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Published: November 12th 2006
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Romantic Venice
This pic captures the romance of Venice so beautifully! Buon giorno!
We started our 3 week journey by spending a few days in France -us with Josh at Euro Disney, while Mum and Dad checked out Paris.
After meeting up, we flew from Paris down to the French Riviera: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous! Pete and I took a cruise ship through the French Riviera while Mum, Dad and Josh met up with us each day, in the different places, as they had a car, We visited Nice, Cannes (Cannes Film Festival), St Tropez known for being one of the playgrounds of the millionaires- with super yachts, famous & beautiful people) and Monaco which is its own sovereignty, where we visited the palace where Princess Caroline and Stephanie & Prince Albert live.
Next stop was Venice again, since we only spent 24 hours there back in June due to our flight being delayed a day (on a weekend trip away!), and for the benefit of Mum, Dad & Josh. Venice is such a magical place. It is made up of 117 tiny islands with over 400 canals and 500 bridges. Theres no cars in Venice. Instead, water taxis, waterbuses, and the world-famous gondolas sweep along its myriad
of canals. If you want to go anywhere you have to take a boat or walk. But if you walk it's an elaborate labyrinth so to get around is crazy. Just when you think you have found your way you are pulling out the map again. But if it weren't for its hundreds of alleyways it just wouldn't be the same. Venice is famous for its venetian masks and glass beads, and I think.. definitely its gelato!
After this we made our way down to the Cinque Terra - which is a UNESCO World Heritage listed, group of five villages that hang over the edge of cliffs into the ocean on the north west coast of Italy- with incredibly unique little towns. You cant drive to these towns, so they are relatively unspoilt.
We then drove on down to Tuscany to the Chianti region (where the famous Italian Chianti wine is from) where we stayed in a vineyard and got to (naughtily!) sample the grapes each morning for breakfast and experience a tour of the vineyard -sampling Chianti wine and learning how it is made. Siena the main city is reknown for being the best-preserved medieval city in
Italy. The city centre of Siena is enclosed by walls and gates and is made up of narrow, winding streets and plenty of old buildings and palaces. Tuscany as a whole is reknown for its beautiful scenery and landscapes. I think I could definitely spend a while there just doing nothing. And it definitely lived up to its reputation.
We also spent a day in Florence. We didnt have time to see much of the art and history associated with Florence- Michaelangelo and David, but we somehow managed to find time (the whole day!) to go shopping and for Mum to pick up some of the famous Italian leather in the form of handbags and a really nice leather jacket.
We also visited Pisa and felt obliged along with the million other tourists to get the typical tourist photo of us holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
Next stop was Rome and it was amazing to think that we were walking around a city with more than 2500 years of history. When we turned up to visit Vatican City, which is its own 'state' within the city of Rome, where the Pope lives, we were overwhelmed by
huge crowds, only to realise that the Pope was preaching that day. Although we couldnt understand him and I was a little worried about what he was saying! Within Vatican City , we also visited the Sistine Chapel where Michaelangelos legendary murals are painted on the ceilings- we couldnt look at them for too long though, without getting a sore neck!
Rome is famous its Roman ruins most notably, the Colosseum (Gladiator- the movie). We didnt go inside for lack of time but got to drive around it in the tour bus.
Then we travelled down south to the Amalfi Coast which is famous for its coastline, sheer cliff faces and cute towns, and a cave grotto where the water is this beautiful illuminous green which lights up the cave. The roads along the coastline were very winding and it was pretty scary on the bus, which was trying to navigate narrow roads, looking out of the window at the sheer drop down into the sea. The whole area is well known for its slow pace of life. We spent a few relaxing days here lazing on the beaches and swimming in the warm Mediterranean sea.
One of
On the beach in St Tropez
Mum, Pete myself and Josh. There were alot of French sunbathers (topless) on these beaches which Dad managed not to capture! our last stops was at Pompeii which is an ancient city from around 79AD which was preserved by ash from a major eruption of the volcano Vesuvius, which was excavated about 300 years ago. You can now walk down the streets, restored in their original locations, lined by homes, stores and shops (now partially restored), and imagine the streets filled with people and carts, and the stores filled with the merchandise and culinary marvels of the day. Was amazing. What was slightly ghastly, was seeing where scientists were able to use plaster molds of cavities in the ash, to recreate the bodies in the exact positions in which they died, right down to their facial expressions, which show them suffocating.
I expected the ancient civilizations to be so much different than today, and I always imagined everything in grey drab concrete, and really basic and simplistic. But they had amazing white marble buildings and wall friezes in beautiful colours, which are a little faded now but you can imagine how they once must have looked. They also had hot pools, saunas a public court, sports fields and stadiums. It made me realise how advanced they were back then. And that
French cafes in Cannes
Love the outside eating. Its a real French thing was only 40 years after Jesus died.
Naples was our last stop before we flew out, but I dont know if you could call it a stop, because as it is a poor city and it felt a bit dodgy we didnt get out of the car. Naples is famous for being the birth place of pizza so we tried it just out of the city, and it was really good! My favourite food experience was a nutella pizza which was delicious. Pizza was so cheap as well, large pizzas for 4 Euros -which is nothing!
One thing I have to mention from our travels.....the toilets! Through France and Italy, I experienced the worst toilets. (Even worse than Greece where you couldnt flush the toilet paper and had to put it in an open bin next to the toilet!) You would have to pay to get into public toilets and they would often be just a hole in the ground- and no toilet paper. I would rush in after there being no toilets available for hours, and I'd see the hole and I would think I cant do this. Id be saying to myself come on you can
do this and then look at it, and then turn around and walk out, and think ahh! but I cant wait and so Id walk in again and it would go on and on until I just couldnt do it and I would end up walking out and have to wait in agony for a rare 'normal' toilet!
The Italians were mostly overweight, and we got to see why, after living on pasta, pizza, gelatos and nutella during our 3 weeks, I could feel the waistline expanding... needed to get back to England for some decent food (Healthy English food??!)
And that was the end of our travels through France & Italy but what an amazing time!
Well thats all for now...
Ciao!!
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