Roma, plus sunshine in Tuscany
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2011
1
18
21
Trip End
Oct 16, 2011
Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Saturday, October 1, 2011
When we last left you we had just booked train tickets for Wednesday’s hyper day trip to Rome – Madness!!!
Up before six (that’s a major stretch for us) for the 30 minute drive to Arezzo station, found a car park and waiting at the station with all the homeless people sleeping on the seats there. We’d booked the 'Ferrari’ train on the way down so it was only just over an hour.
Roma Termini station was chaotic as you can imagine, but we never felt unsafe or like we were going to get ripped off. I’d done some research and knew exactly what pass we needed (to avoid queues and save some money) and where to get them from – but in typical Italian fashion all of the shops had sold out of them. So we just got on with it – the Roma subway is a bit dirtier and grittier than others we’ve used, but overall it was okay and worked just as advertised. There are only two routes so that makes it pretty easy to navigate. (The map you gave us was awesome Sarah and came in really handy to sort out where we were going)
First stop the Coliseum – the Arena we’d seen in Nimes was a lot more preserved but this is just huge – 70 000 people could fit in there (beats Eden Park for the RWC final) – and it felt like most of them were there with us, it was packed with all nationalities. As you walk around you can see across to Palantine Hill where the Emperors had their palaces, the whole place just oozes ancient history. But we were on a mission, so it was quickly out of there, past the con-men dressed as Roman legionaries (you have to pay to have your photo taken with them) and a stroll down towards Circus Maximus where the chariot races were run – that’s a disappointment as there is very little left.
From there back on the Metro and to see Trevi Fountain (along with a couple of thousand other people), the Pantheon and the Italian policemen directing traffic with their whistles. After lunch it was across the river to the Vatican. St Peters Square is enormous, and we’d met up with some Americans who’d seen the pope there that morning. We just saw crowds and crowds of people. Would have liked to have seen St Peters Bascilica but the queue was massive.
So instead we walked around to the Vatican Museum to see how big the queue was for it – but there wasn’t any queue, we walked straight in with me saying to Glenda ‘there must be something wrong’ – but there wasn’t. Wow- talk about stunning, amazing, awesome…. And that was just the building itself the artworks are beyond words. There are four miles of galleries (and many times more artworks in storage). The Louvre in Paris was spectacular but for me this place just blew it away. In the end though it became overwhelming, and by the time we’d seen the Cistine Chapel we were ‘art’ed out’. Our big day out was almost over – a metro ride, two hour train journey and 30 mins in the car later we were home and pretty knackered. Well worth it though.
After that, Thursday was always going to be a quiet day. We headed into Arezzo for a low key look around, yep it’s just another ancient city. Chilled out back at the house, then at about 5:30 we headed up the forestry track into the hills. We walked about 2.5 k’s and must have climbed a good 300m, the views of the valley were pretty stunning, but as we turned for home and the sun began to set they became even more amazing. We deserved our Gelato that night.
Friday was Glenda’s shopping day – the nearest big Mall was on the other side of Florence(about 100 k’s away) so it was back on the Autostrada for us. It was a good time out from sightseeing, and we managed to spend some money so it was worth the drive. I checked out a big electronics shop, and things seem to be the same price here in Euro’s as they are in NZ$, so no Iphone or Ipad for Andy (maybe in Hong Kong).
On the way home we took a short detour(ended up being quite long detour because the GPS didn’t understand what I meant to enter in it (even though I KNEW where I wanted to go!!!) – but it was a fun 15 k drive over a scenic mountain range)to a bunch of high end outlet stores. We’re talking Prada, Yves St Laurent, Gucchi etc etc.
Because of our longer than expected trip we only had about 55 minutes until closing time and Glenda was a bit stressed that she wouldn’t have enough time. That was until we got to the first shop – a Prada outlet store means that the bags which were usually 1700 Euros were reduced to 1200 Euros. There were some real bargains; silk scarves for 175 Euros and belts for 85 Euros - but they were still a bit out of our league. We walked around for a while in our shorts and my old t-shirt, the shop assistants looked down their noses at us. But there were lots of people buying up big – mainly Italians and Chinese. I’m in the wrong job!!!
Saturday was time to move out of our wee apartment which was a real shame because it really was a lovely place, we’d got to know the owners dog, we loved cooking meals (I can say ‘we’, because I helped most nights and actually cooked one night!!!). We were moving down about 50k’s South to the town of Montepulciano. We’d moved down there to be closer to our big adventure – a hot air balloon ride. It was supposed to be on the Tuesday but it was too windy so it got delayed and delayed, Sunday morning was going to be our last chance. I’ll put you out of your suspense now – it never happened which was a real disappointment. But we’ll get up for one in the very near future.
Anyway moving down to Montepulciano turned out to be a great decision, we arrived early in the morning and were able to walk around town and take in all the sights before checking into the hotel Granducto for a siesta. It’s another hill town set on top of a massive hill over-looking valleys filled with grapes and olive-trees. The town itself is a picture postcard on every corner, and the views out from it’s Piazza’s are some of the most perfect we’ve seen yet. It’s a bit of a climb from the bottom (our hotel) up to the top, and by the time we did our second run up there (it’s just a phrase – don’t worry – we never actually ‘ran’ anywhere) in the evening we needed Gelalto’s to get us through.
Montepulciano is where the second Twilight Vampire movie was shot (if that means anything to any of you). We sat in the Square were the dance scene was filmed (I saw the postcards and posters – I’ve never seen the movie!!!!) and watched the sun go down, the village elderly people talking, and the young kids riding their bikes. It brought home to us the big differences in culture; the massive impact that village life has on these people and how difficult it must be to live a ‘normal’ life in a fairytale town with thousands of tourists coming and going each day.
Well there we are, still almost a week behind. Over the next few days we’ll try and publish our adventures as we drove down through Italy and explored links to both our families and our time in amazing Positano.
We’ve seen so much of Italy already, it really is a special place, there are big differences in all the places we’ve been (most of it stunning in its own way), overall the people are extremely friendly and it’s just a relaxing place.
Glenda’s bit – Well Rome was Andy’s "Big Day Out" and I just followed in his shadow, usually running to keep up as he had a timetable down to the last minute. No Just kidding but not far from the truth. To be honest I am not that into Cathedrals/ Churches/monuments and have enjoyed those that we have been to but now I am over them until we went to the Vatican City and visited the Vatican Museum – it was so special and should be classed as another” wonder of the world”. Would have loved to glimpse a view of the Pope but he was obviously busy elsewhere.
This is when I was about to tell you about my next exciting adventure -our Hot Air Balloon ride but this was not to be and we were both terribly disappointed - the scenery in Tuscany from one of them would have been stunning. As Andy said another time but sadly it won’t Tuscany.
I so needed some retail therapy and my shopping day was ok but didn’t buy a lot as since we have arrived in both France and Italy they now have their Winter stock out (clothing that is for those men who need explaining to). So I guess I know what will be in our shops next Winter but that didn’t help me now. The “Label Outlet” was a hoot and yes we did look like the Beverley Hillbillies as we rocked up in our tshirt and shorts- it was quite fun actually walking in with our heads high despite the staff practically asking us to leave as we were such an embarrassment.
Positano and the Amalfi Coast has been raved by all the locals so we have high expectations so lets hope they all come to fruition. …
Heaps of photo's below today
