Athens

We have been in Athens for 4 days and arrived here from Italy after 2 long days of travel. We took several trains and one 16 hour long ferry ride to get from Italy to Athens. We were quite exhausted the evening we arrived and were glad to be at a hotel versus a campsite. We have spent our time in Athens going around and looking at the ruins in the city. The most impressive being the Acropolis which we can view from the rooftop restaurant of our hotel. It is quite the view when it is all lit up in the evening with the sun setting! It has also been quite warm here which has brought us to the decision that we needed to buy hats...dorky tourists hats because that is the only type that is out here. We are not "hat people" therefore any smart remarks can be left to yourself (Lisa this means you). We've done less sight seeing per day than in other countries due to the heat. We go out in the morning when it is less hot and come back to our hotel to take a break in the air conditioning. We are leaving for the Greek Islands tomorrow morning, our first stop being Paros. For the next couple weeks we will be relaxing on the beaches so our blog posts may be less frequent. However, we will still try to post pictures of us in our bathing suits! Again no smart remarks (Lisa, this means you)!

Us on the ferry from Italy to Greece

Traci in front of Dionysus' Theatre

Herodes the Atticus' Odeum

The Parthenon

Athena's Temple

View of Athens from the Acropolis

Us in front of the Parthenon

Donovan in front of the Temple of Olympian Zeus

Panathenaic Stadium - An ancient stadium that was also the site of the Olympics in 1896

Sorrento, Pompeii and Capri

We have spent the past week at a campsite in Sorrento, Italy. We have spent a few days relaxing as well as taking a few day trips. We walked around the town of Sorrento a couple of days, laid by our pool at our campsite, and then took two day trips, one to Pompeii and one to the island of Capri. Pompeii is famous for it's ancient ruins. Mt Vesuvius erupted thousands of years ago and buried the town of Pompeii in volcanic ash preserving a lot of the buildings. We took a tour around the site with a guide and found it quite interesting. We also took a tour to the island of Capri which is about an hour by boat. We were able to visit the blue grotto which is a cave reached from the water by row boats and when inside the water looks royal blue. Expensive for a 5 minute tour but it was really beautiful. Also on our boat tour they took us around the island showing us other sights. We spent our day on the island lying on the beach and enjoying the beautiful seascape. This was our last stop in Italy. Tomorrow we head off to Greece. We have really loved Italy and all the great sights and food!

The port of Sorrento

Traci in Pompeii

Pompeii Ruins

The view of Capri from our boat

Donovan on the boat to Capri

Traci on Capri

Us on Capri

No joke...we saw the Pope!

We decided to spend 5 full days in Rome because there is so much history and so much to see. The time has actually gone by pretty fast with us leaving Rome tomorrow and going to Sorrento, Italy. The first touristy sight that we saw in Rome, were the Spanish Steps which were basically a really large set of steps connecting a higher street in Rome to a lower street. Next up was the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. Donovan was really interested in the Pantheon as he studied it in school. One of our days was spent touring Ancient Rome. That included vising the Colosseum, the Palatine and Forum (ancient Roman ruins). We found that whole day very interesting and really enjoyed the Colosseum (aside from the packs of crowds and the intense heat). We also went to the catacombs of St. Callisto. This was the largest catacomb in Rome housing over 500,000 tombs and dated back to the 2nd century. Another highlight of our time in Rome was our visit to the Vatican. We toured the Vatican museums which included the Sistine chapel and the famous ceiling painted by Michelangelo. While still in the Vatican we saw St Peters Basilica which was the most amazing church we've seen yet on our trip. On our last day , we toured the Castle of St. Angelo. While on the terrace of the castle we were able to overlook sights of Rome including the Vatican. We noticed lots of people gathered outside St Peters Basilica and decided to go check it out. Guess what, we saw the Pope! He was giving some sort of speech which we couldn't understand because it was in Italian. We made our way through the crowds and were about 200 meters away. We could not belive it!
We really enjoyed Rome and are getting used to our Italian diet: pizza, pasta, wine and gelato.

The Spanish Steps (Where is Waldo except where is Traci- find her)

Traci and the Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon

Donovan inside the Colosseum

Donovan in front of St.Peters Basilica in the Vatican

Castle of St.Angelo

The Pope (note-he is the one in white)

Florence & Pisa

We arrived in Florence a few days ago and have been experiencing the warmest weather so far on our trip! The first day we got here, it was 36°C. To us, that's hot. We wasted no time though, and on the day of arrival we got right to some sight-seeing as there is plenty to see in Florence. We visited many basilicas & cathedrals including Santa Maria del Fiore(Duomo), San Lorenzo & Santa Croce that houses Michelangelo's tomb. Speaking of Michelangelo, we also went to see his sculpture of the David at the Accademia Gallery. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photos to be taken inside, so we've included a photo of one of the two replicas of the statue that are in the city. The original, however, is so very intricate and massive, that the replicas don't do it justice.
We also took a half day trip into Pisa to see one thing and one thing only...The Leaning Tower. Very touristy! But, because Florence is so close to Pisa, we couldn't pass up the opportunity. However, we didn't climb to the top of the tower as it would have costed us $50 Canadian to do so. We ain't paying nobody to climb up 300 steps.
We've greatly enjoyed our short time in Florence and are looking forward to continuing our travels in Italy with our next stop being Rome.

Donovan with Florence in the background (Lisa- I know this shirt is the same one as in our previous post but it was washed since the last time I wore it. So, there is no need for any smart remarks regarding hygiene. And yes, I am growing my bangs out)

The Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) Cathedral in Florence

The Leaning Tower of Pisa (note: it may look like we are pushing/holding up the tower but in fact it is a camera trick)


A replica of Michelangelo's David on the spot where the original used to stand.

Michelangelo's tomb inside the church of Santa Croce in Florence

Mediocre Milan & Voluptuous Venice

Our last week was spent in two different cities: Milan and Venice. Milan was first and we were only there for two days. Our thoughts on Milan were: it would be a great place to visit if you had thousands of dollars to spend on designer clothing. As you can see from our previous blog posts, our clothes may look designer but...in fact they are not. Therefore, we had an OK time in Milan and saw the main cathedral there known as the Duomo and visited the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (shopping plaza). Enough said.
Now onto Venice. It was another highlight of our trip. We just loved walking the streets, looking at the little shops, having lunch, taking pictures of the old buildings against many of the various canals that snake through the city, checking out St.Mark's Basillica and the Doge's Palace. Not to mention, taking a gondola ride down the canals. Our accommodation was a campsite on the mainland about 15 mins by boat to Venice. In the morning, we would catch the boat right outside our campsite, spend our day in Venice, then boat back to the campsite. It was a nice change of pace to stay outside of the city yet still have convenient access to the city. We loved the three days that we spent in Venice and would definitely return someday!

The Duomo in Milan

Louis Vuitton in Milan: the handbags here cost more than our Ford Tempo


Some shots of Venice



Traci in front of our luxurious cabin

Donovan in front of St.Mark's Basillica

Us on our last day in Venice

Cinque Terre

Our first stop in Italy was La Spezia. La Spezia is the city right near the 5 villages that make up the National Park of Cinque Terre. We spent 2 full days hiking the coastal/cliff paths that link together the 5 villages. We split the hike into 2 parts so that we could have the time to explore each village as we arrived in it. Our first day we hiked from the village of Monterosso, through Vernazza and ended our day in Corniglia. Throughout the whole first day, it rained off and on, but mostly on. At some points it was absolutely pouring. We had our rain jackets on and were using our umbrellas, but still managed to get completely soaked! We both stayed quite positive through it all because of where we were and what beautiful sights we were seeing. We were perched on the sides of steep cliffs with spectacular views of the Mediterranean Sea and coastal hill top villages. Our second day we continued from the village of Corniglia through Manarola and ended in Riomaggiore. Now on this day, we had quite beautiful weather with it only raining at the end of our day. With our luck, the hike on the second day was way easier than on the first day. There is a boat service that takes people from village to village and on our second day we took a boat from the last village to the first village, giving us great views from the sea. Dono got a little sea sick but it was still a lot of fun.
Being here has definitely been one of the highlights of our trip! We highly recommend anyone who is coming to Italy, to come to Cinque Terre!

Traci is invigorated by the salty sea breeze

Donovan hiking in his sporty windbreaker

The village of Vernazza

The village of Corniglia

Traci enjoying the view

Out for Dinner in La Spezia

The village of Manarola

Traci and Donovan (showing off the guns!) in front of Manarola

The French Riviera

Our trip has brought us to the French Riviera specifically the cities of Nice and Cannes. It just so happened that the Cannes Film Festival started on the day we arrived in Nice. Cannes is known for this festival. Nice and Cannes are half an hour away by train so on Thursday we caught a train to Cannes to check out the festivities and do some celebrity spotting. People like Jack Black, Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie, & Cate Blanchett were in Cannes but unfortunately all we were able to see were some French film stars (or so we think). We stood on the edge of the red carpet to a premiere of one of the films not knowing which one or which stars we would see. Many film crews, photographers, and security guards were preparing for the event. What we ended up seeing were the French film stars who we have no idea who they were, but it still was a neat experience! Because the weather hasn't been that great and the beaches in Nice are pebble beaches, we haven't felt like doing any suntanning. However, we have enjoyed walking along the boardwalk by the Mediterranean Sea which is very beautiful and blue. This is our last stop in France (until the end of our trip when we fly home from Paris). We leave for Italy tomorrow and are very excited for the places we'll see there and the great food!

The Hotel where the newest Indiana Jones will be premiered at!

Kung Fu Panda set where Jack Black was promoting the film the night before

The sandy beach in Cannes

The main theatre with the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival

Traci loving the ice cream

Supper Picnic on the beach in Nice