Pisa

We landed in Pisa on a Friday night, checked straight into our hotel and quickly realized that there might be a reason why the nearby tower leans. The hotel we were staying in – built a few hundred years later than the tower – was so shoddy that I thought that maybe all of Pisa-arians builders wore their shorts a bit lower than most. We spent most of the night listening to the grumbling roar of the nearby elevator going up and down between the floors.

We woke the next morning and after showering and using towels that we compared to patting down with Pita Bread, we headed out for a quick review of Pisa and its famous tower.

I thought it was v. cool and worth the 2 hour visit we allowed for.

Cinque Terre

A few train rides later and an enjoyable snack on some Fonzies, we arrived in one of the 5 towns of Cinque Terre, Manarola.

Manarola would be our base for the next 3 days as we explored, trekked, ate and drank through some of Italy’s finest coastline towns.

The 5 towns of Cinquers span a distance of about 10 kms along a mountainous coastline. They are all relatively small in size and offer lots of restaurants and gelato stores to keep your stomach full.

The easiest way between the towns is to catch the train but to truly experience Cinquers you are best to trek over and through the mountain tracks. I wasn’t expecting the walks between the towns to be difficult but Michelle and I were both in a bit of discomfort after each day’s exploration. Some of the treks were worse than others and we learnt the hard way that trekking in one direction is better than the other.

One day, after climbing up 390 steps from the bottom of the mountain to the centre of Corniglia town, I found myself desperately needing to poo.

We quickly located the public poo pots and off I went, only to race back outside and inform Michelle that the toilets were embedded into the ground – i.e. squats. So we headed off to a restaurant to find a more suitable bathroom only to find that they didn’t exist.

Almost prairie dogging, I had to take “poo for fun -101” in a squat toilet and found the experience horrifying. How the hell do you squat, poo and not fall over?

Our B&B at the top of the hill was wonderful – except for the freezing cold showers – and waking up each morning to the sound of church bells was ideal.

Dining on local cuisine was fantastic and one night we even made friends with an older Australian couple – Baz and Shaz (note: might not be their real names). We exchanged our Italy experiences and they told us we must go to Pompeii when we got down to Sorrento. It was duly noted.

The sunshine, magnificent scenery, copious amounts of wining and dining all amounted to a wonderful 3 days relaxing from the stresses of London life.

Sorrento / Pompeii / Mt. Vesuvius

A full day’s travel (planes, trains and automobiles) later we arrived at our next location, Sorrento. We stayed in a converted Monastery overlooking yet another magnificent view of the ocean.

We spent the first morning checking out the must Pompeii. Its historic importance can’t be doubted but to me it was just ruins and shit. I got a bored of it quite quickly – I was hanging out for a trek up Mt. Vesuvius.

Turns out the effort and “fiasco tolerance level” required to take the “cheap man’s” transport option to Mt. Vesuvius is not worth it.

3 of the 5 scheduled buses for the day didn’t arrive – this was annoying but it did give me time to observe the locals and take the photos for my previous blog entry.

When the bus finally arrived, a large group of German teenagers managed to push, annoy and maul passengers out of the way so that they could board first, leaving passengers who had been waiting longer with no option but to stand. As such, I now officially add Germans to my list of people who I will be racist against – they can keep the Italians company ;)

After travelling for 90 minutes, the bus driver must have been feeling tired and as such decided to stop for 30 minutes in the middle of nowhere without informing the passengers what was going on. That was fun!

I found some cats (about a gazillion) though while we waited.

Eventually we made it to our destination, and Michelle and I trekked to the top of Mt. Vesuvius. It was super cool to be standing at the mouth of the world’s most dangerous volcano.

While waiting for the train back to our B&B, a puppy came up to me andput his front left paw out for me to shake. It was so cute. Later as the train arrived, we found that same cute dog running along the platform barking along as the train pulled in. Hilarious!

The next day the weather was shoddy – I think it was karma for us not being in London to celebrate G’s birthday. We just spent the day shopping and eating.

I made an unfortunate mistake in choosing Egg Nog flavoured gelato. I didn’t expect it to actually taste like raw egg. Yuckko!

That night, I managed to eat two massive main meals – a spaghetti cabonara and a full size pizza. Knowing what I knew about the toilets in Italy, I was playing with fire.

On the way home, we passed a car outside and these two young adults were going at it. Ahhh to be young!

Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi coast is another gorgeous region of coastline towns. We stayed in the most amazing hotel and enjoyed a few days lazing around here. On our first night we managed to find a restaurant, that while lacking in atmosphere (think red plastic furniture) served the most amazing food. Michelle had her favourite meal of the week here. We nicknamed it Scrumpy’s after the fine Aspley establishment – the only difference being the amazing food bit.

Capri

Capri is the destination of choice for the rich and famous. It’s a lovely little island about 30 minutes off the coast from Sorrento. We managed to arrange a day trip from Amalfi and after a horrifying 60 minute hydrofoil journey we landed on its shores.

I don’t handle rough seas well. I threw up 4 times on the way over and it made me ill for the rest of the day. It didn’t help that I spent the whole day dreading the return journey.

Despite my ill-adventure over, I found Capri to be absolutely stunning. My favourite place on our whole trip. It’s wonderfully beautiful and has shops to die for. I could have easily spent about 30k on watches and clothes.

After lunch, we took a break and I fell asleep on a bench. In the 15 minutes I was asleep, 5 mosquitoes or 1 very hungry one managed to bite through my jeans and eat my red juices. How the hell does a mozzie get through your jeans? Of course, he may have just came in from the leg holes :/

We sipped a beer and crisps in the afternoon and while pondering I realized that garlic bread is not part of Italian cuisine. Not once, did I see garlic bread on a menu the entire week we were there.

In conclusion

Pistachio gelato is my favourite.