Italy 08/19 – Etna
No.
We spent the morning on Etna checking out the nearby craters and views. I wasn’t with adventurous enough company to do the trekking required (and pay the money) to make it to the top. I’ll save that for another time/place.
It ain’t no chicken on a bus, but goat on a volcano has a certain ring to it.
We then had other matters to attend to (creds) and headed back to the coast.
Travel tip for Italy: Their petrol stations have distinctions between rows that are either self pump or assisted so approach slowly and make a beeline for the one you want. The price difference between the two is laughably huge, like up to 50p more per litre (so you can easily spend another £20 per tank) just to have some bloke give you 10 seconds of his time. There’s probably a deeper meaning behind it like supporting people’s jobs or they’re trying to phase it out like the UAE, but I couldn’t believe the amount of cars I saw going for such a rough deal.
Spite! I really wanted this thing, just look at the face on RCDB.
But with Etnaland not opening during the daytime I guess it was inevitable that this place wasn’t going to bother either.
With that disappointment fresh in our minds, the ferry back to the mainland was in a word, disgusting.
They don’t have enough space for a significant amount of cars to queue up on this side so it was spilling out into a major crossroads across tram lines and angry drivers, cyclists, pedestrians at all angles. You just had to be bold and become one with the chaos, fearing the insurance waiver as you went. It took over an hour for the queue to filter down and everyone was stewing in their air-conless cars at about 36 degrees by this stage. Local tempers were high, they were all doing stupid manoeuvres to try and cut in front of a couple of cars (to get on the same ferry). They were ignoring the staff trying to organise the loading and having shouting matches with anyone and anything.
I’d like to leave please.
With that tragedy behind us, we hit the long road back up through southern Italy in search of another cred to satisfy our cravings.
The only feasible ones were all sitting around Naples so we got to see Vesuvius, our second volcano of the day.
Rides were harder to spot though. The first place we came to was a sketchy little kiddie fairground on a side street but the +1 appeared to no longer exist. Suspiciously it has since disappeared from coast2coaster as well. Double spite.
Day 2 – Liberty City Fun
We finally ended up at a place a bit more substantial.
Should have been a +2 even.
But one of them was ‘under maintenance’. Triple spite.
I did admire their endorsements though. Particularly Woody with a gun.
Better stick to actual parks instead.
Day 3