That's Amoré...Venice wanderings

Once we had left Salerno, we enjoyed a much needed sea day. Relaxing on deck, catching up on some TV from home all made for a lovely rest. Although our cruise has an awesome itinerary, the pace was becoming relentless and it was nice not to have to be up early and rushing off to see the sights.

In the afternoon of the next day, we were pulling into Venice.

The excitement onboard was palpable and cruising into the harbour certainly was a treat.

Once the cruise was docked and cleared, we made our way off the ship and collected our vaporetto (boat taxi) tickets, and we were off!

It was quite a little journey into San Marco's Square, but the scenery was spectacular.

Once we were on land, we set off wandering.

St Mark's Square

Venice is gorgeous, with lots of little cute little nooks and vistas everywhere.

Eventually we went looking for somewhere to indulge in a fabulous Italian meal. We were standing out the front of a little restaurant in a little back street looking at the menu when an elderly elocal gent came up to us and said this was a great place with very authentic Venetian food. I joked with him that perhaps he had shares in the place, but thanked him for his recommendation.

We were very glad we did.

Much deliciousness ensued.

Then we decided to wander back to San Marcos Piazza, getting hopelessly lost in the meantime, making our way back to the ship.

As we remained docked overnight in Venice, we made our way back to shore the next morning for another wander and to pick up some Venetian gifts.

The masks are incredible!

That night when we returned to the ship and steamed out of Venice, they had a masquerade party, which we went down to enjoy for a little while:

But I digress, that morning, we made our way through the streets and over the canals and decided to sit in a cute little piazza we found for a delicious Italian coffee.

We ordered 2 cappuccinos. ...This is what was brought out to our table:

As has been pointed out to me, who am I to argue with an Italian? Wine it is, then.

Whilst we were sitting there enjoying our morning, we watched a funeral procession exit one of the churches and deliver the coffin to a gondola for its final trip down the canal. (Out of respect, we quietly stood as the procession passed, but did not take photos).

We really loved our little visit to Venice, particularly as we did not do any of the tourist things, but just enjoyed being there.

The gelato wasn't too bad there either.

I hope to visit Venice again, amongst other parts of Italia, in the future and spend a week in a little apartment, visiting all the nearby islands and really getting to know this amazing little city.

A Day in Pompeii

Today we woke up in Salerno on the Amalfi Coast. Another gorgeous part of the world.

Our view at breakfast:

The day started, after our delicious buffet breakfast, with a brisk walk down the Salerno foreshore to the train station.

Such a gorgeous day!

We found the train station opposite this sweet little church.

Now, once at the station, we set about obtaining train tickets to Pompeii. We diligently lined up with so many other tourists at the ticket office, like you do.

After a good 15 minute wait, it was finally our turn. As we approached the counter, the very helpful ticket attendant advised us that we could purchase our tickets across at the...bookstore. Yep. Sounds reasonable.

We went and lined up over there with an English couple we had befriended from the ship and sure enough we soon had our return train tickets like that is the most normal thing in the world.

What followed was a mad dash to platform 2. Nope. No train.

Oh, our train is leaving from platform 2b. You know...right down the other end of the station in the really seedy bit...

No pretty Italian train for us. A very dodgy graffiti-coloured box was to be our transport to Pompeii...leaving in about 20 minutes. Ok. It was like some alternate reality.

Finally, we were on our way.

The inside wasn't too bad but the ticket collector was pretty stern. I'm glad I knew to validate our ticket at the little box on the platform. (I'm pretty sure I ready that somewhere in my travel research). The couple sitting just down from us got a pretty heated Italian tongue-lashing for not having punched their cards. Even I was a bit afraid - talk about taking great pride in one's work.

When we finally got to our station, we met up with another couple from the shop, who wanted to take a taxi around to the gate. They asked us to join them to split the fare - just €3 each for four of us and I just went ok and jumped in.

Silly me did know better. The main gate was only a short walk from the station. So we found ourselves at another gate on the other side of the site that of course did not correlate with the app I had downloaded as a guide.

Oh well we were here and we went in for a look at something that we had learned about in school but I never imagined I would finally get to visit.

Entrance near the amphitheater:

On the up-side, Sequoia ended up getting in for free. EU citizens under 18 have free entry. She showed her Qld learner drivers license when we were asking about reduced student entry and he just printed off her gratis ticket. I have been learning not to argue with Italians, so we said thank you and went through.

Approaching the amphitheatre:

I got tons of photos and I really would encourage anyone to visit this place to see it for yourself. To see such ancient history so amazingly preserved is mind boggling.

We wandered through the ruins, often catching snippets of information from tour guides as we passed and referring to my app as we made our way around.

The one thing that really made an impact on me was inside the amphitheatre where they had constructed a little pyramid room with some of the people they have excavated. These people, such a long time ago, we frozen in the moment of abject terror, trying to shield their loved ones and probably completely bewildered that this was actually happening to them.

These are mothers and fathers and children and grandparents who were going about there lives such an incredibly long time ago.

This...

This is from inside the amphitheatre:

Outside:

Wandering the streets:

We overheard a tour guide explaining the the ancient Pompeiians had lead pipes. This is one of their communal taps:

Not easy roads to travel:

Vesuvius looking all innocent in the background...

When we emerged back in the world, we took a little drinks stop and walked over to the train stop only to find out that we had ended up again klms away from the train station we needed. A quick taxi ride over (again just for €3 each after negotiations) and we were back on our way to the ship.

We enjoyed another spectacular meal and then a little show where the entertainment staff did aerobatics over the ship's centrum.

This is what greeted us when we finally made it to our room...