Kerry & Tim Italy 2009

timkez

Kerry & Tim Italy 2009

Hey, welcome to our 2009 Italian Adventure. Hope you like it, we sure did!
Ciao!
Kerry, Tim, Jess, Neive & Sarah.



Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris May 14th 2009

Bonjour Paris ! Our Easyjet flight to Paris had us at Charles De Gaul in just over 90mins. Our first challenge was to find a taxi that would take all of us, our baggage including that new suitcase and that dam partridge in pear tree, to our apartment in the Marais District (pronounced ma-ray) The Marais is the gay capitol of Paris and yes we picked it for a reason. It's safe, lively, central and the food is amazing. After a quick meet and great with our landlord Andrea who spoke fluent French, Italian and pretty good English we slipped out into the streets. Here we collided head on with the stark realisation that we new NO French. Bonjour, Wee, Merci was the extent of our communication. This was compounded by the fact that the French ... read more
Pyramid at the Lourve
Arc De Triumphe
View from the tower

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice May 14th 2009

A Farewell to Venice. Another traveling day today as we prepared for our hop to Paris. For us it was a bitter sweet moment, not wanting to leave Italy but looking forward to Paris. We were determined not to leave Venice the same way we arrived. We booked a private speedboat, you may recall them from the Indiana Jones movie and dragged our over stuffed luggage just a few metres to Ca Foscolos private dock. Winding our way through the canals of Venice for the last time, every second got harder. In our few short days we had all developed an affection for Venice but it had really stolen Neive's heart. She got quite teary as the island slipped into the distance and I don't mind admitting I was a little misty myself. The holiday had ... read more
The speed boat to the airport
Venice sailors on shore leave
Street Tout

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice May 8th 2009

Venice (ah, Venice). The drive from Lucignano to Venice went without much drama. Kilometre after kilometer of the 350k's passed quite smoothly at Captain Kerrys cruising altitude of 150kph. That was until the last 18k's. “Turn around when possible so that your vehicle is facing the opposite direction to which you are facing... now”, John Cleese. TOMTOM. You'd think you could never hear enough of Johns witty and incisive comments as you while away the hours with such classics as ”in 800 metres, well what we used to call it half a mile but now we have to say 800 metres because of that litle bastard Napoleon, keep left” or Kerry's favourite “in 200 metres bear right, beaver left” she never did catch sight of that beaver. For the last 18km of the journey John was ... read more
Gondola Ride
Perfection!
Rialto

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Arezzo May 4th 2009

Arriving in Lucignano was a bit of a culture shock for all of us. Rome and Sorrento were loud and alive with constant activity and crowds, Lucignano was asleep by 9pm! (seriously, a walk around the circular road of the town confirmed this, not a single Lucignanian was sighted!). This was not entirely unwelcome as it forced us to slow down and catch our breath for a while. The language barrier however, became more obvious than ever. Not only was it nearly impossible to find someone who spoke even broken English but we noticed differences in the Italian language between north and south. A visit to the Pharmacia to buy antihistamines for Jess resulted in me making strange throat clearing noises and scratching at my eyes in an attempt to communicate the issue. After several minutes ... read more
Cortona View
Romulus and Remis
Antonella's beautiful cake

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Arezzo May 3rd 2009

First up, apologies for the long pause between drinks. We've moved to the north where internet access is dial up if it's available at all. Don't give up on us though, the blogs will continue till the last episode and with our next hops being Venice and Paris they should be more frequent. Capri Spent the day at Capri today after the short 20 minute boat trip across the bay of Naples. It's easy to understand why it's the place to be seen and why you can pay in excess of a million euro for a small one or two bedroom apartment on one of many cliff faces. Gucci, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent, Hermes, just keep naming them. They are all there (and we mean side by side not just scattered around the ... read more
Capri
Breakfast
Sorrento views

Europe » Italy » Campania » Sorrento April 26th 2009

Day Trips from Sorrento Pompeii, Positano It's been a beautiful but sometimes difficult week in Sorrento. The weather has been unkind to us at times and the rain seems to have overheard our daily 'where to' conversation and arrived five minutes before us. We haven't let this dampen our spirits (pardon the pun) but it has meant that from time to time we had to imagine the postcard view instead of experiencing it first hand. Sorrento is a beautiful and very noisy town. The atmosphere is great and the people very friendly. We discovered early in the week a beautiful cafe nestled in a cobblestoned alley way and this became our favourite haunt, not only because it had wifi internet access but because the family who owned it were absolutely lovely! They treated the girls like ... read more
Pompeii ruins
Outside Pompeii
Views with kids!

Europe » Italy » Campania » Sorrento April 23rd 2009

Arrivaderci Rome Our last night in Rome was spent visiting the Trevi Fountain to throw our coins over our right shoulders to ensure we would return to Rome soon. Saddness overtook us all and we decided to ease our sorrow with gelato's on the fountain steps. Today we bid a sad farewell to Rome and commenced our journey to Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast. We visited the bar we had come to call our local one last time. Announcing our departure for Naples we were greeted by a loud exclamation form Aldo (adopted uncle to the girls and barrista extrodinaire). "Napoli ! No, no Napoli !" All worst fears and Trip Advisor reviews confirmed in four short words. Bloody brilliant ! Shaking my hand and then inviting me to count my fingers was Aldo's only way ... read more
Trevi Fountain at night
A sad goodbye
Dad and his girls

Europe » Italy » Lazio » Rome April 19th 2009

Day 5 - Rome After our wonderful walking tour with Angel tours on Tuesday evening we decided to do the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and Colosseum tour with them also. Our English guide Tom was equally as good as his Irish colleague and we were enthralled for the whole 4 hours. Jess seemed especially captivated with our young, very good looking guide! So noticeable was Jessie's enchantment that Sarah and Neive started singing (repeatedly, and to Jessie's horror) “she loves him, she wants to kiss him” The treck to the entrance of the Palatine Hill was long (seems to be a recurring theme) however, well worth it! The views are pretty spectacular and the history fascinating. The Palatine Hill was like the Beverly Hills of Ancient Rome, so is filled with the remains of many palaces ... read more
Vestel Virgins Quarters
Massive& moving
One and all

Europe » Italy » Lazio » Rome April 16th 2009

Day 3 Rome Slowed the pace today as the girls were pretty buggered and our feet were killing us. Kerry decided to stay at the flat and defeat the ever growing mountain of washing that five people on the road can produce in just four days. Easy enough you'd think but in order to get the machine to wash she found out that no other electrical appliance can be plugged in at the same time. The combination washer drier turned out to be a washer and wet clothes tumbler. So with a great deal of creative flare Kerry soon had the apartment decorated with wet clothes hanging from every possible location. The girls and I departed for Villa Borghese, Romes version of Central Park. After a bit of a hike we came upon a bike hire ... read more
The Swiss Guards
St Peters Square
Vatican Hall of Maps

Europe » Italy » Lazio » Rome April 15th 2009

Day 1 - Rome Our driver dropped us at our apartment on Via Del Babuino at around 9.30am. We were greeted by Guido (our landlord) who herded us up the narrow winding staircase to the 1st floor where we were confronted by the smallest lift in Italy! We had to do 3 lift trips to the 4th floor as we could only fit one or two people and 2 pieces of baggage at a time. The apartment is tiny but fantastic, and the views are spectacular. Guido is a lovely man and had luckily done some grocery shopping for us as it was still Pasqua (easter) and everyting was 'Chiuso" (closed until Tuesday). Magically the easter bunny had also left 3 (very large) eggs on the table. We allowed ourselves a good 5 mintues to take ... read more
Discovering the streets of Rome
Pizz on the Steps
The Spanish Steps




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