Chocolate Anyone?

The high speed train from Rome to Florence is the only way to go....250 kms/hour makes the trip seem short, especially when travelling in comfort and in the "quiet zone". To be honest, the Italians never obeyed the no cell phone in the car rule and some talked pretty much the whole trip.

We were able to walk to our hotel from the Florence train station, but check in wasn't until 2:00 so we wandered around, had a small lunch and then visited the Uffizi Gallery. 

We crossed the Ponte Vecchio on the way home and were again astounded by the crowds. Even window shopping became a chore.

We found a nice market area closer to the train station that had some pretty special items like chocolate and cheese! Guess which one Fred gravitated toward.

Twice in a Lifetime is Enough

Okay....we are finished with the Vatican tours. Today was a brutal exercise in patience (which I don't have much of) while touring the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. 

So many people in such a small area was very hard on the body....so much standing, so many elbows to the side and so many selfie sticks in the face. 

We had an on-line skip the line reservation, but that only seemed to speed up the entrance and not the actual viewing.

The place was as impressive as the last time we were here, just a lot busier.

Rainy Supper

We had planned to search the streets before choosing an anniversary supper,  but the skies opened up and it started to pour....we grabbed the first place we could find located behind the top of the Spanish Steps. How fortunate that we did. It was an awesome meal. 

Sonny and Cindy gave us a gift to buy an expensive bottle of Italian wine and we did. Pinot Grigio that beats anything we have had at home. Thank you!

The rains continued throughout the meal, but we were able to stay somewhat dry.

We remained dry enough to enjoy some of the near by sights on our walk home.

Getting Lost

We knew our hotel was near the Spanish Steps, but we didn't realize that the Steps were just a two minute walk from our room. Sadly, they are closed right now so we couldn't climb up the familiar sight. 

When we were on our five month tour of Europe we used to get our mail at the American Express Office that was located at the top of the steps. We would walk here daily from the van at the Forum just in case someone from home wrote to us. It was such a highlight of the day/week/month to get mail. All before the Internet!

We also had fond memories of Trevi Fountain so that was next on our list. Busy, busy place, but we did get to see the area for a few minutes.

We had one thing that needed to be done today and that was to activate our Eurail train pass. We had contemplated waiting until we were travelling on the morning of the 20th, but eventually sanity overcame laziness and we took the subway to Termini Station and did the deed. It was a fairly easy, but time consuming job.

And then the fun started....we caught the wrong bus to our destination and ended up in an area of the city that we didn't want to be!  It took us awhile to find the proper subway and head home. Trastevere will have to wait until tomorrow.

Remembering

Our walk yesterday took us through many of the sights we had visited years ago. Oh such awesome memories. We were discussing how we had camped with Chimo (our VW van that we bought in Amsterdam) right beside the Roman Forum. Fred tried but he couldn't find the spot. Me, not a chance!

Our hotel is located near the Borghese Gardens and we used that as our starting point. We walked to the Forum and the Colosseum taking numerous side trips down the little alleyways of Rome.

We started the walk at 10:00 and didn't really stop until 9:00 that night...my feet hurt! Supper was near our hotel at a small Trattoria....just couldn't fathom walking back to the Colosseum area for a better meal.

Canadian Seasons

One thing that took our minds off the long and frustrating day was our friendly and patient transfer driver in Rome. He picked us up at the airport and while on the drive to our hotel he commented on the day's rainy weather. Fred mentioned that in Canada, it is commonly known that we have two seasons - "Winter" and "Construction" ( borrowed from a certain in-law).

This comment has been tried before with limited comedic effect. Today again, we had very limited response, but it was worth another try.

Beating Jet Lag

After many years of travel, Fred and I have finally learned how to defeat jet lag. We discovered that you must follow the steps below....not necessarily in the order I listed them:

1. You must have two refuelling stops on a three hour flight

2. On one of the refuelling stops the tanker must run out of fuel and thus need to leave the plane to find          more fuel....this will add an additional half hour to the stop

3. The ground crew must forget to bring a stairway to the plane so refuelling can begin....this will only add an additional 20 minutes to your stop, but remember every minute is important in learning how to defeat the dreaded jet lag

4. Toronto Control Tower must close down for a short length of time...just enough time to cause chaos in the surrounding airports....it helps if your plane didn't take on enough fuel in its first refuelling session to circle Toronto for a few minutes as asked by Toronto

If you follow the above instructions, you will miss your early evening flight by two or three hours and will be rerouted on a later flight that takes takes an indirect route to your destination city (very important point).  The later departure has you leaving your departure city at a very late hour which means an easy sleep and it has you arriving at your destination at a later hour which means you can now switch to your arrival city time and have another good sleep! So easy....you just have to give up one full day of your holiday and you are set. No jet lag and all rested and ready to go.

There are actually two lessons that we learned yesterday. The other is how to smile politely at all Air Canada employees. When you have been told that the agent at the ramp will help you get a new flight plan, you must smile brightly when she tells you she doesn't know anything and you should go to customer service.

Your grin should widen even more when you get to customer service and you are behind twenty other displaced passengers. You might even start laughing outloud when you realize that all but two AC reps have decided to take a long supper break. I bet those 60 or so passengers from Saskatoon who missed their flights too are rolling in the aisles when they see that it takes 30 minutes for each person to be helped. At that rate they will be through the line in 24 to 30 hours.

Lastly, when you are put on a Lufthansa flight and you ask an Air Canada agent for directions to the Lufthansa gate and he answers "I don't have a clue" before turning his back and walking away....remember to smile broadly and don't let that one nasty word slip out of your mouth!

At 9:30 at night you can start jumping with joy when Air Canada tells you they didn't know how to get you through to the Lufthansa gate and so you must exit and come back in through security one more time, just to be sure "you are going in the right direction". How happy you will be!!!

I guess there are three lessons learned. The last lesson is really more of an acting pointer. When your flight from Munich starts its descent into Rome through more turbulence than a plane can possible endure, you must not act frightened. When you realize that you are descending through lightening bursts, please don't grab the arms of the seat and utter a loud gasp.  Just pretend all is well and you are thoroughly enjoying this day!