The last of Italy

• Pbilic's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Venice

Trip Start Apr 13, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 11, 2010 Next
Entry

  Venice, Veneto, Italy
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

We explored Pisa on 25 April. The leaning tower and the old town was only a 15 min walk from the camp ground so we walked into town that day. So we saw the leaning tower, however we decided not to venture up as it was 15 euro just to step in to the tower. The area was really touristy. We followed a self guided walk through the old town and were forever (like everyone else) being hassled by people trying to flog off designer watches with "life time warranty". It was a Sunday so the town was pretty much closed down apart from the leaning tower area. 

25 April marks a significant day in Italy as it was when the Nazi occupation ended in northern Italy. That explained why the square near the tower was filled with almost 100 of WWII (World War 2) American and European army vehicles. There must be a historic army club as all the Italians had on the replica uniform down to the replica guns and communications equipment. So we wove in and out of all the vehicles checking out all the equipment for a while.

After Pisa we headed to Siena. Our GPS ended up taking us on the scenic route, which ended up working in our favor. The Tuscan country side is beautiful. We stumbled upon and stopped in for a walk through 14th century castle Civitella Marittima just outside of Siena. Anyway, we made it to Siena and set up camp. We ventured into town for the evening to find some beer, which in the end was a success. The next day we bussed it back into town to check out the sites and ate the local sweet Panforte. For me, apart from Cinque Terre, (the 5 towns) Siena has been the the pick of the Italian towns/cities that we've visited on the trip so far.

We made it to Venice (26 April) after a few hours drive from Siena. The freeways/motorways over here make driving long distances painless. The road tolls stung us again. We found a camp site just over the lagoon from Venice. We ended up being at the camp site the same time as a contiki tour. We took the boat across into Venice the next day. We spent most of the day walking the streets, getting cornered by canals, eating probably the best gelati we've found so far and ate the most delicious "naples" bread (like bruschetta on steriods) and washed it down with a local beer.  We toured through the overwhelming Basilica di San Marc, the mozaic artwork is outstanding.  We resisted the temptation for a ride on a gondola. At almost 80 euro it didn't really fit our budget. There were about 4, 5 piece bands playing in Piazza San Marco. 5 pieces though in Italy means a piano, violin, double bass, clarinet and piano accordion - very cool sounding.  We came back that night and had a few more beers and partied with the contiki people for the night at the bar at the caravan park.

So now our time in Italy is over. Next we head to Slovenia.

Slideshow Share

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

One of the many canals

Previous Entry Next Entry