Venice, Italy, Sun 24 Jan 2010

First thing we did in the morning was a Gondola ride. Ridiculous money but I had always wanted to so wasn't passing up the opportunity. Nick and I picked a beautiful red adorned Gondola and curled up under a blanket together. It was early morning and we were the only ones out in some of the canals. So gorgeous and so romantic. I don't know why people think Paris is the most romantic city, my vote is for Venice!

We spent the rest of the day walking the streets of Venice, we walked a lot that weekend! We visited a lot of mask shops and I ended up buying a small red one (even though I was convinced I wasn't going to).

We saw the Rialto bridge covered in market stalls. A bit too touristy and tacky in that area for me. Much preferred the back streets. Dinner was at our local again. More delicious pasta concoctions, but the real reason we came back twice? Their Lemon vodka sorbet. The best dessert I have ever tasted in my life! It was served in a champagne glass and was smooth enough to drink and wow how delicious it was!!

We had one more day on Monday exploring the streets of Venice and I swear I think we walked the entire island! It was a long long long journey back to London but it was so worth it. Venice was an amazing city, one of my favourites ever. I'm so glad we went during the low season.

Venice, Italy, Sat 23 Jan 2010

Today was all about exploring the city. Actually that's what most of the weekend was about! But today we walked towards San Marco square, walking over accademia bridge, wondering through tiny alleyways and marveling at all the mask shops.

San Marco was surprisingly quiet but sadly there was a lot of work going on so the tower was closed and both the tower and the church was covered in scaffolding. I guess there is a downside to visiting in the off season. But it was still a beautiful place and my favourite part of the square was the pink lights. They were very cool.

We were incredibly lucky and had a stunning day on Saturday. It was still cold but not a cloud in the sky. The Bridge of Sighs was a disappointment as more restoration work was going on and they covered all the scaffolding with what looked like advertising. Oh well these things happen.

The waterfront was wonderful to walk along and we got a bit over-zealous with the stalls and bought a few paintings. Oh well we had lots of fun!

In the afternoon we walked along the waterfront on our hotel side of the island and stopped off for gelato. Haha only me, freezing day, wearing gloves and I'm eating ice cream! Well you can't go to Italy and not have gelato! We came across some guys launching a boat which was fascinating to watch because they were using a crane type thing to do it.

We came to the end of the island and it has a point designed to feel like the bow of a ship and it definitely did. The views back over San Marco and to the church on the other side were fantastic too. There was a huge dome church around the corner which we explored before walking through the arty district (lots of art museums and very expensive galleries) back to our hotel.

That night we found a recommended pizzeria. It took awhile to get a seat but well worth it. Delicious food, more great wine. No english menus so we knew were were in a local place. It was perfect. We had a great time walking around the canals and tiny Venice streets in the moonlight too.

Venice, Italy, Fri 22 Jan 2010

Arriving in Venice is quite indescribable. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been. I was apprehensive about visiting Venice as I had heard such mixed things about it but we had the fortunate luck of going during winter on a weekend where the skies were a piercing blue meaning we got the best of both worlds; nice weather (albeit a little cold) and the quiet winter streets enabling us to see Venice the way it should be, amongst all the locals and with only a scattering of tourists.

We were really lucky, I had managed to get a flight deal, £24 and Nick and I were on our way to Venice. Unfortunately it did mean we had to fly ryan air, my most hated airline and a very very long journey to get where we need to go but hey you get what you pay for right? So after 2.5 hours getting to Stanstead airport and then another 1 hour bus at the other end to Venice we finally made it.

Venice can be a bit daunting the first time you arrive, the little streets, canals and multitude of bridges can confuse even the most seasoned traveler. So we decided to take the Vaporetto water ferry as our accommodation was just round the corner from one of the major stops (Accademia). The water ferry is ridiculously overpriced and it was the really long way around but it was a great introduction to Venice.

The ride along the Grand Canal was stunning. Venice, a city on water, is absolutely fascinating. You can't help but be enchanted by everyone doing their day to day tasks on boats - house movers, traders, policeman, cranes - you name it and it was on a boat! And the buildings right on the Grand Canal waterfront were beautiful. It really was a magical place.

Our hotel reception was down some tiny little side alley but they took us around the corner to a different entrance for our room. Our room was up on the 1st floor and overlooked a canal. It was perfectly romantic! That night we decided to have dinner at the little restaurant right next to our hotel. The food was delicious and the wine even better. By the end of our Venice weekend I became an expert at ordering half a litre carafe of red wine in Italian. We ate and drank our way through Venice! The best way to experience an Italian city.

Rome, Italy, Tues 01 Dec 09

Our last day in Rome. We had seen most of the big sites so we mainly spent our time exploring more of the city. We went back to the fountain Plaza again after dropping the apartment keys off so Nick and I could enjoy an Italian coffee.

While we sat and chilled Christy & Will had a look around the church which didn't turn out to be a great idea because Will had an allergic reaction to the lavender incense they were burning. He was ok, just had to get out of there really quick.

We walked down to the Vittorio Emanuele II monument which is a huge building and one that can be seen from almost anywhere in Rome. Funnily enough apparently the Italians don't like it, not sure why they've just got something against it and they and call it the 'wedding cake' or something. I think they have a few other nicknames for it.

It's also quite new which may be another reason it doesn't have a fond following, and when I say new I mean the late 1800s which is very new for Rome. It now contains the tomb of the unknown soldier and as such the entire building is a sacred monument so you can't sit anywhere on it and they're very strict about that. There is one guy just telling people off if they sit down and then there are a couple of guards stationed just to look after the tomb. Looked like a pretty boring job.

We had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant and found Rome's expensive shopping street (think Dior, Versace and every other designer name you can think of). We also saw the 'Spanish Steps' which lead up to another church and has a boat shaped fountain at the base, quiet pretty and a great spot to chill out.

We then walked up to the Piazza del Popolo and admired the big obelisk and fountains there. The obelisk is Egyptian and from sometime before BC even though it didn't actually look that old. The sun had come out so the Piazza was actually a really nice spot to chill out in.

Off to the side of the Piazza was some stairs to go up a hill to a platform which would look back over the Piazza and more of the city too. So we decided to head up there for the views. There were heaps of dodgy people around trying to scam tourists but the views up the top were nice and we could see as far as the Vatican.

We kept on walking and eventually reached the Tiber River so walked down to that (the river is a lot lower than the streets) and had a walk along the river. It's not the prettiest river but we got some nice views of the bridges.

We eventually reached the most famous bridge, the one that approaches Castel Sant'Angelo and we came back up from the river bed to walk along it. The bridge was beautiful with angel statues along it, made even better with the dusk setting. Castel Sant'Angelo (which is joined to the Vatican along a passage) has been a few things over the years including a fortress and castle. It was late so we didn't go in but was nice to see from the outside.

While we were on the bridge we spotted this crazy mass in the sky and it turned out to be hundreds maybe even thousands of sparrows flying around in various directions causing the most amazing patterns. It was beautiful to watch, I couldn't believe there were so many birds in one place. I'm not sure what would cause them to act like that. It's not something I've seen before.

That was our last stop as it got late and we had to make our way back to the airport and sadly finish up our trip in Rome, one of the most amazing cities I've been to. I wonder if I'll ever have the opportunity to come back.

Rome, Italy, Mon 30 Nov 09

Today we spent at the Colosseum and Roman Forum. The Colosseum turned out to be pretty close to our apartment so it was an easy walk down to it. We grabbed our tickets at the Palatine (cheeky trick to skip the queues at the Colosseum) and went to the Colosseum. An incredible place with so much history and amazing stories. It's incredible that there is still so much left and it's actually in quite a good preserved state.

After visiting the Colosseum we went back to the Palatine to do a walking tour of it and the Roman Forum. We got some audio guides too so we could learn some more about the place. It's the oldest part of Rome and is where Roman civilization was born. The Palatine hill is where the legend of Romulus & Remus (Roman Gods) being found and suckled by a she-wolf took place. The Forum is at the base of the hill and is where the ancient Palaces, Roman Parliament and Temples were.

You have to have a pretty good imagination at the Roman Forum ruins. Even with the audio guides it was quite tough to work out where everything had been. The guide would say something like, and see over to your left the remains of three columns.. that is where a large temple was housing this, this, and this.. and that sort of thing. But it was really interesting. Unfortunately it wasn't fantastic weather and we got rained out a bit.

Up the hill there were great views back over Rome and to the Colosseum. I think all the history of it fascinated me a bit more than the others, they seemed to get bored a bit quicker, or maybe it was the rain, either way they were really nice to stick it out so I could see it all. It really wasn't the nicest of days to be traipsing through old ruins but we got there in the end. But we ended off the day warming up in McDs so that was a good way to thaw out.

Since it's quite hard to make ruins interesting in a blog I have way more pictures than writing so I'll put the rest below :)

Rome, Italy, Sun 29 Nov 09

A way too early start this morning! We were going to the Vatican museums and were told queues are insane so we were up before 7am. The museums are usually closed Sundays except the last Sunday of the month when they open for free. We were a little worried about how packed it would be on a free day but figured since it was winter it was worth the risk.

We got in the line about 8:30 and the queue was already down the road and around the corner! And it grew longer every minute. It was a very cold morning too which didn't make it any easier. My legs felt like icicles. It got pretty boring standing in the queue too so we had to make up something to keep us entertained. Nick and Will decided the best way was to try and scale the wall to get into the Vatican... as you can see they didn't have much luck ;)

Thankfully once the doors opened at 9:30 the queue moved pretty quickly as people didn't need to pay, even then it still took about half an hour, I don't know what it must be like on normal weekdays.

First we stopped at a terrace with views of St Peters, it was a great place to stop and get some photos, we finally got our first group shot there with all of us. The terrace also looked over some of the Vatican gardens, not sure if they're ever actually used, but they were pretty.

After hanging on the terrace we then checked out the Pinacoteca art gallery which houses famous artwork from Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and Perugino (and many others, their paintings were just highlighted in my guide book - I don't really know a lot about famous paintings).

My favourite was Raphael's Transfiguration painting It is quite famous and it was his last. I had never really known of Raphael's paintings (of course I knew who he was but couldn't have picked his paintings out) but after my trip to the Vatican I found I really liked his work.

After that we wondered through some of the other exhibitions and got ourselves thoroughly lost :) There were lots of Egyptian, Greek and Roman artifacts along with various sculpture rooms. In the Egyptian section there was even an uncovered mummy which I found quite gross.

As we made our way closer to the Sistine Chapel the path became practically one way with so many people that all you could do was follow the crowds. It was hard with so many people as I was trying to read my guide book to match up artwork and murals (frescoes) without bumping or tripping over people and it wasn't easy. Some of the artwork in the rooms was beautiful. I really liked the Raphael rooms and his most famous fresco 'The School of Athens' was amazing. There is a picture of it a couple of photos below, it has lots of famous people in it, even a self portrait of Raphael and Michelangelo is in there too. It was fun using my guide book to spot them all.

After the Stanze di Raffaello we made our way into the Sistine Chapel. It was packed inside as you can imagine but the artwork was incredible. You can't take any photos inside as it is a place of worship.

My favourite fresco was The Last Judgment by Michelangelo on the end altar wall. It was amazing, so intricate. You can stare at it forever and find new stories being told. The ceiling frescoes were beautiful too, depicting various stories of the Bible and I had fun trying to work them all out. But your neck gets sore after awhile staring up. It was a breathtaking chapel.

Leaving the chapel it was a very long walk back to the beginning and my feet were so sore! We did a lot of walking in Rome. Once we left the museums we walked back around to Piazza San Pietro, the big open square in front of St Peters Basilica. It was a beautiful space with columns surrounding the square and a pillar in the center. There are two spots in the square where you can stand and the three rows of columns perfectly line up, that was pretty cool.

Another queue to get into the Basilica (security checks) but we were soon admiring one of the most beautiful churches in the world. I saw the Pieta, a statue by Michelangelo, depicting Mary holding Jesus after he was crucified and it's one of the most beautiful pieces of art I've ever seen. The rest of the Church is just as beautiful, with it's huge dome and magnificent artwork.

The high altar is incredible and there is a statue of St Peter whose foot was worn off from pilgrims kissing and touching it over the centuries (it's no longer accessible). We even caught a church service in one of the side chapels. The congregation walked through the church singing hymns before settling in the chapel near where we were standing. We stayed and watched for a little while but it was all in Italian so we didn't stay for the whole thing.

Christy and Will left to walk up the dome but I wasn't feeling well at all (I knew I was coming down with a cold - sore throat, achy body) and knew I wouldn't make it up all those steps so we went down to the crypt and saw the tombs of all the popes including Pope John Paul II who had a special area where people could pray and pay their respects.

We chilled out in the square for awhile before making our way back to the apartment for an afternoon nap. I definitely had a cold,my damn immune deficient body, I've been sick almost every trip we've had this year. Not fun! So we had a pretty quiet night really, sent the boys out to get us takeaways :)