The wrap up

Well, finally back home again. Back to (what seems to us) a freezing cold Wellington winter and the prospect of normal life and, hopefully, work. 

Was it a good trip? Yes! 

Is it good to be home again? Yes! 

Would we go again? Yes, definitely - but we might need some income first...

Some final thoughts:

Best bits - there were lots

• Walking along the coastal track between the Cinque Terre villages - spectacular views, exercise, being ‘off-highway’.
• Chamonix and Mt Blanc - awesome mountain scenery on a perfect weather day, and some challenging engineering.
• The Camargue with its pink flamingos and bulls.
• Wacky villages perched on hill tops or stuck on cliffs, or sometimes just ‘different’ - Rocamadour, Eze, Collonges la rouge, San Gimignano.
• Tuscany – it’s just like in the pictures, let’s all move there.
• Venice - a ridiculously located city, but fascinating. Also loved the nearby island of Burano with it's colourful houses.
• Paris - always a hit with me, and specially good to spend some time there with A & S.
• Amalfi coast – wonderful scenery.
• History, churches, castles – fantastic, but be careful, everything in moderation.

 Not so good bits

• Various illnesses and injuries, especially asthma, that slowed us down and made walking hard. (There's no way to avoid lots of walking in Europe.)
• Really not much else!

What about the food?

Food was always high on our agenda and was generally pretty good. Some impressions:

·         France

o   The French food we came across seemed a bit overhyped. It was good, but we ate at a lot of places and there didn’t seem to be much variety, just similar stuff with lots of heavy duty sauces.

o   Snails, cheeses, and foie gras were memorable.

o   On the whole it seemed pricy – you would get a top notch restaurant meal for the same cost in NZ.

o   Overall impression was conservative and traditional.

·         Italy

o   Italian food was great. The focus was very much on the key ingredient and its flavour, without too many complications.

o   Pasta is good stuff – we now know what al dente should feel like.

o   Spaghetti pomodora is a great, simple dish – I couldn’t get enough of it.

o   Did I mention risotto? Eat it more often!

o   Sea food – fantastic range of fresh fish, crustaceans and shell fish.

o   Cost – same as for France – seemed pricier than NZ but at least it was excellent eating.

Typically we spent 60+ euros on a restaurant meal, sometimes up to 100. So food made up a pretty large portion of expenses.

What’s the best way to travel?

We tried 3 ways:

• Very small group guided tour (6 of us)
• Standard big group guided bus tour (38 of us)
• Self drive, self guide (2 of us!)

Each has its pluses and minuses. They trade off things like – cost, effective use of time, stress, need for prior research, personal effort required, tolerance of having to fit in with a group plan, tolerance of other people, having local expert knowledge on tap.

For example, on the small group tour we visited the Vatican City. It went something like this:

• Taxi from hotel to VC.
• Bypass the queues and straight in the door.
• Meet local guide and get personalised tour.
• Exit and taxi back to hotel.

Time taken was about 3 hours for a very interesting and satisfying visit with very little pain or waiting around.

Doing this on your own would involve lots of queuing in the hot sun and at best some sort of large group guided tour or an audio guide. It would likely take most of the day and be quite tiring and frustrating – but certainly cheaper! On a big coach trip it would also take longer just trying to get 40 people through the security, crowds and toilets.

In any option there is quite a lot of variable cost. We spent a lot on high quality hotels and food. We could have saved a huge amount by lowering expectations in these areas.

To close

To any readers still with us – well done, I admire your persistence! 

It was fun writing the blog and I think it will help keep alive some of the good memories that would otherwise fade away in years to come.

Give it a try – I promise to be a faithful follower if you send me your link!

Singapore

Monday 3 June

As  expected it was very warm and humid in Singapore when we arrived late morning at the hotel.  

From here the city is pretty spectacular, and I think would be good to live in if you could get used to the heat.

Our friends Sally and Pad-ma who we met in France joined us and took us for a look around. We went to the top of the Sands Sky Park building for the view over most of Singapore, albeit rather hazy. There were dozens of big cargo ships waiting off shore for space in the port. 

The Sky Park building itself is very unusual -  three towers topped with a 'boat' shaped structure that joins them all together.

The 'boat' is not just for show either, but contains restaurants and a garden complete with infinity swimming pool. 

The adjacent Marina Gardens area looks amazing from a birds eye view and was just as fascinating when we walked in it later in both daylight and after dark There are giant man made 'trees ' that are lit up in coloured patterns after dark to the accompaniment of classical music - yes it does sound gross but it's actually very well done. The other garden vegetation is lush and tropical.

We ate the local cuisine, local style, courtesy of our friends which was fun and we got to try some new things like okra and some very strange (to western tastes) icy desserts - they were filled with corn kernels, beans, brown sugar and an unknown fruit a bit like a lychee. 

To top off the evening some of us decided on a whim to have a Fish Foot Spa. Yes you guessed it,  you put your feet and lower legs in a fish pond and the (special type of) fish eat away the dead skin cells  leaving a lovely smooth finish. I kid you not. And there is a full body fish spa experience available too.

Arrivederci Milano (e Italia)

Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 June

Milan is said to be the most expensive city in Italy, so we set out to investigate, and to sample the vibe of the place.

We browsed among the super fashionable shops along the Corso Venezia and via della Spiga. There were lots of famous names like Dolce & Gabbana, Prada etc. The clientele mostly wore skinny pants with a chic little jacket and scarf and had a small dog in their handbag or on a lead. Without exception they were size 6 or smaller. The shop girls were even more daunting with expressions which seemed to say that frumpy looking types from down under need not come in and fiddle with their merchandise. 

To avoid doubt, the above refers to the women. The only men in the shops were seated in strategically placed chairs fiddling with their phones or gazing into space - obviously waiting to be asked to provide an opinion, or a credit card.

Nevertheless you can see the attraction of the shopping area and we know many that would love it, and could easily pass as potential buyers and be welcomed into the shops.

Milan is also a centre for design. We scouted a few design shops and saw  some really neat stuff (not cheap) that no doubt will make to to NZ at some stage. La Rinascente was one shop where we spend ages nosing around - it is a famous big department store, think Kirkcaldies with extra lashings of class.

There is art here too - lots of  historic stuff as well as the Musee dei Novecento, a modern art museum. It's good, but don't go there unless you are really keen on the stuff! There was an Andy Warhol exhibition including the famous Campbell's soup can and Marilyn Monroe images, which J loved.

We climbed the Duomo (cathedral) and walked around amongst the spires. It was a great experience getting up close and personal with the extreme gothic architecture and seeing how much work it takes to restore and repair the bits that are wearing out. Just about a never ending job I would think. There is a roof terrace where concerts are held - what an awesome venue! Although you would need to be good at climbing stairs to attend.

On Saturday night there was a free concert in the Piazza dei Duomo, in front of the cathedral. An orchestra playing Gershwin from what I could gather. I went in on the metro and braved the crowd for a short time. It was great, but sooo many people.

And now its Sunday and arrivederci time. Off to the airport for a long wait. Milan often gets just average reviews from tourists, but we have liked it. Italy too has been fantastico, superbo, eccelente and splendido. Must try to write some more  specific impressions soon before we forget...

Reality looming (and even more train stuff)

Thursday 30 and Friday 31 May

On Thursday morning we felt that we were starting the long trek home, although there are still several days of travel to go. All a little sad although good things must come to an end and there are plenty of reasons to look forward to being back in NZ of course!

We drove from Positano back up to Rome via Cassino and stopped to look at the abbey and commonwealth cemetery. The abbey was completely destroyed during the fighting in WW2. It has been rebuilt and is back in use as an abbey - this wasn't the first time it had been destroyed and rebuilt in the course of its history after all.

The view from the abbey just reinforces how difficult a military position it must have been to take - it dominates the whole valley. About 40,000 German troops held up 345,000 allied troops for about 9 months at the Gustav line of which Monte Cassino was a part. There is a good book about the battle and the bigger strategies involved by Michael Parker. The cemetery had rows and rows of NZ war graves, bringing home the human cost of what happened. Then there were the rows of Australian, British, Canadian, and Indian graves too. And then whole separate cemeteries (although we did not have time to visit them) telling the same stories about the German, French, American and Polish soldiers who died there.

Friday - as I write we are humming along on the Frecciarossa train en route to Milan. This is the fast train, capable of up to 360kph, but we haven't yet managed more than about 250kph. There have been a number of delays and some slow running which has made us over 30min late (predicted) on a 3 hour journey. Not a problem for tourists on a relaxed schedule! The on board displays tell you how fast the train is going, how early/late it is predicted to be, and various notices about coming changes due to engineering works etc (which I can't really decipher.)

The train is otherwise excellent. Very smooth - just a few little lurches that coincide with the spelling mistakes in the blog. (?) There is a cafe car and we also get served free cold drinks at our seats occasionally. And thats just in 2nd class. For the record, espresso coffee on board is 1.50 euro and maxi toast is 4.50 euro. Maxi toast is a ham & cheese toasted sandwich - pretty chic. Mine was delicious but J's was not. The prices are pretty normal, in fact the coffee is cheap compared to most cafes. But I've long since stopped caring about how much such things cost. (Might have to revise that attitude soon...)

The rail infrastructure is massive of course. There are huge yards, mostly empty of wagons, and quite a few yellow machines parked up. Very little sign of activity - perhaps it all happens at night or in special blocks. A side effect of having such an asset is that there are lots of great opportunities for graffiti, most of which have been taken up, and there seems to be little effort to do anything about it. But as mentioned a while ago it doesn't seem to be as ugly as back home for some reason. Also they are not short of a weed or two in the ballast. 

Milan's main station, Milano Centrale, is the largest station in Italy. It was built by Mussolini in a sort of fascist architectural style although the obvious symbols of his regime have long been removed.

P.S. For anyone interested the train did stretch out to 300kph for a while - conveniently next to a motorway so we could be seen flashing past all the cars.

La dolce vita

Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 May

The Amalfi Coast is one of our favourite places from our last visit so many years ago. And with a couple of days of good weather it did not disappoint this time either.

We are staying in Positano, a picture postcard little town seemingly glued to the side of a cliff. 

Day 1 we took a ferry to the island of Capri for a look around and a visit to the Blue Grotto. Entrance to the grotto is by small boat and you have to lie in the bottom of the boat (literally) as the entance is very small with very little room for error. 2 days out of 3 the boats can't get in at all due to the swell so the tourists leave disappointed. We were very lucky to have a calm day and got inside - after our old bodies creaked down into the boat. 

The colour is lovely - apparently caused by the sun reflecting off the mix of sand and coral at the bottom of the grotto.

Even the bus ride to the grotto was an experience. The roads are very narrow with long drops down to the sea, and the drivers are very 'confident' from long practice. The island is very steep and lazy people use the funicular to go up the hill. We were not lazy as we only used it to go down. Its a bigger version of Wellington's cable car.

As the next day was someones birthday, we (two of us) pre celebrated with dinner at a local Positano restaurant with an amazing meal, while looking at the amazing view. Better not repeat the food rating exercise again I guess .... but it was very, very good.

Day 2 we drove around the Amalfi Coast on hair raising roads admiring the scenery. We went high up into the coastal mountains to visit Villa Rufolo which is known for its gardens and its views. 

There is an annual orchestral concert held at the villa and the stage for the orchestra was being being built while  we were there. It iis a temporary scaffold stage built out over nothing much more than thin air. Depending on the conductor's head for heights I suspect there may sometimes be rather more 'allegro' and less 'andante' in the performance than the composer intended?!

Lunch was at a home way back in the hills where the famly cooks for visitors in their traditional way. The idea is that you can experience a 'normal'  meal in a typical Italian family setting. So we  sat outside and looked at the mountan and farm views and enjoyed a feast - so much so we were extremely full by the end! Somehow a birthday cake appeared, with 3 candles - 30 something again!

La dolce vita indeed.

Pompeii unburied

Monday 27 May

Today we made the long journey south towards Positano on the Amalfi coast. The route took us via Naples, past Mt Vesuvius, and we stopped at Pompeii to have a look at the excavated ruins from the eruption in 79 AD.

The Pompeii visit was a repeat for us, but ths time we saw and understood a lot more. No doubt this was partly due to the 30 years of  work that has been done on the site since we were last there, and partly due to Sandra our local guide. Once again it was very helpful have a knowledgeable person explain what we were seeing  rather than relying on our own research. The excavated ruins are very extensive, although not all open to the public. We saw public bath houses, private dwellings, shops, amphitheatres, as well as the public forum and roads.

Vesuvius still looms over the town. 

Couldn't resist this pic - the local lemons are massive!

Under the Tuscan sun

Sunday 26 May

The day dawned fine and sunny and we set off to visit 2 classic Tuscan towns, and also a couple of lesser known destinations.

The classics were San Gimignano and Siena. Both are historic walled towns that have been largely preserved as they were many hundreds of years ago. 

San Gimignano is known for its many towers, and is jokingly called the Manhattan of Tuscany. 

I climbed the bell tower, Torre Grossa, and was rewarded with terrific views over the town and Tuscan countryside. The country is rolling and green, with olive groves, vineyards, villas, cypresses - just as we have seen on various TV programmes about Tuscany! In fact we passed a few villas that were in the process of being renovated - possibly by mad Englishmen, but we couldn't tell.

Siena is famous for the Paglio horse race held each year in the central piazza, which is something of a scallop shape. The race is apparently very hard in the horses, who often come to grief at the very tight corners. 

Siena is also well known for its grand cathedral, and for its roast pork sandwiches called porchetta. We couldn't get into the cathedral due to queues, but successfully acquired and munched a porchetta.

Our lesser known stops were at a winery, Vescine, which makes chianti style wine. Chianti is the name of the region, and the wine is made primarily from sangiovese grapes, sometimes with small amounts of other types blended in. We tasted a couple of the winery's chiantis, as well as their Sauvignon Blanc (a surprise that they had this!) The Sav was very different to NZ ones.

Lastly we stopped at the village of Greve (just on spec as it was such a nice day) and found there was a festival going on with market stalls, performers, and a debate (in Italian.) So what could we do but sit in a cafe and soak up the atmosphere!

I can really see the attraction of living here!