Seize the Opportunities

 Month 6 - Bite 21

Planning is important, however being flexible or spontaneous on holiday can bring huge benefits too. We had earmarked St. Peter's Basilica for a return trip along with the Vatican Museum. Our first visit was with a wonderful guide and it was worth every penny, but there was so much to see and take in that we felt the need of more time. We hadn't done anything about tickets as we didn't know how we'd feel around crowds on our first trip abroad after COVID so mentally moved that visit onto another holiday.

Imagine our surprise when we walked over to St. Peter's Square and saw that the normally long and tedious queue for the Basilica was moving quite speedily. Queuing gets you in for free, but can take an hour or so - hence our delight at the quick pace. Abandoning what we had planned for the rest of the day we joined the tail and within 15-20 minutes we were inside St. Peter's with plenty to explore, including the crypt that hadn't been open on our previous visit.

You just have to grab opportunities sometimes and this was one!

Month 6 - Bite 22

Sometimes being flexible includes things that don't make it onto the 'Top 10 Tourist List'. When we were last in Florence we fancied getting out of the city and took a bus into the town of Fiesole. Wandering around looking for the bus stop led us through a lovely market with craft stalls as well as vegetables. Well, you just have to take the chance to get something unusual when you can don't you...

Having arrived at Fiesole there was an Etruscan/Roman site to explore, unexpected and quite easy on the pocket. Now if we hadn't taken a punt on going somewhere different we'd never have seen it!

To help us extend our 'off the normal track' fun our apartment owner gave us a book as we left to begin to look at other ideas for visits...

                                                 

Some great new ideas to look forward to!