Aaron 'n' Floss In Europe: June 2012

Farewell Italy, we have arrived in Germany!

What have we been up to since our last post?

Here are our Italian stats:

Days spent in that incredible country: 18

Cities visited: 9

Pizzas eaten: 64795780679546357 (approximately)

Number of times Floss muttered "mama mia" at old Italian men: 13

Euro Cup 2012 matches watched: 4

Time spent on trains: 18 hours 55 minutes

Days spent swimming in the Mediterranean: 6

We have been busy! Since our last post on Rome we have been to Florence, Pisa, the Cinque Terre and Venice. So here we go

Florence:

We arrived in Florence on a very hot day after a very hot train ride. We stayed in a hostel/ bnb that we found in lonely planet “hotel Cestelli”. A dark, sweet smelling sanctuary in the heart of the city.

Soaring buildings, cobble stones, speeding vespas and gelato gelato gelato! We walked around the Duomo, the markets and got lost in all the leather stores. We visited the Galleria degle Uffizi which was over flowing with Renaissance art and saw Botticelli’s birth of Venus. We visited the Galleria dell ‘Accademia and saw Michelangelo’s David which blew our socks off.

We sat on the Ponte Vecchio bridge one night after dinner and listened to some live music. On the main statue on the bridge hundreds of people have attached padlocks and thrown the key into the river to seal their love, a trend we have now seen in many places around Europe.

We were told the Florence special was a 1kg beef steak which Aaron polished off (with a little help from Floss). Afterwards to ease what Aaron called his “meat sweats” we climbed up Piazzale Michelangelo at sunset and whatched the city in the fading light. Here are a few snaps of our time in Florence:

The Duomo

Fresh fruit and veg

Floss always befriending the locals

The art school in Florence

Love locks on the bridge

Florence city

Ponte Vecchio bridge

Sunset

Pisa:

Pisa was a day trip. We dropped our packs at the train station and bee lined for the tower. We took all the classic tourist photos of the tower and enjoyed a pasta lunch in the beautiful weather. Pisa pics below

Aaron and Willy the wombat

Cinque Terre:

We stayed in a small apartment in Vernazza overlooking the ocean and the main square. Coming into Vernazza we weren’t quite sure what to expect after the town was devastated by a flood on October 25^th 2011, many of the restaurants and stores have only just re opened in the last month or two. It was incredible to see how well the town has bounced back and how resilient the locals were. It was clear to see by the number of tourists who are already flocking back to this sweet coastal town.

Waking each morning to hear the church bells chime and the waves lapping was bliss. We spent our time here jumping off the rocks into the deep cool ocean, sunning on the boulders and lots of walking. We walked along the coastal track to the towns on each side of Vernazza with some breath taking views all around.

Pics below

Venazza

Breath taking views on the coastal walk

Monterossa al Mare

The view from our dinner table. So romantic

The view from our room

Not a bad commute! The train station.

Floss enjoying the water

Aaron jumps from the rocks

Peaceful

Venice:

If Florence was the town of leather, Venice was all about the glass blowing, lace and carnevale masks. Of course not to forget the water canals, gondolas and vaporetti. We had planned on staying in Venice for three days but ended up cutting it a day short; the apartment we booked was mouldy and a bit grotty and the price of living is $$$. So we got on and enjoyed the time we had. An 80 euro gondola ride was worth every penny, very relaxing and a worthwhile way to see the city from another angle. We booked an overnight nine hour train ride from Venice to Munich. Once we boarded we realised our hot, stuffy and packed 2^nd class seats were not going to make for a good night. Aaron being the incredible guy he is found a very friendly German train guard and happened to enquire about the “fully booked” sleeper carriages. 10 minutes later we were stretched out in our private, air conditioned beds. We awoke after a peaceful nights rest as the train pulled into Munich.

We arrive in Venice

One of the 409 bridges in Venice. The bridge of Sighs

Exploring the town

We had to buy a drink to get internet access. Ahh interesting afternoon.

Best gondola ride with Alyssandro.

So here we are in Munich staying in an awesome hostel “Wombats”. We had planned on writing this post last night but got caught up in the excitement of the Euro Cup. We watched the Italy V Germany match from the Lowenbrau and enjoyed a few (!?!) steins of larger. Even though Germany went down it was a great Summers night out. Munich so far has been great but that is another post to its own.

If you have stuck with us through this long post thanks for reading

We are both happy and healthy

Much love until next time

Aaron & Floss

We have loved Rome. Tomorrow we head to Florence so we thought a little update was in order.

We have been staying in an apartment 50m from Roma Termini (the main train station) that we rented again through the website airbnb.com. It has been fantastic, so nice to be able to have a home base to come back to after a busy day out in the city. And the city has been busy, lots of noise, pollution and people everywhere.

Rome has been HOT, reaching up to 37 degrees one day. We have been hitting all the main tourist attractions in between hiding in the shade wherever possible and drinking litres of water.

Our favourite sites included: the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman forum, the Spanish steps, Trevi fountain, and the Pantheon, and of course the Vatican city including the Sistine chapel (wow!)

We have been following the Euro cup and enjoyed a few nights out with some new friends watching the soccer and having a few drinks. Exciting atmosphere being in Rome watching Italy play.

On our first day in Rome we bought a "Roma pass" which gave us unlimited public transport and access to attractions. We found it very handy, especially when we were able to jump the long queues on hot days!

Tonight we will let the photos do the talking of what we have been up to in Rome:

The sheer size of the Colosseum blew us away.

Floss pulls her best gladiator pose!

We walked around the inside and tried to absorb the enormity of the Colosseum. Using the audio guide was a good way to brush up on our history knowledge but it was so hot we had to keep moving.

We walked the Spanish stairs.

The Trevi fountain was beautiful. There were so many people here.

Aaron throws in a few Euro, meant to bring good luck and bring you back to Rome one day

Incredible

We found a sweet wood work shop, apparently Floss really likes Pinocchio.

The Pantheon

Aaron inside the Pantheon

Two ugly mugs and one huge dome. Inside the Pantheon

One day we had lunch here out the front of the Piazza Navona. We have eaten so well whilst in Italy; so much delicious pizza, pasta and lasagne. Yummo!