Pisa, Florence, Rome: When in Rome, Do Like the Tourists

When we first looked online at how long it would take to get from Chamonix to Pisa, we couldn’t understand why it took 7 hours. We soon found out that the main reason for this was that we had in fact signed up for a scenic train route through the Swiss alps, including far too many changeovers. Our time in Switzerland was brief (but not brief enough), the lunch was adequate, the views were slightly above average, and we will not be returning.

Pisa is a pretty cute town. The friendly locals, tasty foods, and general feel of the old centre were easily the highlights – the main attraction was also pretty impressive, but quite frankly it seemed to have some serious structural flaws.

 This man you see here, he KNOWS how to make a pizza.

There she is. Isn't she intriguing. The amount of people you can see along the bottom, posing in such a way that it makes it look like they are supporting the leaning tower, was pretty hilarious. Aren't you guys clever.

A fun fact about the leaning tower of Pisa: Building buildings in this region is generally a bad idea due to the instability of the soil. This tower was already leaning by the completion of the second storey.

From Pisa it was a quick train ride to Florence, thankfully. We thought we would get into the travelling spirit by not pre-booking accommodation, which turned out to be a terrible idea. Despite not having huge crowds, all the central hostels were completely full. After a couple of hours of wandering through the streets in the rain, weeping and searching for a home, we found the worst, most over-priced bunk-beds in all of Tuscany. Hell yeah, travel spirit. After a shaky start, we discovered that in fact Florence is a pretty next level city. It’s got all the charm and beauty of Pisa, only amplified, yet it doesn’t quite attract the crowds that we found in Rome. The perfect balance.

Top things to do in Florence:

- Go out for 'aperitivo', where for 5 euro you get a cocktail and buffet of nibbly treats! This would get totally abused in NZ but somehow it works here and is amazing.

- See Michelangelo's original statue of David. It's huge, close to anatomical perfection, and made of marble. The statue, that is.

- Climb up to Piazzale Michelangelo and get a lovely view over the city. So romantic.

 Cattedral di Santa Maria del Fiore. YOU SO BIG AND PRETTY.

 Some of the statues had pretty entertaining facial expressions.

 You'd probably still have to keep your normal job.

Continuing our journey south, we headed to Rome. Here we were put up like Roman Emperors by Pierre and his family of Romans, who introduced us to the delights of fresh mozzarella and nightly gelato (they had a nutella “gelato” – not nutella flavoured, no, literally just a scoop of chilled nutella in a cone). The heat and crowds made exploring Rome a rather sweaty affair, but it was totally worth it for this special city. We made sure to cover most of the must-sees in Rome and the Vatican while also squeezing in some bike riding and sun bathing.

 The Colosseum! By far the most impressive of the Roman ruins you can see in Rome.

 The rest of the Roman ruins require a lot more imagination to picture what it was like 2000 years ago. It was very cool to see how modern Rome has grown around all these ancient structures, while leaving them as they were found. This one here is the Imperial Forum.

 Felix loved pretending to be a Roman. As you can see here; he is charging his chariot across the Circo Massimo.

 Shortly after, Phoebe threw 3 coins into the Trevi Fountain to secure her fate of marrying an Italian.

The Vatican City! Look how tiny it is hahahahaha.

 The point in Saint Peters' Square where all the columns align. Michelangelo, you've done it again.

 

Next time: We borrow a tent from Pierre and head further south..