Our travel highlights for 2015

Following our career break in 2014, when we spent 7 months travelling around South America, 2015 was always going to be a little less travel-ey. However, we still managed to get in some great trips. 

Here are our highlights:

Where we stayed - Naples, Capri & the Amalfi Coast, Italy

Our recent trip to Italy wasn't quite as 'budget' as some of our other travels. We paid somewhere between £70 (US$105) and £100 (US$150) a night for accommodation for the two of us, which for Western Europe ain't bad for what we got! 

Here's where we stayed:

Naples
Following a recommendation by Anglo Italian, we chose Hotel Micalò for our stay in Naples. From the outside, the 17th century building that houses this boutique hotel looks tired and not particularly appealing.

Top tips for visiting the Amalfi coast

We spent 3 days in the beautiful town of Positano on the Amalfi Coast in the middle of October 2015. We had arrived from Capri and used Positano as a base to explore the surrounding area. 

If you're heading that way, here's some tips for getting the most out of your visit.

24 and a bit hours on Capri

Crossing the sea
From Naples our next stop was the island of Capri, just a 50 minute boat ride away from the main Molo Beverello port.

Pulling out of the port in Naples

Unfortunately, as is not entirely unusual in October - although we mostly had good weather - it was raining.

Capri in the rain

Being vegetarian in Italy

When I wrote the 'Being vegetarian in India' post, I said I had considered leaving the entry blank, as its so easy to be vegetarian in the sub-continent. 

Italy is similar. 

The Italians love good ingredients and good food and make delicious meals regardless of whether they include meat or not. 

Getting to Pompeii and Vesuvius on a day trip from Naples

When I was researching our trip to Italy, I struggled a little to find clear information on getting to the Pompeii archaeological site from Naples independently. And more importantly how easy it would be to get from there to Vesuvius and then back to Naples.

Luckily, when we got there, it was, (as you can imagine for trip done every day by thousands) very easy. This post describes just how easy.

Exploring Naples

I had little to no real expectations of Naples, before we visited. I knew very little about the city and we were only really going there as it was the entry point for us to visit the Amalfi coast from the UK.

As our departure date neared and I started to do a little more research, I found quite mixed reviews of the place: some people seemed to love it and others reported that it was dirty and dangerous. 

Happily, what we found when we got there was a very real and lived in city, with beautiful architecture (even if some of the paintwork was peeling or fading) and some fantastic food.

Marinara Pizza from Fresco Pizzeria

And no we didn't find it dirty or dangerous. A bit chaotic and resistant to modernisation perhaps, but friendly and interesting and we never felt threatened,