Milan

The refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie forms an integral part of this architectural complex, begun in Milan in 1463 and reworked at the end of the 15th century by Bramante. On the north wall is The Last Supper, the unrivalled masterpiece painted between 1495 and 1497 by Leonardo da Vinci, whose work was to herald a new era in the history of art - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/93

Milan may be the fashion capital of Italy, but seeing as my interest in fashion is probably inversely proportionate to my love of food, we didn't plan to spend much time here. To be honest, we decided to end our Italian trip here mainly because its airport provided cheap flights to Edinburgh, our next destination. Of course, the fact that it had a UNESCO site was also a drawcard.

Unfortunately, when we turned up at the church where The Last Supper is housed, the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, we found out that we should've booked months in advance in order to even lay eyes on the famous painting. Oops. Oh well. We got our photo with the UNESCO logo so it still counts! And the church still looked cool from the outside.

As a bonus, we ended up going to a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition next door, where pages from some of his original notebooks were displayed.

The only other thing of note in Milan? A vaguely amusing sign in a car park. Goodbye and tanks indeed, Italy!

[Flickr set here]

Crespi d'Adda

Crespi d'Adda in Capriate San Gervasio in Lombardy is an outstanding example of the 19th- and early 20th-century 'company towns' built in Europe and North America by enlightened industrialists to meet the workers' needs. The site is still remarkably intact and is partly used for industrial purposes, although changing economic and social conditions now threaten its survival - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/730

Crespi d'Adda is an odd sort of place. Even though real people seem to actually live here, it was so quiet that it felt like we had stumbled on a ghost town. In fact, I think it would make a perfect setting for a Doctor Who episode.

Again, I doubt you'd have a reason to stop here unless you were specifically trying to tick off UNESCO sites, but it was still less disappointing than the Padua Botanical Garden!

[Flickr set here]

Verona

The historic city of Verona was founded in the 1st century B.C. It particularly flourished under the rule of the Scaliger family in the 13th and 14th centuries and as part of the Republic of Venice from the 15th to 18th centuries. Verona has preserved a remarkable number of monuments from antiquity, the medieval and Renaissance periods, and represents an outstanding example of a military stronghold - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/797

Despite my intense dislike of Romeo and Juliet, Verona turned out to be one of our favourite places in Italy. Mostly known as the setting of this famous play, it's hard to fault the town for capitalising on this fact. Let's get the fake, touristy gimmicks out of the way first.

'Juliet's balcony'

Because apparently it's good luck to cop a feel of her statue

Yes, that really is a wall of chewing gum. Gross.

Apparently, the city of Verona is clamping down on tourists' disgusting practice of leaving the wads of gum on the wall, which is good to hear. Anyway, on to the real attractions of the city!

We found a lovely place to stay via Airbnb which was full of vintage charm AND had free bicycles for our use. This time, they even had working brakes! Even if you don't have bikes, Verona's easily navigable by foot.

One of the highlights of the city is the Verona Arena, an amphitheater which was, get this, built in Jesus' lifetime (30 AD). It's still used today for hosting things like plays and... One Direction concerts. Although popular with tourists, it's like a slightly smaller but much less crowded Colosseum. You get some great views of the city from the top, too.

Another great vantage point is the Castel San Pietro, just across the river from the old town area and above the Roman Theatre.

It's hard to describe exactly why we liked Verona so much. Even though by now we had been totally immersed in historic Italian cities for two weeks, everything seemed somehow even more charming and delightful here. I tried to capture some of Verona's almost magical atmosphere in these photos, but trust me, everything was even more beautiful in real life.

And things only got more atmospheric at night...

Castelvecchio Bridge

Looking across the Adige River

Porta Borsari, built in the 1st century AD

As if all that wasn't enough to win us over, the Christmas markets were also on!

The food in Verona wasn't half bad either - we had dinner in a restaurant specialising in prosciutto (one of my favourite things of all time), then grabbed dessert at the market afterward.

This was as delicious as it looked

Is this making you hungry yet?

Of course, it helped that Verona had a UNESCO sign displayed so we could take a photo with it!

[Flickr set here] 

Padua Botanical Garden

The world's first botanical garden was created in Padua in 1545. It still preserves its original layout – a circular central plot, symbolizing the world, surrounded by a ring of water. Other elements were added later, some architectural (ornamental entrances and balustrades) and some practical (pumping installations and greenhouses). It continues to serve its original purpose as a centre for scientific research - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/824

The Padua Botanical Garden was by far the most disappointing UNESCO site we visited in Italy. Even though Val d'Orcia was a bit of a nothing site, at least we kind of knew that it wasn't going to be much of anything, plus we were just driving through anyway. Padua? We stopped here especially, so I was really expecting something at least as impressive as the Hamilton Gardens (not that I've even been to those).

Turns out the Padua Botanical Garden is TINY. Plus we went when basically nothing much was growing, rendering it even less impressive. To add insult to injury, it was one of the few UNESCO sites where we had to pay an entrance fee. Basically, unless you're a botany nut, it's safe to give the garden a miss.

We did manage to get SOME nice shots...

We often find these in our garden and pull them out when weeding...

After the disappointment of the garden, we stopped by the Basilica of Saint Anthony, which was actually super impressive, one of the best churches we'd seen on the trip. Plus, it's actually where the bones of the Saint himself is kept! Fun.

Padua also had one of the most crazy directions to the nearest McDonalds signs we'd seen on our entire trip - you may have died of starvation by the time you actually manage to find this place.

Behold, not just one but THREE different UNESCO logo shots!

[Flickr set here]

Vicenza

Founded in the 2nd century B.C. in northern Italy, Vicenza prospered under Venetian rule from the early 15th to the end of the 18th century. The work of Andrea Palladio (1508–80), based on a detailed study of classical Roman architecture, gives the city its unique appearance. Palladio's urban buildings, as well as his villas, scattered throughout the Veneto region, had a decisive influence on the development of architecture. His work inspired a distinct architectural style known as Palladian, which spread to England and other European countries, and also to North America - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/712

If you love architecture, chances are Vicenza is already on your bucket list. I was only vaguely familiar with the city thanks to the previously mentioned Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour TV series, but I'm really glad we ended up here thanks to the city's UNESCO status. If you live in the western world (or anywhere which has had western/colonial influences), chances are there'll be Palladian-style structures in your town or city, probably in the form of a civic building.

The beautifully calming atrium of the Palladio museum

Our first stop was the Palladio museum, which featured tons of architectural models, i.e. mini houses, my favourite! The exhibition was extremely well curated and featured everything in both Italian and English, which was a bonus.

Then, we wandered outside and got to see the giant versions of the mini buildings, which was very fun also.

Finally, we visited the Olympic Theatre, which is famous for using tricks of perspective to make the stage look larger than it actually is. Unlike Kevin McCloud we weren't granted special treatment to go behind the scenes, but it was still pretty cool to look at from the front.

We also found some rather creepy graffiti on a building nearby...

On the way back to the car we came across some otters in a park! This was very exciting to us as we have no such creatures back home in New Zealand. (We're also the sort of people who find chipmunks novel and hilarious.)

Oh, and the park had a lovely palladian rotunda in it as well.

Finally, the obligatory UNESCO signs.

Not just one but two large UNESCO signs! Score!

[Flickr set here]

Venice

Founded in the 5th century and spread over 118 small islands, Venice became a major maritime power in the 10th century. The whole city is an extraordinary architectural masterpiece in which even the smallest building contains works by some of the world's greatest artists such as Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and others - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/394

Having been to Suzhou (the 'Venice of the East') and both Venetian hotels in Las Vegas and Macau, we were really looking forward to seeing whether the real Venice would deliver. Luckily, this crazy Italian city managed to blow all of its imitators out of the water (pardon the pun).

It's easy to get lost in the narrow alleyways and unnamed lanes, but it's just as easy to find a sign pointing toward one of the two main attractions - Piazza San Marco and Rialto Bridge.

Piazza San Marco at night

Hmm, I wonder if that cover image was photoshopped?

It was pretty appalling to see such an iconic landmark riddled with graffiti. According to some friends who visited in later months, they did clean it off in the end, but still.

Sometimes you feel a bit silly purchasing useless trinkets from a town just because they're famous for making it, but I didn't mind looking at the cute Murano glass sculptures and grabbing a couple as souvenirs. Surprisingly, some of the best value necklaces we came across was in a store on the Rialto Bridge itself.

Of course, I suppose we could've got ourselves more splatty pigs as well (though we didn't).

Even though the town is constantly heaving with tourists, there are so many laneways it's not hard to get shots with no people in them either?

Of course we couldn't leave Venice without climbing a tall thing to take pictures from the top of, so we went to St Mark's Campanile.

It's worth venturing out at night time as well, Venice is super atmospheric in the evening - I can only imagine how fun it would be during Carnival season!

Finally, some rather... interesting things we spotted in town.

Odd...

Odder...

Definitely the oddest

[Flickr set here]