Ciao Italia - Ferry to Igoumenitsa

Left Sorrento for Bari today via Amalfi which we planned to try and see again but the roads were so winding it took much longer than we thought. Got to the ferry port and on the Superfast ferry to Bari. 10 hours overnight in a cinema sort of room with reclining chairs we thought we had made the best ticket choice. When we tried to go to bed though it was sort of like trying to sleep clinging on to the edge of a cliff. Everytime you drifted off to sleep you fell off the chair and woke up.

19th April - Sunshine in Capri

Woke up with an even more flooded tent than the one we went to sleep in the night before and decided to check out of camping world and get into Hotel World. Booked a late deal into a lovely hotel in the heart of Sorrento and then set off for the days adventures.

Took the hydrofoil ferry

from Sorrento Grande Marina over to the island of Capri. Picked up a tour guide on the way called Joseph who took us and a big group of people up to AnaCapri and showed us the Venetian steps which the people here used to have to climb to get up to AnaCapri. Wandered about the town square for a bit in the sunshine and then got another bus down to the main town. Joseph took us to Augusto Gardens where you could see for miles to the bay of Naples and Mount Vesevius which he said he thought would erupt again one day!

Returned back into Grande Marina to find Tony the car park man in the harbour had put Gordon in what Mat thinks was pride of place at the front of the car park to impress the passers by. I would post a picture with the amount of bugs stuck to every part of the car which Gordon has accidentally killed but it's too disgusting.

Checked into our lovely hotel which had a balcony, massive double bed and was warm, dry and clean! Heaven! Wandered out to a brilliant pizza place the Lonely Planet recommended Franco's Pizza Parlour where they serve the pizza in tin trays and give you free chocolates before you leave!

Mat Stat - Before the cable cars the people who lived in AnaCapri had to climb 777 steps to get to the main Capri town!



Off to spend the night on the ferry to Igoumenitsa in Greece 10 hours on a ferry seat!

K&M
xx

16th April - Sorrento on High

Left Sorteano for Sorrento through Naples which the lonely planet describes as dirty and edgy. It looks huge and sits around the base of Mount Vesevius. Found our
campsite which seems to be as is everything in Sorrento on the edge of a cliff. Again we are the only people in a tent, another english couple seem to be living out of a big white van and another german couple opposite us are sleeping in their car
each night so we no longer feel like the maddest people in camping world. Sorrento is beautiful the roads are the most twisting turning roads I have ever seen on the edge of cliffs with huge rocks and lemon groves perched on top of tiny bits of land high up. There are mopeds, cars, people and animals all constantly swerving around each other on the roads and streets which is total chaos but it's a chaos that works and I love it.

Mat Stat - They are worse drivers in Naples than Milan, that is saying something.

17th April - Free Pompeii




Took the circumvesuviana train/tube today from Sorrento to Pomepeii which was free to get in for some reason so we got the audio guides figuring we would understand a bit more what we were looking at. The audio guides are like phones where you tap in the number of the place you are looking at and the guide will talk you through where you are and what you are looking at. Brilliant idea when you are actually standing in the right place which we were most of the time. Pompeii is huge when you
exit and look back you can see how massive it was. The plaster casts of the people found after Vesuvius erupted were quite disturbing (they had even put teeth in one of the casts mouth) but in the houses you could still see the pools they had in the courtyards that collected rain water and mosaics on the floors and walls. The tour took you around what would have been a very wealthy person's house and then to the baths, the brothel, sports arena and theatre to name a few.

Mat Stat - Pompeii is 15 sq km, thats bigger than Diss!!

18th April - Amalfi Rain

Mat drove the amalfi coast today which is beautiful and scary as the passenger on the left hand side of the car where it seems like you will hit every single bike, car and bus you pass. Add also being on the edge of a cliff and pouring hailing rain!
Think Amalfi would have been brilliant but rain rain rain all day so ended up in a cafe with some coffee watching some poor italian lady getting married in the church outside and then having photos in the downpour but she didn't seem to care.

Each morning in Sorrento I have been woken up by the sound of someone playing a trumpet in the chalet down the cliff to the left. In Positano today found out this wouldn't be allowed.



Mat Stat - The cheapest property sold in Almalfi last year was 1.2 million euros.

15th April - The great Perugia stress headache

V.bad headaching day with Jane Deciding to shut down and then HAVING problems with the car Paperwork. Headed to Perugia and found an internet church Where We sorted the Paperwork and Decided to head for a campsite near to Our next destination. Perugia was lovely and we think Would Have enjoyed it without Jane's broken and the search for the only scanner in Perugia That worked. Nightmarish drive out of the city Which I Was Sure WAS going to end in divorce Because We Both Did not Have a Clue Where We Were Going For Everything and Every sign points Both right and left so I smacked Jane made a plea to the bit god of satnavs and Held the start button for 10seconds When the screen Suddenly Turned On and She Came Back to Life in Africaans talking!

She Must Have Been on holiday to Africa as she has Been working for about 2 weeks non-stop by now. There is still though (A Few Days Later) to 3 seconds scary When you switch on her and wonder if she will work or not and decides to ruin your life. Now she is back with us we treat her much better. I know we used to get Jane to the new campsite allotted Which was empty apart from us and one camper van and Spent the night in the middle of a field with millions of frogs singing in the lake nearby.

Stat Mat - They still serve Miller in Perguia.

14th April - Volterra and San Gimignano

Said goodbye to our lovely freezing cabin site today and drove up to the dizzying heights of Volterra in the morning. Took some pics mainly for the benefit of Judy because I think the main square is in the twilight film although I haven't seen it.
My husband makes a good reporter I think! Made use of the BBC mic cube!

Then on to San Gimignano which was gorgeous (thank you alex for recommending). For miles beforehand we could see the towers standing out and then when we found our campsite this was our view from the tent.
San Gimignano was picture postcard pretty and packed with ice cream eating tourists who we joined and sat in the center on the steps writing out postcards to Sim and Joshi. First impressions of camping is quite good although we do seem to be the only people anywhere in an actual tent everyone else has huge camper vans with sky tv and barbeques.

Mat Stat - 2130 miles so far driven (the car only goes to 1000 and then restarts)

13th April - Firenze from Up High

Took the huge 2 floored train from Figline to Florence today, on the drive to the station was overtaken by a crazy man doing a hundred miles an hour who pushed us off the road the way italians do here and then parked in the middle of the street outside the video shop! Florence was busy, noisy, crowded but pretty and the best part of all was the trip up the duomo

one of the world's largest cathedrals.



The climb up a narrow spiral staircase and what looked like tiny gaps was nothing compared to the realisation we are both really scared of heights but it was
worth it to see the ceiling so close you could actually touch it.

mats stat - it is 463 steps to the top of the duomo and nearly as many to get back down!!!

12th April - I Heart Siena

Drove into the Tuscan countryside today past endless fields of sunflowers, lemon and orange groves and some llamas to Siena today. Siena is a gorgeous russet red and orange gold colour which makes everything look like its on fire.


The hugely tall medieval walls and the rabbit warren lanes lead you into the main square il campo

where everyone sits,sunbathes and watches everyone else doing the same thing.

Walking around you see Siena is famous for it's annual horse race which they call the palio in July and August where jockeys ride horses bareback around the campo 3 times i saw this pic in a shop window
the riders must have fallen off but you get the idea that it must be completely mental.

In the backstreets away from the hub we found the hugest slices of margherita pizza for 1.50 and even bigger mint chocolate ice creams which we ate standing up outside with all the italian students.

Also loved the liquorice allsort campanile tower behind the cathedral.

(Mat Stat - you have to take 5 escalators to reach siena)

11th April Lake Guarda - Pisa

Left the beautiful Lake Guarda today and also which we didn't realise the comfort of being warm and

breakfasts sitting down on chairs which is over rated anyway, to go to Pisa.

Took a detour to Sirimione Castle on a gated island at the bottom of the lake and 4 hours later we arrived in Pisa to find out our hostel room had been
booked by someone else. So not knowing what to do headed into Pisa Center to look for the Leaning Tower.

About an hour later after walking through crowds and crowds and crowds of people and none the wiser as to where we were decided to give up the search and head for
Florence. This turned out to be the sort of best decision ever made. We jumped a day ahead of the sort of plan we had and went to the campsite in Figline where the nicest people ever work who put us in a portacabin for the next 3 nights even though they repeatedly asked us if we had a tent and we said yes? So it was the coldest cabin on earth but it had 4 walls and a shower with hot water. Plus there was a restaurant and a bar which had beer and football (for mat).



(Mat Stat - Lake Guarda length is longer than the english channel is wide)

10th April 2010 - Lake Guarda continued..

First day with no driving so we had a late breakfast alongside some big fish...



and took the cable cars 1763 metres up to the mountains. It was surreal to spend a few hours in the snow watching people paraglide off of sheer drops and then go back down into the sunshine again.





Malcesine is very beautiful and quaint to walk around with winding cobblestone streets and random castles here and there. Bill Bryson gave some good advice when he said never be the first person off a ferry as everyone will follow you regardless if you know where it is you are going. Realised this applies everywhere abroad when we led a big group of english people down a one way street today and into a brick wall.



Tomorrow Pisa...

Mat Stats:
Malcesine has the World's first 360 degrees rotating cable car

9th April 2010 - Lake Guarda - Malcesine

My amazing husband today drove from Strasbourg through Switzerland via Milano and then to Lake Guarda which took about 6ish hours through mountains, tunnels, snow and then into the lovely sunshine! Proud to say we did spend all of about 3 seconds in the Lunatic Lane (fourth and fastest lane where you have to go over 110mph just to keep up). Nobody indicates, stops or has any sense of road safety so spending over 6 hours in a constant state of heart attack panicked hell was quite exhausting as a passenger. Both quite pleased to be in Malcesine now with no driving needed for tomorrow.

Mat Stats:
Longest tunnel 14.7km (so big it has it's own radio station)
Animals seen - bats flying at night over Lake Guarda

8th April 2010 - Strasbourg (Bicycles, Babies and Brioche)

Arriving in Strasbourg was easy - finding the hostel was not. A nice Strasbourg man seeing we were lost started pointing us down a road which we did drive halfway down before realising it was a one way street he then beeped us endlessley until we reversed back out. Did eventually find our very nice hostel with it's secret courtyard car park and went out wandering for the day.

The Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral was stunning and huge, the highlight although we couldn't go up to the top which would have been a brilliant do something once a day that scares you. Walked along the river Ill amongst the pretty black and white timber houses in the Petite-France district and ended the day drinking beer watching the river boats and ducks floating by.



Mat Stats:
Notre Dame - 6th tallest cathedral in the world

7th April 2010 - Eastbourne - Dover - Dunkerque - Chalons en Champagne

Left Eastbourne early in the morning very sad to say goodbye to Katie & Joshua, think Joshua was more sad he wasn't going to get to sit in the car for longer and beep the horn over and over. Made it to Dover in lots of time to catch the Nofolkline ferry to Dunkerque. Ended up in the bar watching the election coverage on BBC News which felt just like being at work except there was no lovely Anna in the corner mumbling to herself. The ferry was a bit like being drunk and falling over in slow motion repeatedly but top deck made it all worth it.

Drove to Chalons en Champagne which was very small very quiet and spent the night in a small dark box (hotel) with rabbits running about outside.

Mat Stat:
No need for alarm clocks in France as Hotel Maids will just keep bursting in on you regardless if you are asleep in bed or half dressed.

4th April 2010 - Falmouth, Cornwall

Wedding in Falmouth was lovely. The best pics of the day are below...

2nd April 2010 - London

So we left London today, packing up 3 years of a life in one flat (the longest I have lived in any place since I was about 20) was quite sad. It was the first place we lived just the two of us and we got engaged and married whilst we were there. Although the burst pipe in the bathroom meant we did keep getting electrocuted and the kitchen ceiling was falling down around us we did both love it really. I left the flat with only 3 pairs of shoes (traumatic) and en route to Cornwall and Eastbourne Mat managed to lose his only 2 pairs of shoes. Only I could have married someone capable of this and that is why I love him so much.

Thank you...

We wanted to start this blog by saying thank you to all the people who made it possible for us to be here - to all our family and friends whose amazingly generous wedding gifts to us meant we could do this we say thank you so much!

Also to our sponsers Gordon (the car) and Jane (our sat nav) we wouldn't have got this far without you. This far being 1069 miles so far from London via Cornwall to Strasbourg.