We arrived on the overnight ferry at Bari, East coast of Italy from Dubrovnik at 8am on the 10th September. We were going to stay in Bari although it was rainy and wet.
Bari
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| Bari, Italy from the ferry |
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| Chilly on Deck |
We drove for 3 hours to stay in Paestum, by the beach, on the West coast.
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| 4 week old puppy where we stayed |
We stayed one night there, so that the following day we could drive the Amalfi coast route on our way to Pompeii and Naples.
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| Village on the Amalfi Coast |
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| Village on the Amalfi Coast |
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| Lunch in Positano |
Pompeii
Pompeii is a city of the Roman Empire in Campania on the East coast of Italy. It was founded 6BC, and was destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD.
We stayed in Naples for two nights before heading up to Rome where we stayed from the 13th to the 17th of September. We were all excited about going to Rome as we were meeting up with our friends from Sydney - Fiona, Richard, Bella, Ally, Tilly and Claudia Doyle. So we were 4 parents and 7 daughters; at one point someone asked Mum if we were all her children! It was great to spend so much time with friends from Australia again.
From Rome we, drove to Tuscany. On the way we stopped at two fabulous Tuscan villages - Siena and San Gimignamo.
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| San Gimignamo |
We stayed in a small hill-town village in a house that was built 800 years ago! The town was called Palaia.
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| View from Palaia |
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| Palaia town |
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| Palaia Pizza Restaurant |
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| Our apartment is next to the Church Tower |
We had a day out to Pisa, where we saw the Leaning Tower, and rode around town on a family bicycle!
From Palaia, we drove to a small town called Leivi, in the province of Genoa. We stayed there for two nights, and visited local villages such as Chiavari.
We had nearly two weeks in Italy, and enjoyed seeing the history, different regions, and ofcourse the food. It was a big bonus to see our friends the Doyles. Our next stop - Nice, France to meet Uncle Ian on a work trip from the US.
