The Final Countdown. Day 61: Cinque Terre, Italy - Nice, France

Today was a travel day - these are always pretty rough. Our train to Nice was quite early and we still had to buy tickets, which we had a bit of trouble doing. We learnt later that this was because - while the machine had the option of going through to Nice, we actually had to go to the border and get the next tickets there. It would have been helpful to have that explained there.

So we split the trip up, and bought Manarola - Genoa, Genoa - Vermiglia (French border), and then Vermiglia - Nice.

The first train was pretty uneventful.At the station we bought a sandwich and drink combo and ended up having to race a bit to the train. The second train was simply AWFUL. Someone smelt really bad. The train kept juddering (Dan said something about the brakes coming on and off) and because the seats have these strange plastic sideways headrests, I kept smashing my head against it. I also started to feel motion sick, and my hay fever wasn’t happy. It was super noisy. In all, just awful.

Finally got to get off the damn train at the French border, where we had to buy a ticket from a man. This train thankfully was quite uneventful, and we could see Monaco out the window. Dan and I were totally hangry by now, and couldn’t agree on the plan for what to do next.

Originally for Monaco, I had researched lunch places as I thought we would get in to Nice earlier and then head straight to Monaco. But we had caught a later train in the end, and the weather wasn’t looking very good, and I just didn’t want to rush straight to Monaco any more (but I didn’t want to have lunch in Nice, and then go to Monaco). In the end, we decided to stay in Nice today, and go to Monaco the next day. We found a place which did burgers - they were delicious! The man behind the counter was hilarious too, I got to choose sauces for my burger and my chips and I had some trouble, so he suggested putting the two together which was the BEST suggestion. He also pretended to sneeze in our chips.

After eating we went down to the waterfront where I sat under an umbrella while it spat rain around us. I felt a bit silly but others were doing it. The weather was warm but I didn’t feel like having rain splotches on my face. We were totally tired and it was super muggy - I could have gone to sleep here. We had to move though, and we could see a fountain up on the hill to our right. We wandered up here (which was a bit tough on our legs after all the hiking!) and checked out the fountain, standing in its spray. People were above the fountain, so we found the path up there and took lots of photos overlooking Nice. There was a busker up here on a piano accordion but he wasn’t actually playing. Occasionally we could hear him try to pick out the tunes and generally play the wrong notes, so he’d go back to just pretending and the backing track.

On our walk down, we detoured through the cemetery, and found a tram stop that would take us back to the accommodation. On the way we went to the supermarket - bought a massive wheel of cheese for €2 (yes, back to proper prices for cheese!), some ham and a baguette as well as wine and chocolate crackers for a dinner picnic back at our accommodation. Oh! I’ve been forgetting to mention the limoncello. At every opportunity  we have packed a shotty full of limoncello, but seriously this 500ml bottle isn’t getting any less. We drank a little bit of it tonight as we won’t be able to fly with it in two days time, but why is there still so much left?

A new country on the morrow, so it’s sleepy time!
Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 60: Cinque Terre

It was a little bit tougher to get started today  as we were a bit sore and stiff after yesterday’s hiking. Our accomodation had provided some tidbits for breakfast - croissants the day before (Which we had as snacks en route), and today we had toast with jam and a tasty mocha.

As mentioned, the plan for today was to get the hiking and train 1 day pass. We had considered just the hike pass (€7.50), + €4 for the train to Corniglia, + €4 for the train back to Manarola at the end, which would come to €15.50 in total. The hiking and unlimited train pass was €16, so this would give us “keys to the city” and let us take more train journeys if we felt like it. Turns out at the end of the day, we only did the 2 train journeys, but we only lost 50c and it was the benefit of not having to stress.

We caught the train to Corniglia and walked those stairs up to the town. It was either 371 or 381 steps - I lost count at one point. I was puffed and we hadn’t even started the hike yet!

Once we found the beginning of the track, we got stuck behind 4 American girls who were struggling to find cash to pay for their hiking pass. We finally squeezed past them and started. It was hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Not like yesterday, which was warm and muggy, with no sunshine. Today was full, blaring, sun burny kind of sun. Both days had their advantages and disadvantages with the weather, but today definitely felt hotter.

We also had the wrong impression of the coastal paths - we thought they would be flatter and easier than the hill paths - they were, but not as much as we expected! There was still a lot of hill climbing, but less scrambling over rocks and definitely more proper paths. It took us 1 hour to get from Corniglia to Vernazza, and coming into the town was glorious. The view was sensational and we had to stop for a few photos, and got ourselves in everyone’s way.

The town had a lovely bay, and as it was before lunch time and we weren’t ready to eat a full meal, we got ourselves and ice-cream and sat watching the people on the boats and swimming. Dan had the gelato in brioche bread, which was tasty! But would have been a bit much for me.I can’t remember my flavours but they were delicious.

As we had descended into the town, we could see a tower and decided we would climb it. I was feeling pretty damn week by this point, and didn’t realise we would end up climbing up a considerable way before even getting to the tower. You had to pay an additional €1.50 to get into the tower, and by this point I wasn’t intending on going back down for nothing so we did it. The view was actually lovely, and there was the roof of the castle, and then an additional tower. At the top of this additional tower, Dan and I couldn’t get down - the staircase was so skinny and too many people were trying to come up, it took us 3 goes to finally make it down.

We weren’t going to have lunch here but realised that many places close at 2/3pm after lunch, which means we might struggle when we get to Monterrosso. Found a place called Lunch Box and had a delicious focaccia and a super energy smooth drink.

Time to drag ourselves on…last leg! It was very, very hot still. There were many beautiful views along this track too. There were many people on these paths that made me think “You probably just thought this was a gentle Sunday Stroll!” Some people were completely improperly dressed for it (shoes being the main thing!). We made the journey to Monterosso in about 1 hour, 20 minutes.

There was another lemonade stand here on the way down, but we didn’t get any because the spruiker was there. There was also a busker - it seems that Monterosso might be quite big! Lots and lots and lots of people were starting off now, more than we had seen previously, and some of these paths became very very narrow and almost impossible to squeeze past people.

We finally made it into the town and were desperate for water. Unlike the other towns, Monterosso didn’t seem to have a free water tap so we had to buy water. We drank the freezing water so quickly it gave us a headache.

We walked briefly through the town but more desperately needed a sit down. We found a cocktail bar and ordered an expensive drink each with an appetiser. The waitress brought out peanuts and olives which I thought were the appetiser, but a meat and cheese and fruit platter followed, so I didn’t feel so bad about the cost then! The cocktail was also delicious, full of fruit.

We sat here until our feet stopped hurting. We went to walk around the town a bit but decided we were too stuffed and just wanted a swim, so after a brief look around we were back on the train to Manarola. We had also considered catching a train to the end stop, just to get more trips out of our ticket, but as we had no energy to look around Monterosso, we would have no energy to look around there and all we really wanted to do was swim, so we forfeited the 50c additional we had paid for the train pass and headed back.

Into our bathers again and back down to the water with a beer. We had a good swim - the water was colder and choppier today, but that was probably because our body temperature was warmer too. We watched in amusement as a group of perfectly manicured boys and girls tried to get into the water, basically failing. One was a bit more adventurous than the others, although he apparently couldn’t really swim. I helped direct him to the rock we were standing on.

We got cold quite quickly, and decided to say farewell to the water. Climbing out, we grabbed our beer and sat on the edge. A couple were debating whether to get in, and I convinced him that it was great and he should go for it! He jumped in near us, and while he was swimming we chatted with his fiancé. He swam over to the big rock and jumped off it while she filmed, and we looked after their stuff. We sat and chatted with them for ages giving tips about Europe while they gave tips about America, and it was really lovely to meet them.

It had started raining by now though, and so we headed back to the accommodation. We considered going out, but really just wanted to stay put. We just drank our beer and ate our olives as we were still full from the day!

All in all, Cinque Terre was one of my favourite places and definitely a highlight of this trip. I had hoped it would be so, but often when I get my hopes up I end up being disappointed. This did not disappoint one bit! I am really really proud of us for doing all the hikes - we talked to people far fitter than us who gave up after one leg, yet we did all 4 (even if one was supposed to be closed…). I’d happily come back and have a splash and wander around Cinque Terre again one day - maybe when the coastal paths are open again!

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 59: Cinque Terre

We had to be out at 10 (or 10.30, or 11, it wasn’t consistent) so that the room could be cleaned, but this wasn’t a problem. We had both slept rather fantastically and were ready to face the day! Today we were going to hike some of the walking paths between the towns.

The day before, the accommodation owner explained the walking paths. We knew that some were shut, but she drew it out on the map for us. The two coastal paths leading out of Manarola were shut - the one to Corniglia, and the one to Riomaggiore. However, the hill paths were open between these. She also explained about the Cinque Terre Card, which gives you access to either the walking tracks, or the walking tracks and trains. She thankfully explained that the tracks out of Manarola do NOT need to be paid for, while the ones between Corniglia and Monterosso DO.

This we didn’t know, and made us change our plans, as we were originally going to get a 2 day pass as we thought we had to pay for all paths. So day 1: We decided to do all the tracks near Manarola which were free, and then on the second day only buy a 1 day pass for the trains and walking paths. This meant that we would walk from Manarola to Corniglia via the hill path and the town Volastra at the top of the hill. Then, from Corniglia we would catch the train to Riomaggiore, and walk back to Manarola. Sounds easy, eh?

We set off at about 10.10am and arrived at Volastra at about 11am, which was 10 minutes faster than we expected! My sliced toe from the day before gave me a bit of an issue at first as the shoe was rubbing on it but as there was nothing I could do, I just kept going and eventually forgot about it. Downhill was more obviously painful than up hill, but I tried not to whinge too much.

The path left Manarola and took us between vineyards and up roughly hewn rock stairs. We had some French girls that passed us, then we would pass them, but thankfully we eventually lost them. The scenery was indeed stunning, even though the day was grey and humid. It was very dramatic! On the way, we found a little unmanned lemonade stand, which was delightful. 2 big barrels of freshly squeezed lemon juice, with some cups and a little honesty jar, as well as a guestbook to sign. Dan put in a euro and I wrote a little thank you note, and we quenched our thirst and got a sugar boost from a cup of fresh lemonade.

The last stage to Volastra was just up and up and up stairs. I was dripping with sweat, and we passed a few people who looked like professional hikers with their stocks. At the top we had a small rest and filled up our water bottles, but there wasn’t a lot to do here so we continued straight on to Corniglia.

The scenery continued to be very beautiful and the day continued to be very muggy and sweaty. At one point we were walking along a ledge between vines, and had to walk precariously around a hiking/walking tour. I couldn’t think of anything worse, to be honest… After what felt like an age of climbing, we started the descent (and I think I would have preferred to keep climbing!). This was a bit tough on my knees, but we still kept up a cracking pace. We kept passing and being passed by the same couple - she was extremely lithe and fit looking, him less so, and we only passed them when they stopped to take photos of her running on the path (and then they would overtake us again).

We passed many people going up who made us think…I don’t think you’re ever going to make it! I think we chose the right direction - the scramble down seemed far rougher than the way up from Manarola, which seemed to be more “stairs”.

At about 12.30pm, 1.5 hours after Volastra we made it into Cornligia. We were very pleased with this time as we thought it would take 2 hours, according to our accommodation host. We even stopped to take photos on the way! Once in Corniglia, we made a beeline for a restaurant called Pan e Vin which I had researched and we managed to nab the last table outside. Turns out the place was tiny, so we were quite lucky to get a table.

I already knew what I wanted; the trio of bruschetta, and Dan ordered the same - we also got wine to rehydrate, of course. Ordering was confusing as things got lost in translation, but we got there in the end. It was completely lovely sitting outside here - it wasn’t sunshiney but it was still warm, and we seemed to be on a main thoroughfare so it was fun to people watch. Soon our bruschetta and wine arrived, and my god it was life changing. One was more traditional - diced tomato, mozzarella and basil, the next was tomato slices and eggplant, and the third was cream cheese with sun-dried tomato - all 3 were topped with a basil pesto as well. I could have keep eating them all day. The bread was also perfect - not too hard so the knife glided through.

We were enjoying ourselves so much we ordered another wine. The electricity had gone out so this added a new layer of complexity, but we were able to pay and continue on our way. We still had Cornliglia to explore - and another hike to do! We had a little wander around the town - it wasn’t too dissimilar to Manarola however it was perched up on a cliff face and therefore had no (maybe there was a path?) access to the water below.

Next stop: the train station. This was rather hilarious as the train station is at the bottom of the hill, and Corniglia at the top. The stairs literally took forever (the next day I would actually count how many steps there were…) - there were so many that at intervals they had placed bench seats so people could take a rest. Eventually we made it to the bottom and caught the next train that went to Riomaggiore via Manarola. This journey took a handful of minutes. It had taken us 2.5 hours to walk it. The train journey was roughly a minute for every hour walked!

Once we reached Riomaggiore, we explored it a little. It seemed bigger than Manarola, but we didn’t find too much that interested us so we made our way straight to the start of the path, which was a bit complicated to find. Here we found a big lock on a tall gate, apparently closed as of late 2017.

What? Our accommodation had said this path was open, so that’s thrown a spanner in the works. While we stood there pondering what to do, we noticed some people on the path. After waiting a little while, a guy appeared at the gate and looked at it a bit surprised. Not far behind him, another man appeared, and they consulted each other and then scaled the bricks on the side, and climbed out.

The two weren’t travelling together, but once they were up on our level, I asked them if it was blocked on the other end. They told us that there was a sign, but nothing to stop you from starting the path and that the walk wasn’t any problem at all. We decided to risk it - we had come all this way, after all! The guys had mentioned there were a few other people on the path who we would probably pass. I didn’t think I’d have the upper body strength to be able to climb down and over, but one of the guys and Dan had spotted a tunnel, so Dan went to investigate. It seemed ok, so I followed him down (there was a lot of rubbish thrown down here!) and soon we were on the path .

This path was far more overgrown than the other we had been on, but aside from that it was almost the same as what we had done that morning. It began with a VERY steep set of stairs that seemed to go on forever. Either I was a little more worn now, or this route was more difficult, but I struggled to keep going and not stop every few steps. I have to play little games with myself when it’s like this - so I told myself I could stop every 100 steps. This proved quite good as it kept us moving forward as Dan was matching my pace. When did I get so unfit?

Sweat was literally dripping from me. My shirt and bag were soaked. It was a good workout! The weeds and thorns were sharper here and not hacked back to the edge of the path, so there was a lot of picking our way through and stepping over difficult sections. The view though was spectacular. After what felt like an age, we started to descend. The downhill was just as intrepid - many sections had ropes to help you down over the rocks. We passed one or two people on the journey, but not many (but at least there were other people on the path!). The downhill continued on and my knees were screaming, but we had to keep going. We could hear music and girls laughing and screaming - later on we would find out there was a group jumping from the rock in Manarola - so we were getting close.

We got close to the town, and there was just a set of stairs to the end. A relatively fit looking could were heading off the journey and asked us how the journey was. We explained that they will have to climb out the other end because it is blocked off, and that they could either scale the fence or climb through the tunnel. He turned to his girlfriend and said, “I’ve taken 50 steps. I’m committed now.” They thanked us and continued up.

Just behind them was a barrier that had been put across the path, but so many people had been past and pushed it out of the way. Next to it was a sign saying the path was closed - so it turns out that there was a barrier, just people were ignoring it. Fair enough! Almost at the bottom, a family which consisted of a lady wearing scuffs, her husband and 2 small children asked us if the walk was appropriate for them. No, definitely not. Not in her shoes and not with the children! We also explained it was closed at the other end, and so they decided to catch the train. I was relieved for them, as they would never have made it. 

Rejoice! We were back in Manarola and this meant it was time for a swim! We came down through the town a different way and saw a little bit more of it, mostly the residential area. When we returned to our accommodation, we changed into our swim gear, grabbed the beers we had bought yesterday and which were nice and freezing cold now, and went down to the water.

We put our things on the ledge again and today just jumped straight off the ledge into the water - must easier way of getting in, that’s for sure! The water was amazing, and today we swam around to the waterfall - fresh water rushes into the ocean underneath Manarola and I wanted to put my hands in the bubbles. Dan tasted the water and it was indeed fresh! It was fucking freezing over here though, so we swam back. The rocks on this side were covered in barnacles and what looked like giant red snail shells about the size of my hand. I saw a few little crabbies in the rocks, too!

When it was time to get out, we sat on the side and drank the beer, watching people scramble up the big rock in the middle and listening to them scream as they jumped off the other side. It was finally time for food, so we went back to the accommodation, showered and changed, grabbed our cold bubbly wine and went to get pizza. Guess what? They had stopped cooking again! It was only 6pm today, so I was rather miffed. Turns out they would still make some of the huge pizzas, so we just decided to go with one big over priced pizza and be done with. While that was being made, I ran back to the supermarket and bought more of those delicious olives.

Armed with our liquor and big pizza, we headed back up to the hill again. As soon as we sat down - chubby rain! Noooooo. We weren’t sure what to do, but I suggested we just keep going up - above the restaurant was an undercover section with some picnic bench seating. If it was for the restaurant, they could come tell us to leave but until then we’d just sit there. There was a sign above which I stared at for a while, but it was in Italian and was no help whatsoever. We just sat down at a bench, and soon other people joined us at other benches so we decided we were ok.

The cover was twigs, so didn’t hold out all the rain, but did about 90%. We sat here and popped the bubbly into our sippy cups, nomming on the pizza and overlooking Manarola until it was dark. A lovely end to the day, and now it was time to crash for the night.

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 58 - Florence - Cinque Terre

We checked out at 9.50am, 10 minutes before reception opened. They were bloody lucky, as I was going to rip them a new one. After another sleepless night, thanks to more mosquitoes (despite us keeping all windows firmly shut) and sweltering heat, thanks to no air conditioning remote control, and my itchy and scratchy face from hay fever, I was pretty livid. I bet the counter staff knew, which is why their opening hours are so stupid! Bad review ahoy.

Shouldering our luggage we wandered to the station to catch the train to Manarola. This would involve a train to La Spezia first, and then a local train from there to Manarola, our chosen Cinque Terre town. At the station, I wandered away because I needed to cool my head down and bought a coffee and a croissant for us each - it was a bizarre system that had me walking all over the shop to pay at one counter and order at another. It didn’t do wonders to my mood.

But once on the train, everything was alright. My hay fever seemed to be a little bit better as we made our way towards the coast. The change was alright too, and we were literally only on the second train for about 10 minutes.

Arriving in Manarola, we departed the station through a looooooooong tunnel. I timed it the next day actually - about 2 minutes walking time. We popped out into the town, and Dan led the way, following the instructions from our accommodation. Up some stairs (which turned out to be literally a hill over the railway track) and down the hill on the other side. Our accommodation was about half way down, above a ceramics shop. We walked in as the door was open, looking for a reception. At the end of the hall was a room that was open which looked amazing. I hoped it was ours!

Back outside, Dan messaged the accommodation and someone came to collect us a couple of minutes later. It was the sister in law of the owner - the owner had been having a swim and I couldn’t blame her! The day was warm and muggy. Check in as easy, and Dan and I were shown back to the lovely room. We collapsed for a little while, but the day outside was so warm and we wanted a swim, so we had to pull ourselves together.

Upon leaving the accommodation, we turned left to explore up the hill a bit and found a supermarket. It was expensive and didn’t have a lot of things, but we grabbed some bubbly wine for €2.50 (which was a surprising price in comparison to everything else in there!), a red wine, some beer - cheaper if it wasn’t refrigerated, and a little bag of olives. Depositing this at our accommodation, we walked the other way this time, down to the water. This took all of about 5 minutes, and we inspected each of the restaurants along the way.

To the right was the hill overlook Manarola - where all “the” pictures are taken from. The day was quite overcast and moody, so we took some photos but didn’t stick around long. There were about 3 different tiered paths here, and as we reached the top one, the sun came out, beautifully lighting up the town. It was very lovely (although it was obvious that every photo you ever see of it is highly saturated and edited! … I did the same with my photos… to be honest, it didn’t take much at all to boost the colours). There was a church and graveyard at the very top that said no photos, but we think that only related to the grave stones so we popped in and took some more pictures looking down on the town. This was a very good view!

It was swim time now. We returned to the accommodation - seriously only about 5 minutes walk away - changed into our bathers and went straight back to the water. There’s no sand here, only rock faces, but there’s a concrete path that leads into the water and some rocks that have been built up to make a path. Along the edge, we found a ledge to put our stuff on and then tried to get into the water.

The walkway wasn’t so easy. The rocks were covered in green algae and were quite slippery and the water was so clear it that depth perception was compromised - I didn’t want to launch forward and slice up my knees if the rocks weren’t actually very deep. It took me an age to get in but eventually I managed! Dan and I each had a camera so that might have made things a little more complicated.

Once in, it was lovely! Quite cool, but refreshing after the muggy day, and the water was very deep and clear. We paddled around this little Bay Area, and then paddled through a small gap in some rocks to see the wide ocean on the other side. Finally we were done, and decided to get out. Thankfully the walk way had a hand rail (although it meant climbing over the slippery rocks to get to it), so getting out wasn’t nearly as challenging as getting in. If we go swimming again, I’ll definitely be jumping in!

Once out, we dried ourselves off and went to settle down when I noticed something was wrong with my little toe on my left foot. Blood was pissing out - I must have sliced it on a barnacle! It didn’t hurt, but looked like a cherry tomato that had been in the oven and had burst. We cleaned it up and bandaged it - it wasn’t as bad looking once the blood had gone.

The plan for tea tonight was to have a picnic on the side overlooking Manarola. We returned to the accommodation, showered, grabbed our red wine (chianti) and olives and went to get some pizza. Unfortunately the place had stopped cooking pizza for the day (? It was like..8pm) so we grabbed a focaccia instead, and went to another nearby restaurant for a cone of calamari and a cone of hot chips. Laden with our food, we walked up the small hill and settled ourselves down on a viewing bench with a lovely view. I was surprised no one else was doing this - and that at this time of day there was next to no one there! I think most people come in for a day trip and then leave again.

We set up and Dan tried to open our red wine. Our accommodation provided a cork screw so this meant for once that we weren’t limited in our wine choice! However the cork was well stuck, so it took Dan quite a while to get it open, but he managed! Wine poured into our sippy cups, calamari and chips spread out between us and our olives - our picnic was set. We had our cameras next to us and as the light changed, we would jump up and take a few snaps. People passed us by, looking at our wine and feast enviously.

The calamari was actually delicious - it just fell apart and wasn’t stringy at all! And the olives. For a 90c bag of olives, they were completely tasty! Soon all the food was gone, and we continued taking photos as it got dark. I had brought my tripod, so I played for a little while with my shutter button to take super long exposures. Eventually it was time for us to call it a night, after a very happy first day in Cinque Terre - oh, and all sight of hayfever nicely gone!

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 57: Florence and Pisa

I got next to no sleep this night. We had drunk a considerable amount of wine up at the Piazza de Michelangelo, and I was pretty damn keen to just crash out when we got back to the hostel. This was not to be. Well, actually, Dan and I both did crash out on our mattresses on the floor, but after about an hour I was awoken by a horrid buzzing sound near my ear and big itchy patches all over my body. Fucking mosquitos.

We closed the window that we had left open to get some air in the room, and it had let in an infestation. The next 4 or so hours were filled with me turning the light on (poor Dan), and trying to squash the little fuckers that I could see and hear. I put on my bug spray and a bug band, but to no avail. I squashed about 6 and covered the walls in my blood (and maybe some of Dan's as he too had some bites for a change, although they weren't itching him). I could continue to hear them as I turned the light out, so I pulled the sheet right up under my chin, sweltering in the heat and attempted to doze.

At stupid o'clock the alarms went off, and I was feeling pretty desperately unhappy. I needed to pull myself together, and we managed to get out of the hostel on time. I noticed we had an airconditioner in our room but no remote - and the stupid front desk only opened at 9.30 (and closed at 12 midday) so there was literally no way to ask for this from them.

First up this morning was visiting David at the Accademia Gallery. The gallery opens at 8.15am and I knew from experience that the line can get pretty hefty, and also it's much nicer inside when there are less people. For this reason, we got to the gallery at about 7.30 and took our place in the queue that was already forming. Dan held the fort while I went back to a cafe and bought us some croissants and coffee so that we didn't pass out before we got to the front of the queue!

In all, the queue moved really quickly. We were in by about 8.30am - didn't take us long at all! Dan and I made a beeline straight for David, and marvelled at his marbled glory. He really is quite exquisite, I poke fun because I can but he really is an amazing work of art. I always giggle at how large his hands are, and then there are all the puerile jokes that go along with that...

After we took a few photos, posing with him as well and doing a lap to look at his shapely buttocks, we returned to the beginning of the gallery to look at all the other art in there. On my last visit, I thought this gallery was tiny, but turns out they had opened another section all about music (which I swear wasn't there on my last visit) and we even discovered an upstairs area! As the caffeine started to course through our veins, we were energised looking at all the other artwork. Much of it was religious in theme, with some glorious renaissance babies - I can't resist a good renaissance baby! I also found a delightful painting where a lady very obviously had been painted with 6 toes. I wonder if she actually had 6 toes?

The music section was small but quite interesting with a few very old original designs of instruments and one of the first upright pianos - imagine a baby grand but with the back bit...literally upwards. It would have been difficult to fit in a normal room. Clearly over the course of time they perfected the design.

By the time we came back through the room housing David, it was squash packed. It was very hard to even make it through the crowd and we were thankful we had yet again got here so early - we wouldn't have been able to pose with the statue now as we had done earlier. A quick glimpse in the plaster cast room, and a quick look upstairs - all religious artefacts, and we were out on the street, ready to continue the day.

Next stop: Catch the train out to Pisa. I had researched a good cheap place for lunch, so we decided to head straight there, lunch and then find this wonky tower. Buying the train tickets and getting on the train were no problem at all - we managed to get some seats because the train was quite full with everyone heading in the same direction. Once we arrived, we just followed the crowd! The lunch place I had chosen was on the way, and so we grabbed ourselves a seat at Pizzeria Le Mura.

We sat outside in the glassed off area, which made it quite hot - it was a warm day anyway! About here I realised that my hayfever was pretty damn bad, and not getting any better. I had hoped it would start to clear up over the day, but it just got worse and worse. By the end of the day, I had popped an extra hay fever tablet, but my face and eyes and nose were just so itchy, that the day, while lovely, was a bit tarnished unfortunately.

Our meal was delicious - we made a bit of a misorder thinking one of the pizzas would have salmon on it but it had salami, but it turned out to be incredible. As usual, we got one each and shared, and we also had a wine and a beer. There were a few mild miscommunications with the lady behind the counter, so I wasn't entirely sure what we were going to get, but it all turned out perfectly in the end.

At the end of our meal, it was time to continue on find the tower. Aaaaand there it is! It always makes me laugh how it sort of peers around the corner at you. We stopped to take a few photos - one thing I noticed was that the whole grass area on this side was now do not walk on the grass. I swear when I was there you were able to walk on it! It seemed there was only one spot worth taking "the" photo from, so Dan and I made our way around there.

Most people were standing up on the bollards (again, I swear they were on the grass last time?) and so after watching people for a few minutes, we did the same. It's not easy, trying to balance yourselves up on a rounded bollard while striking "the" pose, and make it look natural. We took about a hundred photos of each other - getting in other people's way and people getting in our way. We also tried to do a couple of selfies with the selfie stick - surprisingly one of them worked out!

I was really, really sweaty by this point and my face was itchy as hell. We still had a little while before we had to be at the cloak room to deposit our things before going up the tower, so we went into the gift shop for some serious airconditioning relief.

By now we were just pretty keen to go up, so we joined the queue at the cloak room which was at least in the shade and slightly less warm. We shuffled forward a bit, but the man behind the counter continuously shouted the time for the time slot before us - he wasn't even going to serve us until the other time slot closed. In between time, people from earlier time slots returned to collect their backpacks and things. It was not a very efficient system - a series of different queues would have made far more sense.

Due to security reasons and also probably the slippery nature of the tower, you're not allowed to take any bags up at all. When it was finally our turn to get rid of our bags, we kept all of our photographic equipment with us but had to leave the rest, including drink bottles. I was a little concerned about that - the day was quite hot considering we were in the sun constantly and I only had 1 tissue on me to deal with my hayfever.

We then got to join another queue around the outside of the tower. This time in full sun. In front of us was an older lady and I was quite desperate not to be stuck behind her as we climbed! However it all worked out - once they security scan you, you walk inside the tower and have a seat while someone gives a short explanation. This includes the history of the tower, and why it started to sink, and what they have done since to stop it sinking any further (otherwise it'll eventually just topple over!). The leaning Tower of Pisa's lean is now and will forever be 3.99 degrees.

The talk over, Dan and I raced to not be stuck behind slow people. It really was quite bizarre walking up! I likened it to walking on the cruise ship when we had rough seas - you were automatically pushed from side to side - now you're walking against the window side, now you're walking against the wall side. I think originally there was no inner wall (and I was a bit scared about this!) but now there's no way you can slide off and fall down the abyss.

296 steps later and we emerged at the top! There are 2 levels but we went straight up the top first. The view out was quite lovely, although the real spectacle was the angle we were standing at. i took all my photos trying to be in keeping with the angle at the top! It was quite lovely up here, and there were a few giant bells, and while I thought we were only allowed 15 minutes it seemed that no one was paying attention to this. We sat down for a little while on the steps and felt how the ground was uneven beneath us. I felt like I wanted to slide right off!

My face was still a problem, and after sitting here for a little while and there being not much else to do, we made our way down to the 2nd level, took some photos and then walked down again, this time much slower and really noticing the angle of the lean.

Our ticket also gave us entry into the Cathedral so sneezing, we made our way over there. It was actually very beautiful inside - far more than I anticipated, and the ceiling and stained glass was very ornate. The other round building outside the Cathedral had an additional charge, so we didn't go in there. Over this side, you can sit on the grass so we found a little shady spot and sat down for a short while. Then it occurred to me that my hayfever was probably a result of grass seeds, so we made a speedy exit.

On the way, we passed a water fountain - and I only mention this because it took FOREVER to fill up our water bottles. People were getting frustrated behind us, and then when we wanted to refill after them they realised just how slow the damn things were. Oh well, we desperately needed rehydration after that climb and the heat of the day!

We walked back the way we came - I ducked into a shop and bought an over priced magnet - and returned to the train station. Back in Florence, we tossed up the idea of getting Maccas but managed to talk ourselves out of it, going to the super market for dinner instead. Neither of us were very hungry so we just bought a large fruit salad - turns out half the fruit was off.

We spent the evening in the room, typing occasionally and squashing even more mosquitos. I wondered if they were living in the heater which is filled with water, so we covered that with a blanket to see if it would help. And so began yet another restless night's sleep - I was truly glad to see the back of Florence this time.

Til next time
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 56: Rome - Florence

Our hotel for Florence was an odd one - check in was only between 9.30am - 12 midday, so we got ourselves on the 8.30am train headed for Tuscany. We arrived about 10 am and on the way to the accommodation, realised we need to get money out to pay for it. Not sure if there would be any ATMs on the way, Dan went back into the station while I wanted on the footpath with our mountains of luggage. He took an absolute age - apparently there were no ATMs in the station but he had managed to get the appropriate cash from a money exchange booth.

We only had a short distance to walk, thankfully, and the check in was easy enough. We were given our key but the room wasn't ready yet. Before leaving, I asked if I could use the shared bathroom (which would be the one we as a room would be using anyway) and, upon approaching, knocked and wiggled the handle, as you do. Locked, so someone was in there (they knocked back at me, which was really weird).

I waited. And waited. And waited. Probably about 10 minutes? I was about to give up when they started playing with the lock. And they turned it. And pulled it. And simply could not get it to unlock. I called through the gap, "You're pushing the key too far through - I can see it on this side." My voice alerted the front desk staff member who came over, and also tried calling instructions. The staff member called out, exasperated, "Just wait. I'll get you out." and walked away, presumably to find another key. In the meantime, the girl inside finally managed to unlock it, and so I called to the lady that it was alright and I could now pee. I was worried she would come in the whole time. I'm mentioning all this, because it's just the tip of the iceberg of how awful this accommodation turned out to be...

So it's about 10.30am and what are we to do in Florence? Plenty, but what could we do at this time? The hotel staff member had given us a bit of a walking tour suggestion, so we half began to follow that. In actuality, all I wanted was lunch: I desperately wanted to try one of the €10 lunch deals that I had missed out on in Florence the time before. On the way, I had researched a few places and I had a particular one on my list, L'Brindellone, which was situated on the non-touristy side of the river and had excellent reviews. Problem was, it was on the other side of the river, and a bit of a hike from everything else - and generally these lunch menus only happened on weekdays. Today was Friday and our only chance...

We did a short lap around Florence, we found a big indoor market (with the streets lined with leather handbags and wallets on the outside) which I had someone managed to completely miss my first time here. It was full of fruit and veg and fish and cheese and meat vendors on the ground level, and upstairs was a food court type area selling delicious looking fresh dishes. We wondered if we might come back here at some point.

From here we continued onto the Duomo, which is kind of hard to miss. It's enormous. I still thought it was as beautiful as it was the first time I saw it, and I was explaining to Dan how the inside is basically bare.

"It's inside out then, eh?" he said, and I laughed and laughed and thought that described it perfectly. We took a lot of photos here - although it's basically impossible to get the whole thing in, it's so closely circled by buildings, before moving on. As we walked around it, I noticed there was no line for going up the Duomo, and couldn't quite get my head around why this might be... I was to find out the answer a little later!

By now it was getting close to 12pm and I wanted us to make fast work to get to the lunch place on the other side of the river. Last time I had been in Florence, I had arrived at a place serving the lunch menu at 12.30 and I was turned away because they were already full. I didn't want to risk that again! We walked our way across to the other side of the river, looking across the way at the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge. We walked and walked and walked and finally got there, down an unassuming back alley in a fairly residential area. It was 11.50am.

We approached the door, and saw the opening hours listed. Opening at 12.30pm. What? I started having a slight meltdown because I was so hangry and annoyed that another one of my researches had ballsed up. I looked it up again, and online (on it's own website even), as well as Tripadvisor and Google, the opening time was 12pm. So we decided to wait.

A little old lady stood nearby us in the shade on the other side of the street. At 11.55am, she said something to us, and trotted across to the door. Looking around, I realised that there were a few (mostly old) people lurking around, so we wondered if maybe it did still open at 12pm. The little old lady went up to the door, knocked and opened it. We could see someone inside, and as she did so, they exchanged some words, and the person inside closed the door hard in her face and loudly turned the locked key.

We were shocked! That was quite rude. Maybe it doesn't open until 12.30? The clock ticked over, and more people started moving towards the door, which was soon unlocked. While we had been the first ones there, we were about the last inside as the flood of people entered, each getting a big hug and kisses from the staff. I would say that that little old lady goes there every Friday with her big group of friends, and the locking in her face was just a joke.

We were seated at the back of the restaurant and handed the a la carte menu. It didn't mention anything about the lunch menu, but some of the tables had a printed piece of paper on it. I stood up and asked if I could grab one off another table, which they obliged. So rule number one: ASK for the lunch menu, they aren't going to give it to tourists naturally! The a la carte menu looked amazing, but it was very much not cheap!

A pinched looking gentleman came back and asked for our order. We had been completely unable to read the menu because it was handwritten, and in Italian, and mostly illegible to us. So we said we would like the lunch menu, and what was on it? He slightly exasperatedly explained everything on the menu - I should back track. These lunch menu's are fabulous: you usually get 2 courses and maybe a coffee for €10 (although this was much better - as I will get to!). Therefore there were about 3 things to choose from for first course (pasta) and 4 things to choose from for 2nd course (meat).

I chose the ragu for my first course and went to choose the second, when he said that he'd come back and ask us about that when we finished the pasta. He seemed in a hurry, so he turned around quickly after taking our pasta order, and I asked after him, "May we have some wine?" He simply replied, "yes," and continued on.

I sat there looking at Dan and just laughed - what is going on?? This was so clearly a local institution. One other set of tourists arrived, however they ordered from the a la carte menu (probably didn't know about the lunch menu!). Our waiter returned with a half carafe of red - and I absolutely adore that he didn't give us a choice on the matter! We had both ordered meaty, tomatoey dishes for the pasta therefore we get red wine. He asked if we would like water, and I hesitated, to which he replied "It's free" so of course we accepted that offer.

Behind Dan sat the massive table of old people - about 10 of them, and the moment they had sat down they were being served. Either they eat the same thing every week or they had pre-ordered, but they were up and out of there within a good 30 minutes! It wasn't long before our pasta arrived - I imagine it's all preprepared out the back ready to go for the onslaught. My. Ragu. Was. Lifechanging. It was delicious, and almost the same size as a normal pasta dish. Where was I going to fit the main?

We both enjoyed our red wine and pasta immensely, which was also served with bread. I wondered how much of all this was included as many lunch deals don't include wine or bread, but we decided to just go with it and pay whatever it comes to at the end. As our brisk little waiter collected our dishes, he asked for our main choices. I went with the beef stew - I had wanted to try bistecca alla fiorentina, florentine steak, but it was prohibitively expensive, so I thought that maybe the stew might have been made from some of the same stuff, who knew. Dan went with rabbit with olives.

As the waiter turned to leave, he said "Sides?" We were thrown, we didn't even know what the choices were, so he reeled them off and we went with a salad and some fries that we would put in the middle and share. Clearly a local bar - you need to know these things already to know to ask for them! It again wasn't long before our dishes returned - giant succulent pieces of beef falling apart in my stew, Dan's delicious rabbit. Super hot crispy fries, and to be fair the salad was just lettuce but we put lots of olive oil and pepper in it and were quite glad for the fibre!

Our waiter turned out to be a comedian - as he delivered Dan's rabbit, he said, "And here is your cat...I mean, rabbit!" Which elicited quite a bit of laughter from us and a wry tiny smile from the waiter. We had cracked him now, and he was very pleasant to us for the rest of our time there!

We seriously had no idea how much this meal was going to come to. We finished off everything (except a little bit of the lettuce), and sat, wondering what would happen next. The waiter returned, and Dan complimented him on his cat. "We make very good cat around here!" he quipped, before asking us if we wanted coffee, and assuring us that it was included. Of course, so in short order 2 espressos appeared at our table. My golly, this had been a big meal! We polished off the strong coffee and deciding this probably was the last thing we would be given, made our way to the bar to pay.

€20. All of that cost us €20 total. Everything had been included in the €10 lunch deal. We received, essentially, 2 glasses of wine each, water (which is a big deal in Europe, most places it's not free!), bread, pasta first course, meat second course, two sides and 2 coffees. We were very happy when we walked out of there, and had loved the whole bizarre experience!

The day had gotten very hot, so we stood in the shade and put some sunscreen on. As we weren't far from the Ponte Vecchio bridge, the famous bridge covered in shops, we decided we would walk across it back to the other side. On the way, we passed a gelato shop that we couldn't resist having a peak in. It had a huge array of flavours, maybe about 30, and every one looked amazing. They were expensive but we had seen worse, and after some dallying decided to go for it! We were still so full and didn't know where to put it, but whatever. Yolo! For a change we got our icecreams in waffle cones because they just looked so magnificent. I went with a chocolate and a burnt fig flavour, and I was very, very happy.

We had to stand on the footpath and eat it down a little way as it was melting too much to try to eat and walk, dodging traffic. Soon we came to the bridge, and meandered across it, fighting the crowds to take the odd photo. I didn't really bother - the water colour is pretty horrid brown - and the shops the length of it almost exclusively sold gold jewellery. On the other side, we walked alongside the river for a few blocks trying to get some nice photos, before popping back into the backstreets of Florence, headed for the centre.

Now there were a couple of morning activities and a couple of evening activities we wanted to do, so first things first was to return to our accommodation and try to figure all this out. Back there, we sweltered in our room. The beds were pretty damn uncomfortable, and as they were twin single beds on a spring frame, we actually just put the mattresses on the floor and lent the frames up against the wall. That's much more comfortable.

And here I discovered I had made a grave error in planning Florence - I took for granted that I had been here before and knew everything without checking first. One thing we wanted to do was climb the Duomo. Turns out, and this explains the lack of queue - you now have to register online for a time slot to climb it. And you can only do it on weekdays. And of course this was Friday afternoon with no spaces left. I felt awful! I had gone on at length about this to Dan and now we couldn't do it. He was very good about it thankfully. He had researched places with a view in Florence and it turned out that the view he wanted to see was at the Piazza de Michelangelo - which was something we already planned to do.

While we were here, Dan also looked up the Leaning Tower of Pisa and I looked up the Accademia museum where David is housed because as we found out the hard way for the Duomo, things change. I couldn't find much information about Accademia (well, I found plenty, it was all contradictory), but I did manage to find a page that said no, you don't have to pre-book, and here are the opening hours (opening at 8.15). Dan learnt that it was highly illadvised to try to line up to get tickets to Pisa, and there were no spots available on the day we wanted them, but the next day, around 2.30pm. Ok, so the new plan was:

Get to the Accademia gallery really early, about 7.45am ish, ready for the 8.15 opening. The museum is really small, so I didn't think we'd spend all that much time in there. Then we'd make our way to Pisa for the 2.30pm climbing of the tower. The climbing hadn't been something super high up on our list of things we must do, but in the end we just decided to go for it, why not - Dan's dad had climbed it many years ago (before it's lean was stopped) and we wondered if the experience might be any different from then.

Time was passing quickly, and I was still kicking myself about the Duomo, but we needed to get a wiggle on and get ourselves up to the Piazza de Michelangelo to get a good spot for the sunset viewing-tainment! Near our hostel was a supermarket, so we raced around there, getting ourselves a squishy cheese to go with the crackers we were still hauling around, and a container of mixed fruits. We weren't very hungry after our big lunch! Of course we also grabbed some wine - it had to be red because there were no cold drinks, and literally nothing in Italy is a screw cap! So we returned to our favourite from the night before and grabbed not one, but two beautiful cartons of 1L boxed red wine, and set off up the hill.

Naturally, I got us a bit lost (and I'm pretty sure I made the same mistake the time before). I was aiming to get up the top for about 6pm - it was a Friday night and I wasn't sure how many people might come here after work as it was such a warm evening. I set a cracking pace - and towards the end there's about 200 stairs. I flew up the stairs, every person we passed was one less that would try to take my place at the top! Sweat was dripping down my face, and eventually, puffing, we reached the top. I knew I had gone fast but I didn't realise that Dan had been struggling to keep pace with me - I was literally racing!

We got to the top and plonked our stuff on a wide section of the barrier. Dan was a bit perturbed that there was no seating space here, and he did a bit of a reccie to see if there was a better, more relaxed spot to go. Many people were sitting on the stairs to our left, and there was a second level beneath us, but neither would be so good for photos so he returned to where I was. We staked our spot and very glad we did - by the time sunset finally rolled around, the crowd was about 3 deep.

As is my want, I started chatting with the people next to us. First up was a couple from America on the honey moon - they weren't going to stay for the whole sunset performance as they had a dinner reservation, but we gave them some tips for Florence and they gave us some tips about America for when we visit in a few weeks. We bid them adieu, and another girl took their place. She pushed her way in, and her hair kept tickling my arm, and I was pretty unimpressed. Thankfully she left after a little while and a lovely British couple took their place.

The sunset was lovely. The sky was quite hazy at first, so it took some time to get going, but soon everything was beautifully covered in a yellow glow. We drank the first bottle of our boxed wine, and ate our squishy cheese. We were very well prepared. The feet weren't getting too sore - I think the wine helped that. Just before the sun set, there was a commotion on the level beneath us, and we could see a man encouraging the crowd to cheer. Turns out, he had proposed right there, and had gotten a "yes". Cheers! However, with the British couple, we judged their relationship - I have a feeling this proposal may have come out of the blue, and we decided that maybe they hadn't been together very long. After all the commotion died down, he went off to talk to strangers and left her just standing there. They also didn't look particularly lovely-dovey as you might expect from a newly engaged couple, but these are all judgements and hopefully they have a very happy life together!

Sunset was about 8.50pm (late!) and our next cheersing was to the sun! Congratulations sun, for lowering and disappearing like you have done every day for billions of years. At this, the British couple left, and a couple of young British girls took their place. The crowd was slowly thinning - there were still beautiful colours in the sky so Dan and I wanted to stay and keep taking photos. We started talking with the girls, and ended up standing their for hours! Dan and I had our second bottle of red, while they worked on a couple of bottles of bubbly, and we ate cheese and talked until it was pitch black. It was fantastic!

Eventually I needed to wine escape, and I knew the public toilets beneath us were €1. I wander down there to learn they are shut. Oh dear. This is not good. I return, and one of the girls and I set off towards the bar hotel where they should have facilities, but we would probably have to buy a drink to use them - a pee and a pint, I tend to call it. On the way, we spotted another public toilets sign so veered off - nope, we had missed this one's closing time by about 10 minutes. Fuck. Seriously considering popping a squat at this point - by the way, have you noticed that I talk a great deal about toilet escapades? I feel they really end up being little adventures of their own. Anyway, we thought we'd risk the bar, sauntered past the guard like we were supposed to be there, and sauntered out again. Success! And relief. Mostly relief.

We continued drinking and chatting for a little while longer, as the girls realised they had missed the last train back to their accommodation. They decided to pub crawl it back, and so we all set off back down the hill. Dan and I bid our adieus near our accommodation, and wished them safe travels into the night. Tomorrow was going to be a big day with an early start, and after drinking a litre of red wine each this was going to make things interesting...

And so we went to bed, or so I hoped. This is a story for the next blog, I think.

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 55: Rome

The changing of our plans the day before turned out to be perfect. As yesterday was so muggy and grey, doing indoor activities like the Vatican Museums and the Basilica were the perfect use of the time. Today was brilliant blue skies and sunshine, perfect for outdoor activities (if a little on the warm side, we were heading for a top of 28). The alarm went off at 6.30am again, but this time we were able to drag ourselves up and out. The ticket booths for the Colosseum opened at 8.30, and I was aiming to get us there about 8am.

The train journey this morning was also a bit more pleasant - full, but not squash packed. We alighted at the Colosseum and wandered across to the ticket booth. We went to the one across from the Colosseum, which I think is the ticket booth for the Forum. I found out later there was a ticket buying queue actually at the Colosseum next to the ticket holder queue, but we ended up sauntering past all these people. I skip ahead, though.

The morning was still nice and cool, but there was a small crowd gathered in the shade while the ticket booths were in full sunshine. One or two people were at the booths, the rest in the shade. At about 8.20am, I insisted to Dan that we move over into the sun, and a few minutes later an employer came out and put ropes around where we were standing, effectively putting us right at the head of the queue. 8.30am rolled around, and we were pushed in front of once or twice but by 8.35am we had our tickets to the Colosseum and the Forum.

Over to the Colosseum by 8.36am, joined the security queue there, sauntering past the ticket buyers which I mentioned earlier. We were in by 8.45am! Perfect. It was also the perfect time to be inside - while there were already a lot of people in there, we were able to take photos relatively people free. Half an hour later when we walked around again, it was shoulder to shoulder and 2 people deep along  the whole wall.

We stopped along the way reading the signs on the wall, but we had actually been around the whole area within half an hour. Wanting to get the most from our money, we did it again. This time Dan noticed a small offshoot that we had missed the first time so we peeked at that. I had wanted to do the underground tour but these were all sold out - and to be honest by this point we had some serious ruin fatigue, and we could see most of it anyway.

So that was the Colosseum! We popped out on a different side than we had gone in at, and consulted the map. Our ticket was also valid for the Forum, and the direction we wanted to travel was at the other end of the Forum, so we decided to use it as the path. The queue moved quite quickly and we were in. Initially we just thought we’d walk straight through, but it was considerably bigger than expected and we figured we might as well get our money’s worth. We sat underneath a tree on a piece of ruin and had a quick snack, looking at the giant archway and the map. The majority of the Forum was to our left, so we wandered up that way, which consisted of a lot of stairs. We emerged at a “grotto” which had been reconstructed and it was quite beautiful (and relatively cool, too).

I realised about now that going into the Colosseum any later in the day would have been pretty awful. It was quite hot by now and by going in early we had beaten the heat of the day. It was definitely sweatsville in the Forum! We spent a short while wandering through some of this, more than we intended because we got a bit trapped up the top, and ended up having to backtrack all the way back to the arch and choosing a different path.

At one point, when we reached a deadend, we overheard a rather strange conversation. I wanted to ask the guard if we could get out this way, but he was distracted by a woman asking him very odd questions. The gist being, "Is this a Roman city? As in, is this an ancient Roman city?" Um. Well. Yes. It's the original Roman city...

We weren’t sure if there was an exit at the far end, so when we saw one, we took it. Might have been a bit of a mistake. The crowd here grew and grew until it was at a complete standstill. This was because the road had been blocked off with stadium seating for either an upcoming event or an event that had just happened. This then blocked most of the footpath too, and it was a shoulder to shoulder shuffle in the blazing sun. A man selling wooden…crap…seemed to be causing a fair portion of the hold up as his stall was roadblocking the path right at the centre.

Eventually we popped through, and our next stop was the Spanish Steps. Turns out they weren’t THE Spanish Steps - it was just some steps that I always thought were...oops! They were blocked off, and there were a group of people at the top in various uniforms and states of dress. I wondered if it might be a state funeral or something - there were two pyres burning, or maybe it was some kind of military procession or graduation?

We stopped here in the shade for a little while. I was of course getting hungry, and wanted to head somewhere for food. Food would be near the Pantheon, so we plotted a course towards there, stopping in at something quite different that I would imagine not many people know about in Rome - a feral cat sanctuary. Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary is located next to a ruin that cats naturally migrated to - there are lots of hidey holes and humans are not allowed to enter. As a result, the sanctuary has positioned itself on the outskirts and offers food, water, shelter and neutering of all cats that come its way.

We got to the ruin in the height of the midday sun. It was sweltering, and I knew the sanctuary only opened at 12pm. It was exactly that now. I spotted one cat in the ruin, and thought this was all it would be. We thought we would do a lap just to see if we could see any cats in this heat, and as we continued around I noticed a sign and some steps, and someone disappearing down them. The sign for the sanctuary was down here, as were a couple of cats, so we decided to brave it.

Probably a highlight of the day - I'm so glad we wandered down those stairs! We stepped inside and immediately to our right was a gorgeous pure white cat with blue eyes that suffered through a few pats by us, before being greeted by a happy American lady. She explained the situation - the cats are free to come and go as they please - the ones that hang around inside are friendly with humans and are happy for pats. There were some cages around the walls too - a litter of kittens in one, which we gave a gentle poke even though we weren't supposed to (they were so CUTE) and a few other sleepy cats. These were for cats who were going to be adopted - you could either "adopt from a distance", by giving money which helps feed the cats and keep them healthy, or you could actually adopt cats to take home.

To the left was a large walk in cage. This was for the cats who were too ill to be released again once they walked in - the people running the sanctuary couldn't in good conscience let them back out again. We were allowed to go in here - many cats were wandering freely through the large cage although there were a few in cages on the wall. The signs said DO NOT TOUCH THE CATS IN CAGES . they might have been diseased or had something far too wrong with them for the average person to try interacting.

However strewn all over the floor were all sorts of cats. Many missing an eye or were tripods, missing a leg (Although this isn't enough to warrant them to stay here in the big cage - there was something else wrong with them), and the majority of them just wanted some love. My favourite was a big fluffy tripod that hobbled over to me. Meanwhile, a scrawny tufty black thing littler jumped up and perched itself gracefully on Dan's knee - and refused to move! In this position he attracted a few more cats, before he eventually had to extricate himself.

I played with another one for a while - it liked the toy that made noise and did not want to give it up. Many in this room were completely blind too, so we were told to move a bit slower around this room so as not to startle them.

We eventually had to leave, and stood talking with the American lady for a while. Turns out she and her husband were serial expats, and so she knew our situation quite well! I expected her to try to get us to buy something or adopt from a distance, but she didn't try to push anything. She was just happy we had come to give the cats some love. We finally had to bid them adieu, and made our way to the Pantheon.

On the way, there was a procession of military personnel holding a couple of helmets on pillows. We weren't sure if this had anything to do with what we had witnessed earlier, but did seem rather funeral-like to me. Many tourists stayed in their way of course, and there was a lot of shouting.

When we got to the Pantheon, it was rammed. Just. So. Many. People. I didn't have the energy to deal with it on an empty stomach so insisted we find somewhere for food first. We walked a little way - nothing was taking my fancy, it was all too expensive. We eventually settled on a place that was a little cheaper with a nice outdoor setting (and a Tripadvisor sticker). The service was a bit mediocre as was the pasta, but it did the job and it was tasty enough without breaking the back.

Ok. Back to tackle to Pantheon. Now that most people had headed to lunch, it was a fraction quieter. We were able to walk in straight away (a lady in front of us was turned away as she was wearing a midriff top). I had a greater appreciation this time for the sheer enormity of the dome - it's huuuuuuuuuuuge. Dan and I did a short lap - and I will always marvel that this is free to enter. You'd think they'd put a price tag on this, too!

We weren't far from the Trevi Fountain so that was the next stop. When I had been here last it had been covered in scaffolding, so I hadn't seen it properly. We knew we were getting close because of the crowds...seriously, Rome in May is awful. I can't imagine it in July - August! Anyway, we got to the fountain and I managed to secure a spot standing up on a bench. This was good for a few photos. Dan and I took a few more photos before deciding it was too chaotic, and to leave.

As we walked around the fountain, we stopped briefly on the other side. We kept hearing a whistle blaring and now we saw it's owner - a guard was blowing his whistle and shouting at everyone who was sitting on the edge of the fountain. This appeared to be his job. Kind of like the SILENCE guy at the Sistine Chapel. An Italian man confronted him after he was shouted at rather aggressively, and there was a lot of animated shouting and hand waving and even a praying hand symbol - I think the guard was eventually saying "I'm just doing my job."

It was hot. And we were stuffed. We went back to the hotel and collapsed for a while. We weren't sure what to do for dinner - we didn't want to pay too much as we had already spent quite a bit of money. Dan had the suggestion that we take a picnic to the Colosseum - which would also use another trip on our 2 day metro pass, so this is what we did. We gathered our things and ran to the supermarket in the train station, picking up a delightful Chateau de Cardboard (mostly because it was the only thing that was screw top!), a couple of pizza focaccia breads and some sweet cannelloni desserts. We were set.

We got to the Colosseum and walked around the side looking for some where to sit. On the left hand side is a tree stump where everyone has their photos taken - you have to climb over a low railing but it doesn't seem to be a problem. A little further on from that we found another tree stump and this was the perfect place for us to set up.

The next few hours passed as we sipped our wine, watched the sky turn from blue to yellow to pink to black. We took a lot of photos of the Colosseum in front of us, and the Forum to our right. Below us, a policeman kept watch (so we kept our wine hidden, just in case). We also watched as a couple had their twilight wedding photos taken in front of the ruins.

Oddly, I looked down at the tree stump at one point and noticed in the hollow that there was some rubbish. One of the pieces of trash was a hard Espresso Wine plastic cup - just like ours! We laughed and wondered where we could possibly buy some more in case we broke ours? They've been invaluable, not just for wine, but for juice in the mornings or for taking our multivitamin drinks.

Eventually the wine, limoncello and the food ran out, and the sun was fully set. We returned to the train station and went to go through the gates...BA BOW. Red light. We both looked at each other in confusion and then realised - shit! Our 2 day passes have run out! We never quite made full use of them, and now we were in a small quandary. Do we buy a train ticket (the queue was ENORMOUS), or do we just walk it?

Walk it, was the decision. It would take just as long to queue for a ticket and catch the train as it would to walk, and it was a lovely warm night. The walk took a little under half an hour and was probably a good way to walk off a little bit of the wine.

The next morning we were already heading on to Florence. Rome was never my favourite city, and it's still not, but this was a lovely note to end on and I had a fantastic time here with Dan - it was definitely elevated in my eyes.

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 54: Rome

The alarm went off at stupid o’clock, about 6.30am, I think. Outside it is bucketing down and I am stalling. Just one more snooze. Just another quick snooze. As we lay there listening to the rain, we came up with another idea.

Today was not a good day to go to the Colosseum. The Colosseum is mostly outdoors with lots of outdoorsy queues. This would be pretty uncomfortable in the rain, even if it isn’t cold. Besides, blue skies is much better for it! But what to do about the Pope in the Vatican?

Well, we made a few assumptions, and thankfully these turned out to be correct. He was holding an audience at about 10am where he would be standing on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica and the entire front section would be free entry - but ticketed, and long sold out. So we thought - maybe there will be less people trying to get into the Vatican then, because the real keen ones will be going to his audience. And it can’t possibly go all day - there’s no closures mentioned on the website, so maybe they open the Basilica up after it’s all done? Turns out these were pretty good assumptions.

This mean we could sleep in a little more, and we got ready pretty damn slowly. Especially me - I slept poorly and was just struggling to get moving. Get moving I eventually did, and at about 8.20am we made our way to the station. By the way, if you want to get the metro in Rome, try to avoid peak times at all costs. We learnt this the hard way.

Powered along by the flood of people, we arrived at the platform about 4 deep. The first train went past - a few people got off, a whole lot more shoved on. There was no way Dan and I were getting on this train. 3 “ish” minutes later, another train rocked up and we surged ourselves forward. This journey was akin to London at peak time on something like the Piccadilly. It was disgusting. I was wearing my rain coat (although by the time we had left it had stopped raining) and that thing doesn’t breathe at all, so I was at risk of passing out. I didn’t need to hold onto anything - I couldn’t reach anything even if I tried, because we were all so pressed in there that I was quite happily being held up under the pressure of everyone else.

Slowly slowly, stop by stop, people got off and it eased up. When the Vatican stop popped up, we got off, and breathed in the outside air. Relief! We started the walk towards the Vatican City walls and the entrance to the museum.

So the next bit - I don’t know if we got salesperson and lied to, or if it was truth, but it all got pretty confusing and I was very confused. Basically, I’d been here before and I did one of those tours where someone grabs you outside and then you go in as a group. I wasn’t aware (and I’m still not 100% sure this is true), that if you got the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel ticket, you do not have entrance to the Basilica. However if you’re part of an organised tour, you get the Museum, the Chapel and then you go around the corner and pop into the Basilica. Perhaps it was true, and we weren’t just salespersoned.

A man stopped us and started to explain all this. I panicked a bit as I thought we could just get the cheap ticket inside and that would give us access to all three. When he whipped out the price list, the adult price for the 3 was €57, I just said to him, “I did this tour last year [slight embellishment] and they only charged me €40 [another slight embellishment]. Can you match this?”
He looked at me, slightly pained, and said “The best I can do is the child’s price here, at €42.”
Dan and I had a quick confer, and decided to go with it. In hindsight, I think the tours you can buy on the Vatican “website” (these sites have the worst online presences!!!!) is cheaper, around €35 but I’m struggling to even find that priceless to confirm.

So we got in for cheaper than I did the first time, and when we got to the ticket desk just across the road, he told me not to tell anyone what price we got it for as the rest were full price. In the end, I was quite glad we did a tour - the Sasha tour of the Vatican would have been really, really shit!

At 9.45am we met our guide, an energetic lady who is an art historian, and she was extremely passionate. She started off by telling us a bit about the museum and the chapel, and how the day was going to progress. She explained how the Vatican became a country of its own in 1929, relatively recently! It’s the smallest country in the world, at only about 3.2km around. She also explained that as it is a Wednesday, the Pope is having an audience (my heart sank a bit, I was hoping the online information had been wrong), and that the Basilica would be reopened again at about 12, 12.30. Excellent! This was actually what we had expected! By the time we finish the tour, we should be able to walk straight into the Basilica, or if not, wander through the museum again.

We started the trek across the road following her flag. I was at the front, and we talked together for a little while. She said that when she was studying, she was given one full week to go into the Museum and the Sistine Chapel for free every day, and that she spent an entire day in the Sistine Chapel soaking up all the tiny details. She wasn’t very old at all, but I would imagine the hoards of tourists were a bit less back then, but I enjoyed her enthusiasm.

The queue wasn’t long at all, actually, so any skip the queue passes (kind of including ours) were a bit useless. Anyway, we got inside, went through security, got our headsets and started off. Unfortunately I found her a little hard to hear through the headphones and would try to listen more without them where possible. She started off by taking us upstairs and straight to the original staircase. This used to be the main entrance but now is more of a beautiful piece of art in itself.

Near the staircase was a giant touchscreen board, and she scanned her guides badge and it came alive. This was very different to what happened on my previous tour where my guide showed us pictures in a book. With the touchscreen, she was able to show us every detail about the Sistine Chapel. Why was she doing this and why now? Because once you’re inside, you have to be silent. No talking. So she had to explain everything before we went there.

The touchscreen was quite sensational, and some of what she said was new to me and others jogged my memory. She pointed out the little chihuahua in many of the paintings, which was the signature of the artists. She pointed out the Cardinal’s face in the bottom right corner, snake attached to his penis. She pointed out the self portraits of Michelangelo and other fascinating bits of information.

We about turned and started through the museum. By now it was about 10.30 and overrun with tourists. Simply overrun. I asked Dan at one point if he thought it would be best to queue up for longer outside, and not have as many people let in, or be thankful you’re in, even though you are flooded with people? I didn’t know the answer to this. The guide took the exact same path as I had previously taken, she stopped at some of the same monuments and paintings and statues but also at some different ones. The benefit of the headphones is that you can wander away (as much as possible in that crowd) to take photos, without losing what she is saying.

My favourite was still the 3D painted ceiling, and the map walls. At the end of this corridor, she left us to our own devices in the Sistine Chapel. I had a much greater appreciation for it this time, what with the deeper explanations and just seeing it all again. I quite happily stood and looked at all the different panels, craning my neck upwards to view the roof. I love that he started at one end, got down to the ground, realised the people were all too small, and you can visibly see the characters getting bigger as they go along the ceiling.

We stayed here for about 10 minutes, punctuated by the men on microphones demanding “SILENCIO. SILENCE. NO PHOTO. NO VIDEO.” I wondered what the job description for this role looks like? Must be able to say SILENCE 400 million times a day. At midday, a priest took to the stage and led a prayer, which was unexpected for me and a nice touch. The room actually went pretty silent for a change…

We went to the back and muttered a few things to each other. We had considered going back out and through the museum again, but I was worried we would take the wrong exit and leave entirely, not making it into the Basilica. Dan noticed the door on the right was closed and said “Exit to Basilica” and it occurred to me that that was the door I had left from last time. It was shut, and the people were building up in front of it because the Basilica was not yet open. So we decided to do another lap of the Chapel.

After a short while, Dan noticed the door had opened (there was no way for me to tell this, I’m not tall enough!) and so we started the slow shuffle out of the Sistine Chapel. It took us quite a while to get out, but we took it slowly without shoving and we got there in the end! We followed the crowd outside and shuffled our way to the door of St Peter’s Basilica. There was quite a crowd waiting to get in - they must have only just opened it up, but we didn’t have to wait and were inside very quickly. Outside, all of the chairs were still set up for the audience with the Pope.

Once inside, I marvelled at how many people there were! Definitely on this trip to Rome, there were so many more people in the city than when I was there 3 years ago at roughly the same time. The Basilica was pretty full. But as I found last time, it was beautiful in here. I love looking up at the ceiling and the archways, and seeing different golden images and Latin words peeking through the gaps. Dan and I did a full lap in all the areas we were able to (except for a little chapel). We were able to get quite close to the front altar, and on the other side we ducked into a small offshoot, discovering the Basilica shop. It was here that Dan decided to see if there was anything to get his Grandma as a present.

On the way into the shop, we had seen some girls give little glass bottles to a man in a suit, who ran away with them. Once in the shop we realised what had happened - the girls had bought little glass vials, given it to the gentleman who had them filled up with Holy Water from the Vatican. This would make an excellent present! We found the little glass vials in the shop, and saw a sign above: “To be filled with Holy Water between the hours of 10am - 1pm, 4pm - 6pm”. It was 1.01pm. We raced back out to the gentleman in the suit and asked if it was still possible to have them filled. He said he would try.

He accompanied Dan to the counter, and collected another couple of people on the way. He grabbed the vials, and took them away while Dan and the other people paid. At 1.06pm he returned, shaking his head, saying “I tried.” This was a tad disappointing, but we had a thought - there wasn’t all that much we wanted to do in Rome, to be honest, and the weather wasn’t great for outdoor activities, so why don’t we try to get back in via the free queue for the 4pm Holy Water filling session?

With this in mind, we finished off the Basilica and popped out into the day. It was quite warm, and very cloudy and muggy. It was definitely lunch time by now, and I hadn’t researched this time. I didn’t know what I really felt like, and Dan and I were just wandering a bit aimlessly looking for a place. I wanted to sit somewhere outside, however we passed a little place called La Salumeria. It didn’t have outdoor seating but the menu consisted of a massive assortment of freshly made panini’s, all €5 or €6.

It was a relief to sit down, and we perched ourselves at a high table. It was a bit self service which was fine and the man behind the counter gave us a couple of menus. Oh my Lordy, there were so many different flavours to choose from! Each with different meat varieties, and each were really interesting flavour combinations. There were probably about 30 different panini’s. In the end, I settled with a prosciutto, sheeps cheese, honey, mustard and pear, while Dan went with a gourmet ham, zucchini, brie, mushrooms and truffle. We also got a bottle of wine, of course.

After a short while, the panini’s were ready and we collected them from the counter. They were life changing. So delicious! We sat here and people watched, eating our fresh crusty sandwiches. We still had a lot of wine left, and while I was definitely full, I put out the suggestion to Dan, “Do you want to get another one to share?”. He pointed to a man at another table. “He got a second one!” And so that was that. I returned to the counter and asked for the menu again. This time we got the fancy ham with sheeps cheese, lemon caparccio and vodka because it was so strange sounding! It was. Delicious. Normally on a sandwich like this you would get one slice of meat - this had 7. I could barely get my teeth through it!

Definitely sated by now, and time had passed quickly. It was almost 3pm! I had read that the best time to get in was about 3pm as the queue moves quicker. So back to the Vatican we went! We joined the queue riiiiiiiiiiight round the other side at 3.20pm. Our wine buzz made it go much faster! The line actually moved very quickly. At peak times of day, you can be in the queue for 2+ hours, sometimes up to 4 in the blistering heat. By the time we snaked through the queue, and through security (choosing a slow line there of course, by accident), it had taken us 42 minutes in total. Not bad!

By now it was a few minutes after 4pm, so we made a beeline for the Holy Water area. The gentleman in the suit was there, and he took our one little vial as well as many other people’s - most people were buying at least 2 if not 5 or 6. He went away, and a few minutes later returned with all of the bottles full. Dan and I had joked that they probably just go around to the tap and fill them up, but hopefully that wasn’t the case!

When we left the shop area, the barricades at the front of the Basilica had been moved, not allowing people close to the altar. I asked a guard why, and he said it was almost mass time. Of course - it was a Wednesday, and to the left of the altar was a little area where people could pray. Earlier that day we could wander all through all of this but now it was closed off. We were glad we got in earlier that day! It would have been disappointing getting in now for the first time - or maybe you wouldn’t know any better.

We ended up being herded into a bit of a corner and down some stairs into the crypt. It was quite interesting down here - many previous Popes had been lain to rest down here with little explanations of their life and their charitable works. I asked Dan, “I wonder where this pops us out?” We were about to find out. Outside the Basilica! As we weren’t quite ready to leave yet, we re-entered the Basilica - for the third time today, for one last little peek around. As we were walking through, we noticed a beautiful shaft of light coming down from the ceiling through the dome, and Dan and I stopped to take photos of it from every conceivable angle. It shows how similar we have grown - we each took a photo, we both looked at our cameras, and at the same time said, "Oh it's gone!". That made us giggle which was probably inappropriate...!

Now we decided it was definitely time to go. We had a quick toilet stop - the men’s queue was non-existent but of course the ladies took an age. I had originally suggested that we walk around the circumference of the Vatican - it’s only 3.2km around! However we were totally stuffed, and decided to call it a day. On the way to the train station, we picked up a gelato which helped the energy levels, and returned to our hotel room.

At the station, we ducked into the supermarket to get some bits for dinner - all we felt like was some cold fruit salad! It had been a long, long day of walking, and we - naturally - had an early start the next day, so we called it a night.

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 53: Sorrento - Rome

We had exploded all of our belongings everywhere and had hand washed some items that we had hanging around the place drying. The cabin was pretty squeezy to try to repack, so Dan took the big purple bag out onto our bench seats and table on the balcony, which was a nice way to pack! The morning was cool but warming up - it was going to be a hot one today.

We finished packing with plenty of time to spare so sat out on the balcony pondering what we would do that day. Explore Sorrento? Explore Naples? What was there to do in each of them? Which one(s) had luggage facilities? In the end, we decided to stick with Sorrento as it would be significantly more relaxed, and just pass through Naples. When researching Naples, I was a little put off by all the crime reports…

Trudging up the hill was not an easy task laden with all our luggage, but we managed. I asked for 2 bus tickets and we didn’t have to wait too long for a bus to show up on the other side of the narrow street - it pretty much blocked the entire winding path. It was quite small, so there weren’t enough seats but it was rather spacious so Dan and I could stand up the back with our luggage strewn everywhere and not be in anyones way. It didn’t make many stops at all on the way to Sorrento, and we got off at the train station (after a big fat man wouldn’t move, and the driver closed the door, and I had to do some frantic shouting).

At the station we left our luggage - it was €4 per item and I visibly baulked at this - so they gave us our 3 pieces for the price of 2. I had googled a place for us to eat that opened at 12pm - it was burgers as we were quite happy to not have Italian today. It was too early for this, so we walked down the street towards the main square. On the way, we popped into a big store with lots of drastically reduced prices - I could have bought a lot of things but I don’t need anything or have room for it… Dan was looking at bow-ties but there was no way to see if they were manual bowties or the ones with a clasp, so we abandoned this shop.

Soon we came to a gap where we could see all the way to the ocean, and an impressive set of stairs. We took this, again thinking about the task it was going to be to go back up them again. I kept forgetting that Sorrento and surrounds and built into and on top of the cliff faces. We continued down and down and across and down until we made it to the port. We spent a short amount of time here taking some photos - it was pretty muggy and warm, and I just felt like sitting!

There was a “beach” area here as well, although it’s those fake European beaches, not a proper beach. Basically, some areas had been built up with what looked like hundreds of sun beds - and of course you had to pay to go to it. Pay to go swimming in the ocean! The idea is absurd to me. 

We began the ascent, but from a different set of stairs. At about the 145 step mark it levelled out - although not quite at the top - and we realised we had reached the “Panorama” view. We stopped here to take a few photos, and it started raining quite chubbily on us. I made a sort of dash for cover under a tree, then just stayed back out in it as it was a bit refreshing. It didn’t last long, only a few minutes, and it was back to being humid again. From up here we could clearly see the “beach” below, and all the different coloured umbrellas and different restaurants. I wondered what made each one different from the one before?

After the panorama, we thought we’d now start heading towards the lunch place which was just off the main pedestrian only strip mall. We finally made it when…it wasn’t open. It didn’t open until 5pm. I was appalled - I went back onto all the online resources and everything said 12pm, including their own Facebook page. So I was pretty shitty, and asked Dan if he could just choose something for lunch.

We wandered the streets for a while, and found a place that looked like it did lunch deals, eg, drink and food. But when we sat and started looking through the menu, we realised they weren’t deals at all, and was just the price of the two items combined. I got extra more shitty at this, and wanted to leave. We got up, and walked away. A little way down the street, I saw a restaurant that had good prices on pasta, so we took a seat just as a hoard of tourists rocked up - it was also a Gelateria (and apparently one of the best in Sorrento).

We found a seat before they all sat down, and I went inside to get a menu. The service was actually great considering how many people they had there, and our waitress was very attentive. I ordered the gnocchi in a local tomatoey and basiley sauce, and Dan went with the Penne all’arribiata as it’s something we always joke about - see this video here.

We also got a little bit of wine, which was kept perfectly chilled in a bag of ice water. The day heated up considerably, and we were trying to stay in the shade. Our meals were very tasty, and we got lots of Parmesan too. What we didn’t count on was the hoards of people.

Tour group after tour group - without end, back to back, from TUI (Thompson Unlimited International) were arriving for an ice-cream. Most of the tour groups had up to 20 people in them, some were small with only about 4, but each were led by a tour leader with some kind of brash UK accent, wearing the blue uniform and carrying some kind of ridiculous giant item so they could be identified in a crowd. The items included, but were not limited to, an Italian flag on a stick, a swimming pool noodle, a giant flower on a stem and possibly one of the favourites was one of those giant inflatable football hand signs. I can’t tell you how many groups came through here, but I would guess maybe about 20. I reckon there must have been a cruise ship and everyone was broken up into little groups and traipsed around Sorrento in slightly different orders so they didn’t all descend upon a location at once (Although this failed quite miserably at the ice-cream stop).

This didn’t affect our meal though, as I said our service was fantastic and it was just hilarious to watch them all show up - and to see what the next ridiculous identifying item would be. A giant fan on a stick, an umbrella, one just carried a clipboard (they obviously cheaped out!). Now it was time for us to try this amazing gelato - they had a stupid amount of flavours, and amazing looking concoctions, but we just settled with a few scoops each (3 for me, 4 for Dan!). The list, while a few were missing, was HUGE. I went with limoncello, mulberry and dark chocolate. 

After this, we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do. It was still too early to go to the train station, so we meandered through the streets. We found another nice look out point and then sat in a little square in a bit of shade for a while. The man next to us was throwing bits of his sandwich to the pigeons, and we spent probably far longer than acceptable watching the pigeons fight for the food, woo each other (and by woo, I mean, the male chases the female around trying to step on her tail and impregnate her), and then get distracted from the wooing by food again. 

I don’t know why I’m mentioning all this, but it’s probably the sheer amount of time we spent watching and analysing this. Two pigeons flew in with very odd colouring - instead of being grey and shiny, they were white and browns. The male pigeon only had eyes for the female pigeon of the same colours. He chased her around, got distracted by food, and chased her around again. Then, to add a twist to the tale, another set of brown pigeons arrived. And they partner swapped. The original male started chasing around the new brown female pigeon, got distracted by food, chased her again. The new male started chasing the original brown female..and so forth. They literally chased each other around the square.

I don’t think any of the male birds were successful on this day, and eventually we had to drag ourselves away from this intricate mating ritual as it was getting closer to our time to leave. On the way back to the station, we stopped at the supermarket and picked up some things to eat - just some simple sandwiches and some lemon tarts for dessert.

We bought our tickets at the station, collected our luggage and made our way to platform one, sitting ourselves in a little patch of shade. I got up to make my way to the toilet, to realise that we didn’t have the correct coins, the machine didn’t accept what we had on hand, and I wasn’t able to go through to the ticket office to change coins because I was already through the barrier. Holding on it was.

We had about a half hour wait. Only about 10 minutes into that, a train arrived and EVERYONE got off, because it was the end of the line. Some people started hopping on. Dan went to investigate what this train was, and from a distance motioned for me to jump on before too many other people got on. I managed to nab us a 4 seat, and we took up the other two seats in front of us. I fell sleep. When I woke up, the train was getting really, really packed, and as I started gathering my things off the seat in front of me to try to make it free for someone, a man asked if he could sit down.

And we sat here. And waited. And waited. Turns out another train was running late and we needed to use the track, so our train was getting quite packed. I was so glad we had gotten there early and could sit down for the journey! Once in Naples, we did the opposite of what we had done the day before - up from the Circumvesuviana and back into the main station. We had a bit of a wait now until our 6pm train, but eventually a platform was displayed.

We were carriage 6. I was thinking to myself as we walked over to the platform “wouldn’t it be nice if train stations would state where each of the carriages were?” And low and behind, it did! We knew exactly where to stand for carriage 6. It wasn’t long before a train arrived, we barged on, took most of the luggage compartment space and made ourselves comfortable.

The train journey was pretty uneventful, except that we were running quite late. We took off late, and then pulled out of the station and just sat outside there for about half an hour. I ate all my dinner in this time, and made a pretty good headway into the lemon tart cookies too… I wasn’t able to do too much writing on this journey, I was tired and as seems to be the want in Italy, the trains duck in and out of tunnels which block and unblock my ears each time, being very annoying and distracting. No matter, I just dozed a bit.

About 8.30pm we arrived in Rome. Our day was still far from over! We had a little bit of trouble finding our accommodation - we knew though from reading online that we needed to go to a laundromat to check in. Our accom was literally one block from the station, so that was a relief! We couldn’t find the hotel but we found a laundromat, and asked the skinny Indian guy working there is this was the place to check in. “Daniel!” He said, and slowly, slowly started the check in process.

I don’t know what he was doing but this was the slowest check in we have ever experienced, and I just wanted these bags off my shoulders. He was kind though - we learnt afterwards that this wasn’t his laundromat or hotel - we were to meet the owner later. While waiting, and other people coming and going and distracting him by wanting their washing back, a man drove past and shouted at us out the window. “I’m the owner! He’ll help you with everything!” Dan and I were really confused - were we supposed to get in the car? Is this like Pompeii again where our accommodation is elsewhere?

No, the owner parked and came back to us - by now we had handed over money and had received a key - and emphatically introduced himself. “I’m Monty!” He said, shaking our hands violently, and he springboard across the road to an unmarked door. In we went - the key was a bit sticky so if we had any trouble with it, to go over to the laundromat for help - up some stairs, through another noisy door, and we were whisked into our room.

Monty grabbed us a map of Rome and very helpfully circled a lot of things without any explanation, which was quite hilarious later when we were trying to figure out what we should and shouldn’t see. We collapsed in our room for a short while, before thinking - fuck it, let’s get out in this city like we did in Venice!

By now it was about 9pm and we thought we’d go to the Colosseum and see it at night time. The plan was sound in theory, but turned out to be a bit more complicated to execute! We shouldered our cameras and tripods and walked the one block to the station, found the Metro really easily, and descended down. We saw a sign for “Tickets” so we followed that, to end up in a DO NOT ENTER area, with the ticket booths closed. Ok, maybe there are ticket machines closer to the platform?

We retraced our steps and went down one more level - aha, here are all the ticket machines. One was spare, so we jumped on it straight away. Easy enough - we wanted the 48 hour pass, if we started it now it would take us all the way through the next two full days. We couldn’t pay, though. It took us an age to realise the machine wouldn’t accept card, even though it had a slot for it. When we tried in cash, we realised that it only accepted certain notes and coins.

Ok, maybe another machine isn’t as picky. Another machine came up with different combinations of coins and notes, but still no card. This was getting frustrating. I suggested we get a cheeseburger from Maccas just above us to break up the €50 so we could finally use a machine. But how to get up? All the signs were for one way. Stuff it, we just went back up the way we came, which was also rather funny because the signs were still pointing out things on the way. I think maybe it used to be two-way, but recently they changed it to just one, which has some interesting consequences as we found out. 

We grabbed two cheeseburgers, and raced back down to the platform. This time our smaller notes were happily accepted, and we got our tickets. Through the barrier, and we were onto the platform. Weirdly the platform was A LOT longer than it needed to be, and it seemed that the train we needed would only take up a portion of it. We stood where others were, and waited. Not long after we took our first bites of the burger, the train came, so we had to stuff them back in the bag and jump on.

Subterfugerly (this is a word I have made up and use regularly), we ate our burgers while people glared at us for eating on the train. Two stops later we got off at Colosseum and, popping up, there she was, quite well lit up. It doesn’t quite have the same feeling as when you pop out of the station to see Big Ben, but there was a bit of a feeling. I led us to the main side, and we set up right at the back where we could get the whole structure in. After taking a few photos, we noticed some people closer by the beginning so we wandered over there, and continued to take some more photos, albeit more interesting, but almost impossible to fit the whole thing in.

By now we were totally stuffed, and headed back to our accommodation. When we left the train at the station, Dan pressed the button to get off the train, and I laughed at him. I mention this because at this moment, coincidentally, the station alarms began to sound. And continued to sound. And didn't stop. At first we thought it was the closing door noise, but then we realised - no, this is the evacuate the station alarm. The guards weren't exactly trying to get us out of there, nor were they stopping people coming in, however the noise was simply deafening and Dan and I got quite lost trying to get out. When we did pop out, we were completely on the other side and had to walk all the way back again - and through - to our accommodation, sirens still blaring.

We set our alarms stupidly early for the next day - we were going to go to the Colosseum because it turns out the Pope was in town, and we didn’t know how this would affect the Vatican, and didn’t want to risk it. So alarms were set so we could go back to the Colosseum and try to spend less time in a queue buying tickets.

And with that, it was good night. It was a long, long, day.

Til next time,

xx