Italy: Gladiators, Popes, Ninjaturtles, medieval festivals and the best gelati in the world

We arrived in Rome after a less than ideal start to Caity's birthday because of the long journey from Croatia on a horrible long ferry. It was hot and busy in Rome, but an afternoon gelati was a good enough sugar hit to get us excited for the Opera we were about to see. We got ourselves dressed up in our best travelling clothes....(which was a bit underdressed) and tried our best to fit in with the locals in penguin suites and evening gowns, no doubt we stuck out a bit, but at least we were not wearing thongs (flip flops) like the two young British tourists in our booth, surely you don't wear thongs to the Opera!

In our balcony booth at the Opera on Caits Birthday, not looking too bad after such a long journey from Croatia.

To be honest the Opera was a little hard to follow as it was all in Italian with no subtitles. I was expecting that the bit of school Italian I was taught would come flooding back to me, alas this was not the case and sitting through the Italian Opera, Don Pasquale with a limited view of the stage and no synopsis was a bit disappointing. I think Cait caught me having a little forty winks at one stage... Oh me scusi, me scusi! We followed this up by a late dinner at a nearby hotel which had a gluten free menu, the drunk waiter was a bit surprised to see us so late in the evening, but they did deliver the goods and Cait was very excited with her gluten free lasagna.

Gluten free lasagna for Caity on her birthday, very happy.

We only had a few days in Rome, opting to spend more time in Tuscany, so we were determined to see as many of the sights as possible. Don't get me wrong the sights are incredible, but it was certainly draining to line up for all the major attractions in the heat and cop the expensive prices in the heart of Rome's touristic area. Being lured into a restaurant after being promised to get "looked after" was a bit of a stretch when you get charged for bread, water, service charges. It is certainly an expensive city unless you know where to go, we did get some good local advice and found some delicious and fairly priced Taverns.

One of the amazing frescos at the Vatican.

Descending down the narrow stairway after being on top of St Peter's Basilica.

Twelve apostles on top of St Peter's Basilica, pigeon sitting on Jesus' cross, do you think it knows how significant it's perch is?

Being surrounded by the Colosseum, Roman Forum and other famed sights it was quiet vivid to imagine being in glorious Roman times watching lions and tigers fighting gladiators and lazing around in Palaces surrounded by advisors pondering which provence of Europe you would try to conquer next. In reality, I was actually baking in the sun, surrounded by crumbling buildings, hundreds of American tourists and hawkers selling fake Prada handbags.

Archaeologists hard at work uncovering a section of the Roman Forum, tough work in the heat.

Ahh the Colosseum.. and Cait posing the same way as many other girls seem to want to in Italy.

We headed to Florence on a high speed train and settled in to our small but very adequate apartment in a lovely non-touristy part of town on the Southern side of the River. We spent a week immersed in the heart of Renaissance culture. Admittedly there are a lot of tourists here to but somehow Florence seemed to be able to do it more gracefully than Rome and we really enjoyed our time in Florence and Tuscany. Definitely a place we would both visit again in a flash.

If you ever want to hear about a fortunate family, plug "Medici family" into google. The Medici family had their finger in so many pies that by the end of their "era" they produced no less than four Popes from the direct family, had been proclaimed the Royal family of Tuscany for many Centuries, had commissioned and supported the most famous artists from the Renaissance (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Rafael and several more), they set up several universities and even made Galaleo a Professor at Pisa University, they created many aspects of financial accounting a their own bank and planted their seeds in Royal families throughout Europe. To cut a long story short, everything in Florence seems to have been touched by the hand of the Medici family in some way or another and they have left a wide reaching legacy.

In the Bilbao Gardens outside the Medici's Petit Palace

Again I sometimes caught myself dreaming, imagining being born into the Medici family in the 14th and 15th Century. Just imagine if your were the Duke of Florence (From the Medici Family) looking over the shoulder of a 10 year old boy painting with more talent than an senior artist of that era then deciding to take the boy under your wing, to let him live in your Palace so that the boy can full fill his talent as an artist, that boy goes on to become the best sculptor ever to walk the planet - Michaelangelo.

De Vinci Museum in Florence, the man was a genius.

A day trip to the Cinque Terra from Florence was terrific. Sea kayaking and walking along the gorgeous coastline through the five villages and into the terraced hills planted with vineyards was very special. Unfortunately "Lovers Walk" was closed due to a landslide and Cait missed out on the romance of chaining a lock to the fence with the thousands of other locks then throwing the key into the beautiful blue waters, so sad.

In our sea kayak paddling between the towns due to a landslide closing the land pathway, it was a nice way to see the Cinque Terra

Up in the hills of the Cinque Terra, beautiful terraced vineyards, difficult to pick the grapes though!!

If we were not visiting a famous galleries, palaces or churches we were sitting in a cafe enjoying a cappuccino or searching the endless leather shops for Caity's must have Italian leather handbag. The handbag eventually emerged from a small boutique shop in all its genuine Italian leather glory. The amount of times the vendor insisted we touch the leather, show us how scratch resistant it is and how real leather "sings" when you rub it, I can safely say I am a leather buying expert. 

Cait and her dear Italian Leather Handbag

Funny vending machine we spotted in Florence. This should be illegal in Italy, it spits out hot pastas in 2 minutes.

During our stay in Florence we bared witness to an annual Ferrari event. The most loyal and dedicated clients of Ferrari are rewarded each year by being flown in from around the globe for a "free" tour of the Tuscan countryside in their own Ferrari (presumably shipped in) and capped off with a celebration dinner (with a secret location) at the end of the 4 day tour. To highlight the extravagance and cost of this event to you. Ferrari closed down the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge for the evening in order to host their dinner on the bridge, the cost of hiring the bridge and paying out the many jewelers who own shops on the bridge for lost income for the evening would be astronomical let alone the cost of 4 days of pure extravagance. I wonder how many Ferrari's one needs to buy to get an invitation?

The famous Ponte Vecchio bridge closed down for a Ferrari party.

Sorry it is out of focus, an Asian man dressed in a bright red silk suit with Dragon embroidery with his young skinny partner for the Ferrari party, sorry it is out of focus but it was so funny to see I had to post it.

We picked up a tiny Fiat 500 and zoomed down the road to our Tuscan getaway. Three days in the Tuscan countryside was time very well spent. Exploring the little villages and driving through the Tuscan hills was like living in a postcard. We ate gelati from the "gelati world champions 07/08 08/09" gelateria which was a heavenly moment in the beautiful village San Gimignano.

Queing for the gelati from the "Gelati world Champions" shop

While visiting Siena, we stumbled across the equivalent of a "mad Monday" party for the famous Palio Siena horse race which had occurred the previous week.

Celebrating the towns victory in the Palio horse race, thats the winning Jockey in the middle.

Part of the Palio celebration, teenagers from the winning town.

That very same day we found out about a medieval festival which was occurring in a small village and spent the evening drinking local wine, listening to folk music, eating delicious foods such as lamb shanks and watching impressive gypsy shows. Again, we didn't want to leave.

Cait with medieval money we exchanged for the medieval festival in a Tuscan village.

Gypsy man playing with his Python performing at the festival in the Tuscan Village.

Impressive theatre with real fire and fireworks at the village festival.

Actor on stilts playing with fire during the performance at the village festival, very cool.

Italy lives up to its reputation for food and during our stay we were able to enjoy the typical delicious food including pizzas, pastas, seafood, salami, olives, gelati, tiramisu, although our favourite find was cheese with black truffle bits in it which was amazing!!

The waiter/owner sitting while taking food orders at a nice local Tavern

Funny sign at the same Tavern.

Enjoying a picnic dinner on our balcony.

Ordering coffee and cake at the bar in Florence - much cheaper to stand at the bar.

After that we dropped our car off in Florence and headed back to Rome for one last perfect wood fired pizza, then woke up very early the next morning to sneak past the hundreds of homeless people still sleeping in the streets around the bus station which was a little bit scary, then jumped on a flight to Santorini where the story continues.