Florence to the Amalfi Coast

22-24 October 2009

Early start to catch the train to Naples the next moring. Having discovered that there are few straightforward ways to get to the Amalfi Coast at this time of year, we'd decided to lash out on a pre-booked taxi rather than brave the local train from Naples, then the local bus and a walk up 200 steps in the rain to our accommodation with our luggage (which has been slowly getting heavier and bulkier...)

This was a mixed blessing. As we arrived in Naples, the rain swelled into a thunderstorm that created even worse havoc of Naples' already murderous traffic, forcing our taxi driver, Mr Giovanni, into some creative solutions (wrong way into a roundabout? 'No polizia around!' so it's all okay!). The storm also created deep washes of water across the road on Amalfi Drive, the famous coast road that winds along the cliff from Sorrento to Positano, Praiano (where we stayed) and Amalfi - probably lucky it was too foggy to see the drop off the side of the road...

More rain and wind the next day, so it was hard to explore as much as we wanted to, though we ventured out via the local Sita bus - an experience in itself - to Positano and Amalfi. We'd love to see them both in the sunshine - similar to the Cinque Terre in the way the villages cling to the cliffs, but even more dramatic and precarious.

Positano

Above all taken in Amalfi (including antique shop door...)

Minor adventure returning from Amalfi in the late afternoon as our bus driver slammed on the brakes, threw open the doors and dashed outside to the back of the bus, leaving his dozen or so passengers sitting in the bus wondering what on earth was going on. Turned out he was madly spraying the engine with a fire extinguisher, so we beat a hasty retreat and walked the remaining kilometre or so home. We thought the trudge up the hill in drizzling darkness, with 200 steps at the end up to our accommodation, deserved a decent reward!

Above 3 all taken from the terrace of our room, looking out over the Mediterranean

Mud slides on the road to Sorrento put paid to our plans for a day at Pompeii on Saturday, even though the weather started out sunny, so we decided to take advantage of the sun and walk to Positano on the Footpath of the Gods. Unfortunately I misunderstood the directions we were given, thinking that the '1000 steps' described meant a kilometre or so. Actually, it meant 1000 steps straight up the cliff, with another couple of kilometres rough walking along the cliff top, and a whole lot more steps down. Having made it to the end (with the help of Nando, our guardian dog-friend, who accompanied us the whole way), we can now say it was worth it for the stunning views, though we may not do it again when we return for another visit ;>

View from the Footpath of the Gods

The Amalfi Coast was an amazing place to visit. It was also challenging to get to and get around, endlessly fascinating with its chaotic traffic and houses in impossible positions overlooking the sea - and well worth the effort.

Venice to Florence

19-21 October 2009

Found our accommodation in Florence with some effort, though turned out to be in a great position, central to everything. Went exploring almost immediately and came across the Orsanmichele museum less than a block away - a beautiful airy building that was once a granary, with just relatively few grand, dramatic sculptures to focus on.

From there to the Duomo and its intricate interior, including the magnificent dome for which the cathedral is famous (but is very hard to do justice in photographs...) Despite rumours of queues stretching hundreds of metres, there was no wait to climb up the winding staircase to the inside of the dome, just an arm's length from the frescoes, and then to the top of the Dome and up into the open air for a late afternoon view of Florence with the Tuscan hills in the backgound and church bells ringing all around.



Galleria dell'Accademia the next morning to see Michelangelo's David. The gallery was also showing the works of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and it was an intriguing combinaton of two artists, centuries apart, working in very different mediums.

We kept the Michelangelo theme in the afternoon, visiting the Medici Chapels which feature a number of his works, as well as an extraordinary if somewhat unsettling collection of reliquaries - various relics from an assortment of saints, usually fragments of bone from skull or limbs.

Rounded out the day with some shopping at the street markets, a wander over Pont Vecchio with its jewellery stores lining both sides, and dinner at a restaurant called Mamma Mia, which didn't disappoint at all.

Our plans for a day's bike riding seeing at least a little of Tuscany were disrupted by the first rainy day we've had since we arrived in Europe. Spent the morning at the Pitti Palace instead -room upon room of magnificent paintings and sculptures, fascinating and exhausting at the same time and requiring a good wood-fired pizza and a carafe of vino rosso to recover.

We just spent the afternoon wandering the streets, looking at the shops, fending off street sellers trying to sell us multitudes of umbrells, dodging the scooters and little electric cars, and choosing somewhere for dinner... nice low key afternoon.

Stresa to Venice

16-18 October 2009

Have been blogging on the train, so have finally (nearly) caught up! Some new photos below in earlier posts.

Back to Milano railway station again to change for Venice – next time we’ll know to check train routes when planning the itinerary. Venice was all I expected and more – another grand old lady but wearing her tattiest finery outside and saving the gorgeous silks and laces for indoors.

Quite apart from the glories of St Mark’s Basilica and the Doges’ Palace, there seems to be renovations happening behind closed doors all over Venice – all we could see though were tantalizing glimpses of chandeliers, loft-type conversions in white and heavy beams, bright artwork, as we zipped past on the canal, packed like sardines into a vaporetto, or water bus.

Diners in St Mark's Square

Baleful St Mark's Square pigeon...

Bride in St Mark's Square

The water buses were fantastic – we bought a three-day ticket and just jumped on and off all day, with never more than a 10 minute wait. Unlike the City Cats, they never seem to restrict the number of people who get on, so they were always packed with hordes of both tourists and locals.

My favourite public transport though was the cross river gondola to the Rialto markets on Saturday morning – for 50 centimes, you could pile on to a gondola with about 15 other people, baby strollers and their shopping from the markets (the last half dozen or so on had to stand) and be paddled across the Grand Canal. The markets were fascinating – not as large as the Bastille market in Paris, but just as noisy and crowded, and with even more variety of seafood if that’s possible… live eels, crabs and scampi, enormous octopus, glittering piles of sardines. Took some time out for a coffee nearby, figuring that it was worth paying double to sit at a table and people-watch, rather than stand at the bar inside and save 1,75.

Walked and walked through this fascinating city. The canals function as streets, but between the canals there is an intricate web of tiny lanes not much more than a metre or two wide. Like everything in Venice, the paint is peeling and the timber rotting – at home, we’d avoid lanes like these because they’d seem a bit threatening. Here, you’ll walk ten metres into a lane and there’ll be a supermarket … another ten and there’s a contemporary wine bar with granite and stainless steel… and at the end of the lane there’ll be half a dozen polished copper nameplates for the apartments on the floors above.


We’ve had the best meals of our trip here at little bistros recommended by Marco, our host, as well as by an Australian couple we met in Stresa. Huge range of seafood – black tagliatelle and scampi which I think I’ve had three times now! – and some imaginative meat dishes that Col is enjoying.

Had to do the traditional tourist-in-Venice thing and go in a gondola before we left - worth every euro! There were gondola traffic jams in every canal, crowds of Japanese squashed six to a gondola being serenaded by gondoliers with accordions, other tourists waving and taking photos of us from bridges as we passed underneath, close calls with vaporettos and water taxis ... more like a ride at the Ekka than romantic, but a real highlight.

Levanto to Stresa, Italian Lakes

14-15 October 2009

Relatively low stress trip from Levanto to the Italian Lakes other than a bit of a mad dash at the enormous Milano railway station from platform 21 to platform 2. We needn’t have worried though – Italian trains so far have been on the dot, and 25 minutes was more than enough time to make the connection.

Stresa is a small, pretty town on Lake Maggiore, with mountains all around and the three little islands of Isola Bella, Superiore and Madre close by. Bella and Madre have magnificent palaces and gardens, complete with pure white peacocks; while Superiore is a tiny fishing village – now largely tourist-focused, but still with the narrow winding lanes and fishing nets and dinghies strewn on the beach.




Had a different perspective on the lake from the cable car and chairlift up to Mt Mottarone, at 1400m. The weather has finally turned cold, dropping from about 22° in the day time to about 12° even though it’s still, sunny and perfectly clear. So the air was icy but the views over Lake Maggiore and the Italian and Swiss Alps were magnificent.

Italy - Nice to Levanto

11-13 October 2009

Frantic start to the Italian phase of the trip when we discovered a last minute cancellation of our train. Mass confusion as everyone was directed on to a local train to change at the border for Genova and then again for Levanto. Thankfully all was well and our kind host, Doriana, actually met us at the railway station and drove us to her B&B, La Gerbera.

Levanto is a lovely town (sunsets above) that seems to have found the balance between catering for Cinque Terre tourists and maintaining its own character – people still seem to be able to live their lives without having their washing photographed. The Cinque Terre villages the next day were fascinating – magnificent views, impossibly picturesque little houses tumbling down the cliffs into the sea, vineyards clinging to the sides of the mountains – but very much a sense that ordinary life in these villages has changed forever and that people are living constantly under the tourist eye, including ours…

As tourists, though, we had a wonderful day, walking between four of the villages, starting at Riomaggiore and then catching the ferry back to Levanto from Vernazza (unfortunately missing Monterosso because we dawdled too long in the other villages – another reason to return here too!)

Stopped for wine and antipasta at the cafe in the right hand corner of the top photo, just coming into Vernazza...

Lovers' Walk at Riomaggiore :)

Had to be quick getting on and off the ferry - loaded by throwing this ramp out on to the jetty, holding it in place and telling people to move fast!

Some lessons learned so far

1. It is possible to overdose on foie gras and cheese if you really try.
2. GPS devices are not infallible.
3. Some streets were not designed for cars (see no. 2 for further detail).
4. Don’t get lost in Provence at night (see no. 2 for further detail).
5. Public toilets are an adventure.
6. Have rest days.
7. Not all regional dinner specialties are very special
8. French dogs are really friendly once they get to know you.
9. Travelling light was a brilliant idea.

Some highlights (in no particular order, and just some of many)

• Street life out our window in Paris
• Every bit of the drive through the Pyrenees
• The very kind Marielle and Jean Claude at Le Bois Dormant in Provence
• The Bastille food markets in Paris
• People watching in Monaco
• Sunset over the ocean and watching the lights come on along the French Riviera as it got dark
• A gentle, relaxing day at the Chateau of Chenonceau, and lunch in that beautiful restaurant
• The procession at Lourdes
• The Chateau de Nazelles in the Loire Valley
• Tramping over the mountain top at La Rhune

Provence to Nice

10 October 09

On a schedule today to get our car back to Nice by 2pm, but couldn’t resist a detour through the villages of Gordes and Rousillon, which were breathtaking in quite different ways – Gordes all of white stone, balanced on a sunny hilltop above low-lying cloud; Rousillon all shades of ochre.

An uneventful trip into Nice even if the final part of the drive, getting to Europcar at Nice railway station, was downright scary. To his credit, Col managed to negotiate the traffic without a scratch on the car or us, although we needed a breather and some solid food before engaging a whole bus stop-full of people in a conversation about which bus we needed to catch to our accommodation.

We spent our last two days in France just soaking up the atmosphere both in Nice and in a day trip to Monaco and Menton just down the coast – eating, drinking, walking, sitting in the sun, people watching, and deciding which of the multi-million euro cruisers we liked best. Wonderful end to our visit to France, and a strong inducement to come back.

Thought this was perhaps an indication of the demographics of Monaco's permanent residents? While every French town and village, no matter how small, has a pharmacy and a hairdresser, we hadn't seen the defibrillator signs before - and they're everywhere in Monaco!