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  • Traveler2016 Travels
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    Day 29

    Rome Sweet Rome

    July 15, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We stayed at Armarndo's Airbnb stay 🏠 and it was PERFECT! He completely undersold this place which was in a great location, around the corner from Piazza Navona and Piazza Fiori! Armando was so helpful and I would recommend this accomodation to anyone on a city break to Rome.

    On our first day in Rome we hopped straight to it and visited Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Del Popolo. We also made it to the Spanish Steps to find that they were closed, no thanks to Bvlgari!!😣

    We later found out that a few of the famous Rome landmarks and attractions have recently been closed off due to luxury fashion designers funding a restoration or clean up of the site in order to promote their fashion brand. Tods shoe designer recently cleaned the Colosseum which cost them 25 million Euros 💵.

    We booked onto a tour of the Roman Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum. Although it was good to have a guided tour we did feel that our time in the colosseum was a bit rushed and Steve would have liked to have taken more photos.

    On that note, Steve's photo count is at 1,824! We're going to have fun selecting the ones to put into this year's holiday photo book... (which has become a yearly tradition now 😊). Who's turn is it this year Steve??? 😉

    We also visited the Vatican Museums and THANKFULLY hopped, skipped and jumped right past the 2 hour long queue to get in! "neh neh 😆" couldn't help but feel smug that we booked online in advance. Later in the afternoon we climbed to the top of St Peter's cupola (dome) for great views across the city.

    It's got to the point that I don't know what day of the week it is any more, I just count the number of nights I have in a city and be mindful that we have a train or a plane to catch! 😍 #earlyretirement    Read more

  • Traveler2016 Travels
    11
    Day 27

    A Piece of Pisa

    July 13, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Pisa was an hour train ride away from Florence and of course we made our way to the leaning tower of Pisa and the Duomo.

    Unexpectedly however it started raining!💧💧 💧💧☔The first time we have had rain on our trip but it was a refreshing change from the stifling heat!

    It was entertaining to watch so many tourists pull the 'Pisa pose' in sync, knowing full well that we were about to join in 😄.

    We got the full Pisa experience by getting tickets (in advance) to go up to the top of the tower. A spiral stair case on a 4 degree tilt made for a dizzy descent.    Read more

  • Traveler2016 Travels
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    111
    Day 25

    Fresco's in Florence

    July 11, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Florence is GORGEOUS 💜! Both Steve and I agree that it's our favourite city so far 😍! We would love to come back and explore more of Tuscany in the future, (the list of places we want to travel to gets longer everyday 😄). #bucketlist!

    Florence again was action packed for us. We dumped the bags at our accomodation and headed for Piazzale Michelangelo in the 36°C heat! 🌞🌞🌞🌞 (refer to hot, delusional selfies). To get here we crossed Ponte Vecchio - The bridge across the river Arno where many jewelers shops line either side of the bridge, enticing lovers with pricey diamonds! 😍

    It's 2 weeks since we arrived in Italy and during this time I've learnt that travelling with a Civil Engineer means going to the top of every tall structure in the city!

    In Florence the 'tall structures' are hard to miss! The Campanile Di Giotto (bell tower) and the Santa Maria Duomo stand tall in the Centre of Piazza Del Duomo and they are a must- see! The dome of the Cathedral is immense and you can get up close and personal with the dramatic paintings depicting scenes of Hell, right before popping out of the top to see the pano's of Florence.

    A favourite place of ours was the Mercato Centrale - with a traditional food market on the lower level and a modern gourmet food court on the upper level. It was definitely a case of 'eyes bigger than your belly' or 'eyes bigger than our wallet' (in our case) We could have hopped from stand to stand all day long tasting all of Italy's specialities! 😊

    On that note we have tasted our fair share of gelato, both tasting a different flavour every day! THEY ARE JUST SO GOOD!!!!    Read more

  • Traveler2016 Travels
    Day 22

    Murano & Burano, island hopping

    July 8, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We took a day trip away from the crowds of Venice to the island's of Murano & Burano.

    Murano is famous for its hand made glass sculptures and glass blowing workshops. A collection of assorted sculptures decorated the shops ranging from a 1m tall, minature human pyramid to a goldfish inside a pelecan! With lots of glass souveniour shops to choose from it was surprisingly hard to find a shop where we both agreed on something we liked, two glass sweets!

    The challenge was accepted!! To try and get them through the trip and back home in one piece. All will be revealed when we unpack them at home.

    Burano was an island which we absolutely loved, with the contrasting colourful houses each painted individually. We would encourage a visit if you're in the area 💜💛💚💙❤    Read more

  • Traveler2016 Travels
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    211
    Day 21

    Venice, get lost!

    July 7, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    As soon as we stepped off the train the reality of beautiful Venice hit me as the canal flowed right in front of the train station. We elbowed our way onto the vaporetto and travelled down the Grand canal to our airbnb stop at the Rialto Bridge.

    We stayed in the heart of St Marco and could even watch and hear the gondolas serenade past our balcony ❤.

    What a maze Venice is! Our first afternoon in Venice was a mix between finding out where we were and trying to get ourselves off the beaten track and away from the hoards of tourists!

    The weather again was super hot! 🌞🌞🌞so over a couple of days we had short jaunts out of the appartment to see the sights and then back to cool down 😓.

    We went to the top of Campanile Di San Marco for the stunning panoramic view of Venice. Steve and I also visited St Marc's Basilica and the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's palace) in St Marco's square, where we crossed the Bridge of Sighs - famously named because the prisoners would 'sigh' as they glanced at the beauty of Venice for the last time before being booted straight to the prison cells beyond it.

    We have now inevitably purchased a selfie stick!    Read more

  • Traveler2016 Travels
    Day 18

    Story of boy meets girl

    July 4, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We've been in Verona for 3 days - The home of Romeo and Juliette 💑

    We're staying in an apartment, again arranged through Airbnb and it is spot on! (It has air con!! 😁) It's a perfect location, just around the corner from Juliette's balcony.

    We have climbed to the top of Castel Sanpietro and Torre Dei Lamberti (clock tower) for panoramic views across Verona. We have also visited the Castelvecchio museum and bridge (over the Adije River) and enjoyed the atmosphere of both Piazza Brà and Piazza Erbe.

    Yesterday morning we went to the Roman Arena and couldn't help but think we were missing a trick if we didn't watch a performance in this huge amphitheatre!

    So it was decided, we were off to the Opera! We watched La Traviata, and we weren't disappointed it was bloomin' brilliant!

    We'll just remember to take our own cushions next time! To note - The Roman marble is hot hot hot 🔥    Read more

  • Traveler2016 Travels
    Day 18

    Shameless Backpacker Selfies

    July 4, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Our swanky train from Milan to Verona

    I promise our bags are the same size, mine just looks bigger!

  • Traveler2016 Travels
    Day 17

    Lake Como

    July 3, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today we took a spontaneous trip to Lake Como! Only an hour train ride from Milan. The lake was stunning and we took the funicular railway to the top of Como to see the amazing panoramic views of the lake. We could even see as far as the snow capped Swiss Alps which was hard to believe when stood in 29°C heat! 😎

    We reached different view points at the top (many selfies were taken) 📷.

    Steve managed to leave his phone on the bench at one of them which resulted in an Italian/ German led man hunt for Steve. They were very glad when they found him and reunited him with his phone/ "handi" (in German) 😄

    We had lunch with a view and then took the (long, hot, sweaty) hike up to the lighthouse (only finding out about the 2 minute shuttle bus to and from the top once we got up there!!!! 😥) #steveowesme

    More great views, more selfies, more steps, more sweat but a good time was had 😁.

    We got the shuttle bus down 👍    Read more

  • Traveler2016 Travels
    Day 16

    3 Nights in Milan

    July 2, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We're currently on a (swanky) train travelling from Milan to the next destination of the BIG Trip! 🚄

    Here's the latest...

    We planned for two full days in Milan, however, on the first day we managed to see and do a lot knowing that a thunder storm was on its way due to the heat. 🌞☁☁☁

    Firstly we climbed to the top of the Milan Duomo and got some great shots of the Cathedrals architecture. We didn't go inside the Cathedral though because our clothing was too revealing 😮. But why see a Cathedral from the inside when you can stand on the roof!👌

    Next we wandered through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, where the rich shop in the likes of Prada and Versace.

    After this we walked through the grounds of the Sforza castle and the Parco Sempione beyond it to the Arch of Peace.

    Finally we had the most delicious gelatos from Van Bol & Feste - White Chololate gelato MMMMM.    Read more

  • Traveler2016 Travels
    Day 15

    Milan - Ciao Bellas

    July 1, 2016 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We've arrived in Milan and it's HOTTTTTT (UNDERSTATEMENT) 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

    We walked from Milano Centrale railway station to our first Airbnb accomodation with our backpacks...

    You know when you envision being in Milan - The Fashion Capital of Italy....and you think "it would be quite nice to embrace a bit of fashion and look a little glam like the Italian Bellas" well NO SUCH CHANCE! You've never seen such a hot sweaty mess in all your life 😰!!!! But... i'll embrace it! We're in Italy after all 💙.

    In other news we had some lush pasta sat next to the Canal it was v nice, and we sussed out the Metro system.

    Steve's currently watching the Wales match all he has to add is "I hope Wales win". 😛

    Ciao - from your Welsh Bella 😊    Read more

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