Our Italian adventure started slowly with our overnight ferry pulling into Brindisi port 2 hours late. Our workaway host was very generous and offered to pick us up from the port but once on the ferry we had no way to contact him to let him know of the delay. So much for making a good first impression! David, our host was very understanding and we were soon on our way to our home for the next couple of weeks.
The property was located in the Puglia region just outside the town of Ostuni. Our hosts were David and Leonie, an English couple who had established a holiday retreat for artists in a restored ancient olive grove. They had featured on the program, "Grand Designs" - watching it gave us a real appreciation for what they had accomplished in building their guest accommodation in the old Roman style. In return for working for a few hours a day, we had a simple chalet surrounded by ancient olive trees to live in and were provided with food. The work was simple enough: clean up jobs after a flash flood, gardening work like laying gravel on paths that had been washed away, cleaning guests rooms and waiting on their guests at dinner time. We were lucky enough to get some of our meals cooked by Leonie too - she's a fabulous cook and has really embraced Italian-style cooking. We didn't need much dinner after our three course lunches! We were also lucky to have use of the van and bikes so we could explore the old town of Ostuni with its twisting cobbled lanes and whitewashed buildings and the nearby beaches.
It was hard to leave the masseria but we said our goodbyes and headed to Naples with Flixbus, a much cheaper option than the train at only 5 euro. We had nice views over the city from our hotel, but soon discovered that Naples looks better from a distance - the streets were dirty and overrun with traffic. We had heard that Naples was the home of the best pizza in the world so we braved the streets and dodged all the eight year olds on scooters to find a nice little restaurant. The pizza was really good, but the best in the world....???? I don't know.... We spent the remainder of the evening walking the narrow streets and exploring some of the plazas and churches. I'm sure Naples has a lot more to offer but we were content with our one evening here.
The next morning we headed off on a short train ride to Herculaneum, a Roman town similar to Pompeii that had also been well preserved after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2000 years ago. We had always planned to visit Pompeii but had never even heard of Herculaneum until our workaway hosts told us about it. After some quick research thanks to google images we decided it was definitely worth making time for. We could see a lot of the town for free from the elevated walkway that leads you to the ticket office so we had a quick think about whether or not the admission price was worth it. We decided to stop being stingy for once and are glad we did, the town was small but beautifully preserved, with lots of still-whole buildings that you can walk through with beautiful frescos on the walls.
We then headed forth to Pompeii, where we tried to cram the second site into the same day. Probably a bad choice because we were pressed for time to see the whole site, which was massive, before it got dark. One of the big drawcards for us and one thing that Herculaneum didn't have was the casts of the human victims, a bit morbid but something we were really interested in seeing. We used Rick Steve's audio guide to make our way around the site but a few of the highlights were closed for maintenance and the casts of the bodies had since been moved to a different location. We spent lots of time walking in circles trying to find alternative routes around all the fenced off areas, but the light was fading and we still couldn't find the bodies. After finally finding someone that spoke a little English we found out that the display of the bodies is actually right at one of the exits of the site, a long way from where we were. It was getting darker and darker and we were jogging through the ancient streets of Pompeii, not being able to properly take in this whole other section of the site that we realised we had missed. We finally found the glass display rooms but it was dark and the lights were not switched on so we could only view the casts using the light from our phones. It then started pissing down rain, making it even more difficult. Defeated, we left and hid from the rain in the Maccas across the road. Then as we were walking back past Pompeii on the way home, we noticed the lights had been turned on and the gates left open so we snuck back in for a better look. And we're glad we did. The bodies were eerily preserved in the residents' final moments of life, you could clearly see the expressions on their faces as they held their arms out in an attempt to shield themselves. It was a macabre but fascinating sight. We had to cut it short and high tail it out of there when we saw the guards returning though!
Our next stop was Minori, on the Amalfi Coast, which we reached by train and public bus. We spent a lovely couple of days there, enjoying the scenery, lovely pasta and wine in a beach side cafe and a hike to nearby towns Ravello and Amalfi. The walk was tough, up steep stairs most of the way, but rewarded us with fantastic views over the coast and lemon tree terraces. Amalfi itself had a beautiful church but was completely overrun with cruise ship tourists, which made us thankful of our choice to stay in the quieter Minori. The third day the plan was to catch the 10:15 am bus back from Minori to Salerno, from where we had booked a Flixbus to Rome. Easy right? We got to the bus stop which was directly outside our hotel but the bus we were supposed to catch drove straight past us. Apparently when the buses are full they don't bother stopping. This was a bit of an issue since they only come every hour and the ferries were cancelled today due to weather, so the buses were going to be full all day. After another bus driving straight by us we eventually decided to go the wrong way, into Amalfi, to catch the bus at the starting point. This was also not as easy at it sounded, the bus yet again drove past us full, but stopped a little way down the road apparently feeling sorry for us out in the rain. It was a tight squeeze but some of the kind locals helped us get our bags on and did the best they could to make room for us. By this stage we had well and truly missed our connecting bus to Rome and couldn't get another one until 6pm. So all up, a 6 hour delay but we got there in the end.
In Rome, we had been lucky to find a couchsurfing host. Rob is a 60 year old Aussie who had decided to move back to his parents' home country. He was a fun and generous host, sharing all his favorite places to eat with us. At Ristorante Josef we enjoyed a selection of fried vegetables and seafoods for entre and a veal dish and a pasta for main. At another of Rob's favorites, we ate "raw" (vegan, sugar free) gelati (almond and banana were my choices). He also took us to Cafe Pannalini where we had their signature coffee.
On our first day in Rome, we headed to the Vatican where we ignored the "skip the line" touts, offering expensive guided tours which allowed you to enter the museum or the church without waiting in line. We made our way to St Peter's Basilica first as it was closing at 1pm and lined up for an hour to get in, which we didn't think was too bad considering some stories we had heard. It was a huge and grand church decorated extravagantly with works of art including Michelangelo's sculpture 'Pieta'. Afterwards we headed to the Vatican Museums to see the Sistine Chapel, took one look at the line and realised we should have been more organized in booking our tickets online. THREE AND A HALF HOURS LATER we finally got to the front of the line and just snuck in before the 4pm cut off. It was like wandering through an ornately decorated palace with amazing works of art including sculptures, wall tapestries, old maps and of course paintings by the likes of Raphael. There is no moving at your own pace in this museum, you move as fast or as slow as the hoards of people let you. The Sistine Chapel was the climax with Michelangelo's amazing recently restored colorful paintings covering the walls and roof. The art was incredible but feeling like cattle being pressed in and herded through the narrow corridors with the crowds did make it a less than relaxing visit. By the time we got out, we had unfortunately missed the beer fest we had been invited to with Rob, so instead enjoyed a delicious dinner at his local pub, the Yellow Bar and went for a walk to check out the Colesseum by night. It took us longer to find than it should have, we walked around for a little while near where we knew it was located thinking, "how could we possibly not find this thing!" We eventually rounded a corner and stumbled across this wonder of the world and took a seat on a nearby bridge to take it in. We returned home exhausted and feeling guilty because it took longer than expected and Rob was waiting for us.
The next day we bought our pass for the Colesseum, Roman Forum and Palentino Hill. The line for the tickets was about 1 hour long but we were used to this by now. The line to get into the Colosseum was enormous but it didn't matter too much as our tickets were valid for two days. We decided to see the Roman Forum and Palentino Hill first since the line was a lot shorter and come back early the next morning for the Colesseum. The forum itself was quite large and interesting, with the arches, buildings, statues and streets still in pretty good nick. Palentino was nothing too special after seeing Pompeii and the forum and anyway, the main houses were closed for restoration. With some extra time up our sleeve after skipping the Colosseum we visited a couple of churches, Saint Peter in Chains (his actual chains and Michelangelo's Moses were here) and the Bascilica of Saint John in Lateran (a massive, imposing church like St Peter's).
The next morning we got back to the Colosseum 30 minutes before it opened and only had a handful of people in front of us. When we finally entered we were impressed by how well preserved it is and were happy to tick another wonder of the world off the list (only the Great Wall to go). It was also nice to be in there with a lot less tourists than I'm sure there normally is in the middle of the day.
We also spent time wandering through different areas of Rome with Rob and were particularly impressed by Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon as well as the views from on top of the Vittorio Emanuele II monument. There was a plethora of beautiful plazas, grand churches and Roman ruins to choose from and we saw a nice selection.
Upon our arrival in Florence, we immediately loved the more "small town" feel, the romantic streets and the Renaissance art that was literally bursting from everywhere. There were enough museums to fill a month long holiday If you had deep enough pockets but we chose only a few: the renowned Uffizi gallery with its works by the likes of Michelangelo, Bottecelli, Raphael and Da Vinci, the Accedemia with Michelangelo's David and the Palazzo Pitti with its lavishly decorated palatial rooms and art collection. The streets were amazing to wander and we loved the colorful Duomo, the loggia with its statue collection and the Ponte Veccio bridge. The view of sunset over the city from Piazalle Michelangelo was incredible and walking back at night through the lantern-lined streets had a real ambiance. The gelato at Marco Ottaviano was to die for and the streets and plazas had a lovely vibe, with live music in some places and lots of markets. We tore ourselves away from Florence to do a quick morning trip out to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which was, as promised, at an unbelievable angle. It was definitely worth the one hour train ride to see something so completely different.
Our next destination was Padua, a town near Venice but with much cheaper accommodation and some friendly airbnb hosts to chat with. We did a day trip to Venice by train (only 27 minutes) but didn't have the best weather to enjoy the atmosphere of romance that it is famous for. The gondolas weren't running and the musicians must have been hiding somewhere dry. We did a wet boat ride along the Grand Canal by Vaporetta ferry with good old Rick Steves giving us a running commentary of the sights. We got off at famous St Mark's Square, where we sheltered from the rain under the porch of the Doge's Palace. St Mark's itself was also warm and dry as well as being incredibly beautiful with its interesting mix of architectural styles. We consisted getting a coffee as another means of finding shelter, but at 9 euro a pop, decided to brave the rainy lanes with jackets and umbrella. The narrow winding streets, plazas featuring churches and canals spanned by arching bridges made the city uniquely picturesque. We loved the quirky little bookshop, Agua Alta with its staircase made of books and the Murano glass sold in the gift stores. Venice by night on this particular day was a bit quiet and gloomy and the steady rain turned into a drenching downpour that quickly flooded the streets and soaked us through. There were elevated walkways set up because apparently flooding is a very regular problem here. A unique and special place to visit but we both decided we couldn't live here.
Or final stop in Italy was a quick overnighter in Milan, which may be a shopper's mecca but for us was just another city, albeit one with a stunning Gothic cathedral.
Italy was a gastronomic and historic delight and even uncultured beings such as ourselves could appreciate the incredible art and architecture on display.
