Dublin for the Weekend

The flight from Ciampino lasted almost 3 hours and, as soon as we arrived we headed to the exit of the not-small Irish airport. At the exit we took bus 747 which for €6 takes you to the center making only 2 stops. The 748 works too and both leave about every 10 minutes. It's possible, for the same amount, to buy a daily Rambler ticket, at the machines under the shelter, which allows you to get on and off all city buses. But we weren't interested, because we had the hotel in the center and we were in a hurry to get to the city, so we bought the ticket directly from the driver. Careful, the drivers don't give change, but give an equivalent voucher that can be presented at some points of the city bus company to get the money; we found one near the Spire on O'Connell Street, in short right in the city center.

The journey lasted about half an hour, more than anything because there are a lot of traffic lights and because roundabouts were born in Great Britain and slowly imported throughout Europe, but….they never set foot in Ireland! We got off right at O'Connell Street and from there we reached the hotel in 5 minutes on foot. Just time to drop our bags and we set off again without even trying to have lunch, even though it was 1:30 pm, because the museums all close by 5 and in summer not much later…so we didn't want to waste time. We headed straight to the south part of the center (the reference point is the Liffey river) in search of the National Museum of Ireland because I had read that the Celtic Gold collection was worth it. The museum isn't very big and, like all national ones, is free, and the collection in question is truly fantastic.

Then we went to Merrion Square, a square surrounded by houses dating from the Georgian period (from the early 1700s to the early 1800s), the "in" area of Dublin, where, at number 1, Oscar Wilde's family of origin also resided. They're all buildings of at most 4 floors, made with reddish bricks that should be Palladian in style!In reality, for me, from the neo-classical style of our Palladio, they only took the doors, or rather the columns that surround them and the architrave that tops them….because the doors themselves are all in beautiful vivid colors contrasting with one another. In short, the colored doors we've all seen in photos of Dublin! Then we went to visit the house at 29 Fitzwilliam Street, which is on the corner with Merrion Square. A Victorian house, with authentic furniture, truly cared for in its details and where Mr.

Michael, an elderly man from another time, acted as our guide. A gem not to be missed. After that, we started wandering around the center, in particular around Grafton Street, a pedestrian area full of shops and venues, and we had confirmation of what we'd read: Dublin is a truly young and dynamic city. By then we were famished and since we knew that Pubs serve food no later than 8 or 9, we felt authorized to look for one for dinner...already at 6:30 pm...! We crossed Temple Bar, the street famous for its pubs, and went to eat at the Porterhouse, a nice place all in wood where, however, being also a brewery, they didn't have Guinness, but only their own beers, excellent by the way, one of which made with oysters. Lively and noisy atmosphere, it's even hard to find a table, but it was worth it. After dinner we went straight to the hotel, exhausted.

Also the next day we had an appointment at 8:45 near the hotel with the Collins bus, for an organized trip, so it was better to rest.

We tried the full Irish Breakfast, which..well...is a bit excessive: eggs and bacon, 2 different types of pudding, tomatoes, beans and sausages..plus, optionally, the usual hot drinks, warm bread, butter, jam, muesli, yogurt, prunes, grapefruit or fruit juices! And we overdid it. Then, we went to the appointment with the bus, 10 minutes on foot from our hotel, and, despite being early, we found it already there. I had organized everything from Rome, with the help of the travel accounts I had read; the site consulted was where I booked the trip online for €27 per person (€3 discount until January 31), while organizing through Discoveryireland, the official tourism site, there was no discount and it came to €30.

They even sent me an email to tell me they had received the money sent by credit card...! The trip was to Glendalough, a monastic site on the Wicklow Hills and, subsequently, a walk and visit to Kilkenny, a small town of clear medieval origin southeast of the capital. The Collins bus waited for the other customers and, right on time, headed to the other 4 stops to pick up the others who had booked the organized tour. For once, no Italians on board and lots and lots of Spaniards.

The guide, Jerry, talked a bit too much and too fast, so I understood an increasingly lower percentage as the day went on and we were worn out with tiredness....anyway a peculiar character! The gist was: long live the Celts and long live the Vikings..and death to the Roman Empire, which thought it was so great and didn't deserve it! Whatever...! Meanwhile, little was left of the monastic site...maybe because it wasn't built by the engineers of the Urbe????? Back to the trip, for us it was a bit of a disappointment compared to expectations, but we'd do it again anyway. A disappointment right away was the landscape, which really has nothing to do with the English countryside nor with the magical Scottish moors. At Glendalough, from the ruins of St.

Kevin's monastic site, complete with a typical Celtic cemetery, we were supposed to head towards a nearby small lake, but the heavy snowfalls and rains of this winter had destroyed the bridge leading to the place and so, unfortunately, this part of the trip was skipped. Then, with the bus we went to see the hills where they filmed many movies, including Braveheart and King Arthur, and this landscape too was disappointing. The town of Kilkenny is nice and we can say the castle is absolutely not worth the €6 ticket. We knew it, but we tried to visit it anyway! We ate salmon, shrimp and, finally, Guinness in one of the many pubs and then we went to the appointment with the guide to return to the city. Around 6 pm we were dropped off at the Liffey river, near O'Connell Street; we made a quick stop at the hotel and headed off in search of a pub.

The problem is that there are so many, that it was hard for us to choose one. We went into a side street off Grafton Street, where we finally had the Irish Stew, the Irish stew, which we had heard about and it was truly tasty. I must add that we, when we travel, forget pasta, pizza, coffee or other Italian wonders, to immerse ourselves completely in the local realities...we did it even in less safe countries and in the middle of the Egyptian desert. We haven't always been spared from bad stomachaches, but it's part of the game: a country is also its food and I deeply pity all those who, as soon as they arrive abroad, immediately go looking for the Italian restaurant. Which then inevitably turns into a big disappointment!

On Monday morning the national museums and little else were closed. We had a lighter breakfast and took bus 123 to Kilmainham Gaol, quite far out from the central core of the city. Here you can only do the guided tour and we weren't in luck, because the guide, a girl named Liz, was a real whiny broken record and spoke very fast, so here too I started to tune out completely. On top of that, it was terribly cold and she kept us there for more than an hour. I read in the guest book that Donal (without the d) would have been a guide of another sort... what a shame! Anyway, the prison is interesting and is closely connected to Irish history (maybe that was the boring part... she told us everything about it), and they also filmed the movie "In the Name of the Father" here, which we adore and have seen many times.

Once the tour was over, we warmed up outdoors and after 3 or 4 stops on the same bus, heading towards the city centre, we reached the Guinness Storehouse, also booked from home, online. That way you pay €13.50 instead of 15 and the ticket must be used within a year of the booking date, so it's very handy and practical, as well as convenient. Besides, I read that at other times there are terrible queues to get in and this lets you skip them: you go to the machine, enter the code you got online and it spits out your ticket. These Guinness people really know what commerce is. Inside they give you headphones with an audio guide in every language and the visit begins. It's not a real museum, but it gives you some understanding of this world, its organisation, its history and the genius with which everything has always been managed and promoted.

On the top floor, in the famous Gravity Bar, from which you see the city at almost 365 degrees, they give you a pint of Guinness which, according to many experts, is the best in the world. This Storehouse is located inside a real industrial citadel, it's incredible, but it seems like a world of its own, running with the precision of a Swiss watch and the brand... everywhere. From here we walked to the 2 main churches, first Christ Church and then St. Patrick's, both with an entrance fee and both Protestant. We liked the second much more than the first. Along the way we had also passed by St. Audoen's church, unfortunately closed to the public. We also passed by Dublin Castle and the Dublinia museum, but this time we preferred to follow the advice of the travellers who came before us and didn't visit either of them.

We reached the famous Trinity College, commissioned by Elizabeth I of England, whose inner courtyard didn't give me at all those feelings that many go on about and that instead the colleges of Oxford definitely gave me. Nor did the Book of Kells, a collection of the 4 gospels illuminated by monks in the 8th century and considered one of the most precious books in the world, seem like such a marvel to me. Evocative, on the other hand (thank goodness!), was the Long Room of the Library, a hall 65 metres long and containing about 200,000 books! Once this visit was over, this "working" day was over too, so we went to Bewley's Oriental Café, on Grafton Street, to enjoy a classic tea accompanied by a scone each. The place is characteristic and historic, the atmosphere is just right...

but the scone was as heavy as a brick and sat on my stomach and on the tea! So the evening ended badly with a big stomach ache......

This is the last day, the plane takes off at 16:05, so we decide to take the bus to the airport at about 13:30 at the latest. We have breakfast, leave the room and the luggage at the hotel and go back to the castle area, to visit the Chester Beatty Library, which according to the Lonely Planet guide is the most beautiful museum in Dublin. The library opens at 10 and exhibits a collection of ancient sacred writings from the main monotheistic religions: exquisite, truly astounding! All in a very beautiful atmosphere, which I don't want to describe in words because I feel I'd diminish its magic. If you love books even a little: GO! Forget the Book of Kells....... In the sense that here they don't put on airs and they have equally incredibly precious material. We came out very satisfied, walked to the Docks quarter and came back by bus.

We wandered around the shops a bit and then went back to the Porterhouse to have lunch and drink our last Irish beer. At 13:30 we were at the hotel and at 14:30, with ample but reassuring time to spare, inside the airport.

All in all, I was somehow disappointed, but Dublin isn't bad, it's worth seeing anyway, if a good opportunity for a flight comes up. Otherwise, maybe it's only worth it if you go with the prospect of visiting all of Ireland. In my opinion, it doesn't even take itself too seriously, in the sense that it's a city without grandiose pretensions, it knows what it is and knows what it has. And, besides, if many of its famous citizens found it too small, there's evidently a reason.