1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles Part 1

Above: Our Singapore Air A380 ready for boarding at Sydney Airport 22 May 2008

Above: From the vantage point of Row 62 in Economy (Main Deck) The new screens are bigger than previously, and it's great having the control set stored in the seat back...preferable to in the arm rest as in the Boeing 747, where it gets knocked accidentally, films change, disappear, call buttons get pushed and so on. The A380 seems roomier, even if its not. There is definitely more head room, if not leg room!

Above : The first drink and snack. I like the cup holders - another improvement over Boeing aircraft.

Above: The best meal I've eaten on a plane. The chicken tagine and cous cous out of Sydney. Ordered the diabetic meals (worth getting special meals; they come first, and then while everyone else is still chowing down the toilet is yours!)

Above: Some of the delights of Singapore Airport include free video games, free Internet.

Above: An altogether squeezier Boeing 777-200 from Singapore to Rome.Down the back again - row 46

It's a sad fact that, in the absence of teleportation or a Tardis, in order to get to Europe from Australia, you have to spend about 22hours in the air, plus a couple on the ground somewhere in-between (always an overlit shopping mall masquerading as an airport), not forgetting the 3 hours anticipating departure at your home aerodrome and the interminable age it takes to unload 500 bums from seats with their carry-on kitchen sinks and portmanteaus from the baggage belt.

Nevertheless, in the same way childbirth doesn't seem to deter some women from turning up for more of the same, and in the absence of an income stream more closely aligned to our desires and pretensions, we continue to fold ourselves in to knees-under-the-chin seats at the back of the bus and look forward to the next time. At least the entertainment system on Singapore Air is pretty good. I find it's when I've been able to travel every couple of years I've had a chance to catch up with all the movies missed since the last flight. This time I saw Atonement, Conversations With My Gardener and The Butterfly and the Diving Bell going over, and The Other Boleyn Girl, Roman Holiday, and Paris on the way back. (My record is an 8 movie marathon between Sydney and London. )

Unbelievably, there seem to be some people in the world who think anything over 5 hours is a long time to spend in a plane! Hah! I bet they also think they should arrive with a perfect coiffure and eyes not open only through the power of arrival-adrenaline.

Still, some things do change. When we first took off for Europe - Rome - in 1982, on a Qantas flight, it seemed to take the form of a milk train. After an interminable number of hours we were still in Australian airspace, having stopped in Melbourne and Perth, with stops in Bombay and Athens to come.

But the seat pitch 'leg room' seemed to be better in those days. Air New Zealand offered the best on its trans-Pacific flights, but nowadays, it's tray tables cutting you in half as the seat in front reclines, and DVT-grade cramps all the way.

Singapore Airlines' new A380 offers the unthought of luxury of private 'suites' up in the pointy end, but at $20 000+ that's unattainable for most of the rest of us. So while we dream of being told to turn left as we enter the plane, for most of us it's the long haul to the back of the bus.

Singapore Airport isn't a bad place for a swim, and the transit hotel is good for a few hours sleep if you've got hours to burn, and there are shower facilities at a reasonable cost if you have a limited time.

2. Rome - Piramide/Via Ostiense district

Above: The Pyramid of Cestius (Piramide di Caio Cestio) which gives the Piramide district its name. It was built c. 18-12 BC as a tomb for Gaius Cestius Epulo, a Roman magistrate and member of one of the four great religious corporations of Rome. More at Wikipedia.

Above: Piramide metro station, on Line B of the metro system, and the most convenient way to move about the city. The Colosseum is two stations, Termini four.

Above: The street outside our apartment, Via Ostiense. It's one of Rome's ancient roads (heading towards Ostia Antica), and very busy. The apartment was double glazed and air conditioned, which meant street noise rarely bothered us. Lots of local shops along v Ostiense, including fruit & veg, gelato and bars. We shopped at local supermarkets in the vicinity.

Above: Ben sampling the Italian equivalent of Twisties.

Above: The living / dining room of the apartment - also sofa bed sleeping accommodation.

Above and Below: The extremely well-equipped kitchen.


Above: The main bedroom

Above: The bathroom, which also contained a very welcome washer/dryer.

Above and below: A couple of times we settled in to the cafe at Ostiense railway station for pizzas and coke! This included the morning of our arrival. Our flight arrived about 7am, and we were at the apartment about 9.30am....before the owner had a chance to clean and ready it from the previous guests. We dropped our bags and explored a little of the area. Amazing how you can keep going after a 24 hours with little sleep, with the excitment of "arrival adrenaline"


From 23 to 28 May we based ourselves in the Piramide district, at Via Ostiense 36. We booked an apartment through The B & B Association of Rome, which we found through Slow Travel Italy. It couldn't have been better. Everything went perfectly from the moment of first contact with the organisation and booking, through to the wonderful host contacting us afterwards to say we had left a couple of items, which we arranged to collect. The apartment owners have thought of EVERYTHING you could possibly need. It is one of the best equipped apartments we've ever stayed in.

We loved the feeling of staying in an authentically residential area of "un-tourist" Rome, yet so close to the hubub of more crowded, touristy sites. The gelato shop 3 paces from the apartment is sublime!

This was in sharp contrast to the UNREAL experience we had at the Hilton Cavalieri Hotel in Rome afew days later....

13. Rome - Plane, trains and autos Part 2

26. Travellin' around

Below: Pompei Scavi - the station on the Circumvesuviana line which is on the Sorrento line. Many visitors to the Pompei site arrive here.

Below: Ercolano -The station for visiting Herculaneum's ruins.
Below: the Circumvesuviano - return from Sorrento. This is the train we were on when we over-shot the station.

Below: the brand new regional train taking us from Pompei to Naples for our return to Rome. So new the remnants of the plastic which had covered the seats was still visible.

Below: the train from Naples back to Rome.

Below: leaving Naples
Below: The station at Lucca
Below: Waiting at Viareggio (I think) for train to Genoa
Below: The train from Viareggio to Genoa

Below: train from Pisa to Lucca

28. Lucca - cycling and walking the walls

Lucca's 16th-17th century walls are stunning, and perfect for riding a bike around. Ben and I hired bikes and set off. They are about 4kms in length.

The walls were built as a defence against Tuscany, but never needed to be used, which s one reason they are so beautifully intact.




Below: Outside the wall
Below: Palazzo Pfanner and its garden and the cathedral

49. Bollards

In Italy you park where you feel like it. Who ever said you cn't see round corners? In Italy you use your side mirror, which is sticking out around a corner. (People are, however, fined - we actually saw this happen. Guess it's an attempt by the State to raise some money in a country where not paying taxes is a national pasttime).

In France, things are much more orderly. Or at least the city of Avignon and some private driveway owners are attempting, by a variety of means, to corral their fellow denizens' anarchist tendencies.

Ever since the first Roman pulled up his/her chariot in Gallia Transalpina (or Gallia Narbonenesis, or "nostra provincia" as they knew it affectionately - follow me here - Provence is derived from the Romans' proprietorial sobriquet) there's probably been a premium on parking space.

Here's a select few methods of parking dissuasion. And lest you think there's no traffic - these were mostly taken early-ish on a Sunday morning!

Below: Ooops! (And note the tree. Anyone who has ever seen a French movie, well one set outside Paris anyway, tell me there wasn't a scene with a car driving down one of those narrow country roads lined with plane, or are they lime, or maybe poplar - no that's more Italy - trees? I'm sure those trees are there to stop you parking to take a good picture - of the trees. Or to stop you driving into the ditch which is inevitably a metre deep on both sides of the road. They don't do road shoulders in French country roads spectacularly well. But you can't be good at everything, and this is the parkign obstacle capital of the universe.)

Below: Free parking outside the walls of Avignon! See those bollards? Well if anyone is parked behind them, you can't double park and thus trap them. Same if they have a tree in front, or anything to prevent them driving out on to the road. Otherwise you CAN double park - just perpendicular to the cars thus parked closest to the road. Neat huh?
Below: I think it's artistically placed on an angle on purpose, not the result of an incident.
Below: I think I'll dump these concrete blocks here and build a new bollard in front of my gate.
Below: Just try getting your truck through here!
Below: Hadn't they better erect some across the road to prevent head-on collisions?
Below: If we just push it a little way - that way - we might fit....
Below: There's always one in a crowd who has to be different
Below: Classical bollards. Chariot prevention . Or not.
Below: Smart cars not welcome here.
Below: Look out! You might be protected on the footpath, Piero, but absent minded eating of the ends of your baguette might have had unfortunate consequences. You might have banged your shins on something.
Below: Road signs to no-where, but that's better than No Parking signs.
Below: A-ha! the secret confraternity of the access-priveleged must be round here somewhere.
...and one lot in Montpellier