MM4.Travel

Sunday October 6 After the previous day’s Gaudi-athon we decided to head to the Barcelona Pavilion which was about an hour’s walk from our hotel to see the Barcelona Pavilion by the modernist architect Mies van der Rohe. Gaudi’s work was part of “modernisme” a Catalan architectural movement that has its origins in the late…

Saturday October 5 In the post-Covid-hyper-over-tourism age we were well aware that you had to book well in advance to even have a chance to get in the door of some places. This brings us to the Sagrada Família; where, at some point over the Mediterranean at 30,000 feet or so, it occurred to us…

Friday October 4 Veni, Vidi, Vici We came, we saw, but I don’t think we came close to conquering Rome with its bewildering layered history. We definitely want to head back one day. But with our itinerary pushing us ever forward, we retraced our steps back to the train-station to head to Leonardo da Vinci…

Thursday October 3 Our third day in Rome was less hectic, which was a nice change of pace. After breakfast we went to a couple of churches down from where we were staying. These were by the baroque era’s biggest frenemies Bernini and Borromini. While this is usually put down to their vastly different backgrounds…

Wednesday October 2 If the previous day was huge, then this day would be no different. It was also quickly apparent that you stumble upon ancient stuff everywhere you look in Rome. Walking to the Pantheon we saw the Temple of Hadrian, which dates to 145AD. Only this facade remains, which was incorporated into a…

Tuesday October 1 With ourselves and the taxi driver speaking very little of each other’s respective language, he nevertheless kindly acted as an impromptu tour guide pointing out various landmarks mostly in Italian. We got dropped off about 5 minutes from where we needed to be, we think he did explain why. Roadworks perhaps. Nevertheless…

Monday September 30 We had a bit of time before our train to Rome later in the day, this gave a chance to head back to see Florence Cathedral, which had been closed due to the festival on Saturday & Sunday church services. Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Flore We had thought we were rather…

Sunday September 29 We seemed to be following marathons around Europe, Florence had their annual fun run on the Sunday morning. Chiesa di San Carlo dei Lombardi The entrance to the Uffizi gallery is just off the Piazza Della Signoria, on the way we passed the church of Orsanmichele, but you had to pay to…

Saturday September 28 – Venice Venice had been pretty special, for obvious reasons! We definitely could have had a few more days there, it’s extraordinary, but we had to press onto Florence. There are a few things though that they don’t tell you about Venice, these are mainly due to do with some fairly suspect…

Friday September 27 – this was a BIG day. Piazza San Marco We were really fortunate to find our accommodation in Venice itself, as it’s basically choose either massively expensive five star hotels, or well quite um rudimentary. The benefit of staying on the island is it meant we were able get out before the…