Italy

So our last experience of Italy was our train trip from Naples to Bari where we caught a ferry to Croatia, but before leaving Naples we had to have one more crappy experience. When we tried to check out of the hotel (and pay) we were told that it was twice as expensive as when we had booked through laterooms. Anyway after a half hour argument in broken Italian and English he eventually caved in and we got to pay the discounted price.

When we got into Bari we discovered it isn’t really a tourist town at all, which was accentuated by the amount of English that the locals knew (although it still had the throngs of Africans trying to sell fake gucci bags). It was a challenge to figure out the washing machines in the local laundromat, but there’s nothing a little bit more volume and hand gestures can’t work out.

We were pretty tried from the days traveling and although we weren’t supposed to be leaving port until 10pm we went straight to our cabin and to sleep when we were let on at 9pm. It was an 8-9 hour trip and we were supposed to be in Dubrovnik at 7 in the morning. So when we woke up at 6 (after one of the best sleeps on tour so far) we thought it would be nice to go and have breakfast as we pulled into port. But alas we were already stopped. So I asked the receptionist if we had made good time and were there already “no we are still in Bari” she replied with a sly smile. She’s got to be kidding right? Ah no…. we had just slept through the announcement that departure was going to be delayed due to bad weather.

So that was a disappointment, but we were assured that we would be underway just after breakfast (which we were told would be free due to the delay). But of course there’s no such thing as a free breakfast and just after we finished the boat took off and our stomachs started to rebel. It was the roughest boat ride we’d ever been on (and I’ve been on some pretty rocky inter-islander trips) and the first two hours saw the contents of our insides duly return to the surface.

It did eventually calm down after we were out of Italian waters, which was just in time as Rach was ready to throw herself overboard. We ended being little sun gluttons laying out on the deck for the rest of the trip.

We had no real expectations heading into Naples for the 2 nights we were there and only really started to look when we booked our room from Rome using laterooms.com (which had a perfect record of good hotels for really cheap). And what we read on the internet and in our lonely planet was quite good, once were ‘industrial city’ now glitzy seaside metropolis close to island beach resorts like Capri and in the area where Vesuvius blew her top and covered Pompeii and the surrounding area. So we thought we were in for a bit of an unexpected treat.

Well maybe not………

We arrived by train in the afternoon and the city met us like the dirty industrial behemoth that she turned out to be. There was rubbish everywhere, the place looked like a dump. And as we found out on our return to the UK Naples rubbish collection is controlled by the Mafia and the have been putting a halt on collection to make money of other areas shipping there rubbish in, damn mob.

And even combined with the fact that our room was a s#!thole and manned by the dodgiest Italians so far, we were not going to let it ruin our stay. So we decided to take a nice walk along the waterfront to see if we could get a ferry over to one of the islands. This was made a little harder by the relentless wind and insane drivers, I mean we thought the drivers in Rome were crazy but these guys take the pizza pie. We eventually gave up on going to an island and got some food and wine, locked ourselves in our room and watched bad Italian dubbed Walker Texas Ranger episodes.

Our only picture we took of Naples (the only clean place we could find)

There was no way we were going to spend the next day in the city so we hopped on a train and headed out to Pompeii to see the ruins. The actual ruins were a small walk from the train station but of course we got on the wrong train and had a 5k walk, ah well it meant we didn’t have to ride with the huge groups of Asian and American tourists.

The Ruins itself is a really cool place and big, we walked for 6 hours solid and still didn’t see all the ruins. Anyway we armed ourselves with an audio guide and headed out.
Most of the ancient city is still really well intact and you can really imagine the way people used to live from the building and other remains in the site.

The bodies in some of the houses are a bit freaky, most of them look like they just fell asleep but there are some stuck in frightened poses which I guess conveys the destruction that a volcanic eruption can cause (watch out ruapehu).

acient sewer system, blocks so you can walk across the street which would have been covered in poo

Most of the views around Pompeii are pretty spectacular, melding the uncovered ruins of an ancient civilization against the mountain that preserved them for us to see and in doing so wiped out and entire region from the map.

Anywho, buy the time we got back to Naples we had been on our feet for 8 hours and were in dire need of some relaxation. And what better way to do it than by doing what we had done every night since being in Italy, by going to a local restaurant and getting filled up on local dishes and drunk on local wine.

And now just as you expect me to criticize Naples some more it started to redeem itself (if only in a small way). The food and vino was the best we’d had in Italy and not to mention the cheapest, 2 euro for a ½ liter of wine is nuts (ah well I’m not really one to complain).

Our three days in Rome were a prime example of how to be a speed tourist. There is just so much to do and see and we were determined to fit all in to the time we had.

The first morning was spent going round Vatican City. We were just going to mosey round ourselves but the line to get in was huge so we allowed ourselves to get hawked by one of the guides outside. He was pretty funny and insisted that we looked like students. So we got the whole 3 hour tour for only 10 euors more than the entry fee.

The Vatican museums are pretty impressive, statues galore and the detail that has gone into everything (floors ceiling and walls) is pretty mind boggiling. We asked why all of the male statues had their wee wees broken off to which Andrei (the guide) replied one of the more ‘conservative’ popes went around knocking them all off because he thought it was pornographic. Anyway, big thumbs up to Andrei (if your going there he’s the 6 ft 4 bald guy).

So as per our speed tourist plan we walked past the Spanish Steps, they were ok but crammed full of people.

and then jaime got lost, but no worries soon back on track

We flew passed the Trevi Fountain, which was very cool and again packed full of people

We threw a coin over our shoulder which apparently means you will return to Rome again

Next on the list was the Pantheon, Oldest and best preserved ancient Roman building in Rome. And surprise surprise it was also packed full of people. Still another thing seen another thing done.

The next day of speed touristing was spent going around the Colleseum and Roman Forum.

And of course at the end of each day we were going out for pizza and insanely cheap wine.

So rome....
lots to do and entriley possible to do it in the time we had.

We had 3 days in Florence from the 27th to the 29th. It was probably one of our favorite places in Italy, maybe not so much for the city itself but more for what we did around the region.

First day we got a ‘free’ (forgot to write it on our global pass tickets) train ride to Pisa. It's 1 hour from Florence and there is pretty much only one thing to do there, and it’s a bit wonky. We got our pictures of the leaning tower and the square and then on our way.

Because we only took the morning in Pisa when we got back to Florence we went to the Gallery where Michelangelo’s Statue of David is. And it’s pretty impressive, over 5 meters tall and it pretty much in perfect condition. Unexpected but cool nonetheless.

Since we’d been in Florence we had been searching for a wine tour of the Tuscan region but all we could find was 60 – 100 euro each. Eventually we came across a tour that was only 15 euros, wow right!! the downside was that the pamphlet was all in Italian and it seemed like it was just gonna be country Italians trying to sell you wine. Anyway we thought we’d give it a go anyway, and it turned out to be awesome. It was sponsored by the Tuscany area council (hence the cheapness), we got to visit a few churches and small museums in the area as well as a lunch stop at a winery with an endless glass of wine and full plates of salami, bread and other Italian niceness. Then onto another little medieval town where a ‘wine professor’ enthusiastically explained the differences between the different wines of the region, of course it was all in Italian so we just nodded, smiled and kept drinking.

Our final day we spent doing a lazy walk around the city and up a couple of the hills around the city limits, ah lovely.

rachel being a jewel glutton

Next stop Rome!!

Milan

So our trip started with a flying visit to Milan. First impression of an Italian restaurant was great, but compared to British food that’s not that hard. The pizzas were huge and the wine (vino) is cheap and good, 4 euros a half liter, this quickly became our drink of choice in Italy.

The next days sightseeing had to be quick as we had a train to catch later in the day. As we walked into town Rach couldn’t get over how cool the fashion shops were and cheap compared to the UK. But alas it was the start of the trip and our packs were already heavy enough, although Rach did pick up some boots for trudging through the snow later in the trip.

view from the top of the Dumo

Us in the piazza (square) 'something' in front of the dumo (cathedral)

The main attractions in Milan are the Dumo (an impressive gothic style cathedral) and the square (piazza) in front of it. And this mosaic bull which is worn out in the ‘bulls’ area where it is traditions to plant ones heel and spin twice. God knows why but we gave it a go anyway.

Venice

We got into Venice on the train from Milan. We had no accommodation sorted and it was starting to get pretty late. This obviously showed on our faces and our touristy backpacks made us stand out in a crowd our better prepared tourists and Venetian commuters. “Luckly” we were spotted by an old Italian guy looking to fill one of his ‘rooms’. His cheap prices were hard to say no to after what we had been offered at the tourist office. So we followed him through the winding (pedestrian only) streets of Venice to our ‘room’. Well it wasn’t so much of a room as an attic with a bed above a kitchen (see below for picture) maybe he should have pick some more vertically challenged tourists as Rach and I could only stand up in the middle of the room.

our attic/room

We drank a lot of vino and walked a lot in our 3 days in Venice. Saw lots of things including Piazza San Marco and the Basilica.

rach on our 'free' ferry trip home in Venice, I guess we just forgot to pay

We also started to try out our very limited Italian on some unsuspecting wait staff. I persuaded Rach to order the vino in Italian one night, to which the waitress just laughed and in perfect English asked if we wanted the white wine. But by the end of our time in Venice we were fluent in Italian, well at least how to order cheap wine.

these creatures "nuns" are frequently spotted in Italy, they come out in groups no less than 3 and travel between local churches. Here we see a group 'congregation' of four specimens, they are incredibly quick for there age.

VeniceGrand Canal

Piazza San Marco (one of the only things i knew to say before getting to italy was "Excuse me, Where is Piazza San Marco?")