Roma to Tuscana to Napoli to Palermo

Lots to catch up with it seems!

I ended up staying an extra day in Rome (to make it three days total) and ended up seeing the Pope give his address to St. Peter's Square for Pentecost. Also, saw a Police exhibition (Italian cops have Lamborgini chase cars) and went to the typewriter again (Nathan still had to see it). Oh yeah, its a small world, cause I bumped into Peter from the U of T mountain biking team randomly at the hostel bar... crazy.

After Rome, I managed to figure out a route to see the Tontini's in Tuscany that involved many regional trains and a few hours of travel. They were staying out near Castellina in Chianti (the Chiani region or township or something) in a nice house in the hills surrounded by vineyards and fields of olive trees. I actually arrived in a town near this and had to wander around town until I found someone who would rent me a bike for a couple days :) I was able to leave my backpack as collateral and just take my small rucksack for the night. Liv left some signs along the way to point me in the right direction and after a half hour ride (and some walking up the hills), I made it! only to find the Tontini's were out for the day and had left a message telling me to call them on their cell.... but I was in the middle of nowhere with no phone of my own. Yadda yadda yadda, they showed up and we all had an amazing dinner and night of drinking vino, grappa and playing cards and night soccer. Cool stuff!

I took off early to spend a day on the trains to make it to Naples, about half a megameter south. Not much along the way except for a couple of Americans I met who happened to share my interest in SciFi novels and who were just returning home after a semester of studying in London and Spain somewhere... they ended up giving me a book to read (Digital Fortress) and I've been eating my way through it pretty quickly!

Napoli was kind of sketchy arriving after dark, there were about 5 cabs for each person arriving at the train station, who wanted like 20 euros for a ride that costs 1 by bus. Forget about it! I stayed at the Hostel of the Sun that night and met up with Anny from school. The two of us, plus some other people from the hostel (minus Anny's friends who just enjoy staying in??) went out for a couple drinks on the town. We ended up at the Blue Moon and just had a couple before retiring for the night in preparation for an early morning.

We (me, Anny, plus her friends Whinney (as in the Pooh) and Christina) caught the 7:35 ferry to Capri. Man its a sweet island, it reminds me of St. Martin in the way that it just seems like a mountain jutting out of the ocean. We checked out the Villa Jovis, where Roman emperor Tiberius chilled 2 thousand years ago, ate some toast (toasted sandwiches, not just a piece of bread) and rented a motor boat to cruise around the island. The boat ride was a riot for a few reasons: the ocean was very choppy, the girls were terrified basically the whole ride (obviously I was driving and making it more exciting than it needed to be!), the boat was small so those prone to seasickness didn't do so well, and there was a natural arch sticking out of the ocean that we got to drive the boat through... twice!It was an amazing use of 65 euros between the 4 of us, we would have paid 10 euros each for the same ride on a tour boat, but with not so nearly as much excitement :)

I took the ferry yeasterday at 8pm (of course, we arrived at like 7:20 back from Capri, so it was a little bit rushed) to Palermo where I've been relaxing since I arrived at the dock. I'm staying at Giorgio's House, see his website www.giorgioshouse.com . The website pretty much says it all, Giorgio is a funny guy and loves hosting the people who stay at his place... he gives free tours by day (sites) and night (partying) and also has workout days for the people visiting.

Well, until next time, I hope everyone is doing well. The plan is to hang out here and go to the world beach festival www.wwfestival.com with Jeff when he arrives here, then who knows?? I've got no plans after that!