July 13, 2013 - We are off to the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy today. We left Civita di Bagnoregio at 9 am by walking down the footbridge. We got to the bottom of the footbridge and asked about the shuttle to the other side of town at the ticket office. They told us to wait by the gelato stand just up the hill. A lady and her 2 daughters from our B&B were also taking the shuttle and they starting hiking up the hill. We blindly followed and missed the gelato shop. Of course it felt like 30C hiking up the hill. We were now in a hurry because we timed our hike to get to the bottom of the footbridge a few minutes before the shuttle arrived but if we had to hike up the hill, we would be late. We got about half way up the hill and here comes the shuttle! He picked us up on his way down - all 5 a sweating mess. He dropped us at the bus stop for Orvieto and didn't even charge us the 0.70 Euros each for the shuttle because he felt sorry for us. The bus ride to Orvieto was uneventful. We then had to wait 1.5 hours for the train to Naples. The train to Naples was 3.5 hours. Then we got on a train to Sorrento for another 70 minutes. On arrival, the taxi said he would charge us 35 Euros to take us to our B&B, so we waited for the bus instead. We finally arrived at Casa Elena in the hills above Sorrento about 6:30 pm. Long, long day. We met Elena who was delightful. Her English is spotty at best, but we had a great time trying to figure each other out - my Italian is growing stronger every day. We got some tour suggestions and a recommendation for dinner about a 10 minute walk down the winding hill with no sidewalk or shoulders at Il Borgo. We went for dinner about 7:30 and it was good. We had a mixed salad, ravioli, veal scaloppine and pizza. It was dark about 9:30 when we were leaving the they provided us with a ride home. Hopped into bed - exhausted. We decided that tomorrow would be a lazy day.
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| Sorrento |
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| Casa Elena |
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| Sunset in Sorrento |
July 14, 2013 - Slept in until 10 am. Must have been the long day yesterday. Had a lazy morning and headed into Sorrento by bus about 12:30. We wandered through town, went to the port, bought some sandwiches and other groceries for dinner tonight and then had lunch. Back on the bus at 5 pm for the ride back up to Casa Elena (it is about a 15 minute bus ride). We sat on the deck to catch up on some reading and planning and Elena came to visit. So sweet. We had a great Italian/English conversation - she is teaching me some more Italian. She took us into her lemon grove so we could pick some lemons to eat and told us to take as many as we wanted. Fresh lemons from the tree! Wow. Just hanging out out on the deck overlooking the bay above Sorrento. Nice and quiet (a big difference from the hustle and bustle of downtown Sorrento). Had left over pizza, sandwiches and limoncello for dinner. off to bed early as we have to be up early to go to Pompei. Yup, the Pompei of legend buried by the volcano Vesuvius ...
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| Bob and Jan in Sorrento |
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| Jan picking a lemon from Casa Elena Lemon Tree Grove |
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| View from Casa Elena |
July 15, 2013 - up at 6:30 am, showered, fruit for breakfast and a short walk down the road to meet our tour bus at 7:40 am for our trip to Pompei. We picked up others in town and on the road by 8:15. Our guide told us we would arrive shortly after 9 am - Nope - major accident on the main highway shut down the highway for miles - traffic was backed up everywhere. It was so backed up that at one point a lady on the bus asked if she could get off as we were by a coffee shop - she bought coffee and water for her family and was back on the bus before we moved 20 feet. Our driver was finally able to find an alternate road and we arrived about 10:30 (only 1.5 hours late).
Pompei was a great place to visit. About 75% of Pompei has been excavated and restored and sits on about 66 hectares of land. Interesting to note that it was not the lava from the volcano which buried Pompei, rather, it was about 27 feet of volcanic ash. This occurred on August 24, 79 AD. The weight eventually collapsed the roofs of the buildings. The ash was not extremely hot so everything was preserved. There are original paintings on the walls and ceramic floors in tact. There is a plaster cast of a door which they were able to recreate exactly as the wooden door had deteriorated over time leaving a hollow space within the compact ash. The streets had these stones placed across them at intervals for people to cross the street without getting their feet dirty or wet - the streets were always dirty and wet (see picture below). We saw some plaster casts of people who had died again preserved in the hollow of the ash after the body had deteriorated. Great day in Pompei - the stuff of legend!
We stopped in Sorrento for some groceries and back to Casa Elena for the late afternoon and evening. We had a nap and then Jan made a great Italian dinner of pasta with tomato and basil sauce, prosciutto, salami, bread, limoncello and wine. It was nice to relax and have a quiet evening. We chatted for a while with a couple from Mainz, Germany and then off to bed. Tomorrow is a totally relaxing day at Casa Elena.
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| Pompei - original painting on walls |
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| Pompei - Plaster cast of dead person |
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| Pompei - Stepping stones |
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| Pompei - Courtyard of house |
July 16, 2013 - woke up at 10 am. Had some breakfast of coffee, prosciutto, salami, yogurt and bread. Just relaxing on the terrace for the day. Had lunch on the terrace. Had a nap. Had dinner on the terrace. Listened to Dean Martin all day today ... "In Napoli, when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amoreeeee ...", "Sott'er Celo de Roma - On an Evening in Roma" Going to bed ... off to Roma tomorrow ...
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