We were all sad to leave Paris - it's a city that Wendy and I will come back to. Great atmosphere and a sense of completeness. I loved my 2 hours wandering around the Louvre - it passed all too quickly. The old Palace was so beautiful ( and so enormous) and then to have it filled with all those incredible works of art is mind boggling. Our last night in Paris was great and Kate thoroughly enjoyed skypeing her class mates - took her a wee while to wind down so it was around 1 am before everyone was nigh nighs.
Mona Lisa ...... and IGot to the airport early as we were flying Vueling to Rome and by all accounts it was first in first served. As it all turned out it was a great flight and no dramas but we were ultimately thankful to Wendy for getting us lined up 30 minutes prior to the flight opening. Not impressed at all by the 'large'American family that barged their way through AND in front of us - if they could have only read my mind they would have be every embarrassed and contrite :). We had a car booked to pick us up ( another tip that I would thoroughly recommend - is just takes another stress out of the equation) and we were in our apartment 'quick smart'. No real sense of any boarder control - we just walked out ! Had dinner and a walk around the local piazza found a gelato shop and it's true - it is fantastic !!! The girls ordered one each and I cleaned up the remains as they couldn't finish them, wonderful stuff.
Hi - Wendy here. As Andrew said I was sorry to leave Paris, it is a city you could spend a lot of time in just walking around soaking up everything that it has to offer.
We arrived in Rome at 5.30pm to a balmy 26 degrees - it was fantastic to be able to walk around until 10pm and it was still warm. Yesterday we went on a guided tour to the Vatican - it was an early start so the girls were not impressed. We meet a nice kiwi couple and an American couple who we got a few handy hints from regarding Rome and driving in Italy. The whole Vatican experience was pretty amazing, wonderful buildings and great to get the history from the guide. The kids struggled with understanding our guide as her English was ok but you had to really focus, so that on top of the heat and the crowds they were well and truly done by the time we reached St Peters church. The crowds were incredible - apparently 25,000 people a day go through the Vatican and I'm sure they were all there when we were!! We were constantly being reminded to watch our bags because of the number of people who pick pockets. It is something we are just not use to doing. After St Peters church the guide took us to a "cheaper" souvenir shop. I took the opportunity to go and get the girls some food. I was struggling to hold the food I had purchased along with spare clothes and reach for my change - when a gypsy lady reached over from behind me and tried to taked the change out of my hand - it was all quite surreal, and given my last four hours had been surrounded by 25,000 people (yes I really do believe they were all there when I was) I was probably abit ruder than I normally would have been. Crazy, crazy place.
We went out again last night to the local Piazza - the girls love it because there is so much going on, people performing, music and lots of stalls selling all manner of things.
Today is off to a slower start - it's 9am and the girls are still asleep .... We are truly on holiday :).
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| In St Peter's Square |
Mike Devlin here:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comprehensive post, covering the final days in Paris, and the first days in Rome. Fantastic that you are seeing so much, and cramming so much into the days, yet managing to get some down time as well. The photos from Paris were awesome, particularly the ones taken up towers, with the city skyline behind you - almost like being there for us non-travellers. Great to have your descriptions of the food and wines as well - it inspired me to have a Pinot Noir myself last night!!! Great that you got to St Peters - I wish that you could have recorded Wendy's discussion with the Gypsy lady who tried to steal her change !!!
Great that Kate got to Skype her class - 30,000km away and instant videocalling to her classmates - a great illustration of modern technology at its best. Excellent "selfie" of Andrew with the Mona Lisa. I have been having a look at Montefalco and Greve Chianti which look very relaxing, so I guess that you will be trying to see everything in Rome before a more relaxing week in the countryside. Not much happening in NZ - not much at all.
It is 10.40am your time as I post this, so you are probably out and about by now, but keep up the regular blogging, and the Facebook posts - we are all very interested (and envious), and we enjoying sharing your fantastic experiences.
Love to all, keep safe, Mike
Hi Mike, yes the gypsy lady was funny I retrospect, but not so enjoyable at the time. They are everywhere trying to sell you something or ask for money but we are well versed in looking ahead and walking past. Very relaxing morning after the hassle and bustle of the Vatican yesterday. Had some breakfast on the street watching the Italians go about their business and then back up stairs for showers and a snooze :). We'll head out around 3 to the Colosseum. Looking forward to getting out of the cities and into the outcry side. Be good.
Deletegreat to hear you are all still having a fabulous time. I read everything several times so I can take everything in. Are you enjoying the food do hope you are trying as much as you can. Poppy and I are fine. xxxxxxxx
ReplyDeleteHi Mum. Lovely to hear from you. We are having a great time - today is the first really relaxing day. We got up about 9.30 am to go downstairs for some breakfast (Grace is in heaven with all the pastries). We are now back in the apartment chilling out. We will head out abit later when it cools down. Pleased to hear that you and Poppy are well. Take care. Love Wendy xx
ReplyDeletexxs from me and yes I am keen on more info about Wendys incident too..did she hit her with her handbag? its a weird thing when people steal or try to steal, the sense of violation and of being stupid because you didnt see it coming is awful. But not so bad so far by the sound of things wendy being the sharo eyed girl she is. I discovered that it was much harder to pick in other cultures because I wasnt familiar with the nuances and could read it as well whereas here we are in tune. Bonjourno Dev's and mmmm gelato..limon
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