Hey everyone,
Sorry it has been a while since an update but we have been pretty busy and internet cafes are really annoying! Hope everyone is good?
We have just completed 12 days travelling around Italy. We joined the throngs of tourists at all the big sites. We saw the gypsy girls begging everywhere, the African and Indian sellers with their sheets full of fake handbags and sunglasses constantly ready to run from the police, and the Italians ALL dressed in jeans and driving like maniacs. We did our tour by train as we bought a 123 Euro Italian train pass for 6 days of travel in one month. We are now over trains and sick of sitting in 6 people compartments staring at guys who look like the baddies in Home Alone. The train stations were pretty gross as the toilets empty straight onto the track and, unlike in Vietnam, the toilets were used in the stations. Italy also seems to have a pickpocketing problem with the train stations being the worst place.
Venezia
After leaving Nice, we caught a train to Venice, passing through yacht-filled Monaco, Genoa, Romeo and Juliet's Verona, and Milan. We then struggled to find our accommodation, having to catch a bus, then walk through shady underpasses etc. The times when I most wish to just be home are when arriving in a new city, totally lost, needing to get from A to B with few clues and a backpack that gets heavier by the minute. We eventually found our campground in Venice and moved into our ready-built, lino-floored cabin with ensuite for a cheap 16 Euros per person, per night.
The following day we caught the campsite's shuttle bus into Venice at 9.30 am and had a full day sightseeing until we could catch the earliest shuttle out, at 8 pm. So we walked and saw the canals and the gondolas and the rich Asian tourists who can afford them. We saw many shops selling Venetian masks and gondola statues. We walked to San Marco Square and viewed its famous buildings and pigeons in amongst all the tourists. We ate terrible microwaved lasagne and walked along the back streets where people actually lived, seeing them hang their washing out between two windows over the canal. We walked for hours and got completely lost a number of times. Venice looked even better than I imagined, living up to all the stereotypes of gondolas on canals, water-taxis, front doors opening onto water but its also prettier and cleaner than I thought.
Firenze
After Venice we traveled down to Florence and stayed in another campground. The campground is situated in an olive grove 5 minutes from the centre of town and just down from the Piazza Michelangelo where a bronze copy of Michelanglo's statue of David stands. The site is protected so instead of a cabin we had to get a tent but with beds and a lino-floor though it went fridge-cold at night.
In Florence we saw Brunelleschi's Duomo and climbed its never-ending 463 steps to the top to look out over the city. We visited the Uffizi Gallery where we stood in a queue of 100s which let only 20 people in every 30 minutes. We visited the outdoor marble copy of David and didn't bother queuing for the real version, we walked across Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge with jewellery shops on it and drank some terrible, cheap Tuscan wine.
We also took a day trip by train to Pisa. The train station is a one end of town and the tower at the other so we walked through the town which seemed the most Italian of all the places we went. They had a food market selling pasta, tomatoes, olives and salami, believe it or not. The Leaning Tower of Pisa looked impressive. It sits amongst a number of buildings all done in an ornate style, in marble but the Tower leans on an extreme angle. We took the obligatory photos from a distance of us trying to hold it up and bought the keyring.
In Florence I had my only good Italian meal, handmade ravioli in a nut sauce. Everything else we ate in Italy was overpriced, uninspired and tiny.
Roma
We again stayed in another of the camping chains campsites outside Rome, in a dodgy, grafitti-filled area but a nice campsite with cabins, swimming pools, bars and a restaurant.
In Rome we splashed out and bought a 16 Euro each, all day pass to catch the open top, sightseeing, tourist bus they have in every European city because we had done enough walking. We got the running commentry on the big sites, churches and ruins in the city. We got off to see the Trevi Fountain which I thought unexpectedly small and, nicely, not covered in over the top decoration. I couldn't get to it to throw a coin in even if I wanted to as annoying other tourists filled the small space. We went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, both huge ruins right in the centre of the city that do live up to all the hype. We went to the packed but free Pantheon temple/church before missioning it back by metro and bus to the campsite.
The following day we went to the Vatican Museum, saw the 600 metre queue and kept going to St Peter's Church, where we joined a queue and passed through a metal detector. From inside the square we waited and got to see the Pope arrive and start mass on the steps of the church. While everyone was preoccupied we joined the now 500 metre queue for the Vatican Museum which actually moved very fast. The museum is huge and we did not have a proper look instead, accidentally, entering the Sistine Chapel through the exit we saw Michelangelo's impressive ceiling and left.
Sorrento
After 3 nights in Rome we headed to Sorrento, just south of Naples for our last Italian campground. Sorrento looked beautiful, at the start of Italy's Amalfi Coast with its coastline of sheer cliff stretching all along the shore with mountains just behind. The campsite felt a bit rustic but had amazing views and sat in another olive grove.
We went to Sorrento so that we would be able to visit Pompeii. Pompeii is the town covered by ash in the 79AD eruption of Mt Versuvius and is now an archelogical site. It is fantastic. You walk down the original roads, go into the original houses, walking on the floor mosaics made then. You are able to touch almost everything and can climb up the ampitheatre and see the plastercasts of the dead bodies suffocated in the ash. Its very eerie at times except for when 3 tour groups all enter one room and yabber on incessantly.
From Sorrento we caught a train to Naples and then one to Taranto and a final one to Brindisi to catch the ferry over to Greece...and I will update you on Greece next time.
From Ollie and Sophie.
P.s I hope everyone is good, its great to get emails from everyone and we are able to get on the internet sometimes to reply.
