Italy, Spain, Demark, Ireland, France What were we thinking?: España here we come!


View from Ravello of Amalfi coast

Dave and Chiara (ala Mama Agata) visit

Chatting up the locals

We are Sooo done with Italy. The last few days have been not so enjoyable. The ferries out of Amalfi were not running, we we had to taxi 1.5 hrs to Sorrento. The taxi drivers were scalping the normal 90E rate up to 250E. We were lucky to find on at 190E.

We got to out hotel in Sorrento and it was nice but only 5 rooms. Our room faced the walking/ shopping area and around 8pm a mob of people and A huge PA system set up and blasted Hip Hop until 11pm. The owner told us she knew about it was just for one night and was a benefit for the church. We were so incensed that we asked for a refund for the second night which she refused. We left anyway.. Then taxis from Sorrento to Napes started raising prices due to trains being on strike and we were quoted 250E for what would have been a 100E meter ride. Long story short, Bridget managed to find a great driver on line who took us for 110E. We are ready to go to Spain and our beloved small town of Vijer.

Herculaneum on the ocean

By the way, I pulled an all-day whirlwind tour of both Pompeii and a small excavation of Herculaneum about 20 minutes from Pompeii. Both were buried with the volcanic eruption of 79AD. Herculaneum was just discovered in 1982 and much of it lies under apartment buildings that the government is slowly buying up. It is much closer to Mt Vesuvius and as such, got immediately buried which actually kept it in somewhat better condition than Pompeii.