Bordeaux - I've tasted better

My last stop on my Busabout adventure was in Bordeaux - a French wine region.
It was a very beautiful city, much bigger than I expected




and many... many chateau's in the surrounding region to choose from for wine tasting!

The wine wasn't really anything to shout about but I enjoyed tasting a variety of wines and learned that French wines are noted by the Chateau/Winery in which it was made - not the grape variety.




It was amazing to see the massive Chateau's in which the winemaking family lives.




Leaving Bordeaux also meant leaving a great bunch of friends who I'd met along my travels.
Always travelling on my own.... but never alone!

Espagna = Paella, Sangria and Nudity

After spending a month in Italy.. I was ready to move on to new cultures!

Barcelona - home of Gaudi architecture, was my 1st Spanish city to encounter.
Spent the 1st day doing a bicycle tour through the city dodging Spaniards with their dogs on leashes.
We rode our way past the Cathedral, the city park, the Arc de Triomf, the bull fighting rink, the Sagarda Familia and the beach for lunch and sangria!
Didn't see the infamous Barcelonian who roams the man-made beach sporting nothing but a tattooed speedo on his butt....apparently its illegal to be topless in Barcelona unless you take your pants off too!

Every night in Barcelona was a culinary delight... I ate alot of paella and a variety of tapas and drank lots of sangria!

Walking down La Rambla was definatly an experience... there were more street performers than tourists! And I have never seen such a variety in such little space. Aliens, Zombies, Faries, Trolls, cartoon characters....



By the end of the street I was ready to punch the people trying to sell stupid whistles in the head. As if anyone wants to buy something that makes a sound like a duck mixed with a baby crying.

The markets on La Rambla were amazing... every kind of "food" you could think of and the freshest fruit and vegetables.





The part I loved most about Barcelona was discovering the Gaudi buildings scattered throughout the city.
Gaudi was a Catalan architect whos works had a gothic feel to them.

The Casa Batllo is designed around the concept of the ocean and water. The balconies are shaped to look like skull bones, and the roof tiles looked like scales on a fish. Inside the house there are no straight lines - the walls and cornesses are curved and are patterned like scales and change colour at different angles.




The attic was amazing and felt like I was inside the ribcage of a whale. Glass panelling made it feel like I was actually under water.
It was truely an architectural masterpiece.



Probably Gaudi's most famous work is the Sargarda Familia. The catholic church that was started by Gaudi in 1882 and is still not finished. It is totally funded by donations.




The outside of the church has 2 facades. The nativity facade depicting the birth of christ and the passion facade depicting his death. The amount of detail into the statues are incredible.
The inside of the church was full of construction, stainglass windows half finished, the alter nowhere near completed.



The roof was amazing... sometimes pictures speak louder than words.



It is expected to be completed by 2024.

One of the nights a group of us girls from the hostel made our way to the Magic Fountain.



It was amazing..changing colours and styles with the accompanying music and the MNAC museum lit up in the background.


Madrid was a bit of a let down after the lively city that is Barcelona.
But the company was great, as was the food and the flamenco dancers!!!




Our lunch one day was a bit of a lucky dip... couldnt understand the menu or the waiter! Probably the most enjoyable restaurant experience so far!







I LOVED SAN SEBASTIAN!
Finally found a beach that was even close to those back at home. White fluffy sand and WAVES!
San Sebastian is the surf mecca for Spain.







It was my last stop in Spain and I definatly made the most of it! I soaked up the sun and got my last chance for bronzing my skin, also tried some more paella!



And made some really great friends.

Nonna's lasagne still tastes better!

Onward to continue my travels in Italy, I returned to Florence to complete my immersion in the culture that is Italian renaissance art.



Florence is home to Michelangelo's David - I was awestruck. The size and detail of this statue blew me away.
I lined up for about an hour to get into the Uffizi gallery to see artworks by Botticelli, Michaelangelo, Rafael and Da Vinci.



Made a quick stop in Pisa to do the touristy shot!



One of the most beautiful places in Italy I have visited so far has to be the Cinque Terre in the Italian Riviera - consisting of 5 towns that jutt out along the rugged coastline.
Tourists flock to the Cinque Terre to complete a beautiful scenic walk from the 1st to the 5th old-world charming towns.



Trying to find the hostel I was staying in was a bit of a mission....
I stayed in the 1st town - Riomaggiore. No-one warned me that this town is also the steepest! With my 20kg backpack on I trugged up a steep hill to find the hostel - turns out it was just the office.
Me, along with 8 other people followed the owner to our hostel... 20 MINUTES and 500m ASCENT LATER... we arrive to find out that the key didnt fit in the lock. The very sweaty fat Italian owner made the descent back to the office and arrived about an hour later to let us into the building only to find that he didn't have the key to get inside our room!
So, back down he went.
Lets just say he worked off the pasta he ate for lunch.

The next day I set off for the "scenic walk". Very misleading! It took us 5hrs of zig-zag stairs, climbing over uneven rocks, narrow paths (with real risk of plummeting to certain death if you lost your footing!). It was definatly a mission in the scorching sun.
But the ocean views and winding through olive orchards and vineyards and watching the next town poke out inbetween the track made it all worthwhile.



Swimming in the crystal clear water of the Italian riviera was very refreshing and revived the muscles.



After travelling through Venice, Rome, Naples, Tuscany, Florence and the Italian Riviera I can still say that my Nonna's lasagne is the best!

Getting back to my roots

Finally, I got to meet the family that my Grandparents left behind in Italy and Switzerland in search for a new and very different life in Australia.

First stop was Geneva to meet my Nonna Andrighetto's sisters family. The rain certainly didn't stop Joel from showing us the sights! It was raining so much they even had to turn off the Jet d'Eau that spurts up 140m out of Lake Geneva.




The next few days was spent with some of the Andrighetto's side of the family in Ballaigues in Switzerland. It was summer - but we were still fortunate enough to take a visit into the Alps and see some snow! Taking a ride on the sledge with Mum down the slopes was definatly a highlight! This ride made Zia Merylise change her opinion on Dad.. apparently the devil came out of him on the Diablerets (aptly named mountain - the Devil!!).




After listening to the stories that my Grandparents told me about their childhood and growing up in Italy.. I finally got to live them and visit their hometowns and family.
It was an amazing experience. I was blown away by the fact that all my grandparents brothers and sisters are all so similar to them when they have lived most of their lives apart. And even though I have met only a handful who have come to Australia to visit - they would all give the skin off their backs for me if they could.





I was amazed to see that each of my 4 grandparents houses are still standing. But of course, being roughly 50-60 years since they all left Italy, alot has changed. Nonna Giustina's house has been turned into a restaurant. Nonno Dario's house is renovated and looks like a massive mansion which backs onto the mountains (the stables of his old house is now a part of the new house. His old house looks to be about a 1/4 of the house which is now standing).
Nonno Luigi and Nonna Iole's houses are still owned by their families and still look like what they used to many years ago and are in need of renovation!




Being back there made me wonder why they left such a beautiful family and country behind. But things were tough back then and people have to eat and earn a living.
It was a very emotional departure.. from my Italian family and also from my parents and my Zia Merylise.
But my adventure continues.....!

Be aware of the Morrocini selling fake leather...

Florence is a very small city well known for Renaissance art and leather (even managed to find myself a jacket)!
Most of Florence was bombed during WWII – except for the Ponte Vecchio. It is a cute little bridge that has colourful buildings jutting out over the river and is lined with jewellery stores.



The famous orange tiled roof of the Duomo is gorgeous. The exterior of the church is very intricate and colourful!



I looked through two museums in Florence – the Academia Gallery and the Uffizi Gallery. The Academia holds Michelangelos statue of David. It was very detailed... you could see the veins on his arms and neck. It was also much taller than I expected. You know what they say about the size of a man’s hands... poor David – the rule doesn’t apply to him!



The Uffizi had artworks in there by Da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Botticelli. I’m not really into art, but the Birth of Venus by Botticelli is the piece to see... a lady next to me was even crying!

Rome... a living museum full of irony

Rome was everything I expected and more. It was like walking through a living museum. The ancient ruins pop out of nowhere... one minute I was walking past modern buildings, turn a corner and then.. there’s a roman ruin.

I went on a walking tour through Rome that told all the history of the Romans and took us to the major sites, the Circo Massimo where the chariot races were once held, the roman forum which was once the political centre, and the Pantheon. The Pantheon was built as a dedication to the planetary gods in 27BC, today it is a chuch (how ironic) and houses the tombs of famous Italian kings. It is the most preserved of all the roman ruins (and also my favourite). The construction of the dome of the Pantheon is still a mystery to architects today.



I also did a tour of the Colosseum. It was MASSIVE... but only 1/3 of it remains today. It was built on the lake of crazy emperor Nero who used to use 1000 swans to power his boat. The outside of the Colosseum is very dirty – due to pollution from car exhausts. I got to walk through the tunnels where gladiators once walked, and where lions, tigers and yes.. even giraffes were held before being slaughtered in the ring.



The tour continued into the Pallatine Hill where Nero’s palace once stood – equipped with his own sports stadium and chariot rink.

No visit to Rome would be complete without a tour of the Vatican. The Vatican ironically is built on one of the 7 pagan hills that make up Rome. I went into the Vatican museum which is basically the Popes collection of marble statues.
The fresco that Michelangelo painted on the roof of the Sistine chapel was amazing. I cant imagine how his neck would have been after painting that for 6 years... because mine hurt after gazing up after 5mins. It was Michelangelos first ever painting.
And finally... into St Peter’s basilica. It is named after Jesus’ 1st apostle Peter – and his tomb is the centre piece of the church. Was pretty disappointed that St Peters doesn’t have stainglass windows!!



Michelangelos first ever sculpture is housed in the basilica and is of Mary holding dead Jesus. Its behing glass because apparently an Australian a few years ago tried to tackle the sculpture and caused Marys nose to fall off as well as Jesus’ toe!

Can't get enough of the islands...

Mum, Dad, Zia and I caught a 16hr overnight ferry to Sardegna... a small Italian island off the west coast of Italy. Our ferry docked in Caglieri on the south coast. The host of our B&B recommended an amazing seafood restaurant that brought out about 10 dishes for entree and then a whole baked fish with artichokes for our main.
We spent a day at Poetto beach. Finally, a beach with sand!! The water was crystal clear and really cool.



After 3 hours sleep we made our way up to Alghero on the west coast of Sardegna. We walked around for ages with our luggage in tow before we decided to make our way up to Sassari and stayed in a really antique B&B.

Our next stop was Corsica, a French island just north of Sardegna. Our ferry arrived in Bonifacio. It is a very unique town that was built high on top of cliffs and is enclosed within a fortress. The walls surrounding the town are right on the edge of the cliffs which weave in and out of the ocean.



Bonifacio is a holiday spot for the rich and famous...there were dozens of super-yatchs lining the port. It was fun having a stickybeak into the boats and trying to imagine what life would be like for them!




We took a bus ride to Ajaccio on the north coast of Corsica. It was nice walking around the town, but it was quite a sleepy town.
Took another ferry - this time to Nice in France. It was good to be back on mainland Europe with some hustle and bustle. The beach in Nice was exactly as I pictured it – pebbles on the shore with very light blue water that stretched for kilometres. Didn’t stay sunbaking for long, the pebbles were too hard to lie on! Went for a walk through the old town and went to a gelataria that sold tomato and basil icecream!

We did a day trip to Monaco. It was very glitzy – every second car that drove past us was either a Ferrari, Maserati or Rolls Royce! There were even advertisements for private jets in the windows.



Mum, Dad and Zia left me in Nice to continue their travels through Spain and France and I continued my busabout adventures.