Siamo Arrivati

We have arrived! No incidents, no worries, just pure travel. The plane landed with no fuss, and it took about an hour to disembark, get to immigration, queue, wait for bags, (mine was one of the first, Stephen's was several hundred behind) and emerge. We found our driver (pick-up arranged by the B&B we're staying at) and we drove into the city in air-conditioned comfort. As I suppose everyone does these days anyway. The reason I was looking forward to the drive was because I had no idea what the suburbs would look like. You only ever see photos of the old city, but never pictures of how people actually live here. In fact, it's a lot like everywhere else. Sometimes I felt like we were on the highway heading south from Perth, other times like the drive in from the airport to Sydney. It was somewhat industrial/commercial, with a few apartment blocks. But mostly country - not built up much at all... until you get closer to the city walls, and once you get through those gates, boom, it's all on.

Circus Maximus, St Peter's Basilica dome in the distance, the Forum, the Colosseum, the piazza with the balcony where Mussolini addressed the people, the Trevi Fountain off to your left (haven't seen it yet, but we saw the signpost), then here's your accommodation, it's just up the road from all that stuff. There's a lot within walking distance from here.

Our B&B. We're on the top floor.
The camera's on a lean, not the house.

The B&B is in an 18th century building, on the 5th floor with a lovely and tiny lift (the sort with an inner and outer door, but with a modern and silent mechanism) and after Stephen wakes up from a nap (for the first time ever, I got more sleep than he did on the planes) we'll go out and look at (or at least look for) the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

I'd looked at maps of the city a bit before we came, but we had no idea of the scale. I assumed these places would be kilometres apart from each other - especially Vatican City - but on reflection, the ancient city had to have been on a human scale; everything had to be walkable. So we might be able to take it easy on the sightseeing, and pick a couple of places each day that are close to each other and explore them quite leisurelyly.

Right. I'll get back to you later tonight, and let you know how we got on in our first Roman excursion.

Part of the City Wall, visible from our room

We're back. It's a little after 9pm, and we've explored a little arc of the city wall area. We followed the wall for a little way towards... well, I don't know really. Leftwards. Not far on we found ourselves near the Spanish Steps - the top of them. There were a lot of tourists around, especially at the bottom, where a large group were clapping and singing and dancing. I suspect they were Spanish. After a few photos, we followed our noses, thinking the Trevi Fountain wasn't far away. It wasn't really, but it helps to know in which direction things lie. Finally Stephen saw a signpost, and then another one, and we noticed the shops were getting more and more touristy, then we heard the water, and then we found it. It's a lot bigger than I had realised. And more impressive. In context, that over-the-top classical statuary looks pretty good, really.

We knew we didn't want to eat dinner too close to the tourist spots, so we started heading back to the B&B, as we had seen some interesting restaurants (not too expensive) near the start of our walk. But we chose a place fairly early on, that although clearly catered to tourists (the menu was in English, French and German) wasn't tacky and wasn't too cheap or too expensive. The food was pretty ordinary though. Perhaps we hadn't gone far enough away. Another block away might have done it. Ah well, we have five more nights to learn!

Trevi Fountain, unfortunately with two bloody tourists in the way

Andiamo!

Thursday, 

30 August 2018

We’re on the way. Many hours since we left home, and at last, here we are… sitting in Bangkok airport, still with three hours to wait until the flight. But at least we had some complications, to heighten the excitement and fill in some time.

Our flight out of Ho Chi Minh was at 5-ish, which gave us the whole day to prepare and tidy the house for the house-sitters. But it also had the effect of making me feel more stressed, because I already had prepared pretty much, so mostly I was sitting around stressing about how I must have forgotten things I was supposed to do. Whittaker (the cat) was also a bit nervous, but he was reasonably calm after we got to a point when we were ready to go, and just sitting watching TV, waiting for time to tick down.

Getting to the airport and queuing at the counter went well, but the words “Hmm, that’s strange,” are never good to hear from the other side of a desk. The check-in guy couldn’t find our follow-on flight. That tied in with our having been unable to complete an online check-in in the morning. He suggested that maybe the flight had been changed, and we could have been put on an earlier flight from Bangkok to Dubai. But all he could do was check us (and our luggage) in as far as Bangkok and then we’d have to pick up our bags, clear immigration, and then check in again. Unless something horrendous had happened to our booking, it was not a huge deal, and we just had to go ahead and find out what the story was as it evolved. 

The flight was on time and uneventful; at Bangkok we found some people to ask and were pointed in the right direction, and although the people behind the immigration and check-in counters were a little confused, they accepted our explanations and let us do what we needed to do. And queuing to get out through Bangkok immigration, and then 30 minutes later, get back in through Bangkok immigration, filled in an otherwise useless hour. We still don’t know what the problem was. Although we were way early, we were able to check in at the counter without any hassle. In fact, the queue of people at the ‘Online Check-in’ counter was about 30 people long, and the normal check-in queue was non-existent!

We have now wandered through the airport, back and forth, had dinner and some cake, helped an elderly Japanese couple get from the wrong end of the airport to their gate, and now we’re sitting and waiting. Two and a half hours until departure. Then six hours flying time, four and a half hours in Dubai, then another six hours to Rome. Arrival time there should be about 1.30pm, I believe. If I weren’t so sleepy I’d be quite excited, I’m sure.

…Now we’re on that third leg to Rome. I was thrilled to have managed maybe 4 hours’ sleep on the Bangkok-Dubai flight, and after a 5am breakfast at the airport I even got a bit of a doze before boarding the next flight. I was nearly asleep when we left Dubai, but the take-off was so hairy (alarmingly long run-up, very bumpy at the end, juddering when we got in the air, and at least a minute until the wheels were safely tucked away) that thoughts of sleep were banished for some time, while I started watching a movie. In the middle of that, though, I had a jolly good shut-eye. I thought it might have been at least an hour, but it must have been only 20-30 minutes. We’re halfway through the flight now, three hours to go, and the lunch service will take up a lot of that. And then it’s Rome! I’m looking forward just to the drive through the city to get to the accommodation.  See you there!

Prepararsi

Tuesday, 14 August, 2018

Here we are again, everyone, a couple of weeks away from another trip and another adventure. This time it is an avventura italiana, starting on August the 30th, when we leave for Rome, and it won't finish until we arrive back in Ho Chi Minh City on October the 2nd.

At least, that's the plan. And it really should be able to be followed. It's only those midnight fears that suggest it might not. You see, Stephen's Vietnamese visa and work permit both run out in the next few weeks, so they need renewing before we go. We were told that it should be fine, as long as he gets the paperwork in by the 17th of this month. We were worried mainly about the police paperwork, as they have dragged their feet in the past, but they came through admirably promptly this time, thanks to a change in personnel, apparently. But when Stephen took all the stuff to the HR office yesterday, several days early, he was told that some of it was wrong and some was missing. The wrong stuff could be corrected with only a trip to a local government department (uh-oh) but the missing stuff... we turned the house upside down looking for it but couldn't find it. This morning we tried to get it replaced but were told (very pleasantly, admittedly) to come back this afternoon. But re-reading the instructions, we wondered if maybe some of the paperwork we already had would be adequate after all. So since Stephen had already dealt with the other stuff in record time, he decided to just try again with what he had. And it seems to be fine. We're still earlier than the deadline, and the time lost between submitting last thing yesterday and not-quite-first thing this morning shouldn't be too great. But what a horrible few hours - what if we couldn't find it, what if we couldn't replace it? But finally, we figured that the worst-case scenario should only delay our departure by a couple of days. Probably.

We've had plenty of things on our list of stuff to do before departure, and they're gradually being dealt with. I bought this pretty little toy to type my blog with - a tablet with a detachable laptop keyboard. It should be light and easy to carry, with the robustness of a (small) laptop for comfortable typing. Last week I finished editing last year's travel blog from Japan, and ordered it in book form, to have a permanent, actual, physical album of that trip. We're set as far as luggage goes, and I even have an idea in my head of what to take. Not much, hopefully: We'll be training around the country and we don't want too heavy bags, or extra bags of stuff bought along the way. I have a memory in the UK of making sure we had 7 bags every time we got on and off a train. It might get that way by the end of this trip, but at least we'll start by travelling light-ish. What else? Our NZ drivers' licenses are both due to run out next month but they are in the process of being extended by a year, just in case we might want to drive a car in Italy. (Our VNese licenses are valid, but for motorbikes only. Hopefully we can use them to hire a Vespa somewhere.) And now I am writing this to see how the blogging app works, and get used to the keyboard, and send out the invitations for you to subscribe.

So, a disclaimer: this will be a travel diary for myself as much as a blog for you. After the trip I will be converting it to a real book, with pages and a cover and everything. It will be written primarily for my own benefit so that I get to remember all the little details that might otherwise be lost in the rush and bustle, not to mention the length, of a big trip. But I invite you to tag along. I hope it won't be too foody (although I can imagine there might be a lot of food worth writing about.) I hope it won't be full of gush (although I can imagine there might be a lot to gush about.) I hope it will just be an enjoyable read, whether you are reading it as an introduction to Italy, or you are already an old hand.

See you again in a couple of weeks!

Me writing this at home on the laptop/tablet.

The black blob on my right is Whittaker the cat.