Italy

The start of the trip into Italy wasn't as pleasant as planned, as I woke up in Antibes, before the bus trip to Florence feeling a bit under the weather. This general feeling of unwell progressed for the worse throughout the next 48 hours, as I spent about 44 of them sleeping either on the bus, or in bed at the campsite. After paying for a taxi far to and from a doctor in Florence, as well as the exorbitant consultation fee, a prescription for some antibiotics and two days and nights rest, I'm feeling on the mend.

In between the various ailments I had encountered, I've managed to travel through Pisa, to see their famous leaning tower. The hours worth of Florence I saw walking to the doctor's surgery looked pretty good, too.



Feeling sick at the Leaning Tower of Pisa...


After packing up from Florence, we headed south to the incredibly warm Rome, via the Vatican City. Had a look at the Sistine Chapel (can't take photos of it), but after a while all artwork from that era seems to look the same. Cool to say I've seen it though, I guess.





Vatican City


The heat in Rome rivals anything Australia has to offer. Once we arrived there, I managed to get a look at the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and a quick look at the Colosseum in the afternoon.



Trevi Fountain




Pantheon


The amount of people that hassle you on the street in Rome is insane. Random guys will go up to girls/women, offerring them a plastic rose from a bunch they have. Then, when the girl takes the rose, the men will refuse to take it back, and demand money for it. There's also men who have bedsheets laid down on the ground, covered in designer bags. Once the police come, they grab all four corners of the bag, and then run off, with their napsack of counterfeit goods.

The next day I was feeling considerably better than I had for the previous few days, and this came in handy as we had to spend a few hours in the searing Roman heat through our tours of firstly, the Roman Forum, the ruins of the 'city centre' of Rome from upwards of 2000 years ago, and secondly – a tour throughout the Colosseum. While the buildings themselves are pretty impressive, this is nothing in comparison to the knowledge that you're standing in the same arena, or same stairs that bloodthirsty Romans stood on 2000 years ago.





Colosseum


After departing the Colosseum, I caught the train over to the 'Spanish Steps', an elaborate set of steps with a fountain and so on, and bought a traditional margherita Italian pizza. Not bad at all.

Once back at the campsite, a failed attempt to use the internet there, and a mediocre dinner, I made my way to bed, in preparation for a 7:30am departure.

The next morning I set off on the bus south towards Pompeii, the city famously covered (and later uncovered) by ashes from nearby volcano Mt Vesuvius. Nothing like I had expected, the whole town is essentially still in tact – roads, houses, even a brothel, complete with 2000 year old pornography painted on the walls. Apparently the clientèle, who would not all speak Latin, would go into the brothel, and 'pick' what they wanted from the paintings on the wall... kind of like a menu.



Pompeii


After leaving Pompeii we had a lengthy drive to the south of Italy with a couple of Autogrille stops in between. Autogrille's are all through Europe, and they're basically like a super sized service station/road house. They're either hanging over the road – kind of like a bridge...like if you imagine the roads crossing over Mitchell Freeway had a huge roadhouse/service station spanning the length of it, you kind of get the idea.

Alternatively, there will just be one huge Autogrille on either side of the road, so no matter what direction you're traveling in, you don't have to cross to the other side of the road to get food/fuel/etc. All of the Autogrille's so far have had an abundance of food – some have like mini marts attached, and most have some sort of food court as well. Pretty cool.

Anyway, after getting to the southern end of mainland Italy, we boarded the overnight ferry for Corfu. We had cabins with beds and a shower, so this was a nice step up from the ferries I have caught in the last month or so.