When I last wrote, I believe I'd just arrived in Florence and was checking out the place. Well you know what? It's a pretty nice place. The whole town looks like a movie set and there's all kinds of beautiful things scattered around the place from buildings, sculptures, bridges, churches, and the enormous duomo which doninates the place. Chuck in a few picturesque piazza, add a few beautiful Italians on mopeds, and you've pretty much got Florence. Like in Rome, I was staying on a campsite along with a couple of other bus companies (Contiki and Topdeck), but was actually staying in a little cabin which had a small lounge area, a twin room, and a double room. I managed to blag the double room so I had the luxury of both a double bed and my own room, both extremely rare. The only downside with the place was having to walk to the bus stop (a 10 minute walk down a steep hill, down a road, through a tunnel, over a bridge, and down a country lane), and then having a 20 minute bus ride into town. It's even more fun late at night after a few drinks when you have to reverse the journey getting lost in the dark wandering down the country lane at 2am culminating in a massive hill that you're in no state to climb.
I'm telling you this so you can understand the effort I went to getting up just after 6am, so that I could be in Florence at around 8 before the famous Uffizi Gallery opened (home of Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus' amongst other things). I waited around for half an hour for them to open, and then a guy came out and said that they were going on strike and the place would be closed all day. And so would the other museums in Florence. Bloody Italians. I saw the guys standing outsidem and I swear one of them looked just like Bob Crow, the leader of the RMT who causes the tube strikes. Either it was a coincidence or he travels around the world looking for ways to ruin my day. So I pretty much had to spend the day wandering aimlessly, buying stuff I didn't really need, and taking photos of the 'fake' David which is outside in one of the piazzas. I am now the proud owner of a black leather jacket that I can't wear because it's so hot everywhere. When I get home I'll be the Fonzie of Finchley.Having left Florence we made a quick stop in Pisa. Apparantly there's some kind of tower there or something. What a tourist nightmare from hell. When you get to Pisa you have to walk down a long street to get into the big square area that houses the tower and a big church. Along that street are a million people trying to sell you cheap novelty crap that no one wants, and more random things that are in the shape of the tower than you would think is possible. On top of that are the hordes of tourists all fighting for a prestige spot so they can take the most hilarious photo of them holding up the tower with some part of themselves. It took us 20 minutes to get to the square, we were there for about 5 minutes, and then we went back. I recommend it!
The next stop was Cinque Terre (Five Towns in Italian and pronounced chink-a-terra) which I was really looking forward to. Nestled in the mountainous coastline are five little harbour towns full of pretty multi-coloured houses. I stayed here:
Everyone pretty much went to the same hostel place, but it isn't actually one hostel and everyone was scattered in little apartments over the town. We had a nice place overlooking the main little street. I could have probably spent a month there just hanging out, sitting by the harbour watching people, and eating all the amazing food they had everywhere. I've just discovered focaccia bread with olives, tomatoes and anchovies, and it's goooooood. The only real big tourist attraction is the Via dell'Amore 'lovers walk' that links the five towns. It's a long long way, and it goes up and down the mountains just to spite you. They tell you to give yourself at least five hours to do it, if you're on a mission. We did it in seven, with stops for swimming, ice cream, and souvenir buying. My bum is now so firm I could crack walnuts between my buttocks. Needless to say, I slept well that night. I'm not sure how the 'Lover's Walk' thing fits in as you'd have to be pretty sadistic of you put your lover through that. Maybe it's for people who are going through a messy divorce. I don't know. If you ever get the chance to go to the area, make sure you do. It's really stunning along the coastline, and the little towns are really cool just to hang out in. We also went out for dinner one night to one of the other town (fortunately there are trains too), and had a massive blow-out on all kinds of local cuisine. It was a pretty quiet town and when the six of us left the restaurant looking for a bar there was nothing open. I suggested we knock on someone's door and ask for alcohol, and then we came across a camper van and fuelled by the red wine we'd been drinking at dinner, knocked on their door. A little hatch opened at the side, and inside were a bunch of Spanish guys who were travelling around Europe. We cheekily asked for a drink, and they gave us a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine through the hatch! We chatted to them for a bit and then went on our way, having proudly done our bit for international relations by poncing some free wine off our European cousins.
So having finally got used to my pizzas, piazzas, and grazies, we finally crossed the border into France, land of frogs legs, boulevards and mercis, and I'm now in Nice. More exciting than all this though is the fact that my sister Kelly gave birth to a baby girl a couple of days ago, and I'm now an uncle. Her name is Sienna Olivia and I'm very much looking forward to meeting her.
Au revior mes petits amis,
Jamie
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