Nice - Genoa - Roma - Ancona

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Hey Gang

It has been a while since our last entry so thought we better take some time out from our busy schedule to give you all an update. We have now reached Greece, but have not made mention of Italy so will do that now!

Actually we will start back in France and Nice where we stayed for one night after Avignon. Nice? Um, not how I would describe it at all. We arrived and on route to our accommodation we witnessed a small drug deal take place...that's fine by me, still not the best first impression but after seeing where we were going to stay I was comtemplating hunting the dealer down myself! Kibby said he wouldn't have let his dog sleep there and needless to say our review of the place says that in as many words . The beach front was crawling with bronzed Armani and Dolce & Gabana wearing tourists, the lollies were a rip off, and the alleyways were used as public toliets...have I have sold that place to you...yip, it's called NICE!

Kibby, what was it you wanted to say about Italy????

Kicked things off in the harbour city of Genoa which was very cool with stunning architecture and some even more stunning real estate on the water. There are some very wealthy people in this part of the world with big toys for the bath tub. Our accommodation in Genoa was the complete opposite of Nice and our little camp host with the crosseyes could not do enough for us (though we were not sure whether he was talking to me or Lysh!!!!!

We spent a couple nights here and we manged to find a dodgy little street that gave us the quickiest access from the motel to the waterfront. I thought it was great with plenty of shifty dudes looking us up and down and deals being made with bootleg crap being sold. Lysh on the other hand was not such a fan of this little gem of an alleyway and by the end we had to find an alternative route {this alleyway also smelt like a toilet and I was constantly being stared at...poor wee white girl}. Yes this was the start of Alysha's Italian experience with more than a few sleazy marfio's looking her up and down. One even made some rude suggestion not realising that the overweight (though still cutting an alright figure) white guy was her partner, and piped down pretty quickly 😊 I may have lost the moustache but still have the 'tude!

RRRRRRRRooooooooommmmmmmma! We loved this place! Thanks for the guide book Clint it was very handy. At least it was for Lysh as I was not allowed to touch it in case I dirtied the pages with my grubby fingers! Did the usual Vatican City (I pulled out the sprinkler and the Pope loved it), Collosseum, Pantheon (hole in the roof lets the rain in, what's with that), Roman Forum etc. We found a cool little resatrant just round the corner from our motel (which was even better than our accommodation in Genoa) and enjoyed some Italian cuisine. The restaurant had a cute little boat to display its fresh seafood in, only I was not so sure how fresh it remained being parked on the footpath with hundreds of Vespas burning past! Still it was the restauranteur's pride and joy and was quite amusing watching him fuss over the display.

From Roma we took the train to Ancona and after much running around we managed to get tickets for the ferry to Patra, Greece. 22 hours on a boat was making Lysh a little apprehensive, but after arriving in Patra she admitted to being rather disappointed in the trip ending. More details on the ferry crossing and Greece in a few days time.

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