Tag Archives: Italy

Montefalco, Umbria – A wine tour

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Umbria is often referred to as the green heart of Italy.

The view across the Umbrian valley from Assisi with its patchwork of fields confirmed this. Umbria has a reputation for its food, wine and olive oil; all of which we can confirm from our stay in Assisi.

Our days in Assisi, a medieval town that looks across the valley, had enabled us to sample the wines. Montefalco Sagrantino and Montefalco Rosso were becoming favourites.

We visited a local wine bar, Bibenda, that had a reputation not just for the wines but also for its sommelier owner who has a truly extensive knowledge about the region.

We’d seen in a “things to do” post from Airbnb about a “new experience”, being a wine tour of a Montefalco winery and decided to see if we could make it work without a car.

Who wants to drive if you are doing some wine tasting? Continue reading →

The Diary of a Slow Traveler – Amateur Traveler and other blogs

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As we start to plan our next trip I found myself immersed in travel books and searching the web for inspiration.

I love travel books, travel programs and just surfing the web about travel. I am watching Michael Portello’s train journeys at the moment. Even Escape to The Country and Escape to the Continent have provided useful travel trips. Travel books are fun, but more recently I have found that they are more useful to people planning their trips than to us!

So I thought I’d mention how we have used blogs and forums and some of the sources we have relied upon for inspiration and valuable information in our travel.

I found out about rail travel from the man in seat 61. Relying on Mark Smith’s advice I have graduated from having the travel agent book my train travel to being completely comfortable travelling through Europe, reading timetables and making my own bookings. Sure I have missed trains and misread timetables but that has led to some pretty amazing experiences like an unforgettable Bastille weekend in Paris when we should have been on the train to the Amalfi Coast!

As we plan our trips I type a country or place into the search engine and see what I can find.  Continue reading →

Pompeii, Heracleum or Ostia – They were all buried

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Chatting away with friends who’d just returned from a trip to Italy started me off comparing Pompeii, Heracleum and Ostia.  Pompeii and Heracleum were all buried by ash and Ostia silt.

Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background

Pompeii is, of course, the most famous. Heracleum is its poor cousin.  Ostia often doesn’t rate a mention but is perhaps the most impressive.

Source: www.visitingeu.com

My favourite person and I think that one of the best things about going to Pompeii and Heracleum is that its best reached by the Circumvesuviana, the local railway that runs between Naples – Sorrento.  Catching the train at the Naples railway station is something to behold. It’s the local’s railway.  Each of the carriages is completely covered with graffiti.

The train is a chance to see how the locals live. In the afternoons it’s full of teenagers catching the train home from school. It’s boisterous and not understanding the language a little confronting. On the weekends’ its still chaotic but the trains are full of kids and families. Then there are the buskers – I use the term loosely. In our experience, the train buskers have been pretty ordinary but I am sure we have been unlucky.

Making sure your on the right train is the next step. Not just that you are on the right line but that it goes all the way. One day when we were travelling through to Sorrento, the train just stopped and then everyone except us got off. For a short while, we wondered what to do until a local realised we had no idea and told us that we needed to get off and catch the next train.

Pompeii has a dedicated station and for Heracleum, the train stops at the town and then there is a walk to the archeological site. Continue reading →

A Short Stop in the Eternal City, Rome, Italy

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As generally happens over an extended holiday, some days are better than others and I would have to say the latter few days in the UK and Ireland were not the best of our trip. Pouring rain to greet and farewell us in The Lake District, high winds in Wales, a cancelled ferry and then no cabs at the ferry terminal in Dublin when we eventually arrived had made for a less than ideal few days, but that was all about to change!

As we flew along the Italian Coast, I felt an uplift in spirit and a regret that we had not scheduled more time in Rome before going home, but getting bathroom renovations completed before Christmas and my PhD meant we needed to be home.

With only a couple of days in Rome, all we could do was enjoy a coffee or two, some gelato, pasta an Aperol Spritz (perhaps more than one) and the chaos that is Rome. Just wonderful.

The weather was bright for our arrival. Flying into Rome the country side was so different to what we’d seen in the previous  6 weeks. The patchwork quilt of green replaced by the grey browns of a countryside that has experienced a Mediterranean Summer and a bright blue big sky.

Once on the ground we were through immigration in no time Continue reading →

“Tickle me Elmo” – taking the funicular to Vomerio, Naples

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View from Castel Sant'Elmo

View from Castel Sant’Elmo to Castel Nuovo

I recently posted  about three cities that you must visit. One of  those was Naples, and as I was searching for links to my posts on these three wonderful but under-rated cities, I realised that I hadn’t completed this post.  So, I dusted the cobwebs off and moved this post from my Drafts to Posted.

As we extended and then extended again our stay in Naples we were able to move from a concerted attack on the highlights of Naples,

National Archeological Museum, Naples

the Duomo, Gran Caffe Gambrinus, the Archeological Museum with its amazing  Pompeii exhibition that includes a very naughty  exhibit of ancient pornography (yes we did take a Peak!) and start to  look further afield.

Sitting on our hotel balcony in Piazza Bellini, making some calls to home, we could see a castle and wondered what it was called. Perhaps we should pay a visit? Once we found that it’s name was Castel Sant’Elmo we decided we had to visit. How could you not visit a place called Elmo?

Coffee – Gran Caffe Gambrinus

Continue reading →