This is most definitely not a car blog as I have little knowledge about anything relating to cars. But, as my friend Richard is in the market for a new car to match Liam’s decadent one (the one which cools the seats and gives massages) I did wonder whether this one might interest him. Apparently it’s a Fiat Topolino (a word in Italian which means little mouse), which is a modern electric version of an Italian classic car.
I hadn’t been able to understand this stone when I was at the amphitheatre site in Padua, but fortunately, ChatGPT can read Italian.
“Here were discovered in 1881 the foundations and structures of the ancient Roman amphitheatre, which could hold about 5,000 spectators. Thick masonry walls, reinforced with iron clamps, supported the tiers of seating which once rose above. After centuries of burial and oblivion, the elliptical plan of the arena re-emerges here in the place where it once stood.”
Perhaps it was rather fitting for a site that’s spent most of its life hidden under the soil that even the signage prefers to reveal its secrets to me only after I’ve left, but at least I’ve now discovered when the foundations were discovered.
These are the remains of the amphitheatre in Padua, there’s not much surviving other than this external wall but at least it gives an impression of the scale although quite a lot of imagination is needed to picture what this might have once looked like.
The amphitheatre survived in some form until the Middle Ages, when they promptly demolished it as they wanted the marble. That left them with a big pit and some lovely shiny new buildings at least.
When the Romans built this amphitheatre to entertain the locals, the city was known as Patavium. The construction started in around 70 AD and this entertainment centre was used by gladiators to prance about in, and often dying for their art. It was of an elliptical shape and would have been able to hold several thousand spectators.
I asked AI to create an image of what the amphitheatre might have looked like and this doesn’t feel unreasonable, although I’m not sure that it was quite as substantial as this. What’s left can be seen in Giardini dell’Arena, an area which was purchased by the Scrovegni family in the fourteenth century and they built quite a decadent chapel on the site.
Unfortunately, there’s not much Roman left in Padua, as the remains of this building and some bridge foundations are all that are left in terms of Roman monuments.
Just about every Italian city has a statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) and this one is located at Giardini dell’Arena. It’s not going to appear in any guidebooks as a site of some interest, but it’s an important reminder as to who was seen as worth remembering in late nineteenth century Italy.
The statue was placed here in 1886, a few years after the death of Garibaldi, famous for his biscuits and unification of a country. The marble statue was designed by Ambrogio Borghi (1848-1887) and it was originally placed in perhaps the more appropriately named Piazza Garibaldi, before the statue was moved here instead in the twentieth century.
As for why I’ve granted this statue the honour of an entire blog post which barely registers on the scale of global importance (that’s relevant to the statue and this blog actually), but these faintly trivial moments often linger far longer in the memory than the supposedly big ones, so that’s why it’s here.
For reasons relating to London Luton being my ‘home’ airport with regards to Wizz Air flights, and my Multipass letting me travel for £8.99 to their destinations, I pay close attention to any new routes that they’re offering.
And Wizz Air have just announced that they’re increasing their flight options from Luton and from March 2026 they’re flying to:
Chania (Crete)
Mykonos (Greece)
Rhodes (Greece)
Zakynthos (Greece)
Bordeaux (France)
Dortmund (Germany)
Tirgu Mures (Romania)
Rhodes is the one there that I’ve really been wanting to visit, because of the Knights Hospitaller who had it as their main base from 1310 until 1552, before they were forcibly moved to Malta which they held until 1798.
Dortmund I went to earlier this year with Wizz Air, but I had to get there via Warsaw, so that’s a handy new option opened up. I’ve been to Bordeaux a long time ago, but all of the other locations would be new to me.
How exciting 🙂
For anyone trying to follow this blog, my apologies for all of the jumping around (not literally, I’m too old for frivolity like that). I had a couple of weeks away to celebrate my birthday and then went back to the UK and thought I needed another little trip away. The one I decided on was to Italy and Venice, and I have already written about the movingseatgate flight…..
This means, here I am at Venice Mestre railway station as I fancied going to Padua. The station first opened in 1842, although the current and rather cramped station building opened in 1963.
The train journey cost me around £4.50 and I used the app to purchase the ticket. I deliberately boarded a regional train, even though there were quicker ones, as I like these double-decker trains and I don’t have to faff about with seat reservations.
I’m getting very used to these trains now, lots of space and power outlets are readily accessible.
And safely in Padua.
One of the Frecciarossa 1000 high-speed Italian trains which are in operation. These trains can fly around Europe at 400 km an hour, although the speed restrictions in Italy slow them down a bit.
After a peaceful night at the Ibis Styles Bucharest Airport, I decided to walk to the airport which is about a fifteen minute walk. Not all of the pavement was like this shall we say, but it was an easy walk and for those without baggage it’s not worth using a shuttle. Although I might not be the best touchpoint on this as I think that anything involving under one hour of walking isn’t worth getting transport for.
The Gendarme Heroes Monument at the entrance to the airport.
I had some minor issues finding my way into the airport terminal, which is evidently not designed for people walking there, but here’s the main entrance. It transpired that this was the arrivals terminal, but there is a connection via an internal corridor to the departures terminal.
As I had departed too early for the hotel’s free breakfast, they had instead given me a drink, yoghurt, croissant and I saved the banana and yoghurt drink for the airport. There’s no lounge here, so this just had to suffice.
I’m sure that the airport will look lovely when the work is finished, but it feels a bit like a building site at the moment.
The departures terminal.
There’s my flight, the 07:10 to London Luton.
There wasn’t much of a check of my passport at the airport, but the security there were all friendly and I was able to find a quiet spot to wait for my flight. There isn’t a great deal of space here, but the gate staff did their best to ensure that passengers weren’t left waiting.
This photo is from the arrival at Luton Airport, as there was an air bridge so I couldn’t get an external photo. The seating Gods had put me in 34F, which is a window seat, so that worked nicely for me. The aircraft is 9H-WNP and for about the tenth flight in a row, I have to report that I haven’t been on this one before either.
I was asleep for most of the flight, but everything I saw was well managed, professional and efficient. I really don’t understand how people have issues with Wizz Air on such a regular basis, as I find their cabin crew and pilots to be as good as on any other airline.
And that was the end of this trip, which started on my first birthday weekend with Liam, Ross, Richard and I going to Cardiff. After travelling to Italy, Slovenia, Albania, Greece and Romania (albeit the last three quite quickly) I had a train back to Norwich and some happy memories of a very lovely trip, with thanks to Steve, Bev and Susanna joining me in Italy and Slovenia.
I accept that this isn’t a perfect photo, but I had taken two flights and a rather packed bus from Bucharest Băneasa airport to get here. This is the Accor operated Ibis Styles hotel, which is where I was spending my final night of my near two week trip around various bits of Europe.
There was a very friendly welcome from the team member at reception and he mentioned about the free breakfast. When I said that I’d be leaving too early, he said that the hotel can arrange something in these circumstances, which was much appreciated. He also mentioned that they had upgraded my room and I very much liked this as well.
Very comfortable. The design felt both a bit 1980s and also modern, it had a homely feel that I liked. Ibis Styles are known for their slight quirkiness and they brand their hotels around a theme, with this one being air travel which feels appropriate.
My welcome drink of beer and also my welcome gift of fruit. I’ll be honest and say that I prefer chocolates, crisps, beer or random souvenirs, but a gift is a gift and was much appreciated. I also love seeing a Nespresso machine in a room, so I indulged in coffees.
Some of the room decoration.
I like traffic noise, so I opened the window happily, although the double glazing is very effective at keeping the noise out, including from the next door airport.
With my breakfast collected, it was time for the early morning walk to the airport. And more on both of those in the next post….
But, overall, this was an excellent hotel, with friendly service, clean rooms and no noise issues. I felt very welcome and after two flights in one day, with another one early the following morning, I felt entirely rested by the time I woke up. This is a hotel that I’d certainly be happy to book again when I’m next in the Bucharest area.
My Wizz Air flight had arrived into Bucharest Băneasa airport from Athens, which is the smaller of the two international airports in the city and one that I’ve never visited before.
I think it’s beautiful and it was immediately evident that this is an airport from the early days of international passenger travel. These are usually demolished or refurbished beyond recognition, so it was a delight to see that much of this one felt original.
This photo was taken in 1960 not too far away from where my previous one was taken. In the middle is Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the then Leader of Romania, with Nikita Khrushchev, the President of the USSR, with his hat. And there to the left of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej is a younger, and at the time less powerful, Nicolae Ceaușescu.
The departure hall of the airport. As a quick history of this airport, it was opened to passengers in 1920 and that makes it one of the oldest airports still in use in Europe. The current terminal building dates to the late 1940s, although it didn’t open until 1952. It was the country’s main international airport until Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport opened in 1969.
In 2012, it was decided to close this airport to passengers and concentrate just on business traffic, primarily as Bucharest Henri Coandă had taken all of the trade. However, this period was a time of a surge in budget airlines, more interest in visiting Romania as a country and growing business needs, so, in 2022 it reopened as a passenger airport.
And the approach road to the airport. I hadn’t realised when I landed here just how beautiful the airport was, so I’ll have to try and ensure that I fly from, or to, this airport again so that I can explore it a little more.
Having safely arrived in Athens from Tirana, I had a wait of just over three hours for my next flight. As Albania isn’t in Schengen, that meant I’d have to reclear security in Athens ready for my flight at 14:10 to Bucharest.
Wizz Air flights depart from the Satellite Terminal, which feels around eight miles away and it’s a compact area which really struggles with the number of passengers using it. Fortunately, the lounge in this terminal is much quieter and was a peaceful place to wait for my next flight.
Their hot food selection might have gone entirely untouched as I didn’t see anyone have anything from there and it was swept away at lunchtime.
My more basic breakfast snack.I realised that I had gone for a beer at around 11:00 in the morning, but I think the rules of alcohol don’t apply at airports. Also, as I’d been up since around 03:00, it felt like lunchtime.
The lunchtime cold food came out and this was what I was hoping for, Greek salad, chicken wraps and dolmadakia.
Lovely.
There are some decent views of the runways and also the actual airport for those passengers flying with airlines who didn’t have to use the Satellite Terminal.
I had a very peaceful couple of hours here, before going back out into the rather more bustling gate area.
There was some strict enforcement of bag size at the gate which led to the normal complaints of “it’s ridiculous, it’s only just too big” from some passengers after they’d be charged £80 or something. Far be it for me to judge, but if the bag is too big, then it’s too big, but most people caught out tend to have bags which hardly fit through the aircraft door, let alone the bag sizer.
My aircraft awaits.
Unusually for Wizz Air, we boarded via an air bridge, which meant I had to make efforts to work out the aircraft’s registration which was HA-LXH, yet another aircraft that I haven’t been on. I should probably find a new hobby to be fair than working out which aircraft I’ve sat in.
The seating Gods had given me a window seat near to the rear, so I waited for about a month for passengers to work out where they were sitting and then faff about for three hours putting their bag in the overhead lockers. I very much like the Wizz Air crew, as they get passive aggressive annoyed at passengers faffing about, which reassures me as flights need a small amount of panic about an on-time departure.
And we’re off.
It was a peaceful flight, no-one annoyed me and the announcements were clear and appropriate from the pilots. The cabin crew were friendly and efficient, so this is yet another post of delight about Wizz Air. For £8.99, I was very pleased with this flight, but I’m conscious that I’m noting that quite a lot.
Safely in Bucharest Băneasa airport, which I’ll post about separately as I really enjoyed flying into this location for the first time, being more used to the larger Bucharest airport which is nearby.
