Italy

Entering Italy for the first time was exciting and I was looking forward to seeing all the historic buildings and trying to understand some of their fascinating past. Florence was a good starting point then but to get there we stopped for a couple of hours in Pisa. Many of us, including me, posed for the holding up the tour photo and walked around it through the crowds. Hundreds of thousands of tourists stop there every day. It still felt unreal to be standing beside a building I had seen so many times in photos.
Our full day in Florence started with a walking tour of the city before being free to roam as we wished. I followed a small crew and we went to the Accademia to see the statue of David. The statue makes him look huge and intimidating although in the story he is said to be small and fighting a huge Goliath. Having seen the statue we didn't hang around the museum too long there was still Florence to see. I walked around with a friend towards to the leather markets, before getting lost and only just making it back to the bus before it went back to camp. In the afternoon we sat by the pool in the late Tuscan afternoon sun.
Our drive between Florence and Rome stopped at Orvieto where I tried boar for lunch. We also stopped outside the cathedral to take a lot of photos and it was just a taste of the magnificent Italian architecture.
Rome was hot, busy and large. It was the longest walking tour of the trip and probably the most interesting. Trying to retain all the information is so difficult, the tour was by our Aussie trip leader and although tours of that sort are not allowed in Rome we managed to get through the day without getting caught. We walked up the Spanish steps, drank from the Trevi fountain and walked around the front of the Colosseum. I returned in my own time the following day and explored the inside of the Colosseum. The Vatican City tour took most of the morning and the tourists again visit in their hordes. The Sistine Chapel is extremely impressive and I am so lucky I have had the chance to see it.
We left Italy on a ferry heading towards Greece. There wasn't a great deal to do on the ship and it was a chance for me to catch up on some sleep and be ready to go for the sailing.