It’s 4.40am and we’re sitting in Athens airport waiting for our connecting flight to Istanbul. Have managed to have a couple of ‘power naps’ but feeling quite awake now. Our plane from Rome got in just before midnight and our check-in time for Istanbul was 6am, so decided to save $$ for more exciting things than a place to lay our heads for a few hours.

Anyway – to continue the blog where we left off ……

Florence

Yes, it’s a beautiful city full of amazing art and architecture, but by golly it stinks!!

The streets are cramped and narrow and full of rubbish – and the smell seems to rise up from the drains. If Rome was permeated with the sweet aroma of cake shops, the air of Florence was definitely tainted with something far less tantalising.

We visited a few AMAZING churches and the (copy) statue of David on the hill – great views of the city from up there.

We hired bikes and escaped. We went far afield to most of the gardens around the city, of which there are several. Just out of the city a garden runs for miles on both banks of the river, for walkers, cyclists etc – very beautiful. Looking back at the city from out of town a bit, it was easier to appreciate its graceful domes and arches minus the reek, but still an occasional whiff reached us.

We stopped on one of the bridges to look down at the water. Stephen said ‘O look, there’s otters in the water’. We stopped to watch and they went ashore on a little stretch of sand……not, Karen thinks, otters at all with long pointy tails like that! Giant water rats!!

The next day, 12 May, we were up early to head back to sweet Rome on the 9.09am train. Arrived at the station in Florence about 8.30. After buying our tickets from the self service machine we headed to the café....but it was absolute madness in there, and so, to our eternal shame, we had McDonalds for breakfast in Italy.

The coffee was crap, but the bacon and cheese toastie, surprisingly delicimo. They have a slightly ‘Italianised’ menu….honest!

Rome

Arrived in Rome early afternoon and after checking into hotel, went for a wander. God, the sheer scale of things is just incredible. It’s such a beautiful city. Went to the Terni fountain. Legend has it that if you throw a coin in to this fountain over your shoulder you are assured of a return to Rome.

We got a ticket on a 24 hour hop-on hop-off bus at about 6.30pm, the last bus of the day, and had the whole open top to ourselves. We sat right at the front and Stephen stood up and shot video, until he got told off!! It was a two hour trip around Rome, at sunset…fantastico. …and of course our tickets were valid until 6.30 the next day.

After packing up and leaving our bags at reception, we went back and jumped on the bus again, visiting historical sites and seeing the ruins..the oldest was the fortifications built in 700BC!!.

The most incredible church was the Basilica San Maria Giovanni….HUGE and absolutely stunning, but there’s something really disturbing about all that gold and art in the possession of the church. Also very odd, in one wing which was sectioned off there were people actually ‘worshipping’ and all these other people taking photos of them…..and in the main hall, actual confessions going on!

Ah well - Arivaderci Roma – Turkey, here we come.