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A long standing wish was to visit the Rome and historical City of Vatican. The stars had aligned to for such a trip.
This trip was one with Praveen and family and as Paru put it - it was Indians from America and Americans from India meeting in Italy.
Day 1: Emirates flight to Dubai and onward to Rome. Landed in Rome at 8pm and took the train to Rome Central from where we walked to our Airbnb apartment. P had already landed and we had dinner crashed.
Day 2: Started early we checked out and boarded the 8 am train to Venice. Impressed with the timings and the service we sped along on a 4hr trip to the destination. During the course of the journey the train hit speeds of 300 km/hr and we arrived at 12 :03. Exit the station and we step on to the water ways bustling with water taxis and water buses waiting to take eager tourists and locals to the destination.
It is certainly a unique place that I have ever visited. Reached our apartment by 2 and dumped the baggage and headed out for lunch and a feel of the place.
Had a sumptuous lunch which turned out to be quiet expensive but was worthwhile. After lunch we spent the evening soaking up the scenes and taking pictures. The place is such a maize that is was quite a struggle to get to our apartment. After a long walk we finally found the apartment and the flight of stairs 4 floors high seemed more daunting then when we carried 8 suit cases a few hours before.
Had dinner and drinks that we had bought along the way, the rest of the evening was spent chitchatting and the kids still brimming with energy pillow fighting in the next room.
It is certainly a unique place that I have ever visited. Reached our apartment by 2 and dumped the baggage and headed out for lunch and a feel of the place.
Had a sumptuous lunch which turned out to be quiet expensive but was worthwhile. After lunch we spent the evening soaking up the scenes and taking pictures. The place is such a maize that is was quite a struggle to get to our apartment. After a long walk we finally found the apartment and the flight of stairs 4 floors high seemed more daunting then when we carried 8 suit cases a few hours before.
Had dinner and drinks that we had bought along the way, the rest of the evening was spent chitchatting and the kids still brimming with energy pillow fighting in the next room.
Over all it was a good day and brought out the awnes of the place in me.
Day 3: All well rested we started the day with some good coffee and pastries from the local bakery for breakfast. We headed out in another direction of the island. Plenty of pictures to describe the experience.
Day 4: We were done with Venice and had an early morning train to Florence where we connect to Pisa. It was certainly was an adventurous trip. The train was scheduled to leave Venice at 8:48 and we had to take the boat bus to the rail terminal. All was well, we board the 7:29 boat and spent a good 40 minutes to get to the station. Once there we realized that our train number was not on the display. Soon we realized that the train was from another station in Venice. We tried our luck and boarded the 8:30 shuttle to the station and ended there are at 8:40. Just as we found the platform and entered it the train pulled in. Phew, that was close.
The next close call was the 10 minutes to change trains in Florence to head to Piza. We made that interchange successfully as well. What made it even more dunting was the 8 suitcase and kids that we had to haul along.
The next close call was the 10 minutes to change trains in Florence to head to Piza. We made that interchange successfully as well. What made it even more dunting was the 8 suitcase and kids that we had to haul along.
The rest of the day was good with a visit to the leaning tower of Pisa and the church. Nishanth's tantrum and his quarrels with Vihaan will be always associated with our visit here.
We walked back to the station grabbed some food and boarded the train to Rome. Landed in Rome and spent some time commuting to the new apartment that we had booked at Airbnb. It was a big sigh of relief when we entered the apartment an the day had ended.
All in all it was a great day and memorable. Pictures from the day at this link.
Day 5: The hectic schedule and uncertainties from the previous day soon dissipated and all of us woke up to a lazy morning. We bought some bread, eggs and milk from the store nearby and had a relaxing break fast.
Vihaan reminded me the next morning in his typical accent and demeanor - "Manoj Valiachan, yesterday you got angry on a 5 year old". The confidence in his voice sounded like he was totally innocent from the quarrels yesterday and put me in a spot as the person with the wrong doing.
We headed to the Vatican and met our tour guide at 2. The entire place was teaming with people milling around with organized tour guides.
It was a worthy trip with the guide taking us from the Vatican museum to Sistine chapel and finally to St. Peter's Basilica and drawing our attention to specific aspects of history and it's relevance to what we were seeing.
The walk took over 3 hours and ended at the Vatican square. We grabbed some food and took the metro back to the apartment.
Day 6: The next morning was a lazy one. We had a breakfast of eggs and bread cooked in the apartment and had a scheduled tour of the Colosseum only at 3pm.
We left the apartment by 12, had lunch on the way and walked by the fountain as we headed to meet our tour guide. We received a good briefing of
Day 7: This was a day where nothing was planned. By noon we decided to go to Fracati. It was a short train ride into the country and very scenic. We walked around and had more gelato and the kids just ran around.
Towards the evening we headed to the town square where we had roasted pork some wine and cheese. We took the last train back to Rome and stumbled into the house all tired with the exception of the kids.
Day 8: This was the end of the trip for Praveen and family. They had a flight at 11am and left the apartment by 8:30.
Once they left the apartment wore a deserted look with the kids sulking away. We had a good break fast and decided to spend the day going around the City. Took the tube to the Circo Maximo and spent the morning walking the lush landscapes of Rome. Spent some time at the banks of the Tiber River and just spent some time watching the water flow at the steps of a Church built on a small island on the River.
We had a sumptuous lunch here and headed to Villa Borghese and Piazza Del Popolo.
The town square was amazing, we took a few pictures and shopped for souvenirs.
We had a sumptuous lunch here and headed to Villa Borghese and Piazza Del Popolo.
The town square was amazing, we took a few pictures and shopped for souvenirs.
Had a few good pastries over here with some coffee and chocolate milk and grabbed a Pizza on the way back to the apartment.
The rest of the evening was spent packing to head back home.
The rest of the evening was spent packing to head back home.
Day 9: This was it, we were at the very end of our vacation and it was time to head back.
What seemed like a normal process was not to be. We had planned on taking Uber to the airport, as it turned out the app would not let me order one using cash payments and Paytm. Tried to add a credit card however the SMS authentication would not go through. Here it was flight at 11:30 am , boarding time at 10:45 and we are about an hour away at 8:30 am struggling with ordering the taxi.
We decided to take the metro and Traintilia to the airport. It was at this time that Nishanth reported a tummy ach and had to use the bathroom. That shaved another 10 minutes.
It was now a race to the airport. We took the metro to Roma termini reached there at 9:10. Bought tickets on Leonardo express that departed at 9:35 with a scheduled arrival at 10:07. Every minute counted.
What seemed like a normal process was not to be. We had planned on taking Uber to the airport, as it turned out the app would not let me order one using cash payments and Paytm. Tried to add a credit card however the SMS authentication would not go through. Here it was flight at 11:30 am , boarding time at 10:45 and we are about an hour away at 8:30 am struggling with ordering the taxi.
We decided to take the metro and Traintilia to the airport. It was at this time that Nishanth reported a tummy ach and had to use the bathroom. That shaved another 10 minutes.
It was now a race to the airport. We took the metro to Roma termini reached there at 9:10. Bought tickets on Leonardo express that departed at 9:35 with a scheduled arrival at 10:07. Every minute counted.
Impressive as the trains and timings were, this one was late by 5 minutes and the arrival was now 10:12. We rushed to checking our bags and at the end we were left with 15 minutes to get to the gate.
Long lines at the security and immigration cut it really close. At the end of it was an emirates agent wait to rush us to the gate. It was then that we realized that the race was not done. Had to take another train to the terminal and another long walk to get to the gate. Phew, finally we were at the safe zone.
Long lines at the security and immigration cut it really close. At the end of it was an emirates agent wait to rush us to the gate. It was then that we realized that the race was not done. Had to take another train to the terminal and another long walk to get to the gate. Phew, finally we were at the safe zone.
Most memorable experience:
Colosseum
Food and Wine
Time with Praveen and family
