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After a hectic time of queuing, shuffling and dodging in Rome, we headed for the tranquility of the Amalfi coast. We weren't entirely sure where exactly we wanted to be, it just had to be peaceful, so when we stopped to check out a campsite in Sorrento which seemed a bit busy, we jumped back in the car and moved onto option number two.
Daniel was a little harassed by the time we got to our second site at the bottom of a 25km winding road, but to our delight it was just what we were looking for. hardly anyone around, a 10metre walk to the ocean and views to die for, but the best part....
we finally got talking to the Kiwi van. Over the last few weeks we had seen each other in Porto and Lisbon and unbeknownst to us, they had also seen us in Granada and Rome. So finally, after so many close encounters we got chatting to Nikki and Jim and couldn't stop ourselves, we just had so much in common and it was great to find that we had stayed in so many of the same places and suffered the same van disasters! Apparently, they had been calling us the Aussies, not too far from the truth I suppose, but we have since been renamed the Scozzies, thanks to Nikki.
We had a great night with these guys and also met a lovely Irish/Aussie couple, Connor and Lea and we all watched the World Cup rugby England v. France; many beers and shared stories later, we went to bed at 1.30am.
The next morning we had to be up for the boat to Capri. We'd decided to go on a day trip organised by the campsite but had our doubts about our decision when we saw that our fellow passengers were all over 70 with blue rinses. We'd somehow managed to book onto the day with a coach-load of Belgian pensioners, but to our rescue came yet another Aussie couple who were the only others on the boat sub-70 years old, bar the captain that is.
We spent the day with these two youngsters...Gavin and Mandy (I hope you're reading this), nursing our hangovers with an improvised picnic in the Caprese hills and then a quick dook in the sea, it was a gorgeous day and we wanted to grab one more sea swim before the winter set in.
The following days were spent lazing around in the sun or walking over the hills to a beautiful deserted beach and swimming in the bay there. The atmosphere was positively tranquil at this site and we didn't want to leave, we both felt that we had been so lucky in arriving at the site at the same time as so many cool people and we won't forget the days we spent there.
We said our farewells to Nikki and Jim on the Tuesday morning only to see them again 15 mins later when their van Betty broke down half way up the hill, luckily it was a quick fix it job and they headed on their way. Meanwhile we went up Vesuvius and in the afternoon we headed to Pompeii where we bumped into Connor and Lea. The city was much more entertaining with these guys and their audioguide and we were sad to say bye to them at the end of the day.
Luckily after all these goodbyes we had dinner with Mandy and Gav to look forward to and Mandy cooked up a storm, the photos are yet to be emailed to us but I have seen them and they tell the story better than I can. We'll post them when we get them.
So, we were due to head off the next day ourselves, down the coast to Sicily, but we didn't quite manage to tear ourselves away and ended up going back to that beautiful bay one more time...
We finally left the Amalfi on the Thursday and headed, albeit at a snail's pace on those narrow, windy roads, towards Sicily.
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