Assorted pix from my stay near Rome

Sperlonga is a seaside spot where Tiberius had his summer home. These pix are of the fresh water ponds he created/had created right next to the sea which are/were actually a fish farm

Nemi..a small town on the edge of a volcanic lake. Caligula had a pretend navy here and we visited the museum where the remains of the ships were on view. They had been excavated fairly intact in 1940 but subsequently were burnt down

Really really old Roman road complete with ruts where wheels have worn the stone down. The Appian Way is where Crassus crucified 6,000 slaves after the 3rd Servile War (of Spartacus fame)

Rome to the dolomites

a 7 hour drive mostly on the autostrada with one of those  interesting GPS designed final run arounds...up and over a mountain with 6 or 7 switchbacks to finally get me to my destination and consequently leaving me with little idea of where I went or the general layout of the area.

 When I got over the lump  I joined the main road again...doh!

One of my priorities when I'm OS is to get a decent sun tan (politically incorrect of course but who gives a proverbial)....anyhow I now have a VERY tanned left arm from the drive!..rest of me will just have to catch up later...could always drive back and sorta even it up;-)

pix will follow..gotta dive out to the shop to get something to nuke feral mozzies with.....

Sigh..you just gotta love parking Italian style

it's the same navy blue car in both pictures!

For anyone wondering what the weather is like near Rome

I did some hand washing about 40 minutes ago (hand washing = somewhat wet when it was hung on the line) and at least half of it is dry already.   Probably explains why I'm getting so tired....the heat, not the hand washing;-).

However we are waiting with aeroguard in hand for the rain which is due soon...death to all mozzies.....

Sadly there's no TV in my room and for some reason I can't get rai3 on my computer so depite being not million miles away from TdF, I've not been able to watch it.

This is just not supposed to happen!

rain rain go away etc

Total immersion Italian classes + training

leave almost no time for anything else...including blogging, going to the bank ,the supermarket, the bike shop etc etc.

my days have been something like this:

0500 get up
0530 out on the bike
0815 leave BnB to walk to the house via the cafe
0900 brekky
1000 start classes
1300-1400.lunch
pm outing
2100 evening meal
2230-be driven home for bed

the loooong days and the heat have caught up with me today and I've begged off having an evening meal, settling for  a sandwich in my room instead.

I think the nail in the coffin regarding my fatigue was yesterday's ride  which started and ended in the heat of the afternoon and which was supposedly 40km long...or at least that's what I thought it was until I realised the man telling me the info was English and he was talking in miles..so it turned out to be somewhat longer than anticipated.o
 Since I don't "do" sitting  on the beach, while the others were sitting on the beach, I was riding home via a bicycle shop (natch!)

I was particularly grateful for the presence of these umbrella pine trees which created shade on the road and also gave me markers for intervals.

Beach to city ride

another ride to a volcanic lake..the lake to the north is where the Pope has his summer residence

eye candy

So now I'll start complaining about the heat, the mozzies, the humidity!

Spotted and pixed...anything to lighten the horror of a long wait at an airport transit area!

And todays ride..1 hour on blocked legs....was an exploratory  expedition to ensure I could find my house again which is located on the Via Appia Vecchia (old road) and on the way I found this treasure:

called the  Via Appia Antica (no translation needed I think) and took 1 look, 1 pix then turned and left!

 Cultural shift time.....evening meal finished at 10pm
 last night and I'm about to have brekky..its 0930.