Just a quick update from Agrigento on Sicily’s southern coast. I originally planned on visiting Selinunte as part of my stay here, but since the buses are uncooperative and since I ended up seeing it from Palermo in my one day rental car, I found myself with some extra time. So I visited the ancient city of Akragas, also known as The Valley of the Temples, and the only other thing I had planned, at a much more relaxed pace….
My eleven hour train ride from Naples turned out to be just the rest I needed, and it rained most of the way, so it was a good day to avoid that. Finally around 7:30pm I arrived in Palermo in Sicily and found my hotel for the night, slept, and then hit the streets first thing in the morning. Just a little sidenote, Sicily has what has got to be one of the craziest flags in the world. The three…
Strap in everyone, this is gonna be a long one. I left Spoleto in the wee dark hours of the morning and made my way down the narrow streets to the train station. Once the train started I promptly fell asleep and didn’t wake up until everyone had almost disembarked at Rome’s main terminal. I guess I was tired. I quickly got up and figured out where my connecting train was and about two hours later, I arrived in Naples…
Not too far from Orvieto is my next medieval town, Spoleto. Spoleto was also an important Roman town, but it’s real claim to fame is as the Lombard capital from the 6th century on. It has a lot of narrow medieval streets and it’s also very hilly. Walking around Spoleto involves plenty of up and downhill hiking. The restaurant in the pic below left is where I ate both nights here, Taverna dello Spagna. They had the best pasta noodles…
From Viterbo it was two very quick and very very early morning train rides to get to the beautiful hilltop medieval town of Orvieto. The train station is at the bottom of the hill and my hotel is up top in the historic center, but that’s not a problem here. Orvieto has its own funicular that runs from the train station straight to the top where a bus is waiting to drive you to the center, and all for just…
After a fairly quick train ride north, I arrived to calm and sedate Viterbo, a primarily medieval built city with lots of gothic architecture, still standing city walls, medieval gates, and amongst the narrow stone streets are the occasional peaceful piazza. After my super busy time in Rome, the slower change of pace was very welcome. Viterbo is mostly famous for it’s Papal palace and was the home of most of the popes during the 13th century. The Palazzo dei…
Well, it’s about time for another adventure. It seems like I just got back from the last one. Anyway, this time I decided to go to a country that I had planned on visiting three years ago, but got derailed by global insanity, Italy! I finally made it! After around 24 hours of flying, I arrived in Rome in the evening, found my hotel and crashed for the night. I woke up early my first morning and hit the streets….
My flight back to Ulaanbaatar from Ulgii was, thankfully, uneventful. I spent one day getting myself in order, getting my trusty LandCruiser back (they gave me the same car again, but a different tent), getting supplies at the State Dept Store, and I was off again. This time I’m headed south to the Gobi Desert. I planned this for last thinking the weather would be warmer while the rest of Mongolia started to freeze. My first stop isn’t really that…
Ok, so the last couple of weeks have been unbelievably bonkers! There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s just dive right in. The first few days were actually quite nice. After trying to recover from my wicked case of the flu in Ulaanbataar for a few days, I boarded a domestic flight for Ulgii, way out in western Mongolia. This area had traditionally been where Kazakh nomads grazed their herds in summer, but when new borders were drawn in…
I made it out of Murun and all the way to Erdenet in one day. Luckily the road was paved and relatively smooth the whole way. The hotel I checked into was definitely better than freezing to death in the guesthouse in Murun, but my dreams of hot water would unfortunately have to wait. So I settled for being happy with the warm room and cable tv for a few days. I ventured out one day to explore the city…