Off on me hols

[Ed]

Summer kind of came and went this year before I got around to noticing. I had intended to book a holiday well in advance, thoroughly research the destination, etc., but me being me didn't get around to it. So anyway, as the realisation suddenly dawned upon me that there were just two and a half weeks of the kids' school holidays left, I got on with the task and booked a trip online - found a hotel I liked the look of on lastminute.com and bought the flights from easyjet.com and we're all set for next thursday.

I really didn't want the type of crappy package holiday we usually get stuffed down our throats. I hate the way you become a 'customer' of the tour operator, stripped of your humanity and herded from place to place like impotent cretins. It's a wonder they don't take the luggage tag, fire it through your ear and use cattle trucks instead of buses for transfers to and from the airport. When you get to the 'resort' (so named because the locals had to 'resort' to tourism to make ends meet?) you find you have a bland little cell with uncomfortable furniture and a tiled floor, which allows them to simply hose the place down when you leave, rather than having to clean it properly. More often than not there's just one bedroom, so, unless you want to go to bed at 8PM, you give it to the kids, which leaves you with a roll away cot and a settee in the kitchenette/lounge to sleep on. A foam mattress over wooden slats - Mmm! The local recipe for chronic backache.

Instead, I booked a week in a four star hotel in the suburbs of Rome - two double rooms, with carpet on the floor, room service, satellite TV, etc., etc. This, the flights and a hire car came to the same as we would have paid for a giddyup-thur-varmint trip to Majorca, Lanzerote, or any other Med package destination. So, in short, I'm looking forward to it

[canadian]

Rome! You lucky devil, Ed.

Have a glorious time. Try not to watch too much satellite TV, eh?

[Ed]

Thanks, Donna - I'm sure we'll have a great time. I told the kids about the catacombs, so they're looking forward to that the most. Personally I'd like to take in an opera and sample some of the best Italian wine and cuisine. Plus I want to see everything there is to see from the Colosseum to Pompeii

[SharonBell]

Do have fun and tell us how it is! Dale's 60th is next August and we're thinking Italy would be the way to celebrate. Have fun! 

Sharon

[Geoff_N]

Have a great time, Ed. You must have had some horrific package hols. We only experienced it once when an airline booked us into a 'package' mass-tourist hotel in Torremolinos cos the flight we booked on had to be postponed. It was as you described but to fit the 5 of us into the single room,  solid foam mattresses were overlapping each other in the single room apartment. The dark corridors with timed lights (sensible environmental but turned out before you reached the end of the corridor!), coackroaches, kitchen-top cookers that didn't work, etc. Until that experience we used to wonder whether our timeshare luxury apartment in Estepona was worth the money - oh yes they are!

We've stayed in Southern Italy and enjoyed using their trains to visit the cities. Best for me was walking around part of the crater rim of Vesuvius. My son arranges a last minute trip to Rome now and then mainly for the ruins - there are sooooo many in addition to the Comeandseeum. He often stays in Naples for the scuba diving. He was offered a job there this Easter to take part in an archeological dive off the coast but couldn't get a sabbatical from his programming job here.

Watch out for kindly old ladies asking directions - pushing a map or baby, against your chest while a hand rifles your pocket.

Enjoy.

Geoff

[Ed]

Will do, thanks Sharon - although I think the kids will probably cramp our style a little bit when it comes to nights out, we should at least be able to recommend a restaurant or two

Cheers, Geoff - yep, we've had a few pretty challenging holidays over the years. Most would have been unbearable without a hire car. At least if the resort isn't up to much you can hop in your car and find another that is. If this holiday works out well I doubt we'll ever do another package deal. My wife likes them for some reason - I think she assumes it gives us some kind of guarantee about standards. The reality of it is the standards are very much superficial, though, IMO. And of all the holidays I can remember really enjoying, all were ones I'd organised and booked separately

[Ed]

Well, tomorrow's the big day. Everything's packed and ready for the off. I put work to bed and arranged for somebody to cover me and, strangely, nearly got into a fight on site. A couple of the labourers are building themselves up with steroids - bulking up their muscle mass so they look like little hulks swaggering around. Both suffer from what the others call 'roid rage' and fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. My sin was to park and unload where one of the dimwits wanted to drive his dumper truck After a short tirade he ended with the words, "I'll spark you out where you stand, you prick." Which really pissed me off. Any other day and I would have taken issue with him, but the thought of trying to get through passport control and a week long holiday with a shiner kept me from rising to the stupidity, which is just as well, but I'm still simmering. Male pride, huh? How much trouble has that caused through the ages? I thought I left all that crap behind when I left school.

Still - on my hols tomorrow and no more thoughts about work, or muscle-bound prats, for a week and a bit

[Ed]

Thought I'd check in - I'm sweltering in the heat of Rome right now. Beautiful hotel, driving is an absolute nightmare, though. Twice now we've left the hotel and not been able to find our way back. It took us three hours to get back from the beach yesterday, just driving round and around and around. The road signs are awful and the road system chaotic. I think we'll leave the car at the hotel from now on and use public transport. Apparently it's very good, cheap to use and difficult to go wrong on. I like the sound of that

Arrivederci for now

[Ed]

On our last night here, now. I've really enjoyed this holiday - a lot more than any package deals I've been on (that I can remember anyway). Today we went to the Convento Dei Cappuccini crypt, which is decorated with the bones of around 4,000 monks from all over the place. It was very bizarre. Kids loved it

Also did the Vatican Museum today. Jeysus wept - that was one big place. Too much great art in one place, really. Thing is, it all blends into one after a while and you become blasè by the end of the line (the sistine chapel) oh right *yawn* another Michelangelo, huh? Yeesh. We came out with the intention of visiting St Peter's Basilica, but when the kids asked where we were going and what was there to look at they virtually dropped to their knees and begged to go home. It was pitiful. Honestly, they were nearly in tears - No, no! Please, please can we go home? Please? So we came back to the hotel

I'll post up some photos when we get back. Got some really good ones I think

[Walker]

That's excellent, Ed. Glad to hear you're having a great holiday. I guess, regarding the artwork, too much of a good thing and all that. Sounds like a blast, though. Something to remember for sure, not to mention just getting away and relaxing for a while, soaking up a different culture and 'being there'. Good to hear you're all safe and sound. Hope you post a few pics when you get home.

[Ed]

Thanks Walker - I've just got in through the door and fired up my comp. Had a good journey back, picked up our dogs, a couple bottles of milk to make a decent cup of tea with, and Deep Heat ointment for my mosquito bites. Kids are asleep in their beds, wife has hit the sack, too. I'm going to plug my camera in and transfer the photos to my hard drive, then I think I'll be hitting the sack as well.

You hit the nail on the head when you say it was too much of a good thing re the artwork. By the time we made it through to the Sistine Chapel we'd had enough - we were too hot and fatigued, plus the kids had reached meltdown. My feet were killing me after all the walking, but it was only when I got back to the hotel and dangled my feet in the pool that I realised I'd worn a hole in my left heel and another in my little toe. Very painful today. The Vatican tour is certainly something I would like to repeat when I've got more time and less children in tow. Not to mention comfortable footware.

[Ed]

A few pics I took while on me hols -

[SharonBell]

Welcome back Ed! Lovely photos! Now I'm really jealous. 

What were the two guys in the togas doing to the blonde? It looked like she might be a dirty hoe because it looks like the guy in the cape is about to spread her legs!!!

[Ed]

I think she was trying to hold things together, but these Italian men seem to have testosterone in bucketfuls when it comes to foreign women. Her boyfriend watched on with camera at the ready while these two fawned over the object of his affection. He looked to be on the verge of intervening, but at the same time not wanting to spoil the fun. I don't think that photo will be making it to their album

Several men in various locations wolf-whistled at my wife while I and the kids were with her. A group of men in a cafe openly leered at her, too - looking her up and down, talking about her openly. Luckily I'm not the jealous type. I did feel annoyed at their lack of manners, though.

[canadian]

Those Italian men seem to really LOVE women. Any kind of women. It's rather a shock at first but a girl can kinda get used to that kind of attention!