Just to pick up where i left off and keep you up to date on how things are going.
I'm not going to put many pics in this post so if you want to see them there is a link just there to the left to them all. Putting pics in the posts is a pain in the arse and takes up an extra 90 mins (putting them on and correcting everything else) in the Internet Cafes.
So where was I.
Ah yeah..So we went to stay with Brent in Tuscany on his Goat Farm. He also makes cheeses and soaps and has 600+ olive trees and chickens.
when we arrived he was in the middle of milking the goats. As you probably know its all machines now and takes him only 50 mins to get through 70 goats.
On our first morning we were up at 5.30am to start work. Feeding the goats and changing the water buckets of the males who were in separate holdings to the females.
Feeding the females was easy, drag bales of hay out and put them in the troughs.
The males were a little trickier. One of them had a habit of charging the gate at night which left it hanging off most days. Having to go in and give him hay - his trough being at the opposite end of his entrance gate. In the time we were there he only charged me twice. First time i nearly shat myself second time he was just nudging me out of the way.
After we had finished, Brent came to us to tell us he had the "Deal of the Century" for us.
The next day he would bring us to his other house, which was situated in the Tuscan mountains.
The house is in Priello. What we had to do was clean this house because he had guests coming to stay in the next few days. He rents out the house to tourists.
So we get there and we have this 5 bedroom 5 bathroom house with a swimming pool and an amazing view all to ourselves and all we have to do is clean it. Sounds easy, Yeah......NO!
(The above picture is the View from our Dining room window)Whoever had stayed there previously had left it in a state. While we were cleaning it we felt like we got a raw deal but after we had finished it was OK, especially since we got to stay on an extra couple of days there than expected. While cleaning up the kitchen which was the worst room, a lizard (we had seen hundreds of them so far but not this big) came running out from behind a basket. This was like an iguana, it was huge.
So, after our time in Priello we were to go back to Anghiari and back to the Goat farm and 5.30am starts.
We really didn't mind this because after you got started it was OK. Feed and water goats, clean up afterward and then feed the chickens and take the eggs...easy enough
Most days that we were there it was 5.30 til just after 7am, only because i think he was a bit uncomfortable asking us to do things for him.
Eventually it was us that went to him looking for things to do because after you've played every card game in the world theres not much to do.
On one of the days we were raking grass in 35 degree heat which was a killer, them make it all into piles and then put it on the back of his Pick-up truck and then i had to drive it down to the barn.
After 4 trips down (yes there was that much grass) we finished, it only took about 3-4 hours...
Another thing we did while there was we drove to Pisa to see the leaning tower.
With me at the wheel and Lisa with map in hand we made our way there
We eventually made it there after several veering turns off the motorways and about 6 hours....
I have to say that it was very UNimpressive.There is nothing else in this place only this, nowhere to eat and nothing to do.
After parking the car, walking for 10 mins to find it we then stayed about 3-5 mins, took pictures and then left again for another 6 hour trek.
By the time we got back to the farm it was 11pm and i never fell asleep so fast but then..5.30 am starts again...
On our 2nd last day he asked us to bring the goats out. All we had to do was watch that they didn't wander into his neighbours field. Not long later, Brent is running towards us saying, this is not my land kids....
We were watching them eating the neighbours apple trees and olive trees....
He seemed a bit pissed off at first but we joked about it later..
Sadly, we had to leave Anghiari and the farm but not before we bought some of the soaps to send home...
Next on our list was Napoli, home of the Pizza. After a 5 hour drive we reached there only to find the driving conditions a little scary. (by a little i mean unbelievably scary)
No road markings, no traffic lights no queues no nothing just people driving where they want when they want.
When it was time for me to turn left i was a bit far right but managed to bully my way through about 200 cars to get there.
We eventually found a parking spot near our hotel but we looked around and this was not a safe place to stay. After they had trouble this year with rubbish collection the streets are really not clean. Below is a video of some of the streets, its not my video but it will give you an idea.
After seeing this we decided not to stay, so we were on the road to Pompei. The famous ruins from 2000 years ago where excavations had found ruins of a town kept preserved by lava from an eruption of mount Vesuvius in 79AD.
As we drove out of Napoli we came across some streets similar to the video above.
We eventually got to Pompeii after waiting over an hour in traffic, there is a Toll booth and there is about 15 lanes, but these 15 lanes turn into 2 lanes and everyone gets stuck.
We drove around for ages looking for a 24 hour car park so we could sleep in the car, since we had nowhere else to sleep. We found one behind an amusement park and had the worst night sleep ever and got eaten alive by Mosquitoes.
After seeing the sights of Pompeii and being attacked by wild dogs we made our way to Rome.
We dropped the car off at Leonardo Da Vinci airport and got a taxi to the hotel we booked.
We stayed in Rome for 6 days. In those 6 days we seen what we needed to see otherwise it was just way too hot to go out, even at night.
We went to the Colosseum and queued for about an hour. When we reached counter we tried to pay with my Maestro card and they said they dont take cards. So after going through all my pockets we were 75cent short of the fee and had to walk away without going in.
Other sights we seen that i can remember off the top of my head were piazza navona, trevi fountain, Spanish steps, campo del fiore, santa maria maggiare (which were staying right beside).
We also went to an English Cinema in Republika square. We went to see the new Batman which is EXCELLENT...back to the trip...
A place you cant miss is Vatican City.
We arrived outside and the queue was about a mile long which would've taken about 4 hours to get in the door. But, there were people offering tours in English for 45euro and you would get into the Vatican in a few minutes.
Even though its only about 10euro in, it was worth the extra money rather than stand around for hours in that heat.
We seen everything in there, Sistine chapel, Michelangelo, Raphael. blah blah blah......pictures will come later i forgot to bring the USB cable to this Internet cafe.
After Rome we decided to go to Greece and the Greek Islands because soon we were to head to India and its Monsoon season so not a good time to be going there.
We got a train from rome to Bari on the South-East coast of Italy and waited for a ferry to Corfu.
We got on the ferry at 6.30pm and the ferry was due to depart at 8. After several hours of listening to these pack of Italian c**ts acting the bol**x the ferry left the port nearly 2 hours late.
The ferry arrived in Corfu about 7.30am. We were on the deck of that ship for 13 hours listening to them eejits. I was lucky to get the 2 hours sleep i got considering the winds and everything else that goes with being outside in the middle of the sea at night.
We hadn't got any hotel booked but luckily the first we went to had available rooms and we stayed in Corfu for 4 days. The hotel was nice and had wireless (at a price)
We were 10 mins walk from Corfu old town and the views we had i the room were great (as above pics to come)
The old town was full of tourists as well as Greeks but it wasn't ruined by typical tourist crap shops.
There obviously was a few but there were more traditional shops like hand made crafts where you can watch them make their items, the items in these shops came at a price.
After Corfu we wanted to go to Kefalonia which is where we are now.
We had to catch a ferry to Patra to get to Kefalonia, which is strangely the only way here from Corfu
After leaving our hotel at 12pm we had to wait until 9.30pm for the ferry here.
Of course the ferry was late and it departed at 10pm.
We arrived in Patra at 5am and had to wait til 6am for the port building to open and then to be told the next ferry to Kefalonia is at 12.30pm.We lay on the benches in the port building til 9.15 and then walked to the ticket office for Ferry Tickets.
The ferry to here was only 3 hours and was comfortable enough after we found some seats indoors. We walked looking for a hotel here but so far all we have found is this expensive place we stayed in last night whose walls and doors are paper thin.
When someone knocks on a door down the hall you think its your door.
I'm tired, cranky and i really really don't like ferries (the ferry to patra didn't agree with me)
But well, its all part of the experience i suppose.
Keep in touch, I'm not getting enough emails people....let me know how your doing
Its feels very one-sided.
Pat
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