Year: 2011

Rome, Italy

The trip from Singapore to Frankfurt is best forgotten!

We arrived in Rome yesterday 12th September, feeling exhausted. We waited 45 minutes before our luggage appeared – 10 flights per carousel, so imagine the crowds!! Hopped onto the train to Termini station with several hundreds of others. Temperature – 32 degrees.

Our hotel is absolutely delightful in a quiet street surrounded by excellent eateries. The pescare is to die for! Last night we enjoyed dinner at Mamma Angela’s which is about 20 metres away.

I had a seafood risotto and Gray, a lasagne. I gather I have to work on my version of lasagne if it is to equal what he ate!
Streets are lined with motorbikes – far too many Japanese bikes, but did spot a good old Vespa.

We slept like logs.

After breakfast we headed off on the Metro to the Colosseum – such intrepid travellers. We went in the wrong direction only once!
I was suddenly in my latin class of 1959 as we stepped out onto the road from Colesseo Station – quite overwhelming!

There are still truckloads, actually busloads, of tourists about.

After lunch where we were given a complimentary grappo,

we walked down to the Bocca bella Verita in true Audrey and Gregory style. As you can see Gray passed the test! He still has his hand.

We are loving the coffee and feel insulted when offered Cafe Americana!

Rome, Italy

Oh dear, when you are offered free lemonccello at the end of a meal you know you have spent lots of money – but it was so worth it!!

We set off for the Trevi fountain at about 6pm when it was slightly cooler. Gray was navigator, planning the trip whilst I had a teeny tiny Nana nap back at the hotel.
After a short trip we came up out of the Metro to see a fountain! Not where we had expected it to be, and almost no-one around it. Perhaps this was real luck? But some intense map checking proved it was the wrong one!

However, all was sorted when he found the right one.

The crowds were still quite large and I wasn’t keen to push through them to get down to the edge.

I guessed that none of them would have understood that I’d been waiting to throw my coins in since I was about 12 years old. Gray had them ready in his pocket.

In the end it was enough to savour the moment and enjoy the atmosphere.
We decided to find a trattoria on the way back to the station to have our dinner.

In true Clayton fashion we found an amazing restorante and spent a wonderful time appreciating excellent food and wine. Anyone going to Rome, I’d certainly recommend Il Vineto restaurant.

Back at our little hotel, we feel relaxed, ready to face packing up and heading to Firenze tomorrow.

Arrivederci Roma

Auckland, New Zealand

We’ve always said that leaving on a long haul flight late at night, is a bad idea. We still believe that!
The Roadcat Shuttle took us up to Auckland

and finally at 11.30pm we were on board our flight to Singapore, having checked our luggage right through to Rome. (Yes, Liam, we were well underweight!!)

After 12 long hours we were so relieved to arrive, check into our transit hotel for sleep and showers.

Just had a yummy lunch and COFFEE. Only 4 more hours before we check in for the next round; Singapore, Frankfurt, Rome.

At long last we’re off to ‘Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names – our long-awaited, and often delayed – trip to Italy & the South of France. We’re still not ready, but this time we’re going anyway. Once we’re on the plane heading north over the Pacific we’re going to put work and business worries behind us and Have A Holiday. Our aim is to be ‘Not Tourists’. Not to stay in tourist hotels, not to take (too may) guided tours, but to try to infiltrate the life of these countries and find out what’s behind the Travel Poster blurb. Eat like locals, find the history important to locals, live in a village for a bit. Sounds impossible? yes, probably, but hopefully fun trying anyway 😉

Auckland, New Zealand