MOVIELAND: OUR LAST DAY IN ITALY. SORT OF.

With our plane leaving from the Milan airport at 10pm that night, our last day in Italy was a trip to the Italian theme park “Movieland”.

This park was, more or less, a complete knock off of Universal Studios and Hollywood films – featuring rides such as “Back to the Backstage”, “Hollywood Tower”, and the “John Rambo Action Show”.

Joining us was Brando’s little brother, Francesco. Brando had made a strong connection with the owner of the park after he visited the park around 100 times (not an exaggeration) in his early teen’s. Because of this, he was able to put the ride “U-571” on hold for about 10 minutes while he got some shots of his brother playing Tin-Tin for his trailer remake of “The Adventures of Tin-Tin”.
Without explaining much to Aryeh or myself, the four of us walked into a large dark room which resembled a submarine dock. Loud noises started to fill the room and the lights above started to tremble. Aryeh and I stood there having no idea what’s going on, while Brando filmed his brother on the other side of the set.

Here’s the promo video for the ride made by Movieland:

One of the original trailers for “The Adventures of Tin-Tin”:

After that, Aryeh and I got on the “Back to the Backstage” ride, a monorail that took us behind the scenes of the rides while also giving a great view of the lake.

Pose on top of a DeLorean time machine: bucket list check.

Falling from the Hollywood Tower:

(Yeah, I took the risk. Worth it.)

Hey look… a parade!

Bro shot on our way out

The plan was to drive to the airport after we left Movieland, however due to new information from Brando’s mother, we learned that there was heavy traffic all the way to Milan and there was no way we could make it in time by car. So, she quickly bought Aryeh and myself train tickets to the airport. In our entire time in Italy, Aryeh and I had not had good luck with the Italian train system so this plan was a little terrifying.

Stay tuned for one of the final posts:

HOW WE ENDED UP IN ICELAND

HOW TO SEE FLORENCE IN 6 HOURS

Okay, it wasn’t the way, or even the best way, but it was the way we did it. And I think it worked because holy crap Florence is amazing.

Before this point, my only experience was from playing Assassin’s Creed II. And even though they stayed very true to the city’s architecture it was a slightly different experience.

Aryeh and myself got off the train around noon. Like in Venice, we knew we had a primary destination. This time it was the Duomo di Firenze, the main church of Florence. 

Up to this point, I had only known the church as it’s seen here:

Okay, enough of Assassin’s Creed. I swear.

Thankfully, Duomo was a lot easier to find then Saint Marks Square in Venice… especially because it was just a few blocks away from the train station.

Incredible detail on the side of the building. Who has this much time?!

To answer my own question… construction started in 1296 and went to 1446, so clearly someone had this much time.

We wanted to go inside but the line was roughly and hour and half long, which did not fit in to our schedule. We shed a tear, and had to move on.

I handed the camera over to Aryeh to take pictures for a little while…. but I was still taking mental pictures.

Three Florence towers in one shot!

Because of the statue of David, Florence is known for having many nude statues.

Avert your eyes children! These statues are quite detailed.

Seriously though. What’s going on here?

Artsy angle.

Leaning out in front of Ponte Vecchio, one of the many famous landmarks in Florence.

This is the Archibusieri, a beautiful archway next to Ponte Vecchio and the Arno river.

Cheesin’ in the archway

Cheesin’ round two

It was around this time that my camera tragically ran out of battery which resulted in the rest of the pictures being taken on my iPhone. It got the job done though….

Panoramic of the Pitti Palace!
(click to enlarge)

Pitti Palace was constructed in the 1450’s for a famous Italian banker by the name of Luca Pitti. Sense then the massive building has served many purposes including being a power base for Napoleon in the late 18th century. In 1919 it was opened to the public along with the 11 acres of land behind it, also known as the Baboli gardens.

The garden is on a bit of a hill which provides an incredible view to all of Florence.

It was getting close to dinner time and Brando told us there was one restaurant we had to go to– Coco Lezzone.  After searching for a little while we had to ask an elderly man with a cane where we might find the place. He pointed 5 feet to our right and said “right there.” Of course we managed to ask someone right as we finally found the place. Feeling like idiots, we said thank you as he walked away. Feeling more like idiots, we found out the place was closed due to an Italian holiday. I still have a picture for proof though.

So we found another restaurant hidden in the streets of Florence and had what ended up being one of the most amazing meals we had on the trip. I don’t even know why… perhaps it was all the oil and bread we consumed.

Anyways, once we filled our stomachs beyond any point a normal human should, we waddled our way back to the train station and then back to Verona.

And that was how we experienced Florence in 6 hours. It wasn’t the way, or even the best way, but it was the way we did it. And that was what made it perfect.

A NIGHT IN VERONA

Some events in life are small but too worthy to forget. This is a short post but a meaningful one all the same, because it covers one of the most blissful nights I had in Verona.  (Blissful? Idk… I couldn’t think of another word.)

Grace and Kent, friends of ours from Ithaca, were visiting Brando for a few days as part of their long backpacking trip through Europe. That night we took them into town to get a full Verona experience.

At times it felt like a deja vu of Aryeh and myself’s first time walking through Verona. There were a few key differences that made this night especially unique though. For one, Brando brought us to (in his family’s opinion) the finest wine shop in Verona. After taking a couple random turns down small streets we arrived at this tiny place tucked away and stacked to the ceiling with wine.  Literally.

Some other fancy bottles they had

Now that’s a bottle of wine.

After selecting the two best yet “college student priced” bottles we could find, we continued our venture around the city. Eventually we arrived at the Torre dei Lamberti, the tallest tower in Verona. 368 steps seems like a lot more when you have to put your foot on every one of those steps. And yet…. so worth it.

That night we stopped for a candle-lit restaurant experience in the middle of the city.

Near the end of the night the outside pianist for the restaurant asked us for help returning the piano into storage. After successfully doing so the restaurant handed us shots of the strongest alcohol I’ve ever tasted. The kind that gives you heart burn but at the peak of your throat. To be honest it wasn’t all that enjoyable, but it definitely made that walk home easier. heh.

A trip to Venice coming next!!

Bienvenue à Paris

You have one day to do as much as you can in Paris. What do you do?

This is the question we asked ourselves when starting our morning across the river from most visted city in the world. (ABC news says it’s third but shhh)

After some deep thought, we decided on two main destinations:

Through unanimous support (and Aryeh’s insistence), we first decided on the Catacombs of Paris.

Which left the number one necessity… the Eiffel Tower.

The Catacombs of Paris

Back in the magical time of the 1770’s, graveyards were overflowwing within the city of Paris due to the catholic church requiring dead to be buried in the cemeteries behind the churches. Desperate for more space in the city, they decided to move all of the bones from the cimetière des Innocents graveyard, the city’s largest cemetery, into empty mines under the city. These bones laying 19 meters under the city are now known as the Catacombs of Paris.

Arriving at 10am, the wait in line took us about 2 and a half hours. It was not the most pleasurable wait of my life… but I have to admit it was actually worth it. 100 percent. There’s something uncomfortably fascinating about looking at a bunch of human skulls. Not to mention it’s figgin cool to go into caves.

Here’s the front of the line… a beautiful sight after a long wait.

After taking a spiral staircase 19 meters ungerground (62 feet), we entered two rooms giving details and history about the catacombs.

Entering the catacombs tunnel

To keep track of where workers had expanded the tunnels, they put information like their names and the date into a pieces of brick.

A wide range of things to see within the tunnels.

So I’m walking around this place just enjoying myself when off us a sudden I turn a corner and….

Oh. Skulls. 

So. Many. Bones.

SOO many bones.

SO MANY BONES DUDE.

In total, the bones were made up of about 6 million people’s remains. We took about 45 minutes crossing the mile worth of tunnels and caves.

After lunch we took a spin around the city to see many popular landmarks.

Which eventually brought us to…

The Eiffel Tower

Looking up

Okay, so we’ve all seen pictures of the Eiffel tower. I didn’t expect to be all that impressed with it, but holy French baguette that thing is HUGE! There’s no way to show what I saw in a picture… but this one gives a decent idea of its incredible size.

Once it was dark enough they started a light show on the tower.

Money shot.

Final artsy picture for the night

Until next time… peace out mes amis.

THAT TIME WE ROADTRIPPED TO PARIS – PART 2

I realized later that a visualization of our trip might be helpful. SO HERE YA GO.

Verona to Paris. In total the drive was about 9 hours, which we split over two days. This post is part 2, AKA day 2.

We started that morning at the border of France and arrived at our hotel outside Paris by that night. Our hotel was to Paris as the Bronx is to NYC. Not exactly IN the city, but pretty darn close. Not to mention much cheaper per night. Today I want to share two stops we made that day… both of which were unplanned.

The first stop was early in the morning while driving through the beautiful mountains of France. We were driving around a bend when I saw a building in ruin with a glistening lake in front of it. WE GOTTA STOP I said. So we took the exit and checked the place out. I have no idea what this place is. I think it’s just some sort of old abandoned factory… also known as a photographer’s dream land.

View from the building:

Inside: (crazy!!)

We spent about an hour and a half there just ogling at all the pictures and videos to take. Speaking of video, I think it’s time for some GIFS.

Okay no but really:

Moving right along…

The second stop was a little later in the day when we were looking for a place to stop for lunch. We get off some random exit and started driving through a town, which ended up being this ridiculously picturesque French village.

Seriously? A carousel? I swear if you were to go on the internet and download ‘french town background music’, you would get a recording of this town. Anyways, we obviously decided to grab lunch here. I felt it necessary to order a plate of cheese with wine. That’s called French winning.

Adventures in Paris coming up next 🙂

AROUND THE 1/2 WORLD IN 8 DAYS – PART 3

Airplanes are one of those few scenarios where you can capture a wide range of pictures and never leave your seat. Tragically it’s hard to get high quality pictures with that damn plastic window in front of my face, but at the same time it’s keeping me alive so I guess that’s okay. Today’s post is short and simple… just a few pictures of our long journey to Italy.

One of the first pictures I took during the flight… pretty sure we’re flying over Canada at this point.

Sun starting to set.

Because our route was so northern, the sun never completely set. The horizon looked like this for about 4 hours… kinda messes with your mind a little.

Sunrise over Europe

We landed in Moscow the next morning with 4 hours to kill until our flight to Milan. Hmm… yup, we DEFINITELY seem to be in Moscow.

Russian Burger King… have it your way! Most likely with some vodka.

A fancy picture of a fancy cappuccino.

I slept the entire flight to Italy, so that’s all the pictures for now. A tour of Verona coming up next 🙂

AROUND 1/2 THE WORLD IN 8 DAYS – PART 2

After waking up to the sunrise in Utah, we continued our drive north towards Boulder, CO. On the way, we passed Arches National Park which is right off of I-70 and highway 191.

A massive rock wall we saw while driving through the park… for size reference see the car in the bottom left.

We went on a 2 mile hike to check out the famous Delicate Arch, as seen on Utah’s license plate.

Tragically, in order to make it home in time, we had to keep driving… but the west is the west, and scenery never stops!

We spent the night with Aryeh’s friend in Boulder only to get up early the next morning to continue our drive east. The plan was to meet up with our friend Spencer in Omaha, Nebraska for the next night. Aryeh hadn’t told Spencer we were coming… instead, we got another friend of Spencers to set up a dinner outing with him so that we could surprise him.

The reaction was fantastic. I wish we captured a video of it……….. OH WAIT.

(please forgive the 10 seconds of black at the beginning)

We couldn’t let him know we were coming, so thankfully he let us crash on his couch on very short notice.

The drive after Omaha was very flat and very bland… however I did manage to get a few visually stimulating pictures.

That night we stopped in Pennsylvania at our friend Erin’s house. She refuses to read the blog so for now let’s just consider her “The Loser”. Anyways, leaving early from The Loser’s house gave me the opportunity for some sexy sunrise shots.

The next night we finally arrived at my home in New Hampshire. The official end of one adventure, and the start of a new one.

Pictures of my flight to Italy coming up next!

AROUND 1/2 THE WORLD IN 8 DAYS – PART ONE

Hats, coats, glasses over here. But hurry please, we have so much time and so little to see. Wait a minute… strike that. Reverse it.

Okay but seriously I have a lot to show you and time is limited so lets gets down to it. On a cloudy July 26th morning Aryeh and myself officially left Los Angeles and started our trip east towards New Hampshire (and then towards JFK to fly to Italy).

The first stop on our trip was at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Aryeh was getting very excited.

After a 5 hour drive from LA we finally arrived. Bam!

The immensity of the view kind of slaps you in the face… one picture could never do it justice (but Google Images definitely helps).

There was a railing at some parts for people to hang on to and enjoy the view.

I’ll say it again… there was a railing at some parts.

“Dude… I think I’m insane.”

Quick! Point at the old Asian dude holding the camera!
Bam. Photogenic brilliance.

Oh… didn’t see you there camera. How you duin?

It’s gif-tastic.

After the Grand Canyon we hopped back in the car and continued our drive into Utah where we stopped at 1am somewhere on the side of the road. The next morning I realized we had parked by some oil wells and a beautiful view. Naturally, we had to check out the sun rise. And by that I mean I had to drag Aryeh out of the car at 5:30am so I had a model for the picture. Worth it.

Kind of looks like a car commercial…

Wait. Yup. Yup, definitely a car commercial.

We might just be the coolest people you know of.

I’ll save the rest of the road trip for the next post (which may be a few days seeing as I’m about to get on a plane to Italy).  But more pictures are coming soon! Unless my plane crashes on the way to Italy… then not so much.

AN EXTRA’S EXPERIENCE

Happy belated America Day everyone!

A few weeks ago I got an email from one of the ICLA Program directors saying that Funny or Die was looking for extras in a new video they were making. I had no idea what the video was about, but it came with a 50 dollar paycheck so there really wasn’t any reason not to do it.

Filming was about three weeks ago, and the video still hasn’t been uploaded to the Funny or Die website. I’m not sure if it’ll ever be uploaded (which would be extremely tragic) but I will definitely update you if that changes. The 50 dollar check however is very real, and I may just hang it up on my wall. I mean– a piece of paper that says Funny or Die paid YOU fifty dollars? That’s something to treasure.

They wanted to start the shoot really early so we had to be there by about 7:30am. The idea was that we were making a Taylor Swift music video for her new hit song, “Glitter and Ribs”. Except Taylor Swift was played by Funny or Die’s very own Billy Eichner… dressed in complete drag. The song was also written by him.

The set location was a ridiculously nice house in Santa Clarita that Funny or Die had rented out for the day. When we (two roommates and myself) got there they were not quite ready to shoot so we chilled in the backyard patio area. I was okay with that.

They set up huge flags in order to control sunlight.

Me and my roommate Brandon manned the grilling station.

So for 4 or 5 hours we chilled and pretended we were at an awesome summer cook-out. That’s Taylor Swift (aka Billy) standing slightly center left there.

They told us they always wanted smoke coming from the grill but we only had a certain number of hamburgers and hotdogs. We ended up having to cook the same food for hours at a time……. hotdog anyone?

And my last piece of exciting news today…. I made a much-needed purchase recently that will probably come in handy for many years to come. I’ll give you a hint… it’s big, it’s black, and its got my name on it.

That’s right. Canon bought a Canon. Do you know what this MEANS?

That’s right. You get to see my food in HIGH-FRIKIN-DEFINITION.

OH YEAH.

In actuality what this means is that you’re going to be seeing a lot less iPhone pictures and a lot more actual pictures. I’ve already got a huge stockpile of photos and I can’t wait to share them with you guys.

Till next time. Be easy everyone.

THE WARNER BROTHERS BACKLOT

Okay guys…. At this point I might as well own Warner Brothers. I’ve been there so times now… like, at least 3. We mustn’t forget the most recent visit I made with Aryeh in SOME CRAZY LUCK (AND A DUCK).

Oh, and speaking of ducks…

I made the trek back [across the street] to the Warner Brothers studio where I joined Brando (creator of the Kick-Ass trailer) on a VIP tour of Warner Brothers backlot. This tour is exclusive shité people!

Well… exclusive to anyone with 40 dollars.

But it’s totally worth it. Out of all the studios in LA, Warner Brothers probably has the largest backlot. They frequently rent out their sets to other studios – which is interesting because they’re all competing with each other at the same time. Must make for an awkward christmas party…

Now, I’ll be honest, the tour guide listed off a plethora of TV shows and movies on the tour and I cannot remember exactly which set was used for which film… But these titles were definitely mentioned at some point or another:

Seinfeld

Friends

Argo

Batman Returns

Big Bang Theory

The Mask

Small soldiers

Jurassic Park

Gremlins

E.R.

True Blood

The Muppets

Zohan

Minority Report

Spiderman 

And many more that I can’t remember. Anyways, the first place they took us to was the “downtown” city. Almost all of these buildings are just decorative one-sided structures with no real inside. “Facades” I believe is what they call them.

As we walked down the street there were people working all around us. These sets are definitely active and some of them are used almost every day. By changing the signs, furniture, plants, and other street decoration they can reuse them for many different settings.

See? All of a sudden we’re in the 1950’s. With a guy waiving at his car…. sort of….

Next they took us into “the jungle”, a small area they use to shoot scenes that need to take place in… well, a jungle. They also have a cabin here that has been used in several productions… True Blood and The Mentalist to name a few.

And I’m quite sure I remember the tour guide saying this is the spot they used for the T-Rex chasing the jeep in Jurassic Park. They changed the plants around to make the road seem a lot longer then it actually was.

After that we took a drive down Suburbia street, USA.

Most of these houses have an inside to them too, so when they aren’t being used for filming they’re used as office space for Warner Brothers.

“Uhh.. Mr. Warner, this isn’t exactly what I meant when I said I wanted a work from home job….”

A little further down the road we entered a quaint town square. Notice the lack of signs on the buildings? These are filled in later when they need the set for specific shots.

And just around the corner was an industrial looking city for anytime you might need a subway station scene.

At one point in the tour they took us into a small building where several famous cars had been parked for our viewing pleasure. From closest to farthest: The Austin Powers mobile, Dukes of Hazzard car, and the Green Hornet! In the back you can see the famous Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo.

The classic.

The soon-to-be classic. 🙂

After that they took us to the most famous TV set in Hollywood history (in my mind anyways).

DUDE! WE’RE ON THE FRIENDS SET!

I KNOW!!

IT’S CRAZY!

I KNOW!!

Bonus picture… beauteous sunset from the Oakwood apartments.

Coming up next: being an extra for a Funny or Die video. Wooo!