12th July 99, Monday. 1135hrs. ‘Armed Forces-South’ beach, N. of Naples.
It’s sunny, and for the first time in a few days in Italy, I don’t think it’s going to rain!
The beach is red hot, the sand burns the feet. The sea looks inviting, but I honestly don’t know if I’d make it from under the umbrella to the water’s edge without inducing hospitalising-degree injuries!
The journey yesterday was no problem, and arriving at Sam’s parents’ was great. We had an amazing meal on the porch overlooking the Napoli bay, Capri and Cumae in the distance. My bed is huge, and because of the similarity to my bed at home, waking up this morning was really tough!
On Saturday we stayed in Florence, sorted insurance, Barclay’s and traveller’s cheques out and generally relaxed and enjoyed Florence.
We haven’t decided what to do next. Because of the way things have worked out we either got to Rome, and do less of Greece, or not do Rome, and do Greece as thoroughly as we originally planned, seeing Olympia, Athens and Delphi before heading to Crete for the wedding.
Greece is still as alluring as it was, but I’ve heard so much about Rome – The Vatican, the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps...
I’m tempted not to go. Why? So I have a reason to come back! TO leave one of the major attractions untouched, sacrosanct, gives a bit of a thrill – buck the trend, do my own thing.
Rome seems a big enough reason to come to Italy, wouldn’t you say?
We’re probably going to go to Pompeii tomorrow, which I’m really looking forward to. We’ll go into Naples at some point, and I’d really like to go to the top of Mt. Vesuvius (still alive and kicking after all these years...) and see the crater.
My credit/debit cards were being sent out to our address, but for some reason (being a military address) putting ‘Naples, Italy’ on it slows it down by about three weeks, because of instead of coming out by plane direct to the base, it goes into the Italian postal system (probably) which has the equivalent effect of writing ‘don’t bother with this, it’s not important, whenever you’ve got the time to deliver it, or if you can’t be arsed, throw it away’ on it. So I’ve contrived some sort of plan where I definitely get a Barclaycard, and if my Connect Card turns up (‘Naples, Italy’ was in brackets and it was sent via super-duper airmail, first class, here have a pint yourself mate type mail, so there is some hope) so much the better.
Nevertheless, the shadows thrown by the theft will overshadow the rest of the trip, so I have to learn to live with them or I won’t enjoy myself!
