Last night went out to dinner and tried lots of tapas which was amazing, one of the best meals I've had. After dinner we went to the supermarket and bought one bottle of beer/cider. We only did this because in Europe we can drink alcohol anywhere we want, on the street, at the beach, in the parks, whereas in nz we can't do that. The supermarket assistant even offered to ask us if we wanted our bottles open inside the supermarket. So we just walked down to the pier and finished off our drink there. It was definitely a weird feeling walking down the street with an open bottle! After we walked to the pier we went to a flamenco dancing show where they performed their traditional Spanish dancing. It was so beautiful, I was tapping ... read more

So I have two days worth of blogging to catch up on. Yesterday it was Markus and Nora's wedding day, so we didn't do much in the morning until we went to the wedding at 3pm. Technically Markus and Nora got married on Friday (legally) but yesterday was their ceremony and reception. The ceremony was done in German so we didn't understand too much, but we knew what was going on. It differs slightly from the New Zealand weddings as the groom meets the bride at the back of the church and they walk up the isle together, and they sit facing the priest rather than standing up facing each other. We attempted to sing some hymns in German (which was a challenge) and then we went outside where we were given balloons and postcards where ... read more

Today we got up really early and were picked up from our hotel at 5am and taken to the airport. We were pretty relieved to leave that place as we were pretty sure it was run by a certain wealthy Italian criminal family (you can probably guess who). When we got to the airport we checked in and then were on a mission to find some water as our 4 star hotel had run out of water and they had also said that the tap water wasn't drinkable! After that we had a quick bite and went to the gate. We were amazed because people were allowed to bring their small dogs on the plane with them! I thought that wasn't allowed!!! One of the dogs barked throughout the flight and peed and pooed at the ... read more

Today we got picked up by our driver Franco and were taken around the Amalfi Coast. It was beautiful, some of the best views we'll ever see. Our driver was amazing and managed to get around the hairpin corners, overtake buses and when it got really sketchy he had to pull in his wing mirror so he could squeeze past. We went to Positano, Amalfi and Ravello. Positano was beautiful, we had to walk down a bit to get to the beach and it was a pretty expensive place. Amalfi was pretty similar but a bit more busy, we had lunch at a restaurant by the seaside with the amazing blue water like Capri, and Ravello was a nice quiet town up the top of the cliffs where we bought some ceramics (we liked this place ... read more

Today we took a train and headed to Sorrento. We caught a taxi to the train station, had some breakfast and then boarded the train to Naples. Apparently Naples is pretty dangerous (we'd been warned) so we were lucky we booked a driver to pick us up and take us to Sorrento so there was no mucking around! The drive was beautiful and we got to see the beautiful coast of Italy. Jacquie and blair got an Italian language lesson included in this drive. We arrived at the hotel which is amazing, it has a pool and bar on the roof top! After we'd checked in we went for a walk through the little markets where Jacquie and I got some free chocolates and limoncello, until the boys noticed we'd lagged behind and then had to ... read more