Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Sorrento-First day.
Thursday morning we packed up our things and said goodbye to the Daphne Inn. We were sad to leave our little apartment style room in Rome, but were excited to go somewhere with less tourists and some more open spaces. As much as we had enjoyed all the sightseeing and things to do in Rome, my parents and I were both excited to enjoy more of our style of vacation. We got to the train station in Rome and hopped on in the direction of Naples. We had heard a lot of stories of pick pockets in Naples, so we were ready for a crazier stop once we arrived, but all of our worries were laid to rest when we found out that it wasn't anything to be concerned about. We got into Naples and had to change trains and find one that went to Sorrento. There was a man that came up to us wanting to help, which we quickly found out was his way of trying to get some money, but after walking in a few wrong directions, we finally got it right and found the train that we needed. While we waited for the train to come, we met a nice younger couple from Australia and a mom and daughter from the states. My dad and I spent the whole train ride from Naples to Sorrento talking to the Australian couple about their travels. They had been gone from home almost 9 months and were going to be returning shortly after their time in Italy. They were very nice and it was fun to hear about all the places they had visited.
We arrived in Sorrento and took a taxi to our hotel. We were immediately relieved when we pulled into the Hilton and were greeted with open space and a friendly staff. The hotel is situated up on the mountain over looking the city and the water. Needless to say, it was a gorgeous hotel with a great view. The sun was shining, and we were ready to go out to the pool and relax. After getting settled in our room, we went out to the pool for a little hang out time. When it started to cool down a bit, we came back in and got ready for dinner. My dad had made reservations at a place down by the water that also had a free pick up service, so after we had a few happy hour drinks, we hopped in the car and went down by the water. We were pleasantly surprised at the restaurant when we pulled up. It was a perfect evening out and the restaurant was literally right on the water. It was on a dock that stretched out from the beach. We grabbed a table on the 'outdoor" part of the restaurant and our server moved a nice big heater by us so we could be warm and still enjoy being outside by the water. My parents and I all tried some fresh seafood and spent the rest of dinner reminiscing on all the things we had been doing the past week. Normally, our vacations consist of relaxing on the beach, so this style of vacation was a little new for us. It was fun to think back on all the amazing things we had seen and been able to do. We agreed that although it is nice to just come and relax, we would have been disappointed if we came all the way to Italy and didn't see the many parts of history that we were able to see. Sorrento was the perfect way to end it: Being able to still see some things while still being able to relax and experience a little more of authentic Italy. After about a two-hour dinner we came back to the hotel and got some sleep for our day of Pompeii in the morning!
Sorrento-Naples/Pompeii day
The day finally came when it was time to go to Pompeii. I had been looking forward to this part of the trip since the beginning. Of all the places that we had visited, I was most interested about this one. The trip that I had taken previously to Cordoba got me really interested in old city ruins, and I had seen a lot of programs on TV about Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius so I was really excited to go and visit it for myself.
My parents and I came down for breakfast and were a little bummed to see that it was raining. Nothing too bad, but enough to make my mom contemplate going with us or not. But, luckily after breakfast, things started to clear up and we took a taxi to the bus station in order to catch the train to Pompeii. Although it isn't high tourist season quite yet, there were a of English speaking people on our train heading to Pompeii as well. My highlight of the whole ride was when an Italian couple came into our car on the train, and walked up to me and asked me if I spoke Italian, when I said no they looked at the rest of the people and said "does anyone on here speak Italian?" To their surprise, along with ours, no one in our train spoke Italian. Considering that we were in a smaller Italian city, this was a fairly rare occasion. It helped to lighten the mood on the train and was a good comic relief for everyone.
The train was about 45 minutes from Sorrento to Pompeii, but the entry to the ruins was really close to the station so we were able to get in right away. I was really surprised at how large the actual city is. I was expecting it to be a lot smaller, with fewer things to look at. But amazingly, the city has stayed restored throughout all the time since the volcano erupted in 75 A.D. My parents and I spent the afternoon walking through the city streets, picking out old churches, kitchens, homes, and city squares. It was incredible to see that there were still paintings remaining on the walls, along with marble still intact in the kitchens. The city of Pompeii was fairly well evolved when the volcano erupted, and although they had suffered a major earthquake about 15 years prior to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, they were able to create a fairly large city. The amphitheatre on the far side of the city is still intact, along with many of the walls and pillars of old churches and government style buildings. The best part of the whole tour was seeing the preserved bodies of the people who tried to "wait out" the volcanoes eruption. They estimated that the city of Pompeii had a population of around 15,000 and of those, around 1500 were killed within the city walls. Many fled as soon as the beginning eruptions happened, but those who wanted to wait it out were killed by the hot ash and gases from the volcano. Those people's bodies still remain curled up by the city walls farthest from the volcano. It was a part of history that I am excited to learn more about and feel very lucky to have seen for myself.
After our little excursion, we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant near the ruins to sit and relax for a bit. Walking around on the un-even cobblestone really took it out of us, so we enjoyed some pizza and pasta and then returned back to Sorrento. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and then got ready for dinner. My mom and I of course went down for happy hour once again, and waited for my dad to come and meet us to grab some dinner. It was a really nice evening out and we enjoyed sitting by the windows and talking about all that we had seen that day. We ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed shortly after.
Naples-Madrid
Our last morning in Sorrento was a little sad for all of us. The sun was Shinning bright as we ate breakfast and we all knew that our trip was slowly coming to an end. After eating, we packed up and took the bus from Sorrento to the Naples Airport. Although my mom never got to do her drive along the Amalfi coast, the ride to Naples was just as pretty. The winding roads that fallowed the coastline and mountains were pretty amazing. Once we got to the airport, we checked in and browsed through a few shops until our flight took off. We had a 2-hour flight to Munich and then a quickturn around to Madrid. We were pleasantly surprised by the Munich airport. It was very clean and modern, and the people there were very nice. It's amazing how big of a difference it makes when people actually smile and acknowledge you as you walk past. It definitely made my family want to come back and really give Germany a chance for a vacation. On top of the great airport, we were impressed with the Lufthansa airline. In the states, meals are hard to come by on short flights, but Lufthansa goes out of their way to wine and dine you on your flights. They had a kiosk by the terminal with free coffee and tea, and they gave us a full meal along with drinks (even wine and beer if you wanted) free of charge on the flight. It made our flight go a lot faster and was a more pleasant experience for all of us.
We landed in Madrid around 5:00 and went back to our hotel to check in. After getting settled, we started to unpack and bit and went to grab some food to take back to the hotel. My dad and I found a Turkish place with some kebobs and wraps to bring back to eat. We enjoyed a nice light meal and went to bed early.
- comments