Day 34 to 38: Rome (Italy)

Rome was hot....really hot... 36 & 37 degree temps, and its been feeling hotter with the heat radiating off the paved streets.  That said, we just spaced our visits out and we enjoyed our time here.

We started off with some hot gladiators - clearly just in the literal sense, but they we're good to let us take some snaps with the kids.


Fearless Gladiators in front of the Piazza Venezia

We made it to the Colosseum too, which the kids thought was pretty awesome.   I showed them a snippet of the Gladiator movie on Youtube before coming, so they were really interested in the floor, and how things worked - especially where the tigers came from.


Yeah...it was warm - just look at Buzz...and that's not sunburn.

One of the cooler parts of the Colosseum - the part where the people were hanging around under the mist to cool off...

 

The next day we made it to the Vatican.  Soooo glad we got the "Skip the line" tickets.  The line was easily a couple of hundred meters long outside in the sun, and not moving.... so pretty happy to skip straight past it, and walk straight into the air conditioning - worth every cent.

 

The kids had a photo with the Pope .... well....sort of.

Em's favourite statue from the Vatican museum

The kids thought I looked like this one..... it was only 3000 years old, so it may have had the looks, but at least I had age going for me...

Quick snap...

I had a little laugh at the royal trowel and hammer...  Nothing like royalty getting into a bit of DIY...

Best Scooby Doo looking monument....



Em with "Mum"....sorry Dad joke...Made another awesome joke about the really Big Toe....best Dad joke of all time..

 

Best feature half way through ...  an A/C unit, so we studied that for a good 10 minutes...yeah it was hot in there.... real hot in parts.

The next day the kids were stoked, we only walked 4 minutes before arriving at our first stop - the Pantheon.

Squint and you can see us out the front....

Inside the Pantheon...

We headed on over to the Spanish Steps and had a break there for 15 minutes to take it all in.


We made it to the top...well nearly...

The Trevi Fountain was next, and luckily we'd found out earlier that it was under renovation, so when we arrived we knew what to expect.

Trevi Fountain under renovation...

Throwing a coin into the.....fountain(?) ... well....sort of....they landed in the drain just over the fence, but surely that's the same thing.

We polished Rome off with some more shopping, and found these different types of pasta.  The lady in the shop looked sooo pleased with us taking photos of her stock, but hey.

Monument shaped, and Licorice All Sorts shaped\coloured Pasta....mmmmm ...weird.

We've had a laugh too...."Selfie Stick", "Selfie Stick", "Selfie Stick", "Selfie Stick" ...... "10 Euro", "10 Euro", "10 Euro",  "10 Euro"  ...... "for you 7 Euro - good price".  Now that's a phrase we wont miss whilst travelling around Europe.  I'm sure our SLR camera poised on the tip of a flimsy telescopic rod would be fine whilst held at arms length....what could go wrong?  You'd think the size of the camera hanging around our neck would avoid the obvious question...but no.  Couldn't resist asking one guy if would work though....clowns... :)

We are now packing up to head to the airport to come home.  It's been a fantastic holiday, and we've really (really) enjoyed it.  Totally the trip of a lifetime, and I'm sure the kids will remember parts of it forever.

We've missed you all, but we'll see you all at home soon.

Take care,
Greg, Ink, Em, and Thomas


Dear 5/6 White and Miss Ferguson,
This will be the last blog to you guys :( Today we catch the plane back to Australia and our holiday will be over! I have had the best time on my holiday and I have missed you guys! I will see you guys on Monday! Bye

From your awesome classmate Emily

Dear 2 White and Mrs Barrett,
I have had a great time in Rome, especially going to the Vatican. This holiday has been the best.  I also really loved Legoland, Disneyland and Paris.
From Thomas

Day 30 to 33: Sorrento & Amalfi Coast (Italy)

Took the marathon drive today, and the scenery was pretty impressive approaching Sorrento.



Heading into Sorrento...



Almost at our hotel...

Made it to 42 degrees today (apparently), but can't say we noticed (the car a/c did a great job of keeping us cool).  The streets in the heart of Sorrento were temporarily closed to traffic, which made getting to the hotel that bit more interesting, but we finally made it.  Hotel was awesome - they literally said just leave the car out the front and they'd take care of everything (best check in experience ever for us and totally what we wanted to hear).   Gave us enough time to catch the sunset and find a restaurant for dinner.



Arrived in time for sunset

View out the front of our hotel.

The next morning went for a drive along the Amalfi coast.  The main road wasn't that wide, which made passing buses and trucks a tad interesting, but not as much as watching them try to just pass each other. 



This took em about 5 minutes to inch past each other.  At least this a bit didn't have a massive drop-off on one side. 
Hate to be a coach driver around here too...

But the view was worth the drive...

Also not sure if being a builder around here would be that cool either.  Some pretty impressive structures...

and all different shades...

We stopped just up from Amalfi at Minori for a swim. The water was gorgeous - crystal clear and the perfect temperature for a swim!

Thomas had us all hunting for the best stones...

Em was keen to just have some fun...

The next day we wandered around Sorrento and did a bit of shopping....

The kids were pretty impressed with their find.....

 

mmm.... massive chuppa chups....

...can we get some?....please...?

One of the cruise ships came to dock overnight just out from us, and started ferrying passengers to shore.

Cruise ship just outside our bay, with Mt Vesuvius in the background.  Just a little heat haze to top it off too...

Looking out onto the water made our decision of what to do today very easy....... chill out down at the beach!  We literally walked down to our local beach, and hired some deck chairs and one of these green umbrellas for about 4 hours (its a very hard life here!), but spent most of the time swimming.

Double trouble...

On request, we transitioned into our hotel pool.

Buzz in mid-flight...

And just chilling out by the pool.  Em thought this was 'Tots sick'...

View from our terrace

Decided to take a few night photos as we came back from our restaurant.

 

The next morning we said goodbye to Sorrento and set off for Rome....

One last photo as we headed out of Sorrento

 

 



Day 29: Florence and Pisa (Italy)

Woohooo!!!! We actually made it to Florence in pretty good time.  Turns out that I booked a hotel pretty much smack bang in the middle of Florence, where the streets are paved pedestrian areas - nice work by me.  It made our drive into Florence interesting with the Sat Nav suggesting to take "roads" that were blocked off with markets, but a quick call to the hotel and we found somewhere to park.  Driving here was going to be good practice for the upcoming Amalfi coastline...

Anyway, Ink was keen to go and check out the Galleria Della Accademia oddly enough - as 13 years ago our tour bus was running late, and we literally ran a km or so to arrive here 1 minute past closing time - not cool. 

Our best view of David last time we were here...

We weren't going to let that happen this time though, so we lined up in the high 30's heat for about an hour or so before we made it in (Yay)!!!

Made it in...yay!!!!!....His size was quite impressive (total height that is...)

Given the traffic getting into Florence, we decided to defer going to Pisa till tomorrow, so we strolled through the streets and their shops & markets instead - loved every shop that had air conditioning, including to some degree the leather shops which had that odour that makes you realise that there is actually something worse than the smell of vomit.

It was just a quick visit into Florence this time, so we headed off to Pisa the next morning.  To check out the Leaning Tower.  Once we made it past the people badgering us to buy stuff, we made it to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  The kids thought it was pretty cool, and Buzz was really interested in why it leaned.

The crew...

 

Em doing an exceptional job holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Buzz did a great job too

Dear 5/6 White and Miss Ferguson,

Today I saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was amazing and high (almost 60 metres)! Next I am going to Sorrento which is down the bottom of Italy, on the coast. Hope everyone is enjoying their school holidays!
From your awesome classmate Emily