Our Road-trip Through Italy

We recently went on a two week holiday to Italy.  We decided to make it a road trip – a more affordable way to travel through Italy, especially when you coming from South Africa where the rand has been doing a downward dip for a while now. 

We made the necessary travel arrangements before leaving home, like make all the hotel bookings via Booking.com and hired a vehicle - Ford Fiesta, which we picked up just outside of the Malpensa Airport (Northern Italy).  And yes we (four adults) had to pack ‘super lite’, in view of the size of that car-boot… a bit of a squeeze but we managed just perfectly though, well I suppose we had too…

The entire road trip and stay in the various places was really amazing, wonderful, enjoyable, and most importantly…Fun!!!  We went from Milan to Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Venice and then to Sahaja Yoga Ashram.   Here we go…

Milan
Situated in northern Italy and really a metropolitan city for sure, well I read it is the largest metropolitan area in Italy and second-most populous city in Italy after Rome. 

The city has been recognized as the ‘World’s Fashion and Design capital.  

Milan is the destination of 8 million overseas visitors every year, attracted by its museums and art galleries that boast some of the most important collections in the world, including major works by Leonardo da Vinci. - Wikipedia

Genoa also known as Genova
Here we enjoyed some amazing views. Genoa is simply "beautiful!". The views from the hotel was also fantastic - which over looked the Mediterranean Ocean

Genoa is one of my favorites also this is where I had my first ‘Gluten-Free’ Pizza!

Genoa has historically been one of the most important ports on the Mediterranean. It is currently the busiest in Italy and in the Mediterranean Sea and twelfth-busiest in the European Union.

Over 1.5 million people live in the wider metropolitan area stretching along the Italian Riviera.

Pisa

Located on the western coast of Italy is one of the smaller cities in the Tuscany region and although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower (the bell tower of the city's cathedral), the city contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces and various bridges across the Arno, -which we didn’t visit, since we were mainly interested in seeing this spectacle –The ‘Leaning Tower’, and a spectacle it was…

Florence

Interesting one for me, with lots to see and do.  Narrow (brick and cobble) streets that explained the bicycles just everywhere – I would call it ‘bicycle city’.  Another Yay... was that there was a ‘Gluten-Free’ Pizza restaurant, just opposite our hotel, so needless to say I found myself frequenting this restaurant.

Florence is the capital of Tuscany and most populous city of the Italian region.

Florence was a center of medieval European 

trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages"

The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and the Historic Centre of Florence was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982.

The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art, architecture and monuments. 

The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries which my husband was just too keen to visit almost all of them with me dragging my body to catch up.

Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. - Wikipedia

Florence:

Nelson Mandela Memorial/ Forum.

Nelson Mandela Centenary 2018

Rome

The capital city of Italy, it is also the country's most populated city of Residence. The Vatican City is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city: for this reason Rome has been often defined as capital of two states. Rome has the status of a global city. In 2016, Rome was ranked as the most popular tourist attraction in Italy.

Venice 

A city in north eastern Italy…was fascinating and interesting.  It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by 400 bridges. The islands are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers (Piave begins in the Alps and flows southeast into the Adriatic Sea near the city of Venice).

Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, and artwork. The lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Venice has been known by many names e.g.  "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals." I would go back if the opportunity presented itself again. -Wikipedia

Sahaja Yoga - Italy

The last 6 days we spent at Ashram, which was an absolutely heavenly experience.

Thank you!

Mauritius - Our Island Holiday

“A volcanic island of palm-fringed white sandy beaches and lagoons that are protected from the open sea by the world’s third largest coral reef that surround most of the coastline”

Mauritius -has just two seasons: a warm, humid summer from November to April and a relatively cool dry winter from June to September.

We were fortunate to spend a week in ‘Beautiful Tropical Mauritius’.  We stayed in 'Pointe aux Piments', an area on the Northern side of Mauritius.  We got to see and experience most of Mauritius via a four day tour with a tourist company and our own travelling with local transport, which proved to be an interesting one.

"Church in the Park"

How beautiful is this... a church at the seaside under the trees...

Pointe aux Piments

Touring The North side was very interesting, with vast Panoramic views of Port Louis and its harbor from the Citadel Fort.  Port Louis is the capital and largest city in Mauritius. 

It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and the African Union. Port Louis is the country's economic, cultural and political center, and most populous city.   Expansion of the tourism industry in the late 1990's led to considerable development in Port Louis, with many shops, hotels, and restaurants being built in the Caudan Waterfront area.

The city is full of numerous buildings and monuments that reflect its rich and diverse colonial history. Near the city center, there are several French colonial buildings that date to the 18th century, including Government House. Other prominent traditional elements include the Jummah Mosque, the majestic English Saint James Cathedral, the Indian Tamil Temple, the elegant five-tier colonial Port Louis Theater, the Champ de Mars Racecourse, and the nearby Chinese Pagoda. –Wikipedia

Grand Bay/Baie which is located on the northwest coast of Mauritius is really beautiful with its white-sand beaches, glass-bottom boat trips that provide a window on the underwater world, snorkeling which was one of the most magical experiences for me in Mauritius.  Crafts shops, touristy shops and stalls, craft markets, shopping mall etc.

 

L'ILE Aux Cerfs
If you wanting to go ‘Under sea walking, parasailing, tube riding’ etc. then this would be the place for you.  We also got to travel in a high speed boat on a huge river to a take in the view of a beautiful waterfall and then to L‘Ile Aux Cerfs Island’, where we had lunch on the private owned island.  

Caught in a Cyclone

Mauritius does experience seasonal cyclones.  So of course we were caught in one (cyclone) whilst on the boat on our return trip from L’ile Aux Cerfs Island.  We were hit by this gushing storm (“Cyclone” we were told after we got off the boat), that rocked our boat around wildly over the rough sea... with no vision of any land any where around us.  We were drenched and so were everything else on the boat.  It kind of reminded me of the movie, “Life of Pi”…  Oh my Gosh!!! An experience never to forget that lasted for about 20 minutes, but felt like much longer though.

On the South Side we got to visit the ship model factory shop and other souvenir shops.

As well as ‘Volcano crater Bassin’ an extinct volcano from which we had a beautiful panoramic view of Curepipe and its beautiful mountain range. 

At Grand Bassin we visited the holy lake of the Hindu faith as well as the 108 feet statue of Mangal Mahadev and the statue of the Goddess Durga.

Valley of 23 Colour Nature Park

This magnificent amphitheater valley offers instant inspiration to nature lover – the colored earth and indigenous flora and fauna, views of a range of natural landscape comprising of plateaus, mountains, valleys, craters, a volcano skyline, ponds and waterfalls. 

They also have other activities like quad biking, zip-lines, 350 meters Nepalese Bridge walk etc. at European prices of course.

It’s People & Language

The people of Mauritius are multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multicultural and multilingual. 

Mauritius has a population of about 1.3 million according to the 2011 census made by ‘Statistics Mauritius’.  Hinduism is the largest religion in Mauritius, representing approximately 51.9%, followed by Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Chinese and other. Creoles (of African descent or mixed-race) are about a quarter of the population. 

Mauritian Creole is spoken by an estimated 90% of the population and is considered to be the native language of the country, although the Mauritian Constitution makes no mention of an official language. Thus the citizens of Mauritius speak English, French, Mauritian Creole, French-based Creole, and ethnic languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam, Marathi, or Mandarin.

Some Geography

Did you know that Mauritius is ranked second in an ‘air quality index’ released by the World Health Organization in 2011, just goes to show, being on holiday in Mauritius can be good for your health – firstly, a wonderful opportunity to avoid the traffic fumes back home and secondly, fun in the sun and of course its beautiful white-sand beaches.

Mauritius was created by volcanic activity some 8 million years ago. Together with ‘Saint Brandon, Réunion, and Rodrigues’, the island is part of the ‘Mascarene Islands’. These islands have emerged as a result of gigantic underwater volcanic eruptions that happened thousands of kilometres to the east of the continental block made up of Africa and Madagascar.

The island is situated approximately 2400 kilometres off the South East Coast of Africa. The island covers an area of 1,865 square kilometres or 720 square miles, with 330 kilometres of coastline. Mauritius is 65km in length and 45km in width.

Some History

Formerly a Dutch colony (1638–1710) and a French colony (1715–1810), Mauritius became a British colonial possession in 1810 and remained so until 1968, the year in which it attained independence.  It became a republic in 1992.

Dodo Bird

This blog won’t be complete if I left out the ‘Dodo bird’.  The island is widely known as the only known home of the extinct flightless dodo bird - family of pigeons and doves. The Dodo was made extinct by human activities shortly after the island's earlier occupants.  The closest living relative of the dodo is the Nicobar pigeon which can be found in its typical forest habitat on isolated Southeast Asian islands.

Pyramids

Well before leaving for Mauritius I did a bit of ‘googling’ on Mauritius and came across an article about the Pyramids in Mauritius, and of course who wouldn’t be intrigued.  Fortunately the tour guide agreed to show it to us via a super short stop.  We took some photos…from a distance though, actually from the freeway across the road.  Unfortunately, the viewing of the Pyramids is not part of or on the list of ‘things to see in Mauritius’.  There has been some controversy about these Pyramids though; you can read more about them here: http://blog.airmauritius.com/seven-pyramids-mauritius/

Oh yes before I forget, (for the South African readers), it is very easy mistakenly feel that you are in KwaZulu Natal with the abundance of ‘sugar cane crops’ all around, between the towns.

....and the contrast!

Shopping Mall in Grand Bay!

                          

"Fascinating Sight"

Not something we see every day (well in Durban anyway) in this age of Modern "Mobile technology"

Here's me, signing off :)Thank you!