Rome

Wow...what a city. We've just returned from a fantastic extended weekend in Rome, and after three hard days of sightseeing we had to take a day off by the pool to get our energy back.

We flew in on the Friday night, and after checking in jumped in a taxi to Piazza Navarro – mostly because if we vaguely said 'take us to the city centre' we were afraid we'd be permanently lost in a back-street. We needn't have worried – Rome is brimming with landmarks (you almost can't round a corner without finding one) so it is never too hard to regain your bearings (no matter how many winding streets you go down). We grabbed dinner in the Piazza, and if we paid tourist prices for the food, the setting (right in front of a beautiful fountain) more than made up for it.

Saturday was dedicated to Renaissance Rome, and shopping. We started at the Spanish steps with all the other tourists, and made our way north along Via Del Corso past big-name designer shops to the imposing Piazza del Poppolo, then back down along Via del Babuino, filled with more boutiquey names. This brought us down to the Trevi Fountain, where we grabbed a gelato and gawked along with the crowd – the fountain covers the side of a building and is more impressive than anything we've seen before.

The Spanish steps

A random doorway just near the Spanish steps

From the Trevi Fountain we lost ourselves in back-streets, heading vaguely in the direction of Piazza del Campo (our dinner spot) but checking out whatever took our fancy along the way. We stumbled across the Pantheon (a huge domed structure from Ancient Rome, preserved from the sad fate that faced many of the Roman buildings – being used as a quarry by Rome's residents – by its consecration as a church), and more statues, churches and monuments than exist in the entirety of most cities. Piazza del Campo and the alleys around it were buzzing with life, and a great atmosphere for dinner.

Trevi fountain, along with everyone else in Rome

The Pantheon

We had dinner in a place facing he French embassy which occupies the Farnese Palace. They left one light burning, giving just a taste of the artwork and treasures inside.

Sunday was dedicated to Ancient Rome. As you ascend the escalators out of the metro, the first thing that you see is the Colosseum – it is everything that you imagine it to be, its jagged-edged bulk rearing out of the piazza. We went first to the Palitanate Hill above it, where the largest ruins are strewn about the hillside (top tip – the ticket from the Palitanate works for the Colosseum too, which lets you skip the queue at the Colosseum). They are still part-buried by the hillside on the side closest to the Colosseum, so it wasn't until we came to the other side of the hill and realised that we were actually three or four stories up that the scale of the construction became evident.

The Colosseum does not disappoint

It was the first place that we've been with ancient structures to rival Egypt in scale, although disappointingly they were mostly brick, not the marble or stone that is normally associated with ancient Rome. The comparison with Ephesus (in Turkey) was stark – Ephesus was beautiful, but on a much smaller scale; the ancient Roman ruins were massive, but aside from a few spots in the Forum, much plainer.

The Roman Forum

After the Colosseum we were ruined-out, so took a couple of hours by the pool to recharge before crossing the river to the Trastevere area for dinner. As well as bars and restaurants lining the riverbank, the side-streets and alleyways were full of places that looked and smelled great – it became our favourite dining area. The restaurant we went to the first time was good, but when we came back the next day our LP led us to La Gensola Tratorria – simply sublime. We had the set menu, which three different antipasto plates, each a combination unlike anything we'd had before, and each genius (but I can't tell you what they were because the menu was only in Italian), a fantastic tuna pasta, grilled squid that was cooked just-so, and a chocolate pudding that looked heavy but was deliciously light – all delivered to the table with fantastic service.

Monday was dedicated to the Vatican city; our top tip #2 is to buy tickets in advance via the website to skip the queues (which otherwise stretch around the block). Since it was an early start, we picked up coffee Italian-style on the way, drinking it right at the bar, before entering the Vatican Museum itself. The place is jaw-dropping in scope, and cleverly arranged so that it just keeps getting better and better, with each room containing more impressive art, before you enter the Sistine Chapel for the main event. Even with the crowds it is amazing – it would be a magical place to be by yourself. The audio guide does a great job of bringing it alive.

Some shots from inside the Vatican Museum

We paused after the Sistine Chapel for lunch and a chance to regain our breath, before rounding the corner to St Peters and having our jaws drop again. The opening in front of the Basilica is a marvellous space, while the Basilica itself is overwhelming in detail and sheer volume of accumulated sculptures and decorated niches. The dome (cupola) is definitely worth a visit, too – we eschewed the elevator as being too cramped and full of sweaty people for our liking, and climbed all 515 stairs; the views (both inside the Basilica looking down, and outside looking out across Rome) were worth it!

Outside St Peters

Inside St Peters

A view of the Basilica from inside the dome looking down

St Peters Square from the top of the dome

Rome laid out in all its glory

Our final half-day in Rome was spent by the pool, just soaking up the sunshine – everybody warned us against going in August, but if you can handle the heat it was great. The city didn't seem crowded at all (since apparently most of the locals are on holidays) and the weather was sunny every day. So – good food, great sights, fantastic weather – what more could you want!

Jamies Italian

Jamie Oliver has a series of Italian restaurants across the UK, and he's opened a new one just around the corner from us. We were lucky enough to hear about their pre-launch events through work (complete with half-price food), and so a few weeks back we invited Anthony and Kylie to check it out with us.


While we didn't get to see Jamie Oliver, we did get to see Genaro (his Italian mentor) and had some fantastic food - brilliant starters (with great quality olive oil and balsamic), great mains and decadent desserts.

While it isn't 'fine dining', it is yummy food, with quality ingredients, at a decent price...we're really glad to have something like it nearby (and to have had great company to share it with)

The Ashes at Lords - Days 1 and 5

Something that we couldn't miss while we are over here is the chance to watch an Ashes test at Lords. The tickets are balloted, and we worked out that if we won all the tickets we'd put in for we would have been 700 quid out of pocket. Such was the demand, though, that we only got tickets to the last day. After the Australian efforts at Cardiff, we didn't think that we had much of a shot at seeing any play (barring bad weather) but we had our fingers crossed.

In the meantime, Anthony (a friend from Aus) had retained his membership at the other MCC (in Melbourne). Through this, he was able to get reciprocal rights to Lords, and had a ticket to the first day going spare. I jumped at the chance, and was there in time to watch the first ball - very special.


Unfortunately, the bowling from Australia wasn't special, and it was a morning of watching the English pile on the runs. What we discovered at lunchtime, though, was why Lords is considered such a great ground to watch cricket.

Along with the history, and the fact that it is a very small and intimate ground so nobody is ever far from the action, it has an area within the main gates called the 'nursery ground'. This broad lawn area was lined with tents serving food and drink, as well as a big-screen and a band playing through lunch. We were having so much fun that we were late back in for the start of the second session.

The first day was very much England's, particularly the bit that I saw since I had to go back to work at tea (showing real dedication there...fortunately Daniel, another Aussie friend, was able to use my seat for the last session so it was a win-win)

As the test progressed, our hopes of seeing play on the last day looked dimmer still, but for a different reason as England got the upper hand. Still, things looked poised coming into the last day for a history-making run chase and we were pretty excited heading to the ground.


Unfortunately, we only got a session of play, as Freddie Flintoff ran through the Australian batting. Fortunately, the extended Lords grounds came to our rescue, as we whiled away the afternoon with some beers on the lawn with Anthony and his dad (plus AB and Chappelli who were nearby but not particularly conversational)...

Samos, Greece

Thursday afternoon we caught a ferry from Kusadasi in Turkey over to Samos, in Greece, where we were picked up by Claudia and Greg (friends from Australia who now live in Singapore). They were visiting Turkey and Greece with Claud's parents (following a similar route to ours – they had even ended up in the same hotel in Istanbul just 2 days before us) – it was great to swap stories about what we'd seen.

Out to dinner with Claudia and Greg

The ferry itself was something of an adventure – we'd got great spots at the front, on the top deck but under shade so we'd get fresh air but not get too hot. However, since we were running against 2 meter seas, directly into the waves, even the top deck was getting drenched – and we bore the brunt of it, getting soaked through. Not quite how we wanted to begin our plunge into the Agean Sea...

A far better way to plunge into the Agean sea - the water was crystal clear

We only had a couple of days in Greece but we are definitely coming back – we spent two days just eating fantastic food, laying by the pool, swimming in the sea and finally relaxing. Turkey was great but intense; Greece was anything but...we didn't do any sightseeing, just shuttled back and forth between Kokkari (where Claud, Greg and the Claud's parents were based) and our hotel a bit further up the hill.

The pool at Armonia Bay hotel was lovely

But all good things must come to an end, and with great reluctance we boarded the ferry back to Turkey (sitting inside this time, having learned our lesson)...we'll definitely be back to Greece, and would love to visit Turkey again.

Wandering by the harbour on our last night in Samos

Turkey Part 3 - Ephesus

It was a 7 hour bus ride down from Cannakale to Kusadasi, where we were basing ourselves for the next couple of days, and so by the time we arrived at our hotel (the Liman Hotel) we were pretty exhausted. Fortunately, Hasan (Mr Happy) who ran the hotel lived up to his name, and encouraged us to have dinner on the roof terrace – being too tired to think we asked them to just cook us whatever was nice, and we ended up sampling a little bit of everything on the menu over great views of the town (and all for 40 Lira, or less that 20 quid).

The next morning we had our last real day in Turkey, and we used it to visit Ephesus, the best preserved Roman city in Asia (or 'the world's largest open air museum'). It was really impressive – I don't know if words can do it justice so I'll leave that to the photos. Because the river silted up (a common theme in cities in this area, it happened to Troy as well) it was abandoned rather than being constantly evolved, which means that it is a great insight into how 250,000 people might have lived in 500AD.

Sarah with the original Nike, goddess of victory

Sarah outside the library of Ephesus

Stephen on the library steps

The view from about half-way up the 25,000-seat stadium

Turkey was a really interesting place to visit – although they are a Muslim country, at least in the parts we visited the feel is very Western (the local beer was good, and people dress the same as you would see anywhere else in Europe) - I have heard it is a little different further east. The 'hassle' factor was a lot lower than we'd expected, too – even in Istanbul it was only a minor irritation, rather than the overwhelming intensity of Cairo, and the people were really hospitable, taking a lot of pride in the quality of their service. We only scratched the surface, too – it would be the equivalent of someone visiting Sydney and Brisbane and saying that they had 'done' Australia – we have seen so much, but there is so much more to see...

Turkey Part 2 - Gallipolli and Troy

Tuesday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to begin our touring down the west coast of Turkey. It is over 5 hours from Istanbul to Eceabat (the nearest town to the Gallipolli battlefields) – it is much shorter in a straight line, but that would take you through the Sea of Marmaris and down the Dardanelles (which of course was the whole point of the Gallipolli campaign).

Stephen at Anzac Cove

Our tour guide, Hassan, had done national service in the Turkish army and was a proud Turk, but the Anzacs still have a good reputation amongst the Turks, so we got a much more balanced perspective on Gallipolli than we ever had in school. It is easy to forget that what Gallipolli symbolised to the Turks was a glorious defence of their homeland, against the British might, when everyone had given them up as the sick man of Europe. We saw Anzac Cove, where the original landings took place, and it was easy to understand why it was such hard work for the Anzacs. We also saw some of the hills that thousands of men died fighting for, and while strategically it made sense, it just seemed like such a tragic waste of life.

The Lone Pine Cemetery

We stayed that night in Cannakale, a short ferry ride from Eceabat, and were up early to visit Troy. Troy was interesting, but (with hindsight having visited Ephesus) not a highlight of the trip – it suffers a bit from the jumbled layering (9 cities on top of each other) and the ongoing archaeological work which means that the guide really had to work hard to make it understandable. Still, the remnants of the walls make it clear why the Greeks needed the 'Trojan Horse' to get it, and the remnants of the buildings (and obvious wealth) make it clear why they might have wanted to. Unfortunately, the treasures of Troy have ended up in Russia (via some long-winded explanation involving the Nazis and the Communists) - in fact pretty much everything from Turkey has been looted at one stage or another, and the British are just as guilty...most of the tour guides are angry, too, which is understandable.

Sarah at the bottom of Main Street, Troy

The real Trojan Horse (if such a thing existed) was probably a bit more subtle than this one

Turkey Part 1 – Istanbul

We had been hanging out for this trip for a long time, and so we were excited when the day finally dawned. Because we had budget flights, we landed in Istanbul SAW airport, and our hour and a half drive to the hotel was through the Asian half of the country, filled with high-rise apartments and enormous mosques everywhere you turned. It was pretty exciting crossing the Bosphorous with one half of the bus in Asia, the other half in Europe and arriving in the oldest part of the town, Sultanahmet, where we were based.

A view over the Bosphorous

We stayed at the Hanedan hotel, which was clean, comfortable and had great views from the rooftop breakfast terrace over the Bosphorous and the Blue Mosque, one of the three most famous landmarks in Istanbul, all of them within a few hundred meters of the hotel.

Sarah enjoying the view from our hotel roof terrace

We'd arrived in the early evening, and after finding some food (kebab, of course) we decided to check out the views from the water. From the base of the hill (near Sircik tram stop) ferries run across to the Asian side – Uskudar and Kusakoi. It is really pretty seeing all of the monuments lit up at night – and each ferry ticket only costs 1.5 Lira (about 60p or $1.20).

Sunday began with a sleep-in and a lazy breakfast enjoying the views, before heading off to get a closer look at some of the monuments. First stop was the Topaki Palace, where the sultans lived until the demise of the Ottoman empire. This sprawling palace had some great highlights, including the beautifully tiled rooms in the Harem, beautiful jewels (including an 86-carat diamond) and amazing views. It also had many religious relics, including (apparently) Moses' staff (gilded), John the Baptist's arm and skullcap (gilded and jeweled) and Mohammed's footprint and beard – which were getting the biggest crowds. It was a palace complex rather than just one building, and as a result a bit of 'beautiful room' fatigue set in – which meant it must be time for lunch (kebabs in the park).

A room in the Topkapi Palace

Sarah's friend Lindsey had left us some notes on great places to see in Istanbul, and had described the Basilica Cisterns as 'ace'. She was right – less like something out of a movie, more like a video game, it is so surreal (a 143m long x 65m wide x 9m high water storage facility underground, with the roof held up by 336 columns – and dating from the time of Justinian in 532AD). Walking down the steps, the columns stretch out almost to infinity ahead of you, and there is just enough water to see eerie reflections of those columns. Following the raised walkways through further than seems possible, you eventually reach the North-West corner, where two of the columns are supported by enormous (1m+ diameter) statues of Medusa's head. It was a surprising highlight of the trip.

The Basilica Cistern (you have to see it to believe it)

Clouds had been building all day, and we exited the cisterns to the sound of thunder and sight of a few hailstones starting to fall. We took this as a sign to seek shelter, and as a result had a great view of the mayhem as the brief storm tipped down.

Once the rain had cleared we took advantage of the fact that it had also washed away the queues from the Aya Sofia Church/Mosque/Museum (depending on the stage of life). Another relic from Justinian's reign, and another tribute to the engineering genius of the Romans, Aya Sofia features a soaring dome some 55 m overhead, making it the largest cathedral in the world for 1000 years until the one in Seville was built), as well as some intricate mosaics in the upper gallery (reached up a winding ramp. It was all very impressive, particularly the size and height of the roof being suspended by what didn't look like very much (although fears for our safety were allayed by the thought that it has been there for nearly 1500 years – the odds were over 10m to 1 against it collapsing on our visit).

Outside Aya Sofia

We finished our day with a visit to the Beyoglu district, which in a lot of ways is everything that Sultanahmet is not – trendy, modern, and filled with locals. After strolling and shopping our way down the Istiklal Cad, where the Gap store rubs shoulders with baklava shops, we headed to a street called Nevizade Sokak – lined for several blocks with restaurants and bars serving delicious mezze and the local drink, raki (very similar to Ouzo), and locals very much enjoying seeing and being seen – hard as we tried, we were never quite going to blend in...

Monday we headed to the Grand Bazaar to try our hands at bargaining with the locals. We picked up a few bits and pieces, and were sorely tempted by some beautiful carpets, but quickly realised that we didn't know enough to safely spend that sort of money – every seller had a different story about 'silk on cotton'...'fake silk'...'wool on cottton' – so we came home empty-handed.

From the Grand Bazaar, we caught the tram all the way down the hill to the Spice Bazaar, which was much more interesting – it felt more 'local', especially once you penetrated slightly beyond the main entrance – but even around the main entrance there were shops selling a fascinating array of spices, along with 'real' Turkish delight and Baklava (which is even better when it is freshly made and still warm).

Spice Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar

We had a craving for fish that night, and had heard that the best place for fish was not under the Galata bridge (where fish restaurants rub shoulders with fishermen), but instead that we should head to Kumpkapi, where a collection of seafood restaurants buy straight from the fish market and sell to you. Our choice, Hosseda, even picked us up from our hotel and dropped us back after our meal. There was a great vibe down there, with live music and good crowds.

At Kumpkapi

Royal Ascot

Royal Ascot is one of the main events on the summer calendar in the UK, along with Wimbledon, the Lords Test and the Henley regatta. This year Kylie and Anthony were organising a group trip, along with Daniel and Bree, and Tristan. We got dressed up (fascinators for the ladies, suits for the men) and joined the throngs on the train (I don't think anyone drives themselves – we common folk take the train, the elite are driven in limos, while the Queen arrived in a horse-drawn carriage).

Sarah, Anthony, Kylie, Stephen, Bree, Daniel and Tristan

The ladies enjoying Pimms and Lemonade

The boys preparing to place another losing bet

It was a fun day with good company, even though we lost all our bets – we got two sightings of the Queen (once arriving, and once in the royal box). It was crowded, though – I don't see how people got as drunk as they did, since it was nearly impossible to get to the bar! Certainly something to do once, but I don't know if we'll be hurrying back...

Not pictured - our horse (it is somewhere to the right of screen). Pictured - enormous crowds, and bookies getting richer

Quite possibly as close as we'll ever get to the Queen

Cornwall

On the recent Bank Holiday weekend we got up at stupid o'clock and jumped on the motorway and headed south and west to Cornwall to meet Bel, Andrew and William, and Seeph and Michelle.

We'd hit some traffic trouble on the way down (which meant it took closer to 6 hours than 5) so we arranged to meet the rest of the crew at the Eden Project. The Eden Project is a series of Biomes located in an abandoned quarry, filled with plants and trees from ecosystems ranging from the UK, through Mediterranean, all the way to Amazonian and African rainforest. The setting is incredible, like something from Mars, and the environment in each Biome felt like you were really there...

This was all once a bare abandoned quarry - about 10 years ago, in fact...

Now there are towering biomes filled with tropical and mediterranean plants

The girls in the gardens

The boys facing off with a monster representing all of the waste that they would produce in their lifetimes...

From there, we headed back to our hotel in Mevagissey. The other guys had warned us that we were staying in a pirate village...we'd thought nothing of it, but every shop had pirate flags flying and we began to wonder. When we got to the harbour, there really were pirates - or at least people re-enacting pirate lifestyles, lead by Captain Deadeye Jack (who even had his own shop). The town was hosting a pirate festival, the pubs had pirate karaoke and the restaurants had special pirate menus. But even without the pirates, Mevagissey was a great town, with great seafood and a really nice vibe, and our B&B (Tregoney House) was a great base.

Pirates on the waterfront at Mevagissey

Sunday dawned as perhaps one of the nicest days we've seen in our time in the UK, and we made the most of it. Our first stop was the fort/abbey at the top of St Michael's Mount, which was accessible because we'd timed it right at high tide. Half of every day it is an island, the other half it is joined to the beach by a narrow causeway. It has been like this for nearly a millennia, and as a result has had an interesting history and a big part to play in many of the wars which have taken place in this part of the world over the years.

Bel, Andrew, William, Seeph, Michelle, Sarah and Stephen at the top of St Michael's Mount

From here we travelled further round the coast (past Penzance, where we resisted the urge to tell the world about our aptitude as a modern major general) to the Minnack Theatre, an open-air theatre which has been carved into the cliff-face. The shows there were sold out, but we were fortunate enough to stumble on the rehearsals for their performance of Evita so we settled in for a while to watch.

I stole this photo from their website because we forgot our camera - imagine this, but with even fewer clouds, and an amateur theatrics society doing Evita on the stage

But we couldn't come all this way just to turn back, so we moved on to Land's End, the South-Western-most part of Great Britain. There isn't much here except for a rather tame amusement park and a sign which points to New York and John O'Groats (the Northern-most point) - but it is nice to say that we'd been.

We travelled back to Mevagissey via the B3306 - which "Whats on South West" calls one of the most romantic spots in Britain, and was certainly a stunning drive - all rolling hills, cliffs and exposed rocky outcrops. It was a bit hair-raising at times, as well, since there really wasn't room for two cars at once in some places...I was very grateful that Seeph was driving.

We spent that night back in Mevagissey, dinner and then drinks with the whole crew (including William - although he slept through most of it)...but it couldn't be too late a night since we wanted to get an early start the next morning to beat the traffic.

Cornwall is a beautiful part of England and well worth the visit...and we would have loved to have more time there - if we had the chance we wouldn't have just gone there for the three days but instead would have stretched it longer, since 5 hours each way is a long way to go for a weekend!