Travels in Europe
Short post today. We just cannot get over being tired, so we slept in again today. We skipped doing the Angels & Demons tour that we had both looked forward to, but it just wasn’t something we could do this morning.
However, we did make it to Capitoline Hill Museum, which overlooks the ruins of the Roman Forum. The museum is fantastic, and little visited. This place was a highlight of Rome, and we stayed until they closed at 8pm.
We’re all packed and ready for the morning travel.
We got an earlier start today than the past few days. We were dressed and packed up for the day by just after 8am, went down for breakfast, and was disappointed to learn that they were out of formaggio, so all we would have today is bread. This hotel is fantastic location-wise, but the food service has been pretty lackluster – which is funny since this place is primarily a restaurant with a few rooms.
We took the subway to the Spagna stop, home to the Spanish Steps area. Since we were on the subway at about 9am on a Thursday it was jam packed with locals on their way to work. It was so packed that there was trouble getting in through the door, then challenging to find a place to hold onto while we stood for the ride.
The whole reason to be out in this area at this time was to visit the Levi’s store to get new jeans and maybe a new shirt for Kevin. Well, the store didn’t carry custom jean lengths like you can find in the US, all were 4 inches longer. They could custom hem them, but pickup wouldn’t be until after 6p tomorrow, which is the night before we go home – what’s the use? Plus, the jeans and shirts were all way more expensive. After money conversion, the polo shirt we looked at would have been $125, waaaay tooooo much $$ for Kev’s wardrobe.
Then we went on a hunt for a store we saw on the map that sells Cuban cigars. Didn’t look to be too far away. Hmm, we ended up getting our city tour this morning, in an unplanned fashion, as Kevin hadn’t even brought his camera with him. We saw Piazza Colonna, Piazza Parliamento, Trevi Fountain, etc as we wound through the streets. After leaving Trevi Foutain we got turned around and walked the wrong direction, by the time w realized it we were far from a subway station. So we walked all the way back across town. Kev would want me to mention that he did most of this walking carrying a bag of groceries, since we bought a few things when we thought we were about to get on the subway to go back to the hotel.
The good part of the walk was that we found an excellent little hidden restaurant called Mario’s. Excellent service and food, with an outdoor patio under cover of ivy that was tucked back behind the ruins of Forum of Augustus on via Grillia.
After all the walking, we came home (to the hotel) to relax for a few hours. We have a lot of walking to do tonight at the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel and want to be rested and refreshed. I’ll write about the Vatican tour in a separate post.
We are eating healthy foods, but probably because of all the walking and hills and stairs, we are always soooo tired. Again, we slept in today. Didn’t get down to breakfast until a bit after 11am. We should have just had lunch, but our free breakfast was waiting on us. We both had two cups of cappuccino with breakfast which really helped get us going.
Cattia gave us better directions to the laundry place, so we set out again to find it, this time with the suitcase of dirty clothes. Well, we did find it, but they could not get our clothes washed/dried the same day, and both of us really need some of these clothes to wear tomorrow. To make a long story short, after a fruitless search for a nearby self-service laundry we gave up and I washed the necessary clothes in the hotel sink. I’ll be lucky if my jeans are dry by tomorrow. And, a lot of precious time wasted that could be spent seeing the sights of Rome. Argh, I hate that these menial tasks take up so much time.
On a good note, the sun is back out today and we went to the Forum this afternoon. I love this place, but not as much as I used to. I fell in love with the Forum on my first trip here ten years ago. Then, it was free and you could just wander through the ruins any time you wanted. Now, not only is it 11 euros per person, but there are major walkways that you have to stick to, and you can’t go up to and get close to the ruins. Many paths are even closed off. I know it is to protect the ruins from the increased number of tourists, but it just isn’t the same intimate experience it used to be. I was very disappointed with the experience today, although the runs of the Forum shining in the sunlight are still awe-inspiring. This changes my opinion of Rome as my favorite city in the world.
We took a quick trip on the subway tonight. We went to the Spanish Steps area where there are a ton of retail shops to find the Levis store we saw on the map. Kevin’s jeans are ripping in an undesirable area and he needs replacement jeans pronto. Unfortunately, the store closed thirty minutes before we arrived so we’ll have to go back tomorrow.
We plan to get up early tomorrow to get pictures in the Forum with the morning sun. Tomorrow night is our Vatican tour, only two days left… 
We arrived in Rome via train from Chiusi, a little town in Tuscany. The train ride was only 1.5 hours, arriving at 3pm, and was uneventful. This train only cost 40 euros for both of us in first class, a far cry from the 240 franks we paid to get from Lugano to Florence. We got off the train at Rome Termini, the main train station in central Rome. Whew, that place is seriously busy and packed with people on a Tuesday mid-afternoon. Kevin didn’t like my plan to take the subway down two stops to Collosseo, the subway stop very close to our hotel, because he didn’t want to lug his luggage. So, we took a cab. A waste of money in my opinion, but it makes Kevin happy.
We’re staying at the Royal Art Cafe, which has a few hotel rooms above a restaurant directly facing the Collosseum. I’ll write more about it later.
The bad news is that it is a rainy day. There are still plenty of tourists walking around the Collosseum with umbrellas and plenty of vendors walking around offering to sell umbrellas to the tourists. We spent the afternoon in the hotel restaurant eating a long dinner and, as we had a table right in the front window, people watching. We just didn’t do much of anything, although my itinerary called for us to go to the Roman Imperial Forum and Collosseum today.
Tonight, we went for a little walk after dark. We started out looking for the laundry place that Cattia, the hotel manager, had told us about. She didn’t know where it was exactly, just the general area near the hotel, so we set off looking. After walking every street in the area we could not find it and were glad we had not lugged our suitcase of dirty clothes with us. Since we were in the area, we then took a walk around the back side of the Collosseum and Palatine Hill and I took some cool night shots of these sights.
I like to give credit where it is due, and it is definitely due at Avis. Our experience picking up our car in Florence, which was booked through AutoEurope, was very good. The agent was very polite, helpful, and efficient. Not only did he do a good job explaining the terms of our car rental, but he offered us good directions to get out of town. Plus we got a great car, we really enjoyed the Alfa Romeo.
At drop off in Chiusi, although the Avis location is difficult to find on a back road, it is a very large business. They sell Avis cars as well as rent them, so they look like an American-style car dealership including a large glassed-in office/showroom. By the time we reached the desk inside, the agent already knew who we were and greeted us by name (he must have had a roster of cars due back, and recognized the car as it pulled in?) Check in was a breeze, but the best thing was that the agent asked us if we needed a ride to the train station, which of course we did. A very nice young guy drove us to the train station in the same car we just arrived in, our Alfa Romeo, and practiced his English with us all the way there (he is excited about a trip to New York planned for the Fall).
All in all excellent service. Really beats the lackluster service and grumpy agents at Hertz from early in our trip.
I am almost a week behind in updating the blog, sorry. I will try to catch up today. I’m on a train to Rome right now, so hopefully it will give me some time to write. I’ll backdate the entries.
I just haven’ had time to write up everything about our days Tuscany, so I am putting this post in here as a placeholder to remind myself to do it.
But just know it was absolutely wonderful, so beautiful.
We are staying at a medieval castle just outside of Siena. This place is so cool. It is situated on a hill, so it can be seen from far away, and really stands out because of the design. It is shaped as a square, and each corner has a tall tower with crenelations on top. It is surrounded by tall cypress trees, olive groves, and flower gardens.
The castle is owned and occupied by two sisters who have had the castle in their family since the 1800s. Niccola, son of Laura, speaks English and helps run the operation. They rent two rooms as a bed and breakfast, and also a separate apartment on the lower floor off the courtyard. One of the two rooms is inside one of the castle towers. It requires about 100 steps to get to the bedroom, including two narrow spiral staircases – quite a workout! You definitely need to be healthy, have good knees, and pack light to stay here. But it is soooo worth it, as you have the entire tower to yourself. This includes big windows on all four sides with long distance views. You can see Siena on the hilltop on one side, and awesome views of the rolling hills lined with vineyards, olive groves, wheat fields, and spotted with cypress trees and big stone farmhouses. Molto benne!
However, there are also some not-so-good things. The bed is extra firm, as in extra hard. The pillows are flat. It’s somewhat clean, but not really clean, as they don’t seem to have a dedicated cleaning crew. And there are workers trimming the olive trees with chainsaws staring at 8am everyday. Since there is no A/C, we sleep with the windows open so everything outside can be clearly heard. This didn’t wake us up, as we awoke around sunrise each morning anyway.
Love this place, would definitely stay here again.
We were so reluctant to leave our wonderful Florence apartment that we didn’t even pack until the last minute. We left right at 11:00, the stated check-out time. At check-out we met Robert, who is half owner of the building, and let him know how much we loved the place. In return for the compliment he let us keep our network cable for free - haha! Robert also called a taxi for us to go pick up our rental car.
As the taxi whisked us away, we had a last look at the Palazzo Vecchio and hoped it wouldn’t be another ten years before we go back.
Our rental car is from Avis. Again, we didn’t get the car we expected, although this time it turned out better. We had expected a Fiat Grande Punto, but instead got an Alfa Romeo 147 - a sporty little hatchback. It is a turbo diesel, so although the gas mileage probably isn’t so good, Kevin is having fun driving it. And it is more comfortable than the Mercedes was, go figure.
I almost forgot to mention the (elevator) lift incident. On the night we arrived in Florence, we went out to walk around and have dinner. When we returned to the Relais Piazza Signoria, we called the lift to take us up to the 4th floor. When we got in and punched the floor number, it was slow to get going. It started up, then just stopped and the lights all went off. We were stuck, and it was pitch black. I happened to be holding my camera, so I turned it on to let the lcd give us some light. We could hear people moving around in the building and figured the electricity was off for everyone. Kevin pried open the lift door and we were between floors, no way at all to get out. We sounded the alarm bell a few times just to make sure someone knew we were in there. It seemed like a long time, but it was probably just five minutes until the lights came on and the elevator started moving - back down. At the bottom floor the doors opened and there was Rosa the manager. She convinced us to stay in the elevator for the ride back up - it was safe now, she said - and old us that the circuit breaker for the whole building had tripped. She had run down to the basement from her sixth floor office to reset the breaker. She thought it was because they were fully booked for the first time, and it was a warm day meaning that people were turning on air conditioning all at the same time causing the circuit to overload. Anyway, she was very apologetic, and it was kind of funny.
By the way, Kevin refused to ride the lift for the rest of our stay. He took the stairs, I took the lift.