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Published: September 28th 2011
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Letting Off Steam
Trace after finishing her 1st day behind the wheel! Except for the occasional robbery, this trip had been going like clockwork. That is of course until this week. First of all we arrive in Brugge only to find that we had miscalculated our arrival by one day and were supposed to have been in our beautiful accommodation a day prior to what we expected. We therefore had to cancel our accommodation in Brussels and get up at 4:30am in order to make our flight to Pisa. We managed to accomplish all this and arrived in Italy back on track, or so we thought. When we arrived at the rental car desk to pick up our prearranged vehicle, the lovely man there listened very sympathetically to my hard luck story as to why I couldn't produce my licence before arriving at his judgement which roughly translated was "Ima sorry but In Italy, noa licence, noa drivee". The impact of this on Graeme was not as heavy as it was on Tracey, who, all of a sudden, was thrown in at the deep end to drive on the wrong side of the road for the first time in her life in the country that she had on good authority produced the craziest
drivers in the world. In fact, over the past 5 or 6 weeks, she had mentioned, more than once, how worried she was about me driving on the Italian roads. Isn't irony a funny thing?
Like the trooper she is, the pocket rocket handled the pressure like a veteran and we made it to Lucca, a beautiful medieval walled city in the north west of Italy. We only had a couple of days there but managed day trips to Florence and Cinque Terra. I won't even attempt to describe Cinque Terra because I am sure that most people have already heard so much about it, except to say that it is all true.
We decided to break up the road trip from Lucca to Sorrento with an overnight stop at a place just out of Rome called Guidonia Montecelio. Our accommodation there doubles as an equestrian training centre so the view from our window was of riders practising their jumps, dressage etc. A walk to the other end of the building and we were looking at the magnificent hills surrounding Rome. We are very close to the town of Tivoli so venture in there for dinner and are
not disappointed. The four of us have a hearty meal plus wine and beer for about 35 euros and come away more than satisfied.
We arrive in Sorrento on Saturday afternoon and realise very quickly that we will have to share it with thousands of other tourists. That's ok though, because there is plenty here for everyone.
A highlight, apart from the magnificent coastline, would be our visit to Pompeii and Herculaneum. It is mind blowing to look at the condition and quality of some of the workmanship and think that it was probably there in the time of Christ.
The last journey in our trusty rented Peugeot is from Sorrento to Rome airport where we are to drop it off and make our way into the city by bus. We must have taken four wrong turns getting there but I reckon that Trace would have driven over the tarmac if necessary to end her nightmare. We have virtually hit the road running as we have only about two full days in this famous city, but a late afternoon trek on our first night allows us to catch the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and a magical sunset view
from Pincio. Our second day is almost completely taken up with visits to The Vatican, Colosseum and The Forum and then it's time to say goodbye to our kids once again. It has been wonderful spending this last week with them.
It's hard to describe a holiday in Italy except to say that it has certainly been worth it. The history is amazing, the coastlines sensational, the people are friendly if not erratic, the drivers are erratic if not completely mad and the food is sensational. We have eaten in a restaurant where we have been entertained by a tenor just ten metres from us and singing as if he was on centre stage of the Sydney Opera House but I say, if you haven't eaten the best prawn risotto ever made with the dulcet tone of Dean Martin singing "That's Amore" in the background, then you haven't lived.
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