A rugged but picturesque coast.

Tuesday 3^rd June

The Amalfi Coast. We decided to do a bus tour along the coast so that Rob could also enjoy the views. Good decision! It would not have been an enjoyable drive for him because the road is narrow and twisty all the way and every time a tour bus is met the cars have to pull right over and even stop to allow the buses to pass.

 

The road to Amalfi.

The views along the road are pretty spectacular. I didn't realise that the road was going to be so high above the water and just how steep it was along the coast. Where there were tiny strips of beach along the way the people on the beach looked like ants we were so far away. The bus stopped in Positano but the bus stop was a long way up from the beach – not too sure if there were lifts to get up and down from the beach. We didn’t get off in Positano.

Dog of the day - on the bus to Amalfi.

Views along the way
- taken through the bus window so not the clearest photos.

Positano - from the road the bus travels along.
 It is a long way down to the beach.

An interesting sculpture that caught our eye along the road.

At Amalfi the bus stop is at sea level so we were able to get a look at the beach. The sand is dirty grey and quite coarse with pebbles. Not quite what we Aussies are used to. We didn't hang around in Amalfi but took another bus up to the town of Ravello which is high on a hill and overlooks the sea. Beautiful views from there. We had lunch here and wandered the shops. It seems that the specialty craft of the area is hand painted ceramics. We didn't buy any – not quite my thing. The other specialty of the area is Limoncello. We may add some of that to the luggage before we head for home. A surprise to be found in Ravello - a foot long snake working his way across the path in front of me. He attracted the attention of a number of tourists who were all keen to take photos.

View across the sea from Ravello.

Lunch stop in Ravello at one of the restaurants 
around the town piazza..

Beautiful arches and street scenes to be found in this town.

Some of the ceramic pots made in Ravello.
I love the way they displayed these..

Time to head back to Amalfi where we had tickets to catch the boat back to Sorrento, and the bus queues were getting longer and longer and no sign of a bus. I went over to see about a taxi back and apparently there had been an accident in Amalfi and the queue of traffic waiting to get in to the town was a kilometre in both directions. We decided to take a taxi back and just get out and walk when we hit the traffic queue and were able to share the taxi with an English couple. The taxi worked out well as traffic was still not moving as we walked into town. By the time we reached the town the traffic was just starting to flow.

A fresco on one of the walls as you enter the town of Amalfi.

The boat ride back to Sorrento showed us the coastline from sea level. You look at some of the houses on the hills above the water and wonder just how people get to their houses. There must be some sort of roads surely?

The Royal Clipper with some of her sails unfurled
- she was in Sorrento yesterday, and Amalfi today
doing a 7 day cruise out of Rome.

Positano from sea level. Not a patch on our beaches.

How does one get to and from this place - boat only?

Some of the supports for the road along the coast.

Another town along the coast.

This cruise ship was in Amalfi and I guess
partly responsible for the crowds of people.

We had dinner back at the hotel again tonight. We think we might be the only guests in the hotel tonight – and we were the only ones in the dining room. It’s a weird feeling to feel that the whole hotel (and it is not a small hotel – probably 100 rooms) is there just for you. 

A cruise to Capri

Monday 2^nd June

Today we headed to Capri – along with thousands of other people. Apparently it was a public holiday in Italy so that contributed to the crowd, and we also noted that there was a cruise ship in the harbour so I guess a number of these people were also headed to Capri.

A beautiful day awaits - the morning view from the hotel.

 

Arrival on Capri - just some of the crowd.

One of the cruise ships in town.

This tall ship was also in town and we met some people
who were sailing on the ship.
They said it really was the way to do this area.

The boat journey over was quite relaxing and the scenery back to the mainland and ahead to the island was pretty spectacular. On arriving at the island we took the funicular to the town of Capri – at the top of the hill (the first hill that is). From there the plan was to take the chairlift to the top of the mountain and this involved a bus ride and then the chairlift. I was quite surprised at the chair lift – they are single seats and it appears to be quite old, thankfully still works just fine.

The boat harbour at Capri.

Coming down in the charilift.
 It is pretty steep right at the start. 

The chairlift ride was very peaceful and it was lovely to look out over the island and across the water. It was a perfect day for it with sunshine and no wind. The views from the top were beautiful and thankfully up there we got away from the hordes of people. Not sure why it was so quiet up there as on the chairlift every seat was full both going up and down. The views on the way down were even better as the scenery was all facing you, rather than a lot of it behind you.

 

Some of the view heading up the chairlift.

Looking down from the top of the mountain on Capri.

Views at the top.

Back down from the chairlift and we had a break for lunch before again joining the mass of people on the island. It was pretty warm so we decided we would just head back to the marina, then Sorrento and back to the hotel.

The whole family went to Capri.

 

The train from Sorrento back to Seaino near our hotel.

When we arrived back at the hotel we found that the hotel restaurant was not open (the holiday I think) so we walked a little way down the road to a nearby restaurant where we were the only diners. Over the road from the restaurant was a church where a wedding was just finishing – apparently the bride was 4 hours late in part due to her dress not arriving till 4pm!

The volcano erupts...

Sunday 1^st June

Today we visited Pompeii. The whole town was wiped out and buried by the eruption of the volcano, Vesuvius, in 79AD.  It is quite amazing to see so many buildings still standing (after being uncovered) and this is 2000 years later. We spent most of the day here and by the end of it were just putting one foot in front of the other to get to the exit. It probably didn't help being the fourth long day in a row on our feet.

The grand theatre at Pompei.
Amazing to be able to hear people in the stage area
speaking quite clearly at the back of the theatre.

Sundial at one of the temples.

One of the beds in the brothel - I believe there was a mattress
but still pretty uncomfortable I'd guess. 

Some of the 'erotic' paintings on the wall. The story is that they were a
bit of a menu and you could point at what it was you desired.

Plaster molds of some of the bodies found in the excavation.
They appeared to have been fleeing away from the lava and ash flow. 

The Amphitheater. Inside...

..and outside.

Now we are staying at a hotel in a place called Vico Equense which is on the Amalfi coast. The hotel is up a steep and narrow road with just enough room for two cars to pass. We made it up the hill with no problems but I’m not too keen to do that drive too often. We stood on our balcony looking out over the Mediterranean and watched, and heard, the public bus (small size) come up the hill, tooting at each corner. Then amazingly we saw a full size tour bus arrive at the hotel. It had a police escort up the hill that had come through in advance and stopped all traffic at the top of the hill. Rob overheard a couple of people talking at dinner tonight about the driver having scraped the front of the bus on one of the corners on the way up. 

The view from our hotel room.

While waiting for dinner tonight we heard loud bangs and eventually saw cannons firing on the hill across from the hotel. When we asked if it was something special they told us, no, it was just the Italians celebrating that it was Sunday. As we were eating dinner there were a couple of fireworks shows down in the villages.

A Palace to rival Versailles

Saturday 31^st May

We left Rome this morning headed to a place called Caserta which is not far from Naples. We decided to use the autostrade to get there as we wanted to get away from Rome traffic as quickly as possible. The autostrade are at least good roads so you can make good time – I’m not too keen on travelling at 140 or 150 though.

At Caserta we visited the palace, La Reggia di Caserta which was built in the early 1700s and is the last palace of its type built in Europe. It was modelled on Versailles but it was never finished to its original plan. The original owner died before its completion and his son simplified some aspects to finish it. It has not had the upkeep of Versailles – you can see it in the gardens where the lawns need mowing and hedges trimming. The grounds look quite unkempt. It has a long avenue leading away from the palace to a man made waterfall. The weather looked pretty threatening and we could hear thunder and see lightning so we took the bus to the end of the avenue. Rob decided to walk back while I took the bus. A couple of minutes in to his walk the heavens opened and it poured. He had a poncho on so was mostly dry when he got back but his shoes were soaked.

 

Waiting in line for tickets to the Palace.

Looking back to the Palace from the end of the avenue leading to the waterfall and fountains. The Royal Palace of Caserta, is a former royal residence and was constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century.
The palace has been used as a film set - used as the setting for Queen Amidala's Royal Palace on Naboo in the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and again in the 2002 film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones as Queen Jamilla's palace.

Another view back to the palace from the long avenue.
This was taken when Rob was walking in the rain.

The Grand Cascade at the end of the avenue.

 The Diana and Actaeon Fountain at the feet of the Grand Cascade
- this photo and the one below.

Inside the palace the rooms that are open to the public are really amazing with beautiful frescoes on the vaulted ceilings in most rooms. It really was quite stunning and the best part was you could see it all without having to fight through crowds of tour groups. I don’t think we saw a single tour group here. There wasn't as much furniture on display in the rooms as at Versailles but it was still fantastic. You just end up shaking your head in wonder as you move from room to room.

The grand staircase - used  in Angels & Demons as the Vatican's staircase.

A pretty fancy baby bassinet.

Setting in the bedroom of one of the royals.

Just a few pictures to give you a taste of the beauty in the palace.

A friendly lion on the grand staircase.

Our accommodation in Caserta was another B&B – again a little tricky to find. On the advice of the manager we ate at the Mexican restaurant next door and it was a great meal. The owner of the restaurant was quite excited to have Australians in his restaurant, only the 2^nd time ever. He asked why we were in Caserta and when we told him it was the palace he told us how the town was broke and until recently were pretty blasé about having the palace. He was really quite passionate about his town and also Naples and said if we were ever coming back to let him know because he would love to show us his Naples and be our tour guide for a couple of days. He and his wife were lovely to talk with (great English) and they made our night quite special.

Our B&B in Caserta.

An eventful day

Friday 30^th May

Today was our last day in Rome and turned out to be possibly the best day. We decided we would go to Ostia Antica which was the original port of Rome. We had worked out the bus/metro/train route so headed off for the bus stop. We had to wait a while for a bus and when it came it wasn’t the bus we were waiting for but he assured us he was going where we wanted. Sitting on the bus we saw a notice regarding something on 30^th May. Dictionary in hand we translated the sign to find out that there was a 24hr transport strike today. Don’t know quite what that meant given that we were on a bus and it was running! Arrived at metro station and caught metro no worries, but then at the train station we found that there were no trains on the line to Ostia Antica. Hmm! New plan required.

We decided to head back into the city and fill the day just wandering parts of town that we hadn’t yet seen. We managed to keep off the main tourist trail around the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain and visited some of the other buildings and monuments marked on the map. We found ourselves late in the afternoon at the Victor Emmanuel II Monument, also known as the ‘wedding cake’. The picture will explain this.

 

Republicca Square

One of the fountains at an intersection
where there is a fountain on each corner.

Fountain in the Piazza Barberini.

Dog of the day photo - out for a walk in not just any old handbag,
but an Yves St Laurent handbag.

A building we walked through on our travels today.
Couldn't find any special reference to it on our maps.

Another courtyard.

The building referred to as the 'wedding cake'. This was built by Mussolini who cleared the space for it, bulldozing roman ruins and medieval churches.
It is actually called the Victor Emmanuel II Monument.

At this building there was a large gathering of all flavours of police in uniforms and many police vehicles, as well as a lot of press people. We sat and watched for a while as BMW after BMW arrived and off loaded men in suits. Around 5pm the police started to look alert and lots of whistle blowing started as they stopped traffic to allow the last car, flying Italian flags, arrive at the venue. We’re not sure who the last arrival was but assume it was someone of note. We also noticed around the area that all the rubbish bins had been covered and locked – bombs??

 

Waiting for....

...whoever this man might be? Googling didn't help me find out who it was.
Anyone know?

We had booked for a night tour called Ghosts, Legends and Mysteries of Rome so had to fill in time till 9.15. We weren't game to go back to the hotel and then back into town because we just weren't sure what the transport strike meant in terms of reduced service? Or no service? We sat in Piazza Navona for a while and people watched – buskers, tourists, souvenir sellers. We then headed to the tour meeting point to be stopped on the side of the road as a bicycle group stopped traffic on the road. We think it was a protest about pollution in Rome and they should ride bikes. The police enjoyed blowing their whistles to keep the bikes moving and the traffic out of their way. One funny thing to see was a police car rushing by, lights flashing, and the passenger holding a small red paddle (about the size of a ping pong bat) out the window to stop traffic. This was at night – what hope did anyone have of seeing the paddle?

Just a small selection of the handbags one could buy.

Finally we did the night tour. This tour was a really good way to end our time in Rome. The tour guide was an Irish girl and really good fun – she knew her stuff. The first place she took us was Campo di Fiori – what a surprise to find this lively piazza just off the main road where the tour started. We really enjoyed hearing the tales she had to tell. The tour finished at 11 and then we had the anxious wait to see if the buses were running to get us back to the main train station. That worked out OK but when we got to the station we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel rather than risk not finding a bus when we got off the metro. 

This was once a palace of one of the Popes - from the Farnesi family.

This fountain is just off the one of the piazzas we visited on our night tour
and back in medieval times there would be red wine flowing
in the fountain when they had a party.
Apparently it is the only fountain in Rome where
the water is not potable due to the lead pipes.

This frescoe is outside a church called St Mary's of the Prayer and Dead.
The priests would dress in black robes and assumed responsibility
for interring abandoned corpses in Rome.
The church houses a chamber decorated with human bones;
a large number of skulls, candelabras constructed of bones,
and a large cross adorned with skulls, but we didn't get to see inside. 

St Peter's Basilica at night