MON & GLENN'S EUROPEAN HOLIDAY

Having abandoned going to Switzerland because of budget blowout, we thought perhaps Bardonecchia would do as a substitute. Should have probably thought about this a bit more as I didn't realise how strongly I felt about yodelling, cowherds, rolling green hills etc. of which there are none here of course!

Only an hour and a half from Torino, near the French border, this ski town hosted some of the Winter Olympics events and is probably buzzing in ski season and in the summer. However in what is absolutely the low season it is really quiet and unfortunately for Glenn even the downhill mountain bike activities were now shut down.

Still, it was cheap and peaceful. And while we were staying at the foot of some picturesque mountains it seemed a good opportunity to hike up one of them.

Happy times before starting the walk

As a rather unfit person, I found the uphill component a horrible unenjoyable experience that I thought would never end.

Anyway I suppose it was reasonably pretty, here are some photos from the walk:

Lunch at the furthermost point we walked to:

Walking back down the mountain - happy times.

On the way back to town, Glenn on bridge near the Olympic village.

Hot chocolate afterwards - very happy times!

A city that is part of my heritage (where my Nonno was born) and where chocolate is a specialty - two very good reasons to visit Torino!

Torino was much bigger than expected, with a lot of nice buildings and wide streets. And no crazy drivers (suspicious as to whether this is really part of Italy). And once we ventured away from the quiet neighbourhood of our hotel we found it much more lively with a nice atmosphere. And delectable pastry/chocolate/coffee shops!

Here are some photos taken on a day spent wandering the city:

Roman ruins:

La Mole Antonelliana, Torino's tallest building with panoramic lookout:

And the River Po:

We caught a ferry from Napoli to the Isle of Capri, where we spent Glenn's 30th birthday. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, and the lovely owner gave us a bottle of champas to celebrate with when she realised it was his birthday.

We stayed in the town of Anacapri. It is a very pretty charming town with lots of narrow streets. Streets you would think could only fit pedestrians, but sometimes they also accommodated scooters, scooters that had a truck body fitted on top, and sometimes inexplicably cars going in two directions.

Also streets that did not follow a logical layout and caused unwary tourists to become lost repeatedly when trying to return to their hotel. At least that's what we heard.

We ventured to the Blue Grotto, a magical cave where the reflection of the sun somehow causes the water to glow bright blue.

We were rowed in by a singing boatman whose powerful rendition of "O Sole Mio" made the experience even better (even though it was rendered about a metre from my ear).

The next day we took a picnic of deli goods to a lookout point (joined by a cat, as usual) ...

Our first impression of Napoli on alighting from the train was that it is dirty and crazy. And it is, but bloody fantastic!

Unfortunately we booked our onward train trip before we worked out how much we liked it, so didn't spend as long there as we would have liked.

Everyone drives crazy and people cross the road at any time (with prams, whatever!). But we didn't witness a single accident so it somehow works magically!

Didn't get many photos, but here is one of Napoli by night:

There are scooters zooming all over the place and lots of people hanging about. Everything is cheap! And of course, bloody great pizza. We went with a nice guy from our hostel to Sorbillo's and had the best pizza ever (so big it was hanging off the plate).

Our hostel was great in many ways, including a large DVD collection (and bucket-sized jars of Nutella at breakfast!!), so I was able to satisfy the Gladiator urge accompanied by some fine Italian pastries:

We spent a lovely warm sunny day traipsing around the extensive remains of Pompei. It really is a whole town - much bigger than we expected.

The biggest crowd of tourists was at the remarkably-well preserved brothel, so naturally we had to have a look to find out what the fuss was all about. See below part of the "menu" painted on the wall!

First evening we had a delicious meal and were serenaded by a man who insisted on singing American songs to us (because we were Australian, apparently?!).

We thus had to eavesdrop on Italian songs sung to other dining couples - and I am proud to say I remembered all the words to Marina from Italian choir in primary school!

We spent three days in Rome. The first famous thingy we visited was the Trevi Fountain. It was larger than I expected and pretty spectacular! Also stacks of people sitting in front of it. I had many gelati while in Italy, and here I am in front of the Trevi Fountain having what I have found to be the Most Chocolatey Gelati ever.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but it was almost too chocolatey.


Next we went to the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary. Granted this is not on most people's Roman itineraries but I am a bit of a obsessed cat lover and Glenn is a very patient husband. So we sought out this place, situated right beside an ancient site under excavation (which the cats roam, and of course sleep, all over).

It was a bit whiffy in the actual sanctuary building but there were lots of lovely cats (not fat enough for my taste, but still lovely) and the crazy cat ladies who run the sanctuary were very friendly and chatty.

We lost many irretrievable hours of our life on the hop-on hop-off bus but also did lots of walking. For some reason this doesn't lead to toned muscles. Maybe because of the gelati and pizza.

Went to the Colosseum which was very cool. We had a guided tour which was very interesting. It also made me want to watch Gladiator (refer Nutty Napoli entry).

Also went to the Vatican - the Basilica San Pietro and the Vatican Museums.

It was a very very long line for both so I did some pretend praying to while away the time.

The basilica was very big and opulent.

Museums bore the crap out of me, so here is a picture of a Big Toe I saw in the Vatican museum: