WayneandVicki

After checking out of the Sudima Hotel, near Christchurch Airport, we were away in our faithful RAV 4 (thank you Rodney) headed to Nelson. The staff at the Sudima are first class, always friendly and very helpful. Wayne had been there for the four nights prior and Vicki met him there on Thursday. The roads in New Zealand, if this one is anything to go by, are organized not overly busy and motorists who are generally cruising along enjoying the scenery. Our first stop is at Hanmer Springs around 2 hours North of Christchurch. A really pretty almost alpine like village filled with touristy shops, cafes and friendly locals. There was a market in town as well as a big gathering of Ducati motor bikes, more about them later. After a coffee and a walk around ... read more

Being a travel day there will be few photos which will be a relief to anyone who saw yesterday’s photo filled day of fun. This morning we had to check out of the Air BnB by 10am and with our quantity of luggage it wasn't possible for us to do any sightseeing so went to the nearby taxi rank and came straight to the airport despite our flight not being till 3pm. The traffic in Rome, as I've said many times, is chaotic and this morning was no different. Our taxi was piloted by none other than Valentino Rossi's second cousin on his mother's side. Our ride this morning was a Toyota Prius and our driver proved that a Prius, yes a Prius, is capable of speeds up to 150km/hr. The irony is at no time ... read more

For breakfast this morning we had cold meat and cheese from the local grocery store. We were going to have cereal but the local doesn't sell it only cold meats, cheeses and every kind of alcohol you can think of. After breakfast we walked across the road to catch a bus to get us somewhere near the Vatican. The Sun was shining directly on to the ticket machine so we gave that up and ended up buying a 48 hour hop on/off bus ticket from a street vendor near the bus station. When asked where the bus stop was he said follow me I'll show you a shortcut. So off we head with our Bangladeshi Segway pilot with Wayne hobbling along behind and Vicki trying to act as an intermediate guide between our Segway speedway racer ... read more

After yesterday's adventure and very long day today was planned to be a lot more leisurely. We had breakfast at the hotel, nothing too much to write about but it was included in the room rate and it beats going hungry. We'd decided to venture on to the hop on/off bus as we'd done previously in Copenhagen, Edinburgh and London. The one in Florence was split in to two routes, line A and line B (very original). Line A started at the main railway station, 5 minute walk from our hotel, and was more concentrated around the old city of Florence took around an hour to do non-stop. Line B was more about the outskirts of the city as well as a run out to Fiesole in the hills to the North of Florence, this route ... read more

After our change of room at the Palazzetto Pisini Grand Canal we slept well. While the room was a bit warmer than the previous room this one afforded the luxury of a glass cubed shower that you could see in to from any point in the room as well a toilet that was also visible from the wobbly old desk that I was blogging from. It was like being watched during a performance, to the point Vicki was waiting for a round of applause. We checked out of the hotel and bumped in to a German couple that we'd met as we were leaving dinner last night. We walked down a narrow street with them on our way to San Samuelle pier. It was already high 20s and humid so we sat in the shade and ... read more