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On the road Again (after 4 years…thank you Covid and my hip!!)

Emirates flight to Rome stopping in Singapore and Dubai. Arduous as usual but overall without incident and on time all the way. Using a stick helped a lot, not only for easier mobility but also because it meant extra attention along the way e.g. being singled out to go to the top of the queue, being ushered on to an electric vehicle in Dubai to be taken to security (that was a real winner). It didn’t happen all the time but when it did it was gratefully received. The only downside was that you have to put up with being patronised and treated as if you also couldn’t think. Oh well!! There were a few funny things on the flight. A lady heading to Dubai, in full Saudi dress, was doing regular exercises to prevent DVT…all good…except that she was doing them hanging off the lever of the escape hatch. I watched this for a while feeling mildly alarmed and wanting to yell STOPPPPP, but to my credit didn’t. Finally, one of the cabin crew saw her and reacted to my satisfaction by completely freaking out

Finally, I was in Rome. Chris came out to pick me up which was a very welcoming feeling. And Rome itself makes me feel at home. Such a relief to get home, get a glass of wine, have some fresh Italian produce, chat into the night, have a shower and fall into bed. No jet lag for me!

July 23rd 2023

So hot!! But my first coffee was a delight. Then we wandered off to Campo di Fiori to see what was on offer by way of my dresses. To no avail. Up to Piazza Navona and back through the streets of Rome. Not even many tourists to be seen…the heat is keeping everyone away.

We went to a restaurant just around the corner from Chris’ for lunch. Totally delicious food of course. The Italians really know how to combine their pasta with the most delicious fresh produce…mozzarella, tomato, fish, prawns. So delicious and always the wine in a carafe. The restaurant is da Cesare al Pelligrini. 

After lunch we set off for the Umbrian countryside to the country house of Chris’ friends Chantelle and Pino. They weren’t using it so kindly said we could go and stay there. Into the pool we plunged as soon as we got here…phew!!

So tomorrow is relax day here using the pool and just chilling out. Now it’s time for bed.

July 24th 2023.

A day in the country just hanging out and plopping in and out of the pool. Eating fresh produce, chatting and drinking wine. This has to be heaven. We drove into the nearest village in the evening through the Umbrian countryside. Past fields and fields of Sunflowers with hilltop villages perched above us. Chris cooked another delicious pasta for dinner and we sat outside as night descended with the obligatory glass of wine in hand, cooled by the evening breeze and chatting into the night. This is the life for me!!!

July 25th 2023

Really it was up and off this morning. Chris had a swim but it seemed like too much effort to have wet bathers again to me. Cleaned the beautiful house (although, truth be told, Chris did most of that), into the car and headed back to Rome. It was like entering a furnace, sweaty and overwhelming. Chris had to get ready to head off to work so we had a quick lunch, Chris showered. I got ready to go with her as far as Cola di Rienzo. This is a large shopping street where I have bought my street dresses in the past. I must say I questioned what on earth i was doing out there in the early afternoon sun plodding along and sweating profusely. However I was redeemed when I found some dresses that fitted. Ended up with 5 new dresses + 2 we’d bought at a stall on the way back from the country. All in all a good days work in terms of replenishing my dress supply.

I decided to get a taxi home but had to walk and walk before I found an empty one. A lovely taxi driver who pointed out the first nations flag flying over the embassy and discussed the treatment of indigenous Australians. It rears its ugly head everywhere!!

Now I’m back home with the fan on about to take a cold shower and reorganise my bags. When Chris finishes work we are going out to dinner.

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On the road again

Here I go again, not that there’s much to say really but I need to get back into the habit of recording the life and times of an elderly adventurer…so, I’ve poured myself a glass of wine, sat myself down and started to rattle around thoughts…finding that thus far there isn’t a lot to rattle except the comfort of being back somewhere so familiar and easy. But back to the beginning:

The flight was an absolute breeze…best one ever with an empty seat next to me on both legs…couldn’t ask for more really. Jet lag was non-existent and life just proceeded without much of a blip except I have the mandatory post flight cold but so far even that isn’t exceptional. Chris met me at the airport and we went to a restaurant by the sea and partook of wine and nibbles (calamari and octopus). Thats about all it takes to feel as if you’ve never left. We came home, drank some more wine and had a good nights sleep.

Yesterday we started with the morning coffee…honestly as I keep saying cheap wine and coffee will keep me happy every time. Then i went off to do some chores like get my Italian phone back on line, buy some reading glasses and other small things all of which entailed a lot of walking around Rome and absorbing the city. I came back to have lunch with Chris before she went off to work, then I went out again and got my hair cut, watched the world go by in Piazza Navona, wandered a bit more and came home.

Today is Friday and I took myself off this morning to go back to Monti where I stayed last time and had such fond memories of. Sadly Monti has just about out cooled itself. My coffee shop was transformed into a mecca for tourists and charged accordingly. My Gelati shop (do you remember me raving about the pear and ricotta gelato that was to die for???) had been taken over and was selling mass produced crap. My ravioli shop was still there thank god, and I had lunch there…that was lovely. I bought a serve of take-away ravioli to bring back for Chris but the sauce oozed out on the way home so it won’t be much good!! Then I walked home from Monti slowly, stopping and watching the world go by at regular intervals.

I have a treat in store tomorrow…I’ve finally been able to book myself into Livia and Augustus’ Houses on the Palatine. I’ve been badly wanting to do that and was very jealous of Ang and Kirst who went when they were in Rome. So tomorrow I get to finally achieve that wish all being well. Then Chris and I are booked into a 3D exhibition of (and at) the Ara Pacis which will be amazing.

Time in Rome is speeding by and Germany awaits. This will be new territory and probably more interesting stories to tell. Not to say that Rome isn’t interesting, it’s just so….well…. comfortable (that word again) these days!!!

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Once again time has passed and Rosa also is now back in Melbourne

Sad Mumma is back but she’s not going to hang around for too long. I hate goodbyes and am very bad at them and I hate the feeling of coming back to emptiness, it makes me so sad. But not to be too indulged for too long…so what does Sad Mumma do? What any woman does in this situation. Laundromat, clean every surface in range, hand wash jumpers, organise, buy mad things like labels for the rubbish…you name it. And then there’s eating and drinking to console and there’s reacquainting with my most loyal of friends, Al Jazeera, as well as getting back to a long overdue email to remember the wonderful last few days and finding a new series to keep me happy. Ham left House of Cards Series 3 so I guess that’s where I start. Is it there? Haven’t checked yet!!

For the purposes of this email I think I’ll work backwards starting with the last 24 hours. Yesterday morning, early, Rose and I set off from Lucca to get down to Roma and then out to the airport. Everything worked well and we were at the airport with excessive time to spare. I started to blubber before we left Lucca!! But generally got through it all. After a horrid airport drink and food (really shit) I waved Rose through security, narrowly avoiding one of the security people thinking I was having a breakdown and calling an ambulance for me!!! I then got myself back into Rome and up to Chris’ place. I must say that it is good to feel so familiar with Rome these days, it feels a bit like coming home. Got to Chris before she left for work…it was good to be with a friend!! When she went to work I went out walking. Got myself a Gelato and some wine and went back to the apt. I set up her fantastic home movie thingo and watched ‘The Theory of Everything’ which was good and gave me a legitimate reason to cry again. When Chris got home she cooked a yummy meal, we watched some Breaking Bad (she is hooked) and I was so exhausted I went to bed. This morning we went for coffee. There was a bus strike so we were thinking Chris would have to drive me to the station to get my train back to Lucca. But I saw the only bus for miles around trundling down the road so made a mad dash across a massive, busy road and jumped on it. No time for even any goodbyes!!! It was good that I did because at the station there were just no busses in sight so I was lucky. Since then…. go back to the beginning and read ‘cleaning, organising, obsessing and being compulsive’.

Back to Wednesday…Rose’s last day in Lucca. A quiet and really nice day. Doing some shopping and wandering around. having a lovely lunch back at one of our favourite places…a Fresh Produce ‘Market’. We had a rest in the afternoon. Then I kept insisting that I wanted to ride a bike around the Wall so that Rose was with me to get over the hump of getting back on my bike (as it were). Rose was sceptical but compliant, so Mission accomplished and I’ll now try and ride a few times around the wall as often as I can. Then we rested again, had some aperitivo at a nearby wine bar and then went out to Rose’s choice for her last meal, Buca di San Antonio. They greeted us like long lost friends, treated us very well and we had a lovely meal which included striking up a conversation with George and Judit at the table next to us. An older Hungarian couple who live in London and were very interesting.

The day before was Tuesday…and this was a BIG one!!! Very big for little me and so amazing, a really great day that was such a good thing to do. Off we set at 7am to get ourselves to the Cinque Terre. This meant a train to Viareggio, a change of train to La Spezia and then the Cinque Terre train. We got off at Riomaggiore and got all the information we could find, decided to get back on the train and go to the furthest village of Monterosso. The only part of the walking trail that was open was between Monterosso and Vernazza. It was the hardest walk and it really was challenging, in anyone’s terms I reckon. It certainly challenged me but having said that it was also so rewarding. The views were undeniably spectacular, the sun shone as only the sun can shine and the towns are delightful. It was just a great day. When we got to Vernazza we had a well earned beer (yes, even I was hot enough to have a beer). I had a delicious lunch (Rose wasn’t quite so lucky). We had the mandatory gelati on the waterfront. Then we decided we’d done everything we’d set out to do and it was a long trip home so we got back on the train(s) and headed home. After a bit of a rest, and an aperativo we went out to tea at a Pizza restaurant we went to with H&A…Rusticanella2. This was good. Home and to bed exhausted.

Nearly there…If I was anyone reading this I probably would have given up by now. Monday was an ‘explore Lucca’ day. We wandered around and went to the Duomo (finally), the Palazzo Sfanner which is utterly divine with a most beautiful garden, then to Chiesa San Michele. We had a nice lunch in a little Piazza looking at a statue of Puccini. We were both tired on Monday so had a restful afternoon and went out to a restaurant we hadn’t been to before, Da Giullio which was OK but not that great.

So that’s it…caught up again. Now it’s time for me to think about some tea. I bought a ready-made lasagna before Rose left so now is the time to devour it!!

My love to all who read this garbage….sorry it is so endlessly boring this time around.

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Getting back into Roma

Today was a day to walk the area around Monti and sort out my new environment. Feeling like a stranger, of course, and I always struggle with that but I have conquered the essentials:

a) I have found my wine shop, directly over the road from the apartment, where I can not only buy a nice bottle of wine but also get a 1.5 litre plastic bottle for 2.40 Eu…this of course is very bad for me and puts temptation right in my path.
b) I found the supermarket but probably not the one I would want, it is upmarket and expensive.
c) I found the bank to extract all my hard earned money to pay the landlord and signed off on the contract. I
d) have the best gelato shop within 200M…another very bad thing requiring even more discipline, not that I was disciplined today. It was a most wonderful, sunny day with the sun just pouring down and warm so I sat int the sun a couple of times and just lapped it up. On one such occasion the sit in the sun was enhanced by a gelato.
e) I found a salumeria that is run by an Australian/ Italian who helped me choose a nice cheese
and best of all:
f) I found a delicious bar for my morning coffee.

So the day went by and I feel more acclimatised at the end of it.

I’m about to get on the bus when I finish this and take myself back to my ‘old’ area to meet Chris for dinner. It will be lovely to catch up with her and relay both of our goings on over the last month.

Not too much excitement other than this. My challenge now is to find myself a ‘life’ in Roma. Hopefully I will get to know the city much better over the next 6 weeks.

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From a final day in Venice to Roma

Here I am back in Roma. But more of that in a minute. First I backtrack to our last day in Venice. A day that we gave over completely to Carnevale and in truth it didn’t seem quite as chaotic as Friday had seemed. Not sure why but the crowds seemed a little more manageable. We set off in the morning after cappuccino in the local Patisserie that we had grown to know and love as you do! Then we had the inspiration to book at the best restaurant we had frequented in Venice because the previous night we went to 3 restaurants that turned us away because they were fully booked. Then to the Vaporetto and off to San Marco to get with the action. Really from there it was just that, a day of wandering around amongst the amazing costumes and the tourists. The thing I really liked about it was that it just wasn’t a Carnevale of the highly glamorous and intricate costumes, it was increasingly becoming the peoples fun with more and more people donning masks and going with it all. Needless to say we were totally hopeless and were very much observers rather than participants….perhaps sadly!!!

There was the flight of the eagle with an ‘eagle’ i.e. a woman doing a high and ‘daring’ flying fox…a bit underwhelming when it’s all said and done. When we needed to get out of the fray we went and had a quiet lunch and glass of wine, then back into it but briefly because it is exhausting, it is a very intense and ‘happening’ environment. Each afternoon we went back to our lovely apartment and had some wine, cheese and downtime before heading off for dinner. Which was delicious! I had seafood lasagna and it was to die for, something I will try when I get home!!!!

This morning was pack up time and lugging the luggage back over the bloody bridges to the Vaporetto and the the train station. But not before our last cappuccino and arrivederci to our yummy pattiserie. Then Tull and I parted company at the station. I can’t believe a whole month just flew past. It flew on one hand and on the other the start of this adventure seemed like a lifetime ago. We certainly packed a lot in and it was great for me to spend the time in places I’d been to before but never had the luxury of a week of concentrated orientation to the city. The highlight being Naples just because I hadn’t been there and I loved it.

So, in a jiffy back in Roma. No hitches, met the manager of the apartment as arranged at the arranged time, an easy walk from the station. The apartment is great but very small and missing some basics such as no microwave and no oven. It will take some ingenuity to work out how to heat the lasagna I bought as a quick fix for tonight. Rosa…prepare to be up close and personal with your Mumma!!! But we do have separate beds so don’t totally panic!

Then out i went. I had to find a bancomat because I have to pay her cash and I have a bee in my bonnet about taking out less than 500Eu when I need a lot because you get charged for each withdrawal. So walk I did…and walk and walk! Anyway, it had the effect of orienting me not just to the local area but also the broader context. It’s a terrific area, very trendy, lots of wine bars (Enoteca’s), restaurants and great places for coffee. I’ll get into it in the morning and choose my daily coffee place to bond with. Chris and I have been talking, of course, and will catch quickly if not tonight.

The one good thing I’ve done (you will think me very ’slow’ of course), but I’ve found Aljazeera online and as I write this Aljazeera news is going on in the background…very good, it has become my friend again!!

More tomorrow and more of my love across the airwaves.

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Catching up on since arriving in Italy

Its all been a bit overwhelming in the last 5 days or so since I left Bucharest last Wednesday.That was an exhausting day getting myself and my massive luggage to the airport. I was absolutely shitting myself that they wouldn’t let me on the plane, so convinced was I that I was massively overweight in the luggage department. I’d even packed with things on top I could throw away…the triple stripes were going but fortunately got a reprieve because the big bag was only 20.8kgs and he waved my little bag through without weighing it (it probably weighed 20 kgs!!!!).

Anyway up, up and away!! Got to Roma, lined up to enter the Schengen…the really big deal that required a visa etc and you wouldn’t believe it but he waved me through and didn’t even stamp me in!! I was aggrieved. What this means is that they have no record of my entry and therefore I probably don’t need a visa…oh well!!

On to the bus to get myself and my luggage into the Central Station where Chris was meeting me. As happens with my dear friend Chris I waited on a street corner for ages until she finally showed up having gone somewhere else. By this time it was 11pm and the station was a very seedy place to be.
Luggage to ‘left luggage’ and then home for some wine and a late night Christina-type chat. It was really great to see Chris and have a friend at last. The next morning we went to have our cappuccino and fresh orange juice followed by a walk over to Trastevere where Chris got me a phone and an Italian phone number…all good.

She went off to work and I just stayed home to get myself a bit organised til she came home, then we went out and had dinner at a lovely little restaurant with a garden where we sat under the vine leaves and had a most delicious meal.

Sadly and very quickly it was goodbye to Chris again in the morning early…but not so early we couldn’t have our cappuccino.
As I told you I’d had a bad start with Bologna because the people who were in my apartment had got their wires crossed…or Giancarlo had got his wires crossed and they weren’t leaving until the day after I arrived. There was a lot of haggling around this and I gave in on Chris’ advice that it was better to have him in my debt. So we stayed the first night in a different apartment which had a few good spin-offs for me. Firstly, as predicted, Giancarlo was feeling badly and therefore decided to pick me up from the train station which was a godsend. Secondly it was Annie’s 60th birthday a few days previously and I got him to recommend a restaurant and book us in…so all good. The apartment was HUGE and divine and very close to where I am now. But the ‘real’ apartment is much smaller and a bit crowded for 3 people.

I got there with an hour to spare before I had to head back to the Train Station on foot to meet Annie and Bob. In that hour I ran out and got some Procseco and cheese to greet A & B. Met them at the station which was absolutely lovely. We then had a few drinks and nibbles, then went out to dinner that night which was just lovely…really lovely. Superb food…I had a Truffle Taglietelle which was absolutely to die for. Shavings of Truffle covered the pasta and the flavour was superb. Giancarlo had told them it was Annie’s birthday so at dessert time out came a birthday cake and she got an Italian Happy Birthday which really was nice for her. So that was a gorgeous night.

Then the last 3 days have been exploring Bologna. It is a most lovely city with treasures and history like Rome but without the hoards of tourists. It really is a lovely city..I wish you could all share it with me. No use going into too much detail but churches, artwork, sculpture etc. A busy and windeing market/ shopping area. At the weekends the roads are blocked to traffic and the people of Bologna are outdoors with a vengeance walking the streets which are alive and just buzzing. It is a student town and very young in feel.

It is dominated by these 2 towers one of which you can climb but its nearly 500 stairs…I’ll think about that one. I remember climbing the Cupola of St Peters some 10 years ago and it is over 500 steps, so maybe I’ll give it a go one day but I’ll have to build up to it.

It’s been nice having Annie and Bob here and I’m now starting to gear up to being alone again and wondering how I’ll manage that. I’ll have to cook!!!!!

Its been very hectic in the last few days and the process of starting a normal type life here will have to begin all too soon. This will be crunch time. I’ll have to think about Italian lessons!! There are bikes here but they don’t seem to fit me at all and my attempt to ride one of them has left me feeling very daunted.

Bob spilt a full cup of coffee on the carpet which has left a stain despite massive attempts to get it all up…thats somewhat awkward and I think I’ll have to fess up to it to Giancarlo which will change the balance of power once again!! Bob is hilarious…he just cannot manage to find his way anywhere and gets hopelessly lost. Today we allowed him to come back to the apartment alone…big mistake!! Annie got a desperate phone call from him to say he was lost! Honestly I’m not sure how he manages it because this is a small and very manageable town.