The Boys Come to Italy!  

As arranged, Corey and his good friend Devin found their way to the Rome airport where we were eager to meet them. They arrived excited but very tired. Before they would see a pillow however, there was still more traveling to do since we were now headed to our pension in Sorrento. Rome would wait since we wanted to avoid touring Rome during the Easter holiday. We boarded a train to Rome and then onto Naples where we would transfer to a local train to Sorrento. By the time we arrived in Naples we discovered that the local trains had stopped running for the night, just missing the last one at 11:30 pm. After negotiating a price with a taxi driver (and sure he knew where the street was in Sorrento he said ‘no problem’), we had the luggage crammed into the car and we were off. Instead of a ½ hr. train ride it would be 1 ½ hour taxi cab ride over a very windy road. Not one of us fell asleep during this ride! The driver was a chain smoker and when we told him not to smoke, he quickly became very nervous. Once in Sorrento we discovered that he didn’t know where he was going and we spent another hour trying to locate our pension after he stopped at least 10 times asking people along the way. At one point he wanted us to unload our bags and walk down a street he pointed to saying it was our street. NO WAY!!

Once finding the pension, we knocked on the door and who answers but a nun! As it turns out we were booked into a Catholic Convent. They rent out rooms to supplement their needs of maintaining the Convent. The nuns were all so gracious and the Convent was beautiful with a terrace that overlooked the ocean and a marina below a 500 foot cliff. The terrace was put to good use every night watching the sunset with a bottle of the local wine.

We would be in Sorrento 4 days so the first day was spent shopping, taking pictures and enjoying the incredible views overlooking the bay. Sorrento is a beautiful town with many unique hand crafted items made locally including inlayed wood art. Since lemon and orange orchards are everywhere they also make a lemon liqueur that was fun to sample. The town was crowded and the weather nice. Corey and Devin were having the time of their lives taking everything in (even with a bad case of jet lag).

The next day we would all hop on a city bus and take it to the town of Amalfi along the coast which is on the other side of the peninsula. The road is 1 ½ lanes wide (or less) for both directions and runs along the cliffs with a straight drop several hundred feet to the ocean. It was like a roller coaster ride, (not up and down but on a very windy road) turning one way then the next while passing cars and trucks with only an inch to spare on both sides. If you looked out of the bus on the cliff side and didn’t like heights, it would be a ‘white knuckle’ ride. We had a great time on the bus ride and also exploring the small towns where we stopped along the Amalfi Coast. After some lunch we had the thrill of the ride back. It was the best 6 Euros (round trip) we have spent so far.

Next on the agenda was a trip to the Island of Capri. The weather didn’t cooperate but we still enjoyed the ambiance of the island with another cliff ride. The island has become very chic but it was fun to see it.

Now we were off to Rome with a stop in Pompeii to see the ruins. We arrived in Rome late in the day and we were all tired but ready to conquer Rome over the next 4 days. I think the guys have gotten a taste of the kind of traveling we have been doing for the last 3 months.

Where are Pat and Mike??