Paula and I decided that the boys going sailing meant that we could head off on a girls trip!! So the plan was to go on Aug the 22nd - the same date that they were originally scheduled to head to the Azores - well that all changed with the sailing trip being bought forward but the 22nd saw us heading off to Venice for the beginning of our Italian holiday! We touched down in Venice and caught a water bus to San Marco in search of Paul who was meeting us there for the weekend. Venice is incredible, the cobbled streets, canal network and absolutely packed with tourists! I dont think the Italians would be inclined to want to live there!
We had lunch in a small ristorante and had a hillarious Hungarian waiter who was no where near as enamoured with Venice as we were. He kept telling us how much he hated Italy and Italians... 'I do not like Italians - they are of bad character', we laughed and he turned around and said 'I really mean it!' - he was very serious but did not manage to deter us from exploring further. That night we caught up with Simon & Loretta (Paula's brother and new sister in law), we all headed out for dinner and had a fantastic meal staring out at the Rialto Bridge. It was a great way to leave Venice.
The next morning we said goodbye to Venice and Pablo and headed to Verona the home of Romeo & Juliet. Verona has a huge Ampitheatre in the town centre that is over 2000 years old and is still used for regular operatic performances. We got our tickets and headed to watch Aida. This was a brilliant experience, the whole thing was in Italian and I didnt have much of an idea of what was going on but it was quite incredible. We sat on the rock steps with blow up cushions with the masses and enjoyed the ambience and the comments from the inquisitive little english boy sitting behind us - he was sure that with everything going on onstage 'they must be having some Olympics down there soon, ahey dad?', very cute.
After a our quick stop at Verona we caught a train and headed to the Cinque Terre. We stayed in Riomaggorie which is one of the five villages that make up the Cinque Terre. Our accommodation was at the top of one of the hills and it was a huge hike for us with all of our gear... The views however were absolutely worth it! We met an Aussie guy on the train and had dinner with him overlooking the bay - it was an excellent picnic as we watched the sunset. Early to bed though, this was key as we had a big walk ahead of us the next day between each of the villages.
We were up at the crack of dawn and headed along the path from Riomaggorie through to Monterosso. The walk is about 14km from the first village to the last village and a whole heap of it is up hill... ok there is quite a bit of down hill as well but the uphill was killer! We were pleased that we set off early and didnt do the whole thing in the heat of the day! The villages are absolutely gorgeous and have incredible character. We stopped at Venazza (the fourth village) and had lunch and a much deserved swim before heading on to Monterosso. By the time we got back to our accommodation we were shattered and in much need of an afternoon nap.. getting old it would appear!
We had a brilliant time at the CT but had to keep on and went through to Florence the next day via Pisa. We made the mandatory trip to the leaning tower, it is one of the worlds biggest engineering muck ups! The foundations have been fixed, it shouldnt sink any further and the lean has actually been corrected by 40cm during this process. After lunch in the square with thousands of other tourists we carried on to Florence.
Florence was brilliant! This has to be one of my favourite cities so far. We had a great hostel and after we settled in we headed off to see Michaelangelo's David. Generally there are huge queue's for the museum but we walked straight in and got to see see the giant statute with reportedly the best butt in the world. The David is very impressive, the level of detail in the carving is amazing, having Paula with me was great - I never took art history at school, (Paula did) so was oblivious half the time to the importance of what we were seeing. Paula managed to trawl through the memory banks to give me background and little tips on what we were looking at. As well as great statute we also found some impressive leather shopping in Florence... oh yes it is fantastic, I am sure no one ready this is all that suprised! We went through the markets and came out with a couple of bags, scarves and some tacky souvenirs - had to be done!
Next to the markets is the giant dummo - this is a big stripey marble cathederal. The sheer size of the structures in Italy were mind blowing let alone the detail that was incorporated into the design. We found a great cafe and chilled out dfor dinner and just soaked up the ambience of Florence - this place is a must see!
We left Florence and travelled through Tuscany to our final destination - Rome, we allowed three days here as we were pretty sure that we would need it to see everything on the list.... and we did! We actually needed way more time - there is sooo much to see in Rome and it does get to a point where you start to have history overload - I know mum dont gasp this is me saying I had history overload!
We covered some serious miles on foot through Rome and everytime you turned a corner there was something else that took your breath away. I think my fave would have had to be the Trevi Fountain (below). This is a huge fountain that is built into the side of a building - it is an absolute masterpiece and somehow we always ended up back there whenever we went walking around. We wandered through to the Spanish steps, we went into the Pantheon and carried on down the small streets and large avenues to get to the Colosseum. We wandered through numerous Piazza's and checked out the various things that were going on... so much activity everywhere you went! I could go into heaps of detail on these places but all I need to say is that I took about 600 photos and had eyes the size of saucers the whole time... you get the picture!
Anyway we ended up one day at the Vatican City and thought we would head in if the queue wasnt to long. Our luck held and we managed to walk straight in to St Peter's Basilica - a mind blowing church if ever there was one! We have seen a lot of churchs now but the sheer size and opulence of this one out does the rest.... and I guess this is expected being the home of the pope! We left St Peter's was walked through to the Vatican museum, to the Sistine Chapel.
The paintings and architecture were stunning all the way through the museum to the Sistine Chapel. This sort of design and intense art are nothing like what we see now days and realistically I dont imagine it will ever come back into 'fashion' so to speak. The time, dedication and money involved in creating these masterpieces is not high on most peoples' priority lists these days. Anyway we came, we saw, we photographed... I think I mentioned 600 + photos....!
Italy is gorgeous, the food is so so good! The scenery is breathtaking and for the most part the people were lovely, we did have one point where we started collecting 'Prego''s (Prego is essentially a polite response... you are welcome, no worries, dont mention it ... that sort of thing)as we had a spate of rude people, but it was easy travelling with a fun companion - thanks Paula B, and I am very keen to go back and see more!
So that is the lowdown from Italy, Ciao! xx
No comments:
Post a Comment