Buon Journo

Cinque Terre – 5 picturesque towns perched on a series of hills overlooking the Italian Mediterranean joined by a famous romantic trail steeped in history. We understand why it’s a romantic trail, if you manage to survive walking it as a couple without wanting to kill your partner you are destined to remain together forever. Sure the 1st part of the trail lived up to the name, wide cement paths with fantastic views of the sea, mountains and quaint villages. Along the path benches that were made from stone or wood, with carvings of loved one. However the rest of the walk which to put it mildly in perfect weather would still be a heart starter, with some tricky narrow passes and very steep inclines and declines, was not what greeted us on our 5th wedding anniversary, determined to walk the trail regardless of the sign that clearly stated track closed due to weather, we forged onward and upwards over what I would consider the slipperiest goat trail ever. Brad suggested that we don’t walk all the way but catch the train, Christine knew best, it was our anniversary and we were going to walk the bloody romantic trail if it killed us. Well it didn’t kill us but Christine did slip and cut her hand enough that she required several glasses of wine to stem the pain. Definitely a memorable 5th wedding anniversary with a nice scar to match.

We visited Siena and Pisa, both great places to find excellent wine. In Siena we attempted to participate in the local culture by attending a football match; it gave us a true sense of Italy. We got there 2 hours early to try and buy a ticket from someone, anyone ... there were police, stewards, security guards, soldiers and even search and rescue personnel lounging about and nobody to sell us a ticket. Christine interrogated a group of good looking Italian men who picked on one of their number to speak English and told us to walk around the entire stadium to purchase a ticket, 8 security checkpoints later, we appreciated the full impact that football hoodlumism has had on the game when we realised that we had neglected to bring our passports presumably to prove we are not in fact English. Denied our chance to riot with the Italian spectators we made our way home determined to try again in some other town. Pisa can be summed up in one picture, but still a nice town to walk around and being a university town also a great place to do washing.

We arrived in Florence where we got our first taste of the Italian renaissance by visiting museums dedicated to Galileo and Leonardo di Vinci. We both marvelled at how minds 500 years ago could envisage things we take for granted now like the thermometer and ball bearings.

Hand and hand with the science there was also the art, many a splendid picture from Christine to capture the greatest butts sculptured in marble.
Clearly someone had invented the stair master. Everywhere you look there is a treasure to see, we imitated the locals and strolled slowly arm in arm around this fantastic town. We loved that the royalty didn’t want to socialise with the riff raff so built a tunnel above the streets to link both of their palaces.

Rome

Every day in Rome is a new chance for Bradley to be staggered, Christine having seen it before was always curious to see Brad’s first impression. So it was with the colosseum, Vatican museum and especially the basicalla of St Peter. Although the weather has not been kind to us we have done all the things that you would expect.

We marvelled at some of the million accumulated art objects in the Vatican museum which was essentially a series of hallways each one more magnificent then the last. Before finally arriving at St Peters, Brad seriously considered converting on the stop so imagine what impact it would have had a couple of hundred years ago. Whilst Christine spent 4 hours in confession, Bradley contemplated what type of schedule of works would have been required to build the thing.

Our final day in Rome was Brad’s birthday, we spent a portion of it attempting to gain closure for Christine by finding a church that had a strong emotional influence on her after the 1st not so successful trip to Rome, (aged 21- picture crying on the steps, totally alone and recently scared). Couldn’t find it so had a 3 hour lunch instead. Closure gained.

Next steps, Sorrento, Capri, Venice, Verona, Milano then onto St Moritz.