11.05.2010

Sorrento and Naples


We overslept in Rome and hurried to start our journey to Sorrento. I managed to correctly order our coffee in broken Italian that morning but ended up with sweets for breakfast instead of croissants. We took the local train to Naples (bad idea...take the Eurostar) and then another local to Sorrento. We stopped in downtown Sorrento before heading up Via del Campo to the hotel. Our room had a balcony overlooking the Gulf of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. That evening, we ordered a bottle of Chianti from the bar and sat on the windy lounge balcony sipping wine and watching a fireworks display across the gulf.
We awoke to a sunny view of the gulf and spent the morning wandering the hotel gardens before heading down the hill to Sorrento for window shopping and a winding walk down Via del Mar to the waterfront. We ate a lovely seafood lunch on the water and climbed the stairs along the rock wall, through back alleys and returned to the downtown area. The afternoon brought in some rain so we napped and read at the hotel. After dinner, enjoyed an evening out with locals and tourists at an Irish pub.
The following morning, we enjoyed our the morning in Sorrento before heading to Pompeii on our route to Naples. We spent over four hours walking the ruins at Pompeii. We were both impressed by the city's vast expanse and Mt. Vesuvius in the not-so-distant horizon. In the late afternoon, we headed back to the train and found ourselves in the crazy city of Naples. Paolo, the most gracious host in all of Italy, arranged for a taxi to meet us at the train station and take us to his family home on Vomero Hill. He upgraded us to a suite for our stay and then walked us to dinner where we enjoyed the house speciality pizza. Napoleon pizza in Naples. 'Nuf said.

11.01.2010

Roma: Part One

We arrived in Rome at seven in the morning and watched the sunrise on the train to the hotel. We began our first of many hunts to find our hotel room and quickly shed our luggage to go and explore ancient Rome. Thanks to our Rick Steve's guidebook, we avoided many a line and our first day was no exception. We bypassed the line at the Colosseum and headed straight to the Palatine Hill and the Forum. Our guidebook didn't provide a lot of insight nor was there much signage explaining what we were seeing on Palatine Hill, so we wandered about aimlessly taking pictures and eavesdropping on tour groups. Once we hit the Forum, our audio guide kicked in and the ruins began to have more significance. Who knew I would actually stand near the spot where Julius Caesar's body was burned?

We were famished and ready to begin our Italian dining adventure. We popped into a cute wine bar and started off with a glass of red wine, marinated artichokes and mushrooms, and pickled onions. We both ordered the vegetable lasagna since we couldn't seem to translate most of the menu even with a menu decoder. I was more impressed with the first course and Greg happily finished off my remaining lasagna remnants.

Off to the Colosseum! We started up our audio tours and settled in to enjoy more history. I'm not sure how long we'd been awake...neither one of us slept much on the plane and it was now late afternoon. At one point, we sat down in the shade and we both started nodding off. It was time to head back to the hotel to shower and take a quick nap before dinner. We were happy to find out that we were upgraded to a suite for the night and took the owner's advice for a pizza dinner at his childhood friend's restaurant.

We wrapped up the evening with a quick stroll to the Trevi fountain, a coin throw to ensure a return to Rome followed by a pistachio gelato. Ah, Roma!

 
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