blogspot visitor

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Fit-walking

Last week my friend Giorgio came from Udine to take a five days holiday here in Nemi.
Since that he visited Rome years ago, but never went to Castelli area, he took advantage to fill this lack.

On Monday I went to Rome to catch him in Termini Station, where he arrived from Fiumicino Airport with that "Leonardo Express" that takes only 45 minutes to make 30 Km, when is not getting delay (usually around 15 minutes, to make 1 plain hour).
After a flight nothing makes you feel better the Roman summer than 1 hour trip inside a steel can that moves 30 Km per hour without air conditioned and with perfectly sealed windows. From there it's only 25 minutes on Metro to get to Anagnina Station, where you catch the bus to Genzano, which is about another hour trip, obviously without air-con.
From last stop in Genzano there's about 1 km to the hotel in Nemi, and someone can assure you that there's a bus stopping right in front of it, however since that bus is also known as "ghost bus" or "the uncatchable" you better start walking before summer sun start melting the shades on your face.
So, after last 15 minutes of steep slope walking you arrive in beautiful "Al Rifugio", ready to.. take a shower and a nap, sometimes at the same time.

As you can easily discover, even if is your first visit in Italy, especially in the South, moving without a car from one place to another out of the big cities makes you wonder if maybe you are in Cambodia, or some other "not-civilised" place.
The thing is: yes, you are.

In the evening when the sun stopped melting the tarmac we went to Nemi town, which is about 15 minutes walking from the hotel. Is a nice walk along a road inside the woods with the lake appearing between the trees and briars on your left, dodging cars coming on your way because, I forgot to tell you, there's not a trace af a sidewalk.
Most of the road has not even lamp-posts, so after sunset we decided to walk back to the hotel using our mobile phones as guiding lights, also to avoid to get smashed by a car, that here they pass you by millimeters at a speed that makes you see your entire life like a movie.

On Wednesday we went to visit the Museo delle Navi, which is not far from the town on the lakeside, apart if you are by feet.
There are two roads to get down, one in tarmac for cars and one stone paved for pedestrian and bikers, however since both are large enough cars use both of them, and walkers none.
Along the way we could see surprised looks from inside cars passing us on this "pedestrian only" road, perhaps wondering about two crazy guys WALKING DOWN to the lake in such a hot weather day.
After one and half hour under a dazzling sun we arrived desiring more a swim than a visit inside a museum, which by the way has not a trace of air conditioned, but in place of that has an interesting collection of wall stains, poorly hidden by some white curtains, besides of course of reproductions of Caligola's ships (originals burned down with the museum during World War II) and lots of statues and other Roman archeological findings.

In a couple of hours we finished the visit ad the possible photo-ops, also because we saw a "no-photo" sign, so we decided for a well deserved swim in the lake, which is just outside the museum.
Only thing is that even if you are about 20 m from the water you can't reach it due to the fact, as we discover there, that public access is prevented from fences, houses, fences, houses, fences..
all of them abusives (we're in Italy, remember?).
The only place to get access to the water is on the other side of the lake, another hour and half walking dodging cars, scooters and sometimes bicycles.
However when we got there we dived immediately, water was wonderful and not even cold as such in lakes in North Italy, where after a dive you risk hybernation even in summer.
We wondered if could be possible that the ancient volcano is still warm under water surface.
After one hour, despite the clear and nice water we took our way up to Nemi, to avoid walking in the dark; in one hour of speed walking on the steep road, dodging cars, scooters, bicycles and now with cool weather, also joggers and runners.
We got up in Nemi just at sunset, enough sweated and stunned to almost forgot one hour inside the lake, ready for well deserved aperitive, or better two, and much needed dinner in a local restaurant where we enjoyed a wonderful steak and a bottle of wine amongst the looks of other customers, in a way that could resemble the famous scene of the movie "Blues Brothers":


After dinner I called my friend Armando to pick us up, from Nemi it's only 15 minutes but in that conditions seemed like crossing the Alps.

On the next day we decided for a much more relaxing day at the local swimming pool, that is only 15 minutes walking from the hotel.
After all this walking we could sign in for a marathon.

The fact is that nobody can fix such a big problem as traffic and public transport in Italy without changing first the way people think about cars and transport, but that's another story..


Thursday, August 20, 2009

Trip planning

In these days me and Lele are planning another trip to Wales, to visit our teachers and friends.

It's been two years since last time we went to visit the Montaigues so I had to look to find out planes, transport, accomodations etc. which is not a big deal respect moving in, say, South East Asia, but maybe because it's quite a bit that I'm just sitting on my ass, so to speak, I find myself eager to leave, even if only for few days.

This time we decided to rent a car, both to save money from UK Railways, which would need to put EXPENSIVE in front of his name (but also OUTRAGEOUS would fit good for me), and also because this time we'll move a little bit more, due to the fact that the first two days we'll attend a workshop in Leicester.

Although in Australia I drove with right-hand drive, it's been a while since then, so would be funny to move in UK by car, which by the way is much more populated and so there will be more traffic.

Ok, got to go, got to download some maps :-)


Saturday, August 15, 2009

Listen to some good vibes


I was listening to this song during my night shift, while some of my guests were drinking all the beers from restaurant cooler.. :-)



Buon Ferragosto!

Wish to everybody a great Ferragosto!!!
Even to that friends whom don't know what it is!

I'm not having party tough, cause for us public holidays are more work than usual, at lunch we had full booked restaurant, and also the hotel is almost full.

So go to the seaside, get a sunburnt and have fun for me too!!

Ciao!