Florence and Rome

We caught our first train in Europe from Venice to Florence on the Italo high speed train, reaching speeds of 300km we got there in under 2 hours. In Florence we stayed in a pretty cool Hostel called Plus Florence. This is a chain of Hostels all around Europe, I will defiantly be looking into the other locations as places to stay. With a rooftop bar, a pool and live music it is a more social place to stay in Florence. We had a private room with a private bathroom so it wasn't that much different to a hotel.

The Plus Florence Hostel

After eating so much Italian food we were craving something a little more then pastries for breakfast, we stumbled across this cafe selling omelettes and managed to get some basic scrambled eggs on toast, but they were the best scrambled eggs on toast I have ever eaten... who would have thought. They don't really do iced coffee in Italy which is weird because it is so hot but we also managed to get something resembling an iced coffee too yay :)

We got tickets for the hop on hop off bus for a day of exploring- This is a good option for a cheap tour of the main attractions of the city. You get a audio tour guide that while basic does give you a general idea on weather you want to hop off at that particular sight or not. Also its a double decker bus so sitting up top gives you a nice cool breeze! Just what you need in 35 degree weather!

The view from the Piazzale Michelangelo is well worth the trip up.

The next day we took a day tour from Florence to Siena to San Gimignano stopping off at a medieval castle town on the way called Monteriggioni.

The Tuscan backdrop of Monteriggioni.

 Lovely little streets of Monteriggioni where the population is only around 60 people.

 We had a guided walk through Siena.

 The Tuscan countryside, view from San Gimignano

Exploring the areas of Tuscany was so surreal I would defiantly recommend a day trip to Siena and the surrounding towns we went on a Ciao Florence tour and it was really well priced, we had a guided walking tour of Siena, a Gelato tasting in San Gimignano and then finally a wine tasting in the Chianti area at a rustic winery in the countryside.

The next day we got up early to catch a train to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower.

Pisa only needs a 1/2 day as a stop over so we left at about 3pm to catch out train to Rome but not before getting completely ripped off at one of the cafes there!

It was an unbearably hot day and after wondering around for a few hours we decided to grab a drink in one of the cafes, after having a look at a few different options we decided to just sit down at one. What we didn't realise is that unlike all the other cafes in Pisa this particular one had no prices on the menu and after looking at the other cafes we assumed the prices would be the same. We made a rookie mistake because the cafe owner then decided to charge us a ridiculous price for our food and drinks and there was nothing we could do about it. So we left Pisa with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths :( I later looked up the cafe on Trip Advisor only to find it had over 200 reviews by people who got ripped off just like us. At least we weren't alone! This was the only time something like this happened to us in Italy thankfully.

We arrived in Rome early evening and decided to check out how much a Taxi would cost to take us to our hotel, about 2km away. When I asked a taxi driver how much it would cost I thought he said 50 Euro which was way way to high, so I got Dan to ask around while I looked after the luggage. Dan came back with a guy who was saying 10 Euro, thats more like it! he took our bags and kept walking past the row of taxis and around the corner to his little old VW golf that looked a bit bung up, he proceeded to put our bags in the boot but I was not having any of it, this guy wasn't a taxi driver he was just some random trying to make some money. We were both a bit delirious so could have easily just gone with him, but luckily I managed to pull our bags out of his car, this guy could have been a psycho! After all this I was almost willing to pay the 50 Euro it wasn't until we tried again with a proper taxi driver that I realised he was say 15 Euro, all the drama for nothing. We managed to get to our lovely hotel safe and sound. Not a good start in Rome!

Our Hotel was right by the Colosseum so we had a lovely dinner with it as our back drop and then grabbed some Gelato to do some night time exploring.

The next day we did a tour of the inside of the Colosseum. 

My favourite time of day in Rome, searching for somewhere for dinner when the sun had cooled off (slightly)

On our last day in Rome and in Italy we just explored the city a little more, we were only in Rome a few nights so will have to go back as I feel we didn't get the full experience! Im sure there will be plenty of time to do so!

We are now in London after arriving quite late we caught our first tube to Acton where Sue was kind enough to pick us up. We are staying at Sue's house in Shepherds bush where we are looking after her cat while she is on holiday. We are busy house and job hunting in the biggest city we have ever been...so far so good, I will keep you updated! xx

Amo Venezia

After spending a delirious night in London where I woke up not knowing what country I was in we set off early to the airport to catch a plane to Venice, Italy.  

Arriving in Venice on very little sleep we caught a bus from the main land where the airport is located to the Island of Venice. Thinking it would be an easy job of throwing my 20kg backpack on my back with my hand luggage and handbag and walking the short distance of 1km to our hotel was a huge mistake. maps are very confusing in Venice and the street names don't seem to match up or are just not signposted at all. also the 35 degree heat didn't help but we eventually made it to our hotel with dan carrying both our packs...oops.

We stayed in the Venetian Ghetto area and from what we saw of venice, this area seemed to be the busiest as it is quite close to Saint Marks Square.

The following morning we decided to get up early to beat the crowds of tourists snapping photos of everything in sight. We explored around the quiet ally ways of the Jewish Ghetto.

After spending the day strolling around in the heat, eating Gelato and drinking Italian coffees we decided on the more substantial meal of pasta in a box! Alfredino's is a hole in the wall selling the freshest pasta in Venice with a small selection of simple sauces meant to be eaten straight away. We took our little pottles to a quiet ally way leading to the canals and sat down to enjoy. One of the cheapest and best meals we had in Italy. 

The next day we explored around the saint Marks Square area. By about 9am the square is completely full with tourists! The image below is in front of the bridge of sighs, the view from the bridge of sighs was the last view of the beautiful Venice that convicts would see before their imprisonment.  

The Grand Canal

We decided we better go on a Gondola ride even though they are ridiculously over priced. While waiting for the next available Gondola we managed to get a couple of Italian ladies who were on holiday to share the Gondola ride with us, halving the price...score!  It was fun and obviously a must do in Venice.

Later on that evening we had a bottle of wine by the canal near our hotel, this is my favourite time in Venice because all the tourists have gone home after dinner (there is no night life in Venice) and you are left to explore an almost empty city. 

We will defiantly be coming back to Venice to explore more, maybe in a cooler month, the heat in Italy is relentless! 

Next up... Train to Florence 

A week in L.A

We arrived in L.A on a monday afternoon, after realising that Dan had left his International Licence back in New Zealand we sat in the airport for a good few hours trying to sort out our U.S sim cards and then trying to get hold of our rental company to ask for advise on what we should do.
In the end we decided to catch the shuttle to our rental car company with all our luggage and try and sort it out there. It turns out you don't actually need an International Licence to drive in L.A and we could get our car just fine, phew! A bit of a stressful start.
Dan picked up the driving on the opposite side of then road pretty quickly, thank god! I would defiantly recommend getting a rental car if you are visiting L.A, the roads are not that scary and it's just so much easier to get around this very spread out city.

We stayed in a place we found on Air BnB in West Hollywood, quite close to the Hollywood walk of fame, it was a cool studio apartment, really clean and safe! We decided to take a drive down Hollywood Boulevard and find somewhere for dinner. We ended up going to a Mexican restaurant called Loteria. 

The serving sizes are epic and food is really cheap, until you add on tax and tips! We had our first tipping experience, lucky for my tipping app we managed to get through the whole trip without offending anyone.

The next day we walked the Runyon Canyon, I was reading reviews about how the canyon is super busy with lots of aspiring actresses exercising in skimpy workout gear but when we arrived there were so few people we were wondering if we were in the right place. It turns out that California is having a heat wave and not many people attempt the Canyon in near 40 degree temperatures!  The walk itself is really easy, it has nothing on the Rapaki track in Christchurch, but the heat is the real killer. 

I have consumed so much Ice coffee the last week, too hot for regular coffee. A lot of the time we were going into Starbucks to use the wifi, not once did they get my name right. I got Tess and Kate a few times haha.

We went to the farmers market in the Grove Shopping Centre. The markets are really different to the markets in New Zealand, they are fixed stores that are open all week. It was cool to see a different type of market but we were a little disappointed. The Grove shopping centre however was amazing! All outdoors with lots of shops. Nordstroms was having a sale, if my luggage weight wasn't an issue I would be very poor right now!

One of my favourite places to eat in L.A was Urth Caffe, we went to the one in West Hollywood twice and tried but failed to find the one in Santa Monica. The drinks here are huge!! while we were sitting outside Kim Kardashian drove past in her giant black Range Rover. We didn't see but the people next to us did. Thats as close as we got to celebrity spotting. 

Disneyland was so so much fun! We managed to stay for around 10 hours until it closed at midnight. It was a super hot day so we arrived around 2pm, Im so happy we arrived later because even then it was mid 30 degrees with little shelter from the sun so we basically melted until the sun went down about 8pm.

We didn't manage to fit in any of the other parks such as Universal Studios, we will save that for next time :) 

I didn't get many photos at disneyland but dan got some really cool videos on the Go Pro Camera! 

The next day we set off for Venice Beach, both Dan and I really liked the Venice Beach and Santa Monica areas, we stayed in another place we found on Air BnB. 

Venice has a really cool street called Abbot Kinney, its quite hipster with boutique shops and really nice cafes and restaurants. we arrived on a Friday afternoon and ventured down to find that it was food truck Friday and the street was lined with as many as 50 food trucks offering up all sorts of different food, We went for Mexican Burritos which were delicious! Apparently they do the food truck friday on the first friday of every month. 

One of the food trucks somehow managed to catch on fire and caused quite a scene with police and fire engines! it was luckily contained but looked pretty scary! There are lots of fires in California and there seems to always be sirens in the distance. 

We went for dinner at the very popular Gjelina restaurant on Abbott Kinney where they have giant tables that everyone sits at. It was impossible to get any photos inside because of the low lighting but was a really cool restaurant.

After dinner we stumbled to another restaurant for cocktails in the courtyard, I cant remember what this place was called unfortunately.. 

The Muscle beach gym

Candy Store!

Dan got to see Tesla car.

Venice Boardwalk is crazy and very crowded, we walked down the boardwalk once but mostly avoided it as it was filled with crappy souvenirs, homeless people and freak shows. We grabbed some bikes and biked all the way to Santa Monica. Its not actually that far, about 15 minutes. The Santa Monica pier is quite cool with the rides but once again very touristy. We headed into the city for a look around and some shopping! Santa Monica had the best shopping in my opinion and I could have spent all day looking in the shops, poor Dan. I was very restrained until it came to Sephora... that place is heaven.

We are now sitting at LAX waiting to board a flight to San Francisco and then on to London. We are only spending a night in London before we head off to Italy for a week, first stop Venice! 

See you soon Italy! xx