We had had a wonderful week in Amalfi, and were sad to leave, so we choose to leave with dignity by boat. which was a means of transportation we hadn't done yet. The trip took 35 minutes to Salerno, and it was 3 times as expensive as the 1.5 hour by bus, but it was a beautiful trip along the Amalfi coast.

The train station was a short walk from the marina, and the train to Pompei took just under an hour, so a short and easy day of transportation for a change.

We were staying at B&B Galleria, 10 minutes walk from the train station, next to the main square and 200 metres walk from the ruins of Old Pompei, so great central location.

On our way to the ruins we ran into a couple around our age from New Zealand, who were half way through their 3 month trip through Europe, and they loved it. They had expected to be homesick by now, but not the case - we are not home sick either!

The ruins of Old Pompei is located 8 km from Vesuvio (the mountain in the background) and covers an area of 163 acres. All of it still hasn't been excavated.  

On the morning of 24 August 79 AD a sudden tremor abruptly disrupted the daily routine of the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompei. This was followed shortly after by a tremendous blast signalling the violent eruption with a column of small stone rising over 20 km into the sky from the volcano Vesuvio. Carried by the wind, the cloud of small stones hailed down upon Pompei, submerging the city in just a few hours in more than three meters of materials. The roofs of the houses caved in killing everybody inside. But the worst was yet to come. At dawn the following day, the first flow of hot gas and fine ash hit Pompei and sealed the fate of every person and animal it encountered.

The hot ash clogged the lungs and caused death by suffocation. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids between the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died.

In the end, Pompei was left buried under 5-6 meters of ash and small stones in a desolate grey landscape whose only features were a few protruding walls.

Some houses are more well-preserved than others.

The big stones were pedestrian crossings, as the middle of the road was the gutter flowing with unmentionable things. The wagon wheels could easily pass between the stones.

It was fascinating and sad walking around imagining the lives of the people living and dying here 2,000 years ago.

The dust and the heat was washed away by a Campari on the town square.

We also made a trip to Vesivio, now that we had seen the damage it could do. We took a public bus from Piazza Amfiteatro, just outside the entrance to the ruins, and the trip took about one hour to the parking lot at 1,000 meters up the volcano. Then we had to hike up a gravel road the 1,000 meters to the crater.

Vesuvio lies 1,281 meters above sea level, and the last eruption was in 1944. The crater has a diameter of about 500 meters, and a depth of about 250 meters. 

Sign on the way down Vesuvio - Italians sure know how to make a point!

We can definitely recommend staying in Pompeii, as it is lively, quaint and the food is great.

All roads lead to Rome .........

Amalfi - Chi non conosce Amalfi, non conosce l'Italia.

Who has never seen Amalfi, does not know Italy - O. Sitwell

He is right! I (Dorte) has been to Italy many times, but never to Amalfi, and it is stunningly beautiful, the simple pleasures thrive, and life is lived in the slow lane. 

When we entered the regional train towards Salerno at Naples station, we couldn't understand why there were 4 conductors on the platform. But we got the explanation a few minutes later, when from the train we watched several Italians and African people arguing with the conductors about their tickets, trying to scam their way onto the train. At some point one of the conductors tore apart a train ticket. Others had tickets but hadn't validated them, so they were sent back to stamp the ticket - no free ride for them. This obviously happens often since the staff was prepared - we enjoyed watching it.

The train ride from Naples to Salerno took just over an hour, and the beautiful bus ride to Amalfi 1.5 hour. The bus was full, and it seemed like every Italian in the country was on their way to Amalfi, made worse by the fact that this day was a national holiday! It was a beautiful drive along the coast on winding roads with view of the ocean and villages tucked away in the mountains.

At one point some passengers on the bus started shouting, and it turned out that the hatch of the luggage compartment under the bus had opened, and some luggage had fallen out! So out went the driver and some passengers to get the luggage, while the other staff on the bus directed the traffic around the bus on the narrow road. Our luggage was still on the bus!

The Tourist Information didn't offer accommodation services, so we walked up the main street looking for a hotel, but found a real estate agent who had one apartment left for rent 2 km outside Amalfi in a small town called Vettica. It was expensive and not ideal as it didn't have internet, no shops nearby except for a fish market and a corner store, and we would have to rely on busses or our feet to get to and from Amalfi, but it had a wonderful view of the ocean and the coastline, and looked fine on the pictures. So we took it.

The real estate agent called a friend, Antonella, and she was going to take the bus with us to the apartment. Service. She suggested she and I went shopping before we took the bus as we, otherwise, would have to take the bus back to Amalfi to shop - very practical lady. So I went shopping with her while Andy did the paperwork. It is fun shopping in Italy with an Italian. It seemed like she knew everybody in town, and I said what we needed, e.g cheese, ham, bread, eggs, butter, vegetables, and she ordered the best local food at the butcher, in the supermarket and in the vegetable store. And of course she recommended pasta! And she insisted on carrying all the bags! A very memorable experience for me.

So on the bus we went; us with our luggage and Antionella with our shopping bags chatting away to everybody along the way. The view from the apartment was amazing, and the apartment very nice.

We had been looking at the ocean all day, so now it was time for swim. Unfortunately the path to the beach closest to our appartment was blocked off as part of the staircase had fallen into the sea, so we had to walk another 10 minutes to the beach. The only challenge....

There are 473 steps (yes, I counted them!) down to the beach and, ta daaaa 473 steps back up to the road!

After a week of doing this once a day we will be fit for hiking in the Himalayas!

Alora, it was such a pleasure to be back by the ocean again - and well deserved too. 

Dinner (and all other meals that week) took place on the balcony, and it was wonderful to be eating home cooked food again. 

We found it easy to adapt to the cycle of life here. Get up, go for a swim after breakfast, buy local food and wine, eat gelato every day, go for walks, or just hang out on the balcony and read.

One day we got up super early to beat the heat, 

and to do the famous Amalfi mountain hike known as Sentiero degli Dei (Path of the Gods). It started in the town of Nocelle and ran about 7.5 km to the town of Bomerano. There were countless beautiful vistas along the way. 

Our second last day we took another hike from Pogerola to Amalfi known as Valle dei Mulini (Valley of the Mills). It was around 7 km and not well marked from the Pogerola side. Luckily we met a German woman named Andrea, who is a member of FreeRamblers.com, so they guide hikes for free. Andrea insisted she would walk with us part of the way to Riserva Naturale, which had a lush forest and a beautiful waterfall.

The walk back to Amalfi from Riserva Naturale was full of old abandoned towns built away from the sea as protection from pirates and invaders. Italy has so much history and, unfortunately, only so much can be preserved. 

On the way back, Andy visted a paper mill museum. Andy and two of his brothers, Robert and John, both worked in a paper mill to pay their way through university. This paper mill was about 400 years old and last produced paper in 1969. Andy got to see how paper was made from Egyptian cotton, how to do a watermark, and how the waterwheel powered the mill.

Our daily walks from Vettica to Amalfi were always an adventure. The roads were winding and narrow and definitely not room enough for pedestrians, scooters, buses and cars. We made sure to hug the side of the road when we heard the bus horn as it rounded the corner. We always laughed when we saw the no horn blowing sign in front of a fancy hotel, because it was routinely ignored by EVERY bus! 

Most days on our way back from Amalfi we stopped at the corner store and had gelato as a reward for our two kilometre walk!

By know some of Andy's Italian lessons were starting to pay off. He could say "Vorrei una cafe americano con latte caldo aparto" and get a coffee with hot milk separate every time!

Every night we made sure to be back to our apartment before dark, and to have supper as the sun was going down. It was always the highlight of our day to recount what happened over a glass of wine on the balcony. Dorte got quite good at making bruschetta and it was usually our appetizer.

Sadly, after a week, it was time to leave Amalfi for new adventures.

Naples - The Birthplace of Pizza

The train ride from Florence took 9 hours with a 2 hour wait in Rome (which was killed by eating ice cream and having a beer). The train from Rome to Napoli didn't have aircon and it was really crowded. Luckily all the windows were open, so we got a nice cross breeze.

When we got off the train the air was a mix of the clean ocean breeze seized with the aroma of pizza.

We stayed at Hotel Zara located very close to the railway station, with all that that entails of Italian and African street vendors and streets full of garbage. We were not hazzled in any way, and it felt safe at daytime. We made sure to back at the hotel before it got dark though. Downtown Napoli, near the boats that take you to Capri and Ishcia, was however clean and well kept, with a nice promenade and some interesting historical buildings and museums. 

Naples is the third largest city in Italy after Rome and Milan, and has 960,000 inhabitants. Naples is one of the oldest continuously-inhabitatied cities in the world as it has been inhabited since the Bronze Age. It is, however, not a very exciting city, and most people only come here on their way to visit Pompei and Vesuvio. 

Naples is, however, the birthplace of the pizza. The term "pizza" first appeared in a Latin text in 997 AD, which claims that a tenant of certain property is to give the bishop 'duodecim pizze' ['twelve pizzas'] every Christmas Day, and another twelve every Easter Sunday.  Of course, we had to have pizza for dinner, and La Brace was recommended by the hotel, and a good choice. 

The following day we walked around town, and hoped to find an Internet cafe as WiFi was not stable at our hotel, so we could look for a place to stay in Amalfi, but August 15th is the national holiday of Italy, so everything was closed. We decided to just to go Amalfi and hopefully find a place knowing full well that this is the peak holiday season for Italians.

It was 39 degrees, and we were dying for a swim in the ocean, so we walked one hour to 'the beach' - a concrete platform, but the water was heavenly. Andy saved a couple of sunglasses for a British girl, who had dropped them among the boulders. Hero of the day!

Dinner consisted of take-away pizza from Rossopomodore and a bottle of red wine at the Piazza Tieste e Treno.

Ciao Naples!

San Remo, The Italian Riviera

The highway drive from Priocca in Northern Italy to San Remo on the Italian Riviera took almost 4 hours, but is was beautiful as part of the way we were surrounded by 360 degrees view of the Alps and small villages perched on hill tops.

Andy has had some challenges with directions, so the 'Direction Fairy' finally decided to help him out! Note from Andy: This is flawed navigator humour, and the driver (Andy) who relies on the navigator for useful instructions, and not exits that are unexpectedly  closed 5 minutes before we arrive, or freeway signs that through some unexplained miracle have decided to walk across to the other side of a divided highway, can not be blamed for not listening to her anymore, and rationally electing to follow a truck with an arrow on it!!!!

The Tourist Information in San Remo found us a room at Hotel Centro, which is appropriately named.  Most Tourist Informations in Europe daily receives a list of availabilities from hostels, B&Bs and hotels, and thus can assist with finding accommodation on the spur of the moment. Great service.

San Remo is a city with 57,000 inhabitants on the Italian Riviera from the early Middle Ages. We enjoyed yet another swim in the ocean.

We spent some time researching and talking about where to go next, since we are not going to Egypt. We need some grounding, to stay put, cook our own meals and relax. August is the main holiday month in Italy, everything is very expensive, and there are loads of tourists everywhere.  We seriously considered renting an apartment in the province Puglia - the heel of Italy - for 2 weeks as there is less people, and then spend the first two weeks of September in Amalfi as the prices fall drastically after September 1st. No decision was made.

Sunset dinner on the beach,

and then a walk around the Old Town.

Next stop Florence!

Turin - A Magic City

Just in case you didn't know: the Italians drive like crazy and fast, so driving in a 1 million people town like Turin  is stressful:  the cars cut in without indication, scoters are weaving in and out between the cars, and pedestrians are coming from everywhere. But it all is a form of organized chaos. Everyone seems to anticipate what their crazy cousin is going to do! Very few accidents here!

The outskirts of Turin were dusty, slightly shabby, and somehowbold-fashioned. We followed the signs to Centro, and parked at the end of Corso Re Umberto. The city center, however, is beautiful; lots of piazzas, tree lined boulevards, river Po, arch walkways and historic buildings. Piazza Vittorio Veneto is especially beautiful.

Italy was born here, as the treaty unifying Italy under the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 was signed here at the Palazzo Carignano/Museo Nationale del Risorgimento Italiano.  We were told that when the palazzo was designed the  Prince told his son he could choose one feature on the building. And if you take a look at the 'framing' of each window you can see that the framing resembles the head piece of an American indian chief: the feathers on top of the window and the long row of feathers along his back (each side of the window) - the son had spent time in the US and was fascinated by the indians.

The place where Turin rises and its orientation is not chosen by chance; the first settling was influenced by magic-religious factors. Turin has a Roman plan, with the route that opened the four access doors on the four cardinal points, while the main street following the ascending line of the sun. The esoteric tradition considers Turin as one of the three vertices of the triangle of the white magic, together with Prague and Lione, but also as the top of another triangle, that is the black magic, that includes London and San Francisco. We can't forget that Turin is built on the 45° parallel, indicated by the obelisk that at the top has the astrolabe, situated in piazza Statuto (there is one identical at 11 kilometres away at the end of corso Francia). Turin rises at the confluence of two rivers, the Po and the Dora, that create a link of water around the town. The Po symbolizes the Sun, and therefore the masculine side, the Dora is the Moon and the feminine side. Source: aboutturin.com

Turin is also said to hold the entrance to the Underworld, so the devil is lurking! The San Lorenzo church, located on Piazza Reale, has some interesting windows in the dome.

Can't see the Devil?

We strolled around town takeing it all in, and went up the Mole Antonelliana tower to see the city from above.

We had a beer on a samll piazza on Via Di Stamapiori, which had this amazing piece of art on the facade - only visibile when the sun is shining on ii from a certain angle.

Turin was definitely a very pleasant surprise, as in Europe the city has always has a bad reputation being the home of FIAT, the car manufacturer, but the city center is absolutely beautiful. All of the Italians we spoke with prefer Turin to Milan. Absolutely recommendable for a long weekend.