Day 63 - Beware overconfidence!

We had been to Rome airport a few times now so felt pretty relaxed about finding our way around especially as we had spent the night less than 10 minutes drive away. We had an early flight and thought we had plenty of time, but things started going wrong when K realised that she had left her good water bottle in the fridge of the hotel, the doors were all closed and reception wasn't open until 8am. After no response from anyone in the hotel (we couldn't even get back in through the front door at this point) we decided to sacrifice the water bottle and drive to the service station to fill up the rental car before we dropped it back. 

The first petrol station we drove to was closed, as it was Sunday nothing local was open yet. We drove to the airport expecting to find something along the way. We found a place, a guy was there so M asked him to fill it up and then went with the card to pay, that was when the confusion started. The machine wouldn't accept the card, the guy kept telling him to check the fuel gauge in the car, it wasn't registering any petrol, M was waving a €50 note around, there was a huge language barrier, and the guy was saying something along the lines of I don't work here, I'm just helping out. Totally confused we drove off, having not paid and not received any petrol. 

We then found another station, and tried to fill up only to find it's also not open yet. By now we have had enough and decide that we will just give the car back empty as we are running out of time. We then missed the turn off to the rental car return and end up on a freeway, having to drive 5km in the wrong direction before we can turn the car around. We finally made it back to the airport, speeding all the way but then entered the limousine drop off by mistake, we have to reverse out then have to do another lap of the airport before we find the right entrance and get rid of the car! That's what happens when you decide you know your way around Rome airport. New rule we have: always fill up the rental car the night before drop off!

The flight to Malta was a breeze and it's was good to find that the taxis were a set price so we didn't need to worry about haggling and being ripped off. There was a slight hassle finding our apartment as the Airbnb host hadn't supplied all the info we needed but we are used to that by now. We are at the point of giving up on Airbnbs because of all the hassle related to check in, some times, hotels are just so much easier. 

Malta wasn't really a formal part of out plans so we hadn't dome any research and didn't know what to expect. It was a pretty easy place to visit, English is one of it's official languages so no language issues at least.

We stayed in Sliema across the harbour from the capital Valetta. We walked around the point seeing the "baths" which were swimming holes carved out of the natural sandstone. M was pretty happy to find an Indian takeaway opposite our apartment run by Indians so that was dinner taken care of.

Day 62 - Yeah, honk your horn, that'll work

Our final day on the Amalfi Coast and we set off on the winding coastal road for Positano. As we approached Positano the road was lined with parked cars for a few kilometers, giving us the impression that parking would be a nightmare. We turned off and started driving down into the town and saw a large carpark on the right hand side which we happily entered, at this stage the gps said we were about a 15 minute walk from the town - then of course on the way down we passed many other car parks.

We could see the small grey beach at the bottom as we wound our way past the endless tourist shops and the accompanying tourists. The beach itself wasn't too bad but still a little underwhelming, the charm of Positano is the views which you need to be up high to appreciate. 

After lunch by the beach we walked back up the hill to the car passing many lovely lunch spots on the cliffs edge with great views, in hindsight it would have been better to have taken advantage of one of those rather than lunch down on the beach, next time we will know.

The drive back kept us on our toes as impatient Italian drivers blasted their horns at poor tourist drivers (no, not us) that they considered too slow and were holding them up, pretty immature behaviour if you ask us, as if honking a horn is ever going to make a slow driver into a confident or a better driver.

It was still a 2 1/2 hour drive back to Rome from Positano, we were staying in a cheap place near the airport so we could easily get to our early flight to Malta the next day.

Day 61 - Coastal road at last

Today we decided to explore the towns of Amalfi and Ravallo and made sure that we took the coastal road this time. The twists and turns of the narrow road make the Great Ocean Road seem like a beginners drive. Meeting buses and trucks was quite hair raising and we could see why many of the cars in the area have bangs and scrapes on them, a lot more than you would see at home.

Amalfi was smaller and seemed nicer than Sorrento, it was in a lovely bay with no big hotels on the water, but there was a car park full of tourist buses. Amalfi seems to be a destination for the day trippers from Sorrento and Positano further along the coast. We found a nice restaurant on the water's edge and had an enjoyable lunch. 

From Amalfi we drove up into the hillside to visit Ravallo, unfortunately so had everyone else it seemed. As great as the view overlooking the cliff faces and the towns was it's not much point if you can't find a place to park so we gave up and let the gps route us through the mountains back to Vietri. 

Back in Vietri we went down to the waterfront where it was so much quieter than the other Amalfi towns, just a few cars, not many people, and and an almost empty beach.

Day 60 - Better than our Sorrento?

We decided to drive further along the Amalfi Coast to Sorrento. We originally planned to take the scenic ocean route along the coast but the gps didn't agree with our choice and took us via the inland highway route, which was probably for the best as it meant we got to Sorrento a lot sooner. 

We've been driving in Italy for a few days now, and had to endure some pretty bad driving as well as a road rage incident that was so dumb it was funny. Initially we thought Italian drivers were crazy, then we decided on dangerous, but there has to be an element of stupidity there as well, as it makes no sense why anyone who wasn't stupid would drive so badly and risk their lives just to get one car further ahead. We also can't understand how they can just park their cars wherever they want, including narrow Amalfi coast roads, that barely fit one car, let alone two and a parked one. We saw that many of the cars have bumps and scrapes, so we're happy we didn't take that rental car upgrade.

It wasn't hard to know that we had arrived in Sorrento as we were met with piles of tourists in groups everywhere, and this is just the shoulder season. We found a car park and followed a walking route, but as it seems that all the upmarket hotels have hogged the ocean cliff faces as there wasn't much coast to see until we headed towards the port areas. 

We did see that there were man made decks on the water with cafes and sun lounges, but it all came across as a bit underwhelming compared to our beaches. We walked down to the old port with its tiny grey beach and desperate sunbathers trying to squeeze a tan out of 24 degree weather while we sat and enjoyed a drink. 

Sorrento certainly is an interesting town but it seems that to enjoy the area you would need to stay at a hotel on the ocean side, so we were quite happy with our choice of staying in our little village of Vietri.

Day 59 - Taking it easy

A beautiful day with clear blue skies and a view of the sparkling blue sea from our apartment window made us feel we could stay here for a week.  

The village of Vietri sul Mare is quite cute, with little squares and restaurants perched on the cliff face overlooking the sea. The town is also famous for its ceramics, and there were lots of shops selling the local wares. Heaven for K, hell for M.

Day 58 - To the coast

We had booked our "non-refundable" flight from Rome to Beirut through one of those online booking agencies but after two days they still hadn't confirmed that they could cancel the flight, all they had really said so far was that they couldn't provide a refund. As a result M decided to contact the airline (Middle East Airlines) directly, and this morning we received the great news that because of the situation they would provide a full refund.

Our original hire car was due back today and we had arranged another we drove back to the airport to drop the first one back and collect a new one. While there we went to find the Aegean Air desk to cancel our flight from Beirut to Cyprus and see if we could get a refund. After dragging our luggage through Rome airport we found the desk, only to be told by a stone faced lady that we had to phone their help desk in Greece. We asked if she could make the call for us but she just said no. Great customer service, not!

We went back to the Hertz desk and found that the car we had booked wasn't available and they offered us an upgrade ... which we didn't want, as we didn't want to drive a big car through the narrow Italian streets. After some discussion we ended up with a small Fiat 500 and drove south past Naples to Vietri sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast.

We checked into a lovely apartment with a sea view, right in the middle of town and and of course had pasta for dinner ... again.

Day 57 - Change of plan

Because of the Lebanon situation we spent most of the day rearranging our plans while still trying to keep some of the accommodation and flights that we couldn't cancel without penalty. Our plan had been to use Cyprus as the stepping stone between Lebanon and Israel, so we looked into all the options we had to keep the Cyprus and Israel parts unchanged. 

We ended up finding flights from Rome to Malta, and then another from Malta to Cyprus that arrived on the same day we had originally planned to arrive from Lebanon, so we only had to cancel the Lebanon to Cyprus leg. 

We needed to spend four more nights in Italy before the Malta flight and hire a car and drive south to the famed Amalfi Coast before heading back to Rome for the flight to Malta. 

After finally getting all that out of the way we went for a walk through our seaside suburb of Fregene to what looked like quite a dangerous beach with very dark sand and quick drop off, with evidence of rips. The beach was quite underdeveloped and not that appealing, it was also the off season so it was very quiet. We wandered back through the quiet town, discovering that nearly everything was closed between 12pm and 4pm.

Day 56 - Third time lucky

This was an important day for K, on our third trip to Italy and our second to Rome, this was the day to finally visit Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli. Last time we were in Rome the tour bus took us there when it was closed, this time we had a car and were getting ourselves there. It was an hour's drive from where we were staying, and we made it quite easily with good old Google Maps to help.  

Hadrian's Villa was more than just a villa, it was an estate covering a large area, quiet, well treed and huge. There has been quite a bit of restoration so it wasn't too difficult to imagine how it used to be, not like some other ancient sites we've visited. 

The site is still undergoing archaeological investigations, so they are still exploring and finding new parts. K was thrilled that she finally got to visit and M was pleased that now every time we are looking at flights K won't suggest that we go via Rome.

We had been keeping a vague eye on the protests and political situation in Lebanon but were disappointed to discover that it had worsened and some of the areas of the country we had planned to visit were now off limits. The more we looked into it the more concerned we became. We had booked an apartment in Beirut for a week and now the reports were that the airport road was closed so we could potentially be stuck in the airport or the apartment. The roads into and out of Beirut were also closed. Lebanon was on the verge of economic collapse and the government had angered everyone by introducing further hardship policies, and a proposed "WhatsApp tax" had pushed the people over the edge. Even though the government back pedalled on the tax the people had enough and taken to the streets. Banks, schools and shops were shut down, just when we were due to arrive in two days.

As a result we decided to change our plans, it meant cancelling some "no cancel" flights and accommodation. Our planned accommodation were very nice about it as they agreed to refund us due to the situation, the airlines were not so forthcoming. We also had to figure out how to adjust our plans. Originally we were to spend a few days in Rome, then head to Cyprus, Lebanon and then Israel, so there was a bit of juggling to do.

Day 55 - Back to Rome

A travelling day today as we say left Morocco for a Rome for a stopover on the way to Lebanon. We had heard horror stories about Marrakech airport but we found it quite modern and efficient, nothing to worry about there. We caught a flight to Casablanca and then had a couple of hours layover before taking the next flight to Rome.

Once we landed in Rome we picked up our little hire car to head to our Airbnb near the beach. By the time we left the airport it was dark, something we we usually try to avoid as arriving at a new place at night can be difficult. We stopped off at a shopping centre on the way to look for a supermarket, once we were inside we could have been anywhere, shopping malls look the same all over the world.  The road we took to the seaside suburb of Fregene was very rough and it felt like we were driving through the country even though we were only 20 minutes from Rome airport.

Day 54 - Beware - Animal cruelty and poor busking!

We had heard that we needed to be more careful in Marrakesh due to scammers and thieves, and while we were having breakfast we met an Australian couple at our riad whose phone and credit cards had been pickpocketed the night before, only half a block away from where we were staying. 

Marrakesh was still fairly sleepy when we headed out to visit the Bahia Palace, the difference in the streets and shops is so dramatic, everyone stays up late but it takes them a while to get going in the mornings. The palace was interesting and would have been amazing in its day, we learnt that it was looted when a rival ruler decided he wanted his palace to be better.

We decided to head down to the famed Marrakesh square Jema El-Fna before it got too hectic later in the day so we could still carry our phones and money with us. We sat in a terrace for lunch while we watched the action in the square. It was quite empty but there were a few stalls and entertainers. It was amazing how many tourists went for the snake charming and the chained monkeys. We really thought people were more sophisticated these days and would stay away from acts involving animal cruelty, the treatment of the animals was not good to see.

We went back to the square later in the evening to see what all fuss was about, but it was quite different from the reviews we had read. We had heard that there were scammers and pickpockets everywhere, but it seemed fine to us, maybe it being Friday had something to do with it? It was still really busy, and there some thick crowds around some of the performers, though there was much more patter than entertainment .. just like the buskers back home. The most pressure we felt was from the food vendors who tried really hard to get us to sit and eat one of their meals.