Advertisement
Published: April 1st 2008
Edit Blog Post
Let's step back in time for a moment and revist the past. I want to update you on the crazy time I have had travelling around Italy.
For those of you who didn't know, my friend Nessa and I booked with Contiki to do the Simply Italy tour and spend 12 days travelling around Italy. I had done a tour with Contiki before which was absolutely manic but Nessa talked me into doing another one. It would give us a chance to catch up and I would get the chance to visit a few places I had never been before, like the Isle of Capri and Cinque Terre.
So just over 2 weeks ago, Nessa and I flew out of Heathrow - my third trip to Heathrow in a week! - to Rome. That was after an interesting tube ride to Heathrow where for some unknown reason I was particularly uncoordinated and kept hitting my head on the roof! Somewhat bruised and battered, we checked in, with me surreptitiously placing my bag on the scales, attempting to will the damn thing to be as light as possible. When I was packing I spent a great deal of time knealing
on my bag attempting to close it so I was a bit concerned that it would either weigh an awful amount or simply explode there and then. Fortuntately it was all good and it was off to the departure lounge and a quick bite in a cafe that should really appear in the next season of Gordan Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.
After a quick flight to Rome where there was lots of gasbagging and some red wine -"see that wine, make it mine", clearly the craziness had already begun - we were off the plane and jumping in a cab. Now that all sounds fairly sensible but in the middle of the night in Italy when the cab driver turns to you and says, "you're young girls", picks up his phone and starts jabbering away in Italian and then complains he doesn't know where the hotel is, strange thoughts start to run through your mind. So I was sitting there, trying my hardest to memorise street names and places, all the while considering whether stabbing him with my earrings and then beating him around the head would be feasible if he tried anything dodgy. Unbeknowst to me, Nessa was having
the same thoughts, so when we arrived at the hotel, we were both quite amused to hear of the other's plans to attack the cabbie!
Once happily installed in our room, Nessa attempted to get phone reception which from memory involved standing with her arm out from the end of the bed, with one finger pointed in the air and God knows what other strange positions! Hilarious!
Inital thoughts about Italy -
- damn, McDonalds - why? stoppid globalisation. Thank God there aren't Starbucks everywhere, I want real Italian coffee!
- Wow, how awesome does the coliseum look lit up a night? Btw, apparently there is light there for every state/country that has abolised the death penalty.
- driving in Italy is mental, and indication is simply a suggestion, not a rule.
- how fat am i going to get eating fabulous Italian food?
Our first full day in Rome was great, with a trip in the wrong direction on the bus, without paying into the centre of Rome, stopping outside what would fondly become known as the 'Wedding Cake', which in reality is a huge monument and museum. After gawking at some shoe shops and trying not to get too carried away, we were seduced by a waiter down a little road that leads to the Pantheon. After the best bruschetta in the world - and no, i'm not exaggerating - and some more food and the first of many bottles of red wine for the trip, it was more browsing around, getting a feel for the city.
Guility, I did succumb and buy a clock - I don't have a clock at home and that's the excuse I'm sticking to. We wandered through the Pantheon, which is just amazing. Last time I was in Rome I didn't get the chance to go into the Pantheon. It is just huge, built with 100,000's of tiny bricks. Inside this beam of light just floods down, along with the weather if it is bad, and is just an amazing space. Apparently the Pantheon is the best preserved ancient building in Rome and the final resting place of the Kings of modern Italy and the artist, Raphel. After that we wandered the streets of Rome, gradually making our way to the Metro and the trip back to the hotel to join our tour.
The Tour
The official welcome meeting was that evening, with most people meeting upstairs in the restaurant for the welcome and dinner. We sat with two lovely girls from Brisbane, Sam and Angie, who are absolutely lovely and began the seemingly impossible task of introductions and remembering names. After dinner, which we decided was some random meat by-product (so much for the fabulous Italian food, lucky we had such an awesome lunch) we all headed around the corner to a bar, Flux, to try and mingle and get to know each other a bit better without getting so drunk that the 6.30am wakeup call would be impossible! So after meeting a couple more Aussies - you really can't avoid the gravitational pull - it was off to bed.
Now, for all of you hoping for some juicy goss regarding the Italian men, I will happily report that the waiter in the hotel was one of the most beautiful men I have laid eyes on in a while. But, no, for all of you assuming that this tale will include a passionate love affair with a spunky Italian man, I will spoil your expectations now and allow you the opportunity to choose not to read on, because no, there wasn't one! However, who knows what future blog posts will hold, hmmn...fingers crossed anyway!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0495s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb