more photos - for pics 1-3, pls see previous post below

4. eating the pizza in the piazza at bergamo (città alta - the old town), with Matthieu, a cool french guy we met at the Ostello the previous night - who is riding his way across a few countries at the moment.

5. Berliner Dom - as seen on our second day in Berlin as we took a self designed tour around the city on bikes (v.reccomended!!). it is here that we spotted a strange old man whose movements we followed and captured on film as he trekked around the gardens in front of the Dom to about 5 different groups of girls. He proceeded to sit close nearby the group, and after a couple of minutes looking inconspicuous, he would edge closer, and taking what looked like a branch or a back scratcher out of his bag, he would lean in and tickle the nearest bare outstretched limb or back. the subject would often put up with the first, thinking it something else because he would look away and hide the stick, but on the second or third, the subject and friends would invariably move away - often accompanied by much laughter and hilarity - but also overriding wariness. we werent sure if we were watching a candid camera type show or a perverted old man, but we got him on camera anyway. v.amusing, especially as he had come to our attention intially because he had sat too close to us too (but not tried anything after we gave him the death stare for invading our personal space). anyway, the gardens were great to relax in, minus old man.

6. em on the bike in front of Brandenburger Tor- this is a video not sure if it will work though. just need to add here how freezing berlin was compared to the cinque terre - riding without gloves = pain.

7. Sim riding in Tiergarten - witness beanie and covered hands!! this is also a video, however i dont think it will work.

8. Night time riding in Marx-Engels Square.

9. Bundes Liga - Hertha BSC v Dortmund. A missed goal from a corner! the crowd loved it - it was an attempt by Dortmund of course.

10. A memorial to the Berlin Wall. The memorial stones trace the original path of the wall - em and I rode along the section from Checkpoint Charlie to the East Side Gallery, and then along to a watchtower. next to the path in most sections ran a 50 mt wide unused area which appears to be the site of the no-mans land created between the wall on the East side by the DDR.

11. the ride along the east side gallery - the largest remaining section of the wall. tried to get into a cafe as recommended by Sally at work but it was closed!!

12. a graduate in padova - as explained in 2nd last entry, it is a long standing tradtion in padova to cover the graduate in all sorts of crap and make them read a caricature of themselves out in front of the crowd in the piazza whilst drinking copious amounts of liquor that was sticky-taped to their hand.

13. Venezia - v.cute side canals&streets...

14. A picture of the family - from left - Eros, Elisabetta, Simona, Emma, Fabio (missing is Claudio as he was at work).

15. Em coming up the stairs (one of 463) that ran between the two walls of Bruneleschi's Duomo in Firenze.

16. the famous Michelangelo's David. I strategically hid from the guards who constantly yelled out NO PHOTO to score this one and others.

17. Ponza town from the ferry. a great sight for tired eyes. the ferry ride over to ponza from the mainland of lazio saw em and i trying to squeeze in an hour or so of sleep after our sleepless night on Roma Termini Platform One. yes we looked like hobos in our tartan sleeping bag but no we didnt care!!

ponza & photo update

ciao i tutti!

we are currently staying in ponza, a small island pretty much on the campanian/lazio border. its v.popular with the italian holiday makers - far less so for other nationalities so far. the main town is a little like those of the cinque terre and the water crystal clear. we think that it is a bit of a getaway for rich italians, with yachts and boat shoes abounding. the restaurants are a little more highly priced than we are normally go for, but the upside is that the food is molto delicioso (since it is predominantly being cooked for italians with higher expectations!!).

the apartment we are staying in leaves a little to be desired, however it sure beats platform one at Roma Termini (where we ended up staying over on Saturday night because we couldnt find accomodation anywhere in umbria or lazio, and had therefore planned to go to a place in napoli -but missed the last connecting train there so had to wait for the next one at 5.50am. We hung out with some oldies and others - it was like a sociology experiment - all the women and older people stuck together, while the wierdos milled around in another area. fortunately, we met a really nice older couple from naples who we shared night watch duty with, and the station police were vigilant throughout.

after all of this, we decided that a restful break was in order, hence us choosing to come to ponza. we would definately recommend it to anyone who wants to escape the traditional tourist route in italy, but still wants to experience the mediterranean and the cutesy seaside towns surrounding.

anyway, now for the photos as promised - will write again shortly. hope all is well at home for everyone. thanks to nan for the post and of course i will pray for you in st peters - we are going there in our last days in Roma. a big congrats to Tan for the new job - we were v.excited to hear the news!!

cheers, sim and em xxxx

1. a view from the path of the cinque terre walk over Vernazza, the town we stayed in for 4 nights.

2. Manarola from our ferry ride - the cinque terre.

3. em outside a pizza shop in bergamo. what a selection!!!

firenze

ciao i tutti!!

we are writing to you from Firenze - home to the Uffizi, the Duomo, and Michelangelo's David. Needless to say, we have trekked around the city today like natural tourists, checking it all out. V.expensive, but totally worth it. We have also squeezed in a bit of shopping. Not too worry, we managed to fit in some relaxing time in a cute little trattoria near the uffizi for some handmade ravioli and tagliatelle - followed by parmagiana melanzane. Buonissimo!!

To back track a little from our last post -

Berlin was amazing! Totally diverse and a welcome break from small towns in Italy where the nonna's look at you strangely if you wear thongs in the street. The history of the place is crazy -especially considering its all so recent. we hired bikes over a couple of days and self toured around town to see the berlin wall, checkpoint charlie, the east side gallery and some old watch towers. we also checked out some holocaust memorials and museums - v.moving but emotionally exhausting - v.interesting but highly confronting.

em and I also hit the olympia stadium to experience the bundes liga first hand - akin to serie A in italy, but german style. the crowd was amazing - 90% of the fans were going for Hertha BSC - the local Berlin side (blue and white). over the other side from us, and cordoned off from the rest of the crowd were the Dortmund crowd in yellow and black. the chanting was crazy and the atmosphere was just as exciting as a massive AFL game but so different. the fans have to work harder here because they have set chants led by one guy on a microphone, and they keep it up for the whole game. easy for aussies to get lazy with a pie and beer.

We returned to italy on a 6am flight (!!!) to bergamo, from which we trained it to Padova, 1 hour out of Venezia. We both really loved Padova - a great town - our timing coincided with the end of the uni year - there is a really interesting tradition for gradutes to get down to their underwear or similar in the middle of the main piazza, get eggs and other gunk thrown at them, while reading a massive A1 caricature of themselves throughout uni (somewhat similar to a really embarrassing 21st speech i think). prior to being egged etc, they have to run through a human tunnel while everyone slaps them on the back (hard for the boys) and yells 'dottore, dottore ___something in italian blah blah ___ dottore'. all the oldies love it and lots of tourists (like us) stop and take photos. I am planning to introduce it to Australia at the end of the year when Em finishes her physio degree - will let you all know the date and time!! Ha.

While in Padova we checked out the massive church of St Anthony (I prayed for Nonni and families) and we also enjoyed a great dinner (we were shouted by a few older canadian couples our parents age after we spent a couple of hours sharing the long table together). We spotted a great bar to chill out in afterwards, as by this stage i had consumed about 3 espressos and about150gm of dark chocolate - needed some sedatives to get to sleep! V.cool spanish music that we managed to get the name of and hope to track down to share as well. Would def. return to live in Padova if ever the chance arose.

We headed to Venezia from Padova for a few hours - very touristy of course - but totally unique. Amazing to visit a city built on water. although we didnt splash out in a gondola, we hit the grande canal on the water bus to Piazza San Marco (so many pigeons - yuk!!) which was well worth it. the small cobbled streets were also really cute to walk through. glad we chose to stay in Padova and just visit however, as it was far less touristy.

the next morning we took a long trip to Carpi, a largish town near Bologna/Modena (region - emilia-romagna) to visit my relatives (my nonno's brother's daughter - Elisabetta (also a Gianfrotta) and her family) at their home. I was quite nervous given the language barrier, but really excited to visit family over here. Elisabetta and Eros picked us up from the stazione (us not knowing what they looked like and vice versa), they found us out the front and we had our first car trip in italy. its very strange to be on the other side of the road, and also to be in a car where the driver is on the left side. We went back to their house for pranzo - amazing and delicious traditional meal including a beautiful lasagne (primo piatto), and fantastic meatballs and melanzane for secondo piatto, followed of course by salad and buffalo mozzeralla and then sweets that we had brought from the pasticceria in Bologna, plus a cake that Elisabetta had made, and then (!) frutta, and then (!) un caffe. We have both tried and are now converts to the taste. The lunch was fantastic and tasted amazing - such a warm welcome. We rolled into car afterwards to visit my nonno's brother and his wife at their home about 200 mts away. Following this, we went into the town piazza for the evening passeggiata and then back to the house to eat some pizza from the pizza place that my second (or is it third) cousin, Fabio, works at.

The following day we spent the morning with Fabio in town checking out the market and the local pasticceria. We then headed back to the house where yet another magnificent feast awaited us. it was really great to meet all of the family. while it was difficult to understand everything, i think we came out of it with a little more italian than before. Fabio and his brother Claudio were really patient with us, especially when they were called on to interpret for us to talk to Elisabetta and Eros, and vice versa.

We should probably go now, as we have to catch the bus back to the ostello and still need some time to post some photos too!! will update shortly - we hope!! from here, we are hoping to head to Spello, a small town in Umbria, although accomodation not looking good at this stage - not to worry, we usually find somewhere. then onto Napoli on the 1st.

Cheers, love Sim and Em xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

berlin

guten tag!

we touched down in berlin last night - after a fantastic few days on the cinque terre and bergamo. we ended up doing the cinque terre walk on a beautiful sunny day, including a ferry ride from the western most point to the east. the walk itself isnt too challenging, but there are some steep parts! fantastic views and highly recommended experience overall though. we also had a great meal or two at a place in vernazza - Gianni´s- right on the main piazza with great views of the natural harbour. a little more expensive than our usual budget but well worth it.

We hit Genova for a day trip from vernazza - ended up shopping for most of the day, with a little sightseeing. we splashed out a bit with some new clothes for both of us, and at lunch overdosed on the local specialty - pesto - we are officially pesto-ed out as of now.

bergamo is also a well recommended town which we happened upon following a disasterous experience with an irate hotelier in Milan when we rejected the room he offered as it was too dirty and had hairs in the bed! all for 75 euro too. the cheek of it all.

so we hightailed it to Bergamo, a town about 50 mins away via train, and stayed in an award winning youth hostel for 18 euro pp - breakfast included! we met a really nice french guy at the hostel who was riding around europe, and ended up hanging out for dinner and some sightseeing the following day. Bergamo itself is literally split into two parts- the old medieval part on the hill - Citta Alta, and the sprawling modern mass below - Citta Bassa. Have to say though that it was one of the cleanest places by far that we have been, and the old town is absolutely beautiful.

we hitched a flight out of italy last night at 21.00 to arrive one hour and forty mins later in Berlin - quite crazy to think of how close everything is here. first impressions echo the stereotype of Germany- very ordered efficient and clean - at least the public transport is! we are staying at a massive youth hostel in mitte (the centre) in an apartment on the 5th floor and can see views of the east berlin tv tower from our place. the quality of this place is brilliant - 77 euro a night and the room is immaculate, and could be fully self sufficient with a fully kitted out kitchen.

the plans so far are to hire a bike today and explore tiergarten, friedrichstrasse, and some other parts of town. seems to be flat so not a hassle. we are set to spend time exploring the jewish history and stasi or GDR cold war stuff too. we have just bought tix to see the fussball on Saturday which should also be amazing. we are thinking 5 nights is not enough in berlin already and will have to journey back soon! have to say that it is somewhat of a relief to get into a big city again - away from the judgemental old eyes in italy that seem to follow us whenever we have a backpack on.

will post more shorty, with photos hopefully. hope all is well!!

love em and sim. xx

vernazza - cinque terre

Ciao a tutti!

we actually arrived in the cinque terre last night at 7.30pm after about 11 hours of continuous public transport trying to get here - 7 buses, and 2 trains later. the trains were on strike all day until 5pm (which we didnt find out until about 5pm - language issues and people at the station in siena not very helpful) so we had huge trouble trying to get here. we ended up just travelling in this direction on buses - any buses we could find- until about 5.30 when we hopped on the train to la spezia and then the next one to vernazza. crazy day- v.stressful and tiring, but i guess thats what travelling is about - not all holidays here! on the upside, we saw five times as many towns and countryside villages that we weren't anticipating - some of which were quite beautiful - close to the snowy mountains, yet right on the beach.


our initial impressions of vernazza screamed tourist! we hadnt even stepped off the train before we were asked if we needed a room - in english!! the dinner we had was pretty poor compared to our montalcino experience - i think we have been royally spoiled. it was packet pasta and gnocchi, and probably jar pesto. sheesh. its like little america here as well.

however, the views are amazing, and the water crystal clear. just as the guide book says, you put up with the negatives above, to just experience the place. we are in a cute little room with a sea view away from the train and the bells, so the sleep last night was fantastic, and we woke this morning to sounds of the waves sweeping onto the rocks. We are off to explore further today, and will probably do the famous five town walk tomorrow, starting in riomaggiore.

thats all for now, will post some more photos soon - have to share the views!

Cheers,

sim and em. xx

p.s - two more photos that didnt make it in the last blog... technical difficulties.

1 - ruins of a theatre in the palatine hill (apart from the forum, the most famous part of ancient rome and the site of the most expensive houses and games for the nobility or patriciate)

2 - me at a great osteria in montalcino - beautiful food and beautiful view out from this table onto the countryside below. (pasta is fantastic, but in my humble opinion, nonni's is better still!!! )

will get some more photos of em up soon!! x

bellissima montalcino

ciao i tutti!

thanks heaps to all who have written and/or followed our adventures ... Its great to hear from you all and to be able to share the stories so far.
at the moment, we are sitting in an enoteca (wine bar) in a small hilltown in tuscany called montalcino - well known for its specialty wine - brunello. needless to say, we have embraced the local red and are enjoying a glass or two before we head out to dinner.
Montalcino is a pretty little town about 45 km south of Siena - while it attracts some tourists, its nowhere near as touristy as San Gimignano and others. We have found the people extremely friendly, and the great thing is, we have more of a chance to use our italian here than in Roma, and as a consequence, are becoming far more practised and perhaps improving a little too. The views here are amazing - the town is about 560 mts above sea level and we can see 360° around the surrounding countryside. The place we are staying at is a bit of a steal too - a converted wine cellar complete with everything we need, for only 56 euro a night for two. we like it so much, we managed to fumble our way through negotiating an extra night here before we head to the cinque terre - florence will wait until our return from berlin.
today we headed by bus out to an mediveal abbey, about 10 kms out of town - Sant'Antimo. It is very much in working order - the benedictine monks living there pray seven times daily through gregorian chanting. em and i were lucky enough to experience this when we went. we spent the afternoon today in the grounds of the abbey on the beautiful soft (GREEN!) grass, reading and eating homemade panini with thick chunks of formaggio , proscuitto and pomodori. what more could you want?
enough from us for now. check out the photos below of the trip thus far. will write again, probably from the cinque terre.
cheers,
sim and em. xxx

1 - easter mass with the pope

2 - (right) the pantheon

roman ruins and st peters basillica in b-ground

streets of trastevere

abbey of sant'antimo montalcino

roma pt II

Buona Pasquale i tutti!

Our adventures over the Easter weekend have been amazing. We've been to see the Palatine ruins, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, St Peters Square, Piazza Navona, and many more Piazzas and famous buildings.

We've really enjoyed just walking around the cobbled streets of Trastevere, Testaccio, and the Centro Storico, eating out for massive lunches - so much so that we can't really fit in dinner afterwards (or gelato crazily enough). As you can imagine, the legs have been working hard, which is good given the amount of olive oil we have consumed over the past two days - and we have found time each afternoon for a siesta before heading out again.

One of the more inspiring sights we've seen so far would have to be the Pantheon - coming around a small street corner close to midnight to see it looming above us - we felt like we were in a movie set. The building itself is mammoth - the doors are at least ten times our height and the columns 4metres in diameter. The most amazing thing is how it contrasts so boldly against the other buildings in the piazza. Just to know that it has stood there for 2000 years is pretty crazy.

Today we went to St Peters Square for Easter Mass with the Pope. There was a crowd of about 300,000 or more, just in the square - the connecting piazza would have held more people still. It was quite a moving experience to hear the Pope speak and bless the people - and to see how the crowd responded. We also went to a huge church on Piazza Navona last night for a while whilst there was a mass on, which was equally as moving - the singing was particularly beautiful as was the church itself.

Not all of our time hasn't just been spent looking at cultural treasures though... we have also amused ourselves perusing the supermarket shelves for an hour or so just to see the different products on offer. Small things hey...

We are getting a better handle on the language, bit by bit, and each of us has a phrase or two that we are semi-confident in so we can take turns at restaurants and shops- the language barrier is quite challenging (mainly because of the speed at which people talk) but we are getting there. on saturday, sim went in alone to a supermarket to get some lunch and managed to wing it without the phrase book to get a proscuitto and mozzerella panini made up at the deli... was pretty happy after that one!

We have loved it so much here that we have organised to stay one more night at our accomodation in Trastevere... Tomorrow we will check out the Forum ruins and Campo di Fiori markets - and shopping is definitely on the cards. On Tuesday we head off to a small town in Tuscany called Montalcino.

Hope all is well at home. Will post photos as soon as possible once we figure out how.

Cheers,

Sim and em. xxx

roma

ciao i tutti!

Just a quick one to say that we made it safely to Roma after a hideous 21 hour flight. Forget water torture, we were in economy.
Have managed to negotiate our way around from the airport, the main train terminus, to our awesome accomodation near Trastevere - right near the river Tiber and just south of Vatican City. Although we have used our newly acquired italian, it seems it must be obvious that we speak english and the response is often in english (they speak it very well here!)

will post again soon!

love em and sim