Two if by sea - the pompei excursion

Otherwise known as has anyone seen my mobile phone??

Sea Voyage

Our stay in Dubrovnik was cut a little short due to the ferry timetable to Bari, but we waved goodbye to this fair port and set off on this tiny ship.

The long crossing of the Tyranian sea (about 8 hours) went smoothly. Smooth enough to do some sketching. But My efforts to hide from the passangers was to no avial. In short order i was put to work sketching a long line of Italian beautys who all yelled "Belisimo" against the wind. I have never been very capable in portrature, but I did go through a purple patch. It is sad to say that all my greatest work went to the lovely ladies of the cruise..... Ah well. Still plenty of charcoal left in the pencil.

Trani.

Our late arival in Bari left us little choice in bedding options. Our Italian guide had very little to say about the Sout east of Italy. Faced with alot of bad options, we picked out the sea side city of Trani. This side of Italy is a little poor in comparison to the north and the outskirts of the city were rather drab. But we did find the ugly "coach motel" and visited the town center. The old part of town was beautiful, as was the gelati. A little over a Euro bought you the grand slam of iced confection. The south of Italy easily has the best and cheapest gelati in the world.

POMPEI!

Pompei was our next destination, with prehaps Herculaneum on the side..... until we discovered that DIM HAD LEFT HER MOBILE BEHIND!!! BUGGAR!

well, we were just entering Pompei under the guidance of the loudest most self important tourguide on sight, so stuck around for the show, kicking ourselves about the phone. Pompeiis very large, with hectares of ruins, with some noteably large structures to gawk at. the big disapointment is that it has been looted back to the bare rock. All the marble, with few exceptions has been removed over the ceturies, and the brick replacments do not have the same grandure, yet the ruins are an eye opening experience of what a Roman city was like. Although i stress here that it was roman occupied and modified, and was origonaly founded by the local inhabitants, who did not see the need for importnat services like sewerage. Mario our tour guide gave us excellent guidance through the forums, the shcools, the ampitheaters, the baths, and most importantly the brothels. Amusing to see that the Brothel has been one of the few building to have been fully restored, including the wonderfuly humerous erotic paintings.

Trani and back again.

a quick phonecall to the hotel in Trani located the phone, and off we set on the second leg of our 500km roundtrip to Trani from Trani. On arival the crusty italian grandmother presented us with the charger... BUT NOT THE PHONE!!!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

nuff said, out of this hell hole that we are doomed to inhabit, and off North this time.

Sulmona

Another long drive, down the best of the italian freeways sent us Northalong the coast and then west into the mountains, until we located Sulmona.

Sulmona is located in the mountains to the east of rome. (halway across the girth of the boot). Situated in the midst of their national parks and the base of the ski fields. The weather was gorgeous and hot, and the city was charming and pretty. We stopped off and admired the impressive 13th Century aqueduct, that still brings ice cold water to the city square. (see insert picture of Dim standing in front of the "Fontana del Vechio".. Fountain of the old one) Salmona is the birth place of Ovid (the famous roman poet.) and also the location of the most famous sugar coated almond factory in the enire world. (note it is not open on a sunday... buggar). We were amzed at the shopfront displays of coloured almonds, made into flower arangements reslmbling lillies, and sunflowers, and roses etc etc. Again we found many samples of Gelati were to our liking

We spent the day driving south and north in a big loop through the national parks and many hill top villages that finished in Pescara. We passed deep aquamarine lakes, populated by tourists in paddle boats, as well as dense forests and river valleys. The views were spectacular, as were the small villages that lean outwards from their mountain pearch. The tourcherous twisty roads took us many hours to negotiate, but in the end, all lead to Rome.

The Mountains ended abruptly as we rejoined the freeway and headed eastward. A large fertile river plain spreads from their base pushing the mountains to the edge of vision. But we are still reasonably high in altitude, and many clouds sit atop the neighboring mounts and resemble fluffy crowns. This must have been the wheat bowl of the early city of Rome.

anyway.. ONTO ROME!!!!!!!! and the final of the world cup. I hope those dirty frenchies don't win!