A horse, of course!

``I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,’’ Bryan exclaimed after a busy day touring the waterways of Venice. Lucky for him, the speciality at a restaurant near our hotel was horse pizza, and we gave it a taste test (sorry to my horse-loving pal Shelley!)  So if you’ve ever wondered what horse pizza looks like, then check out the picture below.  For the record, the reddish-coloured shredded meat didn’t taste like dog food, it didn’t talk like Mr Ed, but was more like salty bacon.

The pizza topped off a great day in Venice, where we explored the narrow streets, rode a gondola and watched glass blowing demonstrations.

Most people have heard of Murano – famous for exquisite (and expensive) hand blown glass – but what about the island’s neighbour Burano?

Here the rows of houses are painted in bright colours in every imaginable colour of the rainbow and front onto an assortment of winding canals dotted with motorboats and gondolas.

The many little shops sell lace (mostly made by widows who live on the island) as well as venetian masks, and there are loads of bakeries selling tasty treats (which of course we sampled!)

After a couple of hours exploring the island we jumped on the ferry and headed back to the historical centre of Venice to watch the sun set.

Of course we managed to enjoy some more of Italy’s famous pizza and gelati too.

For Mr & Mrs Castelino

To my lovely friends Tameeka and Avil Castelino -- I found a cafe you need to visit in Rome :)

When in Rome…

There are three things that MUST be included in any Italian itinerary – pizza, pasta, and – most importantly in my case – gelati!

Within an hour of arriving at our hotel in Rome we had managed to track down the nearest gelati bar and later visited many more during our three days in Rome. We found old favourites like lemon and bacio plus some newer flavours like nutella, mandarin and coconut as we ate our way around the roman capital.

It was all part of the fun of exploring the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and all the other famous sites of the city.

Ice cream also made coping with the heat and the long queues easier. Someone told me that Rome has the longest queues in the world – and I reckon they're probably right!  You need to queue for everything, whether it is a visit to the cruddy public toilets (which cost as much as 1.50 euro per visit!) to landmarks like Vatican City where we braved the lengthy queue, which often snakes along the streets for kilometres.

We also battled crowds at Rome's largest flea market (where you could buy bling for 1 euro and pairs of sparkly shoes for as little as 3 euro - heaven!) and we even joined the throng of paparrazi who hit the streets to photograph the mayor of Rome on a public outing.

Furry friends

Coming from a home inhabited by two crazy cats and a loyal but mischievous dog, it seems strangely quiet on this trip not to wake up and find a cat on the bed or a dog racing to the door to greet us when we get home.

But there’s been plenty of pets to help fill the void. In China we saw loads of Pomeranians (and thought of you Nat and Kat!) as well as bigger dogs like huskies and beagles being exercised on the footpaths and in public parks.

Everywhere you look in Greece there’s cats and dogs, as well as horses (we thought of you Shelley when we pulled our quad bike over to the side of the road to pat a local horse), donkeys, goats and even the odd cow.

The cats laze around near the beach, can be spotted roaming around outside homes and churches or curled up under flowerpots outside restaurants.  Our hotel in Mykonos even had a few resident cats who hung out beside the pool every now and again.

There was a cat hanging out on the caldera with her three kittens -- from outside their humble home in a shed they had some of the best views in Santorini! We spotted a ginger kitten by the boardwalk at the beach in Mykonos beside the banana lounges and rows of umbrellas, and we saw the same crazy ginger feline (at least we think it was the same one) trying to climb onto the back of a 4WD so he could go on an adventure.  Yes Damien Brown, the crazy ginger made us think of YOU!!  We even spotted some cats enjoying a feast of prawns and one clever cat in Santorini was keeping a close eye on the local fish market in the hope he would score himself a feed.  Rome was also crawling with cats -- apparently Cleopatra introduced cats to Rome, giving them as gifts to Julius Caesar.  Turns out he was allergic so he threw them out onto the street, expecting that they would die, but of course they were tough, and started breeding -- needless to say there are still heaps of cats roaming the ruins of Rome today.

However our favourite pet so far has been ``Hitler Cat'', who we met in Mykonos -- he came up to Bryan. said hello and then climbed on his back for a cuddle like they were old pals.  Or maybe he was just hoping to rule the world.

Cute, but still not as good as Levi and Suzuki...

Livin' it up like the Greeks do

Perhaps one of the reasons Greece is such an enjoyable place to holiday is because even the workers – the hotel staff, taxi drivers, waiters and bar staff -- are all on a holiday (of sorts) too.

On the way from Mykonos Port to our hotel (which, by the way had amazing views of the Ornos Bay beach AND a fabulous pool and hot tub!) our 20-something driver revealed that he was not a Mykonos native but loves the laid-back lifestyle on the island.

Hailing from Athens, he works in Mykonos for six months of the year, and makes enough money in that time to return to the Greek capital to, as he puts it to: ``have a holiday’’ and ``do nothing’’ during the off-season, when the temperature cools, the wind picks up and holidaymakers no longer consider the islands such an attractive prospect.

It is a similar story across the islands – in Santorini our host at Efterpi Villas, Christos Prekas, who I’d guess is aged in his 60s, revealed that he left Athens and started working in Santorini in 1979 – the same year Bryan and I were born! He’s been going there from March to October every year since, returning to his home in Athens for the low season.

If Santorini and Mykonos have pulling power like that for the Greeks, it’s no wonder foreigners can’t resist the charms of the islands!

Stunning Santorini

We were whizzing along a quiet street on a rented quad bike, exploring the far reaches of Santorini, when a little old Greek man put his hand out to stop us. At first I was expecting him to be angry that our buzzing engine was making too much noise in his peaceful neighbourhood (I had earlier met a grumpy Greek stallholder at a nearby beach who yelled at me when I tried to take his photo). But I couldn’t have been more wrong this time around. This gentleman took a break from the bucket of handwashing he was wringing outside his back porch, pointed to the camera hanging around my neck and gestured for us to come into his humble backyard. Here, we soon realised, was an unobstructed view of the sparkling blue waters of the Aegean Sea with the white-washed houses of the caldera in the distance, a sight the landowner was clearly proud of.

Admittedly the view (above) was good (although not the best we’d seen on the picturesque island) but what was more fantastic was the generosity of this kind stranger.

''England?'' ''America?'' The inquisitive greek asked in his thick accent. When we told him we hailed from Australia his eyes lit up and a beaming smile spread across his face as he excitedly recounted the six months he once spent working in Melbourne and Sydney for a Greek shipping company.

He then ducked inside his laundy before re-emerging and presenting us with a perfectly kept postcard of nearby Red Beach (the same beach where I met the rude jewellery seller who wouldn't let me take his picture -- although look closely and you'll see him in the foreground of the picture below, as if I would let anyone tell me NO!)

The old man then waved us off, wishing us the best of luck for the rest of our holiday. This encounter is typical of the great hospitality shown to us by the Greeks so far. And typical of the many spectacular views on offer around Santorini, which turned out to be bigger than I expected -- the main island is more than 30km long and takes almost an hour to drive from end to end.

Before the trip someone warned me that I wouldn’t be able to put my camera down. And they were right. Bryan, as always, was very patient as I took about a million images capturing the essence of the ocean, the volcanic landscape, the people, the buildings and the beautiful sunsets.

We even stumbled across a traditional Greek wedding at sunset.

Before we left Santorini I swore to myself and to Bryan that I’d had enough of photographing cute white churches with striking blue dome roofs.

Lucky for me the tops of the churches in Mykonos turned out to be mostly red…

Food, glorious food!

The food in Greece is amazingly tasty (and amazingly cheap) -- this is fish and chips, Santorini-style!