Amalfi Coast + Sicily

***FYI we posted twice in a row today, so if anyone is interesed in Rome, check out the one below! Also, we are working on one more post to "catch up" which will probably be ready by tomorrow. Or tonight. We've had a lot of trouble finding internet access the past week or so, but it should be okay from here on out.

Next up was the Amalfi Coast. We found a host, Gianfranco, living in a small town called Nocera, a little bit inland. He lived in a small house on a large property. Orange and lemon trees grew in the backyard, and we were surrounded by farms. One night we went out for pizza with his friends, and the next night he cooked us a pesto pasta, and we cooked falafel. He drove us up into the mountains for some beautiful but cloudy views, and then along the coast where we stopped in a few towns along the way: Amalfi, Positano, and . We also visited Pompeii from here. Pompeii is an ancient town that lies at the base of Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near the coast. When the volcano erupted in 79 AD, everyone in the town perished, but because of the rapidity of the eruption, everything was left in tact and it is actually still being excavated today. We seemed to be the only ones there that day, until we got to the "Lupa" (look it up) that is. This building in particular had crowds when the rest of the site was mostly vacant.

Later that day we boarded a night train to Sicily, where we had another host waiting for us. We had a late night connection in Salerno, where we had a couple of hours to kill. We spent most of the time in the waiting room, but decided to head out to the colder seats by the track when a fight between a couple of homeless guys over a blanket nearly broke out in the seat next to me. We finally boarded our train, ready to sleep the night away. The train was very uncomfortable and neither of us were able to get much sleep at all. We arrived at our destination at 6 something in the morning, tired and frustrated. It was just about dawn, but the sun had not risen yet. We walked the 100 yards to the nearest beach, collapsed in the sand, and watched the sun rise. This was nothing short of sublime after the miserable night that we had. We fell asleep moments later, using our backpacks as pillows.

We awoke around 11 to a couple walking on the street not too far away, saying, "good moooorrninggggg," and giggling at the strangely dressed travelers sleeping on the beach. We spent most of the morning here, watching fisherman and skipping stones. We hoped to swim but it was pretty cloudy and not all that warm. In the afternoon we took a bus up a cliff to a town called Taormina. We ate arancini (fried rice balls with various stuffings), and finally enjoyed the sun when it came out. We got to chatting with a couple from the US who had been touring Italy for over 2 months, and they ended up giving us a ride back to the train station so we wouldn't have to walk.

Lucio, our host in Sicily, lived in Lentini, a small town outside of Siricusa. He welcomed us into his home, and happily cooked delicious meals for us two nights in a row. The meals were supplemented with the best olives I have ever tasted (he grew and brined them himself), homemade olive oil and pesto (made from the olives and basil growing in his garden), and accompanied by his homemade merlot (the grapes, also from his garden), which he liberally shared with us.

The one thing that we really wanted to do in Sicily was visit Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. We failed at this for two days in a row. After our first failure, we ended up walking around Catania instead, where we enjoyed some delicious homemade gelato to cheer us up, and found a "beach" to relax on. The beach was covered in trash and had too many flies. We were pretty bummed, but figured we could just do Etna tomorrow. To make matters worse, when we tried to catch a train back to Lentini, we were told that we needed to wait over two hours for the next one. We did find a neat fishing pier to walk out on that killed some time (it took about an hour to get to the end of it).

After Etna fail number two, we hopped on a train to Messina, where we were able to find a beach and some sun. The water was chilly (think Rhode Island beach in early June before it has had the chance to heat up much), but we were able to enjoy it much more than the beach in Catania. Later that day we took a train to the other end of Sicily. We had a very early flight to catch in the morning to Barcelona and had decided to be safe, that we would just sleep in the airport. Getting there was trying; we took a train, a bus, and then walked about two miles before getting a ride the rest of the way (another two miles).

Once in the airport we attemped to sleep. Despite the SWARMING flies and intensive vaccuuming going on, Marisa was able to wrap her head in a scarf and catch a few hours of sleep. Andy was not so lucky. In any case, we made our flight in the morning, but not before having to lose 4 kg (8.8 pounds) from Andy's luggage weight. And by "lose," I definitely mean fill our pockets with guidebooks, electronics equipment, and pebbles from the Cinque Terre, as well as wear several shirts and jackets each. Eventually, we boarded the plane.