please empty your brain below

I did wonder if you were away, what with the shorter post on Saturday. Anyway, hope you enjoyed your trip!
Also, you seem to have had a thing for visiting European cities this year - Brussels, Berlin and now this one.
Given the reference to O Level languages, and ruling out Brussels and Berlin, my bet would be Vienna.
The mild, dry weather and taking a train to the airport suggests to me that you took an O Level in Italian. But where ever, it's good to have a change frm the grey skies of London sometimes.
Christopher
www.christopherbellew.com
The south of France - Nice/Cannes or a long shot - Rennes?
Not capital cities. I'll say Vienna(?)
Another perfect blue sky morning here. A nun just popped out of the chemists across the square.
Lots to see, in Vienna or Rome or Athens or Madrid (not Constantinople). As I recall, each has a train to/from the airport.
Oh, I was going to put in Istanbul, but wasn't sure about the train, and then forgot to take out the parenthesis too, which now looks a bit odd.
I am taking a guess that you are in the beautiful city of Salzburg.
Retracting my earlier guesses! Now money firmly on Roma!
I think French and German have traditionally been the most popular languages for O-level/GSCE, though with Spanish catching up in recent times.

After accounting for previous destinations, this supports Vienna, with Madrid as second favourite.
I'd go for Vienna or Monaco. The O-level is really most likely to be French or German. Andorra and Vaduz have no trains, and we've done Brussels and Berlin this year, and Paris earlier. Outside chance of Luxembourg, Ljubljana, Prague, Budapest, Bratislava or Warsaw, where German might be of some use, at least with older residents.
Bordeaux?
Definitely Rome!
My money's on Rome too. Italian O level though? Erm, mysterious.
the photo on Twitter definitely suggests Italy to me
Just what I was going to say, Caz. Those roof tiles look Italian.
The nun sounds Italian too! But Lisbon could be a possibility
I'm going with somewhere German speaking too.
I've just noticed that he didn't say a national capital. So it could be Stuttgart, Munich or Dresden. (I think all the other state capitals in Germany lack direct flights to the UK). Or it could be Innsbruck or Salzburg, as state capitals in Austria.
The photo on Twitter is definitely taken in Rome, as Caz pointed out earlier. The church on the left is almost certainly Santa Maria della Scala, in the Trastevere district.
Doubt Monaco (though the city is Monte Carlo). The nearest airport is Nice, and there is a station nearby, which I've used a few times, but it's a hell of a trek round a dreary estate of edge-of-airport office blocks.
Joachim beat me to it while I was doing my own research! Spot on - Piazza della Scala, Rome.
I have used French to get parking advice in an Italian city. The people I asked all thought they spoke English, but I couldn't make sense of what they were saying, until one asked me "Parlez-vous francais?"
Istanbul is not a capital (though Constantinople, of course, was). And the capital city of Monaco (though it fills the entire state) is indeed Monaco: Monte Carlo is a district within the city.
Taking the O-Level skills into account I'd say Dublin ;-)
Rome. That's the newly restored Trevi Fountain (see it at night, it's breathtaking).

"You do not visit Rome. You discover it."
Ok, I'm too late we now knew that it was Rome (and DGs O-Level must be in Italian).

Otherwise I would have suggested Vatican City, capital of the Vatican and O-Level in Latin.
I'd guess an O-level in Latin rather than Italian - surely still of some use even outside the Vatican, not least at Roman sites such as the Colosseum.

Mary Beard recommends the sculpture overflow from the Capitoline Museum displayed at the old power station at Centrale Montemartini, on the Via Ostiense, beyond the Circus Maximus and the Pyramid of Cestius. But that is a bit recherché for a first visit. You have to do the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Vatican. And the buses and the Metro. With a bit more time, a trip on the train to Ostia Antica is great.










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