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Published: February 3rd 2010
Wet hair in Sicility
View from the hotel room by the sea, close to PalermoArrived in Sicily late at night and found a campsite where we pitched for the night and awoke to a sunny day. Campsite turned out to be closed so we could not pay, bad weather was predicted for the next few days so we decided to head back to the Italian mainland and another stop with Aziz, our Couchsurfing friend from our trip down through Europe. Great to see him again but the weather turned out atrocious so we headed north. Our initial aim was a walk up Mount Etna but still the weather was bad with no predicted improvement for a few days so we carried on north and back to our friends in Napoli.
We spent two nights in Napoli. Our hosts took us out on the back of their bikes - this has to be the best and probably the most scary way to see Napoli. Riding on the pavements seemed to be normal behaviour. Our friends were food gurus so we went from shop to shop to find the best meats and vegetables for the barbeque to be had that night. Joosie is studying to be a vet and her husband runs his own IT business
Night out with Gianfranco and his friends
We had a night out with Gianfranco, his girlfriend and friends in Positivo, on the Amalfi coast. in what seems a very laid back manner, if an interesting diversion pops up, like climbing mount Vesuvius then work gets put on hold. Which is exactly what we did the next day. He is also interested in old gaming machines, particularly pinball and one armed bandits. They have one each of these in their apartment and numerous others in the garage waiting refurbishment. We also went to visit Pompeii, an amazing city which predates Roman times by a long way and had an amazing amount of culture but the freaky part is how it was frozen in time when Vesuvius erupted covering the entire city and preserving it as it was on the day. Excavation has discovered people in cowering as the lava came down on them, even their expressions can be seen. Notices on buildings pertain to that particular year can be read eg information on candidates for elections and just general graffiti about the cutest girls in town. The city - basically four major roads and lots of side roads had a large and small theatre, amphitheatre and spa. Anyway, enough of that, if you want to know more then it is there to be found on
Start of the Amalfi coast
This is the start of the long twisty drive along the amalfi coast - best done in warm sunny weather, not cold and cloudy as it is here the net.
After our two days we headed further north to Tuscany and a stop with Maria and Riccardo on their farm. Their area is famous for cultivation of chestnut trees and Maria is keeping this tradition growing. She is setting up a facility to teach children about the area and cultivation techniques. We didn’t get there until late but they waited for us with lovely veggie risotto and wine. Maria is one of the rare Couchsurfing hosts who has an open door policy as long as she has space. We met another Couchsurfing couple there who had met just the summer before and live far apart (Austria and Ireland) and were couchsurfing as a way of getting to know each other better - very brave! Two days with Maria and then we headed up to Geneva for a couchsurf with a south African student working on the particle accelerator in Geneva. This was also an opportunity to meet up with old friends of Amel, Pierre and Marinette, a couple Amel had met in Africa when she was 22 and had kept in touch with ever since.
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