Sunday, July 16, 2006

THE LAST POST - Sunday 16th July

So, what have the VF Five been doing since they arrived in Rome? WALKING - WALKING - WALKING!! From the Vatican to the Spanish Steps. From the station (close to our apartment) to the Trevi Fountains. From St Peter's to the Coloseum. We have walked the length of the Circus Maximus and around the Forum, Pantheon and Plazza Venezia. Syl and Marion did a two hour tour of the fabulous Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Too much visual input to even try to describe it all. We have been literally tripping over antiquities and have Roman overload! Some went on a serious shopping expedition through kms of alleys, side streets, main roads and malls. Cash is depleted and Credit cards stretched. And, the Duty Free shops loom! By the time we board flight LX 1733 to Zurich this evening, we will all have exceeded the 700km target we set before we left Durban. WELL DONE THE VF FIVE!!
On this journey we have learned that the Italian people are basically kind, friendly and helpful. They were always encouraging and expressed admiration for what we were doing. Our accommodation was always good which was a very pleasant surprise. From the B&B's to the Youth Hostals, the little hotels, apartments, convents, hospice, monastery - all have been clean and comfortable and reasonably priced.
We have learned that Italy in summer is as hot - if not hotter than South Africa. This was a big surprise but because we come from Durban which has a hot humid climate, we all coped with the excessive heat and humidity.
We have learned that coffee is cheaper if you drink it inside the coffee shop than it is if you sit down and drink it outside - .90c inside and E2.50 outside - huge difference! Italians serve their vegetables cold unless you ask for them to be heated. Ditto Cupucino coffee which is always served luke warm unless you ask for caldo (hot).
We learned that five very different women could work as a team (we said at the start "There is no 'I' in the word team") support each other, help each other, compromise at times, go with the majority, and get each other through difficult days. What a team we are! We are all SO proud of each other and of how well we did on this journey.
So, we would like to thank you all for sharing this journey with us through reading our BLOG and we would like to thank the Designer Boyz for posting our photographs and for keeping our posts in date order.
From a hot and humid Rome, this is the VF FIVE - over and out!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

And thank you all for posting so regularly on your blog; and keeping all of us at home up-to-date. Its been fascinating!

Well done to fabulous 5!!

See you soon
Mark and Cid

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your remarkable journey! Having read your blog avidly each day, following every up and down, it has been an awesome adventure of which you can all be proud. We have missed you and are looking forward to your return.
Well done to you all.
Best regards
Kim

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Ladies!

I have only been looking in on you for a couple weeks. But you have been an inspiration of me and my wife. We are walking over the Alps in August and down the FV in October and we have your words as inspiration. Thanks for putting all of it out there for us to read. I have already started our blog at Rome.WorksAndWords.com. I wish you all the best.

When we finished the Camino de Santiago in Finisterra, we said we had ended one life and were beginning a new life. And we did just that. Surly, your arrival in Rome is no less the end of one life and the beginning of an new one.

Have a wonderful life.

Peace,

Mike Metras
MikeM@WorksAndWords.com
Kisslegg, Germany

GollyGumDrops said...

Congratulations, a fabulous journey.

Anonymous said...

congratulations on an amazing, all-girl achievment
Jenny Pahl
Durban