Pisa and Cinque Terre

On Wednesday I jumped on the train over to Pisa. There wasnt much in town, so just went across to the Leaning Tower of Pisa to get the obligatory photo infront of it. I didnt know it was the bell tower for the church. After 2 hours in town it was time to continue on to the town of Riomaggiore, a small village on the coast and the starting point for the Cinque Terre trek. I arrived and all the hostels looked pretty full. There was a kiwi girl that was staying with some old guy that had offered his spare room, but she was feeling pretty uncomfortable there so I claimed the other spare room. That didnt stop the old guy from trying to hit on her though. We went to a restaurant for dinner, only to get microwaved pasta for dinner.
The next day the sun was shining so we began the trek. Passing through the five villages which were impressively set on the top of the cliffs. The mountains here dropped suddenly into the ocean. We stopped at Vernazza for lunch at the lookout and then again at the next town for some gelato. Caught the train back and cooked a feed back home. The next day we headed down to the beach where the swell was getting bigger. Enjoyed the sunshine for a few hours and then I jumped on the train to Rimini. This was a gruelling 8 hour trip but I arrived just before midnight and found the Sunflower hostel.

Firenze (Florence)

I arrived to Florence in the evening. I had planned to stay with some guys in a little village out of town, but couldnt get onto them. So after running around town I managed the last hostel bed in town. However could only stay there two nights before they closed it for winter and turned it into a homeless shelter. Went to watch a band playing on the Ponte Vecchio (the famous bridge with houses on it) before calling it an early night. On Saturday I visited the St Maria Novella church, the Duomo cathedral, the Palazzio Vechio which all had lots of famous paintings that I'd never heard of. In the evening I headed up to the Mechelangelo plaza for a great view of sunset over the city and surrounding mountains.
On Sunday I had to change hostels and got there just in time for the free guided tour around town. It visited most of the same places again but was nice to hear some stories about the stuff. Afterwards a group of us retired to a restaurant for some fantastic italian pizza, then went to see the real Michelangelo sculpture of David which was big. We went back to the terrace at the hostel to enjoy a local wine before heading back to another restaurant for more pizza.
On Monday I went with Yvonne to Siena, only an hour out of town on the train. It was an old medievil town with lots of winding streets and a cool plaza with a big tower. We saw the sights and then got away from the centre to find a nice little restaurant and had some fantastic pasta with meat sauce. We went back to Florence and headed back up to Michelangelo plaza for a view over the city, but it was pretty dark by then. Headed out to an irish pub and then on to the disco which was cranking. Bit expensive though.
Today just have a relaxing day with a trip to Fiesole just out of town, walk back to Florence and enjoy the view over the city again. Spent the evening with a few of the guys for a few drinks in the local Florence establishments.

Rome

Flew in to Ciampino on Sunday 28 and got the bus and metro into the central station. Found the hostel which is pretty cool with a great party atmosphere. In the evening I went for a walk around the Plaza Venice where there were old roman ruins laying all over the place and around the outside of the Colloseum. At night we went with a big group from the hostel with a few bottles of good Italian wine to drink on the Spanish steps.
The next day it was time to hit up the Vatican. The plaza there was pretty cool, but the queue was enourmous to get into the Museum... took just 20 minutes to walk past the queue to get to the front. The guys at the front had been waiting for 3h, so I formed a new line for Australians and got straight in, followed by crowds of more Aussies. The museum was pretty cool with plenty of painted walls, egyption mummies and fancy paintings and sculptures. The cistine chapel was pretty fancy with some colours on the ceiling and everyone sneaking in some photos. Once they stopped singing in the Basilica I checked that out and also saw the tombs for all the popes underneath.
On Tuesday I visited the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, Quattro Fountains, Quirinale which appeared to be the presidential palace, the Trevi fountain, the Tritone fountain and the spanish steps. Rome is pretty cool that you can just wonder around and find these cool places.
On Wednesday 31 Oct I visited the ruins near the Colloseum, and came across the San Giovanni church which had some steps from Jerusalem that Jesus had supposedly walked up. Everyone was trying to get to the top by only walking on their knees. I thought they were all crazy and just walked up some other stairs.
With all the americans at the hostel we decided to throw a Halloween party. We gathered several hundred euros and got ourselves a good stash of drinks before getting into the erasmus (exchange student) welcome party.
Thursday was a public holiday in Italy. I visited the Palatine hill which had more ruins. There wasnt too much to see up here, just the foundations for the old palaces, etc. Then went inside the Colloseum which looked just the same as from outside. I came across some church that had a big statue of a mouth with a line of tourists getting photos of their arm stuck down its throat. Apparently some 'mouth of truth'. The hostel found out at 11pm that they had chronically overbooked, so we all had to share beds, but decided just to head back to Trevi fountain and Spanish steps with some wine and then returned to the hostel with more McDonalds than we've ever seen.
In the morning I had I had lunch in a plaza in Rome and then took the slow train up to Florence.