Ciao

On our last day, Cousin Gianfranco and Patrizia and Samuelo, their 12 year old son (result of a pizza festa 12 years ago) take us to Assissi and insist on driving us to Rome. We see lots of holy things in Assissi where mum particularly wanted us to go to bring her back something of St Frances.  We have lunch at a beautiful trout farm with lake,ducks and swans. Like a canal. Water, water everywhere.......


Gianfranco drives us to Rome to  Cousin Tiziana's apartment. Her husband Carmino, who speaks reasonable English will drive us to our hotel in Rome and we are all to meet for dinner later that night with Tiziana's sister Laura, her husband and everyone in the car. Slight drama with a car catching fire ahead of us and causing a massive traffic snarl.  Rome traffic is horrendous even when you know where you are going. We are eventually dropped off near the hotel and walk the rest of the way, about 1 km, pulling our luggage behind us. (We needed lots of clothes for the cruise etc, remember?)

Our hotel is right on Via Del Corso in the centre of Rome, between the Fontana di Trevi and the Pantheon. Great location but unfortunately they have no idea where our passports are.(Were to have been couriered there from Hotel in Florence)  Eventually after producing copies of our emails etc , it seems another reception person has placed them in his own safe but he has left for the day. They will be retrieved tomorrow. Who needs them?

Dinner is in a 'real' Roman restaurant, owned by a friend of Allessandro, Laura's husband.   Laura and Tiziana were our guides around Rome 20 years ago so it is wonderful to see them 20 years later. (They say I look the same which is not  particularly flattering as I was 5 months pregnant at the time.)

A wonderful authentic Roman meal and then we have to say our final goodbyes to Gianfranco, Patricia and Samuelo, who has become like our own child, more like Ben than Samantha..  And to Laura and Tiziana and their husbands. They all want to come to Australia and we encourage them to do so and promise great food and accommodation..... at Mum's place.

Really sad but we promise to return.

Bon voyage

Saturday, and after 5 weeks of travel, today we head home.    From Rome to Dubai to Sydney, to Newcastle.  Home. 

Where's Wallet

A funny thing happened on the way to the Colosseum on Friday for our guided tour. Paul was pick-pocketed. We took a bus but had to walk through a train station to get to the meeting place for the tour. It was our last full day and Paul had carried his wallet in the side pockets of his cargo shorts most of the 5 weeks but on the last day, probably in the train station, they got him.

Panic ensued. We had no cash at that point and needed to cancel our cards.

It was decided that Paul, sans wallet, would return to the hotel and do what one does when one loses wallet, credit card and driver's licence while the other one would do the Colosseum tour for which we had paid. (of course, one really felt like doing this tour when one was concerned about one's life savings being drained from one's bank account at that very moment.)  However, the one who stayed (and was still in possession of a wallet with credit card etc) had time to walk to the nearest ATM, (1 km away at least) and withdraw some cash so feeling somewhat less destitute.  Money for rest rooms at least if required.

The Colosseum was big, old and very impressive as were the stairs.  The guide helpfully asked whether anyone would prefer to take the lift up the two floors but yet again, this active little group said no, stairs are good.  Great.  More stairs, more hot sun, more ruins, more statues, more churches and ancient stuff. Perhaps one of us was not really in the mood.  Took photos of the Colosseum, the Forum and other stuff.

After 3 hours, returned to hotel by taxi.  Great news that someone had found the credit card and driver's  licence on the ground.  The passerby had  also seen the name of the hotel chain and returned the cards to another hotel in the chain and they returned the cards to our hotel, all before Paul got back to the hotel.  It seemed that only cash and the wallet were lost. Phew.  Paul had spent a couple of hours trying to get into the Colosseum to be reunited but no go.

Tough morning for both of us.


That afternoon, we finally found Uncle Bill's church which he 'received' when he became a cardinal. A lovely  tradition when you become a cardinal.  It was a minute from our hotel and one of the most beautiful churches we had seen (and we had seen many).   

Roman Holiday

Our first full day in Rome and the organised one has booked a tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. A booked guided tour means no lining up.Just a bit early in the morning after our big, emotional night.  Sadness leads to wine which makes you more emotional requiring more wine etc etc.


The guided tour experience is easy to get back into and the little VOX headset things are comforting. The Vatican is amazing as is the Sistine Chapel. One of us is just pleased the Sistine Chapel is open as was closed last time. For the other one of us, being in the Sistine Chapel with lots of other people is strange. St Peter's is spectacular and we even manage to go to Mass in one of its chapels. One of us was again interested in the  bodies of saints which had not decomposed. An odd fascination.  We took photos.

Cannot believe that 20 years ago, Mum had arranged to meet a nun whom she had not seen for 30 years in St Peter's Square and found her immediately. With all those people. Help from above perhaps (not a helicopter.)

After our now customary afternoon rest, we found and photographed the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, (more steps, as if we had not climbed enough) and the Pantheon. All beautiful and amazing. So many churches. I cant help wondering what we would have to look at if there were no religion. 

On top of the world

The cousins, their wives, their children and partners and the whole village has been wonderful to us.  On the last night, they have a farewell icecream and cake party after dinner,  which meant it started about 10pm.
They have a relaxed attitude to time here. Hard for one of us. Really hard to say goodbye to family we may never see again but they make us promise to return. After spending  time on top of the mountain behind Sefro, a mere 2500 metres above sea level, we know we want to and will return.  And some of them will hopefully come to Australia and see ocean and coast. 

Home at last

We spent 5 days in Sefro and were wonderfully well taken care of.  They even put on a Pizza Festa (Festival of Pizza) for us on the Saturday and Sunday nights. People came from far and wide for the festa which had not only food and wine (homemade/grown/bottled) but also a rock band for the ragazzi (young people) on the Saturday night and a more traditional Italian band on the Sunday night for the people (how do you say old people in Italian). Anyway while there was a crowd for the rock band, the more traditional Italian band with the piano accordian player really brought in crowds and the dancing went off.  One of us still has bad dreams about piano accordians from their childhood and found it all a bit difficult. Still, pizza and home made wine was a big help. Language barriers and piano accordians were forgotten.
There was even an Australian couple from Melbourne there visiting with their Aunt.  Their Aunt is a Scottish immigrant to Australia who married Othello , an Italian immigrant from Sefro. After more than 20 years in Australia, they decided to return to Sefro and were there when one of us was there 20 years ago. They were the only English speaking people in Sefro 20 years ago. Since then they have been backward and forwards a  few times but have decided to finally make Sefro their home. Mary's nephew and his wife from Melbourne were visiting and we spent time with them speaking in English and talking sport and other things Australian.

On the Sunday we also visited Montelago, a touristy picnic/cafe area in the mountains owned by cousin Lamberto's friend. More beautiful scenery and good food.
Have we mentioned that Sefro has a river/stream running through the village? You guessed it, looks a lot like a canal.

There are even two waterfalls, beautiful.

leaving Firenza. Where art thou passports?

Have you got the passports?
No, you have them.
No pretty sure I dont. Thought I gave them back to you after arriving in florence.
No you did not. Did you check room etc etc "£$%&!"£$%&
Perhaps not.
Search of all luggage.
No passports.
"£$%&/
No credit on phone. Train conductor has no phone he can use to contact hotel in Florence but helpfully suggests we ask a fellow passenger. She says OK.
Passports found in hotel room under maps of Florence. Ironic in a way if one still had a sense of humour at this stage which was not the case for at least one of us.

Arrange for courier to deliver passports to  hotel in Rome as going to Sefro and not easily delivered there over the weekend.
Crisis averted (or at least managed.)

We arrived in Assissi to be met by cousin Gianfranco and his wife Patrizia who were going to drive us to Sefro, where we were to stay with family for 5 days.  One of us was able to communicate in Italian, the other in sign language.  But they were great and we were so relieved our luggage actually fit in their car...just.
And almost over the trauma of misplaced passports...almost.

We stopped at a Bar for a quick drink on the way, which got us back into the swing of endless drinking, eating and more eating which  was to be the theme of our stay in Sefro. As was the love and unbelievable hospitality of all our cousins and their children.

Sefro was just as one of us remembered. In the mountains with lovely fresh air and water. Beautiful and green but interestingly, still very hot. They were having the hottest summer they could remember after having one of the coldest winters ever. 2 metres of snow had fallen last winter. What is going on with all this strange weather.  Probably nothing (?)

Florence 4: piazza, schmiazza

Our last day in Florence and we decided that we had not done enough stairs lately so should do the duomo cupola. Particularly after not climbing Pisa tower. The Duomo cupola is actually the Cupola Di Santa Maria Del Fiore. Only 494 up and 494 down. More than the leaning tower.great. It was extremely hot, claustrophobic and steep at times but the view once we got to the top was almost worth it. The one of us who finds heights disturbing found a friend going up the stairs. Someone even more 'disturbed' by heights. Once they reached the top, they both clung to the posts and would not venture close to the edge. They each found some comfort in the idea they were not alone. On the way down the interminable stairs, one of us slipped as we were passing a group going up on the narrow spirally stairs. Far too narrow for 2 people but in the end was lucky as 3 people caught the person who had slipped, probably preventing further injury. After treatment(medicinal)and recovery time, we decided to cross the Arno River (looks like a canal) and check out the Piazza Pitti. Passed 10 other piazzas on the way. Appears piazzas are popular in Florence. They are everywhere. Arrividerci Firenza.

Florence 3: home at last

On Wednesday we booked a tour of the Uffizi in the afternoon but spent the morning exploring. Could not believe what we found. Somehow one of us was drawn to a particular street where we found the Museo de Casa Martelli. Really. We did an afternoon tour of the Uffizi with a great guide with obvious passion for his subject. He suggested we needed 3 days to see the uffizi properly but would do his best in the 90 minutes of our tour to show us major works. Our group was given the choice of climbing over 100 stairs or taking the lift to the top floor. You guessed it, stairs. Wonderful sculptures and paintings by Michelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo. Fantastic but kept thinking turtles.

Florence 1: Ponte Vecchio

On Monday we arrived in Florence by great train with working air conditioning (,read freezing). Our hotel berchielli is right on the river Arno which looks a lot like a canal. Feel very comfortable here. Just down from Ponte vecchio and duomo and Uffizi . Great spot and well done to the person who chose the hotel. Easier to get around but still got a bit lost. Found David who is huge and out in the open.Nice photos. Looks like great shopping and quite a few places to eat. Thank goodness as have not done much of that.

Florence 2: Tuscany in a day -stairs, hills and escalator

On Tuesday, we chose to do a tour of Tuscany which included Pisa, San Gimignano and sienna. We were picked up at 7.15am and arrived back at 8.30pm. A huge day and as a number of people said, what do you expect when you try to see Tuscany in a day. A weird day which started by us being separated on the bus. One of us sat next to a Spanish non-English speaker while the other one sat next to a woman with a dog. Neither were particularly great experiences. Pisa was beautiful, the tower leaned and there was a nice church. No time to climb the tower unfortunately said one of us but we did find a McDonald's which was great. Next stop was lunch and wine tasting in a typical Tuscan vineyard. However huge traffic jam added additional hour to our trip. No fun. We visited San Gimignano which is one of the most famous medieval villages in Italy and sits on a hill overlooking gorgeous Tuscan countryside. Lovely but a bit medievaled out after Germany/Austria. Then another hour at least to Sienna, a beautiful medieval town with an enormous arena and cathedral. Yes another ABC. Sienna is really pretty and famous for the horse race which takes place in the arena. Interesting that every town or city in Italy wants to have the Biggest cathedral with the highest tower. Sienna was also interesting for having about 6 sets of escalators to take us up the city. Much better than the other two towns where we had a million stairs and monstrous hills to climb. Unfortunately we lost a couple of people at San Gimignano which made everyone a bit anxious. Two Mexicans who are probably still trying to find their way back to Florence.

Verona: where art thou?

On Sunday, took the train to Verona. You might have heard of it. Some famous person lived there, had a nice balcony. We took photos. There is also a very big arena, lovely piazzas and strange men in costumes who attacked us. Made our escape by photographing them and paying them money. Glad we changed our original plan to stay there for two days. Took 3 hours to see everything, get lost and make it back to the train station. Great trains in Italy except for the train back to Venice. Air conditioning did not work and it was hot, damn hot. Worst thing apart from heat was the sight of another passenger who had stripped off his shirt exposing his singlet. Yuchi. Kept our eyes closed for most of the 1 hour trip. Easy for one of us who slept.

Paris: origin fever

On Wednesday night in Paris we, like all Aussies the world over watched the state of Origin game with our mates. After struggling to find a seat in the Irish pub, where the game was put on for our benefit, we enjoyed the game but not the result. The crowd really went off when it got exciting.  Brian Carney, the Irishman who played for knights was on the Sky coverage. made it feel like home kind of. After all the excitement, we strolled the streets looking for bargains and the Opera House. Success on the opera house.

Hi All,
Having some problems with the blog - we are fine and having a great time - stay tuned!

Gab and Paul

Paris: Lost in France

Still love Paris! But not the French.
On Tuesday we did the champs élysées and arc de triomphe and the eiffel tower by Metro on our own.
The highlight was a rickshaw-like ride through the busiest traffic we have ever encountered. Around the arc de triomphe of course. How many lanes are there? And what does it matter? Our driver managed his way around the multitude of cars and buses whilst maintaining a conversation in English. Scary!

On the way home, we were unable to exit the railway station becoming completely lost walking in circles and receiving NO help from the locals.

This was followed by dinner at the wrong restaurant with the most arrogant of staff unable to comprehend Paul's excellent school boy French.

At least the views and photos are good.

Paris: conquered

Today is Thursday and our last day in Paris. Finally conquered both the metro and montmartre to get there and survive with no further injuries.

Also finally found a church that works. The sacre coeur church had a mass going as tourists filed around the inside walls . Weird but as well schooled catholics, we stayed and attended mass. In french but the mass is of course the universal language.

Speaking of universal, we spent time in Starbucks as we waited for our train. Every person had their iPad/phone/laptop on taking advantage of free wifi. Love the Americans.

Paris: deja vu!

Today is Tuesday and our second day in Paris, my favourite city in the world. Last night we watched spain beat italy in an Irish pub just a block away. We are in a fantastic location amongst cafes, restaurants, chocolate and cake shops as well as shops with 'solde' signs on their windows, I think that means 'Sale'. Will investigate and confirm.

We did a full day tour of main tourist stuff but not as good as APT with whom we did river cruise and onshore tours. The organisation today was bad and the guide did not have the lollipop sign thing to guide us.
And of course we did another canal ride (ABCR), this time on the Seine. We love a good canal.

The Lourve was open this time round and truly amazing as was Notre Dame.
Took some great photos but the crowds were huge making it very difficult. Bloody tourists everywhere getting in the way of good photos.

Montmartre was also beautiful but we ran out of battery on the camera so only one photos. Hoping to return...


Unfortunately one of us reinjured an old sporting injury as they did the last time they were in Europe. Fell and sprained foot in Montmartre. Did not go to casualty this time as accompanying trainer was able to administer the appropriate treatment. Purely medicinal beer and wine helped us both. Interesting time trying to return to hotel by taxi as neither of us could remember the name of the street. This was combined with a taxi driver on only their second day in Paris and unbelievable rush hour traffic. Stressful. Thank goodness for the 'medicine'.