Ok, so although we were headed for Naples, we actually saw no more of it than the train station....not that by the sound of it we missed anything. We caught the train between Rome and Naples and had to sit by these extremely loud Italian women...i swear that i have never heard a louder culture, everything is loud...to the point where it constantly sounds like they are arguing, even when they are just speaking. Caleb was getting sooo mad at them, at one point a lady further down the train even said a super loud Shhhhh, which kept them in check only for a bit. Anyway, we were heading for our hostel (which was amazing by they way) and it was just out of Naples at a little fishing village thing. We got a wee bit lost getting there, which was pretty funny cos we had just been singing our own praises at our navigational skills, and straight away stuffed up. lol. But we werent too screwed and we managed to sort it out. My birthday was very cool. We spent time at Pompeii, the ruins of a city that was buried by mount vesuvius erupting, and it was cool because the mountain had actually erupted on the 24th of August which was the day we were there. We also spent time in Sorrento, which i guess is best described as a wealthy hang out for both tourists and celebrities. Its a gorgeous town, perched on the cliffs. It was here that we savoured the european beach experience of chilling at the beach whilst lying on a deck chair on a floating wharf....slightly different from the NZ version, really quite bizarre. It was nice to be able to get in the water, even if we had to pay quite a lot for the privelege...weird! Caleb got absoloutely roasted...kinda like a roast carrot...lol im sooo funny. Lucky its me writing these blogs.
We headed back to rome for the night before joining our tour and stayed back at the slightly dodgy hostel we had stayed at previously. We were stoked cos this time we got AC, but the owner nearly drove us mental. We think he is suffering the effects of the bad feedback posted on line, so he was going out of his way to try to be accomodating, instead driving us mad. The morning that we were leaving there he knocked on our dorm room door but noone got up cos we were all still in bed...so he let himself him! Ok so he had breakfast with him,but still....leave us alone. Then about an hour later he returned, no one had eaten the breakfast cos we were still in bed and he got really offended, asking if we didnt like the breakfast, what was wrong with it.We really didnt say much in reply, i mean what do you say to the crazy italian man. Then he started asking me questions in broken english about my email...had i checked it? what did i write? i was sooo confused, didnt know what he was goin on about...and then...he gets me out of bed saying i needed to check my email!!! What the heck! but im silly and go with him. He waits for me to log in and then stands behind me to tell me to fill out the feedback form for his hostel. Im useless at saying no, so i filled it out while he watched...he then asked me to change some of my answers to higher scores....i didnt cos i had already been generous because of him watching over my shoulder, so i was a little bit assertive i guess. Anyway, i went back to the room and told Caleb, who was pissed!!!! Lucky the guy asked me or Caleb would have told him where to go! So yeah, thats our annoying as hostel owner. Unluckily for him, because we stayed there twice, we slammed him on the second feedback, when noone was looking over my shoulder.

We left our part of Rome on the 26th to head to further out where we were meeting our tour...again we were pretty pleased with our navigation skills, and super impressed with the fact that Rome has free buses....who would have thought. We werent sure about the bus fares, so we stood back and watched a couple of buses load on etc and saw noone was paying, so when our bus rocked up, we jumped on and got dropped off at our stop. It was only later as i was singing the praises of the free buses to another girl on our tour that she put me right.....no such thing as free buses, you have to pre purchase a ticket and carry it with you. Random checks are carried out and if you are found without a ticket, instant 50 euro fine!!! Whoops! She herself had been the recipient of a fine.....so we were very very lucky. We have seen our fair share of fines being given on the trains....so im not sure what we were thinking re the buses being free...as if!

Our tour has started well....spent first night in Rome, then the next day travelling. We stopped in at Verona, which was incredibly gorgeous and clean compared with Rome. Got to see Juliets(from Romeo and Juliet) balcony etc, not very long there, but enough to appreciate the city. It has well preserved ancient city walls too which are mean. Our final destination was Venice where we have just spent the day. It really is quite cool....bridge after bridge after bridge connecting the 117 islands or something. Went on a gondola ride...tick that off our bucket lists, and saw the main sights. Another hot day, but probably only in the 30's which is far more bearable. Tonight we have a toga party....so should be interesting!
Looking forward to heading to Austria tomorrow, heard lots about it and sounds gorgeous. dont know if you know but the hills are alive with the sound of music....(apparently).
Later gaters!