Aegean dreaming

I'll start this blog with a photo of the view we had while sipping cocktails at the Hilton for Ryan's birthday which Ryan for some reason didn't deem worthy enough to include in his own blog, but with the sun setting down behind the Acropolis it nearly justified the 20 Euro a cocktail price tag.

The Acropolis at sunset

Tuesday September 11 we woke to the alarm at 5:30am, as we had a boat to catch at 7am to Milos. For some reason all the boats seem to leave Athens for the islands at the crack of dawn. We cabbed it to the port Pireaus in the dark, driving past the Acropolis still all magically lit up. Once on board it was all a bit of a dog fight as the tickets were issued with seat numbers, but for some reason they like to issue out these seats completely randomly and so pretty much anyone that was travelling together was sitting at least a few seats/rows away from their companions. Due to some good thinking on my part, I had popped a travel sickness pill before I got on the boat, and thank God because unbeknownst to us it was an extremely windy day and the sea was really rough. The journey took nearly 3.5 hours, instead of 2.5, and at least a third of the passengers filled up the sick bags. I felt fine, and just closed my eyes trying to ignore the sights and sounds around me and the fact that the waves were crashing over the boat. Even Ryan, the 'salty old sea dog', looked over to me (from 4 seats away) and said he was feeling pretty average. But we finally arrived at Milos, greeted by my dear friend Katrina (who I used to work with at the Garvan but now lives in London), and who decided to join us on the islands for 6 nights!

Our balcony view when we arrived - you could virtually surf those waves. It was flat the next day.

Kat had flown in earlier that morning and picked up our rental car, so we dumped the bags in the car and then went for some brunch near the port for a catch-up and so Ryan would feel better! The laid-back waiter had some troubles with our order - he couldn't believe I didn't want sugar in my cappucino freddo, and he couldn't get his head around the fact that Ryan wanted some bacon and 2 eggs in between 2 pieces of toast. Anyway, it didn't matter that some crepes took 45 minutes to come out or the fact that he never brought the juices, because we had a lot to catch up on, and there was a mini-market next door where you could pick up a juice for 37 cents anyway. After brunch, we then drove to Pollonia where we were staying and checked into our respective hotels. Kat was staying at a place next to us as where I had booked was full, which is understandable when you look at the pic of our balcony view above.

We bumped into Ryan's doppelganger again in Milos. He's a funny guy.

After settling in to our accommodation, we hit the road in out little Fiat down to the south of the island (a beach called Paleochori I think) where it would be a little calmer on a windy day like that day. It was a small and quiet pebble-stoned beach with only a few other people there (which was such a nice change from the hoards of  tourists in Athens and Rome). So we relaxed on the chairs under the umbrellas, which yes we did pay for but it was so much cheaper than we had seen elsewhere and it definitely is a lot more comfortable! And so we swam and read and snoozed and chatted and did all the relaxing things that one should do when on the Greek islands.

It's a pretty easy job taking photos in the Greek islands

I had chosen Milos as our first island stop, as after visiting the islands (well, the Cyclades at least) ten years ago, I knew we'd end up at Santorini and I wanted to visit a couple of islands nearby that I hadn't been to before. I'm glad that we did because Milos was a small slice of heaven! So after our first beach stop, we drove to the capital, Plaka (which was the sleepiest capital I have ever visited), and we climbed up to the top of the hill where there was not one, but two churches. There are churches scattered everywhere in the Greek islands, particularly on the top of hills, and not only because they are very picturesque and make good photo opportunities, but also apparently because the higher up the hill, or the more difficult location the church is built in, the more likely the Greeks thought they would be rewarded by the powers that be. So the 3 of us climbed up to the top of the hill, to what was the highest point on the island with impossibly amazing vistas. Having the place to ourselves,  we hung out for a bit taking photos and enjoying being in such a spectacular spot on the planet.

Ryan doesn't like when I get on his case to do the next blog update - it is a very hard job after all

Back in Pollonia we showered the salty sea away, and walked into the heart of town for dinner. We'd picked a place which had been recommended to us as "only fish" so picked a table and ordered some grilled cuttlefish (me), amber jack (Ryan) and seafood pasta (Kat) accompanied by a bottle of Santorini white wine, and surrounded by some stray cats which seem to be prolific on the islands.

They don't all have to paint their doors and windows blue

The next morning we headed back to the south of the island to a different beach, this one being sandier although colder than the previous day. We lazed around, swimming, reading and chatting with some iced coffees and beers to boot, and then headed back near the port for lunch to a quirky little restaurant called Oh!Hamos! where we had tzatziki, lamb, wild goat and stuffed eggplant to complete the yummy Greek dining experience. The waiter was a funny and friendly guy, as most of the Greeks seem to be, and gave us a free little dessert each. Then we drove to a place called Starakiniko (which looked like the moon with all its white rock, but with more atmosphere), and with a narrow passage of water through the middle of it, which we of course went for a dip in. After returning home and again washing the salty sea away, we went out for a dinner of greek salad, prawns, and a seafood pasta which unfortunately for Ryan turned out to be squid ink spaghetti sans seafood. Kat made up for it by ordering a delicious dessert (white chocolate millefeuille type thing with caramelised strawberries I think). Then back home, with full bellies as is always the case, we went.

Underwater caves on the boat trip

The next morning we decided to go on a boat tour (OK I think this was our first official tour of the trip, but when it's a boat you don't have many alternative choices).  We hopped on the boat, which was a sail boat although we motored around everywhere rather than hoisting the sails, for what was a fantastic day sailing/motoring around the island of Milos. We sailed past some little towns, one which was particularly cute with all the little while buildings having doors painted different colours, around to the western side of the island where we anchored next to a little cave. We hopped off into the cool waters and swam through the cave into a still area of perfect Aegean water. I think that there are not many things better in the world than when I'm swimming with Ryan, a friend like Kat, and even strangers, in a spot where we were all floating and looking around us and saying "Awesome".

Sea gazing

We then motored on to another spot called Kleftiko which is only accessible by boat and which is another heavenly spot. We hopped off the boat, into some of the clearest and most turqouise waters I have witnessed, and swam/floated around, saw some wild goats scaling steep cliffs, swam through a cave where the water was so blue I thought they may have been shining a blue light onto it (but no they weren't, and I was glad that I didn't bother paying the exorbitant fee to see the Blue Grotto at Capri because there is no way that is the bluest water in the world. You can see it for free at Milos.)

Returning home from the boat trip

We had a delicious lunch on board the boat, and then gradually made our way back home after what was a spectacular day on the water. After watching the sun set from our balcony, we headed into town again for our last dinner in Milos. It is indeed a first world problem when you have a heavy heart leaving one Greek island for another...

Get him to the Greek

We got up and caught the train back to Roma airport. After rejigging some baggage we passed the sleazy jet weight restrictions on luggage even though when there was nothing on the scales it said 2kg. Jerks. We then went through security and found we couldn't take some olive oils on the carry on due to the liquid allowance, this wasn't signed anywhere in the airport until the security area. Signs saying you can't take guns/explosives aboard were everywhere though. Once again Italy's helpful signage got us one last time. Anyway we got into Athens and disembarked a few gourmet delights lighter.

We caught the train to Sintagma station which was a pretty good area to stay in, (good work Heidi) and hauled our bags to the hotel. We had a bit of a walk around and I had a burger because I was starving. We then found a place for a drink, Heidi ordered a half kg of wine and I got a beer. When a half litre of wine came out Heidi was shocked that it was so much, I was not sure what she was expecting. Maybe she was sick for the day of the science class about the metric system volumes vs weight.

The nice man who owned the place asked where we were from and when we said Australia he went inside and returned with a plate of carved meat for free. We did a bit more walking around and saw a few ruins that the city seems to be plagued by. One thing we noticed that was a bit worrying was parked around the city were buses full of police in riot gear and ready to go at a moments notice.

Surely this should have been cleaned up by now?

For dinner we went to this great place near our hotel. The staff were really friendly, one of the waitresses said she had family in Australia but her dad wouldn't let her go see them because he said she wouldn't want to come back. Anyway I had some pork belly with green beans and Heidi had a chicken kebab. Even though it was pork belly it was potentially one of the healthiest meals had this holiday because of the veges.

The next day after the complimentary hotel breakfast we went to see the changing of the guards outside parliament house. It happens every hour but the Sunday one at 11am is the best one to see because it includes a full marching band and they shut off the street for all the pomp and ceremony. It takes about 20 minutes and there's police yelling at people to form a line so the guys can get through. I was tempted to help the policeman by yelling out "HOLD SPARTANS!" but I wasn't sure how that would go down.

Yes, those are pom poms on their boots.

After this we walked up to catch a vernicular to this spot which has a 360 degree view of the sprawling mass that is Athens. There was a bar up there which was out of the wind, so we  went there for a beverage. When we got back down we went for lunch at the grill place who gave us a free plate of miscellaneous meats. We were welcomed back with a lot of hand shaking and pats on the back by the nice owner. After having some pork carvings he gave us some free yogurt with honey and a shot of miscellaneous booze.

Us and the sprawl

Since it was my birthday we decided to have some cocktails at the Hilton. On the way there we saw a protest, it looked pretty peaceful but there were a lot of police on hand to no doubt keep the working man down. Anyway we had a few drinks and cocktails overlooking Athens as the sun was going down and it was all very nice.

The next morning we went to the Acropolis before it got too hot as going to ruins in the heat of the day is not much fun. For the Acropolis you have get these tickets which they tear off a section every time you walk through an area. Europeans love the ticket validation. The Acropolis was a nice change of white ruins from the red brick ones of Rome which we were getting a bit sick of.

I think this bit was restored. There's a lot of restoration being done right now.

This was not right at the Acropolis but was apparently the best preserved building there.

For lunch we went to this bar that had an actual lawn, I thought Greeks despised lawn and loved the concrete which they can easily use a Greek broom ie. a hose to clean with, but this place was different and quite novel. We had a feta stuffed capsicum and some mince stuffed eggplant and a few drinks there.

We had a walk around then went for to a bar which was next to the place we went on the first night. Heidi liked it as it was dark and "ambient". I had a champagne since I didn't get any birthday champagne as a champagne at the Hilton was about 20  euros. I was a bit miffed about there being a massive strawberry in my champagne as I am like why are you messing with champagne? It does not need to be messed with, but what are you going to do about first world problems?

We then went to the same place as we did on the first night for dinner, except this time I had the lamb and it was awesome. Heidi had a whole sea bass awww yeah. They were really happy to see us as they recognised Heidi's favourable trip advisor review and asked if it was us. Heidi said yes she did review it and they were really happy.

Lamb rack with stuffed tomato

So far the Greeks have been really awesome, from the hotel service to the restaurants they're all really friendly. We didn't have to drive in Athens so maybe we would have a different opinion then, but Athens was a really cool city to visit.

All roads lead to Rome

After one more breakfast at Villa Monica after what was a spectacular 3 days in Sorrento, even with a mixed bag of weather, we farewelled Pasquale and hit the road for the final time in the little Dacia. This was Ryan's last test driving the Italian roads, and my last test navigating them, which for me was pretty easy as all roads lead to Rome and that is where we were heading. Getting out of the busy and narrow streets of Sorrento was again a challenge but eventually we made it, along a rather pleasant drive with our pal Vesuvius watching over, back to the autostrada, and hightailed it to Rome.

Nice backdrop driving from Sorrento

The closer we got to Rome however, the greyer the skies became and then the more torrential the rain became. Anyway, we survived Rome's Ring Road and turned off at the airport where we had to return the car, which we did with a minimum of fuss - they just wanted to check the kilometres (7100km!) and asked us if there was any damage. We mentioned some scratches on the left back door, but they did not seem to really care. So keys handed over, and that was it. Arrivederci little Dacia! Thank you for getting us around Europe in one piece!

Farewell Dacia Sandero!

We caught the train to Termini, the central station near where our hotel was. Not the nicest part of Rome, but when you don't have wheels anymore and are relying on public transport then this is where you want to be! So a 10 minute walk from Termini, in the rain, meant that we arrived at our hotel quite wet, and we immediately already missed the Dacia. We relaxed and dried off and then hit the streets once the rain subsided. We headed west, towards where there was more action. We stopped in at a wine bar which we had read about and enjoyed a glass of prosecco, then continued on down that street. Amazingly, we could see the Colesseum at the end, which is quite the sight especially when you are not expecting to see it! It started to drizzle again though, so we decided to just retreat to a nearby restaurant for dinner. I had an anchovies/buffalo mozarella dish (which are 2 ingredients great on their own, not so good together) and Ryan had a yummy rabbit ragu pasta dish. Then we just hit the hay because who knew what the weather would do next.

Panoramic of St Peter's Square with St Peter's Basilica centre stage

The next morning it was still overcast but the rain seemed to have cleared. We went straight to Termini to get the metro to Vatican City, the smallest independent state in the world. We got off nearby and wandered the streets, past Castel Sant'Angelo, and the Ponte Sant'Angelo bridge and along the grand avenue of Via Della Conciliazione with St Peter's Basilica standing majestically at the end. We fought off several offers from people assuring us that the lines for the Basilica and Vatican Museum were at least a couple of hours long and that if we paid them 40 Euros each we could skip all the lines. When so many people are trying so hard to sell something I don't think it can ever be a good deal so we ignored them. Once we got to St Peter's Square, we did see a very long line to go into the Basilica, and there were in fact so many people in tour groups that they had to line up behind each other anyway. We instead just hung in the square for a while amongst the throngs of tourists and pope fans and decided to skip the Basilica, especially as it had just begun to drizzle, so instead we just went a couple of streets away for a quick lunch.

Photos will never do the paintings or frescoes justice

By the time we had finished the rain had cleared and the sun was out, so we decided to join the line for the Vatican Museum. Yes the line was pretty long, but it was in the shade, and 40 minutes later we were inside. Not being a big fan of religious art, I was   blown away by the sheer enormity of the works by Raphael and Michelangelo in the Stanza della Segnatura and the Sistine Chapel. They definitely are a sight to see, even if it did seem like the 5 million annual visitors to the museum were in the Sistine Chapel at the same time as us. That evening, with legs weary from the day and tummies tired of all the Italian food, we thought it obvious that when in Rome, go to a Chinese restaurant. And so we did. There was one not far from our hotel, and for 4.5 Euros a dish it was one of the best value meals of the trip (and such a nice change to have some dumplings!)

The forum

The next morning the sun was out in full force, so making our way through the streets of Rome, we stumbled across Catroni, a gourmet delicatessen that had everything you could imagine, and some espressos which were not only possibly the best of the trip, but at 90 cents they were also the cheapest! We headed straight towards the Colosseum, which no matter who you are and how many tourists are milling around it, is an amazing sight to see. We decided to line up at the Roman Forum for tickets, which had a shorter line and included entry to both the Forum and the Colosseum. We wandered around the ruins of the Forum for a while, in amongst the large tour groups with ear phones in listening to their guide who was at least 20 metres ahead of them. But being the middle of the day and the sun finally deciding to show its face we decided that once you've seen one ruin you've seen them all so retreated for lunch instead. Being one of our last days in Italy, Ryan decided to order a bottle of prosciutto [sic], rather than prosecco which made me laugh as much as his Je m'apelle quiche ordering did. Oh Ryan you are a card.

Roman sunset

Rather than traipse around the Colosseum that afternoon in the searing heat, we instead retreated to the safety of the air-con for some blogging to keep the fans happy, and then set off for a walk around the streets as the sun began to set. Everywhere we turned we seemed to stumble across an amazing fountain, or old building, or hidden square, and then suddenly we turned a corner and saw the sun quickly sinking right next to the silhouette of St Peter's Basilica. Having been to Rome a few times before but never having fallen in love with it, that evening walk I just may have.

Hooray, Ryan's coming back to Rome!

We stopped in at a little local restaurant for dinner that we'd read good reviews about. It was great - a small little place run by a couple of old friendly guys. We shared some mussels and clams for entree and I had a penne arribiata and Ryan had some veal for mains, all topped off with a tiramisu for dessert (even though Ryan doesn't like coffee desserts, it was still on my to-do list) We then walked to the nearby Trevi Fountain, which I had never seen by night, and although swarming with tourists, it looked fabulous and so we both tossed coins in to make sure that we come back some day! Apparently around 3000 Euros of coins are tossed over various shoulders into the Trevi each day, and they are scooped up and are used towards things such as building subsidised supermarkets for the poor. Nice one Rome.

And it works! (My 4th time in Rome!)

The next morning we were up and at em bright and early so that we could visit the Colosseum before the heat and crowds got ridiculous. Not having to line up for tickets meant we were inside the Colosseum before 10am when the weather was very pleasant. We had intended to do a tour of the place (rare for us) but the next English tour was 3 hours away so we just winged it like we normally did, picking up some facts from Wiki and apps on our phones and taking the visual spectacularityness of it in. Not only was it used for gladiatorial contests, animal hunts and executions (not really my style), it was also the site for mock sea battles, re-enactments of famous battles and dramas based on Classical mythology (more up my alley).

Some old ruins of something or rather

After the Colosseum we walked onwards to the Roman Baths of Caracalla, not too far away. This was a large area where the history and pictures of what it looked like before were more impressive than the ruins that were left. And apparently some of the statues and artwork that hadn't been damaged had been moved to other museums around the world anyway. Oh well, it was nice to escape the crowds for an hour.

Inside the Colosseum

Continuing on our big day of sight-seeing, we got the metro from next to Circus Maximus, to the famous Spanish steps. Managing to hold onto our wallets and purses and fighting off the dodgy dudes trying to make me buy their roses, we walked down the nearby streets full of ritzy designer shops and found a little place for lunch. I had some bruschetta (which with good tomatoes and olive oil you cannot go wrong) and Ryan had a delicious tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms. We then continued on, stopping for some gelati on the way, to the beautiful Piazza Navona.

The Spanish steps

Having walked around for most of the day, we then walked another couple of kilometres, past the Trevi Fountain and other amazing buildings and fountains we did not expect to find, back to the hotel to chill for a while. We had a flight the next morning to Athens, so being our last Italian meal we found a place not too far from our hotel with good reviews, and it did not disappoint. We shared a seafood risotto and baked turbot dish followed by creme catalan dish (like creme brulee but with citrus notes) to finish. It was delicious, and a great way to end what had been a really spectacular 4 weeks in Italy. Arrivederci Italia - we'll definitely be back!

The Last Italian Supper - seafood risotto

Any port in a storm

We woke up and had the B&B Italian breakfast of cold cuts, cheese and bread over looking the magnificent view of Sorrento with a brewed caffe to start the day. Our B&B owner, Pasquale taxied us into town so we could go for a day trip to a nearby coastal town called Positano. We went to the bus stop, saw the ridiculously long line and thought well we may as well just pay the extra and get a ferry. The docks are about 50m down a cliff from the main town of Sorrento, which there's stairs if you want to walk or if you're fatties like us you just take the lift for the low low price of 1.80 of the euros return.

Screw breakfast at Tiffany's, breakfast at Pasquale's is where it's at.

So we got to the docks and the nice ticket seller lady told us the only ferry for the day had already left, oh well, lucky we bought the return lift ticket back to the main town which saved us 0.20 of the euros. When we got back to the bus stop the line had died down so we got a bus to Positano.

The bus ride was pretty fun and there were a lot of parts of the road which were just shear cliffs, but this really does provide some spectacular views if you don't start wondering how many vehicles have gone over the side before you.

We arrived in Positano and then began the descent to the main town down many steps from the bus stop which drops you off at the top. I told Heidi we had better find out what time the ferry goes back and get on it as I don't think I'll make it back up all those stairs as my legs were still suffering from the Capri hikes. Hikes are all well and good as long as you're prepared and not in thongs.

Positano is really amazing, the buildings are all set into the cliffs, similar to some of the Cinque Terre towns. By the time we descended through the beautiful township of Positano we were starving and needed restoring in the shape of Dark Wine House. I think there was something lost in translation for the name but the food was really great. Heidi had some fresh anchovies and I had another pasta with shellfish. (yes, for a change, every one I've had just gets better and it seems in the south they include roasted cherry tomatoes with it).

Positano is the next best thing to Cinque Terre.

We walked down to the beach and were surprised to find the Aussie flag flying there, I think one of the boat rental places might have been owned by an Australian. I am secretly hoping there's an Australian principality there and we can go to Europe for as long as we like without visas next time. Anyway we had a drink by a bar on the beach then I left Heidi at the table while I had a bit of a swim. The water was amazing and clear.

Free EU visas for all Aussies on this beach surely?

After the swim we had another drink and went to the ferry stop and I purchased a dock beer from a nearby shop as opposed to a street beer. (Street beers are what you have when waiting for something in other countries because you can just buy beer from a local shop).

We got back into town and had dinner at RE-food. It was pretty delicious, more seafood and the tasting platter for entree was amazing with smoked tuna, a massive octopie tentacle and some other sliver of raw fish. Then thick fresh egg pasta and vongole, but this time with mussels because that is a nice change from spaghetti with vongoles. Heidi had mussels and clams in a tomato broth.

Mmmmm frutti di mare indeed.

The next day the weather was looking a bit shady so we just decided to hang out in the town and do a bit of shopping and walk around to see that everything was in order. We got the Pasquale express down to the town but soon after we were getting a bit of rain, we ducked into an English pub and got some drinks, however the rain, turned into torrential rain, which turned into a thunder storm so we had to ride it out in the pub for a few hours.

When the waters finally subsided, we went back out to meet Pasquale for a lift back home and asked him to book this restaurant he had recommended for dinner, which was about halfway down the hill between the main town and the B&B.

We got a lift down to the restaurant and got seated by the window with a spectacular view across the water to another town. Heidi ordered some more mussels and clams and I had this fresh pasta with fish. This was awesome as the chefs brought out a bowl, spooned in the fresh pasta from one saucepan then with a massive spoon, deboned the full fish and placed the fillets on top of the pasta. They then cut the head and tail off and placed it on either end of the fillets and spooned in the juice and tomatoes from the pan the fish had been cooking in. Anyway it was freaking awesome and the fish got to look on as I devoured him and his yummy pasta.

He's got Betty Davis yummy pasta eyes.

View from our table

After dinner I ordered some limoncello, this is one potent Italian drink which is typical of the region of Sorrento. This packs quite a punch, I was feeling pretty happy after it though. I must have been looking happy as well because when we asked the staff to call Pasquale to pick us up the waiter said we can wait and have a nap on the couch if we want near the entrance and he will wake us when Pasquale was here.

In the hands of Vesuvius

On the morning of Friday August 31, officially the last day of the European high season, it was time to leave Naples, hooray! We battled the delegates for a spot at breakfast one last time, and checked out. We fetched our car from the car park cave (they had moved it and not told us where it was so we were literally wandering through the caves trying to see any flash of light or hear the car doors unlock with the remote key). Having thoroughly pre-studied the route back to the autostrada, we only had to deal with the mad traffic for a little while before we were safely back on the 130km/h freeway, phew! We high-tailed it straight to Pompeii where we would spend the day and stay overnight.

The ruins of Pompeii, with Mt Vesuvius looming guiltily in the background

Not everyone has heard of Herculaneum, but unless you're living under tonnes of ash you would know about Pompeii. Partially destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in AD 79, Pompeii was buried under 4-6 metres of ash and pumice, and forgotten about until its excavation began in 1748 (I still haven't worked out why it took that long - the eruption of Vesuvius on that day was documented, so they knew that these towns were buried, but apparently they "were abandoned and their names and locations forgotten"?!). Today though, the Pompeii ruins offer a unique snapshot of a town frozen in time on that particular day.

Pompers

So after less than half an hour, we had already arrived in Pompeii and were able to check in to our little hotel, a 5 minute walk from the back entrance of the ruins. Soon we headed out for lunch in the new Pompeii, which is quite a nice looking town. Ryan had a spaghetti carbonara and I had a plate of clams (both OK, but have both had better), and then soon we set off for the ruins. Just before we got there we got talked into getting a map and audio guide by 2 young and innocent looking girls, and it wasn't too expensive (and ended up being quite helpful) so I don't think we got scammed!

I'm definitely putting a marble kitchen into my house - that stuff stands the test of time (and volcanoes)

The amazing thing about Pompeii is the sheer size of it. While Herculaneum is perhaps better preserved and has more impressive frescoes, Pompeii is a large town, complete with ampitheatres, forums and a brothel (although the little stone beds did not look very comfortable). Oh, and there's also now an Autogrill in the middle of it too. You could spend the whole day walking around the sights, but we did a 2-3 hour wander of various highlights we wanted to see, which was plenty of time, being the warm and sunny day that you can see pictured. This was my second time here, and it is still one of the most interesting places I have ever been in my life.

Reidi in the ruins

They say that Mt Vesuvius is currently dormant, but it occasionally emits lava streams (the last being in the 1950's), and now it is officially 15 years past the time of expected activity. Apparently with today's geophysics technology they would have about 10 days notice before anything major happened, but still, it has happened before... I think they are some brave people living in those towns. Apparently property is very good value (!), but I wonder what the insurance premiums are like?!

A plaster cast of a victim - I find these all very spooky

That evening after washing all the dirt and ash off ourselves, we went back into town for dinner. We went in search of a restaurant that had good reviews on trip advisor, but it didn't seem to exist, so we stopped in at a cocktail bar (I had an awesome coconut mojito!) and by this time a storm had suddenly come upon us (surprising given the skies in the photos above) and so, luckily for us, the accompanying aperitivos supplied with the cocktails were more than substantial, so we were satisified with them and just made it home before the storm hit! It was quite the light show from our balcony though I must say.

The town of Sorrento

The next morning it was time to move onto a place I was really looking forward to, Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast. I had booked us into Villa Monica, the #1 B&B in Sorrento according to trip advisor, and I must agree. The owner, Pasquale, called us the day before and said to give him a buzz when we arrived in town and he would meet us and guide us up the hill to the B&B. How very nice, although Sorrento was crawling with cars, scooters and people, so finding a place to pull into in the narrow streets (without clipping any other vehicles, which we did, but no one seems to care because it is inevitable) was difficult. So we decided to wing it, and get there on our own. It was a pretty hairy and steep street but after bumping into Pasquale's wife (not literally), we got there A.O.K! And the view from our balcony was tremendous!

Buffalo mozarella 4 ways - this is what I will picture when I come home and hit the gym 4 days a week, because it was worth it :)

Even though the weather was overcast and a little bit drizzly at the time, the view was simply breathtaking. And once we met Pasquale, we knew we were in good hands. He was a helpful yet really funny guy, and he would shuttle his guests to and from the main part of Sorrento town whenever they wanted. He recommended a restaurant to us,  Inn Bufalito, which I had already spied on trip advisor (being the buffalo mozzarella addict that I now am), so after a brief walk around town before some rain set in, we got a table at Inn Bufalito. We shared the buffalo mozzarella tasting platter for entree (pictured above) which was one of the most creamy and delicious things I have ever tasted. It was more than enough, but we had already ordered mains (I had a stuffed squid, which was yum and something I hadn't seen offered at many other places, while Ryan had a buffalo ragu, which was simply delicious). Because it had been so good and we are complete fatties, we also shared a panna cotta for dessert (and Ryan had his first taste of limoncello!). Superb meal overall.

And then the next morning we woke up to this view from our balcony:

Ridiculous way to wake up in the morning