Back by popular demand...

Meze is in da house!

Today's entry in the roadtrip mixtape is one that I very much enjoyed listening to yesterday as we rolled into Verona.  A little home grown talent...

Intoxicated by your company
Splendid Lady, Lazy Sunday Afternoon
Good fortune at the bar
Verona Vero-o-o-na
             - 'Verona' by Elemeno P

Ok so our last blog left us in Nairobi, although I think we included a wee photo from London. We are currently in Agna, in the province of Padova, Italy, about to leave for the beach at Caorle.  But we thought we had better fill you all in on what we've been up to these last 11 days.

We arrived in London to meet Darren Cliff at the airport where he promptly arranged discounted accommodation for us in the lovely suberb of Notting Hill.  The next day he took us on an intriguing and informative walking tour of the sights of London.  We pretty much saw all the main attractions such as the Tower bridge, Leicester Square, London Eye, Westminister Abbey, St Pauls Cathedral, Abbey Rd etc.  London was actually quite nice.  We shall have to go back at least to see a show or band or something.

Next stop was Agna, Italy.The main purpose of this particular visit to Italy was to visit my family and spend some time with my Nonna before she heads back to New Zealand.  But we managed to do a little sightseeing too.  We went for a big bike ride (in 30+ degree heat) around Agna to see what there was to see.  The best way to describe Agna for those of you who haven't seen it is corn fields mixed with vineyards muddled with large villas.Relaxing and beautiful.  I think we all really enjoyed the bike ride despite the bruised bottoms we all received!  Also i would recommend my cousin Marina's restaurant.  Delicious!

With Agna as our base (and my cousins as our taxi drivers to and from the train station) we managed to see Monselice, Padova, Venezia, Verona and many other small villages around here.  Monselice was just supposed to be a point at which we hopped on the train to Verona but we missed the train and so had an hour to spend there.  It's a beautiful small town with castles and heaps of history.  Padova we went to with my family for a day looking at the shops, but since we didn't have too many Euros to spend Craig, Darren and I ended up having a look around the town and it's churches.  The most famous being San Antonio.Venezia was pretty and all, but far too overrun by tourists.  The whole concept of the city is awesome and the canals and buildings are very cool, but having to fight your way through hundreds of people on every narrow passage way isn't so cool.  Also all the shops sell the same things.  I would like to go back to Venezia and see it from a local's point of view, away from all the mask shops.Verona on the other hand I loved.  It was of course set up for the tourists, but not too much. The town itself was gorgeous and was surrounded by hills so you can climb up to a castle and have a great view of the city too. Pity the river was so brown, but I bet at night it looks brilliant. The arena was fantastic, and i would very much love to go to a show there some day.

And now we are off to the beach at Caorle.  Fingers crossed this rain clears up!
Miss you all
Marisa