Monthly Archives: April 2015
Athens – It’s All Greek To Me
After a strenuous but well planned transit day from Rome, we arrived at the train station near the airport, negotiated tickets like a pro and headed to find a train luggage in tow. Our home station is Syntagma Square but the bloody Greek alphabet has s’s as sigmas, Rs as Ps, and more bizarre symbol … Continue reading
A Slice of Rome (or 7 coins in a fountain)
Roma is a varied and vibrant city with so much to offer the eager tourist and our last day was an easier day so naturally we had some simple things we wanted to do. An early start and we were off to the Metro station, an underground train network of 2 lines that meet only … Continue reading
Pompeii and “real” Pizza in Naples
We could have taken a tour, we know, but we decided to organise the day ourself and it turned into a corker. Having sussed out the local trains, metro and tram system, we woke early and briskly walked to the train station, taking an intercity service to Naples, going downstairs to the metropolitan station at … Continue reading
A Colossal thing happened on the way to the Forum
After a welcome night sleep on a wonderfully comfortable bed we breakfasted and headed out down the road to the Flavian Amphitheater (literally our home base is on the road that leads to it, 5-10 minute stroll). Getting there we also walked past the recently excavated section of an adjacent Ludus – a gladiator school, … Continue reading
Pisa (it’s just a tilt to the left) and on to Roma
After a lovely rest day in Lucca, we reluctantly packed, slept solidly and awoke for a dreaded transfer. We say dreaded because they are hard work – our suitcases are awkward up and down stairs, in and out of trains and we had a bit of that to do. We called a taxi and in … Continue reading
Bella Italia – Liguria and Tuscanny, not worlds apart
With a base in Lucca, we had planned day trips to the outer regions, to gain some understanding of the surrounding country in this part of Italy. We have discovered fierce rivalry between the regions, a native Luccan walking tour guide wanted to know why we went to Florence, or why we would want to … Continue reading
My name is Lucca…
We planned to spend some time in regional Italy, and the Tuscany region seemed a natural choice coming from Florence out of Venice. We chose Lucca as a home base primarily because of it’s location, ease to get to and the peculiar nature of the city. Lucca is perhaps unique in that it is a … Continue reading
A Taste of Florence (Firenze)
Many of my friends had been to Florence (Firenze) and raved about it, it happened that our transit to Lucca afforded a short visit so we thought “why not”. After a leisurely waterbus to the train station, we lugged our luggage (now I get the name luggage) onto attain, first class of course darling (as … Continue reading
Venice: The very best place to get lost
After an early start and a courageous lift to the airport (well, I say courageous, I mustered strength not to scream at the almost collisions our hurtling driver avoided) we had a bit of a sit before boarding Turkish Airlines flight to Venice. You get off the plane and you could be anywhere really, airports … Continue reading
How Bazaar (or what to do on a “rest” day in Istanbul)
Knowing that travel is exhausting, we have a number of strategically planned “rest days” in our schedule – today was one of them. Our theory, the day can take on whatever form is needed and we needed a sleep in. After a leisurely snooze, I got up, showered and went to the bakery down the … Continue reading