Italian magic

The Amalfi Coast is everything I love about Italy. The dramatic coastline, crystal clear water, passionate people (here is where talking with your hands was born), ancient ruins, simply delicious food and limoncello.

Me at Anacapri

Heading south from Rome, we skirt around Naples – home to pizza, the mafia and drivers with a death wish. Although, the more I see this chaotic, crazy driving that seems sure to end in disaster, the more I am convinced there is actually some sort of method to the absolute madness – you just have to be born in Italy to be in on the secret. We learn a little sign that may indicate a real member of the mafia is around – look for the missing top on the left hand trigger finger – then slowly back away.

Pick your position

We arrive in Pompeii, the ancient city that was frozen in time when Mt Vesuvius, which is still active and has thousands living and working on the fertile land at its base, erupted thousands of years ago. I am surprised to see greenery among the ruins and we welcome a light breeze that keeps the heat from becoming overwhelming. Our guide takes us along roads, built with complete drainage systems, through bath houses which had hot and cold running water and even into a brothel with pictures on the wall to allow customers to choose their preferred style - the Romans had it all sorted. When archaeologists discovered gaps in the buried city, they filled them with plaster – many turned out to be perfectly formed human shapes, complete with the look of surprise that was on their face as they were immortalised in searing hot lava.

Sorrento is our destination for the two nights and across the harbour down below, Mt Vesuvius still looms in the distance. Lemons and tomatoes are everywhere down here and we taste some Limoncello and homemade chocolates before a four course feast of bruschetta, zucchini pasta, fish with fresh chopped tomato and tiramisu – finished with a Limoncello of course J





Inside the Blue Grotto

Next day is Capri. We cruise out and stop at the famous Blue Grotto where we are loaded into small boats of 4 people and told to lie down and close our eyes while we pass through the 2 x 2m hole in the cliff face into a cave filled with electric blue water that is absolutely dazzling – it’s impossible to capture its full effect in a photo, but I tried! Back on board we sail past the Green Grotto – beautifully coloured water, but not a patch on the Blue Grotto. Arriving at Marina Piccolo, we jump off and after a delicious fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich,  catch the bus first up to the town of Capri, then another bus up to the top – Anacapri. The road is extremely narrow and winding and miraculously two busses can pass each other, although how they do it is beyond me. We are standing on the bus and suddenly the houses end and we are staring down a sheer cliff face to the water, with only a tiny road barrier between us and thehuge drop. If my heart hadn’t been racing so fast, I might have been able to enjoy the spectacular views! Luckily, we arrive safely, walk through Anacapri and find a spot to capture the scene on camera – spectacular. It’s very hot so time for a relaxing swim in the beautiful water - until I discover that jellyfish are quite common there and retreat to the safety of my sun lounge. On the way back we pass under a natural arch in a rock, where it is good luck for two lovers to kiss

Kissing arch

The spectacular Amalfi Coast road was saved for the final day. We stop just before Positano to snap some photos of this gorgeous village and stock up from the fruit stand which also sold packets of rice mixed up with herbs - ready to make risotto, with cooking instructions in English. I thought I would take a chance and it seems even I can make delicious risotto when armed with the right packet mix – zucchini was a success, Limoncello still to be attempted.

First stop for the day is the actual village of Amalfi, with its impressive Duomo and a fountain with the water coming out of a lady’s breasts. We take a boat cruise along the coast to admire the homes and hotels that look tiny from the road, but impressive once you see how they climb down the cliffs, down to the tiny beaches squeezed in between the water and the rock. We head to a small family owned bakery where I have the most delicious lemon custard filled donut and as I am thanking the charming older man that owns it, I notice that the top part of his trigger finger is missing.



View from Ravello

Last stop is Ravello, a gorgeous place with sweeping views from either side, lush villas and the best eggplant parmigiana I have ever had. This one has been put back on my to do list, the beautiful gardens and views from the villas need more time to be explored – and I do need to make sure that the eggplant parmigiana wasn’t too good to be true………..I’ll be back soon Amalfi Coast

G is for Gyros, Greek salad, Greek gods and God I love my life!



Oia, Santorini

I was actually excited getting on the plane in Rome, Europe is becoming so familiar to me that I was really looking forward to landing in Athens – somewhere new to explore! Despite being warned about the high crime rate on the metro, the large amount of junkies found around the hostel and my worried parents making sure I wasn’t going to be injured in a violent protest, it was impressive to emerge into central Athens and look up to the Acropolis looming over the city. 12 hours later and a 4.30am wake up call, we were at the port having the first of many classic Greek breakfasts – spinach and feta pie with a coffee frappe. Just a few things to be careful of………..make sure to drink bottled water and you are not allowed to throw anything into the toilet……..including toilet paper. Welcome in Greece!



Fira - Santorini

6 hours later and Mykonos was straight ahead – I was disappointed with the view – where were all the white and blue buildings crowded along the cliffs? There was only a few square, white buildings dotted along the sparse, rocky landscape. Disappointment forgotten as we arrived at Paradise Beach, bars and restaurants all along the beach, straw umbrellas, deck chairs, cocktail waitresses, beautiful clear water and a pizza oven manned by Ari from Naples. Cheese saganaki and lamb souvlaki under a canopy of pink flowers, cocktails next to a window open over the bay and then shots, cocktails and dancing before embracing Greek culture and jumping the taxi queue and speeding away to shouts of abuse ha ha ha. Perfect day relaxing on the beach, chowing down on gyros, greek salad and proper pizza and then a cocktail on the beach bar lounge, watching the full moon sparkle over the ocean.



Cocktails on the private beach

Paros was next on the list and again, where are all the blue and white buildings?!?! We headed out to a private beach for a greek feast, some plate smashing and zorba dancing. Quite a task when getting dragged around, trying to hold my dress down against the wind and avoid slipping on all the shards of smashed plates! But so much fun!








Lunch on the Paros boat cruise

Mickey, me and Captain Antonio

The next day was magic. We boarded a sail boat, manned by the magnificent Captain Antonio and sailed around to Antiparos in the bluest, clearest water I have ever seen. Apparently it is traditional for the guide to join the captain for a vodka shot at 10am, so I couldn’t say no – and then every time the real guide announced over the speaker there was a telephone call for me it really meant that there was a new type of home brewed spirit for me to try J We ate chargrilled octopus for lunch that had been freshly caught that morning and hanging up on the side of the boat on our cruise out, washed down with homemade Ouzo and then swimming under caves and arches

Oia, Santorini

Santorini was next on the list and this was looking more like it. Masses of white houses piled up on the cliffs and our view down to the harbour and over to the volcano was magnificent. The sunset really is the most beautiful I have ever seen, all 4 nights I was there was a perfect ball of red dropping into the ocean and washing the sky shades of orange and pink. We were driven around by Stavros, a lovely and hilarious local, who loved to get on the microphone and to use greek food as a metaphor for life! We visited Perissa, a black beach that turns to one huge (and slippery) rock shelf after around 1 metre of fine black pebbles. Much better to lie on the sun lounges, under the straw umbrella and press the buzzer when I want another frappe, omelette or greek salad to be brought over ;-) We went to the Monastery of the Prophet Elijah, with 360 degree views of the whole island and to Santo Wines that has tasty white and desert wine, million dollar views over the ocean and is THE place to get married. The awesome red beach, which involved a sketchy hike (in thongs), where I think it was very lucky that nobody slipped and broke something, but the reward of perfectly clear, refreshing water and a mermaid rock to bask in the sun on made it all worth it

Oia, Santorini

Then we discovered Oia. THIS is where all the iconic blue and white building photographs are taken! I ran around for hours in delight, snapping hundreds of photos and so excited to be in the exact place that I had dreamed about a million years ago, staring at the photo pinned on my “wish we (I miss you Michelle!) were here” wall at work. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and I fully intend to go back one day and stay in one of the cliff side hotels with the infinity pools overlooking the ocean.

Perissa, black beach, Santorini

Door to?



It was so sad to leave Santorini, but I was pleasantly surprised by Ios – the Far Out Village is beautiful, a perfect blue pool from which you can see the ocean and consistently sensational food such as chicken risotto and grilled fish from the very reasonably priced restaurant. This is where I spent my entire second day, after the legendary pub crawl of the first night. Ios is famous for its nightlife and it didn’t disappoint – the Fun Pub had giant jenga and a pool competition, Flames bar had hands in the air dancing with “snow” falling, Rehab had a male strip show with boys picked out from the beach who decided to get it ALL off and entertained us with some quite talented pole dancing, Slammers let you put on a helmet and get slammed over the head with a hammer, milk crate or pole while you drink a tequila slammer and Orange bar had shots that tasted exactly like the chocolate bars they were named after and played all my favourite grungy and 70’s music. I didn’t quite make it to sunrise but I tried hard!

Far Out Village, Ios



Now back to reality and work……..oh wait, not before 3 days on our Italian Adventure to the Amalfi Coast…………you can hate me, it’s ok J