Trains

Thursday afternoon we started driving to Malaga. The next province in Andalusia. Here we went to the the airport. In the airport we . . .        

HOPPED ON A PLANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the plane was to ITALY :)

So it took a while to get to the country of the kicking boot. When we finally got there we went for a . . . 

HUGE WALK!!!!!!! To . . . our apartment. Our apartment was small but it had a hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggggggggggggggeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (huge) bunk bed. Yay! Esther and I had made it our fortress, no grown up allowed! But of course we couldn't stay inside when there was a huge new city to explore. Especially one as cool as Rome!! But we can save for tomorrow because we were hungry. It was time to go out and find some dinner.  So we looked around our street, it was a very restaurant-y street, it was a bit dud actually, but then we looked the streets around our street and they were great. Yay! We found a... PIZZA PLACE! And, it wasn't that expensive so we sat down, ordered our food (pizzas) and when they came, we ate the best pizza we had ever had! The cheese was extremely stringing and elastic-y and the dough was perfectly cooked. After dinner we went back to our awesome apartment and went to bed, ready for a BIG day tomorrow

w! 

Day 2 - Exploring Rome

When we woke up, Mumma and Dadda had made us a scavenger hunt. Yay! We had to find all these famous landmarks, normal stuff (like a cat or a water fountain) and of course, pigeons! But to find all these things, we had to get out and start to explore the city. Our first stop was THE COLOSSEUM! Yes, the famous Roman theatre that you have seen in all the pictures! Wait, the Colosseum was a far away so we had to catch the bus. We got on bus number 81 and about 6 stops later we got off at the Colosseum. When we got there we were amazed! It was HUGE even though like a quarter of it was knocked down. There were so many people there too. We ticked the Colosseum off our scavenger hunt and the noticed that the arch (a bit like the the arc de triumph) was there as well so we ticked that off too! The arch was amazingly decorated with so many carvings of people and animals and more. We continued onto the Colosseum, the amazing Roman theatre. We had to push through all the people but finally we got to the front of the line, showed our tickets, went through the metal detectors and we were in! It was like a whole new world. The walls of the Colosseum were like arches and you could see where the underground part of the stage was, where all the animals used to be. You could also see where the rows and rows and rows of seats used to be where people used to sit. As we walked across the Colosseum we started to realised just how many people it would have fitted, thousands and thousands! We also realised that the Colosseum isn't actually round. It was actually more of an oval shape. I really loved the Colosseum. I couldn't believe that I was seeing it in real life after seeing it in so many photos! 

Once we had finished at the Colosseum we went up Palatine hill, one of the 7 surrounding Rome. From the top of hill we could see the whole old Roman city called The Roman Forum. It was amazing seeing all the domes and columns. We could even spot some of the other things on our scavenger hunt that we were going to visit next, like Trajan's Column. Trajan's Column is this really detailed carved column that is super tall. It was amazing to look at close up. 

After we had finished at the Roman forum and Trajan's column we went to find the Trevi fountain. The Trevi fountain is a very famous fountain which was full of statues. There were so many people there. It was SUPER crowded, we could hardly move so after we had a look, we left again and headed towards the Pantheon. The Pantheon is another famous, huge Roman building but this one hasn't been knocked down. We didn't go inside because it would have taken an hour just to get our tickets we we walked around it and had sneaky looks in the doors. By this time we were really hungry so went to this bar where they sold sandwiches. Delicious sandwiches. We had to line up to get a table but it was worth it. 

After lunch we had to see Romulus and Remus, the two brothers who founded Rome and were raised by a she wolf. Their statue has them as babies under the wolf mumma. After ticking them off our scavenger hunt, we went to find another thing from out list, the Bocca Della Verita (the mouth of truth). They say that if you put your had in the statues mouth and you are a liar, it will bite off your hand! We didn't see anyone get their hand bitten off so I am not sure it works. We didn't put our hands in because there was another HUGE line and we didn't want to wait of pay money for something that doesn't work. We decided to spend out money on icecream instead. Yay! 

After our icecream we were all pumped up to go and see a Roman... pyramid? Huh? I thought the pyramids were Egyptian!!?? Ahh, this one wasn't from Egypt, an old emperor of Rome had seen the pyramids in Egypt and decided that he wanted one for himself so had it built a long time ago (but not as old as the Egyptian pyramids!). I loved seeing it. It really makes me want to go and see the real ones in Egypt one day! But of course, staring at it for too long would be boring, so we headed home. It was a huge walk home. We didn't think we were going to make it. But after walking for ages and stopping at a few shops we finally made it home. Our feet were aching! 

After a little rest we went out to get dinner. Yes! Pasta! That was on our scavenger hunt list. ANd we are in Italy and Italy is famous for pasta. But wait? Where were we going to get the pasta from? We had a look around our street and found a shop. Yay! The pasta was delicious! Esther got spaghetti bolognese. Daddy and I got spicy ones. Mine was a bit too spicy so I swapped with Mummy's normal pasta. Then we went home to sleep and get ready for the next day. 

Our second full day in Rome. 

To start our day we had a quick breakfast and then we caught a bus to the catacombs! Catacombs are where Christians buried themselves when they died a long LONG time ago. When we got there, we paid, met a tour guide and went down underground. Our first stop on the tour was an underground church. It was covered with bits of marble and terracotta that were parts of the tombs. DOwn there was freezing. As we went further down it got colder and colder! We saw family tombs, skylights and these little oil lamps that they carried around to see. Fun Fact: Did you know that the person who discovered the catacombs got lost in them? They are ginormous! They go all around the city. There are like 60 something of them that go for miles and miles under the city. The person who found it thought that he was going to get stuck in them forever. Luckily he made it out. And luckily we did too! As we kept on moving, we started to notice the special signs on the catacombs, like birds and this cross type thing that represented different things. We also started to notice things engraved on the tombs. We also saw that the explorers from a few hundred years ago wrote their names on the walls in big coloured writing to show that they had been there. We saw a really big tombs that used to be the entrance but the people (a 1000 years ago) built it in and added to it. Then we came out. We were warm again! 

Next up we went for another long walk along the river. Along the way we were starting to get hungry so we bought some delicious looking sandwiches from the Jewish quarter. But Daddy had somewhere to take us... Where was it? It was the Spanish steps! But wait? What are the Spanish steps doing in Rome??? Because that is where the embassy is! There were a million people there but we managed to break through to get some good photos and then walked up the steps to eat our delicious sandwiches :) and then when we came back down we saw a wedding on the steps!

We walked back through Rome and found ourselves at Castel de St Angelo, this huge castle next to the Vatican, the smallest country in the world. But guess what? St Angelo's isn't actually a castle, it's a mausoleum!! Huh?!?! But we kept on walking, even though St Angelo's was kinda cool, because we had paid heaps of money to go and see the Vatican, a country IN ROME! When we got to the Vatican we had to wait outside the walls for our tour guide, it wasn't just free passing! When we found our tour guide, he gave us these radio things with one headphone so we could hear what he was saying. When we walked in we saw this big square with lots of columns. We also saw a HUGE basilica. St Peter's, the biggest basilica in the whole wide world (basilica is a church). When the guide had finished telling us about the square, we went inside and... WOW! It was amazing! We started with the underground tombs, there were lots of popes buried there and when we had finished looking at all the popes we went upstairs through this little corridor and... BOOOOOM! It was amazing! Mosaics everywhere (not really pictures, even though they look like them), gold everywhere, statues of saints and even the real body of pope because the tomb he was in was air tight so he didn't rot. There were HEAPS of people so it was difficult to get close to the things, but the guide did tell us what the statues were of.. and this one statue of Mary that Michelangelo had made, someone had cut her nose off! And in the middle of the basilica there was this HUGE dome. The annoying thing about this dome is that nothing in Rome could be higher than it, no building, nothing! Of course our tour had to end. 2025 is a special year because it is a pilgrim year. This means that they open this special Holy Door and if you walk through it all your sins go away. So we left through that door but we still felt normal so I don't think it works. On the way out of the Vatican we saw these guards in funny costumes (Swiss guards) and shops trying to make money, but they weren't that good so we left again. 

Eventually we made it back to our apartment. After a quick break, we went out and got an ice-cream. It was delicious and huge. They we went out for dinner and had meatballs. They were yummy. 

DAY 3

Okay today we woke up really early to catch a train to florence then from florence to las spezia before coming to our destination "levanto" This cool town near the chincertera a group of really colorful towns! But when we got there we couldn't  go to apartment strate away because it was to early pick up our keys and there was a beach awaiting and we were hot so we hoped in ( after we put our bathers on ). After a nice swim in the Mediterranean ! We got our keys and headed to our apartment. When we got in we dropped our bags off and went out to explore levanto. As we walked around we started to notice that heaps of the buildings had painted on stuff like painted bricks and shutters even like painted on stature's and railings. On the way back we stopped for a drink near our house and WOW they gave us heaps of tapas! Chips, nuts, sandwiches and more! Eventually when we finished everything we left to have burgers at our apartment and go to sleep.

DAY 4    

Today we woke up and guess what? We went on another . . .                 TRAIN!

This train took us to Riommagiore a town in the chinaterra. When we got there we got there we had a little explore. While we were exploring we wondered across this really cool harber with cute boats and super clear water and we also wondered to a less impressive castle. Then after Riommagiore we walked to manarola by the Via dell'Amore this beautiful walk around the coast. Manarola were we got heaps of apricots:| And another cool harbour. But of course we had to keep on going! But uuurrrhhh this walk had so many sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ( steps :( ) 

We climbed up and up and up. Are we ever going to reach the top. We stopped every now and then to look at the view but I really wanted to keep going and pushed really hard to climb the stairs faster and was the first to reach the little hilltop town, Volastra! Volastra was very cute but we didn't really stop and kept going around the hills to the next town, called Corniglia. Another beautiful town on the cliffs high above the water with lots of cool winding streets and a happy vibe :) The sun was out and we were pretty tired from our big trek and very hungry! Dadda looked up a cool place to have lunch but when we got there it was closed :( Luckily the place next door was open and had cool terraza with a view and Pizzzzza!!!! So we stopped there for lunch! We had a margarita and a pesto pizza and they were huuuuge!

We still had two towns to go so we headed off! MORE STEPS!!! AND HOT SUN NOW!! But not as long a walk and this time we wore our hats. This town looked soooo cool as you walked down the millions of steps to reach it. It had castle right on the point and another cool harbour. We went down to the harbour and there was a ferry full of tourists trying to dock but the waves were too big and no one could get off so they left! I wonder where they ended up? We really wanted a swim and a icecream but Muma and Dadda said we had to make it to the end first! So we went on to the final town, Montorosso al Mare. We arrived super hot and ready for swim and only just managed to get in the water before the sun disappeared behind the hills. The beach was like a grey pebbly rock which made the water really aqua blue. After our swim we found a delicious gelato in the town and then had to quickly run to catch the last train home!

When we finally got home we had walked 25km and 40000 steps!!!!!! Its amazing our feet were still attached to our legs!

DAY 5

Today Mama & Dada woke us up early for a new adventure but this time it was secret! We didn't know what was happening... It was a cloudy day and a bit rainy but luckily it didn't matter because the first stop they took us was.......... you guessed it! The train station! We had to get two trains this time and it took along time before we arrived in a new town and we didn't know where. We got off the train and started walking - Mama knew where we were going so we followed her through this cool town. While we were walking i started tying to guess where we were going but i couldn't get anything out of them, and then we saw it! The Leaning Tower of Pisa!!!! I couldn't believe it! Mummy had said that it was too far away and we wouldn't be able to see it!! There were hundreds of people already there, all taking funny pictures pretending to hold up the tower :) The tower was a cool as I thought it would be but I thought it would be by itself, not next to a huge basilica (church) and other cool buildings in the same style. 

Did you know? The Tower of Pisa is leaning because it is too heavy for the ground it was built on and started to sink as soon as it was built. Now it is like 2 metres below the ground so it must be still sinking!

We found a spare spot in the crowd and took our own funny photos :) It was really tricky to get it to work! Esther and I took a photo fighting to push it over and Daddy took one like he was kissing it :) Here they are >>>

We walked around the whole square and then walked make through town looking at the cool shops as we went until we found a cafe by the river and had a hot chocolate. Pisa has a really cool river with very medieval bridges and buildings. From our cafe we spotted a funning looking building down the river so we walked down the river to investigate. It was a tiny church! It was adorable and very detailed with lots of mini towers and gargoyles. It was starting to get really warm and nearly time for our train back so we walked back to the train station munching on some delicious pastries as we went. 

We we got back to Levanto we had a relaxing afternoon and went for a swim before having yummy pizza for dinner at the bar below our apartment. 

DAY 7:

Big travel day today! Train ride (of course), (not early) to Milano! 

We arrived at lunch to a really cool train station! It was huge and really ornate! We walked to our new apartment and got very hot (Milano is really warm). Our apartment was ok but quite dark so we quickly put our bags down and went for a walk through the city. Milan is very fancy and we found lots of cool building and a really cool shopping centre with a huge glass roof and gold everywhere! awe walked through the galerie and popped out the other side to find the biggest cathedral ever!!! It was huge and had people and loud music everywhere around it. But better than the cathedral was the pigeons!!!!! There were millions! There were so many little cuties and Esther even had some land on her! I really wanted to pick one up and cuddle it!!! But we had to keep on going..... to find gelato!!! But the gelateria we wanted to go was really popular and had a huge line :( But it looked so good we waited and it was worth it :) It was delicious!! We looked in some cool vintage clothes shops for jackets for Marion's wedding and then walked back through Pidgie Square on our way home. 

DAY 8:

Another hot day in Milano with a beautiful blue sky. We set off on another big walk around town. First we walked to a big castle that you can see from lots of places in the city even though it is not on a hill. It is called Castilo Sforzesco and it is very different to the castles we have seen in Spain! The towers are round and get bigger as they go up and it has a huge moat around (but with no water). We walked around the castles walls and went in through the gates to the huge plaza inside. There was huge park behind the castle that we wanted to go to but fist Daddy wanted to go and check out a big sculpture by a famous artist (I can't remember who) that was nearby. We found it!!! It was a huge needle and thread stuck in the road! Now we get to go to the park!

The park was huge and we didn't really know where to go so we just wandered around until we spotted a lake with ducklings! We watched them for a while and then suddenly realised there were also turtles in the water! Lots of them!! Swimming around and sunbaking! They were very funny and cute! Then we found a park and had a little play and then found a huge stone arch called Arco Della Pace. It looks like the one we saw in Rome but is no where near as old. 

We left the park looking for something to eat for lunch. Mummy & Dada wanted to go to a cool neighborhood but it was a long way to walk so we caught a tram! It looked very old and was made of wood but it was lots of fun to ride! When we got off the tram the street didn't look any different to other streets in Milan but we turned the corner and there was a huge canal in the middle of the street. It looked very cool and there were heaps of cool cafes down either side of the canal. There was also lots of stuff at the bottom of the canal! Microphones, sunglasses, money, coat hangers and frying pans! we found a cool restaurant for lunch and had some delicious pasta.

After lunch we walked backed home to get ready for Switzerland and along the way we found really cool vintage clothes shops. Milan has heaps!

word of the post    pueblo = town