Blogs from Amalfi, Campania, Italy, Europe - page 10

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Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi March 11th 2007

Simply telling the bus driver where we wanted to be dropped off indeed did work (thank you thank you thank you Steven and (lady friends whos name I cannot spell) for your abilities to speak italian. We would never have made it to this hotel in the middle of nowhere without you. We found the hotel and damn it was nice.... actually a real hotel. We had clean rooms with big comfortable beds, tv (I love it in other languages), private bathrooms, and balconies which in the morning would reveal fantastic views of the mountains. Not wanting to brave the outside (cold temperatures, high winds, and light rain...... which I hoped would not hold into the morning) we ate at the hotels restaurant. We seemed the only people staying there.... and were certainly the only people ... read more

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi March 11th 2007

Sorry to break all this up. This horrid computer will not email or upload any file over a couple paragraphs. Where was I? Ah, Sorrento. We pack our bags and hop a bus for the Amalfi coast. This is a fairly famous bus. The road is barely a lane. Yet traffic goes both directions (and at incredible speeds) along with bikes and pedestrians in places). The road also improbably hangs of high cliffs and makes hairpin turn upon hairpin turn as it snakes around granite landscapes so insane you wonder why or how anyone built anything here in the first place. We we get off in the city of Amalfi we are nauseous, exhillarated, sick, and cold (why is the naples area colder than norther italy?). I booked us into a hotel (for the purposes of ... read more

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi March 11th 2007

This leads me to my next point. I hate Florence. It is a terrible, aweful city. Sure, the museums are full of much of the worlds great art and the array of streets and squares and buildings are like one huge outdoor museum.... but the city itself has no soul. It has nothing. The people have nothing. It is fake and condescending. The only pieces of reality are hundreds of years old and lie in buildings behind glass and on pedistals requiring 5 to 10 euros to view. Its full of Americans studying abroad. There is something horribly wrong when they get mad for not assuming that they speak English in Italy. The place is stuck up and boring. Which brings us to the next stop..... I love Rome. It is entirely the opposite (except that ... read more

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi March 11th 2007

So I was writting a juicy entry but a combination of this terrible computer and the incompitent lady working the desk here conspired to delete most of it. Here is what remains at this point.... Its been a while. Wow we are busy. We woke up our last morning in Manarola, hoped a train to a connection city, and then were off to Pisa. The point was to get in, get a picture of us holding up the leaning tower, and get out. The tight train connections went great. The city is nicer than would be expected for a one trick pony (of the tourist world). The tower is hillarious. Everything I expected and more. I did not know that there were two attempts to fix it by shifting the tower on its axis in the ... read more

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi December 11th 2006

Nick was very brave and volunteered to pick up a hire car in Como to make our way through Tuscany down to the Amalfi Coast. After a few shaky initial moments he did very well and after only about 40 mins we made our way back to our hotel 10 mins walk away...! Something we discovered early - the one way streets - which are lovely to walk on but not so nice to drive on. Tuscany was relatively easy to navigate around and we visited some lovely fortified towns on top of hills with fantastic views. There seemed to be many camper vans in Tuscany and in fact just out side of one town there was a whole little village of them! Made our way to Siena, will need to tell the full story over ... read more
Pisa
Tuscany
Fortress at Volterra

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi October 18th 2006

We've decided that we prefer northern Italy (Tuscany area) to the south. The rugged terrain of the Amalfi area makes it incredibly difficult to move between places. Positano is only 8 kilometers from Sorrento and it took us almost 2 hours to get there. (Of course, our hotel is 9 kilometers from Sorrento.) Part of that is due to waiting for the Sita (a.k.a. wheeled sardine cans). One comes but doesn't stop because it's full. So we wait for another opportunity. This is the slow season, we can't imagine what this is like during the summer! Anyway, the roller coaster ride to Positano is about the same as any two-laner in the Colorado mountains, except there are no pull-offs or truck run-away ramps. The road is probably narrower than in Colorado, which makes the buses seem ... read more
Napoli Bay at Positano
Lunch at Caffè Positano
View from Caffe Positano

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi August 25th 2006

Geo: 40.1638, 14.9105Had another great sleep in. Am tempted to stay at the hostel all day and not move from the bean bag. But at midday, I decided I should get out there and see something. I walked uphill to the train station and caught the train to Sorrento and arrived 40 minutes later. Then waited for a bus to Amalfi. The bus drove along the coast- at a high speed. The roads were very winding and I could see the drop down to the water. We drove through Positano. The little towns along here are packed with tourists. Houses sit high on the hills, roads are narrow. An hour and a half later I arrived at Amalfi. By this stage my stomach wasn't feeling very well. I should have sat further up the front of ... read more
02 Coast
03 Coast
04 Town

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi August 14th 2006

So after Rome we had a very hectic day of travelling. Apparently when we had booked the train the day before the man didnt tell us he didnt speak english and booked us on the train for the wrong day. So after much confusion we ended up sitting near the washrooms... I didnt realise until about 2 hours into the train ride that my butt was soaked and it smelt funny where I was sitting. I clued in that we were infact sitting near the washrooms and then spend the last half hour of the train ride sitting on the metal steps off the train. It was pretty brutal. We then arrived in the train station in Naples and realised that we had to take a private train all the way to Sorrento. This was the ... read more
Positano
Positano
Pompeii

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi August 11th 2006

Ciao! We are still in Salerno in Southern Italy. The old man at our hotel made the wise suggestion of staying in Salerno where accomodation and food are much less expensive, and where we can take the bus or ferry daily to the Amalfi Coast. Right now we are staying in own private hotel room for 19£ each a night, and it's literally seconds from the bus and train station. It turns out our inconvenient stay in Salerno turned out to be a fairly positive alternative to staying closer to Amalfi. I use the term "fairly" because the bus ride to the Coast is pretty brutal. For example, to Amalfi you take an hour and a half bus ride up the side of a cliff with extreme winding roads. We have both felt sick on the ... read more

Europe » Italy » Campania » Amalfi July 28th 2006

Wow! What a beautiful place, one to just relax in, really no need to rush around exploring, it's about enjoying what the Italians do best - enjoy the moment, eat wonderful food and appreciate the place you are in and the people you have around you.... read more
Positano Town
Le Agavi Hotel
Le Agavi Hotel




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