I Am A Contikian - Part 2

And I'm back!

After Nice it was on to Italy! Amedeo, our guide, was Italian so he was beyond excited to get to his part of the world. We spent the day training it from one village of the Cinque Terre to the next, visiting three in total. Oh yeah, this was my Half Way Day, exactly half way through my trip, and Monterosa, our first Cinque Terre stop, came up trumps with The Perfect Lunch.

My three closest friends Dana, Carl, Meredith and I managed to leave the rest of the group behind and stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on the beachfront road. So we sat there, staring at the Mediterranean, in the sunshine, practically getting run over by cars, eating pizzas and bruschetta and unable to have a conversation that didn't turn into 'God this is amazing, could it get any better than this?'. Superb.

Our other two stops in the Cinque Terre were also beautiful, especially because we were all a bit tired and enjoyed just sprawling in the sun, watching people's washing flapping in the breeze and trying to work out if the tourist department organises fishermen to come sailing in once an hour so the tourists can take photos.

We stayed in Pisa that night so the next morning we headed straight for the Leaning Tower. It was pretty funny, such a familiar building and we walked around a corner and there it was and all we could say was 'Oh!'. Spent an hour trying to get the photos right!

And then YAY! Florence! Before I got to Florence I probably wouldn't have described it like that, but it's now right up there with Seville for me. It's just a bit dirty and completely lacking in trees or greenery of any kind in the main part of town, but there are the most gorgeous buildings and piazzas and the Duomo and Cathedral - WOW! I'd never really heard about them or seen pictures so to walk out of a narrow street and have that immense white, green and red marble building in front of you is fairly incredible. I went to the Accademia that afternoon to see Michaelangelo's 'David', and again it was walk around a corner and 'OH!'. It's big, really big, I had no idea. Carl, Dana, Meredith and I visited a few more places, got gelatis, soaked up the fabulousness of it all before we had to head off to the hotel.

The next day we had a leather factory visit, plus a walking tour of the city, which was really great, some seriously cool statue action. Then we headed for the epic Duomo climb. We decided to do that first and work up an appetite for lunch, rather than lunch first and a heavy climb afterwards. We're so smart. It was a tough climb, but completely worth it. Spectacular views, so many photos! Back down to street level for lunch, then we went to the Boboli Gardens to enjoy some green action. Technically I paid $20AUD to get into the gardens - CRAZY!RIPOFF! - but we had such a good time that I think it was totally worth it. We essentially made our way through the gardens taking photos of each of us imitating the statues. Very mature.

That night we had a traditional Tuscan meal up in the 'iyyys' around Florence. By this stage we had started to shamelessly imitate Amedeo's accent so 'hills' became 'iyyys'. He also had a wonderful way of using 'eventually' and 'opportunities' all the time, and everything was a 'joy for the eyes/nose/palate', or it was 'an essperience' or it was 'just WOW!'. We loved it.

So dinner up in the iyyys was great, I think we got served sliced roasted pork at 80%of our meals, but this was by far the best of all the sliced pig products we got! And instead of dessert we got fantastic biscotti to dunk in dessert wine - hello!

And the next day (are you getting the crazy Contiki pace? I barely had enough time to shower and dry my hair each day) we stopped in San Gimignano on the way to Rome. It's the most well-preserved medieval village in all Europe with 11 towers that were initially about showing off who had the most money. We climbed the only open one and got the full on perfect 'Under The Tuscan Sky' type view. I took lots of photos and I do expect you all to HATE ME. Then we visited the cathedral which was covered in frescoes, very impressive and useful to see before visiting the Sistine Chapel. Of course because we're a bit immature, Jesus on the cross on the back wall in his lovely crisp Calvin Klein's did give us a round of the sniggers. Who knew CK was so vintage??

Being the foodies that we are, we then spotted a gelateria which won the world title in 07/08 and 08/09 so we were in there like a shot. And damn, that was some good gelati! I had cherry and coconut and it is by far the best that I have ever tasted. Tuscan sunshine, rustic village, world's best gelati, I'm done!

Next stop, final stop, ROME! We arrived at about 4.30pm and sprinted out of the bus and Amedeo, in his home city, whizzed us through some of the biggest and best sights, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Santa Maria del Popolo and a few extra interesting bits along the way. My new favourite thing is crossing the road in Italy too, I'm desperate to do it the Amedeo way though, with The Hand. March out into oncoming traffi and hold out one hand in an imperious stop sign and keep going. Love it. Walk like you mean it is my current motto.

Anyway Rome, threw coins in the Trevi the Roman way, stood in awe under the hole in the dome of the Pantheon as evening fell, pastapastapasta for dinner. Unsurprisingly, I slept extremely well that night!

Next day was a guided tour of the Forum and Colosseum - oh no wait, you need to hear the FUN part where 45 Contikians tried to get on the Roman Metro at peak hour, including a train switch. Amedeo told us to use our elbows or whatever was necessary - squee! Ended up with half the group on one train and the rest on the next train, followed by a power walk ON THE ROAD to meet our guide because we were running late. Still not sure how this was easier than us all getting on our pink bus, but never mind!

Colosseum and Forum were okay, I was actually a little bit underwhelmed by them, maybe because they're familiar and what you expect to see in Rome, felt a bit like I was ticking a box on a list. Moving on to the Vatican City then. Now that WAS impressive! Amedeo wasn't allowed in with us, but he told us what to see so I led on and we managed to see almost everything he told us to. And in his words, it was just WOW! We actually went underneath St Peter's Basilica to see the tombs of the Popes and the exit from that led you directly up into the middle of St Peter's and man, what an entry! If you've been there you'll know how huge and magnificent it all is.

We had our farewell dinner that night, then we all went to a couple of bars, but it was almost impossible to get a drink and when they then cost me $16AUD, it wasn't worth it, so we did what had become our routine and a bunch of us hung out in my hotel room. Said our farewells because my closest friends were going home the next morning and the next day I said goodbye to Reiko and then, once again, it was Team Nicola!

Amedeo had scribbled all over my map of Rome so I went and visited a bunch of spectacular churches, walked EVERYWHERE, had some quiet time in Borghese Park, before heading back to the hotel for a nap, shortly followed by ten and a half hours of blissful and uninterrupted sleep! Think I need a post-Contiki holiday!

And now, I'm in Naples, scummy dirty Naples. Went to Pompeii yesterday, better than Rome and ran into another Contikian, today I went to a couple of churches in Naples without getting mugged and tomorrow I'm going down to the town of Amalfi and then back along the gorgeous Amalfi coast. Today is Sunday and I've essentially spent the day Sunday-style, am about to have a cup of tea and whack a DVD on.

Thanks for your attention, I know this was HUGE, I seriously left so much out! Like the vomit, everyone's favourite! Next blog will be sooner and smaller...