DAY 13

Thursday 3rd July 2008 7:19am

We have just left the hotel and are sitting in the bus, but one person left their tripod at the hotel, so we are parked down the street waiting for the tour director who has dashed back to get it. Alas they can’t find it and the tour director has offered to buy them a new one.

It is amazing how much can be understood even when people make no attempt to speak English. Yesterday I was in an internet shop and had just logged off and a lady asked to help her in Italian. She persisted because the pc browser was in Italian so she assumed I know the language. The icons are all the same and it was a Windows based operating system so I could easily use it. Strange though, that I knew what she was asking me. Then this morning I went to hop in the lift but the doors opened and a porter was there with the lift full of suitcases. His response was obvious but I did pick up the Italian word for stairs as it is similar to the French word. There was another lift down one flight of stairs at the back of this lift.

We are on our way to Naples. It is another sunny day with no clouds. There is haze again that veils the distant view. One of the people on the tour turned 60 today and we sang Happy Birthday. Leaving Rome we see hundreds of high rise apartment buildings that are very ugly and look like typical low income housing.

3/7/08 Naples 10:35am

Aboard a hydrofoil we are pulling out of Naples and will travel across the bay to the Isle of Capri. This trip is to take about 45 minutes. We have a new local guide named Vincenzo who is typically good looking. Deborah is traveling on the coach to Sorrento and will meet us there this afternoon. Eduardo has to take a two day break and another driver Ganni will fill in. We haven’t really seen any of Naples as we drove straight to the port. Huge cruise ships are moored at the port. The hills of Naples are obscured in a thick haze. Naples has a long term garbage problem that is still unresolved, so the streets we saw have piles of rubbish.