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...

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...

5 Aug - Venice

I got up early and got downstairs to get out of the hotel and to the airport. For a second it looked as though they'd lost my passport, but they tracked it down. Got outside and waited for a taxi. Ended up getting a private car to the airport. Probably cost more, but there were no taxis around.

The airport was pretty uneventful...oh I did get my Cinnabon on before the flight. Tasty.

The flight was ok. Watched Iron Man (good) and the last 2 thirds of Kung-Fu Panda (better than I expected). This flight was even quieter than the previous, so plenty of room...except I had a damn Nun in front of me who kept leaning her chair back...smacked the lid of my laptop in my face one time.

Got to Venice, and went to change money to pay for the bus to the island...man they had bad rates here. Ended up using an ATM, even after the $5 fee, it was still better than the money changers.

After a pretty short bus trip, I met up with mum and dad on Venice island(s). Didn't really feel like nearly 5 weeks since I'd seen them. After going to the hotel (we have two separate rooms for the first night, but are going to change tomorrow night) we went for a wander around Venice. It's a beautiful place. Wasn't too hot, and the water didn't smell so it was good. We walked all around to the Rialto Bridge. Some nice things on the way. Too much to talk about individually, just look at the photos. All the photos on here are just a quick selection and a bit of a touch up.

We had dinner at a place on the water, sat next to a guy from Brisbane who's been working in London for the last 9 months. He had the Black Sauce pasta (black as in ink from a squid black), which is apparently a specialty of Venice. I think I'll try tomorrow.

Went out for a bit of a wander and more photos after dinner, then turned in for the night.

Signing off...