DAYS 18 - 22
Siena & Rome
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Saturday 28 April - Monday 30 April
1460 miles on the clock so far. Drive from Cinque Terre to Forte dei Marmi
Sunny, as ever.
The plan was to drive to Siena, stay the night, then on to a village outside Rome we can use as a base to bus in and be tourists. Obviously me cocking up the room booking in Monterosso mistakenly thinking I was booking Saturday NIGHT and actually booked Saturday DEPARTURE things went a bit Pete Tong.
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Sara hiked a mile up a vertical cliff and still managed to pack in time to vacate the room before the new guests actually joined us in the room. A quick few moments on good old Bookings.com and we had a new pad sorted in the lovely Forte dei Marmi, some 100 miles south and on the way to Siena.
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Forte del Marmi could not have been more different. Seaside, very flat, miles of wide straight and manicured sand beaches with millions of sun beds and cabins, expensive shops - and not a walker in site. Mainly cyclists here, and not many of them either. From packed Cinque Terre to empty Forte. Still, it beats sleeping in the car!
Sara looking alluring
Or is this Sara?
Having decided the town was out of season and deserted we did not wash, change or smarten up at all. Come the evening we wander into town, me with flies buzzing round my head and a dirty T shirt. Bad move. Beautifully dressed people all over the shop, basically it was a fashion parade featuring people on bikes. Bikes every flipping where. Ladies in 6" heels and short skirts on bikes, dogs in bike baskets. Bikes, bikes and more bikes, strangely all the old sit up and beg style, nothing modern. We were going to eat but I was so scruffy we just had a few beers. As it turned out the Italian bars give you almost a full meal in snacks every time you order a beer. Literally a bowl of olives, one of peanuts, one of crisps, some slices of pizza and some dipping sauce - with each beer! Having seen all those bikes we had to do it ourselves, wrong not to, so in the morning we set off on two perfect examples of the successors to the Penny Farthing and did the rounds. During our ride we ran into a meeting of Italian coastguard rescue dogs (dogs that jump from helicopters into the sea to save you from drowning, go figure, a sort of Italian take on the Swiss Saint Bernard, but without the welcoming brandy. I guess the seawater would dilute the brandy???). Then we hung up our cycle clips and set off for Siena...............
DAY 19 Sunday 29 April
Drive 180 miles to Siena (total now 1605 miles)
Sunny again. It's always sunny.
The original plan is to be up and away at sparrowsfart and drive to Siena via a lunch stop in the beautiful San Gimignano. The biking buggered our timing up and so by the time we were approaching the lunch stop we spotted lots of red lines on Google maps on every road into San Gimmy. Obviously this is a fave lunch spot for the locals, so we give it a miss. Onwards to Siena was the command! Arrived at our very expensive (£160) hotel to find it was on a major roundabout and a mile outside town. No matter, we hike up the hill into town, aided by the very handy new escalators up to the center. Found an amazing restaurant on a dirt track. Tiny table outside in the sun, great food, lots of local wine, time for a wander and a snooze. We locate the main square,,,,,,,,,,, we sit down, like everyone else. We lay down, like a lot of people. I stand up to take some photos. Two police officers approach a recumbent and now kipping Sara, and kick her! Literally kick her. And they knew her name. Every time they kicked her they said "Buona Sara". OK, they only kicked her foot, but assault of a sleeping vagrant is still assault in my book. They biggest problem by far is that I had my phone on camera mode, I was actually taking a photo - and I did NOT snap them putting the boot (albeit gently) into my wife. Miss of the century. I did however get the very clever vertical panorama of the tower and a now wide awake Sara (on the right). Well I like it. Sara then left Siena in a huff (or was it the ASBO they handed her?). I stayed on to watch the sun go down, drink beer, eat the half ton of chips, nuts and pizza that goes with each beer, and chastise myself for missing such a great photo. The missed shot of the century!!
DAY 20 Monday 30 April
Drive 200 miles to Rome.
Sunny - what else would you expect (is it raining in England at all, just a bit, just spotting???)
We drive down through the rolling hills of Tuscany and Umbria, at a steady 80 mph, with very few Italian loonies glued to my arse for a change. It must be just the north of Italy where they do that. A bit like the UK really.
We have deliberately avoided central Rome and chosen to share Castel Gandolfo with the Pope. He has his summer palace here, we have our hotel room. And very nice it is too. High up above an amazing lake with this stunning view from our window.
We are not quite sure what to expect in the little village but we wander in anyway - result!! The Pope obviously has good taste in restaurants. We came across a place with flowers, fresh herbs, old tables, weird rooms, just like a mega trendy Kings Road bistro and once again scored the best table. I visit the Popes Palace, Sara walks to the lake, we then put the hood down on ROFFEN and drive round the lake in style, dark glasses, hair flowing in the breeze (Sara's obviously, not mine, my hair simply wobble a little in a greyish sort of way).
The pics on the left are the restaurant, the one on the right is the Popes dressing room (just in case you needed some guidance). The one with Sara in shows the freebies at this establishment. You get a free bag of fresh beans in their shells in a brown paper bag, two cocktails and two cheese and jam starters, just cos you sat down!! We went through the card and when we asked for the bill (which we guessed at E65) the waiter just said "E50???". Worth every penny.
DAY 21 and 22 Tuesday 1 & Wednesday 2 May
Sightseeing in Roma
It started off a bit wet, then cheered right up later.
We leave early and walk down 1000 feet to the train station for an hours run into Rome. The plan being to check out the Rome sights and sounds. The way we traditionally do that is on a BIG BUS tour. Sara is addicted to the BIG BUS. We can't visit a town without a Big Bus fix. Rome is no exception. The first thing that strikes us it that Rome smells of urine in the wet. The second and third things are the rubbish and the graffiti. No matter, we do two hours on the Big Bus waiting for the rain to stop, and it does, and the sun breaks through. We do the obligatory Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, add in a bit of lunch then we walk back via the Colosseum. We miss the Vatican and the other indoor bits as Sara has a limited interest in mile long queues, and they were everywhere. By the end of the day our poor feet are killing us and we stagger back to the main station through an area that really truly stank of piss. Rome reminded us of what London was like about 30 years ago. As soon as you are off the main road it is really scruffy, dirty and smelly. Not quite what we expected. On that basis we vote to move on to sunnier climes in the morning and head out to Puglia on Wednesday.
The picture above is the latest 'Where's Wally?' Spot Sara at the Trevi fountain. Amazing fountain, it is massive, and bunged into a square not much bigger than it's own circumference (as you can see on the right). On the left is a vertical panorama of the Colosseum, Sara hates it as it has made her very slim hips and long legs look look - well - odd!!! Below left is Rome in the rain, below right is an altogether nicer Rome in the sun. This bit did not smell of piss, sadly the rest did and so we migrated south........
