Buongiorno, come stai? Mi chiamo Nathan. Vengo dall’Straya e sono celibe. Ho bello.

I’ll leave that to you to decode. I myself vaguely know what I’ve written but not fluent or even close to. This language is definitely a beautiful one and I’m fully intent on learning a propper amount of it.

After being on a ferry for about 18 hours, fighting for a good position / any position on the floor of the ferry to fall asleep, Eddie and I got a few hours before arriving to the port of Bari, Italy and walkd to the train central station. Our aim was to get to Napoli on the otherside of Italy. Because we arrived into Bari early in the morning, it meant we were able to get to Naples by that afternoon by bus as it was the cheapest way and left from behind the train station. We arrived to Napoli (Naples) where we had heard the Italian Mafia ran the town. We got word of this before we left Olympia so booked a hostel in Sorrento, just an hour south of Naples on a train. We got off the bus when we arrived to Naples and the buildings, street, people and air all looked rundown and derelict.

Arrived one stop before Sorrento and walked to Seven Hostel which we found upon arrival that is it brand new so that was pretty exciting. We stayed in the room called Sunflowers with ten other people including Alex Cameron who was in the year above me when I went to Collaroy Plateau Public School back in the day and she was travelling with a girl from Perth who we called Perthy (clever, I know). Two American blokes who were also in our room said they were trying to get ten people together to hire a private boat for the day to go to Capri. Edie and I expressed interest along with eight other people (Alex and Perthy included). The next morning we all got up early and jumped on the bus to Sorrento port where we all put in money to hire out a private old wooden Italian boat with fuel and a skipper who brought his old man, his papi.

Sitting on the boat under a picturesque blue cloudless sky with nothing but the sun shining and the wind hitting our bodies as we made our way over to the Island of Capri felt surreal.

First up, we were taken to a side of the island to swim in crystal clean blue water that was so clear, the seabed looked as though you could touch it even though it was several tens of metres deep. Everybody jumped off the boat and swam around for a while before moving onto swimming in some of the grottos. Quote of the day being, “show us your grotto”, interpretations of what it means are left up to you as no specific definition was discussed. Back on track, these grottos were absolutely outstanding as we got to swim in them and see all the rock and corals growing on the side of the rock. After several more swims, we were given three hours to chill in the town of Capri which was a long walk up to but bloody worth it after seeing the breathtaking views and rich mohogony that scattered the place. Eddie and I were thinking about spending a night in Capri before we arrived in Sorrento but didn’t realise how expensive it was until we actually got there.

On the return to Capri, we went for one more swim through a cave and into a cove. It was here that we scaled the rocks and jumped into the water. As we were leaving, one of the Canadian girls with us was sitting on a rock and couldn’t move because she was having problems with her heart. As her friend comforted her and because she didn’t feel safe enough for Eddie and I to swim her back to the boat, I was finally able to use what I learnt when I got my bronze medallion for surf life saving last October. I’d only done two patrols and both times the beach was closed so we just sat there and due to the lack of actual life saving, I kind of had forgotten what to do. Ended up swimming to the boat, grabbing a life jacket, swam back to the Canadian girl, put the life jacket on her and swam her to the boat. When we got back to port, the ambulance was waiting and she went to the hospital but ended up being alright. When I got to the port, I started to fill out a registration form for Chris Lilley’s ‘We Can Be Heroes’.

Going to Capri and that whole day was the most phenomenal and chilled out thing we’ve done so far even though we were shattered by the end of it. Words cannot describe the water we swam in and photos do not give it any sort of justice.

The next day, Eddie and I got the train to Pompeii which was between Sorrento and Napoli, to go and see all the ruins. Personally, I was a little disappointed that it was only ash and no lava that ruined the village but at the same time it was pretty incredible to see. We got lost more than several times as everything looked the same. We took turns taking the piss pretending to be tour guides and just talking dribble giving information about the different things that were in Pompeii. It was so bloody hot there that we couldn’t deal with it so left after about two hours.

From my point of view, all the ruins are starting to blend into each other and when I told dad, he said it was the ‘museum blues’. Not sure about Eddie, but I definitely have the museum blues.

We left pretty early the next day to get the cheapest train to Rome. The Backpacking Battlers said their goodbyes to some great people they made friends with at the hostel and found out their plans for the rest of their travels so the battlers can hopefully run into the people we met somewhere down the line.

Never in my life had I heard of Sorrento, let alone think of ever going there, but I’m so glad we did because we both had the best time.

On a completely separate note, the things that we miss the most apart from people and places are:

• Having a shower under a garden hose
• ANZAC biscuits
• Larry’s Lemonade Icy Poles
• Not having to pay to use a public toilet
• Being able to flush toilet paper down a toilet instead of putting it in a bin next to the toilet
• BBQ, especially snags