26th Aug - Florence to Salerno
We woke up to a good breakfast in the hostel. Said goodbye to a Marseille - a bang on Dutch guy who we met the night before. We went on a walking tour of Florence to some of the amazing buildings there. We had a lovely morning and packed the bikes up again for a long journey past Rome, not too sure at the time, but we were aiming to get past Rome and on towards Sorrento. We wouldn't have the time to visit Rome (or Venice).
On the E45 motorway at one of our fuel stops somewhere between Rome and Naples we met a deadly garage worker called Viliano who was actually an ex military Russian who fled Russia years ago and was living in Italy. Viliano spotted the Guitar on the back of Glen's bike and insisted Glen play a tune. So there we were, with trucks going past, at a busy garage with all the guys who fill up fuel banging out tunes on the guitar. It was great craic and was a well deserved break in the drive.
After that we pushed on through lovely landscape, after a while mount Vesuvious came onto the horizon, we got to naples and drove the ring road around it. Naples was a very ugly, dirty city and was by far the worst eyesore on our trip. We kept going and our plan was to make it to Sorrento for the night, but we missed the turn for Sorrento and ended up in Salerno with the craziest drivers ever. We hit salerno at about 8:30pm and drove around among some of the most beautiful women in the world for nearly an hour trying to find a place to stay. We booked into the hotel plaza for €100 for the three of us with brekky included in the morning. So we left all out gear then and headed, starving, into town. We found a small place down a side street called Mams Restaurant. It's always a bit awkward at first with the language barrier problem but it soon turned into great fun. They cooked us a few amazing pizzas each, and all the beers and cokes came to just €30 for the three of us. They helped us find a mechanic to do a job on ado's chain. All the men in the restaurant came over and surrounded us trying to help. They were amazingly friendly and it was obvious they don't get tourists here. Soon we were the centre of attention, but we didn't understand a word of what was being said. It was scary to have a whole restaurant of mafia looking guys in your face but we all agreed this was some of the best craic we had. We headed off and hit the hotel at about 12am and got good sleep that night in Salerno.
On the E45 motorway at one of our fuel stops somewhere between Rome and Naples we met a deadly garage worker called Viliano who was actually an ex military Russian who fled Russia years ago and was living in Italy. Viliano spotted the Guitar on the back of Glen's bike and insisted Glen play a tune. So there we were, with trucks going past, at a busy garage with all the guys who fill up fuel banging out tunes on the guitar. It was great craic and was a well deserved break in the drive.
After that we pushed on through lovely landscape, after a while mount Vesuvious came onto the horizon, we got to naples and drove the ring road around it. Naples was a very ugly, dirty city and was by far the worst eyesore on our trip. We kept going and our plan was to make it to Sorrento for the night, but we missed the turn for Sorrento and ended up in Salerno with the craziest drivers ever. We hit salerno at about 8:30pm and drove around among some of the most beautiful women in the world for nearly an hour trying to find a place to stay. We booked into the hotel plaza for €100 for the three of us with brekky included in the morning. So we left all out gear then and headed, starving, into town. We found a small place down a side street called Mams Restaurant. It's always a bit awkward at first with the language barrier problem but it soon turned into great fun. They cooked us a few amazing pizzas each, and all the beers and cokes came to just €30 for the three of us. They helped us find a mechanic to do a job on ado's chain. All the men in the restaurant came over and surrounded us trying to help. They were amazingly friendly and it was obvious they don't get tourists here. Soon we were the centre of attention, but we didn't understand a word of what was being said. It was scary to have a whole restaurant of mafia looking guys in your face but we all agreed this was some of the best craic we had. We headed off and hit the hotel at about 12am and got good sleep that night in Salerno.
