Capri was gorgeous – really lived up to its reputation.
The ferry ride took about 40 mins. It was quite rough up the front of the boat, and even though I don’t get seasick, my head was a bit iffy by the time we landed.
Naples day 3 – Capri
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Naples day 2 part 2
We went out for dinner last night. Who would have thought Sunday night would be such a challenge?
After Saturday’s food challenge we decided to ask the hotel to ring the restaurant to a) make sure they were open, and b) ensure they could do gf pizza. Since R and I were recovering from too much sun, blearily awakening from a nap, T took charge and made friends with Mario, the guy on reception. ALL the places on my list were closed, so he pulled up the AIC website and started calling the places on their list.
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Naples day 2 – Pompeii
Last night we went to Ciro’s for dinner, which was listed in the GF guide to Italy bo0k. Unfortunately they couldn’t offer me GF pizza unless we’d phoned in advance, but they had pasta. I had a seafood pasta with clams, baby octopus, prawns, mussels, tomato and olive oil. Delish! We had a white wine to go with dinner, and dessert. How temping is this dessert stand? They wheel it over to your table so you’re FORCED to have something. I had a strawberry panna cotta which was looovely.
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naples day 1
Hmm.. Naples is… interesting. It’s got a pretty dodgy feel, and Piazza Garibaldi where the train station is, is definitely dodgy. Feels more like Cairo than Italy!
The hotel is pretty good though – we’ve traded location for hotel quality. It’s four star, with a volcano out the window! 
We went looking for lunch, and this area doesn’t have a lot to offer. There’s a couple of pizza/panini places, but not much that seem to offer GF. Good thing the hotel restaurant does!
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Orange/Yellow Trousers
It was been very strange. I saw a guy wearing mustard yellow trousers in Venice on the second day, and thought “hey, yellow pants, unusual.”
Since then I’ve been seeing yellow and orange pants EVERYWHERE! Like at least three times a day. Today there were even yellow capris and orange shorts to add spice to the mix. Hmm.
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Florence day 5 – Siena
Siena
We returned to the Botteghe Donatello for dinner again last night – and were treated like long-lost cousins again. Tony, our usual waiter, told our new waiter (we sat inside this time) about gluten free pizza, and he brought us glasses of frozen limoncello at the end of our meal. It’s nice to be a “regular”!
The bus to Siena was quite an easy operation – walk to the bus station (next to the main train station), ask for “due, Siena, andata e returna”. 14E each, and we’re on our way!
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Florence day 4
Uffezi day!
We got up early to go line up, since we hadn’t managed to be at the right place at the right time with the right dosh to book tickets (the hotel website says they do hotel reservations, but that’s gone the same way as the hotel wifi – open to extremely broad interpretation!) and wandered down there. There were only about 50 people in the line when we got there so we were feeling pretty optimistic, especially when they let 30-odd people through 15 mins after we’d joined the queue. However, our optimism was unfounded, as the signs had said (min wait 1 hour). Nevertheless, we managed to be part of the second 30 people though, an hour after we started. Woo! Saved the E4 booking fee.
florence day 3 part 2
Last night we went out for pre-dinner drinks at a little bar around the corner from our hotel. It’s tucked between about three narrow buildings, and our table was right next to one of the doors to the apartment building, so people were coming home and going out through the bar. A bit bizarre. While there we had some bar snacks – tiny pieces of pizza etc, and the greenest olives I’ve ever seen! They are really a grassy green rather than the drab colour our olives tend to be. Yum!
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Florence day 3
Today was supposed to be our gallery day, but we only managed to get to the Accademia gallery as we couldn’t book tickets to the Uffezi. We’ll just go early tomorrow and line up.
florence day 2
Today we visited the Palazzo Pizzi, which is one of the Medici palaces. It’s been turned into a series of museums/galleries – a modern art gallery, a silver gallery, a costume gallery (whee!), plus the gardens have been kept, and are huge. There’s a gorgeous parterre garden overlooking the Florentine hills, and some great formal gardens overlooked by the palazzo. There’s some modern art in the gardens as well as the original sculptures, which makes for an interesting mix!
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Two Weeks Away 