When in Rome

We spent 3 nights in Rome. Probably my favourite out of the larger Italian cities we've been to. Stayed in a large hostel with single sex dorms again, it wasn't too bad although I didn't sleep very well but I think that was because it was way too hot more than anything else. Tuesday we saw the Colosseum and the Palatine ruins which took us nearly all day, very impressive. Wednesday we went to Capuchin Monks Graveyard which is crazy! It's a passage way with about 5 'rooms' which are graves but the walls & ceilings are 'decorated' with human bones! hundreds and hundreds of them. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen, but also very impressive and definiteley memorable. We weren't allowed to take pics but brought a postcard so maybe I'll be able to scan that in cos you just can't imagine what it looks like.
We went to the Vatican City in the afternoon as we'd heard the line is horrendously long first thing and came across a line which took us 20mins to get through, not bad we thought...until a bit later we realised we weren't where we thought we were (does this sound vaguely familar?) We were in the Basilica and tombs of Popes, still impressive but we had wanted to go to the Vatican museum and Sistene Chapel. it closed at 3.30m...it was 4pm when we realised! Bugger. I wasn't too gutted though cos I'm not catholic or anything and had heard mixed reviews on it. I guess there's just a certain stigma on seeing the super famous sites wherever you go... but I reckon if it's not your thing, why bother.
Thursday morning we decided to check how long the line to the Vatican museum was...the line was massive, went right around the block. needless to say we gave it a miss.

Pisa & Florence

Saturday we took a train to Pisa. The tower was awesome to see, def one of my highlights so far. There were hundreds of tourists all getting snap happy and taking the obligatory photos 'holding op the tower', we of course joined in! We didn't get a chance to go up the tower as we were on limited time and the tours were booked up until 3pm. So after an hour or two in Pisa we hopped back on a train to Florence, we needed to be there by 4pm to guarantee our accommodation (long story). When we arrived at the Florence station a man approached us asking if we needed accommodation, which we didn't but he eneded up convincing us to stay in his hostel instead, and what a great decision that turned out to be! The hostel was very central, small, clean, our own room, free internet etc etc.
Florence itself wasn't a fave place of mine but in saying that we did still do some good sightseeing. Sunday we went to Boboli and Bardini Gardens...which weren't that impressive really considering the gardens back at home but it was cool in the fact that a few mins away was the busy city yet we were in the peaceful large open space. Our ticket for the gardens also got us into the costume gallery which was quite cool, Niki didn't enjoy that as much...clothes = boring! Later we went up to the look-out which has a fake 'David' statue. We had awesome views of the city. The next day we went to see the real Michaelangelo David statue (but later discovered we'd been at the wrong museum!). Which we should've realised as it had only cost €4 instead of €10 and we waitd 5mins in line rather than 4 hours! haha :) ditzy. Anyway I wasn't too phased it's just a statue!
Sunday night we had Chines Takeaways (I know! we're in Italy and what do we eat! we're strange!) and got some drinks and hung out with a couple at the hostel. They had lots of exciting travel stories to tell so that was lots of fun and nice to just chill out.

Marina di Messa

Thursday night we arrived in Marina di Messa for a well-deserved beach break... or so we thought! Firstly we had travelled to the wrong station and ended up wlaking for 1 hour with our packs to find the hostel! We both coped well though and once we arrived ended up having a great night laxing out with pizza and wine. The next day it was raining! so we cruised into the busier part of the place and wandered the markets, found a supo and had some lunch. That afternoon we decided to check out the beach... talk about rubbish everwhere! and more than half the beaches you have to pay for...rows and rows of deck chairs are set up, some parts are owned by hotels etc. and in between are the little 'free' beaches. we found a spot that was actually quite nice and Niki went for a swim and reporte that the water was lovely. An annoying thing was that people selling handbags etc would harrass you while you were sunbathing! We stayed for 2 nights, it was cool being in a really small place, just unfortunate that the weather hadn't been better!

behind

I'm behind in blogging sorry ppl, hard to find time on internet...will hopefully add pics relevant to blogs already posted...but prob not til we back in UK (approx 23 June). Hope u are all well (and not too cold in NZ winter!!!)
=)

Genoa

On Wednesday we spent most of the day travelling/waiting to travel and arrived in Genoa at 4pm. We were expecting a beachy town...which it really wasn't! Still eneded up being quite a cool place to be though. Our hostel was up in the hills, was a bit of an adventure getting there by bus. Roads are extremely narrow and bends are sharp. Scooters and cars are everywhere and go quite fast! But we arrived in 1 piece and the hostel was sweet, had a great view of the city.

For dinner we tried out this thing we'd heard about 'Appertivo' - buy a drink for €7 (each place has diff cost) and eat buffet style for 'free'. Drinks were very strong!! Food was yum, albeit a tad interesting! kinda cool to try some different things...not heaps of options like a 'normal' buffet, more finger food, breads, dips etc etc. Got our vege fix anyway...a night free of pizza!

After dinner we came across a culture festival down at the waterfront - not Italian! Cool to wander the stalls, have a few beers (Niki loves that you can drink on the streets here & beer is cheap from normal stores ...we're either finding a beer or finding a loo for him!) Saw part of an Italian music show thing which was great, very talented and the singing sounded amazing.

Thursday we went to the Acquarium in genoa - it's the largest in Europe. Expensive at €15 each but we thought it was worth it, saw lots of crazy fish and the standard sharks, dolphins etc. spent a good 3 hours there...was good to be away from a church or museum!