This post was written over several days so the today, yesterdays and tomorrows are probably all screwed up.
Last Day in Rome (and last day of the trip!)
Day trip to Orvieto
Well I’ll be honest. After our pouring rain day yesterday, last night Trev and I sat in the room wondering if we should still go for Orvieto today. They were calling for rain in almost every hour of the hour by hour forecast. And when we looked at the itinerary, there really wasn’t much to do to except enjoy the atmosphere of the little village. And if it poured the whole time there and we were stuck there for the entire day, would it just be miserable? I looked up, things to do in Orvieto in the rain. But there wasn’t much. In the end, we decided to just go with it.
Our train was quite early so we were out of the apartment at 7:30am. It’s the off season so while in peak season there are a lot of trains connecting Orvieto to Rome, in March you take what trains are available!
The hour by hour was looking a bit better, but still pretty sketchy and I was just hoping that the kids would like the town. Everyone had a really good sleep last night so that was good. After a 2 hour train ride we got dropped at the station and hopped on the funicular that takes you up to this Umbrian Hill own. Instead of catching the shuttle bus that takes you to the centre of town, Rick Steves had said it was worth a quick detour to the ruined fortress just around the corner and to just catch the next bus. So we went over. And the views were amazing! The kids loved walking along the top of this amazing ruined fortress with the amazing views. Within 5 minutes Joel had declared that he was sure this was going to be one of our best days. He loved it. There are a lot of amazing sights in Rome, but the actual city is loud and bustling with traffic and the metro is crowded and loud. It’s not quaint and pretty. Orvieto is the opposite. It is quiet and so pretty and relaxing. That’s definitely Joel’s vibe.
Rome Day 3
I mentioned last night that we were going out at night to explore Rome because it looked like our last clear night. I’m glad we did it but it was exhausting!!!
 |
| Aperol spritz while taking the Landry off the line! |
Pompeii
Today was our trip to Pompeii. We crammed into the metro again but the ride was a bit shorter. We got off at the main station and easily caught our comfortable train to Naples. It’s quite nice because every time we get in the train they give us a bottle of water, a bag of chips and some chocolate cookies! Perfect to put in our bag for a little ride us over snack! This ride was a little over an hour.
Rome - Day 1
Our Airbnb is pretty good. It’s nothing fancy but the layout is great with 4 beds and the location is perfect. Literally steps from the main subway line. Rome is so big, this makes getting around really easy
Florence - Day 2
Ignore the formatting. It’s screwed up. Today we had a reservation at the Accademia Galley to start the day. Trev and I have been twice so I wasn’t super excited but something about David really is amazing. We spent about an hour enjoying David and also especially the unfinished Prisoner series of statues that really show some of the process of how it would have been to carve a statue out of marble. It really is incredible impressive!
Florence - Day 1 - Part 2
We had read in Rick steves about a restaurant that had a 20 euro fixed price meal that included a first course, a second course, a side, water and a glass of wine or pop. That was a great deal for the reasons I mentioned in the last post about pop being about 5 euros. And no free water anywhere either. No tap water at restaurants. And it was just a couple of blocks from our hotel! All the food was excellent the wine was delicious (best wine we’ve had so far)
Owen is overtired and silly and pretty annoying at this point in the trip but we are surviving! 😂 kids have lights out at about 9:30am and I struggle to wake everybody up at 7:30am for the day.
Florence - Day 1
Well I’ve tried 3 times and the pics keep coming in backwards. No idea why that happens on this platform sometimes! 😠also the capitals and periods aren’t working right and it takes way too long to fix all of them
The play for today was to take a train to Lucca and Pisa we had heard there was a train strike on tofay but the sign at the train station yesterday didn’t list Trebitalia as one of the affected carriers so we thought we were ok this morning we got up and ready and got to the train station at 8:50am train was at 9:09am we got tickets at a ticket machine to Lucca, checked the board for the platform and hopper on the train just before the train was supposed to leave we heard someone taking about a train strike and they said that this train was terminating its service partway through the route so it was going about halfway to Lucca Trev and I started talking about what to do and the Italian lady beside us said, if you want to go to Lucca, just get off in Pestoia, and from there you should be able to catch another train to Lucca and Pisa so that’s what we did got off 45 minutes later in Pestoia. I went up to the counter and said, we are trying to get to Lucca. And the guy said, today is not a good day to travel. There is a train strike on and I said, ok well then we need to get back to Florence. And he said, I just told you there is a train strike. And I said, ok are there no trains running at all? He said I can’t tell you that. There is a strike and trains are being cancelled without notice. So I said, how would you suggest I get back to Florence from here then. And he said, it is not going to be possible to tell you that. I said, is there a taxi? He said, a taxi will be too expensive and all of you will not fit. And I said, well somehow I need to get back to Florence today. Are there buses? And he said, you can check with the bus station across the street.
Venice - Day 1
Today we took the slow vaparetto boat along the Grand Canal. I read the Rick Steves Tour along the way which the kids found super embarrassing! 😂
Travel Day to Italy
Our travel plans got off to a bit of a frantic start! Our original plan was to leave at 11am on Wednesday to drive to Toronto so the boys could do their first 2 classes. As we got closer to the date, the weather wasn’t looking the best. But Tuesday after work when I checked the weather, it was looking worse.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)