Ghosts of Pompei.
Having learnt about Pompei in school, it was a must-go destination. You know the story, almost 2000 years ago, Mount Vesuvius erupted completely destroy Pompei below. An ancient city completely wiped out, covered in ash and lava. The city was a ghost town and it was neat how much of the city remains. You could walk between what would’ve been quarters of the old town. Shops, houses, gardens, bath houses, theatres and even a whore house. Paintings are still visible on some of the walls and there are old urns and vases scattered throughout.
The Holy City.
No visit to Rome is complete without a stop by visit to the Vatican City. This city-state is the smallest in the world, with only 900 people officially living in the city. Despite the size there’s a fair bit to see in this city. Well, if you want quality over quantity, then it has a lot to offer. The Museum alone has over 2000 rooms, filled with artwork from artworks from masters such as Michaelangelo and Rafael to more modern masters like Dali and Matisse. The Sistine Chapel was pretty cool, despite the annoying security guards yelling “NO PHOTOS!” throughout. St Peter’s Basicilla was definitely the grandest church I’ve seen so far. Far exceeded my expectations of how big it actually is inside. Columns soaring up into the ceiling with so many alters, statues and artwork on the wall.
Vatican City is also the most crowded destination so far. Where you go, there’s gonna be a big crowd. Queues stretched for over 100m to get into the Vatican alone. We jumped into a tour group to avoid the queues, and therefore avoid the heat.
All roads lead to Rome.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Not too sure what that means exactly, but from what all I saw, is that they can be a fairly rowdy and loud bunch throughout the hours. The heat was stifling during our stay in Rome and it was hard to do any prolonged walking. What’s cool about Rome is that where ever you go, you are surrounded by Rome’s history. From fountains, buildings, churches, and even just old ruins scattered between main roads. There are forums (piazzas) scattered throughout the old city. Some filled with artists and hawkers, others filled with market stalls, whilst some are just crowded by tourists. And each part of Rome seem to have a story behind it.
Unlike in other parts of the world where summer is the high season for partying, it seems Rome shuts down between July and August. Clubs are closed, and so are various shops. They escape the city heat to more cooler climates during the summer. Even the Pope does it.
Florence and the Machine.
A city famous for it’s art history and contribution to the art world. Where pretty much the Renaissance was started and influenced so many artists we now know, such as Leonardo Da Vinci and all the other ninja turtles. Pretty cool seeing original statutes and artworks from them scattered around the city and in the museums. Didn’t expect a city this size could have so much history, and it’s nice to see that a lot of that art and culture remains to this day, and the Florentines are definitely proud of that fact. Swarms of tours flock around the city though, so checking out the cathedrals and museums require an endless queue. The weather didn’t help the situation, often hitting the high 30s.
The Italians do love their drinking though, often seen drinking wine even in the early hours of the morning. Don’t know how they can sustain that for their lives, probably because it’s cheaper than drinking water.
Just a leaning tower of Pisa.
A must-do visit in Italy but probably didn’t need to stay here for the day. Overcrowded with tourists, with a lot of people flogging off souveniers spoil the sight of the famous leaning tower. Not to mention that it was a bloody hot day as well. One of the places you stop by, take a photo and move on. Nothing else to do in the city of Pisa, so we spent the rest of the day at the beach nearby.
Merchants of Venice
I don’t see why Paris is the city of love, because Venice should have that honour. Yes, it’s full of tourists and yes, it’s quite dirty and manky in a lot of parts, but that’s part of the charm of it all. A city to really get lost in. Literally. There are so many alleyways in this city, if you do not have a map and a good visual memory, you will get lost. The city is a labyrinth. We walked around in circles on countless times. There’s quite a buzz during the day, especially late in the afternoon when the city is packed full of people, but I prefer it at night when everyone has gone home (usually outside of Venice, as the only people who actually live in Venice are oldies), and when you get lost down the alley ways. There’s something ghostly and eerie about Venice in the dark. The streets are abandoned and hardly any lights are on. You could almost feel the ghost of Venice’s past come out and roam the streets.
Besides the alleys and canals, we visited San Marco Plaza, where the basicilla resides. Apparently Saint Mark’s relics lie there beneath the alter somewhere when they were stolen from Alexandria back in the 11th century.
City of romance wouldn’t have been complete with a gondola ride at sunset with my partner in crime. 100 euros for a half hour ride seemed pretty steep, so I won’t be rushing to do that again anytime soon.
Casino Royale
The last stop in France, and what better way than to finish it off in Monaco. The city of zero tax, more millionaires per capita anywhere else in the world, and a city so clean you can eat off the street. Monaco is one glamour city. No homeless people, no litter, and hardly a cigarette butt on the road. I’ve seen more luxury cars in a day in Monaco, than I would have seen in five years in Sydney. Oh, and there are a lot of super yachts. ALOT. Monaco doesn’t really have any stand out attractions unless you fancy nice cars and nice yachts, as that’s what people seem to take photos of the most. The famous casino is also very very small. There’s only one main public lobby, which has about 12 tables max (blackjack, roulette and craps) and one or two private rooms. That’s it. The interior is very nice though and you can see that no expense was spared. We also won a few hundred bucks as well! We can add it to the toll expenses, because they’re so faking expensive.
We finished off our visit with a hot lap or two around the infamous F1 track. Not quite a hot lap being stuck in traffic but cool to fly through the tunnel, and climb the infamous hill.
Very nice, Nice.
Now Nice is nice. Really nice. The party city of the French Riviera and probably the most popular one as well. It features a beach that probably stretches for about 3-4km, and a thriving eating and drinking scene. Unfortunately, like most other beaches in the French Riviera, it’s a pebble beach. Some Crocs would’ve came in handy trying to walk through those things. But I wasn’t complaining. The sun was out, people were out, it was just a beautiful day to be out. I got my tan on for sure. It was rather a tourist hot spot though, with people from England and the USA being the most heard accents throughout the entire city.
Unfortunately we were there on a Wednesday so we couldn’t check out some of the more proper night clubs that usually are open from Friday, but we managed to hit a karaoke bar and then a dingy little night club on the walk back. The DJ was crap, and they didn’t even have any bass in the speakers but we made our own fun of course. What was supposed to be an early night, ended up being a 4am romp through Nice.
Les Calanques
No visit to the French Riviera is complete without a stop-over to see ‘Les Calanques’ a series of gorges and inlets that stretches for over 20kms along the south-coast of France, between Marseille and Cassis. The trek to the main calque, ‘Calanque De En Veu’, required an 1.5 hour trek through some very steep and loose climbs, but the result at the end was out of this world. An inlet of clear blue water, running through the middle of a gorge that rises over 150m from the water. Amaze-balls.
The walk back to the car wasn’t so amaze-balls though. Finished the night with a local bouillabaisse that put us all into a food coma.
Avignon, France
Like Bordeaux, Avignon is another famous region in France that specialises in wine. Already having been on a wine visit to Bordeaux, we thought we’d give the chateaus a miss this time, and walk around the quaint little fortress town that still sits inside the old walls. It gives it a nice old-time feel to it. Only downside of this is that driving around the inside of the walls involved a lot of one-way tiny streets that leads you around in circles. Avignon is also famous for having the Palace of the Popes, where over 10 popes have lived during the early years dating back to the 13th century. A port town sitting in-between mainland France, and Italy gave it the perfect location.
