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Duomo - Milan
World's largest gothic cathedral. 3400 statues, 135 spires and 155 gargoyles. No wonder it took 600 years to build...Milan - Verona - Venice - Bologna - Rome
Milan We arrived in Milan after a very long but non eventful flight (Bex only got nervous twice, once when the in flight entertainment system said we were heading right over the top of Baghdad and the other when the young middle eastern man sitting behind us started pacing the isles, all pale and sweaty).
We survived it though, and got a bit of jetlag but found it pretty easy to get into the Italian routine. We had a good sleep then set off on our adventure, straight into town.
The Duomo being the first "sight" that we saw, we were absolutely gobsmacked. The gothic architecture with the spires, gargoyles and stained glass windows is stunning. In our opinion, the only thing worth seeing in Milan, but definitely worth seeing.
We didn't stop for long though and headed off to Verona.
Verona It was 30 degrees when we arrived in Verona, and the temperature hasn't dropped at all since. We absolutely loved Verona. It has so much charm, and the locals there live and beathe it too. We saw Juliet's balcony and some churches and
bridges, but all in all we just wanted to wander the little alleys and soak up the atmosphere of the place. We dined in the square which was awesome, but Jeff still couldn't go past the pizza, which was his 4th pizza meal in a row (yes including breakfast...). Here Bex had her first gelato, and there has been no turning back since...
Now Italain drivers are CRAZY. Bex got white knuckles on the bus, and then nearly got wiped out by a couple walking the streets. Very quick lesson to learn. But definitely a constant source of amusement.
One thing we love about Italy is the way everyone has dogs, and takes them everywhere with them! Makes us miss our Miko very much.
We only stopped one night in Verona then we moved on to Venice.
Venice Our first impressions of Venice were unfortunately slightly tarnished by what we had just experienced in Verona. We found it so incredibly overrun with tourists, but as soon as we got out of the main areas the place very quickly grew on us. We basically spent 2 days wandering aimlessly, but not getting lost! We actually found
it surprisingly easy to navigate. We saw the usual tourist spots - Rialto Bridge, San Marco, the markets and church after church after church... and canal after canal after canal... and a rat. We ate well here, our fav being the 'sgroppino' - lemon gelato with vodka and bubbly.
Bologna Our visit to Bolgna was a fleeting one, arriving in the afternoon and heading off first thing. But we managed to see the sights - the unfinished bascilica, two leaning towers and the Piazza Maggiore. We did eat well, taggliatelle al ragu and butter prosciutto tagliatelle. YUM! Oh and gelato and our first caraffe of wine... We spent some time in the evening in the Piazza Maggiore, which was fantastic. To sum up Bologna has the buildings and charm, yet also has the traffic which seems to dampen the romantic atmosphere a little.
Rome Our first day in Rome was a very long one. We spent the afternoon the we arrived wandering around (somewhat aimlessly!), visiting a few of the low key sights, like the Piazza di Porta San Giovanni and the Piazza di Porta Maggiore. We headed out to our camp site accom which took
ages, and by the time we got around to eating it was 10pm! Day two we woke up early to go to the Vatican to make sure we missed the queue. Security pulled us up on Jeff's leatherman and pocket knife which we hadn't even given thought to, but we stashed it and went in. Now how to describe the Vatican museams... for people like us who really aren't into museams, statues, old paintings etc - it was a whole other world. Raphael's rooms were amazing, paintings all over the walls and ceilings. But nothing really compared to the sistene chapel which was eery, but so packed full of tourists! After the vatican museams we headed round to the Piazza di San Pietro, where we got pulled up again for the swiss army knife and leatherman, and got yelled at by italian security guards (with big guns) so we ended up going in separately while the other waited with gear. It was absolutely amazing... A choir was in there singing and it was hauntingly beautiful.
After there we headed over to the Castel Sant'Angelo which is more of an old fortress/prison/mausoleam for Hadrian. It was quite nice to see
Giant pizza pieces...
Jeff's 3rd meal of pizza something that wasn't a grand old building covered in marble. Then on to the Piazza Nuova with the artists which was not as grand as we thought it would be (we are hard to impress) so we grabbed some gelato and moved on to the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. Now Bex was saying "seriously, it's a fountain, how cool can it be?" and the answer to that it incredibly cool. We really wanted to dive in for a swim but decided it wasn't a good look so decided to leave the thousands of tourists to it and call it a day.
Day three we started with the Colosseum, which was amazing. It certainly lived up to our expectations. When in use it must have had an atmosphere could only dream of. The Roman Forum and Palantine Hill is right next door so we spent a very hot and sunny morning roaming around the ancient ruins. Again, very crazy how old this stuff is, with some stuff on show being estimated at 750BC. We did a quick flick past the Spanish steps and the Piazza di Popolo on the way back and spent the rest of the arvo sunning ourselves
by the pool!
We've felt less obvious in Rome, as the place is crawling with tourists. We've made an effort not to be ignorant tourists though and say our please and thank you's etc in Italian. We've had good fun laughing at many Americans too like when we were waiting to get into the Roman Forum "is this a park, you know - gardens?" among other gems.
Right end of epistle one, we will catch you guys up at the end of Italia!
Ciao!
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simonandamy
Simon & Amy
A hall of maps?!!?!
Looks awesome ladies, great pics. I laugh in the face of your 30 degrees though...