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]

Ferrara

Ferrara, which grew up around a ford over the River Po, became an intellectual and artistic centre that attracted the greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. Here, Piero della Francesca, Jacopo Bellini and Andrea Mantegna decorated the palaces of the House of Este. The humanist concept of the 'ideal city' came to life here in the neighbourhoods built from 1492 onwards by Biagio Rossetti according to the new principles of perspective. The completion of this project marked the birth of modern town planning and influenced its subsequent development - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/733

On our way from Florence to Venice, we decided to stop off at two UNESCO sites which were more or less on the way - Ferrara, and Padua. To be honest, I would've been more keen to sample the famed culinary delights of Bologna and Modena (the latter is even a UNESCO site!), however both were really a lot more out of our way, so I suppose I'll have to leave them for a later trip. Despite its historic buildings, Ferrara was a lot more like a modern city than just some tourist attraction. First we visited Castello Estense, pictured above and below.

I'm on a moat!

Then we wandered around a bit. Here are more photos. (Sorry, can't really find much more to say about this place, it was early...)

Arches within arches - archception?

The aptly named 'diamond palace' - apparently one of the most famous in Italy

I just thought this looked cool

Of course, if we hadn't stopped in Ferrara then I would never have stumbled across these sassy marzipan pigs in a random food market.

Knowing marzipan, probably tastes gross, but at least they look cute...

We also went to McDonald's where James had an insanely thick hot chocolate.

As adventurous as I am about food, I wasn't game enough to purchase this awkwardly fecal-looking pastry.

Luckily for us, UNESCO signs were abundant throughout the town. Here is James posing with one of the first ones we found.

[Flickr set here]

San Gimignano

'San Gimignano delle belle Torri' is in Tuscany, 56 km south of Florence. It served as an important relay point for pilgrims travelling to or from Rome on the Via Francigena. The patrician families who controlled the town built around 72 tower-houses (some as high as 50 m) as symbols of their wealth and power. Although only 14 have survived, San Gimignano has retained its feudal atmosphere and appearance. The town also has several masterpieces of 14th- and 15th-century Italian art - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/550

Unless you've played Assassin's Creed II, it's unlikely you would've heard of San Gimignano. Halfway (ish) between Siena and Florence, it's not really on the way from one to the other, making it even less likely of a stop. However, it is a UNESCO site after all, so we dutifully headed there after we'd ticked Pisa off the list.

The drive took us through some beautiful, postcardy Tuscan landscapes. The town itself is hard to miss, even from afar - its towers jutting out like ancient office buildings.

Close up, the stone towers are even more imposing. Funny to think that their main purpose seems to have been to show off - maybe they were compensating for something?

A recurring theme of our trip (aside from UNESCO sites) is walking up a lot of stairs to get to the top of a tall thing and take photos from it. In a city famed for a large number of tall towers, San Gimignano was no exception.

I'm sure we could just jump right off with no ill effects, just like in Assassin's Creed, right??

Aside from the towers, San Gimignano was a very charming town, full of picturesque scenes like this:

I was also slightly tempted to get this boar's head as a souvenir, if not for the fact that it cost 300 Euro and I probably would've featured on an episode of Border Patrol, had I attempted to get this past the biosecurity staff at Auckland Airport. A shame, because just think of the hipster bragging rights! 'Oh, this? I picked this up from a little town in Tuscany...'

Finally, the obligatory UNESCO logo shot (the small towns seem to be much keener to promote their UNESCO status).

[Flickr set here] 

Pisa

Standing in a large green expanse, Piazza del Duomo houses a group of monuments known the world over. These four masterpieces of medieval architecture – the cathedral, the baptistry, the campanile (the 'Leaning Tower') and the cemetery – had a great influence on monumental art in Italy from the 11th to the 14th century - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/395

Some places, like Rome or Florence, you could spend days and still have more to explore. Others, you can happily stop in for just an hour and move on. Guess which of these categories Pisa falls into?

Seriously though, as much of a tourist trap as it is, Pisa is worth a visit because it turns out the buildings next to the infamous wonky tower are even more impressive - namely, the Baptistry building.

Unlike that time in Pompeii where I couldn't resist taking a shot of the stone embossed phallus on the ground, in Pisa I absolutely refused to participate in a 'Look, I'm holding up the tower!' shot. The hordes of Chinese tourists, on the other hand, showed no such restraint.

What? You still really, really want a pic of just the leaning tower by itself? Oh, alright then.

[Flickr set here]

Florence

Built on the site of an Etruscan settlement, Florence, the symbol of the Renaissance, rose to economic and cultural pre-eminence under the Medici in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its 600 years of extraordinary artistic activity can be seen above all in the 13th-century cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), the Church of Santa Croce, the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace, the work of great masters such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michelangelo - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/174

If you're in Florence, you would be remiss not to climb one of the two viewpoints the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore has to offer. As I'd gone up the famous dome before, we decided to head to Giotto's Campanile instead (perhaps better known as The Tower Thing Next To The Big Dome). It was a tiring climb and a scarily-long way up:

But the view was more than worth it!

If you have the funds, time and energy, it's almost worth doing both, as going through the dome gives you a close-up look at the incredible fresco on the interior.

We also ventured to Piazzale Michelangelo across the river, for yet more beautiful views of the city. Just as well, because it was the only place we actually found a UNESCO sign! (Pictured at the end of this post)

As with Rome, the best way to take in the sights is to walk - but if you can get hold of bicycles, even better. Luckily, the Airbnb place we were staying in had some free bikes we could use to get around.

Unluckily however, I was going down a slight hill when I found out that the brakes on my bike didn't really work. Fortunately I managed to crash into the back of James instead of a moving vehicle, so avoided any major injury.

If you can manage it, it could be even more fun to procure one of these cute mini cars - essential for navigating the city's cobbled, narrow lanes.

Of course we made the rounds to all the major tourist attractions, including the Uffizi Gallery, and the famous Ponte Vecchio, which as you may know from either reading a Dan Brown novel or watching Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour, has a 'secret' walkway spanning its length.

Looking super atmospheric at night

We were lucky enough to catch some amazing sunsets in Florence - this was one of them

One of the amusing thing we photographed in Florence were the ubiquitous splatty pig vendors, this one on Ponte Vecchio.

Basically, it's a squishy ball, usually with porcine features, which splatters when it lands on a hard surface, but quickly reforms into a jellyish sphere after a few seconds. For some reason, there were guys at pretty much every single tourist attraction in Italy selling these cheap Chinese-made toys. Demonstrations were carefully timed for when a potential buyer was walking past. We would often approach a gauntlet of pig vendors and hear the SMACK, SMACK, SMACK of several pigs being hurled onto the ground as we passed. I almost wish we'd bought one back as a souvenir. Every time I see a splatty pig now, I'll think of Italy.

Even in the birthplace of pizza and pasta, it seems there's one foodstuff people the world over can't get enough of - fried chicken. Here's the menu of an ingenious fried chicken vendor near Via Dante Alighieri.

Bonus points for violating two copyrights simultaneously!

Like many foodies, I had fairly high expectations of the food in Italy. I'm exactly the sort of person who would (and did) research where to go in each locale and possibly even queue to get in. Despite this sort of excessive preparation, we still had plenty of disappointing meals. In Florence, I made the mistake of ordering the local specialty - Bistecca Alla Fiorentina. This presented a major problem as it was a massive, Fred Flintstone-sized t-bone meant to be shared, and James is the sort of guy who prefers his steak medium to well-done (a crime against steak, I know). To be honest, the steak was a bit rarer than even I would normally order it. However, like any good Chinese person who abhors food waste, I managed to choke down the entire lot and still drunkenly cycle home afterward.

In Italy you can only get steak rare, raw or possibly still living - they don't know the meaning of 'medium'

I'm not sure what's with the eyes...

[Flickr set here]

Val d'Orcia

The landscape of Val d’Orcia is part of the agricultural hinterland of Siena, redrawn and developed when it was integrated in the territory of the city-state in the 14th and 15th centuries to reflect an idealized model of good governance and to create an aesthetically pleasing picture. The landscape’s distinctive aesthetics, flat chalk plains out of which rise almost conical hills with fortified settlements on top, inspired many artists. Their images have come to exemplify the beauty of well-managed Renaissance agricultural landscapes. The inscription covers: an agrarian and pastoral landscape reflecting innovative land-management systems; towns and villages; farmhouses; and the Roman Via Francigena and its associated abbeys, inns, shrines, bridges, etc - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1026

I have almost nothing to say about this particular area, except that we failed to find any signs with UNESCO logos on it. The closest we got was the above, which at least had part of the place name and acts as proof that we were there. Unless you are irrationally keen on UNESCO sites like we are, definitely no reason to go out of your way to visit the area...

[We don't even have a Flickr album for this!]

Siena

Siena is the embodiment of a medieval city. Its inhabitants pursued their rivalry with Florence right into the area of urban planning. Throughout the centuries, they preserved their city's Gothic appearance, acquired between the 12th and 15th centuries. During this period the work of Duccio, the Lorenzetti brothers and Simone Martini was to influence the course of Italian and, more broadly, European art. The whole city of Siena, built around the Piazza del Campo, was devised as a work of art that blends into the surrounding landscape - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/717

By the time we arrived in Siena, we were very hungry, so the first order of business was finding a good place to grab lunch. Having sit down restaurant meals for both lunch and dinner was proving to be an expensive exercise, so we decided to try a deli recommended in the Lonely Planet.

Unfortunately I have no photos of the interior as I decided to respect the 'NO PHOTOGRAPHY' sign they had displayed, however I can attest that it was pretty much every foodie's wet dream in there - crammed with cured meats and cheeses, it smelled incredible. We went for a basic prosciutto and cheese sandwich. The prosciutto was delicious but there was WAY too much cheese - perhaps it would've been better toasted?

Once my stomach was amply sated (in fact, I had to leave half the sandwich for later consumption), we headed to Siena Cathedral. The designer obviously had a thing for stripes as the whole structure resembles a Beetlejuice costume, both inside and out.

The streets of Siena are narrow, with gloomy gothic buildings looming high on either side. So when you finally emerge at the vast open space of the town square, the contrast is almost gasp-worthy.

[Flickr set here]

Pienza

It was in this Tuscan town that Renaissance town-planning concepts were first put into practice after Pope Pius II decided, in 1459, to transform the look of his birthplace. He chose the architect Bernardo Rossellino, who applied the principles of his mentor, Leon Battista Alberti. This new vision of urban space was realized in the superb square known as Piazza Pio II and the buildings around it: the Piccolomini Palace, the Borgia Palace and the cathedral with its pure Renaissance exterior and an interior in the late Gothic style of south German churches - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/789

Pienza is the sort of town most people would have never heard of, and we certainly would never have stopped here had it not been a UNESCO site. Which would've been a shame, because it turned out to be a lovely spot. The town is a wee bit like a time capsule of 15th Century Italy, oozing ambience and charm. I would definitely recommend a visit if you're driving through!

Just like Amalfi, it's like walking through a postcard

[Flickr set here]

Villa d'Este

The Villa d'Este in Tivoli, with its palace and garden, is one of the most remarkable and comprehensive illustrations of Renaissance culture at its most refined. Its innovative design along with the architectural components in the garden (fountains, ornamental basins, etc.) make this a unique example of an Italian 16th-century garden. The Villa d'Este, one of the first giardini delle meraviglie , was an early model for the development of European gardens - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1025

Here's a tip - if you plan on going to Villa d'Este, don't follow your Google Maps navigation instructions. Or perhaps they've updated them by now. We had a frustrating time of being told to drive around in circles before finally finding the rather unassuming entrance to these grand gardens. Anyway, once we got in, our annoyance was soon forgotten. Romans sure didn't do things by halves:

What's even more impressive is that all of this was accomplished without the use of electrical pumps. All in all, it's a lovely spot for a romantic stroll, though we did find some rather bizarre things in the complex as well.

A really ugly fountain

Public warning against not wearing bras? I won't even mention the hooves...

This could be handy if you had many children?

There were in fact several UNESCO signs - this had both logos

[Flickr set here]