Ciao!
Hope you are well.
We are now down at the southern end of Sicily. We both have not been this far south in Europe before, and what a beautiful, peaceful area it is. There are dry stone walls everywhere, it's like a dry version of traditional Irish farmland. The photo below shows the view from our back patio out over a very large vegy patch and across rustic looking paddocks dotted with rolled bails of hay.
It's been an amazing trip down the boot of Italy. From Tuscany we headed south to stay at a seaside town called Meta, just near Sorrento and snuggled in between Naples and the Amalfi Coast. From there we drove to another seaside town called Tropea not far from the toe of the boot. Tropea was very special, off the beaten track, very scenic and it was like a complete rest stop for us (ie no big tourist attractions, besides the beach), a holiday within a holiday! It was then catching a ferry to Sicily to stay at the foot of volcanic Mount Etna, and we arrived here at our country house last Monday, it's about 15kms from the beach and just south of the gorgeous Baroque town of Ragusa.
As I write this the kids have just woken up and walked out the door with big smiles on their faces. They have so much space here, heaps of toys (the owner who lives in Spain has small kids), and interestingly there are four semi-wild cats that hang out around the house which Soph and Connor keep a friendly eye on and feed once a day. We've been told we can only pat one of them, I'm not going to rush on that one.
This photo below was taken from out in a paddock looking back at the house.
Below shows the spectacular view of Mt Etna from our apartment in a town called Piedimonte Etneo, which basically means "at the foot of Mount Etna". We got to climb the volcano and visit "The Godfather" country, but I'll come back to that in the next blog. We haven't had the best internet in the last few places so there is a bit of catch up.
I have to show you a few snaps of Tropea. I found this place by googling the best beaches in Italy. It was in the top ten and around half way between Naples and the ferry to Sicily.
We had driven for about five hours (by the way we've now clocked over 30,000kms since we've been in Europe, Black Betty has served us well) and arrived in the early evening at a fairly rough looking block of apartments. We soon realized what was going on, in good ole Southern Italy fashion the outside of the building was left unfinished so a completion tax of types is not payable. Once we arrived at our top floor apartment we knew how lucky we were, spacious, large wrap around balcony with views out over the old town of Tropea, it was very comfortable. We dropped out bags, headed into the heart of the old town, walked down the main street which eventually ended at the top of a cliff with this view........, wow, ... white sandy beach, clear blue water, the sun setting and Stromboli way off in the distance. Stromboli is one of the two active volcanoes in Italy, along with Mt Etna.
This shows the view from our balcony in Tropea. You can clearly see the ancient walls of the old town...
And across the road was a goat farm!
This was the view of the beach, taken from up in the old town looking down..... paradise, we have to come back here. It's this rare mixture of an outstanding beach and a spectacular ancient town perched on a cliff directly above.
We had a lot of fun at the beach in Tropea, a lot of relaxing. After spending so much time living away from any beach over the last year or so, a beach holiday, which is what it felt like, was heaven. We still love the country though :).
Here is some of the old town built along the cliffs behind the beach...
We didn't have the internet at our place in Tropea so I found a little ice cream palour / café, "Gelateria del Borgo" that had wifi. After a couple of visits, the owner Maximilian and I were great mates. I couldn't believe how generous he was, introducing me to some local delicacies, including the almond drink, Mandorla, and Nduja, a very tasty, mouth tingling soft salami of pork and red chillies. He gave me a big wad of Nduja, it's still going down here in Sicily.
Here we are waiting in line to board the ferry to Sicily. Our French number plates were gaining more and more attention as we headed south.......
We drove down to Assisi, in Umbiria, the home town of Saint Francis. It was a bit like Lourdes in the south of France, a very spiritual place with lots if priests, brothers, and nuns around. The photo below shoes the incredible frescoes in the Basilica Francesco d'Assisi. How's this, about 600 years ago they hid the body of St Francis underneath this church so it would not be stolen (saints bodies back then were hot property). Years later they couldn't find the body, they hid it just a bit too well. It wasn't until 1818 after extensive digging that they finally found it!
One day we headed out for a driving tour of the Chianti wine region of Tuscany, it was gorgeous, lots of rolling green hills and hilltop houses, castles and villages. Here we are doing a little bit of taste testing. The typical Chianti reds are made from the Sangiovese grape, delicious, cheers!
And what do the kids get up to when the adults are tasting wine, have some fun of course. Here they are admiring the view from under this massive tasting table, no one seemed to mind. The Italians really do love kids.
The highway drive south from Tuscany to Naples was captivating, many ancient villages up on the hills and mountains. I was driving though, and the Italian highways need concentrating believe me, no known speed limit that I saw anyway. We had a nice picnic on the way, up on a hill with a great view.
When we arrived at Meta on the Bay of Naples, I had the address of our place in the Tom Tom. I jotted out an email to my family the next day describing the tense little situation we found ourselves as we arrived, as follows....
"Wow the traffic here is manic. After driving yesterday for five hours through the guts of Italy on the major highway constantly moving in and out around semitrailers we arrived at Meta which is on the Bay of Naples. Our Tom Tom sent us down this tiny street which got narrower and narrower, until I thought, no more! But then turned around to see two cars and a couple of motor bikes behind me, crikies! The guy behind me, frustrated, said, " go, go", Jane got out and to our, and our friends behind us relief, she was able to guide me through.
After eventually finding our place, we dropped our bags and headed down the beach to find a deserted beach club and the sun setting over the Isle of Capri. We then went for pizza and a beer - much needed to calm our nerves after a day in that crazy Italian traffic!!"
As a example, this is what our Tom Tom tried to send us up one day in Meta, whilst trying to find the local shopping strip.....
That was the start of an incredible day. As shown, Sophie started off that morning enjoying this classic old school beach club.......
..... to in the afternoon staring down the central crater of Mt Vesuvius, 1,250m above sea level. This huge volcano that last erupted in 1944, sits majestically but also slightly concerningly just above Naples.
Below shows Jane and the kids on the way up, the landscape was fascinating. You can see one of the old lava flows on the left in the distance...
We had a guide up there for a while. She said that it will be difficult to see Pompeii below, 8kms away, due to the clouds. We walked over to the other side of the crater and chatted to a guy who worked there and we asked in what direction was Pompeii. About five minutes later the clouds broke for just a minute or so, he said there it is, amazing, we felt very lucky, and there it was off in the distance. I took this photo just as the clouds where breaking....
That evening, on the way home, I took this photo from the other side of the Bay of Naples looking back at Mount Vesuvius, we were still buzzing from what we had seen ....
And as we rounded the other side of the headland that same early evening I took this photo of Meta, where we were staying. Sorrento is a coupe of bays along and the Amalfi coast is on the other side of that large headland you can see in the distance. What a day!
Another day we headed into Naples city. It was a rainy day, we were tired, and it is usually challenging anyway in any big city with small kids. But by the end of it we were buzzing in a good way, similar in a way to the feel of Naples itself. It's a really interesting melting pot of old and new, mostly old though, and in a very rough around edges way. Below shows Jane and the kids in a typical street of Naples.
Pizza apparently originated in Naples, it was a way of having a quick tasty meal. So we just had to go to a Naples pizza restaurant for dinner, we weren't disappointed, YUM. Here is Sophie about to tackle a mammoth sized pizza.
On the way to the train station that evening we noticed these two police cars. So this is what the police use to tackle crime in Naples, customized Land Rovers. Well crime in Naples is apparently heavy duty.
The day had come for our visit to Pompeii. This is one of the first photos I took, Vesuvius looming in the background.
It is simply amazing. It's like walking through a ghost town, with this one being abandoned 2,000 years ago.......
It was in 79AD that this town of around 20,000 people was buried under 4 to 6 m of hot ash and then rediscovered in 1599. I took this photo of one of the impressive villas I come across, this one miraculously still had a lot of its wall paintings in tact.
And this is heading into one of its rooms..
This photo of one of the streets in Pompeii (with Connor holding Sophie's hand)shows how busy this place was before the eruption, evidenced by the deep grooves in the rock street stones created by horse drawn carts. Those large three stones further on allowed the Romans to cross the street in wet weather without wetting their togas.
Sophie and Connor had a ball playing houses amongst the ruins. I was surprised about how you can just walk into most of the former houses and discover all sorts of nooks and crannies. How's that for Roman brick work (see below), impressive hey.
And then at one end of Pompeii we entered the Pompeii Amphitheatre, the oldest surviving Roman amphitheatre. I'd previously seen some impressive classic footage of Pink Floyd playing Echoes in the middle of this arena in 1971, just them, oversized speakers and no audience. It felt like a real milestone to see this arena in person.
Not far from there I took this photo of where the Pompeii vineyards were, with some of the town ruins further on, and again Mt Vesuvius standing there in command.....
On a much, much brighter note Sophie actually turned five in Meta. Here she is with a big smile, opening one of her presents. She has been very lucky to have two birthdays this time around, a birthday party with her friends before she left Provence in late March, and another one here, good for her. It's been a treat for us too, to see her enjoy the birthday festivities so much.
Below shows the house we stayed at in Meta, it had this beach house feel to it, set in a peaceful garden within the hustle and bustle of the surrounding area. That day we were heading off for our drive along the famed Amalfi Coast.
This shows a section of the road along this spectacular stretch of coast. The drive was challenging at times, particularly when we came up against tourist buses on the very tight roads in the towns. At one point in Positano we, and a bunch of other cars, needed to reverse about ten metres to let a bus through.
Here we are with the dramatic Amalfi cliffs and Positano behind us.....
And here is the same splendid view without us. Interestingly, up on the right hand side under some pencil pines you can just see the Positano cemetery, I don't imagine the access is easy...
From there we drove to Amalfi which used to be a major maritime republic until the Pisans from Pisa in Tuscany took over in 1135 and then in 1343 a major earthquake pushed half the town into the ocean. From there we drove up into the very picturesque town of Ravello. This was the view from Villa Rufolo, notice the blue man in the pond on the bottom right, there was artwork dispersed throughout the villa.
Another amazing view from Villa Rufolo......
And another, you've probably seen this shot somewhere before, I'm pretty sure I have...
This shows the main Piazza of Ravello, Jane and the kids at the back there, enjoying the atmosphere....
This is a favourite photo of mine. I took it along the path to Villa Cimbrone. It shows what I think was the chef of the neighbouring restaurant showing off his prized vegy garden to his friend. The beauty of this area is mesmerizing.
And here was the view from Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, now I'm sure I've seen this shot somewhere before....
We took the inland route back to Meta and as we came over the ridge this view unfolded, the mighty Vesvius there in the distance with the tip of the Bay of Naples glimmering in the evening sun.
Below shows Jane and the kids as we waited for our train to Sorrento from where we would catch a boat to the Isle of Capri, somewhere I had longed to visit.
After arriving on the island we caught a bus up to the ancient hilltop town of Anacapri, now this was a hairy bus trip, the road was on the side of a huge cliff..... I remember Soph saying "this is scary"...
When up the top we walked down part of the Phoenician Steps shown below. There's 921 steps in total, built around the 6th century BC, and this was how, for centuries, the village folk reached the sea port below, and came back up again.
Time for another ice cream stop, this one was all class, and extra yummy....
We had some coffee and cake at this great café restaurant with a vista to die for....
This shows the view out to the left....
And below shows the view out to the right, with Vesuvius on the mainland in the distance. That maroon coloured house on the right was where Vladimir Lenin played chess with this friends in 1908 and planned the Russian Revolution...
Below shows the signatory rocky outcrops of Capri. There is a type of lizard, the blue-tinted lizard that can only be found, in the world, on that big rock on the right, fascinating.....
We were having a rest in a little park with views over the sea. Jane took Connor off to change his nappy. Five or so minutes later I heard a loud whistle, thought that's strange I wonder what that is, then Jane came back saying that some guy blew a whistle at her because her and Connor where on the pristine lawns shown below, they were off the side really, classic, we had a laugh, and below shows Jane and Connor looking down at the scene of the crime....
This area of Italy is well known for its lemons, I now know why....
Below shows the kids waiting for the ferry back to the mainland......
On the way back home from the train station we cam across a little boutique grog shop. Those are giant vats of vino in the background and you can fill up one of those yellow topped plastic bottles with vino for an outstanding price I'm sure. We bought some Limoncello, made by the man standing next to me from those world famous lemons and boy does sit go down well after a big dinner, helps the digestion, I'm now a big fan.
Hope you are well.
We are now down at the southern end of Sicily. We both have not been this far south in Europe before, and what a beautiful, peaceful area it is. There are dry stone walls everywhere, it's like a dry version of traditional Irish farmland. The photo below shows the view from our back patio out over a very large vegy patch and across rustic looking paddocks dotted with rolled bails of hay.
It's been an amazing trip down the boot of Italy. From Tuscany we headed south to stay at a seaside town called Meta, just near Sorrento and snuggled in between Naples and the Amalfi Coast. From there we drove to another seaside town called Tropea not far from the toe of the boot. Tropea was very special, off the beaten track, very scenic and it was like a complete rest stop for us (ie no big tourist attractions, besides the beach), a holiday within a holiday! It was then catching a ferry to Sicily to stay at the foot of volcanic Mount Etna, and we arrived here at our country house last Monday, it's about 15kms from the beach and just south of the gorgeous Baroque town of Ragusa.
As I write this the kids have just woken up and walked out the door with big smiles on their faces. They have so much space here, heaps of toys (the owner who lives in Spain has small kids), and interestingly there are four semi-wild cats that hang out around the house which Soph and Connor keep a friendly eye on and feed once a day. We've been told we can only pat one of them, I'm not going to rush on that one.
This photo below was taken from out in a paddock looking back at the house.
Below shows the spectacular view of Mt Etna from our apartment in a town called Piedimonte Etneo, which basically means "at the foot of Mount Etna". We got to climb the volcano and visit "The Godfather" country, but I'll come back to that in the next blog. We haven't had the best internet in the last few places so there is a bit of catch up.
I have to show you a few snaps of Tropea. I found this place by googling the best beaches in Italy. It was in the top ten and around half way between Naples and the ferry to Sicily.
We had driven for about five hours (by the way we've now clocked over 30,000kms since we've been in Europe, Black Betty has served us well) and arrived in the early evening at a fairly rough looking block of apartments. We soon realized what was going on, in good ole Southern Italy fashion the outside of the building was left unfinished so a completion tax of types is not payable. Once we arrived at our top floor apartment we knew how lucky we were, spacious, large wrap around balcony with views out over the old town of Tropea, it was very comfortable. We dropped out bags, headed into the heart of the old town, walked down the main street which eventually ended at the top of a cliff with this view........, wow, ... white sandy beach, clear blue water, the sun setting and Stromboli way off in the distance. Stromboli is one of the two active volcanoes in Italy, along with Mt Etna.
This shows the view from our balcony in Tropea. You can clearly see the ancient walls of the old town...
And across the road was a goat farm!
This was the view of the beach, taken from up in the old town looking down..... paradise, we have to come back here. It's this rare mixture of an outstanding beach and a spectacular ancient town perched on a cliff directly above.
We had a lot of fun at the beach in Tropea, a lot of relaxing. After spending so much time living away from any beach over the last year or so, a beach holiday, which is what it felt like, was heaven. We still love the country though :).
Here is some of the old town built along the cliffs behind the beach...
We didn't have the internet at our place in Tropea so I found a little ice cream palour / café, "Gelateria del Borgo" that had wifi. After a couple of visits, the owner Maximilian and I were great mates. I couldn't believe how generous he was, introducing me to some local delicacies, including the almond drink, Mandorla, and Nduja, a very tasty, mouth tingling soft salami of pork and red chillies. He gave me a big wad of Nduja, it's still going down here in Sicily.
After sadly leaving Tropea we headed south again. On the way we stopped at Capo Vaticano, what a view, some more stunning beaches. We could see Sicily in the distance and even the snow capped Mt Etna. We could see from here Italy's only two active volcanoes, Mt Etna and Stromboli,........ not far before we catch the ferry to Sicily, we were excited.
Here we are waiting in line to board the ferry to Sicily. Our French number plates were gaining more and more attention as we headed south.......
To go back in time, by all of about three weeks and continue on from our last blog, I wanted to show you just a few more memorable moments from lovely Tuscany. Below shows Barbara teaching the kids how to make bread...
And here is the impressive result, .....which included a big love heart and a bread car, guess who was involved in the making of each??
We drove down to Assisi, in Umbiria, the home town of Saint Francis. It was a bit like Lourdes in the south of France, a very spiritual place with lots if priests, brothers, and nuns around. The photo below shoes the incredible frescoes in the Basilica Francesco d'Assisi. How's this, about 600 years ago they hid the body of St Francis underneath this church so it would not be stolen (saints bodies back then were hot property). Years later they couldn't find the body, they hid it just a bit too well. It wasn't until 1818 after extensive digging that they finally found it!
Interestingly St Francis was born Giovanni di Bernardone, but was nicknamed Francesco, which means "the Frenchman" by his father, who had business interests in France - he was a Francophile by the sounds of it.
St Francis would go up into the mountains behind Assisi to meditate. We drove up there, this would have been the glorious view he would have gazed out over.
One day we headed out for a driving tour of the Chianti wine region of Tuscany, it was gorgeous, lots of rolling green hills and hilltop houses, castles and villages. Here we are doing a little bit of taste testing. The typical Chianti reds are made from the Sangiovese grape, delicious, cheers!
And what do the kids get up to when the adults are tasting wine, have some fun of course. Here they are admiring the view from under this massive tasting table, no one seemed to mind. The Italians really do love kids.
The highway drive south from Tuscany to Naples was captivating, many ancient villages up on the hills and mountains. I was driving though, and the Italian highways need concentrating believe me, no known speed limit that I saw anyway. We had a nice picnic on the way, up on a hill with a great view.
When we arrived at Meta on the Bay of Naples, I had the address of our place in the Tom Tom. I jotted out an email to my family the next day describing the tense little situation we found ourselves as we arrived, as follows....
"Wow the traffic here is manic. After driving yesterday for five hours through the guts of Italy on the major highway constantly moving in and out around semitrailers we arrived at Meta which is on the Bay of Naples. Our Tom Tom sent us down this tiny street which got narrower and narrower, until I thought, no more! But then turned around to see two cars and a couple of motor bikes behind me, crikies! The guy behind me, frustrated, said, " go, go", Jane got out and to our, and our friends behind us relief, she was able to guide me through.
After eventually finding our place, we dropped our bags and headed down the beach to find a deserted beach club and the sun setting over the Isle of Capri. We then went for pizza and a beer - much needed to calm our nerves after a day in that crazy Italian traffic!!"
As a example, this is what our Tom Tom tried to send us up one day in Meta, whilst trying to find the local shopping strip.....
A day later we strolled down in the morning to that same beach at Meta. Looking out the view was spectacular with bright blue water and huge cliffs running right along the coast in this area.
That was the start of an incredible day. As shown, Sophie started off that morning enjoying this classic old school beach club.......
..... to in the afternoon staring down the central crater of Mt Vesuvius, 1,250m above sea level. This huge volcano that last erupted in 1944, sits majestically but also slightly concerningly just above Naples.
Below shows Jane and the kids on the way up, the landscape was fascinating. You can see one of the old lava flows on the left in the distance...
We had a guide up there for a while. She said that it will be difficult to see Pompeii below, 8kms away, due to the clouds. We walked over to the other side of the crater and chatted to a guy who worked there and we asked in what direction was Pompeii. About five minutes later the clouds broke for just a minute or so, he said there it is, amazing, we felt very lucky, and there it was off in the distance. I took this photo just as the clouds where breaking....
That evening, on the way home, I took this photo from the other side of the Bay of Naples looking back at Mount Vesuvius, we were still buzzing from what we had seen ....
And as we rounded the other side of the headland that same early evening I took this photo of Meta, where we were staying. Sorrento is a coupe of bays along and the Amalfi coast is on the other side of that large headland you can see in the distance. What a day!
Another day we headed into Naples city. It was a rainy day, we were tired, and it is usually challenging anyway in any big city with small kids. But by the end of it we were buzzing in a good way, similar in a way to the feel of Naples itself. It's a really interesting melting pot of old and new, mostly old though, and in a very rough around edges way. Below shows Jane and the kids in a typical street of Naples.
Pizza apparently originated in Naples, it was a way of having a quick tasty meal. So we just had to go to a Naples pizza restaurant for dinner, we weren't disappointed, YUM. Here is Sophie about to tackle a mammoth sized pizza.
On the way to the train station that evening we noticed these two police cars. So this is what the police use to tackle crime in Naples, customized Land Rovers. Well crime in Naples is apparently heavy duty.
The day had come for our visit to Pompeii. This is one of the first photos I took, Vesuvius looming in the background.
It is simply amazing. It's like walking through a ghost town, with this one being abandoned 2,000 years ago.......
It was in 79AD that this town of around 20,000 people was buried under 4 to 6 m of hot ash and then rediscovered in 1599. I took this photo of one of the impressive villas I come across, this one miraculously still had a lot of its wall paintings in tact.
And this is heading into one of its rooms..
I zoomed in on one of the paintings on the wall. It was incredible to see such impressive, beautiful, detailed art work by someone 2,000 years ago!
This photo of one of the streets in Pompeii (with Connor holding Sophie's hand)shows how busy this place was before the eruption, evidenced by the deep grooves in the rock street stones created by horse drawn carts. Those large three stones further on allowed the Romans to cross the street in wet weather without wetting their togas.
Sophie and Connor had a ball playing houses amongst the ruins. I was surprised about how you can just walk into most of the former houses and discover all sorts of nooks and crannies. How's that for Roman brick work (see below), impressive hey.
And then at one end of Pompeii we entered the Pompeii Amphitheatre, the oldest surviving Roman amphitheatre. I'd previously seen some impressive classic footage of Pink Floyd playing Echoes in the middle of this arena in 1971, just them, oversized speakers and no audience. It felt like a real milestone to see this arena in person.
Not far from there I took this photo of where the Pompeii vineyards were, with some of the town ruins further on, and again Mt Vesuvius standing there in command.....
Just behind that wall (shown above) on the right we came across the bodies of about 13 people including children. It was very moving and sad to see. When Pompeii was initially being excavated they came across cavities which had bones sitting at the bottom of them. They came up with the idea of filling the cavities with a mold. Below shows the result of those cavities found near the vineyards.
On a much, much brighter note Sophie actually turned five in Meta. Here she is with a big smile, opening one of her presents. She has been very lucky to have two birthdays this time around, a birthday party with her friends before she left Provence in late March, and another one here, good for her. It's been a treat for us too, to see her enjoy the birthday festivities so much.
That night we all went out for dinner to celebrate her birthday. It was at a restaurant in the neighbouring seaside town of "Piano di Sorrento" - that's one of the best place names I think I've ever come across.....
Below shows the house we stayed at in Meta, it had this beach house feel to it, set in a peaceful garden within the hustle and bustle of the surrounding area. That day we were heading off for our drive along the famed Amalfi Coast.
This shows a section of the road along this spectacular stretch of coast. The drive was challenging at times, particularly when we came up against tourist buses on the very tight roads in the towns. At one point in Positano we, and a bunch of other cars, needed to reverse about ten metres to let a bus through.
Here we are with the dramatic Amalfi cliffs and Positano behind us.....
And here is the same splendid view without us. Interestingly, up on the right hand side under some pencil pines you can just see the Positano cemetery, I don't imagine the access is easy...
From there we drove to Amalfi which used to be a major maritime republic until the Pisans from Pisa in Tuscany took over in 1135 and then in 1343 a major earthquake pushed half the town into the ocean. From there we drove up into the very picturesque town of Ravello. This was the view from Villa Rufolo, notice the blue man in the pond on the bottom right, there was artwork dispersed throughout the villa.
Another amazing view from Villa Rufolo......
And another, you've probably seen this shot somewhere before, I'm pretty sure I have...
This shows the main Piazza of Ravello, Jane and the kids at the back there, enjoying the atmosphere....
This is a favourite photo of mine. I took it along the path to Villa Cimbrone. It shows what I think was the chef of the neighbouring restaurant showing off his prized vegy garden to his friend. The beauty of this area is mesmerizing.
And here was the view from Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, now I'm sure I've seen this shot somewhere before....
We took the inland route back to Meta and as we came over the ridge this view unfolded, the mighty Vesvius there in the distance with the tip of the Bay of Naples glimmering in the evening sun.
Below shows Jane and the kids as we waited for our train to Sorrento from where we would catch a boat to the Isle of Capri, somewhere I had longed to visit.
After arriving on the island we caught a bus up to the ancient hilltop town of Anacapri, now this was a hairy bus trip, the road was on the side of a huge cliff..... I remember Soph saying "this is scary"...
When up the top we walked down part of the Phoenician Steps shown below. There's 921 steps in total, built around the 6th century BC, and this was how, for centuries, the village folk reached the sea port below, and came back up again.
This was the stunning view looking down from the near the top of the Phoenician Steps.....
Time for another ice cream stop, this one was all class, and extra yummy....
We had some coffee and cake at this great café restaurant with a vista to die for....
This shows the view out to the left....
And below shows the view out to the right, with Vesuvius on the mainland in the distance. That maroon coloured house on the right was where Vladimir Lenin played chess with this friends in 1908 and planned the Russian Revolution...
Below shows the signatory rocky outcrops of Capri. There is a type of lizard, the blue-tinted lizard that can only be found, in the world, on that big rock on the right, fascinating.....
We were having a rest in a little park with views over the sea. Jane took Connor off to change his nappy. Five or so minutes later I heard a loud whistle, thought that's strange I wonder what that is, then Jane came back saying that some guy blew a whistle at her because her and Connor where on the pristine lawns shown below, they were off the side really, classic, we had a laugh, and below shows Jane and Connor looking down at the scene of the crime....
This area of Italy is well known for its lemons, I now know why....
Below shows the kids waiting for the ferry back to the mainland......
And leaving Capri in the distance...I've already said to Jane we have to come back here one day, we just have to....
On the way back home from the train station we cam across a little boutique grog shop. Those are giant vats of vino in the background and you can fill up one of those yellow topped plastic bottles with vino for an outstanding price I'm sure. We bought some Limoncello, made by the man standing next to me from those world famous lemons and boy does sit go down well after a big dinner, helps the digestion, I'm now a big fan.
We have fond memories of this part of the world. The people are so warm, friendly, and generous. As an example the lovely lady at the local grocery store, Rosalina Scotta was here name (believe it or not, not sure about the spelling but that's how it sounded) gave us these huge chocolate eggs (which she probably paid for herself) for Soph and Connor, two very happy little kids.
Well that's enough from me for now, this afternoon we heading out to see a huge 17C villa only a few kms away from here. Apparently there is a stone maze there which the kids will love I'm sure.
Best wishes,
and arrivederci from
Jane, Sophie, Connor and me
