Well, this is my last post from Europe. I have spent the past week back in Italy catching up on the sites I missed the first time, and avoiding the Greek election.
First stop was Venice. Very pretty little city, but man is it hard to navigate. The fact that I didn't get horribly lost and have to send up smoke signals is a testament to my mad map reading skills. I loved all of the glass work. I managed to convince myself not to buy anything on the basis that it was just something I would have to dust.
A note to the tourists in St Mark's square though - stop feeding the pigeons! Rats of the sky!
Much like at Cinnque Terre, people come with a lock, write their names on it, and secure it to Juliette's balcony. This I had no problem with, the locks were bright and colorful and there were so many that they looked amazing in the courtyard.
In the afternoon it was off to visit the lakes district. For the life of me I cannot recall the same of the first lake we went to. It does however border Switzerland (could google it I guess...). This was where (for those on FB) I ate the smurf gelato. Smurf in Italian is Puffo. It was however a good day for gelato.
Then it was off to Como for the night. We took a short cruise around part of the lake trying to stake out George Clooney's house. I personally took a liking to this little residence.
In the morning it was a short trip to Milan. Once again I stupidly went into a cathedral on a Sunday morning, so once again I accidentally went to church (gotta stop doing that, but in my defense I have lost all bearings when it comes to days of the week).
We then headed to San Marino for the evening, which of course is dealt with in it's own post. In the morning we were headed for Rome. My god it is hot in Rome. I cannot blame the kids who were trying to jump into the Trevi fountain. I battled the heat by going on an all gelato diet (and I mean all gelato, so hot I even had to give up the cone and have it out of a cup as it was melting faster than I could eat it). Yes, I threw a coin into the fountain.
I wandered aimlessly trying to find the Colosseum. For the record, it was not the weather for wandering aimlessly. I do love that the are ancient ruins in the center of the city, surrounded by modern buildings.
I got to a point, when heat stroke was about to kick in, where I gave up and decided a return to the hotel was required. I turned back towards what I thought was the hotel, and instead had this view...
Found it! Only problem was this meant I had no idea how to get back to the hotel...
I made it back to the hotel eventually. Next morning I had a ticket to the Vatican. Decided to give up on the walking in 40 degree heat business and forked out the money for the hop on hop off bus (best €20 I have spent - temp made it to 42c!).
Once inside it became clear why Turkey and Greece have all the headless statutes. All the good ones, with heads, are in the Vatican.
Place was packed with people, and of course all anyone was doing was looking up...
Made it to the Spanish Steps as well, though decided the view from the bottom was fine by me.
Yesterday I headed to Naples and Pompeii. The lemons in that part of the world were huge. So glad P-Willy never threw one of these at me.
Pompeii is massive. The ash also did a spectacular job in preserving the site.
This building had the longest line to get in. The guide that was taking us through the site announced that this was one of 20 something brothels that they had in Pompeii. What was interesting was that the walls of the brothel were covered in frescoes and artwork depicting...umm...the activities of the building, and all were extremely well preserved. People took pictures, lots of them, of the art work. Hence the line.
Of course, in those days you could not have a sign saying 'brothel' hanging outside your establishment, so they had to find other ways to mark the building for the customers. The guide told us all to look down at the street. This was the marker.
That in the background is Vesuvius. As you can see it is quite some ways from Pompeii. The wonders of wind blowing ash in the wrong direction...
Apparently the reason they have so many bodies is because of a technique from the early part of last century where they poured liquid plaster into the crevices where the bodies were before the deteriorated. They then dug them out when they dried, hence why you can see the detail of expressions and things so many centuries later, and not just bones.
In fact the site was so well preserved there was even a cafe ;)
This is a view of the site looking back towards Naples. You can see just how much of it there is.
Oh, and this is a new candidate for best snow globe of the trip :)
About to hop a flight to Madrid where I will spend the night, and in the morning it is farewell to Europe and hello to the Americas!
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