Touristy Trials and Tribulations

On the 3rd January I went to Viterbo, a town about 100km north of Rome in order to take an exam to get a licence to become an official Tour Guide (Accompagnatore turistico). The exam took place on the morning of the 4th in a public school in Viterbo. There were about 560 people taking the exam. The questions about laws and regulations were quite difficult. Due to other study and work priorities I didn't really study much for this exam...but I decided to go anyway to see what it was like. There was a huge diversity in the people taking the exam, aged from 20 to 60. Most of them had already sat the exam a few times previously.

Anyway, it was good to spend almost 2 days away. I managed to do some good shopping in the sales just before I got the train back to Rome on Thursday. On the way back I wrote a letter to Santa to stick on the "Albero dei desideri" (Christmas Tree of Wishes) in Termini station in Rome.

As well as a picture of the tree, I also took one of an old man trying to look up information on the train timetable. I took the photo as I thought it was a good spot of daily life. Not everybody has good enough eyesight to see the new signs.


On the morning of Friday 5th Shane and I tooka flight to Dublin in order to go and visit his family and have a late "Christmas Lunch" altogether with his parents, sisters and their families.

I plan on doing some more shopping here!

While we are in Dublin, my friend Maika will be moving to Bruxelles in order to start a new job. I'm very happy she's taking this opportunity, but at the same time I will be sad to see her go as I will miss her a lot. Good luck Maika!!! See you soon on Skype.

That's all for now.