Blogs from Lazio, Italy, Europe - page 3

It was harder than I thought to get into the routine of a blog again so it's taken me a while to pull this together. One of the downsides of taking a lot of photos - they are time consuming to review and edit! Better late than never, here's the first installment of Marilyn's 2022/23 travel adventures. I hope to catch up in the next couple of weeks... While I was in Whitehorse, I got a phone message from Passport Canada, notifying me that my passport was finally available to pick-up after its summer drama (that’s a whole different story!). Yay – I could leave the country on September 22 as planned! If the Yukon adventure in mid-September was a gentle reintroduction into travel, Italy was like getting dropped into a madhouse! I booked two trips ... read more

TUE, 23 AUG 2022 – Day 11: Rome: Optional Free Day - Rome boasts ancient ruins, historical landmarks, religious buildings and a buzz like no other, and you’ve got a full free day to explore! Visit the Colosseum or the Roman Forum and drift backwards in time to when gladiators, chariots and lions dominated the arena. Join an excursion to the papal palace of Castel Gandolfo in the morning or spend the afternoon in the Vatican City - the smallest country in the world! Explore St Peter’s Basilica and see Michelangelo’s artwork in the Sistine Chapel. One of the best areas for sampling authentic Roman food is in Trastevere where restaurants, favoured by the locals, serve original and classic dishes you may not find elsewhere. Enjoy! Overnight – Hotel IH Hotel Roma Z3... read more

Tonight we’ll be flying to Rome, where we’ll be staying overnight in the airport, so that we can catch an early morning flight tomorrow to Trieste, en route to Slovenia. We’ve both decided that we really don’t like the chaotic places that airports seem to have become post COVID, so we’re looking forward to this like a hole in the head. … and as has always been the case during our travels, if you have to experience one airport, you then generally need to experience another one too, after the plane lands; I don’t suppose we should complain about this too much, it’s probably better than the alternative which would presumably involve the plane not landing, or “landing” somewhere that wasn’t an airport. We’re both feeling very sad to be leaving Valencia and Spain in general. ... read more

Day 6 of the cruise... read more

On Saturday, after a couple of disappointing (not to the fault of the city) days in Naples, we checked out of our quaint hotel and hopped on a train to Rome. The countryside was filled with never-ending grape and sunflower farms and mountains in the distance. After an uneventful hour and a half ride, we arrived and found our way to the taxi pickup zone. There was a group of around 40 or 50 young men playing drums and singing some anthem, drawing quite a crowd. We couldn't tell what the words were and I wasn't even sure what language they were singing in. Once we got in our taxi I asked the driver what the excitement was about and he said he didn't know because the group wasn't Italian. After the very brief (maybe 3 ... read more