The ferry ride to Ancona was an overnight trip and our salubrious accommodation was only just big enough to fit Luka's cot in. It was a beautiful night so we spent the first couple of hours out on the deck having a couple of drinks and watching the Dalmatian coast disappear in the distance.
We arrived early in the morning and after waiting for a while to get through Customs we had to wrestle all of our luggage down a couple of flights of stairs and back into the car and headed straight for Tuscany.
Our first stop was a lovely little city south of Siena called Montalcino. It's quite well known for its Brunello wines. We strolled around the town for a little while and then found a restaurant for a bite to eat.
Here's Luka sampling the Brunello that we chose. Looks like he approves!
We then headed to Siena and after finding our hotel we headed into town. Siena is a magnificent walled city and is a very popular place in summer. It has also has many, many clothes and shoe stores. Not good for the credit card!
It was dinner time so we decided to be real tourists and have dinner in the main piazza, Il Campo. Mmmmm... beer.
This is the city hall and is featured on many a fridge magnet.
The next day we headed back in to town and walked past this great looking deli. We figured we'd get some bread, ham and cheese and have a cheap meal. Well... it wasn't that cheap, but it was good. There was also a sign that said 'NO FILM, NO PHOTO'. I asked the rather interesting owner what the story was and he said people would come in, take photos and not buy anything. "One photo, one bottle of wine!" was the cost!
This rather stern looking bloke apparently did lots of good things for Siean. My latin's a bit rusty/non-existent so I wasn't really sure what he did.
Out of all the churches, cathedrals, doms, duomos and various other old buildings we had visited, the Siena duomo was undoubtedly the most spectacular and most interesting. The floors are covered with inlaid marble pictures, the ceiling is - as you would expect - a work of art. The stripes are created by using white and green marble and although spectacular, it kind of does your head in after a while.
This is the ceiling in a Libreria Piccolini (I think that's the right name). It is full of hand written choir books that are spectacular in their colour and detail.
Due to the damage that the original statues had suffered over the centuries, most of them are kept in the Musee d'Opera. It took me a while to figure it out, but opera means works in Italian, which is a good thing, because I hate that other type of opera with all the fat chicks!
You're not meant to take photos in this particular museum, but it appears that my finger must have slipped. Oops... Scuzi!
Somewhere behind all that luggage and stuff is our boy. In our relatively spacious Renault Megane Scenic we managed to stuff; 2 large suitcases, 1 small suitcase, 1 sports bag, 1 travel cot, 1 baby backpack, 1 esky and 1 day pack. Plus all the other various bits of junk, bottles of water and maps that you need.
We'd also heard that San Gimignano was a lovely place to visit. I guess if it was the only really old walled city, on the top of a hill, with a magnificent view of farms and vineyards, you would be impressed.
It was lovely, but we only spent enough time to have a look around and grab a bite to eat (and buy a fridge magnet of course!)
Here's me checking out the view from the old fort in San Gimignano while Luka checks out what Mum is doing.
Apparently the reason the Siena cathedral was so nice is because they wanted to outdo their old rivals in Florence. The Florence duomo is probalby larger, and is very impressive, but nowhere near as interesting on the inside.
The exterior was full of intersting details though and the bronze doors were amazing. I really liked this setting of JC at the beach in Egypt. Well, that's how I interpreted it anyway.
Here's a horse and cart with a full tank of gas!
Florence is renowned for its art collections and of course the Uffizzi Gallery. We were there on a Monday, so it was shut. Another oops...
Just outside the gallery though were some very interesting statues. This particularly gruesome one is of Perseus. I'm not sure whose head he's cut off, but it was a woman.
There was a display of machines created from Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings which I went in to see. This was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. Bloody tourists!
As the home of Ferrari didn't look too far away on the map, I wanted to go and have a look. I figured we'd get up there in the morning, have a quick look around and then get back to Florence to check out the museums that were closed on the Monday.
A word of warning if you're every travelling to Italy. Get a REALLY good map! I figured there would be a huge sign pointing to Maranello from the motorway. Nope, we went past an exit and then from the freeway we saw the sign to Maranello!
We eventually got off the autostrada, paid our dues to the toll booth and found our way to Maranello to visit Galleria Ferrari. Straight away the girls behind the cafe counter grabbed Luka. They really do love babies in Italy!
We did get back to Florence, but not until after the galleries had closed. Here was another rather interesting statue.
And here's another view for our friends in Sydney.
Just to prove that Luka does sometimes crack the shits, here's photographic proof. This really is quite a rare occurrence, but it's even rarer to get a photo of him looking like this, because as soon as you point the camera at him, he starts smiling. It's pretty funny. We figure he'll either grow up to be a male model or extremely conceited!
Just a kind of arty shot looking towards the square outside the Uffizzi.
This is the Uffizzi.
The Ponte Vecchio is another one of those 'must see' places if you read travel guides. In reality it's a pretty ordinary looking bridge with lots of shops on it. The Rialto in Venice is similar, but at least the Rialto is a nice looking bridge.
In Australia, all of these people would be locked up and the key thrown away because they were street drinking! The bar/cafe is across the road and a whole heap of people walk to the other side near the river and enjoy their drinks. No yelling, no fighting, no meatheads. Going out for a drink is a whole different culture in most parts of Europe, they do it with a lot more style and control.
We finally saw a Ferrari on the road in Italy and not just any Ferrari, an F40. Old guy driving it was on the phone and just taking it easy. A few minutes later he must have finished talking and took off.
"Si officere, I woza only doinga 100..."
We were leaving Tuscany and making our way to Alessandria for a one night stopover before heading to Geneva. On the way we just had to see what all the fuss was about the Cinque Terre. We drove through La Spezia which looked like quite a nice place and then found the road that goes past the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre.
We drove straight past the first town of Riomaggiore and it's parking lot full of tourist coaches. The road then got a lot narrower and I figured we wouldn't see too many more buses. I figured we'd go to the middle of the five towns which is Corniglia. It's a fairly narrow and treacherous road down to the village and once we got there we were greeted by a boom gate and a parking fee. Interesting...
We explored the village quickly as it was very small and the water looked crystal clear and very inviting, but also a bloody LONG way down! Scratch the plans for a swim. Great view though.
Bloody tourists are everywhere!
A quick bite to eat and a refreshing ale and we were ready to hit the road again.
We were a bit worried that Luka wouldn't fit in the bassinette towards the end of the trip. We were right!
A New York diner, can't remember the name, but it was on 3rd Ave somewhere in the 80s.
One of the more touristy things we did was go to the 'Top of the Rock'. On our honeymoon we went to the top of the Empire State Building, but the Rockefeller Center now offers a rooftop tour. It's another very cool art deco building and as you can see, the view's pretty good.
We got really lucky with the weather as the visibility was brilliant. It was pretty ordinary before we arrived and then the rest of the week we were there it was almost unbearable. Hot, humid and hazy, the worst part of New York. The subways were even worse, but thankfully the trains were all air-conditioned.
Part of the 'Top of the Rock' tour included a visit to Radio City Music Hall. I wasn't really that interested, but I'm glad Sue talked me into it. Just check out the tour guide, he was worth the entry fee on its own!
Some great statues are on display. Being made out of aluminum (the Yanks still can't say aluminium) was a very big deal back in the 1930s.
The artwork throughout the building is amazing. This is just the lift!
This is the Grand Foyer. Those chandeliers are something like 20-feet tall and can be lowered down on wires for cleaning and maintenance. The whole building is full of neat little tricks like that.
We spent most of a day strolling through Central Park.
Luka entertaining some strangers at a cafe in Central Park.
