Ah, Italia!

Arrived 29th January; departed 7th February. The question really is - was that enough time to have your first ever jaunt into Europe? Of course not!!

Italy - a place we had often talked about visiting, but seemed beyond us for many years. So far from home, so expensive to visit, so many things to see there, but never enough time to see all that you might want to. Finally - a chance to go and a great reason to visit - the TET holiday in Vietnam involved 10-12 days of holidays where we currently live, but many places would be closing as Vietnamese families head to their family homes and have their annual holidays themselves. A great time to leave!

The main reason to go though, of course - money! The flights were reasonable, and it was off-season, which meant hotels at at least 1/3rd of the regular price, no queues anywhere, the annual sales were on - not that I was buying anything much....

We split our time between Rome for the first half, and Florence for the second. As you'd imagine, we saw all the wonderful things you'd expect - the Colosseum, the Vatican museum, St Peter's, and numerous other ancient buildings (or ruins), as well as enjoying great food and an evening of opera at a nearby church.  Florence - the same - the Duomo, the Uffizi gallery, the Academia, and numerous churches with incredible artworks from floor to ceiling.

But - the inevitable happened. Art and culture overload. Seriously!! By about day 8 we had both reached our 'art and culture' saturation point, so headed off to a bike hiring shop and went exploring on a couple of mountian bikes. Best thing we could have done - finally it had stopped raining, and the views from up the hill towards the village of Fiesole were spectacular. Well worth it - in spite of the usual hassles of rental bikes that slip gears like a ice-skater on the Danube.
As usual, most holidays are highlighted by the unexpected things - the funny events, sights, experiences that take you by surprise.  First of several were the hilarious 'do not enter' road signs that featured around the city of Florence. The city is gradually closing off more and more streets to traffic, to cope with the large amount of foot traffic from the thousands of tourists who visit there each year. I loved the sense of humour behind the signs. Here's a slideshow of a few I caught on camera:



While out walking another sight that caught my attention was the huge number of small cars - from 'smart' cars to electric cars, 3 wheeled delivery 'trucks' to covered scooters - they seem like a great idea for a city such as these, but would also be fantastic here in Ho Chi Minh - unfortunately the trend here seems to be to go for the 'status symbol' - a 4 wheel drive urban tractor. If you've ever seen the streets of Ho Chi Minh, you'll know why I was captivated by the following vehicles!

With a wonderful 10 full days, we have headed back to work with plans bubbling around in our minds about 'where next ...'!!! This traveling bug has well and truly bitten us. Ciao for now!