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Summer of 23
  • Matt Tabone
  • Katie Ashton
Jul – Oct 2023

Summer of 23

The long awaited honeymoon Read more
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    Day 24 - Rome

    August 2, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today we had no plans set, we woke up late after a nice sleep on from our late night at the colosseum.

    We do get breakfast at our BnB but consists of 3 packet croissants and a packet of other stuff I’m not really keen on trying.
    So we saw a nice reasonably priced cafe on the street. II Nido Gusto E Miscele, the waitress spoke great English and the breakfast menu start at 10am, we arrived a little after 10 luckily enough!
    Katie got avo on toast with pear on top, I got pancakes with fruit. Was a great coffee and will definitely be having their coffee again!

    We caught the metro to Spagla again and walked up the Spanish steps, then headed around town.
    We went to Chiostro del Bramante which is a cultural space hosting classic art exhibitions, we went there as the cafe has painted walls & roofs. The stair are done by an artist that let the paint run down the stairs not letting colours touch each other until the landing as well.
    We walked along Via del Coronari, a cobblestone street lined with shops, cafes plus churches and buildings as old as the 15th century.
    Next street we walked down is Via del Governo Vecchio, this is also a cobbled street with shops and restaurants with lively palazzos. Also home to the famous Frigidarum gelato store, we had to try some! So Katie got the lemon flavour that tasted like freshly squeezed lemon, I opted for cookies and chocolate! We walked past the pantheon the temple built 118-125AD, line was massive and they now charge for entry so we moved on to get some lunch.
    Lunch was pasta made a huge hit over TikTok, Pastificio Guerra. Lunch starts at 1pm and the menu isn’t announced until it opens, at €4.50 a serve of pasta and it’s made fresh! We waited in a small line, got some pork pasta and headed to Fontana del bottino steps to eat with others like us while watching the world go by.

    We went back to the hotel and opted to go to the laundromat, this was the highlight of Katie’s day watching the machine spin around and around 😂

    For dinner we went to the Jewish Ghetto, we looked at the Portico of Octavia, remains of an ancient walkway built in 2nd century B.C. to link two Roman temples. The turtle fountain that is an elegant renaissance fountain with bronze figures of men with turtles and dolphins and a walk around the ghetto itself.
    We sat down for a drink and some buskers were playing, I thought this is nice, drink music & my beautiful wife. They came around to all the tables for a tip, I have one euro and straight after they got all their tops they moved down the street! Katie didn’t let me down on this one euro for a while!    Read more

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    Day 25 - Vatican City & Rome

    August 3, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Today we woke up at 6am, we were feeling rather spiritual and needed our fix! Luckily I had organised an early morning tour of the Vatican before the trip!!
    We headed to the Vatican City where our tour started at 7.30am (public opening isn’t until 8.30am!) The tour was great, it wasn’t in your face religion that I was preparing myself for, instead it was how the Vatican City came to be, the artefacts they have found and saved through the centuries, how each pope decided on different things in the Vatican & mainly about the paintings and their stories behind said paintings. It also was the highlights tour - see everything that should be seen, if you want to brave the crowds after breakfast at 9.30am then do so at your own pace.
    We went into the Sistine Chapel and learnt about how Michelangelo painted the roof, then 25 years later a pope begged him to paint the Last Judgement piece on the wall. He put a lot of himself in this as he didn’t want to do the Last Judgement painting - so he put a pope going to Hell, he also did a self portrait of himself as his face on flayed skin held by St. Bartholomew precariously between heaven & Hell.

    After the provided breakfast at the Vatican (Italians can’t cook eggs but can make a great pancake) we made our way through the masses, we dodge, duck, dived and weaved through the crowd - it was humid too - so we skipped going back through most sites as once you’ve seen a few statues, you’ve seen enough of them in that heat! We went onto St. Peter’s Basilica through an entry point off the Sistine chapel the tour guide told us about so we didn’t have to line up for 3 hours!
    After a walk through that, Katie and I decided we had our fill of churches and religion so we headed back to the BnB (Yes Vatican didn’t disappoint - I saw 3 gift shops on the way out - no bobble head Jesus’s tho unfortunately) Before going back to the BnB, we made a stop to Knight’s of Malta keyhole that looks to a garden and perfectly framed Saint Peter’s Basilica. The keyhole is part of the property owned by the Priory of the Knights of Malta, a Roman Catholic religious order of crusader knights that originated in Jerusalem in the 11th century. It is the oldest surviving chivalric order in the world and is a sovereign entity under international law. The estate also hosts the embassy of the Order of Malta to Italy.

    After that we went back and rested from our travels this morning.

    Once rested and cooled, we made our way over to Trastevere for some lunch - Again a TikTok reviewed place was in order - We went to Trapizzino which is Italian street food, pretty much Pizza base with a filling inside, we also had a Suppli Classico starter that is Mozzarella and risotto style rice Depp fried. Super Healthy lunch - so we had to wash it down with a glass of wine!

    We ventured to Termini to see where we picked the car up as we didn’t feel great about trying to find it with luggage the next morning.

    Dinner was at Il Tagliere Toscano Navona, a sharing board of cheese and meat, we also made light work of of a bottle of Rose! This was another TikTok venture - Dad, this is my secret along with Insta!

    We then walked over to Frigidarium for more Gelato - this time there was a line but it moved quickly. We were served by the owner it seemed, he got Katie her Lemon & Liquorice flavours, I then asked for strawberry, couldn’t decide on the rest so he chose peach and yoghurt to go with it. It was amazing and I was very happy with this!

    We ventured on past the Pantheon again, this time closed so I showed Katie the boards outside and explained what she had missed due to the lines. It is still amazing on the outside as this has stood the test of time since what is presumed 126AD, as it was initially built somewhere between 27BC & 14AD but was made from wood and burnt down.

    We moved onto the Trevi fountain, took some photos and decided we were ready to head to the BnB, public transport doesn’t work like normal transport options it seems, busses turn up on their time and if they turn up. Took us 30-40minutes for a bus to finally go to near where we wanted but we made it back to the BnB safely which we were happy with!.    Read more

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    Day 26 - The dreaded Car Hire & Tuscany!

    August 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Today we have one thing on our minds… We have survived Rome & Naples, now let’s drive with these crazy Italians!
    Our car hire wasn’t until 11.30am - which worked out as a blessing as the metro was pretty quiet with our bags.
    Firstly though, we went packed up our stuff, checked out and headed down to Il Nido Gusto E Miscele for breakfast and their amazing coffee.

    We got the car, found out it wasn’t a Fiat 500 but a Volkswagen T-Cross, this is kinda a blessing as we know our way around a Volkswagen! We are glad all our luggage in the boot & we can keep everything out of site.

    We then drove away from Rome, let’s say this about the days affairs of driving - we went through one red light, one wrong turn & one argument but no one tooted us, so we will call this a major win.
    I did learn, if the sign post says 70km, everyone does 90km. I do what the speed sign says though as I am a law abiding angel! There may of been a lot of swearing at other drivers, but I kept the window up and smiled as they passed in ridiculous places… again, may of been, may not of been.

    We were heading for our BnB near Montepulciano in Tuscany.
    Along the way we decided to head to a small village called Bagnoregio so we could walk to the hilltop village of Civita di Bagnoregio. C ivita di Bagnoregio is a hilltop village in central Italy. It’s accessed via a pedestrian bridge from the nearby ticket office in Bagnoregio village. The Porta Santa Maria gateway was built by the Etruscans. Founded in the 7th century, the Romanesque San Donato Church sits in the main square.
    This village is has a nickname of the ‘Dying village’, due to the natural occurring erosion happening on the hill - the engineer in me had to see this! Also this has recently been made a bit more famous thanks to TikTok & Harry Styles buying property in the village. There is 13 people that live in the village and there is more cat strays than people - these cats are well fed due to the restaurants looking after them!
    We had some lunch in the village and then carried onto our BnB.

    We made it to our BnB, Gianni made us feel very welcome along with his Sausage Dog. He makes wine himself so he had a bottle of Red wine for us (I may be half way through it now writing this - Katie will proof read this for me!) It is a lovely BnB with a lot of land and breath taking views.

    He recommended a restaurant in Montepulciano that were friends of his, we went to it - Osteria del Borgo - we had lovely pasta (Fettuccine for me and Tagliatelle with fresh truffle for Katie) and great wine there. We opted to share a dessert of Sour Black Cherry Semifreddo made in house - I am glad we are walking so much each day!

    It was raining quite hard which made coming down off the main village of Montepulciano interesting at night and in a car we didn’t know. We made it back to the BnB and headed to bed.    Read more

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    Day 27 - Tuscany

    August 5, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today we woke up in Tuscany to rolling hills and fruit trees out the window with hardly any noise around!

    We had talked to Gianni last night about places to see and do, I already had some thoughts but he added to them and made our plans concrete.
    We first off drove to Bangui Di San Filipino, a sulphurous hot spring surrounded by thick pine forest and limestone hills. This isn’t as busy as some in the area, it did get busy as we were leaving though. We soaked for an hour, it rained a little and as the temperature was about 17degrees, hot springs was a very nice touch to start the day. I was very happy that afterwards our skin felt very soft instead of feeling like I had just bathed in sulphurous water!

    After the hot pools, we drove over the a village called Radiofani, this has Fortezza Di Radicofani that is dated back somewhere to 973AD, this is a fortress that can be seen far and wide - we saw this ages away before coming in the area while driving. It sits at 810m above sea level.
    We walked around the village, grabbed lunch from a local grocer that makes sandwiches and sat in a sunny court eating away.
    This village had amazing views of the country side we admired from different points, every where you look you see another village in the distance.

    After this we drove to Bagno Vignoni, it situated on a hill above the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany. It is a popular tourist destination and well known for its hot springs, the Romans used to bath in the square now where you can admire the water from restaurants or the path around the square. The swimming area is down below the town, but as the water has to travel and jump a waterfall, by the time it hits the pool it is cooler than up top. This would be nice on a hot day though. We had some coffee in town and walked around admiring the old buildings.

    We then drove to a fortress 10minutes away we could see sitting on a hilltop, Rocca di Tentennano. Built as an extension of the rocky spur, and surrounded by several walls that made it unbeatable to any type of attack, the Rocca di Tentennano is the only fortress in the Val d'Orcia that has never been conquered by force. The Spanish tried a number of times but never succeeded.

    We knew we had to sort dinner so we drove back to Montepulciano and parked the car. Went into a local grocery for supplies and browse the weird and wonderful things - milk cartons that contain wine! - we then booked into dinner at La Vineria di Montepulciano, number one on trip advisor for their cheese and meat boards for 7pm. We had an hour to kill so walked around the beautiful village of Montepulciano, taking in the views from the hill where we could and the amazing buildings.
    We went back for dinner and if any one reading this has a trip to Tuscany, come to this restaurant, this was the best meat and cheese board and the house wine was fantastic. The servers were really nice as well - you may not like the music but we had a great time to the upbeat music playing!
    For those playing at home, Montepulciano has played host to the Twilight movies of late… No I didn’t know this until tonight FYI!

    We ventured back to our BnB where we watched the sunset in the horizon… romantic and cheesy yes I know! I am now sampling the wine bottle I mentioned with Katie proof reading everything I am writing as Katie doesn’t drink red wine… sorry to her, this is beautiful wine!    Read more

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    Day 28 - Tuscany

    August 6, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Today we leave our BnB ‘Roseti’ near Montepulciano and head on to Chianti region.

    Upon having breakfast, we settled up the stay with Gianni and his sausage dog, said our goodbyes and how good it has been staying in their property.

    We ventured onto the village of Pienza, The central Piazza Pio II is framed by 15th-century buildings like the Pienza Cathedral and Piccolomini Palace. The latter was Pope Pius II’s summer residence and features a roof garden with valley views. Flemish tapestries and the pope’s embroidered cape are on display at the Diocesan Museum. West is the Pieve di Corsignano, a Romanesque church with a circular bell tower. We walked around for an hour admiring the views from the village, as we were leaving the village was filling up and parking was getting hard - I was stoked that it was pretty easy once we found the right car park area to park!

    We drove to the next village over of San Quirico d’Orcia, we picked up some cheese for a crackers, tomatoes & cheese lunch as we need a break from Italian lunches sorry to say. We drove out of the town Vitale di Capressi, which is made famous from Gladiator movie where Maximus is dreaming of home and the scene where the guards come to kill his family and burn his house from not pledging his allegiance to the new king. It was a wee bit down the road we found a little spot to have our lunch.

    We kept driving on from there and drove up to Sinalunga, as it was Sunday afternoon, this village was a ghost town so I admired if from the road as we drove to and from it! Katie need to find some facilites at this point - my app said there was nothing around (yes we have a toilet app) but there was the Golden Arches calling. We went to the nearest McDonalds, line was out the door, but right next door was a massive outlet shopping centre so we went there. After a look around, Katie buying a top she had been eyeing, me, a jacket you can’t get in Aus or NZ, we decided we wanted to head to the BnB we had booked.

    Along the way we drove the motorway which saw the car hit 110km per hour and a crash barrier that was at direct eye level, that I really didn’t appreciate the height of while driving directly next too… I’ll take the cheese grater wire rope barriers back home thank you!
    I thought it would be nice to stop off at San Gimignanello, a little village that looked nice on google… only to find out what was on google was for a different village. It was still nice to see the sunflower paddocks and a couple of deer as we parked the car.

    We arrived at our BnB with the thought, we are out in the middle of no where! So quiet and peaceful and grapevines everywhere!

    We checked in, had a good discussion on the area with the host & got ready for dinner at where she proposed, a 10minute walk away.
    Upon walking to dinner as we left the BnB, I saw two cars slow down right near the intersection of the village we are in, I soon saw an adult Boar and a baby Boar run across the road, our host had mentioned them and said they are friendly if we meet them… won’t be finding out first hand though.
    We got to the restaurant and they were full for the evening… now this is not an area you’d think that you’d have to book, and there is only two places in walking distance… this one, or a really expensive castle. We jumped into the car and drove to Ristorante Malborghetto, which the BnB host had also suggested and we got the last table available for the evening.
    House wine was fantastic and every time a server comes over they say Hello and I reply Hello, how are you? This is obviously not custom here or done much as Katie mentioned every time I have done it the server always looks a bit puzzled why I am asking them how they are! I just want to make sure they are having a good day and won’t spit in my food!

    Driving went well today, Katie didn’t try to use none existent pedals! Was stressful driving in the dark with Boar’s, wild cats & Deer knowing around.    Read more

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    Day 29 - Chianti Region, Tuscany

    August 7, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Today we had told Alba, the BnB host, breakfast for 8.30am, we came down to find an arrangement of foods! The was cereal, cold cut meats, a lot of fruit, bread with home made jams, home made cakes & traditional bread Italians have. We finished what we could and the host was amazed we didn’t eat more… I later saw her dog and think it got the rest of the guests breakfasts! Alba is very nice to us and definitely would recommend her BnB.

    We went for a drive to Castello di Brolio, The first stones of Brolio Castle date back to the Middle Ages. The castle passed into the hands of the Ricasoli family thanks to an exchange of lands for which records can be found as early as 1141. Through the centuries the castle has suffered attack and destruction in numerous battles, from the Aragonese and Spanish assaults during the fifteenth century, to disputes in the seventeenth century, to the aerial bombings and rounds of artillery during the Second World War.
    The castle has been rebuilt and modified several times and today it bears the marks of the different eras: there are the fortified medieval bastions, Romanesque and neo-Gothic additions and unique nineteenth century Tuscan details. Brolio Castle towers over the Ricasoli company lands, the most extensive in the Chianti Classico area, that unfold with a continuous succession of colors and hues over gentle hills, velvety valleys and thick woodlands of oaks and chestnuts.
    The 1,200 hectares of property include 240 hectares of vineyards and 26 of olive groves, with entry ticket we got to try a wine each of their own. The castle is still in use by the family today, hence why you cannot go inside. We ended up buying a bottle of white wine to have on one of our cheap dinner nights, pizza and a bottle of wine… looking forward to it already!

    We then ventured to Gaiole in Chianti, a small village near our BnB, had a walk around the village and tried to find something easy and different for lunch. We opted to keep going to an area I stumbled upon while googling and this is why I think my talent in construction is wasted!
    We drove to Panzano in Chianti, a half hour drive from Gaiole, this is where we found the Cecchini Panini Truck. We both had the Panino Cecchini - basically a beef burger but it was amazing! This food truck sat on a lookout where you could eat and gaze out to the view, oh and did I mention vino was 2euro? No, well I was so happy to find this… Just upset I need to 0.05blood alcohol level like home!! Katie opted for water as they don’t do alot of White wine in this region.
    We had a walk around Panzano after lunch.
    From Panzano we moved to Greve in Chianti, this is the largest village in Chianti. We ended up moving on when there wasn’t a lot going on. So I got out my google maps and directed us to heaven, I mean Castellina in Chianti.
    At Castellina there is a gelato shop where you can watch them make the gelato, I may of shed a tear at not having this job! They are famous for their Pistachio sorbet & Basil & Lime sorbet. Katie got the Basil & Lime, & lemon as her second flavour, I got Mango, Berry, Melon.

    We decided to start to head back to our BnB, but we also wanted to do a wine tasting,=.. I wanted to do a tasting close to our BnB and just up the road is Cantalici Winery. Chianti is famous for their Chianti Classico wines, there is very strict rules in making Classico wine to get the Black Rooster label that signifies it’s a Chianti Classico wine. There is also only 7 areas that the grape can come from, all in Chianti of course.
    We explained Katie can’t drink red wines & they only had 2 white wines, the lovely lady gave me an extra red to try and we both got a dessert wine to try. We didn’t realise as I was thinking of booking a tasting, but seeing we were staying at a BnB close to the winery we get a tasting for free! So we brought the Rose to pair with another cheap dinner night and a special something to come home with us! We also learnt why we find the bread different here, Back in the day when the country was going through hard times and there was a lot of poverty, people would make bread without salt as they couldn’t afford salt. No when you ask for bread it’s normal t0 get unsalted bread and you have to ask for salted bread. I can say we came away learning a lot about the wines and the area from this tasting!

    Before dinner we had a bit of rest at the BnB, we had a truck come to the village and start tooting, I found out this is the local grocer on wheels - photo attached of me being nosy!

    Dinner we went to I’ll Bandito, the restaurant a 10minute walk from the BnB we tried to get into last night, we made a booking for 7.30pm just in case! We were sat outside with the view of vine yards and the farm houses, €2.50 house wine for the win tonight!
    Katie had the Tuscany sausage and I had the grilled chicken as Tuscany is well know for their anti pasta dishes… definitely lived up to it.

    We came back to the BnB to watch some Netflix on the iPad as we have a hefty drive ahead of us tomorrow, we will be breaking it up between a couple of villages i have planned though.    Read more

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    Day 30 - Tuscany

    August 8, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Today we are leaving our BnB in Chianti and saying goodbye to our lovely host Alba & her dog Luna. We have a bit of a drive to get up just outside of Florence as I wasn’t to try and see some towns along the way.

    Our first stop was Monteriggioni. Monteriggioni is a walled town known for its medieval fortifications and watchtowers. The castle walls offer views of the surrounding Chianti region. The old town is accessed via the Porta Franca gate. This was another important site during the battles of Florence & Sienna.
    We had a walk around, opting to not pay for the wall walk & see the armoury. It was a cute walled town heavy on the touristy side of things which I was hoping wasn’t going to be the case.

    We ventured on, my big goal for the day was to see San Gimignano.
    The village served as an important relay point for pilgrims travelling to or from Rome on the Via Francigena. The patrician families who controlled the town built around 72 tower-houses (some as high as 50 m) as symbols of their wealth and power. Although only 14 have survived, San Gimignano has retained its feudal atmosphere and appearance.
    When we got there we found a festival was on and every car park was full. We even ventured to the park and ride areas with no luck, so I decided to fill the car up with fuel (well a guy pumped it for me!) and head onwards as we saw the village from many vantage points driving around it.

    We stopped off at Certaldo for lunch, we grabbed a car park, took some time to work out the stupid Italian ticket machines and we were off to see the village.
    I saw a group of people come out of an area (Side note - if you see a group of asians and you don’t know what to do in a town, follow them! They have their itinerary sorted to the letter and will lead you to your next activity) We walked into the area and found a Funicolare! (Cable Cart)
    We took this up to the village and had the best bruschetta we have had so far in Italy! We walked around admiring the village and as it was during lunch, majority of things were closed so we headed back down on the Funicolare to continue our drive.

    We are staying in a Village called Villa out of Signa so we can travel to Florence tomorrow, this idea quickly turned maybe we should of rethought this. The road was very narrow and some major blind bends.
    We got to the hotel and checked in - this hotel had a pool and I was greeted by the owner in his speedos - this set the mood for the hotel. I’ll say this, if this is the worst hotel, we did pretty well!

    We decided we had a bit of day and went into Signa to get some fly spray as mozzies were bad, a pizza for dinner and some other supplies. We took it to a picnic area near the hotel which no mozzies were!    Read more

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    Day 31 - Florence

    August 9, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Today we are off to Florence, we took the car to Signa station, prayed to the Italian gods it would still be there in the same condition as we left it (Been reading some horror stories)

    We had to walk to the next station which was 15 minutes away as I had not researched a heap on this train line that after 9am they become every 1.5 hours or so.
    We finally got a train in and got to Florence by 10.30am. We went to a 99cent shop to finally pick up some supplies we left at home - we now have a bottle opener - Yay wine!

    First tourist stop was to Farmacéutica di Santa Maria Novella the oldest pharmacy in the world which you can still purchase candles, perfume soaps and scents for lavish prices.

    Next stop was central market too see the food stalls and of course, the street vendors selling somewhat leather goods, amazing that they all spoke fluent English asking if we wanted to buy from their Italian leather products.

    We went on and as we were making our way through town stopping at a couple of shops. We got to Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, a 1200’s Cathedral and one of the oldest in the world. We walked around it opting not to go in it or up it due to the lines and price.
    We made our way down towards the river, stopping off for a visit to Zara, another leather market, and see the replica of David and as Katie called the other statues, ‘David’s Mates’. I will write to Florence to see if there will be a new sign installed with that!
    We then got to walk along Ponte Vecchio, a medieval arched river bridge with Roman origins, now lined with Jewellery shops. We did over hear a guide say only one was originally there so we looked in their windows and dreamed of other lives as there was no prices on items and the cats need food on the table we agreed.

    We stopped off at Babae for lunch, this has a wine hole in the wall, we ended up sitting near where this is operated and took all the mystery out of hole in the wall wine. Also being 30 degrees, why pay to stand in the street when you could sit in AC and drink to your hearts content? It was good lunch and fun watching the wine window behind the scenes.

    We went through some more leather shops and Katie couldn’t decide whether to buy a bag or not (this discussion is still in progress and Milan has great shopping I hear and am told we will get to encounter)
    After a bit of a break we walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo, a 19th century piazza with panoramic views of the city.

    To say we were buggered was an understatement, we headed back into town for some Gelato for the walk and then to Matto Matto for dinner, spritz and wine’. We opted for the Antipasto board which was good but nothing like Montepulciano board… that will live in my memory forever!

    We headed to the train station, the train we wanted got cancelled so ended up waiting 45 minutes for the next one, made it to the car to see it in tact and took the death defying trip back to the accomodation. It’s somewhat better at night as you can see headlights - still don’t want to do this every day!

    Overall Florence was good, we walked over 30k steps today. We don’t see what some people rave about regarding Florence but I guess it comes to personal preference. We are glad we opted for one day in Florence so no regrets there!    Read more

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    Day 32 - Lucca then to Cinque Terre

    August 10, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Today we are leaving Speedo man, the mozzies and his dirty hotel that doesn’t change towels when you put them on the floor, just folds them back up and leaves them for you on a chair near the door, like they are new towels… can’t wait to write that review.

    We found some better roads to depart and head for Lucca, we found a cafe along the way that I figured out how to ask for take away cappuccino and got some nice breads for lunch for us.

    On the way to Lucca we went the toll route - the Autostrada - The T-Cross doesn’t like 130km per hour so I stuck to 115km or 120km when needing to weave around trucks. It was a dream driving on the Autostrada and was a relaxing time compared to the small roads & blind bends we have had!

    We got to Lucca and got a park inside the city walls, we were amazed and considered us lucky. We walked around and so far the regret is we didn’t spend a night or two here. Quiet and picturesque.
    Lucca is a city on the Serchio river. It’s known for the well-preserved Renaissance walls encircling its historic city center and its cobblestone streets. Broad, tree-lined pathways along the tops of these massive 16th- and 17th-century ramparts are popular for strolling and cycling. Casa di Puccini, where the great opera composer was born, is now a house museum. We opted after our walk of Lucca, and the big trouble of the day - Katie trying to decide whether a leather bag she fell in love with should be brought or not (the shop shut at 1pm unfortunately) that lunch was to be had under one of the trees on the path.

    We jumped back into the car and headed to Cinque Terra region, I decided that we would drive from the south to Vernazza instead of what google maps suggested of coming in from the North quicker. I soon found out why it suggested the North. 30 minutes from the car park location we got onto roads that only fitted our car but again was two way. Italians don’t give way and they also have no courtesy when driving. So Katie got out her pretend pedals and helped me with the drive. Thankfully she did as we had a couple of vehicles coming up she could see, as I was too busy staring straight ahead as she scanned further on.

    We made it to the car park, they had my name at the top of the bookings as this was a loose operation and never emailed me back. We got into the van that drove us the rest of the way as it;s residence and taxi only area.
    We checked in and had to climb to our room - fourth floor, 60 steps and steep! Made it to the room and we opted for a walk around town. I kinda had an idea of where I wanted to end up and would you have it, we ended up directly in front of a bar called the Deck.Well when on Holiday a Rose and Spritz is always calling. The deck has an amazing view out and we enjoyed the spot very much.

    We got some breakfast supplies to put in the fridge and headed back to the room. Dinner was super easy but so delicious. We got some burgers from Hambu, I got the Octopus burger and vanilla Katie got Classico, bless her. We sat by the water with some drinks from the bar enjoying the view.

    After dinner we went and found some vantage points for views and to watch the sunset. Coming back down we went to get Gelato, after yesterday it still doesn’t count!
    We are currently deciding on a sunset boat cruise and how our two days here will look, with visiting the other villages.    Read more

  • Summer of 23
    Manarola
    Manarola1RiomaggioreMonterossoMonterossoCornigliaVernazza

    Day 33 - 5 Terre

    August 11, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Today is planned to be somewhat of a big day, 30 degrees is on the cards and we plan to visit the 5 Cinque Terre villages (We are staying in the fourth village from the South)

    We had our muesli in our room as no breakfast at this hotel provided, headed to the train station to buy our Cinque Terre Card for the train & trails for the day.
    First Village was Manarola, we grabbed a coffee here and a freshly made donut then had a walk around the village. We were waiting for 10.30am as we had a pesto making class at Nessus Dorma. We got to the pesto making class and the view was incredible, overlooked the whole village while you were perched on the edge of the hill.
    We started the pesto class and learnt some new things on making pesto, I’ll still freak out in the kitchen no doubt though!
    Simon the owner and who took the cooking class gave us the story of how this restaurant came to be - the mayor wanted people to email him their visions for the piece of land as it was nicknamed ‘the desert’ by the locals, no one went up there or used the space because it was so hot, despite the lovely views. His vision was a restaurant, not being able to book in months in advance, not paying top dollar for yuck food, pesto making classes with fresh bread and a sharing board to go with. 3 people wrote to the mayor and he got picked. 10 years on and you can book the pesto classes in advance, but for food from 4pm you need to have the app and check in and hope you get a spot to come and eat & drink here.
    The pesto class was amazing, the lunch was great and we all got a small bottle of wine to take away as well.

    After the cooking class and feeling a little bit more joyful from the wine we moved onto the next village - Riomaggiore. I needed to us the restroom at the station and seeing it’s free for the Cinque Terre Card holders we made sure to use the free ones. I told Katie to wait in the shade, and as we left the station we started walking up a hill thinking this is the way to town… weirdly not many people around. Once up the hill we needed to manoeuvre a lot of stairs down. We walked down and found the village’s swimming spot (ours is better) and then headed for the central area of the village. As we walked up the steps of the central area I noticed a tunnel to the station, if we had noticed this at the start it would of saved the long climb up the hill and all the stairs… Katie and I thankfully laughed it off.

    After seeing the central area of the village we trained to Monterosso, the furthest north village of Cinque Terre, this also has the largest beach area of all the villages. There are a-lot of beach beds and umbrellas you can rent here for the day. We got some gelato as the heat was starting to get to us and a walk around the village looking into the occasional shop.

    We left Monterosso and headed back to Vernazza to have a swim and cool off.

    After a swim, a bit of a relax we wanted to see the last Village of Cinque Terre, Corniglia. This is a village with a population of 150 people and unlike other villages not directly adjacent to the sea. We got off the train and tried to catch the bus to the village, this resulted in me seeing favourite tourists being classy as always… everyone for themselves and who cares where you were in line, I am more important than anyone… so we weren’t allowed on the bus as it was full as two people in front of us were about to get on. So we walked up. Great idea until Katie saw the stairs… Katie was thrilled with this, I have never heard her so verbal and passionate about something! By the time we got to the top, Katie made sure she knew where the bus stop was for the ride down.
    We had a quick look through the village, mainly consisting of one lane and at the end an impressive view of the ocean and the other villages.
    We decided we would head back to Vernazza for dinner, we got the bus to the station, yes I made sure we made it on and no stuffs given for others as they were pushing to get on the bus.

    We got back to Vernazza, we ordered some takeaway pizza, I ran up the 64 steps to our room and grabbed the essentials… wine! We went and sat on a look out behind the church and watched the sunset while eating dinner and drinking the wine we brought in Tuscany.

    After dinner I convinced Katie seeing we had the trail card for the day, let’s go see the village from the trail - picture attached and it was an amazing view! We walked back down with phone light helping us to see the steps. We had to have another gelato to say we tried all the gelato (one shop left now!) and headed for our room.    Read more

  • Summer of 23

    Day 34 - Vernazza

    August 12, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we had these wild ideas of jumping on the trails and doing some hiking, after experiencing 30 degrees here, we both agreed it wouldn’t be fun and we would probably give ourselves heat stroke!

    So we got up late, had our breakfast and climbed down our 64 stairs to get to some much needed coffee. I googled the best coffee in Vernazza, his pastries were said to be the best too so had to try one as well! The service was chaotic but the people watching was great! We will opt for elsewhere tomorrow due to the chaos of the small cafe though with our bags in tow.

    We looked through some shops of the town and took it slow. After a while we decided lunch was soon to be on the cards, I wanted to treat ourselves to a view, so we climbed the stairs to the path that leads to Corniglia. There before the paid path starts, sits a restaurant called Ristorante La Torre, views of Vernazza looking North. Katie had pesto pasta and I had the Spaghetti Mari - shrimps, clams & mussels dancing to please you as the menu states it. It was amazing, so was the Rose wine we ordered!

    After lunch we walked back into town slowly, we came back to the room to beat the heat. I googled things for the next legs of our trip and Katie had a much needed nap.

    We had booked a sunset cruise to take us along and see all 5 Cinque Terre Villages from the sea. We embarked on our cruise with a couple from America, a trio from Copenhagen and another couple who we shared trip advice from the Sunshine Cost in Queensland.

    Our Captain gave us a running commentary of the views, we saw a hole in the cliff edge, he pointed it out and as the trains between the village mostly run in tunnels, this is one of the escapes if needed…. All good until you see the jump you need to make into the Ocean.
    The 5 Cinque Terre towns were created mainly as fishing villages, they have their unique colours so sailors could see it from a distance and get back to the right village quicker and using less man power. Each town is painted differently so they can see it from afar the difference to know which one you are heading for, the untrained person like you & me wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but apparently there are.
    He also told us how Cinque Terre villages came to be, The village of San Bernardino above Vernazza was the first village here on the coast. The original people never came down to the ocean as they were scared of attacks from Pirates. When the French came with Napoleon, they decided that they would help protect the seas in area. The ports of Levanto & La Spezia were of interest to the French also, the original people of San Bernardino started to come down and fish, soon becoming sailors and then started to create the 5 villages as they are today. Today there is no full time fishermen in the villages and with train access, Cinque Terre relies on tourists now to come and see the area.

    Once back in Vernazza we grabbed a small bite to eat and some Gelato, there is a concert on in the main Piazza so getting a table anywhere is impossible, thankfully we had some appetisers on the boat!

    Today was a nice relaxing day ready for our travels Tomorrow!    Read more

  • Summer of 23

    Day 35 - Drive to Verona

    August 13, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Today we leave Vernazza and head for Verona, this is a 3.5hr drive to get us closer to Venice.

    We had our breakfast, packed our bags and I had too finally use the cases on my back as the stairs are too steep to get them down other wise. This obviously took two trips and to say I was hot was an understatement afterwards.
    We got a coffee and called the parking lot operators to come and collect us.

    Once at the car we started to make the ascent up the hill. Going slow was our tactic! Half way up the hill sits the original town of San Barnaldo, we wanted to visit the winery that makes the Rose we had the first day. This proved difficult with the narrow roads and seemed to only have resident parking, we saw two cars start to go up the hill so I jumped in behind them instead and started the next climb to the top road - my theory is, if they met someone, they would get the fright first!

    We jumped onto the Autostrada once in La Spezia and the toll booths said - ‘Free tolls, strike today’ - So we went on our way. I still can’t get over how Italians drive and how 2 lane motorway can have the slow lane doing anywhere around 90km & the fast 130km.
    We got just outside of Verona and got off the Autostrada, this is where we went to an operator of the toll booth to find out there is no strike and we didn’t have a toll ticket. No problems though as he got out his book, I told him where we started - seeing it was the other side of the country I don’t think he was going to question if I was lying!

    We checked into the hotel and walked into Verona.
    First off we walked down to see the Ponte Scaligero bridge, it is a brick & marble bridge with 3 spans & arches, built in the 14th century & reconstructed after WWII. Seeing it was hot and Katie was dealing with the heat amazingly (I was just my usual sweaty mess) We saw a gelato store next door. I had cherry & Katie passion fruit - the passionfruit is the best we have tasted and so refreshing on a hot day!
    We walked to the Verona Arena which will be coming back too next Friday for the Opera. The arena is a well preserved Roman amphitheater that was built to seat 20,000 people. Much like the colosseum just smaller but better preserved.
    What would a trip to Verona be without strolling down Via Giuseppe Mazzini, a narrow pedestrian thoroughfare with designer boutiques - again the cats need food so we were happy window shopping.
    This led us to Piazza delle Erbe the historic town plaza which had Torre de Lamberti to the North east side which is the tallest medieval tower in Verona. Down the street from this is the famous and way overly crowded to be romantic these days, Juliet’s House and the famous balcony. Believe us, Romeo would of gone else where if he saw the masses these days.

    We went to Osteria del Bugiardo for some tapas and a cheeky 3 Euro Rose, kept walking through the streets, went to Aldi for some supplies & then headed back to the hotel as we were both a bit buggered from the drive today.

    We are both glad we changed our plans to not drive on the outside of Venice and stay in what essentially was middle of no where, Verona has been nice to spend the night and see the very picturesque main town.    Read more

  • Summer of 23
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    Day 36 - Venice

    August 14, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today we leave Verona and head for Venice. The hotel came with a breakfast so we had breakfast at the hotel, packed and headed to the car.

    Katie had subtly suggested I needed a hair cut, I had to agree! We went on the hunt for a barber shop - a lot were closed, the first one I walked into, I asked if they spoke English and got laughed at… safe to say I didn’t get my hair cut there. Finally found one in town, The Istanbul Barbers… Very Italian! There was a language barrier but google translate helped and they gave me espresso, Katie believes it’s the shortest I’ve ever gone and was shocked upon seeing it.

    After the haircut we got in the car, filled up with petrol at a really cheap self pump servo and made our way to the autostrada to get to Venice.
    On exiting the Autostrada there was a que to pay and of course our ticket didn’t work so we had to press the assistance button - easily resolved.

    We found the car parking lot I had booked, only to get the main guy signally we weren’t allowed in. Luckily I had a booking and explained this but he was still a little bit rude about it. Though we were lucky to find a park inside, as it was jam packed full, we brought bus tickets off the attendant and made our way into Venice.

    After the bus ride we walked to the accomodation in the blistering heat, we were both sweaty messes once we had got there. We had showers and started to use the washing machine.

    We went for a walk to find a bite to eat and see some sites. We got to the more touristy populated area and found a bakery that sold per grams focaccia pizza, so we ordered that. There was a slight mix up and our card got charged twice so he asked us kindly instead of giving money back he’ll give us more in stock. So we got Katie a coke, me a beer and a few pastries. Upon leaving and walking to a spot to sit on the grand canal, Katie had a seagull come down on her head and steal a bit of the focaccia - these seagulls are massive compared to back home! So we moved quickly to sit down and eat.’

    After that ordeal we went off to see some sites, we walked down to the famous Librería Acqua Alta, a cozy offbeat bookstore apparently. There was masses of people, no cats, a weird lady taking your picture on the staircase made out of books, that can’t take a photo to save herself and more people. So we left quickly! Just down the alley is Palazzo Tetto, a picturesque building surround on three sides of it by canals.
    We venture to San Marco so Katie could see the masses of people… was quieter than I expected but still busy. We were both a bit tired so decided to head back to the accomodation.

    I went to get some supplies from the grocery store for lunch, ended up on deciding to cook dinner as we both couldn’t be stuffed - Basil Ravioli with Bolognese sauce and a salad, with a side of wine from the castle we saw in Tuscany. I also brought some 99cent gelato from the supermarket - superb!

    We had a quiet evening ready for all the walking we will do tomorrow.    Read more

  • Summer of 23

    Day 37 - Venice

    August 15, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today we only have a 4.30pm walking tour booked. So we had breakfast in the apartment and headed out to grab a coffee, anyone that knows me knows I love a good cappuccino with lots of milk froth but I must say I am switching to espressos from now on as they are frothier the further north we are heading! Espresso here is like a can of red bull so I am not complaining!

    We walked into the area San Polo first & went over the Rialto Bridge, this was surprisingly not as busy as I thought it was going to be. We kept heading South towards Dorsoduro, the narrow streets in this area was the first time we had noticed shops shut for the public holiday today & when most Italians take time off - that being said has not one bit affected us so no complaints here just noticed a store shut with a sign every so often.

    We stopped for lunch at a focaccia place called Farini, when we first went past it had no line, as soon as we come back, there was a line going out the door… typical!

    We made our way around Dorsoduro down to Accademia area where Ponte dell’ Accademia is, a bride which is poplar for photography and adorned with padlocks from people.
    We kept going around and came across the Corner Pub, 3Euro Spritz… You had me at Spritz but had me with happy tears of 3Euro! We sat nearby and watched the world go by on the grand Canal. I had a fabulous idea, lets take a traghetto across the grand canal instead of walking the bridge. A traghetto is a gondola that literally goes one side to the other for 2euro pp. All good until I found out the one I wanted wasn’t working due to the public holiday. So we walked back to the apartment, picking up dinner supplies along the way.

    We left for the walking tour which started near Hoel Ai Reali, a 17th century palace which is now a swanky hotel with a posh spa… Again could of stayed here but the cats diets consist of top shelf food of course. The tour walked us over the Rialto bridge to Chiesa di San Giacomo di Rialto, which is where Venice was colonised. Venice was founded in 421 AD and you can’t find Roman things around Venice as it was founded as the Roman Empire fell. We saw the Rialto Markets that was once taking up a the majority of the area instead of now two blocks. This is where silks and other items from around the world that Venetian’s brought back from their travels would sell. The guide showed us the buildings and how the salt water is eroding the buildings and how they fix the bricks that are exploding one by one, from the salt that is left in them as they dry out over summer.
    We then went to Ponte Delle Tette, a small bridge that was well known for the area for past prostitution, as the older Prostitutes would live on the Market side of the bridge and not let the sailors see the younger ones that they had moved to the other side of this bridge. If a sailor did go into the younger area, the girls would stop them from leaving the area by blocking this bridge until the sailor paid them.
    We went to Campo San Polo the second biggest square in Venice, obviously San Marco being the biggest. We learnt that before Napolian, there was no paved streets, just mud and fields for growing food.
    We finished the tour at Campo S. Toma, a store with masks & the guide explained about how masks came to be with Carnival.

    After the tour we walked back to the apartment via the Basilica S.Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, as it was the public holiday for S.Maria, the church was opening and as I put it ‘rehearsals for their performance later in the evening’. This Basilica is famous for having a small Pyramid like sculpture inside that has the heart of a famous sculpture, Antonio Canova, the pyramid is fro an unrealised project of his and was made a decade after his death. The family got his body back but the priest at the time ordered that his heart be cut out and left in the church as his heart belonged to Venice, probably not the worst thing a priest has done though…

    We got back to the apartment, we were very tired from walking and we made dinner and watched some Netflix.    Read more

  • Summer of 23

    Day 38 - Murano, Burano, Venice

    August 16, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today we were up at a time that felt early! 8.30am we had to be at the ferry, a 6 minute walk from our airbnb.
    We caught the ferry over to Murano which is famous for it’s glass blowing factories and small local glass blowers with their shops. We got a coffee once there… I tried the cappuccino and was surprised she put chocolate on top, a westerners dream right there!
    We walked around and it was peaceful before masses of tourists arrived and every shop wasn’t open yet. There were some shops we walked into that the owners wouldn’t even acknowledge our existence so made sure we didn’t hang around in them. We finally found a place that was happy to let you watch their glass blowing at Wave Murano Glass, though you may enter the factory, you must leave via their showroom (some may say gift shop, typical Europe) By this point I had enough of glass and it was getting busy so we got the ferry to Burano… Now I moo’d as we got onto this ferry, but cattle trucks have better conditions than these ferries, we were packed in like sardines and it was hot. Least cattle get water and a feed!
    We got to Burano, it is famous for Lace museum, the bell tower that is leaning (told Katie as we missed Pisa she saw something leaning!) and the colourful houses as this is a fishing island.
    We grabbed lunch, some ice cream and photos and it was starting to get really hot so we opted to take the hour ferry ride back to Venice.

    We got back to the accomodation and had a relax - Katie sorting washing, me going to do the groceries… weird ways to relax!
    I had booked a gondola ride for Katie & I at 6pm so we trotted off to that, it was excellent, Chiara our gondolier took us downtown the back canals of the Jewish Ghetto and surroundings. She let us know about the buildings we were seeing and stories about them, she even sang us a little song at the end that Katie wanted to shrivel up and die at this point! I thought is was hilarious as I knew that was the one thing Katie wanted to avoid! Katie admitted she was nervous how close the gondola was to walls and other boats and had to reframe from saying anything… least it’s not just my driving she wants to use her pretend pedals!

    After the gondola we went back to the apartment and had dinner. After dinner, as we had passes for the Vaporetto ferries for the day, we took a ride on a couple heading for the grand canal to see the sights from the boat and give our legs a break. On the walk home we got our mandatory gelato, probably worst one we’ve had so far but still not bad enough to not eat it!    Read more

  • Summer of 23

    Day 39 - Bardolino

    August 17, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Today we are set to leave Venice, but before we can leave the apartment we need to make sure all the trash bags are out - Venice has a unique system, people with carts go around and collect the rubbish bags, the people take these carts to a boat waiting which cranes the carts on and dumps their contents into the boat to be taken away. These people come door to door for the rubbish, so you either leave your rubbish out or they knock/ring your bell to let you know they are currently there.

    Our plan was not to stick around in Venice as it gets so hot during the day, at 10am with two suitcases, our back packs and a few bridges to muster, it was already a balmy 25 degrees. We got coffee along the way in the Jewish Ghetto & caught the bus out to the parking lot where the car is parked.

    We jumped onto the Autostrada heading for Lake Garda, our next destination. We arrived at Bardolino where our accomodation is for the next two nights, meeting Anja one of the workers to show us their car parking area. Anja was happy to hear about our travels so far, i mentioned in passing it was the honeymoon from 2020 we were on & she also commented how a couple from NZ a month ago stayed, that said Italians drive like crazy people!
    We checked in & went for a walk around Bardolino as Anja gave us a lot of recommendations on what to see & do. We walked around to the lake side for the view and grabbed some lunch and a spritz at La Preonda. We walked back around grabbed some Gelato along the way, looked at the town and headed back to the accomodation to relax. Once we were back Anja had given us a bottle of wine as a gift to celebrate the honeymoon, so I caught up on the blogs & Katie on her TikTok while drinking some wine!

    I had told Katie i really wanted to go see a church in the area… Katie was so thrilled to see yet another church, but she soon realised this wasn’t just your average church. We drove half n hour up into the hills to a village called Spiazzi and parked. From there it was a ‘gentle’ 10 minute walk to Santuario Madonna Della Corona, a very picturesque mountainside church circa 1625, on the walk down you can stop & view a sculptural depiction of Christ and the events on the day he was crucified. This church is built into the mountain with the left and rear wall being the stone from the mountain, its a steep walk down & you have to go through a tunnel to get to this, engineer me was loving this but also how they built such a monumental church here back then and we still can’t fix some roads!

    We drove back to Bardolino and parked the car again, went for a walk looking what to do for dinner. Dinner out actually sounded like a wee treat rather than our only option seeing we had cooked the last three nights! We saw along the lake front there was a Ferris wheel, this is where Katie tells me she has never been on a Ferris wheel… I was shocked, i know Canterbury show isn’t the best but Katie has been to the Melbourne show! So I had to take her on it, she came to become comfortable and enjoyed it, even if the emotions came out when it stopped and she thought something was wrong!

    We set off for dinner opting for Pizza at Pizzeria Bardolino, I was wanting some more wine so hastily ordered a litre of the house Rose to share… Thankfully my driving for the day had finished!
    We headed back to the accomodation, I had to have another small gelato due to the heat and to offset some of the wine!    Read more

  • Summer of 23
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    Day 40 - Lake Garda

    August 18, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we had no major plans sorted, except for the evening.

    So we had booked the day before to have be in the early breakfast sitting (The accomodation did two timed slots for breakfast through COVID and they found it worked amazing so kept it!) After breakfast our plan was to see how far around Lake Garda we could get with the car (It’s busy!)

    We drove through the historic town of Garda and as there is three main round abouts so it took a bit to navigate through, once through it was smooth driving. We tried to stop in one of the smaller villages but parking machine wasn’t playing ball so I stood admiring the view & the car parked without a ticket while Katie got some photos.
    We ended up north side of Malcesine, the village has a medieval castle lakeside, we opted for a walk into the village and lunch here. I was feeling a wee bit under the weather from the amount of wine, I may or may not of consumed yesterday, so we had burgers and chips for lunch. We walked through the village and started to head back to the car, it was getting hot and we wondering if we swim here or back at Bardolino (The real troubles on holiday) I was hot and bothered and feeling like I needed something to put a spring in my step, so we walked back to the car, got changed and headed 2minutes away from the car to a little pebble beach.
    Upon walking near the entrance of the car park I noticed a lot of cars lined up, most car parks were full as we came through hence why we were happy to walk a bit further. These people were waiting for someone to come out of the car park so they can get a car park, we found this very strange but if they are happy to wait in the sun, in their cars, I’ll still call them idiots! We got the beach, I went in first, now we are used to the Mediterranean sea, balmy 26-28 degrees… this was very cold. Lake Garda is 300m deep in some parts and is feed from the hills/Dolomite area surrounding the lake, so naturally its cold icy water. Nether the less, the body got used to it and it was very relaxing! Katie took longer but finally made it in!

    We drove back to Bardolino, on the drive we saw a motor bike rider had collided with a car, after seeing them ride around here I wasn’t surprised to see it, luckily he just seemed pretty cut up and some locals directing traffic.
    We rested, showered and got ready to have our night out in Verona. We have to drive 40minutes to Verona to watch the opera classic, Aida. The Verona opera festival has been held for 100years now and the shows take place in the Verona Arena, the Verona Arena is much like the Colosseum, just smaller and better preserved.
    We got to Verona and had dinner in Piazza Bra, the piazza is set with the Verona Arena at the centre, this is the first time we opted for a dinner near a land mark - food was all good, nothing amazing - The Gelato we found down the road was worthy of a mention though!

    We went into the Arena ready for the show, there is strict rules about what your allowed to bring and no recording devices. Well when it started there was masses on their phones recording so really helped the ambiance of the Opera… I opted to take a photo as they finished the intermittence of the show seeing everyone else had taken some. Photos don’t do it justice for the Arena or the performance itself.
    We were seated up top of the Arena, this is on the stone steps so luckily we had brought blankets and jackets to sit on.
    The Opera was amazing, I wasn’t expecting the end of the story as I had I only read the story 3/4 of it online, so that was a nice surprise.

    We drove back to Bardolino to our accomodation after the performance which ended at midnight.    Read more

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    Day 41 - The Road to Milano

    August 19, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 29 °C

    Today we leave Bardolino and start making our way to Milan, our final destination for Italy.

    We were tossing up heading north around Lake Garda and seeing a small town called Limone Sul Garda or head to the South and see Sirmione. Seeing the traffic we encountered yesterday, we played it safe and headed for Sirmione.

    The drive was nice going through lake side towns, as it was a Saturday it seemed very busy. We got outside of Sirmione and noticed traffic building up trying to get in the central car parks, we saw some free ones on a side road and thought suckers… we stopped for a coffee and a toilet pit stop, this is when I looked at google maps, reason everyone is willing to wait in massive lines is the 40 minute walk from where we were having coffee to the castle of Sirmione, Who’s the suckers now… well Katie took the backpack to save me so lets say Katie!
    We got into Sirmione is now a resort town, it is known for its thermal baths & Roccas Scaligera, the medieval castle over looking the lake. At the tip of the peninsula of Sirmione is the site, Grotte di Catullo which is ruins of an old Roman Villa some 2000 years old, also the best beach in the area we were told. We grabbed some lunch and then opted for something we hadn’t really researched much, a 10euro boat tour of the peninsula for 25minutes. The company drives your around the peninsula, a couple of facts along the way, nice pictures and then gives the boat a wee bit of gas before the end for some fun. You come back under the draw bridge to the castle which was tight but awesome to see.

    After this I had seen local busses running, found that for 1.50euro each we could catch the bus 5 minutes away from the car! So we opted for that instead of being sweaty messes.
    Once back at the car we headed for Milan, a hour and half drive, as it is Italians main time to Holiday we found the Autostrada to have ‘Traffico Intenso’ - or in plain English, a heap of traffic so 130km wasn’t on the cards.
    We got into Milan, got into the AirBnb and dropped our bags off and I went to take the car back alone to save Katie’s feet! Now I am not saying that I missed Katie in that short 10minute drive, but my phone decided to not connect to apple CarPlay, I did run a red light, I did get tooted and yelled at an intersection, for not going on a green when cars were blocking me and I got yelled at by the Europcar lady for parking in a taxi zone while trying to work out where she wanted the car parked. So Katie will now not be allowed to stay back doing the washing in future.

    I opted to walk back as it was a 25minute walk and grabbed some supplies from the supermarket.

    We had always planned to go to QC Terme, a tranquil Spa in Milan with lush gardens with saunas and spa pools. The spa is famous for its sensory rooms - such as a sauna set at 50degrees with soothing music and smells like roses, a rain room with screens around and when a storm comes on the screen it starts raining from the ceiling. They also have different kinds of relaxation rooms.
    Katie & I found this great after the stress of the Metro - I brought a MilanoCard which no one can tell me how to activate it, (I even researched this massively) so I now have a dud card & had to buy a day metro pass. Also have the MilanoCard people emailing me saying activate through the app, the app says I need to pick it up… all in all, a massive stuff around. Also had scammers trying to sell us metro tickets while I was working out the MilanCard, by the third one I wasn’t replying that politely!
    But the spa was amazing and very nice in the evening.    Read more

  • Summer of 23
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    Day 42 - Milano

    August 20, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today is our last full day in Italy, seeing we had a late night from the spa last night, it was a slow morning. Also most things don’t open until 10am so wasn’t in a rush.

    After breakfast at the apartment we caught the metro into town. We started the day off at the Duomo, we weren’t going in or up it but had a walk around it. We had to dodge the normal scammers, trying to give you/pay for bird seed for the pigeons (rats with wings) and the ones trying to help take pictures of you.
    We moved to the side of the Duomo to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a luxurious shopping centre with shops that we were only too happy to window shop from.
    We walked around the area of San Babila which again had shops that Katie opted to window shop from thankfully. We were hoping to find a certain store with the bag Katie has her eye on, unfortunately due to this time being the main time Italians take off, a lot of the smaller shops were shut.

    We ended up out in an area called Guastalla, again another store shut so we found some lunch. I found a pizzeria called Spontini, they do pizza by the slice and isn’t the average Italian pizza. Thick and crispy base, Katie had margarita and I had one that ended up having blue cheese & bacon on it. It was fantastic.
    We took the metro to the Brera area and walked around the narrow streets, by this time it was getting hot, Katie’s feet had gone back to their normal European ways, so we opted to head to central station to figure out the bus ride in the morning.
    With stuff all help about the morning bus we made one last stop before heading back to the apartment.

    We went to Shoah Memorial of Milan, this exhibit is the spot where many carts got loaded with Jews to get either sent to Asuchwitz or camps in Italy during the war. The carts were loaded at night under the main tracks, they were then shunted forward, moved to the elevator and the cart would rise to the main tracks then hooked up to a locomotive to move. This was so it was out of site of the normal business of the railway station through the day.
    They have carts on display, the elevator that was used, videos of survivors, a library for survivors stories and a classroom for students to come and learn.

    After this we headed back to the apartment, Katie had a nap and I had a beer and caught up on finding penguins.

    We headed out for dinner in the area we are staying in, we ended up at the bar NoLoSo, they offer a drink and an appetiser for 12euro each. I obviously had a spritz, the first appetiser board came out and we were kind of taken back, is that what we paid for?! Then the second came out and it was a great feed!

    We headed back to the apartment to pack ready for our flight in the morning.    Read more

  • Summer of 23
    1Our aparttment....

    Day 43 - Cioa Italy, Dzień dobry! Krakow

    August 21, 2023 in Poland ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today we fly out of one of the 3 airports in Milan… of course we are flying trusty Ryan Air so we are at the furthest one away. We left our accomodation at 6.30am and walked to the station and got on s shuttle to the airport, there was a man sitting in front of us sniffling and if looks could kill from Katie, this man would of been dead before the bus departed central station!

    We got to the airport, went straight through the security. Now I am not saying I don’t listen to my lovely wife but some idiot decided to not take out the butter knives out of the backpack and put in checked. That idiot got stopped and checked by security, his lovely wife throwing eye daggers from afar! So the butter knives got taken off me and I now need to find some new ones & will most likely buy Katie a leather hand bag too!

    Ryan Air as per usual were splendid to fly with, we got on and sat down, got told we would be sitting for 20-25minutes till we could get pushed back. Not 5 minutes after that, the captain come over and announced the situation had changed, ‘yep, we can leave now,’ in a not so reassuring surprised tone. Also another perk of flying Ryan Air, I booked myself as the window seat… I got to my ‘window seat’ to find there was no window… so not a lot of views to be had there!
    We got to Krakow, jumped on the train heading for the city.

    Once here I tried to get in contact with the accomodation about dropping the bags off at 2pm, magically he didn’t see his phone but answered when I called to check in at 3pm. So while we waited we had an amazing lunch at Lajkonik Piekarnia i Kawiarnia - amazing sandwiches! We also had a walking tour at 3pm that we cancelled and jumped on another for 4pm, so we checked in and got ourselves ready and headed to the meeting point for the walking tour.

    The walking tour started at Barbican, a defensive gateway from the 1490’s once linked to the city walls. We moved to the statue of Grunwald, the only battle won against Germany in 1410. The guide took us through town showing us interesting things like in the stones of the building of an entranceway, there are holes to extinguish your flame pole acting as light back in the day, also instead of house numbers, as many couldn’t read, they used animal pictures - the one she showed us was a peacock - FYI we are getting one of these instead of numbers!
    We moved into Market square, Europe’s biggest open air market square! With St. Mary’s Basilica a focal point of the square. We moved down to the university learning about the buildings and war time, and then onto Okno Papieskie. An artwork on the window where Pope John Paul II talked to a crowd of singing young people when he visited when Poland was still under communist ruling.
    We finished the tour where Katie thinks she should live… Wawel Royal Castle, this is from the 14th century and prettified in a variety of later styles. On Wawel Hill you have Wawel Cathedral, which has bones at the front door from what locals at the time of finding thought to be a dragon - no just whale and mammoths.
    Krakow and Poland have a rich history, especially when Poland didn’t exist from 1795 - 1918 due to getting split between other countries, then after the war getting the whole country shifted to the West.

    We took the guides advice and went to a local polish restaurant, Gospoda Koko, you can sit on ground floor or go down stairs into the basement which is pretty cool. Now the Italians do great pizza and pasta, Polish know how to do cakes and chicken (haven’t tried cakes… Wednesday!!) The food was amazing and so was the local Koko craft beer!

    We slowly walked back to the accomodation to get some rest for tomorrow.    Read more

  • Summer of 23
    1

    Day 44 - Auschwitz Memorial & Museum

    August 22, 2023 in Poland ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Today we got up early, had breakfast in the apartment to go to the bus station, we are off to see and pay respects to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

    We got told yesterday the bus was at 7:25am, today the bus is now at 8:05am and gets us to Auschwitz at 9:19am… our tour starts at 9:30am, should be fine.
    While waiting for the bus, I opted to buy an obwarzanek, it’s a bagel that the dough is boiled for 10seconds in 65degree water.
    Then I decided to start googling, and no our bus gets in at 9:30am… So the bus trip was a wee bit panicky as we had a 6hour tour and they only do one a day. We got to Auschwitz at 9:35am, talked to the desk and we got escorted to our group thankfully, we only missed an 8 minute intro video.

    We spent 3 hours in Auschwitz going through the blocks and exhibitions. As we were on the longer tour we got to see Block 3, the most untouched block showing the living conditions in the camp.
    After a half n hour break we got on the bus to Auschwitz II-Birkenau which takes 10 minutes. We spent 2.5hours here on the grounds. Birkenau was mostly destroyed by the Nazi’s before liberation day and the old blocks torn down by returning locals, as the Nazi’s had destroyed their brick houses to build the Blocks, so the locals started using what was at Birkenau.

    After the tour it was a bit too process what we had heard and seen, though our Polish guide spoke very fast which somewhat helped that we didn’t have enough time to fully comprehend exactly what we were being told at times.
    We rode the bus back to Krakow, I was pretty exhausted so caught a nap while Katie decided to film me…

    We got back to the apartment and got freshened up and headed for dinner. Another recommendation from the guide yesterday, Resyauracja Cechowa, another traditional restaurant. The food in Poland is amazing!

    After dinner we walked through Market Square, stopping to watch the lightning around us light up the night sky. We got some gelato and went back to the accomodation.    Read more

  • Summer of 23

    Day 45 - Krakow, Poland

    August 23, 2023 ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today we had nothing planned apart from the thought a walking tour would be nice to fit in for the Jewish area and maybe a tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine. We didn’t want a too early start so we decided to do the walking tour for 10.30am. We had breakfast in the accomodation (side note: this accommodation is great for location but the aircon doesn’t even pump out air properly so we are getting hot at night - it’s what you get in cheap accommodation!)

    We set off for our day and stopped off at Stary Kleparz, a local farmers market that is set up daily. We grabbed a coffee here from a local coffee shop, in one corner is the coffee machine, another corner the coffee roaster machine, and a heap of coffee bags everywhere else!

    We walked through old town towards the Jewish Ghetto area. Our tour starts at the Old Synagogue, this is the oldest Synagogue in Krakow but they don’t actually know the date it was built… somewhere between 1407 - 1490’s, somewhere around there! We walked through the Kazimierz district where a lot of Jews were at Synagoga Remu for one of their Rabbi’s festivals - seemed like a party inside going off at 10:45am.
    The guide took us through the catholic area of Kazimierz where there are 3 churches which you can see from Plac Wolnica, the main square of the area. We went over the most recently built bridges in Krakow, Father Bernatek’s Bridge, which has sculptures of acrobats by artist Jerzy Kedziora hanging in the middle of the bridge. This leads to the Jewish Ghetto where we stopped to see the front of St. Joseph’s Church which is a gothic style church, this the edge of the Ghetto but originally was planned by the Nazi’s to be in the Ghetto. We walked through the area that once was gate one of the Jewish Ghetto through the war, walking the streets it was hard to imagine the amount of Jewish people the Nazi’s put here during the war to be housed. Our tour finished at Plac Bohaterow Getta, an artist piece with empty chairs in the square, each chair represents 1000 Jews that died from the Ghetto.
    The tour was good, felt like we should of watched Schindler’s list first as there were many references to that unfortunately.

    For lunch we found a place right where the tour ended called Matt’s Cheesesteaks, we had a burger and I had to have an oreo shake, it was good and as a follow Matt, I recommend the food and Matt’s sauce.

    We took the train out to Wieliczka Salt Mine, Katie was somewhat happy to come down the 135m underground so we had booked tickets for both of us. On the way down there is 380 steps to start with. The mine was started in the 13th century when they accidentally found lumps of Rock Salt, today there is sculptures made out of Rock Salt, Chapels, Chambers and Saline Lakes you get to see. The tour was good but had a very touristy vibe and had pretty much felt like I had seen the best of it online, nether less a good way too see some amazing mining history.

    We went back to Old Town and went on the hunt for dinner, we found a place called Domowe Przysmaki, this had a flute busker across the road… we all know I’m a sucker for a busker now - so we sat outside and had dinner. I had the tradition pork chop & Katie had the tradition potato pancake (In Katie’s words, with a whole heap of shit on top) That shit was very nice though!

    We finished the night off with a Good Lood ice cream, I had seen people with these ice creams for days and hadn’t stopped for one. Now I know why people stopped, it was amazing!! They have flavour of the day and amazing tasting waffle cones, I had Walnut & Maple scoop and Katie had Dark Chocolate. This was right around the corner from the accomadation so an easy stroll back!    Read more

  • Summer of 23
    Katie making sure the saftey briefing is on point

    Day 46 - Antwerp, Belgium

    August 25, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Today we woke up early to catch our flight to our next country we visit, Belgium. We got up at 4.45am got ready and we were in the Bolt (European Uber & cheaper than Uber) by 5.35am. On this trip I realised I am happy that we didn’t drive in Poland as our bolt driver was doing 20-30km per hour over the speed limit and only slowed down at a point where the police sit at times.

    Our flight flew us to Vienna Airport where we changed to a larger plan to Belgium. We got to Belgium and took the train towards Antwerp.
    Our initial plans had us going to Brussels but upon researching we decided Antwerp was a better fit for us,
    We got to the station and were greeted to some rain, much different to the weather we were used too.
    Antwerp station is said to be the most picturesque train station in Europe, we could see why!
    We strolled to our accomodation in the rain and had a go at checking in seeing we were early, it was successful as the room was ready thankfully! We had a shower and got ready to go see some sites.

    We walked towards Grote Market along Meir which is the main shopping street in Antwerp. It is the most important shopping area in the country by number of shoppers & by the rent prices. It is said to be the Belgian equivalent to New York’s 5th Avenue!
    We stopped off and had our first taste of Belgian waffles at a cart along the mall, I was still hungry after this so went on the hunt for another local dish - Frites! (Belgian Chips!) We went to Frites Atelier, they were amazing! Makes me hungry just writing about them!

    We proceeded to see the Cathedral of Our Lady, bit had to miss with the bell tower towering through town! This is where Katie finally got to see what she thought Belgian architecture would look like!
    We moved towards Grote Markt, which is the central square of Antwerp, it is situated in the heart of the old city quarter. At the center of Grote Markt is the Braboo Fountain, the statue depicts a mythical Roman solider who supposedly killed a Giant named Durón Antigoon. We walked down to the riverfront where Het Steen, a medieval fortress & Antwerps oldest building is.
    I figured it would be rude to come to Belgium and not try a Belgium beer in my first day, so I found a little place well recommended for local brews, JazzCafe de Muze where I had a Lupus Tripel 8.5%. Now I was amazed at the 8.5% but the bartender assured me it had a nice sweet aftertaste, so I had to have a try. It didn’t knock you out being a 8.5% beer and definitely had the sweet aftertaste he told me about, even Katie said it was good.
    After a nice beverage we stopped off too Stadsfeestzall, a shopping mall in a neoclassical building. The building had been restored to it’s traditional glory after a fire in 2000.

    We went back to the accomodation to relax, I popped out to find some lollies for Katie and we were undecided on dinner. The accomodation in Krakow was great but the aircon was non existent so I was pretty tired from 3 nights of crappy sleep, Katie was tired from my busy schedule of Krakow!
    So for dinner we opted to go get Eeetwell Belgium, which is just a health food restaurant offering salads and juice, we were both happy with the choice!
    We went back to the accomodation, I saw an add for a Malteser McFlurry, now this isn’t the Malteser McFlurry we get, this is THE Malteser McFlurry with proper Malteser pieces crushed up, not just some Malteser thrown in like a savage. As you can tell I was happy with my find but my hips are not, after my daily intact of diabetic heaven we got back to the accomodation and ended the night with some Netflix.    Read more

  • Summer of 23
    Antwerp-CentralBikes in ghent at the station1TastingIt somewhat rained while we were having a drink1

    Day 47 - Antwerp & Ghent, Belgium

    August 25, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Today we check out of our accomodation and at some point in the day head for the medieval town of Ghent.
    We woke up late as we were pretty exhausted from previous days, Katie timed it as nearly 12 hours of sleep. There is a local cafe incorporated at the hotel, for convenience we walked out of our room, down the corridor for a breakfast board as we couldn’t be stuffed walking and finding somewhere to eat. After breakfast we stored our luggage at the hotel and checked out.

    We had one purpose this morning… buy Katie new pants, hers had shrunk in the wash in Ireland and only noticed now! So off to Meir we went!
    Somehow we didn’t just leave with pants, also a few other pieces for Katie! I better say I brought another pair of shorts and some aftershave or she’ll yell at me for pointing her out! Once the shopping was done, we picked up lunch from the supermarket, got the bags and headed for the train station to catch the train to Ghent.
    The train ride is 1hour long and thankfully we didn’t prebook any tickets, they currently are running an offer of 2 for 1 tickets. So travel in Belgium turns out not too bad!

    Once at Ghent we decided walking the 24minutes wouldn’t be bad for us to the hotel… it was a very light mist of rain when we decided this… 10 minutes out from the accomodation the sky opened up, thankfully we had a wee bit of shelter from the trees and continued once it eased just a touch. The streets of Ghent are typical Europe… cobbles - so I ended up carrying the bags a lot through town. Once at the accomodation freshened up and headed out to see Ghent.

    Our first stop was Grasburg Bridge, a narrow short bridge over the Leie canal in the centre of Ghent, this looks to Korenlei & Graslei streets, lined with the famous architectural buildings. These buildings were once home to grain storage & where the Hermitage Hotel is, used to be a brothel with the famous swans facing away from each other on the front of the building, as we later found out.
    We stopped off at a local merchant - ‘Jack’s House’ for Oliebollen, Dutch donuts! Very fresh and tasted amazing.
    Ghent used to be a very rich city, let’s put it this way, our walk from the train station you can see many bell towers and churches. The Main Street you can catch buses and trams from, you can see 3 main churches with one of the monasteries beside it. You can also see the Belfry of Ghent Het Belfort van Gent, this is nick named Little Ben as it was made after Big Ben but looks similar to Big Ben.
    We decided, as we missed the walking tour we were thinking of, lets do a canal tour on a boat, 40 minutes for 10Euro. We went along 3 different canals seeing the buildings and the driver talking about them, I was sat next to the engine so I caught majority of the talking he did.

    After the canal tour I was on the hunt for some Belgium beer, we found a place that said tasting trays, had me sold. Until I ordered it and the tasting tray was 3 full beers I needed to drink on my own as Katie was happy with a Cider. The three beers I had were all Belgian beers, first was a Cherry Sour called Kwak (8%), next was a blonde ale called Antigoon (6%) & to finish off the tasting, a brown ale called Adriaen (10%). While at the tasting the weather had looked threatening to take a turn again, sure enough it did and it rained pretty hard. Katie looked at the weather app and it said should stop in 7 minutes, the bartender agreed, 7 minutes went past and sure enough apple forecast was right for once!

    After the tasting I was somewhat hungry, we decided keep it simple and got some more frites from Frites Atelier, I got the Thai Chicken Frites & Katie got the Parmesan & Basil Frites.
    Afterwards I figured I hadn’t eaten my way through Belgium so opted from a waffle… from the same place we got the donuts. The lady remembered me and laughed saying you can come back tomorrow, or in an hour your choice.

    We went back to the accomodation to climb the creaky stairs to our room.    Read more

  • Summer of 23
    Ghent
    Ghent11

    Day 48 - Ghent & Bruges

    August 26, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Today we had breakfast in our hotel, Erasmus Hotel, around us is the history of the hotel and in the centre of the rear windows of the dining room is a suit of armour. I didn’t get the chance to ask the owner the back history, as she talked a wee bit like a posh robot so figured I needed to keep my brain cells for later.

    We left the bags at the hotel and had a wonder around Ghent, no real plan just walk along the streets and admire the architecture. With the change of weather my hairy legs haven’t been keeping the warmth I am used too and wanted a fashionable change from jeans. I ended up buying a pair of cargo pants for me as again, NZ & Aus don’t get half the stuff they have here.
    We ended up at Vrijdagsmarkt which is an open air market place, Katie and I were getting hungry and saw a food truck selling bratwurst. So we had to get one for each of us.
    We walked around a little more and opted to head for Bruges, so we collected the bags, jumped on the tram to the station.

    We opted to catch the bus to the AirBnB after seeing some rain on the train and no doubt I would encounter more typical European streets with the bags in tow!

    We dropped the bags off and seeing they were still cleaning the AirBnb (we were early only dropping off the bags) we went for a walk. We figured our aim was Markt Square of Bruges… we never made it there on this walk though… As we were taking the easy 10 or so minute stroll in, we were admiring the street and I could smell the most beautiful smell in the world… WAFFLES! These weren’t just any waffles, this is Lizzie’s Waffles, the waffles are Extra Large and take up somewhat of a standard plate. We got the Waffle with fresh strawberries & homemade chocolate sauce. I also had to try a local Blonde beer, a Brugse Zot. After this intake of average calories of a adult for the day, we went back to the airbnb to relax.

    At 5pm I had booked us onto a walking tour of Bruges, We met in Markt Square under the famous Belfry Tower. We met our guide Pascal who was a very energetic guide who loved Bruges and Belgium in general, also really disliked the French so big tick there! We started off learning about how the open air Markt came to be from the traders and then how they built Belfort to use as a market instead of the main open air market. The belfry was added around 1240, when Bruges was an important centre of the Flemish cloth industry. After a devastating fire in 1280, the tower was largely rebuilt. The city archives, however, were forever lost to the flames. The octagonal upper stage of the belfry was added between 1483 and 1487, and capped with a wooden spire bearing an image of Saint Michael, banner in hand and dragon underfoot. The spire did not last long: a lightning strike in 1493 reduced it to ashes, and destroyed the bells as well. A wooden spire crowned the summit again for some two-and-a-half centuries, before it, too, fell victim to flames in 1741. The spire was never replaced again, thus making the current height of the building somewhat lower than in the past; but an openwork stone gothic inspired rooftop was added in 1822.

    We moved onto the facade of Gruuthusemuseum which is now the museum for all of ancient Bruges. This used to be a palace for a family that controlled the canals adjacent to the palace. We moved onto the Church of Our Lady, well the outside of it as it was shut, this has the marble statue carved by Michelangelo (Another Church Katie!). Next to the church is one of the oldest hospitals in Europe, they are unaware of the official date built as the documents were destroyed in the Belfry fire. The hospital is where the Nun’s used to run the pharmacy and help the sick. Also when the church stopped allowing Monk’s to perform surgeries on people, Barber’s started to learn medicine as they were already for with a knife, this is why Barber’s poles used to white and blue showing he could do both.
    We walked over to ‘Lover’s Bridge’ or it’s actual name, Boniface Bridge, this is called Lovers Bridge for the romantic views of the canal and town which couples come and take many photos on. Only issue is that Bruge was fairly poor in the early 20th century, when they made this bridge they had to reuse some materials… like headstones from the church cemetery straight in front of it… Romantic! We got taken to the ‘postcard view’ of Bruges at Rosary Quay, looking out towards the canals and can see the Belfry Tower & bell tower of Church of Our Lady. The tour ended in front of the Bruges City Hall which was built in 1376, this tour was really entertaining thanks to the guide being such an entertaining guy!
    Next to City Hall is the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which is a church (Think this is church number 4 we could see Katie?) which houses a phial claimed to contain a cloth with Jesus’s own Blood on it.

    After the tour we were pretty hungry so we opted for a place recommended by the guide and going to one of the smaller squares for dinner. We ended up at t’Lammetje where Flemish Beef Stew was on order for me, Salmon for Katie.

    We ended the night with another Malteser McFlurry, yes I had not eaten or drunk enough at this point! Walked back to the accomodation and our view from our window has the Belfry Tower, Bell Tower of the Church of our Lady & the Bell tower of Sint-Salvatorskathedraal. We could hear numerous bells through out the town!    Read more

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