Prego

Ciao from Sicily! We just arrived here this afternoon and what a splendid afternoon it is. Warm sea breeze, sun slowly melting into the sea, feral cats stalking the campsite, fat little Italian kids running around eating ice creams.
What a week it’s been! Either we are getting old or having too much fun, it feels like Cinque Terre was about 3months ago.
So…from Cinque Terre we went to Pisa, yes we did the cliché pics, it was such a beautiful warm afternoon, no queues or crowds. We really enjoyed Pisa but when the exhaust fell off from 7 weeks of cobblestones it was a good time to get out of there (well done to Lachie for fixing it on the spot)! Next day to Florence where we spent two nights and two days enjoying the city and the pizza. Ticked a few things off our list – David and climbed the Duomo. It was SUPER DUPER hot so we tried to keep site seeing and queuing to a minimum. From Florence we went to this beautiful lake right on the edge of Umbria/Tuscany called Lago Trasimeno. We felt like we had melted after Florence so spent two nights/days there seriously recuperating and working on our tans. It was so beautiful and relaxing and just what we needed. Onwards to Sienna where it was so hot we only spent an hour site seeing before jumping in our car and driving ALLLLLLL the way to Pompeii. 7 hours later…
Pompeii was HOT, but really amazing. A whole city over 2000years old in pretty good condition. The Amalfi coast next stop where we stayed for 3 nights. LOVELY! Amalfi coast is pretty spectacular; the roads are toe curlingly windy, steep and narrow. Tons of tourists. We actually got a bit stuck, driving too far along the road to turn around, too windy to keep going, we couldn’t make up our mind where to stop for the night and ended up driving for 5 unnecessary hours after a very sweaty morning at Pompeii so we spent the whole next day lying by the pool at our campsite (back in Sorrento – the beginning of the Amalfi from Naples). Did we mention that it was really hot?
The next day we went to Capri. Fabulous darlings. Also really touristy but we went anyway. We did a tour around the island and made a stop off at the ‘Blue Grotto’. Have you been? It was incredible! We got taken into a tiny mouth in the cliffs in little row boats by these crazy singing Italian men. From watching them they didn’t spend long in there and we had to pay 10euros each to go, our expectations weren’t very high but they were certainly exceeded! The sunlight bounces off the walls underneath the water which makes it luminescent inside. Magic. After Capri we caught a ferry to Positano where we spent the afternoon swimming, beer drinking and ohhhing and ahhing over where we were. Bello! Crazy bus ride back to our campsite with a storm chasing us. First rain in a while which was a huge relief! Met two girls from Victoria (Australia) who were driving around a campervan one of their Dad’s had custom made and had shipped over to Russia. Lachie was pretty ‘chuffed’ to meet them and hear all about the car.
From Amalfi we planned on staying a night in a little town before continuing on to Sicily. Again, no expectations of the area between and WOW! There is this area which is like the Amalfi (really dramatic cliffs, azure water, high mountains) but devoid of tourist build up. It was breath taking. We’d highly recommend the area to anyone. We stayed in a beautiful campsite right on a pebbly beach in Praia a Mare. And now today we are in Sicily! It’s only a 20min ferry across the water and we are in a town called Catania on the eastern coast of the island. We are going to hike up Mount Etna tomorrow! It’s a live volcano and we’ve read that it could erupt without warning so if you don’t hear from us again…
Piazza dei Miracoli
On top of the Leaning tower of Pisa
Hard work!

Mr. Muscles
Pisa river at dusk
Florence, Duomo
David in his finest attire
Lago Trasimeno at dusk. Bellisimo!

Mr.Love at Pompeii
Capri through the haze
Amalfi, note the bougainvillea everywhere?
Lachie getting ready to go through the little hole into the blue grotto - Capri
Magical water inside the blue grotto

Magical water everywhere!
Arches off Capri
Lachie chillin' on the boat trip to Positano
Happy campers in Positano
we stopped off at Paestum, some ancient Greek ruins south of Amalfi

The beautiful coastal road (ss18) Golfo di Policastro
looking down to the azure water
Playing with the pebbles on the beach and some sunflower seeds
On the beach at Praia a Mare
Lachie steering the boat over to Sicily.