Jun 2006

After Italy, we headed (by train) in to Slovenia, where Heather had worked for a year when she left University. We were greeted at Ljubljiana station by Heather's friends Darinka & Natasha, along with Natasha's husband Jernejy (I hope I spelled that correctly!); we would be staying with Natasha & Jernejy for the first few days, before staying with Darinka in her apartment.

The following day, we drove (or were driven really) to the town of Bled which is north of Ljubljiana, and is dominated by an imposing castle overlooking a lake. Unfortunately the weather was not the greatest, and it seemed whenever we stepped out of the car, it started to rain. However, we did get a good chance to explore the castle, as well as visiting some nearby waterfalls.

The second day (being a Sunday) was very quiet in Ljubljiana (the town has a population of about 250,000), so we decided to do a day trip to the western part of Slovenia. Our first stop was at a lake where the water was a shade of blue that can only be described as copper sulphate; it was truly stunning to see. After this, we visited the castle where Natasha and Jernejy were married and a village built into a castle on a hill (sorry, I can't remember the name of the places).

The next couple of days, Heather and I did our own things as Natasha and Jernej were at work. The highlight was wandering around the old town Ljubljiana and climbing the hill where the castle sits. One thing I should mention about Ljubljiana is that it is a city virtually in the shadow of the Alps, so it seems that no matter where you turn, there is a beautiful view in the background. Slovenians are very lucky to have such beautiful views.

Later in the week, we moved in to Darinka's apartment and spent a few days with her. During this time, we headed to the coast (Slovenia has about 33km of coastline, so there's not much!) and spent a day wandering around in the sun. There were some very spectacular views, including seeing Venice in the distance! We also spent a day shopping for camping equipment as we will need them for our stay at Roskilde Festival. Unfortunately, I am now carrying an extra 10kgs in weight (and it's not from the cheap beer!!)

Following our five days or so in Napoli, we got back aboard a train and headed to Firenze, commonly known as Florence. The ride itself was pretty much like the last in that the compartment that we were in was filled to capacity and a few down the corridor, it was empty. Our carriage was pretty cosmopolitan in that the occupants were Alaskan, Argentian, Italian, Australian (Heather) and English (me). We tried having a conversation which quickly degenerated to sign language as there was no common language. Very surreal in all respects.

On arriving in Florence, we boarded a local train that took us to the small town where we had booked ourselves into a campsite and a shuttle bus would take us the remaining distance. The shuttle bus however never arrived, so after quick phone call to the campsite, they sent a taxi that they kindly covered the cost of. Then it was off to the (porta)cabin that we had hired. The campsite itself was very nice, having a number of restuarants, pools, etc. It is ideal for families visiting Italy, either by car & caravan or using the trains like ourselves.

The following day, we caught the shuttle bus back to the station to get the train to Florence. We had expected a minibus or something similar, but it actually turned out to be one of those tourist buses in the shape of trains. Climbing aboard that to be driven through the town doesn't do much for the street cred, let me tell you.

On arrival in Florence, our first target was the National Academy where the statue of David resides. One look at the queues disuaded us from that, it would have taken about 5 hours to get in and we were only spending the one day in Florence. We did however have a back up plan: the statue of David originally resided in a piazza along with a number of other works, however the town authorities decided the special attention they were getting from the pigeon population made it necessary to move them somewhere where they wouldn't be 'christened'. The originals were then replaced with reproductions so that the spirit of the square wasn't spoilt. Although it wasn't the original, it was probably more how Michelangelo had intended it to look.

When we returned to the campsite, we found that the German Woman's Harley Davidson group had moved in. Now, maybe it was just me but there seemed to be an awful lot of testosterone in the group (the handlebar moustaches gave it away). Actually, thinking about it: leather trousers, thick moustaches. It was a Village People revival!

The rest of the time was spent hanging around the campsite. Heather was ecstatic when we managed to find a replay of the Australia-Greece football match. I was ecstatic at the range of beers available.

Following Florence, it was back aboard another train and off to the small town of Siena. We had intended to stay in Siena, but there was no room in the inn (or hostels). As such, we only spent a day there - leaving our backpacks in a left luggage store (we weren't going to lug them around the town).

Siena is generally off the tourist route as it is a small town, with not an awful lot there. It has an abundance of medieval buildings with the cathedral in the centre. This cathedral houses the head of St Catherine, preserved in a glass jar for all and sundry to look at. I'm not entirely she would be happy with that state of affairs, it certainly felt a bit macabre to be looking at it.

After Siena, it was off to Pisa and to check into the campsite we were staying.

We only had the one full day in Pisa, so we naturally spent it looking at the sights of the city. We headed straight to the Piazza Miracali where the famous leaning tower is located, although much like everything else in Italy, it is not the only thing in the piazza and there are generally more impressive (and less well known) buildings, statues, etc. In common with the leaning tower, the 2 other buildings in the piazza are also leaning although not by as much. I guess this was the architect's only commissioned work, for fear that he would end up levelling the whole Italy. One thing we noticed was that a lot of tourists in an effort to be humourous or original, take pictures of themselves either holding the tower up or pushing the tower down. We didn't however.

The rest of Pisa is pretty much like any other Italian city, with a river running through it. We also realised that a day in Pisa was long enough, especially after visiting so many Italian cities.

After Pisa, we boarded another train (there's going to be a lot of train travel during this holiday) and headed to the Cinque Terre (or Chinky Terry as I christened it, to Heather's disgust). These consist of 5 villages built along the Tuscan coastline that have been UNESCO listed as they use agricultural methods that were being lost over time; getting the UNESCO status gave them the motivation to keep them.

The apartment that we stayed in was located in the Riomaggiore and had splendid views over the natural harbour. Being in an apartment, it gave us the opportunity to cook our own meals at night rather than going out to restaurants - although we only did that the one night out of 4.

On our first full day, we did the 8km coastline walk stopping off at the odd cafe to add to increase our caffeine/blood ratios. Fortunately the weather was nice and sunny, so we were able to get ourselves a decent tan in the process.

It was while in the CT, that England played a football friendly against Hungary. Fortunately our apartment had a tv with access to Eurosport, so come kick off we were esconced on the bed with a beer or two for the game to kick off.