Pompeii

I've wanted to visit the buried Roman town of Pompeii ever since studying it as a kid. While Rome itself should hold more attraction, there's something eerily engaging about the idea of a whole town frozen in time, where life just stopped in an instant and no development has occurred for nearly 2,000 years.

There's something ominous about those clouds above Mt Vesuvius.

I was surprised that I didn't really feel anything for the bodies we saw. It was nothing like visiting Auschwitz, or Pearl Harbor, where there was a grief in the air. I guess it's because they would have been dead for thousands of years by now anyway. Still, it was fascinating to try and imagine the lives that they lived on the ground I was walking, and how the eruption would have felt to someone caught up in it.

I was quite taken by both the sheer size of the town, and the level of sophistication contained within it. As I'd heard from other visitors to the site, the architecture, town planning, statues and frescoes are mind blowing considering their age.

A rather interesting illustration on the wall of one of the 24 bordellos.

The highlight was visiting the amphitheatre, the first known one of its kind in the world. The space still feels so grand that I could almost imagine watching a concert there now.

After we left the excavation site, we did one last cross-country drive before returning the rental car (without even a scratch!) in Bari, on the Adriatic Coast.

Life Lesson #31 - Tolls Aren't So Bad

When we first got stuck in Naples I could feel today would teach me a Life Lesson.

Though I'd already been driving for five hours since leaving Rome, there was a grit to Naples that I appreciated having the chance to see. I planned to call the Life Lesson "Always Set Your GPS to Avoid Tolls".

How wrong I was! Avoiding tolls meant we had to drive from one end of Naples to the other (and it's huge!) in standstill traffic. On the motorway we would have paid maybe €3 in tolls and it would have taken half an hour. Instead, it took two and a half hours, and cost untold in petrol!

Though it was nice to see Mt Vesuvius up close, this is the main thing I will remember about Naples:

So many photos like this to choose from...

As some redemption, the last half hour of our drive to Positano took us further around the coast to Sorrento right on sunset:

Then, after winding our way around hairpin bends on impossibly thin roads next to sheer cliffs dropping straight down to the rocks, we were greeted with this view as the last of the sunset streaked across the horizon:

Yes, that is the road.

A great end to a hopelessly over-complicated drive!

Rome

I have never heard a story about driving in Rome that didn't involve a hospital. My main memory from coming here five years ago (sans automobile) is nuns on scooters cutting you off when you try to cross the road.

So I booked a place half an hour out of Rome that had free carparking and good public transport connections.

Their website is all lies. While the carparking is free, the public transport to town involves a 15 min walk to a twice hourly bus that takes you to the metro stop, which you catch three zones, changing lines along the way.

When the prim reception lady estimated that trip at 90 mins, give or take, Paul went white. We're only stopping briefly in Rome and don't have time to do it properly right now, so he picked just one unmissable thing: the Galleria Borghese.

You have to book tickets in advance. We had. Everyone says they're as strict as Gwyneth Paltrow's diet about timeslots. And ours was in 20 minutes.

I saw her mouth the words "perhaps you should take the car", but I heard nothing. I felt faint. I wanted to have a lie down. I was behind the wheel again in about three minutes.

We found a free park right outside the gallery! And it was great.

Paul in front of the gallery.

Filled with naïve enthusiasm for Roman driving, I proceed to take Paul on a lightning tour of Rome.

From the Trevi fountain...

...to the Vittoriano...

...to the ruins by the Forum...

...to the Colosseum...

Couldn't resist this one.

Sure, there's a heck of a lot more to see in Rome, but we'll be back. And doing it by car meant we got more in than I expected. Plus, we didn't have to pay a cent for parking, and I discovered that driving down a steep hill on centuries old cobblestones with ancient ruins within arms-length of either side of your car is fun!

I was so buzzed that I even tipped the waiter who made fun of our accents.

I regretted it within minutes.

Sunset behind the Vittoriano as we walk back to our car.

Driving Through Tuscany

The drive from Siena to Rome took us right through Tuscany and Umbria. My lasting impression will be the fields of sunflowers.

Well, the fields of sunflowers and the crazy Italian drivers! Before long you realise that manoeuvres you would have swiftly tooted back home don't even seem rude anymore!

Thanks to a travel tip from a knowledgeable friend, we stopped in Orvieto on the way.

Orvieto is a small hilltop town that suddenly appears in the middle of nowhere as you drive through Umbria. It feels like someone looked at a map of Italy and said "I'm going to put an enormous cathedral here".

We spent well over an hour exploring the stone streets and appreciating the bustling atmosphere before continuing on our journey.

Orvieto even looks good as you drive away.

Leaning Towers and Summer Showers

We got up early this morning and left the Cinque Terre by train. We almost missed it because we stopped to get one last slice of potato and rosemary focaccia bread for the trip, but thankfully we managed to run on in time.


In Pisa we had to walk with our luggage for about half an hour to reach the leaning tower. We didn't want to do the silly tourist photos, but then decided that we had to. We retained our dignity by doing every single tourist pose we could think of, so anyone watching would know that we were commenting on the silliness of it all rather than actually being sucked in too. Which of course we weren't...

We then had a stinking hot walk/bus/walk to pick up our rental car in the middle of nowhere. Found it eventually, then sought brief solace in an air-conditioned supermarket before continuing on our trip.

The spot in Pisa where we waited for the bus.

The weather packed in almost as soon as we started driving. So as if driving on the wrong side of the road in a manual with crazy Italian drivers wasn't enough, now I had thunderstorms to deal with! The overhead motorway announcements quickly lit up with orange warnings featuring exclamation marks.

The thunderstorm was almost a flash flood, and the motorway started filling with water. When a truck passed on the other side of the centre barrier, it sent a torrent of water on to my windscreen with a huge whack, and I couldn't see a thing for about five seconds, which any driver will know feels terrifying!

But we made it to Florence, eventually.

Life Lesson #10 - Always Set Two Alarms

When we went to bed at 3:30am on our last night in Vegas we had big plans to get up early anyway. We wanted to make sure we had time to pack our pigsty before checkout at 11.

Helps if you take you phone off silent when you set your alarm. We woke at midday.

I ended up having to use the crap housekeeping as leverage to convince the hotel manager not to charge us for an extra night. Suddenly using the same towels for three days seemed worth it!

---pics after the jump---

The dramatic road to Vegas

After the drama with the car keys, it was 4:30 when we finally got on the road to Vegas. Paul read Walt Whitman aloud to pass the time.




It was still snowing like crazy, which made driving scary but photos awesome. We passed an accident that had just happened, when a woman spun out of control into a tree.

It felt like we had moved to Narnia.

---the story gets even more interesting after the jump---

The Black Canyon Highway

To say we slept badly in our car parked outside the Wickenburg Inn would be an understatement. Apparently deserts get really cold at night, who knew? (ok, we may have had some idea). We slept in our leather jackets and were glad that we had nicked the Qantas pillows and blankets from our flight to LA.

When the sun came up we saw all the cacti and realised our parking spot was straight out of an old Western.

---road trip pics after the jump---

Life Lesson #8 - No Room at the Inn

Today I learned that you should follow baseball if you want to get a room in Arizona.

It was late, and I had been driving for six hours. Keeping me going for the last 150 miles had been the promise of a hot shower and a warm bed in Wickenburg, Arizona.

I had made a conscious decision not to book accommodation in advance, because I wasn't certain we would make it the whole way there in one leg. Travel advisors said we'd have no trouble finding a room even though it was Spring Break.

Apparently those travel advisors aren't aware that most of the major league baseball teams are based in Phoenix, Arizona right now. Die hard baseball fans book out all the beds within 3 hours of Phoenix on game nights. Wickenburg is an hour outside Phoenix, and no prizes for guessing whether it was a game night or not.

We were informed of all this by the receptionist at the Wickenburg Inn - the third inn we had failed to get a room at. "If you don't feel like drivin' another two hours, I suggest you consider sleeping in your car. There's a grassy patch behind the hotel where you can park up if you like". What, no stable? "Oh, and did you hear we just bombed Libya?"

Welcome to Arizona.

AA

Our rejection from every inn in town was somewhat less divine.

On the Road

We left San Diego just after 4:00 (about three hours later than planned). The Californian mountains looked like enormous piles of boulders as we drove east for six hours, most of the way parallel with the Mexican border.



To pass the time as we drive, Paul is reading aloud the classic American road trip novel, On the Road by Jack Kerouac. There are a few versions of the book. We're reading the original unedited version which is 300 pages of a single paragraph, but the way it flows is rhythmic and perfect for reading on the road.

---photos after the jump---

The Pacific Coast Highway

After checking out from our drab Hollywood motel this morning, we headed to the Annenberg Space for Photography. They had an exhibition on called Extreme Exposure which was incredible! It focuses on photographers who risk their lives for the perfect shot.

Paul in front of the Annenberg Space for Photography

When we left, we drove about 45 mins to a place I spotted last night on the freeway to Disneyland: Citadel Outlets. It turned out to be not only the sole factory outlet mall in LA, but also right on our route to San Diego today.

We really struck the jackpot! I ended up buying a Levi's jacket for $20 and a blazer from H&M that makes me look like a Dalton Academy Warbler (I think I'll wear it to Celine). But the real find was at a leather shop that's going into liquidation: 60% off everything, plus a further 30%, meant this leather jacket cost me hardly anything. Score!

Very satisfied with our purchases, we continued our drive to San Diego, stopping briefly at the Oceanside Pier to watch sunset.

Paul snapped these great shots of sunset at the pier.

Our accommodation is better than the last place. It's right by the Mexican border, and you can tell because everyone speaks to you in Spanish first, switching to English only when you give them a confused look.

AA