Tag Archives: Hotel

Sicily 2025

Rome

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What did the Romans Ever do for us?

We arrived in Rome, found the bus stop, found the bus and found the hotel without missing a beat, very satisfying. A nice hotel in a smart mews in the Flaminia district NE of the centre of Rome. The helpful, Italian receptionist welcomed us and asked for our passports for registration, she noticed Maidenhead marked as Marks place of birth and said “I know Maidenhead, there is a very good Italian shop there”. We knew straight away she meant the shop one street over from Marks childhood home which he has known nearly all his life! The receptionist said she had lived in Staines but all the Italians went to that shop. It’s a small world.

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Sicily 2025

Messina

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We left Syracuse on Saturday morning heading for Messina, the transport hub offering train and ferry links back to the mainland. We only had one night in the town but it set us up for the morning train to Rome on Sunday.

We arrived in Messina at lunchtime and checked in to the Royal Palace Hotel which looked like a local council office block but was actually quite smart inside, it even had a bar in the lobby which proved useful for afternoon tea.

Our Room
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Sicily 2025

Syracuse

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Thursday was earmarked for the journey from Palermo to Syracuse a six hour journey with a change in Messina. Our hotel in Palermo was very close to the station so our departure was very straight forward, except the train was running 10 minutes late and we had 10 minutes to make the connection in Messina. We got in touch with Byway by our dedicated WhatsApp customer service connection to check what would happen if we missed the next train. Hebe at Byway identified two later trains and promised to be on hand if we needed her to change our reservation, that took all the stress from the situation.

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Sicily 2025

Milan

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Just passing through!

The train from Paris to Milan was very comfortable and the seven hour journey passed easily. The scenery through the Alps was spectacular and we enjoyed sharing it ‘live’ with our friend Gail in rural Ontario, it really is a small and easily connected world.

About an hour before we arrived in Milan we received a text from Franny, an old friend from Cambridge, by sheer chance she and her partner John were also heading towards Milan on a train from Brindisi with a one night stop before catching the train to Paris the next morning. Thanks to the wonders of WhatsApp and Google Maps we arranged to meet for dinner and  spent a couple of hours catching up on each others news.

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