I had the privilege of travelling for 8 days with my Mum earlier this year.  As a birthday treat for Mum, we took off to the Big Smoke for an overnight, taking in the Mythraeum, a steak dinner, box seats at The Mousetrap (I won’t say who dunnit!) and drinks in the Betjeman Arms.

We then indulged my passion for trains and a chance to explore Italy in May, which is a lovely thing to do, even during the start of what turned out to be heatwave and drought we are still living with (The world is on fire.  I am sick of living in unprecedented times.  These are entirely predicable times.  The world is on fire).

We headed Milan for a couple of days; this included the park around the Castello, which has a cafe with the excellent Ringy sign outside. I lost every time I ran past it – the park was a great space for a daily run, and meant I could support a load of runners undertaking the Milan Half Marathon or 10 km – an organised road race! It was lovely to be amongst an organised race (by accident, as I’d done in Paris the month before). I stopped and cheered for complete strangers, knowing how much cheering from strangers really lifts the spirits. If I’d known, I’d have taken the cowbell I was given as a Paris marathon spectator (needs more cowbell!)

The technology museum in Milan is ace and well worth an explore it’s in an old cloister and a couple of warehouses and has many of Italy’s firsts – first water and steam powers turbines, first locomotives, first bikes. Really interesting stuff.

Then on to Rome. I took on the bus system and, after a day and frenzied research, I’d cracked it. The metro system is excellent too and is great to get to the Colosseum, but less so for areas such as Piazza del Popolo as directly. We took the underground tour of the Colosseum, and it was well worth it – it is a backstage pass to one of the grandest and oldest stages. You are able to walk amongst the surprisingly tall floor support columns, see the cages where tigers, bears and gladiators waited to emerge and see a rebuilt stage trap – a wooden lift capable of lifting 40 tonnes of scenery, animals, fighters, chariots, what you will.

Our tour then took us into the central Colosseum and the internal rings of seating. We were allowed on the viewing platform overlooking the excavated cellars we had just been and able to look up to the seating that used to seat 20,000 spectators. The scale is vast and you can take it properly in. In our tour group, there was a fellow mother and daughter partnership, from the USA. We looked to be similar ages, too. The mother was proper short – shorter than me. When we walked up steep, tall steps to get on to the viewing platform, she took a couple of seconds to come up to Mum and me, and say “I’m so proud of us! I counted them – 26 steps! We are doing so well!”

I loved her. Her daughter was beaming with pride, and I was, in a British, abashed way. It was 30 degree heat, even in early evening when we did the tour, and we managed it and took the opportunity to properly explore the views above and below, in the way a gladiator once would have been able to.

We took in a lot of Rome and, as ever with a capital city, barely scratched the surface. However, taking in the Castel Sant’Angelo, the Museum of Rome, the Galleria Spada, the Palazzo Navona, Hadrian’s Temple and the Forum is a good haul for a few days in Rome! We ate out a couple of nights, including a place that gave a free glass of strawberry wine to each customer – an unexpected treat.

I had adopted a routine of getting up early each morning for a run – well, a jog. I always love exploring a city on foot and Rome is crackers for exploring – turn a corner, another Roman ruin. Seriously. We were staying near a section of the old city wall, which included gates and Roman brick buildings, arches, all sorts, just in the neighbourhood. Tram lines now run through the wall, even use the archways as shelter. See Exhibit B, above.

Then on to Turin. I remember really liking Turin on a previous trip and really enjoyed this time round, too. We stayed in a glorious hotel – one of The Main in Seat 61’s recommendations and did not disappoint – what is billed as a budget hotel a short walk away from Porta Susa railway station is a B&B on two floors of a 1900s town house, with a breakfast terrace and good sized bedrooms. We had booked two en suite bedrooms as a family party. We were highly surprised when the receptionist showed us to our rooms in an apartment with a living room, kitchen and two balconies, and two separate bathrooms, said that it was ours and left us to it! There was a complimentary bottle of wine and local chocolates each and an excellent breakfast in the morning. We noticed there was a pizzeria just a couple of doors down form the hotel after our afternoon in Turin so had pizza and wine for dinner that evening, enjoying the space of the living room and facilities of the kitchen. We hopped on bus to the river and took in the views of churches on the mountainside and the Piazza Vittorio Veneto at night.

An early morning run took me back in to the centre and helped me scope out the entrance to the Palazzo Reale (third photo) for our main visit for our stay. The palace is vast and so much to take in. The restaurant in the corner of the gardens is ace – lovely to have some fresh pasta as our last lunch in Italy. The waitress was so friendly when I asked about dessert – I didn’t want full dessert but just wanted a couple of biscuits and coffee – she rustled up a little plate of treats and told me all the local names of them.

I had noticed how friendly people in Turn were – I felt really welcome and people were proud to show off their city. After the lovely lunch, it was back on a long-distance train, back up to Paris. The route through the Alps takes in a number of stunning views and it was great to sit and think and write on the train. We also had a train dinner of pizza and wine again, and raised a glass to a dear friend on her Mum’s birthday – I knew how fortunate I was to be making this trip with my Mum and it was lovely to take a moment to remembers Mrs A and her insatiable curiosity about the world.

A day in Paris is always worthwhile. Ours was spent at the Musee d’Orsay (last photo), the Place des Vosges with an ice cream, dinner at Bastille (back at an old friend – Hippopotamus, first introduced to me by Mum’s sister) and then an evening boat trip on the Seine as the sun was setting. A great time to be seeing some of they key sites of Paris, with the Eiffel Tower all lit up at the end.

The next day was Eurostar and home to our respective bases. Throughout the trip, we tried a number of different train services and classes of travel including including many of the slightly-more-than-standard-class-but-not-business class – free snacks and drinks were lovely, the leg room and comfy seats definitely worth it, often only 5-10 euros each more. It is great to write this in retrospect, look through the photos and appreciate the trip for what it was and the experience it gave us together.

I’m so proud of us.