Rome and the final leg

Monday 3 July – we left Procida and took the ferry into Naples, a tasty couple of pastries and coffee at the station and then we were on the high speed Italo train which went to Genoa, with a first stop Rome, only an hour at those speeds.  Bracing ourselves for the taxi rank where we had had such a dreadful experience 10 days ago, we were delighted to find, not only no big queue, but also that this morning they had actually cemented in a metal post to stop the queues starting the wrong way around!!!

Stella and Chloe were waiting for us at their apartment and after dumping our gear, we all trotted off to an excellent little supermarket and bought some tasty treats for dinner for when Clarissa arrived home from work. 

Tuesday 4 July – a bit of a debacle getting a taxi with the Uber prices almost triple-ing over the course of 30 minutes, and no way to book a taxi online, all we kept getting was “try again later” – it’s tourist season - this is what happens.  We went downstairs and fortunately Geoff managed to flag down a taxi – and that was it – off he went to Leonardo da Vinci airport for the first leg of his journey home via Singapore.

And look who popped up to spend the day with us today – my lovely friend Sharon, she has been in Europe with friends since we saw her at Nice Station on 8 June and travelled to the Amalfi Coast for a Christening at the weekend.  When she realised we were back in Rome, she added a day onto her trip so she could spend it with us.  Once she arrived at the apartment, we headed out to the shops.  First stop for me was to buy another bag to check in – I have accumulated so much stuff and without Geoff’s muscle to lift up the one big bag I have, it would have been a struggle for me to get it all home, it is so heavy, I have also done more shopping along the way, and had some things stored in the Rome apartment from my first arrival here back in April so have to get it back somehow!

Found myself a very snazzy soft Italian-made bag in a lovely shade of green in the beautiful Rinascenti Department Store – won’t miss that on the luggage belt that’s for sure and it’s plenty big enough with room to spare!!!  A lovely lunch on the top floor of Rinascenti and then we were back out browsing around the shops before it got too hot and we came home, armed with some delicious pastries to have afternoon tea in the cool of the apartment.

Clarissa called us from work to say she had booked a table at one of her favourite restaurants in Piazza Navona, so we left to meet them at 7pm.  Oh my, on the way there we passed this amazing leather shop with an exquisite array of colourful handbags – definitely going for a revisit tomorrow.  We met up with Clari and her friends Franci and Ina at Camillo Ristorante and had a delightful dinner in the Piazza – always so good to be eating out with friends and family in the open air with plenty of people watching as well.

Wednesday 5 July – on a countdown for my departure now.  My first job was to go through all of my luggage and see what goes where in the bags.  I have cell packs with winter clothes from the beginning of my trip at the bottom of the bag that haven’t seen the light of day in months, so it was good to sort it all out and rearrange my two bags so I could carefully fit in some ridiculous things I have bought to take home…yes, that fancy gin bottle in France, the Alessi coffee plunger glass replacement, and a few other lovely little mementoes that are fragile and awkward.  All packed and voila!!!! …..the bags aren’t full!  That was the news I needed…… get me back to that leather handbag shop, and quick!

Off we trotted and another few colourful bags purchased to add to my collection, the only difficult thing was choosing which shades - I just wanted the lot!  Then a trip to the most delightful Pasticceria to buy afternoon tea. Cinque Lune (five moons) is one of the oldest pastry stores in Rome, it has been open since 1902 and has the most delicious cakes and pastries – hard to choose but I didn’t hold back and treated myself two, and some cakes for Chloe – all at the ridiculous price of €4 for the lot!  I’m definitely going back tomorrow!

Thursday 6 July – a fairly quiet day today, it was so hot we spent a fair bit of time lounging about in the cool of the apartment and I managed to sort out the rest of my luggage.  Stella cooked us all a delightfully delicious lunch, what a star she is – living up to her name!  I felt very spoilt.  I then took the girls out for a little shopping at one of their favourite stores and as promised, we nipped back to that Pasticceria for another few pastries.  And that was it, my time in Rome has come to an end.  I’ll be up early tomorrow to get to the airport for my flights back to Auckland.

And that’s a wrap!

What a trip – when I arrive back in Auckland late Saturday night, it will be exactly 14 weeks since my departure in April and it’s been a whirlwind of experiences….family catch ups, history, churches, mosques, cuisines, different modes of travel, sightseeing, shopping, sailing…..

Thank you for sharing my experiences with me by reading my blog.  I have thoroughly enjoyed keeping a record of this incredible trip.  Geoff and I have done so much that from time to time it was hard to recall exactly what happened where and when, so I am pleased that I did this kind of diary for myself.  We had so much fun and it will be lovely to come back to it and relive it from time to time.

Finally, a huge thanks to my son Dan for all his work posting the entries.  No mean feat when some of the blogs contained a rather large number of photographs!

A few fun facts for you below……

Countries visited

Singapore
Italy – 3 times!
Netherlands
UK
India
Oman
Saudi Arabia
Jordan
Egypt
Israel
Greece
France

Airports

Singapore Changi
Rome Leonardo da Vinci
Amsterdam Schiphol
Palermo Sicily
Catania Sicily
London Stansted
London Gatwick
London Heathrow
Mumbai
Aurangbad 
Athens
Paris Charles de Gaulle

Railway Trains and Underground Metros

Amsterdam
Stansted Mountfitchet
London Liverpool Street
London Underground
London Victoria
Eastbourne
Stansted Airport
Paris Gare du Nord
Paris Austerlitz
Paris Metro
Bordeaux
Nantes 
Paris Montparnasse
Paris Gare de Lyon
Nice Ville
Nice Riquier
Ventimiglia
Milan Centrale
Milan San Giovanni
Varenna
Rome Termini
Naples Centrale 

Boats – got to keep royourboat authentic after all!

Dutch canal boat
Cambridge punt
Viking cruise ship
Poros Ferry 
Submarine (sort of, no sailing!)
Breton harbour ferry
Lake Como ferry
Naples to Procida ferry
Oceanis 4.1. yacht around the Gulf of Naples

+ Electric bikes

 Sleeping destinations (yep, just think about all that packing and unpacking!):

Singapore – Ben’s apartment
Rome – Clarissa’s apartment
Amsterdam 
Stansted – Julie’s house
London 
Eastbourne – Denise’s house
Mumbai 
Aurangabad
 
Viking Cruise:  
- Oman - Muscat
- Oman - Salalah
- Saudi Arabia - Jeddah
- Jordan - Aqaba
- Egypt - Sarfaga
- Egypt – Sharm el Sheikh
- Egypt – Port Said
- Israel – Haifa
- Greece – Athens

Paris 
Bordeaux
St Emilion
La Rochelle
Saint-Nazaire
Brest
Nantes
Agay 
Le Thoronet
Villefranche
Milan
Bologna
Chianti
Assisi
Rome in a friend’s apartment
Sailing Yacht
Procida
Rome - Clarissa’s apartment