Pisa, Florence & Rome- Easter 2010

Bonjourno- For Easter we decided to head to Italy. To say that the place was busy around this time (particularly Rome) would be the understatement of the century. We flew out of Luton to Pisa and trained from here to both Florence and then Rome where we flew out of. Individual highlights of each of these places are below... my favourite was definitely Rome!

Pisa

We had a freaky landing into Pisa.... it was very windy that day and the pilot didn't seem to have a handle on the aircraft. I wouldn't say we landed but more like bounced to the ground. The man next to us said that he had landed in Pisa over 50 times and that the pilot very nearly lost control of the aircraft! After that interesting start we ventured into the town and took the standard leaning tower of Pisa shots! There is not a lot to see and do in Pisa so once we had our 'token' snaps we then caught the train to Florence. Our total stay was no more than 2 hours but it was good to see the tower and the flights were more convenient and cheaper into Pisa than flying direct to Florence so it worked out well.

Almost as impressive as Invercargill's water tower.

We weren't allowed to stand on the grass at this time of year so instead had to scale the little poles to try and get some clear space from the 1000's of tourists that were there.

After a number of attempts we nearly got it right with this one. It is hilarious watching all the tourist poses around the place, some people are very creative... and rude.

Florence

Florence is a lovely city very picturesque with plenty to see and do. One thing that is evident when you get to Florence is that its all about the statue of David. You can see at least 4 replica statues as well as the real one around the place and if you count the post-it notes, aprons, pens, mugs, undies & other random paraphernalia then you are going to be seeing him on every street corner.

Above- the REAL statue of David. When seen up close the detail is unbelievable.

Above- Piazza S,Maria Nuova

The view from the Duomo of the Baptistery of San Giovanni

Above, the famous Florentine steak. I don't know why they bothered with the salad on the side.

Above the view from Piazzale Michelangelo

When did Duff Beer go from being a fictitious beer on the Simpson's, to an actual beer? and 4 euros a bottle, ouch?

This is not actually a statue of David but pretty cool none the less- legend has it that this guy took exception to the other guy saying he had a small weener. Or more boringly its actually Perseus with the head of Medusa.

Above Nadia at the Piazza Della Signoria standing in front of the Fountain of Neptune

The view from the Piazza Michelangelo - The Duomo stands just over Nadia's left shoulder

A typical Italian street - its no wonder their driving is so 'creative' with roads this size.

Rome
What can I say, I thought Rome was awesome. So many things to see and do, it puts most other city break destinations to complete shame. Everything is within walking distance or a short tube ride and the amount of histiry there is mind blowing. The only downside was the ques into everything and the slightly average weather we had. We stayed close to the termini tube at a Giovis B&B who treated us like 'one of the family'.

Above the Great Roman Colosseum- (Arch of Constantine to the right)

The floor of the Colosseum was made of wood (as shown above) with trap doors that would open and close bringing lions etc into the battle against the gladiators, just to make things interesting.

The Colosseum was capable of holding over 50,000 people and that's about how many people it felt like were in the que ahead of us to get in to the place.

Above- Via Curia

Above- An old Roman Stadium

Above- Palatino

Pack some snacks for entry into the Vatican Museum because you will be waiting awhile. Even with us booking a set entry time we were still waiting for over 45 minutes and for the unfortunate souls that did not have a booking they were qued right around 3 sides of the complex which would be close to a 2 km que!

The Sistine Chapel within the Vatican was fairly underwhelming for me. You cant help but be impressed by Michelangelo's work on the roof though.

Nadia makes a new friend

Saint Peters Basilica was pumping the day we were going in, probably mostly because it was the day before the Pope was to address the public for Easter. The que to get in stretched around the entire square was definitely worth the wait.

Above the view down the centre of the Basilica

Sunlight streams into the Basilica causing this cool effect on one the statues

Thankfully no one tries to break into St Peters Basilica because I really don't think these guys would provide much resistance!

The Spanish Steps, we were caught in the rain here but can still appreciate the beauty.

Santa Maria Maggiroe

Above- the Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon. It was a miserable day and this was a perfect shelter, until of course I realised there was a huge round hole in the roof.

Monument to Emanuele II - very cool

St Peters Basilica

Above- The Trevi fountainThe Trevi Fountain, Nadia threw 2 coins into the fountain and wished for the rain to stop!

Looking down the main drag (Via del Corso) towards Piazza del Popolo. Make sure you hide the credit cards from your significant other as this street will burn a hole in your pocket!

Never thought I would say it but I was definately all pizza'd out by the end of the trip.

Alagna & Como Italy- March'10

Late March signalled our last chance to get some skiing in before the scorching summer sun washes over the northern hemisphere (some wishful thinking clearly!). A group of 7 of us (excluding Nadia because she 'doesn't ski' and 'its cold') headed to Italy to for a weekend of skiing. We flew out of Luton and into Milan and hired a people mover to get to Alagna which is a small skiing town approximately 2 hours drive from Milan. The weather over the weekend was not great with visibility low, this combined with a large night drinking on house red wines (8 euro for a litre) meant that our second day of skiing turned into a casual drive to Lake Como.

Above- the chairlift was about 200 metres away from our chalet which then had access to a number of lifts which could take us all over and across the mountain.

The view from the chalet balcony looking down the tiny town of Alagna. Brilliantly just to the left of this photo there is a trail that finishes so you can literally ski your last run, kick your boots off and be at your chalet, which is exactly what we did.

Olly, Leah and Greg contemplate then next run.

Olly and Hutchy in the gondola up the mountain. This one is similar to the skyline gondola in Queenstown but they also have very large cable cars that carry over 50 people at one time.

The video shows some of Olly's skiing prowess!

Hutchy and Peta frolicking on the mountain. More likely that Peta had taken time to stop and pick James up after another fall.

The drive to Como took us over some lovely terrain, some of it seemed completely off the beaten track - we found out were off the beaten track as the sat nav had taken us somewhere completely random.

Lake Como was very pretty, some of the houses on the lakeside had to be seen to be believed. Apparently Como is a bit of a celeb hangout as well, but alas no papping over this weekend.