Armed Robbery!

But anyway.....We finished last time saying we were going to visit our friend Sam in Sienna. Well surprise surprise and a few trains later we arrived in Sienna! So after meeting him he then promptly gave us a guided tour round the place with the sights and smells! In particular the main Piazza (god knows the name) where they run a biannual horse race with crazily tight corners on the cobbles (absolute madness as we saw in the videos and pictures in the tourist info). However me and George both looked at each other with the (this looks familiar, but where from?) look. Sam duly spotted our bemused faces and informed us we had see it in the latest James Bond film (Quantum of Solace) where he pops up in the square with the horse race and so begins a gun fight in the crowd!
(Below George with Sam (on the right) in front the Piazza de Horse race!)

Anyway we spent the evening looking out upon the city from the city walls admiring the Duomo (cathedral with a dome we think) and the surrounding Tuscan landscape sipping on dirty cheap €2 Tuscan wine from plastic cups, classy!!!! The next day we continued to explore the city before departing for an afternoon in Florence. Whilst we only spent 10 hours in Florence we did see most of it! From David to the Santa Maria Cathedral?(we have seen enough Churches now they are kind of merging into 1, but it was the main one anyway) with backpacks on, a feat in itself, before enjoying an ice-cream in front of the train station at dusk with a fantastic display of Starlings in flight!
(Below, thats right Duff beer straight from the Simpsons, we had to try it!!)

We then departed our train to Rome that evening arriving at the Hostel my dear mother had been so kind to book for us!! Indeed first impressions were more of a brothel than a Hostel with its red light n the window and as we entered, seedy flashing almost Christmas style LED lights and quite disgusting pink walls!! Anyway the eccentricity of the place was complemented by the other guests!! Indeed yesterday celebrating the birthday of a now 29 year old Aussie (they are everywhere in Europe, but great people nevertheless) over a few cold ones and a lovely meal out!

Anyway the day after arriving we decided to cram in as much as we could, planning to do the Vatican city in a few hours. Bad call, the queues were small as it was low season and it only cost us €16 in total (bonus!!) but the sights were huge!! St.Peter's Basilica was truly stunning, al frescos everywhere and sculptures as large as houses. The extravagance of the place is best summed up by Georges comment on the altar with its large structure covering it (please inform me what its proper name is),"put a mattress on that and it would be a sweet 4 Poster!!" But after that we visited the tomb of the Popes; glorified graveyard and a pretty morbid place but nevertheless a pretty interesting place with people praying at the graves especially to the last one, Pope John Paul II. We then proceeded onto the Vatican Museum, aka the Sistine Chapel and little crappy museum. What a place the chapel! We spent over an hour there just gazing up and around and both agreed it was just too much to take in that time; truly stunning. Later that day we visited the Coliseum, but even though it was insanely impressive that 2000 years ago the Romans managed to create a build something with a capacity equivalent to Old Trafford, it didn't match the beauty of the Sistine Chapel!!

Moving swiftly onto the title of this piece, the armed robbery. Walking along the street to go the Vatican I suggested to George that a takeaway slice of Pizza might be a good shout for lunch and we promptly entered into this tiny cafe. Anyway whilst we were choosing our slices we heard a massive crash behind us. We turned around and saw this woman on the floor. Thinking she had fallen off her chair we were about to help her when we realised it was a lot more serious than that; two guys had entered the shop and swiped the couples laptop bags. The boyfriend then protested to the two men and was about to have a scuffle when one of the robbers brought out a .44 Magnum which as Dirty Harry would say, "is the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head right off!" Well that day, with the gun about foot away, we weren't feeling lucky, punk! Anyway the guys then threatened the whole shop and then legged it down the street. Anyway the woman was in shock and so was treated in the ambulance and the guy also looked a bit shaken up. So we waited around for the police to show up. As they rocked up and started finding out information we tried to help as we were the only other people in the shop and between us had a fairly good description of what the guys looked like and the people who were robbed looked pretty shaken up. The police then told us that they didn't need us at all. We protested and at least tried to give them some sort of contact details. "Nono, donta worrie it's all okay, ci senor?" Basically they knew they were long gone and it was pointless. Anyway, don't tell me off about staying in rough cheapy areas etc. We were in a nice area, it was just ours and the robbers paths crossed! 1 in a hundred million!
(Below the birthday party and bottom the scene of the armed robbery( I cant seem to rotate it, apologies so just tilt your head))

Anyway were currently travelling to Nice from Rome and are currently on a train from Torino to Savone then onto Monaco, Cannes then Nice. As I look out the window I see the beginnings of the alps, snow capped and looking pretty formidable and rolling Italian countryside on this cold winters day, absolutely stunning!
Ps. I will try to keep this as updated as possible however free wifi spots (wireless internet to joe blogs) are generally few and far between!! Especially on overnight trains!! Oh and also if you are disgruntled at the lack of pictures (it's a complete ass to upload them onto the blog at the moment) Im thinking of setting up a Flicker account to post a "selection" of photos that you will all be able to see. Those who are technologically incapable, don't worry I will post instructions about the site and how to access when it eventually comes about (most likely not on this current European adventure but on the following 9/10 month tour round the globe) but for the moment, cope!!!