Saturday 15 September 2007

Small fish in big Rome

After a pretty ordinary train trip (what a relief) we arrived safely in Rome. Our hotel was just down the road from the train station = dodgy characters but not so far to go carrying our heavy backpacks. The Pensione Dino (sounded really Italian to me!) turned out to be okay, although we weren't used to paying up front and in cash - we were worried he was going to stitch us up, but all our stuff has been in our room when we've come home from a day of sight-seeing. And he was really nice and warned us about pickpocketers on the metro and buses (so we never did the metro and bus). So we let him away with it.

Rome; gosh, what can we say - it's busy, big, and beautiful. All you can hear day long is honking car horns and speeding scooters. Although how they know where they're going or what lane there supposed to be in is too difficult for us to work out - we've yet to see lines on what've turned out to be three lane roads! But despite it's confusing streets and our constant "let's get out the map" we've managed to find our way to most of the famous sites and have enjoyed getting lost in the many piazzas.

We walked through the city to see the Colloseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon. We were walking down some random street (well okay it was just down from the Colloseum so must be famous) and bumped into a lady that Matt used to work with in Queensland Treasury - small world! So a big hi to Lynn, John, and Bella!!
Also met up with Jo, a friend of mine from soccer, who treated us to the best gelato in Rome - it was delish! And who showed us her favourite Pantheon and took us for a tour (albeit a 2 sec tour!) around her 'typical Roman apartment' - tiny!




And today we visited the Vatican City for St. Peters and the museums - 1.5 hours after entering the museums we finally got the Sistine Chappel which took our breaths away! Unfortunately we couldn't take photos of the ceiling but we do have some photos of the other museums before we get to the Chapel.



And because there's so much to see and do we decided to hop on an open top tourist bus for a day. And there was English commentary this time, score! Although I have to admit I was getting a bit lost with all their history. It's all very impressive but too much for us to take in at one time.

Tomorrow we head for a night at Venice - Matt is busy trying to find accommodation, we've heard its quite expensive in Venice so we may have to treat ourselves to a 3 star hotel - woah!

Oh and Matt got his hair cut Roman style - it was all too much though, so we fixed it right up - see before and after below - hilarious! :)

Thursday 13 September 2007

Florence and the gorgeous Cinque Terre

So from Nice we took an overnight train to Florence - what an experience that was, and one we're not particularly keen to relive! We were a bit dubious about the train ride as we had to share a four berth cabin and we weren't sure what type of people we were going to get stuck with. In our minds we were certain it was going to be two oldies who just wanted to sleep. But to our relief and surprise it turned out to be a couple from the UK who were on their honeymoon - they had a six pack of beer in their bags, so we knew it was fate! We got on famously and sat up until the early morning being the rowdy cabin and being told to keep quiet by the terribly grumpy, yet ever so helpful to sell us overpriced wine, Italian train conductor. We decided to try and get some sleep (about 4hrs of it all up) but it was no good. The bunks were uncomfortable and the train kept stopping and starting and was a bit loud. We're glad we did the overnighter cause now we know NEVER to do it again - a six pack and two bottles of wine didn't make it any better!


When we arrived in Florence we dropped off our bags and then headed back to the train station to travel 2 1/2 hours to La Spezia to walk the Cinque Terre (5 coastal towns spread across 12 kms of hiking trails). The views were magnificent and definitely worth the effort, especially since we were a little grumpy from no sleep! We had planned to stop in Pisa on the way back to see the Tower, but no luck with train times etc.



Our second day in Florence was basically us being tourists and walking through the town. We have to admit that it didn't blow us away, but it was definitely a beautiful city and a great introduction to the Italian people and their way of life. We've found them to be more accommodating that the French, much friendlier and welcoming! It's not so daunting to walk into a cafe and order something because most people speak a lot of English.

The only downside has been the tourists and queues. We saved up all our waiting power for Rome, because we were sure that we would have to be patient plus to see all the sights there. So unfortunately no Michaelangelo's David for us in Florence, but we did see some magnificent architecture and detail in sculptures on buildings and churches.

Sunday 9 September 2007

Soaking up the Mediterranean sun in Nice

We arrived in Nice after a 4 hour train journey which wasn't the best. We'de booked and paid for seats in first class but on our ticket it said 'seats as available' - turned out there weren't two seats available beside each other, so we spent the majority of the time in the bar. Didn't turn out too bad, but we could have paid second class rates and done the same thing! Anyway we did get to practice our French with the train conductors and waitress so that was a bonus. And we got see some beautiful scenery as the train went along the south coast of France.

The weather has been nothing short of perfect. A slight breeze and sunshine all day long - which of course has keeps all the tourists out and about. And there are loads! It's hard to actually hear a French accent, there's English and Americans and Aussies everywhere. And Nice is such a coastal town that there are so many souvenir shops everywhere we turn. But we've enjoyed our time here as its been so different to anywhere else we've been.

Lots of swimmers and sunbakers - speaking of which, I wasn't prepared for topless sunbaking, they do it here like its the most normal thing to do, I was so shocked! LOL!

This time we did manage to hire a couple of bikes and spent a day riding up and down the prominade, it was a great way to get about and see all the different views. And a great way to potentially die! We had to ride on some roads for a part of our trip and omigosh, you take your life into your hands! So we didn't spend too long on the road!



I also found my favourite place; a flower market! It was gorgeous - and they also had other markets as well, lots of spices, fruit, veges, fish, bakery type products. It was huge and we got a good feast there for a morning tea of wild strawberries and brazil nuts.



And just down the road from the flower market was an Irish pub that we went to to watch the rugby. The Kiwis were playing before us and they packed out the pub, so we got a good seat and settled down to watch the Wallabies. There was a Scotland vs Lithuania soccer game playing at the same time and they showed that as well. We could hardly hear the rugby for the Scottish hooligan fans going off at the soccer! Then we decided to stay and watch the England vs America game but couldn't decide who to barrack for! But we didn't see the end of the match (was hard to see the screen cause of all the English supporters) because we got talking to a couple from Newcastle who gave us lots of tips for when we go to England. We got nicely toasted and then proceeded to try and find our way home - very eventful evening! Matt ate McDonalds - he NEVER eats McDonalds!



Today is our last day in Nice; we're planning on making a day trip to Cannes (we passed it on the train on the way here and it looked magnificent) and then we're taking a night trip and leaving France for Italy - our first stop is Florence, really looking forward to it!

Oh-la-la Lyon

Well I think it's fair to say that we loved Paris, but we're in love with Lyon - what a city. If we were to live anywhere in France, Lyon would be the place. It's obviously much smaller than Paris but with a bit of the same look and feel. Most of the areas reminded me of the Latin Quarter in Paris, houses built on narrow cobblestone streets overlooking one or both of the city's rivers (the Saone and the Rhone). There's something like 30 bridges, lots of pedestrian bridges...the Goodwill Bridge has got nothing on these!


The weather was a bit windy and chilly but the sun was out which made it very bearable, so we decided to take a cruise down the two rivers. Turned out a lot of other people also wanted to take a cruise, which was fine with us until we looked around and realised we were the only two people under 50! Obviously it was seniors day out and we hadn't heard! Most of our photos are taken from the cruise.

Apparently Lyon has the largest shopping district in France, much to my delight and Matt's dismay! They have a massive pedestrian mall near where we stayed and then closer to the train station was a 5 floor shopping centre - oh how I loved that shopping centre. I hadn't been in once since we left so I was like a kid in a candy store. Heaven!

We also wanted to hire some bikes (well, let's be honest about this...Matt wanted to hire some bikes!) and take a ride along the river - bit like Southbank but much much longer - in the sunshine. But, unfortunately, the bike machine didn't accept our credit card. They have these bike racks all throughout the city that have bikes for hire - you get it at one rack and you can return it to any other rack in the city. Great concept because it only costs 60 cents to hire one for an hour and everybody seems to use them. I'm betting thats how these French women stay so trim after eating croissants and baguettes all day long!




We also decided to try and extend our stay in Lyon with the hopes of seeing the Wallabies play but unfortunately we couldn't get any reasonably priced accommodation at such a late stage...

So we really enjoyed our time in Lyon and hopefully we'll get to go back - we'd like to visit Annecy and Grenoble as well, unfortunately we just couldn't fit in this time round...