Italy
There are 8 entries for the tag
Italy
Our last day back in Rome was a wash out. We spent ages tracking down places to stay and being Monday, the places we wanted to go were closed. Doh! Bad timing. We had hoped to either go to Tivoli, Hadrian's Villa or Ostia Antica. Instead, we just did a little wandering around Frascati. Bit of a waste really.
If you're ever flying out of Ciampino airport (eg with Easyjet) and need to stay nearby, I can highly recommend a hotel called Hotel Dei Consoli.
There was ugly traffic getting the airport and the flight was delayed by almost an hour but...
For the last three days of our trip, we rented a car in Sorrento drove back to Rome.
Driving is a bit of a nightmare in Italy but you just learn to keep cool, expect the unexpected and make slow deliberate maneuvers. And you don't expect anyone to stick to any rules. You don't even get lines on motorways sometimes!
But I really wanted to drive the Amalfi coast myself. It's just one of those things. In fact, I'm starting to hatch an ambition to drive all the famous roads I can think of.
By the time I managed to drive from the...
I'm back in the UK catching up on these blog posts.
The train from Rome to Naples went smoothly. We had bought the ticket the day before which was a bit tedious. Whenever possible, we learned to avoid any kind of Italian bureacracy and queuing. It's very slow with tellers not working particularly hard and its easy to get in the wrong line and get sent to the back of another one.
From the station, it was easy to catch the Circumvesuviana train over to Sorrento. Public infrastructure in Italy attracts a great deal of graffiti and it seems to intensify the...
Finally got to an Internet cafe here in Sorrento and got some time to catch up.
The train from Milan to Rome was excellent - a fast Eurostar. We were worried about buying the tickets on the day we were travelling but it turned out that wasn't a problem. The ride was smooth with plenty of leg room. Much better than flying.
From the train station in Rome, it was't far to our apartment near the Spanish Steps. I was very pleasantly surprised when we got there. I usually brace myself for disappointment when we arrive at any apartment. Picture and descriptions...
On the way to Venice, we stopped by Verona to check out the Roman arena where those famous opera´s are held. Not as big as we expected but still, it looks great for a place that's a couple of thousand years old!
We had a difficult time finding a place to stay near Venice. Don't bother going down to Fusina even though you can catch a ferry from there. However, the area along the river Brenta around Dolo and Mira turned out to be quite nice and we eventually stumbed upon a gem of a place called Villa Ducale.
It the...
I'm in a dreaded Eurocamp late at night in an Internet kiosk. It's not easy to find Internet access. Wish I had brought a laptop now as wifi access is everywhere.
The Italian lakes live up to my expectations. Very beautiful. We stayed in Benova which is north of Stresa on Lake Maggiore. We visited Isola Bella which is an island with a fabulous villa and garden on it. Next we wound our way over to Lake Como which is even better. Much more dramatic landscape with very steep hills all around it. The lakes are supremely picturesque but rather boring...
No, I definitely wouldn't want to live in Milan. The Science and Technology Museum was very good. We went there to see models of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions. The man was brilliant and we've been talking about him quite a bit with the kids. That was the highlight of the day for me. Well, maybe it was the ice cream. Jenny and R* are at La Scala seeing Don Quixote so I'm sure that will be their highlight. Neither K* or I wanted to see it. We just spent some time in the park instead.
Looking forward to getting our rental...
It's the morning of our second day in Milan. I'm sitting at an ancient Windows 98 computer in the hotel lobby. I'm really not sure this post will work as I'm getting lots of errors popping up. A friend who lived in Milan for a couple of years described it as a sh*thole. I wouldn't condemn it that badly but I'm not that impressed after one day of wandering around.
The Duomo and glass covered gallery are amazing of course. We also went and saw Leonardo's "The Last Supper" at the Santa Maria del Grazie (or however you spell it). That...