12th-18th Nov...To Pompeii and beyond........

Sorry for break in transmission of blog but what with the dental emergency and then moving on Saturday to our next destination it got missed.....more about that later....
This pic is of one of the many "forts" along the coast line of southern Italy all built to this style, this one being in very good repair and amazingly without graffiti !!

It was a beautiful sunny day with a strong cold wind. This and next 2 pics taken of the sea just behind the fort.

We moved on to our new accommodation "An Amalfi Coast (I stress coast) Gem, with Pompeii 15mins away !! Ha ha ! Even the speed the Italians drive that is an impossibility !! We were very disappointed to say the least, the apartment itself was very good, apart from only a very few cooking utensils, but it was stuck up in a mountain village along the usual, even narrower roads a good 45 mins from Pompeii. To make matters worse there was no parking nearby and the "icing" on the cake so to speak was no wifi or internet connection of any sort. This had been part of the rental agreement and is included in the cost ! Hence no blog for last few days of trip......

View from apartment.

This and next pic shows part of the path from where we managed to park the car up to apartment, steeper than it looks !!

Our apartment, the top windows of the "orange" building. It did have a a good view and a balcony. Taken from path down from the monastery just below the apartment.. We had a very good 2 hour walk on Sunday along and up and down to the next village.

Monday 15th November, Pompeii and a selection of the many photographs I took, it's very photogenic!
The larger amphitheatre, there is  also a smaller one near by and as we discovered later in the day another huge one !

The ruins of Pompeii and.........

It was a beautiful warm sunny day, has to be for my boy to wear shorts !!!

Some of the amazing frescos. Most of them are in a museum in Naples.

One man and his map !

One of the streets, showing the chariot tracks worn into the stone.

Another old ruin or should that be wreck !

One of the many streets.
Pompeii really is amazing, it's vast and there is still more that they haven't yet excavated.

This and next pic very moving as these are actual people mummified in the ash of the eruption.

These "lions" held up a table top that once belonged to Servilius Casca the first man to stab Caesar during his assassination.

The first "takeaway" /fast food outlet ???? One of the many stalls where food could be purchased with just a very small area for sitting down to eat. The food was prepared in the pottery containers pictured above.

This is the outside of the big amphitheatre, home to the gladiators and lions.

The inside of the amphitheatre, it was quite atmospheric really with the small grilled covered entrances you could imagine the lions being let into the arena.

Vineyard of Pompeii with amphitheatre in background, very pretty with the autumnal colours.
We had a really great day, we walked around for almost 5 hours. They are at present starting to excavate another area of Pompeii which will have "catwalks" etc for the public to watch the actual excavations. 
We had done a "deal" with the owner of a local restaurant to park for the day for 10 euro rather than the 3 euro an hour at the car park !!

And that folks is that....sadly we had torrential rain for the last three days of our Italian trip. It was, I do have to say, quite fascinating, we didn't think it could rain so hard for so long.

The creek running past the monastery was running very high and fast with long streams/waterfalls coming down the mountainside plus the run off from the gullies in the streets of the village all converging on the stream.

We had a last minute change of plans and stayed at an airport hotel for our last night in Italy. This turned out to be very sensible as the journey was much longer than we had thought it would be especially with the heavy rain. Total mileage 2638 miles and amazingly not a scratch on the car which is quite an achievement with the way the Italians drive ! They are actually quite tolerant of last minute decisions as was evident when I had to cut across 3 lanes to take the airport turn from the autostrada !

We had a great time on our trip, it was not as special as our Big Road Trip but then not much can possibly live up to that one.

So long for now and watch this space for our next adventure !!

Thursday 11th.... Michael and Sue visit the dentist

Today has been all about life's rich tapestry.....

We made our way in the rain following Mamma's car over to the dentist. It seems the general rule here is that everyone goes into the  treatment room with the patient, ummm I left himself and Mamma to it and retreated to the waiting area !
Between the limited English of Mamma and the nurse and Michael's Italian, phones calls to English speaking son in Milan and Yahoo translator my boy got his treatment. His tooth was drained and we return again tomorrow for more !!
However that is not the end of our tale as we were given a piece of paper that turned out to be a perscription. Off around to the pharmacy to fill said perscription which was antibiotics BUT injections !!
Ok so here we are me who hates all things medical having to inject my boy and no spare syringe to practice on the very tasty tangerines we pick from the garden. Salvatore (the son) says a nurse lives opposite but we feel we have imposed on them enough......
Well I have amazed myself, on the way back from the pharmacy my mantra was I can't do this....
One down 3 to go !

I know I have made a joke of this all but the dentist and his lovely assistant were great (yes Alan himself is not upset at having to go back !! and we have pockets full of cash at the ready !!) and Salvatore and his Mamma have been fabulous.

I now need some chocolate !!

Wed 10th Nov.....A funny old day !!

I wasn't going to post a blog entry for yesterday as we just pottered about and revisited the port we went to on Sunday, however...........

My boy woke up with toothache, it had been a little niggle the day before, which developed into a 4 x 4 ibuprofen day !
There we were driving along the "highway" and there is a roadside random police (carabinieri not the tourist ones) check point and of course we were flagged down. We were not about to say no as one of the guys had a machine gun !! After checking my driving license, I'm surprised with the convict photo they allowed us to continue our journey !
We tried and failed to get money from a couple of ATMs, luckily we still have the card!

I was in email contact during the evening with the son of the owner of our apartment who lives in Milan and speaks very good English to find out about local dentists. It was either that or get flight home ! Bless them Mamma has organised an appointment today with their dentist for 4.30 in the next town.

A funny old day !!!!!

Tuesday 9th Nov......down to the most southerly point of the "heel"

We had very heavy rain and thunder again yesterday evening, just like being in Florida in August !! A quick trip out to the fishmongers, baker and veg shop and then off down to the very tip of the "heel" of Italy.

It's warm but windy at Cape Sant' Maria di Leuca. Not as windy as when we vsited Cape St Vincent in Portugal (it was difficult to stand up then) but very exhilarating just the same.

I am making no excuses for the amount of pics of the sea/waves, the ones in today's blog are just a small sample of the the ones I took !!  

It was fantastic to stand and watch. 

The sea/waves were so clear and turquoise with pure white froth.

The bay at Cape Sant' Maria di Leuca.

Sant' Maria di Leuca was more "up market" than most along the coast, this pic and the ones following (except of course the church) are not as we at first thought hotels but private mansions.

We had a great walk along the prom and climbed down on to some of the rocks for better photograhic shots. My boy having kittens when I got too close to the edge !!  Then our Derby and Joan packed lunch while watching the sea before heading back up the west coast.

A beach farther up the coast.
After Sant' Maria di Leuca sadly the coastal villages/towns are very tatty to put it mildly. They are made up of holiday camps/villages that appear to have been built in the 1960's and not updated since !! We understand it's off season and these places never look quite the same but they do look extremely desperate........ we have noticed that the south of Italy seems to be in very poor condition and we have to say bordering on 3rd world.

We had to wash the salt from the car when we got back !! A good day, we'll sleep well after all of the fresh sea air !!