Valencia - Spain

We both loved Rome, but we had definately stayed long enough. It did mean we had a few days of relaxing and taking it a bit easier though. The flight to Valencia in Spain was ok, but im glad we have been on the train most of the time. Transport to the airport, then the 2 hours of waiting and the lines, were a bit of an ordeal!

We arrived at the hostel in Valencia at about 5pm, just long enough to drop our bags, look around and head out on a free city tour. This was led by 'Johnny English', an english guy obviously, who was a really good guide. He gav us a lot of commentaries and history and we saw a number of the main sights around Valencia. It is a really great city, nice and green, lots of fountains, we only have 2 nights here but could have stayed longer.

Saturday morning we headed out for breakfast, as we ddn´t have any and its not provided by the hostel. After walking through the mercado, we found a nice little cafe and ordered 'cafe y leche' (coffee) and a pinchio tortilla. This was really nice, a bit oily, but like a potato quiche. After eating I tried asking, en espanol, what ingredients were in the food, the old guy was more than happy to explain, en espanol, and was so excited by my interest, that he insisted on a high five as I left. Very cool!
As we really only had one day in Valancia, the rest of the day was pretty busy. First stop was some shopping in the Mercado, ingredients for dinner. We dropped them back at the hostel before going to the Museo de Ceramica, a ceramics museum, Valencia is well known for its ceramics apparently. This was interesting as it was in a nice old home, of a really rich guy, it even had a rotating Virgin Mary statue above the front door, which would face inside when the family was home and outside if they were out.

We then walked along the river bed, which is now a beautiful green park. Years ago there was too many floods, so the city diverted the river around the town. The government had plans for a freeway in its place, but the locals protested by planting thousands of trees, its been a park ever since. It also has nice water fountains through it. This park led us to the modern area of town which has some amazing buildings, all with large blue pools around them.
We also checked out the F1 track which was being packed up after the race a week earlier, and the mariner, before having a rest and swim at the beach. Our planning has been a bit crap unfortunately, if we were a week earlier we could have seen the Grand Prix and Tomatina, the festival where truckloads of tomatoes are driven into a nearby town for a massive food fight.

Our last stop was at the L'Almoina, which we had booked earlier. It is basically an underground walking tour of the ruins of the towns of years ago. It was kind of cool, although the tour guide only spoke spanish, so we didn´t catch everything (much) he said. Damien then headed to the train station to book seats on the train the following day, only to find out it was fully booked already. We will have to take a night train to Granada instead.
With our extra day we took it quite easy, wondered aroung the bull ring and some tourist market. Coffee in the trendy parts of town. We had a siesta at the hostel, and a big spanish dinner, paella, tapas and sangria before catching a 1am train to Granada.

Rome

The train to Rome, in our first class carriage, was really hot! About an hour in, the air conditioner broke, so we were sweltering. We got to our accomodation about 5pm, then headed out to find something for dinner. We are staying at a cheap hotel, Stargate Hotel, the room looks nice and is clean. The beds were kind of weird, 2 bunks that look like they wind up like a car jack. We have had a few problems with the room, only made worse by very poor customer service from the reception staff. Our fridge doesn't work very well, the drain was blocked and took them ages to clean it, and the communal kitchen which is only open 3 hours a day, has only one bowl and pot.
Rome has been really hot, mid to high 30's each day. The other thing is its been really hard to get any decent tourist information. We are managing though.
Saturday, our first day, we headed to the Colosseo, this was an amazing old gladitorial stadium, built 2000 years ago. As seen in the movie Gladiator, parts of the stadium have collapsed and others restored and preserved. We took a guided tour and heard all about the history of it being built, the games and how it has since been stripped of all the marble iron in the middle ages. The tour also included a guided walk through the Palatino. This was anoth old ruins area of the city, just next to the colosseo, where the wealthy once lived, before it was turned into palaces for the roman emporors. It is all just ruins now, but with the stories from the guide, you could imagine how the ruins would have looked thousands of years ago.

Sunday we had planned to take it easy, everyone was a bit on edge due to the problems with the hotel, the heat and being a bit tired after all of our travels. We slept in a bit then headed out for breakfast, we have found a cafe with cheap coffee and they had cooked fresh croissants today! We then took the train to the Barberini train station. Not a great start to the morning, we couldn't see the fountain that was supposed to be in the piazza. Like it was in a movie or something, a split second after we asked some security guards where it was, a bus that had been parked on the side of the road drove off, to reveal the big fountain and sculpture... Stupido Turista!!!
We then wondered in a semi random direction, saw some tall Egyptian monuments and headed to the Pantheon. This is a very old church, again built about 2000 years ago. It was very nice and had a hole in the roof to let in light. Apparently a number of emporers and Raphael the TMNT are all buried under the building.
Next stop was Campo de Fiori, where we had hoped to find an art market. Sadly there was no market to speak of, so either it is somewhere else or it is no longer there. From there we continued on, over the river, to the Trastevere area, another nice little area of rome. Poor timing, we were there in the middle of the day on a Sunday, so most things were closed, but it ws som nice streets. We may head back for dinner at some stage. We then continued to walk in the heat for way too long, not really seeing anything but a crappy flea market. We had seen some really nice pizza by the slice earlier in the morning, but by lunch time couldn't find anything! The highlight of the afternoon was when Christine walked into a bin, because she was looking in shop windows! We then took the train back to our hotel to cool down before cooking some pasta for dinner in the dodgy kitchen.

Monday morning the girls got up early and headed out to have a day of free time and shopping. This left the boys in the hotel room to have a sleep in! Christine was looking at buying another pair of shorts and some italian art works for us to keep for when we have a house to put it in. This was not so successful, although she did come back with a dress... and baby clothes, I take her to Roma, and she buys baby clothes... mumma mia!
In the mean time Damien had to organise some more accomodation for rome and do a few other things. The boys ate pizza for lunch but really just bummed about doing nothing. The afternoon was then spent resting in our room, the girls had a rest also.
For dinner we headed out, on the bus, to Trastevere, the area we had walked through in the hot sun all afternoon the day before. The girls looked in a few more shops before we had dinner in a little pub. An early night and a tidy up of the room.
For breakfast we headed back to our usual spot, a small cafe with cheap coffee and fresh baked crossiants. Sadly after breakfast we had to fairwell Ben and Steph. We then headed to our new accomodation, a bit out of Rome but right on a Metro line. Were staying at Yellow House, a small hostel 10 min from town. Its heaps better than we were, and we have a weekly train ticket so the travel doesn't worry us. It has a kitchen, decking, basic breakfast and internet.
After checking in we headed back into town, and spent the day touring some of the fountains. We started back at Campo De Fiori, and found the food market this time, as well as two nice fountains. Then Piazza Navona, which is a long rectanglular area with a couple of fountains, one of which is really amazing. Its also from the film Angels and Demons, although we haven't seen it. After Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps we headed up to Pincio Hill for views of the city, and a relax in the gardens. The gardens were nice, no central park, but had fountains, the grass a bit dry, summer here.
We returned to the Spanish Steps for a free guided tour of the city. This was good, we had seen most of the sights, but to get the commentary was good. The Spanish steps are actually pretty cool. We also ended up in a small convent and chucrh in the middle of the city. Trevi fountain and the Pantheon were some of the other stops, before we ditched the tour in favour of gelato. Im getting a bit sick of gelato to be honest, plus its not cold enough and melts everywhere before you can eat it! On the way home we bought a bottle of Vino and some bruchetta ingredients, mmm.

We were a bit late last night so after a sleep in on Wednesday, we headed back to Piazza del Popolo whicj is a big oval shaped piazza with 4 smaller fountains all connected. Very cool, not so cool were the guys pestering us to buy a rose. I think christine had a curse put on her family, when she repeatedly told one to 'get lost'. He just started saying all this weird stuff in some language, but we made out mother, father and brother.
We then spent the afternoon in Borghese park. We had more bruschetta on a lawn for lunch. Its a nice pak with fountains, monuments, a zoo, museums and a lake. Would be nice in spring when it was a bit greener.

Our last full day in Rome and in Italy was a big one. We woke up early and headed to the Vatican city. The day didn't start so well, Christine had some trouble getting money out at the bank (turns out she has benn spending more than she thought), and the staff at the Vatican Museums gave me the shits, they pretended they didn't have floor plans or suggested itineries (as mentioned in Lonely Planet), meaning we had to pay for the audio guide!
The Vatican City itself was lovely. Small but nice. In some strange way it reminded me of Rodeo Drive in L.A. as both were quiet first thing in the morning, looked a bit exclusive, wide roads and palm trees.
We spent most of the day in the galleries, which were phenominal. Unlike most of the galleries we have seen, this had a wide variety of pieces ranging from complete galleries of Egyptian art (which really fascinates me for some reason), Greek & Italian sculptures, Classic roman art as well as modern, maps and tapestry. This was a nice change from wandering for hours looking at the same style which all starts to blend in to one another.
The highlight of Rome for me was the Sistine Chapel. The whole chapel is painted. from mosaic floors to basic but detailed curtain paintings in the lower sections, to the detailed and colourful murals of the biblical stories on the walls and the roof. The Last Judgement which takes up one complete wall, as well as the Michangelo paintings on the roof were stunning, and my favourites.
We then headed to St Peters Basilica which is a massive church, again with original paintings and sculptures. This was also very impressive to see the amazing detail that goes into these churches.

After a long day we headed to the nearby Trastevere area for drinks and dinner again. The service was funny, they wouldn't let us sit on the end table, which clearly wasn't reserved or in use, but then when we ordered, Christines Lasagne arrived within about 30 seconds (Damiens pizza took about 10 minutes), we hadn't even finished our bruschetta, which we had ordered previously.
After a last Vino and a last pizza we went for a walk along the river, where there were some more touristy bars and markets. We saw an otter eatting a loaf of bread in the water which was cool. We then had to have a last Gelato, followed by a last sensation of feeling sick!

Cinque Terra

When we arrived at our accommodation in Riomaggiore, I was pleasantly surprised. I am not sure if it was a miscommunication or the girls trying to surprise me, but I was expecting to be staying in a hostel in La Spezia, which is not actually on the Cinque Terra. Our accommodation was actually a 3 bedroom apartment with two balconies, set back from the beach, but with a partial view of the sea. This and the excitement of meeting up with Ben and Steph meant I was really happy!
After all four of us had settled we had a few drinks and Christine made some bruchetta for an early dinner. We then went for a walk along the first part of the Cinque Terra to watch sunset. The Cinque Terra is a series of 5 coastal towns connected by a coastal walk, but also a train line. The villages are amazing, colourful buildings built right on the edge of rocky cliff faces. We walked around to Manarola, only about 20min, along an easy footpath, with great views of the sunset and cliffs. In Manarola we ate Gelato before returning to the apartment.
Our plan to set off early the following morning was some what delayed, unfortunately meaning that from the start of our walk we were in the heat of the day, probably low-mid 30's. We caught the train from our end to the northern end of the walk and the first town, Monterosso. The first two parts of the walk are the most difficult, the first section to Vernazza took was 3km and took about 2hr. We climbed up and over a cliff and mountain from one beach to the next. It was not super difficult, but in the warm sun, did get quite warm. The track was quite busy with people walking in both directions. The views of the towns were amazing, with terraced farms and vineyards in the foreground.
When we arrived in Vernazza we were very pleased to see a fountain with drinking water, which was quite cold. I was amazed to see how crowded the beaches were, although I did expect this, and the number of people lying on hot concrete sunbaking.
After some fruit and a rest by the water We left Ben and Steph in town and headed up the hill on the next section of the track. This section didn't take as long but was a bit further, about 4km, and also the most difficult. It was steeper, with many steps to again climb over the cliff between towns. The scenery and views of the two towns were very nice, and we resisted the temptation of stopping half way for a beer in the pub high up on the cliff.
In Corniglia we met back up with the Porters who had taken the train around, and then grabbed some Italiano Pizza for lunch. We then headed down to the beach which was bit of an effort, down a number of stairs. The water was cool and crystal clear, we had a swim and a rest in the shade. It was then time for more gelato, and to head to the next town.
The last two parts of the walk were much easier and did not take as long. The track to Manarola was mostly flat along the top of a cliff. This was the town that we had explored the night before so we didn't spend long in this town, we headed back to Riomaggiore.
Once back we headed down to the beach for a swim and to watch the sunset, on the rocky beach. The water was cool and clear, very refreshing after walking about 10km in the heat. Sunset was very nice, although not as spectacular as what we are spoiled to at Sandy Point. After a shower we cooked a big pasta and drank Vino to relax after a great day.
The next day Christine and I left Ben and Steph in bed and headed off on another hike to Porto Venere, basically along the coast in the opposite direction to where we had been the day before. This turned out to be the better of the two hikes, it was more challenging, had better views and was less crowded (we were seeing about one group of hikers per hour along the track). The first section was up to Colle del Telegraph, 515m above sea level (where we began). Along the way we say 2 baby possum like animals that could hardly move (they were that young) and didn't mind being patted. They were just sitting in a bush by the track. We got a number of nice views on the way up but the nicest was from a church, Monte Nero, where we could look straight down into the town we were staying in, and also along the coast in both directions. We could see much of what we had walked along yesterday, including the pub on the cliff and parts of all five villages, some were more prominent than others. Most of this was in the shade as the sun wasn't high enough to get over the hill, as we had left early today!
The next part of the hike was through the forest along the top of the hills, so was generally fairly flat and cool. Parts of the track were actually an exercise circuit, with weights, hurdles and bars to exercise on. Damien got into shape, pumping some iron! (see attached video, below). We also discovered some rickety old scaffolding in the middle of the bush, which Christine had to climb, it was about 10m and had views in 360deg, above the trees. Some how she made it down safely!
When we arrived in Campiglia we stopped for lunch. This was a small town high on the hill with views of the sea below. The cafe we stopped at was amazing, it had outdoor seating, a lawn with free standing hammocks, playground and chilled out music in the background. The food was very nice, coffee and a potato foccacia.






The next part of the walk was long and hot. This took us over 2 hours along exposed coastal cliffs, in the heat of the day. The views and cliffs were amazing, but apart from a few short breaks we powered on, as we were both wanting to get to Porto Venere. For the second time in our journey christine found her self slipping on a hiking trail and ending up on her ass, miles from anything. Was not as serious as the last time in the rockies, luckily.
Porto Venere is a beautiful town with old forts and churches. It is on a point of land with water on both sides. It was very busy with tourists, many english, this may be one of the towns that they have bought masses of land for their summer holidays. We rested, drank water from the cool fountain, ate gelato and dipped our feet in the water, before catching the last ferry at 5.30pm back to Rioggamore. If we had more time there was a beautiful stone beach on the back of the town with a church above it and rock archway which you can swim through.

The ride on the boat home was a lot easier than the walk to Porto Venere. It was good to look back at all the ground we had covered and to see the coast line from the water. Back in town we had a swim with Ben and Steph before another pasta and Vino for dinner. We enjoyed the second walk a lot more than the Cinque Terra walk, although if you are in the area, you would have to do the Cinque Terra, as its touristy (costs 5 euro). This is one of the most spectacular and beautiful part of Italy and I would highly recommend a few days here to anyone coming to Italy.

Florence

Our hostel in Florence, Emerald Fields, was only a short walk from the train station. It is a nice hostel, small rooms, we actually paid 5 euro extra per night for a private room, ahhh luxury! The staff are very friendly and are happy to make us real italian coffee, which is very nice. The kitchen is a bit of a bummer, they have ovens and stoves, but no permit, so we aren't supposed to use them.

We arrived and dumped our bags in our room before heading off again, on the train to Pisa for a few hours. We headed straight to the leaning tower, which was quite fun. It was not as tall or wide as I had expected, but was a lot prettier than I had imagined. We spent a bit of time watching other people take stupid photos, before taking some of our own. As for the rest of Pisa, there really is not much to see or do, and there were a lot of seedy looking people around the town, glad that we wont be here for the night.

Back on the train, all on our eurorail pass, we were planning on heading down to Sienna for dinner, but decided in the end that it would be too much of a rush, the last train back to Florence was only going to be at 9pm. By chance Christine got chatting to a nice girl from Finland, Natalie, at the train station. She was looking for a hostel, so we showed her ours, which she liked, and we ended up having dinner and gelato altogether.

Our first morning we had set the alarm and planned to head down to the Uffizi Gallery early. When the alarm went off however, we both rolled over and went back to sleep, which was very nice. What it meant, was that even though we were at the gallery by 10am, we had to wait for 2 hours to get inside, funnily enough I think the extra sleep was worth it. The gallery was amazing, so many paintings and sculptures, all 500-700 years old. Many of the greats were there, Michangelo, Leonardo, Raphelle... It was almost too much as by the end they all looked a bit the same, and we were getting very tired after standing for so long. On the way home we grabbed some food and a bottle of red wine and made our own bruschetta. It was funny as two other Australian girls were doing exactly the same, so we ate with them.

Sunday morning we actually got up when the alarm went off, and headed to the Academy Gallery, which is where Michangelo's 'David' is kept. This sculpture was amazing, its like 10m high. I learnt that it is the David from David and Goliath, its probably common knowledge, but it had never occurred to me. The rest of the gallery was a bit similar to the Uffizi but with a lot more Michangelo works. We spent a few hours here before seeing the Basilica di SS Annunziata, a church which is quite beautiful, and was actually having a mass.

In the afternoon we had a rest at the hostel, its been hot here, mid 30s, which is nice but also draining. We then headed down to the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge and shopping area for a bit of sightseeing, shopping and gelato. Florence is pretty much exactly what I expected from Italian cities. Lots of old buildings, churches, galleries and crowds. It is nice without being spectacular. We have enjoyed our time, but the crowds in the galleries has been a bit disappointing.

Our last day in Florence was a Monday, which meant that a lot of the galleries and attractions were closed, which didn't worry us as we had seen enough. We spent the day just exploring the city. We looked at a few markets, christine bought a belt and damien some sunglasses, also some food for lunch. We walked over to a big garden, Giardino di Boboli, which was you had to pay for, so we sat in a small park nearby. We then continued up the hill to Piazzale Michaelangelo which had great views over the city. There was also a storm approaching so we saw a lot of lightening off in the distance.

By the time we arrived back in town the storm had arrive, although it wasn't too bad, just a bit of rain. At first it was nice and cool, but quickly got a bit muggy! We had a look inside Piazza S Marco, the biggest church in town. It was not a glamourous as some that we had seen, but did have an amazing painted dome roof.

Our last night we went out for pizza and gelato, before tidying up our room. We are looking forward to about a week with friends from Melb, Ben and Steph.

Italy - Venice

We had very high expectations of Venice, yet when we arrived we were both spellbound! Instead of walking to our accomodation we took the Vaporetto (ferry).

Our arrival in the early afternoon, cruising down the Grand Canale, in the warm sun was just amazing, so different to anything we had ever seen before (except the Venetian in Las Vegas I guess!)

Our room in Best B & B was very nice, and we were able to use a small kitchen which was a bonous. Only one bathroom for the whole floor was a pain at times, but comparatively cheap and in a great location near Rialto bridge. The lady who ran it was very nice but did not speak any english, but I would definately recommend this place.

After checking we went for a walk through the mercado (market) and over the Rialto bridge. At one stage we turned a corner to see a small canal and bridge. Probably only the 3rd or 4th bridge we had seen, Christine remarked 'Oh look, another bridge!'... one of only a few hundred just like it!

Next morning we stopped at the mercado to buy some pescare and scampi (fish and prawns). We also got some vegetables to cook up for dinner. The rest of the day we spent walking around semi randomly. We decided against buying a detailed map, instead opting to just explore and see where we ended up. We did see the Rialto bridge and San Marco square. On our way we saw many small canals and bridges, much less crowded than the main tourist areas and buildings with beautiful windows and doors. Our poor memory card is getting a work out this week, I thought we took a lot of photos in the Swiss Alps, but Christine has taken it to a whole new level in Venice.

La Biennale di Venezia is a art exhibition with artists from all over the world that is on at the moment, it only happens every second year. Part of this is that there are many small galleries open around Venice which are free to visit, so we saw a few of these including Russia and Australia which were really good.

We sat and ate Gelato under a bridge, but had to eat very quick as it was melting everywhere. We then headed home, cooked dinner and then had fruit salad on the Grand Canale. Our dinner was awesome, vegetable in white wine vinegar and pescare e scampi with rosemary, garlic and butter.

Wednesday morning we headed to one of the two main exhibitions of the Bienale. This was in an old shipyard and had many sculptures, drawings, paintings, video, prints etc... One of my favourites was an ice sculpture of an eagle.We then spent the afternoon island hopping, including a few hours on Lido, eating lunch, swimming, lying and walking on the beach. The beach was crowded which we expected, the weather all week was sunny and in the high 20's. The water was very warm, so we spent a while swimming.

On the way back we had gelato at Punta Sabbioni, passed through Burano which looked really nice with very colourful houses, Mazzorbo and Murrano. It was getting late, but we did get some nice sunset photos out on the water.

Thursday we had a busy day heading back to San Marco and into the church. This was very busy with a long line, but we learnt a new trick, just follow a tour group who has priority access, much quicker! The church was beautiful with dome ceilings, mosaics and paintings and lots of gold. Unfortunately our tour group was Spanish so we didn't understand much of what the guide was saying...

We then went to the second main exhibition of the Bienale, which was predominately country based, eg one artist was selected from each country to contribute works. This was great and took most of the day. We liked the paintings from Brazil and Spain and also the Russian exhibitions. The Australian exhibition was fascinating and a bit disturbing. The main video was a series of roadside clips with road kill in the foreground. A guy dressed in black would then come an pick up the road kill. There was also another video of the car from mad max driving through the desert in slow motion.

Some other works were not very good at all, like Israel which looked like a 3yos drawings and the Austrian exhibition which looked like photos from the set of 'Bruno' the movie. Many were also boring videos, that looked like random scenes that anyone with a camera could create.

After the exhibition we rushed back to the hotel, and then out again on the ferry, which was packed and felt like it was going to sink. We then caught a train to a pretty little town called Treviso to meet up with Elisa and Roberto (Scotland tour) for dinner. After a walk around town and a Venetian Spritzer we headed to a nice restaurant for an Italiano Pizza. Our 3 days in Venice we really only got lost once, apart from tonight, following Roberto around we had to ask for directions about 3 times, but it was fun! The town was very nice with trendy shops and restaurants and a university. It was great to catch up with our friends, and hope to see them again, in London or Melbourne perhaps!

Our last night in Venice we also saw another storm (we had one the first night). They only last a few hours but are amazing, the sky lights up with lightening and the thunder is deafening. It also pours rain, but we were inside so it was great to watch!

While we have done a lot in Venice, and had great weather, I think the best part was simply walking around the canals, especially away from the crowds. It is a quiet and beautiful city... oh and did I mention that there were a few nice bridges?