We made it back to Bangkok from Phuket, and are ready to board our flight back home to Australia!It’s hard to believe that after 4 months it’s finlay home time… It had to happen, and we are both ready for it. I think our flight is about 8 or 9 hours to Sydney, where we get a domestic back to Melbourne - and onto the final stage of our trip, Bairnsdale. ...
After a long flight (11 hours) from London, we touched down in Bangkok, collected our bags, and exited the airport to our awaiting hotel transfer. On exiting the airport, you immediately notice the humidity (it’s not as if its hiding!) - this place is hot and humid, luckily the south of Italy at this time of the year is also pretty humid and hot at times, so we have been fairly well acclimatised over the past weeks. ...
Let me start by saying - This place is ace! We landed into Gatwick from Naples, almost a 3 hour flight, and had to make our way to Heathrow Terminal 4 - which nothing seems to go to directly! We converted our left over Euro’s into Pounds which was almost exactly enough to buy our bus ticket from Gatwick to Heathrow - luckily its a free ride for BA travellers from Terminal 5 to Terminal 4 on the bus. ...
We arrived into Benevento by train from Naples, and were greeted warmly by Laura’s relations Sandra and Lorenzo Ciaglia. We then drove for about 30min up into the hills to our destination, the small town of San Lupo. We arrived right at the beginning of the three day festa, where the town honors its patron saint - San Lupo. During the festa the town comes alive, and is dressed up with lights all up and down the main street and through the main piazza in front of the church. ...
After our adventures in Rome, our next stop was Napoli. We headed to the Termini train station to reserve our seats - two seat reservations in 1st class came to 10 Euro. In recent times, having traveled a fair amount on the trains in Italy, we had noticed that the train conductors were not overly concerned with our Eurail pass - it was always the reservation (which looks almost exactly like a regular ticket), that they were interested in. ...
We made it to Rome after a pleasant few days in the Cinque Terre. Almost immediately we noticed that it was a little warmer here in Rome, away from the cooler comfort of the coast that Cinque Terre offered. We are staying in a simple B&B - its not quite what you would classify as a B&B in Australia, but I guess it meets the necessities, we get a bed, and we get breakfast. To be honest, its actually quite nice. The room is huge, and while there are no cooking facilities we do have access to a fridge. ...
We arrived in Riomaggiore, the southern most town in the group of 5 towns that make up the ‘Cinque Terre’, and were immediately amazed by the bella vista that was in front of us. We walked through the center of town to find the accommodation office. After a short discussion with the office lady we were off - winding our way through tiny streets and up stairs, to reach our apartment some 300m away and 120 steps up the hill side. ...
On our way from Certaldo to Cinque Terre we made a very brisk stop over in Pisa for the obligatory photos… To be honest, we’re not sure what else, besides the leaning tower, that this town has to offer. Many others we have met suggested it wasn’t worth saying here, and that you could see all you needed to in an hour or two - we took their advice, and were in an out of Pisa in about an hour and a half, having satisfied our curiosity. ...
The transport strike has finished, and so has our forced day of relaxation in Bologna (yes… we did absolutely nothing, and loved it!) - we grabbed the early train out of town and headed for Certaldo in Tuscany. Certaldo is a cute little town south west of Florence (Firenze), and north of Siena. We are staying in a beautiful agriturismo B&B, come self contained shared apartment - it has everything, free mountain bikes, kitchen & fridge, internet, etc, and is immaculate. ...
Despite all efforts to plan and schedule the Italian leg of our trip, there is nothing we can do about a public transport strike. The strike incorporates buses, trains, and planes - so we aren’t going anywhere! We were meant to leave Bologna today for San Gimiamo, but this will have to wait until tomorrow. So today is a forced day of relaxation in the Bolognese country side - we can’t even get into town as we rely on the local bus service. ...