Well as I said yesterday, we're now in the beautiful medieval town of Siena and its fantastic. Staying at the soggiorno Sabrina...basically a house where the owner doesnt live. Its the perfect location. Literally a 2 minute walk from the main square, the piazza del campo which is huge and all slopes down from the outside towards the palazzo at the bottom of the square. It was great last night just to sit there in the shade and watch the world go past for a little while.
The other main attraction here is the duomo (cathedral) which looks like it was built for a fairytale or something (somewhat like a gingerbread cathedral). All of the outside is white marble wth fantastic figures and decorations. There's even a black and white striped tower connected to it. Inside is also very impressive. Probably the best of the many, many churches we've seen so far!
To be honest, I'm a little bit churched out now...theres only so many times you can look at statues and paintings of religious scenes and ive reached the end of mine I think. Hopefully there'll be a few less in Florence, Genoa and Milan.
On another note we went up a strange, bridge tower thing which meant you could see right out over Siena and the surrounding Tuscan countryside panoramically, a fantastic site.
I really like this town, very touristy but its easy to see why with its winding little streets which I'm loving ambling along and soaking up the culture. Definately somewhere i could see myself returning in the future!
Tomorrow we're moving onwards to florence where we are again camping similar to rome, although a bit closer to the centre. Think we're going to go to the uffizi (gallery) tomorrow and save the next day for the smaller and more relaxing things!
Ciao
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Monday, 25 August 2008
Roma
Well hello everybody. We're now in Siena and im making use of the free internet to write about Rome!
We got there easy enough choosing to pay a bit extra and reserve seats which was defiinately worth it as the train was packed. We were in a carriage between a young couple who looked alike but were a bit too close to be brother and sister(I hope!) and another couple. A guy with strange hair and a woman who loved her dog too much...
Once in Rome we caught the metro and then a bus to our holiday camp from hell. It was ok, nice enough if you didnt mind being woken at all hours by rowdy teenagers from scotland/france/australia!But still it was a convenient location and very cheap!
We decided to do what we could of Rome in a day and squeezed in all the sights starting with the vatican at 9am and finishing at the colloseum at 6ish. The vatican was pretty cool, some fantastic artwork but to be honest the Winter Palace in Russia was far better.
Then to the pantheon which was amazing. Its perfectly symettrically round witha 9 metre hole in the roof but no rain ever gets in...incredibile!
The Trevi fountain was cool too although a little crowded its amazing to sit at, so loud and it looks really new!
Finally the colloseum, nice but not that good. In its day it was probably great but now it's just a ruin really. Ive seen better ones in Verona and Orange in France.
Im pleased to report my Italian is going well. I had a small conversation with one of the campsite workers when i wanted to use the internet thereand she commended me on my use. I even helped 2 australians order food!
ice cream is great as expected. my favorite flavour so far has been biscotti!
See you all soon
We got there easy enough choosing to pay a bit extra and reserve seats which was defiinately worth it as the train was packed. We were in a carriage between a young couple who looked alike but were a bit too close to be brother and sister(I hope!) and another couple. A guy with strange hair and a woman who loved her dog too much...
Once in Rome we caught the metro and then a bus to our holiday camp from hell. It was ok, nice enough if you didnt mind being woken at all hours by rowdy teenagers from scotland/france/australia!But still it was a convenient location and very cheap!
We decided to do what we could of Rome in a day and squeezed in all the sights starting with the vatican at 9am and finishing at the colloseum at 6ish. The vatican was pretty cool, some fantastic artwork but to be honest the Winter Palace in Russia was far better.
Then to the pantheon which was amazing. Its perfectly symettrically round witha 9 metre hole in the roof but no rain ever gets in...incredibile!
The Trevi fountain was cool too although a little crowded its amazing to sit at, so loud and it looks really new!
Finally the colloseum, nice but not that good. In its day it was probably great but now it's just a ruin really. Ive seen better ones in Verona and Orange in France.
Im pleased to report my Italian is going well. I had a small conversation with one of the campsite workers when i wanted to use the internet thereand she commended me on my use. I even helped 2 australians order food!
ice cream is great as expected. my favorite flavour so far has been biscotti!
See you all soon
Friday, 22 August 2008
Bologna
Hi everyone!
Am at the campsite in Roma now, It's incredibly hot...luckily there's a swimming pool...unfortunately there are lots of people using it!
Getting here was easy enough. The B&B in Bristol was ok i guess, fattiest bacon sandwich ever at 4.30 am did little to improve my appetite! But once we arrived in italy getting the Bus, then the Train to Milan Station (quite nice and old but being renovated) and then Bologna (bit more modern) was easy. I spoke Italian to get our tickets which was fun (in fact my italians going well!). At least they understood me. We then got another bus to the Hotel in Bologna...or 2 because we got on the wrong one! But the hotel was great! £15 a night, fully airconned thank god and a 15 minute walk from the centre of bologna! What a beautiful town! so old and full of life and not many tourists which was great. I would love to study here. The view from the tower, 140mts high! is incredible. Of course we ate spaghetti bolognese (or ragù) as its known here the first night and pizza ever since. delicioso.
We're getting up stupidly early tomorrow to go to the vatican, the colloseum (sp), the pantheon and trevi fountain etc. Want to do as much touristy as possible tomorrow so we can chill out and explore more on sunday!
Sorry this is rushed but times running out! Hope everyone is well and ill try and update in a couple more days!
Ciao a tutti!
Am at the campsite in Roma now, It's incredibly hot...luckily there's a swimming pool...unfortunately there are lots of people using it!
Getting here was easy enough. The B&B in Bristol was ok i guess, fattiest bacon sandwich ever at 4.30 am did little to improve my appetite! But once we arrived in italy getting the Bus, then the Train to Milan Station (quite nice and old but being renovated) and then Bologna (bit more modern) was easy. I spoke Italian to get our tickets which was fun (in fact my italians going well!). At least they understood me. We then got another bus to the Hotel in Bologna...or 2 because we got on the wrong one! But the hotel was great! £15 a night, fully airconned thank god and a 15 minute walk from the centre of bologna! What a beautiful town! so old and full of life and not many tourists which was great. I would love to study here. The view from the tower, 140mts high! is incredible. Of course we ate spaghetti bolognese (or ragù) as its known here the first night and pizza ever since. delicioso.
We're getting up stupidly early tomorrow to go to the vatican, the colloseum (sp), the pantheon and trevi fountain etc. Want to do as much touristy as possible tomorrow so we can chill out and explore more on sunday!
Sorry this is rushed but times running out! Hope everyone is well and ill try and update in a couple more days!
Ciao a tutti!
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Last minute preparations.
Ok, so here we are...3 days to go and it feels like there's so much to do!
I'm really excited now, tomorrows going to be spent getting my Euro's, printing out directions to the hostels and printing out train times so we don't have to pay E20 to reserve a seat on expensive trains (despite having an interrail card!). I think I'll also be revising my italian seeing as how much I've forgotten since June and thats one of the main reasons I'm going.
In my last blog we didn't have a way to get to Bristol for our flight...well, that's all sorted! My parents have kindly offered to drop us at a B&B the night before. The owner will then drop us at the airport. We told him it would be early but not 5.30am...whoops!
Thing's I want to do...Well in Bologna it has to be seeing the University (oldest in the world) and of course eating real Spaghetti Bolognese!
And Rome... according to Kirsty I have to see the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain and eat at a restaurant outside! Myself, I'd like to be a good Catholic (Haha!) and go to the Vatican!
More generally, I hope I eat pizza and ice cream everyday and the sun shines.
Well that's all I've got to say for now. Hopefully my next post will be from Bologna.
Bye x
I'm really excited now, tomorrows going to be spent getting my Euro's, printing out directions to the hostels and printing out train times so we don't have to pay E20 to reserve a seat on expensive trains (despite having an interrail card!). I think I'll also be revising my italian seeing as how much I've forgotten since June and thats one of the main reasons I'm going.
In my last blog we didn't have a way to get to Bristol for our flight...well, that's all sorted! My parents have kindly offered to drop us at a B&B the night before. The owner will then drop us at the airport. We told him it would be early but not 5.30am...whoops!
Thing's I want to do...Well in Bologna it has to be seeing the University (oldest in the world) and of course eating real Spaghetti Bolognese!
And Rome... according to Kirsty I have to see the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain and eat at a restaurant outside! Myself, I'd like to be a good Catholic (Haha!) and go to the Vatican!
More generally, I hope I eat pizza and ice cream everyday and the sun shines.
Well that's all I've got to say for now. Hopefully my next post will be from Bologna.
Bye x
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