As we drove through Roghudi -- or what was left of it -- and not wanting to let on that I was also worried, I tried to reassure Richard and told him about an article I had read that morning in a travel magazine in…Read More

As we drove through Roghudi -- or what was left of it -- and not wanting to let on that I was also worried, I tried to reassure Richard and told him about an article I had read that morning in a travel magazine in our room at the B&B. It had been about an abandoned town in Calabria. I couldn’t remember the name of the town – maybe it was this one. It was a suggested location for a day trip, and the article explained that a combination of earthquakes, floods and economics had caused the town to be deserted. The article had suggested that the deserted town was a great place to roam amongst historic buildings. I didn’t convince either of us.

We flew through the town, eager to put it behind us. Again, we were thinking that the road between a dead town and a tiny mountain town with a big ravine in between had to be a low priority for repairs. Perhaps this dead town was a tourist destination but most people arrived from the other direction. Maybe, just maybe, the road would be better going out of town. There was no way we were going back down into that ravine and crossing the big bridge.

Another hour of winding, mainly climbing, switchbacks on an awful (still paved) road full of potholes, large rocks, and gravel crawled by. The car engine started to get hot from all of the first gear climbing. We stopped in a rare pull-out to let the engine cool and bit and to take a few pictures. I noticed a road across the valley. The washed out road was visible with a gigantic section of guardrail dangling in the air, suspended on either side of the washed out section of road. It was difficult to judge, but it looked like there might not be enough road left to cross. Surely, surely, our road was not going to take us there. We would have to turn back and go back through miles of narrow, winding switchbacks to Roghudi and more switchbacks to the bridge, and more switchbacks to Ghorio. The road couldn’t be washed out. It just couldn’t.

We crawled down into the valley and crossed a small stream. We saw a guy out walking. Maybe this was a good sign; he was the first person we had seen in several hours. We continued climbing, finally reaching the ridge and crossing to the other side of the mountain. At least this was a positive sign that we weren’t headed towards the washed out road… After another 15 minutes or so of winding switchbacks, the road seemed a tiny bit better. The potholes were smaller and less frequent. The rocks from rockslides were smaller. There was less gravel washed onto the road. We saw hiking trail signs. We wound through more switchbacks. We saw a shepherd with his sheep. The road got marginally better.

Then, we passed a farmhouse and entered a forest. The road quite suddenly became good pavement again. The land had changed completely. We were sailing along a fairly level, but still winding, road right on top of the ridge through the middle of a dense conifer forest. The temperature dropped. The car cooled noticeably. We saw an actual sign to Bova – the way out! We flew along the road. Signs of people were everywhere – buildings, farm animals, lots of hiking trail signs. We marveled that anyone would feel safe hiking here…

We crested the ridge, left the forest and breezed through another intersection with a sign to Bova. On we went, eager to get back to civilization and away from the ghost town we imagined to be full of criminals. As we got farther away, the oppressive dread that had burdened us vaporized. How silly we had been. Of course, it was just a ghost town – just like the old mining towns in the western U.S. We had let all of those rumors of bandits get to us. We should have stopped and taken some pictures because the views really were spectacular.

Feeling much better, we continued along, winding through more switchbacks, but the road was smoothly paved! What more could anyone ask for! And then we came to a screeching halt. We came to a T intersection. We had to turn left or right. There was no sign. Why were there no signs to Bova? There had been no other intersections since the last sign!

We rolled forward into the intersection, looking left and right. Nothing. No clue which way to go. Both roads went downhill. They almost looked like they would join up on the other side of the hill directly in front of us because they both curved away towards one another. We chose right. We curved around the hill back towards the left and saw rocks in the road. Not big rocks, but after the road we had been on…rocks on the road were not a good sign. The road also appeared to go into a series of switchbacks slowly working their way into the valley deeper into the hills. We wanted the ocean!

Naturally, there was no room to turn around. I shifted into reverse and drove backwards up the curving hill all the way back to the intersection. I pulled back up into the road we had come from and again we stared at the T. Right hadn’t looked good. I back up a little farther and pointed out to Richard that the pavement we were on was a darker color than the pavement going to the right. The pavement to the left appeared to be the same as the pavement we were on. Maybe the "natural" turn of the road was to go left…

So, now we went left and started climbing again. Definitely not what we wanted, but we were headed toward the ocean. Then we came over a rise and saw the hills descending before us with the glittering, blue Ionian Sea, sparkling like an oasis in the middle of a desert. We wound down and down and down, twisting and turning, slowly making our way back to the ocean and the towns below. We made it to Bova. It seemed a pretty town and had lovely castle ruins perched above the town. We didn’t stop, though. Maybe we could still salvage some of the day (and get some food!) and go to Bianco for wine tasting.Close

After San Lorenzo, we saw very few cars (fortunately, as the road wasn’t truly wide enough for two). I should also mention that we have an ENORMOUS rental car. I think it is the biggest, longest, widest station wagon made by Peugot.…Read More

After San Lorenzo, we saw very few cars (fortunately, as the road wasn’t truly wide enough for two). I should also mention that we have an ENORMOUS rental car. I think it is the biggest, longest, widest station wagon made by Peugot. It is a very nice car – 6 gears! – and actually can hold our ridiculous amount of luggage, but it is very long and the tight turns are tricky.

When we arrived at Roccaforte, a little stressed from the climbing, tight turns, we found a town that was completely shut down. There were no obvious businesses. There were cars, and there were houses, but we did not see any sign of a restaurant, a bar, a pizzeria. All of the store fronts were closed with those garage-door looking gates. Maybe there was a once a pizzeria. Maybe there still is but it was closed with no sign outside the closed gate. Who knows? We clearly weren’t getting lunch (or a bathroom break) here. And so we continued on. The road began going downhill, which was far more pleasant than the twisting climb. There were a few turns but the going was pretty easy. We passed through Ghorio where several people outside working stared at us as we went by.

Up to this point, the hillsides had been very arid with low grasses and short olive trees. Every now and then we would pass a grove of enormous olive trees. We had no idea olive trees could get so big. Some were as tall and wide as an oak. (They had several trunks, growing very differently than an oak, but just as large overall.) Generally, the plants were fairly short, though. As we came down into and then through Ghorio, we entered a dark forest with tall trees and moss on the ground. The shade was noticeably cooler, even inside the car. A car ahead of us stopped and picked up a guy who had been walking down the road and then turned and came back up the hill past us. Another guy continued walking down the hill, cutting across the switchbacks of the road. Right about that time, we passed an old, rusty sign that said "Attenzione" and something else illegible – partly from rust, partly from all of the bullet holes in it.

It turns out Richard didn’t see that sign. I saw it and didn’t think anything of it. I’m from Texas and have been seeing old, rusty signs full of bullet holes out in the country my whole life. Often times those signs warned of dangers long past and had never been taken down. I can remember many specific examples of this, particularly on "Old Houston Road" near where I grew up. Had Richard seen it, maybe we would have turned around. Maybe we would have continued on. He didn’t see it, and we drove down the next switchback and the road got a bit rougher – a few potholes, a few rocks from a rockslide some time ago. Nothing too bad.

Long story short, about 8-10 switchbacks lower, the road got a bit more washed out. It was still obviously paved, but the potholes were a bit more frequent, the rocks on the road a bit larger, and areas of gravel and dirt a bit thicker and broader. We were clearly crawling toward an enormous, dry, riverbed. We could see the MASSIVE concrete bridge, so there wasn’t really a concern that the bridge was out, but the road was still very rough and very steep and very twisting. Richard was clearly getting nervous with the steep drop-offs and the loose gravel, but there was no place to turn around. Finally, FINALLY, we got to the bottom and crossed a large bridge wide enough for two cars but with no railings. By the look of the road on either side of the bridge, I would guess that the river has gone over the bridge before.

Let me pause a moment to describe the ravine. It turns out that there was actually a running river in that riverbed. It looked tiny compared to the size of the bridge and the size of the riverbed. I think it was probably a bigger (and rougher) river than one would really want to cross on foot if hiking, though. I cannot fathom the volume of water that must pass through this ravine to have topped the bridge. It is THE largest non-suspension bridge I have ever seen.

Not really wanting to go up that mess of a road that we just went down, we continued on. The next town was visible on the hillside ahead of us, and presumably the road would get better. Probably the road between the two towns was just not well-maintained as it was obviously impassable whenever the river was swollen with water. We continued crawling along in first and second gears up an improbably steep, narrow road. At first, it seemed like the road on this side of the river was in a little better shape. Then we hit the first switchback, and the road went back to scattered gravel and rocks and potholes in the pavement. Again, the road was obviously paved but had been badly damaged from runoff and rockslides. Unlike other, (nicely) paved roads where a huge chunk of the road was simply missing from a landslide, this road was consistently a little over one lane wide. It didn’t seem to have the instability problems, with huge areas of land simply giving way. I think the rough road was primarily caused by water rushing down the road and washing out sections of asphalt. We twisted and turned, occasionally having to back up to make the tight, narrow switchbacks.

As we wound our way up the last few switchbacks, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Roghudi was creepy. The town was vacant. Dead. Richard and I had both been warned not to go down small roads like SS-183 because "there are bandits in Calabria." We had dismissed this as the bias of northern Italians against southern Italians. Now, all of those warnings stared out at us from the black, windowless buildings. We had been warned to avoid small towns; this was much worse. This was a whole town that was deserted…in the middle of nowhere…accessible only by a terrible road. We both had the same thought: this would be the perfect hide-out for criminals. The Calabrian mafia might be running a drug business out of this town. Or maybe this is where they took kidnapped Americans to hide while they tried to get a ransom….Close

The plan was to drive across the "toe" of Italy to Bianco, taste the Bianco di Greco wine, then drive south along the coast before heading inland to visit the towns of Roccaforte del Greco and Condofuri to have Greek pizza (which we had read…Read More

The plan was to drive across the "toe" of Italy to Bianco, taste the Bianco di Greco wine, then drive south along the coast before heading inland to visit the towns of Roccaforte del Greco and Condofuri to have Greek pizza (which we had read were great there), then continue the rest of the way along the coast back to Scilla. We missed the turn-off to cut across the peninsula, so we thought we would do the trip in reverse – except that we were not on the autostrada. We hit Reggio-Calabria. Hit is a very good word for it; the complete loss of momentum felt like we had hit a brick wall. While we didn’t actually collide with anything, that was by sheer luck. Imagine a street about two car widths wide plus, maybe, an extra foot or so. Then imagine cars parked half on the sidewalk, half on the road – on both sides. Imagine that this is a two-way street with heavy traffic in both directions. Now add in people randomly crossing the road without looking for traffic, people flinging their doors wide open to get into their parked cars (those cars half in the street), cars darting to make left turns across traffic without signaling, cars pulling out into traffic (again without signaling)… I’ve seen driving video games that were (a) less difficult and (b) more believable. I remember in driver’s education class, driving a simulation where a person flung their car door wide open and thinking what a stupid simulation it was because no one would be that dumb, as they were likely to either get killed or at least lose their car door. Apparently, the Reggio-Calabrians have a great deal of faith in the capability of the drivers’ ability to dodge obstacles or stop on a dime.

I held my breath for most of the drive (not a good thing to do when driving) and found myself hunching over and closing my eyes, waiting for the impact, every few seconds. Remarkably, the crunch never came. We dodged, weaved and braked our way through town and made a beeline for the highway at the first opportunity. The city was ugly, industrial and very, very crowded. We did not make it anywhere near the city center or the coast, though, so perhaps there is a gem in the center? At any rate, we merged onto the A3 and drove a few kilometers before the autostrada ended. We were on a better road than before, but there was a great deal of traffic again. I couldn’t wait for the turn-off to head into the mountains and get away from all of the cars and people. Careful what you wish for…
Eventually, we creeped and crawled our way in traffic to the Mélito di Porto Salvo exit and headed north on SS-183. In a U.S. hierarchy of roads, there are the interstates, the U.S. highways, the state highways, in some states – the rural roads still maintained by the state, then the county/city roads. The SS roads are the equivalent of the state highways. This road was generally two lanes, except through towns where it sometimes dropped to 1.5 lanes. We twisted and turned our way up into the hills, rising quickly from the ocean. After 7 km or so, we turned off onto what I foolishly thought of as a Texas farm-to-market road. It seemed well-maintained and still generally at least 1.5 lanes wide. In San Pantaleone, the through street wasn’t marked, and we took a wrong turn. The road became narrower and narrower until I had to back up (in a cute little area of town with bright, new, red paving stones) to let another car go by. I (mistakenly) thought that the road was supposed to go through the center of town (not uncommon), so we continued on, turning in the side mirrors to squeeze between the buildings. It wasn’t until I had to backup to let the "school bus" turn around that we realized that we were definitely not on the right road. We headed back through the winding road, back through the cute little plaza, and tried following the signs to the church. We never saw the church, but we did come out on the other side of town and continued heading up the mountain. San Lorenzo came and went without problem. Then the road became very steep and winding. (If you had asked in San Pentaleone, I would have said that the road was very steep and winding. It turns out that that is a very relative concept.)
[Trip to Aspromonte continues]Close

We arrived at Rome’s Fiumicino airport with unusual ease. Neither plane (IAD to FRA and FRA to FCO) was terribly late, and our bags arrived when we did! We walked an extra couple of miles getting to the rental car facility due to…Read More

We arrived at Rome’s Fiumicino airport with unusual ease. Neither plane (IAD to FRA and FRA to FCO) was terribly late, and our bags arrived when we did! We walked an extra couple of miles getting to the rental car facility due to Italy’s typically poor signage. The line to get our rental car was short and quick. We hauled our bags out to the cars and were surprised when we did our walk-around inspection to check the condition of the car. The car had been seriously damaged. There were scratches – some quite deep – all along the passenger side of the car with the back door and back fender both dented significantly. Richard talked to the customer service rep who just marked an "X" on the areas on the car diagram and said that it wouldn’t be a problem. Yeah, right. We took pictures, trying to strategically frame the photos to establish that the photos were taken AT the airport BEFORE we moved the car. Whoever damaged the car did a truly impressive job!

The car, a Peugot, was a station wagon with 6 gears (plus reverse) and was big. HUGE. It was almost twice the length of my Civic. Getting out of the garage, I had to do 3-point turns as we made the turns down the parking garage levels because the car wouldn’t make a tight enough turn. I kept thinking that I just wasn’t accustomed to the car, as I was sure it ought to make the turns. (It turned out that, when we came back after driving the car 2.5 weeks and I was very accustomed to driving the car, the car really won’t make that turn. Maybe that is how someone bashed the whole side of the car!) Since the car rental facility was on the 5th floor of the garage, I had ample opportunity to practice maneuvering the car.

We headed immediately out of the vicinity of Rome, off to the A1 and then south towards Naples. We pulled off the highway at Ceprano to get food.
We drove through the town and found a small shop with a sign that said "Pizzeria." We went in, stood there for a few minutes, and then a young guy waved us toward a table. He got us a bottle of water and some bread and then asked if we wanted salad or primi (typically pasta). Richard said he would like pizza, and they guy looked at him funny and said that pizza wasn’t available. We ordered pasta. The place continued to fill up. It was clearly a place where laborers ate lunch during their lunch break. They were all sitting down to multi-course meals of pasta, salad, meat, and sometimes vegetables or fruit. Everybody could tell (a) we weren’t locals and (b) we were having some communication issues.

A television was on, and I saw that Steve Jobs had died. It is always weird to be in a foreign country and see news about the U.S. There was also coverage about Amanda Knox. That was pretty amusing because no one in the place was paying any attention to the t.v. until that story came on, and then all of the eyes were glued to it. When it went off, the men started talking loudly in what sounded like a debate. We have no idea what they were saying, but I thought it was funny to see grown men arguing over what in the U.S. was essentially a tabloid story.

We got our food – simple spaghetti with a red sauce. Richard had ordered a meat sauce, and I had ordered ‘pomodoro’ – basic tomato sauce. Ahhh, wonderful, al-dente pasta! Restaurants in the U.S. rarely serve pasta truly al-dente, and here was a dive with plastic chairs and card tables in a small town that made wonderful pasta. I thought the tomato sauce was a bit on the salty side, but I think it was actually a marinara and some of the saltiness came from the seafood cooked in the sauce. Richard liked his meat sauce too. Our server was the son, and his dad made a brief appearance when serving plates to another table. We paid the bill – about 15 U.S. dollars, including water, 2 plates of pasta, and bread!

We got back in the car and continued south, turning off towards Benevento before we got to Naples. The going got slower, having left the highway, and Richard napped. Finally, I was too exhausted to drive, and we switched. Richard drove us while I slept until we were almost to Benevento. We missed our exit and took the following Benevento exit and tried to work our way across town. That was a bad move – particularly without a detailed map of the city. After backtracking about 5 times, we finally got on the right road and pulled into the hotel parking lot, which was blessedly large and easy to maneuver the car in.

We checked in and found our room to be large and tastefully decorated, with three balconies – two from the bedroom and a third from the bathroom. Like many hotels in Europe, there was no electricity to the room unless a key was inserted into a spot near the door to activate the power. We didn’t immediately activate the power, and opened the windows wide to let in the sunlight and warm breeze. The day was gorgeous with bright sun and moderate temperatures.Close

We got off to a late start. We had breakfast at the hotel breakfast buffet just before they stopped serving breakfast at 10. Then, we went back to the room and took a nap to relieve the jet lag. Richard got up…Read More

We got off to a late start. We had breakfast at the hotel breakfast buffet just before they stopped serving breakfast at 10. Then, we went back to the room and took a nap to relieve the jet lag. Richard got up and went running. When he got back, we headed out to go wine tasting. The Aglianico wine of Campania is wonderful, and we were looking forward to trying some new wineries. We were getting a late start, though…

Upon exiting the highway at Torrecuso, the direction to the winery was clearly marked with the typical Italian brown/yellow attraction signage. The turn into the winery was unexpected, however, as the large asphalt turn-in went over a hill and immediately dropped down into a single-lane, semi-paved drive that wound its way down the hillside to the winery. We initially parked at the house, and then realized that there was a parking lot for the winery behind the house.

We did not have an appointment, and a woman came out to see what we wanted. Richard explained that we were interested in "degustazione dei vini," and she ushered us inside. The proprietor’s son (as we later learned) gave us a tour of the winemaking facility and explained (in Italian) their winemaking processes and the differences between different versions of their wines. The view was incredible, and he said that most of the vineyards on the nearby hillsides were theirs.

He then took us back into the wineshop and explained each of their wines in great detail. The wineshop selection also included a bottle of olive oil, in which we expressed an interest. He asked which wines we would like to try, and we chose two. He seated us at table and went to get the wine. He came back with a platter of fresh bread, which he drizzled with the olive oil, and some local pretzel-ish breadsticks made of "solo farina e acqua" (just flour and water). With wine glasses before us, we began eating the bread and olive oil. The olive oil is made from their olives at a local press and is a very small production. He explained that the olive oil is too strong for salads and suggested that it was ideal for use on meats and breads. The olive oil was wonderful and made the back of your throat tingle like pepper would.

He poured us a 2007 Taburno Falanghina – a D.O.C. white from the Taburno region (slightly northwest from Benevento in Campania). It was a pale straw color and mildly tart with light minerals on the palate – quite unlike any wine we’ve tasted, so it is difficult to compare it to any more familiar wines. He encouraged us to finish the bread and olive oil and then use the breadsticks to cleanse our palates before the second wine. The breadsticks were delicious – like a giant stick of water cracker.

The second wine was a 2006 Aglianico Riserva – a D.O.C. red from the Taburno region. (pronounced ah-yee-AH-neeko) We particularly like the Aglianico varietal, and this one was very good. It needed to "breathe" some (suggested opening at least 2 hours prior to serving), but it was still very nice.

We chatted for quite some time; I think we were there over 2 hours. We splurged and bought 4 bottles (have to figure out how to get it all home!) and a bottle of olive oil. He suggested that we should just make it a half case, and we easily capitulated. Richard went to pay while I took a few photos. He met the proprietors, our guide’s mother and father, and apparently explained that it was our anniversary. The mother came out and presented us with a complimentary bottle of sparkling Falanghino. She kissed me on both cheeks, congratulated me on our anniversary and said that she and her husband had been married…I think it was 46 years, but I’m still not very good with my numbers in Italian. We thanked them profusely. The whole family was incredibly friendly and kind, and it was a marvelous afternoon for our anniversary.

By the time we left, it was getting dark and starting to rain. We drove back to the hotel on country roads, marveling at the generosity and friendliness of the family (with me occasionally exclaiming at the moronic driving of other people on the road). We parked and went inside to change for dinner. We planned to head over to Nunzia for our anniversary dinner right away, but the light rain turned into a fabulous downpour. We stood on the balcony watching the lightning until the wind started the blow the rain at us. Then we stood inside with the doors closed watching the flashes and the rain streaking down the windows. As soon as it stopped, we left for dinner. On our way out, the clerk explained that we would have to have breakfast in our room because the rain had gotten the breakfast room wet. We placed our order for nearly everything on the menu, and she seemed shocked but took the sheet of paper.

On the walk to the restaurant, a man overheard us speaking in English and asked if we were English. We explained that we were Americans. He invited us over for dinner, and we politely declined and explained that we already had dinner plans. He asked where we were going for dinner, and we told him. He said that the food would be very expensive and that we should go with him. Either his story changed several times, or our comprehension was very poor. We both understood him to invite us over to his house, then to his friend’s pizzeria, then to his friend’s house. I thought he was drunk. Richard didn’t know quite what to make of him, but continued to decline politely. The guy ducked into a tabaccheria for cigarettes, and we hurried off to Nunzia.

When we came in, we were greeted with kisses on the cheeks and congratulated on our anniversary. The mother sat us at the table near the door, facing the restaurant – where the family had been sitting the night before. She again sat down at the table with us and explained the dishes for the day in Italian. We choose our menu, and she hurried off to the kitchen.

The son discussed wine options, and we ordered an Aglianico from the Taurasi DOCG. The experience was just so different from anything you would see in the U.S. Mother and son visited each table in turn to take orders and simply to visit with the patrons. The place was nearly empty when we arrived around 8, but it was filled within an hour or so.

A group of men visited the bar at the end of the meal to have a shot of Strega and chatted while they sipped it. Two businessmen at a table near us finished eating, and one got up to pay the bill. The other grabbed his wrist and physically restrained him while they quietly argued over who was going to pay. This wasn’t a short "oh, please, allow me to pay – no, no, allow me – oh, if you insist" conversation. They spoke several minutes, then the first man sat down, and they continued to debate who would pay. It was all good-natured, and the second guy ultimately got to pay the bill. After he paid, they went to the bar and the first man bought them each a shot of Strega. Richard, of course, was oblivious to everything except the food!

We shared all of our dishes, including dessert. Everything was delicious – even the little octopi in a red sauce. We either eat very slowly or we had more courses than most because the place was nearly empty when we paid and left – promising come back again for our 10 year anniversary. We received another round of hugs and kisses on the cheeks before we left. We walked back to the hotel on the slick cobblestones still wet from the rain. Back at the hotel, Richard stopped by to explain to the clerk that we didn’t want A LOT of everything, but that we just wanted a little bit of everything. We wondered what we would get for breakfast...Close

Overall I found the public transport system in Rome was extremely good. Our accommodation was just outside of the city centre, so it was necessary to get a bus and then the metro into the centre. The buses ran reasonably regularly, approximately one…Read More

Overall I found the public transport system in Rome was extremely good.

Our accommodation was just outside of the city centre, so it was necessary to get a bus and then the metro into the centre.

The buses ran reasonably regularly, approximately one every 20 minutes (as there were two routes we could choose from), and the bus stopped at the metro station. Again the metro was a regular service, approximately every 5 minutes.

Paying for the bus was somewhat different to England. Here we buy a ticket from the driver as we get on, and I was expecting something similar. However, when the first bus we used arrived, everyone crowded on, and there was no way to get to the driver. I did panic somewhat that we would find ourselves fined at the other end for travelling without a ticket, but when I finally spoke to the driver he was unconcerned, and just pointed to the metro and said to buy a ticket there. Tickets were either by the hour, daily, 3 daily or weekly.

As the holiday wore on I noticed that only rarely did people put their tickets in the validation machine on the buses, and most people just jumped on and off without even getting tickets out of their wallets.

The metro was slightly more payment conscious, there were turnstiles at every station. Although I did see a few people jumping the stiles. There were two types of metro trains, some clearly old trains which were covered in graffiti and had no air conditioning, just opening windows. And new trains which were clean and air conditioned. Begging was rife on the metro, either by pregnant women or children playing accordions. However, they weren't persistent beggars, they put their hand out and walked on at the shake of a head.

WORD OF WARNING: I was almost pick pocketed at one of the stations, a boy of around 12/13 kept getting in my way as we were trying to board the train, I thought at first he was trying to get back to his parents as it was busy and people were pushing everywhere. However, as I looked downward he snatched his hand away, and I noticed my bag had been unzipped. Luckily my purse was still there, a few seconds later and it would have been gone. The boy jumped off the train just as the doors closed, and I saw him meeting up with a group of other boys his age.

At the moment, part of the metro A line is under refurbishment, so when we went on our trip to the Vatican we had to leave the metro and use the buses which had been put on. This wasn't as easy as it sounds as only one bus was being used at any given time, so the queue was huge and as soon as the bus doors opened the world and his wife charged to get on. This meant we were packed like sardines for the first part of the journey, eventually as people got off it was possible to breathe again. The second problem was deciding where to get off, on the metro it was clear which station we needed to get off at, but I had no idea which bus stop to use. Eventually I decided that a lot of people would be visiting the Vatican, so decided to alight when the most people got off. Luckily that worked.Close

Luigi was an amazing tour guide and he really made a difference for our tour of Capri. Hiring Luigi as a guide (which included a private taxi for our Capri day visit) was the best decision we made as we have visited the Blue Grotto…Read More

Luigi was an amazing tour guide and he really made a difference for our tour of Capri. Hiring Luigi as a guide (which included a private taxi for our Capri day visit) was the best decision we made as we have visited the Blue Grotto in half an hour compared with an average waiting of two hours, and being able to visit everything else in Capri in a matter of hours. Luigi was very friendly, funny, extremely knowledgeable and interacted amazingly with our two kids (9 and 10). Thank you again Luigi for making this day a special one for our family. We highly, highly recommend Luigi!Close

Food and wine means a lot to me on holiday and we like to try local dishes. At the local pizzeria where we stayed you could order mixed fish which was superb with crayfish, octopus and cuttle fish to name a few, the Sea…Read More

Food and wine means a lot to me on holiday and we like to try local dishes. At the local pizzeria where we stayed you could order mixed fish which was superb with crayfish, octopus and cuttle fish to name a few, the Sea Bass we had one evening was absolutely delicious. I enjoyed all the wines which we sampled, and although we brought some back it never tastes the same without the warm sun! There were all sorts of different breads, the most famous is "pane karasau" meaning become hard, it is a wafer thin round slice and the shepherds used to take this with them as it keeps for weeks. Warmed up and served with a few drops of olive oil it goes well with a glass of wine as you wait for your meal! Eating out was expensive even in the pizzeria! Pasta starter for one person and bread, selection of grilled fish and a dolce sardi (sweet of the day) plus wine, water and coffee for two was over 80 Euros, pizza started at about 6 euros. So one day we bought some of the local gnocchetti sardi which is baby pasta shells and along with a jar of tomato sauce and some ham and local cheeses I cooked dinner, a simple starter and heavenly almond cake along with some well chilled wine completed my simple meal at about an eighth of the cost! The local cheeses are very tasty and come from soft fresh cheese to the harder varieties. Supermarkets are well stocked with all produce, and we purchased some tasty savouries for lunch time. We of course sampled the delicious ice cream, it was hard which to choose, my favourite was a mocha coffee concoction, although the peach sorbet was very refreshing! It is fun asking for things in the shops and some staff helped us pronounce the names.
We didn’t hear an English voice until the end of our holiday, which made us feel we really were in a foreign country. It made us try the language and everyone was so friendly and helped us with the pronunciation it was well worth the effort, a few buon journo, per favore, and grazie certainly helps. It is an expensive destination, although I accept we were in an expensive tourist area, but we did go again, because we wanted to discover a bit more of the secret of Sardinia and then sampled even more exciting restaurants.
The owner of the apartments where we stayed booked restaurants for us – earning himself a commission! We sampled 14 different fish dishes at one restaurant, only small portions I hasten to add but amazing how many ways fish can be served. Another was a farmhouse restaurant in the middle of a wood, where we ate suckling pig and other delicious foods, somewhere we would never have found without directions but it was an evening to remember.
It's well worth finding places where the locals eat rather than expensive touristy places.Close

Where is Sardinia? If you think of Italy and can imagine where Rome is, go to the west and slightly south, across the Tyrrhenian Sea and there it is below a smaller island called Corsica which belongs to France. Sardinia is almost rectangular in shape…Read More

Where is Sardinia? If you think of Italy and can imagine where Rome is, go to the west and slightly south, across the Tyrrhenian Sea and there it is below a smaller island called Corsica which belongs to France. Sardinia is almost rectangular in shape but with a jagged coastline, and it is much bigger than I had first imagined! The coastline stretches for approximately 1,800 kilometres and the surface area is over 23,000 sq. kilometres so this review only covers a small part of this beautiful island, and that is the north and mostly the north east in the area called Gallura. It is divided into 16 sub-regions and these come under four provinces called Cagliari, Sassari, Nuoro and Oristano.

Tip 1 Take a good map with you as we had problems getting away from the airport nad the map provided by the car hire firm didn’t include the Olbioa area where we landed!

Tip 2 Take a phrase book with you unless you speak Italian!

Checking in to the apartment was fun as not much English was spoken by the receptionist, and we had never been to Italy before! They had run out of English information sheets and so we had to try and translate the Italian version!

Tip 3 Check before you go about shopping hours as we only just got shopping in time before they closed for the weekend!

Tip 4 Check where you are staying if mobility is a problem as Sardinia is very hilly!

On the first day after lunch and a wee siesta we set off in the car along the coast to Baia Sardinia. The many restaurants still had lots of people relaxing after a late lunch, this seemed rather like a purpose built holiday town and had lots of hotels and designer type shops, so as we wanted to discover the "real" Sardinia we continued along the coast stopping to admire the view if we could find somewhere suitable and walked around a sleepy little place called Cannigone which had lots of small boats and lovely scenery, then a trip across some barren countryside got us back safely, my map reading had improved tremendously!
The Costa Smeralda literally means the Emerald coast and was transformed as a holiday paradise for people with money, by the multi millionaire Karim Aga Khan. Other developers were then allowed to build and this resulted in many holiday resorts/timeshare style areas being built. I have to say although we are not rich there were obviously people who were, but we certainly discovered a fantastic area with wonderful beaches and the sea was so clean we could see the fish swimming around us as we enjoyed the lovely warm water. Sadly although the beaches have sun beds and umbrellas, showers and even changing huts, they never seem to have a toilet, so you had to find a café with one!

Porto Cervo was just a few kilometres away, and with our trusty guide book we found some parking near the beautiful and unusual shaped church. This reminded me of a new area that has been built in Malta with expensive hotels and shops and a marina full of expensive boats. The church was called Stella Maris and was the home of a beautiful painting by El Greco called Mater Dolorosa. Well we certainly enjoyed looking at the boats, seeing vans coming in and carrying trays of beautiful fresh fruits and other produce, immaculate dressed staff cleaning already clean boats for their rich owners. The Rolex yacht race was on and they were preparing to go out so it was a hive of activity. There are golf courses and tennis courts for the energetic but we found it was a place to sit and enjoy an over priced coffee and watch the world go by. Porto Cervo seen we then turned our backs on the "beautiful people" and again went to find the real Sardinia.
From our apartment we could see the Isola Caprera so another day we headed north to get a better view. Along with Isola Maddalena visits can be made by ferry, but we couldn’t manage to park in Palau to check out times and suddenly found ourselves in the port and being waved on towards the boat, so like the cars in front we tried to explain we were passing through and managed to drive out the other side! Perhaps we’ll get there another time. Garibaldi lived on Caprera for some time and there is a museum which is popular with Italians.

We drove on through wonderful rock formations and tree and shrub lands to Santa Teresa di Gallura, although to us it was a small town it actually was a little city and is the most northerly community in Sardinia. We visited the remains of the nuraghi and climbed up to enjoy the view, it was a pleasant town with a small beach on one side and people were all busy going about there daily lives. As it was a bit early for lunch we drove on down the west coast called the Costa Paradiso and headed for Isola Rossa. This little town had a few shops and lots of cafes and seemed a typical seaside town. The hotels were further up the hill and seemed to have steps down to the beach.

Tip 5 Make sure you take water with you when driving in the country and perhaps some food as there aren’t always cafes available for lunch in the country.

Tip 6 Take your swimming things and a towel as you may come across a beautiful beach.
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Rome was never a place I was dying to go to. However, when looking at holidays for this year, Rome was cheap for when my boyfriend and I wanted to go and was easy to get to from East Midlands Airport as I live in…Read More

Rome was never a place I was dying to go to. However, when looking at holidays for this year, Rome was cheap for when my boyfriend and I wanted to go and was easy to get to from East Midlands Airport as I live in Nottingham.

== Getting there and first impressions ==
From East Midlands Airport, flying with Ryanair cost us roughly £50 each for return tickets. Although Ryanair don’t have the best reputation, they have been fine each time I have flown with them and their airfares are extremely cheap. Being a budget airline, Ryanair fly to the smaller Ciampino airport in Rome. From here, it takes roughly 40 minutes to get into the city center and buses cost about €4 each way. Getting to and from Rome, both from the UK and the airport is extremely easy and stress free.

The bus drops you off at Termini Station where you get your first real experience of Rome. The area isn’t very nice, there are people everywhere trying to force you to buy things and generally, is not the nicest thing to have to deal with. Termini Station is massive and has three different sides to it. The streets aren’t named very well in this area so if you are walking anywhere from here, just figuring out which way to go can be difficult. As we began to walk around, there was a strong smell of wee in a lot of streets and we realised just how rough this area was. My first impression of Rome was not a good one.

== Where to stay ==
We stayed in a B&B not too far away from Termini Station – about a 10 minute walk away. Due to not being right in the city center and near all of the tourist attractions, the B&B was very reasonably priced and cheaper than anywhere else I had looked at. Hotels in the city center can cost you a fortune and some didn’t look very nice at all. I would highly recommend looking for somewhere near a metro station as we did, as you will need to pay to use it anyway and if you stay near one of the further out stops, it will make your accommodation much cheaper.

== Transport ==
Rome’s metro system is extremely easy to use. There are only two lines to follow, red and blue, so it would be really hard to get lost. If you need to switch lines, you can do so at the main station, Termini Station and I found that getting anywhere by metro took 15 minutes maximum. Tickets for the metro can be bought at all stations or from tobacconists around the city. We bought a 3 day ticket which also covered bus use and this cost us €16 each. However, we didn’t use the buses at all as they seemed far too confusing. There are lots of bus stops all over the city but as we didn’t understand where they all went etc., we figured it would be easier just to stick to the metro.

It seems as though so many locals drive in Rome. I wouldn’t recommend this as a tourist. Drivers in Rome don’t appear to pay any attention to proper crossings and seem to go wherever they want really. There were so many times when we began to cross a road and a car would come zooming around the corner even though the lights told us we could cross. I didn’t imagine crossing a road could be so dangerous.

== Eating out ==
As we were only in Rome for 3 full days, we didn’t get the chance to eat at too many restaurants. Some helpful advice though is to look for places that aren’t close to tourist attractions. Walk a couple of streets further away and you will find places that are much better priced. Restaurants near tourist attractions are extremely overpriced and not worth the money. One restaurant we found which was exceptional in both price and service was Caffe Leonardo. This restaurant is around the corner from the Spanish Steps and you can read about it in full in another of my reviews. The restaurant served amazing, authentic Italian food for very reasonable prices. If you want to play it safe though, the city does have big chains like McDonalds and Burger King. We did go to Hard Rock Café while in Rome as I had never been to one before and we were starving when we walked past it. Hard Rock Café wasn’t any more expensive than other places we had eaten at and the service and food, again, was fantastic.

Strangely, we saw so many Chinese restaurants in Rome but that was generally in the area which our B&B was in. There are also many smaller shops which sell a lot of baguettes and sandwiches which are great value for money and easier if you want to eat something on the go. We did this one day and managed to sit somewhere with a great view and take in some of the sun.

== Attractions ==
Obviously, one of the biggest and most famous attractions in Rome is the Colosseum. We paid to have a guided tour of this amazing building and it was well worth the extra money. I would highly recommend doing this and getting the most out of your trip. Guides from tickitaly.com cost around £30 but include entrance to the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. This will save you paying again for the two latter areas. The guide lasts 3 hours but you gain access into the lower and top levels of the Colosseum which you do not get with a normal ticket. At the end of our tour, our guide also gave a 30 minute tour of the Roman Forum which is also better than just walking around on your own as the different building are explained. The Colosseum was the most amazing place I visited while in Rome and should be on the top of your list of things to do.

The Trevi Fountain was one of my favourite places to visit in Rome. The fountain is close to the Barberini metro stop although about a 10 minute walk from here. The fountain is constantly surrounded by a lot of people, filling the steps in front of it. The fountain has a story where if you throw in a coin, it will guarantee your return to Rome so if you visit here, you will see many people doing this. During the day, the fountain is pretty but I would advise you to also go back at night. The fountain is fully functional and at night the flowing water is lit up, making it such a stunning view.

The Vatican is a usual must on lists of things to do in Rome. If you want to see St. Peter’s Basilica, you need to get there extremely early. We headed into St. Peter’s Square at about 9am and there was already the longest queue I had ever seen. The line does move quite quickly but expect a wait of a minimum of about an hour. The view from St. Peter’s Square is stunning in itself so if you don’t want to head inside or visit the Vatican Museums, this is worth doing just on its own. Be warned, girls have to have their shoulders covered (no spaghetti vests) or you will be refused entry to all areas.

Somewhere not as popular is the Borghese gardens. There is also a big villa and some small museums in the area so the gardens are not the only thing to see. To get here, head to the metro stop for the Spanish Steps and it is signposted from inside the station. The gardens are vast and extremely beautiful. You can rent small golf carts to ride around the grounds which is nice because you will be shaded. In the middle of the gardens sits a fountain with a large pond like area surrounding it. We sat here for a long time, taking in the view and sitting with our feet in the water.

While there is much more to do in Rome, these were some of the best things I did while there. There are plenty of shopping areas, cute piazzas and all kinds of weird and wonderful shops and streets to explore here.

== Overall ==
We visited Rome for 3 days and this was enough time for me. The heat at the end of June made it difficult to be out all day and it was really tiring. I would advise going during a slightly cooler time of the year so that you can really make the most of the city. While I liked Rome, I did not fall in love with it. . Close