…became one of the more annoying catch cries on the bus - but what the hell - we WERE in Rome!
Well - almost - because after we left Florence, we dropped into a little city called Orvieto. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orvieto It’s a city which is perched on an volcanic tuft in the middle of a valley. The sight of the city was chosen as an excellent defensive position. We parked at the bottom of the cliffs and caught a funicular ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular )to the top. It was a cloudy misty day as we wended our ways through small dank cobbled alleyways and red shingled roofs. We ended up in the main square, where there was a magnificent church - which looked like a zebra from the side, but its front was ornately carved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duomo_di_Orvieto
There were heaps of artworks and items of religious significance inside - mind you, we were a little bit over historic stuff by now. For those that are interested, here’s some info about the stuff inside: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporal_of_Bolsena
The fact that it was raining and misty made it even more magical to be in this city - you could really imagine what it would have been like in it’s day.
After our very quick stop here, we continued driving south to Rome. The further south we went, the more the country side and climate changed - getting flatter, hotter and more populous. Instead of going direct to our accommodation, we were dropped at an overland train station. The train that picked us up looked like it was straight from the American Bronx - covered in graffiti, dilapidated and in disrepair. The group got on all shooting each other looks about the state of the transport.
After about a 30 minute trip, we got out of the train in the middle of Rome to begin our walking tour. There were people everywhere - the tour guide said it was not even busy! I can see why it’s one of the biggest towns for pickpockets - there were that many “soft” targets everywhere.
The walking tour lasted about 4.5 hours - there is no way I will be able to describe everything we saw or felt on the walk. The amount of history in this city is amazing - I can see now why Italians are so proud of their heritage. Around each corner there was something to see, photograph or to talk about. I did not like the crowds - god forbid being there in peak season - or the dirtiness of the city - everything was grotty and grimy.
For me, the three main highlights would have been the Trevi Fountain -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevi_fountain - what the pics do not show here were the masses of people that were surrounding it. There is a superstition that if you throw a coin over one of your shoulders and it lands in the fountain, you will find love. We fought our was down to it, not to throw a coin, but to fill up our water bottle from the aqueduct. While we were down there, we saw some Asians - standing about 10 steps above everyone else. There would have been 20m between them and the fountain, and about 100 people. They turned and threw their coins - which proceeded to brain people in front of the fountain. They turned around angrily to see which twit through the coins at them - but the Asians had moved on. Even funnier when it does not happen to you!!
After almost losing the tour guide on the next stretch of the walk - about four of us ran breathlessly through the crowd to catch her up again - we turned a corner and ended up in the square with the Pantheon. It was simply breathtaking! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon%2C_Rome
It’s an amazing building! After a talk about this history of the place - which you can read in Wiki - we went inside. There are large drains built into the floor, not just to drain water that falls through the giant hole in the roof - but to collect water from rain clouds that form IN the building! Amazing…..
Three guesses as to the other building that gets a mention here - that’s right - it’s the Colosseum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum - the fact that it‘s standing at all after this amount of time is amazing. We walked through it’s arches with a sense of awe - especially when considering some of the Roman movies - eg Gladiator that are based on this point in time. I am reading a book at the moment in fact, by Robert Harris called Imperium - I am appreciating it a lot more now that I have been there and have seen some of the things he talks about (back in the golden age) http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/robert-harris/imperium.htm
That night, we stayed in a caravan park on the outskirts of Rome. We caught a train back from the centre of town and then had to get a bus - one of the craziest bus rides I have been on. There would have been 120 plus people on a bus built to carry 70. I was squeezed against the front windscreen - almost in the drivers lap! We cruised through the campsite - past a bunch of bogans at the pub/club and found our cabins. We thought the bogans were German - but when we went back up and had dinner and a few beers, found out they were a version of Irish Pikers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfNb9Qrbfz4
I should day they were not as bad as in that vid - but they were close! They Dads were rough as guts and playing cards. Their kids were little shits, swearing and running amok - getting their dad’s trays of beers, while the wives were dressed up to the nines drinking cocktails inside. One of my Irish mates later told me the pikers go to Europe in their flash cars and smuggle cigarettes back into the UK duty free - among other things.
That night, we got fairly pissy at the bar - a couple of the girls had issues with one of the pikeys trying to dance with her on the dance floor. One of the other lads stepped in and helped her out without drawing their wraith. It was into the 6th or 7th pint, when we discovered the Shisha room at the back of pub - about 8 of us went in and had hits from the hooka until we got kicked out at 2am….. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooka
The next morning, slightly hung over, we traipsed into Rome again on the train (this one was much improved) and went to Vatican City. Although I don’t have a godly bone in my body, it was ok to see - I just filtered the guph that our American tour guide (stars and Jesus in her eyes) gave us as we went through. It was funny to see the jokes that Michelangelo pulled when painting the chapel ceiling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel - eg painting a cardinal’s face that he did not like on one of the “evil” characters in the bible. There were a few others too - like a cherubic angel giving one of the old popes he did not like the 1500’s version of the finger.
Mark and I set a challenge in each city - and that was to walk to the top of every tower, dome or spire that we could. We climber the roof of the Vatican which was pretty cool - but damn there were a lot of people up there - we shuffled up and shuffled down again. This took a lot of our day up…..but we did not waste it!
We left the main Vatican precinct, headed to a little café and had a huge lunch and a few beers. Then we negotiated the train system and headed back to the Colosseum - it was certainly worth going back for another look. That afternoon, we also took in some ancient ruins that were excavated next to it - whilst most of it was knocked down and rubble, it was still very cool to walk through and check it all out.
There is so much more to say about Rome - but I have run out of steam. The next update will be about Venice…..
Ciao
Matt
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
There's something about Mary....
Before I get into this post travel blog update, here’s a brief run down on my current affairs….
Still have not found work - although there are plenty of jobs out there - they just don’t pay very well at all. I’m holding out for a pay scale that will reflect my experience and knowledge. I have been trying to get into government type work in legislation, policy formation or computer IT stuff. To date, have not even had an interview. Mark has registered with about 8 different recruiters and keeps getting put forward for positions but they keep falling through. Whilst we don’t have jobs, we can not move into a place of our - very frustrating. Apparently the job market here gets better in September when people depart the coming cold in droves. As they say on League of Gentlemen, hokey cokey, pig and a pokie - good morning job seekers! ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDzKFk1l2ug )
The weather here is certainly not much chop - it’s a little like Melbourne where there can be four seasons in one day. Just this morning it was cold and wet - then it was windy and cloudy, now it’s bright and sunny. Whenever you go out - if you’re not sure when you will be home, you need to take a jumper or a coat just in case! According to forecasters, this is going to be one of the rainiest July’s on record!
Did someone order a Pisa?
One thing I forgot to say in the last blog, was us dropping into see the leaning tower of Pisa. The trip leader announced there was going to be a competition to see who could get the most creative picture with the tower in the background. Luckily, this was announced the day before we got there - Mark and I thought as one - we decided it was time to get Mary (the blow up sex doll my neighbours gave us) out from the suitcases under the bus. We had discussed pulling her out on the first day, but decided since we did not know what the people were like, we’d better hold off. We told one other person on the bus and had them help us take the picture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa
When we got to Pisa, we had to park a km or so away - there were people and dodgy hawkers every where The little town is in the middle of nowhere - the only real attraction there seemed to be the tower. We walked into the castled walls surrounding the tower and was amazed at how many people where there - several hundred - how could we get a blow up doll out in the middle of all this?
We scouted the tower and found a little blocked off area to the back of the main area - admittedly there will still lots of people about - not to mention armed guards mingling through the crowd. Slipping Mary out of the knapsack behind a pine tree, we administered the breath of life to her. I should point out at this stage that Mary (just like her namesake) is virginal and has a savvy dress sense - she is attired in a sexy negligee, kindly donated by our ex neighbour - the polish wrestler.
Once she was inflated, we scoped the coast was semi clear, and rushed out to position her holding the tower up - one of the most clichéd pictures a tourist takes at this site. After several happy snaps by Kate - our confidant - we rushed back to the cover of the trees. We snuck a peak round the tree and a whole school group of teenagers - and their teacher were staring and pointing. Needless to say, we quickly deflated her and fled the scene! Needless to say we won the photo comp!!
We introduced Mary to the rest of the bus a couple of days later. She was a great hit with everyone - not to mention our tour leader Heather. She began to worship her and would always ask that we bring her out on the town! Heather became so infatuated with her, she would even cuddle her on the bus , would mimic her voice and talk to the rest of the tour and would strap her in the jump seat - the seat which folds down next to the driver - and make her wave to passers by - it was worth it just to see some of their expressions.
Heather was a great guide - and we felt inclined to get her a gift at the end of the trip - and what better than a sex doll of her own! I cruised the sex shops of Amsterdam - will eventually get to that stage of the trip - feeling like a dirty old perve. I found a doll called Diana Stretch - excitedly fumbled my money out on the counter and took her back to the hostel. Just to see what she looked like, I blew her up. Unfortunately, I did not read the box properly - she was called stretch cos one of her legs sticks out at a right angle!! For those of you brave enough, you can google these keywords “Diana stretch doll” - I thought the picture was too crass to place here. NB - don’t do this on an AQIS PC!!!
Since she had been inflated, I thought it best not to return her to the sex shop. I debated with the rest of the room whether to give it to her or not - in the end we decided what the hell! We cracked her out on the bus on our last day - the reaction - she loved her!! She renamed her to Diana Damm - since that’s were she was “born”.
On the ferry from Calais to Dover, we got the two dolls out - in front of a heap of bewildered passengers - and reenacted the scene from Titanic!
Heather says she has a soft spot for Mary, but she loves Diana now. One thing for certain, she looks a lot classier when she is clothed - Diana that is - not Heather!
We recently caught up with Heather for a beer - she brought Diana with her to the pub! She had recently returned from another tour of Europe - she informed us that she made Diana the mascot for their trip - and the crew loved her! Diana (as does Mary [and Porky Paulina]) now have their own face books too!!
Anyway, this blog spot was a little side tracked - the next one WILL be about Rome!
Ciao!
Still have not found work - although there are plenty of jobs out there - they just don’t pay very well at all. I’m holding out for a pay scale that will reflect my experience and knowledge. I have been trying to get into government type work in legislation, policy formation or computer IT stuff. To date, have not even had an interview. Mark has registered with about 8 different recruiters and keeps getting put forward for positions but they keep falling through. Whilst we don’t have jobs, we can not move into a place of our - very frustrating. Apparently the job market here gets better in September when people depart the coming cold in droves. As they say on League of Gentlemen, hokey cokey, pig and a pokie - good morning job seekers! ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDzKFk1l2ug )
The weather here is certainly not much chop - it’s a little like Melbourne where there can be four seasons in one day. Just this morning it was cold and wet - then it was windy and cloudy, now it’s bright and sunny. Whenever you go out - if you’re not sure when you will be home, you need to take a jumper or a coat just in case! According to forecasters, this is going to be one of the rainiest July’s on record!
Did someone order a Pisa?
One thing I forgot to say in the last blog, was us dropping into see the leaning tower of Pisa. The trip leader announced there was going to be a competition to see who could get the most creative picture with the tower in the background. Luckily, this was announced the day before we got there - Mark and I thought as one - we decided it was time to get Mary (the blow up sex doll my neighbours gave us) out from the suitcases under the bus. We had discussed pulling her out on the first day, but decided since we did not know what the people were like, we’d better hold off. We told one other person on the bus and had them help us take the picture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa
When we got to Pisa, we had to park a km or so away - there were people and dodgy hawkers every where The little town is in the middle of nowhere - the only real attraction there seemed to be the tower. We walked into the castled walls surrounding the tower and was amazed at how many people where there - several hundred - how could we get a blow up doll out in the middle of all this?
We scouted the tower and found a little blocked off area to the back of the main area - admittedly there will still lots of people about - not to mention armed guards mingling through the crowd. Slipping Mary out of the knapsack behind a pine tree, we administered the breath of life to her. I should point out at this stage that Mary (just like her namesake) is virginal and has a savvy dress sense - she is attired in a sexy negligee, kindly donated by our ex neighbour - the polish wrestler.
Once she was inflated, we scoped the coast was semi clear, and rushed out to position her holding the tower up - one of the most clichéd pictures a tourist takes at this site. After several happy snaps by Kate - our confidant - we rushed back to the cover of the trees. We snuck a peak round the tree and a whole school group of teenagers - and their teacher were staring and pointing. Needless to say, we quickly deflated her and fled the scene! Needless to say we won the photo comp!!
We introduced Mary to the rest of the bus a couple of days later. She was a great hit with everyone - not to mention our tour leader Heather. She began to worship her and would always ask that we bring her out on the town! Heather became so infatuated with her, she would even cuddle her on the bus , would mimic her voice and talk to the rest of the tour and would strap her in the jump seat - the seat which folds down next to the driver - and make her wave to passers by - it was worth it just to see some of their expressions.
Heather was a great guide - and we felt inclined to get her a gift at the end of the trip - and what better than a sex doll of her own! I cruised the sex shops of Amsterdam - will eventually get to that stage of the trip - feeling like a dirty old perve. I found a doll called Diana Stretch - excitedly fumbled my money out on the counter and took her back to the hostel. Just to see what she looked like, I blew her up. Unfortunately, I did not read the box properly - she was called stretch cos one of her legs sticks out at a right angle!! For those of you brave enough, you can google these keywords “Diana stretch doll” - I thought the picture was too crass to place here. NB - don’t do this on an AQIS PC!!!
Since she had been inflated, I thought it best not to return her to the sex shop. I debated with the rest of the room whether to give it to her or not - in the end we decided what the hell! We cracked her out on the bus on our last day - the reaction - she loved her!! She renamed her to Diana Damm - since that’s were she was “born”.
On the ferry from Calais to Dover, we got the two dolls out - in front of a heap of bewildered passengers - and reenacted the scene from Titanic!
Heather says she has a soft spot for Mary, but she loves Diana now. One thing for certain, she looks a lot classier when she is clothed - Diana that is - not Heather!
We recently caught up with Heather for a beer - she brought Diana with her to the pub! She had recently returned from another tour of Europe - she informed us that she made Diana the mascot for their trip - and the crew loved her! Diana (as does Mary [and Porky Paulina]) now have their own face books too!!
Anyway, this blog spot was a little side tracked - the next one WILL be about Rome!
Ciao!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Forging our way to Florence!
Florence!
Departing the perfumery, we weaved our way along cliff tops, tore through tunnels (have never seen so many tunnels in my life!! - at first they were fun - then they became annoying as it became hard to read my book - the tunnel lights caused a strobe effect - thought I would have an epileptic fit!) and barrelled along bridges. The scenery and roadways were amazing. The road just goes across the side of a really steep hill side - giant arched bridges carried us over massive valleys - then the tunnels bored into the next ridge line, to be carried on another bridge again. It must have taken many years to build the road system. Before this, you would have needed to follow a very wriggly coastline.
Border checks were virtually non existent - the strictest place was UK/French border. We sailed from France straight into Italy without blinking an eye. One thing that was different was the way you were served in service stations. The attitude of the attendant was one thing - as was the stupid system! You had to look at the food through a glass fridge, then queue up to pay for it - you had to tell them in Italian what you wanted. You then needed to line back up at the counter, get grunted at by the attendant, hand over your receipt then finally get your food!
Another thing I am not sure if I mentioned yet, was he fact that you had to pay for toilets when you used them. If you did not, some of the toilet attendants (ahh, what a job) would get surly with you. Their purpose was MEANT to mean that the toilet was always clean - this was not always the case. We learnt that the best thing to do was use the toilet, then pay on the way out - if you thought it was good enough. I had great satisfaction using a dirty toilet, then upon leaving, throwing a handful of now useless Swiss Francs into their bowl!!
We wended down the coast and went through one of the biggest sea ports of the area - Genoa - we did not stop though. I saw container after container of terracotta pots being made ready for shipment to good old down under - also saw a heap of tractors and ag equipment. Here’s a link to the port - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa
The country side began to change as we moved into the Tuscany region - rolling hills and olive groves. After about 9 hours on the bus - fun, fun, fun - we made it to Florence - then we drove through it to our campsite 9kms from town. This was the first time we had been to a camp like this - it had about 4 restaurants, a bar, 6 pools, and catered to large groups of people and families. To use the facilities, you had to charge up a card and then flash it against a card reader to pay for stuff. It would have been nice if the tour guide remembered to tell us - cos we pissed a few store owners off trying to pay cash.
We had our first massive Italian feed that night - pizza, pasta and red wine. Then we hit the onsite bottleo and bought a bottle of vodka for 7 Euros! It was back to our miniscule cabins then for some drinks. I was a little bit tired from the bus - I was about the only one to have stayed awake the whole trip - so I hit the sack early - listening to the annoying Americans just outside of the cabin crapping on about how good they were.
Florence link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence
The next morning, we cruised into Florence for an organised walking tour. Normally we had a couple of things organised, then we could have free time to explore the city in our own time. We were warned about “Stendhal Syndrome” as we pulled into town - this link will describe it - lucky for me I did not get it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome
The walking tour was great - even though it was raining and cold. It sort of made the old buildings seem more realistic. The sun did come out later and made a great day. The architecture and the statues sprinkled through the town were awesome. With our walking tour over, Mark, a new friend called Kate and I slipped away from the group. There were some annoying clingers on - so this was our only option J . We trekked away from the old town and made it to their university. It was still a little cold and wet, so we decided it was time for coffee and lunch. We found this large building which held a heap butchers, bakers, restaurants and fish mongers. With our broken Italian, we ordered our meals - I ended up getting “bread salad” by mistake (mine). It was stale bread mixed with salad and vinegar - quite tasty really.
After lunch, we slipped back into the main square - none of our tour was in sight! We climbed the main dome - which was pretty spectacular - there’s actually a dome within a dome. It was quite claustrophobic as we neared the top - almost walking sideways in a stoop between the internal and external domes. Great views of the city from the top - it looked very much like a medieval town from a fantasy novel - eg Raymond Fiest or Fritz Leiber ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser ). Once we made the top of the dome, we decided to climb the tower next door. We ditched Kate at this point - she did not want to do the tower. We did a lot of exercise on the whole tour - most of it by climbing the main attractions! Here’s a link to the dome and tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Cathedral
By now, we were a little over going into museums and art galleries - but we both knew we would cop it if we did not make an effort to go and see the original statue of David - even though we had seen a copy of him out in the main square. We lined up outside the main gallery for about 45 minutes before we finally shuffled through the doors. Leading up to the main statue were about 7 statues Michelangelo
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo - take note this guys appears in a lot more history and our travels) had worked on through his life - the statues were incomplete - and seemed to be imprisoned in the marble - probably why they were called the prisoners!
The main statue was breath taking - I literally stopped in my tracks when I saw him! There were masses of people walking round him looking up at him with fevered eyes. We stayed in there for about half an hour just walking round him. We then moved into the main area of the museum, only to come back to David about 10 minutes later. Mark was that inspired, he bought a large poster of the statue.
Once we got out, we wondered round the town - totally over seeing anything else - although we did make it to the bridge in the centre of town that house’s lots of jewellery shops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_Vecchio
We headed to the restaurant and meeting point at about 7pm. We were promised a great meal, followed by karaoke - which we were a little dubious about. As it turned out, we were right to have been - the meal was good - but then when we went into the next bar, we realised we had been caught in a tourist trap again! About 3 tourist busses of Contiki tools turned up - we wanted out ASAP. One good thing about the bar though, they sold table kegs - 5L of beer with it’s own tap. Very cool!
On the bus back to the camp, I got talked into - well maybe the 5L of beer helped - into busting out the Dingo Rap on the bus - it went down quite well!
The next brief will be about romantic Rome!
Ciao for now……
Departing the perfumery, we weaved our way along cliff tops, tore through tunnels (have never seen so many tunnels in my life!! - at first they were fun - then they became annoying as it became hard to read my book - the tunnel lights caused a strobe effect - thought I would have an epileptic fit!) and barrelled along bridges. The scenery and roadways were amazing. The road just goes across the side of a really steep hill side - giant arched bridges carried us over massive valleys - then the tunnels bored into the next ridge line, to be carried on another bridge again. It must have taken many years to build the road system. Before this, you would have needed to follow a very wriggly coastline.
Border checks were virtually non existent - the strictest place was UK/French border. We sailed from France straight into Italy without blinking an eye. One thing that was different was the way you were served in service stations. The attitude of the attendant was one thing - as was the stupid system! You had to look at the food through a glass fridge, then queue up to pay for it - you had to tell them in Italian what you wanted. You then needed to line back up at the counter, get grunted at by the attendant, hand over your receipt then finally get your food!
Another thing I am not sure if I mentioned yet, was he fact that you had to pay for toilets when you used them. If you did not, some of the toilet attendants (ahh, what a job) would get surly with you. Their purpose was MEANT to mean that the toilet was always clean - this was not always the case. We learnt that the best thing to do was use the toilet, then pay on the way out - if you thought it was good enough. I had great satisfaction using a dirty toilet, then upon leaving, throwing a handful of now useless Swiss Francs into their bowl!!
We wended down the coast and went through one of the biggest sea ports of the area - Genoa - we did not stop though. I saw container after container of terracotta pots being made ready for shipment to good old down under - also saw a heap of tractors and ag equipment. Here’s a link to the port - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa
The country side began to change as we moved into the Tuscany region - rolling hills and olive groves. After about 9 hours on the bus - fun, fun, fun - we made it to Florence - then we drove through it to our campsite 9kms from town. This was the first time we had been to a camp like this - it had about 4 restaurants, a bar, 6 pools, and catered to large groups of people and families. To use the facilities, you had to charge up a card and then flash it against a card reader to pay for stuff. It would have been nice if the tour guide remembered to tell us - cos we pissed a few store owners off trying to pay cash.
We had our first massive Italian feed that night - pizza, pasta and red wine. Then we hit the onsite bottleo and bought a bottle of vodka for 7 Euros! It was back to our miniscule cabins then for some drinks. I was a little bit tired from the bus - I was about the only one to have stayed awake the whole trip - so I hit the sack early - listening to the annoying Americans just outside of the cabin crapping on about how good they were.
Florence link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence
The next morning, we cruised into Florence for an organised walking tour. Normally we had a couple of things organised, then we could have free time to explore the city in our own time. We were warned about “Stendhal Syndrome” as we pulled into town - this link will describe it - lucky for me I did not get it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome
The walking tour was great - even though it was raining and cold. It sort of made the old buildings seem more realistic. The sun did come out later and made a great day. The architecture and the statues sprinkled through the town were awesome. With our walking tour over, Mark, a new friend called Kate and I slipped away from the group. There were some annoying clingers on - so this was our only option J . We trekked away from the old town and made it to their university. It was still a little cold and wet, so we decided it was time for coffee and lunch. We found this large building which held a heap butchers, bakers, restaurants and fish mongers. With our broken Italian, we ordered our meals - I ended up getting “bread salad” by mistake (mine). It was stale bread mixed with salad and vinegar - quite tasty really.
After lunch, we slipped back into the main square - none of our tour was in sight! We climbed the main dome - which was pretty spectacular - there’s actually a dome within a dome. It was quite claustrophobic as we neared the top - almost walking sideways in a stoop between the internal and external domes. Great views of the city from the top - it looked very much like a medieval town from a fantasy novel - eg Raymond Fiest or Fritz Leiber ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser ). Once we made the top of the dome, we decided to climb the tower next door. We ditched Kate at this point - she did not want to do the tower. We did a lot of exercise on the whole tour - most of it by climbing the main attractions! Here’s a link to the dome and tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Cathedral
By now, we were a little over going into museums and art galleries - but we both knew we would cop it if we did not make an effort to go and see the original statue of David - even though we had seen a copy of him out in the main square. We lined up outside the main gallery for about 45 minutes before we finally shuffled through the doors. Leading up to the main statue were about 7 statues Michelangelo
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo - take note this guys appears in a lot more history and our travels) had worked on through his life - the statues were incomplete - and seemed to be imprisoned in the marble - probably why they were called the prisoners!
The main statue was breath taking - I literally stopped in my tracks when I saw him! There were masses of people walking round him looking up at him with fevered eyes. We stayed in there for about half an hour just walking round him. We then moved into the main area of the museum, only to come back to David about 10 minutes later. Mark was that inspired, he bought a large poster of the statue.
Once we got out, we wondered round the town - totally over seeing anything else - although we did make it to the bridge in the centre of town that house’s lots of jewellery shops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_Vecchio
We headed to the restaurant and meeting point at about 7pm. We were promised a great meal, followed by karaoke - which we were a little dubious about. As it turned out, we were right to have been - the meal was good - but then when we went into the next bar, we realised we had been caught in a tourist trap again! About 3 tourist busses of Contiki tools turned up - we wanted out ASAP. One good thing about the bar though, they sold table kegs - 5L of beer with it’s own tap. Very cool!
On the bus back to the camp, I got talked into - well maybe the 5L of beer helped - into busting out the Dingo Rap on the bus - it went down quite well!
The next brief will be about romantic Rome!
Ciao for now……
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