Yet again I find myself at the pointy end of a trip without enough time to visit Rome. I only have two nights  but that only translates to a day and a bit all up. But you know what?  I’m not going to rush around at breakneck speed trying to get it all done. I’m going to give myself over to Rome and see what it gives me in return.

It’s tempting to have a nana nap after I arrive, but I know how that ends up so I force myself off the bed and out into the streets and I just go. I walk down streets that take my fancy and stop at things that interest me. I find myself outside some basilica (Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano incidentally) and wonder whether it’s worth going in. Well a) it’s free and b) it is the Pope’s official seat so naturally it’s totally OTT. And oh my mother f-ing god. I continue to be amazed at the grandeur of these monuments to god (or power?). I head over the road to a smaller church, Scala Sancta, and walk in. Turns out these are (allegedly) the stairs Jesus walked up to see Pilate. On the left the marble stairs have been exposed and penitents/tourists make their way up on their knees. I consider how painful that would be and that I’m agnostic in any case and decide to take the stairs to the right where you can walk up instead. As I head to the exit I walk past the crawling supplicants. One man has just reached the top and has his hands raised in exultation as  I cross. I’m sure I wasn’t what he was expecting but timing is everything. I have to note that there are a lot of really  quite attractive priests wandering around these places (Fleabag Season 2: You’re welcome 😉 ).

The next day I went into the heart of Rome and walked for about six hours straight. I found (debateably) the best porchetta, gelato and around every corner there was another architectural wonder (the Parthenon really hits you straight between the eyeballs). I thought yesterday’s basilica was raising the bar pretty high until I saw the Basilica dei Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso and realised they just took it to a whole new level. I haven’t seen the Vatican as I’m a bit crowd averse, but I don’t think I should lest I be struck dumb with all its glory. At this point my phone battery dies and I have no idea where I am, but I have complete faith in my unerring ability to find the shopping district (I do) and was pretty sure the metro was close by (it was). While I did pay for a couple of exhibitions (Museum of Modern Art & Palazzo della Cancelleria), I was mostly doing Rome on the cheap. Good to know it can be done!

So that’s it for Rome and my trip. I’m waiting at the airport for my long haul flight back to Australia and thinking the next trip is probably going to be a bit closer to home, but boy did we fit a lot of stuff in 🙂

Eat: Antica Porchetteria Granieri 1916 | Vittorio Spezie e Cucina

A room with a view

Disaster struck as we left Rome behind when about half way through our five hour journey to the Amalfi Coast I realized that we had actually left our passports in the B&B safe!!! Fortunately we were able to get the owner to courier them to us (thanks Vittorio), but we didn’t receive them until right before we had to leave. It was a rather nervous wait I have to say. Luckily the place where we were staying was conducive to relaxation – Casa Angelina was, quite frankly, pretty awesome. I knew I was going to like it as soon as I was introduced to the man who was going to be at our beck and call during our stay: He would make us whatever our little hearts desired. Sigh – I could get used to that kind of service.

We didn’t leave the hotel during our stay and I stole as many freebies as I possibly could. We’re talking L’Occitane toiletries here people! No sooner had I secreted a hand cream away, there was another one in its place. The restaurant deserves a mention if only for the water menu. Yes, that’s right – a menu just for water. And top of the list was an €130 bottle of water. I would be hard pressed to spend that much on a bottle of wine, let alone water. Naturally being the irreverent person that I am, I laughed my ass off. Chris just informs me that I also said “what the fuck” to the shock of the waiter, but I don’t remember that 🙂 Food was fantastic though.

We’re in Naples now, just about to head to the airport to fly to Nice. We’ve only been here one night so I can’t really find anything worth mentioning about Naples. I suspect even if I’d been here a bit longer I wouldn’t be overly enthused but we did do the Pompeii thing and my feet ache like it’s nobody’s business. As I always say: “Seen one ruin, seen them all”. Ciao.

A night at the opera (well, classical anyway)

Too much to do, too little time has been our mantra in Rome. Seriously – one day? – Nowhere near enough time to see this beautiful city. Of course I absolutely had to get me some shopping time in, so our day went something like this: “Ah, here’s the Pantheon – oh look – Zara. Now for the Trevi Fountain – ooh Benetton” and so on. In the end I ditched Chris after our abortive boot camp march to the Modern Art Gallery (closed on a Monday – doh!) and indulged myself. Will I ever wear that zebra top I bought? Hmm… we shall see…

Well Siena is definitely worth a visit. Actually, we only really saw the Duomo and the Piazza del Campo, but if you can only see two things in Siena, they are probably the sights you want to see. The Duomo is without a doubt the most over the top, overwrought cathedral I have ever seen – but somehow it kind of works. My thighs are still aching from the climb to the top of the parapet to look out over the city and my only regret is that I didn’t get more time shopping. Are you really surprised?

After my initial panicked reaction to having no internet where we’re staying, I’ve found there are in fact two places with free wifi in Sarteano. Last night we went to one of them; Zanzebar’s,  an Irish/Italian pub and had a very merry time. I have to say the measures of vodka they serve here in Italy thus far are very generous. After we got home from Zanzebar Chris had to help me with my clothes which had suddenly grown extra arms and legs when I was changing. I believe I also did a variation of the Hamster Dance at some stage. The wonderful thing about vodkas is that I don’t get hangovers (although I’m often embarrassed in the morning).

We’re staying in a beautiful old apartment in Sarteano which is an absolute panacea after the bustle and noise of Florence. We hired a car and have been driving around the countryside seeing the sights (me closing my eyes at times while Chris grows accustomed to driving on the other side of the road). I’m afraid I’m running out of interested expressions when Chris points out yet another ruin, but he has to put up with me dragging him into any shop in sight so it evens out. I’m not quite relaxed yet but getting close… especially after a couple of vodkas 🙂

Obviously my little bout of food poisoning in Florence meant we didn’t get to as many restaurants as I would have liked, but towards the end of the week we found some places that are worth blogging about. For Chris’ birthday we went to Olio and Convivium which was gourmet central. Freshly shaved truffle over pasta, a wall of wine to choose from and a desert plate to drool over – it was definitely worth the price tag. Chris feels a little gypped that he had to pay for his birthday dinner, but if he will buy the expensive wine and drink it all, he has to fork out 🙂

Slightly more down market in a hip, deconstructed way was Volume which is more wine bar than restaurant. In the evenings they have a bar laden with apertivo (free food for the uninitiated and a fine Italian tradition I might add) that just keeps coming. At 5€ for a glass of wine, you get what you pay for, but the music is great and the atmosphere will keep you coming back (did I mention the free food?).

Il Santino was a ‘hole in the wall’ wine bar that had the most delicious anti pasto and a more than drinkable selection of wine. You do pay for the food here, but they occasionally give you a freebie. Apart from the odd brash American who slipped in, it’s definitely not a tourist trap and we happily whiled away many an hour. Chris thinks if it attracts the gay crowd it must be good, but I thought those boys were just smartly dressed…

The Libreria Cafe La Cite always looked intriguing as we walked past, but we unfortunately didn’t get to it until our last night where we came upon an accordion/string band playing some pretty wild music. Sounds odd – and it was – but the crowd really got into it. It’s one of those places where you might have to suffer through a spoken word performance, but after a couple of glasses of wine, you just don’t care… And the girl at the bar actually hand-made my mulled wine for me! I haven’t been so impressed since Japan where they hand-chipped the ice cubes.

Lastly, for pizza, try the ever busy Gusta Pizza. You won’t get a pizza with the lot here and in fact all the pizzas are basic variations of mozzarella and tomato, but they do take away and they’re cheap and tasty. Those boys were very charming while Chris was off getting some wine 😉 It also has a ‘sister’ store Gustapanino which has, perhaps unsurprisingly, cheap and tasty Panini. Seriously – 3€ for a panini – this is a store that needs to open in Geneva (only there it would be three times as expensive and half the quality).

Oh and I almost forgot: amazing biscotti could be had from Il Cantuccio Di San Lorenzo. It was seriously addictive and we chowed down on two whole bags of the stuff before we thankfully left Florence. While I’m talking about the sweet stuff, I thought gelato was all the same, but I had a gelato from a tourist trap that I just binned because it was so sugary (and at 8€ for the ice-cream, that really hurt). But from Gelateria La Carraia I had a little bit of fruity heaven and as it was the only thing I could eat over Xmas, it was a bit of a lifesaver quite frankly.

Next post I detail all the shops I went into in Florence. Just kidding. You get our amazing adventures in Sarteano and surrounds. A truly restful holiday if you don’t count the boot camp march that Chris makes me do every day.

So I guess you know what the lowlights of Florence were for me, but the highlights of the trip would have to be shopping and more shopping. Yep, I’m a philistine, but there you have it. Not that we didn’t go to museums, churches and galleries etc, of course, but it all got a bit repetitive after a while. I’m sure I’ve just committed some sort of heresy for art lovers out there, but the galleries didn’t really fill me with a sense of awe like I would have thought. Maybe my expectations are too high, or maybe I just don’t know what the hell I’m looking at. Either way, I’m all galleried out. I have to say that Michelangelo’s David was pretty special but the place I liked most of all was the rose garden where the sculptures of the artist Folon had been donated after his death.

It’s almost midnight so just time to post this before heading out to ring in the new year. We leave tomorrow for Sarteano where, horror of horrors, there is no internet. I don’t know if can make it. Hope there’s a McDonalds nearby… for the wifi access of course! Happy New Year everyone and I’ll see you all very soon 🙂

Santa brought me a case of food poisoning for Xmas this year. Not what I actually wanted big guy – the Italian leather fur lined gloves would have been *way* more appreciated. So that little event kind of put paid to our Xmas lunch plans. By the way, you might want to stay away from this place (although the entrees were delicious): Trattoria da Ginone. Chris then proceeded to burn the ragu that he was making for himself so it was a pretty miserable culinary experience all round. Oh well, I guess this is what ‘travel stories’ are made of. Certainly I won’t ever forget Xmas in Florence!

This is where we’re staying: Tintoretto, a lovely 16th century palazzo only a road away from the river Arno and a stone’s throw from the Ponte Vecchio.  It looked idyllic in the pictures, but having to run up two flights of stairs to go to the bathroom is not the best use of my time when ill. Oh well, who was to know… Anyway, I’ve recovered now so looking forward to getting out there and exploring. We bought a ‘Friends of the Uffizi‘ membership which for only €50 each gives us unlimited access to all the galleries and museums in Florence – I might be all cultured-out by the time we’re finished with Florence!