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Published: August 23rd 2007
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Florence city
This is the view we had to deal with each time we walked to town. Tough, I know. Passing through parts of Tuscany on the train from Rome to Florence was a bit special for me. I´ve long held a dream of exploring Tuscany, so it was good to see it, but as we weren´t making any detours into the countryside of the region, I contented myself with staring out the window of the fast train and mentally planning my future trip through Tuscany.
In Florence we stayed at Michelangelo Camping, which is set in a 13th century olive grove on a hillside looking over the city. It was beautiful and, even with the strenuous hike up the hill to get there, almost perfect. Getting to check out the amazing view of the city and river laid out below each day was great too, spotting the famous roof of the Duomo and looking up to the hills in the distance. Florence felt more casual compared to Rome, but it also had beautiful streets to explore that would lead onto piazzas. In the piazza della signoria there was a great big fountain of Neptune and a replica of Michelangelo´s David (which was lucky for us, as the cues to get into the Galleria Dell Áccademia where the original is
were always huge and we decided to leave it for our next visit to Florence). We did manage to get into the Uffizi Gallery by getting there at 8.30am and waiting for an hour, and it was worth it. The Uffizi has the largest collection of Italian art, and we saw works by Raphael, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and my favourites were the two Boticellis. It actually poured rain that morning, so after we had coffees and gelati waiting for it to clear, we went to the Ponte Vecchio. This was the only bridge not damaged by bombs during WWII, and it is a busy tourist attraction now, lined with jewellery stores selling gold and every coloured gem you´d ever want. The outside view of the Duomo was incredible. White, green and pink marble and so much detail all over the huge building. The front view was covered with statues of saints and they all looked like they were looking down at you. Really amazing architecture. Like other attractions in Florence, there was always a huge line to get inside so the outside had to be good enough for us.
From Florence we headed to Verona for one night,
and we are glad we made the stop. It is such a beautiful town. It seems that the buildings just get prettier in Italy. They seem a lot more colourful in Verona, and being a much smaller town, its easy to walk around its major sights in a short time. We found Juliet´s house and balcony (from Romeo and Juliet fame), and there´s even a bronze statue of her that gives you good luck if you touch her right breast. Well who were we to argue with that! The undercover area you pass through to come to that area of Juliet´s place is a notorious spot for lovers to stick love notes to the walls with chewing gum. I didn´t know whether to find it really gross or sweet. Certainly interesting!
From Verona we caught the train to Venice and as our accommodation was out of Venice and we arrived on a Sunday, walking through a deserted town was a tad worrying. In a familiar situation of being too hot with too heavy bags and starving, we finally found our shabby camping accommodation and spent the rest of the day by the pool. In the end the accommodation wasn´t
that bad, and there were shuttle buses to take us into Venice, which was absolutely beautiful. When you got away from the touristy areas and lost yourself in lanes alongside canals, it was so much fun. What an interesting way to live by using boats and gondolas as your transport! The Lonely Planet said that in Winter you need to wear gumboots as the tide levels rise and the streets are flooded. We spent time just roaming the streets and looking at all the pretty murano (venetian) glass for sale. It is easy to see why people say you´ll get lost in Venice - there are literally twists and turns everywhere. And even when there are sign posts directing you to where you want to go, often it will point you in two different directions for the one place - very confusing! Because we were well and truly sick of pizza and pasta after nearly two weeks in Italy, we tracked down a chinese restaurant for dinner, which was right alongside a canal and made a great change!
Our second full day in Venice was a great one - it was my 26th birthday! Em spoilt me by giving
me some lovey presents she collected throughout Italy, and our day of indulgence began with chocolate spread for breakfast and a swim before heading into Venice. We found the Rialto bridge and San Marco Square, which are two of Venice´s most popular attractions and what feature on most of the postcards. The square is such a huge space considering the cramped and narrow nature of the rest of Venice. The church there looked incredible from outside, and the tourists were almost outnumbered by pigeons. We had bought tickets to an opera for that night, and it featured a soprano, tenor and baritone accompanied by an orchestra playing popular arias/pieces from different operas. Their voices were so strong and incredible and the music was lovely. It was really enjoyable, and the tenor even looked like Justin Timberlake, so Em and I were happy. We ended the day with Chinese, wine and a bit of a dance. What a great place to have had a birthday.
Venice meant the end of our time in Italy. We were off to Austria next (which I´ll hopefully update in the blog soon).
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