Last Day - Pompeii and Sorrento

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

We wake up early, around 5:30am and start to get ready for our daytrip to Pompeii. We were out the door and on the bus to the train station at 7 and arrived in Pompeii about 8 or so, and after stopping at a quick bar for a cappuccino and american coffee for Jewdee. We walked about 2 minutes down the street and Voila! we were the first ones in, so we quickly buy our tickets, stow our luggage and begin to explore the ancient lost city.

The ruins were absolutely amazing and breathtaking. I was really happy we had a chance to see it. After, we jumped on the train to Sorrento and discovered it wasn't possible to visit the Almalfi Coast before we needed to try and return to Rome.

So we wandered the streets of Sorrento and found ourselves overlooking the sea. This is by far my absolute favorite place I have seen yet in Italy. I absolutely love the Italian beach town and how quiet and quaint it is in comparison to Rome. We make our way into a ceramics shop and admire the pottery. I begin to feel really light headed and dizzy, but I picked out a pretty wine stopper and olive oil spout and we set off to find some lunch.  We stopped at a little outdoor restaurant and had burgers, fries and cokes. I think my dizziness that I have been experiencing throughout my trip is probably due to the lack of meat in all my meals. The waiter laughs at us, silly Americans... Oh well! When we finished I managed to trip myself down the stairs and the waiter begins laughing and exclaims, "TOO much COCA-COLA!!!" It left me laughing the whole day.

We jumped back on the train to Rome and Giorgio picked us up to get our remaining luggage at his grandmother's apartment. We did some souvenir shopping for our families and then said our goodbyes to Francesca and Sergio as we rushed out of Rome to our hotel at the airport. Stopping along the way for Mexican food for dinner and crepes for desert. Nutella crepes! Yum! I couldn't help but laugh at us, how funny that we had American, Italian, Mexican and French food all in one day!

We leave for New York in the morning. A very sad reality strikes me as I understand my adventure is prematurely over.

Adventure to Napoli :)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

This morning, I wake up to a wild lion's mess of hair. I did not sleep well apparently! Jewdee and I began getting ready for the day, I had my croissant with nutella and we waited for Giorgio to pick us up and take us to the beach house they owned. Meanwhile, I suggested a daytrip to Naples and Pompeii and Jewdee agrees! Lets get out of Rome.

After Giorgio had woken up late and we informed him of our plans, we cancelled our trip to the beach house and ventured out on the Frecciarossa train - which is the fastest one they have - to Napoli, where we took a taxi to our hotel, the "Renaissance" by Marriott. The hotel was really nice, and we quickly dropped off our luggage upstairs in our room and ventured our way onto the streets of Napoli to grab a late lunch of margherita pizza and coke. We sat on a bench happily munching our large slice of thick-crusted pizza, enjoying the sights and people around us.

We were picked up at our hotel for a 3-hour private tour of Naples and almost immediately I decided I enjoyed Naples 10 times more then Rome. I got to see the west coast of Italia for the first time and it was beautiful! We saw the views of the castle and the coastline. I really began to appreciate Southern Italy. To the left is the Castel Nuovo.

Below is the Castel dell'Ovo which was converted into a fortress  in 1154.

We were dropped off at a restaurant called "Antonio's Restaurant" and I ordered baked white fish with potatoes and Jewdee had the beef filet with potatoes. My dish was buttery and melted creamily in my mouth, and the potatoes tasted of wonderful garlic and rosemary. Jewdee ended up having two steaks since the first was undercooked, and I had some of it, also being delicious. I don't remember the name of the desert, I think it started with a "s" or a "z" but it was yummy, with a lemon custard-like frosing on top of a light, airy, delicate pastry cake. Tomorrow, we will visit Pompeii, and hopefully Sorrento and the Almafi coastline, but we may not have enough time. I can't wait!!!

Below is the view over the north west region of Naples...