Rome

As expected Rome was amazing. When I was booking accommodation in Rome and flights back home to Scotland it came down to 2 departure dates – either the 27th or the 30th of September based on approx £50 v £350 flight on the days in between – the 27th would only give me 3 full days in Rome which wasn’t much especially when some of that time would be spent organising getting Phil the bike clean and organising getting me and Phil to the airport – the 30th would give me 6 full days which seemed too much but very glad that’s what I opted for in the end.

I walked for miles – saw the Trevi Fountain, The Vatican, The Spanish Steps, The Colosseum, The Roman Forum, The Castel Sant Angelo and much more.

I had good food – at the recommendation of the hostel I was staying at I went to Ristorante Barbablu – lovely friendly little restaurant and had delicious seafood pasta.

It was so good I went back a 2nd night and had their traditional dish – Pasta Nelle Forme di Pecorino – pasta of your choice served in the rind of a sheeps cheese – loved it.

And then I had pudding – kind of the equivalent of my Mum dunking gingernut biscuits in her tea but Italian style – Ciambelline al Vino – biscuits that you dunk in wine and they were good and I had plans to come back for a 3rd night but…..

For ease one day but mostly so I could charge my phone up – taking too many pictures makes the battery run out quick – I had lunch in McDonalds next to the Vatican, and so did some of the Nuns.

I had a more relaxed day, although still a lot of walking, and had a wander round The Villa Borghese Gardens.

On the Saturday I walked the 5.5km out from the city to do the Roma Caffarella Parkrun – I could have got the metro to near the start but I was up with the birds and I got to see some more of Rome without the crowds, this way.

Not the most exciting or prettiest of Parkruns but nice and easy – a flat 2 laps of the park – but lots of friendly volunteers, the Run Director was good fun and made a good job of getting everyone organised and there was a huge number of foreign runners – from England, Australia, Poland, Norway and Denmark and I’m sure there was more besides this – I got chatting to 3 of the English Runners and one of the Australians – I didn’t find out until after that one of the English runners (that I didn’t get chatting to) is the boss of one of my good friends – another weird coincidence. I was the only one who had cycled from Scotland to Rome to do Parkrun.

I walked back to the city centre via Decathlon to buy a bicycle bag – failed on this and bought a waterproof bicycle cover instead and accidentally bought me a new jacket – well I needed something warm for coming back to Scotland – and then found a DIY shop to buy a roll of bubble wrap and a roll of gaffa tape – yip this is kind of typical cycle touring shopping if you are coming back by plane. I saw art of completely different nature on the shopping centre where Decathlon was – never figured out why snails was the theme but I loved it.

Back in the city it was time to pick up Phil and take him for a wash – I’d located a wee car wash in an area just behind The Vatican – an interesting wee bike ride trying to avoid tourists, nuns and priests while the sun was coming into my eyes. The car wash was in a basement parking area for some apartments – I was expecting to hand over some money and jet spray Phil myself but he was soaped and washed for me and they even gave him a rub down and polish afterwards and was he looking very shiny by the time they finished with him.

After I returned Phil I had a last minute visit to the Castel Sant Angelo – I’d already passed it a couple of times but hadn’t planned on going in but glad I did – Hadrian’s ashes are buried here – Hadrian of Hadrian’s wall that stretches across the north of England which I have visited sections of a number of times but I really do need to swat up on my Roman history. I timed it just right – getting in not long before last entrance and perfect timing for seeing the sun go down behind The Vatican.

The evening after I did Parkrun I started to feel as if I had a cold coming on. The following day I visited The Colosseum which was amazing and then after an early lunch, The Roman Forum – I worked out pretty quick that to see Rome at it’s best you had to get up really early – think I was up between 6 and 6.30am every morning except for my last day – and make use of lunch time when nearly everyone else is eating in the restaurants. The Roman Forum was fantastic – but I was definitely coming down with the the cold – loaded with the cold and overwhelmed with too much information but I just enjoyed wandering about seeing the architecture before heading back to the hostel for a sleepless night and feeling guilty that I might be sharing my bugs with my room mates in the hostel.

My last day before flying home I was going to take the train to Ostia on the coast to see the Roman Port and have some chill time at the beach, however full of the cold I decided to jump ship from the hostel and get a bedroom to myself near the airport. A shame not to go to Ostia but I was even more gutted not to go back to my favourite restaurant of the whole holiday but in hindsight having the cold did me a favour as I suspect I would have ended up rushing and panicking going to the airport if I had left it to the last day – I just need to come back to Rome another time!

I’d checked that it was possible to cycle to the airport and compared routes on Google and Komoot which both indicated a similar route from the hostel – it was just under 20km away and 2/3’s of that was on a poker straight road, which was a bit disconcerting – were they trying to put me a motorway?? I should have thought about this though – I was in Rome and who were the best road builders in the world – you got it – The Romans – I was following the Via Appia Antica (or Appian Way) – the first highway of the Roman Republic – almost flat and poker straight but not the easiest for cycling on at times so not the fastest and there was lots to see so I took my time, which I wouldn’t have been able to do if I’d left this until tomorrow morning – the only time there’s been a benefit to having the cold.

About a 5km walk to collect Phil from his parking spot – 5km cycle back to the hostel to collect my stuff and then 20km cycle to the hotel I was staying at for the night – I was gubbed. I should have got sorted for flying home the next day – most importantly I should have checked that I was able to remove the pedals from Phil in readiness for flying home the next day – in honesty I should have checked this before I ever left home but….

I was too tired and too full of the snotters and instead had a long shower and then forced myself to go out and get a takeaway pizza for my dinner.

Comfy room to myself and no noise once the airplanes stopped going overhead, I got a good nights sleep and I was definitely wasn’t as bunged up when I got up in the morning. The flight wasn’t until 1.30pm that afternoon but I was a little too relaxed about getting to the airport, bearing in mind I still had to pack up Phil and still hadn’t checked to see if could get the pedals off.

Finally got my panniers packed and down outside the hotel where I confirmed I could NOT take my pedals off – I only had Allen Keys and there was no hole for an Allen Key – I need a big spanner / wrench thingamabob – luckily there is a wee bike shop / cafe nearby and they take the pedals off for me – I should have just have them loosened so I could I still cycle the last couple of kilometres to the airport but my Italian didn’t stretch to that – in fact in didn’t stretch much beyond “si” and “grazie” – or if I thought about it I could have hand tightened them back on but my fuzzy I’ve got a cold brain head didn’t think of that and I pushed Phil to the airport.

Taking the front wheel off, letting the air out of the tires and taking the handlebars off was easy. Used the empty pizza box from last night along with the bubble wrap to protect Phil – I’ve always used an old bike box before but was going to try just having the bike cling wrapped at the airport – knowing that Ryanair are particularly fussy though I thought I’d better stick to their rules of bike bag or box. Not being able to buy a bike bag though I opted for bicycle waterproof cover and parcel tape – problem though – parcel tape does NOT stick to shiny nylon bicycle waterproof cover and I end up paying for Phil to be cling wrapped – maybe I should have saved my money and not bought the waterproof cover but that’s all hindsight.

I’m finally at the front of the queue for check in – they are happy with Phil – they are happy with the weight of my 2 panniers – they are NOT happy that the 2 panniers are not bagged together and are 2 items rather than one!!! The machine will ONLY print one ticket for the bike and one ticket for the panniers and I need to somehow attach the 2 panniers together. This is another I should have thought about this in hindsight moment but I’ve taken a number of flights now with bikes and panniers and this is the first time that this is happened. Stupid panic head kicked in and I make my way back to the cling wrap machine – spend another €15 to have both panniers wrapped together – completely forgetting that I have the remains of a roll of gaffa tape that I’m sure would have securely held my panniers together!

Finally I’m on the plane and get some sleep and we make it back to cold and driech Edinburgh – it’s good to be home but I’ve been so lucky with the weather and it it was particularly hot in Italy that I’m not adjusting to the chilly weather very well. Phil, apart from his mudgaurds, seems to survived his flight home and we are already planning our next trip but maybe a bit closer to home next time.