Stromboli

I finally made it to Sicily, via the island of Stromboli. Home to several restaurants, bars and an active volcano, Stromboli is an odd little place. Not a great deal to do on the island, but I guess that is why people go there, it is very chilled out. The main activity

on the island for tourists is to climb the volcano and admire the occasional eruption of lava during the night. I didn't get a chance to do this as there was cloud covering the volcano for the 3 days I was there. I did some smaller walks around the volcano, even heard an eruption at one point which was something, not nothing. The rest of the time I swam, ate, slept and asked locals when they thought the wind would stop blowing so that the ferries could access the hundreds of stranded tourists, me included. I stayed in a house in the village, coincidentally owned by John from Melbourne, East Doncaster to be exact. He and his wife have been spending each summer on Stromboli for the past 30 years to avoid the Melbourne winter.

Sorrento

I had 6 days in Sorrento staying with friends in a beautiful place overlooking Mount Vesuvias and the Bay of Napoli. Went to Capri, but was not in the mood for thousands of slow moving, overweight tourists so caught the ferry back to Sorrento after an hour. Enjoyed relaxing in Sorrento though, I think I will be back one day.

Naples

A gritty, noisy city with a hidden beauty, I stayed in Naples for 2 nights recently. Brilliant museums, palaces and castles are scattered all over the city. Narrow dark lanes dominate the old city, lots of pizzerias too as this is home to the Margherita. I will return to discover some more treasures here, far less tourists than Rome due to Naples bad reputation for muggings. So far so good for me though. I was given the task of driving a car through the city a few days ago, which was an experience, with scooters flying past, cars swerving in and out between other cars and lots of horn tooting.

When in Rome....

Thanks for all of your support over the past year and more recently the thoughtful emails I have received. I am lucky to have so many great friends and such a loving family.

It has been an emotional and fast paced last week or so, covering a lot of Rome by foot, a train to Naples, the unexpected task of driving a car out of Naples to Sorrento and now by luck, chance, fate, human kindness, coincidence whatever you want to call it, I am staying in an apartment in Sorrento overlooking the Bay of Napoli. Mount Vesuvias is the first thing I see when I walk outside each morning. It's going to be hard to leave!

For those interested in the weather, it finally rained, in Rome. Thunder, lightning, the works.

On my first night in Rome I managed to get my hands on some tickets to a football match. Home team Lazio versus Juventus. I went along with a Japanese guy, nicknamed Micchi, who I met in my room at the youth hostel. We got separated once we arrived at the stadium gates as our tickets were in different sections of the ground. I sat behind the goals in the northern end of the Olympic Stadium. A very passionate bunch the Italian football fans; lots of chanting, flag and scarve waving, animated hand gestures. It was a tight game until around the 70th minute when Juventus scored, a deep depression instantly engulfed the Lazio supporters and a couple of fights broke out in the crowd. The small Juventus section made a lot of noise. At 80 minutes Lazio supporters started walking out of the ground, disgusted, heads down. At 90 minutes Juventus scored again and I thought I was going to witness my first soccer riot. I put my dissapointed Lazio fan face on and met Micchi outside the ground.

I went to the colosseum, the Sistine Chapel, Saint Peter's, Trevi Fountain, all the usual tourist highlights of Rome. Not so touristy was a nightclub Micchy and I caught a taxi to on a Sunday night. Apparently it was the 'nightlife street', night yes, life no. We decided to walk into the club with 2 patrons rather than 1. We reached a room where the techno beats were coming from to find a man at the end of the room infront of a computer, this man was the DJ. There was nobody else in the room, although this was the dancefloor. Some weird interpretative dance movements from Micchi and I didn't help bring others to the dancefloor. Although a lady with a broom did come out at one point and sweep around our feet. I danced with her broom for a short period before deciding to leave. Micchi was in some kind of a trance, really getting into the music, which was terrible. I dragged him out and decided to never go out 'clubbing' in Rome again.

Goodbye Siena, Hello Grosseto

Back peddling again. I rode from Siena to Grosseto yesterday, about 50kms further than I intended but I couldn't find a place to stay anywhere. Eventually settled for a room overlooking a carpark in Grosseto. Heading to an island called Giglio today for some camping and then off to Rome for a few days.

It's been brought to my attention that some followers of this blog think that there is not enough photos of my bike included. I will try and rectify this in forthcoming weeks.

Goodluck to the Fitzroy amateur footy club this weekend in the D1 Grand Final.

The Constant Tuscan Gardener - Part 2

I fall asleep in my warm caravan to the sounds of Wild Boar grunting and snorting in the forests around me. The 4 dogs have grown to accept me as their new master and sleep under my caravan every night, responding to the Wild Boar with bouts of aggressive barking. I awake to the sound of donkeys calling for their morning feed of mixed grain. Once the animals have been fed I eat some breakfast and recommence my duties for the day, usually consisting of raking up fallen leaves and watering the garden. After a lunch of pasta and vegetables, I rest in the hammock surrounded by tall evergreens, do some reading and fight off mosquitos. Sometimes I fall asleep. The break after lunch is about 2 hours and I normally just rest as the sun here is relentless. Still no rain. Sometimes I take a trip into the local gelateria and indulge in a cone with 3 flavours of gelato. I have read 2 Hemingway books here, Fiesta and A Farewell To Arms. I feel less guilty sipping on a Cinzano and tonic at the end of the day after reading these books. Enjoyed a Reiki session the other day and also joined a meditative dance session which involved standing up and spinning around in circles for 30 minutes staring at the palm of my hand. The leaves fall from the trees with the slightest of breezes and I await with rake in hand to fill my barrow. I finish here on Sunday and ride into Siena where I will look forward to a long sleep in. The time on the farm has been fantastic though, I have met many lovely, gentle people, some of whom I will remain in contact.

I have included some more photos from a few weeks ago...