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Italia

June - July 2023
A 21-day adventure by Jarrod Read more
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  • TravelerItalia
    Day 21

    Ciao Italia

    July 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today is our final day in Italy, and it is going to be an anticlimactic end to the trip. We started with a 9am bus to the airport, a 1 hour flight to Naples, a 6 hour stop over, and another 1 hour flight to Split in Croatia. Thus, I will begin the next phase of the trip - the Balkans. I have heard endlessly good things about the Balkans, and so I am eager to see what it is all about. That being said, we start in Croatia, where most of the activities will include chilling by the beach and drinking. We have done a fair bit of partying so far, but I expected more to be honest, so we will see what Croatia holds for us. The only activities I really hope to achieve include the three caves tour recommended by Meliss and Mum as well as wander around the old towns and parks in the area. We arrived late into Split and walked to our hostel to check in. Right off the bat, I could tell this would be one of the nicest hostels that we have stayed in so far. It was clean and spacious, and the ladies at the front desk were incredibly helpful.

    After we finish Split and Hvar, Jack will be heading over to Spain most likely, and I continue my journey through the Balkans on my own. That being said, I may have a friend from work join me for a hike through Albania, Montenegro, and Kosovo. This could work out really well as I plan to track South along the coastline of Croatia (Dubrovnik and Ston potentially), Montenegro, and Albania before tracking back up the mountain regions, north to Slovenia. This would also allow me to see Sarajevo, Plitvice Lakes National Park, and Zagreb. Because she won't be able to join me until August, it should align perfectly. If I manage to collect a spare few days, I may even fit in a couple of days in Corfu. This is only really possible due to accumulating a spare days in Italy and being ahead of schedule. This did come at the cost of the southeast of Italy, but it could be worth it to spend some extra time in other parts of Europe.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 20

    Cefalu

    July 3, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today, Jack was once again nursing a hangover in bed, but due to my early night, I hopped up and tried to see the final bits of Palermo. The main thing I wanted to see was the Regional Archeological Museum Antonio Salinas. Unfortunately, being a Monday, it was closed- which is quite common in Italy. This was very disappointing as I had heard good things but when you travel you lose track of days and forget that things close on Mondays. Nonetheless, I wandered around on my Lime Scooter, called my parents, and saw the rest of Palermo that was within a reasonable distance.

    I did this until Jack woke up, and then we decided we should do Cefalu as we had heard good things once again. This was about a 1 hour train ride, and then we got there and went straight to the beach. We didn't have heaps of time as Jack had slept in, but we figured we would wander the town and see what was around. Jack had been told about a really nice beach about an hours walk out of town, but once again, he had led us into the middle of nowhere. It was still cool to see the little town, but I would have much rather chilled by the beach or explored actual Cefalu. By the time we finished our walk, we didn't even have any more time or energy to go back to the beach, so we headed for our train. When we arrived, however, it had been delayed by 45 minutes, and so we had a conundrum of going to the beach very quickly or just wait around for a while. We were so low on energy after the walk that we chose the latter. However, the trains home were crazy busy, and people were jumping on each other to make it on. We knew there was a later train that should arrive about 5 mins after, and so decided we'd wait for that. We put ourselves in a better position this time to get a seat and waited. This second train was once again delayed, but eventually, we got on, got a seat, and headed home. Jack was very tired from a big few days and I was very tired from a big day so we got a feed and went to bed. Given that we head to Croatia tomorrow, this was our last chance to get a Bolognese, which I hadn't had yet, and so we jumped on it. We were starving, and when it finally arrived, we inhaled the food and went straight home for bed. Tomorrow was a big day of travelling, but i was excited for a chilled day where I could try and organise myself a little bit.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 19

    Rest Day

    July 2, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After a few big days of partying with mates, it was once again just Jack and I and so we spent the whole morning doing completely fuck all. The only time I left the room was to get food, but because we took the Lime Scooters we ended up seeing quite a few nice places around Palermo. Palermo is interesting in how it seems to be split up into market areas that are very active and vibrant during the morning and day, and then as that seems to dwindle out, the pubs that are across the main road seem to really kick off and create an awesome atmosphere. This is what I loved most about Palermo as there is always something happening, the nightlife is great whether it is partying, drinking, or eating, it has everything you could want. Palermo has been my second favourite city behind Florence at this point because it maintained a small town atmosphere with all the benefits of a big town. There was always things to do and the people were great. After lunch I once again ventured out of the room to get dinner, in which Jack chose a very fancy and very nice steak house to eat, for whatever reason. Though I must say it was one of the best meals I had eaten in my entire life despite costing quite a bit and being quite small. We of course got the cheapest meal we could but it was definitely worth it because of how great it actually tasted. It wasn't a big meal but it was enough to sustain me- but not Jack. After this Jack got roped into a date with a girl and was forced to once again have a big night of drinking but I was happy to lay in bed and watch Netflix until I passed out- this didn't take long to happen.Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 18

    Palermo

    July 1, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today, we said goodbye to Catania and made our way toward Palermo to catch up with Zach and Ruby again. This meant most of the day wasn't too exciting, just involved Jack and I sleeping in, catching a train to Palermo, grabbing a big feed and jumping straight on Lime Bikes this time to meet Zach and Ruby at the beach. This was about a 30-minute ride, but it was along the water for parts and was a mostly chilled ride. The trip to the north of Palermo had already shown us enough to be sure that Palermo was a standout city in terms of cleanliness and beauty. It was much cleaner and had much more character than Catania, and when we arrived at the beach (although it was a trek), it was much nicer than the beach would have been at Catania. Palermo has huge cliffs that seem to encompass the whole city, and it made for a cool view anywhere you are but especially by the beach. We chilled by the beach here for a while, drinking beers and hanging out before we decided it was time to ride home. This time, there were 4 of us, which made it even funner, but eventually, we split up, and each of us headed home to shower and get ready for another big night of drinking.

    Zach and Ruby had an early bus to the airport for their flight and were sure they wouldn't drink much, but after racking up a bill of 180 euro between the 4 of us, it is safe to say we were quite smashed. Lots of different spirtz, some lemoncello shots, jeiger shots, and the rest. By the time we paid the bill, we were dancing in the middle of the restaurant and causing a scene, but we couldn't care less. The chaos continued when we got back to the hostel, as for the first time ever, people littered the halls and rooms. We were loud and considerably drunk, so we were sure to have some drunken chats with everyone, not that we can really remember. The waiter, of all people, had given us some weed to thank us for being so friendly to him, and we planned to make the most of that. It wasn't much, but we were drunk, and so that was probably a blessing. I don't even remember what time it is when they left, but surely enough, we fell asleep almost instantly. We later learnt that Ruby and Zach missed their bus and had to taxi the 40-minute drive to the airport, costing them a pretty penny. Once again, it was good to see them before they went to the final leg of their journey in Greece. The first part of my trip has involved more Australian mates than expected, but also I've also made fewer international mates made along the way. I'm sure that will come eventually, however. We head to Croatia next now in a change of plans to ensure I can do that with Tait before he runs out of money. Given the party atmosphere, I hope I can meet people and do other parts of Europe with them.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 17

    Day on the water

    June 30, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today, we booked a snorkelling trip to a cave system off the coast of Catania. So we made our way on Lime Scooters to the port where we caught up with Hairy and Ben. We chose the morning session, so the sun wasn't so brutal, and we actually enjoyed the morning sun sitting on the front of the catamaran as we sailed for about an hour to the location. The views across the coast of Catania were incredible, but eventually, they put up the sails, and the view was blocked mostly. Eventually, we arrived at our destination, and by this point, we were stinging a swim in the beautifully temperatured water after laying in the sun. For whatever reason, the captain dropped us off about 150m from the swimming spot. I think that most people on the tour rarely do the snorkelling and instead choose to swim off the edge of the boat. We, however, were keen to see what lay around the rock formations. They described them as caves, but they were hardly caves and instead just rocks protruding the water. Given that we were with 2 avid swimmers, Jack and I struggled with the swim and were easily left in the dust. Nonetheless, once we got to the rocks and could manage our breathing a bit better by taking it easy, it was really cool to swim with the fish and jellyfish. There were no massive sized fish, but thousands of little ones. It doesn't compare to the reef dives you can do in Australia, but it was cool just to see how it varies in the Mediterranean. I had forgotten my underwater camera attachment for my phone, but given the swim we had to do, it likely wouldn't have been worth bringing anyway. As such, the number of photos for today is very limited. At the end of the swim, which took about an hour, we started the long trek home, once again being blown out of the water by Hairy and Ben. This time, we were going against the current, and we felt every bit of difference. Eventually, though, we had made it. They then served some food and Proseco while we chatted with others on the boat. The 2 guys running the show were very cool and interesting people to talk to, and so we discussed life in Australia compared to Italy. This then continued as we made our way back to Port.

    On the way home, we found 3 euro aperol spritz, and we made some serious use of that deal. After about 4 of those each, we headed home, taking a detour on the lime scooters, and got dressed to prepare for a big night ahead. We then bought a few bottles of wine and headed to the boys' place to drink them on their rooftop terrace. By the time this was done, we were completely smashed and figured it was time to head out for some food. After some shit talking and some eating, we ran into the girls from the previous night and drank with them until early morning. After this, we were all completely ruined and had to send ourselves to bed, or we'd wake up in a random street in Catania. It was a great night, and it was great to see Hairy. Unfortunately, this would be the last time I see him for another 9 months as he was on his way to Malta and then home shortly after that. It was a shame to say goodbye, but I am lucky to have seen him while over here.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 16

    Syracuse

    June 29, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Before we made our way to catch up with Hairy and Ben for our train trip to Syracuse, we decided to check out the beach of Catania itself. The walk toward the beach showed the worst sides of Catania as there was a clear divide between the nice parts of town and the dodgy parts. Even along the main strip there would be rubbish around, but in this trek toward the beach, we were shocked at the amount of garbage that littered the roads. I think this is a recurring theme of our travelling. A lot of the locations have nice parts and dirty parts, and it is simply identifying where these locations are and avoiding them. We did not do this as we walked toward the beach, and I think it lowered my expectations for the beach considerably. Jack was completely put off by it, but luckily, I had been warned about the rubbish in parts of Italy and Europe and wasn't completely shocked by it. By the time we had made it to the beach we assumed it was going to be a disgusting mess, and the Cherry on top of the cake, a minor fire that had broken out blocking out path to the beach, ensured we lost all motivation to even go and see it. Instead we started walking to the train station to get to Syracuse, but even this was difficult, road works meant we had to run across highways and jump on buses just to get us in the right direction. Eventually, we did make it, just as the train arrived at the station.

    After an interesting start to the day, we finally caught Hairy and Ben and made our way to Syracuse. We only got to experience the old town, but it was incredible. It would have been good to see how the rest of the city compared, but there were so many cool places in the old town alone that we figured it wasn't worth exploring any further out. It started with some old ruins as you first entered the old town before being welcomed by tiny streets and large cream buildings on either side. The little restaurants provided great food, and I got to try my first aranchini ball, and it was awesome. I haven't found one as good since. We made our way through the old town toward the beach before finding a secluded, yet still slightly busy, little Cove to swim at. Nonetheless, we parked up there for a few hours and continued our recovery from the night before. Eventually, we felt better and figured it was time for a spritz and a feed. We found a little bar that overlooked the crystal clear water and figured we would stay here for a few drinks before finding somewhere else for food. The food was so good in the area that the choice became a bit overwhelming, and we eventually ran out of time to be picky and had to just pick a restaurant. In the end, it was good and cheap, but there were definitely better options. By this time, we were already partly pissed so we figured we would grab a few drinks for the train ride. When we arrived at the station, there was a single carriage, banged up and graffiti'ed train that we joked might be our train. Once we figured out what platform we boarded from, we quickly realised that it was, in fact, our train. Not only this, but the train was completely full, and we were forced to sit on the ground of a dingy ass train for almost an hour. This was an interesting trip home, but we made it eventually    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 15

    Catania Reunited

    June 28, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today was a throw-away day. We had nothing planned except for an extended train trip to Catania and eventual drinks with Liam Hair and Ben Grebert. We had originally planned to fly but Jack booked tickets for the wrong month and so we were forced to go on the train and hope that we could get some of our money back by changing the flight to a different time and place. In the end, we got some value back but had to invest more money to change the flight and catch a second one to make it worth it. This was a use it or lose it scenario.

    The only slightly interesting part of this trip was that the train had to traverse the Strait between Sicily and the Italian mainland. We thought this may be an underground tunnel, but it turned out to be a ferry for trains. Then, I literally got put on the boat, in a train, and ferried across to Sicily to disembark and continue on their rail system. This would have been cool if we hadn't lost 2 hours due to technical issues with getting the train on and off the ferry. Meaning we were suppose to arrive at midday to catch up with Hairy and Ben, but then it turned into 6 o'clock because we had to catch a train, then it became 8 o'clock due to the delays. This was slightly annoying, but we eventually caught up with them for a while. We got sloppy drunk off Aperols and shots before meeting some girls from Arizona. We spoke with them for a while before heading home for the night. It was great to see Hairy again after 11 months a part - it was especially good to see him knowing it may be another 9 months until I'm home. After this, we headed to our accommodations to sleep.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 14

    Pompei

    June 27, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Pompei was the next reason for me wanting to stay in the area around Naples. I have always wanted to see the site but was blown away by the actual area it encompasses. We, however, made 3 pivotal mistakes. Firstly, despite the site being open until 7 p.m., we booked an audio guide that had to be returned by 5. We had things to do in the morning and so didn't make it to Pompei until 2pm, I had not considered the fact that audio guide would close before the site but it heavily impacted how long we could stay inside. Secondly, Stef recommended that I try a fried pizza while near Naples, and when we found somewhere that sold them, we grabbed one each. The main issue that arose from this was the incredible size and quantity of grease that came with it. Quite literally the last thing you would want before walking around Pompei in midday heat. Despite being very good, the timing was horrible. The third mistake was not checking the map before we started to walk around. Although I knew we would be restricted by time, I underestimated the size of the site and figured we could get through it all in 3 hours. In the end, we spent probably an hour in the just the houses part of the city and realised the monuments on the other side would be considerably more interesting, but even the trek to the other side of the site took ages. We then had to rush through the amphitheatres and collosseums, but we did end up seeing everything we wanted. A bit of extra time at these final sites would have been nice, but by the end of it, I think Jack had pretty much had enough anyway. Overall, I am very glad we went, but a bit of better planning probably could have made the experience a bit better. The audio guide wasn't as effective as I had hoped either, as it was difficult to understand what they were referring to when discussing different aspects of each area. Not to mention, they kept saying we should walk through different areas of the site that we did not have access to. I'm not sure if we had come on the wrong day where most things were shut or if they simply only open small sections at a time. Either way, it did slightly take away from the experience as we could only listen to what was inside and try and match with different things that we likely couldn't even see. It is difficult to comprehend how well preserved this site is given the age. Especially given the size, you could see how functional and effective it must have been running at one time. The site was breathtaking, and I hope to return one day and do it on a proper tour. Although we had these as options, they cheap ones only went for 2 hours, and I feel as though they would overlook some aspects that would be interesting. Next time, I will get a proper tour that isn't rushed.

    By the end of this, we were beat and ready to head to bed, so we caught the train back and did exactly that.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 13

    Amalfi Coast

    June 26, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today was the big day, and the main reason we decided to stay in Salerno. Well, that as well as the fact that we had heard some bad things about Naples. But we wanted to spend some time along the Amalfi Coast and decided on Positano and Amalfi as the areas to do so. We went via ferry because we thought it would give the best views of the coastline while also being quick and relatively cheap. I think we made the right decision as we got to see all along the Amalfi Coast and marvel in the way they built cities on the edge of steep hills right next to the coast. Given the age of some of these cities, it makes you wonder whether it would have been worth it all. But after spending some time in the towns, it make sperfect sense why you'd want to live there. I would have loved to get more photos as we travelled along the coast but there was a swarm of people lining up for the photos off the side of the boat, and I was slack to deal with that, so we just soaked up the views from inside the boat.

    We started at Positano, and we simply jumped in the water, had a few drinks, and wandered around the small town. To avoid the stairs and blistering heat, we mostly stuck to the walks along the coastline. This was a really cool experience as we came across a few small beaches dotted along the coast before we eventually hit a dead end. We headed back for a drink and one final dip before heading back to the ferry. We did detour through some small shops, but we are both limited by bag space as well as money, so once again, we didn't buy anything.

    We then ferried towards Amalfi and had a pretty similar strategy to that of Positano. We went for a quick jump in the water and then began to wander around the town. We had heard of a really good rock jump in the town and so was looking all over for somewhere that matched the description. It was only on the way back that we went by a little jetty where a company was running a boat hiring stall. Despite them not speaking any English, we gestured until they knew what we were talking about. The rock right by the dock was a notorious rock jumping spot. He showed us videos of people doing the jump, and so Jack and I geared up to do it. After Jack went, a young worker must have gotten excited as we grabbed his boardies and joined us for his second jump. This kid was crazy. It was probably a 10-15m jump, and he was front flipping and doing crazy shit. It was then my turn, and although I was shitting myself, I didn't give myself time to overthink it. I scaled down the rocks and prepared for the jump, I had done my best not to look down until this point, and it was scary to see the height from that perspective. Nonetheless, I couldn't back out now and threw myself off. It felt like you would free-fall for ages, but the rush was awesome, and it ended up being the highlight of the day. After that, we figured it was time a well-earned drink. After a few spritz and some beers, we were ready to jump on the ferry back to Salerno. Once we got back, we grabbed a feed and headed for bed. The place we chose to eat wasn't particularly fancy, but we pizzas were awesome. After that, we then parked up in our beds and got ready for bed.    Read more

  • TravelerItalia
    Day 12

    Salerno

    June 25, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today was going to be nothing special. We had a long train ride to Salerno, and that was basically the whole day. I did some entries into my journal and rested after a few big days. The train ride was really cool, though, through the hills and along the coast.

    When we arrived at our hotel, our building manager didn't speak any English, which was our first serious encounter with this issue but we managed to have a reasonable conversation and get ourselves checked in (thanks to google Translate). After this, we headed along the coast toward the beach to go for our first swim in quite a long time. The beach was slightly dirty and quite rocky but we enjoyed the swim nonetheless. The water in the Mediterranean is so clear and had so many fish that it makes for such an interesting experience. After this, we got some seafood pasta and got ready for bed. We figured when in Sicily and along the coast, getting a proper seafood feed was necessary. We had that, went for a quick stroll along the main esplanade, and headed to bed.    Read more

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