05 October 2010

ITALY and all that ......

Gosh, didn’t that time go quickly, and I’m now writing this blog from belle France. More about France a little later though.......

Once the ferry landed in Italy (not a ferry we would recommend to anyone – I think they may have brought it into service for the relatively short overnight trip from Corfu and then perhaps put it out to rest!) It didn’t have any of the ‘refinements’ that we’ve become used to which is typical when you’re trying to show Australians that travelling on Greek ferries can be rather pleasant!

After a breakfast visit to Alberobello to see the trulli houses, we headed across Italy to the Amalfi Coast – my first time back there since the 80’s. It seemed busy then but now 30 years on, its a wonder its still functioning due to its bombardment of tourists – and this is the shoulder season. The drive there from Salerno was amazing but frightening due mostly to the oncoming traffic (and we are used to that from living in Greece!) but at least in the narrower sections there were people with walkie talkies monitoring when the buses needed to get through.
 Positano is as beautiful as ever though – probably more so now with seemingly every building preened to its best earning capacity, beit a restaurant, bar, art gallery or shop (clothes, handbags, shoes, souvenirs, every shaped bottles of lemoncello – you want it, you can get it there). The place was heaving, but still briskly managed to get everyone fed and watered, with rather high cover charges every time you put your bottom down somewhere.





We took a ferry ride to Amalfi for a day and that was more of the same but still lovely. It was a real treat being able to view both Positano and Amalfi from the water for a change and see how much is tucked into the hills.

Next off to the next most popular holiday spot in Italy (of course excluding Venice) and that was Cinque Terre. Just how the Italians manage to squeeze so much into such a small area is a mystery to me, then I guess that defines Italy (and the Italians!) We stayed in one of our favourite quieter towns, Moneglia, away from the madding crowds, and only a short train ride from any of the Cinque Terre Villages. We did manage to get to all five villages, my favourites still being Riomaggiore and Vernazza from our last visit, and did the walk between Vernazza and Corneglia and although it wasn’t listed as the more difficult one, it was certainly ummmmm taxing – over half of the one and a half hour being mostly rugged steps uphill, and plenty of narrow pathways perched on the side of the cliffs with big drops down to the sea below – not really my idea of fun, though it was good to share comments with the others that we passed, particularly the Australians! It seemed almost mutual that ‘ladies’ over 50 would prefer to be sitting in a cafe somewhere! But it’s great to have done it. Corneglia was a pretty town right up on the top of the hill – there was a harbour down the bottom somewhere, but absolutely no energy left to head anywhere but the train station to get to Riomaggiore for an ice cream, which I might mention we did seem to do every day whilst in Italy.
So the next adventure was to head off in the other direction and we got a ferry from Rapallo to Portofino – once again a tiny place jammed packed with thousands of people. My last visit to Portfino was in November and although as I mentioned before being late September, we were out of the main tourist season, I just couldn’t believe how many boats were squeezed into the tiny harbour – which made it look even more gorgeous than ever really – I would say one could have easily just hopped from boat to boat to cross the middle harbour most of the time. Once again though, the Italians were working their miraculous stuff and managing to effortlessly feed and water everyone with the minimum of fuss. Strangely, we found Positano beat both Cinque Terre and Portofino hands down for overpricing.
So after a week between these coastal places we headed inland briefly for a visit to Sienna and that was well worth it – such a beautiful place again, particularly the Piaza del Campo, then got back to nature by having a picnic along the side of the road with the rolling hills of Tuscany to look at – ahhhh – that was more like it.
I have been managing some sketches some of which may appear in this blog at some stage – most places we’ve stayed in just recently haven’t had wifi, so its been tricky loading up too much to go online, though I have managed to add some more photos to my Picasaweb albums.... My battery is almost out now - vive MacDonalds eh.....more later
A bientot

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