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Rome-the day in which we returned to the place Simon and I were engaged.

Today, we took off to Roma. We woke up at 8, which is unusually late and unlike us. We leapt up. Simon had tried to get a paper version of the train timetable but to no avail. It did not exist.

We had to study the main timetable in the train station well. We knew that after 8 in the morning, the train leaves from Tagliacozzo at 9:45 to Roma. The Train station in Tagliacozzo is situated about a 2 minutes walk from the main centre of the town. It has a nice, small bar where you can purchase an espresso for 75c! We stood like real Italians at the brand swigged back the beautiful liquid. The train arrived with no delays. The trains in Italy are ok. They say they are air conditioned but they aren’t really. People open up all the windows anyway. No air comes in. It’s quite warm but we both had good books so we didn’t mind. We arrived at Roma Tiburtina within about an hour and forty five minutes. The train into the centre of Roma(Termini, which is the biggest and the most central train station in Roma) was due to arrive shortly but it was delayed for some reason or another. It took us about 3 minutes to get from Tiburtina to Termini. Termini was pumping full of real tourists . Back in Tagliacozzo, we were really the only English speaking tourists. Now, we were surrounded by annoying sorts.
I glimpsed a newsagent selling many, many English papers and magazines. Ill be back, I promised.
We could have taken the metro into the area we wanted to go but as you know, we love walking. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to Campo Di Fiori. We bought a bendable map on the way and Simon felt at home immediately. He led the way rather well but I convinced myself I had a feeling where to go.
5 years ago, almost to the date, Simon had proposed to me in our Hotel Navona. We had dined out in “Heartbreakers Restaurant” that night. Simon had wanted to bring us to a special place that night but after lots of walking, we had discovered it was closed. And so to the next restaurant, which turned out to be “Heart breakers”, in Campo Di Fiori. Not the most romantic setting but we didn’t care, we were engaged!
So, we returned to this place, it was now called “Mercato” or so something like that. Gone were the pink, tacky lights and in was the cool, black and shiny worktops. Gone was the slimy, plastic table cloths and in was Burberry print tablecloths. Gone was the sleazy,good-looking waiters looking for a tip and in was…well, no that stayed the same.
The night we got engaged, we had bought pizza. I know this adamantly as the picture of the two of us was printed on our wedding invitations which were made by Simon. Therefore, we had to test the pizzas.
Yay! The pizzas still rocked and still were priced well. It cost us €30 for 2 feck off pizzas, 2 glasses of wine and bottle of water. The lunch was slightly ruined by a homeless, drunks guy washing his privates in a nearby water font but I’m thinking Campo Di Fiori has seen worse..
We walked back to our hotel and the Pantheon area. Swarming with tourists, we checked out the interior of the Pantheon, it was still the same funnily enough.

We headed to a cafe facing the Pantheon. Cost:€16.50 for 2 coffees and bottle of water. It rained for a bit and after we headed and retraced out steps to the Trevi fountain, this had been a must see for me. 5 years ago, Simon and I had our photo taken. A nice man had offered but when I checked the photo later on, there was a lamp in the way, wrecking the photo. I’ve thought about this a lot over the years and vowed to get revenge on this imbecile.
Today was a new day for the fountain, today was a new chance.
I spied some teenagers and took my chances quickly. Surely, they would know how to take a photo. They did. Relief. A good photo at last and one in which we can proudly display above our mantlepiece and not hide away in a box.
Thank you, teenagers.
We then sauntered down to the Roman Forum, where inquisitive Simon asked question after question. He wanted to know why the the ancient site was so low down. I tried to come up with many reasons but he was buying none of it. Eventually, the answer was found. The Forum, the centre and focal point of Roma had became quite uncool. The Romans scoffed at it and neglected it. Ground, mud and grass grew over it until some cool archaeologist got to work on it. Thankfully, for us. It is my favourite part of the whole city of Rome and the Colosseum is the icing on the cake. It stills rocks. I’m sure it will continue to for many years to come.
Our train was due so we headed back to the station, stopping off for ice-cream on the way. I bought loads of good quality newspapers like the Mail and the Mirror plus women’s and men’s magazines for tomorrow, our lazy Sunday in the apartment.
The walk up to our apartment is usually awful. After our day of walking in Rome, it was horrific and I moaned and gave out all the way. Who would want to live up here? Whey no taxis? Simon, will you carry me?
Simon just kept me going with “The house is just here, around the corner”
When we got in, I went straight to bed. Wrecked. Sleeping with dreams of Roma. Very touristy but still manages to be laid back, friendly and my favourite city ever.
Night, night.

Rome-the day in which we returned to the place Simon and I were engaged.

Today, we took off to Roma. We woke up at 8, which is unusually late and unlike us. We leapt up. Simon had tried to get a paper version of the train timetable but to no avail. It did not exist.

We had to study the main timetable in the train station well. We knew that after 8 in the morning, the train leaves from Tagliacozzo at 9:45 to Roma. The Train station in Tagliacozzo is situated about a 2 minutes walk from the main centre of the town. It has a nice, small bar where you can purchase an espresso for 75c! We stood like real Italians at the brand swigged back the beautiful liquid. The train arrived with no delays. The trains in Italy are ok. They say they are air conditioned but they aren’t really. People open up all the windows anyway. No air comes in. It’s quite warm but we both had good books so we didn’t mind. We arrived at Roma Tiburtina within about an hour and forty five minutes. The train into the centre of Roma(Termini, which is the biggest and the most central train station in Roma) was due to arrive shortly but it was delayed for some reason or another. It took us about 3 minutes to get from Tiburtina to Termini. Termini was pumping full of real tourists . Back in Tagliacozzo, we were really the only English speaking tourists. Now, we were surrounded by annoying sorts.
I glimpsed a newsagent selling many, many English papers and magazines. Ill be back, I promised.
We could have taken the metro into the area we wanted to go but as you know, we love walking. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to Campo Di Fiori. We bought a bendable map on the way and Simon felt at home immediately. He led the way rather well but I convinced myself I had a feeling where to go.
5 years ago, almost to the date, Simon had proposed to me in our Hotel Navona. We had dined out in “Heartbreakers Restaurant” that night. Simon had wanted to bring us to a special place that night but after lots of walking, we had discovered it was closed. And so to the next restaurant, which turned out to be “Heart breakers”, in Campo Di Fiori. Not the most romantic setting but we didn’t care, we were engaged!
So, we returned to this place, it was now called “Mercato” or so something like that. Gone were the pink, tacky lights and in was the cool, black and shiny worktops. Gone was the slimy, plastic table cloths and in was Burberry print tablecloths. Gone was the sleazy,good-looking waiters looking for a tip and in was…well, no that stayed the same.
The night we got engaged, we had bought pizza. I know this adamantly as the picture of the two of us was printed on our wedding invitations which were made by Simon. Therefore, we had to test the pizzas.
Yay! The pizzas still rocked and still were priced well. It cost us €30 for 2 feck off pizzas, 2 glasses of wine and bottle of water. The lunch was slightly ruined by a homeless, drunks guy washing his privates in a nearby water font but I’m thinking Campo Di Fiori has seen worse..
We walked back to our hotel and the Pantheon area. Swarming with tourists, we checked out the interior of the Pantheon, it was still the same funnily enough.

We headed to a cafe facing the Pantheon. Cost:€16.50 for 2 coffees and bottle of water. It rained for a bit and after we headed and retraced out steps to the Trevi fountain, this had been a must see for me. 5 years ago, Simon and I had our photo taken. A nice man had offered but when I checked the photo later on, there was a lamp in the way, wrecking the photo. I’ve thought about this a lot over the years and vowed to get revenge on this imbecile.
Today was a new day for the fountain, today was a new chance.
I spied some teenagers and took my chances quickly. Surely, they would know how to take a photo. They did. Relief. A good photo at last and one in which we can proudly display above our mantlepiece and not hide away in a box.
Thank you, teenagers.
We then sauntered down to the Roman Forum, where inquisitive Simon asked question after question. He wanted to know why the the ancient site was so low down. I tried to come up with many reasons but he was buying none of it. Eventually, the answer was found. The Forum, the centre and focal point of Roma had became quite uncool. The Romans scoffed at it and neglected it. Ground, mud and grass grew over it until some cool archaeologist got to work on it. Thankfully, for us. It is my favourite part of the whole city of Rome and the Colosseum is the icing on the cake. It stills rocks. I’m sure it will continue to for many years to come.
Our train was due so we headed back to the station, stopping off for ice-cream on the way. I bought loads of good quality newspapers like the Mail and the Mirror plus women’s and men’s magazines for tomorrow, our lazy Sunday in the apartment.
The walk up to our apartment is usually awful. After our day of walking in Rome, it was horrific and I moaned and gave out all the way. Who would want to live up here? Whey no taxis? Simon, will you carry me?
Simon just kept me going with “The house is just here, around the corner”
When we got in, I went straight to bed. Wrecked. Sleeping with dreams of Roma. Very touristy but still manages to be laid back, friendly and my favourite city ever.
Night, night.

Our flight to Rome was problem free.
I spent the flight being spoken to by a little 2 and a half year old girl, who really was a doll child. Her parents were from Belarus, while she was born in Ireland. Her name was Arina, she was the most fascinating child I’ve met. A bright thing but she knew she was cute and blonde and pretty with her little stripy tights. All the passengers around her smiled at her immediately. She spoke at me for half an hour, in Russian mostly with glimpses of English, using her hands to demonstrate points of her story. From what I could make out, she was raving about friends, holidays, Mummy and favourite colour. Which was green.
We waved goodbye at Ciampino airport, Rome and were greeted by our new Italian family. I always wanted this reception. When you arrive at an airport and a person is waiting for you with a big sign ” Lewis”. At last, I got this! Federico is the eldest daughter, she was the only one out of the family that spoke English. We were welcomed to Italy and shown to our new car.
A left hand drive. A Mercedes Benz. Impressed but scared.
Simon wanted to do the whole car thing so he had to drive.
He did really well. We headed off following the whims of the sat nav, bound for the town of Tagliacozzo. This town is built into the mountain. The name itself means “cut into the rock” it’s about 70 km from the airport. No bother to us.
Simon seemed to handle it brilliantly, very calm and collected. I, too handled it well. It helped that he drove at a slow speed all the way. The scenery was amazing but we couldn’t really enjoy it as we were dreading the last bit of the journey.
The road from Ciampino to Tagliacozzo is straight down the motorway. Excellent.
However, when you take the exit for Tagliacozzo, off the motorway, the fun begins.
We had been told about the 5 hairpin turns. In fact, Federico had sent us a diagram if them. They looked mental. Imagine a hairpin, slightly pulled out. Now, imagine 5 joined Together.
When we arrived into the outskirts of Tagliacozzo, we had a feeling that we should take a left. It looked right However, b%#^* face( or our beloved Sat Nav) told us to go right. She meant bear right, we found out after. Which is entirely different from Take right.
On top of this, we were greeted with a learner driver’s worse nightmare. A hill start. On a very, very steep hill with 10 irate and pissed off Italian drivers behind us, telling us to hurry the frick on.
Simin revved the car to the max and we took that right, as suggested by b face.
5 km up the most mental of roads and steep hills and inclines we had ever seen, we realised that B Face was wrong. Very wrong. Her map showed us that had to keep driving to the end of the 5 km and turn somehow.
We carried on driving. Sorry, Simon carried on driving. I looked out the mirror and told him there was only one car behind us when in fact there were now about 15 more irate Italian drivers, mad to beep and overtake at any chance.
Poor Simon, but he did good.
We eventually reached the village of Trimente, which was of course, very Italian and very fab. We couldn’t really enjoy it as the next thing happened.
The next thing to happen was a big lorry tried to get through a small space. He got stuck. He told us to reverse or turn around onto the irate drivers behind us. Simon had proven he could make the car go forward but reversing off the edge of a cliff was a big ask.
A group of friendly Italians from the village had formed around the scene. I fluttered my eyelashes at one of the men and hoped for the best. Within seconds,he had jumped out of the car, reversed it and drive it back to us with a smile and saying something in Italian. All I understood was “sat nav”
The crowd of young people outside chatted away, one young teenager was eager to show off his English. He had been to Limerick last year to learn English. Well done, Limerick teachers. He was good. He loved Ireland but scoffed at our weather.
So, we were back in the car. Down the treacherous road to Tagliacozzo. Next the hairpin bends.
Simon did it with no major hassle, the ease he took them was probably because of two things.
1- he had hyped up these hairpin bends so much that the reality was always going to be better.
Or
2- the 10 km drive up and down to Trimente had prepared him for anything.
Who cares what the reason is? We did it. Federico had taken photos of where we should park. Apparently, we had to park the car and go a pied. By foot to our little house. As luck might have it, there was one space on a big line of cars at the side of the road. We parked the car and stopped the car and breathed.
Now the next bit of the adventure was to find this apartment. The place where we are staying is right on the hill. The houses are all typically what you’d imagine to be Italian, small and snug. The houses are all built into the hill with windy, tight roads weaving their way in and out down the hill. It took us a good half an hour to find the house. I sat and petted cats and read while Super Simon jogged nonchalantly to reach our final destination. I think he was so happy to get out of the car in one piece that he didn’t really care what happened after that. After about half an hour through the Labyrinth, we found the house.
The house is just gorgeous. Two storey. Two rooms downstairs. Bathroom and open plan kitchen and sitting room.
In the sitting room, there was a table. On the table, there was a note saying ” ha, ha, suckers! We have got your house now, we are take over it as squatters!”
No, really the note said:
” Welcome, enjoy! From the Nobili Family”
A bottle of prosecco lay on the note.
Score!
After investigating the house, two bedrooms upstairs and open balcony from both bedrooms, we had a glass of prosecco and a light lunch, that the family had left for us in the fridge.
Proper Parmesan( I.e not a rip off)
Bread.
Salami.
Biscuits.
Some kind of garlic ham.
We indulged and had a nap.

When we awoke, we were raring to go!
However, the electricity had failed. We rang Fedrico and she rang to get help. Help came in the form of a very, nice(again smiley) Italian family. The 5 of them traipsed into the kitchen, pushed the fuse switch up and down and opened the fridge door a few times. This worked perfectly and we all clapped at the fun of it all.
After a shower and oiling up of sun protection, we walked down to Tagliacozzo. A 15 minute walk down through the maze of houses left us breathless but amazed.
Real Italy, we had wanted. Real Italy, we got.
First, we just sat in the main square-Piazza Del Obelisk, a pretty square surrounded by bars, restaurants and shops. A fountain domineers it with a massive obelisk item coming right up through the fountain. The photos do it no justice. Just visit! I had a nice glass of cold white wine and Simin went for beer. As we soon found out, if you order any alcohol in a bar, you are presented with free snacks. Not any snacks. Enough crisps, bread, veg and biscuits for dinner for us! We sat there for a a couple of hours, chatting about our great luck with our house swap.
Later in the evening, the town really lit up with people and families out eating and drinking. We spotted a very charming looking restaurant called Alla Fontana. This is a pizzeria but also does a normal restaurant food
We filled up on a pizza and suppli( rice, parmesan coated in breadcrumbs and fried). Simon opted for breasolo, rocket, Parmesan, sausage, cheese on a tomato base. Mine was a white potato pizza. Both were excellent. However, Simon’s was the winner. I scavved many slices off him and I know what I’m getting later tonight! The restaurant “Alla Fontana” was packed with Italians, the real ones not those fake ones you might find occasionally. Actually, we seem to be the only non-Italians in the whole town! With a bottle of water and 2 beers, the whole bill came to €20!
Let me summarise, in Ireland, we are ripped off.