Finally we're in Rome. The streets aren't as busy as we expected, but still a bit confusing dropping the car off. We checked into a hostel, and then headed out to see a few sights. We went to the Spanish Steps, but the good thing about Rome is that wherever you walk there's something to see. Just about every street or intersection has something to see.
I've decided to stop adding to this blog. The number of photos I'm taking in Rome is just crazy and I don't have time to go through them all here. Once I get home I'll put them all up on Facebook.
I have just under a week to go and alot to do. It'll be fun.
Signing off...
Saturday, August 23, 2008
20 Aug - Naples, Frascati
We headed into Naples, aiming for the Museum. The roads here are the craziest we've been on in a city. I don't think there's rules.
The city is a bit dirty, but the museum was great. Especially the collection of porn from Pompeii...those guys were obsessed with big dicks. The best was the one statues with about 4 dicks growing out of his head.
There was also the awesome Alexander the Great mosaic, showing him defeating Darius. Pretty impressive.
We left Naples, and started heading towards Rome. We aren't dropping the car off till tomorrow, so we aimed for a town on the outskirts of Rome called Frascati. Nice place (though the signs for hotels don't seem to actually lead to hotels) and we booked into a bed and breakfast for the night. We had a nice meal at the restaurant that's part of the B&B (most expensive meal of the holiday, but good) and went to bed. Tomorrow we head for Rome and drop off the car.Signing off...
The city is a bit dirty, but the museum was great. Especially the collection of porn from Pompeii...those guys were obsessed with big dicks. The best was the one statues with about 4 dicks growing out of his head.
There was also the awesome Alexander the Great mosaic, showing him defeating Darius. Pretty impressive.
We left Naples, and started heading towards Rome. We aren't dropping the car off till tomorrow, so we aimed for a town on the outskirts of Rome called Frascati. Nice place (though the signs for hotels don't seem to actually lead to hotels) and we booked into a bed and breakfast for the night. We had a nice meal at the restaurant that's part of the B&B (most expensive meal of the holiday, but good) and went to bed. Tomorrow we head for Rome and drop off the car.Signing off...
19 Aug - Pompeii, Sorrento
This hotel is crap. Ok it isn't crap, but we decided not to pay the extra 9 Euros for air-con and just have the windows open. Great idea...apart for the mossies. Worst. Night. Ever.
The plan for today was to go to Naples, to the museum. The museum there houses all the artefacts and a lot of mosaics from Pompeii. We were on the way to the train station to head to Naples when I decided to check to make sure the museum was open on Tuesdays. It isn't. Quick change of plan, and we were off to Sorrento. We didn't make it yesterday, but we decided we'd still go have a look.
Whoever planned Sorrento was a nutter. The town is on the top of a cliff, and you climb down the cliff to get to the beach (when I say beach I mean 5 metres of black dirt and 5 metres of concrete). Good views looking over the Bay of Naples though.
Signing off...
The plan for today was to go to Naples, to the museum. The museum there houses all the artefacts and a lot of mosaics from Pompeii. We were on the way to the train station to head to Naples when I decided to check to make sure the museum was open on Tuesdays. It isn't. Quick change of plan, and we were off to Sorrento. We didn't make it yesterday, but we decided we'd still go have a look.
Whoever planned Sorrento was a nutter. The town is on the top of a cliff, and you climb down the cliff to get to the beach (when I say beach I mean 5 metres of black dirt and 5 metres of concrete). Good views looking over the Bay of Naples though.
Signing off...
18 Aug - Paestum, Pompeii
Walked around the ruins of Paestum first thing this morning. Pretty impressive. Three big temples and lots of smaller buildings. All in pretty spectacular condition.
The reason the description above is so brief is because of where we went this afternoon. Paestum was amazing. Pompeii is something else. It is completely unbelievable.
We left the Paestum ruins aiming for Sorrento, driving through the Amalfi coast on the way. Big mistake. It was busy as shit, the roads were narrow and it wasn't really anything that special anyway. We decided to cut through the mountains, and head straight to Pompeii.
The entire town was covered in ash. It suffered a disaster, and yet it was this that saved it and kept it in the condition it is today. There's no real way to put it in words, just walking around, seeing the houses, the mosaics, the plaster cast bodies. All of it was amazing. Looking over the city at Mt Vesuvius is pretty cool too.
The hotel we're at is about 200 metres from the entrance to Pompeii, and has a pool. Woo!! Pretty nice place.
Signing off...
The reason the description above is so brief is because of where we went this afternoon. Paestum was amazing. Pompeii is something else. It is completely unbelievable.
We left the Paestum ruins aiming for Sorrento, driving through the Amalfi coast on the way. Big mistake. It was busy as shit, the roads were narrow and it wasn't really anything that special anyway. We decided to cut through the mountains, and head straight to Pompeii.
The entire town was covered in ash. It suffered a disaster, and yet it was this that saved it and kept it in the condition it is today. There's no real way to put it in words, just walking around, seeing the houses, the mosaics, the plaster cast bodies. All of it was amazing. Looking over the city at Mt Vesuvius is pretty cool too.
The hotel we're at is about 200 metres from the entrance to Pompeii, and has a pool. Woo!! Pretty nice place.
Signing off...
Monday, August 18, 2008
Aug 17 - Paestum
Had a bit of a sleep in today, then got up and left Reggio di Calabria. We slept late as we intended to not drive far today, and find somewhere between Reggio and the Amalfi Coast to stay. Didn't quite go to plan. We past through a few places, saw a few beaches, and more fields.
The beaches were actually sand! Well, mostly.
None of the places we went through were particularly nice, so we decided to drive a bit further, and aim for paestum, a small town near some ruins, and a short drive to the Amalfi coast.
We got here and couldn't find the hotel we were aiming for. Eventually we found it (the GPS was aiming for the wrong spot) and it's really nice. We're having dinner here, and tomorrow morning we'll head out to look at all the ruins here (they're just across the road) before heading onto teh Amalfi Coast.
Signing off...
The beaches were actually sand! Well, mostly.
None of the places we went through were particularly nice, so we decided to drive a bit further, and aim for paestum, a small town near some ruins, and a short drive to the Amalfi coast.
We got here and couldn't find the hotel we were aiming for. Eventually we found it (the GPS was aiming for the wrong spot) and it's really nice. We're having dinner here, and tomorrow morning we'll head out to look at all the ruins here (they're just across the road) before heading onto teh Amalfi Coast.
Signing off...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Aug 16 - Reggio di Calabria
Today we headed further South to the port of Reggio di Calabria, the main embarkation point for Sicily. The drive was pretty long (over 6 hours) but went through some pretty varied and interesting landscapes.
We also stopped at a "beach".
The last couple of days we've seen fires all over the place. Some of them seem to be where farmers have burnt the remains of the harvested crops (though some of them seem to have gone a bit wild and burnt bush land) but others seem to just be bush fires. Yesterday was over 40 degrees in parts so not too surprising.
We got to Reggio pretty late, and it's amazing how close Sicily is. It makes Rottnest look like a distant land. Only staying the night here though, so won't be able to get over there.
We walked around town for a bit, then ended up at the National Museum here. Inside was the reason I wanted to come down here. On the first floor there was a heap of great Greek artifacts found in the region, but in the basement was the main attraction. The Riace Bronzes (or Riace Warriors, depending which book you read) are a pair of Greek bronze statues more than 2400 years old. They look amazing, considering they were sculpted nearly 2000 years before the Renaissance. You couldn't take photos, but I snuck a couple on my phone.
Reggio itself is a lot nicer than the Lonely Planet book would have you believe. They seemed to say it was just a place to pass through to get to Sicily, but at around 6.30, everyone was out around town in the shopping area which had some ok shops. And there's also this dude.
And a Eucalyptus tree.
We had a drink near the coast, and the sun going through the clouds over Sicily (looked like it had been raining there some of the afternoon) looked amazing.
We bought some food at the supermarket, headed back to the hotel room, and watched TV (finally something in English).
Tomorrow we're heading towards the Amalfi Coast. Probably won't make it all the way as we've been doing a lot of driving the last couple of days, so will probably stop somewhere between here and there.
Signing off...
We also stopped at a "beach".
The last couple of days we've seen fires all over the place. Some of them seem to be where farmers have burnt the remains of the harvested crops (though some of them seem to have gone a bit wild and burnt bush land) but others seem to just be bush fires. Yesterday was over 40 degrees in parts so not too surprising.
We got to Reggio pretty late, and it's amazing how close Sicily is. It makes Rottnest look like a distant land. Only staying the night here though, so won't be able to get over there.
We walked around town for a bit, then ended up at the National Museum here. Inside was the reason I wanted to come down here. On the first floor there was a heap of great Greek artifacts found in the region, but in the basement was the main attraction. The Riace Bronzes (or Riace Warriors, depending which book you read) are a pair of Greek bronze statues more than 2400 years old. They look amazing, considering they were sculpted nearly 2000 years before the Renaissance. You couldn't take photos, but I snuck a couple on my phone.
Reggio itself is a lot nicer than the Lonely Planet book would have you believe. They seemed to say it was just a place to pass through to get to Sicily, but at around 6.30, everyone was out around town in the shopping area which had some ok shops. And there's also this dude.
And a Eucalyptus tree.
We had a drink near the coast, and the sun going through the clouds over Sicily (looked like it had been raining there some of the afternoon) looked amazing.
We bought some food at the supermarket, headed back to the hotel room, and watched TV (finally something in English).
Tomorrow we're heading towards the Amalfi Coast. Probably won't make it all the way as we've been doing a lot of driving the last couple of days, so will probably stop somewhere between here and there.
Signing off...
Saturday, August 16, 2008
15 Aug – Bari
I've finally been able to get a wi-fi connection to upload my photos, so I'm going to catch up as much as I can.The images in these posts are a bit wacky since I only have an hour to upload about 9 days worth. All the images in each day are backwards just about except for Pisa and Florence onwards.
We left Siena relatively late this morning (as I ran down to check out the Tomb of Saint Francis which was closed yesterday) and decided to aim for the port town of Bari. We went along the coast some of the way, and it seemed everyone was at the beach (though it was windy and under 30 degrees, though it got over 40 when we headed inland later in the day). Along the way, we changed our minds and decided to pass through Barletta and then stay in Trani. Barletta had a 5 metre high bronze Roman statue (which is the largest Roman bronze still around) which was nice, but nothing much else so we headed onto Trani. Not a good move. The city was made up of tight twisty roads which were all one way, and we couldn't find accommodation that wasn't full. The worst thing is we entered the restricted traffic area of the town, which means we'll probably have to pay a fine since we didn't then stay in a hotel (the restricted areas is only for residents and for people staying in hotels). We to stick to the original plan and head to Bari. The outskirts of Bari were pretty dirty and dingy, and where our hotel is (the Adria, which is nice) is a bit slummy, but the old town (where we had dinner) is nice. We're only here for the one night, then it's another long drive to Reggio di Calabria tomorrow.
Signing off...
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