DayTripper

Whoooossssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!!

Everything seems to be going by so fast...

Welcome avid readers....ha ha...This post wont be as long as the last...

I'm in a place called Anghiari which is in Arezzo in Tuscany.

A mouthful i know, we are leaving here tomorrow to go to Naples.

A nice 500km drive awaits me,

I have uploaded a shit load of new pics, the link is on the left there.. they even go beyond this post....

Here's what we have been up to since Milan........

Verona

Not really sure of days and dates at this stage, not really sure what day or date it is today.

We stayed in Verona for 4 days. We were 2 mins walk to the main area which had the Arena and all the fancy shops and probably the best ice cream that money can buy!

The Arena is most famous for hosting opera and stuff like that.

It was built nearly 2000 years ago in 30AD by the Romans. It looks amazing from outside.

Other things to do in Verona were obviously places related to Romeo and Juliet.

We went to see what is supposed to be Juliet's House and the balcony from where....................................must I !!!

THE ICE-CREAM

Seriously unbelievable, 2.50euro for 2 scoops of whatever and they piled it on top. Generous is not the word.

I must say that Italy is beautiful but there really isn't a lot to do if your not willing to put in the leg work, which the heat made it too hard to do sometimes. getting back to the B&B with water was sometimes a priority

VENICE

Venice, in my opinion, doesn't live up to its great name. Although we stayed just outside Venice in a place called mestre we were just a 10 minute bus ride away.

The place we had booked to stay in was in the centre of Mestre. We get there and the girl tells us we are not staying there but around the corner at their other building. After a few sighs from both of us we followed her to the other building.

From outside it looked a lot better than the other place.

We get inside and its a small apartment.

Open plan with a separate kitchen with cooker fridge etc etc.

Clean...Very Clean...

And cheap (Lisa has a knack for finding good places)

Now Venice, we got the boats and the rest but there really is not a lot to do except walk.

Unfortunately we went on a weekend and not any weekend, it was some festival weekend, so the place was packed full of tourists (like us) but most of the them were a pain in the arse, as usual.

Food was over priced and didn't live up to anything.

In summary the only good thing about Venice was the apartment and that was outside Venice.

FLORENCE

Next on the list was Florence, our first taste of Tuscany.

Florence over the last few years has turned into bustling tourist city. Every second door is a hotel or a B&B.

Speaking of hotels...booked a half decent place in a good area close to everything...

But again we get switched because they are "FULL".

Why take the f***ing booking then!!!!!!!!!!!!

The place i booked, looked nice and had wireless Internet etc etc.

The place we get moved to, no Internet, no English speakers (a deal breaker when it comes to picking somewhere to stay) and it was scruffy.

The walls were stained....oh holy jesus it was awful.

NO WAY WAS I SLEEPING UNDER THOSE SHEETS

I had about 1.5 hours of sleep that night. walking the streets of Florence at 5am wishing somewhere to be open for internet or even a coffee...but no

We went to see the famous, Michelangelo's David

The 5 meter high sculpture of some chap in the nip....

No, on a serious note, it was €10 in to the museum.

After about 2 mins of walking through things you were obviously not there to see, you get there, take your camera out and..............

YOUR SCREAMED AT TO PUT IT AWAY
NO PICTURES....NO PICTURES

WHAT???????

i just paid 10 euro to see it and no photos

They were actually throwing people out because of this.

Mad!! We did manage a couple before they screamed at us...

We only stayed in Florence 1 night and next day we rented a car (after hours and hours in an Internet cafe looking for somewhere to go next and where to rent a car from)

Finally found a car and a place.

We signed up to a website called helpx, where you offer to do work for them (generally farms) and they give you free accommodation...sounds good (again another Lisa idea, i seem lacking at the moment)

We find somewhere we would like to contact, 1 problem...they don't have a phone number, we email them instead but we are looking for somewhere today.

So we look for somewhere else and find 1 more that was interesting so we email them too. They email us straight back saying they are not ready to have people yet but will soon and to try this other person and gave us a link.

It turned out to be the 1st person with no phone number.

We emailed back and asked if they had a phone number and she duly obliged (thanks Lucie)

We collected the car, and after much to-ing and fro-ing (we booked through an agent and hertz hadn't received the booking yet) we got the car, a beautiful Hyundai Alto....ha

Next we rang the number Lucie had given us, Brent is his name. Got through, asked if he needed help...he did...great..we're on our way...nearly 2 hours later and many directions later we arrive at Valle de Mezzo.

I will finish off this wonderful story next time as i am running out of time in the Internet cafe.

A little sneak peak picture for next time...

My new friends..............