Travel Update

Hi there
Thought I'd make a few notes.
Hong Kong was an experience we would like to repeat and in hindsight could have stayed longer. Perhaps not in typhoon season next time. We were the only people wearing rain coats - small umbrellas everywhere!  Very wet with 100% humidity. Went to go back for swim at the hotel to cool off before our flight.  Just as we were hopping in the pool, was told it was closed due to expected thunder storm.

Footnote: Anna - no Nexus phone covers to be found in HK. All iPhone crazy there. Their HTC is called Desire and fatter than our phones.

Rome was amazing. Don't think we can truly begin to appreciate alll the history in such a small circumference. Rome was a lot cleaner than we were expecting. Weather was hot and sunny for the 3 days.

Our hotel couldn't have been in a better location. The Trevi Fountain a block one direction and the Pantheon in the other. The il Vittoriano, Colosseum down the end of the road.

We visited Palantine - ancient Rome's home to emperors and the celebrities of the time. The Capitoline Museum was amazing. Made use of multiple ticket deal to short cut queues at the Colosseum. The hop on hop off buses meant we travelled through the rest.
Caught up with our nephew and he had been recommended a tour for the Vatican city by a small company called 7 hills. They take you on a four hour tour and we queue jumped. Honesty you could have been queuing for 2 hours from the row of people (compared to our 15 mins). Tour guide was from Rome and very passionate with a sense of humour.  Thanks to Ryan, this will definitely be a highlight!

Footnote: Changing to drinking wine as $12nz for a beer is steep.

Can't get over the Italian driving skills and lack of controlled road crossings for pedestrians.  Crossing in crowds is the key. Customer service varies but Italians must get sick of tourists so can sympathise with them to some extent.

We caught the train from Rome to Naples. We weren't wrong with our predictions. Naples is very dirty and people begging is more obvious.  It looked rather depressing after Rome, so pleased to be passing through.  Very helpful lady at Naples information centre confirmed ferries were still operating to Sorrento so enjoyed 45 min trip across.

Sortento is full of and seems to cater for Brits. To soon to buy tacky souveniers for our collection at work, but spoiled for choice here! Thinking we need to wear Kiwi symbols to separate us being taken for Brits. We are considerably paler than most English people.

Day two in Sorrento. Weather overcast but extremely humid. Took bus over to Positano on other side of coast. Very beautiful with housing tucked in every hillside. Roads very narrow. Amusing bus ride around the tight corners! Had hoped to get to Capri Island this afternoon but think we'll get into the Italian way and have a siesta in air-conditioning before heading out again. 

We found this bar that had wine tasting (4 wines & tapas for 25 euros).  The chap was really knowledgeable and explained regions & wines. We met a number of interesting tourists (mainly Aussies, Brits & Scots) as we sat at bar. One chap with the 'Michael Caine' voice was a BIG Dan Carter fan & loves the Haka. Most mentioned Chch quake with it being on BBC.

Have contacted or head from families and friends down there and all fine. Possessions can be replaced. All seems surreal from this distance.

Will load photos separately.

Next Day: Overcasted so perfect to get the train to Pompeii (30 mins).  Waited for numbers to start a two hour tour - worth it. Again thought of heading over to Capri but timing meant it wouldn't be worth it.

Experienced spectacular thunder storms at night. The afternoons clear and comes out hot.

Train trip back up to Rome airport this morning to pick up rental car and head to Umbria/Tuscany.

Ciao for now Deb