Farewell Transmission: It's Italy, not Shitaly!

Welcome to part one of our manic seven day tour of Italy. To give you a better idea of the travel involved I've included a map of our destinations with allocated numbers (Next to the photos i'll allocate a number so you know where the shot was taken). For our trip we formed a team of Super-Friends with my best buddy Heath McGregor and friend, ex-work colleague, and Italian Language expert Emily Petricola. For this trip we hired a car to roam (no pun intended) the lands freely. And what lands! Italy proved to be one of the most beautiful countries we've ever been to and it really was worth hiring a car to get a truly personal view of the country side. Also Emily ought to get extra credit points for doing an astounding job of driving!

1. Pisa
2. Tavernelle Val d'Pesa
3. Siena
4. Florence
5. Cecina
6. San Gimignano
7.Naples
8.Rome

(2) The Super Friends.

(1) The leaning tower of Pisa isn't just the name of a good Pizza and Pasta place in Ballarat. No, it's also a major landmark. After a stuggle with getting the hire car (which was when we learned of Emily's brother's nickname for Italy's lazy and unorganized attitude to anything involving organization: 'Shitaly') we could finally hit the road.

(2) This is the town we were based in for four nights, a beautiful quite town with a communtiy atmosphere I've never encountered anywhere else. They live a very social lifestyle which includes a lot of sitting outside, gossiping, walking the streets, gossiping, drinking coffee and of course, gossiping. A week long festival was on when we arrived which includes different parts of the town wearing different colours, marching together and singing until they arrive in the town square and play bingo.

5. Florence was beautiful, but the day we where there it was 36 degrees with around a hundred percent humidity and then add the throng of loud sweaty tourists and it all adds up to a flying visit.

5. We decided to take advantage of the 35 degree weather and headed to the beach at Cecina. The beach was more a grit than a sand. The only problem was that the wind was so strong that we were constantly in a sand storm. Nice otherwise.

6. San Gimignano is a beautiful walled town a half hour from where we where staying.

Emily makes friendly with the locals.

2. Ah, the lovely rolling hills of Tuscany.

I love the souvenirs.

7.Naples is a great city which we all wished we could have spent a little more time in. We raced into town after a five hour drive in from Via Della Tavernelle into it's chaotic, lawless streets. See below.

Going to Naples? Odds are you'll be going to see Pompeii. We were greeted with yet another scorcher of a day. It truly is an amazingly large set of ruins.

That night we roamed the backstreets of Naples and had one hell of a great pizza. It's true, they do do the best pizzas in the world. The streets were pretty amazing, too.