Travel with us: Italia

Hey there

It's been a little over a month since I last posted anything. Since Paris, I have had my birthday, been to the Olympics, had good friends Alana, James and Helen to stay, and then - the icing on my birthday month cake - went to Italy for 9 days with Emma, Nick and Hamish.

After such a busy year so far, Italy was just what I needed. We spent a few days on the Amalfi Coast visiting Sorrento, Praiano, Amalfi, Positano and Ravello (we packed a lot into 3 days) before heading off to the Isle of Capri for 5 days of sun and swimming.

The Amalfi Coast was picture postcard perfect. We had beautiful weather, amazing sunsets, delicious food and lots of Aperol Spritz (Aperol, prosecco and soda - a new favourite). We also did an inspiring walk up from Praiano along the Path of the Gods (I think so called because it's hard to tell up there where the sea meets the sky) to Positano. The walk was hot and quite steep on the way up but the views along the way were spectacular. We passed a monastery, fig trees where we ate fresh figs on the path, grape vines and no real signs of life. Back down in civilisation, we took the boat to Capri.

Capri, we were warned, was supposed to be chaotic with tourists, unlikeable in the high season, and expensive. It was quite the opposite and charmed us in every way. We swam every day, toured San Michele, the home of Axel Munthe, ate our year's quota of pasta and gelato, watched the rich and famous on their super yachts, took the gondola to the top of Monte Solaro, hired a boat and toured the island, swam in the blue grotto (a dream) and walked up to one of Tiberius' old Roman palaces. From there, we saw the spot where he alleged used to throw people (mostly women) off the top of the cliff when he got bored with them. It's a long way down, but in case any survived he apparently had people stationed below on the rocks to harpoon any survivors. I can't work out whether he was trying to be humane, or cautious to ensure they were well and truly dead. Apart from that gory detail, the ruins were interesting and the setting quite superb on the top of the eastern most point of the island.

Feeling rejuvenated and rested, we headed to Ischia, a larger island north of Capri to wander around for a day. We saw the most incredible thunder storm (which i will attempt to post below) and saw the remains of an old Aragon Castle. It's been privately owned, and slowly restored since 1910 and the family has done a wonderful job of returning it to its former glory after it was pillaged of its treasures and ransacked during a period of government ownership in the late 19th century.

Our final night in Italy was in Napoli, home of the Gomorra mobsters and to Snickers bar flavoured gelato. They had me at Neapolitan ice cream, but really sealed it with this - amazing. Napoli was filthy and crumbling but had its charms too - the people were friendly and helpful and the chaos was kind of refreshing after the beauty of Amalfi and Capri. The mob obviously wields significant control in Napoli, recently moving into the "legitimate" businesses of waste disposal and concrete production as well as controlling a significant portion of the port, where most of Europe's exports from China arrive. Plus, they're into the usual array of drugs and arms dealing. Naturally.

Now that we're home, the leaves are starting to turn yellow and the air is crisper in the mornings. It might just be time for my first northern hemisphere winter. I'm quite excited about: wooly scarves, gloves, and hats, knee high boots, pumpkin soup, hot chocolate mugs, cuddles by the fire, Geneva for a mid-winter break, long starry nights and Christmas

Until next time

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