Final recap

Some random tidbits:

In Italy, we drove a grand total of 3370 kilometers. That's 2094 miles.

The cheapest gas I bought was €1.96 per liter, which is $7.58 per gallon.

Yes, Italian drivers drive fast. Yes, the concept of lanes is loose in the big cities. But by far, the most annoying thing about driving in Italy is merging on to highways. No one knows how to merge. The cars don't let you in, they don't get over for you, and the on-ramp is so short that there's not enough time to gain speed to integrate into fast moving traffic. When I would slow slightly to allow someone to merge in, they usually just hesitated or stopped, like they didn't trust that I was actually letting them in. It was bizarre. But it fits with the advice the taxi driver told us on our very first day in Italy: Just focus on what's ahead of you, not to the side of you. If that's the driving style, then it makes sense that merging would not be a cooperative affair.

On a positive note, the roads are generally in very good condition. They were a pleasure to drive on for the most part. And the tunnels are amazing and fun.

I thought I'd be able to say where my favorite pizza was from, and favorite gelato, but honestly it was all so good. Which brings me to my point that the ingredients in Italian food are on another level. Everything seemed to taste better than the States. Obviously the olive oil tastes better, much more fragrant and fruity. And cheeses and pastries and cured meats, even in cheap grocery stores like Aldi and Lidl, were top notch.

Coffee--real espresso--and all the drinks you can make with it is incredibly affordable in Italy. I had read about this before we went, but I didn't fully believe it until I saw it. It's true. And gelato is reasonably priced in most places. There were a few touristy places where they had inflated gelato prices, but on the whole, you could expect to get a medium with three flavors for about €3. Drinks, like beer and wine, were inexpensive in grocery stores (especially wine!) but not so cheap in restaurants. About on par with the States. Maybe even a little more expensive.

There are a few things I guarantee we'll be making more of at home. Caprese salads and Hugo spritzes come to mind.

In Ireland, we drove a grand total of 975 kilometers. That's 606 miles.

I paid for prepaid diesel with Sixt, so I didn't need to buy very much diesel at a station. The diesel I did buy was €2.12 per liter, which is $8.19 a gallon. Yeah, stop complaining about the price of gas in the States!

Back to Florida

This was just a travel day. We had no hopes that it would be anything special, and it wasn't. We just hoped that there would be no surprises. No delays, no lost luggage, etc.

The taxi arrived on time and got us to the airport. Bella was flying from Terminal 2, and we were at Terminal 1. Each terminal has its own security lines, though, so unfortunately that meant the three of us couldn't hang out at the airport and have a coffee together. We said goodbye to Bella and the checked bag from Scarpamondo and headed to our terminal with the big black bag with no handles (they broke off on the flight over. Can't remember if I mentioned that in those early posts).

The security line was not nearly as long as we expected. And I remembered to pack my knife in a checked bag, so we didn't have to worry about that. The one thing that took a long time was the travel Berkey, our little water filter, which admittedly, looks a little like a pipe bomb on the X-ray machine. They checked it out, rescanned it three times, and finally had me completely disassemble the filter so they could swab it for explosives. That took a while. But otherwise, it went fast.

We got to our gate and then I got two coffees and a beetroot/ginger shot for Cristina. We ate our sandwiches from Lidl. They were great.

Our plane was about two hours delayed to board, and then we sat on the tarmac for another couple of hours. I watched an entire movie while we just sat on the tarmac. So that sucked, but at least we were on the plane. I think the issue was something to do with the baggage loader. Of course, the Canadian pilot was very "soory," and even included in his remarks, "it's times like this where I think it's good to remember the miracle that modern aviation is. 100 years ago, Dublin to Toronto took weeks, and today we can do it in around 7 hours." Well played, pilot. Well played.

During the flight, I watched Last Night in Soho, Licorice Pizza, and Belfast. We had bought a bag of chocolates to give the flight attendants, but there was never a great time. They were so busy it felt like it would have been an imposition. "I know your hands are full of trash, but here's a bag of candy for you. Take it!" And before you knew it, we were arriving in Toronto.

The Toronto airport experience was...annoying. Basically, when you're flying to the US, they have to pull your checked luggage and inspect it. But here's the kicker: they won't let you go to your gate until your luggage has been cleared. So they herded us into this big waiting room with a screen and we had to watch for our initials. Only when we saw our initials on the screen could we scan our passes and go through to the gates. Originally we had a six hour layover, which would have been plenty of time for a nice leisurely meal and a drink, and even a walkabout to get the blood pumping. But because our flight from Dublin left four hours late, we only had two hours in Toronto. And then an hour of that was in this holding cell, away from the restaurants. By the time we got out, we only had 20 minutes before our flight started boarding, so we had to settle for a quick and unsatisfying roast beef panini from a little snack stand near our gate. Which sounds better than it was. But...first world problems.

And then, of course, the flight was delayed 30 minutes. But at least we got going and were headed to Orlando. We sat in the very back row, which was only 2 seats wide. Cozy. Several flight attendants were hanging out near our seats when we boarded, so I gave them the bag of chocolates. We didn't get any special treatment from them during the flight, but I reminded myself that that's not why we do it.

I had a rental van reserved for 11 pm, even though we were scheduled to arrive at 11:30. We got in to Orlando closer to midnight. Bella was waiting near the baggage claim with the Scarpamondo bag. Excellent. We got our black bag and headed to the Avis counter.

I don't know exactly why the line was moving so slow, but I was about 6th in line, and it took about an hour and a half to get to the counter. Everyone in line was exhausted and cranky, and there was only one guy working the counter. Every transaction seemed to take 15-20 minutes. I couldn't comprehend why it would take that long to get a car. Surely the people had reservations. When I finally got to the counter, I checked the time on my phone. It took me three minutes to get the paperwork and be heading to the parking garage to get the car. Three minutes. I wonder what all the other people's situations had been.

The drive home was an effort. I was shaking my head repeatedly to clear my blurry eyes that were trying so hard to close. I stopped in Wildwood and got a sandwich and bag of chips at a gas station, not only because I was hungry, but because it kept me awake.

We finally got to our house around 4 am, which interestingly is around the same time we left home on June 16.

Our Ireland-Italy trip was complete.

A Dublin Day

We got up at a reasonable time considering the late night, and Bella and I walked to Lidl, about a 15 minute walk. It was cool jacket weather, but before too long, I took off my jacket because the walking warmed me up. Because of this, I made the decision to not take my jacket into Dublin for the day. A decision that would prove to be a mistake.

This photo was actually taken in Dublin, but it fit nicely with this part of the post

We bought pastries and yogurt, enough for both mornings. We also bought some premade sandwiches to either eat for a late dinner tonight, or to take to the airport and eat as a lunch before our flight. We also popped into Costa and got cappuccinos (so overpriced compared to Italy!) and a chai latte for Cristina.

Back home, we ate breakfast and got ready for our trip to Dublin. We walked to the train station (about a 15 minute walk) and caught the train into the city center.

The stylish guy with the bell bottoms complimented Cristina's hat

 

In Dublin, we headed to the Chester Beatty Library to meet Jackie for a few hours. The Chester Beatty is a museum and library established in Ireland in 1950, to house the collections of mining magnate, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. The present museum, on the grounds of Dublin Castle, was named European Museum of the Year in 2002.

The museum's collections are displayed in two galleries: "Sacred Traditions" and "Arts of the Book." Both displays exhibit manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and some decorative arts from the Persian, Islamic, East Asian and Western Collections.

Without any context and with the weariness of five weeks on the road, Bella and I walked through fairly quickly and then, unimpressed, found a comfortable couch to sit on while we waited for Cristina and Jackie. Then, when we went back inside with them, a guy with an American accent and a name badge for the museum asked us if we had any questions. Jackie asked him what his favorite book was, and he launched into an explanation of Chester Beatty's wonders that quickly turned into an impromptu guided tour. We told him we only had 15 minutes because we only had one day to see all of Dublin, and he tried to keep it shirt, but his enthusiasm was intense and we went along for the ride. It definitely enabled us to see the collection in a different light, and it was much more impressive than the casual pass-through Bella and I had initally given it. He even took us into the Reading Room, which is where the curators, conservators, and researchers can examine the original artifacts. Before we finished up and moved on, we finally got the story on this guy. He retired from the U.S. Army and married one of the head manuscript conservators at the Chester Beatty. He's learned so much in the years that he's been married to his wife that he loves to talk to tourists about all the amazing things they have there.

We had coffee outside the mesuem with Jackie and chatted about our trip, until she had to go. YOu could say our day in Dublin could be fividing into three parts. Part one was the Chester Beatty. Part two was walking around the Temple Bar area (a very touristy part of Dublin with bars and restaurants and shops), and part three was walking around the Christ Church area, where we ate lunch.

The famed Temple Bar. We didn't go in.

We were joking that this was the Roman Colosseum, and then a double decker blocked the shot.

The Clarence Hotel, co-owned by Bono and the Edge of U2

By the time we got to Christ Church, I was getting a little chilly (the temp was in the low 60's F, or 17-18 C). Cristina told me to wear her jacket, which I did for a while, but it was too small and felt kind of silly.

Bella sitting with homeless Jesus

The labyrinth outside Christ Church

Last fish and chips in a pub called Darkey Kelly's

We took the train back to our neighborhood and flopped on the beds with exhaustion. Cristina really wanted to take some Irish soda bread home, which would mean a walk to a market, but we were all too tired. Cristina asked our host if she had bikes we could borrow, and she did, so Cristina and I rode the mile to Tesco. The tires were a bit flat, so we topped them off at a gas station/laundrymat. But they were a bit flat by the time we got home, so they have slow leaks.

It looks like an airport, but that's Tesco in the background.

Back home, we had to do one final packing job of the suitcases, but this time with Air Canada's requirements instead of Ryanair's. Which made it easier. I booked a taxi for the morning with an app called FreeNow.  I had trouble falling asleep again.

I woke up at 2 am and checked my phone and saw that our flight was delayed about 45 minutes, so I changed my alarm and rescheduled the taxi. What is it with Air Canada delaying flights in the middle of the night? Second time. At least I caught it in time to get a little extra sleep.

Leaving Italy

Today was primarily a travel day, as we would fly back to Dublin. But our flight wasn't until the evening. In the meantime, we still needed a second suitcase, one last meal in Italy, and to return the rental car. We had this odd (large) window of time between checking out of our Airbnb and going to the airport. Cristina didn't just want to spend all those hours at IKEA. Alessandro suggested visiting the Abbey of Grottaferrata, very near us, for free. Problem is, it closed at noon and reopened at 3:30.

So the night before, I came up with this plan and sent the breakdown of the day to Cristina and Bella through Whats App:

9:30 Scarpamondo opens - I'm there when they open to buy suitcase
11:00 pack up and check out of airbnb, drive to abbey of grottaferrata
12:00 Abbey closes, find restaurant for leisurely lunch
2:00 Head to IKEA
5:30 Eat meatballs, leave IKEA, fill gas tank
6:00 return car
6:30 shuttle to CIA (Ciampino Airport)
9:30 flight departs
11:30 (Dublin time) arrive, get bags, catch taxi

So I launched the plan into action. I was at Scarpamondo by 9:30, but I went to the Ipercoop near it first to check on suitcases there. I got a few other items, but no suitcase. Then I went to Scarpa and got the suitcase we needed. Both stores were in a mall, and it appeared that the mall opened at 8:30. An extra hour would have made this plan a lot easier. As it was, I didn't get back to the Airbnb until about 10:30. There was no way we were going to get the suitcases packed in 30 minutes, but Alessandro had another guest coming, so he couldn't let us stay late. We threw everything into the cases, even though they were way overweight, got them into the car, and checked out. 

We drove to the Abbey, since it closed at 12. While Cristina looked around, Bella and I brainstormed our baggage issue. We finally decided that we could get away with just paying for an extra carry-on. We could find some kind of duffel bag at IKEA.

The Abbey closed and we headed to IKEA. Our first deviation from the plan. IKEA did have an underground parking garage (yay) but the parking was way more crowded than Florence had been (boo). We managed to find two empty spaces next to each other, parked in one, and laid our suitcases out in the other. For about an hour, we played the suitcase game: arranging items, closing up the bag, weighing it, then figuring out what can go in another bag to lighten it. Ryanair is more strict on weight and size of baggage, but we knew that was their racket and we were playing the game. We got a few strange looks from IKEA shoppers going to and from their cars, but that didn't bother me.

Cristina was getting hangry and needed coffee (as we all did) so we got to a good place with bag weight and went inside to get a coffee and buy a bag to use as a carry-on.

For some reason, when we got our three cappuccini, they also gave us a small cup of milk. Not sure why.

We found the bags and settled on a little backpack that had a removable dolly for wheeling around an airport. Perfect size, and it was on clearance for just €24.90. When we got to the check out though, it rang up for €39.99. We asked, and the guy looked it up and said no, it's €39.99. Annoyed, we walked back to the place where the bags were to double check the item numbers. Maybe we had seen the wrong item. Sure enough, the bag should have been €24.90. We're budget travelers in every way. We weren't just going to let this stand. We took photos of the sign that had the marked down price, and then went back to the cashiers and showed the same guy the photos. He had to call over someone else and they had to make some calls and enter a bunch of codes and stuff, but we finally got the bag for €24.90. Victory.

We headed towards the area of town where the Abbey was to find our last restaurant in Italy. First we stopped at the Airbnb again to give Alessandro our refrigerated items that we thought we might eat, but realized we were not going to be able to. Glad they didn't just get chucked in the trash. 

Near the Abbey, I made sure to pay for parking, and we walked to the restaurant, called Fondi. I got a pizza sampler with fries, and the girls got pasta. Then we walked to a gelato place and the girls got their last gelato in Italy (I was too full).

Last gelato

Finally, it was time to top off the tank and return the rental car. I couldn't get the gas place to take my card, so I gave up and found another place near the rental return. I just paid for full service, so I wouldn't have to deal with the card issue again.

We turned in the car, and because we had full coverage, all he needed to see was a full tank. We shuttled to the airport, checked our bags (perfect weight), got our boarding passes, got through a ridiculously short security line (not complaining), and found a place to sit and wait. Oh, I forgot to put my Swiss Army knife in one of the checked bags and didn't realize I had it in my pocket till we had checked the bags and were emptying out rpockets at secutiry. I thought I'd have to surrender it (i.e. throw it away), but I just put it in the bin with the rest of my stuff and played coy. They either didn't see it, or didn't care. So I didn't lose my knife, which I got in Switzerland in 2014. 

Waiting to board

Now we don our Ireland apparel. First time I'd worn long pants since June 24.

Goodbye Italy!

The plane left about 30 minutes late, but that wasn't bad all things considered.

We got to Dublin around midnight, collected our bags, and got in the taxi line, which moved efficiently unlike the taxi line at Ciampino on June 24, which felt like forever ago. Our taxi driver was a former chef who'd lived in Ireland for about 20 years. I think he was Pakistani. He made it to the Airbnb address in pretty good time, but we had a hard time finding the actual house because we couldn't see the house number, it was dark, and there was an RV blocking our place. The driver waited until we found it for sure, which was nice, but also resulted in another €3 to the fare. I think the total fare was around €24.

The Airbnb was pretty tiny, and the sofa bed wasn't made, which was annoying. The place was definitely just a no-frills airport stopover kind of place, and a bit overpriced, but at least the shower was hot and the beds were moderately comfortable. I had a hard time falling asleep, despite being very tired.

Another European birthday

I turned 42 in Switzerland, and I turned 50 in Rome, Italy.

Today's goals were to mail postcards, pay our parking fine, buy a suitcase, and tour the Vatican.

We mapped out our route. We found a post office in roughly the same part of the city as a Scarpamondo and the parking lot for the metro. So we'd hit the post office, mail the cards AND pay the parking fine there, then drive to Scarpa for the suitcase, then park at the Anagnina station and catch the metro to get to the Vatican Museum by 3 pm.

It was a solid plan except for how long the post office took. The post office had a strange entrance of double doors that only allowed one person through at a time. I think it took your temperature and only let you in if you didn't have a fever. I'm not 100% sure, but I saw a sign that made me think that may have been the case. 

Inside, it was akin to the DMV. You took a number and the wait seemed very slow. I asked a guy that worked there if I could pay my parking fine there (it said on the ticket that it could be paid at any post office) and he said no. We finally got called and, by using Google translate, got the postage for the postcards. I also took a shot at asking about the parking fine again and though she seemed very unfamiliar with dealing with parking fines, she was able to process my payment for it (plus a €2 convenience fee).

It was interesting how something as simple as mailing postcards to other countries seemed to be so difficult here. In the States, you can buy an international postcard stamp for $1.40 and it's good for sending a postcard to any country in the world. Here, they had to use different stamps for USA, Germany, and South Africa. And the girl disappeared into the back for a good 5 minutes before coming out with the stamps. And the total came to over €2 each. A little bit of perspective to help appreciate the oft-maligned USPS.

The postcards and parking fine dealt with, we unfortunately had no time for the suitcase, so we headed straight to the Anagnina parking lot. Parking was very full, but there was one spot that was very tight because a car had parked too close to the line (the parking spaces in Italy are tiny to begin with). It took a lot of back an forth, but I finally squeezed in. We got our tickets and caught the train.

We were taking the metro almost from the start of a line to the end, so we were on the train for a good 30-40 minutes.

We got off at Ottaviano and once we got our Google maps working, heading off on foot towards the Vatican Museum.

We made it there just a little before 3 pm.

Grand Central Vatican

The tickets we got thru email were a little vague, but it wasn't hard to figure out what to do once we got there. The Vatican tours are a well-oiled machine, cranking out millions of visitors each year. We got together with our guide and she started off the tour at a large video touchscreen to discuss details of the Sistine Chapel, since she wouldn't be going inside it with us (there's no talking or photography allowed inside). We were also given little earpieces to listen to her with, which was handy because there were so many tours and noise all around, it would be impossible to hear her without it.

Our guide on the left with the touchscreen visual aid

Once we felt well-versed on the Sistine, we followed her into the museum, which is essentially gigantic halls filled with priceless sculptures, paintings, and tapestries. It was overwhelming. The Vatican has a serious art hoarding problem.

I know I sound like a broken record, but it. Was. Hot. A few parts of the museum were air conditioned but most of it was not. Except for one photo op outside, at least it was all indoors.

Usually the photos don't show how hot it was, but we do look hot in this one

The tapestries had to be air conditioned. Not complaining.

Raphael's Disputation of the Holy Sacrament

And finally, we reached the main event. The grand finale. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The chapel ceiling is one of the most influential artworks of all time and a foundational work of Renaissance Art. Painted directly on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the masterpiece depicts key scenes from the Book of Genesis. The complex narratives and skillfully painted human figures were first unveiled to the public in 1512 and continue to impress the thousands of us tourists from around the world who visit the chapel every day.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but here's one from Google:

It was pretty cool that they let you stay inside as long as you wanted. It was crowded, but it was air conditioned, and there are benches along the walls, and if you wait long enough, eventually someone will get up and you can take their spot.

Funny, you think this is such an amazing work of art, such a holy location, so famous... and it is. But when you're there, crammed in with so many other tourists, it definitely takes some of the mystique away. For example, at one point after we found a spot on a bench where we could marvel at the paintings and rest our necks a bit, I was sitting next to some guy that kept burping. Like, a lot. He was doing it kind of quietly, and he was wearing a mask, but as I studied the Fall of Man fresco, I just kept thinking what did this guy eat?

We spent a good 45 minutes in the Sistine Chapel (Bella kept track) then made our way through the last remnants of museum and of course the gift shop, where you could buy poster-size images of the Sistine Chapel that you weren't allowed to photograph.

As we were in the last parts of the mueseum, Bella and I had left Cristina behind. When she caught up, she had made a friend, an American from Tampa who graduated from UF and had done a year in Italy as an exchange student in high school. 

Vatican parking lot. You won't find posters of this in the gift shop. You're welcome.

These stairs were kind of a work of art themselves. The steps got progressively deeper and shorter as you went down. The staircase was built in the 1930's to mimic the famous Bramante staircase, which was actually two staircases intertwined like a double helix (long before DNA was discovered) that was built for the same pope that commissioned the Sistine Chapel to be painted.

We hadn't had time for lunch or even a snack, so once we left the Museum, we looked for a place to eat. We tried to get a bit away from the Vatican Museum in hopes that the prices would be more reasonable. We found a nice little cafe and had pizza, french fries, and suppli.

We hit a few gift shops near the Vatican to finish off some of our shopping list, then caught the metro back to Anagnina (no parking ticket, thank goodness). We drove home and stopped at a grocery store to get a few items to take home as well as some pizza and farro salad (and tiramisu) which we ate at the Airbnb for a late dinner. Our last night in Italy.

All roads lead to Rome

Our final long drive in Italy: Pitigliano to Rome. Two hours to the girls' Airbnb, another 30 minutes to ours. This was also the one and only drive with five people's stuff PLUS an extra bag crammed into the Megane. Tight to say the least.

A quick explanation of why we were dropping off the girls. Sofia and Anna both flew in and out of Fiumicino, which is Rome's bigger airport on the west side of Rome. We, because we took Ryanair to and from Dublin, flew into Ciampino, on the south side of Rome. Since they flew out the day before we did, and we had booked a place that only slept three, it made more sense for the two of them to get a place near their airport for the night before they flew home.

Knowing that so many places close after 3 pm, we looked for some food before 3 and settled on a little pizzeria. We bought pizza by the slice. Our last meal together as a party of five. The pizzeria had a coin-operated coffee machine which we toyed with the idea of trying but didn't.

We got to the girls' Airbnb and unloaded their stuff, met their host. We said goodbye and headed to Grottaferrata (and passed the Rome IKEA on the way, fairly close to our Airbnb). The directions took us to a large gate, and after Alessandro opened the gate for us, he ushered us along a very serpentine, winding driveway. We got settled and Cristina trued to buy ticket to the Vatican Museum. It looked like there were a few tickets available for the next day, but when she tried to purchase, she'd get an error. And then the tickets would be gone. She asked Alessandro for help and he tried to help her by doing it on his laptop. No dice. But when we thought it was hopeless, Cristina tried one more time around 2:30 and got tickets. They were guided tour tickets instead of self-guided, so a little more expensive, but at least we'd be able to see the Vatican.

We went to dinner at a place Alessandro recommended, though he told us to make a reservation. We didn't and took our chances. 

It was an ordeal to get to a parking space for this place, which was in a part of town like a tiny-lane pedestrian type area, but hilly. I finally found a little parking lot and was about to put coinage in to pay for parking until Cristina said that she thought the sign said no enforcement after 8 pm. Since it was after 8 pm, we didn't pay.

There was no table for us at the restaurant, so we settled on a nearby tratteria called Ovosodo. Cristina and I split an Ovosodo antipasti, which included coldcuts, cheese, sliders, eggplant, bufala with tomato, and a plate of tripe in sauce (I am not a fan of tripe). For the mian course, Bella had ravioli, and Cristina and I split fettuccine with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Our table had a beautiful view of Rome at sunset, which was infinite twinkling lights by the time we finished our meal.

On way back home, we saw a fluttering paper on the windshield. I pulled over and Cristina grabbed it. Parking ticket. €32.40.

Home and bed.

Beach Day and Saturnia

The girls wanted a beach day, but no one wanted to get up early, so we slept in. Bella and I walked down to the Carrefour grocery store and got eggs and grapes and potato chips and a big bottle of tea. After breakfast, we loaded up with towels and sunscreen and headed to the beach, an hour's drive.

At the beach, after a few harrowing traffic moments with a semi-truck in a roundabout and a car that was refusing to let me merge, we found a free beach access with free parking. We opted for renting an umbrella and two "beds" (lounge chairs) for €20. We spent a few hours at the beach.

We rinsed off our feet and loaded up, headed into the nearest town to check the Coop for suitcases. None. Our next best try was to drive north to Grosseto, where they have an Ipercoop. It was in a big air conditioned mall with an amazing wood-lined ceiling. But the Ipercoop only had medium-sized bags for €40. We wanted a bigger one. Before we searched for another place, we grabbed some focaccia pizza by the slice and ate it in the car.

The next choice for luggage was a store called Scarpamondo which had a luggage section comparable to a Ross. We found a good-sized (but not the biggest) bag that could hold a lot of stuff but Sofia could handle for €60, which Sofia paid for. She would make this her own suitcase for future traveling.

We headed to Saturnia, running a bit late, and just missed sunset. The view of the waters from the road, though, were still spectacular. The Terme di Saturnia are a group of springs located in the municipality of Manciano in Italy, a few kilometers from the village of Saturnia. The sulphurous spring water is at a temperature of around 37.5°C (99.5°F). The main thermal waterfalls are located at an old mill. We spent a few hours at the springs. The facilities were very nice, considering it was free to the public. And though I knew the water was going to be sulphurous, it wasn't too stinky.

Cristina was the last to get out

We got home very late, took showers, ate a dinner of tortellini and red sauce and caprese salads at nearly midnight, then went to bed for one last night with no air conditioning.