Rome II
Friday June 19, 2026
My holiday blogs are always so full of exciting events and I love looking back on fond memories, years after they’re written. I also captured the sad time I had in Rome the last time I was here, due to food poisoning on the first night. Thankfully, many of those memories have been rewritten (or downright erased) and my week has so far been excellent, albeit very hot.
On Monday, I took the metro out east to catch a connecting bus to Tivoli. As you know, “Do as the Romans do”, so I didn’t bother tapping my card when entering the bus as no one else did. Tivoli is an hour east of Rome, nestled in the mountains with the Aniene River flowing through. Its incredible scenery attracted the money of several aristocrats who built lavish villas, the most famous being that of the Este family, Villa d’Este.
The villa didn’t open until 2pm so I had a few hours to kill. I walked around the town center, and stumbled upon Villa Gregoriana, built for the pope who commissioned the water overflow tunnel that prevents flooding of the river. In the 1800s, severe flooding damaged the town due to the river collecting rainwater from all the surrounding mountains. In addition to the beautiful cascade of the Aniene, there’s the grand fall, an 80m high manmade waterfall that takes the water from the tunnels and deposits it into the valley below.
Villa d’Este takes this water concept and expresses it with hundreds of ornate fountains. In addition to the beautiful gardens, there was a Chinese art exhibit on display, showcasing similarities and parallels between the art in China and the ones in the villa.
There were mostly tourists on the bus back, so I went to tap my card and it declined. It suddenly occurred to me that my transit card may not have been valid for this bus since it is such a popular tourist route. Instead, I got off and waited for the next bus, and followed the locals on who didn’t tap their cards. An hour later, I was safely back in Rome.
On Tuesday, I was up early to get to the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. It was relatively quiet, the crowds wouldn’t materialise until opening time at 8.30am. The ticket lady said I had enough time to start with the Mamertine Prison and then go to the Colosseum, and then sassed me when I asked if I could do the Colosseum first. She was right though, my visit took 15 minutes. The Mamertine Prison is where the apostle Paul is said to have been held (and was recently the subject of a sermon by my Italian pastor in Toronto), and all you can really see of this is a typical jail cell which has a hole in the roof where food for the prisoner can be lowered.
I spent the next 90 minutes in the Colosseum, listening to the audioguide talk about the world’s largest amphitheater and one of the Modern Wonders of the World. The Flavian Amphitheatre, as it was known then, remains Italy’s most visited touristic site, its presence and size dominating the Palatine Hill area. While I had visited the Colosseum when I was here in 2017, I barely remember what I saw in the Roman Forum, so I spent a good deal of time wandering around there that day. The ruins are fascinating, and the tales they tell so captivating. The view from the Palatine Hill was awesome too, but I was quickly becoming hungry and tired as the harsh heat had intensified with the sun overhead.
I headed to Largo di Torre Argentina to grab some food from a nearby bakery known for its pizza bianca, then tried to see if I could get into the cat sanctuary. With the heat so strong and no shade, I decided to return the next day, and instead headed home to rest until the evening. Closer to 7pm, I took the bus to the Aventine Hill to watch the sunset and had dinner in Travestere before heading back. On the way, I stopped by the “Gay Street” near the Colosseum where a crowd had gathered to watch a drag show outdoors. I stayed long enough to sing along to Huntrix’s Golden, and then caught the last metro train home.
By Wednesday I could feel myself running out of steam for doing long distances by foot, so it was a very slow Wednesday. I wandered by the Tiber River from Castel Sant’Angelo to the Vatican, just seeing if I could step foot momentarily in a different country. Alas, the crowd to go through the security screening was too large so I abandoned the idea, instead just admiring St Peter’s Basilica from the Via Della Conciliazione. Around noon, I returned to the Largo Di Torre Argentina cat sanctuary to meet the felines. They house nearly 80 cats, most of them permanently quarantined indoors due to disease and disability. On a blisteringly hot day like this, the cats out in the ruins will usually only be active in the cooler times around dusk and dawn, but there were two hanging around that I got to pet. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping like the cats I’d just seen, but when I woke up, there was a massive downpour and thunderstorm. Thankfully it only lasted less than 15 mins, but it made the city very muggy instead of cooling it down.
I did something wild on Thursday. I took a bus to a tiny town called Rocca Di Papa and hiked up the nearby mountain, Monte Cavo. This time, I was more prepared with the ticketing, and bought one from the ticket office for €1.30 (this is absurdly cheap when you look at how expensive it is in Toronto). The bus took us south for an hour and dropped us at the central plaza, with views of the lake and towns below. I started hiking up the steep, narrow streets, grateful for the shade of the buildings, eventually reaching the path leading to the top of Monte Cavo.
Each step I took sent some lizards scrambling for safety into the nearest rock crevice; meanwhile a myriad of colourful butterflies fluttered aimlessly around me. I reached the first landmark on the trail, some iron-cut silhouettes of animals, presumably ones you can find in the area. Among them were owls, hedgehogs, foxes, wild boar and wolves, which made me slightly nervous. There were a handful of others that I passed by on the trail. I continued to a viewpoint overlooking both lakes, Albano and Nemi, and then to the summit, but there was not much there.
I started back down, reaching the public road going back to Lake Albano, but it seemed too dangerous to walk with no footpath, so I sought an alternative route through the forest. Eventually I managed to cross into the volcanic rim route, which would lead me back to the train station at Castel Gandolfo. This hike was much more rugged, with sheer cliff drops to my left and right. At one point in time, I saw two wild boar on the ledge below, who bolted as soon as they heard me. There was also a wild cat who hopped into the tall grass as I approached. But it felt like the most dangerous points were back on the road after the trail had finished. Weirdly enough, the best views of the lake were from car parks or terraces where the trees had been cleared out. The lake is incredibly scenic, vividly blue with green hues so typical of the Mediterranean. After almost four hours on one hell of a walk, I successfully made it to the train station. It would have been nice to go down to the lakeside to soak my feet in the water, but the next train was in 20 minutes, so I just waited at the station and caught the train back to Roma Termini.
As my time in Rome draws to an end, I feel like I’ve done the Eternal City justice. Not having to bother with all the main tourist sites was a bonus, since I’d done them all before, but it was still nice to revisit the Colosseum, and especially absorb the atmosphere and party vibe around that area. Food was excellent, a huge step up from the last time. Well satisfied with pizza and pasta for a while, but I won’t say no to another gelato and tiramisu!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:43am on Friday June 19, 2026 :: 0 comments :: 
Barcelona and Rome I
Wednesday June 17, 2026
I arrived into Ponta Delgada early on Wednesday morning in transit to Barcelona. I was somewhat nervous about whether Europe’s new Entry/Exit System would be functional enough for me to get through immigration on time to catch my connecting flight. The staff at the airport were routing people in different, seemingly random directions - some to the automated kiosks, some to the immigration officers. I got sent to an officer, who took my fingerprints and my photo, and sent me on my way into the Schengen area without any fuss.
Arrival in Barcelona was smooth. I took the metro to Sant Marti and met up with Owen, somewhat impressed that I had managed to do this without GPS. After talking and catching up for a bit, we headed out for a stroll to the beach, before circling back to the Clot area for some tapas for dinner. We got some gelato from the market and we headed back for the night.
I tried to force myself to wake up early the next day, even though I had been awake from 3am to about 6am. Bea and Owen had been talking about a fancy new restaurant that opened up last week in Tibidabo, and I was super keen, so we made a booking and headed off soon after. We stopped by Sagrada Família for a quick photo; the reflecting lake was unfortunately fenced off due to the pope’s visit the day before, but it was still impressive to see the completed exterior with the Tower of Jesus Christ.
I’ve been to Tibidabo a few times and I love the view of the city from there, and I was looking forward to trying some great Catalan food. It was indeed phenomenal, with several of the waitress’s recommendations on point. We were both stuffed. We made our way back down the mountain on the funicular and I stopped by at the big supermarket to grab some ingredients for lunch the next day, since I would need to be at the airport at that time. At night, we grabbed some light Galician tapas and headed to the Montjuic Fountain for their music and light show. I swear the timing could not have been more perfect - as we arrived, they started playing Circle of Life with some beautiful sunrise colours being projected on the water, and this launched into a ten minute Disney medley including A Whole New World, Colours of the Wind, Beauty and the Beast, Under the Sea, Be Our Guest and the Bare Necessities. On our way home, we stopped by Sagrada Família again, just to take some photos at night.
The next morning, I followed Owen to his office and dropped my luggage with him, then promptly made my way to my favourite chocolate cafe in the Gothic Quarter for a suizo and a xuixo. I was completely over saturated with sugar so I decided to skip the gelato and instead went back to Montjuic to admire the views of the city. I went back to pick up my luggage, said my goodbyes to Owen, and went to the airport. I cleared security in under 20 minutes and I was off in the air to Rome.
As I exited Rome Fiumicino Airport, I was greeted with a horde of people at the train station to the city. I overheard a lady say that nothing was operating due to fire on the tracks. I looked at Uber pricing; it had surged to over €100. Next option was the bus. I managed to find a ticket for €4 so I quickly bought it and set out to find the departure point. The bus station was equally as chaotic as the train station, but eventually my bus arrived and I made it to the guest house, almost four hours after landing at the airport.
Dinner was simple. I just wanted something quick so I could crash out for the night, so ended up with some Roman-style pizza. On Saturday, I began my day at the Spanish steps, which I had missed the last time. It was busy, with tons of people posing and snapping photos, so I left pretty soon after. I continued on to Villa Borghese, which was a nice area to walk around, but not particularly interesting to me. From there, I took the metro to Cipro to grab some lunch from Bonci Pizzerium, then to Valle Aurelia for a short walk up to Monte Ciocci to burn off all those carbs and for a nice view of St Peter’s Basilica.
After resting a bit at the guest house, I went for dinner, and afterwards to the Colosseum to take some night pictures. I managed to capture Venus and Jupiter in frame, it seemed somewhat poetic that these Roman Gods were looking down on the city at this time. People had gathered in the plaza overlooking the area, listening to a busker singing karaoke. At first I heard him sing Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, but then he loudly announced to the cheers of the largely Spanish crowd that they should join him in singing Alvaro Soler’s Sofia! It was meant to be. What a fun time.
On Sunday I was up early to get to the Appian Way before the crowds. There were some others on the walk with me, mostly older locals who had come to enjoy the serenity of a Sunday morning. The road is paved in typical cobblestone fashion, with fields, houses, forts, catacombs and ancient structures dotted along the path that I walked. I ended up going for 90 minutes before taking the bus to the Park of the Aqueducts. In the afternoon, I visited Villa Doria Pamphili and then got some delicious gelato near Flaminio station.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:14pm on Wednesday June 17, 2026 :: 0 comments ::
Winter
Wednesday July 8, 2015
Winter is definitely here, with a sharp cold front hitting the country and plummeting the temperatures to 3.1C. Thanks to the wind chill, it currently feels like -4C. It was hailing a few moments ago, but now it seems to have quietened down, however the forecast remains grim for tomorrow and Friday. There is a small chance we could get some snow flurries in the CBD like in 2011, so hopefully that eventuates.
It's been ludicrously busy recently, with my project expected to submit a gold master candidate this Friday. I've felt like freaking out a couple of times because I've simply been overwhelmed by several things happening at once. Sometimes it's difficult to juggle the needs of people as well as the programming tasks assigned to me, but I think that my ability to stay calm and rational (or at least appear calm and rational) has improved over the years. I think the project is in an okay position, and we'll make our deadline, but it wasn't easy getting here.
Last month, there were a few birthday celebrations. We went to Gasworks in Miramar for Phil's birthday, where Mana and I had all you can eat ribs. Dale had his birthday at Matterhorn on Cuba St (which I've written a food blog entry about) and James had his birthday at his new place on Tory St. Lizzie had her birthday with some drinks at Goldings and karaoke at KZone, naturally. Rob had an "old man brunch" out in Elements at Lyall Bay last weekend, and it was so glorious and sunny that I was in shorts, in the middle of winter. I've been sightseeing with the guys too. We've been to the Brooklyn wind turbine, the Miramar gun emplacements at night, and the Wainuiomata Coast during the day. I tried the Flaming Dragon pizza from Hell Pizza, watched four workmates do a 1kg burrito challenge, had a massive pork hock from Grill Meats Beer and got some Moustache cookies delivered from Auckland. I also caught the Venus Jupiter conjunction, though not at their closest. It's amazing seeing the planets come together like that, two of the most prominent night sky features in clear view.
Last weekend was busy too. We went to Mishmosh to try out their food and see if it would be a worthy destination for Wellington on a Plate (not bad, would recommend!), then went to Fringe bar and sang Hakuna Matata at the public karaoke. On Saturday I went to two flatwarmings and watched the Hurricanes/Highlanders game. This weekend is going to be busy too, with the end of project celebration, a lunch at Strawberry Fare, and music at Central.
Phew.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:24am on Wednesday July 8, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
ANZAC Weekend
Monday April 27, 2015
Whew.
I've been on the flat hunt for a while, but have finally signed the tenancy for a studio apartment just around the corner from my current place. More than anything, it's the relief of having accommodation and knowing that it's all sorted. Flat hunting sucks. There are so many overpriced places out there, really looking to screw over potential tenants. This place is going to cost me twice what I'm currently paying, but it comes with a carpark and is in a good area of town, so I'm happy to go with it for the time being.
Jono and Charlotte have been in the country and visited Wellington this weekend. It's been awesome catching up with them at all the various good food places around Wellington - brunch at Spruce Goose, yum char at Majestic Cuisine, lunch at Fisherman's Plate, dinner at El Matador ($80 worth of lamb!), pastries from Louis Sergeant and ice cream from Kaffee Eis. We celebrated Andrew's birthday at Heaven's Pizza and then had karaoke at K Zone. We played a few games of Love Letters, messed around with the foosball table and table tennis table at work, and played some Sega Mega Drive too. It's been an action-packed weekend with lots of social interaction and I'm pretty exhausted from it all - but so worth it!
I went to the dawn parade on Saturday morning too. They estimated 40,000 people had turned up at 5.30am at the newly renovated Pukeahu National War Memorial to pay their tributes and to remember the tragedies that had occurred 100 years ago to the date. It was an emotional, poignant service, with a great sense of unity and respect. It was awesome to sing the national anthem with so many others in honour of those who had died at Gallipoli.
Work-wise, we had a pretty informative Tech Day last Friday where I gave a presentation of how my project had been going, as a follow up to the presentation I did earlier in the year on how I intended to plan the project. We had a good product review last Thursday and we're hitting alpha this Thursday, so things will be busy in the coming week!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:19am on Monday April 27, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Everything's Coming Up JLai
Sunday June 22, 2014
For the past two weeks, I've been the happiest I've been since arriving back in New Zealand. The combination of spending time with cool people, having delicious foods and a general relaxed and non-stressful work environment has improved my general enjoyment of life.
The Football World Cup is well under way, with several big names like Spain and England confirmed ejected and some dark horses like Costa Rica showing they are not to be underestimated. I'm not particularly following this closely, more just hearing results as they come. We watched the opening game Brazil vs Croatia at work, and the company treated us to a scrumptious breakfast of scones and croissants. We had a big push for an update to Flick Kick Football Legends to be out before the World Cup started, and we worked hard to meet deadlines, and the past two weeks we've purposely had it light on work to give us a break as we ramp down our efforts.
We were brunching at Spruce Goose last Saturday and played some Halo and Super Smash Bros Melee at work, I had music at Central Baptist on the Sunday and an otherwise quiet day. For Spicy Food Tuesday, we tried New Zealand's hottest pizza from Hell's Pizza - the Angry Dragon, with Dragon's Fury Sauce, Fresh Chilli, Huffman's Hotsauce and legendary Ghost Peppers (usually around one million scoville) - but was a little disappointed that it wasn't as hot as I expected.
Last night we had family group out in Island Bay and played Dixit, Fluxx and a bit of chess (which I have not played in a long time!) and a rather interesting church service this morning where we tasted the elements of passover: bitter herbs and a nut/fruit paste, unleavened bread, salted water and roast lamb (roast lamb at church! yummo!) but perhaps the most notable event in the past two weeks was the Logan Brown degustation.
We managed to get a Groupon voucher for four of us to spend at Logan Brown - a seven course meal for $75 (down from $125) and $55 for a wine match. The wine match was a very poor choice on my behalf, I ended up having a very bad time towards the end, but nevertheless I enjoyed the food during the night. Once again, the outstanding dish was the dark chocolate delice with caramel cornflakes that was exquisitely rich and dark, and brought me to tears from its pure unadulterated chocolatey goodness.
Two months until Wellington on a Plate!
Posted by Jeremy at 11:32am on Sunday June 22, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Tongariro Crossing
Monday February 28, 2011
One of my friends, Beth, works for the National Library and since they merged with the Department of Internal Affairs, they decided to organise a trip to do the Tongariro Crossing. On Friday night, five of us crammed into my little car and made our way north to National Park via a stop at the Mediterranean Food Warehouse in Paraparaumu for a pizza dinner. We eventually arrived around 11.30pm and I promptly facebedded.
Saturday morning started at the unearthly hour of 5.30am, which I didn't know existed. As we got to the mountain, first light began to break and the clouds reflected a magnificent golden hue that illuminated the path ahead of us.
The walk was easy to begin with, but we were greeted with a tough uphill, then a plateau, then another uphill that brought us to the peak of the track - the Red Crater. All this while we were shrouded in cloud and a chilly alpine gust made conditions uncomfortable but tolerable. Visibility was poor so there was not much sight-seeing but we did see the Blue Lake. It would have been just around noon when we arrived at the Ketetahi Hut. With Beth and Julie lagging behind, we decided to have lunch and take a nap. It was another 90 minutes to the carpark and that was it - the Tongariro Crossing conquered in 6 hours.
I'd met a girl called Claire from DIA on the bus over, and she introduced me to her friends Matt, Mike and Rose who Jono, Holly and I were walking most of the track with. I was glad to find out that Mike also worked in the private sector - quite a minority both on this trip and in Wellington. We all hit it off immediately and after the tramp, we celebrated with plenty of vodka, gin and cider while chillaxing in the spa pool. As the night went on, the joviality turned to rapturous song that only alcohol could fuel. We were so good, we started getting requests from the other visitors at the lodge! .
Sunday was a nice easy drive back to Wellington, via the giant Ohakune carrot, the Taihape gumboot, the Otaki factory outlets and a quick ice cream at Pauatahanui.
Awesome weekend was awesome.
Posted by Jeremy at 7:58am on Monday February 28, 2011 :: 0 comments ::
January Adventures
Wednesday January 21, 2009
I recently got Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and Kirby Super Star Ultra on my DS; and with the ever-addictive nature of Picross, it means more DS and less blogging. Anyway, here goes.
There's been a few events happening in Wellington. You will have heard in the news of the Gaza protests happening in Civic Square. I was passing by and heard the chants (they're quite catchy, I must say). One was "Israel, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!". And this happened for at least two days, we could hear it quite well from our office.
We also had a dinner voucher to the Red Tomato in Kelburn, which had featured on that restaurant revamp show on TV. Yeah, the pizza wasn't too bad, my only complaint was that the Mexican was smothered in coriander, which didn't really suit the overall taste at all. Coriander is a garnish and it shouldn't be the dominant taste on pizza.
We hung out on Oriental Bay one evening, having fish and chips on the beach. It was a really calm day; two of the group even went for a swim in the water. By 8.30pm, the water was warmer than the air, so it must've been incredibly difficult to come out.
Last weekend, it was Wellington Anniversary = Long Weekend, so we planned a trip to scale the heights of Mt Taranaki, somewhat reminiscent of the good ol' 4th Form Camp, when we hiked up Mt Ruapehu. Unfortunately, the weather did not permit, so we decided to make our way to Cape Palliser, the southernmost point on the North Island. Not only was it gloriously sunny, the wind was fantastic and hiliariously fun. We climbed 250 steps to the lighthouse and enjoyed the full blast of the winds on the cape. Three of the group even went swimming in the frigid waters, and we shared a picnic lunch on the rocks by the sea. Cape Palliser is also known for the seal colony, and you can check out the gallery for pictures.
This weekend, it's Parachute 09 up in Mystery Creek, and also Chinese New Year on Monday. It's going to be awesome.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:12am on Wednesday January 21, 2009 :: 0 comments ::