Europe: Rome part one

Sunday-Rome

What a full on day!

We were warned that Rome would wear us out and it sure has! We got into Rome just after lunch and had a bus tour. Rome is just FULL of ruins, rubbish and crazy driving!

Nuno, our driver nicely took us up to the a special keyhole which isn’t normally on the bus city tour but has an awesome view through a small keyhole of the St Paul’s Basillica lined up with trees. Beautiful. You can also see three countries from it. Italy, Vatican City and something else I can’t remember!

Rome is a little overwhelming, so many famous things to see. I saw the mouth of truth which features in a few of my favourite movies including ‘Roman Holiday’. We got dropped off for a walking tour where we saw more sights and stopped at the Roman Forum and Colosseum. We skipped the line because Kim (our tour manager) got us group tickets and showed us a quick entrance through the forum instead of the colosseum entrance. 

We browsed the ruins in the Roman Forum and tried to soak in the fact that 2000-odd years ago this is where it was all happening. Luke loved it. He was totally in his element. 

The colosseum (colloseo) was a little underwhelming. I think it was just another case of inflated expectations. 

That being said, it is amazing and an awesome sight to see. 

After this we continued with the walking tour and saw the Trevi Fountain etc. THAT is also incredibly awesome and BIG!

After all that walking we were puffed and hungry. We were promised a ‘short’ walk and a metro ride to dinner which turned into a marathon adventure with 51 people, 1 tour managed and the BIGGEST STATION IN THE WORLD!! Seriously though, Termini is huge and we walked for nearly 10 minutes from one end to the other to get on the metro. Once we were finally all through the station and at the colloseo station we walked to our restaurant. 

The meal there was quite nice. Lasagna  It tasted nice and fresh. 
The place overlooked the Colosseum which was pretty special. 

The we went to check in to a Express Holiday Inn. By far the nicest place we’ve stayed on tour. We’d even recommend it if it wasn’t so far out of the city.  

Staying out if the city is a real pain because you need to use all this public transport to get home etc. Especially on tour it’s a little annoying because you end up having to run to the schedule of what the tour bus is doing, not what you want to fit in or see/do. 

-T

Change, revolution,
Political history.
The Roman Forum.

-L

Tips For Travelers:
Dumpy hotels close to big monuments are sometimes worth it over nicer hotels (for the same price) out of the city center. 

Rome’s metro isn’t that frequent (stop wise, time wise it’s fine) so you need to know what you want to do/see and plan ahead. Walking long distances is also necessary here. 

Apart from seeing the big things like the Colloseum, Vatican City etc. Rome isn’t somewhere I’d recommend you spend too much time in. See what you’ve got to see then leave. 

Thanks for visiting my site again! keep checking back for more updates!

Europe: Florence

Saturday-Florence

Fiorenzi as the Italians call it. Up bright and earlier than the sun (it appears this isn’t hard here as the sun is a sleepy head. I’ve never met a continent more in need on daylight savings…) we drove to get a nice view of the city and were much more impressed by it’s beauty now. The night before when we’d been incredibly disappointed, but this morning things looked more hopeful for Italy!

We went to a leather demonstration and were told how to tell if the jacket or whatever you’re buying is real leather or not. Luke hummed and ha-ed about getting a jacket (they were a bit more expensive then we’d anticipated) but at the end of the day it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy Italian leather in Italy, and it will last a lifetime. 

I bought a puzzle ring in the same shop. My family, for one reason or another, are into puzzle rings, so it was nice to get one of my own. 

We went on a walking tour with a local guide. He was very knowledgeable and told us heaps about the city and the famous Italians who’ve lived here (Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo etc). The huge church here, the Douomo, is a sight to be seen and was once the largest church in the world. 

We walked through a heavenly indoor food market where there was crazy cuts of meat, huge wheels of cheese and fresh pasta bring made. 
We asked one of the fish mongers of there was anywhere to buy pizza for lunch and after a discussion between about 5 different fish mongers one of them took us for a walk to the pizza shop they’d decided was best. It turned out to be a great place full of locals which served pizza sandwich things… I awkwardly ordered by using finger signs and pointing. In retrospect I probably knew the Italian for everything I ordered but I got all flustered when I was there and spluttered around. 

We ended up with one spinach, and one olive/tomato one and shared them. Delicious! The mozzarella here isn’t hard like it is at home. Even in the service stations the mozzarella sandwiches are moist and soft. I really like. It’s more like the texture of Boccochini at home. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent looking through the church I mentioned before, sitting in cafes people watching, walking and shopping in the markets!

Dinner was at Ristorante pizzeria il gate e la volpe. It was really yummy, and they had a big woodfired pizza oven which they cooked our starter bread in. Delicious! The best pizza I’ve had in Italy so far and it didn’t have anything at all on it (though we did dip it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar). 

We were even mildly social and went out to the red garter pub with everyone else for a beer. Gloria rocked out on Karaoke as did Julius and a few others. Our table also got a massive thing of beer with s firework thing on top!

-T

Famous Florentines,
Leather, gold and cobblestones. 
Where art meets science. 

-L

Europe: Via Pisa

Friday: To Florence, via Pisa

We left Nice and headed into Italy. My  initial impressions of Italy weren’t great, which was disappointing. It’s really dirty and unkept. 

We stopped at a servo for our lunch break and there was a pizzeria (of sorts) inside. Nothing high class, but they made their own bases so I was willing to give it a go. The slices were HUGE and it was actually quite nice. Our first pizza in Italy!

They put Semolina on the bench to stretch out the dough and stretched it with the palms of their hands. The dough seemed a lot stretchier then we make it at home, and I’d love to know the recipe!

Our second stop was the leaning tower of Pisa. What a sight! Incredibly surreal to be seeing it in real life. There wasn’t enough time to climb it which was disappointing, but we got those shots of holding it up etc so that was good. 

That evening, once we checked into our dumpy hotel, was the much anticipated Tuscan dinner. It was a bit of a letdown, but maybe my expectations were too high? The Secondi was really nice- a lamb, rocket and parmesan salad and roasted potatos. The entre was a bit too pre-packaged for my liking (it was a pizza base with crushed tomato on top), and didn’t taste fresh. The primo was some pasta with sauce. The sauce was nice and the pasta yummy!

We had an antipasti (first) and dolce (last) as well, both were nice!

There was also heaps of wine and we sat with the same group we sat with last night. They’re nice and made the evening very enjoyable!

In the end I think it was one of those things where my expectations were just a little too high.  Must learn to adjust to the more ‘budget’ mentality of Contiki. 
Apparently the budget doesn’t extend to the clubs and bars though because lots of people seem to get completely wasted every night and Luke and I wonder a) how they keep going hungover with no sleep and b) how they afford it!

People had told us that the drinking side of the tour wasn’t a big thing and that it was optional. From our experience so far this is only partly true. Yes, you don’t HAVE to drink, but that’s what most people are there to do and it’s the mindset of even the tour manager to ‘party’ and ‘have a good time at the bar’. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I just wish we knew it before we paid for our tour and we might have considered paying more for a different tour company. Not recommending Contiki at this stage, but will keep you posted. 

-T

Ciao Italia!
Food! Wine! Singing and dancing!
We could belong here. 

-L