The Never Ending Journey

 After almost 3 days in Rome, I felt I should post a few notes to future travellers about transportation in Rome. First of all - buses. While Mussolini may have taken credit for getting the trains to run on time, he clearly abdicated any responsibility for buses.  Other than being assured that they will depart and arrive on the same day, actual schedules are pure fiction. Buses on our route today ranged from 27 minutes early to 20 minutes late.( On routes claiming to offer service every half hour!) Also, it appears buses have 3 speeds, 1 being dead stop, 2 being slightly faster than jogging speed and 3 being what happens when a driver sees a person waving their arms frantically while running for the bus- similar to Warp Speed on Star Trek, the bus simply disappears before your eyes!  Secondly- Pedestrian Crosswalks. They only seem to function when police or military are near by. Otherwise users are just moving targets unless one masters the “Evil Stare” in an attempt to “...

 Our second morning in Rome found us doing a somewhat lazy start to the day , a typical Italian breakfast - a thimbleful of coffee that would strip the enamel off a stove, along with yoghurt and enough sweet pastries to send a diabetic into shock.  Setting out at 10:30 with no real goal in mind we found ourselves at the Castel Sant Angelo, an imposing Rotunda which was once the tomb of Emperor Hadrian and later served as a fortress, a prison and a residence We spent about an hour and a half touring the various levels and admiring the views over the nearby Tiber River       For some reason I’m having trouble getting my text to wrap around the various photos! Following a quick dash back to the hotel for a quick shower and lunch, we joined the mob ( averaging 40,000 per day) for our assault on the Vatican. A guided tour lasting approx 2 hours took us through the main galleries of the museum. These included tapestries, a 300 metre gallery of ancient Italian maps, a ...

Vatican museum exit Grilled squid with eggplant and radicchio Gelato for dessert   While the title may be a nod to the movie, for those old enough to remember it, it sums up day one of our trip in a nutshell.  Our plane left Toronto an hour late (AirCanada, of course) and sitting in economy was a reminder of life as a slave in the ancient Roman war galleys. The only thing missing was a guy in uniform standing at the front, banging on a kettle drum and screaming “Row faster you lazy bastards!” Any more cramped and they could have drizzled us with olive oil and served us on toast! And of course where would life be without a little drama?  Halfway through the flight the pilot announced that they needed the assistance of a Doctor for some type of medical emergency, followed shortly by a “Is there a nurse on board to assist with inserting an IV” The expected diversion to Dublin or Paris, luckily, didn’t happen but we were held on the plane for an hour, once we landed , wh...

I usually need to get to less than the One Week mark before I start getting super excited about an upcoming trip.  At the 9 day mark, this time, I'm almost there. I splurged on a Samsonite Aero carry-on bag which weighs in at 4.6 pounds and did a weigh in fully packed at 16 pounds. Considering my size 11 clodhoppers weigh a pound each, that's not bad.  On our first trip to Europe- Insight Tours Turkey in 2004? we lugged along cases the size of bar fridges with suits, evening wear, 8 changes of clothing and in my case, 10 pounds of camera gear. The limit was 20kg and we were close. My camera gear these days is a Moment Case and 3 lenses that fit my phone as well as a backup Panasonic zoom camera.  My travel guides are no longer hard copies, rather they are e-books that add no extra weight. I've printed maps and directions to most of our lodgings, again with backups in the form of downloaded google maps. Ditto tickets for already booked buses, trains, planes that will get u...

 Today marks 30 days till we fly out to Rome, our first significant trip since 2019. Our path will take us on a similar route to our last trip when we toured Sicily, the main difference being that we will not be joining a tour group but will be exploring on our own. That opens up a whole other world of opportunities or, to put it another way, to screw up! The plan will keep us busy for about 30 days if all goes as scheduled.  I said at the end of my last trip that I would do things a little more spontaneously, leaving more things to chance. Yet here I am, 3 years later, with most of the T's crossed and the I's dotted as usual. Starting with 3 days in Rome, the balance of the trip is evenly divided into 2 fourteen day segments, one in Tuscany followed by a second 2 weeks in Sicily. I had hoped to squeeze in a few stops in SE Italy ( the heel area of the boot) but decided that adding 6 extra stops was pushing things, so that will wait for another trip,  This being our third...

 Barely a week after our trip to Sicily, my brain was asking me, "where next?"  My health app. on my phone was telling me," where-ever it is, slow the heck down" We tracked an average daily walking distance of over 9km during our trip and the knee pain that arose from dashing between terminals in Rome and the almost 2 km covered, as well as the almost back to back 11 hours of flights between Palermo and Toronto left me aching and alternating Tramacet, CBD and Kalaya cream in an effort to alleviate the pain.  Now, almost 3 years later, our first trip overseas to the Azores ( not counting an AI in Mexico) is also a week into the past.   My suitcase is emptied and put away. Well, not quite emptied- I left the electric adaptors, the sewing and eyeglass repair kits and the Birkenstocks inside- for next time. My "Next Time" will definitely exclude any trip listed as an "Organized Tour" for reasons I'm including below. It's a rant, so if you a...

In retrospect we possibly could have shortened our trip to Milan by one day, but there is a large shopping area that we have barely touched so we will probably do that tomorrow.  We started our visit with the most obvious spot, the Cathedral. Located in a large Piazza it must’ve one of the largest in Italy, if not Europe. We restricted our visit to the main body of the building and the archeology site in the basement ,the actual museum being closed on the day of our visit. They did offer an elevator ride or stair climb to the rooftop. However wehave seen more than enough panoramic views of many European cities. How different could this one be.   During the next 3 days we covered a variety of sights including Storza Castle with its sweeping gardens and three floors of very impressive museums.  A visit to the Museum of Science and Technology gave us a view of several models of Leonardo da Vinci models based on his actual plans. It also featured a l...