We got into Florence nice and early on the bus – the bus driver was crazy (as fits the description of the majority of Italian drivers) and was tearing along narrow, one lane, cobblestoned roads at least 60km/h! So we were there about 9.30am, nicely in time to beat the majority of the crowds and the worst of the heat. The architecture is stunning, the detail on the buildings incredible.
On the Duomo, there are so many carved figures as well as beautiful frescoes. Even the tile work brought to mind the Taj Mahal. It is a mediaeval city so the streets are very narrow, and cobblestoned; most of the pavements are single-file only and you can’t put an arm out into the road or you’d possibly lose it to a bus tearing past! Also the plan is very complicated, numerous piazzas (squares) joined by roads that fan out like the arms of an octopus. At one stage we walked down three blocks and then looked back along another road to realise we’d only come one street!
Now we are at Lago Trasimeno, was a nice easy relaxing drive, less people in this part of Italy. Our main motivation for being here is the lake – it’s quite lovely and very warm to swim in. We got a bit of a surprise when we went for our first swim though; you have to walk out about 500m to get water over knee-deep. It’s also got a bit of a muddy bottom so occasionally your feet sink into the mud on the walk out, Yuk! Lovely and refreshing though. Is a tiny bit cooler here too, still hot but much more bearable.
We’ve just visited a little walled village (Castiglione Del Lago) – with a fortress at one end, overlooking the lake (but forgot the camera, damn). It had lots of very interesting foodie shops – Jenny, Simone & Karen you would have been in heaven! Even I couldn’t resist the beautiful pasta shapes & colours so bought a packet as well as a packet of flavouring – ingredients in English include truffles, mushrooms and garlic. We also bought a lump of parmesan cheese to grate on top – tonight’s tea sorted!
Later in the day we went to Assissi – well worth the effort – I’m running out of superlatives for these places so I’ll just say it was really lovely. The temptation was to fall into this fountain but I managed to retain my dignity. The town is famous for being the burial place of St Frances of Assissi and beyond that I’m a little vague.
It’s got about 7 churches – the four we got to were beautiful; lots of detailed paintings on the ceilings and the walls and beautiful statues.
Why didn’t we get to all seven you may ask...? Well, there were distractions - such as a really good pizza restaurant, brilliant ice-cream parlours, and this cake shop – also it is still very hot and the streets are steep. Also Gus was protesting that he’s never spent so much time in church in his life!
Tonight we are parked/camped at the Grotte di Frasassi, it is a large cave system which we’ll visit in the morning. One of the attractions is that it’s supposed to be only about 14 deg inside, and we’re advised to take a sweatshirt. Hard to believe when it’s still about 32 outside at 9pm!
The cave system was amazing but unfortunately not allowed to take photos – huge stalactites and stalagmites and columns – we saw through 5 rooms, about 1.5km. The first one was absolutely huge – 240m high, it was only discovered in 1971 by men coming through a hole in the top – they were looking for caves but I bet they were blown away by what they found. Apparently they dropped a stone in and it took 6 seconds to reach the bottom so they came back a few days later with longer ropes! It was also blissfully cool, we didn’t even put our jerseys on, just enjoyed the sensation of being cool. We then drove out to the Adriatic Coast. We had planned to camp here but the camping grounds we saw were on a thin strip of land between two busy roads and a railway line! Also the camping grounds and beaches were packed so we decided to keep going onto Bologna. We’ve found a nice shady campsite with a pool, and taken to cold showers and cold beers, god it’s hot - about 37deg apparently...
We got into Florence nice and early on the bus – the bus driver was crazy (as fits the description of the majority of Italian drivers) and was tearing along narrow, one lane, cobblestoned roads at least 60km/h! So we were there about 9.30am, nicely in time to beat the majority of the crowds and the worst of the heat. The architecture is stunning, the detail on the buildings incredible.
On the Duomo, there are so many carved figures as well as beautiful frescoes. Even the tile work brought to mind the Taj Mahal. It is a mediaeval city so the streets are very narrow, and cobblestoned; most of the pavements are single-file only and you can’t put an arm out into the road or you’d possibly lose it to a bus tearing past! Also the plan is very complicated, numerous piazzas (squares) joined by roads that fan out like the arms of an octopus. At one stage we walked down three blocks and then looked back along another road to realise we’d only come one street!
Now we are at Lago Trasimeno, was a nice easy relaxing drive, less people in this part of Italy. Our main motivation for being here is the lake – it’s quite lovely and very warm to swim in. We got a bit of a surprise when we went for our first swim though; you have to walk out about 500m to get water over knee-deep. It’s also got a bit of a muddy bottom so occasionally your feet sink into the mud on the walk out, Yuk! Lovely and refreshing though. Is a tiny bit cooler here too, still hot but much more bearable.
We’ve just visited a little walled village (Castiglione Del Lago) – with a fortress at one end, overlooking the lake (but forgot the camera, damn). It had lots of very interesting foodie shops – Jenny, Simone & Karen you would have been in heaven! Even I couldn’t resist the beautiful pasta shapes & colours so bought a packet as well as a packet of flavouring – ingredients in English include truffles, mushrooms and garlic. We also bought a lump of parmesan cheese to grate on top – tonight’s tea sorted!
Later in the day we went to Assissi – well worth the effort – I’m running out of superlatives for these places so I’ll just say it was really lovely. The temptation was to fall into this fountain but I managed to retain my dignity. The town is famous for being the burial place of St Frances of Assissi and beyond that I’m a little vague.
It’s got about 7 churches – the four we got to were beautiful; lots of detailed paintings on the ceilings and the walls and beautiful statues.
Why didn’t we get to all seven you may ask...? Well, there were distractions - such as a really good pizza restaurant, brilliant ice-cream parlours, and this cake shop – also it is still very hot and the streets are steep. Also Gus was protesting that he’s never spent so much time in church in his life!
Tonight we are parked/camped at the Grotte di Frasassi, it is a large cave system which we’ll visit in the morning. One of the attractions is that it’s supposed to be only about 14 deg inside, and we’re advised to take a sweatshirt. Hard to believe when it’s still about 32 outside at 9pm!
The cave system was amazing but unfortunately not allowed to take photos – huge stalactites and stalagmites and columns – we saw through 5 rooms, about 1.5km. The first one was absolutely huge – 240m high, it was only discovered in 1971 by men coming through a hole in the top – they were looking for caves but I bet they were blown away by what they found. Apparently they dropped a stone in and it took 6 seconds to reach the bottom so they came back a few days later with longer ropes! It was also blissfully cool, we didn’t even put our jerseys on, just enjoyed the sensation of being cool. We then drove out to the Adriatic Coast. We had planned to camp here but the camping grounds we saw were on a thin strip of land between two busy roads and a railway line! Also the camping grounds and beaches were packed so we decided to keep going onto Bologna. We’ve found a nice shady campsite with a pool, and taken to cold showers and cold beers, god it’s hot - about 37deg apparently...
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