Coming home

We spent our last full day in Rome touring the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman forum, as well as revisiting the Spanish steps and the Trevi Fountain. At leat the weather was nice and I brought out the hat and tshirt for the first time since Dubai.
We also found a fabulous (and enormous) fabric shop where I bought some incredible fabric for a coat I'm making for Kate - eggplant wool and cashmere to go with the vintage black buttons I bought at the flea market in Florence. We've also heard about an even bigger fabric shop which we'll go to tomorrow before heading to the airport. I just hope I can fit more fabric in the suitcase!

Roma

Arrived in Rome yesterday on the last leg of our trip. We finally have some sunny weather! The crowds are about as bad as Venice and there are so many people on the street wanting to sell you things - in Florence it was umbrellas, here it's hats and sunglasses and everwhere it's fake handbags! So far we've seen the Spanish steps, the Trevi fountain, a big white building with giant statues of chariots and a guy on a horse, and various ruins and piazzas. We also went to St Peter's Basilica, which was incredible. Once again we're doing lots of walking - I packed plenty of bandaids which are getting used!
Speaking of incredible, we found a gelato place, Della Palma, which has the most amazing selection of types and flavours. You can get ordinary gelato, soy, mousse and yoghurt, in peanut butter, creme caramel, pistachio, etc - we reckoned about 70 flavours. I just have to make sure I keep up the walking!

Culture Overload

Today was definitely the culture highlight of the trip. We also wore out our feet and are now walking on bloody stumps!
We started the day by perving on David at the Accademia Gallery (magnificent) - you can't take photos of the real David but we saw two replicas around the city (which don't compare to the original). We continued on to the Basilica, the Uffizi Gallery, the Bardini Villa and the Pitti Palace. The Bardini had an exhibition by the dress designer Carpucci (I think that was his name!) who had some fantastic dresses. The Pitti Palace included the costume museum, also incredible. Each place had painting, frescoes, busts and statues. Saw the incredible Birth of Venus by Botticelli amongst many others. Outside the Uffizi Gallery were two buskers dressed as statues of Da Vinci and Cupid - a bit of street culture.
In between the galleries we went back to the markets, picked up out laundry from the laundromat, back to the hotel, stopped for hot chocolate, etc so we figured we've walked most of the streets of Florence. When we finally sat down for dinner, my feet were tingling and throbbing!

Shoes, lunch and shopping

Today was a very girly day - shoes, lunch and shopping! We started the day at the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe museum, had lunch at Gilli ( a famous Florentine restaurant opened in 1733) and then to the flea markets where we salivated over second hand furniture, light fittings and picture frames too big to take home. So we had to settle on vintage buttons and beads and another marcasite brooch.

Under the Tuscan sun

Today we had a wine and food tasting in Chianti, tuscany - even though it was raining and I don't like wine, it was quite pleasant. Wendy also was pleased that I don't like wine as she sat next to me! This was also evident later that evening when she was having her Baileys nightcap when she promptly knocked the glass into her handbag and on the curtains!

Culture in Florence

Arrived in Florence and immediately hit the street markets. Leather bags, belts and jackets abound - naturally I had to appease the gods with a purchase (see pic of weekend escape bag/carry-on luggage). This week it's food and wine, culture and obviously shopping!

Cinque Terre

In Cinque Terre for two days and the weather's been pretty strange. I'm wearing tshirts, sometimes with a jacket but also an umbrella as the rain comes om without warning. There are five villages connected by a train (or an arduous walk in most cases) and it could be pouring in one village then dry in the next. Two of the walks are closed due to landslides however we did the famous Lovers' walk.
The ferry only ran between the first and last village and it was an adventure just getting on the boat. The ferry came in as close as possible (there are rocks everywhere) and we walked up a gangplank on wheels which moved up and down with the rocking boat. At the village Corniglia, we got off the train and proceeded to walk up the stairs to the top. We looked up several times and there were still more stairs! We later discovered we were walking the "hundreds of steps" - we took the bus back to the station.
Another thing we discovered is that apparently Italians like to squat over the toilet! Fortunately our hotel has regular toilets!

Finally some sunshine!

We arrived yesterday at Cinque Terra with a bit of rain, however the sun has decided to make an appearance today. My photos from here should be spectacular.
We stopped at Milan on the way from Como and walked on the roof of the Duomo (amazing). When we got to Cinque Terra, the bus driver decided to try and drive further down the "no buses allowed" than he should have and almost got stuck trying to turn around. He ended up having to reverse back up the windy road! (see pics)

Learning in Italy

Yesterday and today were some educational parts of the trip. We toured some wool and silk factories and visited their outlet stores (of course!). We also visited a high school which specialises in fashion technology so the students come out as professionals in the textile and fashion fields. No wonder Italians make great designers!

Oh the rain

Travelled to Como yesterday, normally a very picturesque place with a lake and little villages and snow-capped mountains. Unfortunately it started raining when we arrived and hasn't really stopped. Today was the day for riding the ferry to look at the scenery on the lake, which is a bit hard to do through fogged-up windows! However we made the best of it and the scenery looked better on the way home. I'm now drying out my shoes and coat near the heater in my room ready for an assault on the wool and silk factories in the next few days. Fortunately my new suitcase expands! We also stopped at the town of Bellagio where I found a second-hand shop and bought some marcasite brooches for my collection - a gondola and another fly - so the day wasn't a total loss!

Italian cooking

Today we did a cooking class and made some really yummy food which we ate for lunch. We had vegetable tempura, risotto primavera, veal spezzatino, tiramisu and Venetian lemon sorbet. Yummo! After that we decided to do the tourist thing and went on a gondola ride, which was nice.

Dubai to Venice

So we've done Dubai - didn't spend as much money as I thought because on Fridays most of the shops are closed (holy day). We did manage to find a silk wholesaler where we could buy whole rolls of silk georgette for about $3.50 per metre! I've already sold 5 of the 25 metre roll to one of the women on the trip.
We've arrived in Venice where it's pretty cold, about 13 degrees. Taken lots of photos and been to the Murano glass museum. Also just had the most amazing hot white chocolate with hazelnut - just the thing for a cold wet afternoon!

How the other half lives

So we get to the airport and we're asked if we mind getting bumped to the next morning's flight. In return, they'll put us in a hotel for the night with dinner and breakfast, put us in business class and give us a free return flight to dubai another time. Hmm what to do? (I could definitely get used to business class!)