/* BUILDING THE BLOG */
18 November 2007
Italy
We arrived into Italy on the ferry from Barcelona. Suprisingly, we actually got some sleep in our 'airline' style seats (the cheap option!). The ferry docked in Civitavecchio, then we caught the train down to Naples. Now, what can I say about Naples? It does have a bit of a reputation. Well, perhaps I can sum it up by saying it is hard work being a pedestrian, but we ate some fantastic food, so I think it all evens out! Daryl's favourite was the pizza - especially the margherita (just tomatoes + mozzarella), while my favourite was the arancino (rice + mozzarella and sometimes meat sauce, rolled in a ball, covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried). I know, too much information about the food!! On to the sights...
The reason we went to Naples was not to get hassled by people selling fake bags on the street, or dodge piles of dog droppings and speedy motorcycles, but to visit the ruins at Pompeii. And they were worth it! After a slow start, making our way around the American tour groups, we managed to spend the whole day on the site, wandering around between all of the ruined buildings. (Quick bit of Pompeii history - when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79AD it was buried. They reckon that 2000 people died there, which is not too bad considering that there were 20,000 people living there at the time. Because it got buried, lots of cool things have been preserved from that time.) Daryl was an excellent navigator around the site - I think his route managed to include every number on the map we were given. At the end of the day we felt like Pompeii experts!
But that wasn't enough. The next day it was back on the ruin trail. We went to Herculaneum, where things were even better preserved, and soaked up a bit more history (they even have wooden bits of someone's bed from 2000 years ago there - pretty amazing).
After the hectic pace of Naples, we were ready for a bit of a change, and headed down to "the heel" of Italy. We popped into Brindisi to get our next ferry tickets (to Greece). I don't have anything nice to say about Brindisi really. A dog bit me on the way to our hostel - we should have just got the ferry tickets and left town! Anyway, we moved on the next day to Lecce, which was the nicest place we stayed in Italy.
In Lecce we were met by Fabio, the brother of a Bristol friend, who was so welcoming and a fantastic tour guide to a pair of Australians whose Italian is limited to please, thank you, hello, goodbye and the numbers up to ten. We walked around Lecce, which has a church around nearly every corner, and even learnt some history. We had two meals with Fabio and his family, enjoying some local specialties - which I can't remember the names of now, but they were all very tasty (the size of our stomachs proved this). Nearly all of the buildings in Lecce are made from sandstone and have beautiful carvings, some restored nicely, some looking ok, and some eroding away. Needless to say, I have taken many photos which I will make everyone look at when we get back. Also, while in this area, we visited the towns of Otranto and Ostuni. The Otranto Cathedral has the best mosaic I have ever seen. It was made in the 1160s and is still there, covering almost the entire floor of the cathedral. It is a mixture of bible stories, signs of the zodiac and some mythological creatures. At the time it was made, it was useful to the people who couldn't read. Ostuni is a completely different place (although both are really quiet, with hardly any tourists and hard to find places serving lunch in November). Ostuni is up on a hill and is all painted white. It looks really cool. (Yes, we took more photos). And it was a nice way to stretch our legs before we got onto another ferry. This time, we splurged and got ourselves beds (yay!). Actually, it was really quiet on the ferry and Daryl and I ended up with our own rooms, which was pretty cool. Neither of us got seasick and we cruised into Greece.
