Hong Kong

What a blast landing in Hong Kong and only several hours sleep. (my fault)
Hotel room not ready but we are there for a day only. So with 2 hours sleep we have cruised Hong Kong and enjoyed the pungent smells and sensory overload. High temps and feel of well over 30 due to the humidity. Lapping it up as have had lots of complaints about the weather back home.
Have eaten my prawn wontons and ready to come home.

Arrivando in ROMA

Buonajourno
Leaving early this morning we are travelling to Rome 2 hrs on the train. Trundling our suitcases and carryons along Florence footpaths is a workout. The wheels are just holding out as the paths are cobbled and rutted so you have to lift the bags over parts. Now our bags are over 25 kilos so it is my weight training. The train is super comfy so time for a nanna nap.
We have seen so much by train, small orderly vineyards, fields of sunflowers blooming and maize and crops basking in the humid temperatures. Ochre and pink villas with little terracotta rooves as we flit by village after village. Amazing little nurseries all topiary plants along side the tracks amongst the tall poplars.
We have visited the Vatican and Sistine Chapel and St Peter's cathedral. 3 hours tour of artefacts, sculptures paintings and painted fresco overload. The pope flew out overhead at 4pm to Korea.

last day in Rome
boo hoo we fly home tomorrow. Spent last day doing our own walking tour of the colloseum and the forums. We discovered a lookout on musem of tomb of the unknown
soldier.
Back to see the Trevi Fountain which is under renovation. it looks terrible. very sad.

Last pix is of vatican. the Pope opens the 2nd to last window from the right.

soldier.

Cinque Terre

2 1/2 hours from Florence is this seaside group of towns built into the rock. Had an amazing day up early to bus , train and boat around four of the villages. Manarola, Riomaggiora, monterrosa and Vernazza. The sun was relentless while we walked the narrow streets competing with all the tourists. I never thought we would manage to climb onto the rocking boat but we did and the view from sea was amazing. Ate our seafood salad and basil pesto pasta for lunch and topped with fruit salad and Icecream. Delicious but the trains running overhead directly gave me such a fright. Gelato to cool down.
Sat at lunch with a Romanian couple.
Una Lunga giornata ma buona.
Mamma mia!

Arrivederci Firenze

Buonjourno
Pealing church bells send us to sleep and wake us each morning reminding us we are in Firenze.
See you again fantastico Florence. We walked the streets today after visiting David.  nice body. That is the Michelangelo statue at the Accademia that was mesmerising. Luckily we booked a ticket early 9.45am and already a line for reservations. When we left the line was huge for both. The Uffizzi museum had ancient art from the region. We checked out the Uffizzi and Ponte Vecchio but the Jewelery though tempting did not make me part with Colin's money.

The streets are teaming  with tourists  walking along the roads with pushchairs and baggage, so the cars can hardly drive down them. Besides  the street sellers placing themselves on footpaths,  you also have to dodge the beggars lying across your path. Persons begging  because they have amputations, just poor or for their sick baby.  Some are Romanian poor. One lady was onto it as she sat by the lucky pig where everyone throws their coins and she was catching the excess.

Graci
Buonasera
Arrivederci

Manneken Pis

Little pis boy in Brussels who has clothes presented to him from foreign dignitaries.

Fond Farewells

We have Farewelled the cruise staff with hugs and gratuities and also our new friends .Up at 6 this morning and transferred to London from Southampton quite easily. Dropped Daphne, Colin, Billy and Evey at Heathrow and we travelled onto Victoria station. Stowed our suitcases and took off to covent garden to look for dancing shoes. Was lovely to be in London and the weather was warming up nicely.

Decided after lunch to go visit the queen at Buckingham palace and it was bustling as the mall was closed off for a family cycle race.on the way there we nearly got scammed. A man approached and asked for directions to Kensington. Suddenly two big men surrounded us and asked what we were doing and wanted our ID. I produced our passports and they asked for us to show them our wallet. We thought they were undercover cops looking for illegal money changers. Colin's wallet is attached to his belt by a chain and he pulled it out to show them. Then I looked at their odd suits   and said Colin don't show them. I asked for their ID and hey said never mind. When I asked again they left. On the walk back I saw them still hovering around. Lucky we didn't lose anything but had very little Sterling left anyway.
Pix of us outside Buckingham Palace.

Pisa is leaning

Pisa
Finally we have made it to Pisa. Train station in Florence was a nightmare as we missed the first train as the ticket line was so long. Finally got some help with the tickets and found someone to tell us where to go. This particular train to Pisa , goes to La Spezia. 1 hr in the sweltering carriage and we walked 25 minutes in 33° heat to be stunned by the spectacle of the leaning tower and the cathedral and surrounding buildings.  I was starting to fade as had a but of a tummy upset. We discovered  you get free tickets to enter the cathedral but they are timed so we had a leisurely lunch (best spaghetti cabonnara ever) to recharge. Made it back to Florence at 5pm. Pisa was amazing and even my favorite shop Desigual. Mostly closed on a Sunday though.

Florence
This city is a dream. I am in love love love with it.  Tonight we have had another amazing meal of asparagus risotto and cheese ravioli with meat sauce.
Pasta will never be the same again.