Arrivaderci Roma!

We arrived safely in Rome. Another great hotel - on the first afternoon we walked to the Trevi fountain, the pantheon and Piazza Navona - how good is that? There seems to be a surprise around every corner, a fountain or a random column...

The next day we were booked on a two day bus trip to take us to Naples, Pompei, Sorrento and Capris. Pompei was the main place we wanted to see - but we were nervous about going to Naples on our own, so we opted for the organised tour.

Naples - Napoli - was really unappealing. The fact that it was a really foggy day didn't help - the tour guide on the bus would say things like, "if you look out the window to the right - oh no, really you can't see anything". But, anyway, Naples just seemed to be high rise flats packed way too close to each other, all coated with crumbling render, dripping with dirt and decorated with random drapings of washing lines.

They took us to view the Bay of Naples - but, because of the fog all we got to see was the stray cats climbing around the shore. And Vesuvius was also hiding behind a veil of fog... And, of course, being tourists on a bus, we had to be taken to somewhere to be parted from our money, so they wasted time taking us to a cameo factory.

Finally, we got to Pompei - and it was terrific. If only we could have skipped Napoli and spent the whole day there. There is just so much of it! Oddly, one of the things that got to me most was standing on the roads and seeing the wheel ruts left by the Roman carriages - it made it feel like they really had just been there yesterday. But, really, there were much more impressive things than that, mosaics and wall paintings.

Then it was off to Sorrento and a boat trip to Capris the next day. Unfortunately, still foggy and the seas were too rough for us to get into the blue grotto. But the island itself was still pretty - steep, scattered with mansions and surrounded by amazingly blue water. And Winter was a good time to be there - as the crowds must be pretty extreme in the Summertime.

Back in Rome, we took a trip to the forum and the Colusseum. We felt that the forum could have done with a signpost or two to explain what was what. But the Colusseum is just so large, it can't help but be impressive.

It was sale time in Rome as well - and that was impressive in itself. The roads around the Spanish steps were closed to traffic because of the crowds. People were queued up outside the Gucci shop to get into the specials. I tried to find some Dolce and Gabbana for Matt - but even at half price, the jeans were about $160, which seemed like too much to me.

I was able to find Matt a bargain at the market stalls though. I found him a belt with a rotating disk in the middle of the buckle with an Armani logo. The stall holder demonstrated that if you rotated the disk, the other side had a Versace logo. Two for the price of one! What a bargain for 7 euros.

Then I had a lovely surprise - Karolina and Mark had flown over from London and we caught up for dinner on Saturday and Sunday! It was just great to see them and to chatter about this and that - share travel stories. It was so great of them to travel all that way!

Then it was time to catch the plane back home - with our suitcases crammed with too many bits and pieces. I think we were all glad to be heading home - pretty much tourist attractioned out. And never wanting to wear our shoes or see any of the clothes in our suitcases ever again.

We arrived in Sydney at 9 pm and got through Customs at 10. The plan was to stay in Sydney overnight - but somehow the thought of getting those suitcases in and out of another hotel room was just not appealing, so we set out for Canberra straight away, arriving in the early hours of the morning.

It was so great to see the boys again. Poor Thomas had to confess that someone had thrown up on my bed at the New Years party he held - but it was OK because he had washed everything and if he hadn't told me, I wouldn't have even known. And somebody dropped a bottle on the edge of the bathtub and took a big chip out of the enamel - but, hey, we never use the bath anyway, so I figure it doesn't really matter so much.

The house feels like it is mine again now - it has me kind of mess instead of boy kind of mess.

Now I just need to work a lot of hours so I can save up for the next time...

Venice and Florence

Hello all

In the last post I was just heading out of Paris, having somewhat failed to
appreciate its charms.

The next step was to take the overnight train from Paris to Venice. I must
admit, the sleeping accommodation on the train was somewhat less glamorous
than it appeared on the European train travel web site - but hey, it was an
experience! Our little car had the three bunks folded down when we arrived
and by the time we had lugged in our large suitcases, there was barely room
for all of us to stand in the carriage. As there was also not room between
the bunks for an adult to sit - we were a little perplexed, as it was early
for us to go to sleep even by our elderly standards. But eventually we
managed to transform the bottom two bunks back into a seat and to stow the
large bags overhead (who am I kidding - that was John. If Glenyce and I had
been travelling on our own we would have had to climb straight into our
bunks and lie down). There was a dining car on the train and a delightful
Italian attendant looking after it - so that was all fun until he
overcharged us outrageously for our meal.

Venice was just superb. It is so exciting to walk out of the station and,
right away, there it is - a canal with houses on the other side and the only
way to get to your hotel is by vaporetto (really a very small ferry, but you
have to admit 'vaporetto' sounds much more glamorous). Addresses don't mean
much in Venice, and unfortunately we got off at the wrong vaporetto stop and
it took us a long time to find our hotel - but even a significant amount of
time dragging a large, heavy suitcase around was not enough to dim Venice's
charms. I have read a lot about how it is all decaying and falling into the
sea - but it looked just beautiful to me. What a great place - with no cars,
where the fastest pace is a fairly slow boat and where everybody pretty much
has to walk wherever they are going and where getting lost just takes you to
another unexpectedly beautiful view.

We only had two days in Venice (aside from the day we left), not nearly
enough as it turned out. We spent the full day we had there on a trip to the
glassmaking island (Murano) and the lace making island (Burano). I would
just love to be coming home with a multi coloured Veneitian glass chandelier
- but my budget doesn't run to such extravagence. We probably could have
skipped Burano as well - the main output there seemed to be lace toilet roll
holders - but Venice as a whole was just enchanting. We were lucky enough to
be just near St Mark's square, which was having a bit of non flooded time.

Venice also showed us the first blue sky during our trip (that's what you
get for travelling in Winter). I didn't even know that I noticed the sky
that much or that I would miss seeing it, until I didn't see it for a few
weeks this trip.

After Venice it was back on the train to Firenze - where I am writing this
from. A much shorter, daylight train journey allowing us to whisk by views
of Tuscan hills topped by beautiful villas presiding over terraces full of
olive trees.

Florence is another dream - full of gorgeous Medieval buildings and statuary
and the kind of beautiful chaos that can only occur from letting a fairly
creative bunch of people loose on a city with minimal building regulations
for a few hundred years. Our hotel is right near some great permanent
markets - where we proceeded to pick up some bargains.*  *I think the secret
to a truly successful European trip may actually be to arrive in Florence
with practically empty suitacases and purchase a fabulous range of shoes,
handbags, leather jackets and scarves - probably even underwear - to wear
for the rest of your trip. Oh - and jewellery, that is  beautiful here too.
Oh to be wealthy!

We have taken two day trips by train out of Florence, one to Pisa and one to
Bologna.

Pisa - it has a tower that is not quite straight. Thank heavens I have seen
it, because now there is no reason to return there. It appeared to me to be
a totally charmless town and compounded its sins by providing us with bad
food (bad food - in Italy! I think we would have been  better off if we had
opted for McDonalds at the station).

We went to Bologna solely because it is the location of the Ducati factory
and John wanted to visit the place where his bike was born. The factory tour
of Ducati was actually quite interesting - even for a non bike afficionado
like myself - there was some really cool stuff about how the assembly line
was organised and their approach to quality... (Do you think that could be
enought for a tax deduction?) The other think that John had been looking
forward to for the whole trip was buying some Ducati accessories at the
factory shop. Our guide on the tour advised us to go to the 'outlet' accross
the road where the range and prices would be better - so off we went. But,
in an evil twist of fate, the outlet was closed on Mondays - the only day
that we were in Bologna. Poor John! And while you can buy Ferrari stuff
everywhere, there doesn't seem to be much other Ducati merchandise around.

Luckily, Bologna itself is a lovely town with a medieval heart, lots of
interesting buildings, a fabulous fresh food market and a pleasant
atmosphere, so we where happily able to while away the rest of the day
there. I should mention that it also has TWO  crooked towers - so it should
be twice as worthwhile to visit as Pisa.

Apart from blowing all our money on bargains at the markets, we have enjoyed
at least some of Florence's more cultural aspects, including the beautiful
Ponto Vecchio ( a bridge covered in jewellery shops which luckily escaped
destruction during WW2), the Duomo (a huge domed cathedral covered in
coloured marble), the Pitti palace and gardens (not as much of that as we
would have liked because of the entry fees) and Michealangelo's statue of
David (which looks much better than the thousands of cheap imitations).

Probably the luckiest moment for me happened on Saturday - which was a
public holiday here for the Epiphany (I think). John and I were out
wandering, because Glenyce was unfortunately not feeling too well, when we
heard the sound of drums and happened upon a parade! There must have been
about a kilometre of people all dressed up in Medieval costumes, knights,
maidens, merchants, archers and flag throwers. It was just magnificent!

Tomorrow we are back on the train again to head for Rome. Although I am
happy to be a step closer to coming home, I am sorry to leave Florence,
which has been a delightful place to stay.

And the Italians have all been so wonderful and friendly and helpful. A
Venetian man spotted us poring over a map in Venice and went out of his way
to walk us to our destination, the market stall holders all banter in a
friendly way about the prices and I fell in love with our waiter (Gerardo)
at dinner one night (we could only go to that restaurant once as a
consequence!). I can definitely see how people decide they want to buy a
villa and settle here...

Well - we will see what Rome has to offer and then home!

Arrivaderci!

Leonie

Paris

Otherwise we just did a quick drive by in one of those hop on hop off tours.

The weather was unfortunately rainy - so not so pleasant for wandering around.

John and I went out to experience New Years Eve in the heart of Paris (Glenyce refused to participate,
because she and John don't do anything to celebrate in Canberra). We had some vague notion that there may be
fireworks over either the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower. The Champs Elysee was closed to traffic and was
absolutely packed with people. We made our way to a spot among the revellers where both landmarks were visible.
Unfortunately, neither of these landmarks incorporate a clock. Midnight came. I saw the next day on the TV when
Paris was shown that they mentioned the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower. What they failed to mention was that
the sparkling blue lights are displayed for the first six minutes of every hour after dark. So midnight came and went
with most of the crowd not being quite sure that it had occurred. Some enterprising souls had brought their own, 
quite substantial, fireworks. And these went off at random intervals from about 10 before midnight until about 20
past... possibly at considerable risk to those in their general vicinity.

Eventually, we figured that nothing more was going to happen and wandered disconsolately back to the hotel.

Apparently there had been fireworks in previous years, but they were cancelled this year due to the risk of riots.
Oh well, at least a fizzer is better than being caught up accidentally in a riot!
Paris appeared to pretty much closed for New Year's Day (even the tourist attractions!) - so, big kids
that we are, we caught the train to Paris Disneyland. This was like a holiday from being on holidays. Not
as big as Disneyland at Anaheim, but with most of the essentials. The only disappointment was that the
Indiana Jones ride was just a roller coaster instead of the wonderful experience it was in Anaheim. But our other
old favourites were all there - Pirates of the Caribbean and the Peter Pan ride and Star Tours. We had a lovely day!
In Main Street, there would be a wind sound effect every so often and bubbles would shoot from the top of the 
buildings, so that it looked as though snow was falling - lovely.

That's about it for Paris . I would have to say, not really my favourite city this tour. Even the food was disappointing.
 The bistros are kind of nice, but I think French women don't get fat because they all have lung cancer! Everyone in
Paris appears to smoke like a chimney, particularly in restaurants.

Had better go for now - or I will never get this email out!

Au revoir

Leonie