We met our driver as planned and got to our hotel without any problems. We are staying at the Hotel Caravaggio located just a few block from Termini in the heart of Rome.
Ninno greeted us with the lilting verbiage I so love, saying Buono Sera (Good Evening) as our greeting. Our check in was quick and he escorted us to our room on the 4th floor by way of a tiny lift that is over 80 years old but is the quietest elevator I have ever ridden. You must open a wire mesh door then two glass paneled wooden doors to enter. There is even a small bench if you have a need to sit down. The one rule is you must remember to close all of the doors as you exit otherwise the lift will not respond for the next person needing it, We have so far had to walk up or down several flights to recover the lift because someone didn’t follow the rules. And we have only been here one night. :}
Ninno sent us a block down from the hotel to grab a quick bite since we had eaten nothing since breakfast on the plane before landing in London this morning. This little place is called Pasta Love and as Ninno say “it has a good kitchen”. Good basic food, decent prices. Not bad house red and after about an hour we are back in our room and ready to get caught up and on to Rome time.
We have a queen bed that is very comfortable except for the pillows which are like pancakes. Very very flat. But so far everyplace we have stayed in Europe has really flat almost non existent pillows. And believe it or not no washcloths for bathing. So if you really want one bring your own. I should have remembered this from 2009 when I did remember to bring some old ones that we discarded when we left to board the ship. They give you great towels and hand towels but washcloths forget it. Needless to say we slept great.
This hotel is very quaint and very well run. Our room has its own tiny little balcony and private bath. It has a TV that we never turned on, plus a phone with a personal wake-up call if you request it. In addition to breakfast they have a Happy Hour each evening from 6-8pm offering complimentary red & white sparkling wine like Spumonti and snacks like bridge mix and popcorn. Breakfast in the morning consists of boiled eggs, several types of bread, cereal, two types of yogurt, and coffee or cappuccino. Plus of course the requisite pastries and pastries and pastries. These Europeans eat more pastries and bread than protein. If I ate like them I’d be back to 225 lbs in no time. Whew!! And all this for around E50 per day. We will definitely stay here again. If you want more info let me know and I will give you all the details.
We picked up our Roma Passes on Wednesday and made a dry run to Piazza del Popolo where we will meet our guide for a day trip to Tuscany on Thursday morning @ 7:30am. All went well and we remembered the station at Flaminio where we had taken the train to our little bungalow on our trip in 2009. We ate lunch on the outskirts of Piazza del Popolo at a sidewalk café that was a tourist trap, but we have learned to decipher a little better as to what to order. We order an antipasto plate and either a bottle or half bottle of the house wine, and after sharing this we then decide if we are still hungry for anything else. They sometimes try to force us to order more but we just smile and say no thanks. So most of the time we get by with about E12-15 including wine for both of us at lunch. That is a bit under $20 US and still cheaper than a hamburger at home.
Tonight Ninno has recommended another local restaurant called “Spiga”. Their food was good enough that we ate here twice. Their prices were a bit more expensive but not unreasonable and the wine was a bit higher but still good.
Time to get some sleep as we have a very full and long day tomorrow when we go to Tuscany. Stay tuned….
We love to travel. People tell me I should be a travel agent because of all the things we do,the places we go, and the money we save. Our grandaughter,Sophia,tells everyone that we are on a "field trip" while we are gone, thus the name. I hope you find helpful, interesting information about different locales, ideas on how to get the most for your money, and be entertained in the process. Welcome. Connie
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Friday, December 7, 2012
An Eternity to get to the Eternal City
The trip to Rome was filled with stops, starts and frustrations. We have been so lucky in the past with no delays, no missed flights, no cancellations and no woes. This time wasn’t horrible but it also wasn’t our best trip.
We started with a delayed flight out of Redding due to overbooking after having to leave at 6am because they decided to cancel our original flight at 10:30 am. We had to pay for an extra bag each because the idiot at United Express insisted they didn’t have a baggage agreement with Virgin Atlantic and then having to retrieve our luggage in San Francisco and carry it around with us from a little after 7 in the morning until 12:30 when we were allowed to check in for our flight to London Heathrow. Then a 45 minute or longer delay leaving which caused a need to change to another connecting flight from London to Rome. This flight was with Alitalia but at least Virgin Atlantic checked our bags all the way to Rome. So we’re thinking yeah this is gonna work and they honored what we had already paid United for the bags and so didn’t charge us again. United could really afford to take some lessons in customer service from them.
When we went to check in for our Rome flight on Alitalia we had what we thought was going to be a nice 4 hour layover to spend in the United Red Carpet Club with snacks wine and comfortable seating. Think again cause we got the supervisor from HELL who insisted that unless we paid him an extra E55 per bag yep that’s right folks I said E55 per bag. That comes out to over $75 per bag in USD. He said we wouldn‘t be allowed on the plane much less would our luggage be transferred. And this guy wasn’t even Italian!!! He insisted that Virgin Atlantic had not released Tony’s reservation from their system and that we had to traverse back across London Heathrow and get it straightened out. We asked him to call them and he said he didn’t have time. Mind you we had no one in line behind us and we had 4 hours till flight time. Away we go back thru security which by the way we had passed with no glitches two times in a row. Back on the bus to Terminal 3 and Virgin Atlantic easily finds Tony’s ticket and says Alitalia is nuts cause it is in their system and has been since San Francisco. We tell them about the luggage problem and they say if we have to pay it they will reimburse us but that they have an agreement with Alitalia that should make it okay.
Off we go back to the bus and over to Terminal 5 again. By this time we are down to about 2 hours before our flight time and we have ridden this bus enough times we are greeting the drivers by name and singing “To Market To Market to by a fat pig” under our breath on the ride. Back thru security we go. BEEEEP!!! All our bags set off alarms and it takes 30 minutes for them to open and empty everything to discover one small bottle of hand sanitizer that we forgot to put in the zip bag. Have you ever tried to repack a suitcase in the middle of an airport that you have originally spent over a week packing just so in order to make use of all the little nooks and crannies? Yeah, you do understand. In the meantime while I am showing off my new collection of Victoria’s Secret underwear to all the old codgers in London, Tony is again dealing with the Alitalia guy who still insists his boarding pass is not there until a nice little girl comes to start the shift transition. She finally discovers that this guy is pushing the wrong button the whole time and Tony’s boarding pass was always there. She finally took pity on us and after the idiot guy left she got on the phone and spent another 20+ minutes getting the baggage fees waived for us. We had just enough time at this point to find our gate and start boarding.
Instead of getting to Rome while it was still daylight we arrived at 8 pm after having an emergency crew board the plane and take a girl off that was having either an appendicitis attack ,a panic attack or she was having some sort of reaction to what she drank on board. The girl was refusing to go with the medics until someone got her mother on the phone. We never found out for sure but it was pretty interesting for a while with all the Italian crew waving their hands and talking at the top of their voices. I can barely pick up on one of about every 20-30 words so it was no help at all in the long run. At one point we had every attendant on the plane in one spot discussing what should be done next. And of course everyone of them had their own opinion. It was quite entertaining to say the least.
We finally arrived and were blessed with the arrival of all our luggage at the same time. We were told that the day before was a strike and no luggage was off loaded all day. Things are really looking up indeed. To be continued…….
We started with a delayed flight out of Redding due to overbooking after having to leave at 6am because they decided to cancel our original flight at 10:30 am. We had to pay for an extra bag each because the idiot at United Express insisted they didn’t have a baggage agreement with Virgin Atlantic and then having to retrieve our luggage in San Francisco and carry it around with us from a little after 7 in the morning until 12:30 when we were allowed to check in for our flight to London Heathrow. Then a 45 minute or longer delay leaving which caused a need to change to another connecting flight from London to Rome. This flight was with Alitalia but at least Virgin Atlantic checked our bags all the way to Rome. So we’re thinking yeah this is gonna work and they honored what we had already paid United for the bags and so didn’t charge us again. United could really afford to take some lessons in customer service from them.
When we went to check in for our Rome flight on Alitalia we had what we thought was going to be a nice 4 hour layover to spend in the United Red Carpet Club with snacks wine and comfortable seating. Think again cause we got the supervisor from HELL who insisted that unless we paid him an extra E55 per bag yep that’s right folks I said E55 per bag. That comes out to over $75 per bag in USD. He said we wouldn‘t be allowed on the plane much less would our luggage be transferred. And this guy wasn’t even Italian!!! He insisted that Virgin Atlantic had not released Tony’s reservation from their system and that we had to traverse back across London Heathrow and get it straightened out. We asked him to call them and he said he didn’t have time. Mind you we had no one in line behind us and we had 4 hours till flight time. Away we go back thru security which by the way we had passed with no glitches two times in a row. Back on the bus to Terminal 3 and Virgin Atlantic easily finds Tony’s ticket and says Alitalia is nuts cause it is in their system and has been since San Francisco. We tell them about the luggage problem and they say if we have to pay it they will reimburse us but that they have an agreement with Alitalia that should make it okay.
Off we go back to the bus and over to Terminal 5 again. By this time we are down to about 2 hours before our flight time and we have ridden this bus enough times we are greeting the drivers by name and singing “To Market To Market to by a fat pig” under our breath on the ride. Back thru security we go. BEEEEP!!! All our bags set off alarms and it takes 30 minutes for them to open and empty everything to discover one small bottle of hand sanitizer that we forgot to put in the zip bag. Have you ever tried to repack a suitcase in the middle of an airport that you have originally spent over a week packing just so in order to make use of all the little nooks and crannies? Yeah, you do understand. In the meantime while I am showing off my new collection of Victoria’s Secret underwear to all the old codgers in London, Tony is again dealing with the Alitalia guy who still insists his boarding pass is not there until a nice little girl comes to start the shift transition. She finally discovers that this guy is pushing the wrong button the whole time and Tony’s boarding pass was always there. She finally took pity on us and after the idiot guy left she got on the phone and spent another 20+ minutes getting the baggage fees waived for us. We had just enough time at this point to find our gate and start boarding.
Instead of getting to Rome while it was still daylight we arrived at 8 pm after having an emergency crew board the plane and take a girl off that was having either an appendicitis attack ,a panic attack or she was having some sort of reaction to what she drank on board. The girl was refusing to go with the medics until someone got her mother on the phone. We never found out for sure but it was pretty interesting for a while with all the Italian crew waving their hands and talking at the top of their voices. I can barely pick up on one of about every 20-30 words so it was no help at all in the long run. At one point we had every attendant on the plane in one spot discussing what should be done next. And of course everyone of them had their own opinion. It was quite entertaining to say the least.
We finally arrived and were blessed with the arrival of all our luggage at the same time. We were told that the day before was a strike and no luggage was off loaded all day. Things are really looking up indeed. To be continued…….
Sunday, November 11, 2012
"Burn Baby Burn" or "North to Alaska"?
There comes a time in life when things just don't work the way they always have. I think we are facing one of those. You know how as you age parts and pieces slow down and get sluggish? Yeah well that has started happening at our house. I know, I know you say that it's only to be expected. Well damnit that is not acceptable to my husband of 44 years. He expects everything to last indefinately. Bless his heart he is exactly like his father(God rest his soul).
Most of the time he can fix anything and will. But there are some things that he won't even attempt. However, you would like to believe that everything won't slow down, break, need repair or need replacement at the same time. But as the saying goes "when it rains it floods". (that's my version of the saying)
In the last year we have replaced the roof, redone both bathrooms to aleviate missing grout, water leaks from toilets and faucets, and have kept our fingers crossed while the dishwasher makes noises like a dragon digesting a knight in a full suit of armor.
Along with all that we kept our fingers crossed that the air conditioner wouldn't go during one of our 100++++ degree heat waves. And the old gal didn't let us down. She kept us nice and cool. As the weather got steadily cooler we didn't have to think about the heat. That is until last week when we got our first cold snap. Turn on the heater and cross those fingers again. Will she work for another season? Yea!! she came on and warmed everything up quite nicely. Whew!!! Another reprieve. or so we thought until...
Yep, got up this am and the poor old thing can make her fan work but she just can't heat things up like she has done for the last 20 something years.
We are getting all the last minute details taken care of before we leave on our next reventure (as my "great niece" Ally used to call adventures :}). It may be that one of those last minute details could be figuring out how to have a new heater installed in the house while we are gone. We have Jack here now looking things over. So we'll see what happens. And of course today is Sunday so it costs extra for a service call on a weekend. Stay tuned for the conclusion of "Burn Baby Burn" or "North to Alaska".
We leave at 6am tomorrow for a long 9 hour wait in San Francisco before heading to London and on to Rome where we will spend a week and see things we missed in 2009 on our first international trip. On November 20 we board Crown Princess and set sail once again to the Greek Isles, Turkey, and Croatia ending up in Venice. We will continue our trip from Venice across the Atlantic to Galveston, Texas making stops in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Azores.
We will be out of touch except for Facebook and email until after December 22 when we get back into Galveston and fly home just in time for Christmas. I will try to post for the different ports since our tour schedule is not so intense as it was last year with Dominick. That was impossible to keep up with, so I didn't even try.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
So Many Trips So Little Time
Well, it has been a very very active year and I decided it was time I tried to update what, where, when, why, how and who have happened. Especially since in just over 2 months we will leave for our 4th Trans-Atlantic crossing in as many years.
This time we will spend a week in Rome before boarding our ship. We spent 6 days in 2009 and saw less than half of our 10 most wanted. In 2010 we didn't venture into the city since our ship was docked for only one day. Last year we did venture in for a very long busy day in order to show Dominick as much as possible. We took him to the Coleseum, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. The Vatican was too crowded with locals to even attempt since on the last Sunday of each month all the museums are no charge for entry. And of course that was the day we were there. This time we will stay in the main part of Rome so we are closer to everything. Then we will board our ship on November 20 and sail 12 days to Venice, stay aboard and sail 20 days back to Galveston, Texas arriving home on December 22 just in time for Christmas.
Since returning from our trip last November, we have been thru New Orleans in February during Mardi Gras to board a ship for the Western Caribbean with 9 old friends and their spouses. We so enjoyed sailing with them and are hoping to do it again next year. Perhaps out of San Francisco for 10 days to Alaska since a number of them and some of Tony's cousins want to go there. We have already been twice but we just enjoy being on the ship so we're happy.
In March we traveled to Texas for my "nephews" wedding. Man that was the best elegant, sophisticated, shit-kickin' wedding we have ever been to! I know, I know your thinking how can those three words be combined in the same sentence? I'm telling you I wouldn't have thought it possible either but you had to be there to understand. Had a great time and hope the next wedding in my family will invite me again.
We flew from Texas to So California the beginning of April so Tony and his brother Roger could put new windows in their mom's house. Spent a week there and then brought her home with us for a few weeks.
In between all this flying, sailing and partying the contractor was remodeling the guest bath here at home. He started just before we left for New Orleans and we finished the paint just in time to leave for Texas. We took out the claw foot tub and replaced it with a glass and tile enclosed walk-in shower, tiled the floor, painted and did a general spruce-up.
Fast forward to June. The contactor started the remodel of the master bath. We thought it would work out great like the other bath with all the noisy dirty stuff taking place while we were gone. WRONG!!
We traveled to Chicago for Tony's Vietnam Veteran Reunion and to spend some time with our godson and his family and his mom who is one of our oldest and dearest friends. Spent two great weeks there.and came home on July 1st to find nothing repeat NOTHING had been done the entire 2 weeks we were gone. Not happy campers at this point. So 10 days later we left again, with the grandkids this time, to go to Disneyland for a week.
Fast forward to 2 days before we leave for Disneyland. Our neighbors across the street decided to sell their motorhome. Now mind you we have talked about buying another motorhome. But just in general terms such as Tony's favorite quote, "When I get to the point that I can't make it up and down the gangway of a cruise ship, then I'll buy a Winnabago and start terrorizing the highways," You know, vague, casual remarks like that in general conversation. But we had speculated several years ago that if these particular neighbors ever decided to sell theirs we really would take a look since they are extremely picky and everything they have looks brand new. He's 80 and she is 78 so you get the general idea right? I digress... So we look at the motorhome, are impressed, (even though it is blue inside ...my least favorite color) test drive and buy in a matter of 1 1/2 days. It was a godsend with the 3 grandkids. The oldest two, Dominick and Sophia, are like gas and a match, so it kept them separated into their own war zones. The youngest, Evan, was pottie training and it saved stopping at every rest area, gas station, fast food joint, restaurant, and large bush between here and So California. The trip went so well that for the 3 weekends after we got back and before school started on August 20th we took them camping. First up to Hat Creek then to Medford, Oregon and finally over to Eureka at the coast. They love it and so do we.
The day after they started back to school we left for So Cal again, this time flying. Our purpose was a 90th birthday party for Tony's Aunt Mary who also happens to be his godmother. Spent a week visiting and flew from there to Texas for a very short visit with my brother, then on to Little Rock, Arkansas for a Labor Day reunion with some other guys from Vietnam. Just got back home on Tuesday and now it is time to clean house, do laundry, start a check list for November and start packing again.
Oh, the bathroom you ask? They finally got everything taken care of while we were gone these last two weeks so I can add the touch-up, cleaning and move stuff back in to my other list of Things to Do Before November 12th. Yep that is launch day for Europe 2012. So stay tuned, and we'll see what happens next.
This time we will spend a week in Rome before boarding our ship. We spent 6 days in 2009 and saw less than half of our 10 most wanted. In 2010 we didn't venture into the city since our ship was docked for only one day. Last year we did venture in for a very long busy day in order to show Dominick as much as possible. We took him to the Coleseum, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. The Vatican was too crowded with locals to even attempt since on the last Sunday of each month all the museums are no charge for entry. And of course that was the day we were there. This time we will stay in the main part of Rome so we are closer to everything. Then we will board our ship on November 20 and sail 12 days to Venice, stay aboard and sail 20 days back to Galveston, Texas arriving home on December 22 just in time for Christmas.
Since returning from our trip last November, we have been thru New Orleans in February during Mardi Gras to board a ship for the Western Caribbean with 9 old friends and their spouses. We so enjoyed sailing with them and are hoping to do it again next year. Perhaps out of San Francisco for 10 days to Alaska since a number of them and some of Tony's cousins want to go there. We have already been twice but we just enjoy being on the ship so we're happy.
In March we traveled to Texas for my "nephews" wedding. Man that was the best elegant, sophisticated, shit-kickin' wedding we have ever been to! I know, I know your thinking how can those three words be combined in the same sentence? I'm telling you I wouldn't have thought it possible either but you had to be there to understand. Had a great time and hope the next wedding in my family will invite me again.
We flew from Texas to So California the beginning of April so Tony and his brother Roger could put new windows in their mom's house. Spent a week there and then brought her home with us for a few weeks.
In between all this flying, sailing and partying the contractor was remodeling the guest bath here at home. He started just before we left for New Orleans and we finished the paint just in time to leave for Texas. We took out the claw foot tub and replaced it with a glass and tile enclosed walk-in shower, tiled the floor, painted and did a general spruce-up.
Fast forward to June. The contactor started the remodel of the master bath. We thought it would work out great like the other bath with all the noisy dirty stuff taking place while we were gone. WRONG!!
We traveled to Chicago for Tony's Vietnam Veteran Reunion and to spend some time with our godson and his family and his mom who is one of our oldest and dearest friends. Spent two great weeks there.and came home on July 1st to find nothing repeat NOTHING had been done the entire 2 weeks we were gone. Not happy campers at this point. So 10 days later we left again, with the grandkids this time, to go to Disneyland for a week.
Fast forward to 2 days before we leave for Disneyland. Our neighbors across the street decided to sell their motorhome. Now mind you we have talked about buying another motorhome. But just in general terms such as Tony's favorite quote, "When I get to the point that I can't make it up and down the gangway of a cruise ship, then I'll buy a Winnabago and start terrorizing the highways," You know, vague, casual remarks like that in general conversation. But we had speculated several years ago that if these particular neighbors ever decided to sell theirs we really would take a look since they are extremely picky and everything they have looks brand new. He's 80 and she is 78 so you get the general idea right? I digress... So we look at the motorhome, are impressed, (even though it is blue inside ...my least favorite color) test drive and buy in a matter of 1 1/2 days. It was a godsend with the 3 grandkids. The oldest two, Dominick and Sophia, are like gas and a match, so it kept them separated into their own war zones. The youngest, Evan, was pottie training and it saved stopping at every rest area, gas station, fast food joint, restaurant, and large bush between here and So California. The trip went so well that for the 3 weekends after we got back and before school started on August 20th we took them camping. First up to Hat Creek then to Medford, Oregon and finally over to Eureka at the coast. They love it and so do we.
The day after they started back to school we left for So Cal again, this time flying. Our purpose was a 90th birthday party for Tony's Aunt Mary who also happens to be his godmother. Spent a week visiting and flew from there to Texas for a very short visit with my brother, then on to Little Rock, Arkansas for a Labor Day reunion with some other guys from Vietnam. Just got back home on Tuesday and now it is time to clean house, do laundry, start a check list for November and start packing again.
Oh, the bathroom you ask? They finally got everything taken care of while we were gone these last two weeks so I can add the touch-up, cleaning and move stuff back in to my other list of Things to Do Before November 12th. Yep that is launch day for Europe 2012. So stay tuned, and we'll see what happens next.
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