Week 16

First day hanging out at Fontana Di Trevi...yes we threw in coins so we will back
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Hi everyone

Finally a blog update…..I know it’s the middle of July and I am just writing this blog entry now. The past weeks have been hectic as I have been travelling with Eddy and he spent some time with me in the UK. It was wonderful to spend 2 weeks travelling – great weather, beautiful places and of course wonderful company!!! So here goes with the details….

La Dolce Vita

The work week prior to leaving was absolutely crazy. A week full of day long meetings and cramming in the actual work and handover somewhere around the meetings…..usually at night!!!! To top it off I had a terrible cold – which magically disappeared as soon as I went on my trip J.

Dinner with Maddy and Bernadetta
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Was a late Thursday night packing etc and then an early Friday morning as I was woken by my drunken neighbours who were arriving home at 3am – took them 5 minutes to unlock their front door and seems one of them copped a punch in the face from their night out!!!! Wasn’t such a bad thing being woken by them as I had the red eye special to Rome.

I arrived in Rome around midday and met Eddy at Termini Railway station. Was great to see him after all this time and he surprised me with a nice present too – spoilt hey!!

View of Poitano from our hotel
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Eddy only arrived into Rome that morning so was pretty jetlagged and I was so tired from the busy week and lack of sleep that after a quick stop at the local café for a macchiato and panino we decided to crash for a few hours. Following our siesta, we made a quick afternoon trip to the Fontana Di Trevi for a gelato in the gorgeous Italian weather.

My cousin Maddy and her friend Bernadetta took us for dinner at a great trattoria in central Rome which had a set menu consisting of a mere 5 courses. The Italian Mamma who owned the place and who was cooking and serving took a bit of a liking to Eddy – she was hugging him in her rubber gloves – how sweet!!! Maddy had met this lady’s nephew a couple of weeks prior – naturally we all started calling her Zia to pay poor Maddy out!!! Maddy is heading to Australia this month and is looking forward to catching up with you all. I can’t believe she will be in Australia when I am over here.

Hills of Positano
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After a quick brioche and café on Saturday morning it was time to meet Mr Squiggle (our car – a little Fiat Punto). As Eddy got to know Jane (my GPS) he nicknamed her Miss Jane and the name Mr Squiggle kind of flowed from there. They were both very good at getting us around Italy and helped us avoid the navigation arguments that are usually inevitable between travel buddies on an overseas trip. Eddy was nervous about driving as he had heard all sorts of stories about driving in Italy but he did a great job. There were only two hairy incidents along the way, the first being no headlights and continuing to wear our sunglasses in our first tunnel (not a good idea especially in a dark two way tunnel) and the second was taking the wrong exit from a relatively major roundabout into oncoming traffic (we got a few Italian hand signals and profanities yelled at us at this point). Other than that, there were no dramas at all.

Stairs, stairs and more stairs
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Our first stop on our European road trip was Positano on the Amalfi Coast where we stayed for 3 nights. “Stunning” pretty much sums up the Amalfi coast and no further explanation is needed. We had a great room with a balcony overlooking the ocean. Saturday night we had a light dinner at the hotel and then wandered around the town to soak up the atmosphere. We caught the local bus home to avoid all the stairs – lazy hey??

Sunday it was off to Capri for lunch, a funicular ride and a stroll past the ritzy shops. After a “strenuous” day in Capri we returned to our balcony with our Italian nibbles of prosciutto a block of parmesan cheese, fresh bread and red wine. La Dolce Vita!! That night we took shuttle bus to a hotel tucked away in the Positano hills which had been recommended by our hotel. When we pulled up to a place I was a little worried as it looked a bit shabby but once inside the food and the views were fantastic!!! The only problem was we had to share the shuttle bus back to the hotel with our annoying American neighbours who were on their honeymoon. At midnight, Positano put on a fireworks display which we watched from our balcony….nice!!!

Capri
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Monday I convinced Eddy that we needed to drive the Amalfi coast – he wasn’t excited about that to say the least!! We stopped at Ravello for a pizza and Minori later that day for our first swim in the Mediterranean waters. I think Eddy would agree it was definitely worth the drive on the narrow cliff roads!!! The restaurant from the previous night was so good we went back there again for dinner. The owner made us try the most amazing desert we have ever tasted – pear and ricotta cake…my mouth is watering just thinking about it!!! After dinner we shared the shuttle bus with an American actress and her family (can’t think of her name but have a look at the photo and see if you can pick her)….much better than the previous night’s shuttle companions!!