We left Rome with a rather omninous warning from the hotel... be careful in Naples. We looked blankly at him and said why? He looked shocked and said They have the gimora there... the mafia!

So with that we arrived in Naples and after having to catch 2 more trains to get to our hostel we were surprised to find how quiet it was! Turns out its a week long holiday here so nothing was open. Even buying a ticket for a bus or train proved quite a challenge as ticket machines seemed to be on holiday too.

We looked around the harbour on our first day. It was nice to see the ocean again since it has been months for us, although sunbaking on rocks will probably take some getting used to. But we were really looking forward to seeing Pompeii the next day.

We headed off early for Pompeii on a packed train that lacked air con... yeah... and arrived not expecting the sheer size of the city. It was huge and so intact still. We wandered around its streets passing houses on either side and seeing everything almost as it had aeen 2000 years ago in 79AD. The fact that it was an everyday city with just normal people with shops, houses, public places and temples so well preserved makes it the most impressive site we have seen so far, even compared to egypt. It was just fantastic, well worth the trip out there.

After getting thoroughly hot in the dusty town we headed further down the coast to Sorrento at the start of the Amalfi Coast. With some difficulty we eventually found the water... although we had to walk down about 300 steps to get there. It was a very pretty cliffside town but its pebble beaches just don't compare to home. Oh well.

From Naples we head to Greece and some RnR on Santorini... yeah!