Arrivederci Roma... and Italy

After two blissful months I have finally left Italy and moved onto the next stage of my journey, Greece.

I really couldn't have asked for more from my last few weeks in Italy. The hostels in Rome and Naples were pretty much perfect, and I had the pleasure of meeting some of the most genuine people I could imagine.

Initially I was a little dubious about stopping in a hostel a short train journey outside of central Rome, but it worked out to be a perfect base. In 20 minutes I was in the centre of bustling Rome, mingling in with The Colloseum and The Vatican, keeping up with the pace of the capital in over 35 degrees heat. Yet on a day when I really just needed to rest the peaceful old town of Zagarolo was waiting with open arms, and more importantly, an open pool.

Of course I managed to fit in a decent amount of 'touristy' activities between the pool sessions, The Colleseum and the Roman Forum being particular favourites of mine. The Spanish Steps were more than a little underwhelming I'm not going to lie. It's literally just some steps.

I also have a confession to make, I kind of skipped The Vatican a little bit... It was a friend's last day and the queue was three hours long so we just left. In all honesty though I feel like it's something I should see, but not neccessarily something I really wanted to see.

After hearing a general consensus of horrid reveiews of Naples, and being only recently reuinited with my cards, I decided to yet again stay just outside of the city. Unforutnaly after some slight travel issues I ended up with only two full days to do everything! Day one was spent with one of the seemingly endless supply of Australians staying at my hostel, visiting Vesuvius and Pompeii. The views from Vesuvius's sumit are phemominal, and the sight of misinformed tourists attempting to climb it in flip flops and jeans is even better! At Pompeii we deceided to save some money and skip the audio tour. Terrible idea. I still have no idea of the things we saw...

Day two and yet another of the Australians had suggested renting a Vespa. Yes! We caught the train to Sorrento and from there rode down the length of the Amalfi coast. That has to be up there with one of the best experiences I've had so far.

After 35 hours travel via several busses, trains and one ludicrously long ferry journey I arrived in Athens. Here I met my parents and am now spending the week in Naxos, an island which my mum lived on when she was my age!