Category Archives: Italy

Erin & Rhys’ Top Fives of European Travel

Posted on by
5

top fives

All of these top fives are in my opinion, you can take it or leave it … I would take it! We had a freaking ball!
:)
Top five places
  1. Santorini
  2. Athens
  3. Murren
  4. Bordeaux
  5. Granada
Top five hotels/hostels or holiday rentals
  1. Rome – Roma Guest House
  2. Edinburgh – Grey Friars Attic
  3. Santorini – Astra Suites
  4. Madrid – Suites Viena Madrid
  5. Berlin – Sir F.K Savigny
Top five cities for food
  1. Athens
  2. London
  3. Granada
  4. Barcelona
  5. Murren
Top five non-english speaking cities for TV
  1. Portugal
  2. Athens
  3. Amsterdam
  4. Barcelona
  5. Rome (if you have a SKY box)
Top five easy transport
  1. London
  2. Zurich
  3. Lyon
  4. Athens
  5. Madrid
Top five moments
  1. Arriving at Santorini hotel and seeing the view
  2. Being kids at Euro Disney in Paris
  3. Playing in snow in Murren
  4. Dinner at restaurant in Barcelona with live band (amazing atmosphere)
  5. Watching the dolphin show at Oceanographic in Valencia
Top five mess ups
  1. Getting lost and running for hours in 40 degree heat trying to find way back - in Nice, France
  2. Going to your busabout tour at 5.30am and locking keys in your holiday rental one day before you were actually meant to – in Athens, Greece
  3. Jumping around and playing in the snow with a heavy backpack on, ending up with a pinched nerve in back - in Murren, Switzerland
  4. Cutting finger on tin can – in Lyon, France
  5. Trying to operate washing machines – anywhere in Europe
Top five friendliest cities
  1. Does Perth Western Australia count?
  2. Liverpool
  3. Edinburgh
  4. Murren
  5. Athens
  6. Madrid
Top five most expensive cities
  1. London
  2. Zurich
  3. Geneva
  4. Bern
  5. Lucerne
Top five photos
1. Bordeaux – water walk
2. Santonorini – Horizon and me
3. Bordeaux – Reflection
4. Shilthorn – Air Snow
5. Lucerne – Puppy Dog Eyes
I’m not sure I could explain why these are my favourite photos, it has a lot to do with how they make me feel when I look at the photos and how I felt at the time they were being taken. I love them, but it was hard to pick 5!
All food and flower pics have a big place in my heart though so here is a recap!… sorry had to add ;)
I love food! I love Travel! I love Life!
E
Photos ©Erin McKenzie

Venice day Two

Posted on by
3

Day 53

30th August

Todays plans were to see St Mark’s square, the basilica, Rialto Bridge, The Peggy Guggenheim Museum and a Gondola ride! The Guggenheim museum is closed on Tuesdays so there went that plan pretty quick, which is a shame but we kept on track for everything else.

Rhys has had an obsession with finding good pizza served by the slice after seeing an episode of Everybody loves Raymond years ago so when we came across a buzzing little pizza place that sold by the slice we had to get in on it. I must say … it was probably one of the best slices of pizza I have ever had! Very tasty! We sat on the step and Rhys made friends with the birds by feeding them bits of crust haha! and now he thinks the birds are following him around europe because we see the same ones everywhere. Very cute.

After a quick bite we followed our map over the bridge to head to St Mark’s. Took some photos a long the way. There are so many art galleries in Venice and we found a really great one that painted political and social comments in cartoon style. It was very cool. In the center of the gallery was an amazing statue of Jason of the Argonauts cutting off Ronald McDonalds head haha. Very clever art, it got a lot of peoples interest.

We got to the square and the place was flooded, people were walking through the water laughing and playing, but its a pretty sad reality that Venice still hasn’t fixed the rising water levels. They have a plan that won’t be put into action for many years but it would be sad to think that some of these buildings will be badly damaged in the meantime!

The Basilicas first level with its beautiful mosaic floor was also flooded and we had to walk in on a platform. Again on entry they commented on my knees showing and I had to buy a shawl off them to cover the 2cm of my knee that was showing, seriously 2cm haha and again I got all angry about it… I really need to not take it personally haha but I saw about 15 girls and guys showing a lot more leg than me… urghh oh well

Then we wondered the streets and looked at all the shops, you could get lost in there for hours! Rhys found a chocolate shop and bought himself a chocolate granita and a few chocolates and biscuits. It looked so unappetising. I don’t really like chocolate all that much and there was that much cocoa in his drink … gross! haha I bought some fruit after to balance out the unhealthy chocolate snack.

We walked the the Rialto Bridge, well more stumbled upon since we had no idea where we where going haha. Rhys got 2 granitas along the way, for himself. Healthy kid.

Then we walked for longer and chilled in a park for a little while, which was nice and Rhys played around with my camera. He will be a pro by the time we get back!

We realized we had walked our way off the island so we jumped on a ferry and went back in the direction of our hotel to get a gondola ride since it was almost sunset.

We found our Gondola driver, he wanted to charge 100 euro since it was past 7pm, but  Rhys pointed out it was only 7:04 so he let us have the 80 euro standard charge. Woo! 

The ride was OK, it had to be done, but its a bit awkward. Sitting relaxing while this poor dude has to paddle you around … haha! The views were nice as we went though because the sun was going down.

We went straight out for dinner afterwards for our last pasta in Italy :(

We walked to the square again so we could hear one of the many Orchestras play before we got some food. The restaurant we went to was good, I had a great lasagne. It was a nice way to end our time in Italy. Tomorrow we are off to Innsbruck since we were able to get our tickets mailed to our hotel here in Venice so I am excited to see the Austrian Tyrollean Alps wooo!

Venice

Posted on by
Reply

Day 52

29th August

So today was … interesting! we had another 5am wakeup to get to the airport, which Rhys loved! He checked the itinerary about 3 times to make sure it was the right day to be awake this early, just so we didn’t have a repeat of earlier events haha! Got dressed packed and ready. We thought we would take the metro to save a few dollars since we want to recoup some of our losses from an expensive meal last night haha!

The ticket machine wouldnt take our money so we tried to get a ticket from the booth, the lady was taking her sweet time, and some old woman kept pushing in front of us to keep asking questions. By the time we get our tickets we ended up missing our train by about 1min, but thats OK we got the next one. We got on our train and arrived at the station to change lines, but we had missed another one because of our timing on the first train and we had a 6 min wait … still plenty of time to get to the airport. *Breath*

When our next train arrived, Rhys and I were relieved. The train should go straight through and we will have just enough time to check in and get this flight (We only had a half our time slot to check in) Out of nowhere the train stops and we have to get off and get another one. Another 10 minute wait. Now I am starting to think we might not make it. When we got on the new train it kept driving slowly and stopping for a few minutes in between stations. By now we were nowhere near the airport, check in had opened and we had about 20 minutes to get checked in and head to the plane.

I had pretty much come to realise we wouldn’t get the flight … urghh to negative thoughts, but I wanted to have a plan if we missed the flight because this was the cheapest flight I could find and it was over $250 each, I didn’t want to have to fork out more money. Isnt it ironic that you catch public transport to save money, but it could cost you more? haha

The train arrived with less than 10 mins to spare. We raced to the aiport. I typed in my details on the machine and got our boarding passes like a pro (Rhys was pretty impressed) and got to the counter about a minute before the cut off … the lady said we needed to hurry to get to our gates so we ran there too and made it in enough time that we even had to wait in line … WOOO for lines!!! We are getting better at this travel business! HAHA We win this time! As you can imagine I was very happy to be on that plane!

Agean airlines are 100x better than easy jet, we got breakfast! Hell yes! In our cutlery pack there was a sachet of salt, Rhys took this as an indicator that his scrambed egg breakfast needed this full sachet to make it tasty, before even trying the eggs … haha you can imagine how bad this would make his food, but it made me laugh for about 10 minutes which got rid of any stress I had from earlier in the day! He is too funny.

We got to Venice nice and early in the morning and we had plenty of time to make our way to the hotel, we got tickets for the water bus, which is basically a metro on water! Awesome! and we headed to the closest station and had a casual stroll to our hotel. We were very early so we left our bags in reception and went for a wonder. This place is beautiful! I have been told its depressing, its sinking and the people are miserable, but this isn’t the experience I had. I love it here! The sound of water lapping against the walls is very soothing and all of the chipped paintwork and discoloured buildings gives it a kind of Disney charm to it … haha in my perspective anyways.

On out travels we found a huge stack of IKEA catalogues … OH MY! MUST HAVE ONE!! While I was doing the right thing finding the guy delivering them and asking if I could please have one … unknown to me Rhys was being sneaky and taking one off the guys trolley haha so we both ran up to each other excited that we got one hahaha … We are idiots! haha then we went back to the hotel to take our bags up, relax, read our catalogues and then get ready to explore more. The room was basic, but very cute with all the ornate furniture and it had everything we needed, including a fridge for Rhys to keep up his coke (coca-cola) habit …  The boy cant start his day without a coca-cola and a redbull … tsk tsk!

We went out to explore more of Venice, we walked over the bridge looked at the buildings and got a feel for the area, really we were just scoping out our next place to eat! haha

We soon got hungry, surprise! we found a really pretty little place with stone walls lit well with candles everywhere and they had a menu that appealed to us. I ordered the mussels and clams since it was so great in Rome and we ordered scallops and the carpaccio to share. Rhys ordered himself a Diavola which is a pepperoni pizza over here, and according to ‘Rick Steve’s travel guide to Italy” is a huge hit with the kids … haha and Rhys! His new addiction.

After we went for a stroll along the water until late, it’s very pretty here at night. Tomorrow more exploring!

E

Rome – Day Six

Posted on by
1
Day Thirty-Seven
While we have been in Rome we have been watching the TV series Rome at night to get a little bit of background information! Also because we are TV addicts and it was in the apartment, in English so we couldn’t resist. I would definitely say it has enhanced our experience here! Also as part of my roman education Rhys has been doing some wikipedia research of all the places we have been visiting so that I have some background information when we get there! haha My own free personal tour guide!
Today we visited Ancient Rome and took a look at the Ruins of the Palatine and the Roman forum. Which was very interesting, but very sad that there were these amazing buildings that we can’t see in their full glory today. We got lost in there for hours and Rhys gave me his best tour information … haha only lasted about 10 mins but its more than I knew before I arrived.
We walked and sat on the steps in one of the big Plazas and people watched for a little while, which is always nice.
Soon after we walked until we were back in the city and we decided to look for a place to have some dinner. Our plan – find the most abandoned alleyway and get lost until we find a restaurant, since the hidden ones are meant to be best and we keep accidentally eating near the square and getting bad food haha!
We found a buzzing place that we had to line up for in a dodgy alleyway It sat about 60 people and the place was full! Perfect! We sat down picked our meals and as I started to order the waiter wasn’t even listening to me … he was looking into the distance, but I wasn’t there for the  service I was there for the food.
I ordered the scampi pasta, and was told no seafood so I got the Carbonara, Rhys got the “pepperoni pizza” which he was told was vegetarian haha so he ordered the salami pizza instead… This is going well! I then tried to order another dish to share and the waiter cut me off took our menus and left and I had to yell out to ask for our wine … Oh well they lost 20 euro straight there haha. Our meals came and the pasta was drowned in pepper! It was edible but very hot on the tongue … shame because I was sure the food HAD to be good here! … guess not! Rhys’ pizza was great though.
We asked for the dessert menu and never received it! We then asked for the bill and our waiter stood and had a cigarette, while the 20 tables he was in charge of sat and waited, watching their food go cold at the kitchen while he finished smoking! wow! Bad! Then when we went to pay the bill he had added 7.50 euro onto the bill, which we assumed was service charge, we paid it too, but then he asked for another 15% as a tip! bit of a nerve to ask for tips, we usually pay tips anyway but we have never been told to pay a tip! haha I thought that was usually for GOOD service, or even mediocre but not terrible service! haha When I asked what the 7.50 that was added on he said “that is other charges”? haha ok! We paid the tip and left but gave big hints to the people lining up that it wasn’t worth the wait! Crazy, funny night!
We took a quick stroll to see the Trevi at night. Rhys seemed to think it would be quiet at night but when we got there, there seemed to be more people than during the day! I loved all the dodgy people trying to “give” you Roses, they kept thrusting them at me and I was dodging them like the plague haha the I also thought the men selling bubble blowers were hilarious because they actually blew a heap of bubbles at your face to get your attention! I’m not sure how many sales they would make that way. Maybe the JB boys could try that! I think not
On the way home there was an amazing dance and opera performance happening at the Spanish steps! We watched it for a little while and then decided to leave to beat the rush at the metro haha oh boy! bad idea! We walked to the nearest metro went inside and followed it through, before we knew it, we had walked about 3km underground and we never found a train line, we just ended up in the middle of the Borghese Gardens! Picture here is Rhys and I in the station that looked like something out of clockwork orange haha
When we got to the top there were so many other people lost! Even a few Romans were laughing that even they had no idea how they got there! It was like a movie! oh man!
Rhys decided we should walk through the park haha! I thought this could have been my end walking through that park but I had myself ready to fight if someone came by haha can you imagine this? what a dork… not sure why because as we strolled we came across an amazing restaurant and there were people walking through the park everywhere! Obviously a very safe and well known area haha We found our way back down the hill to a more familiar metro only to find that by the time we got there, the last train had left. Oh we are getting good at this! and do you think there were any taxis? nahh! hahaha We walked to the square where 10 taxis at a time wait for fares and there were none there either! I saw one over the other side of the road after 45 mins waiting and bolted to get it! and the jerk charged us 6euro before we even got in the thing! arghhh! when will these stupid things stop happening to us! haha but we actually find this the funniest part of our trip! What else will we get ourselves into
Our time in Rome is over, as is the entire first season of Rome! haha we have spent our time here wisely I think; relaxing, eating, cooking and sightseeing thats always a good combo!
Next to Greece! Greek Islands soon!! BRING IT ON!!!!
E

Rome – Day Five

Posted on by
Reply
Day Thirty-Six
Today is the day to explore the Vatican Museums. This was not part of our Roma pass as the Vatican is actually classed as a separate country, the smallest in the world in fact. If you didn’t know this already theres a little trivia for you! A city of about 1000 people. The queues were pretty big to get in and I recommend buying your tickets online in advance, but we thought we would brave the queues since we love them so! hahaha We got some icey drinks to cool us down before the trek through the Vatican Museum! Rhys seems to think ice drinks are the cure for everything haha
We walked through on our way to the Sistine Chapel, You get to go through what used to be the popes home until the 1930′s, which is now obviously a museum. There were fantastic sculptures, paintings and tapestries. The detail in the paintings along the walls was incredible! It was a long and interesting walk getting to the chapel and when we got in I was expecting to be blown away with how amazing the art was. Unfortunately the thousands of people, everywhere you looked in every spare space, the security yelling at the top of their lungs “NO PHOTO” over and over kind of ruined the effect for me! I was so amazed with the art on the way through also that for me it was slightly anti-climactic. To be honest I couldn’t wait to get out! I had a good look though and then planned my route to get out of there! haha
We headed along to see the Saint Peters Basilica. The lines were huge! We queued up anyway in the hope that it would be worth the wait. When we got to the front of the line, went through the security gate and headed up to the entry, we were stopped by one of the security men and he pointed in the other direction and said something in italian … still don’t really know what he said but another person told me I wasn’t allowed in because my dress was above my knees haha … When I say this – it was about 3cm above my knee. hahaha! There were heaps of people turned away because their shoulders where showing and all sorts. I was angry mainly because I wasn’t wearing something showy by any means and I couldn’t believe they didn’t think to tell people before they lined up for an hour! The feminist inside me wasn’t happy about being rejected for wearing a dress when I could see statues of mens penises everywhere I looked and thats acceptable? hahaha anyyywayyyss I understand its a religious place and I respect that! I was just overcome with an initial anger because I don’t like lining up to be rejected haha
After we went on the hunt to find good pizza! We found what looked like really quiet great little alleyways with restaurants and we were sure we hit the jackpot. We found a really beautiful looking restaurant and ordered our meals. Rhys got the Bruschetta, the pizza and a glass of wine and I ordered the lemon chicken and potatoes (not very italian I know) and i also got a nice crisp glass of white wine.
The meals didn’t have any Italian love put into them which was a bit sad! It’ s a sin to eat bad food in Italy and we were very disappointed! But we had food in our bellies which is the main thing as I keep telling myself and we walked down the street to get to the main part of town. We only walked a short distance when we found ourselves in another square … no wonder the food was bad, we were practically eating in a square and we didn’t even know it! Arghh hahaha! This square made up for our disappointing meal! There was art and music and street performances! Mum you would have liked the music it was like that pipe music performance that used to come to our school, it was great! and the art was even better! If I knew it would have transported well I would have bought many pieces
We did some shopping in the main part of town and I bought a beautiful dress that I have no idea how I am going to get around Europe without damaging but I had to have it! I will be wearing it in photos coming up soon I hope haha!
We went and sat on what I think was the spanish steps and then we decided we would get a horse and cart somewhere closer to home but the 200 euro price tag was off putting! haha they kept trying to lower the price we got them to 80 euro but still decided a 2 euro metro ride could be just as romantic hahaha.

Rome – Day Four

Posted on by
Reply

Day Thirty-Five

In the morning I made some carbonara so that we had full bellies before a big day of exploring. (other pics of food made on other days)
Today we went to explore the Colosseum we bought a Roma Pass which I highly recommend, you get your first two attractions free, free transport and you usually don’t have to queue, so we didn’t have to line up! and at the Colosseum you don’t want to have to line up … we walked straight through, and only because we bought passes at a quite little kiosk across the road. We almost felt guilty haha
Also pictured here is Rhys’ new ‘thing’ he has started taking pics of himself everywhere with his iphone … haha each to their own, I think he doesn’t think I get enough photos of him as it is!
After we caught a bus into the main part of town and then we walked to the Pantheon, which was pretty difficult to find since we are terrible with maps! HAHA We found this little building that kinda looked the same and we took pictures in front, haha it took us about 10 minutes to realise it wasn’t the Pantheon at all haha. With a little more walking we found it and we were excited about getting to use our Roma pass and skipping the queue. Turns out there is no queue and its a free attraction haha! Bonus!
The Pantheon was very cool but I would love to be here on a day where it is raining! I’m sure seeing the rain pour into the building would be a pretty epic thing to witness.
We sat on the steps outside and people watched again for a while, there were so many people around just hanging out chatting, or eating in the square so we were entertained for quite a while.
We saw one of the Gladiator guys out the front who you can pay to get photos with – but he was sitting on his phone texting, haha not very authentic! Although we read in the news that cops have been dressing up as these guys to bust other gladiator wannabes trying to make money doing it near the main attractions, pretty funny!
Rhys and I seem to have hit a wall in our travels were we are very tired most of the time. It’s probably because we know we have six days here, which is the longest duration in a place other than Scotland so we are making the most of being lazy while we can. Getting up from those steps near the Pantheon was a real challenge! We just wanted to go to sleep!
We managed to get some energy together and we headed down to one of the main squares near the metro to have a drink. We don’t like to eat on the square but drinking is great, you can chill with lots to see and listen to! When our drinks arrived so did about 3 plates of complimentary snacks! I love that the Europeans like to balance their alcohol with food. Very sensible and very delicious! haha
E

Rome – Day Three

Posted on by
Reply

Day Thirty-Four

After a nice breakfast in the morning and some home made italian coffee, made in a real italian coffee maker, we walked down past the Vatican again and headed to the main part of Rome. As we walked over the bridge there were love locks all over the bridge, which is a custom that originated in Paris from what I have read. People put there names on the lock and attatch them to the bridge as a sign of their lasting love. Very cute!
We found a beautiful cathedral along the way too with amazing paintings and stone work, one of many in Rome, it was very beautiful!
Along the way we stumbled across a hairdresser and Rhys was finally able to find a hair wax that was to his satisfaction! Thankfully! We have spent half the holiday hunting for something suitable haha. We got a bite to eat for a bit of an energy burst to get us through the rest of the walk. The Ravioli was delicious and so was Rhys’ pasta but it was very spicy haha poor Rhys felt like he had almost burnt his lips off! haha
We continued up the street on the hunt for the Trevi fountain, once we found the main streets it was easy enough to find the sights. We headed to the Trevi fountain to make a few wishes and get a couple photos, we got one with Rhys’ hair wax of course! haha
After walking through the main shopping strip and grabbing some roasted chestnuts to snack on mmm we headed back, we decided to walk the whole way to see if it would take long … IT TOOK FOREVER! haha!
That night we were going to go to a Lazio vs Sociedad friendly match at the stadium olimpico, but when we got there they weren’t selling tickets at the door and the ticket office over the bridge was closed, what a trek for nothing! Poor Rhys… I think he was pretty excited about catching a game! :( We went home and watched it on TV … not really the same! We will catch another game elsewhere though
E

Rome – Day Two

Posted on by
Reply

Day Thirty-Three

Our first day here we caught up with washing and we went to the supermarket to do Rhys’ 100 euro quickie bag so he can pick ingredients for me to cook him meals throughout the week. The fresh produce in Italy is pretty great! You can get quite a lot for 100 euro!
We walked down to St Peters square to have a look at the architecture of St Peters Basilica and get a feel for where the Vatican is for a visit on another day. It was a nice stroll down to see in the afternoon, we hung around the area for a while sat in the Piazza and people watched for a while until we felt hungry enough to head back for me to start cooking.
While cooking there was a knock on the door and the owners of the apartment came round to wish Rhys a happy Birthday and they brought a couple cupcakes, very sweet!
I made Rhys an appetiser of fig with prosciutto and cooked him a nice meal of ‘surf and turf’. Fillet steak with scampi drizzled with a yummy sauce made from the stock of the two served with potatoes and a fresh salad. Quite good if I don’t say so myself!
E

Rome – Day One

Posted on by
4

Day Thirty- Two

August 9th

Today is Rhys’s birthday! I got up early, got ready and snuck out the hotel in the morning to get some little presents for Rhys and the plan was to bring him breakfast in bed. Didn’t really go as planned, I walked around for about an hour and a half with nothing open because it seems like nothing in Europe opens before 10:30 …haha There was a little magazine stall open on the side of the road and as I walked past something caught my eye. It was a little pinnochio keyring, which funnily enough I had once bought for Rhys before but he broke it bit by bit haha … Cant believe I am half way across the world and I found the same one! So I had to buy that! I soon found a supermarket so I had to change my original birthday present plans and buy him snacks, which he LOVED! I bought him a bunch of packs of m&m’s other chocolate and some coke and redbull. Sucked that I couldn’t get him the other stuff I had planned, but we have other plans for the rest of the week to make up for me not being able to get him much.

I made a birthday card out of a postcard haha and I put 100 euros in for him to do a 100 euro quickie bag at the supermarket to pick ingredients for me to make him dinners in Rome  I also gave him money for him to buy some T- Shirts later.

We will also be going to a soccer game in Rome on the 12th for his birthday, which he is happy about.

Today though is a train day, which sucks and we are headed to our apartment in Rome. The train ride was pretty smooth, I fell asleep too quick and we were in a booth sitting across from people and I am pretty sure I was in that deep a sleep I was drooling on myself haha! HOT!

We got to Rome, caught the metro and found our apartment. The owner Gillian met us at the door and took us to our apartment. It is stunning!! We weren’t sure what to expect, but when we got inside it was spacious and perfectly decorated! You can tell that the owners have a real attention to detail, because everywhere you look there are cute little touches that make you feel like you are at home.


Gillian showed us around, showed us how to work everything and then left us to settle in. She had made us little pizzas as a welcoming snack – which is adorable! There are books on Rome, maps, display folders where they have given suggested things to do in Rome and maps with the closest shops and restaurants! You can tell they put a lot of love into their holiday rental! Love it!

We have Wifi here and Sky TV which we can put some shows in English THANK GOD! haha and of course the best bit is our own kitchen!! There are herbs and spices, a full wine rack, pastas and all sorts for us to use if we like and we will just add it to our bill, all at very reasonable prices! So great!

We felt very welcomed here and I HIGHLY recommend this place to anyone! This is called “Roma Guest house” It’s in the Vatican area.

We have our own balcony too and the place smells like potpourri, very cute

Pictured here also is Rhys’ chocolate birthday snacks! haha


I think Woodro is going to like it here! haha

We settled into the room, unpacked some of our stuff and checked out some of the tourist stuff on the net and in the books that were in the apartment. Soon the day was over and it was getting dark. Gillian told us if you want to eat somewhere special the restaurant just accross the road is fantastic and they spoil you. Perfect! This was the spot for Rhys’ birthday dinner!

The restaurant was called “Osteria Della Forchetta”. The menus were adoreable, all hand written beautifully in pencil, but unfortunately not in English, but we all know this is usually where the best food is to be had. The waiter was fantastic, he translated it all for us, which was above and beyond what he needed to do and we decided to go with his recommendations.

Entrees – The clam and mussels, and the seafood salad. My entree of clams and mussels was to die for!!! It was in a white stock that was so rich and delicious, when I had finished with the mussels and clams I wanted to sip the juice from the bowl! Rhys enjoyed his fresh seafood salad too! This was a good start!!

Mains – I got the lobster pasta and Rhys got the Salted Scampi. The pasta was a little salty but the lobster itself was like something I have never tasted before. When you have lobster in Perth is is chewy and tasteless, probably because it has been frozen before you buy it. But here it was delicious, soft white meat! Yumm!

The salted scampi was good, fiddely to eat, but I have no problems getting into my food with my hands haha since I was probably 20 before I wanted to use cutlery anyways.

After mains I went inside to “go to the toilet” but really I went and spoke to the waiter about possibly putting a candle on a dessert for Rhys. I got him to pretend to take our order anyways when really the only option was chocolate cake with chocolate sauce to get the candle haha. Lucky because as soon as Rhys heard that he was sold! haha

The cake came out, Rhys blew out his candle and he said his birthday was now complete. So glad I was able to get him a candle on his birthday! Satisfied after an amazing meal we headed back to our apartment for a couple wines and some rest for our day tomorrow which will be all about fresh food markets and shopping for cooking in my amazing kitchen! haha

E

Florence

Posted on by
1

Day Thirty-One

August 8th

We had seen most of the things in Florence that we wanted to see so today was all about food! We chilled out most of the morning and then we walked the streets looking at more menus to find a good place to eat.

We found a little place called Ristorante Angels which had a really beautiful interior. The food was lovely simple flavours, but delicious! We ordered the Bruchetta as an entree, I got the butter, sage sauce Ravioli and Rhys ordered the “Florentine steak”. The waitress skipped our bruschetta, obviously didnt hear us and we only got mains, which was disappointing because the food we did receive was delicious!

After lunch we headed along to see Michelangelo’s house, or one of should I say … not really worth a look in, I doubt he even lived here long and when Rhys asked the ticket guy if he really lived here, the guy just laughed. Haha! No it was pretty cool, there were a couple of his pieces here, mainly the uncompleted stuff and there were art works by other people that were donated to his descendants, that lived in the house after he passed.

Then we just wandered the streets of Florence for longer until we got lost, which I think we are now finding fun, then you have to test your memory to get back, or cheat and use the map haha!

We got back to the hotel had a rest and then we decided to grab some dinner! We went back to a restaurant we passed last night that was too busy and there were lines out the front. There were people out the front again tonight and Rhys and I were both undecided whether to line up. I went inside to put our name down and join the queue and when we went in they let us straight through. Not really sure why people were all hanging outside haha but oh well! We were in!

It was a very busy place! Two levels, rustic wood panelled walls and brick work. Florescent lighting and basic looking food. We were probably expecting too much, but I guess we got a very authentic experience. The waiters pretended to understand what we wanted when we asked for 2 coca-colas that we never received… twice haha pretty sure coca-cola is the same in every language but they seemed to understand everything else. We got the bruschetta, and crostini for entree and I got the melon and prosciutto. For mains – the lasagna and Rhys got the meat spaghetti. Meals were fine but everything seemed to taste the same and Rhys described it as cans of braised steak haha which he said was nice … nothing wrong with it but not what we expected! haha!

Afterwards we walked through the main strip. We saw a street performer that was entertaining at the start until he kept plucking people out of the audience because he wasn’t funny on his own. He even made a little girl cry and scared the shit out of a few dogs … So I snuck away, he saw me trying to get away and made stupid faces at me but I didn’t care … stupid performer

Then we had some gelato, granitas and people watched on the steps till late. Tomorrow is Rhys’ birthday and my plan is to get up early to sneak out the hotel to get him something since he hasn’t let me buy anything and wont let me leave his side to do a birthday shop haha

E