At long last the 7th September, the big day we have been planning for has arrived – our return to Italy with our very good friends Tim & Ann Fleming.

Due to a slight booking mishap we left for Italy one day before Tim & Ann so we were able to do the Scavi tour under the Vatican to St. Peter’s tomb which Belinda had not done before.

The flight was as good as a 22 1/2 hour flight can be, assisted by a fully stocked bar!

ROME

Our one day in Rome began with a rooftop breakfast on a beautifully sunny day.

We set off for the Vatican first thing as we wanted to get to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s before the onslaught of crowds. We took the elevator half way up which was good as we were absolutely buggered by the time we got to the top. Our reward was a beautiful cooling breeze with one of the great views of the world.

The next morning we set off for the airport to meet Tim & Ann-Maree Fleming with whom we would be spending the next four weeks travelling throughout Italy.

We got to the airport probably three minutes before Tim & Ann so we were set for our adventure starting off in Sicily.

SIRACUSA

Picking up the hire car in Catania proved to be the hurdle we were expecting. Having spent an hour arguing we managed to get on our way.

Once we managed to change countries on the GPS it was smooth sailing to Ortygia, which is one of the historic sections of Syracusa, which is where we were staying. We were soon confronted with the realities of driving through the narrow streets in these old towns.

We arrived at our accommodation, iSanti coronati, and were very pleased with it. The accommodation was modern the people very friendly & helpful and the location was perfect. Over the five days spent there we would get to know Sebastiano who owned & operated the cafe/bar across the very narrow road where we were staying.

We arrived early afternoon and spent the afternoon wandering around the backstreets and piazzas exploring Ortygia. We must be in wedding season as we saw two on our first day. The use of a local stone which is similar in colouring to sandstone gave the Duomo & Piazza Duomo a fantastic look.

We started off our first full day with a rooftop breakfast before heading off to fully explore Ortygia. We wandered through Castello Maniace, The Duomo, Chiesa Lucia where a Carravagio is & Fonte Aretusa which is a natural spring with an Ancient Greek legend associated with it.

We had lunch in a small laneway tratorria which served a house white wine which was more water than wine.

A meander down to the marina and through the Jewish quarter with a look through a few of the local shops had us back at Sebastianos cafe/bar. That night we were in for a 6 course set menu of seafood.

The next day we got out of Ortygia and drove to Chiarmonte, Ragusa Ibla & Noto.

The following day Brian came down with a bout of food poisoning which left him bed & room bound for most of the day till a recuperating swim with Tim in the Mediterranean later that afternoon.

The day was spent in the “archeological zone” of Syracusa which consisted of the Greek theatre, Ear of Dionysius, Roman Theatre and St. Lucia catacombs.

The following day we went to see Villa Romana del Casale. This is a country villa owned by Marcus Maximus, one time co-consul of Rome. This villa was sealed under a mud slide for 700 years which helped to maintain the best collection of mosaics from Roman times.

From there we stopped for a great lunch at a rustic trattoria before heading off to Caltegirone, one of the main centres of ceramics in Sicily and one of the tallest staircases we will ever find or climb.

TAORMINA

On Wednesday 14th we left Siracusa to make the 1 1/2 hour journey to Taormina.

Taormina is a perched on the side of a hill at the end of a winding narrow road. Not as narrow as the streets within Taormina that Tim negotiated to get us to our destination.

Villa Brittania, our accommodation, is a large 2 bedroom villa which we have the run of. Louisa & Marcus are our friendly and interesting hosts. Louisa switches from looking & sounding like a local to a British accent in the twinkle of an eye due to being raised in England from 6-16 years. Since then she has been here and feels more Sicilian than English. Marcus is a sommelier with some great wines around the house of which we have our pick.

We spent the first afternoon wandering around the streets of Taormina. Tim found some sunglasses to replace his broken ones and we had lunch on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean.

After lunch we ventured up to the Ancient Greek theatre which is perched above Taormina. The theatre is placed in such a dramatic position overlooking Taormina, the sea as well as Mt. Etna which you can see in the distance. Unfortunately for us it was a bit hazy so we couldn’t see Etna on the day.

Our first full day in Taormina was one of the best days we could hope for.

Taormina is perched about 300 metres above sea level. To get down to the beaches the best way is to catch a cable car.

We walked down quite a steep staircase to the “pebbly” beach. We walked along the beach and found a boat hire place which is exactly what we were looking for.

The boat we hired was an old wooden boat which was about 8 metres with a canopy. Our boat driver was Vittorio an old guy with a great sense of humour and the “typical” old Italian salt.

The water was incredibly blue and clear and was sooo inviting. After a run around the cliff face and a venture into a cave which had sunlight shining through showing the range of blues in the water we pulled into a small rocky inlet at which point Vittorio told us to “jump in”. The water was fantastic.

Back into the boat for more cruising and more swimming this was such an idyllic way to spend a day.

Lunch at their ristorante on the beach topped things off nicely.

More exploring of Taormina followed with an early relax out on our terrace.

On Friday 16th we decided to go up to Castelmola which is about 6-7 km up a very steep climb from Taormina. Common sense prevailed in that we decided to catch the bus up and walk back. Up at Castelmola we had spectacular views of Mt. Etna and we wandered around the ancient fort as well as the backstreets and a few shops.

We had lunch in a small trattoria with a terrace overlooking Etna.

The walk back down to Taormina took just under an hour.

We had plenty of time to get back, freshen up and have a few drinks before we began our Italian cooking class.

The chef for our class was Pipo who is Marco’s father who retired after a bout of colon cancer.

Louise was our interpreter and we had an absolute ball.

We started with zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and fried in a tempura batter (which we didn’t make) followed with Beccafico, Stuffed Anchovies, Maccheroni all a norma & Involtini Swordfish. We didn’t make but finished the dinner with Cannoli and homemade mandarinetto.

Marco is studying to be a Sommelier and took us through a few wines with our dinner.

The mandarinetto was a big hit and Brian, Tim & Marco managed to finish the bottle.

Needless to say none of took any rocking to get us to sleep.

The next day was a slightly earlier start (bad idea after the night before) as we were going to Mt Etna to catch the cable car up and then walk part of the way to one of the craters.

Unfortunately the cable car was not running so after talking to one of the employees there we decided to hike up to the first crater which would take about an hour.

This would probably rank as the most difficult walk we have ever done and there were moments when we thought about turning back. However we saw a sign which gave us hope that we might be near our target. Thankfully we were only a couple of hundred metres from the crater.

Upon reaching it we were rightly impressed that we got there in just under an hour. The view was spectacular both from a scenic perspective and one of power, seeing what the volcano had produced.

After this Louisa had booked us into her favourite winery Barone de Villa Grande, for lunch.

This is the oldest winery on Etna and has been making wines for over 160 years.

Lunch  was preceded by a winery tour. The lunch itself was a four course meal with matching wines served by the winery manager – Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous!

That night was a very quiet affair eating leftovers & bruschetta.

For our last day day in Taormina we decided to take a drive to Savoca as recommended by Marco.

Savoca is a beautiful old Sicilian town high up in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean, in which we spent a few hours wandering the streets.

It’s great claim to fame that it was here that The Godfather was shot in Bar Vitelli and one of the churches, firstly where Michael Corleone set eyes on Appollonia at her father’s bar and the church where they got married.

Additionally there was a Ferrari showcase of about 20 Ferraris of different vintages.

After lunch here we took a leisurely drive back along the beach to Taormina.

MATERA

A couple of days ago we found that our booking at Matera was a problem (it had been booked for 6 months)!

Marco was terrific in helping us find alternative accommodation in Matera.

All the hotels and B&B’s we tried could not accommodate 4 people as there was a radio festival in town.

Luckily one of the hotels we rang called Marco back and put him on to her friend who had an apartment we could rent.

We snapped it up as we were getting a bit desperate but it worked out great. The apartment was clean and roomy and Maria-Pia was very friendly & helpful.

We did a quick afternoon walk around one of the Sasso’s and saw a film on the history of Matera before rain called a halt to the day.

That night we went to the best restaurant on the trip where Brian was invited down to the cellar to choose a wine.

The following day we went through both Sassi’s (Sasso means rock).

Matera was once described as the shame of Italy. Up until the sixties people were still living in caves. The average family had six children and the all lived in caves with no electricity no plumbing or sewerage system. The toilet was in the cave along with their pigs, chickens etc. The  conditions must have been horrendous but they knew no other lifestyle. Child mortality rate was 45%.

The city has been re-born and tourism in it’s sometimes difficult history is booming.

CAPACCIO & PAESTUM

We drove from Matera to Capaccio on Saturday 24th stopping in at Castelmezzano which is a small town clinging to the side of a mountain in the Dolomites. Some. Enterprising guys have strung cables between mountain tops which allows you to get slung horizontal into a flying fox and you “fly” across two valleys to each mountain peak. There was no chance of us doing it, although Tim reckons if he stayed a few days he would!

We called in to Capaccio for lunch as it is back up the mountains overlooking Paestum and the coast to the Mediterranean.

Jokingly Tim & Brian pointed out an old building as our accommodation from the car park lookout which Belinda & Ann fell for.

Problem was, it was our accommodation!

Pulling up outside was a bit disconcerting but once we got inside it was all good with a character named Alferio, whose English makes Brian’s Italian sound fluent!

We took a drive in the afternoon through the mountains and villages with spectacular views including Monteforte Cilento.

Dinner that night was a hoot with Alferio’s brother in law Jerry (Genarrio) acting as translator & comedian.

We also managed to over order again but gave it our best shot along with 3 bottles of red to go with the 2 bottles of white & beers consumed earlier.

Sunday was our day planned for Paestum Arceological Parc which houses the ruins of an ancient Greek town. Brian & Belinda had been here 4 years earlier but were keen to take Tim & Ann there. Once again it did not disappoint.

Tim & Ann have been to Athens and both says that this site kills the Acropolis and any ruins that have seen.

We spent about three and a half hours wandering the ruins which include three Ancient Greek temples as well as the museum which houses a large number of relics from the area.

After lunch we took a run down to Agropoli which is a seaside town with an old Aragonese fortified castle which is amazingly in tact.

Dinner that night turned out to be one of those nights you could never plan or anticipate.

We decided to go to a ristorante just down the road from where we are staying.

We walked in to be greeted by two young waiters about 16 years old at best with virtually no English between them which just made it a bit of a challenge.

We walked in to be seated to be greeted by two old italian blokes singing karaoke which at first impression was a bit odd.

As the night went on and more people came and we had a few drinks it became a night to remember.

They appreciated us getting into it, even though they wouldn’t let us near the karaoke machine!

This apparently occurs every Sunday night and all the participants bring their own usb’s with their music on it.

A few good voices and a few horrors. One bloke we nicknamed “Grey Mullet” due to his seventies hair style and current colour belted out a number of songs in English but could not speak one word of English. He is/was a rock singer because his voice was sensational.

Annie & Belinda got up dancing and Annie ended up dancing with a bloke who we told we us he was born in France but has been in Italy for 70 years.

When we left hands were shaken and we were given a nice send off.

Monday morning meant a slightly earlier start as we had a 9am tour booked at a buffalo mozzarella farm.

This was so interesting it made you want to come back as an Asian Water Buffalo!

They get pampered. A massage machine that they sidle up to and take turns, they wander in to the automatic milkers when they feel like getting milked and get fed the best feed and herbs at times.

We tasted mozzarella which had been just made about an hour before. Best buffalo mozzarella we have ever tasted and probably likely to taste.

After this we took a drive up to Castellabate which is a pretty cliff hugging town followed by lunch at St. Maria della Castellabata on the seaside at a little ristorante overlooking the marina and the Mediterranean.

AMALFI COAST & PRAIANO

We got away reasonably early from Capaccio for our drive up to Praiano on the Amalfi Coast.

We had all been to and driven the Amalfi Coast road previously however the slightly larger car made driving a white knuckle experience.

Belinda was in the front passenger seat hanging on for grim death while Brian was sweating bullets negotiating the roads full of tour buses and mad Italian drivers. It feels like driving here has gotten crazier in the four years since we were here last.

We got to Le Fioriere at about lunch time and were quite happy to park the car for a few days.

That afternoon we took a walk down to Furore & Marina Di Praia.

We decided that the following day we would hit the beach at Marina Di Praia which had three ristoranti so on the beach and a couple more around the cliff corner on the water.

That night we ate up on the roof at Le Fioriere which has fantastic food and a view of the Amalfi second to none.

The following day we had a nice day at the beach albeit a bit windy and enjoyed a late lunch at Il Pirata.

We also enquired about hiring a boat for half a day to cruise around the coast.

A private hiring for 4 hours was €300 which we thought, why not?

We got some bread, mortadella, salami, prosciutto, cheese, tomatoes,olive oil and a couple of bottles of wine and we were set.

We had one of the best days ever.

There was not a cloud in the sky the water was crystal clear and beautiful to swim in. The skipper was Marco a great guy who’s nickname we learnt was Marco the Mosquito.

He added in a bottle of Proseco during the day and as he seemed to be enjoying our company as we were his, he seemed to be in no rush to get back on time. In fact we came in half an hour after our scheduled time.

An idyllic day in an idyllic setting.

Friday saw Tim & Ann tackle the Walk of the Gods. It is an epic climb up a mountain side on a designated path with a few narrow cliff side sections with a sheer drop to negotiate. Once they made it to the top part from great views it was time to go down the other side which consisted of 1700 steps. Well done to both of them for making it in a 4 hour round trip.

Brian & Belinda took the more sedate 8 km walk into Positano. Unfortunately Positano was just a rabbit warren of tourist shops selling the same things with way too many people. The decision to get out of there pretty quickly was an easy one.

We met Tim & Ann back in Praiano for lunch at Dolce Vista where we decided we would come back that night.

The following day we decided on a trip into Sorrento.

Sorrento is a nice enough place for shopping and eating however it is not a place where you will find a plethora of Romoan relics et al.

This was our last full day on the Amalfi Coast. The following day we would travel to Rome with Tim having his turn at driving on the coast road.

ROME

Getting in to Rome was a relative breeze. Even Brian & Tim dropping off the car went much smoother than the last time we were trying to drop off a hire car in Rome.

Our first afternoon was spent wandering the streets of Rome stopping off for a late lunch and a late afternoon drink before venturing off for dinner.

For our first full day in Rome it was decided to explore Trastevere and Testaccio.

One of the highlights for Tim was to find Volpetti, which is a delicatessen which has been featured on Rick Stein and a number of other food and travel shows. This is additionally important as last time Tim & Ann were in Rome they walked forever but could not find it.

Fortunately this time we found it and it was open. Tim was starstruck as the same old man that served Rick Stein served Tim and gave us tastings of meat and cheese.

After that we went up to the Priory of St John of Malta which has an interesting view of St. Peter’s through a key hole which is a challenge through which to take photos.

 

After finding a small eatery in Trastevere for lunch we wandered the streets traversing through Piazza Navona and stopping off and having a look around Teatro Marcello, Colosseum, through a couple of the imperial forums and the Victor Emmanuel II monument. A pretty big walking day.

Next day was an early start as we had arranged a “jump the queue” tour of the Vatican Museums starting with breakfast in the Vatican courtyard at 7am.

Breakfast was very good and it was pretty special being in the Vatican at that hour well before the crowds would flock in.

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and the tour took us through many of the famous rooms & halls full of priceless artwork done by Michelangelo, Raphael, da Vinci, Rodin, van Gogh, Gauguin, Chagall & Picasso to name but a few.

The next day we caught a bus & a train out to Ostia Antica.

Ostia Antica was once the harbour city of ancient Rome at the mouth of the Tiber and was a bustling trading city.

The ruins are in some instances in remarkably good condition as there are houses, market places with shops and places of business, an amphitheater, synagogue and basilica to name a few of the structures.

We spent over half the day exploring the ruins but realistically only got to about 70% of what is on the site. A very worthwhile excursion.

After breakfast on our last day in Rome we said goodbye to Tim & Ann-Maree who had a lunch time flight whereas we had a 10:30pm flight out.

On our last day we decided to go to the Capitoline Museum which was a good choice as it started raining for the first time on our trip when we were out wanting to do things. Prior to the rain we had a look over the Roman Forum as it is the first time we have been to Rome & not gone into it. As it was raining we caught a taxi to St. John Lateran which is the mother church of Rome & where the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) has his seat.

It is a magnificent church with amazing sculptures and artwork as well as an amazing history connecting back to The Crusades.

By the time we left the rain had all but stopped so we decided walk back and stop off at a little pizza restaurant for lunch which confirmed for us that Rome make the best pizzas in Italy. We then wandered back across town which took us past the Colosseum and some of the forums on the way back to our hotel.

We got back to the little bar across the lane from our hotel at about 4:30pm where we sat & had our farewell drinks to Italy.

We had a fantastic trip and had a great time with Tim & Ann. We saw & did so much and were able to at the same time relax & enjoy ourselves.

A trip of a lifetime.