Tag Archives: Travel Tip

Coimbra, Portugal – How good are the Ham and Cheese Toasties?

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Just over halfway between Lisbon and Porto is Coimbra.

My favourite person and I travelled by train from Lisbon to Coimbra. It’s about a 2 hour trip, including a short wait at Coimbra B railway station for the train into Coimbra itself. It’s about an hour from Porto if you are coming the other way.

Coimbra was once the capital of Portugal, although that was a long time ago. Today its a modern provincial city with a preserved medieval town and an impressive historical university.

However for me Coimbra will always be the place that I truly embraced Portugal’s favourite food, the Ham and Cheese Toastie, although by the time we’d completed our visit I’d become a connoisseur, and my preference was for the ham, cheese and tomato version.

Before I arrived in Portugal I had assumed the national food was the Portuguese tart!

In preparing for our visit to Portugal we had read about Coimbra and seen a number of blog posts suggesting that Coimbra was place to spend more than a day visiting, We took the advice and stayed three nights.

Our late afternoon arrival gave us a chance to visit the Santa Cruz Church and Monestary in the square, Praça 8 de Maid. Continue reading →

Otranto, Italy – has anyone got a bus timetable?

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After a few relaxing days in Lecce, my favourite person and I decided on a day at the beachside town of Otranto, about 45kms from Lecce.

The bus stop for the summer bus service was just around the corner from where we were staying. Armed with our bus timetable that our truly amazing beyond Airbnb super host had given us, we arrived at the bus stop about 15 minutes early. Continue reading →

Diary of a Slow Traveller – San Gimignano – a mix of old and kitsch

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During our sojourn to Italy we took a day trip tof the medieval walled town o San Gimignano. Getting there from Florence is pretty straight forward even if you are not driving.

We’d read the guidebooks and spoken to others, so we knew that we were going to see some amazing sights mixed with shop after shop eagerly seeking to get the tourist dollar. The sites outweigh the endless tourist traps. It is a spectacular place a town set on a hill that dominates its surrounds. It was also just as my imaginings of Tuscany  had been probably  most likely because so many of the photographs of Tuscany in guide books and brochures are from San Gimignano.

The  bus drops you at the gates or if you drive you have a choice of two cents parks which conveniently have signs saying how many parks are available in each.  It felt very Disneyland as we walked through the gates and into Yesterdayland. Just as with Disneyland it is quite special. Continue reading →

Out and about in Rome

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The Pantheon

The Pantheon

It is so easy to get stuck in Rome and not venture far afield. There is quite literally something amazing at every turn. An ancient ruin here, a church there and of course an obelisk always nearby. There is also some of the best shopping you’ll find anywhere.  The days whizz by with visits to the Colosseum, Vatican, Roman Forum, walking through the gardens around the Villa imageBorghese …

In our case this has meant that in previous visits to Rome we haven’t ventured very far, however this time we made a decision to venture a little further afield. This meant looking at the guidebooks for that section towards the back of the book that says something like Day Trips or Excursions. It will never say what to do when you’ve seen all there is in Rome as that is just not possible!

So with a steely resolve we ventured to the back of the guidebook and settled on Ostia Antica for our first foray out of Rome. It’s about 25kms from Rome and easily accessible by Metro and Train.

Ostia Antica is a port city that it is said dates back to the 7th century BC. A town whose fortunes rose and eventually receded just as the sea did, such that by the 9th century it was abandoned. It’s a port city that is now some kilometers from the sea!

With the entrance fee paid and our guidebook purchased at the site in hand we were ready for what turned our to be something very special. After just a few minutes at Ostia Antica we wondered why there is such an obsession with Pompeii. Perhaps it’s Vesuvius?  Continue reading →

Piazza Armerina, Sicily – Oh, you mean Villa Romana del Casale

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The recently renovated  Villa Romana del Casale and its mosaics often feature on the itinerary when visiting Sicily and with good reason. What often doesn’t get included is a visit to the nearby town Piazza Armerina which in my view is another of Sicily’s hidden gems.

A day trip to Villa Romana from Siracusa by public transport involves an early bus or train to Catania and then a bus to Piazza Amerina. The general advice in Sicily is to take the bus option as they are generally considered more reliable. Once in Piazza Armerina it is necessary to arrange a transfer or shuttle bus to Villa Romana about 5 kms away.  We arranged for a transfer from Central Sicily Tours (the number one tour operator in Piazza Armerina and only one) to Villa Romano. As prearranged Roberto was there to meet us at the bus stop, a good thing as we timed our visit to coincide with a cold snap – it was 1.5C when we got off the bus and raining. The previous day’s snow was still on the rooves of the buildings.

image A web search of Puzza Armerina will probably tell you all about Villa Romana, as will a visit to Trip Advisor. They don’t in my opinion do justice to Piazza Armerina.

It is a town that doesn’t seem to have been afflicted with the Sicilan concrete obsession. The older part of the town was spared post WW2 concreting due to its being overlooked for development in favour of Enna. As a result a visit to Piazza Armerina provides a chance to see the old town as it was.

The town has many churches and piazzas. A number of the churches are not open but the works of art have been carefully removed and transferred to a gallery near the duomo.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of tourist infrastructure with the number one Trip Advisor restaurant being a small family owned bar in the middle of town, Cafe des Amis which is “famous” for its arancini but should also be for having the cleanest toilets in Italy!

Piazza Armerina is a lovely town which will I’m sure eventually be discovered.

Duomo Piazza Armerina

Duomo Piazza Armerina

However, the true reason for our visit was to go to Villa Romana, Continue reading →