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It was a bit of a strange feeling heading into camp with the AUS Kayak team at the AIS Eurohub in Varese....I realised that I only made it overseas with an international team after I left the AIS! Anyway, after wondering what the hell I was going to with minimal gear, borrowed computer, headful of mud and a few things that I Maguivered from the hardware store things got pretty busy. Workwise the setting was beautiful, the food fantastic and the athletes more than willing to work hard with the impending slection regatta ahead. One of the highlights of the camp was the relay....basically everyone cheated (false starts) and everyone claimed the win...the athletes are still trash talking each other.
Another highlight from Varese was a trip up the mountain to Socra Monte....a village up the mountain with a very religous history, and chappels built all the way down the mountain. Hard to explain...but a must see if you're ever there.
Following the camp we jumped in one of the vans that were being driven across Italy, through Slovenia and down to Szeged (Hungary), which is where the final World Cup was held. After a few near misses in the cars, some amazing scenery, particularly through Slovenia, and about 13 hours in the vans we finally arrived. Our athletes put on a very good showing, most of them making A-finals, placing in B-finals or winning medals. In the end we left with 1 gold (Davis Smith-Luke Morrissson MK2 1000m) and 2 silver medals (Ken Wallace MK1 1000m, Matt Goble MK1 200m).
Apart from the enthusiastic crowd which was more akin to a Rugby League crowd in AUS, and the extremely high calibre of competition, there was one of the most amazing displays of stunt flying that any of us had ever seen. I think the pilot was actually from the Red Bull plane racing circuit.
Following the competition we hitched a ride with one of the coaches back to Slovenia which looked amazing on the way through...so far we are very glad we came back to unexpectedly one of the most beautiful countries we have seen so far. More on that in our next post :-)
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!
Although Naples has somewhat of a poor reputation owing to the rubbish problem a few years back, the pickpockets and the traffic (lets just say road markings, signs and lights have little value!), we had a fantastic time in and around the city.
We really hadn't done any research on Italy before coming here, let alone Naples...which may have actually been the reason we enjoyed it so much! Imagine what we were thinking when after one day of exploring we had visited Pompei and climbed the volcano known as Mt. Vesuvio, with its spectacular view over the bay of Naples.
Thanks to the staff at our hostel (the Welcome Inn - can recommend!) we were asked if we knew about the 'manifestation' known as 'Adota un turista'. I have to admit I thought he was saying there was an outbreak of bedbugs or something but we soon realised that he was inviting us to attend the first 'Adopt a tourist' day in Naples! Of course we figured why not, given that we are always hoping to see the real side of a place. Basically some locals adopt you for the day and show you around the things you'd like to see or, as we did, let them take us where they thought would be good. This afternoon event turned into one of the best experiences of our trip, and also became a massive weekend full of fun! Firstly, we had about 5 guides (Ida, Enzo, Luca, Paulo, Guiseppe) for 3 of us tourists an we wandered around for a bit before we had lunch at Sorbillo's pizzeria which is locally famous as having the best pizza....we have to agree that it was the best pizza we have ever eaten, and given that pizza was invented in Naples, this makes it potentially the best pizza in the world.
After that we did the subterranean tour which is tour of the Greco-Roman aqueducts and theater under the city of Naples...a phenomenal piece of architecture with a long history. During WWII Napolitans took refuge from the bombing in these aqueducts. Although the day was very hot it was bloody cold under there! Our hosts also took us to one of their friends birthday party. They know how to bounce because there was so much food and drink on offer that we ate and drank for hours...we were also very popular and spent a lot of time fielding questions on every facet of Australian life, which of course we were more than happy to do.
The following day (Sunday) we were invited to a traditional Napolitana Sunday feast with all the family. My god. For 3 hours 13 of us ate about 8 courses, while the soccer played in the background (complete with swearing and cursing in Italian). We followed this up with about 20 games of fuseball too. I think I'm safe in saying we got the authenic experience for the whole weekend...certainly one we will never forget, and some of the kindest new friends that we hope to see in Australia in the near future. They knew so much about their city and were so proud of it that its hard to explain.
Now we head camping at Baia Domizia en route to Rome...can't wait to get to the beach!
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