Homer 2022 : Rome

Friday 3 June to Wednesday 8 June

Rome.. one of my favourite European cities... we stayed 6 nights and it wasn't nearly enough.  There's so much history to see but that's just the tip of the iceberg and the big tourist drawcards are really busy. We just scheduled one 'site' a day.

Trevi Fountain. 

Cropped.

Reality.

Vatican Museum.

Spanish Steps and Via Condutti.

Coliseum and around.

Modern Art Museum.

Basilica Papale de Santa Maria Maggiore.

Pantheon and around.

 We spent the rest of our time discovering different neighbourhoods and strolling the streets. If you don't do anything else in Rome, spend your evenings sitting in the piazzas and watching the world go by. Soak up the atmosphere. La Dolce Vita..

Some of our favourite spots this time...

Piazza Navona and around.

Campo de Fiori and around.

Trastavere.

Testaccio.

Discovering little places just off the beaten track is fun. 

And enjoy the food..Especially the Roman specialities...

Overpriced Gelato at Trevi Fountain because we've had it here since we first came to Rome 30 years ago. 

Artichokes - 3 ways in this case

Porchetta  - yummy street food

Spaghetti Carbonara and Tonarelli Cacio e Pepe 

We enjoyed some good restaurants, most rather touristy but next time we'd like to stay for a month or more and become real Roman foodies.

4 Fiumi - for the view and not overpriced for Navona. 

La Fattoincasa - we ate here twice -  just for Neil to have the lamb chops. 

Restorante Arco da St. Calisto

Bona - fast food pizza

Pizza Ciro

If you need to see any sport other than soccer in Italy you need to find an Irish Pub. We watched French Open Tennis and a bit of rugby - at the The Abbey Theatre Pub. Rude Italian owner, jaded, sharp -tounged Irish barman and a few foreign waitresses running scared. Not our usual place but for sport the choices are limited and we got on with them all anyway. 

We found a little Vespa museum. They had our his (1959 ) and hers (1963 ) models side by side.

Homer 2022 : Siena and More Tuscany

Sunday 29 May to Wednesday 1 June

There are only 14 - of over 70 - medieval towers left in San Gimignano but you can see the town sticking up atop a hill from a long way off. The towers, some higher than 50m were built by noble families as signs of wealth and power. These days it's super touristy but still lovely. On any trip through Italy visiting a few hilltop towns is obligatory anyway. Vernaccia di San Gimignano, the local white wine is another draw card. 

The vineyards and countryside in this area are very pretty.

On Monday we arrived early at the campsite in Siena to secure a spot. Here's another one of our favourite little cities.

Watching life go by from a cafe table on Piazza del Campo at Aperitivo hour is wonderful.

They're all touristy so on Tuesday evening, we were lucky to find San Paolo Pub had 3 tiny tables squeezed onto a very small balcony one floor up.

Since 1701, the Palio de Siena, a traditional horse race has been run around this piazza twice a year. Stepping off the beaten path we found Osteria Permalico, reasonably priced. I had the best Gnocchi di Ricotta here. 

We are settling into vanlife again. Neil streamed the epic Nadal vs Djokovic French Open Quarter final match on the laptop,  so I was up until after 1am watching. Go Rafa!

Tuscany has lots of great wine but none quite so esteemed as Brunello di Montelchino.

Lunch with a wine tasting at Il Giardini.

Wine tasting at Enoteca Di Piazza Di Fedolfi Andrea where you dispense what you fancy with a card and settle your bill at the end. 

Simple camping at Tenuta Croce di Mezzo and another wine tasting at the farm. 

And the best dinner at the wonderful and local L'arte dei Semplici restaurant 100m from the campsite.

This is why I travel off the beaten track.

Homer 2022: Florence

Wednesday 25 May to Saturday 28 May

Florence: Capital of Tuscany and birthplace of the Renaissance. 

"Firenze Hu - Camping in Town" is a very large, very modern campsite with very good facilities. Being the Ascension Day long weekend meant the city was very busy.  

We walked by St. Mark's Square.

Crossed the Ponte Vecchio.

Spent a few hours in the Uffizi Gallery.

That's it. No more tourist stuff for me. The best part of being in Florence is wandering the streets, stopping for a coffee or a glass of wine and having lunch at a street cafe.

We love discovering local places. Like King Grizzly  - interesting beers on tap - and 54 Rosso , when we were dying for a break fun the heat. 

On Thursday night we crossed the river to the more local area around Piazza della Passera. Christine got us a table at the wonderful Osteria Pavone by using her friendliest Spanish with an Italian accent. 

On Saturday morning we ate brunch at the Mercato Centrale.

Bambi had really good coffee. 

Later on we ambled over to the more authentic La Croce area.

We got to watch rugby at a pub called the Lion's Fountain.

We ate at the excellent La Giostra restaurant. It's usually booked up a few months in advance but guess how we scored a table.

Soldano is a Florentine Hapsburg prince. Of course we has steak Florentine.