Italy 2007
Italy 2007
Tuesday 22 May

Finally arrived at Rome at 05:50 tired but pleased to be here. Missed the first train from the airport into the city due to trying to get into the train on the wrong side. Next train was easy and the transfer to a taxi painless, he even understood where I wanted to go. Good old lonely planet......
So there we are in Largo del Pallaro at 8am sitting by the side of the square on top of our bags. Luckily we had an email from Carlo (our Host) advising to go to the local restaurant and get the key form the owner at 9am and how to open the vey difficult doors. This we did but there was some confusion about about if the 3rd floor was american or british standard, i.e start from 1 or from Ground. Turns out it starts from Ground....... Bugger. Only 60 steps up (and down) or so someone has written in the visitors book, I must remember to check.
The flat was rented via www.freereservation.com and can be found here
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Wednesday 23 May

Since an early start for the Vatican was recommended we thought this would be an ideal opportunity so a quick breakfast, healthy fruit followed by an unhealthy but delicious chocolate croissant on the way.
Turns out Wednesdays are the days when the Pope come out to address his flock in St Peters Square (it's not, it's round). The faithful were there in numbers (8:30 for 11) and the church is closed for the occasion.
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Thursday 24th May

We set off for the Palatine Hill and immediately got lost. Luckily the Tiber is clearly marked even on our map so we were able to get to the Circus Maximus and thence to the entrance.
This time pre warned by the Blue Book we bought a Roma Pass (three days access to the museums and public transport). The Palatine Hill was not very busy and we had a superb walk through it, well worth a look see, mostly for the views of the city and Forum areas.
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Friday 25th May

I think giving the house red at the Trattoria Pallaro a miss next time would also be in order, it's a touch rough (or so says my head).
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Saturday 26th May

First off were the Catacombs at Sant' Agnese fuori le Muri and as a bonus a wedding in the church at the same time. The guide was a bit on the quick side but after 15 minutes down there we'd pretty much had it. Only one other on the tour so no crowds, a very good thing as there is just no space down there.
A quick look at the Porte Pia was only justified as we had to change buses there and then on the the Villa Borgese. Lunch in at the cinema cafe in the park was ok and the service excellent. Above all the toilets were clean and top notch, very important due to a very urgent need.
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Sunday 27th May

Forget Pompeii, Herculenium is ok but Pasteum (South of Naples) and Ostia Antica are the business. Believe it.
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Monday 28th May

Predictably the call to the taxi service was a bit confused but it got straightened out. The taxi arrived on the dot of 8:45 and of course there was no traffic (on a monday morning, how do they do that) so we had lots of time to kill.
Anyway we found the train listed but no platform number. Someone with a poor sense of humour waited until there was only just enough time to get to the platform before putting it on the board. Then the train was late!
This trip was arranged with ATG Oxford and details are here
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Tuesday 29th May

We stalled over the usual inedible Italian hotel breakfast but in the end had to set forth, luckily the rain did ease, after a bit, and cleared up for the most part. We got caught for about half an hour or so later in the day but "otherwise fine".
We estimate that we eventually finished up with around 10km walk and a really good day, despite the rain
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Wednesday 30th May

First off was a visit to the 11th Century Duomo which is a great place. Somewhat spartan but all the better for that. many of the places we have visited have been wildly ornate for our taste.
Mary has made a friend of the little dog that wanted it's tummy tickled yesterday. It followed us up and down the street and had to be shooed away or it would have come with us for the day.
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Thursday 31st May

Arrived Sorana about 2pm (we are much slower than the guide book times) and the book has no map of the place, luckily it's very small and we found a snack bar that would sell us some pizza slices, very welcome. Some discussion about whether to catch the bus to San Quirco (5min ride) or walk 2.5 hours.
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Friday 1st June

We bought some more pizza bread over the road for our walk and set off pretty early, at least for us. Weather overcast windy an cold in the wind.
About mid morning we were walking along a road section of the route and a truck pulled over. Turned out it was our host from last night and he was very concerned (we think) that we were on the wrong road. Some discussion with him and his passenger convinced him we were right, or at least he should leave us to our own devices.
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Saturday 2nd June

After getting up, one at a time, and an excellent breakfast we headed out to look at the boat trip to Capodimonte on the other side of the Lake. Turned out this required at least 10 patrons who were eventually press ganged from the passing foot traffic. We met a most interesting Italian chap with excellent English on board and his wife (Theresa) and passed a most entertaining three hours.
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Sunday 3rd June

Left just before 9 and had no problem buying a picnic lunch and took until 4 to get to the lovely town of Orvieto. Lovely that is until you look around and discover it's full of tourists buying things in tourist shops, mostly ceramics and snow domes of the Pope, honestly, yes we saw one.
In fairness we did not see the town at it's best as the rain which had been on and off all day decided to go for it. We'll take another look in the morning before we pick up the rental car.
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Monday 4th June

Despite Orvieto's very scenic nature unless you have been overcome with a desire to pay twice the going rate for tourist tat that you will throw away within 5 minutes of your return home then give the place a wide berth. Best plan? Give it a wide berth anyway!
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Tuesday 5th June

The Lonely Planet had recommended we visit the Basilica di Sant' Ubaldo on top of the big hill at the back of the town, not because of the basilica (which is interesting) but because of the method of transport. This is the Funivia Colle Eletto, a hanging wire basket affair for one or two persons that you get pushed into by the operator.
Mary and I shared on the way up but she soloed going down. I think she only went down in it because the walk was too intimidating. The basilica has the saints body laid out in a glass coffin. Since he died in the 12 century he's understandably not looking too flash, we found it a bit spooky to be honest.
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Wednesday 6th June

The programme for the day was mostly a drive through the charms of the National Park (truly fabulous scenery) then a push back to the coast for tomorrows departure from Rome. Started with post cards for Mary and an Italian haircut for me. We were both very pleased with the results of our handiwork.
Mary had a drive on the little windy roads but had problems with steering and changing gear at the same time. We returned to male driving in short order.
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Thursday 7th June

Rather reluctantly we headed off for Rome and the joys of steerage with Alitalia. We'd given this plenty of time which turned out to be unnecessary.
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