Backpacking through Italy, Rome Travel

He was the perfect guide and friend, he took me on a grand walking tour round all the sights and its just amazing to be walking along the street and bam! coloseum is right in front of you....we spend the day going past all of the sights and into saint marias church really something special all of it. hard to grasp being inside building of over 2000 years old.....and in typical dane style we where giggling about the outfits on some of the Italians and wondering why all the child angels where men.....need I go into more detail about the jokes about the catholic church.....probablly not! we walked into the old town, by far my favourite. cobblestone streets....oozing atmosphere i felt like a was in a movie.

The walls where painted different colours with ivy crowing up the cracked walls. we where in search of the perfect restaurant and found a cute little typical italian complete with red and white striped table cloth. we enjoyed home made pasta and some cheap but great wine...i could stay forever we then looked in some old school 2nd hand clothes shops far out! nic more then 10 times i wished you where there, you would have been in your little element. styly hats, leather jackets, hand made bags sooo cool! so you! of the best things was seeing danes big beautiful smile and seeing him talk in italian he is soo good at it and uses the hand gestures just like a local.

it was great walking down the street and he could tell me what they where saying a few times he just giggled and i asked what they said. one time we walked past these 2 that sounded like they where arguing but just talking italian style :) and they where saying how great australia was so dane pipes in hey we are australian (in italian). another time we are in a supermarket and the girl at the register has just told the cleaner who is walking past (looking grumpy) to chill out....hehehehe this is just a small peice. being in rome and maybe being with an old school friend....italy is enchanting it creeps up on you. and i have such affection now for the people and their ways.....

so dane is working (at a hostel - has the girl market totally sewn up!! btw - he is also a massure lucky i know him faaar to well to fall for him) anyway on the afternoon he needs to work we planned id go to the vatican and sistene chapel wow!!!!!! my neck hurt so much after about an hour of staring up really something special seeing the paintings in real life that youve read about in art books forever...almost surreal being there nothing i can type or say will explain the feeling of standing in that room. but you know as much as i dont want to say it sometimes along the way getting there is far more exciting than being there. does that make me sound ungrateful....

maybe its the little bit of reality that you never expect when you daydream about going to a place. the guards and everyone saying ssshhhh all at the same time hahah! no who am i kidding it really is that good! and writting this email is as good as seeing it all over again. looking at the pictures again i can smell aroma of freshly cooked pasta.... italiano charm... im on my way round to st peters and to a camera repair place (this old italian man at a dodgy shop i should have known better camera place)...erased 700!! yep i know photos from my memory card....

i sobbed for an hour in his shop being very dramatic id fit right in in italy! anyway a lady told me where i can go to maybe have it fixed so im on my way there and i hear 'ciao bella' (as you do) and this guy falls in step with me and starts walking and we are chatting along (im a bit dubious at first) but we just chat. he's dressed very well and is short like adam tyndall. we get to the end of the street and we are going different ways. so he shakes my hand (and holds it far too long) and crosses the road in the opposite direction to me. i start walking and he turns around and calls me back, ummm he says has the day off work and is just walking about can he join me.....

why not i decide! so he translates at the camera place and 24 hours later i have all 700 photos back small miracles!!! didnt know you could even fix it but thought its worth a try.....and what a result! we spend the afternoon chatting i buy him a gelati on the arragenement he buys me dinner later uh oh!! .... but WHEN IN ROME!!!.................... we relax on the grass in the park and we chatter easily. talking about our lives. im comfortable with him. he picks up that its hard for me to open up im friendly but sometimes intimacy is hard for me he can tell. he tells me he is trying to really see me and he looks at me so intensly i blush. i wipe ice cream from my mouth he tells me he'd like to lick it off! OMG and typing that line im embaressed but I wasn't at the time.

im scared can you really have this much so soon he is italian dont they woo every girl..... i now know he is from sorrento and is one of 4 kids. his family live on a farm and they make olive oil, bread, sauces everything self sustained. and they dont even speak italian but another remote dialect. he is the only one in his familiy to go to school much less uni! his teachers persuade his mamma :) he's 30 and lives and works in rome. he picks me up for dinner a few hours later and so i experience rome via car cool! OMG im utterly speechless when we arrive at the resaurant. we are on the top of a hill in rome over looking the city lights.

the restaurant is leafy and has candles and music playing totally incredible! we eat lobster and 4 other seafood dishes and of course wine. he holds my hand the whole time over dinner. he reaches over and kisses me and i melt. he comes and sits next to me and we both say almost at the same time is it possible to love someone so quickly. he asks me to say the word love again and kisses me deeply....help! we take some photos and slow dance at the end as if we are alone on the balcony in fact its busy with people but i cant see them. he wants me to go to sorrento for the weekend with him meet his family and he'll take me around the coast. he wants me to move to rome for 6 months when my visa finshes he wants me to stay with him and not the hostel. only in italy!!! so he is very charming and sweet and for a moment i could stay forever.

but then i remember ive decided to come back to aus. but more than that im not ready for the honesty he expects. i didnt know it while we where slow dancing but sometime during the night i decide not to see him again and send him a sweet text message explaining im not ready and that he will find another girl. he doesnt reply........i delete his number the next day so i dont dare day dream about what could have been when im back home..(but i do anyway....) it sounds like a romance novel and it really was, it was really nice being loved like that even for a moment it made me understand my mr right is out there. i love having this story to re live and tell you girls. i did stay the night but not stay the night but those details are to share over a bottle of wine :)

rome by scoota woohoo! dane and i hire a scotter for 24 hours and zip all around rome. man i could stay in rome just to be on the back of a scoota soooooooooo much fun had a ball.i tried to drive it at the end but as the scoota went i jumped off (who knows...got scared) so needless to say that was the last time i had a go...heheh but i much prefer being a passanger anyway. we called past danes mate who makes chalk art on the pavement, past more sights. we spend some of the afternoon in this beautiful old piazza watching the world go by eating gelati on the steps of an old fountain. then we had a beautiful dinner of the most incredible buffalo mottzarella from naples ever hand made was almost so good it took me forever to enjoy while savoring.

we went to the trevi fountain by night. and had some drinks at the hostel bar with some of danes mates. and ok i got a little drunk.....what trip would be complete without that yep you guys know the drill...eeeks! man im not even at the good bit!! the good bit.... sooo im now in Positano on the amalphi coast of italy. and i caught the train and bus from naples. and arrived about 9 last night. even by night i knew i was in for something special this place is absolutley jaw dropping stunning! and beautiful. im staying in a hostel and for breakfast i overlooked the coast and coloured houses on the cliffs, i have to say even cinque terre takes a back seat and i fell for that place.

this morning i went to a local market and bought some salamai, cheese, bread, and the redest tomatoes ive ever seen for a little impromptu picnic. packed my book and sunscreen and walked the 300 steps to the beach. i met 2 great girls along the way and we are having drinks tonight and dinner. its took me 2 hours to walk down and 50 photos later!! im sitting here thinking how did i get so lucky to be here and lsitening to the waves crashing in the background and a group of 5 italian men laughing talking and drinking expressos :) wait to see the pics. today is a beach relax do nothing soak it up day. then onto isle capri tomorrow before a big coastal walk then sorrento pompeii mount vesuvi and back for one last day in rome :( before greece.......

ive not yet picked up my journal the whole trip but in this place all i want to do is write forever so much of everything. my thoughts have been more and more about home while i have been away and i really look forward to coming back and seeing you all and making a life at home. if i end up staying on or leaving again one things for sure i carry you all with me the entire trip. i have lots of moments of highs and lows and sometimes tears but lots of times they are happy tears for how much i cherish you all!!! oh one more thing, sweden for xmas even if i have to go alone, want the dog sled ride and sleep in the igloo any takers!!??