Leaning Towers and Torrential Downpours

On our way to the magical land of France we took a quick rest stop at Pisa. I'll be honest, I always assumed that precariously  position tower was in the middle of a hustling bustling city, comparable to what I saw in Rome. I was quite surprised when we rocked up to what was, essentially, a small town. Not quite what I had pictured but lovely nonetheless.

As with the rest of our tour we were privileged with some truly horrendous weather in the hour and a bit we were there. No surprise when you look at the colour of the sky! Thankfully I was inside when the thunderstorm decided to roll around but it the downpour hadn't stopped by the time we where due back at the bus so a thorough soaking couldn't be avoided.

Pisa was our last stop in Italy before crossing the border into France which also meant our tour was nearing its end.

Stay tuned for Nice and Monaco.

Architecture in Florence

Florence was only a quick stop along the way for us. I think we had about 3 hours half of which was taken up by a brief walking tour before some free time to wander. I'll be honest, some of us where a bit worse for wear so Florence probably wasn't enjoyed to its fullest, but with three hours we never had much of a chance anyway.

Some of the architecture was amazing and I really loved all the winding alleys that opened up, unexpectedly, onto extensive courtyards; was definitely a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

From Florence we headed to our accommodation in Tuscany. I feel like its cheating by saying I've been to Tuscany - we got there late at night and left first thing in the morning - I don't think that really counts.

What's in store for tomorrow's post you ask....a cylindrical building on a precarious angle, that's what.

Roman Holiday

I'm sure you'll all be glad to know my exams are done and dusted. Thanks for your concern. So now I have plenty of time for updating my poor neglected blog. Ok, well that's a fib. The next three weeks are going be full on to say the least so I'm going to schedule some posts to give the illusion that spending time on my blog.

Ok, so we are about half way into the crazy European adventure that was. Aaah Rome. You were an interesting place for more reasons that I will be divulging on this blog. Not least of all because we arrived on Easter Sunday. Yeeaaaah...that was never going to go well for us. Our tour guide failed to compensate for altered public transport timetables which meant waiting in the freeeeezing cold for over two hours for two different buses. Good times.

Anyway on to the photos which is the real reason this is being read, if it is. We arrived on the Sunday afternoon for a brief walking tour of the city. Aside from the fact that we were all dressed for a summer day in spite of the dead-of-winter-temperatures it was a great initiation to the city and all it's craziness.

Day Two

We had the Monday to ourselves but we all opted to do the 3 hour guided tour and boy were we happy with our choice. Our American tour guide was phenomenal - he knew everything about everything to do with Roman history. We were all suitably impressed.

Our day looked like this...

Obligatory Colosseum tourist photo.

St Peter's Basilica

The only photo I managed to snap of the Swiss guard - so disappointed it's such poor quality.

Sadly my camera died about ten minutes after being inside St Peter's. Take my word for it - that place is exquisite and flipping huge, much bigger than it appears from the outside.

Next up: Florence!!

Venezia

At long last we reached Italy!! I was so excited to get to Venice - it has been on my must-see list for as long as I can remember. And I absolutely loved it. Such a beautiful city, unsuprisingly. It felt so strange to be that close to the ocean without being at the beach though - that's not how we do it in Oz, that's for sure.

The weathe was unreal while we were in this lovely city, especially the miserableness that followed us for the rest of the trip. We spent our free day island-hopping and gelati-eating. Perfect combo.