Lucerne/Zurich/Austria

Once again it was a spectacular drive through the mountains, on very windy roads.
At one point we found a heap of cars all parked around an information center, so we decided to stop there and have a look what all the fuss was about. Turns out that we were at the foot of a huge glacier! 

We were able to walk down into the glacier, which had an incredible ice cave.
The view of the mountains from here was amazing, as was the huge pool of bright blue water at the bottom of the glacier which lead into a waterfall.
Walking through the ice cave was awesome, it was freezing cold and gave everything an eery blue tinge. In the room you could see huge crevices . It was an amazing thing to walk though and once we left the cave we walked out onto the glacier!
The whole thing was incredible to have stumbled on, it was one of the coolest things we have ever done.

We continued our drive through the mountains, with plenty of stops to enjoy the spectacular views. Gradually we made our way down to the lakeside city of Lucerne, which was a gorgeous little city, with a medieval old town. It was a bit of a shock getting there and stepping out into 35 degree heat, compared to the 19 degrees we had come from!
We had a very relaxed night with a nice walk along the lake, trying to keep cool.

An early morning and we were packed and ready to go before the heat came in. We spent the morning wandering through the old town, although nothing in Switzerland is open on a Sunday. 

It was a quick drive into Zurich, where we spent some time looking for a place to stay. In the end we found a small caravan park about 15 mins into the country side and camped there. 

Here we camped through our first thunderstorm! It poured with rain all night and we had to pack up the tent in the pouring rain too.
We got everything into the car and headed for a small town on the Austrian border, a short drive from then small country of Liechtenstein. 

The place we stayed was just a small little bed and breakfast style hotel, it was cosy, and perfect for our first night in Austria. There was a small restaurant downstairs where we had a lovely dinner of weiner schnitzel.

Glacier

Glacier

Ice Cave

Ice Cave

Glacier

Lucerne

Lucerne

Lucerne

Tasch/Zermatt

When we went to leave in the morning we got a bit of a surprise. Overnight someone had broken into our car! Our packs were on the front seats and our stuff was all over the place. However we had taken everything of value, including our passports, in with us overnight so nothing important was taken. They only found a couple of British coins, a lantern and a phone car charger, all of which we can definately live without! But we were very lucky and will definitely not be leaving anything at all important in the car again! 

After that we were pretty keen to get out of Milan and very excited to head into Switzerland. 

Switzerland is absolutely spectacular. Driving through the Swiss Alps was incredible. There were bright green meadows, dark green pine forests and then huge snow capped mountains. Every time you looked out the window the view was easily postcard worthy. 

We found a little camping area in the small town of Tasch, which was nestled right in the mountains and not far at all from the famous Matterhorn.

We caught a shuttle up to the ski village of Zermatt, which is a car free city. Zermatt is exactly what you imagine a Swiss ski village would be, and it is absolutely beautiful. It sits in the shadow of the Matterhorn, which it took me a while to realise is the mountain pictured on Toblerone packets! It is an incredible mountain, which is still snow covered in the peak of summer.
Our afternoon in Zermatt made us realise just how expensive Switzerland is going to be, even a small Big Mac meal cost around $13. Although it’s going to be expensive, we have fallen in love with Switzerland, and Sam was extra happy when we swapped some Euro for Swiss Franc. 

Finally we had a cold night! We sat reading and listening to the other people staying there, who all seemed to be pretty serious mountaineers. It was the first time in a long time that we had to put on tracksuit pants and jumpers while we were having dinner, and we loved it. 

We took our time packing up and leaving in the morning, but made sure the tent was away before the sun made it over the mountains and the temperature started to climb into the 30’s.

Zermatt

The Matterhorn

Zermatt

Tasch - Our campsite

Venice/Milan

The next day we drove up to Venice in the morning. We found a place to camp, that had a shuttle into the city. We caught the 12:00 shuttle in and managed to spend the whole afternoon wandering around the ancient city. 

It was absolutely gorgeous. The old buildings were amazing, and the canals and bridges made the whole place incredible.
We went to the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum, where we saw all kinds of his inventions and pages of his mirrored handwriting.
Pizza for lunch before we caught a boat down the grand canal to Piazza San Marco. We wandered down small lane ways and crossed over small canals, ate gelati and then after an unsuccessful hunt for a secondhand english bookstore, we headed back to camp.
Venice really was gorgeous, and I would come back in a heartbeat, although maybe with a little but more money!

Milan was our last stop in Italy. We found a cheap place a little way out of the city and just spent one night.
We caught the tram into the center of the city, and it really is a very nice city.
We spent a bit of time around Piazza Duomo, where there is a church that holds 40,000 people! It’s a lovely square, with a fountain in the middle that is constantly covered with pigeons.
We even caught the metro to the church St. Maria Delle Grazie, which is where Leonardo Di Vinci’s Last Supper painting is. However we were disappointed to learn that to see the painting you have to book 2-3 weeks in advance. 

Though Milan is a beautiful city, full of gorgeous squares, fountains and statues, walking the streets here is kind of like walking down 5th Avenue in New York. You feel out of place unless you have a Chanel bag in you hand. Thongs or runners don’t quite cut it here.

We had one last Italian gelati and caught the tram back.

The Grand Canal

Piazza San Marco 

Duomo

Milan

Piazza Duomo

Sicily/Locri/Sorrento

From Solarino we drove up the coast and had lunch in the beautiful little town of Taormina.
We drove from there back up to Messina, where we caught the car ferry back over to the mainland. We found a little spot called Locri, right on the southern coastline, and camped right on the beach. The beach was gorgeous, and we had a nice refreshing swim in the crystal clear water before dinner. 

The caravan park was infested with mosquitoes, but that just meant we ate dinner on the beach and watched a beautiful sunset.
I managed to have another swim first thing in the morning before we began to make our way north.

We stayed in an area just outside Sorrento, in a hotel room with a balcony that overlooked the city, the ocean and Mt. Vesuvius. It was beautiful. We had pizza and sat and read on the balcony until we ran out of light. 

We had hoped to stay around Florence the next night, but even the camping areas were a little out of our price range. So we found a place about an hour away in Bologna.
It was a saga trying to anything for dinner. When we finally found a supermarket they didn’t take card, so we had to scrounge up every coin we had to buy some bolognese sauce, and then cook it in our room. 

Taormina

Taormina

Sorrento

Solarino!

A few hours in the car and a quick ferry ride and we had arrived in Sicily. It is an absolutely beautiful place, with gorgeous coastlines and mountains.
The very small town of Solarino (where Sam’s grandparents grew up) was awesome.
We were a little nervous to knock on the door of Zia Angelina (Sam’s Nonna’s older sister) but she was incredibly happy to have us there, and despite the fact the she didn’t speak any english we were able to understand her first question, are you hungry?

After eating until we couldn’t anymore we were put to bed for an afternoon nap.
Angelina’s son and his wife, Salvatore and Nina, took us for a walk through the town. We saw the town square, got gelati and even met the mayor! On our way home we stopped by the street on which Sam’s Nonna lived, and saw an example of what their house was like growing up.
Sam absolutely loved every second we spent in the town, which holds many family ties and significance. He loved being able to see the place where his grandparents had grown up.

We had a family dinner out in the country (Salvatore and Nina’s summer holiday home) with the rest of the family. Spaghetti was the main course, and it was delicious, but there was so much other food served over what seemed like 5 courses, and it was all amazing.
It was surprising for us how quickly we were able to recognize and understand words we knew, and though we couldn’t really have conversations, we managed to answer most of the questions we were asked. Our Italian phrasebook came in very very handy and was used by everyone to help us understand and them understand. 

The next morning Salvatore and Nina took us into the city of Syracuse. It was absolutely gorgeous!
It was here that we had what may be the best breakfast ever. Granita and Brioche. Which is basically ice cream and you get to dip your pastries into it!

Syracuse really was an incredibly beautiful place, the old city is on an island and attached to the new city by bridge. The old city is all cobblestone streets, lane ways and beautiful old churches and squares. It is surrounded by stunning bright blue ocean and has a couple of tiny stony beaches.
We wandered through the city and even got to see the market which mainly consisted of fruit and fish.
By the time we got back to Solarino it was definitely time for a siesta. 

We had another big family dinner, this time at Zia Angelina’s daughter and son in law’s house (Rita and Paul). They have an incredible three story villa that over looks a gorge and Solarino. We had a very nice and refreshing swim in their pool before pizza for dinner!
This was our last night in Solarino and it was great! It was so much fun and very funny even though we could only understand a little of what was being said.

In the morning we said goodbye and left Solarino, wishing we could have stayed for longer.
Both of us absolutely adored this place and it was so lovely how everyone of Sam’s relatives made us both feel so welcome. We both left very happy and glad that we had come down and experienced a much more real Italy.

Solarino

Syracuse market

Syracuse

Syracuse

Syracuse

Dinner!

Solarino

On the drive 

On the drive

Syracuse

Naples/Pompeii

After our morning in the Vatican, we spent the rest of the day in the car headed down the coast to Naples. We found a nice campsite just outside the city in a little town called Pozzuoli and decided to spend two nights.

The drive out to Pompeii was hectic, the drivers around Naples are far worse than Rome and Nancy (the GPS) seemed intent on taking us the wrong way down a one way street. But we got there in the end, and we got to spend our day exploring the ruins left by Mt Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD.
It’s an incredible place to visit and wander through. So much of the town was preserved after the eruption and has now been recovered. We were a little disappointed when we realised how much had been altered and restored, but at the same time it allowed us to see how the town looked back then, as well as now after the eruption and so many years.
The plaster casts of the bodies that had been preserved, were incredible. The detail that you can see is unbelievable. You can see their clothes, shoes and even the expressions on their faces.
It wasn’t quite how we imagined it would be, and it was definitely a lot bigger than we were expecting, but it was amazing to visit yet another place we had both dreamed of seeing.

Our next day took us down to the town of Palmi, where we spent only one night, before heading down to Sicily the next day.