02/25/2023
Concluding the 1st European Adventure (Part 3)
Strategically I left off in Slovenia just to have the chance to talk about it one more time before we wrap up! I can't say enough about the stunning Lipizzaner horse farm that our hotel was situated on, they had a great restaurant where once again my wine was cheaper than Des' water (sorry Des)! This hotel also had a casino - we checked it out but didn't gamble.
Another quick one night, Slovenia, we wish we had more time with you! As we were leaving and to our surprise we stumbled upon this local excursion.. Postojna Caves (https://www.postojnska-jama.eu/en/) an unexpected but amazing excursion for us as it was both of our first time to see caves in this capacity! The ticket took us on a train ride through the caves followed by a hike!
They had quirky names for some of the formations - pictured here is the "wedding cake." I do recall another one of them named "the chicken."
This tour was 100% worth it, I believe the castle was under renovation when we went and that is why we only did the caves, it is possible that we only had time for the caves as well!
And here's one more shot with Des and I, behind us is what they call drip stones. Drip stones grow about 1 cm every 100 years!
After this tour, it was time to leave Slovenia, back to Italy - ultimately back to Rome! But, not before we made a couple stops along the way. We drove straight from Lipica, Slovenia to Bologna, Italy (a quick stop to spend the night). Our restaurant in Bologna was VERY Italian and our waitress did not understand us at all.. we only wanted a glass of wine, she gave us a bottle, so out of not wanting to make her feel bad we bought the bottle..(we thought she might cry because her English was so limited). It also felt like a 'business' dealing was happening in the back which made us want to hurry up, eat and get back to our hotel...I mean it is Italy right?
Along the way we bought a little cake at a bakery which we left in the fridge in our hotel to enjoy after dinner.. much to our disappointment this was an ice cream cake and it was a puddle by the time we returned to eat it... oops...
Rimini Beach, a world famous beach.. a little bit cold this time (March) of year but still beautiful. We rode the Ferris wheel and dipped our toes in the Adriatic Sea and just took in the view! This place would be SO busy and so fun in the Summer time.
San Marino, our next stop on the way back to Rome.. and finally a mountain road we intentionally drove up! The view and the weather were amazing, I highly recommend this stop if you are driving, don't miss it.
After taking in the beautiful Rimini Beach and the sights in San Marino (which counts as another country) we headed straight for Rome. Only stopping one last time for gas and snacks. This stop is a vivid memory as Des had slept for a while before we got to this "pit stop' and after the stop we were heading into a mountain tunnel.. over 10kms inside of a mountain...no radio service, just silence. As we entered the tunnel Tracey Chapman's "fast car" was playing. It's funny how our memory holds onto this things.
It was a very long day of driving - and arriving at our hotel on the outskirts of Rome was the best feeling. This hotel was a spa hotel.. one of those "treat yourself" nights for sure!
If you are going to rent a car in Italy, be prepared to drive like an Italian... We took a drive from Rome to Naples followed by Sorrento. This is in the general area of the Almafi coast. It is SO beautiful and so blue.
It was a spur of the moment decision to drive down the coast but it was worth every minute.
This trip was before the technology level of cars and GPS's today we did this with my Mom's old Tom Tom GPS & Europe version downloaded onto it.. At this point in the trip we had named the GPS Lindsay, (Lindsay vs. Des & I) we weren't really friends... well today in particular we weren't thrilled when she sent us to the ghetto of Naples. We still don't really know how that happened and thankfully we lived to tell the story!
Parking and Cars were insane in Naples.. most vehicles are missing one or both bumpers so driving our nice rental really made us stand out everywhere (especially in Naples).
This was our ride! Thanks again Locauto: EuropeCar, rentalcars.com made this part a breeze!
Back in Rome, we have reached the last full day before we fly home. We wanted to catch a few sites we had missed our first time around and we were very happy we did! The weather was so nice (even though the locals still wore winter coats) the Canadians wore tank tops and t-shirts! Pictured here are the Spanish Steps.
Imagine a crowd like this in a new country again!? Covid-19 it is time for you to move out this girl wants to travel again!
A friendly note to all is that Rome, and well cities in Italy overall have a lot scammers.. Just ignore them, they can be really pushy and annoying, don't try to be nice. I had read about this but never really understood until we experienced it.
This here is called the "Mouth of Truth." Said to bite the hand of a liar.. Thankfully we both survived this one too.
I am sure that there was so much more to see and do in Rome (and there is more that we did see and do that I haven't even touched on). But sadly our trip has now come to an end.
Our rental car had 13kms when we started and we ended with 4386.8kms on it! What an amazing journey, thanks for joining along!
