Trip to the Dolomites

Cinque Terre and Portofino

We tried to hop on the train at 11am to head off on our trip, but it was sold out so we got tickets for the 2pm train instead. On the way we met two guys who were cousins. As the trip progressed one of the cousins became incredibly drunk. So the other cousin started slapping him in the face. This was the point where the train ride became less pleasant. Shortly after the slapping there was some wine spillage. Then someone died of a heart attack. Eventually we did make it to the town we were staying in called Deiva Marina. (Which is half way between Cinque Terre and Portofino).

The next day Nat and I wondered around looking for some food and came across an Emu. At first we thought it was an Ostrich, (neither of us are experts on extremely large flightless birds). The Emu was wondering around in a dry river bed just minding his own business. So we watched him for a while and wondered where he had came from and where he was off too... There weren't many other people around so it was hard for us to judge if this was an unusual occurrence. Later that day we headed to Cinque Terre.


Cinque Terre is a national park, it's not quite like a provincial park back home, however they do protect the nature and wildlife. There are 5 villages inside Cinque Terre, we got off in Riomaggiore and visted the town before heading off on a Romantic walk called "Via Dell'Amore" The Lovers Path.. Unfortunately there were many lovers there that day. As you can see in the picture, the line to be allowed onto Via Dell'Amore was like the line up for the Vortex at Canada's Wonderland on labour day weekend. The Walk was still picturesque despite the large number of lovers.


Cinque Terre: Via Dell'Amore

Vernazza was probably the nicest village in Cinque Terre. The town is built right out to the Sea. Vernazza also had some tasty tasty pesto pizza. It's a cheese pizza that is then covered in pesto, so it's green!... and tasty. I didn't take a picture of the pizza but I did take a picture of a really low arch that you could walk under... it was low.


Cinque Terre: Vernazza

The following day we took a train to Santa Margherita and then caught a boat to Portofino. Portofino is a beautiful town where rich people come to show you how big their boat is. The boat we arrived on was a ferry and therefore it was luckily big enough for us to gain entrance. One of the giant boats was so fancy that it could afford to be two different colours: black in most circumstances but purple if you looked at it from a certain angle. Each boat seemed to have at least three people working on it and several had swimming pools. Other than looking at giant boats we also visited a Castle called Castel Brown, and attempted to eat lunch but all the restaurants close at 3, so we ate some focaccia instead and bought a bottle of tasty wine.


Portofino

• Pictures from the trip
• A map of where we went.

Bay of Naples with Mum and Dad

We rented a car, left Rome and headed for Sorrento. We had a TomTom GPS thing so we didn't have to think too hard about driving. Once we were close to Sorrento we had to do a little thinking however because we were actually staying in a small town called Sant'agata. The TomTom wasn't clever enought to know where Santa'agata was so we had to ask someone how to find it.


View from Sant'Agata

The next day we went to Capri. We were able to visit the Blue Grotto this time because the sea was calm. It was as blue as advertised. We also had a tour around the island and saw some arches that have been carved by the sea. After that we visited the rest of the island. Later we got lost looking for the Natural Arch, and finally gave up and headed back to the main land.


Capri: Blue Grotto

The next day we took the train from Sorrento to Pompeii which cost us a whopping 3 euro each. We saw some plaster casts of some of the people who had died when they were poisoned by gas and then covered in pumas stones from the Vesuvius eruption. We rented some audio guide things and not only was it informative, it also had an exciting sound track filled with explosions and lots of exciting flute playing. So it made me feel like we were being followed by Newton and Tewt from the cartoon the Mighty Hercules! (Tewt had a flute that he would play because he couldn't talk.)


Pompeii

The next day we headed back to the Naples airport to fly back to Milan, however we decided to take the long way and drive along the Amalfi Coast. We visited the Amalfi coast before on a bus and anytime a bus encountered another bus they would both spend 5 minutes maneuvering around each other. So we were a little worried that the tiny twisty roads would make it to difficult drive. It turned out to be a pretty easy drive in the end compared to some of the other roads we'd already driven on getting to Sant'Agata.


Amalfi Coast Drive

On our way back into Naples we enjoyed the wonderful scenery that Naples has to offer. The random road side fires, and heaps of garbage 2 stories high are some of the spectacles that make Naples one of the hidden jems of Italy. The TomTom helped us get into Naples and I had asked it to take us to the airport so when it had us traveling down dirt roads in some sketchy looking neighbourhoods we became slightly concerned. Eventually it proudly announced that we had reached our destination. It turns out it dropped us off behind the airport so we had to drive our way around the barbed wire fence to find the entrance. All in all it was a fun trip with my folks!


Beautiful Naples

• Pictures from our trip
• Map of where we went

Easter in Rome

One of the trips we took with Mum and Dad was to Rome for Easter. We flew in the evening before Easter (Easter-Eve) and after bargaining with many taxi drivers we found one that would take us to our hotel for less than €10. (The first Taxi Driver suggested we pay €30). That evening we ate some great Pizza, Nat ate one with an Egg on it...

Easter morning we watched some of the Pope's Easter service on TV, The Pope was sad we didn't attend in person. Then we headed out on the Lonely Planet's Walking Tour of Rome.


The Trevi Fountain


The Pantheon


Elephant Obelisk and Chiesa S. Minerva Church


Piazza Navona


Castel St. Angelo


St. Peter's Basilica

The next day we were off to do more stuff. First off we visited the Colosseum. We managed to snag a tour outside which allowed us to skip the lines... The tour was great, so great that we took the free tour of the Roman Forum that the same company offered immediately following the tour of the Coloseum.


The Colosseum


The Roman Forum

After the roman forum we snagged yet another tour. This one was to the Christian Catacombs, and it made some stops along the way. First, it stopped at a church with a statue of Moses (he had horns). I believe it was carved by everyone's favourite ninja turtle Michelangelo. The same church also had the chains that were used to crucify St. Peter. The church was called The Church of St Peter in Chains which would make a great Heavy Metal band name. The Catacombs we saw were on the outskirts of the city, these catacombs were different than the ones we saw last time, apparently there are many catacombs in Rome (over 60)


The Church of St Peter in Chains


The Christian Catacombs of Rome

After the Catacombs we went to see The Mausoleum of Emperor Augustus, and the Spanish Steps. Because it was the day after Easter, it was very busy. We took the metro from the Spanish Steps to the apartment we were staying in. The metro was extremely full and yet at each stop more people insisted on cramming into it to the point where your body contorted around objects in the train. It was probably like Japanese subways, however I can't say for sure as I've only seen pictures. Anyway because we were so packed on it made it almost impossible to get off... Nat's purse was still caught in the crowd on the way out and an old woman took it upon herself to hit Nat's arm repeatedly. I'm not sure what this was supposed to accomplish.


The Spanish Steps

The Next day we visited the Vatican Museum. Again we went with that same tour company and we skipped both the lines to the museum and to St. Peter's Basilica which was nice! Our tour guide's name was Fabio. Unlike other Fabios he kept his shirt buttoned up the entire tour.


The Vatican Museum

Last time we were in Rome we didn't get to see St. Peter's Basilica. It turns out it's huge! Fantastically huge! And everything inside is also huge. The alter is several stories high (can't remember how many).


Inside St. Peter's Basilica

The Next morning we rented a car and drove to Sant'Agata (near Sorrento) on the bay of Naples...

• Photo's of our Trip
• The Map of where we went
• Our Last Visit to Rome

Bormio with Mum and Dad

Mum and Dad came to visit for our easter holiday. We all went to Bormio for the evening... It's a small town on the border of Italy and Switzerland in the Alps... We rented a car to make the trip, it turned out that driving around italy is a little less intimidating than I thought it would be. Renting the car was more difficult than driving it, as I needed my passport but didn't bring it...

While in Bormio we ate some good food. And went to the top of the mountain... We also visited Bagni Vecchi a Thermal Spa thing, which has been used since the roman times. One bath in particular was inside a cave in the mountain there was naturally heated hot waters pouring into the cave, another cave filled with steam from the hot spring water, and a bath filled with cold water...


An artists illustration of what it might have looked like...

A link to all the pictures...