We’ve left it until the last day to visit Pompeii. We leave Positano by about 1pm and travel via private transfer to the ruins. We have precisely 2 hours to do a speedy tour on our way to Rome and the airport. It doesn’t seem right, but we’ve decided we can’t miss it. By the …
The Isle of Capri is on all of our bucket lists. I think it’s on most bucket lists when you come to this part of the world. We take the ferry over on a sunny morning and arrive at the bustling port. It’s teeming with tourists and we wonder what it would be like in …
We fly into Naples on a clear Spring morning and have a private transfer organised to Positano. We number five, as our group has split for 3 days to explore other places. We drive past the silent spectre of Mt Vesuvius. It looms – and I feel quite strange. All my life I have wondered …
It was an exhausting finish to our food tour of Sicily, but we wind up, literally, at Taormina – a stylish, tourist mecca north of Catania. It’s accessed by a windy mountain road, with sheer drops at the side of the bus that make us dizzy. You think the worst. It’s a very long …
Sicily is a bit of a food bowl for Italy – and its signature crop is tomatoes. We visit a couple of tomato farms and briefly duck into an eggplant farm, to find richly coloured vegetables that are much brighter and vividly purple than our Australian counterparts. The tomato family and Carmel’s family band together …
The bit about us being rockstars in a seaside village that doesn’t see many international tourists, and even less tourists with blonde hair – is not an exaggeration. The village is pumping and the piazza is swollen with people, clustered or strolling – all with one eye glancing sideways, people watching. The good cars are …
There are moments when emotions take over. We have been welcomed into the village like rockstars. Where are you from? They ask. Australia, we reply. Ahhhhh. They nod but they look a bit confused. With exception of one of us we are all blonde or blond-ish, and Carmel explains blonde hair is like a magnet …
Yesterday we visited a specialty butcher in a village called Chiaramonte – known as the Balcony of Sicily. We wound our way up in the bus, only to need fresh air at the top – some of the rebels at the back, felt a bit queezy after the windy climb. Massimillo (Max) makes traditional donkey …
It’s not often you get to dine at a Michelin 3 star restaurant, especially since you won’t find any in Australia as we have hats not stars. Duomo, is in the most beautiful historic village we’ve seen yet. Ragusa Ibla, is draped over a vertiginous mountain face, with signature cobbled streets and groovy little street …
I’m a day or so behind. As I write this on my beach front terrace, with water lapping at the groin and another clear blue sky, the local church bells are ringing and I am still dreaming about the places Carmel has taken us over the last couple of days. Modica – is a world …