Perugia, Italia

We had 4 nights in an old farmhouse in Perugia.  At the house there were some chickens and two dogs.

We went to loads of medieval hill top towns. 

They included:

-          Assisi

-          Spello

-           Montepulciano (Mon-te-pulch-iarno)

-          Pienza

-          Orvieto

Some streets were so narrow you couldn’t drive through them.  When we walked through the towns, we noticed that most of the buildings were tall and narrow sometimes arches were used to join two houses together (so you can go from one house to the other), or they were used to divide two buildings and create a walkway.

Almost all of the towns had at least one well in the town square.  This would have been where the town collected their water.  My favourite was the well in Assisi because it was really ornate.  It even had statues and seating around it.

Montepulciano's well.

Assisi was the biggest of the hilltop towns, it had a big church; the church of Saint Francis which was built more than 830 years ago.  You had to have your legs and your shoulders covered up to go inside as a sign of respect to the church.  Unfortunately for me I was wearing a singlet top and shorts – They had pieces of fabric for tourists who were not covered up, so I had to wear a piece of blue fabric like a skirt to be allowed in. 

In spring Spello is famous for its flowers, nearly every house is decorated with hanging baskets full of flowers.  It was really pretty.

In Italy there are lots of old Mini’s and Fiats, which are really small cars.  They have really narrow roads in some parts of Italy so you need a small car to get around in the old towns.  Another reason for it is that it is much easier to find a car park.  Here is one of one of the old Fiats that we found.  Look how small it is!

Firenze, Italia

We had 3 days in Firenze (Florence).  On the first day we went to Pisa and then Lucca.  In Pisa, we climbed the leaning tower.  We were lucky because 2 months ago it was closed.

We climbed to the very top and the view was amazing!  The stairs felt easier or more difficult depending on which side the tower was leaning.

This is me at the leaning tower of Pisa

Lucca is a little old town, surrounded by a 12 metre wall!  All the buildings in the town square, which is more like a town circle,  are curved in to make a circle. We spent a couple of hours there and we found a shop full of etchings and paintings, Mum, Gabby, Amelia and I all bought an etching. Mine is of the town square of Lucca.  When we were about to leave a huge marching band came into the streets!  There was drummers and the leaders.

Marching Band

The next day we went into Firenze and looked around.  We went to the Duomo ( The Duomo is a church with a big dome at the top.), we climbed all 463 steps  to the top. The Duomo was started over 700 years ago and took 150 years to build.   You can see the whole of Firenze and more from the top.  It is made of marble and stone, the ceiling  is covered in  frescoes! I find it hard to believe that it is even real, there is so much detail and the frescoes are so high up that you would needed scaffolding everywhere to paint it.  No wonder it took 150 years to complete!

The outside of the Duomo

The frescoes on the roof  of the Duomo

The veiw from the top of the Duomo

Roma, Italia

We are now in Italia (Italy).  Roma (Rome) was our first stop, we had 3 days in Roma.  On our first day we went to the Colosseo (Colosseum in English.) The Colosseo is a massive arena with underground passages. The arena was used for fighting- people fought against each other, or  with bears, lions and other vicious creatures. During the breaks the audience would throw criminals onto the floor just to see them get eaten.

They are currently working on it so you can see what the arena floor would have been like.

The Colosseo

Some other places in Roma that we visited:

The Vatican City (Where the Pope lives) (It became independent from Italy so now it is a different country. It is now the smallest country in the world.)

St. Peter's Basilica, an amazing cathedral in the Vatican City.

Roman Forum

The Spanish Steps

The Trevi Fountain.

Gelato shop!

The Basilica

A Swiss Guard at the Basilica

The Trevi Fountain was packed as you can see and it isn’t even peak season yet!  I don’t think that I managed to get the whole fountain in one photo that is how big it is!

Trevi Fountain

The crowds at Trevi Fountain

The Roman Forum is a huge set of ruins - not all of them are buildings some are decorative arches and so on. It was amazing walking through them. I still am not sure how it didn’t just slide straight off the mountain that it was sitting on!

The Roman Forum

We went to many really good Gelato shops.  I wanted to taste all the flavours, but I am not sure that is possible in ten days (even though you get two flavours per cone). My favourite is Pistachio.

A Gelato Shop!

Peleponnese, Greece

In the Peleponnese we went to some amazing places.
These are some of them:

Mystra from the top

The very top of the Mystra with snow-capped mountains in the background.

Mystra is a massive, ancient settlement, over 760 years old.  Mystra was built on a huge hill so that they could see any invaders coming.  We walked through churches with frescoes (A fresco is a wall painting.) these ones were really, really old.  There are remains of roman baths and houses, some were huge. We climbed hundreds of steps which led to the ruins of a castle.

The Caves of Diros

The caves of Diros are a strech of caves, they are at sea level so you need a canoe to get through them.
I thought that it was amazing.
The caves go for 14 kilometers.  They are made of rock like icicles called; stalagmites and stalactites formed over 1000's of years. The calcium in the water helps make the strands.  A very thin strand the size of a spaghetti strand will take at least 100 years to form.

A old church set in a mountain.

 We followed a little path that was hidden behind some weeds. The path went for a kilometer and at the end was a little, locked up church.  When ever the church is not open for a service (which is once every year) it is locked up.  We tried to find little holes in the wall where we could stick our camera in and take a photo to see what it is like inside.
It was fun to explore.

The amazing old castle in Methoni.

Methoni Castle is humongous.  With a bridge leading to it on one side and sea on the rest,  not many invaders could get in.  It even had it's own turret and moat.  We explored the turret and the castle walls.  It was really cool. 

A cake shop in Gythio (Γύθειο) in the Peleponnese.

 In Gythio we went to this cake shop to buy some Greek sweets!!! Yummmm! We bought some cakes for Amelia's birthday because the cake we made didn't turn out.  We couldn't tell the difference between the flours! (It was all Greek to us!)