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| Colosseum at Night |
This year for a change of pace, we decided to take a trip to Rome, Italy. Initially we were going do a whirlwind road trip of the country by flying in and out of Rome. The crazy plan was to rent a car in Rome and drive and stay in the following cities: Florence, Venice, Lake Como, Milan, Cinque Terre and finally down to Naples and the Amalfi Coast (then back to Rome). This was going to amount to over 25 hours (without traffic) of driving and over 1300 miles of road and the more and more we thought about it, this would be a hellish trip and not something that we would enjoy. Combined with trying to see so much we wouldn't get to enjoy the cities like one would really want to, no time to relax as it would be such a go-go-go trip.
Needless to say we scrapped this initial idea and went with a 3 area trip which would give us ample time in each location and even time to relax and explore. The three areas we picked were Rome, Florence and the Amalfi Coast, and the adventure follows below.
Day 1 - Arrival into Italy
We left Houston on Tuesday October 31st on a late night flight to Istanbul, yes Istanbul, Turkish Airways was the cheapest way to get to Rome. Granted it was a longer flight but didn't really lose that much time with the extra travel time, plus we saved a load of money. The plane was nice enough, but the service was a bit lacking but I guess every airline can't be as amazing as Emirates. The jaunt over to Turkey got us in to Rome at 930pm on Wednesday, upon arrival we still had to get to our hotel which was towards the city center. Uber or the train? After going back and forth (literally) on which method to get us to the hotel, we opted for the train.
The train stopped at the main train station, Termini, in Rome and our hotel was only a half mile away so we grabbed the luggage and got to stepping. Not a bad walk, though the cobblestone streets and sidewalks are a bit of a bother when dragging a large suitcase but we made it. After getting into the hotel, we had to get to bed as we had a 745am tour at the Vatican the next morning.
Day 2 - The Vatican and other tourist spots
Our hotel provided breakfast but it was not available until 730 and we needed to be a the Vatican at 745 which left us with figuring out a meal while on the way to the Vatican. We stopped in a local pastry/croissant for a meal while walking to meet the tour guide.
We had booked a skip the line Vatican tour with a local tour group that would get us into the Vatican and allow us to skip the line. Skipping the line at the Vatican is a huge time saver, as the Papal State sees around 20,000-25,000 tourists a day in the peak of summer but even in the 'off-season' of November the lines still wrap around St. Peter's Square.
Our Vatican tour started off in the Vatican Museum where they have over 25 permanent exhibits of literally everything (Egyptian, Jewish, Christian histories), you could spend a week straight in there spending a few seconds on everything and still possibly not see it all. Our tour just hit the highlights because like I said, you can't possibly see it all. First stop was outside in the Vatican gardens, admiring the gardens, the view of the top of St. Peter's Basilica, and the outer walls of the Vatican. Our tour guide gave us a detailed history of the Sistine Chapel while we were out here and explained all the history and meaning of each of the sections of the ceiling.
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| Rebe overlooking the gardens |
From the outside we walked into the actual museum to see the Gallery of Tapestries which displayed old tapestries from long ago hung lining the walls, Raphael's Rooms which contains many of the frescos created for the Vatican by the artist, a quick stroll through the Borgia Apartment with the exit leading to the Sistine Chapel. No photos were allowed in the Sistine Chapel due to the fragile nature of the fresco on the ceiling, any sorts of light really starts to breakdown the frescos. So of course flashes would be banned but being the Vatican they are extra vigilant to protect this special work. The chapel was a lot smaller than I imagined it would be but still stunning in the scope, scale and detail in the ceiling.
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| One of Raphael's masterpieces |
After the Sistine Chapel, we headed down to the big show, St. Peter's Basilica, and this church is HUGE, over 600' long and over 10 stories high. The day of our tour was a religious holiday and our guide was unable to walk/talk us through the Basilica but she did sit us down outside and explain what we would see on the interior. Photos are allowed in the Basilica as everything and I do mean EVERYTHING on the interior of the Basilica is a mosaic, mosaics are pieces of art or image made from the assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or tiles. These works are done so well, one could not tell that they were actually mosaics. Below are a few images from in the Basilica:
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| Main aisle through the church |
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| The altar |
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| This is one of the mosaics above the altar |
After we saw the inside of St. Peter's, we opted to tour the top of the church through series of stairs (551 to be exact after the elevator) that wound between the inner dome and the outer dome and ended up on the top of the Basilca dome. It was now midday and the tourist were flocking to the Vatican in full force and it was time for us to 'leave the country.'
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| View from atop St. Peter's |
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| Leaving the Vatican |
For lunch we ate at Il Sorpasso, which was recommended to us by our tour guide, it was a small restaurant with mostly Italians with good food and cheap wine. After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a break and rest, as we were still recovering from the plane ride and early start to the day.
With our batteries recharged, we came back out to see some of the big tourist spots that we didn't have tours for such as:
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Trevi Fountain
(Ignore the warp, it's the best I could do with what I had) |
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| Pantheon |
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| Spanish Steps at night |
We also stopped for our first bite of gelato, of which there would be many more stops on the trip. While on the Spanish Steps we were serenaded by locals and afterwards we hopped on the subway to catch a train back to our hotel for the night.
Day 3 - Catacombs, St. Clement Basilica, Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins
Well apparently we were more tired and jet lagged than we thought, our room had awesome blackout shades and we slept in until 1230. Not on purpose but that's what happened. Luckily our tour did not start until 230pm so we still had time for lunch. Lunch was at Target Restaurant (not like American Target) which was right around the corner from the hotel and then walked to meet our tour group at Piazza Barberini for our tour to the Catacombs, more churches and Franciscan crypts.
Back in the 2nd century Christians started using Catacombs to bury their dead as it was illegal to bury bodies in the city and for a while the Christians were doing this in secret of night. We got to see the most famous and well preserved catacomb which is the Catacomb of Domitila, more than 150,000 bodies were buried here and there are many many layers in which the bodies were buried. Very few of the remains are still in the catacombs due to looters trying to get money from the families that were buried there. Sadly no photography was allowed in the catacombs.
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Catacomb of Domitila
By Dnalor 01 - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32602960 |
From the catacombs we were driven to St. Clement Basilica, this little known church was a very interesting place. The tour guide said the further you go in or down in the church the further back in history you go. Walking in to the main basilica is a smallish standard church that was built around 1100AD, but this church was built upon another Roman Basilica which had been completed probably around the 2nd century and then a Roman pagan temple was built below that.
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Interior of St. Clement
By Sixtus - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=707711 |
From the basilica we went over to the Church of the Franciscan monks to see the Franciscan crypts. The Franciscans are a unique bunch who had saved all the bones from former monks and orphans that had come through there church, and to honor them they made monuments with their bones. A bit creepy and quite eerie but with an air of beauty. We weren't allowed to take pictures but obviously there are a few on the internet.
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Bones inside the Church of the Franciscan Monks
By Dnalor 01 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32641526 |
After the tour of the Franciscan church ended we headed to this bar called Friends for a before dinner drink and a snack (apericena in Italian), well apparently the Italians eat like the Americans now because this large snack ended up being dinner.
After dinner we went for a stroll over to Piazzo Navona where there are 3 amazing fountains in a large plaza. We hung out people watching and studying the fountains, these fountains are so detailed they themselves belong in a museum. After researching the fountains and reading some history on them we then took a stroll along the Arno River while eating gelato (#2) to see if we could see the St. Peter's Basilica from the river but never found the view, so we headed back to the hotel to get some Z's.
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| Fountain in Piazzo Navona |
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| Fountain in Piazzo Navona |
Day 4 - Colosseum and Roman Forum
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| The Colosseum |
We had to get up early for another morning tour and this time it was the Colosseum tour and the Roman Forum. The Colosseum was very close to our hotel, just one or two subway stops away but when we got there we could not find our tour group as the instruction were not very clear. After arriving at the subways station we were supposed to go up another set of stairs to find the tour group, so after 10 minutes of panic we found our group.
We headed to the actual Colosseum first and if you hadn't heard a local preservation group cleaned the exterior original walls of the Colosseum to give it a new clean look and for a nearly 2000 year old (build 70-80AD) structure its still amazing looking. The downfall of the Colosseum was that it was built on a former lake bed and due to that the original structure has suffered over time, but over the years the Romans have tried to preserve what they could by propping up what they can or completely rebuilding some sections.
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| Gladiator entrance to the arena |
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| Colosseum Floor (original wooden floor long missing) |
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| Us on the arena floor |
Our tour led us down to the lower sections of the Colosseum first, where they actually kept the animals the gladiators would battle and to see the recreated floor-door where the animals would pop up on to the arena floor. We then headed up to the arena floor and got to walk through same gate in which all the gladiators would walk through, it was a very cool experience that I would equate to our American football players see today. Such a large stadium like building with thousands of people cheering to see you crush your opponent or for your opponent to crush you. After the floor we head up to the good seats where the rich folks would sit and then on up to the highest levels that you are allowed to visit. The Colosseum was really a building that set a standard for all the stadiums of today, while I do not think it was the first large arena but it definitely set a tone for how large roundish (though it's actually an oval structure) stadiums would be built. The stadium even has sections and concourses behind the seats.
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| From below the arena floor |
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| From the cheap seats |
I haven't even mentioned our tour guide, man this guy had so much information about the Colosseum and Roman Forum, it was actually too much information. We just could not digest all that he was throwing at us, I guess that's what happens when you try to tell 2000 years of history in 4 hours. Maybe it was his presentation... dunno but it was painful to listen to but definitely cool to see the sights.
After the Colosseum we headed over to the Roman Forum, the Forum is the plaza that is next to the Colosseum and it contains multiple building and ruins from before and after the time when the Colosseum was built. I would go in to detail on what all was down there but honestly like I said our guide was spilling so much information I think my brain was full by the time we left the Colosseum.
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| View from the Colosseum |
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| The FORUM |
The tour ended after noon and the Forum was now getting crowded so it was time to move on to another section of town, we headed over to the Jewish Ghetto to have lunch at Nonna Betta known for their artichokes.
We then went to the hotel to take a power nap to recharge for the night. At 5pm we headed out for the Janiculum Terrace, which from our hotel was a long bus ride up to a spot that overlooks Rome. Rome seems to have no open container law, so I had a beer from the lookout spot (with the locals) who were also drinking and smoking (a lot of smoking in Italy).
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| View of St Peter's from Janiculum Terrace |
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| Other side of the Terrace |
We caught the bus back down the hill to have Arancini for dinner, Arancini are fried balls of rice and different cheese and sauces covered in bread crumbs. This was recommended to us by our tour guide from the previous day, and we found them at a spot near the Colosseum. After our completely unhealthy dinner we strolled over to the Colosseum again for some late night pictures.
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| Arancini |
While we were out we thought it'd be good to see if Trevi Fountain had less tourists. It didn't but we had a sit anyways and I am now convinced that if you want to have this fountain to yourself or with just a few people your best bet is probably at 5am in the morning. Maybe on another trip I can have it to myself.
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| Trevi Fountain (Low Res) |
Fun fact: most big fountains in Rome are at the end of an aquaduct, geez those old Romans were smart. I mean what else would you do with the extra water you're not using, of course turn it into a beautiful art display.
More gelato before the night ended (#3) en route to the house.
Day 5 - Moving to Florence
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| Ponte Vecchio |
It was time to leave Rome and head for Florence, didn't really know what to expect as everyone we spoke to told us Florence was awesome but I really had no clue. I mean Rome is Rome, known for all the huge stuff like the Vatican and the Colosseum but what's in Florence...
Of course after decent weather in Rome we finally found the rain in Florence and it was pouring as we walked out of the train station. The local immigrant population was in full force out trying to sell us overpriced umbrellas as I forgot to pack mine (along with my hooded rain jacket, tried to pack lighter). I got farther from the train station and found a sucker whose english wasn't great and got a big umbrella for 5€, as the same umbrella in the station would have run me 10€. We got to our quaint hotel, Hotel Rivoli, without being soaking wet, settled in and formulated our afternoon game plan.
The first Sunday of every month, all the museums in Florence are free and since we already had tours planned for the other big museums we thought we would check out Boboli Gardens which looks amazing from the images. We learned when we got there, to see the actual gardens on this day you had to enter before 3pm and we were just a bit late, but since we were there we went ahead and took the opportunity to take in all the art that they had to display in Pitti Palace. Pitti Palace is the former home of an ambitious banker and then purchased by the Medici family who were the 'rulers' of Florence. The Medici were not actual royalty but just so rich that it was easy for them to throw their weight around. Even 4 heirs of the family went on to become Pope, dunno what that says about the church. Some of the art in the palace was a bit over our heads and from Italian artists we had never heard of but some of it was from THE Raphael, pretty cool if you ask me. I am sure there are other super famous artists in the gallery but like I said... over our head. There was a room, which we titled the Hercules room, where the walls and ceiling told all of his stories. They also had modern art display, which wasn't exactly modern and obviously not as cool, but I guess if you are into that kind of thing they have it for you.
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| View of Boboli from inside Pitti Palace (no photos in the museum) |
We then we had dinner at Trattoria Boboli (more on this place later).
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| Interior of Trattoria Boboli |
Gelato #4 at a tiny boutique shop, cause they need love too. Headed back to the room to plan for tomorrow and possibly call it a night.
While in the room we decided it was still early and decided to go back out and scope out the Duomo since we had yet to see it. The Duomo is the giant catholic church in Florence (each city in Europe has one, some have more than one) and it does not really resemble any of the others I've seen before but its style resembles the other churches of Florence (maybe it's the trendsetter).
After the late night photos, we called it a night as we had another action packed day planned for Monday.
Day 6 - Riding on a Vespa
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| Our trusty steed |
The museums are closed on Monday's so none of the usual tours were available, so we were left with trying to figure out something else to do. Well the weather was forecasted for rain and for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to book a Vespa (scooter) tour. We showed up at the tour place dressed in our best rain gear ready for the slick cobblestones of Florence, our tour guide a talkative young man from Florence who had went to college in New Jersey (and visited 31 states while there) was our leader. Of course since it was raining he was driving an old Fiat 500L from the 60's while the tour group of 8 was riding behind him on vintage Vespas.
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| The group |
The first stop on the tour was a spot that we had previously planned to visit while in Florence and it was a church up on a hill that over looked Florence. It was a special Catholic church (Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte) that has a unique history as most of them do, and it is the only Catholic church in the world with actual zodiac symbols in the church and it also has a lot of pagan symbology on/in the church too.
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| The Church (Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte) |
From there we ventured off into the Florence countryside to see some of the Tuscan wine fields and olive fields. The tour owns land behind the church where they put on cooking classes, and that is where we ate lunch which was not provided by the cooking class but by the cooking class chefs.
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| View from lunch |
From lunch we continued on riding around the countryside and finally ending up back at the tour shop local office. Luckily during the entire vespa tour the rain held off.
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| View while eating gelato in Piazzo del Santo Cruce |
With the planned events done for, well... it was time for gelato #5 where we sat in Piazzo del Santo Cruce to plan the rest of our day. Our new plans was to take the bus back up the hill to Piazzo Michaelangelo, just below the church we visited earlier in the day with the intention of catching the sunset but we were late due to the time change AND it didn't matter because the sun set so far to the left of the view it really didn't matter. But we did enjoy the view.
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| View from Piazzo Michaelangelo (from the Vespa ride) |
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| Us at dusk |
We then hiked up the hill back to Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte, where we listened to a 5:45pm mass and then got to listen to the monks of the church do a Gregorian Chant.
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| Florence from across the river |
After our church service we had dinner at Osteria San Niccolò where we had an awesome waiter who we quizzed on the great places to eat in town and of course the places to avoid... Of course his first suggestion was to go to the place we had gone to the night before! That's right folks, Rebe and I are eating with the locals :) We also quizzed him on secrets for getting olive oil as they literally just picked the olives last weekend AND of course what's the best place to get gelato in town cause... well if you haven't sensed a pattern just yet you must be not be paying close attention.
Of course after we leave dinner it was pouring rain, so to kill time we did what any good Florencian would do and that means gelato #6 at one of the places our waiter recommended. And then back to the hotel all soaking wet due to the continued rain.
Day 7 - Uffizi Gallery and Fiesole
Since our tour wasn't until 1:15pm we decided this could be another good day to sleep in and take our time in the morning. Remember when on vacation it shouldn't all be hustle and bustle, you need time to relax too. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then went back to the room to plan the rest of our day after our tour.
Up first on the agenda for today was a visit to the Uffizi Gallery, the building was the former palace of the Medici family who were known as the ruling family over Florence. They weren't kings, as kings were not allowed, so they called themselves "Great Dukes.” Uffizi is where they collected or stored their art over the years and now it is open for all to see. In the halls they have works by Botticelli, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Lippi, Rafael and Carravaggio to name a few. Of course you need a guide to really appreciate the art and the history behind it or you can listen to the audio guide but even with that you still have to listen to every single blurb about every painting which of course you are not going to spend 12 hours in this gallery trying to experience it all. Rebe and I found out that about 2 hours of art at a time is our limit.
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| Main hall at the Uffizi |
The tour guide left us in the museum to continue exploring, which we did for another 30 minutes but then it was time to venture off for our evening adventure. The plan was to see the sunset from the hills (mountains if you're from Texas) above Florence from a town called Fiesole. Fiesole is only 6-7 miles away from Florence but that would take 1.5 hours to walk to, but Florence has a bus that is dedicated to going directly to this tiny town on the hillside. We of course caught this bus, and took the 45 minute ride up to Fiesole but due to us needing a snack and stopping back by the hotel room to get my tripod we got there just a bit too late for the sunset.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that Italians eat dinner late, definitely after 8pm so of course a lot of the restaurants do not open until 730 and of course we got to Fiesole at 5pm to catch the sunset. So now we have to kill some time in this tiny town that is essentially closed. We journey off down some road looking for views of Florence from the hillside, found one.
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| Florence from Fiesole |
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| Church |
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| Cemetery |
We headed back into town to explore places to eat, the place we wanted to eat wasn't open yet so we ventured to another restaurant that was up this HUGE hill up on the giant hill we were already on and after hiking up this hill for 20 minutes we find out that they apparently had shut down for the winter/fall season. Luckily there happened to be a park nearby with another over look of Florence.
We continued further up the hill to find a church (of course) and a hidden cemetery.
After this exploration we headed back into town to see if we could find some fresh olive oil, it was olive picking season in Italy and it only takes a few days to press and bottle the olive oil but at this time we were unsuccessful.
After this detour we had dinner with the locals as not as many tourists venture up the hill during the later parts of the year and caught our bus back down the hill to Florence.
Day 8 - Giorno di David (Day of David)
Today was the day that we saw Michaelangelo's David as you might have gathered from the title. We started the day by meeting our tour guide at St. Marco's Square and from there we proceeded into the Academy's Galleria (Galleria dell'Accademia) which houses many works including David. We started with a plaster model of another statue that we had actually noticed in Florence in another plaza, but it was a plaster model created before the creation of the actual statue and was quite disappointing since we had actually seen the finished statue already.
We then moved into the hall with Michaelangelo's "Slaves" or "Prisoners," these were sculptures that Michaelangelo worked on but never finished. Apparently Michaelangelo was a very busy man and I guess these unfinished sculptures were like his hobby that he just never got around to finishing. What's more surprising is that after he died the Medici family, the family of the rulers of Florence basically confiscated these statues after Michaelangelo's death and put them in the grotto on their family estate (Pitti Palace). They also brought his body back from Rome after he died to have it entombed in Florence.
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| Michaelango's Prisoners of to the right and left |
And then we got to DAVID... All my life I always thought that this statue was an average size human, maximum 6' tall (even though Italians of the time were much shorter than humans today) but the statue is massive. It stands 18' tall, and it is up on a pedestal which makes it even more towering (not to mention the hall in which the statue is located). The statue is of the biblical story of David and Goliath, of course where little 'ol teenager David takes on the giant with nothing more than a rock and a sling. But this is where the story and statue diverge, the statue is clearly not of a teenager and it is obviously different from other statues of this story as it depicts David before the battle and not after.
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| David |
From David we then left the Academy and ventured over to the famous Duomo (Dome, Cathedral of Florence). This was the first domed church of its time, it was such a feat that many didn't believe it could be done and still 600 years later it still is structurally sound. The outside of the church is covered with green and white marble, not the original work but added later when the Fiorentini wanted to spruce up the church and someone with a lot of money wanted to make a name for themselves. As impressive as the outside of the church was, the interior was a bit disappointing for it being such a historic church.
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| Exterior of Duomo |
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| Interior of Duomo |
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| Fresco under the Duomo |
After the cathedral our tour guide led us through the streets of Florence again to show us more statues and give us more history of the town ending at the Uffizi gallery where we were the day before.
One of the things we had planned for this trip was a visit to Boboli Gardens, which I mentioned earlier, and these are the gardens of the Pitti Palace. Imagine having a Central Park of NYC in your backyard and that's what these sprawling gardens are like. From the rear of the palace the gardens rise up a hill to manicured bushes and then down another massive hill to the right with rows of trees and views that over look Florence. Entrance is free to citizens of the town and for us foreigners it is just a 10 euro entry fee to walk the gardens.
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| Rear of Pitti Palace |
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| View from upper hill looking down on Pitti and Florence |
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| Garden at top viewing the hillside |
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| Path lined with trees |
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| Us at the far end of Boboli |
A
lso on the grounds behind Pitti Palace is the famous grotto where the Medici family houses Michaelangelo's "Slaves" series of sculptures, that I mentioned were in the gallery before David.
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| Medici Grotto |
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| Interior of the grotto and a replacement 'slave' |
After spending a couple of hours in Boboli Gardens we then headed back across town to see a special church, Santa Croce. Remember earlier when I mentioned the Medici family brought Michealangelo's body back to Florence... well they entombed his body in this church. Galileo was also entombed here and there are funerary monuments for many other Italians (like Dante and Da Vinci both who aren't actually buried there).
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| Santa Croce altar |
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| Michaelangelo funerary monument |
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| Santa Croce main aisle |
By this point of the trip we were getting a bit "churched" out and stopped at a local foodie spot for some cheese and wine to kill some time as it was a bit early for dinner. After this we were on the hunt for some fresh olive oil, we had checked the local grocery stores in Fiesole the day before but being a smaller town it was unlikely that we would find the 'new' oil. But we kept at it and we indeed found some fresh oil on our way to dinner in another grocery store, but olive oil without balsamic vinegar is only half the battle... Dinner was at Trattoria Boboli again, they make a homemade balsamic vinegar that is truly amazing and so we brought a bottle home. The food was amazing again, the staff was super friendly and since we were the last customers of the night they even gave us a small desert and some limoncello as a night cap. If you ever happen to find yourself in Florence, we highly recommend this place and you know it's not a tourist trap because there is no english on the menus.
Day 9 - Move to Naples and Sorrento
Our time in Florence had now come to an end and it was time to pack up and move again this time going south to Naples. We caught the train out of Naples around 9 in order to be down in Naples around lunch time so we could get some Neapolitan pizza. We stored our luggage in the train station and then headed into town, and we actually found a place very close to the train station. Usually we avoid the 'traps' or places close to the train station or high tourist areas but Naples isn't quite as touristy as the other city. So we hop into this highly rated pizza joint and it's truly a local spot, barely any one in the spot speaks English. We proceed to study the menu and then order a pie and gnocchi and chow down.
From lunch we then took a stroll towards the city center, and if you know anything about Naples it's that it's a city that is rough on tourists. My current supervisor was in Naples a year or two ago, stepped out of his car for a spot of pizza and within 3 minutes his laptop was stolen from his rental car, and if you read enough stories on the internet you'll hear about necklaces and purses being snatched by quickly passing by Vespas. Needless to say I tucked the big camera away, left the backpack with the luggage and attempted to blend in (though I was wearing a bright blue jacket). At first glances, Naples is a rough, gritty looking town and I mean rough I would say it has that old rust belt American city look and graffiti everywhere.
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| Old wall protecting Naples |
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| Interior of Church |
We looked up a a couple of places to visit while were in town, and found the old wall that surrounds the city and of course a few churches. But the churches in Naples are showing a bit of wear... they haven't been as well taken care of as some of the other churches in the country, like say a bit of mildew and possibly a pigeon or two flying through. We did stumble upon a tour called the Naples Underground, but at the time we arrived the next tour was in 30 minutes so we took a pass and continued our trek through the city. We stumbled upon the big cathedral but it was closed at the time we arrived and then we walked through the Via dei Tribunali which is the main east-west street that ran through the old city of Naples.
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| Via dei Tribunali |
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| Typical alley |
We then found another church with a cool wall and at this point we were spent from walking in Naples and also wanted to get down to our hotel in Sorrento before it gets dark. So we hopped on the subway and got back to the main train station in 20 minutes, grabbed our luggage, stopped by the bathroom to pay the local fee to pee (yes it cost 1 euro [$1.19] to pee in the train station but you’re guaranteed for it to be clean at least) and walked over to the rental car office. As expected they gave us a shitbox European hatchback, manual transmission of course and we were soon on our way to Sorrento.
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| Church with cool wall |
Driving in a new country is always an adventure, most of the rules are the same (except no right turns on red) but the tiny customs are what really make the difference. I wouldn't say Italian drivers are aggressive because it is not aggressive if it is the norm and everyone operates in this manner. Here is an example, imagine a two lane road, 35-45 mph speed limit and you're just cruising along at the posted speed minding your own business. There is a fair amount of traffic on the road so it makes it a tad difficult to pull out from say a gas station off of this road and even tougher to enter out onto this road by making a left turn across traffic. In Italy, drivers do not wait for an opening in both directions, it is customary to stick your nose out in traffic to block oncoming cars coming from your left and then do exactly the same to the cars coming from the right. No need to give the apology wave, this is standard fare, so of course when in Rome do as the Romans.
We took a cell phone with data plan for getting around Italy, it made it so much easier to look up places and things while in the cities and also so much easier to navigate the subways, roads and driving with Google Maps makes all the difference. As we headed south out of Naples, we hopped on the highway and Google informed us to get off the highway as the highway was closed. Google then proceeded to take us down some sketchy back alleys, and when I say alleys there was only room for one car, to avoid traffic and we're glad it did as we avoided a lot of traffic. But Google didn't know that the route it wanted us to take was also closed so then we had to get creative and go old school manual and figure out a way around the construction. Long story short we made it to Sorrento while avoiding crazy Italian drivers, highway closures and coastal roads in the dark.
For dinner we stopped in to a local restaurant for a meal, obviously a tourist trap as all the non-Italians were gathered in the first floor and we noticed all the locals go upstairs and avoid us tourists. The meal was nothing to write home about, another gelato (#7) at a local spot right next to our hotel and then off to bed for our adventure scheduled for the next day.
Day 10 - Amalfi Coast
The reason for picking Sorrento was it's location on the coast, the goal for this portion of the trip was to see the famous Amalfi Coast. It is described by Google as "a 50-kilometer stretch of coastline along the southern edge of Italy’s Sorrentine Peninsula, in the Campania region. It’s a popular holiday destination, with sheer cliffs and a rugged shoreline dotted with small beaches and pastel-colored fishing villages. The coastal road between the port city of Salerno and clifftop Sorrento winds past grand villas, terraced vineyards and cliffside lemon groves." You have probably seen the pictures if not, enjoy the ones I took below.
It was really just a day of leisurely driving along the coast and visiting the costal towns that litter the cliff sides. We could tell it was out of tourist season, as I would imagine these towns are crazy crowded in the heart of the summer but when we arrived it was very slow and easy to get around. We stopped in Maiori for lunch and while we were there Rebe picked up some custom genuine Italian leather sandals. After lunch we continued our journey down the coast until we almost reached Salerno and then we headed back to Sorrento taking the highway back with detour into a small Italian town where no one spoke English to get some gelato (#8). We could tell they were shocked to see us (Americans) from the stares of "where in the world did you come from and how did you get to this part of town?" After a bit of pointing, we got our 2 scoops paid and were on our way.
That evening when we returned to Sorrento we went a different route for dinner, we were going to have a small meal, a drink and then a big classic Italian dinner to finish the trip off. We found a beer bar that was serving mainly Italian and European beers, so the plan was to have an apericena (drink and appetizers) but the beer place's apericena was a meat and cheese plate that was so big that Rebe and I were stuffed after finishing it, and the waiter/owner even gave us a 'small' version.
Day 11 - Pompeii and Vesuvius
This would be our last full day in Italy and our day to travel back up to Rome in preparation for our flight back to Houston. We started the day early with breakfast at the hotel and shortly headed out of Sorrento to make our way to Pompeii, the ancient city that was devastated by nearby Mount Vesuvius, the still active volcano. We scheduled an early private tour with a local tour guide to show us around and give us a quick 2 hour tour of Pompeii. Glad we did it this way, we were able to ask direct questions and move in a out of the highlights quickly and since we started the tour at 900 we were amongst the first people in to see the 64 acres of ruins while the most famous highlights were not crowded.
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| Us in the main amphitheater |
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| Courtyard of a rich family house in Pompeii |
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| One of the main streets |
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| High point view of Pompeii |
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| Pompeii Colosseum |
We had parked the car at a local restaurant before heading into the Pompeii ruins and they informed us we would get free parking if we ate lunch there later. We needed parking and food so it seemed like a no brainer, being unfamiliar with the area we didn't want to continue to drive around looking for parking or be late for our tour guide. Anyways, this was the true essence of a tourist trap and we should have known, we sit down to order a pizza, because why would 2 people need more than 1 pizza... waiter comes back to tell us we must order 2 meals to get free parking. The cost of the 2nd plate was the same as paying for parking but it is just the principle of being told this now instead of when we parking is what irked me. We added a calzone to cover parking, and dammit if the calzone didn't come wrong and cold on the inside. THEN when we go to leave the credit card machine "wasn't working" I had enough cash to cover the meal but I knew this was a ploy to get us to pay cash so we patiently waited until they figured out how to work the credit card machine.
From Pompeii we headed over to Mount Vesuvius to see the top of the fatal and still active volcano (3.5 million live in the metro area next to Vesuvius), which last erupted in 1944. After a twisty drive up the volcano base, we arrived at the parking area which was 1.5 miles from entrance to the park. There was a taxi for 1 euro up and another euro to get back down, we opted for the 1 euro up figuring we could handle the walk down. We were now at the entrance, paid the entrance fee at the bottom of the hill which is a trick in itself because you buy a ticket at the bottom of the hill and then after climbing to the second entrance they then verify your ticket, so if you try and be sneaky and walk up the hill to avoid paying you'd have to walk back down and then up again. Think of it as a penalty for trying to sneak in. The climb up the volcano is a good uphill climb, not steep but definitely a bit strenuous for people not in peak shape. From the top we could see Naples and the surrounding towns further south along the coast.
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| The path up to the top of Vesuvius |
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| The crater at the top, note the smoke off to the right |
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| View from top looking toward Sorrento and Pompei |
From the volcano we headed into Naples to return our rental car and to catch our train to Rome for the early flight the next morning.
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