René's old blog

René's old blog

Whatever I feel like posting, whenever

This site goes back some twenty-five years, so it is bound to be full of stale links and irrelevant information. It is, at best, updated irregularly.

  • It was all over the news here in Italy last night. Apparently archaeologists in Rome have found the Lupercale on the Palatine hill. This is incredible news for anybody interested in ancient history. The Lupercale is legendary in more than…

  • I’m on my way north now. I left Palermo Sunday evening with the ferry to Naples, from where I went by motorbike to Rome. The crossing was eventless, the ferry mostly empty. The ferry arrived in Naples early, around 6:30,…

  • A few days ago I went for a walk here in Palermo, and I took some photos along the way. The road was from Piazza Don Bosco towards Piazza Noce and back. A funny bending fence A nice calm sidewalk…

  • Italian shops are often called something ending in “-eria”. A bookshop is a libreria, from libro which means book. A pizzeria makes and sell pizze (plural of pizza), a gelateria sells gelato, icecream, and so on. An osteria sells hospitality,…

  • I have understood from a previous post that Wendy travels without a mobile phone, and hence have limited internet access. Here is how you get a mobile phone with internet access in Italy. There are three mobile phone operators in…

  • The four weeks I paddled in Sardinia is the longest kayak journey I have been on so far, and the first time I have travelled for so long with somebody I knew so little. Things went very wrong between Wendy…

  • I have bought a new camera, a Pentax Optio W30. I’ve been very happy with my W10, and frankly, I’m amazed it has survived the abuse I’ve put it through for as long as it did, so I have no…

  • My camera is dead. It’s been a bit flaky for a while, the flash stopped working a while ago, and after my paddle with Francesco Ravasio on Friday it wouldn’t turn on anymore. I’ve tried everything, but no go. It’s…

  • I’m in Palermo now. I spent a couple of days in Fertilia, first to make up my mind, then to figure out what to do with all the gear I had there. The first night I slept in the open…

  • As mentioned previously, I have had some problems with my Telecom Italia Mobile prepaid mobile phone account. It ran out of money, I put in €50 and was told my account was still at €0. My assumption was that the…

  • I have a TIM sim card in my mobile phone here in Italy. It’s a pre-paid card, so I have to ‘recharge’ it regularly. I did that today. I bought a €50 card, scratch the field to get the number,…

  • I have the dubious pleasure of using a Vodafone Wi-Fi hots at the Jolly Hotel at Cagliari. It must be the lousiest hotspot I have ever used. I am consistently thrown off every few minutes and association attempts fail three…