The Long Go... Greece to Italy

since we last wrote we left naxos and visited our last greek island, santorini. everyone had been telling us that you go to naxos for the beaches and santorini for the view.

its true, the beaches weren't the best ever but the view from town was delightful. the island was created by a volcanic eruption and therefore instead of sand the beach is made up of little black rocks. they are very light and porous and somehow absorb much more heat than you ever would have thought them capable! even a 3 foot walk to the water from your chair requires flip flops because it is just so scorching hot! we still enjoyed out last few days on the beach and loved the santorini town area with shops and restaurants seemingly stacked on top of each other on the vertical surface of the island all overlooking a very pretty view of the agean sea.

we had our flight booked from athens to naples, italy for the night of june 16th at 7:20pm. we left santorini on the first ferry out that morning for athens so that we would be able to have a quick lunch with our friends kayla and blair, who are also traveling europe and happened to be in athens. perfect timing...so we thought!

we arrived in athens at 3:00 and then headed into the center of the city to meet kayla and blair. we got there around 3:45 and went to find a restaurant to eat. we wanted to leave athens to go to the airport (which is a ways outside the city) at 5:20. we took the bus in from the airport when we arrived in athens earlier in the week and it took 45 mins, but we planned to take the metro out to the airport this time because we were told it was much faster, but thought we should plan for 45 mins anyways.

however, lunch took longer than we thought and next thing we knew we were just getting on the metro at 5:50 (30 mins later than planned!). all we could think was thankfully the metro was going to get us there in less than 45 mins...
however, that was completely wrong and it took 1hr and 30 mins!!!!!!!!!!!!! getting us the the airport at exactly 7:20 (our departure time).

needless to say out flight was closed. it was not, not, not good. there was not a single other flight to naples leaving that night and we ended up having to fly out the next morning at 6:30am (an exorbitant amount of money later) which also meant we had to sleep in the airport next to a mcdonalds (although arguably one of the nicest mcdonalds ive seen .... its labeld the "mcdonalds lounge") and we had to fly though milan to get to naples (geographically ridiculous). oh, and of course our layover the next day was delayed a long, long time and milan apparently doesn't believe in chairs.

we finally made it to naples licking our wounds (mainly the massive wound to our wallet) and then got on a train to head straight to pompeii (this was already planned for that day and we stubbornly refused to change it). so, we stowed our bags and walked all around pompeii (which is HUGE ... i had no idea!) on a very hot june afternoon still in the clothes we had put on way back in time, in santorini (before the ferry to athens, the metro to the airport, a night on a banquette, a flight to milan, a flight to naples, a train to pompeii...)

we saw as much as we could in pompeii before throwing in the towel and walked (with our backpacks) 2km to a different train station than we came in on to catch a train to solerno, italy. once there we got on a bus for a 1 and 1/2 hour ride teetering and swerving along the edge of cliffs to almalfi (we both decided that if we had ever gotten car sick in our lives it would have happened on this bus for sure) and FINALLY to a hostel!!!!!

almalfi was nice and our little area of town was so cute and so italian. kids filled the piazza and beach each day completely exuberant that summertime is in full swing.

we mainly used almalfi as our home-base for a day trip to the pricier island of capri. it's a beautiful, lively island with lots of high-end, designer shopping and high-end, designer people to match. we spent the day walking the streets and did the compulsory boat ride (or maybe, dinghy ride) into the blue grotto, which is a cave area on the coast where the water literally glows bright, neon blue.

two nights later we were rested and ready to get back on the bus of terror to the train station in solerno to then travel to rome.

we are now on our second day in rome and trying to catch our breath! we did a day and a half of nothing but roman site after roman ruin after roman church and are exhausted. apparently that week on the beaches in greece has made us soft and we are trying to restrengthen our sightseeing stamina.

we have visited almost every major site listed in bold in any tour book and eaten pizza and gelato at least once a day since we arrived in rome. our typical lunch and dinner are basically identical: caprice salad, a piece of bruchetta, and a pizza. basically the same 3 ingredients reworked 3 ways and consumed twice daily.

we have also learned that the locals favorite game here is guessing where people are from. we get spain and portugal a lot. i don't think our newly tanned skin is helping the matter, but within an hour and a half yesterday michael had two locals insisting that he was portuguese. the second man (a server at a gellato shop near the trevi fountain) basically told michael that he was infact portuguese despite anything he's been told during his life:
"where you from? espana o portuguese?"
"no, neither."
"yes you are, you are portuguese"
"no, actually we are from america."
"no, no. you from brazil."
"no, america."
"no, brazil!"
"no, no, really. america!"
"okay, okay. you from america.... but your mama, she from brazil!!!"