Sunday 1st June

Today we had a well deserved sleep-in and a late breakfast. After breakfast we walked to the Prato train station and caught the TrenItalia to Florence. We arrived in Florence just before twelve o’clock and walked to the Duomo of Santa Maria Fiori for the midday mass. After the mass the priest, Padre Alessandro, was amazed that we had travelled all the way from Australia to see his mass. He told us he would pray that Tasmania would stay a safe and peaceful island. We also saw the famous door of the baptistery while we were there.










We then stopped for a quick lunch before walking to Piazza Della Signora. In this piazza we saw many statues including the replica of the statue of David. We then walked to the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) and saw many amazing gold jewellery stores and we all had the chance to stop and buy some souvenirs. Next we walked to the Palazzo Pitti (Pitti palace). This massive residence was filled with many paintings, sculptures and amazing chandeliers. There was even a throne room because the owner thought he was important.













Our last stop for the day was the Florence markets where people bought scarves, t-shirts, bags, souvenir bracelets, mini statues of David and a certain someone (cough, cough…Mrs Maver) splurged on a genuine Italian red leather jacket. After a very rushed tea we walked very quickly back to the train station, because we thought we were late (and Kelsey started freaking out because a scooter got a little close for comfort), only to find out our train wasn’t leaving anymore and we had to catch a later one anyway.

After arriving back at the hotel a small group of us went out and bought some gelati, except Sally who bought a whole tub of it!! At the end of the day we all went straight to bed ready for a very early start the next morning.

From your expert eliders Bekathy Ciao xx

Saturday 31st May

More school!

After a late night of watching movies we all woke up early and once again walked (half asleep) to Monash University for our second day of language classes. Katia and Moria gave us an introduction and insight into the education system of Italy. Mid-morning we all took the bus to a local high school specialising in commerce, science and design. Whilst we were there the principal gave us a tour of the school and the head chemistry teacher gave us a practical demonstration in one of the many science laboratories. We also watched an indoor soccer match between the students and teachers which the students won.











We stopped in the school cafeteria and ate ice cream before returning to the university for an afternoon of classes. Unfortunately while at the high school we ran out of time before getting to meet any of the students. The afternoon language class consisted of a drama production and a scavenger hunt. For the drama production we were split up into smaller groups to promote a product by creating a newspaper spread and a play. Some of the items chosen were the FIAT a local Italian car, “Fergi” an Italian bag shop and Coca-Cola light. The scavenger hunt was a search around the city to find the answers to questions such as the prices of products in shops to the number of pillars in a church. The search continued until about 4.30pm and the rest of the day was spent shopping and sleeping before dinner at 7.00pm at the local restaurant “Rifrullo”.




























Ciao for now Emily, Tanita and Megan. Baci a tutti XX

Friday May30th

Vittoria mangia I monumenti (Victoria eats monuments).

After our first night at the Hotel Flora we began one of two days of language lessons at Monash University. It was raining, and the idea of over six hours of Italian was not too appealing, however, once we started the lessons it become clear that it would be enjoyable and beneficial to out Italian studies. From the street, the university looked more like a small apartment, however, inside it was very modern and spacious. After a short tour, we were divided into two groups for the day depending on which level we of Italian we are studying. One of the first activities assigned involved venturing out to interrogate the Prato public with some questions that our professors had helped us create. We met some interesting people, some were co-operative, the majority were not. Two of our victims were Angelo, a nineteen year old photographer who enjoys McDonalds and Luca a 22 year old man studying, working and living in Prato.

At around 1 had lunch and within our allocated hour set out to do some shopping but soon realised that Italians close their shops for lunch and go home. We continued with some language activities after lunch, one of which involved Victoria stating the day’s headliner, much to our amusement, and then also watching an Italian film, about which we answered some questions. 5.30 came along more quickly than we expected and after receiving information about day 8 we said our goodbyes and thank yous.

Since we had yet had time to explore the area of Prato around our hotel the teachers allowed us some time to check out the shops before freshening up for dinner. By then it was raining heavily and the umbrella street sellers seemed to be doing a roaring trade. We decided to return to have dinner at the same place as day 6 and were delighted with our meals yet again. Pizza, pasta, risotto and salad were some of the meals we enjoyed along with drinks such as coke, sprite, frappes and our old favourite water. Back at the hotel after dinner everyone was feeing pretty tired and most retired to their rooms to watch the free movies offered for the VCRs (yes they still do exist).

Buona notte from Eliza, Vicki & Paige.

Thursday May 29th

Ciao a Tutti ,
Today we left the beautiful city of Assisi and our very much loved swimming pool to venture onto Prato, our home for the next 5 nights. On our way we saw more of the ever ending valleys and green fields amongst small country towns of Umbria until we reached a more industrial part of Italy in the region of Tuscany. We entered Siena, a medieval town slightly more populated than Assisi and with us came the unwanted Tassie weather, that’s right after days of scorching sun the rain had begun to fall.

The bus stopped at the bottom of medieval Siena, which lies above the more modern part of the town. Upon arrival we met with our tour guide, Rita who took us into la chiesa di San Domenico e Santa Caterina (the church of St. Dominic and St Catherine), which unlike other churches we have been in so far has only one nave, minimal sculptural detail, more simplicity in the artwork and is made of out bricks, with no extravagant outside detail resulting in a hall like exterior. We were told this was deliberately implemented to maintain focus on the altar of the church. However, since the construction of this church many significant artefacts of early Christianity have been introduced into the building, especially in recognition of St. Catherine of Siena, patron saint of Italy. In a very small chapel inside the church dedicated to St. Catherine lies her head, which is covered in a special type of plaster for preservation.

Our tour continued up the streets of Siena, which are located on a hill underneath the Duomo of Santa Maria. All the buildings are tall and in extremely close proximity to each other, described as a New York City of medieval times. This structure of the city was used as a defence mechanism as Florence and Siena have long history of rivalry consisting of many battles and invasions. The streets are quite narrow and everything is made of small red bricks except for the Romanesque/Gothic marble Duomo.

At the rear of the Duomo lies the Baptistry, which is a separate building, as it is believed that Catholics needed to be purified through baptism before entering the main church. Our tour guide discussed the various sculptures and fresco artwork covering the inside of the building, especially those of Donatello that depicted the life of John the Baptist.

We made our way up to the main section of the Duomo, which was spectacular from the outside. It had huge pink and white marble columns, giant sculptures, three triangular portraits of the nativity, Assumption of Mary and the crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven. As we entered I think everyone stopped in awe, there was just soooooo much to see!!! The walls, ceiling and floor were all absolutely covered. Rita told us that of everything inside of the Duomo the most important thing to remember was the tiling detail on the floors where several different prophesies were encrypted into the marble floor through a process called graffiti (no not the spray paint kind). The main theme of the Duomo was black and white, which are the colours of Siena as the two opposites came together to produce something magnificent, much like the Collingwood football team back at home.

After leaving the historic masterpiece behind we travelled into the museum, which held most of the original statues, stained glass windows and paintings of the Duomo. Our tour guide insisted that we climb to the top of the tower and view Siena from its second highest point…little did we realise that to get there we had to travel up two, somewhat never ending, flights of extremely narrow spiral stairs AHHHH!!! But it was worth it even through the rain, it was possibly one of the most amazing experiences to be standing in the middle of a medieval town, when home only dates to colonial time.

Finally we reached the main Piazza of Siena, in the pouring rain, and hunted around for a bite to eat before heading back to the bus. We travelled through more countryside until we found ourselves in the small town of Prato. Our hotel has big bathrooms YAY! Dinner was at our new favourite restaurant where we all filled up on delicious pizza and pasta with salad for the bloated teachers. We finished the day with some more glorious gelati and called it a night…all desperately excited for school tomorrow… cough cough!!

Salve Love Sally + Ella Mac

Wednesday 28th May

Today we left Rome and drove by bus on the autostrada to Assisi. Our bus driver was called Massimo. On the way to Assisi we passed many little Italian towns the countryside was beautiful. When we arrived at Assisi we had to leave the bus in a car park and walk into the city. Luckily there was an escalator to get up the first hill.

Our guide Monia was very nice but her English was a bit rough as she was used to speaking German. She took us all through Assisi and we saw many churches including St Francis’ Basilica. It was interesting to see the frescos depicting the life of St Francis. We saw St. Francis’ tomb and later went to a gift shop at the other side of the church. Monia then left us to wander the medieval city.

We bought lunch at a very reasonably priced pizzeria and then walked back to the bus via the main shopping street where many purchases were made. We then took the bus to our hotel ‘Hotel Da Angelo’ which was five minutes away from the city wall. We all raced to our rooms and changed into our bathers as the hotel had a pool!!! We then proceeded to bathe in the sun and swim for the remainder of the afternoon. After our relaxation, at seven-thirty we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was really nice as was the service. There was pasta for the primo piatto, pork and chips for the secondo piatto and a very nice desert. We all went to bed very content and full. Ciao!

Tuesday 27th May

Day 4 On the alien planet....just kidding, Rome is getting better every day and so is the heat!

Ciao mia amici!
Today we met our tour guide Heinz at the Ottaviano metro station and walked to the Vatican Museum. It was only early in the morning and it we were already starting to sweat in the 30 degree heat. Heaps of of people were lining up but we were lucky because we were already booked in. First thing we did was go outside into the garden and he talked about the Sistine Chapel and how every person in the painting was a real person living during that time. After some time we went inside and looked at ancient marble sculptures. We then walked through room after room including the tapestry room and the map room and finally arrived at the Sistine Chapel! The ceiling was amazing and not one inch on the room was left unpainted. Michaelangelo must have been pretty keen to finish the whole room. Sorry, no pictures were allowed so you will have to look it up on google.

Continuing our journey through the vatican we went into St Peters Basilica. In the bible Jesus said to Peter "You are my rock and on this rock I build my church and they did it literally". Saint Peter's Basilica is built on top of Saint Peter's tomb. We took lots of pictures so you can see for yourself. It was amazing and the ceiling was so high! It makes our churches look tiny! Heinz then left us and we split upinto two groups. One climbed to the Cupola, which is the top of the basilica and the other group went down to the catacombs and saw past popes including Pope John Paul 2nd. We met for lunch in the colonnades and two reporters (your bloggers for today) had a close encounter with a pigeon! We caught the metro from Ottaviano to the Termini station and shopped till 4.30 but two of these shopoholics took till 5.00!!!!! But luckily they picked up some groovy bargains.

We went back to our hotel and freshened up, ready for some bush tucker at the Il Gladiotore. Dinner was different to what we thought it would be but doesnt beat mums home made goodies. Sarah (our tourguide) then led us into the centre of Rome for a night tour. The Trevi Fountain looks SPECTACULAR at night! Everyone grabbed gelato and we really recommend arancia (orange). Che molto Buono! We then started making our way to Piazza Navona and on the way we met our good friend Pinocchio! We heart you pinocchio and you look really woody in the photos! At Piazza Navona there were lots of talented artists selling paintings. The metro had shut by this time of night so we had to catch two buses to get back to our hotel. Our feet were aching an it was really hard to keep your balance on an Italian bus. When we finally got back to our hotel we collapsed for the night and didn't move until we woke up the next morning!

Still tired now while were writing this on the bus on our way to Assisi.

Ciao for now!

This blog has been presented to you by the Google Bloggers: Emilia, Teresa and Kelsey

Look out for our next edition on this alien planet on day 12!

Monday 26th May

Buongiorno a tutti!

Our second day in Rome was brilliant. We left the hotel early to meet our guide, Mr Hunke, a very talkative German man. He took us on the underground trains to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, where we began our guided tour. The Colosseum was gigantically AMAZING! We went inside and walked around the amphitheatre, learning that ancient roman crowds once sat where we were standing to watch public killings and the fighting of gladiators as well as wild beasts. Everyone took millions of photos – so you won’t be missing out!

From here it was a short walk to the forum, the political, social and commercial centre of ancient Rome. The forum is mostly in ruins and it was like a little city of its own. Everyone was already sweating profusely in the perfect, sunny, 30 degree heat. We climbed up to see the view from the town hall, which was absolutely incredible. We went to a little café for lunch, where most of us dug into our first Italian pizzas. Che buono!

We jumped on the open bus tour and rested while we hooned around the roman streets and witnessed some more crazy Italian driving. We hopped off at the piazza del Popolo where we frolicked (dipped our fingers in) in the fountain to cool down. It was then time to do some shopping. We made our way down Via Condotti and had a sticky beak in Dolce and Gabbana, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Everyone spent all their euro on sunglasses, wallets and bags... just kidding!

Our group then made their way to the Spanish steps, where we ate more gelato. From here we did some more walking to the train station and caught one back to our lovely hotel with the best vending machine that is cheap as chips. Our three-course dinner was at the Dal Gladiatore. We got back to our hotel quite late and all went straight to sleep. We are definitely having the trip of a lifetime, and cannot wait to see the rest of Italy. We will keep you updated over the next two weeks.

Thankyou to all the sweet comments on the blog, please feel free to leave some more! Have a nice day, from your Hobartian backpackers!

Today’s blog brought to you by Jackson, Crichton and O’shea J