Last days: Milan

Finally the last Italy blog post... it's been a great effort to sift through all the pics, and because it's taken me so long to do, it's been a great effort remembering the details! Milan was def. the highlight in terms of artwork. It was worth the organisation and searching heaps of internet providers to find and buy tickets to view Leonardo De Vinci's Last Supper.

This pic is just of a poster in the foyer, you aren't allowed to take pics of the real thing. Blow the Sistine chapel, or anything at the Vatican for that matter, this was by far the most reverent and spiritual place to be in. This piece of artwork has an amazing feel to it. More than just familiarity it is truely a beautiful and inspired piece. You have to walk through 3 climate control doors to get to it, and only groups of 10 are allowed in at a time for about 15min of viewing, it's the only thing to see in the building as it is painted on one wall of an old church.

 Amazing!...and out the front....

 Some shots of my Roman sandals...(Which I haven't been able to wear since I was in Italy, can't wait for summer to crack them out again!)

 Milan happens to be very close to the northern border of Italy, once we'd seen the Last supper we didn't really have anything booked cause we knew the shopping in Milan would be the main attraction. Whilst looking through the Lonely Planet for good spots to shop we came upon my two favourite words "Factory Outlets".... What was also exciting was the best factory outlet mall was across the border in Switzerland, a half an hour bus ride away....so....Off to the Swiss alps we headed!

 The bus trip up through the Milan Lakes region was well worth the trip, and the shopping when we got there was great too! This is back in Milan will all my goodies..

 Milan has a beatiful Gothic feel...

 ...and (eat your heart out MasterChef) the real deal! Milanese Risotto...delicious!

 One thing I forgot to say about Venice is that we were very disappointed to find out they aren't good with Gelato, lucky Milan was, so we could finish our trip on a Gelato high!

We really had a wonderful time and managed to fit in all we wanted to see:) Although it was a whirl wind trip we both felt we could tick Italy off our lists:)
Arrivederci

Day 10: Venice

I loved Venice! I found it facinating...wouldn't spend a great amount of time there but it was nice to visit! Didn't notice any smells nor were we bothered by bugs.

 It was very pretty!

We were a little disappointed at the amount of graffiti on their famous bridge...

 We couldn't believe how many people had dogs in Venice..

A very romantic city! Especially at dusk.

Day 9: Duomo

Check out our cool florence wall paper...this was in the room we stayed in...

 If we thought day 8 was full of hot steep climbs, we were in for an even hotter and steeper climb day 9...up the Duomo...the most famous structure in Florence...here's a glimpse of the inside....

 ...then it was stairs...stairs and more stairs....and it was HOT!

 But the view was fantastic!

 Very high up!

 ....and then finally back inside the cathedral where it was nice and cool...

 mmm Florence is the home of Gelato...so our Gelato addiction continued...

 ...a final walk across Hayden's favourite Florence bridge...

 ...some wishful thinking...

It was a great way to end our time in Florence.

Day 8: Palazzo Pitti & Piazzale Michaelangelo

The gardens at Palazzo Pitti were gorgeous! All be it very steep... and hard to climb on a hot day!

The bottom:

 ...and the view from the top...

 Hot enough for shorty shorts!

 Piazzale fo shizzle!

 .... before we realised we could catch the bus up for this view...we climbed the million steps!

 Hence the flustered looks...

Another fake David...did I mention how awesome the real one was?

 ...So hot tryng to get shade by a bus!...

After all that we caught a bus out to an awesome armory museum....we weren't allowed to take photos except for in the dress up room...

oh yeah!

Day 7: PISA

Saturday morning we had a 'Rome' around Florence ;) It was very hot! Then we jumped on a local train to Pisa...the reason? well this....

...and yes we did have to climb to the top...

 

 ...but the views were great!

 It was an awful lot of steps...

 The leaning tower of Pisa was a bell tower for the adjacent cathedral, the foundations couldn't cope with the height of the tower, thus it began to sink. It was left as is and reinforced, which is lucky because Pisa now gets bucket loads of money from tourists!

 ...tourists mainly doing this...(Trying to get the perfect 'i'm holding up the tower' photo)

Well why not?...'when in Rome...' (or Pisa)