Ciao from Florence Italy....

So I left off last time we were waiting our flight to Rome... the flight was good.. Quick and easy, Rome airport.. Not so much! We waited awhile for our luggage to arrive.. that was ok then went to get the train into the city... it was about 12:20am at this stage and last train we found out was midnight... ok plan b- we will get the airport shuttle bus into the city... next one is at 2am.. Ok plan c- taxi! €60 later we are at our hotel... or so we through.. This situation had ice bath written all over it. We buzz the reception from outside as the doors were locked and they asked us all our details then said to wait.. We waited a good 5 minutes then he came down and said ok ok follow me.. Took us to another hotel where we sat in the lobby while we assume he tried to find us a room.. At this stage it was about 1:10am after about 10-15 minutes he came back and said we had to go to one last place which was another 100metres down the road... our patience was wearing thin by this stage but we followed and arrived at another place. He had a heated discussion with the owner who looked like he was into all kinds of creepy things and eventually we were checked in.. The room was ok.. Pretty basic but as we were on 9:45am train to Pisa and it was nearly 2am so we didn't care so much.. A bed was a bed.. It was hard to believe that that morning we were at running with the bulls on the other side of Western Europe.. Or as Shifty says down the road.

We get up tackle Rome main station and board the train to Pisa. We sat separately as I was on a Eurail pass and the guys weren't. The trip was a usual train trip nothing interesting to report at all.. I'd like to say I stared out the window as the train weaved itself through the beautiful countryside of Tuscany.. But truth be told I was still recovering from the bulls so I slept the whole way... whoops!

We arrive in Pisa and put our gear into storage and set on our way to find the leaning tower. We wander the streets looking at all the delicious food as we wander by cafes.. Just as I say "it must be soon we have been walking for ages" there it is.. The tower and all its lean.. We take all our idiotic photos that I think we now just do to annoy shifty as he gets rather embarrassed by us. We wander back winding through the cobblestone streets and stop at this little cafe not far from the tower where we got our first taste of Italian food... Shifty got Pasta, Keira got a calzone, Elley a pizza and I snacked on the most tantalising bruschetta in the world.. The tomatoes were like heaven and the oils.. Incredible.. It was high 30's that day so the ice cold drinks were amazing. We regrouped and set off again for the station and for Florence..

Shifty and I got the tickets whist the girls got our bags.. 4:32pm train in Florence by 5:30 perfect.. Yeah not so much.. The train drivers decided it was to bloody hot and went on strike.. They were saying delays could be up to 2 hours. We were sitting in a train with no aircon and all of a sudden I thought I was in Melbourne on a summer's day sitting on a v-line.. 20 mins later the train departs... the last one for a few hours we find out later.. We were very fortunate to not have missed it. We sleep the whole way.. Again whoops.

Florence... we arrive and check into our hostel. Rooms were good.. Plus Florence if anyone is interested.. Good hostel. We rest for a bit, shower and then head out to explore Florence.. It's getting dark at this stage as it is nearly 9pm. We wind through the streets, find a folk music festival and keep on our way, after some gelato and desserts we call it a night as we have a big day ahead.

Cinque Terre.. If you ever come to Italy this is a must. Our day started with meeting our tour at 7am. We set on our way for the 2 hour bus ride. When we arrive we then have a 5 min train ride until the first town and the "walk of love". For those who don't know Cinque Terre is on the Northern Coast of Italy, it is 5 cliff face towns spanning 24kms of coastline, with colourful buildings, cobblestone streets (no cars walking only) vineyards surrounding and breathtaking views. We visited 4 of the 5 towns, the first and second ones we walked between on a path that was like the great ocean road only a walking path. Took 20 minutes and it is called the path or walk of love.. We teased shifty about how lucky he was to do it with us three although he had other words to describe his so called luck. We then arrived in town number 2... This one was my favourite.. By far. we walked up to the furthest point where we looked back at this cliff face town, with buildings of yellow, orange, pink, red , blue and green, there were little boats the lined the little harbour and people were bustling around.. It was breathtaking.. We took some snaps and headed back to the town via a different route that headed up through the vineyards.. It is here that I ate s***!! I rolled my ankle falling on my ass!! I choked back the tears as shifty doesn't cope so well with whimpering and sucked it up and hobbled back to the meeting point. We caught a train to town number 3. My ankle was sore and swelling a little by this stage but I kept going as I had been looking forward to this day since we booked in months earlier. At this town we went for a swim in the most beautiful blue water.. It was another hot day so the water was amazing. After a swim and a 15 minute sun bake were we all got fried from the intense sun we went and got some food.. We all tried local dishes, pasta and pesto, focaccia with potato and rosemary and again ice ice cold drinks. We met back up with the group and proceeded to the ferry to catch to our last town. By this stage I could barely walk.. It had swollen and the pain was killing me. It hadn't bruised though so I was happy about that as it was just a sprain. We got off the ferry at the last stop and I got the guide to take me to a chemist where they suggested a bandage and got it wrapped up.. This helped however I didn't get to explore this last town as much as I liked. We headed to the train stop when we caught the train back to the bus.. Now on this tour there was this American guy.. He was a little on the chubby side and had this lock of hair that was kind of like a bowl cut. He had this hair flick move that was out of the movie grease and he was very impatient and just kind of weird.. On the way here me and Keira had the back row to ourselves and everyone else was spread through the bus.. Shifty got me some ice so I could keep my leg up and ice it.. We hop on the bus and Americano aka rob (that's what we called him coz he reminded Elley of her friend rob, no idea his real name) was in my spot.. Now everyone knows the rules.. When on a bus tour the seat you pick at the start is the seat you have the whole time.. Well clearly no one told Americano this.. So I took Keira's (thanks miss ) and made Americano regret his seat stealing move.. Out of the 5 back seats I took 3 and a half with my dirty feet right in his space.. I sprawled out on the back seat ankle iced and snoozed the whole way home.. I looked over a few times and he looked extremely uncomfortable which I will admit amused me ever so slightly.. We got back to Florence wandered through a market, had dinner at the hostel, packed up our stuff, did some washing and had an early night.. Tomorrow we hit Rome (take 2) and start our tour!