Moving on

Cherryfudge

We discovered there were no bookable tickets for the Villa Borghese (gallery) so we got lunch there while we made plans. DH was willing to queue for last minute availability which was around 2 hours. I walked round the park taking photos and making discoveries, and from time to time checked back. Meanwhile he made friends with two American ladies in the queue and as he got to the front of it, I discovered that due to renovations on the building, the paintings we’d come to see weren’t available to view! Some had been moved to another building. The notice for all this was out of sight of the queue… we chose to go in anyway, and paid €11 each, €2 each less than expected due to reduced display. Also found that for €5 we can go to the other building and see the famous paintings, with only a small queue. 🙂

The gallery was actually fabulous: we stopped still as we went in and our jaws dropped, and we were nearly walked into by the American ladies who had a similar reaction. 

Well worth the wait, and afterwards I took DH for a tour of my discoveries that I made in the park, then we negotiated the local roads and walked to the Spanish Steps (crowded but fun to see).

By this time it must have been about 6pm so we got the train back and picked up groceries from the local Carrefour for supper.

I didn’t sleep too well last night -Duolingo’s section on haunted hotels is not directly applicable but his ‘rumori strani’ (strange noises) was: I think there must be night time cleaners.

Floss

Sounds amazing... am waiting for the next instalment 😊

WelshmansDaughter

Sounds like a great start to the holiday 

Cherryfudge

I forgot to say that yesterday started grey and humid but turned sunny in the afternoon. Today has been mid 20s and really humid, not the best time to take a lot of underground trains but that was better than walking through crowded streets for miles. I’m at around 15,000 steps today, it was more like 18,000 yesterday. I was glad we’d brought water bottles. Central Rome has plenty of public drinking fountains and the water is really nice. I tried it yesterday from an old stone fountain of which DH was very wary, but I’ve been fine so today he had some too.

We queued for tickets for the Vatican Museum this morning but they ran out and most of the queue disappeared so we became 4th and 5th queuing and were able to get one each for Wednesday morning. That’s likely to be our biggest spend at €55 each, and we didn’t bother with the tour bus etc.

The woman at the ticket booth, who had just stridden down the queue shouting that all the tickets for today were gone, turned out to be exasperated with her colleagues who had told her there wasn’t much queue (there was) and let her deal with the response when there were no more tickets. She went over and beyond for us, telling us where to look locally for more sculpture and how to fit in a day trip to Naples from Rome for €30 or 40 apiece to see sculpture. We don’t have time for that this trip but it’s worth knowing.

We’ve discovered you can see places from outside for free (plus travel) or you can pay, queue and go in, but for us, that’s only worth it for things we really want to see in depth. We therefore spent some time walking round the outside of the Colosseum and taking selfies (☺️), then wandered up the Palatine hill and locality, getting a very late ‘lunch’ in a street food cafe (€24).

We finished up with a trip to the Trevi fountain (it’s huge) and walked back via the Spanish Steps before getting the train to the hotel. Tea has been from things we bought at the supermarket yesterday, and we are hoping for a restful evening!  

Cherryfudge

And a curious thing we’ve just discovered and aren’t sure what to do: the right money for the Wednesday ticket has gone out and the receipt is correct, but the ticket seems to be for 8 people, not two! It’s also for double the price… put she was printing tickets as they were bought, and the people immediately ahead of us were a couple and a singleton who could, I suppose, have been buying for a group.

There’s an email at the bottom of the tickets which I could try, though what the chances of a response are, I don’t know.

So is there a group of eight without their tickets, and can we get in with what we have?

Well, I never thought ‘Cherry’s city break’ would become a page-turner, but there you are.

And talking of page turners, this trip is motivating me to push on with the training I’ve paid for but not started. It’s good to be able to do things like this, stressful though the build up has been and for that I’d like some more income.

Cherryfudge

I’ve emailed the contact details for the ticket I mentioned above but they’ve referred me back to the agency and as it’s for tomorrow morning, I think we will just have to roll up and see.

We started today with heavy rain but I spent some time searching for my ticket from the gallery we went to the other day, as it would given a discount on today’s. By the time I gave up (found it this evening), the rain had stopped and it’s been a pleasant day.

Once again we got the train and went to a gallery. It was slightly worrying on the way there as there was a demonstration matching towards us, but nothing came of it. I think there are elections coming up.

Today’s gallery was mostly art, including the ones lent by the place we went to before. It’s set in another former palace but seems to be off the coach tour route so it wasn’t crowded. For a very few euros and the price of lunch it kept us busy for 7 hours! Lunch was leisurely and about €30 total for a light chicken dish, tiramisu and lemonade for DH and chicken then a cappuccino for me.

The gallery was really well presented and I found I took a lot of photos of the explanatory signs as it helped make sense of things. You know when you realise you had had only a very vague awareness of something and really there’s a whole history of evolving thought and that thing you never thought to question is actually the result of long periods of development of understanding, rather than a nice straightforward fact?

That thing. So I feel more enlightened, less tired (as I’ve not been out in the sweaty streets) and generally we’ve had an excellent day.

Right at the end of the gallery, we had a quick look at another exhibition and for some reason we didn’t get, there was a very small cinema there showing what turns out to be a Mozart opera. We stayed to listen for a while, though we had no idea what was going on, but it was one of those where the story is less important that the immersive experience, and Mozart at full belt is pretty amazing. DH asked the gallery attendant what the opera was, which created some confusion till he realised ‘opera’ was the wrong word, and asked about music, which is how we know the little we do.

Another trip to the supermarket on the way back: about €11 for some groceries, a snazzy tote bag and a jar of spice to bring the holiday into our kitchen at home.

Trains seem to be costing us around €1.50 a day each person, by the way, even yesterday when I caught about six. So if you want to cut costs in Rome, trains are my recommendation (unless they are waiting to put through a whole bunch of payments at once, but if so, I’m still waiting).

Cherryfudge

And… the Vatican Museum tickets worked! A very busy place as you can imagine, but beautifully run. Being those people who look at nearly every exhibit and read the accompanying signage, it took us six hours, if you include a short break in the cafe where we bought drinks and surreptitiously scoffed food we’d brought with us.

There are lots of different mini-museums included and there is a sort of river of people flowing through, but it’s up to the visitor how fast they take it. The Sistine Chapel is amazing and we took the advice of the people we met yesterday and grabbed seating at the edge so we didn’t completely strain our necks looking up. Other than that there were loads of Roman things (ancient Roman, I mean, though there are lots of gift shops for modern stuff) and plenty of art, including modern and impressionists. In such a selection, some things appeal more than others, and I’ve seen enough paintings of David with the head of Goliath to last me many years. I mean, why?

But plenty of likeable stuff too.

We’re at the airport now and I need food so I’ll be back anon.

milann

Sounds like a wonderful trip.

Cherryfudge

Safely home. Tired from all the travel but it was really nice: I spent a bit of time this morning trying to put together our spending of the last few days and I think we've generally done quite well, working as we were with the restriction that we couldn't self-cater beyond making sandwiches and the like, and had city prices to deal with.

It's certainly something we might do again (despite our normal rule of not going back till we've done some more new places), because we think that going well out of season, there would a trade off in terms of weather and crowds. I might also consider putting a case in the hold (we just had hand luggage this time) as the warmer clothing would take up more space but we could also bring some food basics to make better picnics: not eating a lot of dinners out has saved us quite a bit and was fine in the heat as I didn't have much appetite. In colder weather we would need to eat better.

I currently have a headache, which could be from the travel and lugging bags round, or could be because someone's suitcase hit me on the head as we were disembarking yesterday! It was a total accident and I felt okay (poor chap was very shocked) but later I did feel a bit dizzy. I can't say I've noticed any sign of concussion, and no bruising either. And no, I don't think I'm dehydrated. A night's sleep at home and back into our usual routine will cure it.

We did have a bit of a delay with the flight leaving about 40 minutes late which meant it was nearly midnight when we got to the hotel in Manchester, complete with Manchester weather (I used to live there so I feel entitled to say that). Suddenly I understand why people would choose not to stay in the UK in May!  We galloped through some more money with taxi fares and hotel brekkies, but we knew that would happen. The people I'm feeling sorry for are those getting the train over the Scottish Border today as the wet weather is making significant delays and I overheard someone on the train saying they'd been advised not to travel.

And just for the record: the cheapest way we found to get to Campino airport from Rome itself seems to be the bus from Termini, which is something like 7.90 euros each, a lot cheaper than a 60 euro taxi! I think it took 40 minutes but also it set off a lot later than advertised, so it's a case of leaving plenty of time, just in case. I'm also not sure it's wise to attempt it out of daylight hours, for no better reason than the buses won't run as late or early as taxis.

milann

Enjoy sleeping in your own house tonight. I always enjoy going away but do enjoy coming back home again.