Arriverderci Roma!

Pompeii

This morning we arrived at Pompeii early so we could be among the first groups in before the streets are so crowded you can’t see a thing! It was already getting quite hot so we were all pleased with the idea of an early start. Our local guide, with his little flag, took us around and told us about this famous city. It’s thought about two thousand people perished by the toxic fumes in 79 AD. Plaster casts were made from the shapes of some of their bodies left in the volcanic ash (not by lava as many of us thought), where you could see the full horror of their death. The Ampitheatre is one of Italy’s most intact and also it’s oldest (dating from 80 BC and is still used for performances today.

The citizens of Pompei had an advanced system of plumbing and roadwork, with lead pipes and narrow roads for chariot use just about everywhere (they even had stepping stones across the road if it was raining – or 1^st century speed humps).

The homes were only one story because the excavation could not preserve both stories of most homes. We saw a merchant’s villa complete with atrium, wall murals and beautiful mosaic floors.

Pompeii was situated on the coast and so it was quite a rich trading town. They had an arena for gladiator battles and a gymnasium and spa for other games.

It was quite eerie walking around the streets, like you were walking among the ghosts of ancient times.

A 2000 yr old "Take Away" Soup Kitchen!

Rome Again

Then we headed back to Rome feeling tired as we tried to absorb all we had seen over the last two weeks and also that our time together as a tour “family” was coming to an end. We were dropped off in the city to see the Spanish steps which had been rearranged from our first day because of the problems with President Bush’s visit and related protest rallies. We found out that these steps are where all the famous models pose when the new fashions come out each season so we walked down the steps a la famous model! Then our guide told us that only tourists call it the Spanish steps as the place is really called the Spanish Square because of the nearby Spanish Embassy! We decided not to do the next tour and go back to the hotel and put our feet up!

That night we went out to our final dinner to a restaurant called Papa Rex!

We had group and individual photos taken but we were missing two people from our tour family, as they had been pick pocketed in the afternoon and were busy organising new passports and flights home. It made us all feel upset. The owner and his daughter did their very best to make it a good night for us by entertaining us with their operatic singing.

Once again a lovely four course meal with unlimited local wines.

We sang along in the choruses of the songs we knew and put in a few requests for Arriverderci Roma!

Once back at the hotel we said our farewells as everyone was leaving at different times in the morning and some like us were planning a sleep in as we were staying on for an extra day. Our total tour was 3000 km.

Travestere

The next morning it was funny going down to breakfast and not seeing all the familiar faces. Then slowly a few of our group did arrive. Well what were we going to do on our own in Rome for a whole day without our Mumma? We decided to visit an area called Trastevere. This was supposed to be an artisan quarter of Rome so we were thinking maybe we would see some artwork, hear some music and find a lovely restaurant for lunch. We very bravely and cleverly caught the local train and walked and walked until we finally found it. Well the place was covered in graffiti, stank like a dog had visited every corner and it was hot! No artists, no music – nothing like we had imagined.

We found the Piazza of the church of Santa Maria and had a coffee in the café. This church was said to be the first official church of Rome and it was built on the site where a fountain of oil is said to have sprung up on the day of Christ’s birth. We went inside – at least it was cool and very pretty with many marble columns. We had lunch back at the same café and headed back to the hotel to cool off!

We met up with some of our tour group and decided to go out to a local restaurant for tea together. We had fun ordering a variety of dishes to taste and share (we are so experienced now).

The Final Leg Home

The next morning we repacked our suitcases and surprisingly managed to fit everything back in easily. We were driven to the airport by a local driver (140kph in a 100 zone) down the highway! Crazy Italian drivers! Our plane was due to leave at16.15 but was delayed for an hour due to a bad storm over Athens. At Dubai our plane was again delayed for an hour as it was late arriving from a previous destination. We finally landed in Melbourne on the 23rd June at 1.30 am only one hour late. We felt like kissing the ground of our beloved Aussie – there’s no place like home (even if it was freezing)! It was a total of 32 hours travelling time from our hotel in Rome to our wonderful home in Clifton Springs.

We had travelled a total of about 48,000 km and had been away for 71 days!!!

Praise the Lord for his faithfulness and protection on our journey of a lifetime!

Sizzling Sorrento

The Longest Day!
We managed to leave Assisi “bright” early before everything was closed and we would end up stuck there for the day - actually I don’t think any of us would have minded as we were all a bit curious to see the “event” and certainly wouldn’t have minded sitting back, relaxing and enjoying the view. But Mumma still had many places for us to see!

We were heading to Sorrento in the south of Italy where certain “families” still influence the government, police and business. We bypassed Rome and stopped off at the Commonwealth Countries Cemetery that was in a town called Cassino with a pretty hilltop monastery which was the site of a terrible battle during World War II that resulted in great loss of life. We saw the graves of many young men that were killed and even found some Aussies. The graves that were marked as the unknown soldiers really pulled at our heart strings.


We continued along the cliff tops to the resort town of Sorrento. We had had a pretty good run but then we hit bumper to bumper traffic as it was Sunday and a good beach day! It took us an hour to travel what would usually take 10 minutes. It seemed like everyone in Italy was heading down to the beach on this warm summer’s day! As we drove through the tunnels we were horrified to see the kamikaze motorbike drivers driving on the wrong side of the road and into the oncoming traffic.


When we saw the “”beach” we couldn’t believe it – that’s not a beach! It was a tiny strip of grey sand and rocks crowded with beach umbrellas!


Our hotel was lovely – it had a good pool (although we didn’t have time to use it) and its own private “beach”.


We had an hour to relax and unpack before we left to visit the wood craftsmanship demonstration. It was very disappointing as the instructor spoke very quickly and only for a few minutes. Different coloured woods are cut out and inlaid to form beautiful pictures – not for us though so we walked to the clifftop to sit and enjoy the view in the shade.


Afterwards we met our Mumma again and were driven down by minibuses (the streets are too small and narrow for our bus) to a restaurant sitting out over the water’s edge specialising in local seafood dishes – once again Rex was personally asked if the dishes offered were OK – gnocchi /seafood salad, red snapper and dessert with a liberal amount of house wine (which was just a house wine so Liane actually drank beer!)

The beautiful view from the restuarant

A cheeky waiter!

Entertainment was provided by a slightly amusing guy on a keyboard who was also selling his not to professionally produced CD! Jules, if you can half sing Volare and Amore you could get a job here!


As we left Liane had to quickly dip her feet in the Mediterranean Sea.


On the way back to the hotel we were again caught up in all the traffic as they headed home from the beach!!! We finally got back to the hotel exhausted at about 11pm – it was the longest day.

Amalfi Coast
Today we drove along the other side of the peninsula of Sorrento on the Amalfi coast – the most beautiful coastline of Europe.


The road hugged the very steep cliffs and even hung out from the edge! It was a bit of a white knuckle journey in the mini bus. We stopped along the way to take some pictures with the ever waiting stall holders present with their souvenirs. Here we saw the giant lemons and delicious citrus fruit that the area is famous for.


We drove a third of the way and then explored the delightful seaside village of Positano, located in one of the many valleys, with its narrow winding streets leading down to the sea.


Here you can buy lots of lemony things like lemon granitas (an ice drink with lemon juice), limoncello (a lemon flavoured liqueur that you sip after a meal to help digest your food) tea towels and aprons with lemon recipes on them, tablecloths with lemons embroidered on them, lemon scented candles and lemon soap. The shops had the most gorgeous clothes, brightly coloured in emerald green, yellow and white and lacy.


We peeked into a few art “galleries” (shops selling art work) and admired the pretty village scenes.


When we reached the sea we had our coffee and cake and watched the local artists set up their easels to begin their sketches.

Rex got his feet wet as well as he checked out an excuse for a beach.

We met Mumma and then drove back to Sorrento where we met our local tour guide, Darrio.


Then we caught the ferry over to the Island of Capri with him. The weather was getting very warm so we were looking forward to a cool cruise around the island and not much walking! Capri is only eleven sq km and has been the home of many of the rich and famous of the past and present. It actually reminds us a bit of what we think Greece would look like.

We wondered who owns this villa and yacht.

There are no cars (only electric) allowed here and everything is brought in by ship so you can imagine the prices!



We had lunch in a local restaurant – yummy pizza with a thin crust and no herbs! We then met the captain of our boat and zoomed around dodging all the Sunday boat drivers!


We didn’t visit the blue grotto as our tour guide said it was too risky with the weather and tides but we did see the Emerald green grotto (or cave – one of over 60),

Look how blue the water is.

the natural arch (the symbol of Capri),

the white cave with its stalactites and stalagmites of fantastic shapes (one was like the Madonna praying),


some inviting private beaches and the bronze statue of a young boy waving to people as they enter and leave.

Then we caught the Funicular railway (yes this is where the famous song comes from funiculi =up, funicular = down) up to the Capri town where we strolled to the gardens and admired the tremendous views of the coast below and the towering cliffs above.

These gardens were built on the ruins of ancient Roman structures, the gardens were donated to the Town of Capri, which later named them after the Roman emperor.


Free time! We were astonished at the prices of the items in the little boutique shops and the queued up with the throngs to get back down in time to catch the ferry back to Sorrento where Mumma was waiting for us to take us back to our hotel for a short rest before dinner. Our “rest” was a drink on the terrace with a few of our fellow travellers admiring the beautiful view across to the dormant volcano of Mt. Vesuvius! (Almost like sitting on the balcony at home looking across the bay to the You Yangs).