A Vacation in Sorrento

Yesterday we left Rome wishing that we had another day there because we really loevd it. We already had bought train tickets for early in the morning. We got on a the train, it was a really nice fancy train and we had good assigned seats with this American couple (aged about 45) who had a teenage daughter in camp while they were traveling and they were from Massachusetts (near Smith College!). It was really nice to talk to them, we havent had a lot of conversations with people who speak English fluently. In Naples, we had to get on this little regional train, and the couple (Carole and Chris) were actually going to the same town as us.

The regional train was UNBELIEVEABLY HOT and sweaty and stopped every 5 minutes. And there were 700 people on it. Many, many of these were standing. We were going right by Pompeii and almost didnàt go because we knew it would be scalding hot and we had seen a lot of HOT ruins yesterday. Carole and CHris, our friends, were having the same debate with themselves. In the end, Peggy, we knew you would never forgive us, if we didnàt go. So we went and it was very cool. Well, very HOT, but much larger than we ever imagined and it seems like back in its day it was a really grand city. Very interesting history.

After about 2 hours, we got back on the hot train and made it to Sorrento (on the southern coast of Italy). Caught a bus to our hotel (soaked in sweat at this point, of course) and our hotel was wonderful. Maria was great, we got to pick between 5 rooms, all cliffside, with awesome ocean views. Our room is cool, as it is below street level, and has a balcony with a table and a great ocean view, across the Bay of Naples to Pompeii and Naples. Excellent. Plus, it has high cielings and a little entryway and a big bathroom with a tub (our first in Italy!) and a big kitchen for guests to use. We were obviously thrilled with this place. Headed into town for a swim and a supermarket, stocked up on much wanted groceries and cooked a delicious dinner (pasta of course, the stores donàt sell much else here in ITaly) with veggies and sauce. Very relaxing evening with the ocean out the door.


We had our first real taste of Italian men. Walking up from town to our hotel, in our one piece bathing suits, shorts, wet gross hair and sweaty from the hike, carrying 3 bags of groceries, we had 3 sets of guys honk or call out to us. Here it is totally appropriate to show affection for women in this way...especially non Italian women which we obviously are. imagine if were were dressed up? One guy pulled up next to us on his motor scooter and tried to give us first a ride (how was he going to fit both of us, 3 large grocery bags and himself onto his tiny motor scooter?) and then invited us out for a drink because "we were very beautiful girls." Donàt worry moms, No is universally understood and we told him we were meeting other people. He was very "jealous".

We had ambitious plans today to go to either Capri or Ischia (both islands off the coast here). We were supposed to leave at 8:30. At 7:00, we decided today was not going to be that kind of day. Istead we slept in, cooked omelettes and then left the hotel at 11 to go to a beach in the next town over. Beaches here arenàt really sandy, they are big piers with tons of chairs and umbrellas and only small strips are public, the rest you have to pay for. We baked in the sun at the beach for awhile, swam a lot in the very warm ocean, and then came back to our hotel for a nice rest.

On the way back to our hotel, guess who got on the bus across the aisle from us? Our new friends Carole and Chris. We chatted about our adventures. THey too had ambitious plans for today but threw them aside to relax. It is 104 degrees here today. We are going to head into town and shop and are hopefully ready to head out really siteseeing tomorrow, down the coast (wish us luck catchinga 625 am bus! to beat the crowds).