The last month or so has been amazing, we spent two weeks in Italy then came back to enjoy two huge concerts in one week and Chris's 30th birthday. We are feeling very lucky at the moment.
We began our two weeks in Italy in Venice, where my number one fear at an airport came true - while waiting for our bags to come out someone grabbed our suitcase and started walking away with it! I chased after them, as Chris hadn't really noticed, yelling 'hey!!! thats my bag!!!'. Turned out we had exactly the same suitcase. Anyway only a minor hiccup, our journey had started at 7am that morning and at 5pm after taking a tube, a train, a flight, a bus and a boat, we finally reached our hotel in Venice. We were so excited when we arrived at the bus station, it was hot the sky was blue and Venice was as beautiful as I had hoped it would be in real life. It turned out that we had managed to time our trip with a festival, so that evening the Venetians celebrated Redentore; the end of the plague. All day there were party boats cruising up the grand canal and in the evening a huge fireworks display in front of San Marco. It was the biggest and longest fireworks we have ever seen, it went on for 45 minutes and was amazing. We spent a lot of time wandering in Venice, the perfect place for aimlessness. There was an international arts festival also on, and we were proud to see two New Zealand artisits represented and visited both their exhibtions.
Our next stop was Florence, which was if possible even more beautiful than Venice. By this stage we had wandering down to a fine art and walked the streets for hours. On our second day we went on a bus tour of the Chianti Region. Tuscany also lived up to expectation; it was vineyards, olive groves, cyprus trees, sunflowers and stone buidlings everywhere you looked. We spent a large part of the afternoon in the courtyard of a castle drinking bottles of chianti and eating bruschetta. On our final day in Florence we decided that we really ought to go and visit the statue of David. We felt like we were going because its what you do when you're in Florence, and were a bit complacent about the whole thing. But once inside we turned a corner and there it was bathed in light, and our opinions totally changed. Yes we had seen hundred of plastic statues, and postcards of it, but seeing it in real life is of course completely different. It is beautiful and amazing and looks like at any moment it will come to life and step down from the pedestal and be real. We were really glad we went. Afterwards, as is our tradition in foreign places we found something tall to climb up to see the view of the city. In Florence it was the bell tower of the Duomo, which had about 400 steps and in 30 degree heat was a bit of a challenge, but the view was worth it! In the afternoon we lay under a tree in the Boboli Gardens and tried not to fade away from heat exhaustion.
Next it was off to Rome, which was a definate change of pace from the elegant streets of Florence. Crossing roads made me fear for my life as the cars just went for it. Our first day we went for a huge long walk which included the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. Chris and I had seen a documentary about the dome of the Pantheon years ago so we very excited to literally stumble down a street and find ourselves right in front of it. We spent ages inside, and I got a sore neck from staring up at the ceiling, so beautiful and perfect. We then decided that we would stop for a cocktail enroute to the Coloseum and found a piazza nearby. Then our wandering took up the longest way possible to the Coloseum and resulted in a lot of grumbling from both sides about how sore our feet were. But at last we found it and sat for a while taking it all in before headed round the corner for a pizza. The next day we went on a tour of the Vatican Museums, which was quite overwhelming. It was really really hot and there was so much to look at. The Sistine Chapel was something else, again something you have seen photos of, but in reality completely and utterly amazing. It felt like we were standing inside a painting, and everywhere you looked was something beautiful. Afterwards we went to St Peters, and of course climbed the 500 odd steps to the top of the Dome. On our last day in Rome we went inside the Coloseum, which Chris was most excited about telling me it is like the original stadium, the home of sport. It was a bit creepy thinking of all the people who had been killed there, but amazing as well to see the remains and think what it must have been like full of screaming people. It was another hot day and after the Coloseum we wandering the Palatine trying not to faint from the heat. We found a fountain in an orange grove and sat in that for a long time. One thing I will always remember from Rome is all the fountains, whenever you feel hot you can look around and not too far away there will be a fountain to cool you down, that or a man selling slices of watermelon. In the afternoon we found an irish pub to watch the All Blacks and ended up there drinking with expat kiwis for 6 hours.
Next it was off to Sardinia to the town of Alghero. Our flight there was a little unsettling, the plane kept rattling and we were sitting next to a priest who had unfortunately bad breath. We spent the week chilling out at our fancy hotel which had a pool and a private beach. Our room had a balcony overlooking the sea and we got into a nice daily rountine of walking along the beach front to the main town for dinner and cocktails each night. Creatures of habit, we went to the same bar about 5 nights in a row, so much so that the owner started to recognise us and know what we drank. The weather was amazing, blue skies each day. Chris decided we should go diving, so I reluctantly agreed to do the intrduction dive. Diving has always made me a bit scared, becuase I start thinking about sharks eating you, and jelly fish. But I wasn't going to stay behind, so found myself in the water about to go for a dive with little instruction as to what I was supposed to be doing. The guide just kind of said okay and now we go down and off we went, it was pretty scary but just I was getting the hang of it and realising that yes I wasn't going to die and I could breath, it was over! As I climbed back onto the boat I grabbed a rope that was attached to a bouy and felt like I got rope burn. I looked at my hand and it was covered in brown spots, thinking it was just sea weed, i brushed it off. But then noticed that my hand was not only burning but swelling up - i had been stung by a jellyfish! We also spent a day exploring the island on a rented scooter, which was a bit scary as we had to drive on the wrong side of the road. It was such a cool day though, once we got over our nerves. We drove along the coast until the road ended and we found ourselves at Neptunes Grotto a big cave at the end of staircase running around the cliffs.
After an amazing two weeks in the sun it was a bit hard to go back to work in London, but we had some good things to look forward to, to take the edge off! We saw U2 for the third time at Wembley and my favourite band Pearl Jam the night before Chris's 30th birthday. For his birthday we went to Thorpe Park to ride rollercoasters, but it wasn't the greatest day for Chris as after the second one he got a bit of motion sickness and ended up throwing up in a garden! He spent the rest of the day feeling ill and I left him in a park and went on a few rides by myself (bad girlfriend). We also saw Jordon there fliming her show, which was a bit weird.
Its been a sweet life lately, that's for sure!
