DAY 29 & 30 - Milan

DAY 29 -
Travelling on the Frecciabianco fast train this time to Milan. It is an overcast day but we can still just see the snow capped Dolomite mountain range and to think that Switzerland & Austria are just on the other side, I note to myself that one day we must make another overseas trip and explore this part of Europe as it looks stunning.

Milan Cathedral

We arrive in Milan in the afternoon and walk to our hotel which is not far away. The hotel rooms are very nice, bright and modern, and this time we get complimentary breakfasts. After settling and eating lunch, we take the metro into the Duomo Square to see the Milan Cathedral - another amazing & complex piece of architecture - and the Vittorio Emanuele Arcade. Our main aim in Milan was to get some last minute souvenirs, which there doesn't appear to be many here, unlike Venice.


Entrance to Arcade

Already, I had a feeling about Milan to be careful with my hand bag. Heading back to our hotel rooms meant getting back on the metro, it was pretty packed as it was peak hour and we needed to be extra vigilant looking after our things. I could sense a guy next to me who we are pretty sure was a potential pick pocketer, as Mark could see him eyeing off my bag so he kept his eyes on him the whole time. He would've had a hard time getting into my bag as the zip is clipped but still gives you an uneasy feeling. Not having any luck with us, at the next stop he got off that carriage and hopped onto the next carriage before the doors closed to try his luck with someone else I guess.

We headed back to our hotel rooms after having some dinner.


Glass dome inside Arcade

DAY 30 -
Not a huge lot to report today but in our wanderings yesterday to the metro station, we found that our hotel was about 30 metres away from a cat café, so with all of us missing our cats terribly, that was the first point of call this morning. I have to say the set up was better than the one in Moscow (no offence to Moscow as we still enjoyed this one) but it was more spacious, more tables and they offered

Bowie

proper coffee/snacks (all prepared in a cat free kitchen of course). The cats were really friendly and playful too, our favourite was Bowie - yes named after David Bowie. All six cats were named after famous singers.

Moving on, we continued our search for souvenirs trying some areas known for market stalls, however these were true Italian style markets with fresh fruit & veggies, handbags, scarves, cheeses etc, nothing of which we needed but enjoyed the cultural experience nonetheless.  Not having any luck here, I suggested we head for the Castella Sforzesco, a popular tourist attraction, surely some souvenir shops here. We explored the Castle first, found some more semi-stray cats which kept the kids happy, then continued our souvenir search eventually finding a couple after lunch.

Overall, I wasn't all that impressed with Milan, it just felt like "another city" with graffiti, cigarette butts, traffic, busy-ness and not as clean as some cities we have visited.  Maybe if we had spent more time here and saw more of its highlights, we may have enjoyed it more.  Or perhaps we are at the end of our journey and are ready to go home. We returned to the hotel rooms to start organising for our long flight home tomorrow.  Mark and I enjoyed an hour and a couple of drinks at the bar prior to us all heading out for our last dinner.  I must admit I am a bit tired of eating out and looking forward to having home cooked food again.

This is the last blog I will post for this trip, so "Arrivederci Italia" we have had such a wonderful time here and in Russia and can't thank our friends enough.  We look forward to going home to be in our own beds, seeing family, friends AND our kitty papooses.

Ciao

Day 28 - Venice

DAY 28 - 

This is our only full day in Venice, so we got moving reasonably early and wandered along the Grand Canal to go on a gondola. The water seemed a little bit choppy near the entrance so we wandered around some of the main lane ways as the water was calmer, until we found a suitable gondola service. We found one for the four of us at a reasonable price and for 30mins which would be fine as it was quite chilly this morning. (Top temperature for Venice was going to be 9° apparently).


Mozart lived here

Travelling along, the gondolier provided some history for specific buildings, one of them being the apartment that Mozart lived in when he visited Venice and passing the opera house. I was rapt as only a few gondolas travel this canal so the chances of being rowed passed these were pretty small. It was a very relaxing way to start off the day and couldn't help but ponder about life here in Venice when gondolas were the only way to travel the canals. It had become foggy as we came out onto the Grand Canal which really made us appreciate a gondolier's line of work. Gondolas look difficult to steer anyway with one oar but add turning the gondola down other canals, contending with other boats and gondolas, ducking for the little bridges and then some fog too, really made us appreciate our gondolier.

Rialto bridge under construction

From departing our gondola ride, we walked to the famous Rialto bridge, the oldest bridge that spans the Grand Canal (finished 1591). Part of the bridge is undergoing major maintenance on it, which makes sense that they would do this in their off peak season. Across the bridge, however, little boutique shops and market style shops still operate as they have done since it was built.

Friendly cat at Murano

A boat cruise to three islands off Venice was booked for the afternoon. Our first stop was Murano which is well known for its beautiful glass. We had a snapshot into how the glass blowing is done (this workshop was very short which was a pity) but what they can make out of glass is truly amazing. 

Beautiful reflections at Torcello

Historic building at Torcello

Next was the small heritage island of Torcello for its historic buildings. Apparently, this island was the first centre of civilisation in the estuary. Then onto Burano island which is well known for its very colourful buildings and lacemaking. We were meant to see how this was done too but as this island was third on the list when it should have been second, they had finished for the day - again a bit disappointing however the buildings were very colourful and vibrant.  The day was finished cruising back with yet another sensational sunset - a beautiful end to our stay in Venice.

Coloured houses of Burano

 

Leaning bell tower of Burano
(photo taken through boat window)

 

 

Day 27 - Venice

DAY 27 - 

Fast train - Frecciarossa

On the fast train again to Venice this time, the sky is blue and clear, a beautiful sunny day. The first third of the journey is very hilly, so we pass underground a lot through the hills. The second-third  of the journey the landscape is flat with more vineyards, vegetable crops and Italian towns but in the distance I can see snow capped mountains. The last third has some hills here and there and then all of sudden we are crossing water. It felt a bit weird being on a train and all you can see from the window is gorgeous aqua coloured water but at the same time, I was so excited to be here in Venice, a city I have always wanted to visit. The temperature we were expecting outside when we arrived was about 10°, our coldest day in Italy so far but when we get out it certainly felt warmer than that. 


View of Grand Canal from water bus

Mark made contact with Fabio the owner of the apartment to organize pick up of keys and show us the apartment. My first impressions of Venice is that I will love this city on water. I stand at the back of the water bus in the open air snapping away with my camera. Our apartment is lovely with a little balcony overlooking a small garden. The decor is what you would expect in a Venetian house, marble tile floors, rugs, replica bust of Michelangelo's statue of David, tapestry wall hanging. Ana is happy that it has two bathrooms.

Entry to St. Mark's Square

We find a place to have a late lunch then walk to St. Mark's Square with beautiful buildings but I prefer the little walkways, small boutique shops, canals and little bridges

over them, oh and no cars, a very relaxing place to be. Very close to our apartment, I discovered that the small church we walk past is the one that Baroque composer Vivaldi was baptised in - he is most famous for composing the four violin concertos known as "The Four Seasons".

Leaning tower of Venice?

Cute bridges over canals

Later on in the early evening, Mark and I wandered around our area in search of basic items and found ourselves at the Grand Canal entrance viewing the most beautiful sunset. I can see why people adore Venice.

 

 

 

 

DAY 25 & 26

DAY 25 -
Time to visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We hadn't booked a tour for this as we decided we would choose the best day to go whilst we were in Florence. It's actually free to roam the grounds where the tower is, you only need to purchase tickets if you want to climb the tower or go into the

Pisa Cathedral & Bapstistry

cathedral. I have heard and read that the queue can be huge for the tower and you are not guaranteed of seeing it unless you have pre-booked a "jump the queue" ticket - usually this can only be done with a tour group anyway. So knowing that Toby is afraid of heights (yet he was the one that most wanted to climb to the top) we decided not to as there were warnings for people afraid of height.

We organised our own transport, bus to train station and then train to Pisa (plus return trip) and walked along the 1.6km pedestrian lanes to the tower. Upon first sight my reaction was "oh there it is, how cute!" as it was smaller than I expected, although still a tower next to a cathedral. Although I have read that the tower has been stabilised so it won't fall, it is still astounding how much it leans. After taking some photos, we find an eating place and toilet stop. Casually strolling back through the tower grounds and around Pisa cathedral, we headed back to Pisa station. I did notice that the queue for climbing the tower wasn't too long at all today, so if we had more time we probably could have done it (but I also know from experience, that Toby would have got half way up and then would want to come back down). All in all, it was a rather inexpensive day arranging transport ourselves and not going with a tour group.

DAY 26 -

Inside Florence Cathedral

Today we had something different in order and that was to visit a couple of wineries in the Tuscan region which is famous for their Chianti wines (a type of red wine). After exploring nearly every tour site of the area the night before, I managed to book a half day sunset Chianti tour for a reasonable price by 8.30pm.

View from first winery

After a leisurely morning, we strolled into the main areas of Florence for lunch, a quick look inside the Florence Cathedral (apart from the dome which had paintings, it was very plain) and then met up with the tour group at 2pm.  By this stage it was quite wet, but not to worry as we were mainly going to be under cover. Our group was small, about 15 people in all and the mini bus was very modern and comfortable inside as far as mini buses go. It was an hour to the first destination of travelling through hills and slightly winding roads but the scenery was lovely despite it raining. Grapevines, olive trees, snow on the mountains in the distant, cute villages - beautiful. The bus was quite bouncy and a bit warm and I was feeling quite "blah" in the tummy and knew that Toby must be too as he gets travel sick. Fortunately we reached the first winery, Toby feeling much better than I was.




Monteriggioni Fortress

We had an enjoyable time at the first winery, David our wine master had very good humour and even let the kids have a bit of a tasting with our consent. We also tasted local foods and condiments like salami, pecorino cheese, olive oil, truffle oil and balsamic vinegar - all yum! After the group had some time to purchase items from the shop, we hopped back on the bus to the second destination, racing around the hills and over speed humps (I think the bus driver must have had a drink or two whilst waiting or he is the Rome taxi driver's cousin). The next destination was the Monteriggioni fortress which we had time to explore first before the next wine tasting. There was no sunset today and it was dark early due to the rain which also impeded our exploration of the fortress. Most of the shops had shut too which was a little 

Inside fortress

disappointing. Our wine tasting occurred in the basement of one of the buildings which had been turned into a cute little shop selling wines and local produce.  Our tour finished and we hopped on the bus to be met with a different bus driver to take us back to Florence, thinking to ourselves that our tour guide had arranged for a different one whilst we were all having our tastings.


Cute little basement shop

Arriving back to Florence at 7.30pm, we finished our last night in the city having a light dinner at a restaurant, walking through lane ways of Florence back to our apartment, then packing for our next move tomorrow - Venice.

Day 23 & 24 - Florence

DAY 23 -
Suitcases and bags packed we checked out of the apartment and get a taxi ride to the train station to hop on board the fast train. 

The countryside is very hilly here in Italy with the train tunnelling through many of them, the pressure on our ears a little uncomfortable at times. Lots of farmland, vegetable farms, vineyards, villages right on the tops of hills and cliff edges. 1 hour 55 mins later we arrive in Florence, this time heading straight for the taxi bay and 4 mins later arriving

View from our bedroom window

at our accommodation. We check in and are shown our apartment admiring the lovely views from windows and then finding out our apartment has a terrace with a FABULOUS view.

It's lunch time when we arrive so we set off after offloading our cases and bags to find food. Afterwards we walk to the main area of Florence and were absolutely floored when we reach Duomo Square. The beauty of the

Florence Cathedral

Florence Cathedral & Baptistry is very unique and I loved the colourful exterior of these buildings. It is also massive. Having visited inside a lot of cathedrals on our trip, I didn't plan to go inside anymore, but I do just wonder what  this one is like inside. If we get time perhaps we will visit one more.


View from terrace

What we noticed about Florence really early is that it's so clean, no graffiti, the driving not so crazy and just feeling a bit safer here than in Rome. Things seem easier to get to too. The day is finished off by doing general stuff like washing, drying, shopping for food and planning our next couple of days here. (Oh and admiring the night views from our apartment.)

DAY 24 -
A lazy morning in store and not a lot planned apart from a walk alongside the river and up to the viewpoint from Piazzale Michelangelo. The steep walk to the top was SO worth it. The views were astonishing with the Florence Cathedral and other cathedrals rising above all the other buildings. There was a bit of fog still around when we started out this morning but as we were admiring the views, the sun started to break out...perfect!  There were a few little markets on top of the hill too, so it was nice to wander around in between the views of Florence.

Florence Cathedral rising above the city

Our walk continued down to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, across it to find a lunch destination and then Mark and Toby going off to the Uffizi Gallery of paintings and 

Ponte Vecchio

sculptures whilst Ana and I happily wandered the narrow shopping lanes of Florence. After meeting up again, we wandered back down the other side of the river back to our apartment. Time for some home cooking and a glass of wine and suddenly I come to the realization that we have an extra night here than I thought. We leave Florence on Tuesday, not Monday. I am sort of relieved at this as, although I miss the cats & home, this city is lovely and another day to relax here would be nice.

DAY 21 & 22 - Colosseum & Pompeii

DAY 21 - 
Nothing was booked for today and a sleep in was needed although I still got up earlier so I could research the best option to see the Colosseum and avoid the long queue. Once everyone was up and ready we walked to catch the double decker sightseeing bus which allowed you to buy a ticket that jumped the queue. Yes it worked and we got in fairly quickly. The sun was shining this morning and we were in awe at our first sighting of the Colosseum. It was
colossal...obviously! Another pinch me moment to believe we were actually here. We explored the inside, taking photos at every possible angle and Toby providing us with some history about it so we didn't need a tour guide. Way to go Toby!

House on Palatino Hill

 Just across from the Colosseum, was the Palantino Hill and Roman Forum, another truly amazing site of old ruins. We wandered the hill, and at several points seeing beautiful views of Rome. The hill overlooks the Roman Forum, which is just as well as we really didn't have time to explore all of this too. You could easily spend the whole day visiting these three places but we had to keep moving as the Pantheon and Spanish Stairs were on our list for today too. 

View from hill

View of Roman Forum

We jumped back on the sightseeing bus and hopped off at the nearest stop to the Pantheon. It was a bit of a walk to get to it but there are always fabulous buildings or statues/monuments to see along the way...or more armed guards with big guns, so the walk is worth it. After the Pantheon we had to walk back to the bus stop to take us to the Spanish Stairs. By this time, the sun was starting to set giving us a lovely view of some of the things we saw yesterday. By the time we got to the Spanish Stairs, it was dark and a bit disappointing to find that it was closed off, I

Pantheon

think due to the public holiday (Epiphany) for Italy today. Never mind, we sat down at a lovely restaurant (food, seating and toilet were well needed by this stage) and headed back to our apartment, happy and tired with what we achieved.

Beautiful sunset

DAY 22 -
It was misty and dark when we set off on the bus on our Pompeii tour but as the sun rose, the mist cleared and it was looking to be a beautiful day. As we got out of Rome and down the freeway into the countryside, we could see some gorgeous snow capped hills and mountains. I was a little bit surprised at seeing snow south of Rome and thought we would see it more as we travelled north. I saw a couple of cute little Italian villages that covered smaller hills with fortresses at the top.

View of Mt. Vesuvius from Naples

It was going to be a 3 hour trip down, so we had a few stops along the way, the first was a toilet/drink stop. The second was along the bay in the "City of the Sun" as it is known (Naples) to get picturesque photos of the bay, Mount Vesuvius in the distance and the island of Capri. The water was calm and the views all around was gorgeous. Lunch was the next stop in Pompeii then the tour commenced. 

Umbrella Pine

I couldn't believe how many ruins had been excavated. Apparently they have only excavated 1/3rd of what was covered by the ash nearly 2,000 years ago. The Roman bath house was still quite in tact, even the mosaic floor. Some of the ceiling and wall decorations were partially preserved and its marvellous to think that such detailed decorations occurred this long ago. We saw beautiful views along the way whilst walking around the ruins and of course Mt

Such detail on arch ceiling
in Bath House

Vesuvius sitting in the background looking calm and more like a really big hill than a volcano. However, this volcano is still

Mosaic tile floor - Cave Canum means
 "Beware of the Dog"

 active and may blow at any time.  Yet life must go on and after the eruption of 79AD, civilisation crept back in and rebuilt a new Pompeii which is down the road from the ruins. The ground is so fertile that you can grow just about anything and this is why people still live here as its their livelihood. It would be a beautiful place to live, however, the threat of the volcano possibly blowing at any moment would put me off. 




Hard to believe this volcano did so much damage

It was a lovely afternoon well spent, a well earned rest in the bus trip back to Rome arriving at 7.30pm. Now to pack for our fast train trip to Florence in the morning.