Author archive
30 August 2016
We arrived on-time into Keflavik airport at 0200 where it was drizzling. The announcement said it was 18 degC but it felt more like 8 degC. The airport was quiet despite the impression I had got from flights schedules that many flights arrive in the wee hours of the morning. As the airport is about […]
29 August 2016
In anticipation of our 5h night flight departing at 2300 to Reykjavik, we slept in and woke around 0800. We delayed our breakfast a little then packed up carefully. We wore our hot weather gear and packed our cold weather gear separately so we could change at the airport. As we checked out at 1100, […]
28 August 2016
Locals tell us this summer isn’t too hot but the forecast was for 36 degC. We decided on an early start to see the sights of the Vatican. We took the metro to near the Vatican and walked in the general direction to be astounded by the queue for the Museum. It had gone around […]
27 August 2016
Today we drove down to Rome to return our rental car and stay for a couple of nights. We left Staggia at 0900 and got to central Rome shortly after 1200. The Hertz rental car return wasn’t at Termini station. I had to go into the station to ask at the counter and they wrote […]
26 August 2016
We had it in our plan to visit Florence today and there was no reason to change that plan. It was an hour drive to get there and we managed to park about 10 minutes walk from Piazza Duomo. The crowds were pretty horrendous. It isn’t something we face very often as we travel to some […]
25 August 2016
The drive from Bologna to our next nightstop is only 2h but we took a bit of detour. We left the hotel around 1100 and drove to the small town of Badicorte, east of Siena (both further than our accommodation). Our friends Riccardo had asked us to drop in at his friend Marina’s restaurant (and […]
24 August 2016
We woke up to messages enquiring on our safety, as there had been an earthquake in central Italy. We wouldn’t have known otherwise until seeing the TV at the hotel breakfast. We left the hotel around 1000 for a 40 min drive to Ferrari’s other museum in Modena (rather than Maranello). Again, I sat outside […]
23 August 2016
Our waking times have been creeping towards more decent times (sevenish rather than sixish). With very little urgency to do things, we made it down to breakfast around 0930. It was a little rushed as the buffet finishes at 1000. We saw a table with a shocking mess on it, a fair amount of unconsumed […]
22 August 2016
We checked out from our guesthouse and drove down to Bologna today. The drive through very narrow and remote roads weren’t as worrying today as we didn’t have the same concerns of being led astray by Google Maps. It was a 3h plus journey non-stop but we stopped in Parma for a walk around the […]
21 August 2016
Italians aren’t big on breakfast; usually just coffee and maybe a pastry at most. So we were pleasantly surprised by the relatively big breakfast at our guesthouse consisting of packaged toast, egg and some pastries. Our Nepali hostess had suggested that we take the bus 0915 down to Vernazza and then the boat to explore […]