger on a map of Italy; occ showed a bowl of laksa on his handphone. Eventually, alvin traded Facebook emails with him, we supplied him with a Chinese version of his name, and we said our ciaos.


An Italian thumbs-up
(photo credit: occ)


Stopped safely in Naples, where the local Mafia has held gunfights as recently as 2005. We were always far more at risk from the horn-happy local drivers, though, as they regard traffic lights more as inconvenient suggestions than orders. After having our money eaten by the ticket machine at the Metro, and with no human staff in attendance, we felt we had little alternative but to adopt the Neapolitan spirit of arrangiarsi (getting by), and ride the metro ticketless. Stood next to a policeman with a holstered gun on the way, which made us feel rather secure.

Climbed many flights of stairs to get to the exit of the metro station, where a uniformed man somehow guessed that we were headed to the La Controra Flashpackers Hostel, and gave us directions there. Slightly concerned that it was a set-up, the instructions seemed legit, and we made it to the hostel only to find that Hostelworld had taken liberties with our bookings. We had seven places for the first and third nights, but only three for the second. The staff (whom have been pretty great) eventually found enough spots (split up, unfortunately) for the second night, and even cleared our dorm for the first night of its original inhabitants.

Ran the gauntlet of Neapolitan traffic to get dinner, and we settled on their special offer of two large pizzas, two spring chickens [8], two containers of fries and an assortment of various fried pasta balls for a total of 26 Euros. The pizza was thick-crusted, as the region is famed for, but the chicken stole the show by being wonderfully salty. At just over three Euros per person, it was superb value for money.

What made the meal even more special was the presence of a lovable female dog with an interesting name, who supposedly just had puppies. The staff rather unkindly told us to kick her and tell her to f**k off [sic], but we couldn't quite bring ourselves to do that. What's a few scraps of chicken, right? Too bad Mr. Ham isn't quite as adoring.


21 June

Itinerary for the day is Mount Vesuvius (an active volcano, mind, and overdue for an eruption from historical patterns). Scrambling along uneven mountainside ledges is one thing, but I drew the line at adding lava to the mix, and camped in the hostel room for the day. No point forking out good money (16 Euros just for the strongly-suggested guide service) on an experience I'm quite sure I wouldn't even enjoy.

It's quite nice actually to simply be alone for a day, with just my trusty netbook for company. Too bad the storm last night appears to have knocked out the hostel's Internet connection temporarily, but one can't have everything.

Ate a huge Quattro Stagioni pizza at night (good value for six Euros), while watching Brazil thump Italy 3-0 by half-time on the telly.



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