Sooo, Italy. Well, it was the only holiday I've been well enough to go on this year. Even if I was a wreck for some of ir, at least I got there. Shame I missed the other 5, but that's a different story altogether.
The trip as a whole was pretty damn amazing. I'm still tired from it three weeks on. Probably due to the fact I was walking approximately 30,000 steps a day. Slightly different from my usual average of around 3,000.
The trip began with a drive to Stansted. Now, for weeks before, I'd been praying my bout of relative good health would last throughout the trip, so of course I started getting ill a few days before and the night before the flight brought the most debilitating headache of recent times. Great start. The drive itself was relatively uneventful, except that half an hour with M&M gave me a taster of just how odd the trip was going to be.
This led us nicely to a six hour wait at the airport. I think previous airport visits had romanticised this process for me - I was imagining sitting in a bar/cafe, sipping something elegant, not squatting under the fire extinguishers and failing to sleep due to constantly having to avoid being trod on by airport officials. Ah well, I'd chosen to fly Ryanair so it was something I'd better get used to.
The next few hours passed slooowly. M1 made a fool of himself repeatedly - no surprise there. He also purchased an exciting mystery game for the DS, which was to keep him enthralled for the rest of the trip. I bought a Swarovski necklace of the sort I'd been searching for for years. Success. Though part of the reason I bought it was due to feeling guilty about making the shop assistant go back and forth, getting out necklace after necklace, before having to put it back when I decided it wasn't suitable. Still, it's a nice butterfly so I have no complaints. I also decided to buy books for the necessary holiday reading. I would shortly be in Italy, one of the most culturally rich places in the world, so I bought something suitably highbrow - Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. Hey, in my defence, I would never have bought this had I not started this series at 13 and felt obliged to follow it to the end. And I'd be going to Milan, so it was relevant. Kinda. Besides, I also bought an Economics book...but it got lost in transit and I didn't get to read it. Sad times. Now I'll never know how little things can make a big difference.
And I survived my first trip with a budget airline! Aside from being extremely cramped with questionable toilets, it wasn't nearly as bad as expected. Though the trumpets the played upon landing severely damaged the chances of me ever flying with them again. Next was the 50 minute bus ride into actual Rome, the purchase of Inter-country rail passes, and what resembled a slice of the only pizza I'd eat during the whole holiday. We then boarded the train to Florence and here began the most uncomfortable train journey of my life. The train had some lovely compartments...but you had to reserve seats to get those, so instead we were banished to the corridor, having to stand up every time someone wanted to get past. On a normal day, 3 hours of this would be fairly terrible, but we'd been awake for well over a day by this point, so it was hell. We finally got to Florence, and after a lengthy mission to locate the hostel, collapsed on our beds.
I would happily have stayed there and slept forever - well, forever for me, so 6 hours. It would have been silly to waste a night though, so we freshened up and went exploring. At the time it seemed as though we'd walked a huge amount, but in hindsight it probably wasn't that much. We explored the centre and jewellery quarter, then walked along the bridge. I got some lovely shots of the Ponte Vecchio in the sunset. If, when typing this up, I work out how to insert pictures, I'll include some of my favourites.
We rounded off the day with a slap up Italian meal and retired to our beds at 9pm like the crazy party animals we are.
Part two to follow soon. I'll try to be a lot more concise.
