Sadly this was our last day. We went to Sorrento – actually I think we should have stayed there rather than Vico Equense as it is more set up for tourists and is actually a more pleasant town. There were some beautiful views over the bay in the evening. Unfortunately we had to be up […]
We went to Capri today. This must be one of the most charming places in the world. J was no overly enthusiastic about another major walk up a hill, but to do him credit he went along with it. We went to the Villa Jovis which was Tiberius’ residence as famed in Suetonius. I am […]
After our rather scary first visit to Napoli we came back and this time I had no problem with the city at all. Possibly this was because we had the iPhone fully charged and therefore had unrestricted to Google Maps, and also were more accustomed to the awful traffic, but we genuinely enjoyed ourselves today. […]
Weather now greatly improved. Sunny but not too hot at around 18 degrees. This would have suited R fine though unfortunately he is back in rainy Argyll looking after the cats. In the morning we went up Vesuvius. Personally I would have climbed it from sea level, but I don’t think that considering J’s performance […]
Today we went into Naples. I have been here before and have never been too sure about how I feel about this city. It is indubitably a very vibrant and sometimes beautiful place, but it is rather scruffy (definitely not Swiss Chocolate Box territory) and the traffic is something awful. We went on the Naples […]
The next day by way of a gentle introduction to public transport we went to Pompeii. For some reason the train was mobbed and we only managed to squash ourselves on with difficulty. I think the previous train must have been cancelled as none of the others we took subsequent to this were anything like […]
My friend J and I are off to Italy for a week. Last year we went to Rome in September and it was rather oppressively hot. So this year we went in October and it was considerably cooler and more pleasant. On our way out we went to see the Jacobite exhibition at the Museum […]
This rather reminds me of an old joke. A native American goes to his shaman and asks him how he names the members of the tribe. He answers “Well my son, I look out from my wigwam in the morning and if I see a bird flying overhead I will name the child “Eagle Soaring” […]
My mum has an extensive collection of animals of various sorts and I have recently started buying her some “Charlie Bears” (although they are not all bears as you can see from the photo). There are several hundred different ones of these so I think if she gets them all she will need to move […]
This was the sun over Lochgoilhead the other day – apparently Hurricane Ophelia had blown up a load of dust from the Sahara desert which caused the effect. It rather reminds me of the ominous line from the poem “a livid sky on London and they knew the end was near”.
