Blogs from Lazio, Italy, Europe - page 11

Day 33 - Wandering Rome Three days is in Rome is quite a lot, especially when it’s really hot. To be clear, Rome is amazing, and we did our best to remain active and engaged and excited. However, we quickly settled into the same routine as Athens due to the heat. Each day, we left early from the flat, did the things we wanted to do to the point of exhaustion from heat, came back and took a multi-hour nap, then headed out to have dinner and perhaps some shopping. This pattern actually worked very well, and we recommend to anyone traveling to Rome or Athens in the heat of the summer. Each of us had many things we wanted to see in Rome. Anne wanted to see the Sistine Chapel; Tony wanted to see the ... read more

Up early for a delicious buffet breakfast with both European and American fare available, we were ready for a full day ancient Rome. Our tour guide led use through the streets of Ancient Rome taking us first to the Trajan Forum and Markets. From there we walked to the Roman Forum wondering the streets and looking at the ruins of the buildings that were once the Heart of the Roman Empire. The forum contained the most important political, religious and municipal buildings. Among these are the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the House of the Vestal Virgins. Moving on from the forum we entered the Colosseum, a functional stadium that featured entertainment by animals, slaves and gladiators. During the Middle Ages the stone was used for building, thus the missing ... read more

I set my alarm for 8am as that was the time Janine's flight from Melbourne was landing. Showered then headed off to walk to the Termini to meet her - it was hot already at 9am! As I had down the same trip into the city from the airport that Janine was going to do today, I was able tim give her a few tips but also to organize a meeting place, in case we couldn't get in touch. I arrived at about 9:25 and sat near Lush as arranged. I was keeping an eye on the arrival times of the trains from Fiumicino and would then watch for passengers coming off the train. The 9:40 came and went - no Janine. The 9:55 came and went - still no Janine so I decided to get ... read more

Woke at 7:30 this morning to get organised as I needed to walk to the local train station, get a ticket and catch the 8:30 train to Zurich airport. Manuela had already left for work by the time I got up. So grateful that I was able to stay the night at her house and wish it could have been for longer. Got to the train station without it raining and after a bit of hit and miss, I think I bought the right ticket. The train arrived on time and I only had to travel to the next station. From this station I could get a fast train to the airport. I only had a 10 minute wait and then the train arrived. It was about an hour to get to the airport and even ... read more

We didn’t know how long we would be back in Gaeta, but we would work to try to get out as soon as we could as this sailing season was definitely starting late. It was about 3PM when we got settled back into our slip on Wednesday (the 13th). Shortly after that Alex from the marina came over to take photos of the engine and get a few more details on what the problem was so he could send this information to the mechanic. He told us he wasn’t sure when the mechanic would be over, but they would let us know. We actually knew of two people that we met that had their boats in the yard needing work on their engines, so we didn’t know where we would fit in. Bob thought of starting ... read more