Italy:
Visiting Rome:
Rome, what an amazing city. A place so full of history, much more history to be appreciated than the two days we had allocated to see it…
…We arrived at Fiumicino airport in the evening, and the subsequent evening traffic. The place was a hive of activity, hectic and unfamiliar. Even still, we managed to get ourselves sorted and on the road in no time. Was one of the most painless airport exoduses so far! (Mostly because we hired a driver.) …We had originally planned on hiring a car from the airport and leaving it parked while we visited Rome. However, during our research, we discovered that it turns out if you’re not a resident you can’t drive where we were staying. Glad we discovered that before we got there. Even more glad Murray didn’t have to drive, since on the drive into the city it was clear that reputation of the whole Italians and driving appeared to be correct. It appears drivers in Italy are rather more aggressive than most (our driver included). Nevertheless, our driver got us to our destination, taking us through the cobbled cramped and maze-like locals-only zones to our apartment for the next couple of days. Even helped us with our bags to the door. Although organising the driver cost more than our flights from Germany (the flights were cheap), I’m sure the expense was worth it in terms of the pain in the derriere we were saved from having to experience by using public transport. With our bags, plus a bike…no thanks to riding the bus. Plus the added joy of also getting our bags from wherever public transport would have dropped us to the apartment. That would have been no fun at all.
Our apartment was comfortable, quiet and conveniently located close to plenty of restaurants and bars and other assorted nightlife. We wasted no time in settling in, more or less dropping our stuff off and heading out to explore. The streets were bustling with people, even though it was only a Tuesday night. Although it was our first night in Italy, we did the decidedly un-Italian thing and ate burgers and drank sour beer for dinner. No regrets. (Although we did discover that “chips” in Italy is actually fresh cooked potato crisps. Weird.)
The river Tiber, maybe 400m from our apartment.
The Roman Forum
I didn’t expect much from Rome, since in my mind’s eye I had figured it was going to be similar to Paris or Amsterdam or any of the other big ticket locations (huge crowds and hawkers galore). I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really enjoyed visiting Rome. Plenty to see, much more than we had time for. Yes, there were hawkers, but they didn’t seem to be as pushy or ubiquitous as other places we had visited…And although bustling with people, Rome didn’t feel anywhere near as crowded either (maybe because it’s not peak season anymore). Having enjoyed the tour we tagged along on in Munich, we did another free walking tour and then continued by doing plenty of exploring on our own. Actually, we almost did two of the walking tours, but we weren’t real impressed with the first one, and the second one was worse (strong Italian accent, too quiet and very difficult to understand). We walked almost continuously all day. (We did stop for pizza, beer and a power-nap. Exploring a big city on foot is hard work!)
…We walked just about everywhere we could think to go, occasionally stopping to enjoy the smell of fresh-roasted chestnuts, a scoop or three of gelato or just to admire the many fountains and statues dotted all over the city. (Not Trevi fountain however, as it was emptied for maintenance. My luck.) Occasionally this involved braving the scary pedestrian crossings – it seems in Rome at least, the cars do not stop if you wait at the kerb, and there are often no button-activated crosswalks – you have to assertively wade into the traffic and hope like heck that they stop. (They do, but it feels a bit touch and go.) The Colosseum and the Trajan’s Forum, Market and associated ruins were definitely a highlight (although the Colosseum was also under some serious maintenance/restoration) and if given the time, would have easily been a whole day out. I had also wanted to check out the Roman Forum, but by the time we got there, the gates were closed for the day, so unfortunately we weren’t able to go in and inspect the ruins in more detail. However, by then it was already late afternoon and our feet had more or less indicated in no uncertain terms that it was time to stop. So that more or less completed our Roman sightseeing experience.
Fontana Del Pantheon..(Looks a bit like a scary Donald Duck!) …Most of the fountains were turned off for the cooler months.
During our two days in Rome (more accurately one day and two nights) we also visited a few craft beer bars (once they opened for the evening), and sampled some of what Italy has to offer in terms of beverages and edibles. Ate possibly the best roasted octopus ever prepared. So good, I would have quite happily ordered a second serving (or more). But we didn’t. …But I might just remember that octopus for the rest of my life. I had no idea octopus could even taste anywhere near that good. The beer was also good, but was considerably less memorable.
I’m sure you know what this is. The other side is covered in scaffolding.
Arch of Constantine
In no time at all, our two days in Rome were up. It was well worth the visit, and in my opinion, well worth another day or two or more in the event that we pass by again.
Our trip back to the airport to acquire a hire car for the month went without a hitch (thanks to our driver), and without much delay we were on our way to our next stop: Tuscany. We opted to take the coastal roads and bypass using the toll road, thinking that this would perhaps be a scenic way to see some of Italy. It wasn’t. The drive along the coast was substantially longer, and perhaps the least scenic drive we have undertaken thus far, but was an interesting journey nonetheless. Once we began the drive through Tuscany things improved considerably, and the hills and small towns were much more interesting than anything else we saw on the drive. Plenty of castles on hilltops, seemingly ancient olive groves and churches with bell towers. It took us quite a while, but we made it to Prato without incident.
Home for the month: Prato, Tuscany
Our home for the month was in Prato, which is part of Tuscany and about 15 minutes away from Florence. The apartment was part of a villa based in Filletole, an organic olive growing area on one of the terraced hillsides surrounding the city. It was harvest time while we were there, and every day there were people busy at work in the fields stripping the trees of their olives for oil. (Which was also processed locally – we scored a bottle from our host!) Although we were staying in quite a large and populous city, the actual location where we were staying was very rural, complete with sheep adorned with bells. So jingly, it felt like being in Germany again. It was crazy that just on the other side of the river from the apartment, was the city proper, and with it, suburbia.
Home!
The roads around Filletole leave a bit to be desired. This road comes with mini-chickens and a guard rail! Very fancy.
Our place was quiet and for the majority of the time, quite peaceful. Although, the peace was occasionally shattered by virtue of thin walls in a shared space. Apartments in Italy seem to lack soundproofing, and our villa was no exception. So we were treated to all manner of Italian squabbling at various times of day. I’m not even sure if what we were hearing were disagreements, but whatever it was, it had a whole lot of what seemed like inappropriate volume (often at inappropriate times). You could hear the neighbours in the kitchen from the bathroom. (Awkward.) Also, it was rather evident that our upstairs neighbour was into Placebo. Particularly, singing along to Placebo. We heard a lot of Placebo. (Luckily, I like Placebo.)
Hilly Filletole, an excellent workout for the legs.
Exploring Central Italy:
Florence:
We did a day trip into Florence, opting to catch the train in and spent the day exploring. Although Florence is technically only 26km away, it’s a solid 45 minutes or better to drive there (and then the joy of parking in Italy – Hint: It’s not a joy). Traffic around Florence I strongly suspect is always terrible (and our experiences in its proximity for a month indicated much the same). However, it’s only 15 minutes on the train, so train it was. We eventually managed to figure out how to get a ticket for the train…But then couldn’t figure out how to validate it. It didn’t help that some of the machines we tried were not functioning, and that there wasn’t any English directions on how to validate said ticket. There were, however, plenty of English announcements describing the fining you were likely to receive if caught traveling using an unvalidated ticket.
We didn’t manage to validate our ticket before boarding the train. But, we had to change trains anyway to get to our destination, and our second attempt at validating resulted in success. Turns out the machines (when working) punch a hole in the ticket…It was not quite as high tech as I had imagined.
We arrived in town without incident and proceeded to walk the streets through alleys full of leather goods and the market full of fresh produce, smoked meats and delicious smells. The market was interesting, but unremarkable (I did, however, want to run away with a leg of cured pork). Before Florence, I don’t think I’d ever seen so much leather in one place. Numerous stalls selling jackets, purses, wallets, belts and bags abounding on almost every street corner (and often also all the way down the street), while the shops sported leather footwear and yet more assorted leather fashion (in case the stalls weren’t enough variety). It was a bit of overkill, really…and no, I did not purchase any leather products. So this tourist at least, managed to resist the pull of what must be the allure of several hundred cows worth of leather whatnot. Walking the streets, the air even smelled of leather.
Aside from the ubiquitous leather, Florence was plenty interesting enough, and we spent several hours wandering around checking out the various architectural hotspots on offer. Having minimal interest in art, we opted not to visit the Uffizi gallery, since realistically, neither of us were likely to get good value for the experience. Sad, but true. An art aficionado I am not. Besides, we were more than occupied enjoying the scenery without having to fork out money to see museums or galleries as well. Needless to say, our shoes got another good workout exploring the city streets.
Packed with pedestrians, the streets in Florence were often very narrow and despite this, still fair game for public transport. I’d never seen such tiny buses before, but I guess that’s the only way they were logistically going to be able to get through the streets of Florence in the first place. It was super weird walking the narrower streets to find that the many pedestrians were expected to share a tiny lane with an equally tiny bus. The wider roads were more the domain of vehicular traffic, although it seemed like the foot-traffic still had the upper hand in terms of controlling the streets. Cars moved at the mercy of the people, not the other way around.
While we were out exploring, a football game was being held in a nearby stadium, one team being Polish. The was so much noise in the streets that we stopped what we were doing to check out what the fuss was all about. The game had not yet started, but the fans were definitely eager for the game. We approached the wall of noise to find that the fans were chanting and singing and marching in force to the stadium. It was beyond strange. Not that they were singing and marching, but that they were being escorted by hordes of police in full riot gear while they walked the streets to their destination. Cops on foot, cops on motorbikes, cops in cop cars and paddy wagons and armoured buses. It was quite the spectacle. I assume they all arrived safely at their destination, although I’m not sure if the fans were being protected by the cops, or if the cops were protecting the locals from the fans…
Churches in Florence only come in one flavour: stunning. Pictures really don’t do the intricate work justice.
David’s stunt double.
Ponte Vecchio… All the little shops lining the bridge were jewellery stores. How peculiar.
San Gimignano, Siena and Monteriggiano:
Another day trip was out to San Gimignano, Siena and Monteriggiano. Having been informed by one and many that San Gimignano was not to be missed, we made sure that we stopped in for a sticky beak. We also discovered that it is the home of supposedly the best ice cream in the world, so we ate some (olive oil, saffron and hazelnut flavors to break the mould of always choosing coconut and lemon). Pretty good, but I’m not sure if I’d declare it the best I’d ever had. We also ate some terrible pizza. (That was surprising.) We had a good few hours exploring San Gimignano – it was definitely a good-sized town to visit, not too big, not too small.
Enjoying some of supposedly the best gelato in the world. Tasted pretty good. Best? Not sure.
Outside San Gimignano
Next stop was Monteriggiano. Much smaller than San Gimignano, the walled town was pretty but not big enough to warrant much more than a cursory inspection. It’s difficult to believe that people actually live in these tiny pocket-sized towns. Also worth the stop, but not a whole lot to see.
Streets of Monteriggiano. So cute and clean and tidy. Picture perfect.
Monteriggiano, surrounded by olive groves: The tiniest town we have visited so far.
Siena was hilly plus plus. Larger than anticipated, Siena was another beautiful city, full of all the usual historical points of interest. Italians, like most other European countries, sure know how to lavish some serious skill on the churches and other buildings of import. It has been interesting to see how different churches have been in each country, as indeed they have been very different in style (although opulence seems to be a common thread). We didn’t stay long, as we were rapidly losing the last of the afternoon light. Still, we were there long enough to get a good work out walking up and down the myriad of hilly streets.
…All in all, our day out was filled with plenty of lovely countryside, historic buildings and opulent churches. A feast for the eyes.
Another epic church, this time in Siena.
All of Siena was dotted with various fluorescent animals in various sizes…
We stopped to watch the Army/Airforce(?) do aircraft carrier drills dropping cargo over the countryside…They look like dandelion fluff on the breeze…
Next post:
Whatever else we got up to while in Italy. 🙂
