The travel log of Vic and Steve

Italian drivers have a reputation for crazy behaviour and on the surface of it this would seem to be true but once you join their driving system you realise it is a system and it works! I am writing this because we struggled to find blogs for Kiwi / Ozzie drivers who would be hiring a car and would be dealing with driving on the wrong side of the road plus learning Italian road rules. There is loads of content out there for US drivers or Brits who take their own cars - all of whom have different challenges to address than we do.  First up. How to choose a rental car.  After reading many many reviews and automobile club style advice we elected to hire from a global firm, Budget (operated by Avis) - and that did work well for us getting (virtually) what we ordered, limited waiting time and paying exactly what we expected to pay. We also made a decision to hire an automatic. This cost us more but we (I) felt with the need to overcome other driving challenges constan...

I have been gluten free for over 10 years now and my reactions are more severe and debilitating than ever if I accidentally injest any. Barley continues to be the thing I am most allergic too with couscous and wheat next. So you can imagine my trepidation at the thought of travelling to the land of Pizza and Pasta. Gluten free is awesome in Italy. Their products are beautiful. In NZ we have an increasing range but nothing is close to what is offered in Italy. Pasta with the taste and texture of wheat based pasta. Pizza bases that you would never guess are gluten free. My favourite has been the Senza Glutine cones and gelato stores where everything is gluten free - why does ice cream need wheat anyway? There has been one incident where the waiter told me what I ordered was gluten free then after I started eating came and said "sorry that has bread in it, only a little bit" and walked off - their TripAdvisor review will be harsh, what if I was anaphylactic! ...

Final day in Roma! And my final day with Don! So sad.  Steve and I walked to meet Don closer to his end of the city today. Google said 34 minutes, Google exaggerated. The undulating ground, uneven stone paths and 3-5 minute wait at every traffic light meant closer to 45 minutes. We enjoyed another lovely basilica before eating breakfast across from the coliseum- pricey but met the requirement.  The queue for the coliseum was already crazy so we headed to the Roman Forum and Palantine Hill. Don remembered he is an EU citizen and under 25 to gain cheap entry - British passport first outing yay.  Really interesting seeing years of history and ruins that are thousands of years old. Loads of people but moving around was ok if we avoided the tour groups. Water stations were fabulous, every city should have free water like Rome does.  Before I forget. This photo is for you Mike. Remember the scaffolding 25 years ago. Looks like they have a continuous scaffold maintenance th...

Did I mention yesterday how wonderful our hotel is? It is beautiful, so central and yet totally quiet and the bed really comfy so we slept well.  Today we started out meeting Don at the Trevi Fountain, it was a 1km walk for us and 2km walk for him and our itinery was to stay over this side of the city. Sadly he got lost - sorry Don telling the world - and was very late meeting us in this crazy tourist hell of a place.  Try looking for someone when it's packed like this. We were already expecting the Trevi to be surrounded and covered with scaffold so kinda expected less people - seems not.  We were all hot and tired so headed towards the Pantheon stopping for a smoothly at a place we thought very Samantha like, raw food.  Then the first queuing experience of Rome began. Granted the queue moved along. There are signs everywhere saying beware of pick pockets but every fountain had at least 2 Fountain police (my name for them) and every building had more. I became kinda...