Italy Day 9 - Final morning in Italy :(

Heard on the grapevine that Pope Benedict was going to be holding a mass so we headed up to St Pauls to watch - huge crowd - bus loads of people arrived just in time for the service. Can't say I understood a word of what he was saying but still was good to see.

Gave ourselves a little while to get to the airport - a number of roads are closed on sundays - according to the taxi driver - though I guess we had a set fare [30 euros is the standard set fare from the centre to the airport]

And before we knew it we were back in frosty Essex... it snowed that night!

Italy Day 8

Took our final day in Italy real easy... decided to do a bit of shopping on Via Cola Di Rienzo.. wasn't a lot of tourists around and there were plenty of sales.. so all good! bought a jacket each which we both love... Matt got his top gun like leather and I got my ultra warm puff jacket - should have got it first day of the trip!

Easy lunch and a coupla coffees and that was about us for the day!

Met up with Darren and family again in the evening for a meal which included an on the house limoncello - certainly warmed me up!

Was a great relaxing day - just what we needed!

Italy Day 7

Up early today to join the queue into the Collosseum. I think it took about an hour to get in.. or something ridiculous like that. It was good though - quite massive and to think it used to hold as many people as Homebush stadium... they must have had little behinds I think. There was also lots of pictures of what it probably looked like so it was good to be able to imagine what it must have been like.

Had some Pizza off a stand which was actually really yummy and headed into the Forum.. there was an American guy doing a free walking tour which was really good - I think I would have walked through blindly but he was able to tell us some stories about Caeser and Mark Antony which put a whole new spin on things.

Ducking in and out of the rain we ended up at the Panthenon - was kinda cool being in there with rain coming through the hole in the centre of the Dome - always amazes me how they ever managed to build them.

From there we ended up at the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain again (via some yummy gelato) - it took on a whole new look at night.

Italy Day 6 - New Years Day

Did some usual touristy stuff today. Didn't get the best weather today... quite cold and was raining on and off... here's a tip though - don't bother with the umbrellas off the market stands - they last 5 mins.

Caught the Metro round to the Spanish steps, had a wander round and headed towards the Capuchin Crypt we just missed the morning opening times (it's shut between 12 and 3 so that they can have lunch?! - that's a long lunch) so found somewhere for lunch and just walked around the area - lots of shops - all closed for the holidays - - probably a good thing! Found a really nice place for a coffee - was a damn expensive coffee, but REALLY good - I was tempted to get a second but then remembered how much they were!

Went and saw the Trevi fountain. We had been here last time - but I was still amazed as I walked out of the little laneway into the Piazza. It's not like you can see it from a distance and walk up to it. It's just all of a sudden there. It's the same with a lot of the buildings in Rome... you just happen upon them. There was this guy at the Trevi with a magnetic pole - getting all the coins that people had been throwing into the fountain... only the worthwhile ones though, not the 1c... he was there for about 10 mins... must of then had enough for lunch...

The Capuchin Crypt was really eerie - it's full of mosaics made out of the bones of deceased friars... must have been a strange group of blokes to do something like that... mmm

Ended up at Piazza del Popollo (i think that's right) and saw lots of remnants of NYE. Statues with left over beer bottles... and lots of half eaten pizzas lying around.. also happened upon some vending machines selling beer and wine... obviously don't have the same worries about under-age drinking here!

Italy Day 5 - New Years Eve in Roma

Left the sleepy town of San Felice early today to head into Roma and drop the car back at Termini. We had heard so many bad stories about the traffic and were expecting quite an experience, but either cause we'd had a few days practice outside of Rome or traffic was light being new years eve, we really didn't have any issues.. just gotta go with the flow and expect people to move in every direction! [Would have helped if we had put the right address in the SatNav though!]

Headed straight to the hotel (Hotel Columbus) to drop our bags off, and while we knew we were near the Vatican, didn't quite realise just how close.. 100m max

We had a wander round the Vatican and Castel St Angelo before heading off to meet Darren (one of Matt's mates from Oz) and his family for dinner. There was a great party atmosphere around the city with lots of markets and street performers in all the piazzas.

After a little scare with a certain white bag that we thought had gone missing (we can laugh now!) we had dinner at Piazza Navona - some really nice Pizza and Pasta.. what else.

Not long after dinner we parted ways and Matt and I headed towards where we had heard there would be fireworks... near the Collosseum. We only had to wait 20 mins... but even then I'm not quite sure if it was worth it?!! If I had to describe it in one word it would be 'chaotic'! Definitely not like the organised event in Sydney. There were firecrackers and bungers going off everywhere... one right next to my foot... I definitely wasn't surprised at how many ambulances were around... In the middle of one intersection, people were running in and letting off fireworks... I mean the big ones going up at least 50-100m up. All I could think of was how likely it would be for it to fall over or head off into the wrong direction... fun though, in a chaotic stupid kinda way! Now that I think about it there was a lot more random fireworks than there were as part of the main display.

Italy Day 4 - Pompeii and San Felice

Unfortunately.... left the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento today... but I was really looking forward to seeing Pompeii.

Very glad for the Navman... wasn't actually that well signposted coming from sorrento and we were able to make a small wrong turn... but made it and found some parking relatively close to the gate.

My first impression of Pompeii... HUGE!!!!! I was really not expecting the magnitude... we quickly realised the 3 or 4 hours that we thought was going to be plenty of time was not going to be anywhere near enough... in the end I think we might have seen a total of 1/3 of the site. It's just amazing to think how long those buildings have been there... how many people had walked the same streets... and i love the concept of their courtyard houses... is now now part of my dream house!

From Pompeii we started heading back to Rome, we had organised a night in a little seaside town called San Felice so that we didn't have such a long drive back into Rome. We had had trouble finding anywhere available on the Internet and as we arrived in San Felice, we discovered why... wasn't because there was a major festival or anything... was simply that there was noone there! It's a thriving town in Summer as visitors come from Rome for weekends etc.. but in Winter it's a ghost town... All the streets were dark, no one around... turned into the driveway of our hotel and were met with locked gates! No one home! A little surprising.. they'd taken our booking.. and our money!

Ended up finding probably the only open hotel... which was ok but not great... but they directed us to an amazing restaurant. I think the owners of the restaurant were actually a little disappointed that we turned up though... being the only ones there I think they were hoping for an early night. Good for us though as we had 3 waiters and 2 chefs all to ourselves.. and the seafood was so fresh and yummy! A great meal and no English on the menu!!

[oh... BTW we did get the money back for the hotel]

Italy - Day 3 - Isle of Capri

Had a an amazing day on the Isle of Capri... headed out on the first 'fast ferry' of the day for the 20 min trip to Capri. When we were almost there we got approached by this guy offering to give us a tour, sounded like a bit of a scam, but when we got off the bus there was quite a queue of people waiting with him so we thought, probably couldn't be that bad... plus we said we didn't have any cash on us so couldn't pay him til we found a cash machine. Worked out quite well in the end, saw more of the Island than we would have trying to get around on public transport... though most of the people were Italian, and while he would explain things in both English and Italian, it seemed to take at least 4 times as long to say the spiel in Italian compared to the English version, so I think we got the summary!

First stop was Ana Capri, the highest town on the Island. Gorgeous view from the top of the hill though frikkin freezing in the wind! For those so inclined, there are steps that lead all the way from the port to Ana Capri, parently the road was only built about 100 years ago so in the past that was the only way up... I think I would have lived at the Port.... While we were up there we had time to get the chair lift to the very top... My legs do get a little shaky with heights.. but I thought, I can do a chair lift... paid our tickets and got to the top of the stairs then I noticed how SMALL the chair was... I just assumed it would be a 2 person one... didn't really have time to think about it though cause there was no queue... just hung on tightly to the bars... and given i didn't have gloves on... my hands were nearly stuck to the poles by the time I got to the top! (and almost stacked it as I jumped off)... BUT the view across the Bay of Naples and the Meditteranean was amazing, particularly the ruggedness (don't even now how that's spelt?!) of the coastlline... biggest bummer of the day was that there were no boats going to the Grotto due to the roughness of the sea.. may have to come back one day for that!

After a quick lunch and wander round the town.. back on the mini bus and the tight roads to Capri... a really pretty town though feels like it was built just for shopping (til you duck down some of the nooks and crannies... ) We walked down through the town to the Gardens and out onto a lookout looking back down the coastline towards where we were at the top of the chair lift. The water was soooo blue... Not surprised so many wealthy people have villas here.

Had a wander around the town (wasn't in the mood for shopping which has to have been a good thing) and back to the main square for a coffee (sooo much cheaper if you either drink it standing at the bar or have takeaway by the way) There was a whole lot of commotion surrounding a few people... turns out they were there for the Honda Film Festival and were quite famous Italian film stars... no wonder Matt got a few strange looks in the Honda jacket...

Still... all too quickly it was time to find our mini bus again for the trip back to the port for the ferry back to Sorrento...

Back in Sorrento we walked back up into town... tried on a few leather jackets... but didn't end up buying... found a tv that was playing the cricket.. not live.. and twas a little depressing anyway!.. But they sold Jim Beam.. AND the guy gave us free cake cause it was 'happy hour' - now that's my kinda happy hour - free food!