Day 29 - Rome

We had a huge day planned for today, so we started early.

First stop was the Vatican.  We jumped on an early train, with what seemed to be everyone in rome, and headed out.



We had purchased jump the line tickets so we got to walk past everyone in the line and went through security.  We grabbed our audio guide and started checking out the museum. 

There were heaps of statues in the museum of everything you could imagine.  There was also a room full of tapestries, even one that looked like Jesus' eyes were following you round the room.  I found the mosaics to be wonderful.  not only the ones on the floor, but this table with ducks on it was awesome.























We followed the arrows around the museum, checking out all of the different art works and old stuff, before being lead into the Sistine chapel. 

At first it was very breathtaking with all the paintings all over the walls and ceiling.  But when I went to look for the infamous painting, I really had to look for it.  Call me ignorant, but I thought the infamous painting of god with the outstretched hand took up a large section if not the entire ceiling.  But it was only one section of a ceiling segmented into many different parts all telling the creation story.  Impressive, but not what I imagined.

We then went out to St Peter's square to check it out, after stopping for a crepe of course.

The square was huge and there was a massive line stretching out over half the way around it.  When you followed the line around, we realised that it was the line to get into the basilica and the pope was conducting mass.  We got to see the pope on the big screen!

We hung out in the square for a bit, before making our way to the Coloseum to be ready for our tour at 3pm.

Getting there a bit early, we decided to have lunch with a view at a cafe overlooking the Coloseum.

 We met up with out tour group and we became one of those silly people following a lady around with a stick held in the air wearing earpieces.

She took us all into the coloseum first and it was massive.  She explained about how, after being abandoned, much of the structure was pillaged of its marble and lead over the years.  Also how there was a massive earth quake that resulted in much of it falling down.  Some reconstruction work has been done to keep whats left standing, but otherwise its as it was left all those years ago, and gee its impressive!

  It was great to have a guide who truely loved what she was telling us about.  She was a local Roman, born in Rome with a massive love for her city.  We were able to learn so much, simply from her enthusiasm.

As we were walking and checking everything out, a pigeon flew up from below us, inside the Coloseum, and landed on top of a ruin above our heads.  As it did, it knocked down a stone that fell down and landed on my head.  It really hurt!.

After the coloseum, we were off to the Roman Forum.  It was here that we got to see the place where Ceaser was cremated.  People still leave flowers there today, that is how much he is still loved.  We also got to see many different ruins of things like basilicas and living quarters.  It was really cool to see.

 We then were off up Palentine hill.  Once at the top, we were able to see the ruins of the old palace, and a wonderful view back to the Coloseum. 

It was here that the tour guide left us.  On the way out, we got to see the ruins of an aquaduct.

We went to catch the tram back and hopped the wrong one. So we ended up further out of town.  We did get to see the Circus Maximus.  This is the place where Ceaser was stabbed to death by the senitors of the day.

We found the right tram and headed back to the hotel, before heading out for dinner.  It's still nice not to have to cook..

Day 28 – Pisa to Rome

Up really early this morning we were of to the train station again. As for breakfast, well our bed and breakfast turns out is only a bed. So we had a coffee and pastry at the station before boarding the train.

We're first class again today, which is quite nice. We have two seats facing each other and a little table all with no neighbours to harass us, nice!

The train must be running late as we have stopped several times just in the middle of nowhere and had to wait for quite a long time.

Once we arrived in Rome, we caught a local train out to our hotel. We checked in then headed out to explore. Rome is a busy little town. Tourists moving everywhere.

Our first thing to tick off the list today was the Spanish steps. They rose from the centre of a piazza up and overlooking a fountain and a they were quite cool, but there were so many people sitting on them and moving about that it was hard to get a good picture and sometimes even hard to move up them.

We found a little restaurant and had a very yummy salad and pizza lunch before moving on.

Next stop was the Trevi Fountain. In my head I had pictured a large 3 teired, circular fountain where the water spits out from the top and cascades down through the dishes, I was way off. The fountain comes from the side of a building and is absolutely huge! It's ornately carved with figures and animals with water coming from heaps of different spots. It is quite pretty, but again there were people everywhere and it was hard to get in and check it out from every angle.

We caught a bus then tram over to Trevasere, to check out the medieval style town. We got to the river and decided we'd have a drink down by the water before heading in to the town. That was really as far as we got. We bought a drink each and headed down to the waters edge. We found a spot beside the water where the water was gushing over the weir. The sound was really cool, and there were heaps of balls caught in the churning water just at the base of the weir. There was a group of older people just up from us with a video camera pointing at the water. We couldn't work out what they were up to, until one of them took a blue coloured head from a bag and walked up the bank. The next thing we knew the head was in the water and floating over the weir. It was really cool to watch and they were filming it.

We hung out here for quite a while before deciding it was time to head back for dinner. On our way we found some ruins that were in the centre of the roadway so we went to check it out. When we looked there were some cats, just hanging amongst the ruins, but when you looked closer still, there weren't just some cats, there were heaps! They were sleeping and sitting on so many different pieces of roman ruins, it was really weird to see. Some were even tame enough that they were on the footpath beside the excavation getting petted and fed.

We left the cats then and headed off for food. We had a pretty uneventful dinner before heading up to bed.

Day 27 - Florence to Pisa

We were up early this morning and had another average breaky before we were back on another train. This time is was a regional train from Florence to Pisa.   No option of first class this time, so we were slumming it like everyone else.

Arriving in Pisa, it was hot. We dragged our luggage through the streets till we found a door with a small sign on it telling us that this was our B & B for the night. Pressing the buzza we got no reply, so we kept trying for a bit before calling the number. The person told us they would be only 15 mins away, so after waiting over ½ hour we tried the buzza again and were let in.

The lady didn't speak English, so we had another lady on the phone translating. Of course this room wasn't ready either so after the lady removed someone's bags we were advised to leave our things here and come back a little later. Very very reluctantly, we took our most valuables and locked everything else up in the hope that no one would steal our things, then headed for the tower.

It was definitely on a lean, that's for sure! So we lined up for tickets to climb up. The tickets were for a time slot, so we got the entry for the other monuments around the tower as well and checked those out before our 1.30 tower climb.

The other monuments were pretty cool. The cathedral even held the remains of a saint, and you could see them too. But we were most excited about our climb to come.

We had to put our bags in lockers before the climb because you weren't able to take any bags up with you at all. We joined the que just before 1.30 and were soon able to go in. Some people were turned away because they still had their bags with them, but we were all good.

The guide told us all about the tower before we were able to go up. It is the bell tower for the cathedral, and it even started to lean during construction. That was about when the original architect abandoned ship. Once they got to the 5^th floor, they realised that they were loosing a battle, so a different architect took on the job and decided to do an Aussie type fixer up and added another 2 floors. He put these two on an opposite lean in the hope to straighten the tower. But obviously this didn't work either. So the tower has a bend in it too.

Once inside it was like a carnival fun house where you don't know what is level anymore. There is a steel pole in the centre at the bottom that is straight, but it still doesn't feel right. As we climbed, we could see where hundreds of people had done the same for so many years as the marble steps were worn right down. As you walked, the lean made you walk to different sides of the steps, so the tread patterned changed depending on the angle of the lean.

After over 400 steps, we were at the first level. You could see out for miles and miles. The angle of the lean was very dramatic from up there and to make it worse for one scared of heights, the fence there to stop your fall was only a temporary one. This freaked me out even more.

Then we headed up to the next floor through a tiny little door. The tight winding staircase took us up to the bell house. They were all different sizes, but all very big. From here the lean was even more dramatic, but at least the fence was more secure. They even had a glass pannel over the hole down the center so you could see all the way to the bottom.

After our tower climb, we found some very poor lunch and found a guy hiring out 2 and four seater bikes. They had 4 wheels and two steering wheels (one not connected), and a roof over the top to keep the sun off. They were only 10euro per hour so off we went, armed with a map and some loose directions on where to go to avoid the traffic. After the first few corners, Clay doing the driving whilst I took photos, we had a handle on it and were having a great time. Dodging the traffic and pedestrians we headed along the route set out for us. We even got to cross the bridges over the water.

After the adrenaline rush, we tripped around the streets a little more before returning the bike. We then thought we had better head back to the room to make sure our things were still there. All good, few!

After a shower and freshen up we headed out for food. We checked out some shops along the way before finding a little restaurant on one of the back streets. There was a sign out the front saying yes, we're open, and the menu looked promising so we went on in. Thinking we would sit in the front room, we both wondered why the waiter was taking us towards the back on the restaurant, but we followed. Through a little hallway he took us then what opened out in front of us was amazing. It was a beautiful little garden area with all the tables set up with candles and trees above. Like a little hidden treasure. 

We both ordered pizza, cause you have to eat pizza in Pisa. We even had a bottle of wine and it was so yummy we not only shared it but drank it all. It was a great meal and great atmosphere and we just sat and took our time eating and drinking and chatting. An awesome way to finish off the day.

Day 26 – Venice to Florence

We woke pretty early this morning and went down for breaky. It wasn't that flash.

Back upstairs we packed all our things again, did the under bed check again and left our luggage at the hotel after checking out.

Then we went exploring again.

We had some fruit and coconut as we wandered and stopped to buy a few more bits and pieces before finding a place for lunch. I had a yummy lasagne and Clay had a yummy pizza.

We strolled through the crowds back to collect our luggage before getting on a train to Florence. We upgraded our tickets this time so we're first class all the way baby :)

Arriving in Florence, the maps lead us slightly astray before we finally found our Hotel. They couldn't find our reservation at first, then the room wasn't ready, so we had to wait for a little bit, but they gave us coffee while we waited. We got our room and it was a little bit awesome. The entire ceiling changed colours and the shower gave you water from every angle.

We were going to go check out Michaelangelo David, but the gallery was closed being a Sunday, so we went for the next best thing, a replication. We jumped on a bus and headed for Plaza Michaelangelo. Up the winding road we went on the local bus till we came to the top of a mountain. The statue was quite impressive, but not as impressive as the view. Absolutely stunning!

After some ice cream, we caught another bus back down the mountain and found a little pizzeria for dinner. It was a yummy dinner and I ate an entire pizza all by myself.

We wandered back to the hotel and went to hand in our key when the doorman asked if we had been to see the Old Bridge. On replying that we hadn't, he informed us that this is something that we must do before leaving Florence. So we hailed a cab and headed out again. 

 There were people everywhere in the streets, wandering, eating ice cream and even singing and dancing. It was great, and the Bridge was very cool too. We had a play with the camera and ended up with some pretty cool shots, if I do say so myself!

We decided to walk back to the hotel, so made sure we got some ice cream on the way, oh and chocolate.

It was a lovely night and we really wished we could have had more time in Florence. There were so many things that we didn't get a chance to see, and the atmosphere of the town was very happy and friendly. Maybe one day we'll have to go back.

Day 25 – Venice

We arrived in Venice at 9.30 off the sleeper train, glad to have stopped moving even just for a little while.

We found our hotel and checked in early before going out to explore.

There were little shops and stalls everywhere.  The first thing we found were HUGE meringues. It seems to be very much a tourist town. We strolled through the streets, looking in the little shops and stalls. We stopped in a little restaurant for a Pizza lunch and checked out the Gondolas and boats on the water.

I really liked Venice. It was different from anywhere we had seen before and was quite pretty. I was always told that Venice was a smelly place and that there was heaps of rubbish floating in the canals, but this was not my experience at all. There were the occasional smells, and the odd bottle or piece of plastic that has escaped and ended up in the water, but overall it was quite clean, and much much cleaner than Paris.

We walked till we found the Marco square. We thought we'd take a seat in the shade on some lovely steps, only to be told you cannot sit anywhere other than in the restaurants in the square. When we asked about the water coming up and filling the square she giggled and said that this is something that only happens in winter.

I was really needing to use the bathroom so we found the WC. It was here that I spent the most money going to the toilet on our entire trip so far. It was 1.50euro!

We hopped a cross canal gondola and headed back towards the hotel. Here we had a shower and got ready to head out for dinner.

We found a lovely little restaurant and sat for a quite meal. The Moscato wine was amazing, so yummy.

After dinner we went for a lovely gondola ride through the quiet back canals and through the grand canal. The Gondola man was very informative and told us about many different churches and houses along our trip and answered all our questions.

Did you know the water in the small canals is 3m deep and in the grand canal its 6m deep?

We stopped for some ice cream on the way back to our hotel.

What a wonderful day.

Day 24 – Paris

Today was our last day in Paris. We woke up late, again, then packed up and went to do some washing. Once that was sorted, we left our luggage with the hotel for a while and went for a walk to grab some lunch.

After lunch we caught a bus out to Italia 2, a shopping centre nearby, and did some shopping before heading back to collect our luggage and head to the train station. We were on the overnight sleeper train from Paris to Venice.

This was going to be an adventure..... There were 4 beds in each compartment and we were pretty sure we had the entire cabin to ourselves when a guy came in. We thought that hopefully there was only one, but no, there was a second one too. The first guy was ok, he was quite and kept to himself, but the second was extremely noisy. Everything he did was loud, from playing games on his phone to making phone calls.

I went down to the food carriage to get dinner and waited in the very very slow line to get a very average meal to take back to the cabin. We had dinner and set ourselves up for sleeping. I hadn't been asleep long before I was woken up by a god awful smell. The loud guy had decided that the cabin was a wonderful place to eat a can of something that looked like sardines. The smell was like cat food left out in the sun for a few days, maybe the cat food would have smelt better than this stench.....

After it cleared we were finally able to get to sleep. Well something that was sort of like sleep. We were constantly woken by bumps, people knocking on doors, loud guy snoring, train station stops, you name it it woke us up. This was possibly the worst ever nights sleep either of us has had.

By 9.30am the next morning we were in Venice and glad to be rid of the sleeper train.

Day 23 - Paris

We had another sleep in today. We're getting very tired.

Once up and about we headed for the Louvre. The building itself is very pretty and was once a French Palace. You go through the glass pyramid and into a huge chamber where you buy your tickets and audio guides and start on your exploration.

We checked out the Egyptian artifacts before we headed towards the famous Mona Lisa.

She wasn't as impressive as I thought she would be. I was expecting a huge portrait about 2m tall, but she is only about 50cm high. There were so many people cramming in to get a look or have their picture taken near it, I was amazed. And the security is nothing of what I expected either. I was expecting guards and no pictures to be taken, but no, just a fence and a piece of glass over it. Maybe it's not the real one.......

We then took the train back to our hotel and had a bit of a rest before heading out again. This time we were on a night time cruise then bus tour of the city.

The cruise was very cold. But we got to check out the city from a different angle. The coolest thing for me was the padlocks. On some of the bridges, hundreds of people have attached padlocks with their names and the name of their partner on them, onto the bridge. Very cool.

Then we were on the bus. We were up top at the front, perfect spot. We toured round the city, checking out all the landmarks under lights, then we stopped in front of the Eifel tower, perfectly timed for her to start her sparkle.

We then went for a walk in the nightclub type section of paris and checked out the souvenir shops. We found some dinner and another crepe before we braved the train ride back to our unit, and survived.