Meta - Italy

Italy

What an interesting and fantastic country Italy is. We have had an absolute ball here. There have been so many times that we have been unable to think nothing but - "let's put it down to the European Experience" - as a friend of ours Grant advised us prior to our departure. Time is certainly not given the extreme importance that it is in Australia. Generally the people work slowly and steadily - 10 minutes is more often than not 20 and 100 metres is more often than not 400.

Once you get in the swing of it though it is really a pleasant experience. We have found the people extremely friendly and the public transport great, aided I think by our efforts to try to communicate in Italian. We don't do a great job, but at least we try!

We have just finished 3 weeks in Italy and have decided to stay another week - such is the time we are having. During our stay we have been sighted on the side of the road whilst each of the children take turns to be car sick, running along the side of the freeway in Pisa to chase down a taxi, taking photos of the beach hand Enzo on Meta Beach as he poses for Scott (an absolute crack-up I must admit), making cow noises in the local butcher to ensure we are buying beef and not some rather obscure meat type, carrying our take-away caffe latte home in an emply Heineken Beer Bottle and lining up for an hour or more at the colleseum to find upon our arrival at the front of the queue that we don't have enough cash on us to gain admittance.

Now we are in Meta in the south of Italy, 50 km south of Naples. It is a beautiful small village on the water and we have found that we are enjoying the place so much that we have decided to stay an extra 4 days. Here are some photos of us at the local beach. We have spent 2 full days simply at the beach. We are to tour Pompeii and the Amalfi coast whilst we are here, but are finding it difficult to extract ourselves from Meta. Maybe we will soon!