Day one

Emirates lounge and flight.

After an extremely busy week and an almost impossible timetable yesterday with everything that had to be done, we ended up finally packing and getting re day to leave for our trip. An escort Doug Margaret and a stop over at Tanya house where I needed and was greeted with mother daughter hugs, we ventured into the world of Emirates- a new airline that we have not traveled upon before.
Business class check I was smooth and quick and I as told by Marc to stop smiling as we walked past the queues and queues of passengers Jit he normal class….of economy, I so smiled.
This was worth the saving up for , the paying off since last January of the tickets for business class.
The lounge is different to qantas. To me it appears to be bigger but it actually wraps around and t
Of course we indulged with wine and savoury delights presented to us in this lounge. I took the obligatory photos of Marc and I enjoying this unique luxury and know that. The many hours of work and tears and hard yakka is worth being here.
Next step the plane.

Sunday 8 December

The flight from Dubai to Rome was uneventful other than both of us feeling bloated and not wanting to eat plus both of us falling asleep while watching a movie. Still, it was good to arrive only feeling a little tired rather than extremely exhausted as would be expected after starting our travels 30hours earlier. It was a very long trip.

Immigration at Rome airport was note worthy in the nonchalance of the immigration official … He was talking to the chap next to him and only just glanced at Lyndell when he stamped her passport and not at all at me … for neither of us did he compare us to our photos! There was also NO one even doing any surveillance of those passing through the “nothing to declare” part of customs!

The chauffeur drive into Rome was smooth and not hair-raising at all. He brought us to the address we wanted in a narrow one car wide lane in the old part of Rome … only one problem … nothing to indicate that this unassuming door set in the wall of an unremarkable building contained a B&B … just a line of call buttons none of which said Cibele B&B! We naturally did not want to be stranded in some unknown part of Rome and we’re reluctant to have the chauffeur just drop us off. However, his car was blocking the road so we reluctantly had him drive a little way while I pressed a button labeled with the surname of the owner of the B&B (luckily I had been in email correspondence with him and knew his name) and waited. The door buzzed and unlocked revealing a curved tunnel passing into the building lit only dimly by a light at the bottom of some narrow stairs disappearing off to the left. Still nothing that looked like a B&B. Luckily a man came down to the main door stating in Italian that he was the father of the owner and that we were in the right place. We retrieved our bags from the chauffeur who had driven a little way off and proceeded to carry them up the two flights of spiralling stairs to the narrow doorway to the B&B.

The B&B has been very nicely renovated from what had previously been a residence in an old apartment building. We are the only guests at present so it is like having our own private residence in the old part of Rome but with the benefits of a host who not only provides the makings for breakfast but also local information. However, the host was away when we arrived so we were welcomed by his father and mother with the latter showing us around.

Giuseppe’s mother has about as much English as Lyndell has Italian so there was plenty of gesticulations during the initial introductions. Still, we settled in, changed into walking gear and went out for an initial reconnoitre. We walked down to the colosseum a couple of blocks away, then to the Piazza Venezia with its huge marble monument that looks like an old manual typewriter and then, as night started to fall and the alleyways go dark, we tried to find out way back to our B&B that we knew was down one of those darkening cobblestoned lane ways. We actually found it without too much trouble but I could tell by the firm grip Lyndell had of my hand that she was not altogether certain that we were travelling in the right direction as we wound our way down the narrow streets.

Actually, if I had to typify my image of a street in central Rome it would be a narrow cobblestoned road lines by cars parked number to number on both sides with just enough space left down the centre for one car to pass provided the driver did not mind occasionally scrapping the paint off the sides of their car. As for where do the pedestrians walk, why of course wherever they can squeeze themselves through or, if they do not mind the odd close call with a passing car, in the middle of the road.

Still on the topic of pedestrians, traffic in Rome follows the rule of “nerve” since the road rules seem to be only a suggestion not to be enforced. Vehicles turning rarely indicate and less so if they are only changing lanes … although that is a misconception since there are no lanes, just vehicles occupying their own chosen paths. This same attitude to road rules also applies to pedestrian crossings … stopping for pedestrians is only a ‘suggestion’ that is only begrudgingly adhered to when a pedestrian has enough ‘nerve’ to step out into the traffic flow to see if it will stop for him or her. We did alright ducking it out with the traffic but again, Lyndell held my hand tight on a few occasions!

Monday 9 December.

Another morning of Italian conversation practice with the host’s mother. We actually did better this morning since we were less tired. She showed us that there were shutters on the windows that we had not been aware of so we need not have had to hang towels in the windows to keep the street lights out as we had. Back to the conversation, it was a little gratifying that she resorted to goggle translate more than we did! It turns out that her husband is a cardiologist in Napoli and so we had some medical talk between us (fortunately for this part we could use more English since he has more English than I have Italian). The Italian conversations delayed our departure for sightseeing long enough for the host to arrive and he gave us some useful sightseeing tips for places off the usual tourist circuit. Also, some more hints on where to buy Lyndell a coat.

The story behind the coat was that Lyndell had worried that she did not have a warm coat for Italy and Austria in winter. Her eyes definitely sparkled when I suggested she could buy a suitable coat in Rome. Thus the hunt was going to be on for a coat that was warm but not overly warm so she could still wear it in Australia after we returned plus it had to have some elegance but still be practical and it had to be made in Italy. Therefore, during our first afternoon/evening’s exploration of Rome, in addition to seeing the sights, we had dropped into a few shops to see what was around. Disappointingly, the Italian women seemed to be predominantly wearing black coats, or at best, grey. Also, many of the coats were all of the quilted variety, not very serviceable back in Australia. We went into a few shops and there was one coat that may have been ‘okay’ but it did not flatter Lyndell’s shape (at present both of us have gained a few too many kilos during the latter part of the year when fatigue meant we used calories to keep going that we’re not being adequately being burned off despite our twice weekly gym sessions). So it was therefore surprisingly that this morning, after some initial sightseeing, that we came across the first open shop that was selling coats and there was one that attracted both of our eyes. A coat that was not black and in a colour that suited Lyndell’s colouring, actually a gold colour….stylish but still practical, and importantly made in Italy but still very reasonably priced. Perfectto! Despite Lyndell worrying about making such an impulsive buy, we bought it.

The buying of the coat meant that we could then dedicate the rest of the day to sightseeing. For Lyndell and I, this means LOTS of walking since that is what we do. We like to have a general direction but then take random turns when the whim takes us. Means we travel much further then we have to but sometimes make surprising finds. However, today, many of the ‘random’ turns were enforced by Rome’s history – city built on city over millennia meaning there is no town planning and no sensible way to get from point A to B.

The end result of a day of such meanderings is that we visited a long list of the usual tourist destinations such as the Campo di Fiori (open air market), Piazza Navona (once the site of artisan market place and still some craft stalls for Natale but more akin to sideshow alley at a carnival), the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. However, we included some extra sites a little off the usual trail. These included the churches: San Pietro in Vincoli that contains a statue of Moses made by Michaelangelo, San Liugi del Francesca (unique amount the churches in Rome since it was built by the French and it does have the Louis XIV feel to it together with three paintings by Caravaggio that break the mould for church paintings since they contain areas of bright light, not drab and flat), Basilica San Maria Maggiore, San Croce in Gerusalemme (nothing flash), and the Cathedral San Giovanni in Laterano – said to be the Pope’s cathedral which we could believe given the opulence and the amount of gold leaf throughout the interior. Rome definitely has a LOT of churches and during our wanders there were many small churches tucked into strange places. We could see why the richness (as well as the corruption) of the catholic church during the Middle Ages created the fertile ground for Protestant faith to take hold.

One question that I would like answered, why the obelisks with Egyptian hieroglyphics on them outside so many churches? What is the connection?

Back to our wanderings: we also walked to the park surrounding the Palazzo Borghese overlooking Rome’s skyline. The was a busker playing old rock songs from the 60s and 70s. It was lovely to have some grass around us to take time out just too slow down for awhile. But e did get up and continue our extended day of walking. Another park we went through was the Piazzo Vittorio Emmanuele sadly containing far too many men with obviously nothing to do but idle the day away and drink. The park was on our way to the Porta Maggiore – the main gateway into ancient Rome. What remains still gives some suggestion of the image that was Rome…complete with the imagined image if centrions guarding the walls of Rome high above the city …on the wall.

Many kilometres late, we return to our B&B via the colosseum only to find that we had misplaced our bearings somewhat but once we plunged back into the labyrinth of narrow cobblestoned lane ways, all looked familiar again and, this time, instead of making Lyndell uneasy, she relaxed. Bought two hot chocolates from the chocolate shop next door that were actually pure liquid chocolate, then up to our B&B to take off our shoes and relieve our tired feet.

And tired we were !!! Both of us aching from our walks….and we had it take an anti inflammatory…..!!