Italia

I had dreamed about visiting Italy for a long time, and when Joel asked that if I did go and travel somewhere on my own, it be somewhere that he hadn't been for obvious reasons right? We want to travel to new places in the future together.  I had ten days and landed in Rome on Sept 30. I did the free walking tour in Rome, however could barely hear anything the guide was saying because the group was huge and there were a ton of tourists and people constantly harassing the group and selling things. I couch surfed while in Rome, however my host was quite busy and not really able to show me much or recommend things to me. Possibly a language barrier problem, or that he is just bored of telling people where to go weekend after weekend. He usually hosts almost every weekend.

I found that I could understand a decent amount of things from Spanish and Portuguese combined. I visited the Colosseum and while it was very very impressive, I just felt disconnected to it in a way... I hired an audio tour by myself, which was fun because I could explore at my own pace. There were so many group tours going on as well, I could listen in on the interesting ones around me. But to get in was like Disneyland. Bag check, curling lines that take hours. I was there on the one Sunday a month where all of the State Museums and monuments, etc were free, so definitely took up that opportunity to walk around like crazy to hit as many as possible. In the end of the day, I just wanted to crash. Alex, my couch surfing host made some simple pasta for dinner. During the day time I found the little fast food ish pizza shops where you can order pizza by the grams... I would just make a piece to size with my hands and then they would cut a chunk off. Those were super cheap, usually a massive square for one euro or something. I also snacked on some fruit and kept crackers in my bag.  Ohh and don't forget the gelato diet.. So I kinda failed on my gelato diet but I think I had some at least every other day. You could get two scoops for 3 euros outside of a tourist area.  The thing that put me off Rome, was the million gazillion American tourists wandering around, being... American tourists.

After Rome, I wanted to get away from the bustle and had planned to head down to Naples, then realized Naples wasn't exactly the most lovely place to stay.  I found a hostel in a nearby coastal town, very close to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii. The hostel was absolutely lovely. It had just opened and had the most beautiful balcony, all the rooms tastefully painted, earth friendly, and lovely owners with adorable dogs running around. I spent a day walking around there and another visiting Pompeii. Again, very cool stuff.. Especially the Pink Floyd exhibit inside one of the amphitheaters. Again... packed with American tourists. From there I decided I wanted to head to a swimming beach, not just a looking pretty beach, so I found a hostel in the town of Salerno which is not far from Amalfi Coast. It would be much more affordable to stay there, in another amazing place. It was a convent converted into a hostel. The building had a courtyard in the middle and was so peaceful and also decorated well. I had a funny experience in the shower there, the lights were on motion sensors but the motion sensor was near the sink not the shower.. So I was showering, and then the lights went off... I had to stumble naked back to the door to try and figure out what happened, then saw the sensor.. Oops! haha

I stayed in Salerno three days and the town itself was super cute. All the shopping on pebble streets and unique areas. It didn't feel as rushed or packed as Rome. There were still tourists, just that you could actually find locals eating their morning croissant and espresso standing at the bar in the morning. People were also super friendly. During the day time I would hop on the bus to Amalfi Coast. One of the days I just stopped a few times from the bus and took photos and walked around. The bus ride is on this crazy coastal road with incredible views. The bus had to use those circular mirrors to make sure no one was in their way on the blind curves ahead. The half way point was nearly a two hour journey, and to Positiano, near the opposite end of the coast, was 4 hours. I could have sat and stared out that bus window everyday, it was just incredible. I decided the next day I would figure out where I could do a hike along the way. I finally found one that didn't look too hard, and looked like something I would feel safe doing by myself. In other countries I was usually able to find hiking partners but in Italy, everyone seemed to have their own plan and not want to do anything. I found it to be my first time traveling alone where people weren't really keen on joining in on plans, or inviting me to join them. Anyways the hike ended up being absolutely gorgeous! I had no idea if I was going the right way from the time I left the main road. I just followed these arrows on the farmers walkways. I passed lemon groves on the hill sides, a cute little waterfall, and as I kept walking, well the views kept getting more and more amazing. One of the most beautiful places in the world for sure.

The next day was really rainy, so I decided it was a sign to head back and check out Florence. I spent the full day on the train, because I didn't want to pay 98 euros for a 4 hour train ticket! Okay, in the end, maybe I should have because I don't think I saved more than 20 Euros doing all the really slow trains... and realized later there was a really cheap bus. Dang it.   I walked around Florence in the rain the next morning and saw the beautiful bridges, the street of jewelry, and all the amazing statues.

I did a little day trip to Pisa to see the tower... and it was actually really crazy to see. A lot of people said it wasn't worth it, but since I was so close I figured why not? That night I moved hostels and met the sweetest Australian sisters. The one happened to live a five minute walk from my house. We still haven't gotten to meet up here in Melbourne but it would be so awesome. They were so much fun to hang out with and we thoroughly enjoyed a night with some wine in Florence.

From Florence I took a bus for 9 euros back to Rome where my flight would be the next day. I stayed in a really cute hostel again, which hosted a free spaghetti dinner which was a really cool way to bring all the people of the hostel together. I met another Aussie girl, and a Swedish girl and we enjoyed chatting for most of the night. I also visited St Peters Basilica. It only took me a few hours to get through the lines there and be in the Vatican City.   I was somehow upgraded in my last hostel to stay in my own room, and I was soo happy about that. Sadly I realized that i messed up my Multi City Ticket and I would not be visiting Singapore. So have to take a rain check on Singapore, but made it back safely!

The pizza, pasta, and gelato definitely lived up to it's yummy reputation! The landscape of Italy was insanely beautiful. However, something about it just made me feel like mehhh Italy. I would definitely like to go back and visit Sicily, the opposite coast, as well as Venice, but we will save that for another day!