A Roman Holiday (the sequel)

 


 
A Roman Holiday (the sequel)
Sept. 20 marked the end of our stay in Florence and another travel day that would return us to the eternal city, Rome.

Not that we’re paranoid about travel days or anything, but I have to admit that we made a trial run (well, walk) from our VRBO to the train station the day before to determine the possibility of not taking a cab.  The result of the experiment was that we decided to take a cab.

Our hostess, Francesca, was kind enough to call and try to book us a ride for the morning.  We probably shouldn’t have been surprised when the cab company would commit to nothing.  We were told that there was a running marathon taking place through the streets of Florence in the morning, and that many routes would be blocked.  Sigh.  Francesca told us not to feel hard done by, because taxis in Florence are impossible at the best of times.

She then plotted a route to the station that was different than the one we had tested.  Naturally, we chose to make a second trial run, and we found the average gauge of cobblestone absolutely preferable to the path we’d tried.  This was key, as we are travelling with a borrowed suitcase and need to bring it back alive.

The morning trek, luggage and all, went very smoothly if you don’t consider the fact that, in total, we walked 6.6 km in total to make a 2.2 km trip.

The train trip itself was excellent.  The train was on time to the exact minute, and we got some wonderful views of the Tuscan countryside that looked great even at 250 km/hr.  We saw a number of those hilltop towns that Tuscany is known for.

Arriving back in Rome meant that we were now in familiar territory, and we knew that our hotel was an easy walk from the station.  It is a different hotel than the previous one in Rome.  It’s called the Columbia and it is a smaller, older, but very charming property.  Our room key has a five pound weight attached, and we have to turn it in every time we go out and beg for it back each time we return.  It feels a bit like having a den mother.

Our second floor window opens onto the street full of hustle and bustle and frivolity and accordions. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s bad.

Next up for us is and early morning guided tour of the Vatican.  It’s 4.2 km away and we’ve already decided that we will walk.  We’ll file our report on the Vatican in our next blog.



Frecciarossa, Italia rail fast train spent most of the time well over 200 km/hr. 
We covered 280 km in 1 hour 26 minutes.

 
The open window and shutters revealed the accordion player below our window, welcoming us back to Rome.


Beautiful antique blown glass light fixture...

Weighty key with tassel for room entry technology.

 
Just enough time after arriving in Rome to enjoy a gelato from the Volkswagen gelato shop - so clever!











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lions and Tigers and Gladiators, oh my!

Image
  We were regaling the Italians with tales of the ancient building in our homeland where we used to practice blood sports.  They did not seem particularly impressed to hear about the Pacific Coliseum. Change the location and the spelling and go back a couple thousand more years and it’s a whole different story.  The Roman Colosseum is most impressive indeed.  As we’d done for the Vatican, we had organized a skip-the-line early morning tour online, and it saved us an enormous amount of grief fighting the crowds trying to buy same-day tickets. We hit the jackpot with the tour guide we were assigned to.  Imagine Robin Williams in his most manic moments and then add about five cups of espresso.  That was Alessandra.  She was absolutely nuts, but we learned more about Roman history than we could have gotten in any classroom setting.  She started the tour by telling us we would all die by the end of it, and then assigned roles to various individuals fro...
Read more

Three Days in Florence

Image
Three Days in Florence - Sept 20-24, 2023  The Duomo Our exploration of Florence included two museum visits for which we purchased tickets before leaving home.  The first was the world famous Uffizi Gallery, which houses sculptures and paintings by all of the renowned artists that you read about in the encyclopedias.  There was a gallery dedicated to Michelangelo, one dedicated to Leonardo, one to Raphael, and countless more.  The subject matter of most of the works was very solemn, with a focus on religion and Roman mythology. This did not stop us from reconsidering the potential labels for the works we viewed.  Thus, the “Death and Mayhem and Destruction” gallery was softened by the “Oops, I Slipped a Boob” gallery, not to mention the “Has Anyone Seen my Penis?” gallery and the ever popular “Has Everyone Seen my Penis? “ gallery.  There can be no doubt that the practice of sculpting predated the invention of pants. Another observation we had was that...
Read more

We are officially relaxed!!!

Image
The door to our B&B in Civitavecchia  Yes, that skeleton key is our room key! The beach in Civitavecchia, the port city for Rome A massive statue of a sailor and nurse on the waterfront promenade in Civitavecchia  We left Civitavecchia Italy Saturday at 5 pm and woke up yesterday morning in Corsica France. The Mediterranean is like glass and not a bump was felt since we left port.  We visited the old town of the city of Ajaccio and witnessed international bocce being played. No gentle bouncing of wooden balls here, they use steel and wing those babies with all their might. I thought it might be olympic shotput! Today we spent the day in Portofino Italy. It is a tiny port with beautiful pastel buildings at the water. We climbed to castle and a lighthouse and once again, we survived the hike! Life is good!!! We sat at the water on the port wall. We enjoyed a gelato and remembered our good friend Pete who loved this place. I can understand why. Back to the ship to enjoy ...
Read more