Tourist Sites

Greetings from Lucca!

We left Amalfi on Wednesday morning and struck out on our own after throwing Rod and Loi out of the car at the confusing Naples airport.

We drove for quite a while until reaching the lovely hilltop town of Assisi. We spent half an dhour driving about looking for our hotel only to find it was near the city gate just under the magnificent basillica of San Francesco (THE Saint Francis of Assisi) The town was cold and windy as we walked up to the church. The streets were filled with interesting little shops and businesses many selling local products like cross stitch and lace. It was very cold with the wind whistling about thre streets but we made ourselves warm in a little bar by the church. We had a fantastic pasta meal in the main square before heading back to our hotel to warm up.

The next day we drove into Tuscany to Montepulciano. This was a medieval hilltop village with more narrow streets of beautiful buildings this time made of stone. We explored the streets up to the top of the hill. There were magnificent classic Tuscan views from all of the doorways and through the arches as the weather grew finer and sunnier. We ate bread wine and cheese for lunch before heading off to Sienna.

We drove right into Sienna nearly lobbing into the main square before finding a one way way road down a cliff to a dodgy park. This place was full of people, although it was late afternoon and the day before Easter. We followed a walking trail around the oldest part of the city which lead to a handbag shop for Vicky and a trouser shop for Graeme.

We left Sienna for Monteriggiore and our accommodation at Castelbigozzi. This was a 12th century castle/manor/farm on the top of a hill in classic Tuscan style. Our room had great wooden beams and our shuttered windows had views across the Tuscan hills. This is the view from our window.

Today we drove to San Gimignano which was yet again another hilltop medieval village. The feature of this place was its towers built about 900 years ago. More walking and lots of browsing and another trail from the Eyewitness book and that is about it for the whole medieval hilltop tuscan village experience.

We are in Lucca which is another medieval town but this time not io a hill. We drove into the town through an amazing system of walls a bit like a classic castle. Inside it is very cosmopolitan with lots of shops and businesses. Everyone whizzes about on bikes. We hired two bikes and rode around the top of the wall.

Good Friday is a bit different here with the streets absolutely chockers with families promenading - as busy as Friday night before Christmas in Rundle Mall.

Tomorrow it is onto Florence for four days. Vicky has found a few gaps in her wardrobe re the whole leather bag and jacket thing. It could get very messy!

By the way - click on the photos for a bigger view AND keep the comments coming!!

We are in the beautiful coastal town of Amalfi, south of Rome.

We returned from Tunisia on Saturday evening after a long days travelling. We had a maniac driver break his personal best from the airport into Rome where we met up with Rod and Loi - brother and sister in law - at the same hotel we had stayed at previously.

The next morning we stuffed about for nearly two hours getting our hire car and then got lost leaving Rome! A generous Roman recognised our plight and we followed him for about ten minutes to the road which led to the Autostrada, which led to where we are now - beautiful Amalfi. Rod drove heroically in Rome and Graeme did the Amalfi coast road! Remember this is a manual left hand drive car!

Our hotel - the Antica Repubblica - is just off the main street up a little laneway. We have a room at the top of a few more stairs. The hotel is a delightful six room boutique number run by the lovely Francesca during the day and Renato at night. Salvatore took our car and vanished with it to a parking spot up in the Amalfi Hills!

We have walked all over the place along the pathways and lanes right up into the hills above. We have dined at beautiful little restaurants where the pasta and sauces were made fresh that day. We have driven to the slightly disappointing Positano which apparently livens up with the hotter weather and clearer skies. We have hired a lovely old wooden power boat and sailed long the coast looking at all the sights and we have driven up to Ravello to see the most astounding view down the coat towards Salerno.

There has been some shopping here too with Amalfi being the centre of the limoncello industry and every second shop a ceramic factory. We have made a number of friends especially the staff at a little outside bar where we drink the house wine before dinner each night and the old gent in suit and hat who showed us the way to the hotel and who we keep bumpig into in the street. It could be because of our winning personalities but it is most likely because Rod and Graeme are about 30 centimetres taller than anyone else in town, or because Vicky is a blonde with a wallet!

Tomorrow it is off to Tuscany after dropping Rod and Loi at Naples. Hopefully there will be some more photos soon - this computer was invented in 1972 before the USB was thought of. Arrividerci.

Well the whole Tunisia thing ended up on Saturday. The final highlight was a visit to the small town of El Jem which has an absolutely magnificent Colosseum. This is in much better condition than the one in Rome with almost all original stone and many many rooms underneath showing where the slaves and gladiators and animals were held before the show.

Our last night was in Hammamet where we had our best hotel. We visited yet another souk - market - and then had a nice meal in the hotel.

The next morning we travelled to Tunis. We spent the morning in the souk - once again - before making our way to the airport and back to Italy.

We are really enjoying the comments people have left here and at our email addresses.

It is very nearly impossible to write using this keyboard. Some of the keys have four options incuding arabic script and the letters are also in the wrong places.

Yesterday we were in Kebili, an oasis on the edge of the sandy bit of the Sahara. We drove to Douz where we were dressed in arabic clothing and introduced to our friendly camels. Vickys was placid and Graemes was too except for an alarming mouth issue. It kept bubbling and foaming like an espresso machine. The desert was magnificent with the sand the finest and softest we have ever experienced.
We later drove to the island of Djerba - spookily pronounced Al Jazira by the locals - where we travelled on a ferry with goats and cows. We went to a pottery and made some purchases.

Today we visited a synogogue, on the site of the oldest synogogue in the world. We then visited a carpet maker and a shy arab girl showed us how to make a few knots. It takes three months for these people to make a three metre carpet and they do the pattern from memory. We made a purchase here as well! The propieter called Graeme the Doctor and Vicky Brigette all through the negotiations for some reason. He also offered Graeme 1000 camels for Vicky.
We also visited the souk - market - and generally looked about, trying to avoid the all too many spruikers outside each stall.

Tonight we are in Gabes and we travel north to El Jem and then on to Hammamet and then finishing in Tunis on Saturday.

Greetings from Tunisia!

This is day three of our Tunisian experience and it is the first real chance we have had to add to the website.

We are Kebili which is in the south of the country next to an oasis.

We arrived late into Tunis having missed our plane out of Rome for a variety of reasons. We got to bed after midnight and then had to get up at six, which was really five because of the change to daylight saving.

Sunday was all about Tunis and we visited all the sights this place has to offer - the beautiful town of Sidi Bou Said the ruins of ancient Carthage, the magnificent Bardo Museum which features the worlds largest collection of Roman mosaics and then into the Medina, the ancient town centre. We also managed to see a tradtional muslim wedding and a troup of soldiers bringing down the flag in the town centre at the stroke of five.

Monday was mainly the Muslim experience with visits to a number of mosques and holy places as we travelled south to Tozeur. The highlight was visiting a mosque from the tenth century in a town called Kaiorian. This place is the fourth most holy shrine in all Islam.

Today was the Desert experience with a four wheel drive journey into the Sahara. We really only ventured onto the edge but saw plenty of sand dunes and had a lunatic drive across sand roads. We visited a number of oases some of which looked like they were from Hollywood, and others that did not. We saw the place where Star Wars was filmed, visited a berber family at their tent and met their baby goats and camels. We also travelled across a vast salt pan.

The group is only eight - four from Italy and two from Austria. Our tour guide is a real wag and can tell amusing Tunisian anecdotes in five languages. The bus is OK and the hotels are mostly straight out of the sixties except for tonight. Food is interesting and plentiful and alcohol very cheap.

Internet is on modem and keyboards are European !!!!!!!