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Italy and Greece 2025
  • Walking Rowan
  • Anne Simmons

Italy and Greece 2025

See Venice and Florence, walk 420+ km to Rome, relax on Hydra, see Athens and home Read more
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  • Italy and Greece 2025
    The valley
    9Coffee and shared sugar for breakfast. Our frontdoor in backgroundChestnut forestHazelnuts1Us in a hazelnut orchardTowers of Orlando. Left an Etruscan tower that had memorials, right a ruined 12th C belltower1Hazelnut orchardCapranica stall:garlic, chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, drying tomatos1Capranica end to end (almost)1Gaudy, but....... supposedly Michelangelo1Capranica sidestreetCapranicaSutriSutri, 4pm1Amphitheatre carved from rockB&BThe gate, 20m from homeDinner (in part)2Other parts

    Vetralla to Sutri

    November 3 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We cheated for breakfast. There were coffee pods and tea in the apartment, so we (I) had some before we walked across the square to the cafe with outsourced breakfast. Smart move, as it was coffee and sugar, but there was a cheery man behind the counter, and a bakery 20m further on once we left...

    Adam arrived around 9:15, and we walked back past last night's Pinseria, out of the town, and almost immediately into a chestnut forest. The whole morning was chestnut forests and hazelnut orchards, in which ruined Etruscan towers and Roman/12th C churches were to be found (the Towers of Orlando). We went through a village called Capranica, on the top of a steep ridge, with more Christian/Roman builds in BC Etruscan bases. It had perhaps 10 churches, including the rather gaudy 19th C Church of Santa Maria (built on an Etruscan base) that had a "tabernacle" supposedly painted or made by Michelangelo.

    After Capranica came a narrow valley following a small rivulet downstream for about 6km in what felt like a rainforest. There was a 7m hill on the way through which the Etruscans had cut a 4m wide roadway, near which there were numerous caves/graves. We reached Sutri around 4pm, and the walk ended at the amphitheatre, which had been carved out of rock. Just over 7 hrs, and around 27 km. The rocks are a volcanic tuff, which is apparently easy to cut, but has a high cement content that makes it erosion-resistant. To our collective amazement, Adam's wife arrived to pick him up just seconds after we arrived... but she had been tracking his phone. It will be different not having the equivalent of a professional Italian guide with whom we can discuss life, the universe and walking.

    We had passed our B&B on the way to the amphitheatre. It was 250m back, and a 13th C building, but right on a busy road. Once inside, it was rather quiet, and had everything, including milk and a teapot for tea. I wanted to loll about, but Anne wanted to see the town, so we walked up through the gate (yes, originally Etruscan) and looked around Sutri, which had closed churches, closed shops and little else.

    For dinner we went to Liutprando, a restaurant about 150m away. It was named after a Lombardian king who, in 728, gifted Sutri to the pope, making Sutri the first papal land. The things you learn from menus, and then check on your phone! Dinner was fine.

    39,528 steps, 31km and 22 flights. One of us has sore feet, the other still has blisters, but we manage. 27km again tomorrow, but quite flat, and just us.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Etruscan tombs at Sutri. As at Troy, the ground level may have risen since they were first created
    Lazio landscape - just after several golf courses on both sides of path1Alpha Romeo Italian pandas in Monterosi1Sometimes the path was a dirt trail - beside a 5 lane freewayA drivewayShepherd and sheep2Wildflowers in oak forestGelato Falls...Lunch break with tanLunchtime view5Parking, Campagnano style

    Sutri to Campagnano

    November 4 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We made our own breakfast - a welcome first after several weeks - and walked out around 8:30 on a sunny day to see, just across the road almost, some grand Etruscan tombs. Then the lowlight of walking beside or on a road for quite a way until we were in hazelnut orchards and chestnut forests, and later on olives and grassy fields with sheep.

    Only one town - Monterosi - was on the way today, and will be remembered for the many police cars and uniformed people in the narrow main street, seemingly for an official function. Then over a freeway and more roads through farmland. It was open country, but definitely not the rolling hills and scenic views of Tuscany. We detoured into a national park with small cascades (the Gelato Falls), and had a lunch break around 1 :30 on the edge of an olive grove. More roads then until a 100m climb up to Campagnano, which is another town stretched along a steep ridge. This time it was by design: the duchy owner redesigned the town in c 1700 and had people build grand houses along the new, straight(ish) main street.

    Our hotel is "dated" and basic, to the point of having no hooks or things like soap racks. We could check in at 2:55, though, and it was very quiet: we were the first guests. I doubt there will be many more. We have only seen two other walkers today, so numbers of “pilgrims” must drop quickly in November, when the camino organisers stop operations here. Campanagno seemed to have moved with the times: at 3pm, most shops and churches were closed. We walked around the streets again from 5pm to see whatever was to be seen, and by 6pm the traffic was non-stop (Rome commuters?), with quite a few bars and similar-looking restaurants looking like they would be open. Lots of smokers on the streets, and some awe-inspiring parking, like the odd tiny Fiat at 90 deg in an area of parallel parking.

    Dinner was a challenge: we had several similar but widely-spaced alternatives, so where to go? Downstairs - outside was 11 deg. Home- made sausages, salad, pizza and pasta, and real(ly good) bread.

    36,550 steps, 29.5 km and 25 flights. Tomorrow’s walk is similar to today’s - around 24 km, and a stretch on roads - and we will already be in the outskirts of Rome.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Pathway
    Remnants and coffee-machine supplicantOutside Campagnana1Madonna del Sorbo - site first mentioned 996, a Carmelite monastery since the 15th C.Madonna del SorboPart of old FormelloEntrance to old Orsini Palace in Formello, now a museumEtruscan and Roman thingies in Formello museumView from museum Tower, which recreates old palace towerFrom Formello tower1Just the local police, so no Alpha Romeos2...but if this is what you're chasing...Formello to VeioTwo-pole pilgrim. Definitely less stress on dodgy anklesEating grass, so Italian cows?Perhaps Rome is over those hills?Lunch in the corner of a foreign fieldSame cornerLunchtime entertainmentLa Storta evening

    Campagnana to La Storta

    November 5 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    A group of 22 people had arrived in the hotel yesterday evening, and breakfast was a bit of a failure because they arrived just before us: a cross between locusts, galahs and coffee addicts, made worse by there being only one poor guy to make coffee, clear tables and restock the paltry offering. He was cheerful, regardless, and once the horde left, there was peace, but no bread.

    We left at 8:30, bought rolls at a Carrefours Express on the way out of town, and went up a steep road for quite a while, then a nice track through woods and fields. We caught the Pack from the hotel after a short, sharp burst up s steep hill, when we all stopped at an old church (Santuario della Madonna del Sorbo - site mentioned in 996, built in 15th C, has a copy now of its 11th C painting (original in a museum)) and then we left them behind as we went through woods snd fields to a town called Formello.

    We expected Formello to be a boring satellite of Rome, but there was a museum in an old Orsini family's castle/palace, and the lady there wanted us to walk up the 100+ steps in the new tower (not visible from the street). The views were great, as were the Etruscan and Roman artefacts we had to walk by.

    Being quite near Rome, we also expected roads, but spent most of the day walking through more shady woods and fields, and past paddocks of wheat. We had lunch in the corner of a field where the farmer was ploughing (off-set discs and a Landini (not Lamborghini) tractor). By the time we left he was finishing his runs up and down only 20m from us. He waved and smiled.

    The next hill we went past was an Etruscan grave site that was being used at the start of the Italian Iron Age, ie from around 1000 BC, then a small village called Veio that had Etruscans then Romans there even before the Iron Age (so in the Bronze Age). They have records of it being a farming village, then a hill fort, one of six major Etruscan cities, a Roman city (Rome won the war) and then deserted from around 300AD, ie after being inhabited for 1600 years. People moved back and built on the ruins many centuries later. There was a large archaeological site beside the path just outside the town, where the Romans had had a huge villa complex. It was fenced off, though, and nothing could be seen bar the ubiquitous holes carved into the sides of the road and the cliffs between the river and the site.

    From there it was perhaps 30 minutes through houses and roads to the hotel.

    We are now only 18km from the Vatican, and our hotel is on the old main road (Via Cassia), but we were on the main road for only 400m today. The hotel has a separate wing that is quite new, and luxuries like a kettle (but no cups...) and charging points by the bed.

    For dinner we stopped at the first place near here: a pizzeria. Excellent.

    31,044 steps, 24.9km and 80 flights. Tomorrow is only 17km to the Vatican. Pilgrims walking more than 100km to reach it can see quite a lot, but rather than arriving in the afternoon and having to leave to check in, we might check in first and officially arrive Friday.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    To be a pilgrim...
    La Storta breakfastOnly one direction todayA little traffic...2In La Storta, the road into Rome had quite a few lowpoints like this2We reached the first park by crossing a massive freeway10 km - or less - to St Peters1The park had obstacles3A Roman cafe that made maximum use of the cars parked outside itNearly thereView over Rome from Via FrancigenaLast bit of the straight walk to St PetersThe queue we hope to avoid tomorrowView from the end of our street (25m away)B&B "Beside the Vatican"3Dinner

    La Storta to Rome

    November 6 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Packed and bags down by 8am. We were hoping the Bagsfree pickup man would find his daily payment today (a feature of arranging it ourselves): yesterday's did not look in the agreed spot in the agreed tag (which all the others did), so emails to and fro yesterday afternoon to sort it out.

    Breakfast was empty, bar a man who asked if his 23 children had disturbed us at 2:30am (they hadn't). He was a teacher in Brusssels, and his school's cross-county team was on a 9am flight yesterday that was cancelled... so they arrived at 2:30. As we watched, sleepy teenagers wandered in, grabbed bags for things, and wandered off to a bus. We felt serene in comparison.

    At first we had a busy road, with overflowing rubbish skips every 200m, but soon enough a lesser road, and then suddenly a national park. We had expected a city park, like Hyde park, or the Botanic Gardens, but this was a bush track through scrub and sometimes mud. Back to civilisation after a steep hill, then a traipse along increasingly more commercial and busier city roads, until another park. It was a hill (the highest of Rome’s seven) with views over Rome from one side, and 500m further on, views of St Peters. Down via the least comfortable road surface of the entire trip, a few jinks, and then a straight march to Leo's place, arriving shortly after 2pm.

    Our B&B was a further 20 mins (12 if we knew the easiest way) in a ratty looking apartment building. We had been warned, and also read that the host and rooms were excellent. Both true. Checked in, showered, planned a trip to a laundromat, lazed about, spent an hour looking for a self-service laundromat because Google maps calls dry-cleaners here laundromats, found a place that would do things in 90 mins, not 24 hours, then went back to rest blisters/sore shins as it was only 10 mins away.

    For dinner, we went to a restaurant around the corner. Bruschetta, carbonara, cheese and pepper pasta and a salad. All good.

    37,852 steps, 29.8 km and 42 flights. Another easy day tomorrow.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Mass in St Peter's
    Our B&B from the outside - third floorBreakfast at B&BEarly morning Vatican visitSt Peter's Mass4Attestation of pilgimage2A passage in the popes' tombsSwiss guard1Nun in front of Mary Magdalene's left foot at Basilica of St John the BaptistA fountainStada GalleryAnother room in the StadaAristotle (?) in the Stada3Optical illusion in the Stada palace garden.17th building precision. The statue at the end is 90cm high.1Forum1JCColosseumCastello Sant Angelo - Nico's favourite pre Da VinciCSA

    Rome Day 2

    November 7 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    No bag-packing again! Breakfast with David, a very amusing Scottish Episcopalian priest, and Alessandra, the host, then we walked to the Vatican, were waved past (short) queues, through security, past another queue and hailed as pilgrims by two volunteers. They checked the pilgrim passports - booklets stamped along the way, especially as proof of having come the last 100km - given a testamur, and sent past the popes' tombs to St Peters, where we gazed in awe and then joined the 10am Mass.

    After a cup of tea back in the B&B, we set off for Rome... basically, to see whatever we wandered to. Castello Sant Angelo, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Minerva church, where most of St Catherine of Siena is buried (church closed for renovations...), the Basilica of St John the Baptist of the Florentines to see Mary Magdalene’s left foot, along the Tiber, the Stada Gallery (an old palace, smaller than the Uffizi, but as good or better on a metre-for-metre basis, with the bonus of an optical illusion built into the private garden), the Forum, saw the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, the main shopping street, Castello Sant Angelo and the Vatican again, and back around 5:15 which was just after sunset.

    It was quite crowded, with queues for everything bar the Stada, but the longest queues of younger people (seemingly, tourists all) were at gelaterias and hip-looking restaurants. It is staggering how much of Rome is centuries or millenia old, so it is easy to understand. I remember though, wandering around the Forum 50 years ago (almost exactly) when there were neither people, tickets, guides nor guards.

    We had dinner a short way down the road: great but basic at a rather character- free Italian restaurant. Beside us was an American whose phone was snatched out of his hands when he arrived the day before…. with his accommodation’s address. We can only be grateful for not enduring anything like that to date. Blisters and sore ankles pale by comparison.

    24,282 steps, 19.1 km and 9 flights.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    1Looking down on the Spanish Steps. Anne perhaps visible on distant left.
    2Vatican train track and gateSkyline from People's PlazaBigger skyline from Gardens above People's PlazaThe old Aurelian wallA dome we took ages to find: on a closed churchAbove the People's Plaza1Rowan in the white cap at the top of the Spanish StepsRowan in the white cap at the bottom of the Spanish Steps3Augustean MausoleumTiberMedieval costumes from all aroundDittoMore ditto1End of dinner, with bread in the paper bag

    Rome Day 3

    November 8 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    A lazier day, spent being a tourist.

    Over breakfast (just us and host), we arranged a taxi for tomorrow, then walked around the Vatican, or the parts we had not already seen. The non-St Peter's side is perhaps 2 or 3 minutes away: it is right where the railway lines enter the Vatican (but closed off with a massive iron door). There was almost no-one except a few families, some nuns and the local police around the back, but then we reached the Vatican Museum and before 10am, there was a dense queue hundreds of metres long.

    We walked across the river and up a shopping street, then to the People's Place, the gardens, more rambling streets, Trinita dei Monti at the top of the Spanish Steps and next to the old Medici Palace (a bigger crowd than usual as it is displaying the relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux ("Little Flower", another Doctor of the Church, like Rose's St Catherine)), the Spanish Steps, the Mausoleum of Augustus (being renovated), across the river and through the Vatican crowds, expanded this time by a medieval parade that was part of the Pope's midday Jubilee Year celebration. We missed the appearance, but saw the costumed crowds.

    Dinner was a small restaurant not far away. Again, simple and good.

    21,207steps, 16.7 km and 17 flights.

    An early morning tomorrow as we catch an 8:55 flight to Athens, a train to the port and a ferry at 5pm to Hydra.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    1Hydra harbour at night
    Athens Airport StationPiraeus before the late afternoon arrivalsThe jaws of the other ferries1One of the few places seemingly openChange in church architectureSalad dayFerry to HydraEmpty ferry after PorosWalk to hotel1Our roomDinner with one cat so farHydra harbour

    Rome to Hydra

    November 9 in Greece ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    Twelve hours of travel by car, bus, plane, train, boat and foot.

    At 7am, the B&B host’s husband was waiting in his taxi (BMW hybrid) and by 7:30, we had already checked in for the 8:55 flight to Athens. Boarding was early because we had a bus ride to the plane (Airbus 321), but it left and landed on time. It was ITA Airways, with the very brave slogan of “Inspired by Alitalia”.

    Athens airport was modern and easy. Both bags arrived (!), and it was 5 mins to the train station. Some 23 stops and an hour later we were at Piraeus, the port … and had a nearly 3 hr wait for the hydrofoil to Hydra. There is not much on at Piraeus port on Sunday afternoon. Apart from cafes and the like beside the massive ferry dock, everything but a Mosque-shaped church was closed. We had Greek salads at a little restaurant: the menu described them very differently, but when they came, the only difference was the thin slab of feta across mine. Meanwhile, our red hydrofoil had arrived, along with a few hulking ferries that were releasing buses, cars and people onto the dock.

    It was choppy and rough leaving the port, but the “Stay Seated” sign was replaced by a Greek soap opera after 30 mins. We slid into the first stop - Poros - in the dark at 6:20 and most people (c. 120 of 150?) sauntered down the gangplank. By 7pm, the rest of us were on the wharf in Hydra. From there it was a 400m walk to our hotel. Everyone walks: cars and any form of vehicle are banned on the island.

    We checked into the hotel and liked our stony room, but walked straight back down the flagstones to find a restaurant. The first seemed good enough, although the hotelier had suggested we check all 10 or so around the harbour. "Lulu's" looked like something out of an old movie about Greece. Choices were limited because everything seemed to have run out by Sunday night, but it was fine, and we managed to survive having cats on three sides of us pleading silently for their fair share.

    It was warm and still a bit early, so we walked around the harbour and up and down some of the flagstone alleys - they are definitely not streets - admiring stone buildings (some whitewashed), fleets of fishing boats, some very large yachts and the houses high above us on Hydra's hills.

    9,617 steps, 7.3km and 3 flights. Almost embarrassing... Walking 25km a day may be physically tiring, but half a day of planes, trains and airports seems even more wearying.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    2View down from balcony
    Breakfast1View up from balcony1TrafficPortPortersHydra from the old fort in front1Storm starting to appearThe catamarans in the bay to miss the full squallSitting out the squallOld house or monastery up the hillThe bay after the squall and catamaransHydra1View from halfway up the hill, after the second lot of rain2In the town after a downpour while we looked for Leonard Cohen's houseClift-Johnston house- about 50m from hotel2Pasta in Greece

    Hydra - Day 2

    November 10 in Greece ⋅ 🌬 21 °C

    Breakfast was as late as 8:30, and was very good. On a covered courtyard we planned an easy day, which was to walk around part of the island. The forecast was for windy conditions, and rain around 3pm, but the first lot of rain came when we were just a short way along the coast. We sat in the empty beach-side (stone beach) cafe of a closed resort and watched two catamarans beetle into the bay beside us to avoid a short but quite fierce storm. It went almost as quickly as it came, and we kept walking along the shore, zigzagged up the hills on very rocky paths, saw a few closed and deserted-looking monasteries off to the sides, and then had to put spray jackets on for some light but steady rain. We had not expected small patches of mud on rocky trails on Hydra, but there they were, along with asses and horses in tiny yards and belled goats out on the steep hills. All up, just 8km, and tomorrow we will do the coast on the other side of the town.

    Once back, we planned the next trip: cultural. We knew Charmian Clift and George Johnston (no relation) had lived here in the 1960s, but found their friends here included Leonard Cohen, who stayed longer, had his own house, and kept coming back. His children inherited and still visit the house.

    The house was not on or even close to the port, as we expected, but we found it... just as another short storm hit. We sheltered under an eave (the cats were not amused) and then a massive white bougainvillea while the lightning and downpour continued. A lady opened the door of the house across the alley (ie 1.5m away), saw us, and invited us in, and when we did not go in, brought her two children (c. 8 and 10) to look at us. Probably a while since they had seen idiots. We bolted when the rain slowed, but the disadvantage of flagstone-sealed alleys, with roof drains emptying into them, is that they become white-water rafting courses. We sat under an awning, on someone's steps, and waited until the torrent slowed and it looked like the storm had passed. We were skipping puddles on the way down when a man pointed westwards and said the heavy rain was about to start again, so we spent another 15 minutes sharing the porch of a closed restaurant with a bored cat, waiting for a break. We might have looked for the Clift-Johnston house, but we talked for a while with two puddle-wary Canadians, and by then it was getting dark.

    We ventured out (with umbrellas) around 6:45 for dinner, having had a revelation: we saw the house next to Leonard Cohen's, so we have to go back tomorrow. Proving we weren't complete fools (no comments, Alistair), we saw a street name when we went around the port looking for a restaurant that was on the way to Charmian Clift's house, and in two minutes we had found it. Unknowingly, we had walked past it the night before. And Leonard Cohen was reportedly often there...

    We went to a less rural restaurant for potato salad, Greek salad and pappadella with chicken and mushrooms...but wow! And fantastic bread, olives and olive oil.

    21,433 steps, 15.8 km and 25 floors. The floors has to be wrong: the walk involved a 300m hill, and we started at sea-level!    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    1A street near Clift-Johnston house
    Breakfast courtyardOur room bottom leftClift-Johnston residence in the 1960sFishing trip?1Space saversFreight handlersThe bar boys, Tuesday morningThe real Leonard Cohen houseLC doorknockerLeonard Cohen StreetWhere else to park your ass?1Port: amazingly clear waterHeading westNext little village beside HydraA view: quiet but for the traffic1Streets of HydraHeading back inland, behind a farmAlong the coastline

    Hydra Day 3 - AM: Port and Coast

    November 11 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Another slow morning. After breakfast we walked by the Clift-Johnston house in daylight, and then the real Leonard Cohen house (when we sheltered from the rain, we were 5m away), wandered around the port and touristy shops, then headed around the island coastline starting from the left (west) side of the port. Cloudless day, warm but not hot, white sails out to sea, fishing nets out in the sun, little fishing boats leaving white wake in a blue sea, green conifers, whitewashed houses....Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

    We saw people happily swimming, and were tempted to go to the beach in the afternoon. Then we imagined bare, tired feet wading out on large, round rocks, and chickened out. We walked right instead, and spent the afternoon going up and down a 592m mountain, instead of going home.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Monastery from half-way up the mountain
    Looking down from halfway to the monasteryMonastery doorOn top of Hydra2For AmrNorth is Greece1The monastery in the distance, then the mainland... Athens, we thinkTrail downPath with goatsRescue vehicle?Un-Greek dinner

    Hydra Day 3 - PM: Monastery and Mountain

    November 11 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Mt Eros is the highest point on Hydra, and has 360 deg views to Athens and, were the earth flat, Crete and Africa. The flagstone path zig-zags steeply up to a monastery first, at 360m (took an hour), then turns into an even steeper rocky trail to the peak, with most of it in the shade of conifers. We had taken lots of water but no lunch, so were gratified to find a nook where the monastery had cold water and Turkish Delight for walkers. At 2:30pm, it was a godsend.

    The views from the monastery and, 35 minutes later, the top of the mountain, made it worth the slog. We left a stone for Amr on the cairn, above the ancient world, then came down rather carefully and gingerly from the top.

    It was close to 90 minutes of steep, sharply downhill walking.

    Home to Voltaren and a shower, then dinner in an un-Greek burger bar, where a very calm cat begged from us the entire meal.

    28,550 steps, 20.5 km and 152 flights. Tomorrow will be easier, for sure.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Streets of Hydra
    Seats for cafe patrons3Flagpole overlooking harbour1Hydra port from the flagpoleLC house again: it is a small town1Third selfie of the tripGreek and Hydra flagsBusy port dayAthens B&B2DittoRestaurants in our street (and there is little else)View from a little down the streetHoly GelatoDinner in AthensWhere Anne and Nico sat in early 2011

    Hydra to Athens

    November 12 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Another bright, blue day. We sat a while at breakfast, then wandered through the town looking at touristy shops and doing touristy things, like watching cats and donkeys, seeing brightly-coloured doors and windows on whitewashed walls, and climbing to the top of the hill overlooking the harbour.

    Checkout was 12, but we could leave the bags as long as we wanted, so we sat by the harbour and watched people fishing and yachts coming and going.

    Our ferry to Piraeus was at 3:45, and was extremely smooth. Walked to the metro station at Piraeus, and very quickly a train came and nine stops later we were in busy (with tourists, I fear) Monastiraki, which is right under the Acropolis.

    The instructions for finding the B&B were good, so we admired our home for three days, then did some shopping for breakfasts and had a Gyros-Kebab style dinner on the way home. Anne and Nico stayed in this area at the beginning of 2011, so we took a photo of the bench outside the church where they used to sit to watch the people.

    The B&B is in a street full of trendy restaurants. Almost literally full. They are wall-to-wall, and their tables go over the footpath and almost meet in the middle of the admittedly narrow street. Our windows are double-glazed, and it is actually extremely quiet in the unit, but we noted that earplugs are provided!

    14,781 steps, 10.7km and 25 floors. Feels like cheating    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Old Temple and new moon
    1Our street without the restaurant tables2Traditional Greek flavour?From the hill with Socrates' prison cellTemple of Athena... one of them2,500 years later...12Athens. We are staying bottom left2Imagine the original...Amphitheatre in Acropolis wallTheatre of DionysusSpare partsStatue of a poetVery old Olympic stadiumGuard at Greek Presidential Palace

    Athens Day 2

    November 13 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We made our own breakfast - a first for weeks - then planned a counter-clockwise walk through the parks and sites around the Acropolis. Blue sky, warm, and not (too) crowded.

    After the second hill we were near enough to the Acropolis and decided that even a little queueing would be easier that walking back tomorrow. Luckily, there was no queue at all, so we walked straight in and up. Everyone knows about the Parthenon, but the aspect that staggers me most is that it was designed nearly 2,500 years ago by people skilled enough to avoid straight lines so that it would look better, and built by craftsmen good enough to understand the design rules and create everything without (modern) machines. The architects must have learnt that skill through other buildings, so the Greeks were creating things of genius perhaps even 3,000 years ago.

    I feel a little sorry for the original people on the site: so much has happened in a small area, and so much has been destroyed and rebuilt, that their no doubt lesser achievements have been erased. We may never know when and what they really did.

    We wandered back past the original Olympic stadium and remnants of temples, looked through some shops, and were back around 7hrs after starting. Not too many hills or kms, though.

    We braced the markets and streets full of restaurant spruikers for dinner, and found almost what we wanted: simple Gyros and tzatziki. Only moussaka to go! Orange cake and chocolate mousse with pistachio materialised afterwards, which was unexpected.

    19,975 steps, 14.6km and 22 floors.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Armour from 3,500 years ago, or younger
    Athens marketsAthens markets1A nice day to be a tourist2The church the hotel ateInside the eaten churchGreek musical instruments at the museumAcropolis type lifting systemCathedral and lesser neighbourPriest in CathedralInside the littler church tucked beside the CathedralHadrian's Library and surroundsOld street with marble gutteringAgora3Scottish soccer fans2Bagpipes but wrong highlands3Dinner with the cold chips and grumpy waiters or managers

    Athens - Day 3

    November 14 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    A slow morning doing things like checking in for flights tomorrow and getting transit visas for Indonesia. Given how frustrating that process was, I might never bother flying through there again.

    Today was for seeing a museum. Rather than the Acropolis or the even bigger national Museum, we chose the Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, which was highly rated, smaller, and not a very long walk away.

    We walked through the old markets on the way - butchers, fishmongers, garlic sellers outside on the street. Interesting. One store owner complained that the government was doing nothing as the area was engulfed by hotels and restaurants, and she had a point. There seem to be whole streets with nothing else. Town planning may not be a forte: we saw one small, old church that was like an insect encased in the concrete of an ugly, modern hotel.

    Great museum choice, if we say so ourselves. It had sections for musical instruments, armour, and technology, which then included astronomy, construction, hydraulics and telecommunications (!). There were hundreds of operating models of inventions, such as a wine-serving robot, an automatic clock from Ktesibios to the analog computer of Antikythera. And big surprises - like the Mycenaean armour of 1500 BC being very, very similar to medieval knights’ armour, and winches that made lifting stone for the Parthenon a piece of cake. Often the marble blocks at the Acropolis had roughly rectangular holes in the top: I thought it was for positioning, but it was how they attached pulleys to them with a wedge on a rope and a simple, metal block. And a 3rd C BC stone tablet that had the words and music for a memorial song... with a scale model of a water-powered pipe organ from the time that also played the tune.

    We walked back past the Cathedral and a few small churches that had not quite been enveloped by other buildings, then the Roman Agora and Hadrian's Library, which are next to and under the Acropolis. It was good to wander down streets that used to lead to the Dionysus Theatre at the Acropolis. Some are still paved in marble, and most have gutters made with marble slabs. It seems out of place with the motorbikes, tourists, and general mayhem that comes when thousands of kilt-wearing Scottish soccer fans are in town and filling the time before tomorrow's match with Greece by (mostly) getting sunburnt and drinking.

    A cup of tea at home, we braved the crowds around the shops for a final afternoon, then planned for dinner. We wandered about, and ended up at place very close to our street. We ordered stuffed peppers, tzatziki and souvlaki. The highlight was several Scottish bagpipers marching by: the food sounded good on paper, but was “average” if rated positively.

    Just 15,768 steps, 12.2 km and 7 flights.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Rebuilt StoaRemnants on the hill up to the AcropolisEarlyish morning2Scotland the Brave1It just sits thereAthens looking North1Agora - past pieces stacked for the future

    Athens to Dubai

    November 15 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    After packing, we walked around the hill below the Acropolis, and around the big Agora. Another lovely day. The B&B let us leave our cases there until 1pm, so we walked about until then, then grabbed bags and caught the airport train. The 9E trip took around 45 minutes.

    Unfortunately, we could not check our bags in until an hour after we arrived, but there were places to sit.

    Then a lounge, and 4.5 hrs to Dubai.

    10,890 steps, 8.2 km and 9 floors.    Read more

  • Italy and Greece 2025
    Jakarta Lounge. Ranks with Emirates in Dubai

    Dubai to Home

    Nov 16–17 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Dubai is a soulless airport, but what else is possible in a place so big you see almost only at night, and only when tired?

    Jakarta airport is smaller, and might be nicer were it not plagued by the delay-riddled Indonesian visa and passport control system. A circle of gates, scanners, and new forms, even though we had the required visas. Definitely a transit to avoid. We were here a month ago, but again could not find the lounge based in their plans and signage. Jetlag? Go figure…

    A little bit late leaving Jakarta, but landed in Melbourne on time. Immigration a shemozzle with fleets of Asian airlines coming at once, then a wait to check in for our flight to Sydney: there were no seats on earlier flights, so we had a wait until 9:20. It was the earliest flight we could get when we booked, but next time we might take a different route altogehter. Still, every flight was comfortable and punctual (other than the very last one to Sydney, which left a little and landed very late because only one runway in Sydney was open), and airports are unchangeable.

    And at 9 deg at 9am only a fortnight from summer, Melbourne Airport was colder than any morning in late Autumn in Italy or Greece.    Read more

    Trip end
    November 17, 2025
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