7/6/2011

We woke up today to the lovely view from our bedroom window (see pic)

We decided that we would venture out with the car and try and find some parking as close as we could to the walled city of Siena. We had been given some instructions but once you are out there trying to negotiate the traffic it is another story. We found parking that we thought was close but as it turns out Siena is not flat and the walled city is quite high up and so a step and long climb from our car was required.

Siena is different again to the other places with the same skinny streets but this time the shops were larger and more variety.

After wondering around the city for a bit. We could not pass by an incredible Gelato store without trying another of these delicious ice creams (see the pic of the shop window display, and yes that is the real stuff).

We then bought a combined ticket to get us into all the main attractions. ‘The Museum’ has amazing Italian art. ‘The Battistero’ was the meeting point of the greatest renaissance sculptors. ‘The Cathedral’ which is said to have bought tears to a king who visited there in 1880. Check out the photo of Sheree standing by the massive entrance doors to get a sense of the size of this place. ‘The Siena library’ with some of the oldest manuscripts. See the photo with Sheree and the size of the old books. The paintings around the walls in here were incredible. ‘The Panorama’ that gives amazing birds eye views of Siena. ‘The Cripta’ that is dedicated to the first paintings using colour and lastly ‘The Oratorio’ that has some of the most amazing surveys of Sienese pictorial production starting from the 16 century. It took us most of the afternoon to get around all these.

We then headed home and planned were to go for tea while sitting on the deck and enjoying some of the food and wine we had bought. It was late before we headed out to a restaurant on the other side of the walled city. It took a lot longer than we though to get there and there were some really skinny streets. Once we found the restaurant ordering was another treat as this was true Italian and very little English was spoken. After a few pigeon english words and some sign language we had no idea what we had just ordered until it arrived. What a relief when what we received tasted great. After a lovely meal we headed back home but this was a trying time as we kept taking wrong turns in the dark and the GPS was constantly recalculating. Steven was not enjoying this at all. Finally around midnight and feeling very tired we got home and hit the sack.

The night before leaving Cortona the locals did another big street parade in traditional clothing with beating drums that we put down to saying goodbye to us.
The next morning again after the kiss kiss on the check we said goodbye to Jeanette at the Casa Chilene B&B in Cortona. This B&B sets the standard that all the others should try and follow. Jeanette Wongs service and cooking was superb. Jeanette teaches the Italians how to cook in her spare time.
Once seated in the car it’s was a deep breath and then away we went again traveling on our wrong side of the road. We are starting to feel a little more comfortable with driving now as time goes by. Our first stop was another lovely little town called Pienza. This is a UNESCO world heritage town. Pienza has some gorgeous little shops and streets with wonderful hand made Italian shoes and clothes and a lot of other foody stuff. Really wonderful just wondering around looking. Annabelle White a New Zealand cook and celebratory speaker who has a cooking segment in one of the NZ woman’s magazine’s was escorting a group of about 10 people on Vespa motor bikes, around Tuscany, on a food and cooking tour. Sheree thought she recognized her when she heard her speak, and went up to her and made herself known. Annabelle immediately embraced us as fellow country men and named us Mr and Mrs Dunedin. She then told us about a little shop that had sliced pork and local cheese buns that were divine. She promptly marched us up and into it and ordered for us in Italian. Annabelle was right it was divine. See the photos of the whole boned out pig carcass that the pork was sliced from and Sheree eating her bun. We later went and saw them off as they went on their way to finish the tour(see the picks of the yellow vespa’s).
Our next stop was the little town called San Quirico Alighieri. Not much here but it was very medieval and unchanged over the years with a lovely rose garden. It was hot here so we found a lovely bar for a drink that was sheltered by a large grape vine growing over the seating area outside.
Bagno Vignoni was supposed to be our next stop but some how we missed it and did not realize until we reached the town of Buonconvento, the last town before Siena. As it was only a 20 min back track we turned around and found this ancient roman town popular for it’s bathing waters. Their is a nice hotel here and we would liked to have stayed, had we not already booked in Siena so as to experience the healing spa waters.
soon we were off again on the last leg to Siena and the Agriturismo Malafras B&B. We arrived at around 7pm after a journey that should have taken about an hour and a half, that had taken us all day. However we were in no hurry, we had the time and loved all the stops.
The Malafras B&B is like a country farm house that has the grape vines and olive trees to make its own wine a olive oil. We were offered a sample of their desert wine as soon as we arrived..lovely.
We quickly unpacked and sat out on the large deck that our room opens out on to, with a local red wine. We had to pinch ourselves as we soaked in the view of the grape vines and olive trees that spread out below us, with the green fields and a few other farm houses in the distance as we watched the sun go down in Tuscany….ahhhhh bliss.
That night we went for tea in the local village. We were not sure what to order so the waitress made the suggestions of some quite delicious fried and battered mushrooms for starters, Pork for Sheree and Calf steak for Steven. At the end of the meal they gave us a complimentary local Grapa drink each (this stuff is fire water) and some sweet tart. After the half bottle of wine we had with the meal, we made our way home feeling very very happy and content with a glow in our checks.

Today we caught a shuttle bus to the top of the lovely town of Cortona and the Cortona Fort (Fortezza Medicea di Girifalco) it dates back to the 13th century. Up here in the old fortress was a display of art work by Val Di Chianna that was open to the public. The view from the top of the fortress was incredible. We walked back down and visited the Church of St. Francis. This is a magnificent church that has been totally renovated to it’s original inside and out. You are not allowed to take photos inside. Inside is a small retangular container the holds a golden cross that contains a fragment of the cross the Christ was crucified on and dates back to the 10th century. The photo outside shows concrete blocks on the roof holding down the tiles.
This is a true Tuscany town just as we had thought it would have been. It’s lovely and quaint and so typical Italian. Check out the photos.
We bought a pizza and had our ham/salami with a beer (yes I know it should have been wine but it was hot) on the balcony at our B&B over looking the main St. Now we really felt like we were in Tuscany. The town put on a cross bow competition and they all marched in period costume beating drums up the skinny streets… Wonderful moments..

Our new Peugeot had 6 km on the clock when we took possession (see photo). After the paperwork, setting up of Jennifer (GPS) & verbal instruction with a map, of we went, pulled out of the drive way & went the WRONG WAY. Whoops ….great start! Any way with many reminders to ‘keep right’ from Sheree we managed to find the autostrade where at times you could travel at 130km. 33deg Celsius outside. Our destination was Cortona with a stop at Montepulciano in Tuscany on the way. Well we got to Montepulciano & then the rain came down, so found a park & waited until it stopped. Then we went for a wonder up this lovely little town and bought some award wining wine and some local dried ham/salami. This stuff is delicious.
Took some photos of up the street and moved on to Cortona. Our B&B the Casa Chilenne was a bit harder to find and the streets here are really windy (and I mean windy) and skinny. Guess what..it started raining again. Our host Jeanette who is American and lived here for 25 years came out to meet us and take our bags while steven attempted to find a car park.
We got the most wonderful welcome with her home meringues and chocolate eclairs. Later on we went to the town square to seethe locals put on the annual re-enactment of a famous wedding.

Leaving the B&B was special as we had both a photo with Lucia (at her insistence) & then we had the kiss kiss on each cheek & we were off (who said you can’t communicate with a lot of sign language).
Then we tried to get in the elevator. Unfortunately our back packs were to big, so back out and down the stairs to the Roma Termini train station to catch our train to the airport and pick up our brand new Peugeot for the rest of our trip.

Today was the Vatican tour. As we had already sorted out where it was we would meet our tour guide it was with military precision that we got back to the underground and walked the short distance to the meeting point. Angelo was there to meet us and our 3 and a half our tour began.
We are so glad we booked this in advance as it was a hot day and the que spiraling around the Vatican wall was already 1 and a half hours long even at this time in the morning (9:15am).
The Vatican is a separate city of 110 acres within Rome. It has it’s own laws, currency, police, army of 110 soldiers and the people who work with in it pay no tax’s. You go through customs to get in with scanners but you do not need your passport. It was so busy inside with wall to wall people but Angelo our guide quickly got us on our way with ear phones in to hear his amazingly interesting commentary.
The Popes garage was huge with all the elaborate coaches that had been used by Popes on special parades or for visiting wealthy people. The white bullet proof Jeep that you often see him in on TV can only travel at 6km’s per hr.
The art work and sculptures that are just every where are totally overwhelming in there quantity and quality. It is truly a site to behold and no photo could ever really do any of it justice.
The Sistine Chapel was started in 1508 by Michael Angelo who then spent the rest of his life from his 40’s painting at the request of the Pope. Other painters where Raphael who also spend a lot of his life painting but died young.
St Peters Basilica is cob smacking in it’s size. It is so big that you loose concept of size. If you look at the pictures you will see writing about a third of the way up the walls inside the dome. These letters are 2.8 meters high but only look small in the vastness of this place. This is the biggest church in the world and no other church is allowed to be built bigger.
At the end of our tour we walked to catch a bus back but on the way stopped for a pizza and a gelato (ice-cream) which are so creamy and yummy.
So what do we think of Rome? Well it has to be seen to be believed. It’s very busy and noisy with people & cars. What does a crossing & a green or red light mean – well nothing a far as we could tell. Some streets we saw had litter & the smoke butts have to be seen to be believed especially at the tracks where we waited for the train to take us back to the airport. Otherwise the history & buildings were amazing & definitely need to be seen but we wouldn’t want to live there.

After such a late night we actually sleeped in, not waking up until Luccia was knocking on our door at 9:30am. We hastily got up and had the same breakfast as yesterday with her in our PJs.
Today was a public holiday for Republic day the anniversary of the creation of the Italian Republic. so that means that Rome would be very busy.
So off we went to negotiate the underground for the first time. Our destination was the ‘Piazza di Spagna’ which are the Spanish Steps (1723). These are made up of 138 steps the fountain at the foot is called ‘Fontana della Varcaccia, (1629) The church at the top with it’s two cupollas (1495) is the church of the Trinita’ dei Monti (The Church of the Kings)
We then got back into the underground and proceeded to Otivani close to the Vatican were we are to meet our guide for our tour tomorrow. While we where here we took some photos of St Peters Square. Getting tired by now we decided to negotiate the bus to ‘Campo de Fiori’ market which was easier said than done, as we could not find the bus stop. However this was meant to be because instead we found the Castle Saint’Angelo where we got a magnificent panorama of Rome. There was an exhibition on here that was really interesting, with a large painting (that we can not remember the name of) that had been borrowed from the Belgium museum.
Then we bused to our original destination the ‘Campo de Fiori’ that has a daily market. By this time it was after 4 pm and they had started packing up and then the rain came down. We started walking in the general direction of home looking for a bus stop again. We jumped on a very crowded bus and packed in with all the other sardines to home. After tea we hit the sack looking forward to our Vatican tour tomorrow.

After a broken sleep we were up early to have breakfast organized by Luccia the owner of the Flower house B&B, who does not speak a word of english. Breakfast consisted of a croissant with a sweet filling that is about the same size and shape of a bread roll. The coffee was really dark and only warm so had to try and explain this with sign language. Next was getting our air conditioner working properly and then organizing a key to get in the kitchen to access the fridge. As you can imagine with the language barrier it made for a few good laughs.
Our first stop after breakfast was the Santa Maria Maggiore Church. This just looks like another of Rome’s big buildings from the outside but once inside all you can do is hold your breath at how awesome it is. The pictures give some idea but you really have to be there.
The sound of Rome is the constant sirens from the police who travel in packs of at least a couple of cars and a motorbike as they negotiate at speed through the bewildering mass of traffic. One officer has half his body hanging out the car window with a large red Lollie pop in his had waving it franticly and shouting to let people know they are coming. Motorists then need to find somewhere to try and pull over to clear a path, but that is easier said than done especially when it is busy. street crossings are like taking your life in your hands as green crossing signal does not mean that cars will automatically stop. If they thing they can get through they still will. Conversely pedestrians just walk out waving there hands and the traffic eventually stops for them. What’s amusing is that older people are really good at this. Some how though it all seems to work.
Next we walked to the Colosseum. This just loomed up at us as we came around the corner and again it was one of those OMG moments. It was with great relief that we walked passed all the lines (3 hour wait) and got our pre booked unique tour tickets that incorperated the newly opened lower and upper levels. This proved to be a great choice as we got well away from the crowds and had an amazing tour. Check out all the photos. With the ones taken underneath you have to imagine the entire floor covered in and how dark and smelly it would have been with oil lamps and animals every where to be slaughtered, hundreds of slaves and the noise. Slaves would spend all their lives here. The word arena comes from the Latin meaning sand because they needed so much of it thrown on the floor above the slaves to soak up all the blood.
Our tour guide explained to us how it would all have looked in it’s day and all I can say is that it was vulgar in it’s opulence, size and also in it’s cruelty. On the one day an Emperor killed 1000 animals all on his own. Many animals were made extinct because of this practice.
Next was the Palintino. This was were all the houses of the rich and famous of the time lived. Again it is a sprawling area that would have been a sight to behold. All that is left today are the fallen down remains of what once was.
Then down on down to the Roman Forum this was like the centre of their economic life at the time. It was here that we went inside a temple to see an exhibition on Nero.
Don’t let it be said we mucked around, as next we walked to The Vittorio Emanuel II Monument. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there so will try and get back later. From here we moved on to the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) built in 1735. This is one big and beautiful fountain. We also went inside a lovely church at the fountain.
After battling with the crowds you can see in the pics we decided to go and have tea at a little side street restaurant (3 courses for 15 euro each) and return to the fountain to see it at night. Again it is truly magnificent but oh my god the crowds, and this is not the busy time.
By this time we were getting a little jaded and decided to return home but as it was late the underground had closed and we could not find a bus stop to get back to our B&B so walking it was. This can prove awkward during the day let alone in the dark when it’s harder to see unknown and unpronounceable street names with a map that does not have a lot of detail. We were buggered with very sore & black feet when we finally arrived back. So at 12:30pm we finally turned the lights out and went to sleep with the air conditioner working & air plugs in place. It had been a long but amazing day that we would not have missed for anything.

We left Andrew and Bex’s flat just after 11am and headed for Heathrow via the Tube. We got on the Northern line that leaves from the Kennington Station just a short 10 minutes walk and headed for Leicester Square where we switched to the Piccadilly Line. We rushed on to the train at Piccadilly only to realize that it did not go to terminal 5. A little bit of a panic prevailed and we decided to get off the train at the next stop and ring Andrew. He assured us that we had done the right thing getting off and a short wait later the correct train arrived. The moral to this story is ‘there is no need to rush. Check the trains destination first, just because it’s there you do not need to rush on. If it’s not correct the right one will be along in under 10 minutes.’
We arrived to a very busy terminal 5 with time to spare and boarded our flight with a sigh of relief. As I am writing this we are flying over Geneva and contemplating negotiating the train (Leonardo Express 30 Euro for 2) from the Rome Airport to Termini Station close to our B&B…
The train worked out fine although we did miss the first one and had to wait 30 min for the next one to come along and we where on our way to the Termini Station. Once there it was a short walk to the B&B thank goodness as my back pack weighed 20kgs.
As I right these two paragraphs we are sitting outside having our first taste of true Italian cuisine at Guseppes. The receptionist told us that this was good and it certainly is. Steven had a pizza and Sheree had spaghetti bolognese. With full bellies we will go for a short stroll on this lovely mild 20
deg evening and then get some sleep before the Colosseum tour tomorrow.

PS it’s now the next morning and we did not sleep that well. It’s hot and a bit noisy and our air-conditioning was not working. A few dark rings under the eyes.

Today was a rest day back at Andrew and Bex’s flat. Did not get up until after 9am. It was not until after 1pm that we left for the market at Camden Town. This is a very vibrant and busy market with as many if not more stalls as the biggest Melbourne markets. Steven bought a new hat that he bargained for from 12 pound to 7.
We came across canal boats and a lock system that was interesting as we will be doing some thing similar in France. One of the more weird shops was the feet eating fish. They ate all the dead skin from your feet similar to a facial scrub. It started raining later in the day so we headed home for a few ales and tea. It was also a good chance to get our bags ready for the next leg of our adventure…Europe and Rome.