CIAO CIAO CIAO!! As our Italian adventure comes to an end, I thought I best update you all on all of our activities!
I'm writing this on the bus back to Rome and I actually cannot remember what I wrote about on the last blog.. but I don't think I've spoken about Italy yet, so I'll start from the start and if you've already heard about it, consider it a recap on the last blog.
Our first stop was Venice! ( I just remembered my last blog was upon arrival at Venice.. so we're sweet.. no recap after all). We stayed off the mainland as I mentioned and it was perfect! We got the campsite shuttle bus everyday into the island then when we were sick of having selfie sticks shoved in our faces, we could go back to camp and sit by our lush pool. Venice was beautiful, despite the craziness of it being flogged by tourists and tourist traps (it's actually tough being a tourist some times), it's a super picturesque city that we loved. Gondolas were a hefty €100 for a half hour ride.. so we got the water boat (€7 each, yew!) from one side of the island to the other, caught up with toms aunty and uncle, commenced our "must eat pizza and/or pasta at least once everyday" diet, sat by our pool, missed our camp shuttle bus at night.. twice ('merica tourists are impossible to stop talking about themselves), ..........
Next stop was Monterosso, the first of the 5 towns of Cinque Terre! We caught 2 trains, Venice to Milan, Milan to Monterosso, then we were picked up by our lovely shuttle bus driver, Leo, who took us up the mountain (and back down everyday) to Corvara where our little hostel stood. We booked this hostel in advance before we left for the trip to ensure we didn't miss out and it was worth it! Our host was a lovely Italian man, Francesco, in his early 30's.. we think.. who built and runs the hostel himself! Everyday we went into Monterosso and every night when we came home, Francesco and his sisters made us a delicious Italian dish and dessert! It was amaaaazing! We didn't have to lift a finger, which was good because after a day of hiking the cinque Terre, we struggled to stand, let alone cook!
So, the deal with the Cinque Terre hike is that you hike to as many towns as you like and then you get the train that runs between the towns, back to your town. So, first day, Tom and I are keen beans and we were like yes, we're gonna hike the whole thing today and then train home. Great plan. Start the hike, vertical steps.. up....and. ..up..and up..and up. Not one person ever warned us that a) the hike is an actual hike (I'm not sure what I expected when they said hike, I thought they were being dramatic), and b) the direction we went, from Monterosso to Vernazza, is in fact the hardest part of the whole hike.. I died. I obviously survived.. but I feel like, seeing as no one did me the favor of warning me, I will warn all of you, THE CINQUE TERRE IS ACTUALLY HARD AT CERTAIN POINTS, AND AT THESE POINTS YOU WILL THINK THAT DEATH SOUNDS REALLY NICE RATHER THAN GOING UP VERTICAL STEPS, CLIMBING ON ALL FOURS. Dramatic rant over. It wasn't that hard, you'll all be fine if you one day do it, because the views are worth it and the flat areas of the track actually even out the super tough bits. And because you work so hard, you get to reward yourself with as much pizza and pasta as you like! Yay! Anyway, pretty much the whole walk between the 3 first towns (the hardest parts of the hike) we were like "THANK God we don't have to walk back..Gee it would suck if you had to walk back.. wow thank god for trains" etc etc etc. .. guess what. We get to Corneglia (3rd town, 3 hours of walking complete) and hear a couple next to us at lunch.. "I can't believe the trains are on strike today"........
I'm not going to continue with the story because Bec and Tom killed themselves when they heard that sentence.
Juuuuuust kidding!
Yes, we walked all the way back to Monterosso.
Cinque Terre was amazing, we walked the last 2 towns the next day and caught the train home. This brought us to our next stop, Firenze!
Aka Florence (the stupid translated version of Firenze that the Italians have no idea why the English made up). We stayed in a b&b about 20 minute walk from the city Centre, owned by a little Greek lady who liked us because we liked Greece. She said she was even sad when we left because "I liked watching you guys come and go everyday"... we must have a good wave. Firenze is another beautiful city, where you can just walk around aimlessly and enjoy the sunshine and eat good food. We didn't bother with the crazy lines to see David because, we don't even know who the guys is. They also have the beautiful Duomo, which is spectacular on the outside and not so great on the inside, as we have learnt with most churches/cathedrals/duomos/basilicas. I didn't actually go inside though, god would not have approved of my shoulders showing so I was banned. Lucky Tom, he was sent in to assess the specialness of the Firenze Duomo.
Assessment result: it was alright. My wine on the other hand, was fabulous. I think I know who the real winner was that afternoon.
We ate the most fabulous food in Firenze, our diet consisting of pasta, pizza, croissants and pasta. And bread. And pizza. And wine! If you feel like drooling, look at the photos.. Although you could never really know the deliciousness of it all unless you were there eating it yourself.
We did a day trip while in Firenze also, that took us to Siena (nice, but wouldn't return), San Gimignano (beautiful and delicious, could definitely return to the country side and sip on wine all day) and Pisa (would probably never ever return, but that tower is super cool).
Next up, ROMAAAA! My favorite big city and by favorite big city, I mean between London, Paris and Rome. There is nothing to not like about Rome. Shops, food, Jurassic World in English, they've got it all! We visited the Roman Forum, the Colosseum (which I personally found a little underwhelming..I must be getting greedy when it comes to being blown away), and the Vatican City, also not thoroughly impressed (I wonder if God asked for €16 to enter the Sistene Chapel all those years ago..). But every other part of Rome has my heart!
From Rome we joined a busabout tour and travelled down to Pompeii and the Amalfi coast.. ticking off bucket list items left right and Centre over here! We did a tour through pompeii which was pretty crazy to see,stayed in the town of the delicious Limoncello, Sorrento! I know I know.. it sounds amazing. It was. We got a boat out to Capri the next day and spent the day with the rich and famous... aka we watched from the view site at the top of Ana Capri while the rich and famous sat in their gigantic yachts. Mariah Carey and James packer were there.. we didn't see them.. but we saw their boats! Unfortunately the blue grotto wasn't open all day due to the tide being too high so we went for a boat drive around the island instead, where I feared I would die because it was so rough. All up we had a good time, we visited the other towns along the amalfi, including amalfi itself.. ate more food.. drank more wine..and that brings us to now.
We're in Rome for one more night and then we are off to Croatia for around 3-4 weeks! Theres a lack of posts now that we are in countries for longer than before and the wifi seems to be getting worse the more south/eastern we go, but hopefully this biggy makes up for it all!
Xoxxooxoxoxxo
