Ah !!!    There has been a delay in posting.

We have had some more important activities lately…  Here are some photos from Rome… now in the memory bank.

The Colosseum in Rome 

The man in the hat.

The Colosseum

Arch of Constantine

Under the Colosseum – look no contrete holding up the building

Underground

Another impressive church in the centre of Rome – Basilica di San Giovanni Laterano

Basilica di San Giovanni

Basilica di San Giovanni

Somehow we missed these ruins yesterday across the multi-lane road from the Roman Forum

L inspecting Christian Louboutin’s red shoes – definately can’t afford – if you google L’s instagram name you will quickly find Louboutin.

A day of wandering around Rome.

Old buildings, churches.

A night wander of Rome – so many people out and about in Rome – you feel very safe – restaurants are all full – seems no one eats at home.

Roman Forum – ruins in centre of Rome

Roman Forum

RF

RF

RF

RF

Castle Saint Angelo

Fiumi Fountain in Piazza Navona

Pathenon

Another church Sant’ Agneses in Agone

Impressive Basilica di San Giovanni

Colosseum at night 

Vespa anyone – seems just for the tourists

Ah … It is what you know at the end of the day that if you knew at the start of the day …. it would have been very helpful.

Today, an early start so that we have plenty of time (or so we thought) for our visit to the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica 

We have done so much research – a lot of it very confusing – your visit is obviously tightly controlled.

First problem – we has bought train tickets the day before – not many ticket machines and lots of people. We arrive at the station and enter the platform – only two platforms – after working out which direction we need to go – we realise we have entered the station incorrecly from the street – which side of the street determines which platform – wrong platforn equals new train ticket equals queue for a ticket. We re-evaluate which direction we need to travel – turns out we are on the right platform.

Second problem – we have a 9.00 am visit to Sistine Chapel – no idea what that entails – except ticket warns if you are late you won’t be admitted ( a scare tactic – in hindsight). Entrance to Sistine Chapel is not obvious – seems we have gone one or two kilometres in wrong direction. We quickly start asking directions – 9.00 am fast approaching. Then, at about one kilometre out we start to see the end of the queue waiting to enter the SC. Not overly worried at this stage, they looked like tour groups – tour groups always treated differently – and advance purchase tickets mostly have a skip the line feature. We assume this is the case. We start walking very fast (maybe running) as we follow another couple in the same situation. They were better dodging the hoards of people that we were now seeing in the queue. There was no guarantee that we were going to be able to skip the queue. It is a long walk back to the end of the queue. We continue, and eventually are herded into a small queue of about 50 metres – where we have a chance to talk to the couple we had been following – they had an 8.30 ticket – it was now 8.50. The queue moved quickly and we were inside the building before 9.00

Third problem – Ticket was for a visit to SC and the many Vatican museums – we had a map – museums and SC indicated on map. Did we now have to find our way to SC before 9.00 ?  In which case that would prove extremely difficult – there are just so many people. BUT they all seem to be heading to one place – the SC. We elect to look at some of the museums first. Then we seemed to get caught up in the queues to the SC. All signs point to the SC. Thinking queues are not going to get shorter to go to SC – we join queue and are swept along various museums on our way to SC. Queues seem very organised (explain later) – so it is not long before we arrive at SC and are ushered inside.

Having no idea what SC is all about – but knowing that a famous painting is inside – we sit down inside the SC to listen to Rick Steves (travel writer blog that we had downloaded). A good summary of what we are seeing inside SC. 

The SC is a room appox 140 m X 40 m (about the size of an olympic swimming pool) and given that we had spent 30 minutes inside and nobody was hurrying you up to exit the SC – I am amazed that overcrowding and queue movement is not a greater problem .

A coffee, and then we resume our visit to the Vatican musuems. As we had now visited the SC we now felt  we were swimming against the tide…. we were going the wrong direction and some museums were difficult to access beacuse they had been roped off..

So much to see in the Vatican Museums – difficult to take it all in.

Forth problem – It is about 2.00 pm and we now want to visit St Peter’s Bascillica (SPB) . SBP is next door to SC  – but you need to exit SC first.  Then you need to join a huge queue to visit SPB. But R had read that it is possible to go via a secret passage without joining a queue. R googles where this secret passage is. Passage is in SC – General public exit SC on the left – tour groups exit SC on the right.

We now need to get back to SC From the Museums. This is how they are controlling the huge volumes of people. If the SC is getting busy they direct the crowd through the museums. We had spoken to one person and they had been trying to get to the SC for 90 minutes – but had been directed on museum tours. Given that we had already visited the museums it was relativley easy to create a shorter way back to the SC. Now to find the secret passage.

Once back inside SC we spot the door where tour guides are leading groups. We just hang around watching tour groups exit. It was a bit stressful following the tour guides – not knowing what to expect. There were several guards, along he way, looking out for people like us. Most tour groups had group radios around their necks – so we kind of stood out. There were several points along the exit where the tour guide would stop and explain something to the rest of the group. If was often difficult to look a part of the group and then also look not part of the group. Ten minutes later we eventually bid goodbye to our tour group when we find ourselves inside SPB. 

We spend considerable time inside the SPB.

After which,  we decide we want to climb SPB’s dome – to the very top of the magnificant cathedral dome. This means joining another queue ( a lot smaller) and pay the 8 Euro.

Fifth Problem – we dont have any cash and they dont take credit card and no ATM’s.

Italy seems to only take cash in a lot more places compared to the rest of Europe.

Sixth problem – We need to exit and re-enter SPB to access ATM. 60 minutes later we are back inside SPB after visting an ATM. Kind of defeated the purpose of the Secret exit.

We spend 60 minutes viewing the dome. you actally climb inside the dome – high up inside SPB and then ouside the dome – most impressive.

St Peter’s Basilica  and Vatican Piazza

l

Sistine Chapel

  One of the Vatican Museums

SPB and SC (brown roof building)

Vatican Museums (VM)

VM

High up in the dome (inside) of SPB – clever how we have access – we cant see people inside SPB and they cant see us.

Climbing the Dome Stairs SPB (between the inside & outside)

Vatican Piazza – view from up on top of the Dome (outside)

SPB Statues (up close) – same statues next photo

A big journey today – 575 kms to Rome. 

Journey by train will take 3 hrs & 30 mins @ 250 kms / hour for approx $50.

We have been in contact with air bnb host. She is expecting us by about 1.00 pm. She advises the address where we will be picking up the key. It is nearby to our accommodation. Easy enough making our way to our accommodation from Rome Termini.

We are at the locked door, where we are to pick up our keys. Locked door is access to a whole building rather than someones house. So knocking would not produce an outcome. We start to look for contact numbers when door opens and we are greeted by Sylvia. She informs us that she has nine units in the complex, rented out via air bnb.

We settle in to our luxurious apartment (very happy)  four times the size of our Milan apartment. Really great to be able to spread out.

When in Rome …..

Sylvia informs us that we are within easy walking distance to lots of attractions.

We start wandering – we come across the Roman Forum, an archeological site near the Colosseum in the centre of Rome. We have tickets to explore site in a couple of days – this gives us a taste of what to expect.

Further wandering and we come accross the Alter of the Fatherland. A massive structure which dominates the skyline of Rome. It is built on one of the seven hills of Rome – but only in recent times as a war memorial. A great place to climb high and get a good overview of Rome.

A short walk, we are at the Trevi Fountain. An impressive fountain – with so many people.

Seems there are so many churches in Rome – all very impressive – L has given up taking photos of insides of churches  – just anther church ???

 

Roman Forum

Alter of the Fatherland (massive) (war memorial)

Alter of the Fatherland

Roman Forum

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain the water so clear and so tempting to put your hand in. If you dare try to, the fountain police blow their whistle crossly at you.

Spanish steps

A local church

R with his head in his phone (always trying to search for directions – successful not too often)

A day in Milan.

We have a 9.30 am visit to see  Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the last supper. So we depart early – tickets to be picked up 20 minutes prior.

Ah, another one of those ticket experiences where a few signs might help or where customer service could be a bit more customer focused.

We are looking for huge queues – so when you don’t see huge queues you start to think you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

All becomes clear after our tour – tours are limited to 30 people every 15 minutes – so no crowds – climate of the room where painting is strictly controlled.

Painting is a fresco painted on the end wall of a large room. The large room destroyed by a bomb in WW2. Amazing that painting survived. We are told by our guide, that normally when a painting is painted on a plaster wall that paint and plaster are applied at the same time. This didn’t happen in this instance. Painting was applied to a finished plaster wall. Painting suffering over the ages of time and many restorations. Still very impressive.

We head to the fancy mall in Milan – knowing that we probably can’t afford even the Gelati. Very high end mall, all the fashion names, with fancy shop windows. A procession of tourists file through the malll – from one end to the other – continuous – not really stopping to buy – it is all about the shop presence….. and no we did not buy a gelati.

A bit more wandering, a lot more sitting. We relax for our daily dose of Gelati.

Out for dinner – close to home – we sample the Crema Catalana.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper”

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  (Mall)

  

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. 

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. 

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  

Mmmm – but we were not tempted

 A tree house in Milan

 

Today we have a train journey to Milan. We hug the coast line until Genoa. Three or four hours later we arrive in Milan. Milan train station is one of those super European train stations. So busy, trains going everywhere.

Our accommodation shouldn’t be too far away, or so we thought. Ten minutes, it takes us just to get out of the station. Lots of different connections to many modes of transport. No obvious signs to exit the station – so follow the signs to the buses – we think that is a good option.

Once at street level – still seems a long way to our accommodation – a bit of miscalculation on the distance. We discover later that our departure train leaves from a train station 300 metres from our accommodation. So perhaps reason for our accomodation choice.

We are greeted by the “boyfriend” of the owner of the air bnb. I think that is code for the manager who manages several air bnb places.

We get the impression that the air bnb businesses now are becoming more commercial – employing managers to look after their business. 

Milan air bnb have done a good job with the photos – it looks larger in the photos.

We unpack – relax and have a coffee.

Then it is time to wander Milan.

Milan, the first place that you could call a real city. High rise buildings, lots of traffic, roads a lot wider than we have been used to. We are heading towards Milan Duomo, via a large park which we spotted in google maps.

We eventually arrive at the Duomo. In past experience, arriving late at Duomos works well. Queues are much smaller.

We work out the ticket purchasing options and realise to pay a premium for the express entry is not worth it. There are no queues. But that doesn’t stop others purchasing the express entry.

Duomo is up there with the best. Like you were able to do at Notre Dame – you are able to climb the stairs to the heights of the cathedral. You are able to climb over the roof of the Duomo. The roof structure and carvings of the roof / tower are fantastic.

City gates at the end of the street where we are staying

Storzesco Castle

Milan Duomo

Inside Milan Duomo – grand columns

Carvings up on top of Milan Duomo

Milan Duomo – guttering on the Duomo – stormwater is directed from the roof out of the mouth of the carving.

Duomo – roof structure

We had planned to include another ferry ride at some point in our stay. However, the local ferry that operates in the Cinque Terre has only operated for one day during our stay. There are no ferry wharves in most of the towns. So ferry has to nose into port, while the passengers unload from the bough of the ferry. Any swell makes the whole process very dangerous – so ferries get cancelled more days than not.

With the ferry ruled out – we have two walks planned.

The first walk, takes us in a loop from Riomaggiore up into the steep hills that surround the Cinque Terre and back into Riomaggiore. The highest point – we see spectacular views up and down the coast.

The second walk is to Manarola, the next town north. Before the walking trails got closed – you were able to walk the coastal route –  the shortest distance between the two towns. An alternative walk, slightly longer, has also been closed. The only alternatve – walking three sides of a rectangle – first side up a very steep mountain – second side – a very flat section linking two mountains together – the third side down an equally steep mountain.

Again, really nice views of the coast and the surrounding countryside.

On our first walk we spot “Casino Royale” making its way north – I wonder if their trip is as nice as our walk.

We are rewarded with a swim at the end of our second walk..

Riomaggiore

Zoomed in, here is the red building outside the window of our apartment.

Montestry – our highest point in our first walk

Monestry at the top of the hill behind Riomaggiore

Casino Royale

Another town ‘Voltarra’ view on the walk to Manarola

Manarola, B & W stayed somewhere in this town – after they left us

Manarola

Well earned swim, down the boat ramp.

Today – a day trip to Porto Venere.

Train to La Spezia then a crowded bus to Porto Venere.

A pleasant coastal town (much like Portofino but less upmarket).

A large wall and fortification surrounds three sides of the town – the remaining side is exposed to the ocean – so less chance of attack on that side – I am guessing.

Two large ships – one docked at the port – probably a maximum of 20 people – Probably non paying guests…. Casino Royale (very fancy).

The other ship is moored in the harbour – Seabourn Encore – 600 paying guests – not sure how many working. Tendering passengers all day to and from the ship and port.

Castles, churches, fortifications to explore. More Gelati..

Then it is the ferry back to La Spezia – much better than the bus. It was a long and windy trip on the bus.

Our ferry – probably 200 paying passengs – much smaller than Casino Royale.

Back to enjoy the sunset, before enjoying the local seafood for dinner.

Porto Venere

Looking back – up the coast – towards Riomaggiore, from Porto Venere

The fortifications

The church with the view

The Castle

The wall down the outside of the town

Casino Royale – Super Yacht

Seabourn Encore

Sunset back at the apartment in Riomaggiore

Where we are staying in Italy at the moment is called the Cinque Terre. It is a group of 5 little villages all hugging the coast of Italy. All with their unique attributes.

We are bias – we quite like the village we have chosen – Riomaggorie.

All the villages are accessed via the train line that links all 5 villages.

The train line is mostly underground – popping out to give you fleeting glimpses of the ocean.

Today is the first day we adventure out to the other villages. We catch a train from Riomaggorie to Monterosso.

Monterosso – the Northern most village – and perhaps more like a normal town flatter terrain and a bit more open, cars etc – great location.

We are hiking from Monterosso to Vernazza and the onto Corniglia – along with lots of other tourists. Seems they close the walking trail on a regular basis – because of bad weather.

We start hiking – not quite sure of the starting point of the trail.

We have bought a Cinque Terre pass – allowing you to travel on the trains and walk the trails. We come to the first check point of the trails. Oh you don’t need to show pass oh and other’s don’t need to buy a pass … it is too early… nothing in the guide book about that…Italian way.

So pretty walking the coast of Italy – many up, many downs. We arrive in Vernazza  – very pretty – very busy – great place for a swim and lunch. Many many tourists here – appear to be from a cruise ship.

Next stop, after an hour or so walk, Corniglia. Corniglia, is perched on the side of the mountain and does not go all the way down to the water. Colourful houses and a lot quieter, it is much harder to access the town as the train line is at water level and there is a large staircase (150 massive steps or a bus shuttle) to access the town. Not quite prime location for tourists with luggage.

It has been quite hot walking – so we catch the train back to Riomaggorie for a swim.

We have heard that sunsets in Manarola are quite spectactular – town faces west and there are good vantage points to photograph town as the sun sets.

We travel to Manarola, by train, for the sunset photos and have a fantastic meal at one of the local restaurants. 

The man in the hat Leraxing in Riomaggorie

The instagrammers just outside our balcony

I think he has been off duty for quite some time

Monterosso – Northern most village

Monterosso

An inclinator to tend to the grape vines

having climbed out of Monterosso

Distant views on our descent into Vernazza

Vernazza

Vernazza

Swimming inVernazza 

Vernazza

Vernazzo

Corniglia 

Manarola – waiting for sunset

Sunset not fantastic – but still got reasonable colours

It looks like we may get rain today – so high chance that they may close walks in Cinque Terre national park.

We instead catch a train to S.Margherita Ligure Portofina, then walk to Portofino. We walk along a coastal path- fantastic scenery, upmarket houses, walking through beautiful sub tropical bush.

Portofino- very upmarket – shops, hotels, restaurants.

Enjoy the photos.

Didn’t have any rain today – just overcast.

Just an average church we stumbled across in Santa Margherita, so much glitz.

Portofino