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Summer of 23

Temmuz - Ekim 2023
The long awaited honeymoon Okumaya devam et
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  • Summer of 23
    11

    Day 19 - Ravello & Minori

    28 Temmuz 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Today we had nothing planned for the first Time really since the start of our trip. We slept in and headed down for breakfast at the hotel.

    We decided we would walk to Ravello from Minori. In my infinite wisdom I convinced the morning would be better weather wise. So after a call to Chris and Barbs we set off to meet the fate I had created for us, I have since googled this and some count 1500 stairs from bottom to top - I didn’t have the brain power, oxygen or enough cold water to count even past the first lot. Katie soon got the, ‘ok I was wrong maybe this afternoon/evening would of been better’ from me, but we were to far gone to turn back.

    On the way up we met some horse carting sacks up the stairs, now we know how they get produce around - poor horses! After 50minutes walking we made it to Ravello, its a cute small town perched up in the mountain. Great views of Minori & Miaori one way and Amalfi and beyond the other - though to see this side, you must enter the paid gardens and most likely through the gift shop… Europe & their gift shops.

    Katie and I walked around town, grabbed lunch, got some gelato, saw yet another couple of churches and opted to head back down to Minori.

    Once down and we combatted the leg shaking from coming down so many stairs we went for a swim at the beach.

    Later we ventured over to Miaori via the road - Katie didn’t find it as much as a blood rush as me walking with the vehicles (Barbs I promise Katie is safe) - looked around then opted for dinner and some more gelato back in Minori.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23

    Day 20 - Pompeii

    29 Temmuz 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today we had breakfast at the hotel, checked out and got given two lemons to take with us from the owner (apparently good with salt & Vinegar)
    We then made our way to the ferry to catch it to Salerno to catch our train to Pompeii.

    Once in Pompeii, I had forgot to ask about the bus ticket for transfer to Pompeii site, so instead of dealing with everyone asking if we wanted a taxi or a good deal, we opted to walk 16 minutes.

    Once at Pompeii site, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed in. We didn’t want to get to in-depth with it so I had downloaded the Rick Steve’s podcast tour of Pompeii.
    This took us to the highlights of Pompeii.
    When walking around it is amazing to see the stepping rocks they used when the streets flooded & that the stepping stones still fitted a cart through them when not flooded. I was expecting Mt Vesuvius to be a lot bigger seeing the destruction it caused, It was pointed out in the tour that if you draw a triangle between the two points left now, this would of been height of it before the eruption. The people of Pompeii had 7 days of grumbling from the mountain before it erupted but they were still shocked what was happening!

    It was fascinating to see the flour mills, paintings, mosaic tiles and plenty of other areas so intact after such eruption. One thing I found hilarious that was still in tact, was the paintings on the brothel walls that acted as a menu for the patrons back in the day! Also a guide explaining to another person outside what the building was was hilarious to listen into.

    We spent nearly 4 hours there and we were done from walking so much in the stone & the heat!

    We then caught the train to Naples.
    Once at our BnB, this is the only city so far we have second guessed all decisions of coming to such a city. A lot of rubbish in the streets and it was busy! We both just couldn’t get into the vibe of it.
    We had dinner close to the BnB & headed back and watched some Netflix for the evening instead of venturing out.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23
    1

    Day 21 - Forio, Ischia

    30 Temmuz 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we left Naples brisk-fully! Straight down to the port after breakfast to get on a ferry to Forio on the island of Ischia.

    Once on the island we went to the hotel to put our bags there, luckily enough our room was ready at 11am instead of 3pm!
    We dropped our bags off to the room, went out for a walk and found a place that had excellent reviews for lunch - I was aiming for something that wasn’t pizza or pasta - Annunziata dal 1936. These guys did burgers/big sandwiches.
    After ordering off translate, we sat down and waited for our food, in the mean time the owner gave us deep fried mozzarella & deep fried some sort of pasta in a ball, delicious. Then the burgers came out, I had grilled chicken with caramelised onion and zucchini sauce while Katie had Parma Ham with salad in sliced Carsareccio Bread.
    We then rolled out of the shop back to the accomodation.

    We spent the remaining afternoon lazing around the pools in sun beds, yes the beach is 300-400m away, but when in Forio!

    We ventured out for dinner to Sarace Restaurant, I was disappointed that their octopus wasn’t available but got steered to fish of the day pasta by the waiter, I can’t say this enough, I have not tasted pasta or fish like this! Everything just melted in your mouth. Katie had the Tuna pieces and I thought the Japanese could do good Tuna, Italians have been hiding this from us! This was the best meal we’ve had in Italy so far, still getting used to some waiters attitudes but the owners are always friendly!
    Capped off the evening with Gelato.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23
    1

    Day 22 - Forio, Beach Day

    31 Temmuz 2023, İtalya

    Today we had nothing planned, it was going to pretty much stick like that. No miraculous walks up a hill with 1500 steps or so today!

    We had breakfast at the hotel, wasn’t anything to write home about so I’ll skip that.

    Katie and I opted for a beach day, the sun has some bite in it, most beaches don’t have much shade during the day so we decided to treat ourselves to rent two sun beds and an umbrella.

    We rented them from Chalet Nonna Carmela, which coincidently has a Maltese background!

    That was us set for the day! Couple of swims, a siesta and a beer!

    For dinner we went to Jack all’empomeo - Osteria - pizzeria. Katie had the Napoli and I had margarita with basil as the owner said was quite nice.
    We chatted to the owner and found out a lot of his family (cousins ect) are in New Zealand and he told us about his last visit.

    We finished the night off with gelato!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23
    111

    Day 23 - Rome

    1 Ağustos 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we got up at 6am, packed the remaining stuff and headed for the port of Forio to get in the ferry back to Naples.

    Once in Naples we caught the metro to central station and then jumped on a fast train to Rome.
    These trains get up to speeds of 299km per hour. Little did we know we got a little food box which consisted of natural water, pineapple juice, a bag of some sort of crisps & a marmalade croissant. We had brought a yoghurt pack from the supermarket but we were happy to get the extra food.

    Once in Rome we had to take the Metro to our BnB, anyone knows me I love the metro here…
    We survived the metro trip checked in early to our BnB.

    We ventured out for lunch to Trastevere. I was quite excited for Trastevere, little did I know it’s dead during the day and comes alive at night!
    We got lunch had a walk around then head back to the room so Katie could have a nap and I did some research for Rome.

    Once awake we decided we needed a break from pasta, pizza and pastry’s. we headed to the famous Spagla McDonalds!
    I must say, it was delicious and a nice break from Italian food!

    We had a walk around going past the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain, Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, Roman forum and Palatine Hill, We ended up in-front of the colosseum at this point. We took some pictures from a point I learnt of TikTok existed then headed down to go for a night time tour of the Colosseum.

    We brought the tour in Italian so the only thing I learnt was we walked through to the underground the same way the gladiators did from across the road which I didn’t realise was a structure that used to be there! We brought the tour in Italian as it was 25 euro for the tour each from the actual website or 180NZD each for English from third party tour providers and I just want us to be there with no one there.
    The tour was fantastic, took us all the way through underground then back up to level one. Only your tour was there at the time of roughly 25people and then the next group would be seen coming down below as you were finishing.

    We ended the night with braving the metro, happy to say we survived again!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23
    1111

    Day 24 - Rome

    2 Ağustos 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Today we had no plans set, we woke up late after a nice sleep on from our late night at the colosseum.

    We do get breakfast at our BnB but consists of 3 packet croissants and a packet of other stuff I’m not really keen on trying.
    So we saw a nice reasonably priced cafe on the street. II Nido Gusto E Miscele, the waitress spoke great English and the breakfast menu start at 10am, we arrived a little after 10 luckily enough!
    Katie got avo on toast with pear on top, I got pancakes with fruit. Was a great coffee and will definitely be having their coffee again!

    We caught the metro to Spagla again and walked up the Spanish steps, then headed around town.
    We went to Chiostro del Bramante which is a cultural space hosting classic art exhibitions, we went there as the cafe has painted walls & roofs. The stair are done by an artist that let the paint run down the stairs not letting colours touch each other until the landing as well.
    We walked along Via del Coronari, a cobblestone street lined with shops, cafes plus churches and buildings as old as the 15th century.
    Next street we walked down is Via del Governo Vecchio, this is also a cobbled street with shops and restaurants with lively palazzos. Also home to the famous Frigidarum gelato store, we had to try some! So Katie got the lemon flavour that tasted like freshly squeezed lemon, I opted for cookies and chocolate! We walked past the pantheon the temple built 118-125AD, line was massive and they now charge for entry so we moved on to get some lunch.
    Lunch was pasta made a huge hit over TikTok, Pastificio Guerra. Lunch starts at 1pm and the menu isn’t announced until it opens, at €4.50 a serve of pasta and it’s made fresh! We waited in a small line, got some pork pasta and headed to Fontana del bottino steps to eat with others like us while watching the world go by.

    We went back to the hotel and opted to go to the laundromat, this was the highlight of Katie’s day watching the machine spin around and around 😂

    For dinner we went to the Jewish Ghetto, we looked at the Portico of Octavia, remains of an ancient walkway built in 2nd century B.C. to link two Roman temples. The turtle fountain that is an elegant renaissance fountain with bronze figures of men with turtles and dolphins and a walk around the ghetto itself.
    We sat down for a drink and some buskers were playing, I thought this is nice, drink music & my beautiful wife. They came around to all the tables for a tip, I have one euro and straight after they got all their tops they moved down the street! Katie didn’t let me down on this one euro for a while!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23
    1111

    Day 25 - Vatican City & Rome

    3 Ağustos 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Today we woke up at 6am, we were feeling rather spiritual and needed our fix! Luckily I had organised an early morning tour of the Vatican before the trip!!
    We headed to the Vatican City where our tour started at 7.30am (public opening isn’t until 8.30am!) The tour was great, it wasn’t in your face religion that I was preparing myself for, instead it was how the Vatican City came to be, the artefacts they have found and saved through the centuries, how each pope decided on different things in the Vatican & mainly about the paintings and their stories behind said paintings. It also was the highlights tour - see everything that should be seen, if you want to brave the crowds after breakfast at 9.30am then do so at your own pace.
    We went into the Sistine Chapel and learnt about how Michelangelo painted the roof, then 25 years later a pope begged him to paint the Last Judgement piece on the wall. He put a lot of himself in this as he didn’t want to do the Last Judgement painting - so he put a pope going to Hell, he also did a self portrait of himself as his face on flayed skin held by St. Bartholomew precariously between heaven & Hell.

    After the provided breakfast at the Vatican (Italians can’t cook eggs but can make a great pancake) we made our way through the masses, we dodge, duck, dived and weaved through the crowd - it was humid too - so we skipped going back through most sites as once you’ve seen a few statues, you’ve seen enough of them in that heat! We went onto St. Peter’s Basilica through an entry point off the Sistine chapel the tour guide told us about so we didn’t have to line up for 3 hours!
    After a walk through that, Katie and I decided we had our fill of churches and religion so we headed back to the BnB (Yes Vatican didn’t disappoint - I saw 3 gift shops on the way out - no bobble head Jesus’s tho unfortunately) Before going back to the BnB, we made a stop to Knight’s of Malta keyhole that looks to a garden and perfectly framed Saint Peter’s Basilica. The keyhole is part of the property owned by the Priory of the Knights of Malta, a Roman Catholic religious order of crusader knights that originated in Jerusalem in the 11th century. It is the oldest surviving chivalric order in the world and is a sovereign entity under international law. The estate also hosts the embassy of the Order of Malta to Italy.

    After that we went back and rested from our travels this morning.

    Once rested and cooled, we made our way over to Trastevere for some lunch - Again a TikTok reviewed place was in order - We went to Trapizzino which is Italian street food, pretty much Pizza base with a filling inside, we also had a Suppli Classico starter that is Mozzarella and risotto style rice Depp fried. Super Healthy lunch - so we had to wash it down with a glass of wine!

    We ventured to Termini to see where we picked the car up as we didn’t feel great about trying to find it with luggage the next morning.

    Dinner was at Il Tagliere Toscano Navona, a sharing board of cheese and meat, we also made light work of of a bottle of Rose! This was another TikTok venture - Dad, this is my secret along with Insta!

    We then walked over to Frigidarium for more Gelato - this time there was a line but it moved quickly. We were served by the owner it seemed, he got Katie her Lemon & Liquorice flavours, I then asked for strawberry, couldn’t decide on the rest so he chose peach and yoghurt to go with it. It was amazing and I was very happy with this!

    We ventured on past the Pantheon again, this time closed so I showed Katie the boards outside and explained what she had missed due to the lines. It is still amazing on the outside as this has stood the test of time since what is presumed 126AD, as it was initially built somewhere between 27BC & 14AD but was made from wood and burnt down.

    We moved onto the Trevi fountain, took some photos and decided we were ready to head to the BnB, public transport doesn’t work like normal transport options it seems, busses turn up on their time and if they turn up. Took us 30-40minutes for a bus to finally go to near where we wanted but we made it back to the BnB safely which we were happy with!.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23
    1111

    Day 26 - The dreaded Car Hire & Tuscany!

    4 Ağustos 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Today we have one thing on our minds… We have survived Rome & Naples, now let’s drive with these crazy Italians!
    Our car hire wasn’t until 11.30am - which worked out as a blessing as the metro was pretty quiet with our bags.
    Firstly though, we went packed up our stuff, checked out and headed down to Il Nido Gusto E Miscele for breakfast and their amazing coffee.

    We got the car, found out it wasn’t a Fiat 500 but a Volkswagen T-Cross, this is kinda a blessing as we know our way around a Volkswagen! We are glad all our luggage in the boot & we can keep everything out of site.

    We then drove away from Rome, let’s say this about the days affairs of driving - we went through one red light, one wrong turn & one argument but no one tooted us, so we will call this a major win.
    I did learn, if the sign post says 70km, everyone does 90km. I do what the speed sign says though as I am a law abiding angel! There may of been a lot of swearing at other drivers, but I kept the window up and smiled as they passed in ridiculous places… again, may of been, may not of been.

    We were heading for our BnB near Montepulciano in Tuscany.
    Along the way we decided to head to a small village called Bagnoregio so we could walk to the hilltop village of Civita di Bagnoregio. C ivita di Bagnoregio is a hilltop village in central Italy. It’s accessed via a pedestrian bridge from the nearby ticket office in Bagnoregio village. The Porta Santa Maria gateway was built by the Etruscans. Founded in the 7th century, the Romanesque San Donato Church sits in the main square.
    This village is has a nickname of the ‘Dying village’, due to the natural occurring erosion happening on the hill - the engineer in me had to see this! Also this has recently been made a bit more famous thanks to TikTok & Harry Styles buying property in the village. There is 13 people that live in the village and there is more cat strays than people - these cats are well fed due to the restaurants looking after them!
    We had some lunch in the village and then carried onto our BnB.

    We made it to our BnB, Gianni made us feel very welcome along with his Sausage Dog. He makes wine himself so he had a bottle of Red wine for us (I may be half way through it now writing this - Katie will proof read this for me!) It is a lovely BnB with a lot of land and breath taking views.

    He recommended a restaurant in Montepulciano that were friends of his, we went to it - Osteria del Borgo - we had lovely pasta (Fettuccine for me and Tagliatelle with fresh truffle for Katie) and great wine there. We opted to share a dessert of Sour Black Cherry Semifreddo made in house - I am glad we are walking so much each day!

    It was raining quite hard which made coming down off the main village of Montepulciano interesting at night and in a car we didn’t know. We made it back to the BnB and headed to bed.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23
    111

    Day 27 - Tuscany

    5 Ağustos 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today we woke up in Tuscany to rolling hills and fruit trees out the window with hardly any noise around!

    We had talked to Gianni last night about places to see and do, I already had some thoughts but he added to them and made our plans concrete.
    We first off drove to Bangui Di San Filipino, a sulphurous hot spring surrounded by thick pine forest and limestone hills. This isn’t as busy as some in the area, it did get busy as we were leaving though. We soaked for an hour, it rained a little and as the temperature was about 17degrees, hot springs was a very nice touch to start the day. I was very happy that afterwards our skin felt very soft instead of feeling like I had just bathed in sulphurous water!

    After the hot pools, we drove over the a village called Radiofani, this has Fortezza Di Radicofani that is dated back somewhere to 973AD, this is a fortress that can be seen far and wide - we saw this ages away before coming in the area while driving. It sits at 810m above sea level.
    We walked around the village, grabbed lunch from a local grocer that makes sandwiches and sat in a sunny court eating away.
    This village had amazing views of the country side we admired from different points, every where you look you see another village in the distance.

    After this we drove to Bagno Vignoni, it situated on a hill above the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany. It is a popular tourist destination and well known for its hot springs, the Romans used to bath in the square now where you can admire the water from restaurants or the path around the square. The swimming area is down below the town, but as the water has to travel and jump a waterfall, by the time it hits the pool it is cooler than up top. This would be nice on a hot day though. We had some coffee in town and walked around admiring the old buildings.

    We then drove to a fortress 10minutes away we could see sitting on a hilltop, Rocca di Tentennano. Built as an extension of the rocky spur, and surrounded by several walls that made it unbeatable to any type of attack, the Rocca di Tentennano is the only fortress in the Val d'Orcia that has never been conquered by force. The Spanish tried a number of times but never succeeded.

    We knew we had to sort dinner so we drove back to Montepulciano and parked the car. Went into a local grocery for supplies and browse the weird and wonderful things - milk cartons that contain wine! - we then booked into dinner at La Vineria di Montepulciano, number one on trip advisor for their cheese and meat boards for 7pm. We had an hour to kill so walked around the beautiful village of Montepulciano, taking in the views from the hill where we could and the amazing buildings.
    We went back for dinner and if any one reading this has a trip to Tuscany, come to this restaurant, this was the best meat and cheese board and the house wine was fantastic. The servers were really nice as well - you may not like the music but we had a great time to the upbeat music playing!
    For those playing at home, Montepulciano has played host to the Twilight movies of late… No I didn’t know this until tonight FYI!

    We ventured back to our BnB where we watched the sunset in the horizon… romantic and cheesy yes I know! I am now sampling the wine bottle I mentioned with Katie proof reading everything I am writing as Katie doesn’t drink red wine… sorry to her, this is beautiful wine!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Summer of 23
    111

    Day 28 - Tuscany

    6 Ağustos 2023, İtalya ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Today we leave our BnB ‘Roseti’ near Montepulciano and head on to Chianti region.

    Upon having breakfast, we settled up the stay with Gianni and his sausage dog, said our goodbyes and how good it has been staying in their property.

    We ventured onto the village of Pienza, The central Piazza Pio II is framed by 15th-century buildings like the Pienza Cathedral and Piccolomini Palace. The latter was Pope Pius II’s summer residence and features a roof garden with valley views. Flemish tapestries and the pope’s embroidered cape are on display at the Diocesan Museum. West is the Pieve di Corsignano, a Romanesque church with a circular bell tower. We walked around for an hour admiring the views from the village, as we were leaving the village was filling up and parking was getting hard - I was stoked that it was pretty easy once we found the right car park area to park!

    We drove to the next village over of San Quirico d’Orcia, we picked up some cheese for a crackers, tomatoes & cheese lunch as we need a break from Italian lunches sorry to say. We drove out of the town Vitale di Capressi, which is made famous from Gladiator movie where Maximus is dreaming of home and the scene where the guards come to kill his family and burn his house from not pledging his allegiance to the new king. It was a wee bit down the road we found a little spot to have our lunch.

    We kept driving on from there and drove up to Sinalunga, as it was Sunday afternoon, this village was a ghost town so I admired if from the road as we drove to and from it! Katie need to find some facilites at this point - my app said there was nothing around (yes we have a toilet app) but there was the Golden Arches calling. We went to the nearest McDonalds, line was out the door, but right next door was a massive outlet shopping centre so we went there. After a look around, Katie buying a top she had been eyeing, me, a jacket you can’t get in Aus or NZ, we decided we wanted to head to the BnB we had booked.

    Along the way we drove the motorway which saw the car hit 110km per hour and a crash barrier that was at direct eye level, that I really didn’t appreciate the height of while driving directly next too… I’ll take the cheese grater wire rope barriers back home thank you!
    I thought it would be nice to stop off at San Gimignanello, a little village that looked nice on google… only to find out what was on google was for a different village. It was still nice to see the sunflower paddocks and a couple of deer as we parked the car.

    We arrived at our BnB with the thought, we are out in the middle of no where! So quiet and peaceful and grapevines everywhere!

    We checked in, had a good discussion on the area with the host & got ready for dinner at where she proposed, a 10minute walk away.
    Upon walking to dinner as we left the BnB, I saw two cars slow down right near the intersection of the village we are in, I soon saw an adult Boar and a baby Boar run across the road, our host had mentioned them and said they are friendly if we meet them… won’t be finding out first hand though.
    We got to the restaurant and they were full for the evening… now this is not an area you’d think that you’d have to book, and there is only two places in walking distance… this one, or a really expensive castle. We jumped into the car and drove to Ristorante Malborghetto, which the BnB host had also suggested and we got the last table available for the evening.
    House wine was fantastic and every time a server comes over they say Hello and I reply Hello, how are you? This is obviously not custom here or done much as Katie mentioned every time I have done it the server always looks a bit puzzled why I am asking them how they are! I just want to make sure they are having a good day and won’t spit in my food!

    Driving went well today, Katie didn’t try to use none existent pedals! Was stressful driving in the dark with Boar’s, wild cats & Deer knowing around.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
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