Twice I decided to get out of Rome for day trips. The first time I took to the hills, the Alban hills, the south eastern ones you gaze out towards from the roof of St Peters in Rome, (if the smog lifts). The area is a regional park called Parco Regionale dei Castelli Romani and includes… Read More 3 Breasts in Frascati & a Boar’s Head in Orvieto
In Italy I can be my future. In New Zealand I am my past until my youngest grows. In NZ I am a woman in a business jacket & smart shoes. A woman concerned with sales call rates & paying bills. A woman who fits her writing into gaps & in the end surrenders her… Read More A Poem about being in Italy called Banana Skins
After reading a great post on the travel mistakes we all make along the way, it got me thinking about some of my own. Here are some of the most memorable: Booking a transit time that is too close to allow for any delay: then missing the onward flight causing an 8 hour wait in the… Read More Travel Mistakes
Choosing accommodation is always a bit of a punt but it’s a whole nother ballgame staying in Italy’s religious accommodation. I had thought it would be a wise thing to do, being a woman travelling alone, trying to keep costs down and for finding like-minded travelers. (See my post, ‘Happy, Cheap & Rich in Culture’, for… Read More Convent & Monastery Stays Can Be Hell
On my very last day in Italy, after travelling for nearly 40 days, it was a fine and clear Sunday and a perfect day for an outing. I think it was the 118 bus from Piazza Venezia that made it’s way out of the city walls at Porta San Sebastiano. Because it was a Sunday… Read More Walking via Appia Antica
After hanging out with my Italian friend for a bit and walking around looking at sights all over Rome, he announced that I had now seen all of Rome’s 7 hills. I had not realised. To do this feat justice I have studied my map and tried to remember what I was doing when I was on… Read More How to Know if you are on the Seven Hills of Rome
It is peaceful, beautiful, easy to get around, (much easier than Pompeii), and there are few visitors. I had a wonderful day. http://www.ostiaantica.beniculturali.it/en/come-arrivare.php coming from the Termini train station – take the “linea B” metro, get off at Porta San Paolo (Piramide) – Take the train Roma-Lido, get off at Ostia Antica; continue straight ahead… Read More Ostia Antica has me Almost Speechless
Some places I visited, I found to be so deeply moving, so spiritual, that I could not have rummaged around in my bag for my phone and then taken a photo. To do so would have felt disrespectful and somehow sacrilege. Sometimes these places had worshipers in such a raw state of prayer and devotion that they… Read More No Photos
This time last year I started walking. It was a walk of healing following a profound experience. The most northern point of my walk was a beach called Te Arai Point in New Zealand. On that beach I picked up a scallop shell which is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route from… Read More Pilgrimage
THE MATURE ART OF TRAVELLING ALONE. MY NEW EMAIL IS: OldBirdTravels@proton.me PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST!
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Woman travelling solo through the world and life.
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Exploring my grandparent's region of Abruzzo - and more of Italy
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