Lukey and Louisey's Round-The-World Adventure

The Italian Job.

Wow. Italy is probably one of my favourite places ever. We went from Munich to Florence and spent our time there just chilling out. It is such a pretty little place. The first night we were there was spent wandering the streets and markets and just taking it all in. The next day was a mission and a half. We had decided just before we got to Florence that we should really go to the Torino Winter Olympics. You would think it wouldn't be that hard to find tickets in the actual country of said Olympics. We were wrong. (A common theme that seems to be running throughout our time in Italy...) After being turned down by two ticket box offices in Florence
we asked the lovely guy at the hotel to help us out. We had a list of places that might have tickets, but we really weren't willing to go to all of them and getting turned down. Luckily, he called a place and they had tickets for sale! It was only just outside of the main city centre said the hotel guy. A 45 minute walk in the rain later we thought we had our place. But it turns out Firenze has a unique system in address numbering. If there is a letter 'R' after a number it means the number has to be red. Our number was black. And we were only at number 18 red. Woo. When we finally got there we were just happy we found the place. When the man was having trouble printing our tickets, we really thought we were NOT destined to go. The whirl of the printer 10 minutes later totally made our day. So we are off the the Olympics tomorrow to go see the Women's Aerial Skiing Finals! Yay! The rest of Florence was kept low key in preperation for the heavy schedule we had planned for Rome.

And Roma was spectacular. An incredibly charismatic city. Although our first encounter with Rome was a frustrating one. We originally thought our hotel was close to the station. But after 15 minutes and still not being able to find the place AND walking in my new brown boots, (bought them in Florence. Totally hot.) which were rubbing a good chunk off my heel, I was pretty close to tears. When we booked the place on the net it mentioned it was next to a basillica. We could see the basillica, but we could not see a hotel. After walking closer, we realised our hotel was attatched to the basillica! Attatched! It was funny after we were settled into our room and I had addressed my wounds, but at the time it was not fun at all. That afternoon we got acquainted (or in Lukey's case, reacquainted) with the city. It's truely amazing. One minute you are walking along the street and the next a giant piece of ancient history rears its head! We organised a day tour and what we were going to do in Rome and then just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery.

The next day was Pompeii day. Simultaneouly the best and worst day of my life. Arriving into Naples and seeing Mt Vesuvius was such a highlight. And when we eventually made it into the ruins (another case of hide and seek) it was so incredible. I never knew the enormity of the ruins. And how well preserved some of it is. As a long standing dream of mine to go to Pompeii, I was overwhelmed with the intricacy of it all. Originally, we wanted to go to Herculaneum as well, but luckily we stayed with just Pompeii as it took us the whole day to see it all. It's an eerie feeling walking the streets. You feel as though a 2000 year old Roman is going to pop out of one of the houses. It really was like stepping back into time. And the amphitheatres were fabulously preserved. A lot of it was really well preserved. Just a really great experience. We loved it there! It's hard to describe it and give it proper justice. And to think it took (and is still going!) something like 200 years to uncover it all!

After all that excitement, however, our trip back to Rome was disasterous. We didn't get off at the right train stop to start off with, which left us waiting for 20 minutes for another train. By the time we got to the station we were told the train back to Rome from there was 80 minutes delayed! We were then sent to the Central Station (where we wanted to go all along, but didn't realise that the underground station had a different name even though it is effectively Napoli Centraal. Good one.) and we managed to hop on the train with time to spare. When we got back to Rome, we thought we were on the home stretch. How wrong were we. (I told you, theme.) The metro line we needed to get on was closed so we had to get a bus. You would think it would be easy enough. When we finally found a bus heading in our direction, we again though we were on the home stretch. How wrong were we. We ended up missing our stop and were headed into the suburbs! Lukey asked a guy if we were near San Giovani and he just looked at us with pity. We hopped off and hoped a bus would be coming from the other direction very soon. Exhausted and defeated we just hailed a cab and hoped we wouldn't be given an expensive tour of Rome. When we got back to the hotel, it was a thing of beauty. We fell into bed and tried to rest for our next adventure to come.

The next morning we were able to look back on the previous day and laugh. A little. I found it was best just to forget the travelling back part didn't happen. Moving forward, we successfully made it to the start point of our walking tour of Ancient and Old Rome. One of the most enjoyable day tours we have done so far! Rome really is a magnificent city. We started at Piazza Navona and heard the history of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (the Fountain of the Four Rivers) and the square itself. Then, we went and saw the Pantheon, but mass was in session so we didn't really get to have a close look at everything. Next was Trevi Fountain where Luke and I both threw coins with our backs turned to the fountain to ensure our return to Rome. (as the fairytale says. Luke did it last time, so I reckon it's true!) A really beautiful fountain. (Rome has a thing with fountains.) After that we went to Capitoline Hill and the Roman Forum, which was truely a sight! To go from modern Rome to ancient in a matter of seconds is fantastic! There is so many layers of history in Rome. It really boggles the mind! We finished off with the Colosseum and The Arch of Constatine. The Colosseum really is colossal! (Athough contrary to popular belief it is called the Colosseum because back in the day it was in close proximity to the Colossal Statue of Nero.) Our guide was really informed and interesting so it made the tour that much more fun. Really great day.

Our last day in Rome wasn't really spent in Rome per se. It was Vatican day! We woke early hoping to beat the crowds. Again, how wrong were we. When we arrived there was an hour and half long line waiting to get into the Vatican Museums. And it was only 9:15 am! We went to St Peter's Square and Basillica first hoping the crowd would die down a little latter on. We managed to stumble across the underground tombs of past popes (including Pope John Paul II), which was kind of scary, before we found our way into the Basillica. And what a sight of opulence and grandeur. The paintings! The gold! The marble! It was all quite a spectacle really! But fabulous in the true sense of the word. When we finally stumbled out of St Peter's (with sore necks from looking up, I might add) we headed back to the Vatican Museums... and were met with same line we saw in the morning! By that stage I was scared we weren't going in as the museums stop selling tickets at 12:20 and it was already about 10:30! And to access the Sistine Chapel you have to go throught the museums so at that point I was getting ready for disapointment. But very, very, VERY lucky for us we made it in with about 20 minutes to spare. (we waited for almost two hours!!!) And the wait was definately worth it. The museums, Sistine Chapel, all of it just freaking amazing. Just amazing. And I was so happy we made it in there because I was sure we were going to miss out. (like a lot of people who would have that day. The line was just as long when we got in there.) We spent our last night in Rome watching the winter olympics and preparing ourselves for the days ahead!

And now we are in Genova, an hour and half away from Tornio. (Torino was booked out of hotels and this was the best we could do. Crazy!) Our event doesn't start until tomorrow evening so we are taking a well deserved break for a bit! Exhausted: yes. Tired of it all: no!

posted by Louise and Luke @ 3:03 AM