from vienna to bratislava a nice short journey.
i had minimal expectations of bratislava purely because my friend had told me it was rubbish.
however surprisingly enough i really enjoyed it. there was just enough to see that we managed to get around everywhere important in a day. it was very small but nice, the people were friendly and it was a good interlude in the trip. my camera decided to play up though and so i have no photographs of vienna bratislava or venice - devestated!
from here we went to hungary and stayed in budapest for a few days. this place was definitely one of my favourite places alongside berlin and rome. i loved climbing to the top of the city and overlooking the danube with the hungarian parliament perched on the riverside. the river was overflowing and so people were lying by the water - kids splashing and dogs swimming. at night we witnessed street racing a new experience for me... the city just had an amazing ambience about it and although it didnt tick as many boxes for specific pieces of architecture to visit i just loved staying there.
a 14hour HORRENDOUS train journey later and we had reached the final stretch of the trip. venice - florence and finally rome.
i adored getting lost in venice and could only marvel at the preservation of the original city like a microcosm of history compacted into the city.
st mark's squarewe stayed in florence one night and of course i was impressed by the duomo and loved seeing michelangelos david. the rest of the city, however, wasn't as i expected. it was a little more westernised than i thought it might have been.
rome was such a fantastic way to end the trip. our last few days were just packed with things to see and do. to me rome seems like such an exciting place with all the potential for its architecture to develop outside of the main city centre. so many young firms i've subsequently researched on the outskirts of the city have amazing propsals for development and seem to be hindered only by the political agendas of the recently empowered right wing party governing the state. quite frustrating, but surely these conservative attitudes are being gradually defeated with the likes of zaha's obnoxiously super-modern design bringing plenty of interest to the city. i personally loved meier's ara pacis and hope to be able to see more interesting designs such as this in the future of the city.
outside of rome we visted tivoli another highlight of the trip. villa d'este was so beautiful and to be able to overlook the tuscan landscape made me feel like i was really experiencing italy. like in the godfather or something, the true heart of the nation where the olives are grown and even the cats are sleek and cool; where they spin spaghetti all day long.