Siena

Siena was our second stop for the day, another fantastic town and my preferred; Katie preferred San Gimignano. 

We had a lovely lunch sitting in the Piazza del Campo.
It was just great to sit there relaxing with a Coke Lite (Diet Coke) and Katie having a Local Chardonnay. 

There were so many things to look at in Siena including the Doumo, it would be just great if one day they could get around to finishing the extensions!

San Gimignano

San Gimignano is just impressive. It is the town of ancient skyscrapers. 

Today started as one of or first tours of the Tuscany region with Stefano being the driver for the day and Roselinda in the passenger seat. (I think Roselinda giving directions to Stefano but it was all in Italian, so who knows!)


One point I would like to note is the roads around here are rough. It appears government cutbacks are in effect here and most roads have been patched, and are just one bump after another. 

We arrived in San Gimignano around 11:15 and were given a map and directions through the town to where Stefano and Roselinda would meet us. 

San Gimignano is a town with a number of towers, created hundreds of years back.

P.S tip for our mothers, click on the pictures and they will get bigger!

Italy's roads

If the state of a countries economy can be compared to the condition of their roads then Italy is in a very bad economic situation. The roads are much worse than Australia.

Rome to Tuscany

Today was the day we were to say arrivederci (goodbye) to Rome and also the day of Katies birthday.

The start of the day was when the birthday girl woke and went straight to the phone to call Melanie for birthday wishes.

Followed by presents from The Hayes,The Chins, Melanie Wayne & Jackson.

Next was our breakfast, delivered to our room. Yum!

And then on the train to Tuscany. Termini train station was very busy and of course we needed to wait and queue again. One thing italians are good at is creating queue systems, again it was just a matter of pressing a button for a ticket and then waiting while watching the numbers slowly tick over, then rush to the counter when it is called otherwise they call the next number. We would have used the self serve ticket machines but as it was the first time to use the Eurail pass we needed to queue, sweat and wait it out. Once at the counter it literally took 1 minute to activate our pass. 

Next we had to run to the train. We did allow two hours to get to the train station, process tickets and board the train, and we made it but only with about 10 minutes to spare. We also were approached by a young man asking if we needed his help, in the end we did take it as we couldn't find our train. It was at the far east end of the station and with his help were able to get on in time. Of course when we got to the train he wanted money, but in this case he was helpful. I gave him the coins in my pocket which happened to be 3 Euro 20 Cents.

Once we boarded i realised we were on the wrong carraige, we were in 2nd class, not first! But on the other hand as the train was only a regional one I didn't know if it even had a first class. Leaving Katie on the carraige I run up the platform and was able to confirm the train did have a first class. 

Going back to get Katie i was then approached by the girlfriend of the boy who helped us. She also wanted money, but she didn't realise it wasn't going to happen. She followed us, got on the train with us, was of no help (even though she thought she was) then when we got to sitting down, put her hand out and just kept on saying "money".  We weren't going to weaken, and after me saying 'no' and katie saying, "we have already paid your boyfreind" she left the carraige.

The train ride to our villa in tuscany was pretty uneventful, but here are a few shots taken from the train window.

Colosseum Closed

Yes that is correct, due to a government strike we were unable to tour the Colosseum. I can understand the need to strike and in this case it was for pay rises (government pay has been frozen in Italy for 2 years) and response to job cuts. 


But when the strike effects one of the most important landmarks to mankind then there should be alternate options. Striking has not really helped the cause in Italy, most of the impact has been for us tourists. Without flexible schedules there would be many people like us unable to see inside other than holding the camera through the bars.

It is also forbidden for tourists to enter on 28/09/2012

Looking inside to the inner circle at the Colosseum.

One of the souvenir vendors outside the Colosseum

The modern time Gladiators, no Russle Crow! 

We also spent a little time overlooking the ruins, these were also closed. Even not being able to enter the ruins or Colosseum we were both very excited to finally see them both with our own eyes. 

Trattoria della Stampa - Best Italian Food

From all the research that we did while planning this trip one of the tips we have found most useful has been eat off the Piazza, eat away from the main sites, not too far just a block or two.  

Today was payday!

After the prolonged postal experience we needed to

be able to sit and relax a little, and we found the perfect spot. While wandering the streets of Rome the other night we came across a little trattoria, we'd already eaten so vowed to come back and eat another time. Mama was sitting in the middle of the restaurant chopping garlic and the staff couldn't be more helpful. So we found it again today and stopped in for lunch. 

The smaller restaurants that are family run and only have a hand full of tables inside are the best finds - excellent service, lovely intimate feel and fresh and simple ingredients that make for a great meal. We both started with bruschetta - delicious! Most will know I am not a tomato fan (it's me Katie!) however, I could have quite happily sat there all afternoon and feasted on their heavenly, juicy tomatoes with garlic and olive oil upon crusty bread. We both enjoyed our pasta - handmade of course - Shannon had the gnocchi with a pomodoro sauce (tomato) and I enjoyed the ravioli with a butter and pecorino cheese sauce. I'm secretly hoping Shannon will want to go back for dinner! Tonight is our last night in Rome - tomorrow morning we leave for our week in Tuscany. 

  

 The best Roman meal we've had!

A lovely roman street - ps this is not the restaurant we ate at.

Post office

Today was the day we decided to use a little spare time to send back some purchases we made over the last couple of days. This included a book on the Vatican
containing much better photographs than we could ever take, a lovely scarf Katie got from a street vendor, some Italian keyrings and three pieces of Positano pottery depicting scenes of the Amalifi area.
So far we have been waiting for around 20 minutes and I have been able to write this blog. There are a total of 26 counters and only 17 have operators. Of that only one is a postal counter, the others are doing a vast array of tasks. Bill payments and processing forms, who knows what forms are for but it looks like every one in the city fills one in! It is a busy place with lots of people waiting.

Later...... Much Later.

We finally had our number called and then by the time we go to the counter we had missed our turn, but thanks to Katies persistence we were able to get served next. The operator was just fantastic as have all Italians we have dealt with, by trying to start with a little Italian then moving to English helps. 

Pompeii & Amalfi coast

6:45 am saw us getting in our mini van with our driver Marchello and six other passengers.  Travelling at over 130Km/h we made our way down south to Pompeii.

 Stepping out of the van we knew we were in for a treat, even though it felt quite warm. Hector, our guide throughout Pompeii was both very informative and also humorous. 

Inside an upper class home, showing art work on the walls. 

Water fountains were located on most common areas of the ruins for the people to use.

 A plaster cast of one victim, quite horrific to think of their final moments. 

Some of the diagrams on the walls of the brothel, according to our guide it would be just a matter of pointing to what you would like. Please use your own imagination.  I would also like to note we had to queue to get into the brothel for around 5 minutes, I wonder if this was any different 2000 years ago!

We were a little perplexed on the attire some people wore...

After Pompei we headed back to the van and were on the Amalifi Coast. We stopped in at Positano for a leisurely lunch and to admire the beautiful surrounds. We enjoyed pizza and peroni beer and admired the ceramics of the area, all hand painted. Amalfi itself was just as impressive, with its narrow streets filled with shops. We sampled the local limoncello which was enough to blow our heads off! Yes it was a very long day - but it was worth every minute. We're so glad we made the trip down south to see Pompeii and the beautiful Amalfi Coast.

Wednesday night

Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing, so we decided to leave Italian restaurants tonight and have Chinese for dinner, in Rome.

Well it would have to be the smallest restaurant I have ever been in but the service was fast and the food was great. It also proves how universal the English language is. We are in Rome, ordering dinner from a Chinese waitress with all of us talking English.

After dinner we experienced our first Italian gelato. Walking north away from the Trevi Fountain we stumbled upon a little shop selling the delicious product. My selection was half Strawberry, half lemon while Katie selected half chocolate and half pistachio. It would have to have been a highlight so far. The gelato was made In house and the operator was just fantastic.

Ostica Antica

Today was our first experience of the Roman train system, and over all was good. We started the day with a Taxi ride past the Colloseum to the Pyramid this was the beginning of today's tour.

Ostia Anticia was today's venue and basically it is an old port town of Rome from the ancient roman times, which was silted over by the flooding of the Tiber river and has been excavated over many years. 

Before starting any tour there is a little standing around and today was no exception. Saying that, we noticed two gentlemen who appeared to have a great interest in all the belongings of our group. While nothing was taken on this occasion, you must agree from this sneaky shot they do them selves look sneaky. 

Ostia Antica is connected via a 15 minute train ride on the Metro system, and apart from some strange people (as there are on all metros) it was a pretty uneventful ride. 

On arrival we were taken back in to time, to a period of 200B.C.  I will not go into all the details of the tour as I will most likely not do justice to the site, however here are some photos from the tour.

and that is the end of todays blog...