Italy

Rome was absolutely amazing!

On the train to Rome we met two other Australian travellers who happened to be staying very close to us in Rome. We decided to meet up for a drink later that night once we'd gotten settled in at our hostels. They had been to Rome numerous times before so they took us out on our own personal night tour. That's when we stumbled upon a cute little bar over looking the Colosseum and the 'Wedding Cake'. After a few beers Oscar dissappeared for an hour and when he returned he was absolutely wasted, the guys at the bar were giving him free shots. He then started acting really weird towards our new friends. For those of you who know me and about 'shimmy', talking while breathing in and our other weird jokes you'll understand what I'm talking about. Oscar started doing these things to our fellow Australians and trust me, they were seriously creeped out. But i was loving every second of it. It was a great start to Rome.
Unfortunately that night ruined any chances of doing anything the following day. Oscar was way too hungover.

We stayed at Alessandro Palace which was a great hostel. Free breakfast and dinner so we could spend our money on other things such as beer during happy hour. We met some cool Australians there, ones who Oscar didn't creep out.

We felt like being American and decided to go on one of those city sightseeing buses, which was an awesome idea. You can hop on and hop off so we had transport everywhere. We went to the Vatican but we were only able to go into the Basilica because we got there too late. But it was still amazing, definately my favourite place in Rome. Oscar loved the Trevi Fountain the most. We saw most things, but obviously not all in detail, there is so much to see and we were only there 4nights. It was strange to walk down the street and without even trying you would stumble across something historical and magnificent.

After Rome we made our way to Florence, a beautiful little city. We stayed at the Archi Rossi and I had my first experience of a shared dorm. It's a great way to meet people and it's kind of like a lucky dip, you never know who you're going to be staying with and you just hope that they're good. The only thing Oscar was dreading was someone who snored. The hostel had quiet time from 11pm-7am.. that put me off. But the food was good and the people were nice. It also forced us to have an early night so we could make more of our days.

We went to Accademia Museum and saw Micelangelo's David. It blew me away! I never realised how big he was and how intricate some of the details were. I could see the veins in his hands and arms!

On Monday most of the museums are closed so we decided to hire a bicycle. We rode all around Florence and saw the Basilica San Lorenzo which is the oldest church in Florence, home of Micelangelo's steps. We could only see the steps by stealthily peeking through the entrance to the library. You had to pay extra to see them and we're on a budget! We rode across the River and went exploring through the mountains. It was epic. We went up a never ending hill, such an effort. At the top we had the most amazing view of Florence, and we got to see it for free! Saved us having to pay to go to the top of the Duomo. The way back down was so much fun.

So now we're waiting for our train to take us to Torino! Oscar has a friend there so we've decided to go and stay with him for a few nights. It will nice to see a quieter part of Italy and I'm in no rush to leave! We have a while to wait so we're going to go to the Uffizi Gallery to see the Birth of Venus.

Ciao! xx