Firenze

We loitered all day in this lazy little town and enjoyed every bit of it.

Firenze or Florence as it is known in English, is a beautiful city. Most of the buildings look similar with terracota tiled roofs & mostly yellow walls.

After moving through the streets, stopping by for gelato, our first destination was the Duomo. Its a wonderful cathedral with a stunning facade. The exterior is in pink, green and white and though some colours are faded, the entire facade looks stunning.

Right opposite the main entrance is another building which has an entire door of 3D carvings made of gold.

We climbed up the Cupola, which is about 500 steps and takes you right on the main dome of the Duomo. From here you get the most spectacular view of the Firenze city. Sine you can actually go around, you get a 360 deg birds eye view. We spent about 30 mins there and it was beautiful.

On our way down we stopped by tp admire the frescoes which adorn the inside walls of the roof. The hemispherical roof has some of the most amazing frescoes. The fact that someone can paint such huge ceilings with such beauty is unfathomable.

From here we strolled to the Arno canal which is a serene spot where we spotted enthusiastic kids practising rowing. There are 2 bridges over this canal which are full of jewellery shops and tiny bistros.

Over a hot bowl of soup and other italian food, we had a chilled out lunch. We spent the rest of the evening walking around the city. We also got a nice caricature done of the both of us.

On our way to dinner, we entered a square where there were some amazing musicians strumming up lovely jazz tunes. It was so nice, we could have spent hours there. But my cousins kids were getting restless and so we hurried for dinner.

The kids were well behaved all through the day and crashed right into bed the minute we hit the hotel. Well so did we :-)

Drive from Nice to Florence

Driving past the Italian countryside at over 100 kmph is a pleasure. More so if you are not driving.

The route is all along the coast and is very scenic.

As usual I am fighting to stay awake in spurts. My cousin also owns a GPS device which is total kick ass. It tracks your progress on the road real time with suggestions to take turns as and when required. Cool!

Another 2.5 hours to go.

Nice

Inspite of waking up in the wee hours of the morning and racing against time to stick to the dangerously punctual schedule, we were quite fresh as soon as we landed in Nice.

The first thing that attracts your attention is the beautiful coast that runs through the city. Its a beautiful view as you land.

We were glad to see my cousin who was there to receive us. And thankfully we were fed some really good Indian food for lunch. Man the sight of yellow daal made me a trifle homesick.

Now that we are stuffed, we will be leaving in some time for Florence and will be visiting Pisa on our way back. Its going to be a 5 hour drive and sounds like fun.

Blogging in Trenitalia

Most of the blogging in Rome has been thanks to a lovely 55 min train ride from Valle Aurelia to Bracciano. The entire journey is through lush green landscapes peppered with cute grazing sheep.

The journey is filled with beautiful scenes from the Italian country side. I am glad we stayed in Bracciano, with home cooked Italian food as the biggest bonus. Not to forget the wine. :-)

Villa Borghese & the Spanish steps

We left this yesterday to make it to the Vatican. So we headed out this morning, lazily, to Spagna. The spanish steps a lazy piazza where people just hang around....ummm...lazily. It has a lovely atmosphere and one can sit around just watching people go by. We had a gelato and a coffee and sat for a while.

From there we headed to Villa Borghese, strongly reccomended by our friend. And we were glad to get there.

It is one... Well actually the best parks/gardens I have ever visited. It looks right out of a dream sequence with lush lawns, tiny pathways, lovely trees of different shapes & colours and wide cobble paths which run across the park. Time seems to pass in slow motion when you are here.

We walked around, sat on benches, and sat to admire a vagabond singer, who was singing "wish you were here" so well that I walked up and told him, gave him an euro and struck a conversation. He also had a CD of some cover versions sung by him and he said I could pick it up for any price. I loved his attitude and bought the CD for 5 euros.

Finding a loo in such a big park is like finding a fat thick needle in a hay stack. Snehal's timing was right when we were the farthest from the loo. But we made a dash for it, only to be welcomed by a queue. A few mis later relief was felt by wifey. Thank Heavens.

We spent the next hour wandering around the lush green lawns and caught some ten winks on a bench. The walk around these gardens was very much like the movies and to have such a big park right in the middle of the city shows how history has been beautifully preserved in this city, running with mordern times.

So that ends our romance with Rome as we head to Nice early tomorrow morning.

Ciao Ciao Roma

Bryan Adams Live in Rome

To be able to see Bryan Adams live is one thing but to see your loved one go crazy over her dream come true is a different high altogether.

Though I wanted it to be a surprise but my inability to comprehend Italian forced me to involve Snehals friend and ergo Snehal too.

And ironically the cheaper tickets get you right in the front since the expensive ones are seats around the stadium. Never knew people watched concerts seated. Hardly an experience of a concert.

It was a first indoor concert experience for me and a first ever concert experience for Snehal. The fact that we were quite close to the stage was all thanks to the limited people who opted for the cheapo tickets.


Adams played most of the popular numbers and came on stage in his trademark black T shirt & jeans. The stage was simple and the start of the concert was lukewarm. But he instantly connected with the crowd by speaking in Italian and boy did he turn on the steam.

he frenzy was at its peak when he pulled up a young girl from the crowds to sing "Baby when you're gone". The concert ended with 4 songs rendered in an "unplugged" fashion. Just Adams & his guitar. It was a 2 hour concert which left us wanting more.

The walk back to the metro station was cold and all the sweat from the concert madness evaporated mins after we hit the road.

Watching Bryan Adams in Rome will be an experience which will stay with us for a long time.

The Vatican Museums & St. Peters Basillica

What started out as a day to visit the Spanish steps and Villa Borghese, it turned out to be a day at the Vatican City.

We got news about the Vatican being closed on Thursday and were advised to go visit the Vatican so as not to miss it. So off we went. And boy were we lucky!

Wednesdays, the Pope gives a public appearance for the 10 am service. We were lucky to see him albeit from far. But the congrgation of people is another sight altogether. The aura around St. Peters square is mesmerising.

After lingering around for a while, we queued up for entering the Vatican Museums. It was quite a long queue but worth the wait. We picked up an audio guide which does more justice than a real guide letting you hear as per your interests. To say that you can cover the museum in 1 day would be a joke. In fact for most things in Rome, any amount of time spent seems less.

The museum hold artifacts which have a rich history and exhibit the quality of the artisans in full glory. Amongst rooms full of sculptures, paintings, frescoes and myraid items, the epitome has to be the Sistine Chapel. This is Michealangelos piece de resistance. To think one could paint such a huge ceiling at a young age of 33, is mindblowing.

The St. Peters Basillica takes grandeur to a totally different level. The size of the sculptures that adorn the walls of the basillica, from the inside and the outside, are bound to leave you awestruck. I have never been left as dumbfounded as I was during the visit to the basillica.

To be able to live within the walls of the Vatican city must be so redeeming since everything is so full of history & spirituality.

Ancient Rome

We started the day with a walking tour of Ancient Rome. Quite a nice concept. The guide keeps explaining things as we walk.The one thing that hits you about ancient Rome is the grandeur of each of their buildings. The Colosseum is mind blowing to say the least. Quite a few scenes from the movie Gladiator kept going through my mind as we walked around the Colosseum.

From the Colosseum starts the tour which covers some great arches like the arch of Constantine, ruins of some churches and the main piazza during Roman times.We walked past the wedding cake, Pantheon and the tour ended at the Piazza Nuvona


The Trevi Fountain is an amazing spot. Its a fountain where the grandeur of the sculptures that make up the fountain far outweigh the way the water flows out of the fountain. Its the largest fountain and rightfully so. The entire place around the Trevi fountain wears the look of a small town with cafes, bars ans gelatos. We picked up a panini to fill our stomachs during the walk.

Arriva Roma

The Eurostar brought us into Termini bang on time. Our friend was there to receive us and it was a huge relief since Termini is quite a huge station. Using the metro and carrying our bags, we made our way into this small little town called Bracciano.
Its a nice town on the hills and very picturesque. Over lots of wine, pasta and salad we chatted for quite a while. I caught more than 40 winks while Snehal & her friend caught up on more of the chatting. Dinner was "octopus" soup and king prawns and some more pasta and ofcourse wine.

Passion for pets

One thing we observed during our travel is that quite a few of the people keep pets and there seems an entire industry working to ensure the pets and the pet owners are comfortable.

There are myraid contraptions for transporting pets, maintaining hairdos (we actually spotted a poodle which had its hair tied up in 3 places and held with cute little hair clips) and ofcourse clothing (also spotted sweaters & raincoats)

Most places including stores, restaurants, bars and tourist spots are pet friendly.

Quite amazing really

Eurostar from Venice to Rome

The public services run dangerously on schedule here. So we had little margin for error and had to run to make it in time for the train. Unfortunately we had to go by the slowest vaporetto sine that was the only one which was available.

Waking up at 5:15 was the toughest part. The rest was not bad at all. Having missed one bus our entire schedule was delayed by 15 mins. As luck would have had it, all 2nd class seats on the train from Venice to Rome were full, leaving us with the sole option of going by 1st class for an additional 25 euros.

So here we are in the train. And man is it amazing. Truly an experience. We are passing lovlely landscapes at a breakneck speed. And the train is very comfortable.

Snehal is fast asleep but I am too excited to feel sleepy. But hungry? Yes. Hmm time to grab a bite I guess.

Day two

Heavy breakfast. Amazing juice
Grand canal trip on the waterbus
Visited the station
Pigged on hamburger pannini and chicken burger
St marks bascillica
Walked around and reached Rialto
Wine by the litre
Reached Campo S Polo
Coffee and hot chocolate
Shopped brooches
Gelato
Rialto to ca rezzonico by waterbus
Campo S Margherita
Bar Du Champ whisky and italian brandy
Pizza slice and panini
Chilly wind on the walk back home

Things done at Venice

Alilaguna
Lido
Pizza & exp coke
Groceries
Water pass
Murano
St marks square
Coffee n swich
Spritz
Masks
Wine n rissoto

Milan Mapensa

After what looked like a never ending flight, on which we were served 2 breakfasts, we arrived 30 mins earlier at Milan. At 2 deg we were welcomed with a nice chill in the air. With snow capped mountains and a lovely break of dawn, the landing was quite romantic.

Now to spend 2 hours before we head to Venice.

Damn

With just 24 hours to go, I was down with a bad bout of fever. After a strong dose of medicine I am feeling better and I hope I don't have a problem on the flight. 9 hours seem a lot to sit in one place.

Mobile posting

Just set up mobile posting on the blog. Since I will have access to email blogging will be easier.



Let's see if I am able to be disciplined about it :-)

Preparations

So finally everything is in place. Phew! Took a while to research on the stay arrangements in Venice, Paris & Amsterdam. And the Schengen visa also took a while since the Italian embassy came close to telling me that I should be applying from the French embassy. Man, was I pissed off! And after asking for a whole bunch of papers, they finally gave the visa without an interview.

So in 26 days we will be visiting Venice, Rome (we are also going for a Bryan Adams concert in Rome), Nice, Florence, Pisa, Cannes, Paris, London & Amsterdam.

So Europe here we come!

So here goes our Travel Blog

As of now we have an exciting Europe trip that kicks off in 10 days. We will be leaving for Venice on March 24th. I will try and be disciplined about posting regularly whenever we travel.