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We went in search of a laundromat. Ha hahaha You want a what? We drove 12 km NE in search of one we found on the net. Got to close by and saw a sign. Great, but the sign posting here does not give you idea of distance. You may follow a sign for miles then they stop and you are expected to know where it is from there. In this case that sign was the one and only sign we saw of a “Lavanderia” We eventually gave up and headed south. There was apparently one near that shopping centre we found the other day. GiPS got really confused when we neared it cos it was very close to the LdV airport with exits very close together. Every time we took the exit we thought GiPS meant, the dreaded “Recalculating!!!” came up again. We gave up and decided to head off to the Parco Leonardo, the shopping centre for a look at what we didn’t get time to see last time. We went by road signs this time and half way there I had a feeling and turned right instead of left and lo and behold we found the laundry. We
were hoping it would be a coin operated one. It was but still had some-one in charge. Six hours she told us. 4 hours wash cycle and 2 hours drying. This is the second time we’ve come up against such long wash time. Seems this is normal. We left the washing there and said we’d be back the next day to pick it up.
Went to the Parco Leonardo and had a late lunch at Burger King. We sat in the eating area of the food hall and watched the understaffed Burger King (Hungry Jacks) inundated and all the other Italian style eateries customerless. We felt terrible that these Yankee fast food joints were going to put the locals out of business, and we’d contributed to it. Put us both off our food. We have also noticed the invasion of MacDonald’s close to all of the fabulous monuments. Infestation, I call it! We have vowed to support only the local businesses from now on.
The Colosseum, named after a huge bronze statue of Nero nearby, was the next on our list after picking up the laundry next morning. We took a guided tour and combined with our Rome
Republic Square
They know how to put on a fountain Pass we quickly got past the queues. The Colosseum took only 8 years to build, held 55,000. Maybe the builders of our new AFL stadium in Perth should look at their methods. Of course, it helps to have 70,000 slaves!!!
I hope the pics do it justice. We visited the Palatine, one of the Seven Hills of Rome, afterwards. (Our tour leader was a young Aussie girl) The rich built their mini palaces (the word palace comes from the word Palatine and the guy who built the Colosseum (The Emperor Flavius) demolished all of them and built one massive palace covering the whole of the hill. 2 storeys up and 4 down. Wow, it was big. Not much left above ground but they’re still digging.
The next day, Sat 31st, we mopped up the monuments - The inside of the Pantheon, Republican Square, Veneto Square etc. Today Sunday 1st June, we went briefly into the centre to see the inside of St Peters Basilica. Magnificent, to say the least. We remembered that all of the marble used at the big palatine palace was (appropriated) by the Church for the building of St Peters. Fran told me that all that
Veneto Square
More recent building. Il Duce used to make his speeches from here. I saw that looked like gold was gold. There certainly was a lot! We returned soon after as I think we both were churched and monumented out of our brains. We drove to the local beach and I dipped my feet into the Med for the first time. Walking up to the bar after, my feet ended up black from the sand. Sat at the bar and watched the locals. Quite cheeky some of them!!!
Hi everyone! Fran here. Just wanted to say hi to you all and let you know we are well and having a great time. Hope Kathy, Mark & Lib have/had a good time in Melbourne and thanks heaps for getting the Bocceli tickets Lib, will give you the Euro in Paris.
As most of you know already, it’s very hard not to put on weight in Italy. And yes, we have been stacking it on!! Must be something to do with going on holidays with a man. Three courses for breakfast, lunch and dinner and lots of vino rosso!!! We are going on a diet in Croatia.
I have found Italy much more expensive this time round. Not sure why really, perhaps because kitty
is coming out of just 1 pocket?
We are taking an overnight car ferry from Ancona to Split, Croatia tomorrow night which should be interesting. Wish us luck! Hope you are all well and happy and not too cold (ha ha sucked in). Love to you all, FranXXXX.
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Robyn
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Roma
Hi guys, your trip sounds wonderful, brings back lovely memories of the places that we visited last year. Hopefully you will find Croatia a little less expensive!! Keep up the great travel monologues, they really brighten up the beginning of the working week. XXRobyn