Day 529 After a well needed sleep in it was back to domestics of washing clothes, airing out our tent and a hearty breaky. With our arrival back to the UK growing closurer by the day, the time had come to make some calls to London regarding job prospects. By early afternoon with our chores taken care of, we headed back in the city to met Gaffy who had decided to join us for part of our Swiss adventures. We purchased some Swiss passes (a all inclusive travel pass which would prove invaluable over the next week) and set of on [View Full Entry]

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Day 524 We arrived into Munich following an orchestra of snoring hence very little sleep at 6.30am. We dropped one bag and all our valuables at the train station and made our to Thalkitchern camping in the pissing rain. It was gonna get messy. We braved the rain put up our tent attempting to find high ground, not too close to the toilets but not too far... what could be easier! Tent up we waited for Gaffy to arrive. Together we hit the streets of Munich in search of the famous pork knuckle. After three sets of directions we landed [View Full Entry]

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Day 521 Steps 18176 We woke up to miserable weather... bucketing rain with no signs of letting up. We reset the alarm and changed our plans, boycotting Verona (the home of Romeo and Juliette) and heading straight to Venice (the capital of Love!). Arriving in Venice a couple hours later we dropped off our bags at our cute little ensuite cabin at Jolly Camping (happy we hadn't decided to camp!) and headed into the city. In the dreary weather San Marco's Square was pleasantly quiet, we wandered past the tourist shops, extravagant cafes and restaurants, orchastra's, the grand Duomo and the [View Full Entry]

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Day 519 (12/9/09) Steps 14123 Sitting eagerly by the laptop at 6am, we were shattered when neither radio station/s could be streamed over the internet. The lack of mobile reception added to our frustration when we tried to phone home (via skype) to get a score update. Disappointed we went back to sleep for a couple hours... to await the results. Which were disappointing Tarra failing to go through undefeated and mixed feelings with Beechworths lose to Tallangatta. We tucked into a late breaky and caught the train back to Florence. We stored our bags and roamed aimlessly through the flea [View Full Entry]

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Day 518 (11/09/09) Steps 25612 Up early we tucked into the free breaky and across the road to the train station purchased our Cinque Terre pass only to discover the train had been cancelled and we had a couple hours to kill til the next one. We stopped by the supermarket for lunch supplies and returned to the station with the other couple hundred tourists. We jumped off at Monterosso, the first and furtherest of the five villages considered the most difficult of the walking track and best we felt tackled first. A beautiful village overlooking the ocean, we regretfully didn't [View Full Entry]

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Day 514 (7/09/09) Steps 24323(Continued) After arriving in Florence we discovered it was the Festival of Paper Lanterns, celebrating the Virgin Mary's birthday, so we set off in search of the piazza where the parade would begin from. We arrived to only a handful of children with lanterns most appearing to be going home, disappointed we turned back forwards our hostel only to run right into the parade complete with musicians and hundreds of children and family's with handmade paper mache latterns and designer lanterns. We joined the festivities, doubling as a guided tour of Florence arriving [View Full Entry]

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Day 508 (1/09/09) Steps 11271 Up bright and early we boarded the train to Pompeii (as always keen to beat the crowds). We arrived half an hour later, hired a audioguide and made our way round the four hour recommended tour. Pompeii formerly a lavish and rich city was partly destroyed by an early quake in 62AD and then in 79AD Mt Versuvias erupted covering the city until the 18th century. It is amazing preserved ruins of cobblestone streets, lavish palaces and gardens, shops, laundrymatts, bakery's and a brothel (complete with paintings illustrating the services available) and body plaste [View Full Entry]

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Day 511 (4/9/09) (Around 25km of walking!) We checked out of Hotel Aquarium (missing breaky) and made our way to Yellow Hostel a funky hostel with private bathroom, aircon, and bar next door) we dropped off our bags and went out to explore Rome... in the rain (only our third day of rain in nearly 3 months travel.. so it was kinda nice). Straight to Rome's largest sight the Collosuem, given the rain and the early start we bet the crowds, past the Roman warriors at the entrance (enticing the unsuspecting for photographs then asking for redicuolous fees), picking up a [View Full Entry]

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Day 514 Steps 24323 (7/9/09) We meandered into the Medieval old city, a maze of piazza's, cobblestone streets and alleyways, gourmet shops selling cheese, cured meats and Chianti wine. First stop was the Piazza del campo, home to the horse race that stops... well Tuscany. Ten horses (each representing their region), bareback, complete three laps of the piazza taking little over a minute, the only rule you mustn't pull on another horses reins but its fine if the horse finishes without its rider. Shattered to have missed the race by only a couple weeks we soaked up the piazza's atmosphere in [View Full Entry]

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Day 500 !!!!(24/8/09) After a hearty Italian breaky (concious of the potential for addiction to Italian coffee) we set off on foot to the Caputchin Catacombs. Home to 8000 Palmerians bodies. The catacomb was initially filled with Caputchin Monks in 1599 and soon became burial choice for professionals, priests, men, woman and children. The body's were preserved by one of three methods, 1) Injection (which is believed to be the technique used for the best preserved and most famous 'Sofia" little girl), 2) Dipping in Arsnic or Lime or 3) most commonly straining for eight months in a cell and th [View Full Entry]

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