Ischia, Italy (June 6-10)

Incredible island off the west coast of Italy. It was a vacation from our travels. So beautiful and met so many great people at the Ring Hostel. Had amazing home cooked Italian food and home made wine. Fantastic. Got some pics from some other people so we will try to post, although it will not do justice to this place which is hardly touched by tourism (compared to the rest of Italy). We were very sad to leave. Special shout out to our girl Kiwi Kate (who "worked" at the hostel) who was such an awesome time and very kindly gave us countless contacts in NZ. We are insanely jealous that she will be in Ischia for the rest of the summer and fall. The point is this(one of the brothers would say)....you come for 2 weeks and stay for 6 years...who cares?! You are all crazy in Ischia, we were so in love.

These are some pics from some guys from miami that we met, it is the best we can as we had no digitals!! It doesnt do justice to the place of course, or capture the feeling of life on the island but it is better than nothing I guess!

The first 2 are the view of the mountain from the roof top terrace on the hostel, the next are from a boat tour we all went on around the whole island (if you look closely you can see me sucking on a beer at the front of the boat. Once all the tourists got off we had the whole thing to ourselves (about 15-20 of us) and had a good ol time drinking beer and taking in the sun and sights (like a castle built in the middle of the sea on an island towering above everything). The others are randoms and the tiny van that 10-15 people would pile into and get driven to the family restaurant by Lorenzo or Giuseppe (brothers whose family own the hostel,a hotel and a restaurant) Thanks for everything guys! Literally, each night our lives would flash before our eyes as they tore through the tiny, winding backstreets of Forio, Ischia. Seriously, you couldnt even put a finger out the window as it would have been torn off by the stone walls. So much fun though, like an Italian rollercoaster.