Spain, Italy, Malta 2017

Another exciting trip to Spain this summer to visit family involved a short trip to Italy and Malta, a quick stop in Barcelona, and plenty of time to soak up the Madrid life. We arrived in Spain on the 6th of June, spent several days in Campo Real and Madrid before heading to Italy. Maria's parents treated us to an amazing trip in Italy via cruise ship which in itself is a story. Many thanks to Ana and Rafa for such a great experience.

There are links below to pictures of each stop.

We started our journey in Pisa where we stayed at a local's flat via Air B & B. It was an interesting experience as Roberto lived there while renting out an entire floor of his flat. He was nice. Pisa is a small town with some interesting things to see. We probably missed some cool things but definitely saw the stuff everyone sees when they visit Pisa. All in all you could probably see all of the good stuff in a half day if you were to visit.

Pictures of Pisa

From Pisa we took a two hour train ride up to Genoa where the boat was docked. We got on the boat, got situated and then got back off the boat to explore Genoa a bit. Our goal was to see Christopher Columbus' place of birth, the home where he grew up.

Pictures of Genoa

From Genoa we sailed down the Italian coastline to Napoli where the pizza originated and of course we ate some pizza :) Since we only had about 8 hours here we went straight to the metro to head down to Ercolano which was about 30 minutes. The metro was very packed when we first got on and I experienced my first attempted pick pocket. There were some shady dudes on the metro and one kept bumping into me which is when I noticed them all making eye contact. At this point I reached into my cell phone pocket in my shorts only to bump hands with the gentleman next to me going in for the steal. Two seconds later and I would have been out a cell phone. Unbelievable. We have always been warned about the pick pocketers in Italy and heavy touristy places in Spain. No joke.

Ercolano was amazing. Intense. Beautiful. Most people have heard of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. Ercolono is the same as Pompeii but much better preserved and far fewer tourists. They have uncovered about 30% of the original city that was buried from the eruption in 79AD. Most of the rest of the city is underneath the current city.

After Ercolano we got back on the metro to return to Napoli to explore the city a bit.

Pictures of Ercolano and Napoli

From Napoli we continued south down the Italian coastline stopping at Messina on the island of Sicily, directly across from the toe of the boot of Italy. Here we went straight to the train station to hop on a train to Taormina. After Taormina we returned to Messina to explore.

Pictures of Taormina and Messina

After Messina we sailed over to the island of Malta to Valletta. Here we got on a bus and went to Mdina and Rabat. Then back to Valletta to explore a bit here before getting back on the boat to our final stop of Barcelona. We were in Barcelona for one day. Hopped on the Ave back to Madrid late that evening. Just enough time to visit Sagrada Familia, the beach,

Pictures of Malta

Pictures of Barcelona

Until next summer...