Part Two: 2 weeks, 3 countries and 7 cities!

Well finally getting on to part two of my adventure, I could say I haven't had time, but I would be lying. I only work '12 Stunde' per week - which is meant to mean 12 hours, but actually its 12 periods at school per week, which only equals 9hours as the periods are only 45min long..

Florence: Day Six

The Catherdal in Florence

View from Top after 463 stairs! 

Definitely worth it!  (That is the bell tower of the cathedral)

 We started our day in Florence with the cathedral which was one of the most prettiest cathedrals I have seen. Most are quite Gothic style looking but the one in Florence looks like a mosaic on the outside made up of thousands of  tiny little coloured tiles. After being given instruction that we must climb the dome from Emma (Addison's sister) we made our way up the 463 stairs, which actually spiral around inside the dome to the very top for an amazing view of Florence.

After we had caught our breath, soaked in the view and made our way down, we ventured on to see the Ponte Vecchio. On our way we stopped and saw this statue outside a museum. Just some guy on guy action.

The Ponte Vecchio apparently the most photographed bridge in Italy (maybe the world) and is famous for being the first bridge built by the Romans and for having shops also built on the bridge. The river unfortunately wasn't the nicest looking, being all brown.

Ponte Vecchio 

Maddie and I at the Ponte Vecchio

Me on the way to Michael Angelo Square.

Just another amazing street in Italy.

Me and the (replica) Statue of David

Next we made our way over the river and up a small hill to Michael Angelo Square, where the statue of David once lived. . There is just a replica statue in its place now. Sadly we learnt this after our visit so we thought we were viewing the actual statue of David. On the way we cut through some side streets, I just love the typical Italy street, narrow road with a thousand cars parked along each side and then just lined with coloured apartment type buildings

The Dome of the Cathedral

View from the Bell tower of Florence and a bit of the Dome of the Cathedral

Afterwards we conquered the bell tower next to the cathedral which had just as many steps but an equally amazing view of Florence, the cathedral and the dome.

Milan: Day Seven & Eight

The Milan Cathedral

Fountain in Milan

I can't resist a European looking bike for a photo! Love this bike. 

Oustide the castle

Milan isn't very rich in sight seeing, most of it was destroyed after the war so it was rebuilt and is actually quite modern looking compared to the rest of Italy, wider streets and the buildings don't have as much character.
So why did we visit Milan... the shopping! Although I didn't buy much (a dress and a few tops), we did a lot of looking at all the shops Milan had to offer. It was nice to relax and stroll the city.

We did visit the cathedral which is the largest in.. Europe (don't quote me on that), but it took thousands of years to build, and was only officially completed a few years ago.

We also visited a castle, and had afternoon tea in the park, they were having a sign up day or something similar for a 5km fun run the following day, which we were tempted by for a free T-shirt, but couldn't work out how to sign up and was told it was 'impossible' by one official.

Afternoon tea in Milan

Part Three to come..... Dijon, Nancy and Luxembourgh

Part One: 2 weeks, 3 countries and 7 cities!

Well, you might think I have been off the radar a bit, so I better fill you all in on my adventures the last two weeks!.

Week One:

We started day one, flying out of Frankfurt (after a very early 3am start, and bus ride from Mainz) into Rome and arrived at roughly 8.30am. And it was pissing down! Great start to our holiday we thought, luckily it cleared up by the time we arrived at our hostel (called The Yellow). We spent the afternoon exploring Rome by foot and visited the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Panthoen and the Tomb of the unknown Solider.

Making a wish at Trevi Fountain

At Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

 The fountain was so pretty! So much detail. One of my favourite places in Rome!

Patheon

Inside Patheon

Found the Lindt Shop

 We actually spent the whole day trying to get to the Spanish Steps as we wanted to see them after the Trevi Fountain, but ended up at two other sights and stumbled across the Lindt Shop before we found them. But thats the fun of exploring, and trying to make sense of maps.

Tomb of Unknown Solider

At the Tomb of the Unknown Solider

Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

Finally made it to the steps at about 4pm, we were shattered. There were people everywhere, just sitting on the steps. Too many for my liking, so we didn't hang around long. Back to the hostel for a rest and out for dinner. We had some amazing Pizza, thin crust with lots of fresh veges on top. Mmmmmm. I definitely slept well that night.

Rome Day Two:

Me in front of the Colosseum

On day two we went and visited the Colosseum and  'The Forums' which are the ruins of the old rome town. The Colosseum was amazing, especially walking around inside, it is just so old. There were a lot of people there and lots of tour groups, I listened in to the english one and learnt that the Colosseum was actually damaged a bit by earthquakes, as well as the war and just general old age. I think eventually one day in the future they wont allow you to walk around inside to preserve it I guess. 

Inside 'The Forums'

The Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

Maddie and I in the Colosseum

The ground floor of the Colosseum is where they kept all the slaves and fighters who were to preform or be sacrificed on stage for the spectators.

Delicious little pastry rolls filled with Nutella!

Rome Day Three:

We went to Vatican City on this day to visit where the pope lives and to see the Sistine Chapel. The cathedral was huge (the line equally as huge to get in), but once inside you could have spent hours gasping at all the intricate details that made up this huge church. If we had visited this yesterday then we would have been able to see the pope make his weekly address on a sunday, but we were a day too late - but we will know for next time! 

After the church we joined yet another giant line to enter the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. The museum was actually filled with hundreds of paintings as well as the actual museum walls themselves being painting. When we finally arrived at the Sistine Chapel I was actually a little disappointed. 1. I thought it was round 2. We had to be silent 3. No pictures allowed. 3 Nowhere to sit to admire it. When we got there, I actually was like oh must be in the next room.... Oppps. Oh well I can say I have seen it now, but probably wont be wanting to see it again.

Rome/Pisa Day Four: 

Pisa at night

At the Restaurant

My mustard chicken dinner!

Our last day in Rome we spent just revisiting places we enjoyed like the Lindt shop, several gelato shops and buying some souvenirs.  Then we caught the train to Pisa! After a three hour train ride we arrived at this very famous town. We headed to our hotel which was small, but in an excellent location and then headed out for dinner. I was really over pasta and pizza and wanted some 'homely food' so ordered this delicious chicken mustard thing at this  really cute little restaurant by the river. The entire menu was in Italian so we 

knew we were in the right place. The waiter was so nice, he even translated the whole dessert menu for us!  After dinner we visited the tower!

The tower at night

Dessert

Pisa: Day Five:

River we crossed from Hotel to Tower. Stunning!

Fail....

We spent the day exploring Pisa and taking many pictures of the tower from all angles and trying to get a good one holding it up and other silly things like the picture above (which is a fail) me trying to pick up the tower. We also got to walk up the tower which was amazing. The staircase wound upwards inside around the tower so you were walking on a slight lean the whole way up. At the top we had an amazing view of Pisa. 

Me kissing the tower...

At the top of the tower, over looking Pisa

Upcoming in Part two: Florence and Milan....