Well there are advantages and disadvantages to going to the airport early in the day so the 4.30am wake up time to get to a flight leaving at 7.40am was a challenge for all: particularly for the very kind Erin who had graciously offered to take us to the airport in return for breakfast.
The good news about the flight was that we landed in Hong Kong at 3pm and spent the next few hours seeing the sights of Hong Kong: a new experience for Ewan. We managed to catch the train to Hong Kong Central, traverse the outdoor escalators , peruse the interesting shops, wander around the piers till we found the ferry to Kowloon, watch the light show on the skyscrapers, buy some sushi and return to the airport in time for a midnight flight to Rome!
The 14 hour flight was spent trying to sleep and we arrived in Rome at 7.15am just as the city was waking up.
Following the directions of our airbnb host Alessia we managed to get ourselves on to the Airport express train to Termini station then catch an underground train and finally a bus to the bus stop just near the apartment I had booked. Waiting at the bus stop was Paulo , Alessia's brother to show us the way.
The apartment is great: very clean and with all of the amenities including the world's tiniest lift. Two people can only just fit in , but as the apartment is on the eighth floor it's very necessary. By the time we reached there we had been travelling for more than 30 hours on minimal sleep so we were pleased to have a shower and rest before setting off on our conquest to be the perfect tourists.
It was perfect weather to bring out the tourists: about 30 degrees. It was easy to identify them as they were the pale skinned people: the young locals are tanned and beautiful! After reviving we set off for the Spanish steps with Ewan showing an unusual amount of interest in the shops! Surrounded by Versace, Gucci, Prada, Estrada and other 'cheap' retailers on the Via del Corso I suddenly realised that his enthusiasm was fuelled by the knowledge that we would also find a TIM shop!!! ( If you aren't too excited about that announcement well neither was I: who knew what that was ?!!). For those of you who know Ewan well,his love of all things electronic is well known, and we were in search of two simcards. TIM means Telecommunications Italy ......or something like that. Not the first priority of every tourist! Part of the urgency was to be able to speak to Trudy and wish her well on her 98th birthday.
For the rest of the afternoon we ticked off a few items on the Perfect Rome Tourist list fuelled by the occasional high voltage coffee and refreshing gelato. Our main focus was the Villa Borghese: a huge park filled with lots of trees, fabulous buildings and sculpture. Very cool in the heat of the day. And, before I knew what happened,we were pedaling - yes I said pedaling!- a double tourist bike sort of arrangement (photos to follow). It basically looked like a golf cart except that we pedaled and it had an engine too! So much for me avoiding bike riding! It was an efficient, and relatively painless, way of seeing most of this huge park. Ewan was in charge of steering and braking , and we had a few near misses with various wandering tourists. I was provided with a steering wheel which had no effect at all: very frustrating when I thought we were about to hit someone or something!
We thought some culture was in order and headed for the Museum of Modern Art which was fascinating, although the audio guide was organised by maniacs who couldn't count which made me rather cranky! One room was a series of statues of women from the early 1900's standing on a floor that was cracked mirrors. I stood there trying to work out whether it was OK to stand on it and suddenly a couple of workers walked nonchalantly across it so I followed suit. You never can be too careful with modern art!! It was quite a mix of artists , but my favourite was one of the Degas statues of a ballerina- just gorgeous.
With our energy levels fading fast and jet lag setting in we headed for home and I had a nanna nap before we headed for the closest restaurant, just two shops away from the apartment. Delicious carbonara was had by both of us. Did I mention that we had pizza for lunch? So we have conquered coffee, pizza, pasta and gelati all in one day: what great work!
Not a bad effort for our first day in Rome. Ewan is snoring loudly after all of the excitement and so will I be soon,
your tired but happy correspondent
Dianne
PS It's amazing to think we have been here a whole day and not seen the inside of a church ! DA
No comments:
Post a Comment