Italy

Many people say that Verona is just a mini Rome. To our way of thinking Rome was just a big Verona.

We spent a lot of time walking from place to place which took its toll,

as we tried to cram all of Rome into three days. We did the Lonely Planet ‘Rome in two days’ over three days and still had to skip some things.

The food was, as always in Italy, exceptional and we enjoyed sampling some of the local delicacies;

I could have smoked fragola tobacco all night, though Clare with her chest infection and the bump were good sports to go along in the first place.

The scale and abundance of Roman ruins and landmarks is mind boggling. Sitting under the domed roof of the Pantheon you can’t help but echo the question, ‘how the hell did they build this?’

‘How the hell did they get these columns up?’

I managed to get over the rubble and into the Forum. Once upon a time the centre of the world a vast expanse of temples and monuments, a shopping complex etc, now slowly decaying.

The Colosseum was colossal.

The Basilica was big.

And you could spend a day staring at the paintings in the Sistine Chapel. (no photos as you are not allowed, though that didn’t stop most people.)

We had the car in Rome, though after seeing the way they drive and park we thought it best to leave the car at the hotel and let the experts do the driving. Try getting out of this parking spot;

One last gem of a find is seen in the photo below. The caption reads, ‘Direzione Nazionale Antimafia’.

Next stop Sicily.

Hi everyone

Clare here ... Just a quick one to say we are back on the mainland having survived 3 days of my driving in Sicily (more on that soon), and plenty of other interesting experiences. In Orvieto, Umbria for a night on our way back to Verona.

Have had an amazing week seeing Rome, Sicily, and soon Tuscany (whirlwind tour), will have some good pics posted on the weekend.

Also for those who are interested, my belly has POPPED, I have even noticed my belly button starting to make the conversion from deep innie to outie. Scary stuff. Photo on the way.

Will have to run now (in an internet cafe down stairs and not sure what S is up to upstairs... last I saw he was enjoying a whiskey and a cigarette. We are in this amazing chocolate shop in Orvieto and I had the best hot chocolate so far in Italy.)

Hope everyone doing well.

C
xx

My brother Michael and his wife Bronwyn were our first Veronese visitors. It was so great to have some company to speak English with and to explore a bit more of the country with. Their visit involved a lot of eating…

and drinking

and being silly.

This statue in Verona is of a famous geographer holding a globe (geography ball as Simon called it) and supposedly the first honest person to walk under the statue will have the globe fall on their head. Simon thought it best to carry an umbrella for safety.

We headed off for a day and a night in Venice with Michael and Bronwyn and were lucky to have some amazing sunny weather after half a week of rain.

We had plenty of warnings “Venice will be a nightmare for a wheelchair”, “don’t even bother going”… I think because of this perception the tourist info centre is really geared up for it, we picked up a map highlighting in green all the areas that are supposedly accessible (which is about ½ the island).

Unfortunately all the bridges that have lifts require keys which were either nowhere to be found, or didn’t work at all, but it didn’t really matter because we could see so much from the boats and the area around St Mark’s square which kept us busy enough!

What is the deal with people wanting pigeons all over them? They were actually putting bird seed in their hair so the birds would pick it out. Ewww. Helen you’d love it.

We also had more amazing meals, including lunch at this restaurant where the waiters filleted the fish in front of us, pretty bizarre but the food was delicious.

OK so here is the 17 week belly shot. I think this shot makes it look smaller than it really is, because I’m now at the point of no return on buttoning up my jeans. Have also started to feel some movement going on in there, and of course our afternoon in Venice I must have managed to visit (and pay for) every public toilet there was, with my sudden urgency to go every hour or so! Simon’s sympathetic belly is coming along nicely also.

We have had a request for more photos of us (and I think less of buildings) - I wholeheartedly agree having seen many photos of buildings and found them less than exciting. So this was our first attempt...

Hopefully we can improve on the excitement level of the photos... If I can just stop Simon taking the camera to try and take photos of buildings every few minutes...

We're off tomorrow for a week in Rome and Sicily. (A holiday from our stressful lives here in Verona!) Will have an update after that!

A big hello to all our fans,

C

For our first adventure we decided to head local. Lake Garda is just under an hour from our apartment in Verona (technically 30 mins if you know the way). After weeks of perfect sunny weather in Verona it was a little disappointing to be met with torrential downpours as we headed off to the lakes.

Because of the rain we limited our travel the first day, just visiting Garda and Bardolino. We pinched a couple of bread rolls from our lunch restaurant and went to feed these ducklings.

Simon attracted a crowd of tourists who thought he was part of the show, with everyone taking loads of photos. Very cute ducklings though.

The lake is truly beautiful and looks more like the sea than a lake, it’s so massive.

Simon's been having fun in photoshop with this one...

After speaking to our host at our lovely little hotel we headed off to a local bar for pizza and to watch AC Milan vs Manchester United in the soccer. The bar was absolutely packed and everyone in good spirits especially when Milan won 3-0.

The following day we had intended to get a ferry across the lake to Salo which is supposed to be lovely. But of course our plans had not factored in a “sciopero” (ferry strike), so instead we drove north around the lake, stopping at Monte Baldo to ride up a 1760m mountain on a cable car. Views were amazing of course, although I stupidly forgot to take photos of the lake at the top. Don’t ask… We did get a few good shots from the cable car though.

We then spent some time at a lovely town called Riva, the northern most point of Lake Garda, full of interesting little alleys and old buildings.

Then we headed to Torri del Benaco for a fabulous dinner (although a little confusing with a menu in German!)

Our last day we had planned to try to get to Salo again, but when the rain was pouring again we gave it a miss and came home to Verona, hopefully we’ll get a chance to go there again.

Clare

Now that we’ve settled in and had a chance to explore the place, we thought perhaps we should update you on life in Verona. Yes, despite any impressions from my last post it seems there is more to Italy than crazy roads.

What an amazing place. You can’t go two steps anywhere in the town centre without stumbling over something beautiful or ancient or both. The entire town centre is alive with history.

The town is surrounded by a river acting as a kind of moat and fortified walls remain in many places. Some partially rebuilt after earthquakes, wars and age took their toll.

The pavement is even interesting (maybe just to me)? It is either cobbles or pink and white marble – often with prehistoric fossils visible in its surface. The marble is lovely to roll on and despite all the warnings the cobbles have been mostly a breeze in the chair as they are so close together. The pebble cobbles suck but thankfully they are very rare.

The melding of the old with the new is seen all around. Above you can see a block from a some old Roman building blocked into the corner of a shop front, as well as an old Roman archway that bridges one of the city streets. Every now and then you can see four metres below the current level of the city to old Roman baths etc.

In the Piazza Erbe you can see in one view over 2000 years of history from a Roman fountain to a 12th C clock tower to 14th C buildings, Gothic and everything in between with a brand new development currently underway.

There are churches everywhere. One per family I think. The one above is St Anastasia. Below is a blurry shot of its clock tower;

This kind of detail is on every square inch of Duomo Church (sorry – blurry again);

Inside the churches (more blurry images – I’m letting Clare take the photos from now on);

It seems that ancient beauty is such a common commodity over here that it doesn’t get quite the same respect that it might if it were found in Australia (where a two hundred year old building is worthy of a plaque and a viewing platform). Below is a photo of the ‘ancient’ Teatro Romano;

I think I’ve talked enough now so here are the rest of the images;

(gardens)

(Castelveccio – 14th Century castle)

Apart from all that we are both well. Both our bumps are still getting bigger. We are looking forward to some new English speaking company and are planning a few upcoming trips. We both have Italian mobiles now so call us any time, it’s your dime and we’d love to hear from you.

Simon