Italy

Courtesy of Ryanair cancelling most of flights from Pafos, we had to go through Italy to get to Slovenia. Such a disaster, we can tell you! One has to endure all that fabulous food, wine, art and good weather.

First stop was Rome – The Eternal City. Or the tourist trap (13eur for a small Guinness, which we obviously didn’t have!), whichever one you prefer. Number of tourists are only matched by a number of illegal street sellers. It felt unreal, especially at first when we though they were actually attacking us – literally! – with poles!  Only after a good second look did we realise they are actually selling selfie sticks. We know, seems we missed the whole new fashion… 

So, Rome. It definitely is something special and deserves a place in the big league. Seems every building has a history and painting or two by Rafael or Caravaggio (seriously!). So, obviously, Nives got obsessed to see them all and Dejan spent some quality time on different steps, pillars, chairs... streets... doing some bonding with his phone. We also managed to have some absolutely amazing food and wine – hey, one of the things to do in Rome is eat, eat and eat; so we indulged in a big way. In restaurants, bars, on the streets…

Being good tourists, we visited Vatican as well. And saw the Pope – for real, in flesh! Happened to have a some special ceremony (don't ask for more detail) on that day. We decided to stay and endured few hours wait in the sun (we didn't realize this particular point in the beginning and there was no way back) and joined the local madness (not so local actually, there were people from all over the world). The new Pope is supposed to be unpredictable and he proved it once again, changing the route of his car in the last minute to go directly into the crowds. It was really funny to look at his security guys trying to cope. Now we are talking real stress people!

Few kilos heavier we boarded one of new super-fast trains towards our next stop – Venice. Only on the way did we realize we were actually passing through Florence without stopping – disaster! Well, we’ll have to rectify that next summer.

If we thought Rome was touristic we didn’t get to the big league yet. Venice feels like Disney Land, not a normal city any more. Seems locals share this view, as most of them are moving out to suburbs, due to high rents and inability to get to shops without fighting hordes of tourists (most of them seem to be Chinese). But it is still absolutely fabulous and beautiful! Needless to say some more sightseeing for Nives and phone bonding for Dejan (true love at this stage for sure). 

We also discovered Venetian version of tapas – chicketas. Absolutely fab! You just move from bar to bar and have a few bites of lovely food (well, drinks as well) everywhere. Such a great concept! We also had a proper reality check in Venice: dressed in our travel gear (no designer clothes here, people!) we were actually not let in in one of the restaurants. After the first shock, we were unable to stop giggling. Travel Jugs are really back! Africa, Asia, here we come in full force. But before that short stop-over in Slovenia and Bosnia to see friends and family. And a few more European spots. Have you guessed already?

Some more pictures from this gorgeous country here.