Ohhh ITALY!!!

Since my last entry I have been in Italy soaking up the sun!!

First we were in Verona, the setting of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. We went to the balcony of Juliet and I joined the tradition of chewing gum, sticking it on the wall with the other thousand blobs of chewy and writing the initials of my lover N.M of course! We went on a day trip to Venice which was only an hour and a half away and got blissfully lost in the labrynth of streets, canals and bridges. It was such a weird and wonderful place.

After Verona it was Florence and we stayed for two nights in a really cool hostel. It was a very social one with a lot of common areas for meeting people and partying. Met two really nice girls, on from Melbourne called Ashlea who is over here on exchange from her uni, the other from New Zealand called Celia who is in her gap year like us and travelling around by herself (how brave!). Just hung around with them for a few days and went to Pisa together. Pisa is a funny little town with its only attraction being, well, the tower! We did all the funny poses with the tower in the background on the grass until the policeman came and told us to get off the grass..so weird not being allowed on grass!

From Florence we stayed three nights at the cutest little Tuscan guesthouse. It was built in like the 1400s and was just the stereotypical old Italian house-vines up the wall, shutters on the windows, vegetable and herb garden we could help ourselves to...so nice! We spent our days lazing by the pool and wandering through the nearby vineyards. One day we took a trip to a small old town on top of a hill called San Germiniano famed for its award winning gelati. Well we had one of course and the chocolate was amazing!

Rome was next and oh my gosh! So hot! We wandered around on the first day and took in a fair number of the sights, the Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, old forum ruins, Trevi Fountain and so on. The following day was Vatican City and a sweltering hot day, especially having to cover up legs and arms. Spent ages in the museum taking in the Sistine Chapel and various other awesome artworks and then we walked around the St Peters Basilica and the funny dressed Swiss guards. I sneaked in a photo of them while they werent looking, apparently they dont like photots. The basilica was sooo gorgeous. High painted ceiling, gold latin verses around the architraves, mosaic floors. The third day was my favourite. We found out about an exhibition of a famous fashion house-Valentino. Their exhibition was to showcase the last 45 years of their fashions, amazing amazing stuff. I took so many photos!

Currently were in Naples, home of the infamous Mafia families and quite a gross, dirty city to be entirely honest. The Mafia apparently owns the rubbish collection services and they wouldnt collect garbage until their demands were ment...so the city is filthy and smelly. We havent really looked around much though for that reason, but took a day trip yesterday instead. We went to the ruined city of Pompeii, devastated after the explosion of nearby Mt Vesuvious in something-or-rather BC. The city was so well developed for that time, it was a surprise to see everything so well preserved as well, including a few bodies...gross.

Today we take the train back to Rome in order to fly to Greece late tonight. We will be in Greece for about a week in a half, island hopping and being beach bums. Dont worry though, we arent anywhere near the fires...we ll be okay!

By the way, if anyone has tried to access VTAC to apply for scholarships for next year, please help me, i cant log in and the applications need to be in by October 12th. Bushy??