NAPLES

I watched an Italian film not so long ago called Gomorrah about the modern day mafia. Its good, watch it! All that said though, it doesn't really come across as an advertisement for"come to Naples." In fact it makes the place look like a complete hell hole! So when Romany Liz said she really wanted to go, my response was "are you sure the place is a complete Shit pit!" Of course Liz was sure she wanted to go and so we found ourselves turning up trying to find our hostel which was in the Naples Ghetto! The look on her and Anna's faces of sheer horror at the place was no surprise to me and didn't want to say, "I told you so!", but of course I did! Liz's response was to get on the train and go somewhere else, but I told her we had paid and that this is what she wanted so we were staying! After wandering around some of the dodgiest streets you have ever seen for ages and being told by locals that we should be careful as we would get our bags nicked any minute we found our hostel smack bag in the middle of the nastiest street. The owner Stefano who is slightly grumpy but underneath is a big softy quickly showed us the do's and don't's of the city, of which I broke straight away much to his dismay by going out with a handbag! In fact Stefano has become a bit of a father figure and I think he has a bit of a soft spot for us crazy english girls even though he rolls his eyes a lot at us. I think I would like to adopt him! He's much nicer than the other guy that works here. We only know him as NHS spec's, but he keeps trying it on with Lizzy. In fact lots of men try on with her, as she is under 5'5. For once, I'm quite glad I'm tall and they won't touch me as the calibre has not been great. Quite disappointed in the overall standard of the men over here. Where are all the Italian bloody stallions? Well the one's over 5'10!
After the first sleepless night here, as there is a huge bloody market outside are window everyday that starts setting up at 5.00am in the morning, we decided to head out to Pompeii. For some strange reason I can never get the image of Up Pompeii with Frankie Howard out of my mind when I think of the place. It couldn't be further from reality. There are no crap mock up Temples or nymphs walking around in mini toga's, just ruins and then more ruins, and a few more ruins after that. Everyone who knows me, knows I'm a sucker for my history, but after the first half hour of excitement all the ruins started to look the same. Add the blazing heat and running out of silly ideas for photos the place soon lost its appeal! The final straw was when we realised the brothels with all the hardcore Roman porn paintings were out of bounds to the public! So we went and had an ice cream and I brought a book with the paintings in instead to fulfill by Porn cravings! We later walked up to mount Vesuvius's crater which was more incredible due to my £4 Primark sandals breaking on the way up. See kids that's what happens when you buy products made from sweat shop labour!
Yesterday we went to Uschia Island in the bay of Naples which is the less popular brother of Capri. We did try to go to Capri, but couldn't be arsed after seeing the queue for the ferry and thought we could lie anyway and tell everyone the photos were of Capri as they wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyway! Besides Uschia was beautiful.
Today we went to the Amafli coast which we were meant to go all the way round but only got to the first town, Positano due to me having to run off the bus as not to be sick on the guy next to me as I had bad travel sickness! It was not a huge shame as Positano is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life! We just chilled on the beach all day and drank and ate and of course in the good old Italian way, people watched.
We are off further down south tomorrow to a little town called Tropea by the sea, which will be good as we won't have to worry about being mugged, murdered or raped anymore when we go outside. well I hope not!


OBSERVATIONS

* I'm in love with the Italian people, especially the old one's. They are such characters and so sweet. I've already found a dozen that I would like to make my new gran parents!

* Italians don't have conversations like us! They shout and wave their hands around even if they are just asking you what you want for your tea or something like that! It always seems as if they are having an argument, which makes them very entertaining to watch.

* I think I'm bad at languages, but I think Anna tops me! She has some sort of Del Boy Italian going on. She says thank you in Spanish and when she asks for the toilet she says Giamatti instead of gabinetto. I informed her that Giamatti is actually an American actor!

P.S Can't upload any photos at the moment as the internet is so crap here. I uploaded all the time in Asia! God! This place is so third world! I'll keep trying though!