Role models: I'm Martin Luther king. I have a dream. What kind of dream?

Friday, August 12th 2011

From the Lisbon airport, we took a cab to get to our hostel. We got an asshat of a cab driver who told us it would be 15 euros from the airport and when it turned out to be 10, he charged us 15 claiming that transport of bags is extra. No other cab drivers we had in Lisbon after that charged us for having bags. D-bag.

We were so tired from early flight but we couldn't check in to the hostel until 2pm. So we crashed on the common area couches of Lisbon Lounge Hostel hrs (really nice hostel) for 3 hours. It was quite convenient that I was already in my pajamas.

When we woke up, we wandered around the area, aimless (it's the best way) and shopped a bit. It was good to get a bit of a break from sightseeing. Speaking of sights, we saw a random guy start singing Indian in the street. I have a video clip, but I think it is too large to upload.

We decided to check out the st.George castle and took the #28 tram to get there. It was packed and not too pleasant. The trams are so small and old and this particular tram is the tourist one, so it was really just a bunch of confused people stuffed in hot confined area stepping in each other and trying to balance. The trams look really cool on the streets though.
We got into the castle for free (youth day, what up). It is just a fortress; the interior was destroyed in and earthquake, but the exterior was rebuilt. It was fun to explore the fortress and see nice views of Lisbon from different lookout points. We randomly saw a peacock on the grounds too. Unfortunately not courting.

In the evening, we went to the Ismaili centre. It was stellar. Gorgeous fountains and gardens. We took a tour and learned about the symbolism behind some of the architecture and all the different areas of the centre.  It was nice to see the similarities between the architecture of the different Ismaili centers as well as the similarities between Portuguese architecture and the Ismaili center. Sana and Alina said varo during the ceremonies as I was holding in laughter.

That night, after eating some famous portuguese chicken at Colombo, I bought a necklace with an owl pendant on it. I obviously had to name the owl, and decided on Nicolau, since the street where our hostel was is called Sao Nicolau. At night we went out to a club on the docks. We got there at 2am because it is apparently dead before that. It was really cool and i loved the music- straight up house music. Alina wad not impressed, but deep down I know she digs Save the World by Swedish House Mafia. Anyway, the club entrance and patio were surrounded by water. They could totally do that in Toronto, I don't know why they haven't. Special shoutout to our awesome cab driver who we had for the whole night (Lisbon connections).

Swedish House Mafia - Save The World

"You're lying. You can't be from Canada, you're from heaven"

Thursday, August 11th 2011

One day in Madrid. When I look at that sentence, or clause, I don't fully process it. This whole trip, I don't think I ever really wrapped my head around where I was and if I were showing someone where I was on a world map I would be pointing to cities in Italy and Spain and Portugal and France. So crazy awesome. It is pretty surreal. Sometimes I would just say to Sana "Dude, we're in [insert awesome European city here]. Even saying it out loud, I couldn't believe it. We were so busy doing things that sometimes it was good to just sit and look around and take it all in.

During the single day we had in Madrid, we visited as many sights as we could.  We aimed to start the day at 10am. So at 1pm we reached Real Madrid stadium; it was pretty badass. We found out that Real Madrid was the most successful team in the league overall.I found it relaxing to sit in the stands just looking over the field and watching the maintenance process. The coolest part was the players' bench...leather seats and a sun shade.

As Fauz continues to sleep, I (Sana) will continue this particular post as I now have a new found infatuation with Spain!
We then continued our day with some tapas for lunch and these were easily the most delicious tapas we had ever eaten in Spain- the salmon tartar was to die for! Fauz also saw what she claims to be the hottest guy ever seen on earth. After she started getting a little creepy we decided we had to leave the cafe. We made our way to the palace - we could tell we were in the right area as soon as we saw lots of fountains and greenery. We admired the palace and its surroundings but not for too long because the scorching Madrid heat made us go back to the store and grab some iced tea.

Finally we made it to the Museo del Prado and after waiting in line for some time were not awed by all the religious paintings inside as we had seen more than enough of Jesus and Mary in Italia. Nonetheless, we walked through the galleries and one of the paintings that stood out to me was the 'triumph of death,' which points out that death is inevitable and no one can fight it. Then, just as I was on the brink of moving on to the next museum we began to see paintings of landscapes and beautiful sceneries - just as we had hoped for. Rico y Ortega are absolutely amazing and two of my favorite paintings were La Riva degli Schiavoni and Chubasco en Granada by another painter.

Outside the Prado:

We then moved on to the Reina Sofia but we didn't have too much time so we checked out an exhibit by a Japanese artist who I was sure had some sort of psychological disorder; and I was right. The exhibit was certainly weird but very interesting especially the display with a room full of  mirrors and water on the ground with small lights hanging from the ceiling changing colors and reflecting from each surface. It felt like we were in the middle of a galaxy.

After buying some souvenirs from a cute old man near the Thyssen and mistaking a drag queen bar (Gula Gula) for a restaurant, we had dinner at an amazing cafe on the Gran Via and headed back to our hostel and met our roommates. They were an Indian guy and girl who Fauz immediately assumed were married. To no surprise, she awkwardly asked them and turns out they were just university friends traveling together..oops! We had a really early flight the next morning and were only going to get 3 hours of sleep that night so I dared Fauz to wear her pjs during the flight all the way to the hostel in Lisbon. Any other pjs would have been fine but of course she rocked out in her Toronto maple leafs pjs...the only entertaining part of that flight.

Viva España

Monday, August 8th 2011
"It's a momentous occasion...did you pack your water?"

From the Granada airport, we got on an aerobus to our hostel. Oh man, before I continue I must mention something I just remembered because I saw a baby on our bus to Madrid (from which I am writing this entry). On the Barcelona subway, there was a lady sitting with her bosom exposed and her baby feeding from it. A free-for-all...but not really, because the baby was the only one with the access. Little did we know that our metro ticket included a free show, not optional. It was disturbing. Anyway, on the bus ride to our Granada hostel, we saw mountains in the sunset. I already really liked Granada. We got off the bus at Gran Via and started walking to Albayzin, where our hostel was. The cobblestone road (I live for cobblestone) was so narrow that either people could walk on it or cars/bikes/minibuses could go by, but not both. Well it was possible for both but there was a chance of colliding with a sideview mirror or having your foot rolled over by wheels. Regardless, it was a really pretty scene because there weren't a lot of vehicles. On one of the side walkways, there was a guy with a guitar bellowing out the lyrics to 'Don't look back in anger' by Oasis. It was just awesome.

At the hostel, we met up with Alina and Natasha, who had already been in Granada for a day. The four of us headed to a small flamenco bar, Le chien andalou, where we ate the smallest but, in my opinion, most enjoyable tapas I had eaten in Spain,  and saw a show. I thought it was going to be a show with those señoritas wearing red feathery outfits, but there were only male performers. First, there was just a man with a guitar and an old man in a suit (so adorable yet badass). The guitarist started playing and about a minute into the song, the old man started singing/yelling. We had no clue how that voice was coming from that little man. Since he was singing in Spanish, we didn't understand the context of the song, but it sounded powerful nonetheless. We definitely thought there were points during which he was yelling at us though. For the next few songs, the two on stage were joined by three more men. All they were doing were clapping and stomping their feet along with the guitar and it sounded amazing. They had such good rhythm and coordination. One of the clapping men also sang and he had a strong voice as well. During the last song, one of the men, dressed in red as presumed, did a dance. Man, could he move. And his expression and movement was so passionate. I'm so glad we saw them perform because it was an authentic and small show and we got a good feel of some beautiful Spanish culture in that small bar. P.s. One of the clapping men fell in love with Alina.

Tuesday, August 9th 2011
GRAcias deNADA

Fact: Granada means pomegranate. Fact (I think): Apparently, the reason behind the people of Spain speaking Spanish with a lisp is that back in the day there was a king of Spain with a lisp. The people respected him so much that they altered their way of speaking, and it got passed down through the generations, like a dialect does.

The next morning we had to wake up early for our Alhambra tour. The first breath of air I took when we exited the hostel to walk to the bus was lovely! The streets smelt like shisha, no joke. The tour was great and, as expected, the palaces are incredible. It was pretty interesting to see the designs and symbols comprised of both Muslim and Christian influence and the differences in architecture. From the outside, the palaces were pretty simple, but on the inside, everything was so grand and majestic. Lots of arches and fountains. The gardens were very impressive, to say the least. As the tour guide gave an explanation for the different rooms of the palaces, it was cool to imagine the lifestyle of the sultans that lived there many centuries ago. I just kept picturing the sultan from Aladdin and the parrot too. Iago.

We were pretty tired after the tour, so we just wandered around looking for souvenirs and ate lunch. While we were going through different shops, I realized something about Granada. Whenever I was talking to a shopkeeper or a waiter and I mentioned I was from Canada, instead of them asking if I speak English, they would ask me if I speak French. And it seemed that a lot of people in Granada had French as a second language as opposed to English. This must have to do with the Moroccan influence in the region. Either way, it was nice to be able to practice my French in Spain.

"If this is a bath, do I need to take a shower after?"
That evening, we had plans to visit a Hammam, traditional Arab baths. Oh my gosh, it was heavenly. The dimly lit bath was made up of a few rooms connected by arches. There was tile work along the orange/peach-colored walls. There was Arabic music playing in the background. It was such a relaxing atmosphere. There was a cold room with a cold water pool, a hot room with a hot water pool, another room with warm water, and small relaxation areas with benches and cinnamon candles. Basically, all one does is go from one room to another as you please, and hang out in the pools. They are technically baths and not pools so you don't really do laps or anything...although at one point, Sana and I did exactly that, just because one of the pools was empty and we had it to ourselves. There was also an area where you could Marrakech tea. It was amazing. Perfect after a long day of walking  in the heat.

I learned two sentences in Spanish that day. The first was "Una tirita por favor", which means "A bandaid, please". I will explain the second one now. So, after turning down a few of Sana's dares (we are so juvenile), I finally agreed to one at the Hammam. There was a guy walking around calling people from the pools to go for their massages, and I had to go to him and say "venga al baño caliente con mi". Awkward.

After the Hammam, we went on a tapas tour with the hostel, and got a bit of a feel of the Granada nightlife.  While we were out, we met some very cool people. Special mentions go to the American (Hilary) and the Italian with the same name (Ilaria).


Wednesday, August 10th 2011 (Happy birthday mom!)

As I mentioned earlier, I'm writing this on a bus to Madrid. Sadly, after running and busing around town to the train station with our stupid fatass backpacks, the train didn't work out. Instead of waiting for the evening train, we decided to take a bus to save a few hours of our time. It has been kind of a frustrating day, but finding a McDonald's near the bus station made it all better. I'm lovin' it.

¨This needs to be washed for sure.¨

Okay, Barca is crazy. I´m staying in tonight, my last night here (I know I´m lame), so this is a good time to give you the low-down on our Barca experience. Since it had been a couple of days since I have posted, and I am quite lethargic atm, I will do my best to cover everything.

Thursday, August 4th 2011

Our hostel, Sant Jordi Alberg, is a really good time. The people here are so laid back, and they organize outings every night. After our flight, we found our hostel and checked in and all that. Then we headed over to a resto for some tapas, which were delish. So was the waiter. I fell in love with him. I didn´t understand anything he was saying and since Sana speaks some Spanish, she helped translate. Tapas ended with a bang. And then Sana cried. Long story, but it was all quite hilarious.

We went out with our hostel that night and the first stop was a bar on the beach. It was pretty amazing. Next stop was Shoke (I think) night club, which was ginormous. Lots of house music and the patio extended out onto the beach. We ended up hanging out with some crazy Brits until we were too tired to keep our eyes open, and then headed home by means of a surprisingly cheap cab ride.

Friday, August 5th 2011

The next day, I woke up to Alina and Natasha walking into our room. It felt so crazy to all be in Barcelona together. We ate lunch at the same tapas place as the night before because I wanted to see the waiter again. We filled them in on our trip up until Barca as well as the dares and rewards system. We left the restaurant after Sana unintentionally said something inapporiate to the waiter by mixing up the Spanish word for bag with female genitalia.

We walked to Sagrada di familia, an incomplete project of Gaudi´s (famous architect). It was really cool because you could see the difference between the old work and the new additions. In the metro station on the way home, Alina had a not-so-brilliant idea and encouraged Natasha to squeeze through the turnstile with me and we definitely got caught by security. Natasha had to go back through the turnstile and use her ticket again. We were lucky we didn´t get fined or arrested! Natasha was pissed at Alina and got an automatic reward which she has yet to redeem.

We ate paella for dinner and had a waiter that was surely on crack or some sort of elating substance. At night we went to a pub/club crawl, which was insane. One of the bars, I forget the name atm, had a really nice view of the city. The last stop was Opium night club. It was huge and the exact image I had of a European club before coming here.

Saturday, August 6th 2011

Our second day was a lazy one, starting at about 2 p.m. We had lunch and I threw in another dare. Sana had to lie on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant for 35 seconds. She did it. After lunch, we visited Camp Nou and then chilled out on the beach. It wasn´t too sunny but still a good time. A beach is a beach! We went out with the hostel again. First stop was a huge locals bar and then to Razzmatazz (sp?) night club. It was very different...all rock and indie music which I love. At points it was a bit much, but it was really awesome to hear stuff like The Strokes in a club and everybody jumping around and jamming to big hits.

Sunday, August 7th 2011

Once again, our day started at 2 p.m. (the night ended at around 5 a.m.) and we ate at a nice resto on Passeig de Gracia. We liked one of the waiters once again and Sana was chatting him up. I dared her to leave him a note when we left. She did it. Hilarious.  After eating, we went to Parc Guell where we saw a few pieces of Gaudi´s work. It was absolutely gorgeous. The mosaic detail was so unique. I love how Gaudi projects show up so suddenly all over the city. It is really something to see. Pretty hard to capture the beauty on camera but we tried. We ate dinner on La Rambla, more paella. I´m over it; no more paella! I mean it´s good, but I don´t understand all the hype. I just like saying paella and thinking of George´s mom from Seinfeld: ¨What am I gonna do with all this paella?!¨ I miss Italian food...and home food too!

Tomorrow we hope to squeeze in a couple more sights before our flight to Granada. Stay tuned!

Nice Nice (adj then noun)

We don't have much time in Nice, so we haven't seen any tourist attractions. We chose to spend the few hours we have here before our flight to Barca on the beach, where I am currently writing this tidbit. On our way here, we bought some small pearly goodies in a souvenir shop and saw the fruit and flower market. There was a three-man band playing there and a small crowd watching. I dared Sana to stand in the middle of the circle and do the Elaine dance (from Seinfeld), but she had to decline. It was a big dare and would have definitely made it on YouTube. So this beach is rocky, but still very nice (I'm pronouncing that like how we pronounce Nice fyi, because Sana and I have decided that any time we want to say the word 'nice' during this trip, we must pronounce it as 'Nice'. Challenging! Here is a pic so you see what I'm seeing:

"Si tu cherches un mari à l'avenir..."

*Check out previous posting for updated pics!

Saturday, July 30th 2011

As much as we wanted to stay in Cinque for longer, it was time for Venice. Before leaving Riomaggiore, we bought some tomato and mozzarella sandwiches and latte machiatos (sp?) and enjoyed them on the marina. If any of you are planning a trip to Italy, you absolutely have to visit Cinque Terre, and give yourself some time to enjoy it. It is truly one of a kind.

Our train to Venice had two changes. On a stopover in Florence we had about an hour to eat lunch, and then we missed our next train. Yes, it is possible to do that. It was most definitely one of the top three kick myself moments of the trip thus far; another one being a senseless purchase of a purse I didn't really need on our first night in Rome. Sana did it too though! Since we were delayed an hour, we decided we may as well get some cappuccino.

Mapless in Venice is not a good way to go. We took the waterbus (free of charge because of a kind lady who didn't want to waste her tickets) to the closest stop to our B&B. After walking for what seemed like an eternity with backpacks on, we found it! Like a diamond in the rough...okay, that's not possible actually because we were in Venice. Let's scrap that sentence and say it was like a red rose in a garden of pink roses? Our B&B was nice. Pretty clean and cozy, but the furniture was just awful. The carpet was dark red and the furniture was off-white and gold with oldschool patterns on it. It looked like it was once owned by a 150 year old woman. I guess the owner was going for an antique look, and he succeeded but it was kind of creepy. Pretty tired from the traveling and missing trains and all, we ate dinner by a canal and slept relatively early.

Sunday, July 31st 2011
Our single day in Venice was relaxing. We walked to piazza st Marco, got scolded in Italian for playing with souvenirs at the carts, made some Murano glass purchases, ate pizza on a canal bridge and witnessed a gondola traffic jam. We were so relaxed that we even lay down by a bridge and tanned. This was a good indicator that we were ready for the beaches of the French riviera. Our last meal in Italy had to be classic spaghetti. It was absolutely delicious, obviously. During our meal, we attempted to take photos depicting a recreation of the scene in Eat Pray Love where Julia Roberts was eating spaghetti and enjoying every moment of it. The only difference was that we were in Venice as opposed to Rome.

Monday, August 1 2011
The next morning, a very early morning, we booked it to the waterbus at 8:08am (easy to remember because of Far East Movement).  As I was wrote that last sentence, I broke out into song and Sana shut me down. Our journey to Antibes was crazy; three train changes and one of them only had like a 7 minute buffer. We knew if the last train was retardo (late), we would be screwedo. And it was, but our mad dash skills and another compensating train delay, made it all okay. I must throw in that while we were waiting for that particular train on the Genova platform, I dared Sana to yell "retardo" at the top of her lungs. (We have a silly dares and rewards system going). She did it. I was thoroughly unimpressed by the reaction, or lack thereof, of our platform companions.

On that last train to Antibes, our stop at the Monaco station brought a very interesting crowd into the train. Fancy shmancy! There were two pretty blonde ladies with a Filipino baby. I spent most of the train ride trying to figure out their situation. I quickly assumed they were partners and they had adopted the baby but since the train ride was quite long, my imagination kept wandering. About a minute before our stop, I realized there was a Filipino man behind me. Turns out he was the dad.

When we arrived in Antibes, I immediately put my French skills to use to find our way to our villa. It was really far from the station, but really close to the beach! After resorting to taking a cab, we arrived at Villa Fabulite, a very pretty hotel with lots of greenery, and mosquitoes. Turns out the hotel was also famous for it's restaurant, and non-guests came to eat there as well. We were starving, and pretty much stranded (the Cap d'Antibes is far from the actual city itself) so we ate there too. I had a huge sea bass for dinner, and although I rarely order fish, I enjoyed this one! After eating our dinner, and being eaten by mosquitoes, dammit, we went to sleep.

Tuesday, August 2nd 2011
There's not too much to say about our day in Antibes; it was super relaxing. We ate breakfast at the villa, after which the chef brought some lovely and random surprises: tropical fruit, and swiss chocolate. We also met some other guests from Russia who were super nice. We relaxed at the beach for a few hours and it was heavenly. There were so many cute little French kids running around and enjoying the water. After the beach, we went to a small grocery store and bought some baguette and brie for lunch, and walked around the cap and up a few hills to see a view of Antibes. We like views. I think it is one of my favourite parts of traveling, because it almost always requires lots of walking/climbing and using maps, and it is tiring, but the reward is so great. The properties in the area were ridiculous. All gated up and surrounded by so much fancy greenery, and each mansion had its own name, ex. Le chateau d'Olivier.


At night after dinner and a couple of more dessert surprises from the chef, (so random but so awesome), we wanted to check out the nightlife in Antibes but we knew it would be pretty hard because we were so far from the main part of the city. So we decided to just stroll around the beach for a bit before bed. One of our fellow guests at the villa that we had met earlier had a sweet rental car and offered to drive us to town. He became known as our Russian saviour because he even gave us a ride to the Picasso museum today before our departure from Antibes. Amazing. The Picasso museum was cool; I like staring at abstract art and trying to figure it out. The two paintings I liked most were 'La joie de vivre' by Picasso, and 'Grand concert' by Nicolas de Staël.

From the Picasso museum, we went straight to the train station and made our way to Monaco! It was stunning. Enough said. Okay, I will give you a bit more of a description than that. The city looked very clean and well-kept. All the buildings looked brand new and had nice orangey and pinky colours. They had fancy balconies and detailed roofs and window sills. We loved the feel of the city. We walked over to the Jardin exotique hoping to see some fancy flowers and stuff, but were greeted with sharp cacti. Only cacti. It was still really cool because beyond the cacti we could see views of the whole city and harbor. After the cacti, we took a bus over to Monaco ville, where we saw the old village, souvenir shops, and a killer view of the city. Turn around from the view, and there is the palais du Prince. We were there to witness a changing of guards, which was very organized and proper as expected. That is until Sana whistled at one of the guards, unable to hold back. We also really wanted to see the Monte Carlo casino, so we got back on the bus and headed there. It was surrounded by fancy fountains and pretty cars.

 Now we are in Nice at the Villa Saint Exupery hostel, but only for tonight. Tomorrow, we leave France (temporarily) for Spain. First stop: BARCELONA. Stay tuned.

It's gonna be a bumpy ride

Friday, July 29th 2011

Sorry it has been a few days since my last post. I havent had access to the Internet. I'm currently enjoying some baguette outside of Villa Fabulite and thought it would be a good time to start  updating you. Since I am on my phone, I will upload pictures and format later when I have access to a computer.

From Florence, we took the train to Pisa to see the leaning tower. After walking pretty much the whole city with our huge backpacks, the tower appeared before us. It was exactly as we had pictured it...probably because we have all seen thousands of photos of people posing with the tower and pushing it over or holding it up. It was quite entertaining to see countless people trying to position themselves correctly with their arms outstretched to get a good picture. After doing exactly that, we relaxed on the grass for a little while before our trek back across town to the station. On the way we picked up some delicious sandwiches. Italian food...oh man.

Back on the train to our next stop, Riomaggiore; one of the five cities of Cinque Terre. The train ride there demonstrated a big transition in landscape. It was very hilly and picturesque. When we got off the train, the first thing we saw was the Mediterranean sea. The steep and hilly landscape of Cinque Terre makes for a very interesting and beautiful layout of streets and houses. The main road, via Columbo, is one huge uphill path (well, if you are at the top then it's downhill, but we were at the bottom where the train station was). The apartments and stores were all different colours from the outside, and were surrounded by narrow alleys and up steep staircases. It is pretty fascinating. Guaranteed, people that live there have some crazy leg muscles. We took some time to freshen up in La Casa di Venere, our home for the night. Looking out the window, I saw so many clothes lines and heard random Italian outbursts. It felt so different from the tourist overflow of Rome and Florence. I also enjoyed watching and taking pictures (in a non-creepy way) of the little Italian kids enjoying some play time outside.

Since it wad already evening, we knew we couldn't do the hike from one end of Cinque Terre to the other, as we had originally planned. However, we did want to do some sort of hike to see the spectacular views we had seen on Google! With a somewhat aimless approach, we headed uphill...as high as we could go...until we hit a dead end. The lack of footpaths and people should've been enough of a hint that we were headed nowhere. Either way, we eventually came to our senses and headed back downhill to ask for some direction. We then followed some people, who knew what they were doing, to a spot by the shore with an amazing view of Riomaggiore. We took some time to enjoy the sights with our feet in the Mediterranean.

After 8pm, access to the national park, which includes the path connecting all of the cities, becomes free of charge. So, since it is good to think economically at times, and since we got to Cinque so late, we decided to do a mini hike to the next city, Manarola, at sunset. The trail was called Via del Amore; the walls were filled with sketches of hearts with initials, and the fences had ribbons tied on them in the shape of hearts, and locks that couples had put up during their hikes. How sickening and sweet. Once we got to Manarola, we had to find the path to the top of the hill so we could see another amazing view. We asked a local that was sitting on a bench, and he led us to the pathway. He actually ended up being out personal tour guide and hiked up with us and a few other people. Poor guy was just chilling on a bench and next thing you know he is climbing a butload of steps. Anyway, once at the top, we saw another phenomenal view of bunches of colourful block-shaped houses scattered around a steep and hilly landscape right along the coastline. I especially loved how it looked when it got dark and the houses were lit up.

It was time for a late dinner. Each meal is something to get very excited about when in Italy. We had built up good appetites from all the hiking so we ate an amazing dinner in Manarola before heading back to Riomaggiore. Sana and I are not big seafood people, but we decided to be adventurous and we ordered some seafood-ish dishes. The mussels were the highlight...so tasty! Having left Italy only today, I am already missing the food dearly.

On the dark walk back to Rio, we got to enjoy a beautiful starry sky; something we rarely see back in Toronto. It is so special to see. We sat down for a few minutes in the dark just to appreciate the sight of stars and sound of waves crashing on the coast. I had never seen a shooting star before that night, and in the 10 minutes we sat there, we saw 3!
Before calling it a night, we hung out at the bar where we met some locals, some Canadians, and a South African. That experience has made for some good laughs. Via del Amore will remember us.