Leah & Julian in The World

Church in Florence

Florence is the city that is credited with starting the Renaissance, and produced famous artists including Michelangelo and Leondardo.  Architecturally it is completely different from Rome.  Many of the building facades are flat, but heavily decorated with painted or mosaic features.

We were actually pretty bad tourists in Florence.

I think we’d both reached saturation point as far as churches, museums and art galleries go, so we laid low for most of our time there.  We also missed our opportunity to see Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia (no tickets left) and see some of the Renaissance art in the Uffizi Gallery (again, no tickets available).

We believe he was a revolutionary?

So, I don’t think we’re qualified to really pass judgment on Florence.  Our experience there was good, but not great.

Osteria De'Golosi

Of course, I can’t let a post go by without mentioning food!  We enjoyed some excellent traditional tuscan fare at Osteria De’Golosi.  We’re creatures of habit, so we went twice.  First time J had roasted cinta pork and I had pasta stuffed with pears and cheese (no photo sorry!).  Second time we both had tuscan specialities – I had chicken with fresh vegetables, and J had stuffed calamari with tomato sauce.  Delicious!

J's stuffed squid

Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background

For us Pompeii was a day trip from Rome – 4 hours travelling each way!  We’re still not quite sure if it was worth it; I think we were expecting better displays capturing those tragic moments where everything was covered with ash.  Also, they ‘ran out’ of maps (they have a printed No More Maps sign that looks like it comes out every day) so we spent much of our time trying to find where we were.

Fear preserved in time

Nonetheless, the site has some extremely well preserved features of the Pompeii town from AD 79 when Mount Vesuvius blew.  At the entrance to one of the houses is the first ‘Beware of Dog’ sign, a beautiful mosiac on the floor.

Cave Canem

It was also interesting to see a lot of the white marble structures had been repaired with red brick after the earthquake of AD 62.  Unfortunately for the citizens of Pompeii, there was no rebuilding after the eruption.

Pompeii Forum - notice the repair work to the pillars

Trattoria der Pallaro

We heard about this Trattoria through the ever present and reliable Rick Steves’ Best of Europe guidebook.  There is no menu – you eat (or don’t) whatever they put in front of you.  Although, based on some reviews on Trip Advisor, the menu doesn’t change all that often.

First up is an antipasto course.  Raw fennel in olive oil (not a huge fennel fan), green olives, fava beans in an awesome tomatoey gravy, the world’s best proscuitto and pretty damn good salami and of course, crusty bread.  Shortly after we were brought this, they also brought out some fried risotto balls and some other fried patty, which were very tasty but escaped the camera.

Antipasto!

Next up was the pasta course – a simple red tomato sauce, heavy on the parmesan (the way we like it!).

Pasta pasta

As if this wasn’t enough, the main was next.  Roast veal, broad beans with a tasty sauce, mozzarella balls and homemade potato chips.

Main course

Finally, dessert.  Apricot flan/tart with a shot of mandarin juice!

It counts as a serve of fruit right?

Phew.  All this food was only 25euros per person, including house wine and mineral water.

Trattoria der Pallaro is located at Largo der Pallaro 15, near Campo de’ Fiori.

The Colosseum

Well it may not have been built in one, but we managed to see a good part of Rome in a day.  Heeding the many scam and pickpocket warnings we set off – alert but not alarmed – to our first stop, the Colosseum.

Tip: tourists sleep in – we were at the Colosseum at 08:50 and there was no sign of a queue!

I was not quite prepared for how well, colossal, it is/was – around 200m long by 150m wide and 50m high.  Imagine it full with 50,000 spectators and a canvas roof.  Stadiums haven’t changed much in 2,000 years but I think the ‘sport’ played in them (or fought to the death, in this case) certainly  has.

Bypassing the gladiators with whom you can have your photo taken for a not-so-small undisclosed fee (I’d like to see them harass each other or a couple of angry animals in the Colosseum), we left and made for Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.

Roman Forum (Colosseum far right)

Although we couldn’t go into the Pantheon (there was a service), the dome was still quite impressive from the outside and from what we could glimpse through the door.  Not to worry, around every corner is another church to gawk at or go inside to escape both the heat and crowds.

The Pantheon

The Trevi Fountain (quite modern, 1762) is quite an impressive water feature, especially if you come from fountain-less Brisbane.  We tossed in a coin each, so I guess we’ll be coming back to Rome now…  Word is, a homeless person was netting €500 in early morning raids of the fountain!

Trevi Fountain

After a siesta, we headed out to see Rome by night.  And it wouldn’t be Italy without gelato.

Giolitti's gelateria, Rome. €2 for 3 scoops, mmm...

St Peter's Square and obelisk

Population: 900

Area:  0.44 km²

UN member: no

EU member: no

Currency: Euro (unique version of, depicting the Pope of course (coins only)).  The EU lets the mint issue more coins in years where there is a change in Pope.

Own postal service: yes!

That’s right, we’ve now been to the world’s smallest country, Vatican City.  Although we missed the Pope, we did spend an afternoon visiting the amazing sites in Vatican City.

The Vatican Museum houses some of Europe’s best art and leads into Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel via the Raphael Rooms, both of which are fresco (‘plaster-paint’) works.  The frescoes and tapestries leading up to the Sistine Chapel were so incredible that we were probably not as awestruck as we should have been by the Chapel itself (and it was FULL of loud tourists and guards exclaiming ‘ssshhh!’)

St Peter's Basilica

After the Sistine Chapel is St Peter’s Basilica, probably the most impressive church so far and probably not to be beaten.  It so massive you don’t really notice the thousands of other tourists and pigeons in there with you.

St Peter's Basilica

St Peter. His right toe has been kissed away!

PS.  You can see our photos from Greece now!

Athens made me sad.  It was once this most amazing city, the home of democracy, philosophy and the arts.  The Athenians built the Acropolis and the Agora, images that loomed large in my imagination, after studying Ancient Greece in high school and university.

The Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens

Sadly, modern Athens is cramped, dirty and, sorry to say, ugly.  It’s only saving grace is the ruins, and if it didn’t have those, I can’t imagine why anyone would visit.

Theatre of Dionysos, Acropolis grounds, Athens

Unfortunately as well, the scaffolding curse struck again – this time the Acropolis.  And the trip up to the Acropolis is made more unpleasant by the hundreds of hawkers (mainly Indian) following you trying to sell you water, asian umbrellas and tomato toys that go splat.  Just what we’ve always wanted.

I will say this in Athens’ favour.  The Metro stations are clean and efficient, and they have cool exhibits on the walls, showing the levels of the ancient roads and the drains.

The well preserved Temple of Hephaestus, Ancient Agora, Athens

We had some fantastic food while we were in Greece.  In fact, we enjoyed one restaurant in Santorini so much we went back 3 times!  The third time, we got free lemon tart – delicious!  If you’re ever in Santorini (which I highly recommend!) try Aktaion in Firostefani.

Aktaion Restaurant - the best!

I’ve always been a fan of Greek salads, and the ones in Greece, obviously, are the best.  A thick hunk of marinated feta perched atop kalamata olives, cucumber, fantastic tomatoes, green capsicum and salad onions, generously drizzled with olive oil.

Greek salad

We tried some of the regional specialties as well, including fava bean balls, Santorini salad (fish instead of feta), zucchini pie, moussaka, omelette and deep fried fava, tomato, mint and onion fritters.  Julian was even brave enough to try Greek coffee, which apparently has the texture of dirt or sand…

Deep fried tomato (with fava, mint and onion)

Santorini salad (topped with fish)

Fava balls (with smoked mackerel)

Sea Bream

From here, I’m hoping our culinary experience will improve even more – we’re off to Rome today!

Greek coffee