Southern Italy calls

So another busy week, as we chase around Italy seeing as much as we can with our limited Schengen visa days!

Easter Monday, we left Florence, obviously by train, for Pisa. A really busy train, it looked like everyone was going to Pisa. We read horror stories about the queues at Pisa station’s left luggage department, so we pre booked luggage lockers a couple of minutes outside the station, which worked out really well. Thankfully we booked the larger locker, so everything fitted in easily.

A 20 minute walk to see the Leaning Tower. It had to be done, lots of tourists trying to take the photos of their friend/family either attempting to “hold up” the tower or “lean against” the tower. As you’ll have noticed from the photos we post, Rog doesn’t appear to like people……. in photos.

A quick lunch at a pizzeria, slightly off the tourist trail, then back to the train station via a supermarket and a street market, where you could buy everything from leaning towers to food, plants and there was even a hoover demonstration.

We then had a 5hr train to Naples, and for the first time had to pay for a seat reservation in addition to our interrail passes, but we can’t really complain as it was only €3.50 each. Due to people on the tracks somewhere ahead of us, the train arrived in Naples an hour and a half later than planned. Thanks to mobile phones we were able to inform our AirBnB host of the delay, which he dealt with by organising a new key box instead of a meeting in person!

We were staying in an apartment near the train station, a comment in the guest book accurately described the area as “Colourful”. Having said that the rest of Naples is not that dissimilar. The city is covered in blue and white bunting celebrating that fact that Napoli football team is on course to win the league for the first time in 33yrs. It is going to be crazy on the 4 June when the league actually finishes and Napoli do win!!

Tuesday we had a lazy morning, booking some more accommodation for further on in our trip, doing some washing and going to the supermarket, another eye opener.

In the afternoon we wandered around the historic centre, there is lots of graffiti and buildings that look run down. We also found the “Gay Odin” chocolate shop, which sells some of the best chocolate we have ever tasted! Friends brought some back to the Isle of Man years ago, it was good then and is still good now. They also make ice cream, which it would have seemed churlish not to try! Rog had chocolate, no surprise there, Nic managed to inadvertently order marzipan, so a bit of a surprise there.

Wednesday we got the train to Pompeii, first had fun with the queuing, there was nobody queuing at the ticket booth, because first you had to go through security, which appeared to be very haphazard and arbitrary, however there was a metal detector they were ramming bags through. Our bag got rammed in the same tray as a family behind us, and were stopped, apparently they had packed knives as part of their picnic, thankfully we hadn’t.

Pompeii was really interesting, it is a huge site of 170 acres, a town excavated from under the ash of the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79AD. The weather was kind to us, it was a lovely sunny day, the site was busy but still easy to move around whilst avoiding the large tour groups. The surviving wall paintings and mosaics were amazing. Whilst sitting in the amphitheater we were treated to a rendition of the Canadian National anthem by a brave tourist.

Thursday, we walked towards Naples port, and working our way via the Naples Royal Palace, the Duomo, the Galleria Umberto and the historic centre again. Pizzeria De Michele was recommended for the best traditional Napoli pizza, however we walked past on two separate occasions and it was mobbed, at least 50 people outside each time, so that didn’t happen, so we found Pizzeria Bella Napoli, which was really good, friendly/funny staff and good pizzas.

Friday, there was a “Trenitalia” strike, thankfully we were moving on to Sorrento, and the service is not run by Trenitalia. We stayed in a cheap and cheerful hotel/hostel near the train station and they let us check in early, so we could get rid of our bags before walking around Sorrento.

We walked down to the port, then through the old town, you can buy absolutely anything either made from lemons and/or with lemons printed on it!

Had to sample the local Aperol spritz, a couple of times just to check! Had dinner in a buffalo restaurant, good mozzarella, Lasagne and Ragu.

Saturday, we had been indecisive about whether to get the ferry or the bus to Amalfi and on to Salerno, however the weather decided for us, the ferry was cancelled! So we got the bus, a very busy bus. We sat next to a fellow British traveler and chatted about all things travel. Once in Amalfi, we had a short wander around in the rain with our backpacks, then back to the bus depot for a bus to Salerno. We thought the Sorrento to Amalfi bus was busy, this one was worse, Rog gave up his seat to a woman with baby in arms. At one point Nic ended up holding the baby so that the mum could swap with Grandma who looked about to keel over. It was so crowded there was no room to manoeuvre so Nic could let them both sit together, not to mention that the journey is constant dizzyingly windy roads around the coast! We were glad to get to Salerno!

It continued to rain all afternoon, again we managed to check in early, then headed out to the sister restaurant of the really busy one in Naples, this time we were the one ones in there!

Sunday, a long day on the tracks 9hrs, Salerno to Palermo (Sicily), another €3.50 seat reservation and a nice quiet train. The whole train goes on the ferry!! Another first and something we (when we say we, we mean Rog) wanted to do since seeing it on the telly.

After promising to include numbers for trains and kms travelled, we forgot last week so here are the numbers

Week ended – 9 April

7 trains

622 Kms

Week ended -16 April

6 Trains

1,344Kms

Totals so far:

18 Trains

3,493Kms