Blog 28 – Italy

 

29th September 2016

Wow, 1st time ever to Italy! Arriving by airport bus in rush hour (if there is such a thing, it might be always rush hour). It was really hot, finding my way from the trainstation to my hotel, filthy with so much rubbish everywhere and I suffered from culture shock, after the quiet Azores. But after a good night’s sleep, and after sorting out some issues at the Hotel (like they gave me a double instead of a twin, then no blankets, just sheets, then lights didn’t work, no Wifi either), I felt better.

The rooms are awful for the price (ours is top floor with the open window), but we are living in this amazing Basilica, which makes up for the sparsity in the room.  Maybe they want to provide a feeling of monastic life? Back to a different airport the next morning to pick up Lil. We had arranged to meet Dorian and partner Juliet for lunch, who flew home to Oz the same night. Lucky timing. We had all worked together at the Maleny Credit Union many many moons ago, in the 90ties. Our friend Vanessa was also to be there, but had to cancel, due to sad circumstances with friends and family. We missed you Vanessa, but gave out a million in loans, discussed the merger and completed the end of months reports anyway!

  It was great catching up after so many years!Then Lil and I walked to the Colosseum, WOW. We knocked off 18kms today (30/9/16). Then Lil had a glass of wine and jetlag took care of the rest!However, nothing that a macchiato couldn’t fix the next morning.

1/10/16, pinch, punch October! Today was to be less walking and we took the Hop On-Hop Off bus around the city. Food, food, glorious food – Campo de Fiori.

Pasta in all colours and sizes.

And we thought selfies were a recent phenomenon!

Mexican artist Gustavo Aceves made this huge horse sculture, one of 40 horses displayed around Rome in September.

Trevi Fountain, nice 6 pack we thought. Floors and ceilings, could take endless photos of the beautiful mosaics everywhere.

Excavation sites near the Colosseum.Spanish steps, can you find Ursula in amongst the crowd?

St Fransis of Assisi.

Today we had an afternoon nap, to be able to see a bit of Rome by night. AMAZING!

3.10.16 My mother’s birthday, may she rest in peace. We took a train from Rome to Salerno and hired a car to drive to our airbnb near Amalfi. Driving in Italy and on these small mountanous roads! OMG! I don’t think you see a car without huge amount of scratches on the sides. At the hire place we pointed out (and took photos) of some scratches, just so we won’t get blamed since we had to pay 900 Euro bond.  But the guy just laughed, indicating those were nothing. Car only has 8600kms on the speedo and already damages. Must be the German in me…

4.10.16 Crossed another walk of my bucket list today: The Segieri degli Dei – The Pathway of the Gods. The Gods came down this path to get to the sea. This is us at the start in Bomerano:

And wow, it was so beautiful.

The air was a bit hazy. Down to Positano were 1600(ish) steps. I thought I did a lot of steps in Glendalough, with 679. Our knees started to scream slightly. This is Positano, so pretty. We took a boat back from there to Amalfi and it was great to see where we walked from the sea. What a coast line!

How on earth did they build those places onto/into the cliffs?

The Basilika in Amalfi, moorish influence again.

Beautiful sunrises every morning. This one at our airbnb near Nerano.

6.10.16 We moved on to  little beach near Nerano. So pretty and hardly any tourists at this time of year. But enough, so you don’t feel all alone in a restaurant, or all being closed. Today I hiked up to this little church, Santa Croce.

This is the view to Capri, where we are taking a boat trip tomorrow.

This is from Santa Croce down to our little beach, Marina del Cantone. Can you see Lil waving at the far end of the beach? She’s not feeling too well, so had to stay home and drink wine, no sorry cough mixture.

This is our airbnb. It doesn’t look much chop from the outside, but it’s the best airbnb EVER. It’s beautiful inside and has got everything you might ever need, including lots of food provided by our host Rafaele.

View at night from our window, and listening to the gentle waves is so much better than listening to snoring.

7.10.16 Storm/rain, boats cancelled and Lil sick anyway. So, rest day. 8.10.16 But all go today for our trip to Capri. And what a great day it was!

Leaving our little porto behind. Our airbnb is that pink place on the right. Arrival at the Marina on Capri Island. After wandering around, a bit of shopping at Prada for Lil: A limoncello shop and a little crocheted bird/cage. Capri feels a bit like a playground for the rich. The taxis are all coupe sort of limos, pink or purplish leather seats, brand name shops, a coffee is 5 Euros. Unfortunately the famous blue grotto was closed, not sure why, something to do with the storm yesterday. So we took a bus to Anacapri, wandered around there and the chairlift up to the Solaro, the highest spot on Capri at 586mts. Was great fun.

I do hate selfies, but…….. chairs were a bit far apart to get good shots of each other.

From the top of Solaro.Same rocks on the way back. We drove through this arch and you are supposed to kiss someone when the boat goes through, but I had noone to kiss, and didn’t want to pick a stranger, you know….

Day driving around a bit, Castellammere and Sorento. Beautiful mosaics again and I also like those little shop fronts.

And when you peek around corners you find stunning courtyards. Italy seems to be another country I’m falling in love with. Tomorrow we are returning our hire car and go by train to Assisi. We will meet our friend Vanessa there, who will be coming from Switzerland to join us for 4 days. This is great and I’m so happy she’s taking a few days out for herself.

More from Assisi and Brixen, in Tirol in my next Blog.