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.

Sail away to Croatia

We were super excited about Croatia, islands, sun, turquoise water, medieval towns. A quick flip through the Dubrovnik local newspaper at the airport, revealed that the prior week had been full of storms and there were several pictures of Dubrovnik with water spouts over the sea in the background. Luckily we saw none of these storms and Croatia certainly gave us a very memorable stay.

Another day in Paradise

 We stayed inside the fortress walls of the town of Dubrovnik, at one of the only hostels and were warmly greeted with "welcome shots" at 11am in the morning and the promise of an upgrade to a B&B, after being told how much better it was at the B&B, of course the offer was reneged and we disappointingly landed back in the hostel.

A view above the main beach - Dubrovnik - we prefered the quieter beach nearby.

Dubrovnik is spectacular, walking the high city walls gave us a great perspective of the place. If you have enough money you can anchor your superyacht in the harbour and bring your dingy ashore to explore the town. Exploring the narrow streets, swimming and lying on the beaches was a lot of fun, it's a shame we couldn't have the place to ourselves, apparently every man and his dog wants to visit Dubrovnik too. Dubrovnik is a great place as long as you can put up with all of the tourists. Watching the loud American tourists and endless groups from the cruise ships being shown around town provided endless amounts of entertainment. If I got a buck for every time I have heard an American yelling out "Oh my god! Honey get over here this [insert attraction eg church, view etc] is amazing" I could travel forever. During the evening when we would head out to eat some delicious seafood, the cruise ships had departed, the city was much quieter and relaxing, although it was not yet peak season.

Walking the wall of Dubrovnik old town

Some delicious seafood - "little fishes"

Nice view from the walls

Weird abandoned hotel near Dubrovnik which had been taken over by people wanting to play soccer on the helipad

We were glad to be heading to a slightly quieter island of Korčula. We crammed into a local bus like sardines to take us to the main bus terminal, dripping with sweat and having annoyed everyone on board with our big backpacks we jumped off ready for the next bus. The bus journey was a little funny, they had overbooked the bus, (luckily not our seats) and there were several people who tried to fight with the people sitting in "their" seat to no avail, one well to do lady with a Louis Vuitton handbag wouldn't give up but refused to sit on the floor for the 3.5 hour bus ride, I hope it was worth it for her, haha.

We were greeted in Korčula with our names on a sign at the bus station and felt very privileged, the hostel had come to pick us up. There were several young people working at the hostel for board and one of the girls who had just started driving the hostel van had decided it would be a nice idea to pick us up, we got special treatment and were assured that it doesn't normally happen. A chef on holidays staying at the hostel was cooking a meal for everyone and had been doing so every night for the past week, we happily joined in on the meal. Before dinner we were pointed in the direction of a house selling local white and red wine for the rate of 12 Kuna per litre ( $2.50). We trotted back to our hostel with our wine in plastic coke bottles and joined in on the feast and a night of drinking.

Having some dinner - not our hostel

Exploring Korcula on dodgy hostel bikes

I had been keen to try out some sailing and on walking into town we spotted a sailing school offering great rates for lessons. We signed on for the two day course without blinking an eyelid. We loved being out on the water on a 7m yacht, learning a new skill, soaking in the sun, chatting with our fluent English speaking Croatian instructor Miro, swimming and seeing the beautiful islands. We were quickly falling in love with Korčula, which also had a beautiful old town. The sailing, great food, nice cheap local wine, beautiful location and friendly people was all too good to be true and after a bit of a debate we shuffled our itinerary around and signed on for a one week sailing course at the yacht club. They were thrilled we were doing more and so were we. It proved to be one of the best decisions of our trip, we had a great time sailing and spending more time in beautiful Korčula.

Sailing around Bardia Island - Korcula

Ey Ey Captain, ready for action

Looking relaxed during some calm wind

Cait getting ready to Dock the boat

Caity getting some instruction from Miro our teacher

After one of our lessons

Having a swim, now get back on board and do some work!!

Leaning the ropes - literally - tying ourselves in knots

Coincidentally it also meant we were able to meet up with Jules and Eloy who had just started a Fanatics Sail Croatia tour, we found their boat in the harbour, walked onboard and gave them a big surprise. We spent the evening with then at the sunset bar, onboard their boat for happy hour and then up at the Boogey Jungle nightclub. It was a wild night for us, but a regular night out for the Fanatics on their crazy cruise. The whole town was full of Aussies for the night as all the Sail Croatia boats follow the same route and it seems that only Aussies go on them. I tried to say hello to a few locals when we were out, after warmly saying the single word "hello" to a few local lads, I got a quick cold shoulder, nasty glare and the response " I'm not gay!" which I don't think is the Croatian words for hello. I was shocked to say the least and found myself slinking away disappointed and trying to containing my anger. Perhaps he had been hit on by an Aussie before... but one of the few negative experiences I have had on this trip.

Some delicious baby Calamari on the grill

Hanging out with the Fanatics

We didn't want our week to end, we were certainly living the good life, but it did eventually and we came out the other side as qualified sailers....(enough to hire a sailboat anywhere in the world anyway), we were so proud and pleased with ourselves. It is an exciting prospect to have a future sailing holiday.

A sad departure from Korčula occurred as we didn't want to leave. The ticketing system for the only ferry departing at 6am was comical. You only able to buy tickets during a 1 hour time slot the night before your ferry leaves. We tried to buy our ticket a few days before & were met with the reply- "yes you can buy a ticket for the Sunday ferry- on Saturday night.." Then on the evening when we could buy our ticket-The man selling the tickets was late for his gruelling shift and all he wanted to do was talk to me at the front of the impatient queue & check his air conditioner was working!

One of the hostel guests burst into our private room at 4am in the morning and asked us lying in bed in the dark startled " do you know if the kitchen is open?" and then after us saying "NO!" ( in a piss off kind of way) she followed up with " do you have any food?" With another firm "NO!" she sort of got the idea and closed the door to let us have another hour of sleep before getting up for the ferry....The reason they lock the kitchen at night is because guests come back from a big night out starving because there is no late night food vendors and the guests ( and sometimes staff members) eat whatever they can get their hands on when they get back to the hostel.

Anyhow, we headed to another island, Hvar and bumped into my work friends Henry and Sheena as we trudged up a hill with our backpacks, we were expecting to see them at some stage just not when we were in such a dishevelled state, we caught up again later for dinner and also a ferry journey to Split the next day. Cait was feeling a bit ill for some reason (perhaps sailing withdrawal syndrome (SDS)) so I headed off to a typical rocky beach on my own for the day, luckily it gave me a chance to find a present in town for Cait's birthday which was fast approaching.

Nice spot on the rocks in Hvar

We enjoyed sitting in the harbour watching the comings and goings of the many private yachts and super-yachts in the harbour. This was a massive case of boys and their toys and my one is bigger than your one. When you thought you had come across a "big fancy one" there always seemed to be a "bigger and fancier one". You know it's a serious boat when there are hired crew standing on the dock patrolling the gangplank and instructing guests to take their shoes off with the provided shoehorn and place your shoes in the basket before coming onboard. You have to wonder, who are these people!!

The superyachts lined up in the Hvar harbour

Cait recovered a bit and found it in her to enjoy some more local seafood at dinner with Henry and Sheena and some beach time the next day before embarking on a long multi-leg journey to Rome. The journey took over 24 hours to reach our accomm in Rome. The overnight ferry was particularly long and tiring as we chose the economic seat option, Cait spent the majority of her birthday traveling which was a little sad. She did get some treats at the end of the day including plenty of messages from friends and fam, some gluten free spaghetti, gelati and a trip to the Rome Opera, but that is another story.

Funny sign on board the overnight ferry - designated kissing area

Until next time