a blog by hayden

We had lots of big plans for Innsbruck that fell through, like mountain hikes and summer snowboarding, on account of two days of bad weather. So, we did all the stuff that’s not weather dependent and decided we’ll just have to come back. Oh darn.

Salzburg is well known for two things: the Sound of Music and Mozart. We reckon the most important thing is to avoid anything to do with either of these subjects like the plague. Except the gardens… coz they’re pretty. We did THIS stuff instead.

We never really planned to go to Slovenia, but the beauty of having no idea where you’re going to be from one week to the next is that you can decide you want to go white water rafting on an emerald river in a country covered in forests, mountains and lakes overnight. No regrets about that one.

After all the craziness of Italy, we thought we deserved a few days rest on the beach in the sun. We chose Vrsar, a tiny fishing village at the northern end of the Croatian coast, because there is literally nothing to do there but go to the beach. And that’s all we did for three days…

To say farewell to Italy, here’s a photo montage of Operation Gelato and a video of Cinque Terre.

It’s hard to describe Venice. It’s a maze of streets and canals, souvenir shops and restaurants… and not much else. But there’s something appealing about getting lost in a sinking city, at least for a day or two, and getting lost is something we’re pretty damn good at.

Bologna and Milan disappeared in a flash of fashion, ferraris and bolognese. It wasn’t the cheapest few days we’ve had, but hitting 200 kph in a Ferrari on the open road out the back of Maranello was too good a chance to pass up.

Undoubtedly, the best thing about Naples is that it’s the home of pizza. Aside from that, it’s just a big, dirty city. Apparently it’s in the middle of a serious rubbish collection crisis. We had our own crisis in Pompeii: rain. And lots of it.

We had three days to see Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and Capri. This part of Italy lays claim to some of the most beautiful scenery in the whole country, and we had three days. It was a full-on three days…

For most people, Rome is the first city that springs to mind when they think of Italy. The Colosseum, Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel, the Roman Forum… in other words, you gotta see it – but you also gotta share it with everyone else.