Our flexible planning strategy didn't work out for Barcelona. We both wanted to stay there longer. Our next stop is Rome, and Barcelona to Rome by train is 20+ hours, and it is under 2 by plane. The problem is you can't just show up at the airport and buy a ticket like you can with the train, so we made a reservation and stuck to it. Barcelona is a city we will come back to I think.
Before we left we did manage to visit the Veeva European HQ.
Anyway we left for Rome. Yanmei wanted to spend some time in the French countryside, visiting small towns etc. Originally we planned to go back through France by train to Italy, but after we found out how long it would take, we decided to take the plane directly instead of sacrificing future cities in Europe. It seems like we have a lot of time, but Yanmei's visa only allows for 41 days in Europe and they are going by fast. To make up for missing the French countryside, I booked a hotel in a small village outside of Rome, so we can experience the Italian countryside. I also reserved a rental car so we could drive around.
After another bad experience with Hertz (our “reserved” car for 12:30pm wasn't ready until 2:30pm), we finally got on the road to our hotel. Driving in Italy isn't bad, so far, but maybe that is because we haven't gone into Rome. The car we ended up getting was a Fiat Panda diesel with manual transmission, not what we reserved but whatever, it seems pretty nice. We're staying in a town called Grottaferrata.
In the evening we went into town for dinner. I think this was a pretty authentic Italian place.
-David
Posted with Blogsy