Italia! Capri & Sorrento

The third day of our vacation. Up early again and off to Isola di Capri. More thunderstorms last night. We had to walk from the tour bus down to the water front. Sorrento is on somewhat of a cliff. As soon as we started walking, it started raining. I had my umbrella, but was very unprepared. Wet feet (I was wearing flip-flops), breezy but the water was actually pretty warm. Saw a rainbow on the way.

The ferry over was horrible. Choppy water made the boat take all sorts of crazy dives and I was feeling anxious and tense and slightly nauseous. When we arrived, we went on a boat tour along the island. I thought it would be alright, but the water still rocked the boat too much. So very nauseous most of the way. We stopped to see the red corral grotto, white grotto and I Faraglioni, where we were able to go swimming in the Tyrrhenian Sea. I felt the most nauseous here, but still went in. The water was warm and extremely salty - not pleasant in the mouth, but it was so fun and the water was so gorgeously blue. Back on the boat and sick again. I am staring up at these beautiful places & feel wretched. I am counting the landmarks until we are back on land. From the water they point out to us the top of these cliffs, the setting for Tiberius' home and where he would invite his enemies over under the guise of peace, but where he would push them over into the sea, to their death. Grim!

We walked around the bottom portion of the island. More pizza - mediocre, but found an amazing coffee shop for lattes and dessert. They brought us beautiful frothed milk separately to add to our coffee. I have no idea what the dessert I ate was, but it was slightly lemony and delicious. We had an Australian waiter who asked us what we were doing later. Getting on a ferry boat in an hour but that made me smile.

Much time spent wandering which is a nice easy change of pace, then back on the boat for the ride back to the main land. The water was a thousand times better and a couple on the tour with us were generous enough to give me some nausea gum. That night after freshening up and relaxing, we took the public bus into Sorrento, and found a nice place to eat outside. I had some very bland Pasta Arrabiata. I thought every meal I had in Italy would be amazing, but that has not been the case. We walked around for a short while then back on the bus to the hotel. I wished we had more time to bum around Sorrento. It's quaint and there are a lot shops and restaurants. There's a good atmosphere in the air.

Italia! Pompeii & Sorrento

Up early and out to Pompeii the next morning. While we were on the bus, we passed an old Italian lady hanging out on a balcony in Rome. Oh my, the stereotype, but how picturesque. I believe there was also laundry hanging out there. Neither of us got a photo of it, but it's certainly burned into our little brains teasing us of its existence.

Away from Lazio Region & into Campania, we arrived. Took a nice guided tour of the ancient city of Pompeii once we arrived in the city of Pompei - this is getting confusing now! We had no free time to wander around while in Pompeii. The tour was informative & interesting but moved so quickly. Missing lots of great photo moments on this tour. I thought we'd have time to goof off & pose for photographs, but we just had to sneak them in as we went. There were a lot of ruins, and a pretty organized system of streets, water pipes, stores & homes.

We saw Mt. Vesuvius looming in the distance and our tour guide told us if you held up your hands to line up with the sides of the mountain, then you could see how tall it used to be, and when it erupted, half of the mountain blew off. That's pretty intense. Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, and the winds sent all the ash over to Pompeii that day. It buried the city in 20 feet of ash and people were believed to have suffocated from that, but I read that most people died from the intense heat that blew through with the winds. The city wasn't discovered again until 1749.

We saw several plaster casts of bodies & animals. Some of the bodies you can still see people's bones, teeth & skulls. That's pretty intense! When they were excavating the site, they found pockets in the ash layer where the bodies had decomposed, but the bones were still intact. They filled the pockets with plaster and were able to preserve these last horrifying positions. We also saw a brothel where there are still paintings of all the "menu" items you can choose while visiting. They even made sure to place a stone penis in the sidewalk a few blocks away pointing the direction to it. I found that really funny - oh priorities! When we were leaving, they told us that the city used to be walking distance to the ocean, and now it is several miles away since the eruption caused the coastline to change.

Before I knew it, we were out the gates and now had free time for lunch. Lunch? I wish they told us about our free time before we left the exhibit, but I guess they want to keep us together. Grabbed a caprese sandwich for lunch (which was bland) and a cannoli which was delicioso!

Back on the bus and traveling south to Sorrento. Our hotel was on a hill overlooking the ocean. Swimming at the hotel already and it was pretty great. Staring out into the ocean then up at the beautiful white facade and red shutters of the hotel. This is Italy and this is great!!!

Off to town for drinks (Prosecco!) and a view of the Bay of Naples then a walk to dinner for pizza - delicious, fabulous pizza!! It took forever to get any due to our numbers but it was so worth the wait. We have a tour group of 51 people & they only brought us out a slice at a time. I kept wishing they'd bring whole pizzas to our table, but that never happened. We did all get 3 slices but it took a couple hours. Every slice was savory goodness! The last slice had corn on it. I thought, wow this is odd, but oh it was so good. For dessert we had chocolate cake and Limoncello (made locally) - I approve!

Italia! Rome...

After a year and a half of waiting, the day finally arrived. I was on my way to Italy! September 17th, I began the long, long trek to Rome. Meeting up with Harmony at JFK airport in NYC, it was so nice to see a familiar face. With a big smile, she laughed as she told me she was watching me look around the crowd trying to find her. She gave me a big hug & we were off. Free movies on the plane kept me really entertained and I was able to sleep some. Attractive tall boy sitting nearby helps too! 17 hours later...

Rome Airport was a ghost town until we left the gates. We were beginning to wonder if no one traveled on Sundays. Shuttle into the city took forever to leave. Driving in, the landscape looks more like Ohio than I would care for, but off in distance are these pretty little trees that scream Italy. I believe they were Poplar Trees & Umbrella Pines. Saw many sheep out in pastures. One pack was traveling with a duck. Saw an old white Fiat when we got into town. Wishing I took a picture of it.

Inside Rome is a mesh of streets, seems complicated but perhaps not. We entered our hotel room and found two tiny long beds. Even though it was pretty small, it was neat. The bathroom was extremely small. The toilet leaves no room for your legs b/c the shower is crammed on it, and that was a little square box with nowhere to set your wash items except the floor.

We had a meeting with our tour group then had the rest of the night free. We took our free time that evening to walk to the Trevi Fountain. So massive and so crowded. We got slices of pizza nearby - not so impressed b/c it was chewy & oily - and gelato, which was great.

Giant thunderstorm that night. Sat and watched lightning for a while from the hotel room window, which had large shutter windows and a gate. It was pretty wonderful.