Another OW J Round the World Trip

[yld200]

The following morning we thought we would try to see if we could get entry at Galleria Dell'Accademia which is where the famous David sculpture is kept. Being totally unprepared because we had no idea if or when we would be in Firenze we weren't expecting much but when we got there we were still shocked by the amount of people waiting in line.

The entrance is on the left corner of this photo and wrapped all the way around the building . Even the fast track line was extremely long. If you plan on going, be prepared, get there early and look to pre-purchase a fast track entrance.


We walked around the San Lorenzo Market and decided to have some lunch upstairs. The pizza was amazing and the sneaky cannolli was delicious.

We didn't really know where we were going to go next, but knew we wanted to go to the Amalfi coast to spend a few days there and finish up at Rome. I ended up choosing the next location by logging onto Airbnb, selecting a region a few hours south of Florence and letting technology do its thing. There it was, a cute little apartment with amazing reviews in a town called Bagnorgio - never heard of it, perfect!

A few km away from Bagnoregio we stopped at a look out over to Civita di Bagnoregio.


The Civita sits on a foundation of volcanic tuff (rock) and was the birthplace of Saint Bonaventure. Earthquakes and movement have caused the Civita decline due to erosion.

Bagnoregio is a small town where everyone knows each other, we met our host and he said hi to everyone on the street. We were feeling a bit under the weather and run down at this point so just wanted to chill out and relax so this place was perfect.

In the evening we walked towards the Civita but decided not to walk towards it because of feeling sick and not wanting to make it worse by exhausting ourselves.


Our hose recommended a few restaurants for dinner but for some reason they were all closed. I texted him and he recommended a 'slappy' pizza joint which we decided to go for and it was pretty slappy. We parked out the front and a group of 7 or 9 men sitting out front just looked at us funny, we walked into a bar area and the pizza place was behind the bar. The owner spoke English and was just firing up the woodfire oven so we had to wait 20 minutes or so before ordering. We were the only ones in this place while the old men sat in the bar area (seperate room) drinking and smoking.

We had a beef and vegetarian half and half pizza which was amazing and exceeded our expectations.


Our host dropped off some pasties for breakfast in the morning which was a nice touch

 

[yld200]

We then kept driving south towards the Amalfi Coast which would be our home for the next 3 nights. After looking at a number of options, some very expensive, some cheaper, we settled on Hotel Pellegrino in Praiano which had amazing reviews on Tripadvisor and hotels.com. The price was very reasonable and we booked a junior suite room with ocean views.

It's a small family run hotel with around 10 rooms and there's a real friendly vibe. We were greeted by Luigi who parked our car in their garage which is like a cave. Our room was on the second floor over looking the ocean.
The view looking toward Praiano


Luigi invited us up to the restaurant on the 3rd level for some welcome drinks and nibbles, he made us feel very welcome.

The hotel employs a chef for their restaurant who cooks for both the guests and the family. We opted to stay in for dinner and we weren't disappointed. Fresh pasta and seafood were delicious.



The sunset was magical that night.


A nice pear cheesecake to finish

 

[yld200]

The scenery and sunsets were just magical. These are all from our hotel or just in front.




You can just make out the hotel in this shot (above the orange building). The hotel is completely covered in vines and greens.

 

[yld200]

We drove to Positano for a visit and parked our car up on the main road against the cliff face. Most of the parking on the main road is free whereas it is paid if you drive down into the centre of Positano.

We had some lunch at The Grottino Azzurro which is again on the main road. The mushroom and prawn pizza was amazing and probably the best pizza of our trip. The gnocci was also very nice and fresh.


Positano from above


The sand on the beach kind of looks like dirt.


We went to the famous lemon shop and bought some Limoncello as a souvenir along with some sour lemon lollies. The lollies were delicious and we should've bought some more.

The walk down wasn't too bad, we took some stairs down and walked down the road. I walked back up to the car and drove down to pick my wife up. The walk back up was painful, I'm relatively fit and didn't stop on the way up but had to push myself to do so. By the time I got to the top, my face was covered in sweat. There were some people on the way down the stairs with luggage and I actually stopped and told them not to bother but rather go down the road path. There is a small bus that does a loop around the town and I think it costs something like 1 euro per trip.

This is my view on the way up after walking up a few flights of stairs. My car was parked up on the right side of the bend which seemed like an eternity away.

 

[yld200]

Dinner at a restaurant local to our Hotel.



The view at dinner

The stairs in the restaurant to get up to the balcony are built into the cliff.

 

[yld200]

We also drove down to Amalfi further down the coast. Parking here is premium, there is a garage built into the cliff once you drive past the centre on the left. It's around 2 or 3 euro per hour - can't remember exactly.

Amalfi seemed to be a lot busier than Positano and was more accessible - ie no stairs. There were cruise liners dropping people off for day trips so it was quite busy that day.

 

[yld200]

Another dinner at a local hotel in Praiano. Beef carpaccio and pasta did not disappoint.


We went back to our hotel to have dessert with Luigi in the restaurant.


Hotel Pellegrino and the Amalfi cost left an amazing impression in our minds. We were treated like family by Luigi and his wife and nothing was too difficult. Breakfast each morning was served by Luigi and his wife, they would prepare fresh fruit, yogurt, eggs and a selection of sweets for each table which was always delicious. I would strongly recommend Hotel Pellegrino to anyone looking for a place on the Amalfi coast and if we ever return we will be going back to Luigis place.

The Amalfi coast is a beautiful place. The final shot before we left.

 

[Guvner]

Brilliant TR YLD.

You've motivated me to call up the QF booking engine and start planning a 280k trip for next year.

 

[yld200]

We then drove to Rome via some outlets in Naples which were disappointing. We ended up on some side streets in Naples and it looked like a dump, didn't feel very safe and we were kind of glad we decided not to spend a night there.

Arrival in Rome was a shambles. The hotel I had booked didn't have a carpark and Rome has a limited traffic zone which restricts tourist vehicles in the city centre without a pass. I had done some research and the best option seemed to be parking outdoors at a train station outside of Rome for around 3 euro per day - after reviewing a map, I chose Tiburtina station as it was the closest on the line towards our hotel. Car parks in Rome were charging upto 30 euro per 24 hrs so and there was no way I would pay that.

It was a shambles because we couldn't work out where the Tiburtina car park was! The instructions online were very vague and not helpful at all. I eventually pulled into a small outdoor public car park next to the bus terminal across the road from Tiburtina train station - I think it was the right place . The ticket machine was only in Italian and was not intuitive at all, it only allowed you to pay for a daily parking rate, there were no options for multiple days and asking people around the area didn't help. I took a walk around the car park and noticed that a quite a few cars had just purchased multiple daily tickets to represent they would be staying over a number of days. Still not confident, I went into the bus terminal and asked someone who confirmed that this is what you do. I ended up paying for more tickets than I need just to be sure and off we went. All up including the driving around we probably spent an hour and half sorting ourselves out.

We stayed at the Rome Times Hotel which was in a good spot, the room was nice and clean and was perfect for what we needed. Looked like I didn't take any photos of the room

Some of the sights around Rome

Food... A panini from a highly rated sandwich bar and some tiramisu
I bought tickets to a (another) soccer match that night Roma v Napoli at the Stadio Ollimpico . Getting to the stadium seemed pretty easy, there were a few busses that took you there, but getting on the bus was a problem. We waited for 2 busses both of which were jam packed and we couldn't get on. We moved to another stop and due to massive traffic the bus never showed so we started walking. The stadium is an hour walk from Rome, about 20 minutes in we managed to snag a bus and make it just in time for kickoff.



Roma lost 1-0 but was an amazing atmosphere and it would have gone off if Roma managed to score but it wasn't to be.

Getting back to the hotel was just as painful. Walking out of the stadium there was around 500 people waiting for the same busses that we were waiting for so decided to start legging it again. We walked to around 20 minutes to a local bus depot and caught a bus back to our hotel. The public transport availability to the stadium was very poor and frustrating.

 

[Katie]

Loving the food pics!!!

The name of the big steaks in Florence is Bistekka. (sp??)

 

[yld200]

We visited the Colosseum and regretted not pre purchasing tickets or organising fast track. We also got 1 audio guide to share between us which was very informative and a recommendation.

An amazing piece of history.

 

[yld200]

Lunch from a street food style pasta place.


Rome in general was chaotic, tourists everywhere - it was a zoo everywhere you went. Pantheon and the Spanish steps no exception.



Last dinner in Italy... we had started to get over pizza and pasta by this point The lamb was delicious.

 

[ellen10]

Great pictures and storys of your travels, thanks for sharing.

 

[OZDUCK]

Still enjoying the food photos. You have certainly been to some lovely places.

I am, stupidly I guess, amazed at the crowds of people in Florence & Rome. Our last couple of trips, in Germany & France have been in September/October on, and I just hadn't got it in my mind how busy other places/times could be. Certainly a lot busier than it was 42 years ago.

 

[yld200]

Still enjoying the food photos. You have certainly been to some lovely places.

I am, stupidly I guess, amazed at the crowds of people in Florence & Rome. Our last couple of trips, in Germany & France have been in September/October on, and I just hadn't got it in my mind how busy other places/times could be. Certainly a lot busier than it was 42 years ago.

I was amazed by the crowds aswell - both Rome and Florence were a zoo. This was October and we kept thinking imagine how crazy it would be in June / July August.

 

[RooFlyer]

We then drove to Rome via some outlets in Naples which were disappointing. We ended up on some side streets in Naples and it looked like a dump, didn't feel very safe and we were kind of glad we decided not to spend a night there.

Naples is a dump.

Thoroughly enjoying your TR

 

[amaroo]

Italy and trip reports - bellissimo!

 

[yld200]

Our time was up in Rome and we had to return our car to Renault lease office near Rome airport. We took the subway back out to Tiburtina station and I was worried that my car was going to be towed or have a wheel clamp or something stupid, but it was there! Relief, Cleopatra was not harmed.

We took off towards FCO in Monday morning peak hour which took 1hr 15 minutes, we had some trouble in finding the place but only had ourselves to blame for that. The return process was easy, return the keys, the guy does a walk around to look for damage, you sign the paperwork and he drops you off at the airport. Easy!

I really enjoyed having a car and thought I got great value out of it despite some of the parking issues. I adapted really well to the driving and the Rome driver in me came out Driving on the Amalfi coast was my favourite but scary, you really have to be switched on 100% of the time. Over all we covered 5,000km and drove through 10 countries in 3 weeks.

After stressing out about dropping the car off and getting lost, we eventually made it to the airport and priority check in awaited. We checked in for our flight from FCO>LHR and headed straight for the BA lounge, it was a bit hard to find and we had to ask for directions because we couldn't find any signs. The BA lounge was disappointing to say the least, it was quite dull and the breakfast options were pretty poor. They had croissants, some cereal and some biscotti type platter.




Nan was having a bit of a rest with her feet up on the table.


BA553 - FCO>LHR @ 1145
Boarding was called in the lounge and we headed off to catch the bus to our Boeing 767. There was a priority line at the gate but we all ended up on the same bus anyways and then it was a scramble on the tarmac to get on board. The J cabin was in a 2-2-2 configuration with the middle seats probably having the most room with the middle seat blocked out while the pairs on the wings didn't have this feature.

Premium leg room


At 1140ish, the captain announced that we would be delayed out of Rome by an hour due to runway traffic at LHR so we had to sit patiently on board. I found it strange that for the hour delay the crew didn't do a quick service of drinks or water even but I guess that's BA. At 12.45 we pushed back and we were off.

Lunch was served after we levelled off, entree was justed dumped on our trays without explanation. A bit boring and could've done with another prawn considering the amount of melon.


Main - chicken supreme with gnocchi. A bit meh


We arrived in LHR having made up 30 minutes in the air and heading towards the T5 > T3 shuttle to catch our AA flight. At the shuttle gate there were a few AA agents and both my wife and I got questioned and stared down for around 5 minutes - where are you staying? how long ago did you book the flight? how did you book the flight? what are you doing in NY? why did you choose NY? who do you work for? what's your bosses name? how long have you worked there?

After our mini interrogation we were headed over to T3, passed through another very slow security check point and walked into the AA lounge. It was very bright, lots of fluorescent lights, a small selection of food which we didn't touch. I jumped online and found an ausbt article on the oneworld lounges in T3 and decided to check out the Cathay lounge. The Cathay lounge was far superior with warm lighting, windows overlooking a runway and overall classic warm Cathay feel which included their signature noodle / dumpling bar. I had a drink and some snacks while the wife took a quick shower. If in T3 I would keep away from the AA lounge.

 

[yld200]

Time for boarding and we walk to the gate where our boarding passes didn't work and we had to get new ones reissued. Once scanned there was a woman with a pax list and was checking people off, when she checked us off she directed us to another security check which seemed to be random? We might have been flagged because of our earlier questioning, who knows?

Shoes off, belt off, empty your carry on, check through everything, swab everything, body pat down, no explosive detected and off you go. By this time most of the plane had boarded and we made our way to our seats. I had selected 7A & 8A on this 777-300 for this flight (AA107 LHR>JFK) to get a bit of a wing experience.

The seat is the same style as the Cathay seats, with plenty of leg room and storage space around the seat. Blanket, pillow and amenity kit and bose headphones placed at each seat.


Fire training plane we passed on taxi.


Menu

 

[yld200]

Small plate - The carrots were quite nice


Main - I had the baked lamb which was quite nice


Dessert - yum


The flight was pretty standard and I found the crew to be quite pleasant and attentive. They kept my drinks topped up and were happy to help in any way. Good work AA.

Arrival into JFK was easy, however there is no priority on arrival but it was pretty quiet so we collected our bags, passed through passport control and were on the air train to Jamaica within 20 minutes of touch down. Given it was our second time in New York we felt comfortable in taking the subway into Manhattan. The air train costs $5 and the weekly subway ticket we bought was $32. A taxi from JFK is fixed at $60ish + tip by memory. Depending on where you're staying and how many bags you have, the subway is a great option. The subway J line took us to a stop near our Airbnb in lower Manhattan and we were in bed come around 11.30pm.

I don't have any photos of our accommodation but I found Airbnb to be at least 50% cheaper than most hotel accommodation for the week. I have read that Airbnb is illegal in NYC and some people have been kicked out of their accommodation after complaints were made but this place seemed safe. Most of the horror stories seemed to be related to places where owners of apartments within the same building complained but this place wasn't part of an apartment complex, it is rather a loft with its own entrance so it made me feel better and worked out great. It was conveniently located between SOHO, China town and little Italy.

I love New York City, it's my favourite place in the world so far. My wife and I went back in 2015 and fell in love, I was worried that this time wouldn't be as good but it again exceeded our expectations. I love the feel of the city, the quick paced nature, the subway system just works and is amazing and the food...

Let's start with the food.

Jacks Wife Frieda - Breakfast


Los Tacos #1 Chelsea Market - The best beef tacos I've had


Burger and Lobster - yum!


Eileens Cheescakes - omg melts in your mouth