New York State

ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK

Having arrived at New York airport late in the evening in the company of three friends, we took a taxi to reach the Manhattan Club hotel in the very center. Despite booking from Italy, we were redirected to another hotel, fortunately better and in a more prestigious area, right in front of Central Park: the Park Line Hotel. The "Big Apple" welcomed us with rain, and we are also without suitcases because due to a mix-up they remained in London. For the inconvenience caused, British Airways provided us with a special credit card with which we were able to withdraw 50 dollars each from an ATM at the airport.

SECOND DAY IN NEW YORK

The following morning, when we woke up in the elegant hotel room, we peeked at the city from the window and noticed that unfortunately it was raining. We are without suitcases, left behind due to a mix-up in London; they should arrive in the evening at the Manhattan Club, where we will sleep starting tonight as per our reservation, and for this reason we go there to drop off our carry-on bags. After an American breakfast in a place near the hotel, armed with the umbrellas that the Park Line gave us, we begin our visit to the city. We do so using the tourist buses of the "Gray Line"; the ticket valid for 48 hours will allow us to get on and off as we please, but we had not considered that along the route their guides would keep pestering us with explanations that, since we do not know English, are incomprehensible to us.

We get on the bus near Times Square, the nerve center of New York life, full of colorful signs and enormous video monitors that completely cover the surfaces of the buildings, broadcasting curious advertising for this or that product. The effect is very beautiful, even if a bit too kitsch; the light is so intense that everything is perfectly visible even during the day. Once past the square, which in reality is a very wide street, we continue among very tall skyscrapers; we have to raise our heads and cast our gaze toward the sky to see their tops. We pass in front of the Macy's department store and Madison Square Garden, see in the distance the barriers of Ground Zero, observe the chain-link fence where drawings and photos are placed in memory of the victims of the September 11 terrorist massacre, and a short distance away the bronze bull near Wall Street.

We get off at Battery Park, from where after a bit of a line we board the ferry to the little island that hosts the Statue of Liberty. One reaches Liberty Island by entering the territorial waters of New Jersey because the little island is a New York enclave entirely surrounded by the waters of New Jersey. The great statue donated by the French to the American people has no longer been visitable since September 11, 2001, so we prefer to enjoy it from the dock where the ferry stops; then we continue into the territorial waters of New Jersey to Ellis Island, where we get off to visit the Immigration Museum. The island belongs almost entirely to New Jersey, but inside, a small part that includes a few museum buildings is an enclave of the State of New York.

(For Ellis Island see New Jersey itinerary.) After visiting the memorial museum we get back on the ferry, and having left the territorial waters of New Jersey we re-enter those of the State of New York and return to Battery Park, from where with a short walk we reach the bronze bull statue we had previously seen from the bus. We are at Wall Street, so we decide to walk along the street of the same name, observing the neoclassical buildings that house the most important economic institutions in the world, such as the Stock Exchange and the Bank of America. In front of one of these, the statue of George Washington recalls the place where he was elected the first President of the United States. At the end, the street gives access to the old port, where some old sailing ships are anchored but above all where the view opens onto the famous Brooklyn Bridge.

We walk back along Wall Street in reverse until the small Anglican Church of Trinity, whose pointed bell tower was once the tallest building in New York; now it is suffocated by the surrounding skyscrapers and appears very small. It nevertheless remains an oasis of peace and spirituality; the sober building in ochre colors is surrounded by an old cemetery with simple stone tombs, and the portal displays the copy of the bas-reliefs of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise from the Baptistery of Florence. A few steps from the Church, the great chasm created by the collapse of the "Twin Towers" is fenced off for work to restore the area, but through some gaps it is possible to observe its vastness and understand the tragedy. We get back on the bus to reach the old port, where we change lines to take a look beyond the bridge, in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

The bus does not cross the Brooklyn Bridge but the parallel one, then makes a rather long and boring scenic loop through the neighborhood, skirting parks, buildings, and a few neoclassical monuments. Here the buildings are not as tall as in Manhattan; it is easier to find buildings with the famous iron fire escapes seen in so many films. We are glad to return to the old port to take the main Gray Line bus route again for a scenic tour of Manhattan. The bus runs along the sea, then, near the "Glass Palace," the UN headquarters, it turns off, passing in front of the Rockefeller Center, then gets stuck in downtown traffic, where it slowly passes in front of Central Park and ends its route near Times Square. From here another bus takes us to the Empire State Building; evening is falling and there is a long line of people who want to see the sunset from the observatory.

We go up with two very fast elevators that take us to the famous observatory. Darkness has fallen; New York offers itself to our eyes with its myriads of lights; the surrounding skyscrapers that from below appeared extremely tall are now beneath us; our gaze ranges over the illuminated spire of the Chrysler Palace, over the curious shape of the building called the "Flatiron" and over the distant Statue of Liberty. Once down from the Empire State, we reach our hotel on foot, where we learn with pleasure that our luggage has arrived; for their delay at the airport, British had given us 50 dollars compensation each. We take possession of the room where we will sleep together, then go to dinner at a self-service pizzeria in the area. The day has been long; fortunately the rain bothered us only in the morning; we return to the hotel tired and ready to sleep.

THIRD DAY NEW YORK

The next day we get up early, have an American breakfast in the same place near the hotel, go back to the Park Line where we had slept the first night because we still had an electronic key left in our pocket, then we go back to the hotel. We have to wait for the daughter of two of my travel companions to arrive with her fiancé; they have been in the States for two weeks and after doing Route 66 they will stay a few days in New York before returning to Italy. Once they arrive, we spend some time with them, then we split up and arrange to meet in the evening. We go to the Rockefeller Center, much more famous than interesting, a shopping center that is rather gloomy inside, much livelier outside with fountains and golden statues. A few steps from here we visit the Catholic Cathedral of Saint Patrick in neo-Gothic style, then we get on the Gray Line bus to Central Park.

Visiting the park is very interesting because even though it is in the center of one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world, it gives the sensation of being in a woods. The area is very extensive and you realize you are in the city only by looking up at the sky toward the skyscrapers that surround it. Inside there are small lakes, skating rinks, baseball fields, Alpine-style huts, carousels. Leaving Central Park we wait uselessly for the bus to the Bronx, so we opt for a taxi that with a short ride takes us back in front of the park entrance from where we could resume the main Gray Line route. We take the bus that passes through Times Square and get off at Macy's, the department store that is rather disappointing. We get back on the bus and get off at the stop closest to Little Italy.

We stroll along the main street of the Italian neighborhood, lined with numerous restaurants run mostly by southerners. We continue on foot to the adjacent Chinatown; the Chinese neighborhood is vast, occupies several blocks, is full of shops selling strange foods and useless trinkets, with merchandise displayed disorderly even on the street. The fish markets emanate strong odors into the air, but for us nothing that is being sold seems inviting. We reach the bus stop and return downtown, passing in front of the "Glass Palace," the UN headquarters, and the Rockefeller Center.

Today too, as yesterday, we have completed the entire loop offered by these buses; it was interesting to travel along streets lined with tall skyscrapers, also trying to pay attention to details, the strange platforms used to clean the windows that rise so high they appear tiny, the fire escapes, the smoke pouring abundantly from the underground pipes. Even if you have never been there, New York seems familiar to you because you have seen it dozens of times in movies or in TV news reports. The city is not beautiful in the European sense of aesthetics but it is beautiful in the innovative sense of the term, because it is experimental in new construction technologies, because it is unique of its kind, because it is the prototype of dozens of other cities.

Toward evening we take a walk on Fifth Avenue, the street of fashionable shops and grand hotels like the Plaza, which makes a fine show of itself in front of Central Park. It is evening and we meet up with the daughter of my travel companions and her fiancé; together we have dinner at the pizzeria where we had eaten the day before, not because we are creatures of habit but because it is the best way not to risk ordering things we do not like. After dinner we walk to nearby Times Square, which displays all its brilliance; the lights of the Broadway theater signs and the pixels of the enormous advertising monitors stand out against the night. We return to the hotel for the night.

FOURTH DAY

This morning we will leave the "Big Apple"; therefore, after saying goodbye to the daughter of my travel companions and her fiancé, we have a taxi take us to the car rental place booked from Italy. They give us a car that is American in every sense: unknown make and type, automatic transmission and many other accessories, though who knows why it lacks a rear windshield wiper!! Of course it does not lack a satellite navigator, which at first we cannot get to work, perhaps because it is disturbed by the height of the skyscrapers. We nevertheless manage to take the road for the State of New Jersey and from there cross a stretch of Pennsylvania and then re-enter the State of New York, which we travel as far as Niagara Falls. The road to Niagara Falls is rather monotonous; it runs through countryside and along the way you do not pass through any towns.

Once we enter the town we take the wrong road and instead of going directly to the falls we end up on the Rainbow Bridge, from which it is not possible to turn back. Forced to cross it, we find ourselves in Canada (see Raid in Canada). Late in the evening we re-enter the United States, again from the Rainbow Bridge, and take lodging in the simple and not very clean Boston hotel.

FIFTH DAY

We wake up to a beautiful sunny day, ideal for seeing the falls from the American side. After breakfast at the Donut with muffins, we go to the falls park where, unlike the Canadian side, you pay to enter. With one of my travel companions I get on the boat that will take us right under the falls, first to the actual Niagara Falls and then to the more beautiful Canada Falls, which form a splendid amphitheater of water. The spray is so strong that even though they have provided us with a raincoat with a hood, it is inevitable to get wet. The falls are truly beautiful and are worth this long detour to reach them. The very crowded boat takes us back to the pier, and from there we take an elevator back up from the riverbed to the tower, from which there is a beautiful view, and from there to the park where we parked the car.

We continue south, where we definitively leave the State of New York for Pennsylvania (see Tour in Pennsylvania)