Ciao Roma

Our last day in Rome we headed back to Piazza Navona for one last gelato.. We walked around our favourite places and Dean finally got the one thing he has wanted this trip...... Yes, believe it. 

Family day

Our second day back in Rome and we took the early train for a day full of activities in the very famous, huge city of Montaquila. Just kidding, it's tiny.

We started the morning meeting the beautiful miss Sveva who was very shy but greeted us with an adorable "Welcome Karla & Dean" sign. Then, we headed to the local town centre where there was a festival being held, with lots of markets and music and people. We met Zia Rosina & Maria Grazia also who were in town looking around at the festival, but left shortly after to head back home. 

We had a lovely lunch with Roberta, Chiara, Zio Pietro, & Sveva- who by this stage was Dean's new best friend united by their mutual love of blowing bubbles & saying "chin chin" and cheersing before each sip of their drinks.

Next, Montaquila. We arrived and were greeted by our pre-planned Itinerary, organised all the way from Charlestown, NSW. Our first stop was Maria's house where luckily, the other cousins came to us to say hi. We had a lovely walking tour of Montaquila following that and then met Zio Emilio & his lovely wife.

Last, we headed back to Zia Rosina's house for a drink & sit down. Thank goodness for Chiara (thanks Chiara!!)  because Montaquila language is waaaaaaay beyond my Italian capabilities. Maria Grazia pulled out some old photos for us to look at from her visits to Australia.. Zia Rosina kept talking to Dean in the corner and wondering why he couldn't understand... Haha. The rest of us laughed at him just smiling and nodding. 

After all if the visiting we went back to Roberta's place to say Hi to Paolo who had since gotten home from work and one last play for Dean & Sveva. She made him some play-doh crossiants for the train ride home. Cuuuuuute. 

A big giant thanks again and again to Chiara for being our translator & Zio Pietro for being our chauffeur for the day. 

Nice

After a about 6 hours & three trains we arrived in Nice. Right about now you should be hearing the intro to "Holiday" by Dizzee Rascal in your head (ba ba ba ba bum bum ba ba ba ba bum bum) so you can zoom into the "I take you to the south of France" part. 

We spent our first Nice afternoon doing a little shopping, a nice dinner & an early night as we planned to head to the beach the following day. Unfortunately, it was cold the not day. Dean did go for a swim, I didn't. Given that we had a pretty easy day we decided we would head to Monaco that night to visit the famous James Bond stomping ground of Monte Carlo Casino, and so we did. 

The casino outside is beautiful, and the cars parked out the front are pretty awesome.. I'm sure if Dean was writing this he would have a whole lot more to say about them, but well, he isn't. We paid our €10 each for entry and were pretty disappointed when we walked in. For your €10 you are given access to one room that had a bar, a lot of pokies & only 2 tables open. The tables were €5 min roulette or €25 min black jack.. Not much good for the average tourist. There was also zero atmosphere as I guess most people probably had the same feeling as us. We got a drink each and pretty much blew he budget on that alone. No winnings unfortunately.  As we walked outside we noticed a door to another casino place that was 10000000000X better. 

This car was my favourite... Matte black Maserati, with polished trims. 

After dinner down the street (somewhere way more affordable) we took a taxi to the train station where we realised there were no trains. Just to back track for a moment... Being tourists and not having any knowledge of the area Dean went to thre reception desk to ask for train times and advice.  As you would, right? Well, we took that advice and found ourselves stuck in Monaco at 11pm. Yep. Our only option to get back was an €85 cab, needless to say that but a bit of a downer on our night and we were pretty pissed at being given the wrong information. 

The next morning we addressed it with the girl who gave us the wrong info and nicely told her that it had cost us €85 for a 15 minute drive, she literally laughed in Dean's face and said "not my problem" which naturally made Dean absolutely furious. 

Luckily the manager was a little more understanding and we eventually were offered a free meal which was nice of them. 

We spent the rest of the day at the beach. I don't think Nice beaches are really for swimming.. I would say 90% of the people on the private beach we chose did not swim, but rather ordered bottles of champagne, re-applied their lipstick, while staring everyone else down. We did swim once, it was so unbelievably painful to get in and out that we decided it was a one time event. 

Needless to say as beautiful as Nice is, we were glad to say goodbye and head back to the old faithful aroma. 

We ended our day in Campo Di Fiori for a lovely dinner & walked back via the Jewish Ghetto & Piazza Venezia/ the Collosseum by night. 

There was this awesome show on that was projected onto the old Roman Forum.. The statues aren't real they are just projections.. So cool. 

Oh, I almost forgot. When we arrived in Rome and got to our hotel we went to the supermarket next door to get some prosciutto & cheese for lunch. I ordered 200 grams of prosciutto and ended up with 500.... I have no idea how because my Italian isn't THAT bad. Dean being Dean ate probably 400grams of that 500...... Yes. 400 grams. This is towards the end when he started feeling the affects.

R&R

Today we laid at the beach, ate delicious food, hired a paddle board, and had massages.... Welcome to the good life! 

Dean was much better at it than me... 

We are headed to Nice tomorrow for more relaxing :)

Cinque Terre #2

Today we visited two of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre. 

It was overcast but so humid for most of the day, and we probably couldn't have picked a worse day as there was a train strike meaning the only other mode of transport was boat. We had already planned to visit by boat but hadn't accounted for the million other tourists (lots of inconsiderate rude ones) too! It was a fun day still & here's our photos.. 

We boarded the boat at our home Terre Monterosso and headed for the next in line Vernazza. Another beautiful part of the world..

I think I got gelato on the gopro case (#firstworldproblems) so apologies for the blurry photos! 

&

Back on the boat and our second stop was Riomaggiore, probably my favourite of the five for its looks :)

In Riomaggiore we also had a delicious lunch.. Mixed seafood for me- probably the freshest seafood ever, it was amazing. Pizza for Dean- standard. 

Back on the boat and back to our temporary home terre, Monterosso. 

Those two behind me macked each other's faces for the ENTIRE 30minute boat ride. Serious. 

LOL

Dean had a quick swim before we had dinner waaaaay earlier than usual (6pm rather than 10) because we refused to walk up our apartment stairs more than the once today. I (touch wood) have not had a bad meal yet, every single one has been mouth-wateringly great- dinner was no exception teamed with a view. 

Squid salad... YUM

Now we're bathed & on the couch ready for batman on TV soon :) 

Na na na na na na na baaaaatman. 

Monterosso Al Mare

Here's some photo from today when we did sweet sweet nothing at the beach.....

Our cute courtyard! 

Yeah so the building on the left we are the very top apartment... 138 steps! Killer... 

Thanks for the sunshine Mother Nature :)

Most of the beaches on Monterosso are private where you have to rent chairs for the day. This little set up cost us €14 euro for the entire day. There is small public parts but as you can imagine they are completely packed. 

It was cloudy on and off, but so humid all day. 

He's so pretty.. Haha

Right after Dean gave me a massive wedgie. 

There is a "salty anchovies" festival on tonight in the Piazza we will probably go check out. We just got back (all 138 steps againnnn) and demolished the most delicious prosciutto, cheese & tomatoes we got from the supermarket... Yummmmm. 

Have I mentioned how much I love holidays? :)