Sunday has an epiphany in the back seat of your car

Morning

Spending time with the mother today and I’ve booked tomorrow off work (needed). I expect we will argue within 5 minutes as per but fingers crossed all will be well! There is a roast dinner in it for me so I’ll try not to complain!
 
The good lord can do some self reflection on why he’s such a voyeur
 
big ron said:
We're just looking at spending a few weeks in Italy travelling around by train, anyone done it?
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I've done a combo of flix bus and train. We covered most of the bigger spots in the north on weekends, and did Sicily and Puglia on separate breaks with a rental car (so recommend both).

But in the last month when it was somewhat open after three months of lockdown, we did Milan to Florence to San Gimignano to Siena to Rome to Sorrento (inc. Capri) to Naples, and then flew back to Milan. It was all very doable and was a great trip.

I'd also throw in the lakes (especially beautiful little Iseo), Venice via Verona/Padua and Bologna in. I wasn't able to do Cinque Terra.
 
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big ron said:
We're just looking at spending a few weeks in Italy travelling around by train, anyone done it?
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I've done several parts of Italy, Tuscany, lake garda, Sorrento, Sicily. And travelled from the hotels by a train to tourist places, but never actually travelled from one part to another and another.

Which doesn't help.
 
We're looking at going to South America in January. We've seen a really good cruise through Iglu with flights, but their reviews are appalling so we may have to pay more and book direct with the cruise line.
 
We're doing Italy this summer. The only recommendation I've heard is USE THE FAST TRAIN LINE.
 
Lucille said:
Here’s Rachey booking another luxury holiday whilst the fudge shop barely breaks even! Someone tell the TAX MAN!
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Actually Mandy and I sat down the other day to work out finances.

Turns out for me working just 23 hours a week, I'm actually doing pretty well and maybe the shop isn't doing as bad as we thought.

Probably can't complain 😬
 
Rachey said:
What part are you staying in?
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It's our first time so we're getting Rome out the way. Our vague plan is explore Rome for 2/3 days and then take trains out to sample some of the other delights. Not sure where yet.
 
GinAg (39) said:
It's our first time so we're getting Rome out the way. Our vague plan is explore Rome for 2/3 days and then take trains out to sample some of the other delights. Not sure where yet.
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For some reason we've never done Rome despite going to Italy 4 times.

I think Pompeii and Sorrento are fairly easy to visit from there tho. Maybe 2 hours.
 
big ron said:
We're just looking at spending a few weeks in Italy travelling around by train, anyone done it?
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We've done 10 days a few times. First around Venice and The Veneto (Verona, Vicenza, Padua), then Emilia-Romagna (Bologna, Parma, Modena, San Marino, Rimini and the coast) and then also Tuscany (Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca).

They border each other and so could easily be combined. Train travel is largely a piece of piss.
 
Yeah Pompeii is pretty much a must for me. Sorrento looks stunning.
 
GinAg (39) said:
Yeah Pompeii is pretty much a must for me. Sorrento looks stunning.
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If you do Pompeii, try and do Herculaneum as well. It's down the road but was also affected by the volcano but everything is far more preserved because it was covered in lava. We loved Pompeii but actually preferred Herculaneum.

Sorrento is absolutely worth a visit if you're down that way.
 
Sorrento was mine and Mr L's first holiday together. It is a 3hr plus journey from Rome though.

I preferred Herculaneum as well - but you have to do Pompeii.

And do not rule out Naples as a stop, either. It's dirty, gritty, and beautiful.
 
One thing I will say though Ag is that Rome has a HUGE amount of stuff to see. I think I've been 7 or 8 times and I'm aware that there is still stuff I haven't. If you're only going to spend a few days there, I'd say you need to really plan it before to prioritise what's important to you, and the sights which can be seen on one walk etc - and you'll be doing a lot of walking - the underground isn't particularly useful, presumably due to all the hills and that whenever they excavate, they just find amazing new ruins.

Rome also isn't massively close to other cities like the ones I mentioned in the reply to big ron above.

If you fancy old ruins but can't accommodate the time to go south to Pompeii or Ercolano, consider Ostia Antica which is much closer.
 
But if you DO decide to go as far south as Naples/Sorrento etc, consider going even further to the Greek temples at Paestum.

Ideally you're looking at multiple holidays, though.
 
I’m doing Naples and then Amalfi mid June :disco:
 
Meanwhile, I've just bought a new keyboard and I'm in love with it already. It's nowt fancy (Casio CT-S500 if you wanna look it up) but you can futz with the sounds and that's what I need to be able to do - presets are presets, you hafta be able to get in and have a muck about with them. But for now, I'm just in kid-in-sweet-shop mode. It even has the classic VL-Tone rhythms in it!
 
Just minding our own business making the bed and we noticed a police car follow a car down our road. A police woman started talking to the driver. He was clearly antagonised from his body language, and from the little I could hear it was about a £500 fine he owed. Somehow it escalated, he got out, started screaming abuse, effing and jeffing. Then he smashed his wing mirror and the thing I least expected, he then smashed his own windscreen. The police officer has left and he can't drive the car, because he's smashed it the windscreen, so him and his mate are stuck waiting for a lift. I love free drama.

Pics or it didn't happen?

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I’m doing Rome in June but for the athletics a European champs so i doubt I’ll get chance to do much touristy stuff, but I’ve been before so not too bothered. Love Italy- feed me pasta all day long.
 
Rome is like Venice in as much as it's a city it's really easy to eat poorly in. So many of the central restaurants are awful and can get away with charging tourists a fortune. Get to a backstreet trattoria or osteria in a residential area and you'll eat like a queen for less than half the price. I guess that's true in a lot of tourist places in many other countries, but I have noticed it far more there - probanly partly because we eat Italian a lot here, and I want it to be better than that.

One of my most memorable plates of food ever was a bowl of gnocchi with a sage butter and some crispy sage in what felt like the equivalent of a greasy spoon type cafe in Vicenza for about €4 about 5 years ago. Heaven.
 
lolly said:
Rome is like Venice in as much as it's a city it's really easy to eat poorly in. So many of the central restaurants are awful and can get away with charging tourists a fortune. Get to a backstreet trattoria or osteria in a residential area and you'll eat like a queen for less than half the price. I guess that's true in a lot of tourist places in many other countries, but I have noticed it far more there - probanly partly because we eat Italian a lot here, and I want it to be better than that.

One of my most memorable plates of food ever was a bowl of gnocchi with a sage butter and some crispy sage in what felt like the equivalent of a greasy spoon type cafe in Vicenza for about €4 about 5 years ago. Heaven.
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Yes yes yes. That’s so true. You must find the back street ones. The main ones just sell shit bolognaise, lasagne and carbonara to tourists from my experience.
 
Lovely tips, thanks guys.

Food, sunshine, and history. It's basically everything I want from a holiday.
 
One thing I'd definitely recommend Ag, is to get up really early one morning - like 5 or 6am if you can, you're going at the height of summer so it will be daylight then - and go out and walk the abandoned streets. It's absolute bliss without hardly anyone around, bar the odd street cleaner.

The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori can all be done in a little over an hour's stroll at that time (although not necessarily in that order - make sure you get a good map or guide book), and having them what feels like to yourself is utterly magical.

You'll want to see them all again when they are busy as well, for a different atmosphere, but they are naturally areas you'll gravitate to in the evening anyway, when they will all be rammed.
 
Italy is definitely one of my most favourite places to go. There's so much to see and so much beautiful scenery.
 
This thread has me looking at jobs there. :D

As much as I didn't care for living in Milan that much, being able to get to the lakes in half an hour was amazing, and as @lolly said, getting to walk the streets at quieter times (early morning, August when they're all off on their holidays, or even at night) was wonderful.
 
lolly said:
Rome is like Venice in as much as it's a city it's really easy to eat poorly in. So many of the central restaurants are awful and can get away with charging tourists a fortune. Get to a backstreet trattoria or osteria in a residential area and you'll eat like a queen for less than half the price. I guess that's true in a lot of tourist places in many other countries, but I have noticed it far more there - probanly partly because we eat Italian a lot in here, and I want it to be better than that.

One of my most memorable plates of food ever was a bowl of gnocchi with a sage butter and some crispy sage in what felt like the equivalent of a greasy spoon type cafe in Vicenza for about €4 about 5 years ago. Heaven.
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I always get off any touristy street when eating. Back street eateries where there are locals smoking tend to be a good shout in any country.
 
So far Ms Ron has planned out flight into Milan, a quick explore there, then a few days at Lake Garda as there is water parks and beaches for Ron Jr, then were going over to Verona or Venice, I’m not a fan of tourists traps but feel like Venice is a needs must?
 
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