After our late night we slept in but got up in time for a sumptuous included breakfast. There were rooms and corridors and nooks and crannies of all types of food. We mostly hit the Asian section. Teriyaki Beef, mixed veggies, spring rolls, noodles, rice. There was the usual hot and cold foods plus a whole types of porridge station, an Indian curry section, even ice cream and all different kinds of sprinkles to use with waffles and stuff. We only saw half of what’s to offer.
Having bagged a late check out and still feeling wiped out, we were very naughty and went back to sleep for a while- well we are paying for a fancy room might as well take advantage. One more turn each of the shower for royalty and a final pack before our 2pm checkout.

We took our bags to the concierge and got a taxi over to the Gardens by the Bay. There seemed to be about 3 storms brewing in the distance but we were good and managed to go up the super trees to do go across the scary walkway. It was a bit testing for us with a fear of heights but the views all around were worth it. Then we did a tour around on a little train/ cart.

We went back to the hotel and had the most expensive beer in the history of the world. $42.50 for 2 Tiger Draughts. Taxi to the hotel and after checking in there was a special surprise! Barb had 2 vouchers for the Qantas Business Class Lounge, and she kept it a secret until last night.

It was busy when we got there but the crowds thinned out. There was lots of different foods, quality Australian wines and they even make you cocktails! We both had a Bloody Mary and many other things. We were enjoying it so much that we nearly missed our plane.

We boarded on time and the plane was pretty empty down the back, so we could spread out and settle in for a comfortable flight home.

So another great trip concludes and thus ends this blog. Thanks for coming along for the ride. 😎

We slept in a bit and packed and cleaned before getting a taxi to the airport. Farewell Rome, we had the best of times. After checking in we had some surprisingly good and well priced Asian food. We flew out mid afternoon. A cruisy 5.30 hours flight, many chard’s and a spare seat in between us to help us relax.

We arrived in Dubai around midnight, our next flight left 80 minutes later. There was a bus that took us kilometres across the airport, then a train and, we had a 20 min walk to our gate. It was a massive task and we got there during final call. Was a stressful connection. Our seats this time were shit. A very crowded flight and we were in the dreaded middle section. Only 7 hours so it was bearable and we arrived in Singapore about 12.30pm. Immediately the organisation and cleanliness struck us. We breezed through and caught a taxi. After the chaotic traffic and driving of Greece and Italy it was amusing to watch courteous, rule following drivers.

A 5 star hotel for our final night. The Mandarin Oriental Singapore. We are on the 13th floor. A lovely spacious room. Good views. Of course the one thing you should not do in this situation is sleep.  so what did we do? Yep  you guessed it, we both fell asleep, just for 3 hours. We were woken up by very loud thunder and torrential rain.
Our deluxe bathroom has a decent looking shower. After taking turns to test it out, it was declared the Rolls Royce of showers. The showers to destroy all showers to come, but so so worth it.

Feeling refreshed we went to the Cherry Orchard  for a set menu called Heart. The food and service was impeccable. A photo of the menu and each course follows.

Since we are almost doubling our spending for the entire trip in one night, we continued the trend and had a Singapore Sling by the poolside bar. So nice to sit and look at the views. It was a lovely clear night with a nice breeze. Excellent spot.

We even got a selfie to celebrate before heading back to watch some television and see whether we stuffed our chances of sleep with the too long arvo snooze. One more day.

Today is our last full day in Rome. It has been a pleasure to really immerse ourselves in this the Eternal City and soak up as much culture, history, food and alcohol there is to offer. I think we succeeded.
An early start and we walked from home to the Colosseum, it really is not far if you go the right way. Then we parted ways for the day.

Barb’s story. I have long had a fascination with the naughtiest of Emperors and today I got to tour the Domus Area. The Golden House of Nero. One of the most infamous of  historical figures. First we had to put on a paper cap and a hard hat, as some bits are unstable and we are going underground. I was a teeny bit excited.

It was cold inside and got colder as we were underground. Nero was so hated by all by the time of his ‘suicide’ in 68AD that anything he built was covered over. Early in the tour we had a multi media display on the wall.

 

The ceilings were so high and there were fake ones but most of that is gone. The frescos on the walls were very reminiscent of Pompeii and Herculaneum which makes sense as it is the same time period of interior design fashions.

We sat in a room and had to take off our hard hats and put on virtual reality goggles which took us on a bit of a tour of the house in its heyday. It was quite amazing and unsettling at the same time. I was dizzy for a minute or 2 after.  We went to the dining room that was reportedly revolving and had a model of the night sky above but unfortunately there is no real evidence of this. Bloody ancient writers! That shot on the right was a waterfall though and all his fancy statues that are now in the Vatican were here too. I loved this tour, this place only reopened a few years ago.

I was glad to get back up to the mild winter after the arctic temperatures of the tour. I took a wander on the Oppian Hill, this seems to be where the locals bring their dogs to be off leash. Part of Trajan’s Baths are up here and always the looming image of the Colosseum nearby.

There were many crowds and hawkers and I wanted to get away and do some shopping. I wandered the many surrounding streets.  Time for some sustenance I decided to be a tacky tourist and dine by the Flavian Amphitheatre, (yeah yeah colosseum). I was very surprised by the reasonably priced traditional menu and even considered ordering tripe. Sorry Mum, I just couldn’t, even for you!

I had pasta with beans and pork skins. It was like a spicy soup and the pork was rinds but tender and not gross. Very nice with a glass of Chianti and I made friends with the Belgians sitting next to me. A little more browsing and then walked home. Tired, I had time for a snooze and then some packing before our departure tomorrow.

Terry’s Story. Now a 10 day veteran of Rome the starting point of the tour was easy to find, our group had 22 people and at E40 per ticket and 6 groups leaving at 10am City Wonders must make a motza. A brief stop and history of the Flavians we were inside the Colosseum without much fuss. The views from the middle class seats were fantastic, it really is one of those places you just have to see for yourself.

After leaving the Colosseum we moved on to the Palatine hill. Worst security queue ever, only 2 x-ray scanners. Once inside many of us enjoyed a much needed toilet break (if you ever visit Rome you’ll understand the fixation on toilets). Up to the Palatine hill where all the rich bastards lived and then down to the Roman Forum. Hard to explain how amazing it was to finally stand in what was the centre of the Roman world, pictures and maps just can’t explain a sense of place the way being there does. After the tour much wandering was done around the area and finally saw an aqueduct, the Aqua Claudia that brought water to the Palatine. A quick walk home and as luck would have it, it was beer o’clock.

We reunited with stories to tell in the late afternoon and to prepare for our farewell to Rome meal. We have made a reservation at the local restaurant we have enjoyed the most in our time here. 5e28 Cucina Mescale. Named so because the owners first laid eyes on their perfect venue for their culinary dream at 5.28pm years ago.

So our intention was to try and get through all 4 courses like real Italians, (skip the salad). Like true visionaries we were determined. Course 1. A. 3 types of meatballs each with a matching sauce. Beef with tomato, tuna with salsa verde and pork with honey mustard. B, fried artichokes and sauce.

Course 2. Option A. Fettuccine with rabbit ragout. Option B. Spaghetti with prawns. Simply delicious. Apologies for the blurred photos.

Course 3. More wine! Option A. Octopus with mashed potato n stuff. Option B. Beef cheeks and polenta. Getting ready to wave the white flag…….

Course 4. Terry decided to have the ‘chocolate creamy’ again, Barb conceded and tried their Tiramasu. Food coma’s aplenty.

Salute Roma!

…. and just because, more parking fun, on our walk home.

Woke up to beautiful clear skies. We taxied to near the Termini Station. A walk around and then to our destination The National History Museum. Neither of us has been here before and for a couple of history buffs like us this place was nirvana.

There was an actual room called the Julio-Claudian Dynasty room. Yeeeew! We are such geeks. It was awesome. 😎 I will try and choose just a few select photos. The first photo is of Alexander the Great, the Discus Thrower is the second, then the 2 bronze statues were cool.

There were a few very bohemian looking dudes being interviewed and photographed while we were there too. This sarcophagus was amazing and the painted frescos from the villa of Livia, Emperor Augustus’ wife.

Many, many, many more photos were taken by both of us. A great museum, not well known and not many go there.
We walked out of the museum hours later and as so often happens in Rome, we were right near the remarkable Piazza di Republica, which has this incredible fountain. Some very fancy hotels in that area too, this is the festive entrance to one.

It was past lunch time so we found a little Trattoria. Barb got to tick her ‘eat lasagne in Rome box’ and Terry the same for ‘spag bol’ but with fettuccine. Was a lovely place started in the 1930’s and the food was delish.

We went to visit this church nearby, it is dedicated to martyrs and is built inside part of the Baths of Diocletian. For a minor church it was pretty huge and opulent.

Home for some organisation and relaxing before heading out to a Sardinian Restaurant. It was a perfect evening, clear crisp and lovely for a bit of a walk to dinner.

Delectable food. The traditional Sardinian bread was light, crispy and wafer thin. The antipasto platter was as good as it looks. Then we shared 2 seafood dishes. A very enjoyable dinner and a nice stroll home.

Don’t fret people this will be brief. The weather forecast all week has been for rain all day today, and they were right. After our big day yesterday and 16 days on the go, we have declared today a day of rest.

Sleeping in to the sound of heavy rain was divine. We sat around and drank coffee and had vegemite on toast, so it wasn’t a waste bringing it all this way. Some very heavy downpours made us very happy that were indoors. It is 11 degrees at around noon. Barb did venture out for some shopping briefly and we got quite a thunderstorm around 5pm which was cool.

To distract from our laziness, a little tale about parking in Rome. It is bizarre. Most cars are very small so you can park in any direction, and on any corner. The red car below is parked believe it or not and remained there for more than a day. Double parking is common as well, up on footpaths, in driveways. There must be online groups dedicated to this. There are very few SUV’s and none of the big ones. We did see some parking inspectors last night, they must be very busy.

There is a restaurant about 30 metres from the front door of our building which we have kept up our sleeves for a rainy night and tonight was that night. The menu was all in Italian so it was a bit of pot luck.  We has some bread, carpaccio beef and a selection of other wafer thin meats.

The pastas we shared for main were both superb, not that we really know what we had. Same with dessert, one was like a chocolate ice cream and the other like a lava cake. Both wonderful but would have been better combined rather than eaten separately.

Home for last episode of The Crown. Fin.

We had our big day trip to Herculaneum all planned…. or so we thought….

Up and out the door early we got a taxi to the Termini Central Station ( Barb’s first visit there since here the 2006 mugging but this time we are prepared and aware). A concierge helped us buy our fast train tickets to Naples. Wow they are expensive though – 80 euro each, yikes! (129 Aussie dollars) It is however, a fabulous train. We are in a roomy comfort car, the train travels at 300 km, we get wonderful views of the Italian countryside and arrive incident free over an hour later.
We buy our tickets to Ercolano all by ourselves using the machine. We are nailing this public transport thing…or so we thought…

The next train doesn’t leave for 45 mins, so we grab a late Roman breakfast. Barb has a wonderful Sfogliatella with a tasty but almost cold coffee and Terry had chocolate and pistachio butter filled pastry. It took a bit of a walk to find where our train line was and many train personnel helped us along the way but gave us strange looks when we showed them our tickets to Porti Ercolano. We board our train and after a few stations we realise we have missed our stop. There was no sign that we saw. We get off at Torre El Greco and decide to grab a cab. We walk around but we are in hicksville, as you can see from this photo, possibly in South America.

We go back to the station and catch the train back one stop to Porti Ercolano. You have to actually walk across the tracks to get out of the station. So we are here…or so we thought…

We asked some locals who quickly told us that the Scavi was very far away. Luckily we saw a cab. It was a van but the sliding door didn’t work, so he opened the passenger door with a large rope that he used to open and close it.  10 mins later and Hurrah!! We have found Herculaneum. Often called ‘The Other Pompeii’, but in my opinion better. It is smaller, easier to get a great sense of from above, covered in a much more impressive 20m of molten rock and not crowded. If fact much of the time we were the only ones in each building.

We began by walking through the rock tunnels down to the boat sheds where they now have the skeleton displays. This was the beach front in 79AD. These are fake, the real ones found in 1981 are housed elsewhere.

The Villa of the Cervi is very impressive, it has been done up a lot since Barb was here nearly 7 years ago. These are the houses Romans lived in, we are walking on their mosaic or marble floors, looking at their frescos and statues, including everyone’s favourite, drunk Hercules.  It is amazing.

One of the other points of difference with Herculaneum is that the upper stories survived on some buildings and they have lots of carbonised wood that survived as it was sort of cooked by the large amount of lava.

The next house. Casa di Bicenteniaro has only been recently reopened to the public after being closed for 36 years. This is exciting and we had to put on shoe protectors to enter.

Another highlight is this room in another house. The Neptune and Aphrodite mosaic is awesome!

It rained quite heavily but only for about 10 minutes and just as we were ready to leave anyway. You could not see Mt Vesuvius from the town while we were there as it was shrouded in clouds. A little piece of suburban Ancient Rome, this was more of a resort type town as opposed to Pompeii which was a bustling commercial area. A fantastic ancient site, was so worth the effort and troubles of getting here. The Ercolano Scavi train station ( where we should have arrived) is just up the road and getting home will be easy…or so we thought….

We were getting very tired by now, we walked up the big hill to the station and bought our tickets. We had to stand for a long time waiting for the train and our legs were dying to sit down. Unfortunately the train back to Napoli was very crowded so we had to remain standing. Heaps of people got off on the second last station and we assumed the last station would be where we had to alight. So we stayed on till the last stop and when we asked where the fast train is, it was one station back. 🤬🤬

We were quickly directed to a train but the doors wouldn’t open, before we realised the back half of the train pulled away from the station. The old ‘2 trains on one platform trick’ we should have kept walking down the platform. So a station employee directs us to another train. (The Italians are so helpful, really, everywhere we go they are happy to assist us idiot tourists- we really are feeling pretty damn stupid by now).

We are wise to the two train thing now and head down the platform and stand on the train. The train keeps starting and then stopping, the lights go on and then off. We don’t sit because we are only going one station. The Italians all sit, so people keep thinking we aren’t sure which train we are on and keep asking us questions which we don’t understand . Finally after 20 mins or so the train goes back to the Garibaldi station. We quite easily change our fast train ticket (we have missed the one we were meant to get). We had to run to get the train, we are in the very last seats in the last carriage. Sitting down after all this time is most welcome. We get back in the dark. Exhausted and very hungry – those pastries were all we had had all day.

A taxi home and this was a good opportunity to use up some supplies. An Aperol Spritz jug and antipasto platter on the couch made for a perfect evening in.

This was a long post, it was a long day. We survived and will laugh about this for many years.

Pretty cold mornings at the moment, about 3 degrees today but we haven’t needed to put the heaters on. We headed up into Rome central this morning. Walked around the Vittorio Emmanuel monument. The weather today is stunning, clear blue skies (sorry Australia, I know you crave this at present with all the bushfire smoke).

Just around the corner are loads of ancient forums of famous Emperors, Julius Caesar, Trajan and Augustus. There was a great vibe going on with live music, (a great reggae band in particular) and the sunshine. We were just loving the many levels of history all around us.

We spent lots of time trying to work out what we were looking at and then walked up the hill which was fortuitous as it gave us more great views and took us straight to the museum we planned to visit.

The Capitoline Museum was our destination. These bits of what must have been a gigantic statue of Constantine are in the foyer. His Monty Python type foot was the inspiration for today’s title.

Lunch was first on the agenda so we went up to the second floor only to find another addictive view of Rome. It was so good we had to eat in the fancier outside cafe. Barb had a club sandwich and Terry had pizza.

After lunch we explored the museum. Lots of excellent things to see.

Late afternoon we hailed a taxi back home. We noticed the driver had not put on the meter so when we arrived at our destination he was given a 10 euro note, he tried to ask for more but we refused and told him he should have put on the meter. We are bad ass travellers now that will probs get swindled tomorrow. Hope not. 🤞
We have been alternating the direction we head for dinner and tonight was down Via Gallia. As we tend to stop at the first appropriate looking place we need to go further each night, but it is not far at all. Tonight we went to a place called TBSP. In hindsight it may have been a chain. It was American. We had ribs and a pulled pork burger to share with salad. It was fine but not good enough to think about dessert or  liqueur and wasn’t worth photos. Lucky for us we have a bottle of Amaretto at home, that cost 4 euros, nice glasses and ice for a nightcap.

Another random but very relevant fact for us, is that our apartment smells of gherkins. The only time we smell it is when we walk in after the place has been closed up but it is obvious each time. Not a bad smell but it’s intriguing as we have no idea what the source is.

The weather has turned a little chilli but it is certainly not scarves or gloves weather. One of the lovely things with our apartment, is the sunlight that streams in of a morning.
Getting a taxi this morning was easy peasy. We were going to the other side of Rome but this driver took some of the strangest roads. Tiny alleyways with large school groups in front of us , they seemed like weird choices but we made it there. Our destination was Augustus’ Mausoleum which unfortunately is under a major reconstruction, so there was little to see.

We walked onwards toward the Spanish Steps, it was again very obvious that we were near a popular destination as the crowds massively increased. We took some obligatory photos and then got the hell out of there.

I would like to emphasise at this point that we did not climb the Spanish Steps, we are way too classy for that, we took the San Sebastiano steps on the side. We were making our way to the Villa Borghese. A wonderful surprise was the amazing views of the eternal city that we got along the way. Another great addition to the day was fighter planes flying over in threes with smoke coming out in the colours of the Italian flag. Red, white and green.

Our time for a quick brunch was running out. You can only buy timed tickets for this venue and we had to get there by 1pm. A toasted panini was our only choice, was OK really. The area and gardens are huge. One of the amusing things was all of the different vehicles you could hire to get around. Segways, bikes, pedal carts, low pedal bikes, a little train, golf carts, electric scooters – you name it. Eventually we found the Villa and the strange selfie taking Roman.

Booking only this morning a guided tour was our our only option. Visitors have a 2 hour window to visit and you are asked to leave after this.The great thing was that we were the only 2 people in the tour, so it was basically a private tour. This Villa was owned by this guy which we assume was a spoilt narcissist who was totally loaded. His uncle was the Pope and he became a Cardinal and used all of this to acquire loads of precious art. No photos are allowed. There was also an exhibition which included treasures from St Petersburg and The Louvre by Valadiar. The entire place is opulently decorated. Loads of priceless artefacts. Most impressive were the Bernini statues.  The Rape of Persephone and Apollo and Daphne statues blew us away. We were flabbergasted by the detail and skill of this artist. The photos below are from the internet.

A taxi home. After a recoup we headed out into the cold windy evening. There are maple trees all over the city and they are now shedding their leaves everywhere. They are piling up around the footpaths, cars and all around. Trying to go to a new restaurant each night and avoid cafe style places, it took us a while to find a place. We saw this restaurant and you had to buzz to go in. It was 7.20 and were were told to wait for 15 mins. It felt a bit strange and we nearly walked out but then we were shown to a table. The only customers there.

We had a bruschetta to share and shared pasta. Fettuccine with white bolognese sauce, pasta with tomato fish and olives. Both were fabulous. As we were eating the empty restaurant kept getting busier and busier.

The food was so we good we just had to try dessert. Tiramisu and Zabaglione. Both incredible. The restaurant by now was packed. We have clearly found some local popular gem. So finish and off home. Great find. Love this neighbourhood!

The weather continues to be lucky for us with some overnight showers and warmish, mostly sunny days. It gets light about 7.30 am. We headed out mid- morning with a plan to catch a taxi. We walked and walked but hailing one was rather elusive. We needed up in a piazza with a well preserved obelisk. Lost and needing to make a new plan of action, we had a very Roman breakfast of croissant and coffee.

We walked to the colosseum for the taxi rank and then got a ride to St. Peter’s Basilica. We had a bit of a wait in line to get through security. It was lovely to see the nativity scene and tree. Hate to think what the crowds would be like in peak season.

Once inside it is incredulous the size and opulence of this building. The Michelangelo statue, Bernini’s ‘four post bed’ sculpture over the crypt of St Paul and the cupola are highlights but everywhere you look is some masterpiece. Then we walked through the creepy crypt of dead popes before exiting.

We then walked by the Castel Saint’Angelo which is the Emperor Hadrian’s tomb. Nearby the courthouse was worth a photo as was the view back to St. Peter’s.  On the way we felt our first Roman rain, only for about 5 mins fortunately.

It was definitely way past lunch time so next stop was the wonderful Piazza Navona. There are 3 amazing fountains including the famous Bernini Four Rivers Fountain. There are also Christmas markets on at the moment, which included a carousel, shooting galleries etc.

Weary and starving we found a Trattoria and had pizza and beer. A tomato, cheese and anchovy, the other with egg, mushroom and artichoke. The former and simpler was the favourite. We had to leave much crust to get through.

Soldiering on, the Parthenon was our next visit. Its massive concrete dome always impresses plus everything else. Raphael’s tomb is in here too- so we have covered two of the ninja turtles today. Then much wandering through the narrow streets, asking for directions, feeling like we were going in circles, finally the Trevi Fountain appeared. To be honest it felt like something to just tick off. Very crowded, Barb still felt the need to throw 3 coins in the fountain as she has done twice before and has returned each time. Having really been in tourism central today, we were continually accosted by the Africans trying to sell things or scam us. Also common is women with a fake young child or baby asking for $$$. Thankfully we found a taxi quickly and home.

A bit of a relax, loving that we have Netflix. We headed down Via Gallia and Cafe Urbana looked nice. We had a pork belly asian flavoured soft taco for entree. A pesto gnocchi plus prawn and zucchini spaghetti. All very nice. And, well, we didn’t have dessert last night. The menu was in Italian, so we really didn’t know any we ordered. A ricotta mousse type think with berries and more mousse stuff with Nutella and biscuity things, washed down with an Amaretto chaser. All very indulgent, what the hey!

An episode of The Crown and bed. Zzz

 

A highlight of yesterday was working out how to work our Italian window shutters, but they make the rooms so dark, sleeping in is easy. Oh well, we are on holidays.
Today we walked the Appian Way. Parts are an ancient Roman road dating back to 312BC. It goes for 63 km, we managed to cover 10. Sections were a bit treacherous mostly because of the speeding vehicles and lack of footpaths. Much of the traffic is banned on Sundays. Apparently. So much history everywhere though.

We stopped at the San Callisto Catacombs. Barb has been here before so she waited as Terry did a tour, which was thoroughly enjoyed. We had walked quite a bit by then and it was time for our first meal of the day. A nearby restaurant was a bit classy. Terry had the pork pasta and Barb’s was in a tomato, cheese and olive sauce. Both were utterly delicious.

Sustenance sorted we ventured onwards. There was a bit of a triathlon that passed us at some point, they even had a makeshift Olympic torch. As we got further it became more remote, increasingly rustic and beautiful. Getting tired we began to look for an exit strategy. Those old stone roads really do start to jolt the old joints after a while.
Both of us were very excited to have walked in the same steps as so many famous Romans. This was a great experience many visitors to Rome miss out on.

In the evening we took a punt on trying a Peruvian Restaurant nearby. We could hear music and see lights when we were nearby and it turns out it was a bit of a downstairs dance club. We opted to remain upstairs. A seafood fried rice and an amazingly tender beef dish was washed down with some fine Chianti, no fava beans to be seen…but we were given a boiled lolly for dessert. Couldn’t fit in more than that.

Back home for more The Crown before bed. We keep getting forecasts of 90% rain, but none yet. 🤞