Nov. 16 (Friday) Autostrataing In the morning, it seemed high time to head North and find the Alps. Though the memory of the cold night at the campground had just started to fade, the bruises from sleeping on the rocks had not. If we’d had our thermarest pads, I think it would have made all the difference in the world. But the ground was cold and rocky, so we thought we’d try to find cheap beds for the night. We elected to do our first real travel on the autostrada (like our interstates), which we’d avoided so far for a…
Thursday, Nov. 15 (I know because we had to write it on our HI card applications.) Murlo We washed a load of clothes last night. We didn’t have enough change for the coin operated washer, so I went back up to the front desk armed with a ten Euro note. The lady wasn’t there anymore, so I rang the bell and waited. There was a button outside that said FOR EMERGENCIES, but not having enough change to wash your clothes didn’t seem all that urgent. No one came, but I could hear someone coughing in the other room watching TV.…
Day 5 (It must be; it’s time to do laundry. Nov… who knows, it’s Wednesday.) We slept in at the Hotel Posta, awakened every quarter hour or so by the bell tower across the courtyard from us and shining into our room. It would give the hour by the number of bells and then a different bell would strike one, two, or three times, indicating which quarter hour had passed. It got hot in the room, so Berck got up and opened the window. Then we were awoken by the sound of pouring rain. That’s the other thing about touring…
Day 4 (Tues. Nov. 13, Umbria) Umbria Today we rented a car at Termini, the big train station in Roma. I always thought Termini was named because it was the end of all the train lines, but it’s apparently named after the ancient baths nearby. Berck, being a better than average American, had made a Thrifty car rental; they were indeed more thrifty than the discount he got with Avis or Hertz. It took about an hour for the clerk to go through all the paperwork. This was after our disastrous discovery that I hadn’t packed the maps of Italy…
Day 3 (Mon., Nov. 12, Roma) All museums closed On Mondays all of the museums in Italy close. A lot of restaurants close too. We hadn’t intended to stay in Rome an extra day, but all the flights out on Sunday were pretty full while the ones on Monday were relatively empty. That extended our vacation by a day, and we decided to spend it in Roma rather than Milano. Foro Romano Fortunately, you can still walk around the Forum. Berck had already spent untold hours there and not by choice. While I could have spent hours staring at foundations…