Troy’s Random Ramblings

Another day on the bus, this time from Venice, in Italy, to Vienna, in Austria. Stopped on the way and had some really nice roast pork for lunch whilst admiring the view of the Alps.

This evening in Vienna we went to a bit of a classical music concert. Being the home of a wide variety of classical composers like Mozart & Strauss it was appropriate. Heard some Mozart as well as a couple of opera singers and watched some ballet as well. All in all a rather cultured evening.

Spent today wandering around Venice. Really nice city. It’s so much nicer walking around a city when there aren’t thousands of cars rushing around. As Venice is built on a swamp all of it’s traffic is on the canals, so no cars.

Had a nice lunch in a plaza with three old guys playing some music in the background, very pleasant. After that we had a gondola ride through some of the canals and then back to camp for the night.

Rome to Venice today. Not a terribly exciting day, spent most of it on the bus.

Stopped at Verona on the way, apparently were the story of Romeo and Juliette is based. Had a look at the statue of Juliette and the balcony where she was wooed.

Back on the bus and arrived in Venice just in time for dinner.

Much quieter day today than yesterday. Bit of a walking tour around the Roman ruins and Colosseum in Rome and then the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps. After that caught the train back to the camp site and spent the afternoon in the sun drinking red wine and eating anti pasto. A very enjoyable afternoon.

Wow! What a crazy day today turned out to be. We started the day at about 5am in Florence and jumped on the bus. Our plan was to get to Rome as early as we could to line up and try to get into Vatican City. We got there about 9am and joinded the back of a very, very long line. Word got to us that we were looking at about a 5 hour wait to get in, which would put us very close to their cut off time for entry. So, we jumped out of the line and headed for the front after a promise from a local that with the payment of a small gratuity we could join the line further up and be in quicker.

Turns out the local was a bit dodgy and would only do 5 people ata time, there are 50 of us. So a bit of cunning was required and in twos and threes we managed to insinuate ourselves into the line and magically were in the Vatican City by about 10:30am.

Well, what can I say, the Vatican museum that you are ushered through contains some amazing artworks. The passageway that you walk down heading to the Sistine Chapel is probably around 500m long and the entire ceiling is decorated with intricate painting and frescoes. Hung on the walls are enourmous woven scenes, some over 500 years old! Also painted directly on the walls lining the passage are some truelly impressive works of art, including maps depicting Italy and where various chuch dioces were hundreds of years ago.

Leaving the passageway you are ushered down a series of stairs and then almost without any fanfare at all you are in the Sistine Chapel. Decorated by Michelangelo, it took him seven years to paint. The entire room has been painted and looking at the ceiling it seems like it is 3 dimensional, rather than just a flat painting.

After the Sistine Chapel a little more subterfuge came into play and we slipped out the “group” door and made our way into St Peters Basillica. Wow!! This place is just enourmous and immaculately decorated. All around the sides of the church are statues of former Popes, with what we think are their tombs underneath them. St Peters leaves me lost for words, it is just simply amazing and everywhere I looked was something else.

After being over awed by St Peters and St Peters we jumped on a bus and headed for the Colleseum. Another line, though we didn’t cut this one and it moved a bit quicker. The colloseum was pretty impressive, you can see how it would have been unpleasant to have been a competitor there.

After the colloseum we headed off to the Trevi fountain and then on to the Pantheon before finally stopping and having some dinner. Along the we we also passed the ruins of the Roman Forum and numerous statues and fountains erected to commemorate many people. We pushed through a lot of sights today, as the next day is Easter Sunday and we’re not too sure what would and wouldn’t be open.

Spent the day in Florence today. Far too much too see and not enough time to see it. Visited the second or third largest cathederal in all of Europe (largest is St Peter’s in Rome, other one is St Paul’s in London).

Saw a replica of the statue of David. The original is in a museum down the road, but I didn’t feel like standing in line for an hour just to see it. There was also a plethora of other galleries to visit, all with equally long queues.

Florence was home to such people as Gallileo, Leonardo Davinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Dante and Bottecelli to name a few. There are examples of their art all over the city.

Had a really, really nice 5 course Italian dinner with plenty of pasta and chianti. I also spent a couple of hours in the afternoon sitting outside a nice cafe and had a couple of cups of coffee. Mmmm, it was good.

After dinner we had a few drinks in town and then headed back to the camp ground to get our heads down for the early start that tomorrow would be.

Nice to Florence via Pisa today. Fairly short day on the road today, thankfully. Stopped off at a roadside rest stop and had some genuine Italian pizza for lunch then hit the road for Pisa.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was started around 1100AD and finally finished in the 1300’s. It was built in three stages with the tower already leaning when the second stage was started. Over the years since completion most of the columns made from local stone have been replaced by ones made from stronger stone sourced from other parts of Italy. Recently work was done to pump concrete into the foundations of the tower to prevent it leaning any further and help reduce damage to the building.

Started the day with a trip to a French perfumery, unfortunately my head was so stuffed up that I couldn’t smell anything, so I guess I’ll have to get those pressies in Singapore.

After the perfumery we were dropped in Nice to mix it with the rich and famous and buy ourselves some flash clothes for our night at the Monte Carlo casino in Monaco. Since I didn’t pack any dress pants or shoes I had a bit of shopping to do. Managed to pick up a nice pair of strides and some shoes. Since I was on a roll I got a shirt, belt and socks too.

On the way to the Monte Carlo we did a hot lap of the Monaco grand prix track, not as quick as Schumaker though.

Well the Monte Carlo casino wasn’t really what I was expecting. Unlike Australian or American casinos the Monte Carlo isn’t all loud and flashing lights. Its actually very quiet and subdued but the rooms are all immaculate with enormous chandaliers and ornate frescoes on the ceilings. In general it really does give you the feeling of wealth, the Bentley’s, Masserati’s, Aston Martin’s, Ferrari’s and other European cars parked out th front help. I had a bit of a punt on the roulette table. Didn’t do too bad put €50 on the table and ended up walking away with about €175

Barcelona to Nice today, second longest drive of the trip. Stopped at an old fortified town, Aigues Mortes. Pretty neat little place with people still living in the houses within its walls. The walls surrounding the town are up to 11m thick and they had been unbreached for well over 70 years at one stage.

Eventually we made it to Nice had a few (ok, lots) beers and shots then hit the rack.

Spent today walking around Barcelona. Those bloody Romans where everywhere. In the centre of Barcelona is an old Roman fortified city. While walking around the old city there was an old lady singing opera, it was really haunting and quite beautiful hearing her voice bounce off the walls of the surrounding buildings.

We also visited the Sagrada Familia, an old gothic chapel. The design and construction was done by someone called Gaudi, who is something of a local legend. He became that obsessed with making this particular church perfect that he fired every one and continued the construction on his own, creating hundreds of sculptures and scenes all on his own that now adorn the church. During the first and second world wars, when Spain was in its own civil war, work on the church stopped. Somewhere in that period Gaudi died leaving his work unfinished. In recent the Spanish government established a special group to finish Gaudi’s work. The new additions to the church while similar to Gaudi’s work don’t seem to fit the best.

While walking around the city I wandered into the local markets. From the moment I walked in I was salivating at the sight of all the preserved meats and sausages as well as all the fresh fruit and veg. Luckily later on I got to have some tapas and paella for lunch.

Later on go the evening we were treated to a Flamenco dancing demonstration before heading to Post Olympico for dinner.