Blogs from Paestum, Campania, Italy, Europe

An earlier than usual wake-up call was in order this morning, as Francesco and his family (wife Anna, daughter Lucia, and son Luigi) were at our door by 8:45 AM for the 2-hour drive to visit the Greek and Roman ruins at Paestum, a small town in the countryside, about 30 miles south of Salerno. The bambini, 5-year-old fraternal twins, were very well behaved, and we enjoyed many chuckles while observing their antics throughout a very long day. We arrived at the site of the ruins in Paestum (known as Poseidonia to the Greeks, who settled in this area during the 6th-century B.C.) at around 10:30 AM. The site itself is in a very bucolic setting, surrounded by green fields and wildflowers, with rolling hills as a backdrop. Although skies were overcast, the temperature rose to ... read more

Took an early morning boat ride from Positano to Salerno. Quick and easy. There weren't too many people on the trip and staying up top is perfectly fine if you have an motion sickness issues and also to avoid the gas smell of being below. It's about a 15 minute walk from the docks to the train station. We had already purchased all of our regional train tickets in Naples, but there are kiosks and workers here too. Just remember that you may need to validate the ticket before getting on the train (ours were prevalidated by the machine). We had a light snack and a lovely goodbye to Sarah at a coffee shop on the strip just around the corner from the train station. If you do not have toilet paper or napkins, you will ... read more

A note to my loyal blog readers: This is my last entry--yay! About time, since we've been home for 2 weeks! I just want to tell you all that your encouragement and positive comments spurred me to carry on while on the trip, fighting with bad internet connections and too little free time in which to blog. Once home, I felt committed to finished up my take on our adventures for my own record/memories. I appreciate those of you who have continued to follow along, clicking through my ever increasing text and number of photo uploads! ;-) Cheers to La Bell'Italia--hope you all have your own adventures there someday that you'll share with me... ****************************************************************************************************** It's hard to believe today was our last full day in Italy--and full doesn't begin to describe it! We rose at ... read more

Geo: 40.4238, 15.0078 We got up Wednesday morning early to catch the boat to Naples. We found the bus to the Archaeological museum and headed there. There are alot of frescoes, mosaics, pottery and statues from Pompeii. There was a mosaic there that had over a million pieces of tile about 1/16x1/16 each. Its amazing that so much stuff survived the volcano. I forgot to talk about the weather. It has been in the mid eightys and sunny every day. The only bad thing is the humidity. It has been very humid, about 85%. By the end of our day we are pretty ragged. We left the museum and followed a Rick Steve's tour of Naples. We walked from the museum down to the boat docks. We stopped for pizza. Naples is supposedly the birthplace of ... read more

We are both well. Internet access has been a joke. Have written lots which will be published soon, when we get wireless connection. Will be in Agropoli until Wednesday 19th November, 2008, then moving towards Sicily. Have been to Capri, Herculanuem, Pompei, Paestum, and around the area. ... read more