Italian beaches, Roman ruins and Milano shoes

After Naples, we headed for Baia Domizia for some much needed beach relaxation. After catching the local bus (driven by yet another crazy Italian driver with no concept of one-way streets, centrifugal force or the fact that he was in charge of a top heavy bus travelling at 80km through narrow streets and roundabouts) to the Baia Domizia Villagio campground, we realised that our expectations of what constitutes a campground were about to be blown out of the window. This place was literally - as the name suggests - a village! It had at least 450 shady sites sites and cabins, 3 resort style pools (complete with enormous spa), a restaurant to seat several hundred, at least a dozen amenities blocks (each with long rows of hot showers, toilets and change rooms), greengrocer, gelateria, tobacconist, supermarket, bazaar, laundry and disco bar. Being a little early in the year, the place was relatively quiet, but it was easy to imagine the place pumping in high season. It had a dedicated section of beach as well - pretty nice, although it takes a while to get used to the brown/black volcanic sand. We spent most of our time alternating between lying on the beach drinking water, lying on the grass near the beach drinking wine, and lying in the tent eating pizza. It's a hard life sometimes!

After four days of tanning, we headed off on another train ride to Roma (Rome). Our hostel was somewhat out in the 'burbs, but armed with our Naples experience in finding hostels (and some good directions off the net), we found it without any hassles - this was no mean feat, given that there was no sign on the street, only the name of the hostel next to the intercom button that let you up to the second floor. In two nights and a day we packed in a lot of Rome - drinks with some fellow hostel-ees at a reggae bar the first night, the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and St Peter's Basilica during the day, drinks at the hostel owner's former bar, and finished off with a visit to the Spanish Steps. The ruins throughout Rome are pretty unbelievable, and they're not limited to the tourist drawcards such as the Colosseum - the central train station has ruins underground, in McDonalds!


We also climbed up the dome of St Peter's Basilica, which has fantastic views over the whole of Vatican city and Rome. Unfortunately we ran out of time to see some other sights (like the Vatican museum and Sistine chapel), but hopefully we'll get a chance to come back to Italy later in the year.


Now, for those of you who don't already know, we're actually in Italy so that Lecky can do some work with the Australian flatwater kayak team in Varese, prior to the World Cup in Szeged, Hungary. This truly is a terrible part of the world, as you'll see from our photos :-) And what makes it even worse it the proximity to Milan - again, this is truly a terrible thing. One day of shopping could have seriously put a dint in the travelling budget, had it not been for some tough self-control (and forgetting the second credit card helped too). The shoes were amazing, the clothes stunning, the gelato delicious and the panzarotti - outstanding!