Borough Market

Even though I've lived in London since September, I seem to have missed Borough Market until just a few weeks ago. The market can be dated back to 1040 - so not quite the beginning of London, but close to it! Even more exciting, the market has actually been on the same street since the 13th century. 

sweets

However, it's definitely one of my top markets I have been to- a foodie's paradise! It is essentially an enormous farmer's market (there are 130 regular stalls, plus different ones that rotate through). The market is filled with almost every gourmet food you could imagine.  Plus, just like any good farmers market, lots of the food is produced locally, with fresh produce, fresh fish, butchers...plus a few surprising things I hadn't seen before.

Traveling in Italy: The Vatican, St Peters, and the Sistine Chapel

After having a minor adventure on our way from Napoli to Rome, we decided to spend our first full day in Rome at the Vatican. Since I didn't do any research at all on Italy before we had arrived, I had totally forgotten that actually Rome is the heart of Catholicism (85% of Italians identify as Catholic). However, it was clear from the moment we got off the train that this was a religious place- I saw more nuns and fathers-wearing-white-collars in Rome than I have seen in the first 22 years of my life. It was fascinating (and humanising), especially when you see mundane things like nuns-on-cell-phones, nuns-driving-cars, nuns-on-busses and nuns-eating-ice-cream. I think there were a few nunneries close to the campsite we were staying in, and of course going to the Vatican let us see one of the religious hearts (and tourist hearts) of Rome.

view from a Vatican window

Traveling in Italy: From Napoli to Roma

On the third day, we had booked a train from Napoli to Roma. This was pretty cost-effective, plus we hoped to see a bit of countryside which we wouldn't see otherwise. And train travel is just one of my favourite things! The tracks click by and the carriage rocks a bit, and you have an A-number-one best view out the window. Not to mention that unlike at an airport, you don't need to check in early, and there is rarely a stressful security line to lose your dignity in ('enhanced' pat downs anyone? I thought not).

So we booked ourselves onto a mid-morning train that ran directly from Napoli to Roma in just two hours, on a second class carriage. Once we got into the correct carriage, in an ideal world we would have continued to our seats.

Instead, this little man came up and asked to see our tickets. He was wearing a uniform and seemed to know what he was doing. He indicated, no, no, you shouldn't sit there, follow me. And proceeded to lead us to the first class carriages. And like foolish tourists, we confusedly followed, getting excited that we had just been upgraded to first class. Maybe this good luck was to make up for the poor luck of having our baggage destroyed? The first class carriages were little compartments, with 6 large comfortable seats in each one (imagine what kind of train carriage that Sherlock Holmes or the kids from Narnia would travel in).

Once the little man brought us to our destination, he started trying to mime something mysterious, and saying something in Italian. Which pretty much just confused us even more. He got tired of trying to communicate with us pretty quickly, and left sadly. We soon figured out that actually he was trying to ask for a tip for "upgrading" us to first class. And he wasn't actually related to the conductors or train company at all. He was just randomly upgrading all kinds of people into first class, then asking for tips. This resulted in the actual conductor struggling to find people the proper seats for the rest of our two hour train ride. Lucky for us, we got to stay in first class after we attempted to explain our predicament to the conductor- exchanging broken english for broken Italian. Unluckily for us, our first class compartment wasn't filled with people like Sherlock Holmes- instead it was filled with toddlers and their mothers stuffing breadsticks into their faces!

On the bright side, we did see some amazing Italian countryside fly by the train windows.

Columbia Road Flower Market

Today Rhys and I headed to East London- my first time venturing into that part of the city. The East end is famous for being a bit rough (have you ever seen the soap opera EastEnders?). However there has been a lot of investment in the area, and it's supposed to become the next technology hub in London. At the same time a lot of hipster kids live in the area, making it a very trendy, arty place to live.

hipsters: so cool it hurts...

We were headed to the east end with a specific destination: the famous Columbia Road flower market which I have been meaning to go to since January. A long wait that was well worth it!

The Columbia Rd market sells only flowers and plants, and has been doing just this since the 1860s. And in the true spirit, some of the flower sellers who trade there today are the 2nd or 3rd generation in their family to do so. Many of them also were the growers of their flowers and plants, coming directly to the market to sell (I assume they sold other places as well). While we there we even saw young kids learning the trade from their parents.

Traveling in Italy: Day 2 Exploring Naples

Napoli lived up to its reputation of being dirty and a bit crazy. Apparently the city is still run by the mobs, who happen to own the rubbish collection. In some fluke, this means that mountains of rubbish pile up on the streets (the mafia doesn't mind enormous piles of rubbish? mysterious.). It also means that all the beautiful piazzas, monuments, statues, and trains are coated head-to-toe in graffiti. 

Traveling in Italy: Pompeii

The next morning I woke up early and went to the hostel desk staff hoping that my lost bag had been found. And with enormous fingers crossed- it was pouring with rain outside and (naturally) the raincoats were packed in the lost bag.

"good news! your bag has been found and it's right here"

The hostel staff then proceeded to hand me an enormous bag that was distinctly Not-mine-at-all. But the bag was checked with my name on it from London, so we went ahead and opened it. And inside floating around was my little bag I had checked. Ripped in half. Covered in grease. With a bunch of clothes and all the toiletries missing! It looked like some machine had ripped the bag in half, then the groundstaff just checked another bag in under my name. Unhelpful! So, slight spanner in the works, but our raincoats were still intact! So it was off to Pompeii, the primary reason we came to Naples!

Napoli with Mt Vesuvius in the background

Traveling in Italy: Getting to Napoli

The downside of booking our tickets to Napoli in February is that somehow I forgot that perhaps travelling through London at the exact time the royal wedding takes place could be difficult. We knew we booked our tickets for the wedding day...but I didn't actually realise the event was a particularly big deal in the world until the week before our trip. And that was about the time that the panic set in.

Our flights to Napoli left from Gatwick airport in the afternoon. To get to the airport we had to take a train from our house, and then switch trains at the station called Green Park. Unfortunately, it just happens that Green Park is the Buckingham Palace stop, and over 1 million people were expected to journey into London to see the wedding...and all congregate around Green Park!

Italy 2011: Gelato

This is part 1 of my series on the 9 days Rhys and I spent in travelling on the cheap in Italy across Naples and Rome- you can read about the whole trip here:

Ostia Antica, the Roman Forum and Colosseum

How to Make the Perfect Italian Pizza

The Vatican, St Peter's and the Sistine Chapel

From Napoli to Roma

Day 2 Exploring Napoli

Pompeii

Getting to Napoli

Rhys and I arrived back from our holiday in Rome and Naples yesterday afternoon. And do I have some blog posts lined up for you! However, I thought I would start of with one of the most important parts of being in Italy: eating Gelato.

Gelaterias (stores that sell gelato) are absolutely everywhere in Italy, on every street corner. But unlike a Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds, there are hardly any gelato chains: each gelateria tends to make their own gelato, and provide the flavours they like (although these tend to follow a delicious trend).  And gelato for some reason is the best ice cream in the world- even better than TipTop, Ben and Jerries, or any other ice cream around.

So naturally, we conducted a nice science experiment which involved eating gelato at least once a day. You need a good sampling size to be sure, right? After sampling gelato at least once a day, Rhys and I were trying to figure out what made gelato so much better than anything else. My tentative idea is this (although I may have to go back to Italy and try a few more samples...):