Rome
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2008
1
43
108
Trip End
Jul 03, 2009
Fiumicino,
Lazio,
Italy
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Ali and I left Pete with the stress of having to find a place to berth and caught the train into Rome. It was 35 degrees and a fantastic day for walking around and stopping in cafes for our $8AUD cokes. What made it better was that there was just the two of us to worry about, no "I'm bored", "not another church", "can we go home now", "I'm tired of walking". We had the best day wandering thru the city from the Colosseum to the Vatican, thru narrow streets and beautiful churches. One of the highlights was wandering into a church near the Pantheon which from the outside looked so unassuming yet on the inside was like being in an art gallery. Chapels lined the walls of the church each one decorated by a different family. It was so beautiful... One of the best sightseeing days ever and a great way for Ali to finish off her holiday.
Meanwhile Pete after several hours and untold expense phoning marinas on our Australian mobile phone, found that there was not a single marina within 100 miles of Rome that had room for us. Fortunately he met a guy who spoke English and told us of a long term storage yard that often had catamarans tied up. Pete contacted him and within the hour he and the boys had untied and were heading for the next canal down the coast where we had a place to stay for a month. We needed to be here for 2 reasons as Ali was flying back to Australia in the next day and we needed somewhwere safe and secure to be able to leave the boat so we could travel to London, Paris and Rome with our friends the Sutherland's who were on their way via Bangkok.
Altamarea is no fancy marina, in fact we nick named it Swamp Rat Central after watching the rats crawl up the ropes at night of the other boats. But hey it was cheap and secure..... We were rafted up to 2 other boats (quite common in Europe) which made it interesting getting on and off as we had to scramble over the others, fortunately no one was aboard these boats. The boys managed to make friends with the local swans which came most days for a feed and the other people at the marina made it an enjoyable stay.
This coastal beach area (lido in Italian) is the main coastal area of Rome, which is some 45 minutes away by train. It is very crowded on the weekends, but surprisingly there are no nice houses or apartments. They are very run down and quite sqalid in parts. Very different to home where people want to live on the coast and rivers and the homes are generally quite expensive.
There were many squatters and Gypsies living in the fields among the long grass near the river. We returned one day to see the entire field on fire. In front of the blazing grass people were fleeing with mattresses and belongings. Apparently the fire brigade and police set this on fire from time to time to force the people out of their shanties so they can relocate them. Many are illegal immigrants.
Now that we had a place to leave Bella, Shaz began the massive task of booking flights, trains, accommodation and car rental for the journey through Europe with the Sutherland's. This all had to be done within a week and our internet signal was very weak at the boat so we had to frequent the yacht club cafe (a 15 minute walk away) where they had a WiFi area and drink coffee and eat toasted focacias.
Pete was busy organising to have the headsail repaired and ordering new pulleys for the boom. The previous ones had shattered and this was a good place to have these custom made.
We met a very nice American couple here who had the cat out of the water, Rob and Darlene. These guys are also heading out of the Med in a month on their way to the Caribbean. Hopefully we will catch up with them and share some sailing journeys with them.
