Tim & Jo

After leaving Rome we dropped into Pisa for a quick stop on the way to the Cinque Terre.

Pisa was really nice in comparison to Rome, it is a university town and everyone there seemed to be a lot more laid back than the other places we'd been to in Italy. We dropped our packs at the left luggage office at the station and walked following our map to the tower. It really is as crazy as it looks when you see it in real life. It doesn't seem like it should be standing. Looking up from the base of the tower the overhang is massive.

In the same area there is a Cathedral (the tower is the belfry) and some other building and all of them are leaning. The Cathedral seems to have sunk in two directions from the middle and looks pretty weird After seeing the tower and thinking it funny that people from all over the world come to see some ones cock up we caught the train toward Manarola...

As you arrive in the Cinque Terre you seem to relax, you get off the train at the station which is just an opening in the tunnel, the train is actually in the tunnel at both ends and the platform runs into the tunnels. After wandering up a really steep hill in the blazing sunshine we made it to our hostel, we just had to wait 45 minutes for it to open... we made ourselves comfortable on a bench and watched people wandering by.

The next day we got up reasonably early and whipped down to the station to buy our ticket to walk on the main tracks, you have to get a ticket to walk between the villages along the main route, it was about 5€ each. We walked down to Riamaggiore (the first of the 5 villages) and got a coffee and croisant for breakfast, then headed back to Manarola and kept going. Corniglia was not too far away from there and we got there after not too long. After finally finding the right way to continue onwards we started climbing and the track got thinner as we went. The views were beautiful, looking back down onto the towns we had just left and across and through the grape vines and olive trees that are planted in terraces built all over the steep hillsides. After about an hour we arrived at Vernazza and stopped to have some lunch.

This was a really beautiful village as well and a little bigger than the other three, it had a beach area behind a breakwater, looked really tempting until we got closer and saw about a million little purple jellyfish drifting backward and forward... After lunch we began the brutal climb upwards onto the cliffs to head to Monterosso, the climb wasn't made any easier by the temperature, it was a stunning day, no clouds and no wind. After wandering around high up above the sea we decended sharply and arrived into Monterosso, the last and largest of the 5 villages. We decided not to walk back but instead caught the train back to Riamaggiore and walked back to Manarola, thank you Eurail ticket Was an awesome walking and would like to come back maybe at some stage to do some more of the walks (you can climb onto the hills higher up behind all of the villages and there are more tracks and roads that link together all over the place)

Packed our bags that night and got ready for the trip to Nice the next day...

Well we rocked into Rome a few days back now, sorry about the delay in updating this page but internet access points seem to be few and far between throughout Italy... Actually it seems as if Italy doesn't have the internet yet, the whole country is not what you are led to believe with from the tourist brochures. The overwhelming impression that we have of Italy is one of dirtiness, everything is filthy, the buildings obviously haven't had any maintenance done to them since they were constructed, and even all the public buildings like train stations are dirty.

We arrived in Rome in the early evening after riding down from Venice on the train, its quite a long journey and not overly scenic so was good to stretch the legs, the hostel wasn't too far from the station, about 4 blocks, but it was only when we were about to go in the door that we remembered that we had to pay in cash, and the nearest ATM was back at the station... so 4 turned into 12 blocks but we finally made it. The hostel we stayed at had most probably the smallest shower cubicle that was ever manufactured, you could barely pick anything up from the floor because you became wedged between the sides as you tried to kneel down, was good to have a private shower in the room though.

The next day we decided to get a ticket that allowed us to use all of Rome's public transport for the day, we hoped onto the subway line 'B', this was more than obviously the B grade line as the train was completely covered in graffiti, the walk down to the tunnel was past the most dirty roughcast plaster you have ever seen, the dust and grime was hanging off all the tips of the plaster... Anyway it got us to where we were headed (the Colossium), well almost. It shot straight past the stop that we needed and left us down at the next stop, Circus Maximus. This wasn't so bad, or so we thought as we were going to walk down to there anyway. Once we were on the surface things started going downhill though, the street we needed to head down was blocked off and there was half the city of Rome lining the sides watching what seemed like the entire Italian army march along. We had a map so thought we could circumvent the blockage, after walking for kilometers we were stopped at our final crossing point when we ran into the other end of the parade route... After walking all the way back which we'd come (taking a short cut over Capitole Hill sic) we managed to cross the street that had earlier been blocked and finally after about 2.5hours of walking we caught a glimpse of the famous structure. After having a picnic lunch we walked all the way back to the Circus Maximus metro stop and headed in the direction of the Vatican...

Arrived at the metro station that was closest to the Vatican and walked for about 10 minutes till we were suddenly in St Peters Square, as the queue for entry into the Basilica wasn't too long we joined it and after about 20 minutes we were being metal detected and allowed to head inside. The inside is absolutely massive, what at first appeared to be the inside of the church was in fact really only the first wing of the entire thing. There were four of these wings centered around the massive, soaring cupola. Every surface was covered in carvings, frescoes or mozaics, amazing We then exited the church via the crypt under the building, walked out and back into the scorching sunshine...

So we still had plenty of time left in Rome and nothing else planned to have a look at, we had decided not to queue for the Vatican Museums because from what we'd heard the line was massive (a few days earlier it was around 3 blocks we'd heard from Chris and Jo that were there) As it was around 3 O'clock we thought we'd go and see how long it was, as it turned out there was no line and we walked straight into the Museum and about 30mins later after walking through the labyrinth of passages we were standing in the Sistine Chapel, if all the other churches we've stood in were decorated, this one was the next level, but it was only painted, every part of the room was covered in paintings, obviously they'd got a bit cross eyed by the time they made it down to the bottom sections because all around the bottom they just painted some curtains Although you'd think this place would be peaceful some Italian dude on a power trip standing keeping watch keep bellowing out, no photos, shhhhhhhhh, quite please this is a holy place... and clapping... It was ridiculous, it couldn't have been less holy if they tried, all the other churches we've been in have been respected by the people in there and just have a quiet murmur much nicier that some dude yelling and screaming.

We headed back to the hostel via the Trevi fountain, this fountain is wicked, if only there weren't so many people, it was absolutely packed in the tiny piazza where the fountain is, beautiful all the same. We watched an american woman try and through a 2€ coin over her shoulder into the fountain (it means you will return to Rome), she failed miserably and hit another woman in the head, and the coin was eagely snatched up by some little kid As we didn't really have any great wish to return we forwent tossing in a coin and hoped back on the metro and retired to our room.

P.S. Due to a minor technical hiccup (clearing the memory card) we no longer have any photos of our day in Rome... oh well

Alrighty, arrived at Venezia aboad a train that truly let us know we had arrived in Italy, yep they really do like to talk to each other while at other ends of the train Hoped off the train at the main station and hopped on a city bus to head to the camp ground that Chris and Jo had suggested to us. Dropped the bags off and then caught the next bus back to where we'd just come from... Managed to arrive in one piece, just had to push a few teeth back in, was probably the most bumpy bus ride we've ever been on

Wandered around Venice from 5:30 until 9:30 was really nice to see the light reducing and the lights coming on. The streets (can you really call them that) were an absolute maze but with a map in hand we arrived where we had planned to end up, San Marco, or tourist central. People were feeding pigeons in the piazza, for 1€ you could by feed and have pigeons acost you and eat out of your hand... weird. Wandered around just following our noses, outside the Prade shop there were these guys with big sheets layed out with heaps of rip off bags laid out, Jo was smitten (with the bags) and decided to do some 'African business' and bought a 45€ bag for 25.

So wandering around with a camera and a fake Prada bag stuffed with newspaper we saw the rest of the sights until we caught the bus back at around 10pm.

Venice is a strange place, can't really see it exsisting without tourism. If people didn't come to see a city built on water it would have ceased to exist years ago. The city itself is having rather a hard time of it, some parts are sinking at up to 10cm year! The place seems to be being raped of all it can with no money being put back into anything that doesn't have an immediate monetary return. It's a shame because all the buildings are really cool, but most are ready to fall down. For the number of tourists in the place it seems that there must be money available to improve things... I mean the vaporetto (Water buses) seem to be last upgraded in 1980... (this was obviously the last time somene arrived selling music to, as the soundtrack to Venice would definetly have only been released on cassette )

All and all though its a nice place to visit, and glad that we went.

Ciao !