BarbaraTVan: BARBARA STAYS AT HOME ....... Viva L'Italia

17/07/2014

We decided to do our European Vacation on the same blog site, because our friends and Rellies use this blog.

2014 was to be the year of our Cape York adventure, but instead we committed ourselves to visiting GM's Rellies in The Netherlands. As we were going this far, I suggested Italy.....I've always wanted to go there, and we were so close!! GM decided he wanted to do one of those River Cruises up the Rhine, and as we were going to be so close to Scotland (my home town) we thought we may as well pop in there as well and visit the family. We have 4 weeks, so we have committed a week to each place......here goes :-)

Chapter 1

ITALY

We left home on a dry but bleak Thursday....I was ready and packed by mid morning but our train wouldn't be here until 4.33 this afternoon!!! The house was spotless, the animals were at Nana's house, and I was bored and itching to go!!!

Hurry Up!!!!!

Two days earlier, GM had lost his wallet.....very unusual for this very organised and extremely pedantic man. So he's spent the last two days cancelling and re-ordering cards etc. But being GM, he already had full colour copies of all the relevant documents, so we managed ok :-) Lucky for him I have cards as well ;-)

Alyce....No.1 daughter turned up on time, and drove us to the train station.

Our Limo and Driver

We were there with plenty of time to spare, but it was bitterly cold waiting for the train....boy was I looking forward to summer in Europe!!

Yay!!! the train was on time....a good start!!

An uneventful trip to Melbourne, straight onto the Skybus to the Airport, 5 minute wait for check in, and then we were through the security in International Departures, and just about to go through passport check when I asked GM where the camera bag was..............

He'd left it at security check in......luckily for us, a member of security went to find it and came up with the goods......phew!!!! coulda spelt divorce then and there ;-)

We went up to the Qantas Lounge and had dinner and wine....as one does.......

Dinner

and wine :-)

then it was time to board....we were off on a very big adventure. We caught an Emirates A380-800....a lot more leg room than the Boeing 777, so quite comfy in cattle class. It was night time travel, and with the help of a couple of magic pills, we slept a fair bit of the way :-) We landed at Dubai at 4.50am to 34o

You couldn't tell in the airport though. We had a 4 hour stopover, had a beautiful breakfast in the Emirates First Class Lounge

Our cook

and then a wonderful shower. Then we sat in the lounge and watched the world news while I sipped on a couple of glasses of Moet Chandon, before the next flight to Rome......as one does ;-)

Oh, ok!!!

They had beautiful flowers everywhere

Another uneventful flight,

Irrigations over Saudi Arabia

The coast of Africa

The Suez Canal

Egypt

and we landed in Italy :-) Our driver never showed up, so we managed to arrange a ride to our hotel and got there safe and sound!!! The foyer was quite modern and fancy, but the moment you stepped through to the rooms, it was old, and as we were to discover, typical. It had a bed, a shower and a toilet....all the things the weary traveler could ask for. The lift was spectacular, an old cast iron and timber thing that you would normally see in the movies, but we just loved it!!

Our passion pit for the week :-)

Went like clockwork!!! No breakdowns :-)

The view from our window

The Hotel Hiberia

Hi Honey, I'm up here!!!!

We went for a wander around the place and found an Irish Pub (The Surge)....it was fantastic....full of soccer and world cup memorabilia, the barman spoke a little English and we had our first real Italian beer....a Peroni.....He then gave us sample tastes of other beers, and gave me a little advice on Italian words.

Happy Lad

There were ruins here, there and everywhere and made our history seem pretty inadequate. We were pretty excited when we found our way back to the hotel. I can't even remember if we had dinner that night, but we crashed for a few hours sleep and woke in the wee hours of the morning. We went for a wander and couldn't find anyone open for coffee until 6 in the morning.....we did find the Trevi Fountain.....the whole thing was covered in scaffold as was most of ancient Rome as we were to discover later......think we should get free travel back to see them when they're completed. The acid rain from all of the pollution makes them black, so they are constantly cleaning them.

I had brought some coins over for some friends back home, and along with my own coin, threw them all into the petty little alternative they have given the public. It is believed to ensure your return to Rome.

The municipality of Rome collect the coins from the Trevi Fountain to prevent theft, and have created a fund that finances a special supermarket, and with the help of the Italian Red Cross, goes to feed the poor of Rome.

Our first dinner was pizza.....they have such simple ingredients and are amazing. We put far too much stuff on our pizzas, I ended up buying an Italian Cook Book for GM, so now he can cook me traditional Italian food whenever he is home :-) Each night we would have something different for dinner. Pasta, Lasagne, Spag bol, and even went and found a place just so that we could have some Tiramisu :-) No matter where we went, the coffee was delicious, and the gelato was to die for :-) I took a fancy to chianti and had it with every meal except breakfast (that would have been embarrassing to explain).......when in Rome, do as the Romans do :-)

Bits and pieces

Our hotel is the red dot

I did an "Italian for the beginner/traveller" course before we went, and it certainly paid off. They love it when you speak to them in Italian.....even it it's in really bad Italian ;-) They also love Australians!!!! I could understand the menu's and this made it a lot easier for GM, who didn't have a clue what anyone was saying :-)

The temperature was around 30 every day and gloriously warm. But when it rained, it poured!!! The streets were all cobblestoned and grouted with cigarette butts. Nearly all Italians smoke, and they are so friendly :-) The place was buzzing. The traffic was crazy, but it was so full of life :-) Nobody stopped for pedestrian crossings, and it took us a little while to realise that you just have to step out into it and everyone will drive around you. It was almost like a dance. I found it a piece of cake once I got over my initial nervousness. GM thought all you had to do was put your head down, close your eyes, step out onto the road and pray :-D By the end of the week, we were pro's!!!

There were polizia and carabinieri everywhere. They have made a huge effort to clean up the crime and the pick pockets, and not once did I feel threatened or unsafe.

The Indians have it all worked out. Whenever you go to one of the tour spots, they come out of the woodwork!!! If it's sunny, they sell hats and water. The hats are made of paper and cost 10 euro......a kings ransom!!!!

The moment there is a bit of moisture in the air, the hats and water disappear and out come the poncho's and umbrellas. When you do the Vatican tour though, they have all of this and shawls to cover your shoulders. You're not supposed to have your shoulders or knees exposed in any of the religious sites, but they've got ok with the legs part. I think they charge 10 euro for these also, so if you intend to go to Italy, take a hat, a waterproof or umbrella, and a shawl for your shoulders, and save yourself a fortune. Mind you, this is how they feed their families, so we managed to keep a couple of families cashed up for the summer!!!!

No matter where you go in Rome, you'll find ruins around every corner :-)

The carvings tell the history of the battles

ruins......

more ruins.....

and ruins......

and ruins.......

Our Tours

The Colosseum/Forum

We had pre-booked our tours before we left home...."Skip the Line" tours which I would recommend to anyone, especially after seeing the queue that went all the way around the Colosseum at midday!!! We were a group of around 20 or so.

While waiting for our tour, we bumped into one of GM's workmates....yes, you can't go anywhere ;-)

Our tour guide was Francesca, and she also doubled as an archaeologist.

Francesca the super guide!!!

She was so knowledgeable, which was fantastic. It was stinking hot, but so cool in the shade of the building. Once upon a time, the Colosseum was covered in white marble and shone like a diamond. The catholic church stripped it of all it preciousness (along with every other pagan relic) and used it in the Vatican. I imagined how magnificent Ancient Rome would be if the Church hadn't desecrated it all for it's own greed!!! I now have an extremely informed opinion of the Catholic Church that I will keep to myself for fear of antagonising a lot of people ;-)

Part of the queue waiting to get into the colosseum

We walked along the Palatine Road and the Palatine Hill, where Romulus founded Rome in 8BC......that was pretty special :-)

They were pretty clued in even then. There are ancient drinking fountains all throughout the city with the most beautiful clean cold water....one of Rome's treasures!! There is no need to go thirsty or pay for water.....a bit different from here!!!

I found the Forum a little bit of too much information overload but a fantastic place for photos. You would have to be right into the Roman history to take it all in, and it probably didn't help that we were already tired out, but it was still spectacular.

We finished there and decided to go for a walk and find somewhere to have our lunch. We were starving and found a rather nice, but rather expensive ristorante and had the most delicious anti pasti, porcini pasta and a lovely bottle of wine :-) By the time we got back to our hotel, we had been on our feet for 12 hours and were totally worn out.

The Vatican

We decided to try the Rome underground and caught the train to the Vatican. It was a great system, and so easy....they only have 2 lines, one goes North and one goes South, so you can't go too wrong
:-)

Ok, so I've never seen so much decadent wealth in one spot.....more treasures than all the kingdoms in the world combined, Michelangelo would have been executed had he said no to doing the Sistine Chapel, even though the historians say he didn't want to do it. By the time we got to the Sistine Chapel, I was feeling just a wee bit blasé about it all. Raphael's wing was a bit of overload, and had the same renaissance style. What we saw was beautiful, but it wasn't until we got to St. Peters Basilica that I was truly blown away.

St. Peters Basillica

I'm not religious, but I could have happily just sat there for a day taking in the mellowness and peace, and beauty of the place. It had a hush about it. There is something so special there, they'd make billions if they could bottle it. I wanted to cry with the beauty of it all.

The crowd waiting to go into the vatican

Looks just like Trevor, one of the engineers I work with!! And this guy was an designer/engineer too!!!!

The walk down to the tomb of St. Peter......his tomb lies beneath the Piazza,
and the Vatican is designed specifically with this in mind

Unfortunately we took an afternoon tour so we had no time to go back through it leisurely before it closed for the day.

We caught a taxi back to the hotel Hiberia as our feet were completely worn out.

The Vitorio Emmanuele II Monument

The best place to get photo's of Rome. It costs 7euro for the lift to the top, but definitely worth it!!! You have a 360o view of the city and all of ancient Rome's wonders. I think we could even see our hotel!!! This building is only 127 years old and looks a little like a wedding cake, but it holds a museum for Rome's modern history and is quite interesting. We found a "little" abbey next to it....The "Santa Maria Basilica" and it was beautiful, but GM needed to get out of there rather quickly as the thunder and lightning started.....he thought he might get struck down being caught in a church after all these years. I did suggest he go to confession and absolve himself of all his sins, but we just didn't have the time....we were only there for a week!! I lit a candle to St. Margaret, (named after GM's mother??) so hopefully all is forgiven ;-)

Look honey, everybody's taking pics of us!!!

Pompeii

The one place I insisted on going....this place has always been on my bucket list.
We were picked up early morning and driven to Pompeii. You have to go through Naples...Napoli....

and we drove around but didn't stop other that to take a pic of Mt. Vesuvius and Monte Somma (the older part of the mountain and now an extinct volcano).
Pompeii was wiped out in 79AD and in 1631 around 4000 people were killed. Today's population around Mt. Vesuvius is about 3 million, which is potentially catastrophic in the area of such a dangerous, still active volcano.

The outer wall

More of the outer wall, still full of ash.

A penis in the wall, a sign of the brothel

Early Porn

More porn

A sign that the owner is very virile.

Shame about the tap, but fresh water for everyone

It was an emotional place to be, but just amazing to see the way people lived 2000 years ago.....not much different from today. Vesuvius was lurking in the background, and you were aware of it the whole time you were there. I am so glad we went :-)

Tuscany

Aaaahhhh Tuscany.....stunning!!!! This was GM's pic of the tours, and a good choice I must say :-)

Another bus trip, but this one picked us up at Piazza Del Popolo. A small bus with about 25 or so people. Our tour guide was an American called Pete. He was pretty clued in with it all and a really good guide, but I would have preferred to hear an Italian accent. We drove North past crops of corn, tobacco, grapes and sunflowers.

It really is a lovely country!!! We eventually climbed into the Tuscan Hills through Montepulciana (a bit of a mouthful!!!)

We stopped at Pienza which was built in 1459 and declared a world heritage site in 1999, a beautiful little town where we had a beer on the steps of the town hall, and a taste of the local pecorino cheese which they're famous for (you could smell it a mile away),

Vicolo del'amore (Little Lane of Love)

Punchinello

then onto the Sant'Antimo Abbey where we listened to monks chanting.....it sounded fantastic and was very relaxing, but GM still refused to go to confession ;-)

Then we were off to Poggio Il Castellare, a beautiful winery, where we had the most delicious lunch and wines......it was so good we even bought a bottle of red which we later shared with some of our new found friends on our Rhine River Cruise.

A happy man :-)

We stopped in Montelcino where I had to have a gelato....it was so warm outside :-)

We wandered around and took a couple of pics, and I greeted two old dears in perfect Italian (as one does when one is in Italy). They were sitting out on the street doing their embroidery and gave me lovely smiles :-)

Then back to Rome where we toodled up the main drag and had more pizza for dinner :-)

We will come back to Italy, and spend our time in Amalfi, Sicily, Tuscany & Florence.....maybe even a cruise around Italy????? What a beautiful, noisy, busy, friendly country!!!

Oh, and did I mention my 10euro paper hat??? Well I gave it to GM to hold while I took pics of the Trevi Scaffold.......I haven't seen it since, so someone scored my favourite hat :-/ God knows he'll probably lose me somewhere along the way too ;-) He's not having a good run.....could be an age thing :-)

We flew out on the Thursday afternoon after a rather harrowing ride into Fiumicino Airport. Our Limo was a rickety old Mercedes Benz with no suspension, the driver was a crazy Italian of about 60 and he sat on 160km an hour......we floated all over the road and I now know how Lady Di felt just before they crashed!!!! Thank god we arrived in one piece and managed to get out alive!!! We were off to Basel in Switzerland for the night, just in time for our Rhine Getaway...........