Grace's Seventh Chapter

20 – 30 Sep

We spent three days in Rome and went sightseeing and saw the Colesseum and the Roman Forum. I really enjoyed the colesseum and the Forum was really big and hot to walk around. The Forum was where their first government was started. I was a bit sick of seeing old ruins by then. After lunch and a gelato (ice cream) we went to the Vatican to see St Peters Basilica. The church is hugemungous and there are two points in the courtyard where you can stand and all the

columns line up. I also bought a set of rosary beads there. I am hoping that the Pope has blessed them.

We were walking past the military academy when we saw the changing of the guard. The navy, airforce, and army all come out with a band playing and change over their shifts. They stand really tall and still in two boxes outside of the gates just like they do at Buckingham Palace.

We went to our favourite restaurant again in Rome and saw Flash. This time I was able to ask for the bill in Italian and I added, “Mio padre pagra” – my father will pay. He thought this was pretty funny.

We went to Florence next and stayed in a really nice hotel near the gold bridge. We hired some bikes and rode around. We went to the town centre and saw lots of statues and a big gold turtle. Mum and I

did some shopping and ate gelatos. Florence was my favourite city.

After Florence we caught a train up to Bolzano in the Dolomite mountains and saw 5 refugees being arrested on the train. Because dad had booked the wrong hotel dates, we had to stay at the Hotel Regina at the railway station which was worse than the Frankfurt and Itzslinger hotels.

Before we moved to our next hotel we went to see Otzi, the iceman, at the museum. He is 5,000 years old! He had shoes made out of twine and bark and you could even try on his clothes and we made shoelaces out of Lime tree bark. He is stored in a big fridge but you can see him through a little window.

There was a big bike festival on and we saw a big hot air balloon rise about 30 metres in front of me. There were old fashioned bikes with

big wheels and old men riding them in old fashioned clothing. Mum saw three of them crash into each other. Mum and dad made me walk up a hill through vineyards and on another day we hired bikes and rode 34 kms. My bike wasn’t great and dad had to push me most of the way.

The apartment we stayed in for three days was the best ever. Maria made us chocolate lava cakes each morning for breakfast. We even had chocolate pancakes. Italy loves chocolate.

We drove from Bolzano to Cortina. On the way we stopped at a cable car and went to Alpe di Siusi which is the highest paddock in the world. We walked up another mountain and saw lots of horses and cows with bells. I even saw a man putting a shoe on a horse!

When I was feeding the horses, I got zapped by the electric fence straight across my neck. I jumped and so did the horse because I was patting his nose at the same time. Mum and dad said that it would make me smarter so we practiced the 6 times tables. We then continued our journey to Cortina over three mountain passes.

After a night in Cortina, which was really cold, we drove to Venice to meet my friends before we start on a cruise. Tomorrow we are going into Venice for the day.

Travelling safe,
Grace Frawley