His first time in Italy

And we are off again, this time it was a trip with Grandma and mom. It was my Grandson’s first time in Italy and like all 13-year-olds, the flight was too long. The battery on his devices ran out, and we were flying into Venice, something we had never done before. We had arranged transportation from the airport to “close to our B&Bs”. But due to the weather, the boat ride had been moved to the car and then the boat. We had been told that our first stop would be my sister in laws stop by the company that booked this, seems the driver of the boat didn’t get the message. He dropped us off on the other side of the island and we had to find our way from there, in the dark and rain.

The B&B that the wife booked she “thought” had a lift, but we found out it didn’t. 3 flights of stairs to get to the flat. After a long flight that was a disappointment. The flat had a patio where you could see the tower in St. Marks square so that was a plus. We had 4 days in Venice and by the time we left the grandson could navigate the allies on his own. I think he gets it from his grandma.

The next trip was by high-speed train to Florance, it is so much easier to go by train in Italy than flying anywhere. I think I was more impressed with the train than he was, even though I had made that trip before.

Florence is so much smaller than the other cities we were going to see so it didn’t take much for him to learn his way around.

Then there was Roma, a city I have been to many times before and I wanted to show him everything but with only a few days it was not possible. We saw the big sites and even got lost a few times in the rain, and had to walk from the train station to the Pantheon. That was fun, my phone was giving some odd directions so as a test I let him navigate from where we where to where we wanted to be. In a city with his phone he got us there and I was so proud.

Some of the places I have had so much fun in he got to see, the restaurant that we eat at where I had took his mom years before remembered us as always and we are famiely to them so they always treat us right. Now from the Phanton to our B&B was not that far, and at 13 years old and seeing how he did so well on other streets I asked if he could walk me though going from here to there. After the 2nd day with some corrections he got it correct and could do the walk without us, another proud moment if you know the streets of Rome you know what I mean.

All in all I think everyone had a good time on this trip and its one I will not forget, I hope his mom and him go back and visit without us and see and do what they want.

Next month’s trip

We have already booked to go back to Rome for a week and then Athens for a week next month and I’m so scared the Covid numbers will start going up and they will not let us in. People please continue wearing your masks. The hotel we are staying at is just around the corner from The Pantheon.

In Athens we are staying in town this time close to the Acropolis.

Nonchalant About Roma

So my wife tells me we can’t come to Rome anymore because I’m not a excited about it as I used to be. We are here for 2 weeks and this is my 5th trip to Rome and I have been a tour guide so many times I hope its just a tired of running around thing.

Damein and Emma

This time we are here with my son and his girlfriend Emma and I think they are enjoying themselves. He got a chance to have his birthday in another country, so both the kids have been here now. We told Alex and Damein one trip each the next time its on you to come back.

One of the things we did different this time was rent an apartment for the 2nd week very near the Pantheon and it has no lift.Bad idea, 45 steps to my room and 65 steps to my sister-in-law’s room.Now that is after 20K steps a day looking around at everything else.

As I write this i’m at one of our favorite place’s the Di Rienzo in the plaza with the Pantheon,we have coming here every night after walking and the stall seems to have adopted us. One of the waiters I remembered from when my daughter was here and I found out he has been working here for 14 years.

Yesterday we were off for a fast tour of Florence another city I love and today they are off to Tivoli,Italy. I felt a little bad this morning like I was catching a cold so it was nap day for me.You need nap days when you are here.

Day 3 in Italy

So today we went to Roman Coliseum via the “Metro” the subway system in Rome. Without speaking the language or reading it we did great getting from one stop to the next. We had to visit the main train station to pick up some pass’s and then found our way back to the correct platform.
Speaking of the metro where we got into the subway and the distance to the train , i was looking for mole people. It was a half mile walk past a underground super market with long tunnels that just kept going down.
The Roman Coliseum is rite out of the metro startion and it was so awesome to see in real life. If you ever come here wear good walking shoes.