A trip down memory lane

Firstly, an apolagy for our last blogs rapid ending, at 1.50 per half hour or part of and having used 29 minutes so far we decided not to go into the next half hour. We ended our session at 29.33 in the end. Anyway, internet is cheaper here (only 0.50 per hour - always find China town when your on Holiday) we have more time. As we do today generally, a relaxing last day of Holiday has consisted of packing, getting lunch, sitting for two hours in a Cafe (the one we spent a day in last year when in Napoli) and finding the internet point from our last visit - just below the Hotel we stayed in last time as well, we've already decided to finish our days memories with a trip to Da Michele's, our favorite pizzeria, again from our last visit. All in all a good way to finish the holiday.
We've already decided that we will need to come back to this area at some point, my plan is to do an Island tour - fly to Naples, spend one night here (purely as an excuse to visit Da Michele), Ferry to Ischia for a few days, on to Capri by Ferry (which we missed on this trip) and the Grotto D'azzura, a final Ferry back to the mainland and Amalfi (which we visited yesterday - it turned out to be about a 5 hour round trip from Naples!), bus to Sorrento - another lovely little seaside town, and finally the train back into Naples for a night or two and many more Pizza's before flying home again. I think that would be a brilliant trip by anyone's standards - if uni doesn't work out I'll get a job planning package holidays, cruises etc.
So if he doesnt get to become a politician he'll become a travel agent - Scott Berry's, a much better ring to it than Thomas Cooks don't you think - he could actually run it as a sideline to berrys coaches. Plan the trips and then send people on them through the coaches which of course would be doing all of his planned itineraries! Great idea. Berrys and Son. Back to the real world, and as I said we visited Amalfi yesterday. I dont know if you could get a coach there though the roads are quite bumpy... ok ok enough teasin.. now for some pleasin! Actually one of the most impressive things about the trip to Amalfi was the coach drivers ability to fit two coaches past each other on a road that anyone else would fail to drive a coach along without plummeting the hundereds of meters over the cliff and down to the sea. It was actually a really nice day... Gorgeous weather, we had a gelati, i discovered the wonder that is the calzone, a pizza folded in half and deep fried, sat on the beach, worked on our haggling skills, i say we i mean me coz im amazing. Dani's very impressed at her ability to haggle a hand made Jug (complete with factory seal) from 19 to 15 euro's, as am I to be fair. I want to point out that this was in a shop, not just in a market where that wouldnt be a feat at all. And also to her credit no other shops nearby would haggle at all, and I'd assumed this one wouldn't either.
Last time we didnt mention that we'd been to Herculaneum and to the archeological museum. Herculaneum was quite interesting, by which Dani means we got to point 30 of our 49 point audio guide before deciding we were bored and anyway, that's plenty of culture for today, especially as we could recite the script for a "thermapolium" (Snack Bar) and everytime they described the decorations, we knew what they were going to say! "To find out more abour the IV style, press 108 on your audio guide". Because there had been an earthquake only 16 years before the volcano erupted everyone had to redecorate, and the fashionable style at the time was the IV style, although we were reassured that other styles had existed before the earthquake! I was also very disapointed to discover after several hours of walking around and many hours since breakfast that the "snack bar" which they had been signposting me to the whole way through consisted of a vending machine. How misleading. We went to the archeological museum - that was basically where they took all the nice pretty stuff out of pompeii and herculaneum. Although we didn't find any people (if someone could send Emma the link for this it would be appreciated!) only a few plaster casts of their Skeletons. Which had long black strings hanging down in front of them - apparently meant to look like falling ash - it didnt. Scott got stuck in it which was most amusing for me and all the passers by! On a separate note a woman also said to me when i bent down to get a bottle of water the other day "you mustn't - you are veeeerrry fat!" That made me feel good about all the pizzas id been eating :D (we should probably point out firstly that this was in a supermarket, not the Archeological Museum any more, and secondly that the woman was Chinese - because they have cheap supermarkets as well as internet - and spoke only broken English).
Finally I want to say, for reasons that will become clear, that every morning we've had MTV on the TV as we've been getting ready to go out. Initially for the music but lately more and more to see an advert they run occassionally for the Italian, much cuter and less irritating, version of the crazy frog. Which is a cat singing a song, in Italian, and the only bit we understand is what I assume is the cats name - Piero. Along with the number to text if you want to be charged a ridiculous amount for this ring tone, along with another ridiculous amout for other ring tones that you are forced to buy, and then the same amount each week, even though you told them to stop, for a month or so until you realise that they are ripping you off and call them to tell them "no really I want you to stop wasting my credit/money/phone bill".

Anyway, thats it from us folks, Lots of love Scott, Dani and Bump. xxxx

Song of the Moment: Piero, Piero, Piero - by Piero the Cat
(text Piero to 83592 - or the number they actually use - to get ripped off, even if it is quite cute)

Italians being tossers

So, we went for lunch today at a nice little cafe. We asked how much for a slice of pizza - €1.50 we were told. We asked for two, got asked what we wanted to drink, and asked for a lemon soda (foolishly forgetting to ask the price). We ate our pizza, even ordered a third slice, then looked for some dessert. We were told it would be €2.50, after we had just seen an Italian paying €15/kg, about €0.75 each. We said no, asked why there was such a price difference, but were given no answer. A little irritated, I asked for the bill with my best angry Italian voice and language skills. We were given a bill for €9.00, with the €1 change, and told jokingly, thank you for the tip. My maths tells me this was charging us €4.50 for one can of lemon soda - normally around €1.50-€2, although without an itemised bill, which is something only granted to Italians, it was hard to check. When eventually I got an answer it was that it was €3 for the lemon soda, and that 3 slices of pizza adds up to €6. I asked the price of pizza and was told €2 - which I questioned, to be told that €1.50 was the take away price (then why tell us that price when we were clearly sitting at a table). After much arguing with the manager, cashier, and other random Italian, we were told €7 - a still ridicolous price (€2.50 for one can of drink) but at this point I'd got out €7.50 in change, accepting that we should have checked the price of a drink, and just glad we had shared one rather than having one each. The moral of the story is two fold - one, check the price of a drink before you buy it, two, don't let Italian waiters push you around and play take advantage of the tourist. I think next time something like this happens I'll just leave without paying at all (a kind of Karmic justice to make up for the tourists they manage to rip off - perhaps donate the correct cost of the meal to a charity to buy spray paint and paint his prices on the front window of his cafe!).
I think if you compare this post to one scott posted last year in the czech republic it will be very similar!! I would like to point out that we are having a very nice time and angry rants like this are a rarity!! We've been to Ischia for 2 days, went to 2 different thermal spas which were amazing. And if anyone tells me that theyre radioactive again Im going to be worried because after we'd been i read ischia has radioactive springs!! After me spending two days telling Dani to be careful, and her taking some or not all of my advice, she's been worrying about the bits of my advice she ignored, causing her to ask regularly, "Scott, is the baby OK", "Scott, do you think the baby has 3 legs". i did take his advice! Got to go no more money! Lots of love xxx

Song of the moment: take on me - reel big fish

Roma

So we have found both the best Gelateria (according to the new york times, and us), and the best restaurant (just according to us but we are right) in Rome. I have had no peace about this restaurant. Its all I hear about. Thats because it was fantastic, we decided to wander round looking for an authentic Italian Restaurant, and we found it (after leaving the first place that after we sat down gave us English Menu's with no vegetarian options). This second place had no vegetarian options for main, but for prima piatti, you chose from half a dozen options, or could simply choose from a list of different pasta's, and a list of sauces. Some of the sauces had a note next to them saying there where seasonal, and the first one I wanted to have I was out of season because it had Porcini Mushrooms (that impressed me). Then I chose a different sauce, with Gnocci (which Dani wants to tell my Mum that the waiter corrected my pronounciation of and Dani was right!), which I was told was only wednesdays (disappointing), so I changed to Ravioli, to be told by the waiter, in no uncertain terms, that I couldn't have that because it wouldn't go with the sauce I'd chosen (this impressed me, and thinking about it, rather than rushing to change my choice from Gnocci, he was right). This so far had impressed, but nothing had prepared us for what came next - the food! The most fantastic, if small (it was only meant to be a Primi Piatti), plate of pasta I have ever had. And then the most fantastic 3 cakes I'd ever had (Dani had a half portion of two, I had a whole portion on one). In short, sheer brilliance, oh, and there was graffiti all over the walls, dating back to last century, that were testament to this fact. I had a ricotta cheese and chocolate chip cheesy cakey type thing, it was fantastic! And even Scott said the tiramisu was the best he'd ever had.
I think Scotts pretty much covered the La Carbona (the restaurant) aspect of things now, so I'll talk about the ice cream. We found this amazing place called San Crispino about 2 minutes walk from the trevi fountain. They do honey ice cream - HONEY!! Which im told now is their speciality. It was undoubtedly the best ice cream ever. Rome is fantastic. And we have both put on about 20 pounds, Scott cant blame it on the baby! :D
Dani's lying, we havn't put on weight, but we have eaten fantastically, and that is despite the fact that we are yet to revisit Da Michele's. But anyway, we have done some sight seeing other than just eating. We queued for an hour and a half to find out that the Vatican Museum is closed and the Pope enjoys wasting thousands of tourists time/couldn't organise a queue to save his life. Did i also mention that scott forgot his razor and was turning into a nicely hairy tramp, I made him buy a new one and shave which i am relieved to say he has now done. :)
We went wine tasting in perugia (I cant remember if we've talked about this) which was awesome, and then found some of the wines we tasted at the restaurant last night! This morning we got up at 5am and went to the trevi at for dawn, its just like at dusk, but minus all the tourists, and you see the lights switch off instead of on. We were the only ones there for the majority of the time and have videos to prove it!! I know you'll never believe we got up at 5!
Yesterday we went to the colosseum and the forum, because its romes birthday week its free entry to all the museums, so the guided tours are really cheap too. We had a really good one and Scott's decided he'd quite like to become a gladiator. We've had lovely weather, been to the borghese gardens and lay around a lot. Hired one of those cart things that you pedal with 4 wheels, Scott says its a rickshaw but someone pulls you on that so i dont think it is. Which i kept forgetting to pedal and scott took us round a roundabout (ON A ROAD WITH CARS AND BIG GINOURMOUS COACHES!!) I wanted to say another word here but scott wont let me. We need to get going now, off to catch a train to Naples.
Lots of love to you all, Scott, Dani and Bump.

Song of the Moment: Happy Birthday to You (for my Mum nothing to do with our travels!)

Wine tastes better when its free!

So being pregnant finally has some perks! Scott wants me to start from the begining, so this evening we decided we'd go for a nice meal. Scott fancied this place reccommended in our guide book, Ristorante Nanà. Its run by 47 members of the same family and its a 10 table restaurant. We walked about 20 minutes out of town to this place, which from the outside didn't look like much, then inside looked like one of the most upmarket places I've ever been! People say you can spot an authentic restaurant when the menu's are only in the local language, but its a step better when the waiter is aswell! The guy who served us was lovely, but spoke no english, and the menu was deciphered with a lot of guesswork on our part! As he led us to our seats he offered us drinks, then brought over a 2004 pinot grigio and poured us glasses. As he started to open the bottle he asked is this OK - I muttered yes, then looked to Dani (our linguistic master for the trip) and said to ask how much it was. To which he replied "no problem... its only 2000 euros a glass" laughed said no problem. He then asked about the baby and said congratulations or something along those lines. Bearing in mind this was in italian so im making an educated guess. We ordered our food and spent the rest of the meal joking about the cost of this wine, (and worrying about which one of us would go to prison if we didn't have enough money to pay) - unsure whether no problem meant it was on the house (which admittedly seemed unlikely) or was a way to avoid telling us the cost of two extortoinate glasses of wine. Given that this was in Dani's words - "the best wine I've ever tasted" im no wine connessiour mind you but it was better than anything ive ever had, and this comes after a particularly nice Pinot Grigio drank from a plastic bottle in a train station on our last trip - we feel these concerns were justified.

After our main course it was well gone time to leave and catch the bus. So we asked for the bill and held our breath. It came, and not only had the wine been free, but the bill came to a total of only €50, not bad given that our two courses each came to €40 and we were expecting a service charge each. We paid with pleasure and happily ran off to our bus!

Other than this since our last blog we have been in and around perugia eating far too much ice cream, seen an old well, taken a half hour walk out to the old town wall to find the museum closed half an hour before our guide book said, went to a church with one room and one fresco - apparently by Raphael, and to the Cathedral, which had a few more Frescos but still only one room and generally lazed around the hostel a lot. A good start to the Holiday, me and Dani both agree.

So even though the weather sucks, we've still been having a great time!

Hope all is well back home, weather is better there than here according to the BBC!

Scott, Dani and Boom Boom

Song of the Moment: UB40 - [White White] Wine

Perugian's are just mean!

So we landed in Glorious sunshine, i'd just like to point out that it was not glorious sunshine, it was quite nice but scott just insisted it was "glorious", took of his jumper and put on his cowboy hat. So mine and Dani's accounts of the walk from the plane to the airport differ slightly (the airport was tiny though, like 3 times the size of Mfuee international for anyone that means anything too). But we do both agree that since leaving the airport its been pretty much cloudy and rainy. We got a bus into town, then another bus to the train station, then a third bus to our hostel, except that the bus driver wouldn't tell us where our stop was (ok, so i don't speak fluet Italian, but repeating the name of the stop he knows we want to go to in a questioning voice just after he's stopped  somewhere is pretty obviously meant to mean "is the Caso Neuvo"?). In the end we took a lucky guess and got off - we were wrong. After discovering this (and realising busses only run every hour) we decided to ask a few people for help. Dani had the first attempt, crossing the street to talk to an old Lady waiting for the bus on other side of the road, she came back to report that it didn't go well. I tried the same woman, and all she would say too me was something very fast in Italian that included the words "Italian" and "Tourist" - my only guess was that she meant "I'm Italian, your a tourist" as if it was the same as saying "I'm a Montegue, your a Capulet". I wondered down the road and found a similar old woman, who repeatedly said the word "Pergia" and pointed at the floor, then wagged her finger at me for a bit, then wondered off.

Eventually we called the Hostel, who very kindly came and found us, we'd got off the bus quite a bit to early, it was about a 10 or 15 minute drive to the bus stop we should have got off at.

We've spent the rest of the day in the hostel, wondered down to find a bar and get some food, who were very friendly, they even leant us an umbrella for the walk home in the rain.

For this evening we ordered Pizza, at about 7.30 we ordered it, were told it would not be here until 9.00, then it finally got here just a second ago at 9.30.

So far we're not too impressed by our first stop, and may leave a bit early, but we are trying not to judge it too much, tommorrow is a new day and we'll give it a chance then. There's a chocolate factory and wine tasty nearby aswell apparently! :)

Scott (Dani currently not here).

Song of the Moment: Oasis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me

Here We Go Again...

So, another tour, and of course another blog. This time a slightly shorter tour due to election campaigns and babies, but a tour none the less. We're in the "Stansted Skyline Hotel" with our free shuttle bus booked for tomorrow at 5.00am (i know ridiculous isn't it), after only a short argument over the word free - which disappointed me. I was all ready for a proper confrontation, would have provided the evenings entertainement at least, there's not much to do round here within walking distance and with almost all your money in Euro's. In the end we decided to venture from our hotel to find food and having walked through to the far side of the village and found nothing were told that there is a town in the opposite direction with plenty of places to eat. We found a few takeaways (useless given it was half an hour walk back to our hotel and cold takeaway in a hotel room sounds unappealing at best), an Italian (not happening, I love Italian food but not when we're about to spend two and a half weeks eating real Italian food I'm not settleing for some over priced imitation shit) and finally, after having to call Abbey to get my debit card fixed*, an Indian which was very nice, even if we we're a little strapped for cash!
*Abbey cancelled my card after the hotel tried to use it to pay (not that I'd asked them too), and it didn't have enough money in it, which I knew it didn't, thats why i didn't try to use it! This of course is in the same day that I withdrew £250 from that account, and money from both my other accounts, to buy Euro's, after years of withdrawing £20 or £30, at most £50, once every week or two. OK maybe I see why they cancelled it!
Scott rambles, i was going to say i would provide a more apt summary of our trip so far but then i realised he'd pretty much covered al the bases! Lol. Hotel is a bit of a rip off, i am still very fat but managed to walk about 100 miles to get dinner, i was ready to eat the waiters arm by the time it arrived!!
I told scott that after 2 and a bit weeks in italy he will have to roll me off the plane! I am going to try and put him to bed now coz we have to be up in about 5 hours. Lots of love to all of you,
Scott, Dani and Bump. xxxxx


Song of the Moment (its tradition now isn't it): White Snake - Here I (we) Go Again