Arriving in Italy we headed straight down the coast line to Naples. A lot of people warned me how dangerous Naples was but we had no troubles at all. No doubt Naples has its fair share of dodgy people, like the lady with Tourrets syndrome that slapped me on the bottom as I walked by and then proceeded to kick, hit and spit on other walkers by and the lady we saw shoot up in the wedge of her fingers as she stumbled down the main street in the middle of the day, but we did still felt quite safe. Naples is buzzy and bustling and it reminded me quite a lot of Thailand or Vietnam. Scooters buzz through the city dodging the numerous pedestrians that cross the road without even looking and Indian and African migrants sell fake sunnies and handbags on every street corner.

From Naples we visited the ruins of Pompeii. In 79AD, or thereabouts, Mt Vesuvius errupted and the ash from the erruption wiped out the town of Pompeii below but at the same time preserving it so well that the ruins we know today are the most intact Roman ruins in the world. At the ruins you can imagine just how life was back in time with bath houses, brothels, restaurants, ampitheatres and day to day households.

Meg came to join us on our last night in Naples and from the 3 of us headed south to the Amalfi coast visiting the towns of Sorrento and Positano. Both are picturesque towns filled with expensive restaurants, hotels and souvenire shops. Positano is the typical postcard picture that you see of the Amalfi coast. Hotels and restaurants are built into the side of the cliff accessed by narrow pathways on foot or scooter only. Despite being very expensive we still really enjoyed our 3 days of sun and sand here living maily on margharita pizza and cheap but very tasty red wine. All good things must come to an end though and unfortunatly we had to say Ciao to Meg who headed back to Naples and we headed North to Rome to start our archaelogical tour of Italy.