Amalfi Coast and Paestum

Hi all,

below are a couple of pictures from Sorrento with us watching the sunset over the Sorrento Peninsula. It's hard to picture but on the other side of the peninsula sits the Amalfi coast which, outside of Big Sur, is the most dramatic coastline I've ever seen.

After seeing Pompeii and relaxing in Sorrento for a couple of days, we took a bus over to the Amalfi coast which took about 3 hours total, to go about 50 miles. It was like a roller coaster, except the road often held two buses going in opposite directions around hairpin turns, usually with a motorcycle trying to pass in between them. The towns along the way cling to the cliff and have quite a few more stairs than streets.

We ended up in Salerno and from there caught a train down to Paestum, the site of an ancient Greek colony from about 600 B.C. The temples are vcry well preserved and quite impressive.

(Below:Roman Bridge seen from Circuvesuviana train) (Right: Temple of Hera at Paestum)

After leaving Paestum, we got back on the train but since the station was closed we couldn't buy a ticket. When the conductor came around he checked tickets,although he spoke no English, he told us we had to get off the train. So we got off in Batapaglia, had a snack and waited for the next train.

By the time we got to Salerno, it was late, we were hungry and had no hotel lined up (welcome to Krehbiel-North adventure tour line). Luckilly, we went and had a nice dinner and eventually located a very nice hotel for 105 Euro\night, a little overbudget, but it was a welcome sight after a long day.

It rained during the night and was sprinkling off and on in the morning as we went to catch the train to Rome.

Ciao for now,

R

Naploli and Pompeii

(Theresa ordering Pizza at Pompeii)

We missed our contact in Brindisi, but found a decent pensione just above a pedestrian street (and above the shop 'Mary Poppins' picture below). It was amazing to see how the streets filled with people for the evening 'volta' or stroll around town. Of course we had to go out for Gelato.

We got up at 5:00 the next morning and caught the fast train to Naples, about a four hour trip.

Napoli is an energetic, dirty, and completely anarchic city. I'm glad we were there during the day--and that we escaped alive.

My favorite typical site from Napoli was a guy riding a motorcycle with another guy on back holding a pizza and singing, flying at top speed through a tiny street filled with other motos, miniature cars and tourists. These moto drivers obey no laws or rules and certainly not common courtesy.

We were in Napoli for two reasons; to go to the National Archeology Museum--where many of the treasures from Pompeii are held, and secondly to eat Pizza (reputedly invented in Naples).

The collection from Pompeii is astounding; statues, amulets, pots, pans, surgical instruments, glassware, and dozens of mosaics (like the hippopotomus below) all preserved by being covered in ash when Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.

The Pizza was delicious!

From Naples we took the Circumvesuviana train down to Sorrento and spent a couple of days there enjoying the beautiful coastline and visiting Pompeii.

Pompeii is a huge site with roads going in all directions, ranging from wide avenues to tiny lanes. There are proliferation of bakery and lunch counter kind of places as well as baths, theater, tiny hovels, huge houses, and of course brothels (kind of reminds one of Napoli today, without the motorcycles).

One creepy aspect of Pompeii is the many casts of bodies that can be seen in certain areas, apparently petrified within the ash.

Ciao for now,

R

Brindisi

The picture to the right is Rory and Jasper standing at the port of Brindis, on the 'heel of the boot of Italy.' there is column (not shown) marking the terminus of the Roman 'via Appica' a road leading of course, as all roads do, to Rome.




A couple of final pictures of our departure from Greece. Above, Theresa and Jasper gamboling on the deck of the Ionian Princess, our ferry to Brindisi.


Below is a final picture of us with Oma in the district just below the Acropolis in Athens (you can just barely see a temple up above in the background).


We miss you Oma!
We got to Brindisi early in the morning and, unfortunately, missed our contact, Lino, a friend of a friend. We were planning to visit his farm but crossed paths and we ended up heading out the next day for Naples and Pompeii



Ciao,
R

leaving Athens

These are a few final pics from Greece. We left on the ferry from Patras (opposite side of Greece from Athens) and headed for Brindisi on the heel of the boot of Italy.

These are some treasures from the archeology museum in Athens.

Right now I'm blogging from Salerno in Italy. It is amazing here and also it's raining (first rain we've seen since Istanbul).

Ciao,

R