Wheels on the Go

Compared to the start of the trip, the next few days should to be tame mostly on the bus with some visits to interesting places until we get to Venice – I hope!

Boom! Crack! Not my favourite sounds and a massive thunderstorm at 7am hits Sorrento! Italy has been expecting rain but this was excessive! According to Mikael our wonderful Tour Director, this was a very strange and rare storm! From my lovely bay window all I could see was rain and dark sky – I am feeling for all those brave souls that are making the trip to Capri today!

Breakfast was great – my favourite bread was available and I was able to make a sandwich for lunch later today. They had us in a side room so no one was procuring the cool gluten free products for pockets except of course, us!

Those who were on time for the bus were able to avoid the brief pause in the liquid deluge however it then started again just as we were about to drive. So that made for some INCREDIBLY slow progress out of town!

As mentioned before, we take “comfort breaks” at highway exits where there is a gas station and a full service restaurant/store. So today we were scheduled to eat at one of these restaurants. Mikael DID warn them we were coming and unlike the wonderful restaurant experiences people write about in Italy the highway stops are NOT recommended (after seeing many of them now) due to their lack of ability to serve gluten free food. They had made PLAIN lettuce salads or plain hamburger patties. That is all they had on offer that was gluten free in the restaurant! That really did not go over well! Luckily I had my sandwich and I was able to snag a protein drink from the gift shop fridge.

After that experience and a lot of hungry people on the bus, we were off to our next stop in Perugia, which is a Trafalgar (tour company) supported weaving business that has existed since the 18th century. The gorgeous looms (about 10 of different sizes) are housed in an old Franciscan church. As a person who has done weaving and loves hand crafts it was an awesome experience. Trafalgar provides a grant to the owner of the weaving business, which was especially helpful during COVID, so she can survive in this competitive world. It is great to see such a family based, historical business still able to produce the weaving done over the centuries.

We got onto the bus again and arrived in Assisi at a very nice, clean hotel. The majority of the tour went on an optional dinner that sounded very interesting in a cavernous restaurant where they served lots of pig meat (no more details as what happens in Assisi stays in Assisi) and a couple of us stayed at the hotel and had a lovely but NOT QUIET gluten free dinner of our own. We had some awesome chicken salads and were provided with the sourdough like steamed buns that I was accustomed to from my last visit to Italy when not on a tour. It was also nice eating some green things and veggies – our tour meals have been lacking in them! Excellent!

Tomorrow off to Venice – my favourite city until my walker meets a bridge 🙁

Hotel Breakfast. This is my 4th trip to Italy. This is the FIRST time I have seen a chef so proud of what he has accomplished for people and the group absolutely LOVING what they saw at this morning’s breakfast!

When we arrived, right at 7am, the chef came out of the kitchen as we all lined up for the buffet. He wanted to make sure that WE ALL ate the right foods! I realize I am on a tour and this was pre-arranged, however I have travelled a lot and this does not happen very often – that a person genuinely takes an interest in making sure you eat the right thing. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the chef! I tried several times but he moved too fast! Please see below the two gluten free displays for breakfast….

Interesting meeting: Our group had finished eating and almost everyone was gone, when I was getting up to leave and a lady said to the chef (who I was talking to from my seat at the table), and she said that she had Celiac Disease and what can she eat on the buffet that is gluten free? I motioned for him to talk to her and he figured out from that, she was not part of our tour. He showed her the buffet (pictures below) and her eyes almost fell out of her sockets when she saw the sweets table! I then asked her where she was from (Australia) and told her that there was a tour of 30 Celiacs from Canada who had just eaten breakfast and help herself! I left her with the same shocked look on her face – it was priceless!

Onto Capri now! From the hotel, we took city tourist minivans to the dock to take the ferry to Capri. We actually took the same ferry that Andrew and I had taken the year before! After the crossing, which was a bit bumpy and fun, we were lead to the funicular to go up to the Capri town. This was awesome as last time we were here, we had to take narrow minivans up the side of the island on VERY narrow roads! By this time I was pretty exhausted and there was a 20 minute walk next to do around the town of Capri- which I already had been on last year. So I sat down on a bench that was in the piazza in front of the exit at the top of the funicular. As most tours had left the area by then, it was fairly quiet and peaceful. It was one of the most beautiful places I had hung out in Italy, until the area started to fill up with the people arriving from more ferries arriving on Capri. Soon afterword, Liz showed up and we ate our lunch at the scenic bench prior to going down the funicular to go to the “Around Capri by boat” tour that we had booked. I was really looking forward to this boat trip in our free time on Capri as the boat was advertised as wheelchair accessible!

Liz and I successfully found the correct dock to redeem our boat tickets and the man pointed to a large dingy for us to get into. I pointed out that was not wheelchair accessible so he then changed our tickets and told us to go to Pier 23 and that boat was wheelchair accessible. So off we walked to Pier 23 from Pier 0 where we had been. Sure the boat was bigger but the gangplank onto the boat and the stairs down were defiantly NOT accessible or safe! What to do? Well, as there were some strong men manning the boat, I decided to get onto it, with my walker folded up, being carried onto the boat ahead of me. I got onto the gang plank and just as I did, a wave hit and it is good I still have some balance as I almost ended up in the ocean! The man guiding me grabbed me to make sure I was able to get across the gap between the plank and stairs and then I was onto the boat. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip around Capri – it was interesting to see the town of Anacapri where we had been to on the cruise ship, which is located on the back of the island of Capri along with where the different “grottos” are including the famed “Blue Grotto” where people lie in rowboats to get into a cave like structure which has a blue tint to the sea due to the light from up high. When we went by on the boat at 2pm the line up to get into the Blue Grotto was about 2 hours long!

Back on Capri, we had about 90 minutes until we were going to meet up with our tour group – some of whom had taken some optional tours through Trafalgar. While looking for the public washroom, Liz and I found a cute rocky beach nearby, so after partaking in using the local public toilets which is always and adventure, I decided to have a lay down on the beach while Liz went for a walk. She even found some free public toilets on her walk which she was quite proud of! In the end, a group of us ended up on the beach waiting for our trip back, however I was the only one getting the whole body massage treatment by laying on the stony beach!

In the end, despite wearing high value sun screen, I did get TOO MUCH sun either hanging out on the Piazza or on the boat going round Capri. In the end, we all successfully gathered and made it back from Capri in one piece albeit a bit tired after a fun filled day!

Once back to Sorrento, we had to wait for the city provided “shuttle vans” like we took down to the ferries, to take us back up the cliff (yes there is a road that winds back and forth up again) to our next hotel.

For dinner, we had another planned one not far from the hotel… We went to a seafood restaurant and had a lovely meal of FRESH gf tomato gnocchi, a white fish (too salty and sauce was horrid), with the non fish eaters having gf Margherita pizzas which most of us were jealous of! Our desert was melt in your mouth gluten free lemon cake! Then a walk back to the hotel to burn those carbs!

Tomorrow is calling for rain – which is perfectly fine as we are on the bus driving to Assisi! See you there!

Okay, I am NOT and NEVER have been a morning person. I am sure glad my body is confused as that is making getting up easier! Again, on gluten free Schar basket protection protocol at 6:30am! Wish someone had taken my picture but maybe that is a good think no picture was taken – I am half asleep! The worse thing happened at breakfast! The COFFEE machine broke! In Italy they had it apart and fixed in 20 minutes!

Today we are off to Pompeii. ending up in Sorrento tonight. We were on the bus for four hours to get to Pompeii, including a fun “Italian” rest stop! Italian rest stops are full service restaurants on the side of the highway with petrol stations. They even have GF food – sort of… more on that later – this was just a loo stop for today!

Now in Pompeii the group did the full tour and I heard they really enjoyed it! As I did the tour last year and let’s say it is VERY hard for people who use a walker or have walking difficulties; Midge, Kevin and I did the “Lynda’s Backwards Pompeii Tour” which was lots of fun! We went through the entrance to Pompeii and then took a left and walked up the road that people normally walk down to exit. It is up a slight hill, but FLAT and has NO HUGE STONES! We used the elevator to check out the fabulous museum and then too the elevator to the top and hung out in the Forum area on some huge boulders, which were in the SHADE. Thank goodness as the temperature was still high – about 28-29 degrees C today.

Then we took the elevator down to the exit and met up with our tour group! Onto the bus and we are off to Sorrento! There was an Optional Excursion to a Farm that evening for dinner, which we passed on. Instead, a group of us went to a very nice local Italian restaurant and had an awesome dinner! Having 7 people with Celiac Disease was a bit overwhelming to them so we were only allowed to order 3 pizzas (all that fits into the oven) or it would be an hour to cook more. So some ladies had pasta, I had calamari and others had the pizza. After that Midge and I walked back to the hotel and sat in the lobby and chatted while the other ladies when for an adventuresome walk to work off their meal!

Early to bed! 6:45am the suitcases have to be outside and we are off to visit Capri tomorrow!

I did not realize that tours had such early starts in the morning! I am NOT a morning person! Luckily with the jetlag I have changed my body to wake up early in the morning so I am hoping it will continue this early wake for the balance of my trip!

Boy did we have some fun at breakfast! The other tour in house thought that all our gluten free products that the hotel supplied for our tour, were really cool as they are single packaged items, so they were stuffing them in their pockets as they went down the buffet line.

Liz to the rescue! We moved the 5 large baskets off the buffet to a nearby table and supervised who had access to them – however this was the first morning of the tour and we did not know everyone’s face that was on our tour! So we had to ask people when they reached out for the goodies which tour they were on…

Very soon we were on the bus and off to the Vatican! Regardless of your faith, visiting this building is an awesome experience. Walking the halls of the Vatican and seeing history is also amazing! The massive artwork in the Sistine Chapel has left me speechless and in awe both times I have seen it and as certain people will attest, me being speechless does not happen very often! Unfortunately the Vatican is not very accessible due to it’s age and the “regular” tour has stairs to climb. Luckily I was at the Vatican last year with Andrew and a private guide so this year Mikael, Tour Director, let me go on my own (with permission from the guards) to get to the Sistine Chapel and then meet him later so we could walk around to St. Peter’s Basilica. Last year the path between the Vatican and St. Peters was not open, however it is now so the tour group would be taking it and it is NOT accessible either!

As it was 9am when we entered the Vatican, which is when tour groups enter as the public has to wait until 10am, everyone went downstairs and along the corridor to get to the Sistine Chapel. I, instead walked the upper corridor where no one was – I had it ALL TO MYSELF – sort of like a Museum at Night – to where the stair lift is to get down to the Sistine Chapel. I think I surprised a couple of guards along the way as I was motoring it so I could get back and outside to meet Mikael on time. Everything worked as planned and the Sistine Chapel was exactly as I remember it – including the dirty square in the corner which was left to show exactly how dirty the ceiling was before the restoration took place. Unfortunately no pictures are allowed in the Chapel so you will have to look online to see what I mean!

After an express walk again down the upper level after going back up the stair lift, I met Mikael and I showed him how to get to St. Peter’s Basilica, including getting through the huge security line! I had last been here in April, 2022 with Andrew, and compared to this visit, last April the Basilica it was empty! Wow can they put a lot of tours in a lot of languages in one area! Again, the historical areas pointed out and their history was amazing and what I missed in 2022 when Andrew and I walked around on our own. We then had an hour break in the shade (it was about 30 degrees C) before meeting the bus.

The bus took us past Palatine Hill and to the Colosseum. The first time I saw the Colosseum 18 months ago, when I came around a corner, was the same as when the bus pulled up across the street. Phenomenal. We walked partially around it and then had free time for the afternoon and to get our own dinner. Liz and I started walking back towards our hotel, which is now father away in the Prati district. I was able to walk with Liz about half way until my foot got too sore (keep in mind my toe is still broken) and took a taxi the rest of the way. This time Liz made it back to the hotel fairly quickly and did not get lost along the way!

After a couple of hours we went for another walk to check out a grocery store nearby which I have had success purchasing gluten free food at (Carrefour). Despite being smaller than our condo in Vancouver, it did not let us down! Two tall shelving units of gluten free foods and in the back of the store – what I was looking for – Coke Zero! On the way back to the hotel, we ran into a gelato place that was offering gluten free gelato so we just had to try it! I had coconut/chocolate gelato and it was devine!

Off to bed early tonight! Tomorrow is Pompeii! Her are my pictures from today!

Again, we were up early and taking advantage of the free breakfast at the Casa Helena. One awesome thing about being in Italy is I can have tomatoes and mozzarella balls for breakfast!   The only other gluten free protein on the breakfast bar is cheese and turkey cold cuts – which we make sandwichs out of for lunch.

Just like yesterday, the other items on the buffet include fresh fruit which is different each day, yogurt and both gluten and gluten free snack items – cookies, bread and various crackers.  So once our sandwiches for lunch are made and our suitcases packed, we checked out at 10am and took a taxi over to the Tour Hotel – Hotel Ciceroni which is in the Prati area of Rome – about a 15-minute ride away on a good day.

It took us longer than expected to get to the Tour hotel due to a slight car accident along the way – despite the Rome traffic – we rarely saw any accidents but heard LOTS of ambulances!  By the time we arrived at the hotel, Mikael, the Tour Director, was there coordinating for the bus of tour attendees to arrive from their flight to Rome.   Liz and I sat down with Mikael and went through the itinerary for the 11 days and the fact that I had been to almost all the places we were visiting the previous year, in April, 2022 and that there were some stops that we would be making that from an accessibility perspective, while using a walker, will need to be accessed a different way.  Two examples are the Vatican and Pompeii. 

At the Vatican, to avoid stairs and get to the Sistine Chanel, one needs to walk along the top floor, where the public goes after they exit the Sistine Chapel.  There is a stair lift that can be taken down into the Sistine Chapel exit from that level, where one can enter the Chapel and then just turn around and retrace their steps to get out.  If I had gone the other way, there are multiple sets of stairs to navigate and a LOT of people.  Similar with Pompeii – after going through the turnstiles to enter and continuing to the entrance to Pompeii, where there are huge boulders in the road, which make a very uneven surface to use my walker on, my plan was to go up the gentle slope to the museum at the exit to Pompeii, visit the museum and then take the lift up to the top of Pompeii where one can see a collection of statues in the Forum area.

We thought the talk with Mikael went really well – he seemed very knowledgeable and informed!  As Liz and I were leaving the area where we had been meeting, Mikael as me what I thought, was a strange question “If you need to climb stairs – how many can you climb”?  Considering the hour long chat we had just completed regarding what I am able to do, I answered that in an emergency, I will find a safe place, even if it involved stairs and I need to use banister for balance.  At this time, the bus arrived from the airport, and I dismissed his question as just being curious.

As this was before 3pm, none of the tour rooms were ready, so our luggage had been stored in the luggage room except our carry on bags.  As Liz, Anne, Richard and I had arrived at the hotel before the group, they did tell us that they were going to try get our rooms ready first – which was really cool!  So all the people on the Celiac in Italy tour were waiting in the lobby and the rooms started becoming ready – with mine being one of the first which was AWESOME!  I then went upstairs and looked at my room and I had been assigned which was a suite, that was wheelchair accessible!  So I then invited Liz, Anne and Richard up to my room for a party to relax in comfort and wait for their rooms to be ready.

In about 2 hours everyone’s rooms were available and we were all ready for the “Welcome” drinks and dinner that had been arranged for tonight.  I was so excited as we were going to be bussed to the restaurant, which also was going to include a tour of Rome – I was going to get to use wheelchair accessible bus that had been provided for the tour! 

The accessible bus was exactly like I had imagined it and had used previously in Venice and on one of the excursions when on Holland America.  The bus was beautiful and almost brand new!  The lift worked very well – the only rule was I was to sit on my walker when it was in motion which is pretty standard and not an issue for me!

First we had drinks at a nearby restaurant to kick off the evening and then off we all went on a bus tour of Rome where we ended up on Tiber Island, which is an island in the middle of the Tiber River, where a Pediatric Hospital is located, along with a church, some restaurants and the private residence where we would be eating dinner together.  Our host, Fabio, who did NOT look like a Fabio from the book covers, as he bald – so missing the long flowing slightly curled hair, was a very nice gentleman, and he explained that first we would go upstairs to his house and have appetizers and some Aperol and then later, we would go downstairs to the basement for dinner. 

Now. Trafalgar Tours had told me that ALL the dinners were wheelchair accessible and this did not sound right!  Sure enough it was not – the very skinny but high stairs to the 2^nd (upper) level where the appetizers were being served had a rope for a banister!  That was not safe for me to go up or down.  So Richard, who does not drink either, stayed on the main level with me and we chatted outside where the weather was very nice (a bit hot) while Mikael checked out where we were going to have dinner.  There were 3 flights of stairs going downstairs from the main level, where dinner was going to be served!  Why he asked me how many stairs I could climb now made sense to me!

So Fabio and his family quickly set up a card table in the hallway inside the door to his house and that is where Liz, Gladys and Midge and I all ate dinner!  Midge was unable to go down the stairs either due to mobility issues also. Richard eventually joined us as he is bothered by loud noises and in the basement of the home it was VERY loud!  Richard described it to us though – it was like being in a domed room with bricks on the wall and around the ceiling and thick glass on the floor, below which there were ruins displayed.

We were fed pesto lasagna where the lasagna sheets were home made.  It was amazing and awesome!  It was like eating soft, puffy but well seasoned pasta.  Then we had some salad and turkey and for dessert Pana Cotta which also was beyond my expectations! Once all the people downstairs had finished, we walked back to the bus and returned to our hotel for the evening. Tomorrow is an early start to get to the Vatican early before the crowds!