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Italy, Greece and Oman
  • Joann Pyne
  • Joann Pyne

Italy, Greece and Oman

Two months in southern Europe with a collection of friends Read more
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  • Trip start
    August 28, 2025
  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Madness in Manilla

    August 29 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    Well the hideous part of the trip to Europe is nearly over. We arrived in Manilla sometime after midnight for our six hour layover. Tim and Pj had done this same trip a couple of months ago. They warned us that transferring to Terminal 1 was easy, but it was a nightmare once there. They claimed there are no seats or coffee to make bearable the three hour wait for check in to open. Well we got off the courtesy bus and were pretty impressed with the Terminal. Clean, great air-con lovely coffee shops. We slandered Tim and Pj for a while, what a pair of Sooky La La’s they are, etc. eventually we thought we may as well see if check in is open. Oops!! We had been sitting in Terminal 2. Back on the shuttle for the true gruesomeness of Terminal 1. Not sure we would do this trip again. But hopefully once we get onto Oman Air it will all become a distant memory. Len has a bit of a struggle with the automatic passport station in Brisbane. He was wearing his Salvador’s Dali t-shirt and the camera photographed the eccentric surrealist and it didn’t match Len’s passport photo. That and the confiscation of my tube of toothpaste in Manilla have been the only hiccups. Pic of us enjoying Terminal 2.Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler
    11

    Lucca

    Aug 30–Sep 1 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We arrived in Lucca yesterday, in the middle of Notte Blanca - it literally means white night but is interpreted as sleepless night - all the museums and shops are open until midnight and the music in the piazzas goes on until 2pm. Len and I are still not operating at our best - as we are recovering from colds and a 30 hours journey to get here - but we gave it our best shot.Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Volterra

    September 1 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Chat suggested a mid day stop at Volterra on our way to the Isle of Elba. Chat was on the money. Beautiful hill town with lots of winding lanes and amazing views.

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Northern Elba Coast

    September 2 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Today we travelled along the northern coast of Elba from east to west. We visited the mountain village of Marciana Alt and seaside town of Marciana Marina.

    Elba has been mining iron since 1300bc when the argonauts noted the smoke from the workings during their visit. Today there is very little evidence of any mining apart from some rusted infrastructure in a couple of locations. The ground around the site was sparkling in the sun with minerals lying along the road. Today tourism is well and truely the main industry on this beautiful island.

    Over time the island has been government by everyone from the Etruscans to the French. Today there are about 30,000 residents living on Italy’s third largest island (after Sicily and Sardinia). Its most famous resident was Napoleon (after Dino Capocchi of course). But more about Napoleon and Dino tomorrow    Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Farewell to Elba.

    September 4 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    The Isola d’elba - what a stunning island. Len and I have had the best time here. The island is so beautiful, from gorgeous hilltop villages to turquoise beaches - it is the full La Dolce Vita. Great food and great hospitality (apart from the ladies in the aqua dell Elba shops). But I will leave that story for a face to face.

    Elba is famous for hosting Napoleon for 11 months after he was soundly defeated by English, Prussian and Russian forces and exiled from France. He set up camp here and brought a great deal of wealth and trade. He was good for local business in a big way. Today we followed the Napoleon trail and visited his villa in Portoferraio. He claimed some buildings strategically placed between two forts (Falcons and Stella). He also had a villa out of town called Villa San Martino, which is also very beautiful. He returned to France to recapture the empire, only to be eventually defeated at the battle of Waterloo. This saw the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He was finally exiled again- but this time to Saint Helena in the Atlantic. He died there shortly after.

    After climbing 1000 and 56 stairs to these locations we retired to Capoliveri for an aperol spritz and a panini. This town was home to Franca Forde and Dino Capocchi - whose families migrated to North Queensland. It is such a special place and as we wanderied the streets of Capoliveri, enjoying the stunning scenery, we marvelled at the courage it must have taken to travel across the world to an unknown destination to make a new life. The immigrants who transformed Australia were very brave. We are very thankful for everything - but especially the food - and the coffee!!!    Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler
    1

    San GImignano

    Sep 4–6 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We are in one of the quintessential Tuscan towns. San GImignano is stunning. It has towers, piazzas, churches, and medieval architecture. Why so many towers? Well, rich families liked to display their wealth by building towers ever taller than their neighbours. However, the canny “council” introduced a law saying none could be higher than the public town tower.Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Palermo

    Sep 6–8 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Palermo is frenetic and colourful, with something different happening everytime you turn around. The markets are crowded with the most amazing range of food for sale, every type of seafood, lambs heads, pork intestines stuffed with spring onions, and something labeled square meat imported from Scotland. There are also a lot of churches.Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    A night at the Opera Theatre

    September 7 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house in Palermo, Sicily. It is the biggest in Italy, and one of the largest of Europe - 7,730 square metres and the third largest opera house in Europe. We did a tour today and the company was rehearsing the Barber of Seville. Tonight we attended a concert of the Sicilian Brass Orchestra at the opera theatre . The Sicilian Brass Orchestra performed a range of Italian Jazz songs with a quest appearance by Darla Biancardi (vocals) and Francesco Cafiso (clarinet). It was a fabulous night. Although we did feel we were living in the pages of a history book. We sat in one of the boxes and as we looked around everyone was busy fanning themselves with their programs. No aircon!Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Scoglitti

    Sep 8–9 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We needed somewhere for a random night in our itinerary, so choose a spot on the map near our next spot. Scoglitti is a very cute fishing village with a nice beach and some great restaurants. The accommodation is great!Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler
    Cardinal Tomasso Arezzo was born in 1753 and became a papal diplomat.
    Dead Bird on the Head periodThe smoking room had tailor made wallpaperEach of these is the crest of a famous Sicilian family. Until they ran out and made up crestsThe fig tree requires a lot of care to survive in this climate. The leaves were used as postcards.

    Ragusa

    Sep 9–10 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we are travelling in the footsteps of Inspector Montebello, one of my favourite TV detectives. We visited Castilla Donnafugata. Owned by the Arezzo Family from 1628 to 1982 when it was sold to the Council of Ragusa. Inspector Montebello filmed scenes on the terrace of the castle. In the series it was the home of the mafia’s Don Baldiccio Simigra. It was very interesting and also housed a display of women’s garments through the centuries.Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Siracusa

    September 10 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    We finished a fabulous lunch with Shirelle, Caro, Pat and GiGi and drove to Siracusa to meet Peter and Antonella. We are staying on Ortigia.

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Scicli

    September 13 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Further investigation of the Baroque villages of the Ragusa region and Commissario Montelbano country, Scicli very closely tied to Montelbano as many of the scenes are filmed in this town (especially those involving the police station). To honour Andrea Camilleri the town has commissioned local artists to transform the seats in one of the important piazza’s. We were lucky enough to see one of the artists finishing her work. You may notice signs on the pictures. They say Don’t sit - wet paint. Unfortunately, they are in Italian.Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Catania

    September 14 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    We have a day before our flight at 5.20 to Athens. Called into the beach for breakfast and then a wander around Downtown Catania. We happened across a vintage market which was lots of fun …. But no buttons. LOLRead more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Athens

    Sep 15–17 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    We are here! Wendy is here! The Greece adventure begins. As we only had a day we did a quick tour of some of our favourite places. The national gardens, the guards at the parliament, Monistiraki Square and any roof top bar!Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Vergina

    September 17 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We had six nights in Thessaloniki. On the way here, we stopped at Vergina. This is the Royal burial cluster of Philip II. Phillip was the father of Alexander the Great and was sent to the afterlife with more pomp and ceremony than had ever been seen. Phillip and his last wife were washed and dressed in lavish clothes and jewellery and placed on the funeral pyre. The beds they were placed on were ornate and encrusted with gems. After the cremation, the bones were collected and placed in gold boxes and buried in a tomb with all their finery.

    The main room of Phillip's tomb included a marble chest, and in it was the Golden Larnax made of 24-carat gold and weighing 11 kilograms (24 lb), embossed with the Vergina Sun symbol. Inside the golden larnax, the bones of the dead were found and a golden wreath of 313 oak leaves and 68 acorns, weighing 717 grams (25.3 oz). In the room were also found the golden and ivory panoply of the dead, the richly carved burial bed on which he was laid and later burned and exquisite silver utensils for the funeral feast. Other magnificent items include several gold-adorned suits of armour, weapons, and bronze funeral utensils.

    The pieces that have survived the tomb robbers are absolutely amazing. The whole museum is buried underground to replicate the tumulus, or burial mounds that covered the tombs in 300BC.

    We arrived in Thessaloniki, what a great city. We have a really nice apartment in a great location, and we get to have our first Greek catch-up with Karen and meet her friend Kerry. So good to see them and share this Greek experience.    Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Petralona Cave

    September 19 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    The Petralona Cave came to public attention when in 1960 a fossilized archaic human skull was found. The cave had been discovered accidentally only a year earlier (1959) when farmers were looking for water. They thought they could hear running water, but it was actually the wind whistling through the caves. The Petralona skull is dated to an estimated age of around 700,000 years Most scientists believe it was the common ancestor of Neanderthal Man. It was an impressive cave system over 2.8 kms.Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Edessa and Pozar Thermal Baths

    September 20 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Edessa is a lovely village built around twin waterfalls. We also visited the beautiful Pozar Thermal Baths. Both very relaxing. It is one of the key wellness retreats in Greece. Lots of luxurious treatments and beautiful springs waterfalls and swimming spots. From here we are hop skip and jump from North Macedonia.Read more

  • Joann PyneItaly, Greece and OmanTraveler

    Turtle Beach

    September 21 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Beach Day at Turtle Beach with Karen. Fab dinner in the old town at a gorgeous taverna with a small but interesting menu. We all got to try Kritamos Salad made from a Greek variety of Samphire. Delicious.Read more

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