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Published: August 29th 2012
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Rome, July 29- August 1/12
Our flight arrived in Rome early in the morning and because we were unable to check into our hostel, we dropped off our bags, and hit the ground running to see as many touristy spots as we could fit in on our first day. As it turned out, their are no entrance fees to the Vatican on the fourth Sunday of each month so we started our self-guided walking tour visiting the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. The vatican museums were very impressive and had a lot of stunning paintings, tapestry, frescoes, and sculptures, however, we required some patience while battling the large crowds in the extreme heat. After nearly two hours of wandering we couldn't wait to see the Sistine Chapel, check out the famous works of Michelangelo and get out- fast. Next we walked to Castel Sant’ Angelo, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. The following day we visited St Peter’s Basilica, the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Rome made a very good first impression. Lot's of great sights to visit!
While in Rome we happened to be put in a room with a girl that we had met on
the Cliffs of Moher day tour in Ireland, named Dani (USA) and her friend Rachel. Their next stop would be Florence and so was ours so we made a plan to meet up with them once we arrived there.
Prior to departing from Rome, Alexis and I had to drop off our passports at the Tanzanian Embassy to get our travel visas for our African Safari tour in September.
Florence, August 1-4/12
Alexis and I arrived in Florence and while wandering the streets we ran into Dani and Rachel as they waited in line to see Michelangelo’s statue of “David”. Shamefully, we took this opportunity to budge in line. The museum turned out to be much better than expected but if we had to wait in line for the whole time (some people waited up to four hours) we likely would have passed. We went on two free walking tours of Florence and visited the Duomo.
Alexis and I decided to do a day tour to visit the small Italian cities of Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa and a Chianti winery. The highlight of the day was definately our lunch served at a Italian family-run organic farm
Sunset in Florence
Alexis, Rachel, Dani, and I hiked to get a sunset view of the city. and winery. Everything that was served for lunch had been grown on the farm ie: vegetables for the salad, grains for the pasta/bread, cows and tomatoes for the bolognese sauce 😉, olives for the olive oil, grapes for the wine, etc. We got to taste four different wines and by taste I mean they left four bottles on the table for four of us to share. Needless to say, the bus got a bit more friendly and enthusiastic following this stop. We had lunch with a really great Australian couple. Next place to visit- San Gimignano for some great views and the "World's Best Gelato". After our visit of the city had ended it became apparent that we must have had a bit of a buzz from the wine because we had some trouble retracing our steps back to the parking lot where the bus was to be picking us up at 3:10 p.m. By the time we (Alexis, the Australian couple, and myself) figured it out it was 3:18 p.m (I know because I looked at my watch to be sure). No bus! Admittedly we were late but no grace period? Really? But our stuff is on the bus!
What about Pisa? We called the tour office to find out where the bus was and they suggested that we find our own transportation back to Florence. Seriously? Grrr..... We attempted to catch a bus but we sat at the stop for nearly an hour and a half. No bus! We attempted thumbing it! Failure! Finally, we managed to convince another tour company to take us back to Florence free of charge. I guess our sad puppy dog eyes and sob story benefitted us this time. As it turned out, our bus had gone to the top of the hill to look for us and the entire group sat waiting for us for twenty five minutes while we stood at the proper meeting spot at the bottom of the hill in a panick searching for a ride. Needless to say, I won't take full blame for our missing of the bus... granted we were late but had the bus been in the parking lot at the designated meeting place, the entire bus would have been on the road much sooner and with us on board. Therefore, we missed our opportunity to take the typical touristy photos with the leaning tower
When in Rome....
We sampled far too much of the local cuisine: pastas, pizzas, bruschettas, wines and gelatos! MMMmmmm Lemon flavored gelato is my favorite! of Pisa.
Venice, August 4-6/12
We did not get to spend as much time in Venice as we had hoped. In order to save money we decided to stay in a bed and breakfast off of the main island which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The place was nice but it's distance from the main sites made it difficult to see and do all that we wanted to in our limited time frame. Because we were not in the "touristy" area we struggled a bit more with a language barrier and found some of the locals to be a bit rude. When we were lost we couldn't find anyone to explain to us where we needed to go in a manner that we could understand. However, we had to remind ourselves that this could be yet another distinct difference in culture and that they may not actually be yelling at us but just talking to us louder than we are used to. We figured out the water taxis and shopped and explored. There were many shops selling genuine leather bags/jackets, morano glass scupltures/jewellery, and many extravagant masquerade masks.
Rome, August 6-9/12
We
Venice
On a quiet, side street watching the gondolas float by. rushed back to Rome to pick up our passports from the Tanzanian Embassy as the embassy was to be closed on August 8th due to a National Holiday and we did not want to chance leaving it to the morning we were to fly from Rome to Istanbul. Therefore, we returned the evening of the sixth so that we would have all of the seventh to get organized. We were able to pick up our passports with no problems. Rome was so HOT So we reserved the rest of our exploring for the evening hours and took it easy during the afternoons.
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