I've wanted a drone for awhile now but have held off until the software was smarter. Mostly because previous experiences with flying things remotely has never really gone well for me, and flying $4,000+ over a cliff does not appeal to my inner Scrooge.  The DJI Spark was released which not only has intelligent flight modes, but an excellent return-to-home feature which appealed as a place to start.  Day 1 I almost lost a finger. A month or so later I pulled a muscle, or nerve or something, jumping a fence to retrieve the drone from the gorse dense bush behind my house.  To View More >>

Verona, the city of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and also the name of an essential Kiwi song. I won't get into which is better, because Mercutio and his plague would rain on all of our houses, but you can't possibly be a kiwi and not sing Verona every chance you get while there.  The train ride wasn't that long but due to large quantities of prosecco and strawberries I slept most of the way. Emma, charming soul that she is, documented the trip for me in a series of snaps. Mostly of me sleeping. But she's creative, and made sure to use snapchat filters. She's good like To View More >>

A priest waits outside Chiesa dei Santi Michele e Gaetano A priest waits outside Chiesa dei Santi Michele e Gaetano Patience is a Virtue or something Our second day in Firenze we spent exploring the city by wandering somewhat aimlessly which has beceome my favourite method of touristing.  Whilst wandering the streets, we came across the  Santi Michele e Gaetano, where I made poor Emma wait so I could get the photo of the priest standing alone outside the church in just the right spot. He paced back and forth for nearly 10 mins before he stopped there.  We also came To View More >>

After our short stop in Pisa and the Italian McDonalds we took the train to Firenze. The Firenze train station was a short walk to our accomodation, Chez Aline (located on Via Ventisette Aprile)  which is a sweet and inexpensive hotel with the world's tiniest elevators. As it turns out, elevators are exceptionally small in a lot of Europe. We just managed to fit both our suitcases in then ran up the stairs to collect them two floors up.  Aline is a good location, nearby to museums and a two minute walk to a laundrette (Lavanderia Il Delfino) . There's also a pharmacy and some great To View More >>

Pisa, Italy The best way to wait for a train anywhere involves sitting in a bar in the sun/shade with a glass of rosé.  After getting out of the Pisa airport we headed straight to the tower to get the most touristy part of our trip out of the way. It's a tower. It leans. That's about all I can say about it. My OCD doesnt like things wonky so I can't say it was a highlight. I took the token photo of it (with Snapchat no less, dont even think I got my actual camera out) and then we went off to find a place to lunch. Our train to Firenze wasn't for a couple for hours so we To View More >>