Easter had a bit of a different vibe this year. It usually signals the last gasps of summer and that last long weekend before the long haul til Labour Day. Here it is of course the opposite. Spring is starting to spring and things are on the up. Easter then felt like a good opportunity to head away, enjoy the warm spring days and have an extended long weekend. So, as the rest of London seemed to remain in hibernation, we toured northern Italy. With six days to do the four cities everything was quite compressed. This blog entry is much the same!
Venice is the sort of place that is difficult to describe. Canals, boats and islands kind of sounds like.....well, Pauanui really. Needless to say however, it isn't like Pauanui even in the slightest bit. Having been there in the past I had an idea of what to expect. Sam was in the dark a bit and I think somewhat surprised by what she found. The startling lack of busses was high on the list of things she didn't expect.
The first half day (after flying in that morning) was spent hitting the highlights: St Mark's Square, Rialto bridge and Grand Canal. With the early morning catching up with us it was an early night in what seemed like a quiet Venice (or Mestre, where we were staying). We got a bit further afield on the second day by going to Murano to see some glass being blown along with a lot of shops selling the finished product on the way. An interesting little sidetrack was to an island cemetery. Dinner by the Rialto Bridge that night wrapped up our time there having wandered the street for a day and a half.
Venice is the sort of place that is difficult to describe. Canals, boats and islands kind of sounds like.....well, Pauanui really. Needless to say however, it isn't like Pauanui even in the slightest bit. Having been there in the past I had an idea of what to expect. Sam was in the dark a bit and I think somewhat surprised by what she found. The startling lack of busses was high on the list of things she didn't expect.
The first half day (after flying in that morning) was spent hitting the highlights: St Mark's Square, Rialto bridge and Grand Canal. With the early morning catching up with us it was an early night in what seemed like a quiet Venice (or Mestre, where we were staying). We got a bit further afield on the second day by going to Murano to see some glass being blown along with a lot of shops selling the finished product on the way. An interesting little sidetrack was to an island cemetery. Dinner by the Rialto Bridge that night wrapped up our time there having wandered the street for a day and a half.
A three hour train trip on Saturday morning took us to Florence. Florence is a lovely city although a bit of rain and a distinct drop in temperature made it a little more difficult to enjoy. Some highlights include: Michelangelo's David (which is much larger, more detailed and magnificently clever than you imagine), Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo. We were also lucky enough to be in town for "The Exploding of the Cart", a tradition held outside the Duomo where a big wooded cart is loaded with fireworks and....well, blown up.....kind of. Imagine 15 minutes of double happys, lots of smoke, fancy outfits and a lot of people (none of whom work for Occupational Safety and Health).
We woke up on Monday to the news that despite waiting all winter for it to snow in London, we had missed it. CNN was showing images of snow in Hyde Park (just down the road from us). We grumpily got on the train to do our day trip to Siena where, upon arrival, it began to rain. After stumbling across Del Campo (the main 'square' in Siena) and scrambling into a cafe for a cup of coffee and the use of their heaters we sat there and watched the rain turn to snow! It was only a brief flurry but as far as we're concerned being in the Campo when it snowed was pretty cool (excuse the pun).
Siena held a few surprises with a very large cathedral and some picturesque views. The Campo is the highlight but climbing to the top of the remains of an old church gives you a great view across the city and into the countryside.
Pisa is the closest international airport to Florence so we took the opportunity to drop in and check out the leaning tower. That's pretty much all there is to see in Pisa apparently but a few hours on the field of miracles was a nice way to wind down from the last five days of walking. It is a very pretty little part of the world and when you get bored you can watch all the tourists taking photos of their friends holding the tower up.
All in all the trip was great. It was fantastic to see a bunch of places you spend five years studying and we felt that we had used our short amount of time to the fullest. We hope you enjoy the photos!
Mat & Sam
P.S. After six days touring Tuscany we are surprised to report that we didn't see a single one of those houses you see in Howick.
When Kiwis go to London they.....
Hang out for the clocks to change to summer time.
Go to watch the Oxford/Cambridge boat race.
The best meal we've had since our last update was.....
A steak in Florence (a local specialty apparently – it tastes just like New Zealand beef…).
By the way, our last blog entry didn't include our meal in Tenerife which was a blinding light in an otherwise dark gastronomic cavern.
Underground countdown
Our total so far is 59/321 and new entries include:
Heron Quays, Greenwich and Cutty Sark.
We've also had a setback in that Terminal 5 opened this week therefore adding one to the total. With some summer weekends on the way we hope to knock a few more of soon.
