Oct 18 – Fiumicino, Italy – Valetta/St Julien, Malta

Weather – 23º in Fiumicino, 25º in Malta

Steps – 10,108

Travel days are never fun, today was typical as far as travel days go. No delays, problems, or unexpected causes for frustration. I remarked to Chris today that one thing that would be a pro for a bus tour is no waiting around in airports. Bus tours have always seemed too busy and rushed for me (us) but there would be no waiting around for plane travel.

We took the hotel shuttle (€6 each) to the airport around noon for our 3:30 flight. Arguably, too early, but sit around at the hotel or sit around at the airport – I’d

Westin welcome

rather not be late to the airport. We were even too early to drop our bags, so had to wait for about half an hour for that. We of course checked Chris’ big suitcase as we did on the way over here, and this time we checked my small suitcase – although I’ve never had a problem with my bag being too big, it’s pretty big for a carryon size. Since we would be waiting for our large bag anyway in Malta…I figured I’d be more comfortable checking.

Despite the flight to Malta being only an hour we got a full meal – a cold meal, but a main, dessert, cheese, and bread! With a glass of Maltese wine of course. It was one of the fastest meals I’ve ever eaten!

The Malta airport is small, so we had our bags and were on the road (another Regent supplied ride) quickly. These Regent rides are efficient, but silent. There is little driver/passenger banter. I suppose we could have engaged James in conversation, but we didn’t. I was busy watching him drive on the ‘other’ side of the road – I forgot that about Malta.

busy pub street

We are staying at the Westin Dragonara for the next 2 nights…it is a lovely place. Not exactly modern, not old either, but lovely. It is a resort style hotel with multiple pools and restaurants (mostly closed due to a large Seiko function at the hotel.)

We were unpacking as our welcome gift arrived…fruit, snacks, and a bottle of wine…lovely. The room is about as big as the one we just left, but a lot more comfortable. Still has a rain shower head, but the wand thingy is at a height that’ll do for me.

After unpacking (there’s not much to unpack when we’re only here for 2 days) we enjoyed the wine on our balcony. It was almost too chilly, but still lovely.

Eventually, we ventured out. First to the Westin’s casino – had to sign up for their players’ card and we thought that was too much trouble. We weren’t planning to play but thought it might be interesting to take a walk through.

Then we walked up and down the tourist streets filled with bars and restaurants – it was thronging. We tried a couple of pubs, but they were packed. We settled on a pub-ish place. A couple of beers and a pizza and we were satisfied.

Oct 17 – Fiumicino, Italy

archaeological ruins

Weather – 24º

Steps – 20,177; broke 20,000!

ruins

It’s amazing how many seemingly minor archeological sites there are to visit around Fiumicino. The Archaeological Area of the Ports of Claudius and Trajan is about 3 km from our hotel - an easy walk. €6 for entry and €5 for the audio guide to wander around this site with only a handful of other people.

This place was an artificial port (7m deep and paved with stone) that served as the main port for ancient Rome. For more than 500 years this port and warehouse area provided a way for goods to be brought into Rome. Around the site were the ruins of warehouses that held the goods.

The columns were theRoman Empire's largest storage complex.

columns

columns

The main attraction of the area was the artificial hexagonal (no one knows why it is this shape) bay/port measuring 357m/side which was made to solve silting issues of the port at the mouth of the river Tiber. There is on-going excavation of this, so we couldn’t see it. We knew this going in, but it was a real shame not to be able to see it. We could see a tiny sliver of it, but not the enormity of it.

On the way back, we stopped in at the ‘Taste of Fiumicino’. It had just opened when we arrived, so just like the ruins, there were no crowds. We were parched after our archeological visit, so found a beer stall straight away! 2 craft beers for €7 each – Chris had a pilsner called ‘Demon’ and I had an IPA called ‘Angel’. In

ruins of warehouses

retrospect we probably overpaid as other drinks in the festival were less, but oh well…drinking beer in the shade definitely hit the spot!

bathhouse mosaic

A bit more of a wander through the stalls and we found a spritz seller… spritzes are all the rage in Italy, but Fiumicino spritz flavour selections are on another level! We’ve probably seen 10-15 different flavours of spritzes here. I had a passion fruit spritz – molto bene, and Chris had a Campari – also good, but not nearly as good as mine. I’m inspired and will definitely be making passion fruit spritzes at home! I may even have to talk to a bartender on the cruise to make me one.

so many choices

In addition to the drinks, there were many interesting foods on offer…kind of the usual offerings for a food stall/festival situation, but the one Italian difference was the fried fish! Fried

moscardini

calamari, shrimp, anchovies, and…my choice…moscardini – a tiny species of octopus. These were breaded, fried, and served with a lemon wedge in a paper cone…another molto bene. €13.

Our next destination was naptown, but not before hitting a couple more grocery stores. I am always on the lookout in European stores for tiny, pop-in-your-mouth

cone of fried moscardini

salamis. We came across these a few times on previous trips and can’t find them again. We may have found them only in France, so maybe that’s the problem because again…none to be found.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the room, napping, blogging, and watching the sunset.

Dinner was pizza, wine, and fried calamari/shrimp. This meal was OK. Everything about it was just OK, I’m not sad about it, but was so looking forward to pizza and it was just…OK.

Oct 16 – Fiumicino, Italy

Santa Maria Porto del Salute

Weather – 24º

hotel view one side

Steps – 12,539

Jet lag…I think you are in the rear-view mirror…kind of. I don’t usually feel it too badly on the way to a vacation – back home is usually a different story. A small nap and in bed at ‘normal’ time is usually the recipe for quickly kicking jet lag. Last night I was asleep by about 10 and wide awake at about 5…I drifted off again until about 730 for a total of 8.5hrs. I was thrilled by that amount, but my Apple watch still scolded me!

other side view

I’m sure I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post how much I detest a rain-head shower, guess what kind of shower is in this room…a rain shower. I really don’t

canal view

see the appeal even for people with little hair – my issue is getting all of my hair wet and then rinsed. It’s also an ordeal when I don’t want to get my hair wet at all. There is a hand-held wand thingy, but it’s mounted at chest height, so not much help. Anyway…this isn’t a huge problem…and I coped.

Breakfast, like the hotel, was basic, but did the trick…scrambled eggs, bacon, pastries, meat, cheese, cappuccino machine. The most interesting was the café yogurt. There was a surprising lack of fruit. I suppose I could have grabbed a whole piece from the fruit bowl but wasn’t about to start carving up fruit.

church of the holy crucifix

The best thing about breakfast was the lack of crowd. Typically, hotel breakfasts are bustling situations with only 1 or 2 open tables, this morning we were one of a handful of other tables – molto bene! Not sure if this is typical for Fiumicino, the

lunch

small size of the hotel, or because we’re a bit off-season, but the lack of breakfast and front desk frenzy is welcome. We even had our room cleaned while we were at breakfast.

The rest of the morning was spent in the room (it was a bit cool to sit outside, our balcony being in the shade) listening to Italian music on the TV, blogging and watching the new port being built just outside our hotel.

Around noon, we set off for a wander, our goal being calamari and a glass of wine…mission accomplished-ish, we had to have a bottle, just had to. Last night, every place we

a rare sighting of street art

passed had a handful of fried fish variations on the menu for about €15. Some were take-away hold a cone of calamari in your hand places and some were sit-down white tablecloth places. We opted for something in the middle, or so we thought.

We went into a place right on the water, next to where we were last night, and as it turned out because we weren’t having a meal, we were taken through that place and into the place from last night…same waiter even!

The calamari was typical, lightly breaded rings – tasty, washed down with a bottle of Vermentino.

dinner

We wandered around in the almost perfect weather – (warm, sunny, but not hot) more of the town, stopping at a couple of churches, both small - one very simple, the other more decorated. Somehow we travelled along the hair salon/barber row before we were back along the sea.

After lunch, I went to nap town.

rooftop night cap

Dinner was more wine, focaccia, and squid…a whole squid! It came with mango and roasted onion sauce…tasty!

On the way back to the hotel, we tried buying a €2 beer from a street side vending machine – no luck, it didn’t like my foreign ID, I didn’t really need the beer, but wanted to try it for the fun of it.

A night cap on the rooftop hotel bar and that was the day!

Thanks anonymous, it was a lovely setting!

Oct 15 – Fiumicino, Italy

Weather – 24º, sunny

we are here

Steps – 14,878

I’ve never met an overnight flight that I liked - yesterday’s flight was no different. Fortunately, on the flight we were pods, so it was the best that it could have been. Neither of us got much sleep, but were at least able to stretch out, and weren’t battling a stranger for arm rest space.

I watched Michael – exactly as I had heard it would be and Power Ballad – passed the time but would not really recommend.

We have been hearing horror stories about European immigration. Today’s experience was fine. Probably took 10 minutes, most of that time was walking back and forth through the stanchions. By the time we got to the baggage

Hotel Tiber

carrousel, we still had to wait – not long, maybe 15 minutes.

A car was waiting to take us the 11-minute drive from the airport to the town of Fiumicino. Because of our loyalty status on Regent, we have rides on either side of our cruise provided. The cruise we are taking is actually 2 cruises, so we are getting double the number of rides provided by Regent. Alessio, our driver did not mess around getting us to his car. We zigged and zagged through the airport and parking garage at break-neck speed!

11 minutes later we were at the Hotel Tiber. This basic hotel in Fiumicino is

sunset apertivo

where we’ll be for the next 3 days. The room may be basic, but it is large with 2 balconies (only 1 has chairs) and adequate AC. I’ve never been in a hotel when the pullout couch is made into a bed without us asking - interesting. Before I saw the actual bed, I thought for a minute that that WAS the bed. We considered assembling it back into a couch, but the space to lay our stuff is nice and we don’t need the floor space – and…one extra pillow!

We unpacked a bit, showered off the grim of a travel day, and took a nap.

heaven

Once refreshed, we found the hotel’s roof-top bar for our welcome spritzes before wandering the town.

the prices!!!

Our hotel is directly on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western Mediterranean. Despite the sound of this being charming, it is very industrial. Nonetheless, we can see the sea and it isn’t Fiumicino Pride – it doesn’t seem like we’ll be kept up by any thumping bass, I won’t say anything definitive until tomorrow, but things are looking good.

We wandered along the sea path for about half an hour until we found a beach bar we liked the look of. Most bars/restaurants have ‘aperitivo hour’ – a drink and chips or other crunchy snack for a set price…ours was €8, not terrible and the view of the sunset and beach setting was lovely.

We were a bit too beat to find another place for dinner, so we opted for a trip to the local piggly-wiggly. A litre of wine for €1.39! and a pack of proportioned Parmigiano

inflight entertainment

Reggiano! I may not eat anything else while I’m here – prepackaged Parmigiano Reggiano…mama mia!

inflight entertainment

Oct 14 – Calgary to Rome/Fiumicino, Italy

first leg

Weather – 19º Calgary, should be 24º when we arrive

Steps – few

One of the many, many benefits of retirement are vacations in the off season – if there really is an off season anymore – it is not off season in the airport business lounge today – it is packed. In fact, they started turning people away shortly after we arrived. It seems to me that business lounges the world over are over subscribed – frequent flyers, people with certain credit cards, people on business tickets etc. have access (for the most part) and this equals many people.

second leg

We didn’t have to look long for a seat - not a great seat, but a seat. Wi-Fi, a glass of wine and a bit to eat, and my blog and I was happy.

All we had to do now was wait to board our over-night, 10-hour flight to Rome. This is the start of a 24-day journey. We will begin in Fiumicino (not actually Rome) for a
couple of days of ‘coming to’ AKA combating jetlag then flying to Malta for a few more days before boarding…you guessed it…a cruise!

June 13/14 – Sitges, to Barcelona to Calgary

Weather – hot in Spain, less hot in Calgary

Steps – 6,181

Once again, here we are at the end of a trip and I’m ready to come home. I’m always ready. Pedro, the busker, actually asked us that yesterday. It the trip was to be 2 weeks longer; I wouldn’t be ready…I’m ready when it’s time.

Overall, the trip was great – we saw cool things, ate cool things, drank cool things, and did cool things. I have no standout favourite. For me, favourites are the unexpected – seeing animals in Africa when it is by chance that I see them…that’s thrilling. Trips like this one are great but are pretty predictable – I expected to see a museum, and I did see the museum.

Thanks for coming along with us, we love to know you are with us, if even from afar.

We are planning to go somewhere in the fall, but for now an ANTARTIC cruise is on the books!

June 13 – Sitges, Spain

Weather – 30º, it was hot

another sculpture

Steps – 10,845

Humidity – 50%

I’m surprised when I woke up today and it was 6 this morning! I may have woken up and turned over sometime before the Pride festivities ended last night, but they didn’t keep me up, nor Chris. I’m pleasantly surprised we are sleeping fine – have even napped, that’s what a little booze and heat will do.

Today, like the past 2 days, was filled with little – relaxing and wandering… soaking up Sitges. This was more or less our plan for this time here, so mission accomplished. After the go-go-go days of the cruise, it’s nice to chill.

packed beaches

One thing different about today, was the heat and lack of breeze. Yesterday, there was a light sea breeze, but today there was nothing…after our post breakfast wander to the furthest end of the Sitges strip, we were in desperate need of refreshment – we found a beach club at the far end of the strip for a beer (5€, pricy based on what we've been paying) and some beach watching.

By the time we got back to the hotel, I needed a shower and change of clothes!

watching Pedro

When we were sufficiently cooled, it was midafternoon, so we headed back out to find lunch. Yesterday we saw a place with all of our favourites on the menu…pan con tomate, calamari, padrón peppers. We found a table in the shade (of

lunch

course) and ordered all of this with a carafe of sangria – all was very good. We read in some online reviews that the food here wasn’t great, but it was – the service was slooooo (even by Spanish standards) but we had no where to go. We were
even visited by the busker, Pedro, from yesterday – earned himself another 3€, via tap!

We headed up to the old town for the walk back. It was a lot livelier than when we first walked through on our first night here when it was about 10PM. Today, late afternoon, all the shops and restaurants were humming.

sights of Sitges

We had plans to have a last Spanish meal at a pizza place just down from the hotel, but as the evening went on, we agreed

Lady Diamond

that we just weren’t feeling it. We had a bit of wine and snacks left, so we finished those, I watched the festivities across the road from the balcony, and Chris read inside (and listened to the festivities). It was a lovely night to sit on our balcony. Until today, the evenings have been cool, in fact, the 2 days ago, I put on my sweater.

There were many interesting sights to distract me from my reading!

drag show

As it turned out, we both were woken up by the Gaga show around 1:30 and were up for about 45 minutes. It's funny how some of the loud we sleep through and some not so much. The festivities were scheduled to run until 4...thankfully we can't confirm that.

I’d definitely return to Sitges, though not during a festival. I’d probably return to the Sercotel also. The location cannot be beat. There were some quirks and annoyances, but the AC was great – that is my #1 requirement.

Lori - food and day as a whole...were perfecto!

June 12 – Sitges, Spain

old town and the beach

Weather – 26º, sunny, breezy…lovely

old town

Steps – 7,975

Humidity – 75%

Being in Sitges is like a combination vacation of a Mexico resort and big European city vacation. It’s mostly relaxing in a warm place, but with some city aspects.

Because of that, there is little to report from today.

The day started (and ended) very much like yesterday…breakfast, some reading on the balcony, a walk, a stop for a refreshment on the water, lunch, a stop for

Vivero Beach Club

water, back to the room, watching rehearsal, napping, watching soccer, watching the real show, bed.

Today we started our wander in the opposite direction from yesterday’s walk. This direction is through the old town.

sculpture and church

Things of note were the beaches we wandered past. We assume they are all public, with some chairs and umbrellas for rent (50€ for 2 and an umbrella.) Most people DIY their beach time, and don’t seem to spend the whole day, but more like a couple of hours. We walked for a bit in the water – it is cool and refreshing. The beaches are deep and the water is shallow for a long way with soft, light brown sand. Some are topless, but not very much. We found a nude beach –nude sunbathing is legal but seems to be only in specific spots. Topless is wherever, but nude was only at one beach.

We found lunch an outdoor place that was actually non-smoking. We didn’t

lunch

choose that place for that reason but realized when we were already seated – I guess places can choose to go non-smoking if they want. We had pan con tomate (not as easy as I thought to find) and a burrata salad – both were delicious. A busker stopped by for a few songs and came around for tips after…he took cash of course but also had something to tap with – the first time we’ve done that.

all this for 7 Euros

On the way back, after lunch we weren’t looking for another drink, but found a spot with a beer and chips for 2.5€, or vermouth and olives for 3.5€! How could we pass that up!?! So, 2 drinks and a snack for less than 10CAD!

Sitges is sprinkled with statues. We didn’t have to search at all for them. Each has a QR code letting you look up info on them.

watching the game

We went back to Sitges Sports Bar to watch the Canada soccer game. It wasn’t nearly as busy as it was for the Mexico game last night. There were a few Canada supporters including a group of ‘kids’ who seemed like they should still be finishing gr 11!

The Pride show was still going strong when I closed

El Greco - spent time in Sitges

my eyes at about 1230, but I went right to sleep.

Stacey – it really is…we aren’t doing much, but the day somehow passes

beautiful place