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Published: March 12th 2011
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Monday 14th February 2011 – Valentine’s Day
Milan.
Up early as Megan and I (Gaye) were booked in for a shopping tour.
Got off Metro and into coffee shop as we had about 30 minutes before the bus left for the tour.
Tom has the first really hot shower in 4 days - bliss. Then reads book until 4pm and then went shopping and back. Prepared dinner for girls.
In they come, Megan stuffed, Gaye shattered. Dinner was good, but no roses for Valentine’s Day – Tom could not find any in the afternoon and the girls forgot.
Tuesday 15th February 2011.
Milan-Florence.
Up and off to Florence along the tollway. €20.60 in total - was worth every euro. Eventually found the campsite ‘Camping Village Michelangelo’ at Viale Michelangelo 80. The TomTom did not have the co-ordinates programmed in it correctly. The campsite is a 5 minute walk from the Piazzale Michelangelo, (we can see it up above us on the hill) where the copper statue of ‘David’ is situated and the view of Florence is spectacular. It is only another 5 minutes down the hill to the centre of town. Great spot.
We plugged in the electricity and it
kept popping off – go to office. The circuit breakers are only 2 amps. WTF can you do with 2 amps = 480 watts. The office staff say there are some 4 and 6 amps, so Tom goes looking and finds a 16 amps with own test button – now we have more than we will every need.
Will have to come to this pitch if we return to this campsite later when Gaye does her schooling here.
Then Tom starts to cook dinner. The gas runs out, so out we go to a restaurant next to Piazzale Michelangelo. There was a young German guy on his own next to our table and when Megan sneezed he said ‘Gazzuntike’ (not sure how to spell it), so we asked him to join us. He spoke good English, so we chatted away. When we had sweets, we all ordered a different flavour, so bowls were passed around to we could all try. Tom said what would everyone think about sharing a gelato with a total stranger – who cares, we all had fun, so home to bed.
Wednesday 16th February 2011.
Florence
It’s raining, so not too enthusiastic to start, but
decided to walk into town as only a 15 minute walk. Down the hill, along the river and cross over the bridge and walk to Ponte Vecchio. This is the most ancient and characteristic bridge in all Florence built in 1345 over the Arno River, and noted for having shops built along it. It is one of 3 bridges in the world that have shops on the bridge. Butchers initially occupied these shops.
In order to connect to Palazzo Vecchio (Florence’s town hall) with the Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace), Cosimo 1 de Medici in 1565 arranged to have built the famous Vasari Corridor above it, so the royal family could go across the bridge and not be in view of the public. In 1593, the Medici Grand Dukes didn’t want the butchers selling below them and so the goldsmiths guild was granted occupancy, and today there are jewellers, souvenir sellers and antique dealers on the bridge.
Further along we come across a shoe shop, and Megan finds a pair of shoes to buy.
Into the Palazzo Pitti we go, which also has several museums within it. We buy the ticket No. 2. In to see the gardens to start with.
We meet 2 American ladies with 8 year olds girls sightseeing. Off we go to Ceramic Museum and then to the Costume/Fashion Museum. Megan is into the fashion and so takes quite some time looking.
On the way home we come across a hand bag store and in we go. Megan is in 7th heaven and it really is great designer gear at realistic prices. The label is only 4 years old. We were there for at least 1 hour while Megan tried to make up her mind on which handbag to buy. She could not choose between the black or white one, no worries, she buys both and gets a T-shirt free (but it happened to be a bit small for her) and also received a free black plastic handbag as a thank you.
We then walked home and saw an artist working in his gallery and in we go and look and chat and then home.
No gas bottle available with our fitting in Italy. So Tom fiddled with the regulator on the gas bottle, put hot water over it and got enough out of it to cook dinner. The guy from the gas company comes back and
eventually Tom convinces him to sell us an Italian bottle and regulator – we now have 3 bottles with different connectors, and the hole in the van only holds 2 bottles, so now one on the rack on back of van.
Thursday 17th February 2011.
Florence
Tom and Megan headed out to the Accademia Gallery to see the statue of David. Megan was fascinated mainly by the musical instruments and the first upright piano. After about 2 hours they left and met me (Gaye) in the Piazza di Santa Croce to go the Koine school to enquire about Italian language classes held there.
Friday 18th February 2011.
Florence-Rome
Up early and pack and head for Rome. Again along expressway.
We arrive in Rome to the campsite – ‘Camping Village Roma’ at Via Aurelia 831. They have the best shower block so far and 10amps – unbelievable as they are the same group as in Florence, but Florence showers not as good and only 2amps (440 watts) – which is useless.
Saturday 19th February 2011.
Rome
Up early. Off to see the Vatican City and do a self guided tour with audio play tour of Vatican City only.
There are stacks of people pushing the sale of their personal guided tours upon us. We went to a bar for some lunch and then to a company selling audio guided tours. We had decided on audio tour as that way we could take as long as we wanted and not be rushed.
There is so much to see. The most amazing ceiling was in the Gallery of the Maps –the room is 120 metres long and 6 metres wide metres wide.
Tom found The Sistine Chapel roof was good but not as stunning as he expected. I (Gaye) found it incredible. We both found the rooms painted by Raphael amazing as well and he was only 25 years old when he painted them over a period of 8 years.
A lot to take in for the day, so home to campsite. Had dinner – pizza and drinks -in the restaurant at the campsite. Chatted to the waiter – Chris – who has been to Australia 10 times. Megan liked the Pina Colada’s.
Sunday 20th February 2011.
Rome.
Into town to see the Colosseum. We walked around and then decided to do a guided tour. First up was the
Colosseum with an Italian guide. He was a bit of a commedian and he did put it into a time frame with respect to movies and tales. There is only a small amount of marble left on some seats, after the church came along centuries ago and stripped it, to be used in the churches around Rome. After he finished taking us around, we had 45 minutes to wander around on our own inside before the next part of the tour started.
We headed out to meet the next guide - Jason from Canada. We walked up to the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum where Rome was first founded.
We saw the different forums and building parts left after the 1300 earth quake and the recycling that was done over the centuries. This finished at 4pm.
Jason told us of a tour that he did at 5pm around the back streets so we met up with him and 10 other people. We walked to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona. After that 8 of us ended up having dinner together at a local restaurant. There were 2 American ladies, 1 American guy working in Kurdistan at a University, an
English couple and us. Great time, then off to a bar around the corner. Another couple from the tour came in as well. Drinking and talking until 11pm. The rain had set in so we walked to the Metro - got wet and the Metro line was closed, so got a taxi back to campsite. It was like dodgem cars - but no one hits anyone, which is amazing.
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