Later after Pompeii, pizza making and rude aprons!

After we settled in upon arrival to Sorrento we headed off for a local farm to have dinner and to see how they make their own local produce.

When we arrived we saw lots of farm animals, we saw ducks and geese, cows, dogs and we knew there were pigs there cos we were asked not to step in their grenades on the path!

We were introduced to the owner of the farm, Rosa. Rosa is a voluptuous beautiful woman who loves to talk, with her mouth and her hands lol. Rosa showed us how they used to make their own olive oil with a big stone and a pit where the juice was separated from the pulp and the seed. We were shown how all elements of the olive were used and what they are used for.

We were then introduced to her mother Maria. Maria spoke very little English but she knew the word for cheese and showed us how she makes mozzarella from scratch. It's amazing how the curds from milk are made into something so delicious. Once she showed us this 4 people from the tour group were selected for a pizza making demonstration. And of course I was one of those picked!

We were all given sexy aprons to wear, mine was a sexy French maids apron, Marie wore an Eve apron with leaves placed in appropriate places, Ben was given an apron with the statue of David figure on, and Ryan was given the same but parts of the anatomy of David's figure were much much bigger in stature! It was funny and everyone was squealing and laughing with joy!

I was first up to make the pizza, and as I have done this years ago whilst studying I knew I wouldn't do too badly. I kneaded my dough and shaped the pizza fairly well, and once made I was able to put it into the wood fired oven easily. Amazingly enough the pizza only took 1 minute to cook as the wood fired oven was so hot it cooked really quickly.

I had a great time and everyone seemed to enjoy that part of the night.

After this we sat down to dinner of tomato and mozzarella salad, I think it's called a caprese salad. Then we had the pizza I made for 2nd course. 3rd course was oven roasted chicken with rosemary potatoes, and last course was lemon cake soaked in limoncello; it was lethal!!

There were 2 corgi dogs who lived there owned by the farmers and they were hanging around under all of our tables looking for scraps of food. I would hazard a guess that they get fed by the tourists well as their bellies were almost dragging on the ground and they were just lovely. I kept patting them whenever they came near and they were soooo cute!

After this we had tastings of limoncello and it is like fire water so we both couldn't stomach it very well. We did try it though and contemplated brining some home but it would sit in the liquor cupboard forever so decided not to waste our money.

This night was my favorite part of the tour so far. I am sure I will continue to say this as the tour progresses but we all had such a ball this night that I'm not sure it can be topped!

Pompeii - the ancient city under volcano ash

We travelled from Assisi to Sorrento today but on the way we stopped off at the ancient city of Pompeii. Pompeii is a city that was alive and kicking over 2000 years ago and it was one day covered in volcanic ash when Mt Vesuvius decided to erupt and completely destroy all that lived and breathed in the area.

We were lucky to see where the public baths were in the city and learnt that 2000 years ago life was pretty much the same as it is today with shops and transport - granted it was horses and donkeys but they had roads and places to park your mule, running water, etc.

We also got to see where the bakeries and take away food shops were. The take away back then was soups and stews, breads and pastries and things like that. They had these terra cotta pots where they used to keep the food hot for the town people to buy as take away. Amazing!

One of the most interesting parts was that we got to see the brothels that were in operation back then and what they were like, and we were told that this oldest profession was similar back then to what it is today except the beds were made from concrete with mattresses put on top. Interesting as life was pretty much the same but you expect 2000 years ago to be so primitive but it's not so.

There are stray animals roaming Pompeii and we saw half a dozen dogs and a cat there. They looked well fed (many a sympathetic tourist has fed them tid bits over the years) but they sleep in the sun and drink the town water and socialize with the tourists so life is not too bad for them.

Mum says that the city of Pompeii is burned into her retinas forever and she will never forget what she saw and experienced this day. After this surreal experience, we headed to the beachside area of Sorrento for the next 2 nights.

For those of you who are interested, I can show you some racy pics of tiles with drawings on them from 2000 years ago from the brothels. They are actually fairly graphic and it's clear what the drawings are depicting. Will show you dirty birds when we get home!

Statue of David and Assisi - so much culture in one day

This morning we were off and going very early as we had an early morning viewing of the great statue of David and a decent drive to Assisi afterwards.

The statue of David is amazing. He apparently weighs almost 6 tonne and is almost 5 meters high. That is one hunk of a man when u think about it! Mum and I stood wondering at this magnificent sculpture for a little while and were sad to leave. We also saw a statue of medusa having had her head chopped off and the guy who did it (i should have listened more intently as i have forgotten his name) and i personally liked this one as it has a great story. Afterwards we headed out into the city of Florence and our destination was shopping!!

We could have spent thousands on leather or gold, however were able to hold back compared to a lot of our tour companions. The amount of money some of them spent in the leather and gold stores was phenomenal!

Mum and I bought small stuff, a small green leather bag for mum and a Swarovski crystal pandora charm for me. We surprisingly were also able to hold back on the tacky statue nick nacks vendors were selling along with David boxers with the anatomy part enlarged or the BBQ aprons where the body of David is on the apron and you pretend you have that body. Have to say that Florence has the shittiest souvenirs so far!

We then decided another thing the Italians do well other than gold and leather was lunch. Today we dined on lasagne and potatoes roasted in rosemary and sage and they were belissimo! We sat and ate lunch outside with a view of the church where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried and did some people watching.

We then began the drive to Assisi where we saw the Santa Maria basilica and the basilica of St. Francis; one of his sainthoods being the patron saint of animals which is kinda cool I think. I have injured my knee by falling over the other day so I only saw St. Francis' basilica from afar as the walk there would have me wheelchair bound for days I reckon.

Mum and I decided to look in the nick nack shops instead of walking to the basilica and I'm glad we did as we found some lovely little things to bring home. I got something special for someone I know which I am pleased about. Mum got a lovely angel and some postcards.

The room we are staying in is very old, the whole hotel is old actually, but the view from the balcony outside is gorgeous. You can see the whole of Assisi from up here and it's the best view we've had all tour. Tomorrow we head to Pompeii and finish the day in sorrento. Can't wait for Pompeii!

Leaning tower - and pizza!

Today we entered Italy and decided what better way to celebrate than by visiting the leaning tower of Pisa and having some pizza for lunch, it is Italy after all...

So we had quite a long drive from France to Italy, and lots of very high bridges - which mum didn't like too much lol - and lots of scenery. We got a really good nights sleep the night before so we didn't really feel like sleeping the long journey away, so instead we enjoyed the scenery of Italy heading to Florence, or as they call it in Italy - Firenze.

The first thing we noticed upon entering Italy was that all the houses were the same colors. They are all yellow, pink, orange or white. It's like they ran out of paint colors and all use each others paint tins to save on buying more! It's kinda cool tho cos a blue house would look really out of place here.

Once we arrived in Pisa we were accosted by people trying to sell us umbrellas and touristy things. This is really common throughout Europe but more so in Italy we have found. They wait for the tourist buses and then as soon as you get off they are shoving things in your face asking you to buy and they are very persistent believe me!

The leaning tower was great to see but strange as it is just in the middle of a grassy paddock type setting with a few other buildings around it and all these tourist camps and restaurants. It's amazing in Europe how they can have such famous statues, works of art and buildings just out in the open and everyone can usually touch and climb these things and no one seems to have ruined them or tried to graffiti them, etc. we keep saying its a shame we could not have this in Melbourne without someone trying to ruin it. Fairly pessimistic view of the world but sometimes very true sadly...

We didn't go up the tower but people can go up of they want to. Mums fear of heights wasn't diminishing any time soon, so we decided to eat pizza looking up at the tower instead. We ordered a margherita with fries and it was so cheap, yet soo good! It was wood fired and very little topping so just how we like it.

We each bought another scarf to add to our collections, and we both bought genuine Gucci bags for €15 each! Amazing - we will pretend they are genuine Gucci anyway.

After lunch we headed to Florence which was another hefty drive. On arrival we went to view the city from an lookout above the city, and tomorrow we will be seeing the statue of David in person, which will be another highlight of our tour I'm sure.

Oh yeah, the first stop we made in Italy for toilet and food I saw a packet which looked surprisingly similar to twisties so bought them. They are called fonzies here and they are yellow and not half as yummy. I thought an obligatory fonz thumbs up was in order too!

Monaco ... The cash that flows in that joint is criminal!

I have decided to skip a day from the blog cos we spent 8 hours driving from Spain back to France to arrive in Cannes today, and those long drives really don't give you much except for a sore tukkus and make you sleepy. We stopped a few times but nothing really noteworthy, so I will move on swiftly.

We arrived in Cannes, and the money you see here is amazing. The rich and famous often spend time here on vacation and have holiday villas all over the coastline. We thought this was rich, but later today we saw sights we didn't even know existed! Later on that.

So when we arrived in cannes after the long hellish drive (winds were 90km and it was snowing on the French alps) we decided to have something extremely cheesy and fatty for dinner. We decided on pizza from mister pizza. We were thinking it would be horrid, but to our surprise it was really good. It was wood fired and so tasty that we didn't feel too bad about eating Italian food in a French province!

We woke up and set off early to a place in the French riviera called St. Paul which is a tiny village which is practically unchanged since it was first built in the 12th century. This place was gorgeous, but expensive as many tourists come here and the shop keepers make their living from us. I bought mum and I some hand made chocolates to share - so good! And I bought a gorgeous blue scarf with flowers on, and had so many comments I knew it was worth the €10 I spent on it.

We then drove to Nice where we stopped at this gorgeous little French place for lunch. Lunch was good, and mum had tomato with mozzarella and rocket, confit of duck and chocolate gateaux and I had onion and goats cheese tart with rocket, salmon on a bed of risotto, and tarte tatin for dessert. That onion tart was the best thing I have eaten in a long time, and I will remember that taste for some time I'm sure. There was a cat who lived at the restaurant so we spent some time chatting to him and basking in the Mediterranean sun. The views of the mediterranean ocean were glorious and we didn't think the day could get much better... We were wrong!

Afterwards we headed to a perfumery and saw how perfume was made and how they make soaps, and all sorts of perfumed products. I decided I couldn't come home without a small bottle of a special one and some argan oil, mum decided the same. Some of the group left with raging headaches from the smells but I was good. May have even missed my calling and could become a nose (perfume specialist) later in life. But that means no alcohol, no smoking and no spicy foods, ever! Not sure I could cope with number one or number three!!

We then headed to Monaco and the charge just for a bus load to come into this small country was €170 which is about $220. Hideous huh? Anyway after paying this we all went into the city centre where the famous Monte Carlo casino is. Most of our tour group went in to gamble their savings away, but mum and I decided to do some people watching instead. There was a partaking of gelato again too by one of us... Ok it was me! Damn good tho :-)

We saw some really expensive cars and people, not sure who cost more, but I'm certain the plastic surgeons in Monaco are raking it in! More plastic than a recycling depot! The views from Monaco are stunning also, and if I thought the rich and famous holiday in Cannes, then Monaco is where they play, spend all their money, drive their fast cars, buy all their designer clothes and jewelry, and buy everything tax free - their winnings at the casino are tax free too mind you - and I'm sure mum and I will never see sights like this again. Believe it or not, on one of the yachts we saw a helicopter, no seriously an actual helicopter on the yacht which was like 3 times bigger than my house! Madness the things you can buy when you are richer than god!

Tomorrow we drive along the French riviera again and go to Italy. Can't wait for Italy, a place we have both been looking forward to seeing and experiencing. Can it get any better than what it has been so far? I have been told yes!

This trip has been just amazing, for both of us! Hope you have enjoyed our blog so far xx

I forgot to mention... We also went to Montserrat. Oops!

On the day we had the flamenco show we spent the day at Montserrat. This is a serrated mountain, hence the name, and on top of this jagged mountain is a basilica with the black virgin Mary encased in glass within the basilica.

We journeyed up the mountain to this unchanged township, and I must say I don't know how mum managed to make the drive up there without vomiting all over everyone! She does not cope with heights very well... But alas we made it eventually and got a good chance to look around and see the beauty of this mountain from up close.

The basilica is beautiful, but the views from atop this mountain are breath taking. There was a market being held up there also, so we got to try some goats cheese, some cows cheese and some Sheep cheese. We both liked the Sheep cheese the best, but couldn't eat a whole wheel of it so decided not to buy any. Can't say the same for the creme brûlée chocolate tho. That came back with us.

I thought I would buy a small bottle of the special liqueur the monks up there make so I have some for when I get home for a special occasion.

Thee was a store up there which mostly sold angels, so we headed in there and each bought an angel. We lit a candle for special people in the basillica, and took in the views until the bus departed.

Later that night was the flamenco dancing. I'm such a duffa I forgot to write about the day, and skipped to the exciting path of the night instead. All in all a good day!

Fire and ice - flamenco show!

Tonight mum and I went to another Spanish dinner which was in another oddly shaped building but was cool to look at. We tried a few more Spanish dishes, I tried a few more than mum again, and then we were treated to a fiery flamenco dance and singing spectacular, with champagne...

There were 3 men whose job was to clap as if their hands were drums, and they sang in very emotional Spanish language about the love of a woman and how women have hurt them.

The women would then come out and dance, which was amazing as they are able to lift their skirts with their shoes when dancing and rotate their hands at the same time.

There were 3 men who also came out and danced. Their feet move so quickly that it's a wonder they can still stand at the end of the night! In my opinion the women looked great dancing, but the men were way better dancers and they seemed more passionate about what they were doing which made it even better.

It's amazing to watch and even better to listen to. The colors are so bright and the emotion in the dancers and the singers adds another dimension to the show.

Another highlight of Spain that mum and I will never forget!