…it sure is good to be back in the land of roast dinners and cups of tea.  Nevertheless, my passionate love affair with Italy continues, and I’m even more convinced that I could happily live there at some point in the future (as long as I didn’t have to drive anywhere or queue for any form of public transport).

As I’m sure no one likes to hear about holidays they weren’t able to go on themselves, I’ll make this summary short and sweet with the help of dot-points:

• Rome was gorgeous as always.  This time we visited the Pantheon, which we hadn’t seen last time we were there, and we also found a fantastic hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served such diverse dishes as truffle linguine, roast thrush (which Rob tried) and wild boar.
• Sorrento was surprisingly pretty considering everyone who’d been there before us told us that it was boring.  A new Italian TV series, ‘Capri’, was filming while we were there so the crazy Italian traffic was even crazier with all the hold-ups for scenes.
• Pompeii was an experience, particularly as it wasn’t too busy and I didn’t realize you could basically wander the streets discovering gardens and frescoes at your leisure.  We also climbed Vesuvius right to the peak, which was smouldering sulfur clouds at the time.
• Capri was incredibly beautiful, had fantastic beaches, and really great shops.  The taxi and bus rides were hair-raising experiences and we got stuck on the walk from hell (Capri is quite mountainous and most of the paths on the island lead up and down huge flights of stairs without any means of escape except to keep on walking).
• Positano was just as pretty as I thought it would be, but not as tourist-driven as I had expected.  Our hotel had free wifi so Rob was happy, and I think I found the house that they filmed part of Under the Tuscan Sun in.
• Amalfi was better than Positano - if you’re ever trying to choose between the two, opt for Amalfi.  It was large, had great restaurants and shops, and was perfectly located to go on day trips to loads of places.  The owner of our bed and breakfast offered to upgrade us for free to the apartment accommodation he runs which happened to be situated right underneath Amalfi’s famous church, so that was also a plus.
• Ravello, the mountain-top town above Amalfi, was by far the best place we visited.  I want to live there.  Period.

And here’s what I learned over the last two weeks:

• If you ever find yourself wondering if you want to catch a ferry out of Sorrento to get to anywhere else (like Capri, for instance), RESIST TEMPTATION.  It was a hellish experience, none of the marina staff knew what they were doing, and we were forced to trudge backwards and forwards for over an hour in the rain with our luggage before we got on to the right ferry (which was very late).
• If you visit Capri and want to walk to the Natural Arch and the grotto nearby, make sure you walk the path the right way round - if you don’t, you’ll find yourself having to climb several thousand steps on an incredibly steep incline.  Fortunately we walked the right way round without realizing it, and even then it was torture on the feet.
• If you’re travelling to the Amalfi Coast and want to visit the towns along the coastline, avoid the bus system and take a ferry instead.  The buses can take hours, are always full of frustrated tourists, and teeter around hair-pin corners on single lane roads high up the cliff faces for which the Amalfi region is famous.  The ferries, meanwhile, are usually on time and move in a straight, flat line (rather than up and down, round and round).
• I have a very low tolerance towards loud, obnoxious tourists which (I’m sorry to say, for my American friends) are usually American.  I’m sure they feel the same way about us Aussies.
• When I grow up, I want to be an Italian police woman - they get to wear uniforms designed by Hugo Boss (or is it Armani?) and basically don’t seem to care about anything.  They are the epitome of cool.

I could go on, but I’ve managed to catch myself a tasty throat and ear infection and early-morning RyanAir flights really don’t agree with my sleeping patterns.  Until tomorrow, ciao, grazie!

Tomorrow morning at an ungodly hour Rob and I are off to Italy for two weeks.  We’re flying into Rome (via Ryan Air so who knows how that will go… last time we flew to Rome on Ryan Air we had to beat old ladies with fur hats and kids with bags of duty free alcohol out of the way to get to a decent seat), spending the night there where we’ll meet my parents, and then heading on down to the Amalfi Coast.  I have to say, of all the places I’ve ever wanted to go, Positano has always been top of the list.  Last time we were in Italy we only managed to fit in Venice and Rome, so Rob promised we would go back to see Positano.  You can see why:

Photo courtesy of Trip Advisor

How could you fail to be moved by such an incredible sight?  Anyway, we’re heading down to Sorrento on Wednesday for a couple of days so we can visit Herculaneum, Pompeii and climb Mount Vesuvius; then a few days later we’re going to the Isle of Capri (hopefully if there are boats going out this time of the year we’ll be able to visit the Blue Grotto), followed by Positano for a few days, Amalfi for a few days, and then back to Rome for a night.  If our last trip to Italy (February and March of 2007) is anything to go by, I know I’ll have an incredible time.

I hope the next two weeks treats you all well, and I’ll be back with loads of photos and Italian anecdotes for you all in a fortnight.  Perhaps I could ask a few locals to do my terminology survey (see below post)…

Rob and Ben - future Brisbane City Council bus drivers

After a hurried appointment with the accountant this morning (copy-writing makes me a sole trader, who would have thought?) and brunch at West End, Rob, Ben and I went into the Museum of Brisbane (MoB) to pick up some ‘I <3 BNE‘ t-shirts. Modelled on the traditional ‘I <3 NYC’ tees, the Brisbane versions feature a green heart instead of the standard red, and are part of the Brisbane City Council’s push to make Brisbane a carbon neutral haven. At the moment the council has stands set up in all the local shopping centres to give advice and help to locals about making their homes and workplaces more environmentally friendly. All of the staff manning the booths and stands wear the ‘I Love BNE’ shirts, and the MoB is the only place you can buy them for personal use. As two travel-worn pop-culture fanatics, Rob and I had to get some.

While we were in the museum we noticed that part of the present exhibition is the scaled-down front of a Brisbane City Council bus, complete with a box full of bus-driver uniforms. Rob and Ben jumped behind the wheel and acted like all B.C.C. bus drivers do… like total lunatics.