Piazza Farnese

Sunday morning in Piazza Farnese:

Two cyclists pass through.

The two Italian soldiers are standing in the shade of the building while guarding the French embassy.

A woman stands at one of the two fountains sketching the fountain in her sketchbook, pencils in her pocket.

Two garbage trucks stop so the drivers can have a chat.

A man wanders in and buys the newspaper.

A man pauses and then walks into the church for the 7:30 mass.

The sounds of the sisters of St. Brigida are singing.

A woman buys the paper then sits on the bench outside the Palace Farnese (embassy now) and reads and smokes a cigarette.

Seagulls fly overhead.

A group of children kick a ball around in the corner, avoiding the odd car and taxi.

Venezia

We have spent two days in Venice.  What a different city it is, I am so pleased we came here, it gives Jordan a really different view of Italy from Rome with its busy streets, cars and Vespas, Amalfi coast with its narrow streets, steep cliffs and beaches to Venice with its pedestrian walkways - calli lanes, and canals with vaporetti and gondolas.

We did go to San Marco and up the Campanile to see the view of the city from above, but most of our days have been spent wandering the streets with no particular destination to see what we can find.  We have found really interesting things.  An art display to bring attention to the disappearing honeybee and the disappearing glass artists in Murano.  A lovely display of glass, painting and a video to draw attention to these issues.

We have found lovely churches, piazzas and places to get gelato.  Nice stores with Italian goods that are not mass produced and will suit our lives back home. We bought shoes - blue sandals for me, black dress shoes for Jordan - only an Appleby student has Italian dress shoes for school!, a blue leather handbag, a red and grey silicone watch from an artistic store called The Spot.

We took a water taxi to Murano and spent the day wandering the glass stores.  What a lovely art form. Jordan was particularly taken with glass blowing and is anxious to get lessons and try it out. We bought a few small pieces of glass jewellery, most of the art glass is very expensive - for good reason, it is beautiful, original and takes 30 years to become a master in this art form.

Amalfi Coast

Jordan and I bought a day ticket for the SITA Sud bus and set off to explore the Amalfi coast.  The bus travels over the top of the peninsula from Sorrento, and goes through Positano and Praiano ending in Amalfi.  it takes about 2 hours.  The road is extremely narrow and oftentimes the cars have to stop to let the bus through. The drivers are nuts!  Squeezing cars and buses along the concrete barrier with less than a centimetre to spare. The views are spectacular.  The water is an azure blue, crystal clear and calm. The coastline is steep, often vertical cliffs dropping straight into the water.  There are lots of little fishing boats and not so little luxury yachts dotted about.  There are occasional beaches far below the road that can be reached by steep flights of steps cut into the rock face.

Amalfi is a cute little town perched on the steep rock-face.  It has a gorgeous church covered in mosaics overlooking the piazza.  We had a light lunch and did some window shopping along the tiny little streets before heading for a swim on the public beach.  On our way back to Sorrento we hopped of the bus in Positano and headed along it's narrow little shopping pedestrian walkway. We bought a few little bracelets and had a cappuccino and a fragola granita overlooking the lovely view.  I tried to convince Jordan to take the ferry back, but he is convinced they are unsafe so we climbed back up the mountain to continue on the bus.

 

Being the bus driver that does that trip a few times a day must be one of the most stressful jobs in the world!

Napoli

On our way to Venice we are catching a train in Napoli.  Due to my over zealous timing we needed up in Naples with 3 hours to kill before the train left.  We stowed our luggage at a store facility and headed  of into the city wandering aimlessly.  What an education we got.  

Our fist find was a closed off street market, selling pretty much anything you could need, clothes, shoes, baking goods, fish, vegetables, haberdashery, tools and parts for some kind of vacuum cleaner!  We bought some peaches - 5 for €1.20 and then Jordan bought some 'RayBans' for €5! €5 was the price of the day as we also bought a gym bag for that price. We chatted to a butcher with several large legs of Real Parma ham and then wandered along.  

After deciding the area was deteriorating we turned up a street, found a school that looks more like a prison - poor kids, and some odd clothes shops.  We stopped for a cappuccino before heading down another market street, this one totally run by African men mostly from Guinea and Senegal.  chatted to a sunglasses sales guy who gave up after I told him I was South African - didn't look like a wealthy idiot then.  As we left the street we were approached by two men trying to sell iPad mini's and iPhone 5's for €100!  We stopped to watch a guy doing the shell game and some people actually taking part, Jordan was very tempted to put his €50! Down and play.

We headed back to catch our train to Bologna after a very educational morning in Napoli,