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.

Dodging the Cassanovas in Napoli

It was good to continue travelling with Mum, Dad and Zia on the Amalfi coast.
Arrived in Sorrento where our hosts were to pick us up and transfer us to the hotel. We were very surprised to see a matchbox car arrive and a man on a scooter... so “lucky” me got to go on the back of the scooter while Mum, Dad and Zia went in the car with our luggage.

I was very fortunate to get some advice from Bruno our host about being careful of Cassanovas in Naples... unfortunately for him I did take his advice... and didn’t ditch my family to go out for a beer with him!
Zia Merylise was kind enough to keep reminding me that was the reason why we didn’t get our promised croissants in the morning! Naples proved to be the home of Cassanovas... traffic stopped so I could walk across the street and I was given extra scoops of gelati!



All the towns along the coast – Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi are all so beautiful. The towns are built sloping up the cliffs, the beaches are crystal clear and wisteria and bougainvillea climb up all the walls of the buildings. Didn’t get to see the Blue Grotto in Capri due to the rough seas.




We went to the ancient city of Pompaii. The whole city was wiped out by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. It was much bigger than I expected and it would have been quite elaborate with its columns and frescos painted on the walls. It was very disturbing to see the plaster casts of the people who had died in Pompaii by suffocating from the ash before being covered in the lava from the volcano. Some were kneeling and praying, some trying to crawl away or shield their bodies.

Time to build up the European tan

Met up with my school friend Alison again to start our travels together island hopping through the adriatic sea..
First stop was Split in Croatia and also where we were to begin our Croatian sailing tour!

Our tour departed from Split in Croatia - Alison and I had a room above deck. We were lucky we weren't downstairs with the engine and all the diesel fumes! Our room wasnt much bigger than a shoe box and to survive the week we had a system going so that we could get into bed at night without lying on top of our backpacks.

Out of 31 people on the boat, there were 4 male crewman, our male guide James, 2 other guys who made up the couples on the boat and 24 girls... this was a recipe for disaster from the start considering most of us had to share 2 bathrooms - but we all got along really well (apart from 1 or 2!)

The places we stopped off along the way included Omis, Markarska, Brac, Hvar, Korcula, Mjlet and dubrovnik. They were all really beautiful and each had their own feel to it - but to me they all felt really old world and medieval. Most of the towns had fortresses that we climbed up cliffs to get to.

The best part about the tour was doing absolutely nothing - sunbaking on the deck while sailing through the Adriatic, reading, eating, drinking, sunbaking...sunbaking... and jumping off the boat into the crystal clear water and lazing about on li-lows.. By the end of the week I was definatly relaxed - even to the extent of boredom!

The final dock of our tour was at Dubrovnik. Definatly had sealegs for a couple of days after getting off the boat! Dubrovnik was my favourite place in Croatia - except for the fact that Alison and I had bedbugs crawling all over us (unbeknown to us!!) while we were asleep - our bodies became covered with bites arranged in rows...

To continue our island hopping Alison and I made our way to Greece.

In Athens we did a walking tour that took us to see the temple of Zeus, the ancient Agora and the Acropolis. Climbing the Acropolis hill at midday to see the Parthenon was a bad idea... felt like we were in the desert. But it was amazing to see the massive marble columns towering over us.

We discovered Gyros in Athens - a kebab with pork, tomatoes, tzatziki and hot chips in it..mmm..

Our first Greek island to explore was Paros - my favourite. It was a very Greek island with less tourists than on the other islands.

We were very fortunate to have the most amazing host at our villa who told us about good places to eat traditional food. The waited claimed that the lamb liver on a spit that was wrapped in what was probably lamb skin and marinated in herbs was "TOO GREEK FOR YOU!!" but when in Paros.... it was very tastey.

We hired a 4-wheeler to get around Paros. It was the best way to see the island - and dodge the siesta between 2-6pm when EVERYTHING shuts. Couldnt believe that the town came to life at 10pm and some shops stayed open until 4am!

Next was the party island of Ios.. Alison and I got very sick of doing nothing! We felt very old on this party island...

Santorini was beautiful but the island was very dry (like all the other islands) and no greenery! On Santorini we walked up the volcano - which gave a great view of Santorini and the town of Thira perched high on top of the cliffs. The best part was hiring another 4-wheeler... and like our other bike it was only 50cc.. needless to say that the cars behind us were very frustrated. It was a good way to see the red and black sand beaches on the island.

Met up with Mum, Dad and Zia Merylise which was really nice after not seeing them for 3 months!