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Published: July 16th 2007
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Hi everyone...I know it's been a while! We are now in Nice in the south of France and I'm sitting in an internet cafe where the keyboard is totally screwed up. The e is where the w should be, the q is where the a should be and heaps more...plus you have to hold shift for a fullstop!! I think this is going to take me a while!!! And you ,ay all have to do a bit of codebreaking. 😊
So...we've finished up our stint in Italy. We were there for just over two weeks and visited Venice, Rome, Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii, Amalfi, Ravello, Orvieto, Florence, Pisa, La Spezia and the Cinque Terre.
We flew from Manchester to Venice on the 28th June and spent two days there. It's an amazing place like nowhere else in the world, but two days was heaps to see it all...unless you went to every museum I guess. We just spent the days walking the city, around Piazza Di San Marco, along the canals and basically just getting lost. It is SUCH a confusing city to navigate! We bought a ,ap for £3 and it zas the biggest waste of money ever.
We went to the top of the campinile (the bell tower) and got stunning views of the city and also spent large parts of both days by the pool at the campsite trying to begin our tan which everyone over here has...I think I've done pretty well so far. 😊 Oh...and we didn't go on a gondola. We were being too tight seeing as it was our first stop. They range from about £67 - £100 for half an hour!!!!
We then left Venice on a 10hr bus ride to Rome where we got stuck at one toll booth for 50 minutes!! It was hilarious seeing all the Itallians with their hand gestures getting out of their cars and yelling at each other, and playing bumper cars with one another. It was like being in one of the scenes from those disaster movies when everyone's trying to flee the city!! Anyway, Rome was brilliant once we got there. We met a good bunch of people on the bus to party with at the campsite and all the tourist sites are amazing! We went to the Colloseum, Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, Vatican Museums (Sistine Chapel) and St Peter's Basilica,
the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Piazza del Popolo qnd the Villa Borghese, and this awesome place where the Cappucini monks have used their bones in their tombs to make things like chandeliers and other decorations. It was a bit creepy but cool to see...there were literally thousands of skulls in this one small place. I couldn't even guess how many people are down there!! Everything we saw in Rome lived up to our expectations...except perhqps the Spanish Steps because they had no flowers up them like in postcards, and there was scaffolding on the church at the top so any photos we took just looked crap, and the dirtiness of Rome in general away from the tourist sites. The one good thing though was that we didn't see or experience any dodgy pick pockets or anything that we'd been warned of...we were told the gypsies throw their babies at you just to distract you while they take your stuff!!! Crazy!!!
While in Rome we had a bonus 3 day side trip which we got for free when booking, which took us to Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. We were in a group of about 30
people and most of the people on it were great value. We made quite a good group of friends on it and it made it so much better having a good group. Pompeii was amazing and Sorrento is a beautiful little town. Fro, Sorrento we caught a ferry to the Isle of Capri where we went on a cruise around the island and went in the Blue Grotto. Then some of the guys in the group had sussed out a deal for us to hire our own boat for the afternoon...11 of us, plus beers, in a 40 horsepower boat!! Haha...it was the best day ever!! We took it back around to some of the grottos and just swam in the clear blue waters of the grottos. I'll never forget it, it was seiously the best! On our way back to Rome, we stopped in the towns of Amalfi and Ravello which are seaside towns on the A,alfi Coast where we had a quick look around and a bit of a dip and sunbake on the rocks.
Back in Rome we had one more day to kill before the bus ca,e by and so we used it in what
better way than to work on those tans again by the pool. Geez life is tough sometimes!! 😊
Onto Florence, and we made a 'bonus' stop in Orvieto (which was a bit of a waste of time). We spent an hour there and had a look in their duomo, and that was about it.
Florence is a very pretty place...we liked Florence more than Venice actually. And when I am filthy rich, I will be flying myself to Florence once (maybe twice) a year for the shopping! It is the best I've ever seen and I think I went to bed each night dreaming I had more money to spend there!! We went to the Accedemia to see the statue of David, and it is a very inpressive sculpture to see in real life. All the features (hands, feet...everything else) are all just so lifelike! We had a look in the Duomo and at and over the Ponte Vecchio looking at all the jewellery. Florence was lovely, but again, two days was plenty to see it all unless you were doing all the museums.
Then we went to Cinque Terre which we added to our plan at
the last minute...and are so glad we did. It's a place on the north west coast of Italy with five small towns (which is what Cinque Terre means) with a 12km hiking track linking all five. We did the hike through all of the towns...all 12kms, and some of it does get a little tough. But it was soooooo worth it. I've never seen so much beautiful coastline and the little towns are so cute and the gelati was so cheap!! Haha!! 😊 See pictures...it's so pretty! Have I already said that????
From Cinque Terre we made our way to Nice with another bonus stop in Pisa to get the stock standard photos with the leaning tower...oh, and a fruit man started kissing me and biting my arm when all I wanted was a peach!! Gross...but that's anothr story.
So far in Nice we spent a night out last night with some new Busabout people we met who are all lovely and we had a fun night on the town. It's scary having to speak Fench now...it's hard!! Today we went to a few places along the French Riviera (I love saying that...I feel so posh being here!!).
We went to Monaco which is gorgeous...Jimmy was very close to paying £90 to drive a Ferrari around the Monaco Grand Prix track. We then went to Cannes which was also nice. There's hardly any free beaches here though...you have to pay for umbrellas ansd stuff. We then stopped in a port and beqch town called Antibes where we just lay on the beach and swam...perfect day!! 😉
Tomorrow we will have a look around Nice and probably do the beach thing again, and then at 1pm we're going on a cruise to St Tropez. Should be nice.
So as you can see, we're having a great time. We do miss everyone from home too though believe it or not...but I still think we'd rather be here!! 😉 Off to Switzerland on Wednesday...
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Jen
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Belgium.
Are you guys going to brussles? I just spent the weekend there and spent two days drinking cherry beer which can only be discribed as the best drink ever! I know because I think I drank it in every cafe in brussles! Glad your having fun. Miss you guys. see you soon jen x