Dear friends and family,
I am writing tonight from Florence which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I had the same thought when I was here 5 years ago and returning to this city has just cemented that fact! It’s one of my favourite things about travelling when you find somewhere that just makes you go “WOW!” We’re only here for one night so I think a return trip will definitely be planned in the future!
This past week in Italy has been wonderful! Em and I have mixed sight seeing and pounding the pavement around hot cities with relaxing on beautiful beaches under stripy umbrellas. It’s been a great week. And would recommend to everyone everywhere to come to Italy – you can’t help but love it!
We arrived in Rome last Monday for four nights in our own studio apartment close to all the major sights including the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. The location was great being so accessible to all the major sights, however the American tourists swarmed the hot city streets all week, making everything even more exhausting. Walking down the street we would hear more American English than Italian!! After the relatively quiet tourist areas of Spain it was quite a shock to see so many tourists. But in peak season what more can you expect? The sights themselves were everything you expect them to be. We spent a hot afternoon on Tuesday visiting the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon and the famous Piazza Novena and Veneiza. However the heat in Rome was tooo much for us and soon tired of the chaos of the city. So on Wednesday we took a day trip out to the beach of Sperlonga an hour south of Rome. It was a perfect day for the beach with lots of sun beating down on our fired umbrella and sunbeds. It was a great day! On Thursday we once again faced the heat of the city to visit the Vatican City. The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica were both absolutely stunning with their artistic detail and sheer scale, however the heat and thr tourists eventually forced us back into the sanctuary of our air-conditioned studio for a nice home cooked dinner!
On Friday we awoke early to begin our three day Italian Adventure tour. It was an awesome three days! We saw the ruins of Pompeii, which we just as fascinating as I always imagined they would be! Another one of my childhood dreams ticked off the list! Our accommodation was in the gorgeous town of Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast. The town was filled with lovely shops and restaurants and it is part of the local tradition for everyone to “Promenade”, which is basically just strolling around the streets, at around 8-9pm. This creates a lovely community atmosphere as everyone is out on the streets enjoying the last rays of sun and revelling in the day that has passed – lovely! We travelled to Isle of Capri the following day, an exclusive island surrounded by the aquamarine waters of the Mediterranean. After a choppy ferry ride over we were relieved to disembark and relax on the beach all day! The final day of the tour was spent on the bus winding along the scenic Amalfi coastline and soaking up the fantastic views…Please refer to facebook photos for more details. I would recommend that everyone come to the Amalfi coast when they visit Italy it has been the most beautiful scenery of my trip so far!! And the Italian food’s not bad either!
So Em and I are entering our last week together before we part ways in Nice and I make my way to Vienna to start my course…exciting! But the week ahead will no doubt be filled with lots more beauty and adventures for us to soak up.
Hope you are all well,
Love Sarah.
