Dové é toilette?

First Pizza of our trip

The Grand Canale of Venice

Cycling through Ravenna (UNESCO world heritage site)

Tom and David: spot the difference

Shortly after our last post, we wandled back to our hotel, only to have one of the most wonderful evenings of our trip. It's funny how you can see all the cathedrals, castles, statues, architecture etc. you like, yet you don't really experience a truly memorious time until you chat with a local for hours!

The guy working on reception happened to be fantastic in English, and as we entered the hotel, we asked him about a rally happening down the street. He mentioned that there was a left-wing activist rally occurring, which got us onto politics, Italy, Berlusconi, Alitalia and life in general. An hour or so later, we found ourselves in the hotel bar chatting like old buddies. It almost felt a shame to leave him and head up to bed. I wish we had a photo of him, or spent more time in Bologna, but he has given us his card, so we will definitely go back to visit.

The following day, we drove up to Garda Lake (largest lake in Italy) along with the rest of Germany and Holland and their toddler children. While we had a fantastic deal in the most massive camping ground I had ever seen, and some glorious warm weather, I don't think I would go back again, purely because it was a catchment for young families, with small kids screaming at 7am. Yes, I sound selfish, but I enjoyed more of the real Italy. We went for a few drives around the lake, with some beautiful sites, but after some time, you become used to the old buildings and sick of the crowds. After two nights, we found ourselves heading back towards Venice via Verona.

Made famous via Shakespear, Verona also appeared to be a tourist magnet - disgustingly just around Juliet's house, while the rest of the city was quite vacant (a little like the Mona Lisa at the louvre). Our last night was back at the original camping, this time we asked for a discount in  larger cabin, away from the school and contiki groups! This however worked against us once again... after meeting some fantastic Aussie guys at 4pm touring the world over 6 months, and 7 hours later, we crashed in our beds, only to be awaken an hour or so later by the couple in the other half of the cabin: First having a blue, then the make-up pounding, drunken sex, then the toilet trips, then the showers, then the movie on their laptop (turned up full-blast). By the time this was done, we had around an hour or two sleep before our 5am wakeup... not happy campers...

Had a great trip, but the highlights were:

* Sitting down in Venice, dangling legs in the ocean. Who knows how long venice will still be there?

* Getting free bikes in Ravenna and cycling through the streets

* Having our one classy dinner in Marina Di Ravenna and being waited on hand and foot by an Indian guy with broken english/italian/indian in the most gorgeous seafood restaurant we'd ever seen.

* Playing on the beach

* The old Italian hospitality in Florence: Very old couple in the two star hotel who fell over backwards to help us

* Our friend at Hotel Maxim in Bologna

* Meeting Ben and Rod at Fusina Camping grounds on our last night

Strange how nothing includes the sites, but from my small amount of experience, I have found that the people I meet are far more interesting than the aesthetic beauty. Perhaps I haven't been to the most beautiful places though...

Quanto Costa Per Favore?

Next checkpoints in Italy: Florence (+ Tuscany) and Bologna...

As we drove out of lovely sunny Ravenna, the rain clouds started gathering over the ENTIRE Italy, only to hit on us just as we entered the A1 heading south to the absolutely picturesque area of Tuscany. We arrived in Florence just as the rain cleared, but the GPS decided to direct us through the city centre (we punched in the name of a hotel recommended by the Lonely Planet), so we must have looked like absolute wankers driving through the pedestrian filled streets! Finally we just found a random park and checked into the nearest 2-star (very good in my books) and talked them down from a whopping 70 euros to 55. Florence turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous city, but the "holiday" idea was short lived when the predominant language heard was English (and American at that). I for one was quite happy just to stay a day and head off somewhere quieter.

This morning we drove around Tuscany a little and wound up in a small Chianti producing region nestled in mountainous landscapes known as Rufina. We managed to have our own personal wine tasting, and are now naturally 3 bottles of Chianti heavier... to store in our wine cellar....erhm!

We are now in Bologna, so have naturally had the bolognese for dinner while marvelling at the redness of the city! Of course, more photos will follow just to demonstrate how red it actually is! Once again, tom managed to talk the hotel receptionist down 30euros from the original price, but this time we are in a 3 star hotel! Perhaps by the time we leave, we will be staying in a 5 star for only 50euros... Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow we are heading to the city state of Verona, staying at lake Garda, so fingers crossed that the weather finally clears up! We do want to have a tiny bit more colour when we head back to Belgium on Thursday...

ciao until next time!

Venice and Ravenna

No photos just yet, however our vacation has officially begun! We flew into Treviso, found our hire car and headed off to the small coastal port of Fusina (25 min boat ride from Venice) to be greeted by our worst nightmare: Loads of Contiki travellers and an italian school trip. So, whilst the camping ground was lovely, quaint etc. VERY little sleep was achieved on our first two nights...

Venice was spectacular - I know everyone will probably say the same thing, but there is something unbelievably charming about an entire village (?city) on water. All the canals have street names and the only means of transport is via the water! Just out of curiosity, I asked a handsome young gondolier (very distinguished in their stripy tops and straw hats) how much it was to take a lovely ride in a gondola - BUT 80 euros was a teensy bit out of our budget. Next time maybe..

We are now staying in Ravenna (actually, the seaside hideaway approx 10km away) and it is so lovely. An UNESCO world heritage listed site, we found our way around with the "complementary bikes" the tourist office had to offer. Not the top quality sort (toms chain fell off twice, mine once) but enough to keep us smiling.

Tomorrow off to Florence, although a little hesitant to leave the glorious seaside behind; More to follow... stay tuned!

Happy Good Friday

Well, all of you lucky buggers in Aus land didnt need to work today, but here in Belgium (a very Catholic country mind you), Good Friday doesnt mean anything. Doesnt matter that Jesus was pinned to the cross on this day - the most important day here is Monday which makes a little bit of sense I s'pose - sort of a celebration that Jesus rose again. (Forgive me if my Sunday-school tuition is not paying off right now!). Nevertheless, we still only have Monday off, so this weekend, we are hopping on a train (not for the whole journey - I hope to sit for most of it! - Bad joke, I know) to Maastricht (in Holland). We are just veging in a 4 star hotel on the river and shopping. Hoping to spend a minimum for €500 (perhaps each...) on as many clothes as possible! Yippee!!

Have attached a typical photo of Tash and myself... just to show that nothing has changed. While we were trying to pose for a photo, we somehow tripped over ourselves and ended up branding our bums! Klutzes 'til the end!

New Pickies

I know we have already showed some pickies of Rome and Pisa, but here is an update of our actual photos! (the others were just from google!!).

We are getting used to doing self-portraits with four, and strangely enough, we coincidently are in the same positions!

As for the rest of the week... we visited the VUB on saturday (Vrije Universiteit Brussel - or in English, Free Univeristy of Brussels), so Tom could have an orientation for his course beginning in September. The professor was very impressed with how much research Tom had already done on the course itself. Hopefully this is an indication as to how he actually performs...!

Finally it's spring here, so we are also without scarves (for the first time since forever ago) and just down to 3 layers (as opposed to 5). But we do have sun which is a real bonus!

Not much else to say for the time being... maybe Tom will give an update in the near future.

Mama Mia

Ok, now ready for round two! While we only had 2.5 days in Rome, I think we managed to see a lot. We did go to the colosseum - joined a horrible line, only to have a 'tour-recruiter' tell us that we could go straight in if we paid an extra €7 each, so being the impatient Aussies that we were, we thought why not?! We did go straight in, but that wasnt worth the €7 - however, our Italian tour guide was! She talked English in the Italian style (particulary focusing on increasing and decreasing intonation), and emphasised things like 'many people were keeeelled (killed)' and 'there were many liiiiiions' going really low on the last word of every sentence. We werent sure if she was taking the piss, but it was incredibly difficult not to laugh. While tears were coming out of my eyes from holding laughter in, I had a look around the group to see some irish girls also blowing their noses and wiping there eyes, I had a look to Tim and he had a dicky smile on his face while tears were also streaming out of his eyes. I give it to Tash tho - she was the most polite, and discretely told us to grow up, before she turned around and let out a little laughter herself! Considering you pay at least €10 for a good comedy show, €7 was a bargain!

The boys later went to the football (Lazio Vs Regina) - while Tash and I did more exploring. We had to have a Gelati on the Spanish steps (although, little sitting space). The 4 of us also all threw some coins in the Trevi fountain (for the homeless to take out later), and were just generally tourists.

Next vacation - 13 weeks until camping in Portugal.

Prego

Ok - it has been a week since our last entry, so I should update the blog as to what we have been doing since last Wednesday... Italia!

We flew into Pisa (good ol' Ryan air) on Friday afternoon, and just hung out a bit. As soon as we unboarded the plane, we knew immediately that it wasnt trenchcoat weather! We had an average temperature of 10-15°C for the 5 days, and then when we landed back in Brussels yesterday, we were greeted with -3°C. When does it ever end? At least we were greeted by cloudless, sun-filled skies at both destinations!

So, Pisa was quaint and lovely. Very unlike Rome! Clearly, the tower was the only main attraction in Pisa, but it was strange, and immaculate as well (also unlike Rome!). You could see how much it leant, but it wasnt until you had a look around the entire base, that you could really see how much it sunk. So we filled up our digital camera memory once again on this.

After a night in Pisa, we then boarded a 3.5 hour train to the city on 7 hills (although, they were more like bumps to me!). Rome was an a lovely city, filled to the brim with history and architectural ruins, but also tourists (yes, i am a hypocrite), even in winter. Thankfully, we didnt have to wait too long in line anywhere. And this includes the Vatican (because we werent going to join a queue which encircled an entire country!). So we missed the chapel (dont ask me how to spell sistien).

Will give my next round at a later time...