CIAO ROMA!!!!!!!!! (also known as: At least the wine was good...)

Finally... We have experienced an unbreakable language barrier. Awesome. And yet we have fully fallen in love with Italy... We may not be able to communicate anything other than "spaghetti?" but we love it. and it is good. Let me catch you up so far:



(this will be all my perspective from Nice until Rome!!!) Ok so after we left the warmth of Hélène and Martine's hospitality in Grenoble, we were thrown into the ice cold grip of Nice... Okay it wasn't really that bad. When we first got to Nice, we discussed how we were kind of over France and ready to move on to Italia. We seriously considered cutting Nice short and just going straight to Milan, however we decided against that when we got to our next hostel/hotel. We met up with Mick (aussie), Adrian (aussie), Pavel (canadian), and Waffles (not actually his name... and from Belgium.) OH and lets not forget Curly (actually named Nathan, aussie.) After Niki dragged me into the Matisse museum (almost literally had to drag me. literally.) we went out for lupper (a hybrid of lunch and supper...) at a pizza place near to our hostel and since it was pouring rain out we decided to turn in early and watch a movie... Knowing Niki and I, you should all know that this didn't end up happening. By the time we finished lupper, the rain had stopped so we decided we would go to a free wine tasting that night, so we went back to the hostel to get all dressed up for a night out. By the time we had finished getting all dressed up, we had missed the wine tasting... (my bad...) so instead we decided to buy ourselves a bottle of rosée champagne (according to the hostel worker it was sparkling wine... but i disagree.) and let it chill while we went for a walk along the water. Hint: for anyone travelling to Nice. Don't dress up and go for a walk along the water at night unless you want to be approached by every male within a 500 meter radius. When we decided we'd been thoroughly creeped out, we finally headed back to the hostel to crack open our champagne. (that I actually opened completely by myself. yes. be proud dad!!! I didn't need to ask for help because I was scared of the cork haha)

This is me pulling off the wire net thing

This is me trying to open the bottle

This is me saying "Dude its not opening!!!!"

This is me saying "OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!"(Please view my face)

Ah sweet success

so when we were about halfway through the bottle, Mick was sitting on his laptop and so we discussed Edmonton, and how cold it gets since apparently to everyone who is NOT Canadian, that is a very interesting conversation topic... yeah. how 'bout that weather... Awesome. After discussing the cold for a while, Adrian came into the picture, and asked if we would like to go grab a beer since we were out of champagne at this point (and the hostel worker was yelling at us to either go out or go to bed...) so we went for a beer at the only bar that was still open and got made fun of for listening to Bryan Adams (I love that man.) We finally decided it was bed time as we were planning on going to Monaco in the morning, so we walked back and went to bed. The next morning we woke up to Pavel asking us where we were from. A rather confusing question when you're still half asleep, so after finally understanding Niki answered him. We were excited to find another Canadian, afterall, Canada is awesome. So when we were downstairs eating breakfast, we found out Pavel was planning on heading to Monaco at some point as well, so why not with us? We headed to the train station and hopped the first train to Monaco. Mick planned to bike there later, and Adrian wanted to buy tickets to the Grand Prix so he came with Pavel Niki and I. After walking around and admiring all the Ferraris for a while, we decided what the heck? why not buy ourselves tickets for the Grand Prix? So we did.

This is our feet on the finish line of the Monaco Grand Prix. Yes. Be jealous.

We watched a practice race then walked around Monaco. Sorry, my mistake, we walked UP Monaco. I was unaware that in Monaco, unless you're sitting on your yacht, you're either walking straight up or straight down. There are no slight inclines.

Please view the lovely cliff like-ness of Monaco. The entire city is like this.

Conveniently, Niki and I had decided that this would be a good day to wear jeans. It was about 25 degrees out with the sun shining away. In other words, we were a little on the hot side... So we walked along the track (I believe we walked the whole thing...) we saw the most famous corner ever... (the tightest hairpin turn in any formula 1 track...)

Teehee cute blue car

we tried time after time to reach the mythical bridge (I swear the only way you can get to this bridge is by either jumping off someone's roof onto it or climbing up a rope to it... neither of which were plausible options.)
Mythical Bridge

We took a look at the beautiful view of the entire city from the grand palace, and then sadly got back on a train to the Ghetto. Oh sorry. I mean Nice. This is where Curly (we didn't find out his name until after he left) came into the picture. He was sitting at a table eating pizza and drinking wine by himself so we invited him to join us for more pizza and beer. After a lovely discussion of who the 4 (NOT 5) Ninja Turtles are (while Niki and I were at the Louvre it was driving us crazy that we couldn't remember Raphael... to which Pavel answered: you were in one of the most cultural and beautiful places in the world and you were thinking of Ninja Turtles?... yeah... we are that awesome.) (Botticelli was NOT a ninja turtle. he was told to go sit in the corner and draw.) and how apparently in Canada the beaches are in the mountains (I made the mistake of saying how our first day in Nice we couldn't find the beach and were walking uphill, without having the chance to say that when we started going uphill we decided we would look for views and food... not the beach. we're not stupid.) We hit the hay as we had an early morning for the race! Nathan (Curly) wanted to come with us so off we went, 3 Canadians and 3 Aussies to see the Grand Prix. Little did we know that cheap seats meant you have to dig out a little 3 inch ledge so you can perch on it to watch. (we would appear to be getting screwed over with these cheap seats... remember Macbeth? and having to stand for the entire play? yeah... not cool.) After the first round we decided to get some food and look at the ferrari booths... when it was time for the second part of the race to start we decided to get seats higher up in order to get a better view. This is where we discovered we aren't half bad at barefooted rock climbing... (we'll put up pictures.) we were certainly sitting up higher... and the only problem at this point was going to be getting down. That was fun... NOT... After the race was over Niki and I wanted to do some shopping so we ended up losing the guys and just meeting them back at the hostel in Nice. We also ended up being antisocial that night as we showered then went for a siesta, which lasted about 3 hours, then we went to bed. We're real party people... I know. The next morning the boys were all heading off to Monaco to watch the final, and we were off to Cannes (not cOns. cAns. ) to find a beach with actual sand. GREAT SUCESS!!! After meeting Carol (a woman in her mid-late 50's from North Carolina who loves Canadians) we took the train with her as she was going to get a look at the film festival and hoped to see someone famous! I truly hope she was able to. She was a very lovely person, who loved us for being lovely. So we hit the beach after searching for sunscreen for about 2 hours (no need to get any more burnt than we already were...) We found out pharmacies are the only place you can buy sunscreen and they aren't open on sundays... which conveniently was the day we were in Cannes. Awesome. So we finally made it to the beach and even took a little dip in the sea. Apparently Niki and I were in seperate bodies of water because she thought it was very nice and I was freezing. Then again... thats just me.

Niki saying "The water is great!!!"Heather saying "ARE YOU KIDDING ME ITS FREEZING!!!!!!!!!!!"

"See? Its not that cold" "Yes it is just take the picture quickly so i can get back on the beach!!!"

And yes. I actually dove in. I tried to suck it up and pretend it wasn't actually that cold. It was.

So after our beach day we headed back for our last night in the ghetto, and went out for crepes with the guys. We caught our train the next morning to Milan. When we arrived we found our hostel to be a lovely little place with a lovely worker who gave us wine as a welcome to the hostel. We like her. We bought ourselves some bread and cheese for dinner and some olives... which were terrible. (sad) we then played cards for a few hours then headed to bed. Only to be woken up at about 7 by slamming doors, drilling, sawing, and other such construction noises. Awesome. I know thats what I love waking up to. Oh well. We didn't miss breakfast. and that's a win. So after brekkie we headed off to the train station to buy tickets to Rome and then found the most helpful tourist information worker EVER. Seriously. Someone should give this guy a medal. We walked up to him looking very confused and he gave us a map of Milan, showed us where to go for shopping (he circled it on the map and told us what metro line to take), and gave us a couple extra pamphlets (in English. Bless him) just in case we were looking for something else to do other than shop! So off we went to Piazza Duomo and into the cathedral where I got a serious case of the heebeejeebees (wouldn't that be a fun word to translate...)This is the cathedral in Piazza Duomo

so to shake off the angry ghosts, we grabbed a latte (at a McCafé... yes. a café that is part of McDonalds. the coffee was AMAZING and cheap. win.) and then looked around for a bit. I also finally got another working phone (after Mr. Spaz in front of us made us wait for a good solid hour and a half...) then we went shopping. and i found shoes. I love shoes. We then headed back to the hostel for an earlier night, where we ate pizza, played cards and then went to bed. The next day we headed off to the fashion district after stopping off at a castle... briefly... Then oggled at Valentino shoes for a while before we decided to head to the train station. So. When we got to Termini in Rome, we found out that it is quite possibly the most confusing train station ever, and is ridiculously hot, which makes carrying your suitcase through it very very very joyful. NOT. when we finally got to our new hostel (3 hours late...) we fell in love with it. Seriously anyone who comes to Rome should stay here. It's awesome. The next day we headed for the Vatican, where we looked at the sistine chapel, (totally not what i expected...) and then we went for dinner at a little café. Who knew that a grilled ham and cheese literally means ham on top of cheese that is then grilled and put on a plate? well at least the wine was good. After a rather late night, we got up the next morning and decided to try to get into St. Peter's Basilica. Not a chance. the lineup was HUGE so we decided we'll be going there on Monday... and then went to the Coliseum instead!Me outside the Coliseum

then the Trevy Fountain!Me making a wish in the Trevy Fountain

then the Spanish Steps!Our feet on the Spanish Steps

yes. when we go site seeing, we see it all at once. We then celebrated our site seeing over 3 bottles of the most delicious thing we've ever tasted. Red wine champagne.

Everyone must start looking for this in Canada so we can celebrate our homecoming with it!!!!!!!

SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!! and now we are going to try to get to Pisa before the day is out, so I must go before we miss yet another shuttle!!!! Will update again soon!!!