2014.07.22/23 – Ottawa – Rome (Italy)

Leaving on a Tuesday evening flight to Rome allowed us plenty of time to wrap up our luggage the previous weekend. We worked most of the day Tuesday but both Jenny and I were clearly on vacation mode and pretty much detached from work-related stuff. We left work at 2:00pm and drove home to pick-up Victoria and our luggage. The drive to Montreal appeared a bit long and tiresome. We stopped along the way for some coffee. Although we were a bit concerned about encountering traffic jams, we only had a brief slowdown leaving Ottawa. Entering Montreal, we directed ourselves to Bar-B-Barn Chicken and Ribs restaurant for one last taste of ribs before leaving the country. The restaurant was fairly quiet. With our stomach full, we ventured to find the ParkNFly parking lot which we found fairly easily. The shuttle bus was also quick and efficient to get us to the airport terminal. The AirTransat check-in was surprisingly slow given that we had already done our check-in on-line and had gotten our seat assignments. We did nonetheless manage to avoid a very very long baggage check-in line at the AirTransat counter. After dropping our luggage we still had three hours wait before our flights. Surprisingly, the airport was very busy for a Tuesday evening. The overnight flight felt rather short for some of us. It was funny to see how every passenger had their own way of resting/sleeping on the flight. Upon our arrival at the Rome airport, we tried to buy train tickets for the Leonardo Express train from the airport to the Rome Termini station. Our credit card did not appear to work. Thankfully we had brought some euros with us and we were able to complete our purchase. Our hotel, Euro Quiris, was easy to locate nearby the train station. After settling into our room with its tiny washroom, Jenny and I went back to the train station to purchase our tickets to Naples. We later picked up Victoria and went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for supper. We finished the evening walking around in search of an ATM from the BNL bank which was part of the ScotiaBank/Tangerine Global partnership. Along the way, we stopped at our first gelateria. The line up was quite long, but it was worth the wait. Overall an enjoyable first day in Rome.

2014.07.24 – Rome (Italy)

Although we expected sleeping issues due to the jet lag, Victoria and I slept easily while Jenny struggled a bit more to fall asleep. Jenny got upset when she realized her Hotmail account was locked out during her attempt to use her iPhone for email. We left our hotel around 10am and purchased an all-day public transit pass. Our first order of business was to find an BNL ATM which we located after taking the subway part of the way. We were now relieved that we had more cash on-hand. We continued our walk towards the Villa Borghese Park. Along the way, we opted to take the subway and exit at the bottom of the Spanish stairs. Strolling around, we stopped for lunch and ordered paninis – which Jenny suddenly discovered. After lunch we went up the Spanish Steps and ventured in Villa Borghese Park. We rented a quad bicycle for an hour. Victoria enjoyed driving us around the quad-bicycle. Later, we took the subway to visit Castel Sant’Angelo, a fortress/mausoleum we failed to visit in 2011. On the way to the Castel, we stumbled on the very popular gelateria Old Bridge which served us a huge cone. We remembered that place from our 2011 visit. Following our enjoyable visit of the Castel, we took the bus towards the Trastevere neighbourhood. We still had a fairly long walk to our restaurant from the bus stop. We made our way to the Pizzeria Dar Poeta. We opted to be seated inside the restaurant as there was no line-up. After some great pizza, we headed back to the hotel, but not before stopping briefly at the cat sanctuary. Although we had no specific agenda for the day, we filled-up the day with visits and exploration.

2014.07.25 – Rome – Naples (Italy)

Given our l1:20am train departure time, we enjoyed a reasonably slow morning. We had a continental breakfast nearby. At the Termini station, we were surprised that our train was already available for boarding over 45 mins ahead of departure. We enjoyed the four seat compartment all to ourselves for the most of the trip. After arriving in Naples two hours later, we located our hotel, Hotel Garibaldi within easy walking distance from the train station. Once we settled in, we set out to explore Naples following a circuit suggested by the hotel staff. Along the way we had great panini lunch on the sidewalk. We visited a few churches. By chance, we were able to join an English tour of Naples Sotteranea (underground). It was a very interesting 90 minutes walk exploring the underground caves of Naples. After the tour, we continued our walk up to the seafront. Later, we took the subway to the train terminal. We opted to purchase our train tickets to Bari – our next itinerary destination, to catch the ferry to Corfu. We returned to our hotel for a brief washroom break. We set out again for a supper at a pizzeria recommended by the hotel staff. Unfortunately, the line up at the restaurant discouraged us and we opted for another pizzeria close by. That later restaurant was a real disappointment. Back at the hotel room, we started to research our ferry option from Bari to Corfu. Our early investigation revealed that they was no ferry crossing on our desired day. As a contingency measure, we explored flight options from Naples to Corfu. To our surprise, we found that EasyJet offered very reasonably priced flights from Naples to Corfu. In fact, the cost was similar to that of our ferry crossing. After some discussion, we opted to booked the EasyJet tickets for an early Sunday flight to Corfu which would save us a full-day on our travel itinerary. Our internet search also suggested that we could request a refund from TrenItalia for our Bari train tickets purchased earlier today. All in all, a very nice half-day discovery of Naples.

2017.07.26 – Naples (Italy)

We enjoyed a slow morning start by having a great courtesy breakfast at the hotel. Our first order of business this morning was to seek a refund for our train tickets. The apparent simple task required over 1.5 hours of queuing before being served by confused ticket agents. We finally got a piece of paper confirming our request for a refund, but it was not very clear when or how we would get a refund for our train tickets. We resumed our visit of Naples by purchasing all-day public transit tickets. Our first stop was at the National Archaeology Museum where we spent over 3 hours visiting. It was great time to be inside as it rained heavily for 1 hour or so. After leaving the Museum, we walked over to funicular station where we first boarded a regular train by mistake. Back at the station, we got onto our first funicular ride to the top of a major hill in the city. We switched to another funicular station which happened to be a different one than expected. Jenny did not mind the mistake as she enjoyed the ride down and up again. We finally got on the proper funicular down. We came out unto the shopping district of Naples. It did not take much time for Victoria and Jenny to find a H&M store to explore. Later, we headed out on the subway to another neighbourhood to yet another pizzeria. We arrived at the busy Gino S. Pizzeria shortly after 7:00pm and were seated on the second floor. By the time we left the restaurant, the line-up at the door was quite long as Victoria estimated there were more than 50 persons. We returned to the hotel with the subway. We really got great usage from our all-day public transit tickets. At the hotel, we arranged for an early morning taxi pick-up and wake-up call.