Herculaneum

We began the next day with our trip to Herculaneum. We navigated the train (somehow) and made our way to the city of 'Erculano' where we then walked down to the ancient excavation. 

It was a beautiful day and sweltering hot; for the first time I found myself disagreeing with the Lonely Planet Guide that described the town as 'uninspiring' while personally I found it more pleasant than Naples. 

The locals were friendly and happy to tell us where to go, additionally the town itself was very pretty. Herculaneum itself was beautiful, if very hot.

Unlike Pompeii it was covered by a Lahar and so was perfectly preserved, I'm talking cloth and uncooked loaves sitting in the bakery still waiting to go in the oven.

 Perfectly preserved cisterns and frescoes on the wall as well as preserved second floors were the highlights for me.

Amalfi coast and the beginning of Greece

We left early the next morning to get up to Bari to take the ferry to Greece that evening. We decided to take the Amalfi road as it was meant to be stunning. Winding narrow cliff top roads overlooked the clearest water I had ever seen. We stopped for an hour of sunbathing and swimming so we could at least enjoy it properly even being pressed for time.

From there it was a crazy driving rush to Bari to catch the ferry mad head to Greece! The ferry itself was horrible, waking up at half four in the morning to an angry greek porter screaming WAKEY WAKEY for the passengers getting off at Corfu was not an experience that bears repeating. 

However after the 17 (give or take) hours of ferrying we finally landed in Greece.

The roads are far scarier than Italy but singing 'pocketful of sunshine' and other such songs and the top of our lungs cheered us right up. My favourite was when 'we're all going on a summer holiday' came on and got to (harmoniously) yell it out.

We had a fun experience with the GPS deciding to lead us through small dirt tracks of Greek countryside which was interesting if somewhat horrific; by the time we realized it was too late and easier to continue rather than turn back. 

We awkwardly passed elderly Greek families working on their vineyards via the narrow and badly sealed road, at least the view was beautiful! 

It finally joined back up with the main road and we arrived in the small harbour town of Nafplio, framed by a hilltop fortress and the setting sun, the stairs away from our hotel (yes hotel! We aren't camping because in this amazing little town it costs the same for a cheap hotel! With real beds!! Such luxury) lead past whitewashed houses with terracotta roofs, bourganvillias fall in a bright tangle down the walls and there's a glimpse of the sea around the corner. It's beautiful. 

After checking into the hotel (we still couldn't believe our luck) we explored the city for a bit, returning with the best pastries I've had in my entire life from a little tucked away store down a side street we stumbled across and couldn't resist trying. Caramel was the best thing I've ever had, and the cherry one was pretty fantastic too.

The view from the the rooms window

                                  

Pompei

The morning after Rome we left early to try and find a Decathlon on our way to Pompeii. The lack of a sleeping bag or sheets was driving me nuts by this point and I was over simply lying on a sleeping mat with no covering.

After a hellish drive where the GPS smugly led us astray (If she ever tells us to veer left again I'm going to destroy her) we finally found it just as we were giving up. Of course it didn't open til 10 am (things in Italy seem to open strangely late) and we arrived at around 8. We decided to just wait after how difficult it was to find and thus many hours later we finally succeeded and bought everything that was needed.

Budget completely blown, we made our way to Pompeii Scavi, and Camp Spartacus. The camp was small but friendly, family owned (according to trip-adviser) with helpful though slightly clueless staff. We set up camp and decided to make our way to Naples.

It was then we made the charming discovery of the camp bathrooms. Think cold showers, no toilet paper (apparently the pipes couldn't take it so it wasn't provided) and the toilet itself was, for lack of a better description, a hole in the ground with foot grooves. The upside was the camps proximity to the ruins. 

We made our way to the train-station to buy our ticket to Naples where we once again ran into problems. My initial moment of pride at my basic Italian 'Due Napoli' soon died a horrible death as the ticket-man completely confused us. We finally managed to purchase what we hoped was a return ticket each and made our way to the train.

After failing to find a validation box we managed to accidentally not pay for the train journey there or back. Oops. 

Naples was an interesting city. Dirty, full of rubbish, hobos lurking on street corners, it wasn't what I considered pleasant. However it quickly became apparent (as we got lost) that the people were helpful, friendly and kind. Far more so than in Rome for instance.

We finally made it to the Archaeological museum where it turned out since it was the first Sunday of the month, entrance was free.

I enjoyed the museum greatly as it was full of mosaics and statues from both Pompeii and Herculaneum, not to mention some other random things too. My favorite thing was easily the famous image of Alexander which I became very excited about and Shyla thought I was strange. 

Rome again!

Although we had planned to leave early the next day for pompeii,  we decided to stay just one more day in Rome. There's so much to do it's ridiculous.  I also didn't realize how much I loved Rome until I left.

We decided to make an excursion to the baths of Caracalla which were awe inspiring. 

 I just kept thinking about excavating those moasaic floors and how amazing it must have been. No individual random tessera!

The walls were also just so large it gave you such a sense of scale. Apparently they put on ballets and operas with the back-drop of the ruins, which must be amazing. 

After the a whole morning spent wandering we decided piazza Navona, Grom and the river seemed like the thing to do.

We started of wandering by the Irish pub to try some different beers and escape from the heat. From there we wandered to the Piazza to admire the fountains and get Grom.

Lemon was the best I've ever tried, but Coffee and Vanilla were also fantastic (No I didn't get three flavors) ha ha.

We then made our way home via the river which made for a pleasant walk back. I ended up buying some dresses from the markets on the way which was awesome.

We finished our day off by watching a Michael Jackson impersonator moonwalk across a piazza we came across. He was actually quite good.

Roma

We escaped the rain finally and headed down to Rome and sunshine. It was strange being back and not on dig with none of the familiar faces but also somewhat comforting to be in an area I actually somewhat recognized and knew.

We found a campsite aptly called 'Camping Tiber' right by the river. Although there were a tonne of mozzies, it was also extremely nice. Helpful staff, shaded grassy campsites, pristine showers and wifi!! We spent lovely evenings reclining in our cheap camping chairs, admiring the baby lemon trees growing by our site. We were a fair way out of Rome in the campsite but it wasn't too bad as the campsite put on a shuttle every half hour to the train-station and from there it was only a twenty minute train in. 

We decided on the first day to book to see the Villa Borghese, both the Gallery and gardens. 

 The museum itself was extremely enjoyable with frescoes, paintings and sculptures everywhere.

The gardens were also gorgeous although my camera died so not much luck taking photos.

I really enjoyed the statues in the villa of which there were many. It was a scorching hot day and we were dying of heat (sitting in Sorrento remembering this day makes me laugh. I thought it was so hot in Rome, now I know how much hotter it can get)

San Gimignano and Siena

Although the idea of Tuscany is very appealing on paper, it decided to rain the entirety of our time in the region making it somewhat unpleasant. 

We had a few lucky hours of sunshine on our way to Siena where we stopped at a delightful mountain top village called San Gimignano. This turned into a fun though accidental game of 'pronounce-Gimignano-differently-every-time-we-say-it'; our Italian language skills leave something to be desired methinks. 

The local specialty appeared to be wild boar which although I didn't get the chance to try it, had my imagination running wild with images of Obelix hunting. 

There were also a tonne of Torture museums in the city which I very much wanted to go into but we were a little pressed on time and money. After wandering the city and taking in the sites, we drove on to Siena. 

in Siena we found a nice campsite about half an hour from the city, the weather was looking ominous so we pitched the tent and took the bus to the central city. It then decided to start raining so after buying some food supplies we gapped it back to the campsite. Well, that is, we would have if we hadn't taken the wrong bus and had to loop back to the city and get on another one. With that hour delay we ended up having a picnic next to our tent while the weather still held and then went to bed.

The next morning we decided to see Siena properly, which involved a wonderful day of getting lost down cobbled side-streets, wandering past churches,and so on. My photos half worked today, so some photos are available. (Internet-or lack there of is extremely frustrating).

                                                      

We also spent some time in Il Campo-the central square.

And a little church.

                                                   

I mainly wanted to get to a church within siena which had a saints head in it (how cool is that? ?) But sadly by the time I reached it, it had closed. I was devistated as it was my main excitement for siena.

I tried to cheer myself up with this burial instead but to no avail. 

Maybe the catacombs in paris will cheer me up.  

My favorite thing we saw was the Duomo. 

The architecture was insanely cool and somewhat Egyptian looking I thought. It was so busy it was almost ugly, but so interesting it was beautiful.

Florence

On Saturday Morning we took the train to the airport to pick up Shyla and the car. We managed it without too much hassle (although the French car dealer had far too much fun imitating the Haka when he found out we were from NZ) and then headed off towards Florence. Driving on the wrong side of the road is a somewhat terrifying experience, especially with the impatience of Italian drivers.

We had a few road waverings but so far nothing major. Florence took about 4 hours to get to and we arrived in the middle of a heavy thunderstorm. Yanking our bags up the stairs in the pouring rain was not a fun experience but the crackling sound of the thunder almost made up for it, it was so epic.

The Hostel Liz had booked for us was a private four person room which was fun. The room was large although very old and run down, initially all the windows were closed and it was very dark, approaching the room from the dingy corridor where an old fashioned portrait glared sternly down at us made me feel like we were in the beginning of a horror movie. The storm, and the loud thunder claps didn't help any.

However it passed after a few hours and off we went to explore Florence.

The Duomo was the central feature of Florence and it was so huge, detailed and beautiful. The architecture was stunning, the only shame was that it was closed meaning we couldn't go up to get the view of the city. 

We wandered for a few hours before finding a cute little restaurant for dinner. Pizza and wine of course.

The next morning we headed back to the city central to see more piazzas, churchs, the Duomo, leather shops, amazing looking olive oil, and a shop entirely devoted to lindt. It was heaven.
They even had lindt icecream!

After spending the better part of a morning wandering Florence, we made our way to the Piazza Michelangelo from which we had fantastic views.

The only thing I regret is not having time to go to the Uffizi gallery.

We then had a farewell dinner the four of us together which was great fun. The waiters were the nicest I have come across so far.

We tried 'cream of truffle' pasta which was fantastic.  I came to the conclusion I do indeed like truffles. Porcini mushrooms on the other hand reminded me of decomposing toads macerated in slime.