OK, free internet, but slow, so no photos, which is a pity - cos there are some good ones! Will upload them some time in the future...
Anyway, so since we last left you, we went to Monaco, picked up the car in Nice, drove to Italy, climbed the tower at Pisa, wandered the streets and sights of Rome, and ate a lot of pizza and pasta.
We won't say too much about Monaco, cos apart from the Prince's Palace and some pretty boats, we weren't too impressed with it.
We picked up our Peugeot 308 (named Pierre) from Nice airport early one morning, after waiting 45min in a line we didn't have to wait in... It's been my job to drive (cos Stu gets more stressed than I do, though he has been doing plenty of that for the both of us from the passenger street). It has been interesting. We left France pretty much straight away, and headed for Italy - the border is only about half an hour from Nice. I only got honked at once, and that was cos I was too far forward at an intersection to see if the lights were green or not (they don't put them on the other side of the intersection too like they do at home). I have tried to change gears with the door handle a few times, but only hit the wind-screen wipers instead of indicators once! Italian drivers seem to drive anywhere between 90 to 140+ km/hr irrespective of what the actual speed signs say... I did enjoy driving along at 130km/hr on the motorway (our GPS told us that was the speed limit - there were no signs), but was a bit worried about all the cars still passing me at speed! And they all seemed rather annoyed when I went at 70km/hr in the 50km/hr zones...
So we arrived at a campsite in Pisa - only 10min walk from the leaning tower. That first night we slept in the back of our car - put the back seats down, put our suitcases in the front seats, and spread out a sleeping bag in the back. It would have been comfortable enough, except for the insane heat! Winding down windows don't help if it's stinking hot outside all through the night, and comes with the added benefit of now being covered in mozzie bites. We're now in a camping site in Rome, but we're not allowed to sleep in our car here, and have hired a tent to sleep in - comes with bunk-beds - luxury! Still ridiculously hot though...
Pierre at the camping ground in Pisa.
Anyway, so we spent an afternoon wandering around Pisa - and of course going into the main sights - cathedral, baptismal, and leaning tower! Climbing the leaning tower was particularly interesting - the way your sense of balance changes as you spiral your way up, falling towards or away from the outer wall, or sometimes falling forwards as you climb up, or feeling like you're climbing up as you head down...
poking the leaning tower
pizza, wine (and beer) and the leaning tower... (this was the worse wine I have ever tasted - like slightly fizzy, watered-down, tart grape juice.)
We drove to Rome the next day, and have 3 days here. We've covered most of the main sites, and are off to the Vatican tomorrow. Today we wandered around the Roman forum ruins, and up the Palatine hill. Then the Colosseum. I took a brief picture on the Spanish steps, but it was too crowded to spend much time there. We threw coins into the Fontana Di Trevi - we'd actually got there early this morning, to find the fountain empty, and the workers sweeping and clearing away huge mounds of coins in large bags! - so headed back in the afternoon when things were in full swing and added to the mounds ourselves.
where's mita? on the spanish steps.
colosseum
roman forum ruins and palatine hill.
Yesterday, we covered the Piazza del Popolo, the Pantheon, Piazza Venezia. I took photos of Stu posing in various poses mimicking the statues in the fountain at Piazza Navona - definitely will have to post those pictures up at some stage! We crossed the river Tiber, stopping at the island in the middle, which was a lot smaller than I expected, and feasted on pasta, pizza and panacotta in the Trastevere district.
Stuart and the Piazza Navona fountain series...
We're heading down for a day trip to Pompeii in a couple of days. We'll probably find that it's no where near enough time for us to see everything we want to, but logistics demands it unfortunately. I'm sure we'll still see plenty to keep us happy though :)
Ciao!
Anyway, so since we last left you, we went to Monaco, picked up the car in Nice, drove to Italy, climbed the tower at Pisa, wandered the streets and sights of Rome, and ate a lot of pizza and pasta.
We won't say too much about Monaco, cos apart from the Prince's Palace and some pretty boats, we weren't too impressed with it.
We picked up our Peugeot 308 (named Pierre) from Nice airport early one morning, after waiting 45min in a line we didn't have to wait in... It's been my job to drive (cos Stu gets more stressed than I do, though he has been doing plenty of that for the both of us from the passenger street). It has been interesting. We left France pretty much straight away, and headed for Italy - the border is only about half an hour from Nice. I only got honked at once, and that was cos I was too far forward at an intersection to see if the lights were green or not (they don't put them on the other side of the intersection too like they do at home). I have tried to change gears with the door handle a few times, but only hit the wind-screen wipers instead of indicators once! Italian drivers seem to drive anywhere between 90 to 140+ km/hr irrespective of what the actual speed signs say... I did enjoy driving along at 130km/hr on the motorway (our GPS told us that was the speed limit - there were no signs), but was a bit worried about all the cars still passing me at speed! And they all seemed rather annoyed when I went at 70km/hr in the 50km/hr zones...
So we arrived at a campsite in Pisa - only 10min walk from the leaning tower. That first night we slept in the back of our car - put the back seats down, put our suitcases in the front seats, and spread out a sleeping bag in the back. It would have been comfortable enough, except for the insane heat! Winding down windows don't help if it's stinking hot outside all through the night, and comes with the added benefit of now being covered in mozzie bites. We're now in a camping site in Rome, but we're not allowed to sleep in our car here, and have hired a tent to sleep in - comes with bunk-beds - luxury! Still ridiculously hot though...
Pierre at the camping ground in Pisa.Anyway, so we spent an afternoon wandering around Pisa - and of course going into the main sights - cathedral, baptismal, and leaning tower! Climbing the leaning tower was particularly interesting - the way your sense of balance changes as you spiral your way up, falling towards or away from the outer wall, or sometimes falling forwards as you climb up, or feeling like you're climbing up as you head down...
poking the leaning tower
pizza, wine (and beer) and the leaning tower... (this was the worse wine I have ever tasted - like slightly fizzy, watered-down, tart grape juice.)We drove to Rome the next day, and have 3 days here. We've covered most of the main sites, and are off to the Vatican tomorrow. Today we wandered around the Roman forum ruins, and up the Palatine hill. Then the Colosseum. I took a brief picture on the Spanish steps, but it was too crowded to spend much time there. We threw coins into the Fontana Di Trevi - we'd actually got there early this morning, to find the fountain empty, and the workers sweeping and clearing away huge mounds of coins in large bags! - so headed back in the afternoon when things were in full swing and added to the mounds ourselves.
where's mita? on the spanish steps.
colosseum
roman forum ruins and palatine hill.Yesterday, we covered the Piazza del Popolo, the Pantheon, Piazza Venezia. I took photos of Stu posing in various poses mimicking the statues in the fountain at Piazza Navona - definitely will have to post those pictures up at some stage! We crossed the river Tiber, stopping at the island in the middle, which was a lot smaller than I expected, and feasted on pasta, pizza and panacotta in the Trastevere district.
Stuart and the Piazza Navona fountain series...
We're heading down for a day trip to Pompeii in a couple of days. We'll probably find that it's no where near enough time for us to see everything we want to, but logistics demands it unfortunately. I'm sure we'll still see plenty to keep us happy though :)
Ciao!
Wow! I love what you did with the leaning tower! I bet no one's ever thought of that, though you must have inspired the guy behind you. You might just start a craze!!
ReplyDeleteIt's ok, I'm just a little bit jealous :)
Good to see you've got the use of your hands back, Stu. Mocking statues would have been tricky in a sling...
Don't worry Darren, I'll mock you plenty when I get back. In fact, I've been mocking you constantly here too, you just haven't been hearing it! -Stu
ReplyDelete