We arrived in Sorrento via ferry and were greeted with a stunning cliff face! The city rises straight from the sea with no foreseeable way up. Luckily for us there were buses! Our hotel was charming and right in the center of the little town and I do mean little. Much of it has been pedestrianized and so we were able to walk without the normal italian fear of being knocked unconscious by a moped.
We went to pompeii, which is now crossed off my bucket list and climbed mt. vesuvais! Pompeii was really spectacular, it didn't take an active imagination to see how the city would have been 2000 yrs ago. Our guide was excellant and he made sure to point out not only the numerous bars, but the equally numerous brothels! Inside the whorehouses-they had frescos which served as menus and depending on which menu you were into that was the room you entered...brillant! However, as pompeii is an open air musuem, most of the good stuff had been sent to the Natioanl museum in Napoli, so it really is a bunch of ruins....really really cool well preserved ruins. They had plaster casts of bodies that had the expressions of terror still frozen on their faces, it was very touching.
Climbing the volcano was awesome....although I was a little afraid it would blow...this has been the longest period of inactivity in thousands of years and so it was an entirely unfounded fear! It was a perfect clear day and because it's right on the bay there was a perfect breeze!
Sunday was our day of rest and I spent mine laying in a beach chair on a dock in the medd. It was perfect and I felt much rejuvinated! I know I'm on holiday....but as most of you know, traveling is exhausting!!
Today, monday, we took a train to Napoli...which turned out to be more eventful that we'd hoped! About halfway, the engine died and we had to switch trains...luckily there was another waiting, but the train was much more crowded than when we'd boarded and so it was a struggle to fit us and our packs! I was really looking forward to the National Museum, where most of the Pompeii treasures are housed, but...stupid Naples has a stupid strike and we couldn't go in...I'm gutted. There is of course a silver lining...as I was asking the police officer (note: I DO NOT SPEAK ITALIAN!) where the museum was he started talking....I said to him (in italian) I don't speak Italian to which he smiled and nodded and motioned me closer and repeated whatever it was he had just said more slowly and loudly...I wonder if that's where Americans get it from. Anyway, it sort of worked bc I recognized the french word for strike and as I looked around it was obvious that was what was going on.
Disapointed as I was, Mike suggested, we search for the 'best pizza in Naples' as reccomened by my gf D in rome. I was excited...we had been let in on a local's secret! We were walking down this cozy street and there it was...Sorbillo! To be honest, it wasn't quite what I was expecting-which was a dirty tiny mom and pop shop with a menu only in Italian. Instead, it was a clean charming cafe with signs out the front saying BEST PIZZA IN NAPOLI! THE ONLY ORIGINAL SORBILLO IN NAPOLI etc etc. The pizza was, however, excellant, as attested to by all the travel guides and newspaper articles on the shelves.
Tomorrow we're off to Budapest, which according to Lonely Planet is more urban than Vienna and more romatic than Prague...I'll keep you posted!
xxx
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