Our first full day spent in the city was not filled with any particular agenda and we spent the greater part of our day having a look at Florence’s major sites while not being run over by the tour group mobs dashing from one site to the next.

The highlight of the city has to be the Duomo Cathedral looking out over the red roofed metropolis. Rather than climb the cathedral itself, for a hefty fee, I climbed the main bell tower for a panoramic view of the city that included the Duomo. While encouraging Lianna to come along, she opted out due to a previous claustrophobic experience the last time she climbed the cathedral and I set off on my own. The views were worth it and I had now worked up a healthy appetite for some pizza in one of the nearby café’s.

While it is not high season, we had some difficulty finding a hostel within the city center and were forced to stay at Hostel Firenze 2000, a 25-minute walk from the main center. While this seemed to be a negative thing at first it was the location of our accommodation which helped to show us the true face of Firenze over the next 3 days.

I’m not sure if it was getting lost down the medieval alleyways or hopping from Trattoria to Trattoria in search of that perfect primi and secondi combination, but about half way through my stay, I began to simply love this city. The tourist hordes seemed to fade away and Florence’s true face began to reveal itself.

With an assortment of working class trattoria’s offering simple Italian cooking (think beans and sausage, tortellini with ragu, ravioli and sage butter) for a few euro, and people-watching the fashion conscious Florentines, our days sped by without seeing us even entering a single museum or church. While it would have been easy to join in the crazy line ups for sites such as the Renaissance artwork in the Uffizi or the Galleria Dell Accademia we enjoyed ourselves immensely simply by participating in everyday Florentine life.

Our Hostel couldn’t have been better for the staff proved to be very courteous and helpful with many recommendations for backpackers (including some of the delicious variety) and the rooms were spotless all for only 50€. Despite being outside the city center, a 25-minute walk was sometimes welcomed (we have been eating a lot of gelato lately) and Florence has a regular bus system with bus number 12 dropping us off right in front of the Hostel Firenze.

Like a black truffle to a first timer, Florence may not reveal itself to someone who merely gives it a quick sample, sees the sites and leaves. It takes much longer to get a true feel for a city and after countless times taking wrong turns down its historic streets and gorging ourselves on rustic Tuscan cuisine on the other side of the river, we left Florence feeling as though another day in this great city might have been nice if it just weren’t for the Tuscan countryside calling our name.

We arrived in Rome and my positive attitude took a turn for the worse when we realized that in our excitement of a cheap place to stay, we had reserved the wrong dates and were now homeless in Italy’s major city. Luckily some helpful staff at Ape Latina B&B made phone calls for the next 2 hours and after plenty of failures found us a bed at another bed and breakfast.

Our first day a write off, we tucked into the only restaurant open on our street (still not used to this siesta thing) and finally we had our first mind blowing meal of the trip. Plate after plate full of cured hams, hard salty cheeses and fresh pasta in tomato sauce and pig cheeks left me as one happy (and heavy) camper.

After we checked in to our new guesthouse we attempted to walk off some of the food we had consumed by making our way down to Rome’s most famous landmark, the Colosseum. Despite a bit of rain, the ancient monument looked beautiful in the evening light and despite only a handful of tourists, we were left to enjoy the magnificent structure pretty much to ourselves.

We have never been a fan of touring museums or churches despite the plethora of these available in Rome, so our plan the day following was to walk from one end of the city to the next, taking in areas of interest as they came. We started at the Vatican and waded through a sea of people to enter St Peter’s  Square and just missed the Pope giving a speech but we were able to get a glimpse of the 150 year old man leaving his podium.

Countless Piazza’s and Pizzeria’s later we dropped in on the Pantheon, did some shopping on Via Del Corso and sampled some more of the local Gelato (14 and counting). Despite being near the Trevi fountain earlier in the day we decided to return later that evening and went back to our guesthouse for a short siesta nap of our own.

When we arrived back at the fountain, just about every tourist in Rome had congregated around the basin of water snapping photos as coins were flipped into the fountain with hopes of one day returning to this great city.

Beautifully lit, the area around the Trevi makes a wonderful place for a stroll and when we once again heard only Italian spoken around us we were comfortable making a restaurant selection and settling down to a long meal of  Spaghetti Carbonara, Filleto Gorgonzola, and Insalate Misti. As we walked back, the narrow streets and alleyways still buzzing and alive with energy at 11 o clock, I realized Rome was the Italy I had come to experience and stopped to grab another Gelato for the walk home.

Rolling into the town of Donsol after 3 days of rough transport it felt anti-climatic to the journey that preceded it. Other than the occasional views of Mayon volcano, the town appeared the same as the countless other fishing villages we passed in Samar and Leyte trying to get here. Tucked away on the southern coast of Luzon, no matter which direction traveling, Donsol is difficult to reach but from December to May tourists make the long haul trip here in search of the “butanding” also known as whale sharks.

It was up early to make it to the visitors center for when it opened. Snorkel gear and fins rented, we joined up with a group of 2 Swedes, 1 Dutch and a local World Wild Life Fund volunteer for our boat trip out to see the sharks. Due to their insane migration patterns very little is known of whale sharks and only a few places in the world do they ever congregate in any kind of numbers. Donsol is one of these places and it wasn’t until roughly 10 years ago that any eco-tourism infrastructure was put in place. SCUBA diving is not allowed and groups are limited to 6 per boat plus a guide known as a Butanding Interaction Officer in an attempt to lessen the negative affect tourists can have on these huge creatures. The center shows a video of proper swimming etiquette around the sharks which is a nice conservation effort, but later we learned from the WWF volunteer that zero of the dollars made from the tourism industry in Donsol gets reinvested in conservation and instead goes to the pocket of the local government. Can’t say this surprised me in a country with such a poor environmental record but since the experience of a lifetime costs 15USD, I’m sure tourists wouldn’t complain paying more knowing the extra dollars are being spent protecting the whale sharks.

Having seen a whale shark in Thailand years ago while diving, the experience has stuck with me and is something I continually talk about to this day. I couldn’t wait for Lianna to experience something so amazing but the thought of swimming alongside a fish of mammoth proportions left her more than a little anxious while we searched around for sharks near the surface. With a small one sighted everyone was over the side of the boat in a matter of seconds and suddenly a young whale shark came into view and allowed us to swim alongside it for a minute or so before diving down. Soon after, we were back on the boat searching for more.

Lianna, not realizing how she would react to such a large fish began to question whether or not she could handle being up close to a large one. It was then our spotter noticed a fin at the surface of the water and our boat was moved into position to intercept. Lianna began to shed some tears and started hyperventilating then decided this wasn’t for her. She wasn’t going in. Following the lead of the Butanding Interaction Officer, the rest of us piled into the water followed surprisingly, by Lianna who changed her mind at the last second. Nothing could prepare us for what we saw next, as the whale shark the size of a school bus appeared out of the blue and was heading towards us mouth wide open.

Three times the size of the whale shark I’d seen in the past this was a true giant over 10 meters long. Preoccupied with feeding on the tiny plankton, the shark remained feeding at the surface for over 15 minutes barely moving making it easy for us to keep up. We watched in awe as its huge mouth filtered gallons of water barely giving the annoying tourists a glance while we dove and surfaced all around him.

Hearing some commotion and yelling above the water I surfaced and heard Filipino being yelled in my direction. When I felt something bump my foot I quickly looked into the water realizing another whale shark had come out of nowhere and at an alarming speed passing barely underneath our group. Lucky to have been just out of the way in time, everyone was caught off guard as Lianna announced she was ready to get back on the boat. It was then a third shark made an appearance and allowed us a few more precious minutes of swimming time with it. When our legs became too tired we left the shark for the next boat who was just arriving. We had two more brief encounters with some slightly smaller sharks before our time was up and we headed back. Too good to do just once I made plans to go again the next day.

Lianna opted to sleep in after our long days traveling but its certainly not everyday you have the opportunity to swim with giants and I left again in the early hours of the morning for the visitors center. Again, I was not disappointed as our trip consisted of spotting over 8 whale sharks although nothing quite topped the enormous shark at the surface the day prior. An added bonus was seeing a huge school of bottle nose dolphins swimming by with some flying completely out of the water.

Southern Luzon’s other main attraction is Mt Mayon dubbed “the most perfect volcano in the world” due to its perfect cylindrical shape and later that day we took a bus to Legazpi to spend a night and enjoy the views. Certainly not dormant, Mayon volcano is one of the most dangerous in the world and it was just in December that villages within a certain radius were placed in refugee camps due to lava and ash spewing form its crater. I visited Cagsawa ruins early the next morning where in 1814, 1200 people sought refuge in a church only to be buried alive by the falling debris. Clouds covered most of the peak but after waiting 15 minutes the perfect shaped cone became visible. I was lucky to time my visit with the clear skies only lasting 10 more minutes until the clouds moved back in, but the sight of the volcano amongst the rice terraces in the morning light made for one of the most beautiful sights i’ve seen yet in the Phillipines.

The remainder of the our day was spent waiting around for an 11 hour night bus to Manilla but with endless views of the volcano from most of the town the hours passed quite quickly and before we knew it we were on our way back to Manilla.

1. Getting to the bar

In a packed pub, getting to the bar can be an aggressive affair. The oldest bar patrons tend to congregate around the entire circumference of the bar as they want to see everything happening in their local watering hole. Shoulders and elbows must be used, and literally picking up a person and moving them to a more convenient location is an option if they are small enough. Locals will want to get into deep conversation with you once they hear your accent so venturing to the bar when you still have half a pint left is the best idea.

2. How to order your Guiness

Asking for “The Black Stuff” will get you your pint wherever your going.

3. Pouring the ultimate Guiness

As we learned in the Guiness Storehouse, in many ways Guiness is unlike any other beer, including it’s pouring method.

After filling a tilted glass leaving an inch from the top, you must sit down the beer and let it settle for 60 seconds. Once the bubbles have stopped dancing, you can top off the rest of your pint without creating too much of a “foam head.”

4. Go slow

Guiness is a heavy beer and should be savored, some even compare it to a meal. Too much too fast could lead to disaster, so pacing yourself is your only hope of survival. Compared to North America, pubs stay open much later and require more drinking endurance.

If you happen to over indulge, at least you have the morning “fry” of sausages, rashers, eggs and toast to cure your morning hangover.

Slainte!