Florence 22 July 08

We have had the last couple of days in florence and its yet another cracking place.
Weve been over the Ponte Vecchio (a few times - all without having to purchase any jewellery), the uffuzi gallery and seen Michaelangelos David. They are all well worth seeing but the highlight has to be the food.

Its been the best so far and I would kill for some of the dishes we have had the last couple of days. Today we took a bus out to the countryside for a couple of walks in the hills. THe view down over florence was stunning and we hardly say another soul. We had taken some Chianti, proscuitto, cheese, bread and fruit and had a great wee picnic on the way.

Tomorrow we are heading to Pisa and then it will be south from there. We are starting to get used to the warmth now and will quite happily go for a few more weeks without the rain!

Nicola came up with some stats last night...these will probably tell you why we are so well suited...for the spell of travelling before December we are 6% through the trip but have used 15% of the budget. No doubt we will be addressing that imbalance in the coming days...Lol

Venice

Getting off the train in venice is like stepping into a postcard....or a james bond film depending on your point of view. I prefer the james bond angle myself and managed to locate the hotel first time through the maze of wee roads.
Its weird having no cars or bikes around but definately something quite relaxing about it all. We went down to St Marks Square and had the first of several ice creams in Venice. Sitting on the front next to all the gondolas in the sunshine was really nice. It doesnt quite feel real that weve actually managed to make it away.
The list of churches and fantastic buildings here is longer than both my arms (and they almost trail along the ground as you know!). Everywhere you look there is something to photograph and we actually found ourselves taking the scenery for granted. The city reminds Nicola of a theme park in Florida...it really is a kind of perfect place....unless that is you stay in the hotel we did. It came rated as a lofty one star but we reckon that was rounded up...Lol.
It did the trick and saved us a few pounds but we wouldnt go back to the place. That said the location of it was amazing. On the saturday night the Piazza San Margherita had to be the busiest place in the whole city....we bought 2litres of wine from a wee shop. The guy was selling it on the QT as he brewed it himself and you had to bring your own bottle to get filled up from his selection of massive casks...it was really decent stuff and for 2eur a litre we both had something to be pleased about...

A boat trip on the canals and a few romantic walks at night rounded up what we did and saw here. Its been imense but there is plenty more to look forward to....its off to Florence next....

Lake Como

We got up early....yes "travellers" can rise before lunch....and caught the train up to Lake Como. Arriving there it was absolutly stunning. There had been Rain in Milan but the sun was splitting the sky in Como.
Its such a lovely little town full of small piazzas little cafes and everything you would expect to see in Italy. There are loads of boat trips around the lake and we took one towards a town called Tremezzo. The boats are all really ferries which connect the towns but we walked between a few oursleves.
The scenery is amazing and some of the houses here are stunning...One was even in the new star wars film where Anakin married whats her face... Anyway the weather and scenery was amazing. We had dinner by the lake before we headed home to Milan which is only half an hour on the train...

Milan

Well for the shopper Milan has a lot to offer...needless to say I was not entirely at home here. Everyone goes about in sunglasses even when it wasnt sunny...I was starting to wonder if they were all hangover but then these Italians seem far too healthy to indulge to that sort of excess. Everyone here looks in shape and its kind of disconcerting...they werent so much checking your passport at the airport as checking that you would fit in...anyway enough of that.

The city is really quite nice, not as run down and depressing as our guide book had hinted. The Doumo was magnificent and my only complaint with it is that we couldnàt get far enough back to get it all in one photo... I will add what we managed to take later on when I have the camera....

La Scala was quite cool to see...thesimilarly named Inverness cinema isnt a patch on the real mccoy....probably just as well.