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13 October 2013

Italy 2013 – Day 15 / Rome

That’s it! Vacation over.

I’m not happy it’s over, but at the same time I don’t mind either; two weeks is plenty!  We had a great time, loved every day, had some great meals, visited great cities…  all excellent.

The plan for today was to leave our bags in lockers at the train station in Rome and then head out to our hotel near the airport for the last night after spending the afternoon in the city. We took the train back from Sorrento to Naples this morning (an hour on the milk run train) then the Fast Train from Naples to Rome (70 minutes). Turns out they don’t have lockers at Termini Station, but a check luggage service instead which is an efficient system overall, but slow so just doing that ate up 30 minutes of our time!

The only thing I really wanted to do in Rome was visit San Pietro in Vincoli, so we made a b-line for it to make sure we didn’t run out of time later in the day. I particularly wanted to see Michelangelo’s unfinished tomb of Julius II after having read all about it in ‘The Agony and The Ecstasy’ not long ago.

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Another reason to visit this church is to see St Peter’s Chains which are on display under the alter. I told my husband that I wanted to visit the 2 ‘draws’ and read the information about them in my guidebook to him, but somehow that did not translate in his mind into: Get a picture of the chains on display! LOLOLOLOL  Classic male / female dilemma!!  Here’s what we got – not that bad, but I would have liked a close up.

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After that it was time for lunch, we found a lovely spot with a view and tucked in for another large meal and have a final celebration. Over the past few days we’ve taken to having one gargantuan 3 course mid-day meal and just a snack for supper… it somehow feels less piggish, but I doubt it’s healthy! LOL Who cares – it’s what being on vacation is all about!

The rest of the afternoon was just aimless wandering through Campo De Fiori, Piazza Navona, The Pantheon etc…  a good bye walking tour of the city.

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Once we decided to call it a day and started heading back to the station, we came across a news story…  a scrum of TV Reporters waiting for Lord only knows who to exit from a building – no clue what it was all about!!!  For all I know, I may have had a great Italian Celebrity sighting!

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Do you know who this blond woman is??

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Or this brunette in the back of the cab?

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I tried Googling Rome news… but my Italian is REALLY not good enough for that kind of research!!!

So that’s it for today, we are at a hotel near the airport now to make our departure tomorrow morning easier – finding this place was a little stressful since the hotel changed it’s name a few months ago!!!! LOL It’s a Best Western now.

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ARRIVEDERCI ROMA!

Italy 2013 – Day 14 / Ischia

We went to Ischia today – our last excursion from Sorrento. Tomorrow it’s back to Rome for out last full vacation day.

We flipped flopped over Ischia a lot. This was sort of a free day with no pre-planned activities thanks to having nice (enough) weather all week and having done Amalfi and Positano all in one day.

I didn’t want to waste the day – I wanted to do SOMETHING other than just hang out in Sorrento. Ischia seemed like a great idea a first, but because there was only ONE boat there and back it became less appealing. What if we miss is? What if the weather is bad and the return boat is cancelled? What if we are bored to tears after an hour and we have to wait many many hours for the boat home?…  We decided to go for it anyway and it all worked out well in the end!

All in all, we had (forced) 7 hours to fill. So we strolled through the town (no pictures because my husband was in a grumpy mood)

We stopped for a coffee where I tried Cream of Melon Liquor – not that great, I would not have it again but the stop was worth it because my husband’s mood improved and he started taking pictures!!!!! LOL

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We visited the Gardens…

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Played with some cats… (the poor guy in the first shot was missing part of his tail – sad)

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Walked to the Castle… (did not go inside, neither of us was in the mood)

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Had a nice lunch at a resto that advertised that it had a “panoramic sea view”…  I supposed it did, but it was really nothing special; it was more trees and parking lot than it was sea! But still, we had a large meal that served as both lunch and dinner to kill as much time as possible.

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All in all it was a good day. I didn’t LOVE Ischia, but it was better than staying in Sorrento all day re-doing everything!

When we got back to Sorrento (around 6:30) just like yesterday the skies opened up. It’s POURING out there right now and there is also plenty of lighting and thunder.

Too full from lunch, we went for a drink and a snack at one of the bars in the main square –steps away from out hotel.  I had my last Crema di Limoncello of the vacation… I love this stuff! It looks like milk, smells like hand sanitizer but tastes delicious! I went for it over and over again because I can get “regular / normal” Limoncello at home anytime but I have never seen the cream-version anywhere but here!

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That’s it for Sorrento, it’s back to Rome tomorrow for our last day.  I have no idea when I will ever be back – if ever! I suggested to my husband that we do it again in another 10 years to celebrate our 20th anniversary because a 10-year interval for this place seems adequate!  Stay tuned for 2023 to see if we do it!!

Good night!

Italy 2013 – Day 13 / Mount Vesuvius

Best excursion day of the vacation! A hike up to the crater of Mount Vesuvius.

I am not sure if HIKE is exactly the right word – it was a somewhat uneven 900m uphill walk on pebbles and dirt…  is that hike?

We were not convinced that it was going to happen at all since my husband’s cold put a caveat on everything! The weather forecast was for isolated showers, and I wondered if that would mean the admission to the crater would be closed.  As we left in the morning, there were huge dark clouds looming menacingly over us but we only got a little sprinkle on us – Thank God!

To get to the crater, we had to take the train to Pompeii (about 40 mins) and then from there take a bus that drives you up to the car park at the Vesuvius National Park (about an hour), and that’s where you start the hike up (a good 30 minutes).

According to my guide book and everything I read on line, the bus would pick us up at “Pizza Amphitheatro”… we found it but it did not fill us with much confidence!!! No time table, a little too simple…  plus there was NO ONE else around…  were we in the right place??

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But the bus did show up (after a 45 minute wait), picked us up and we were on our way. Turns out there was a stop right next to the train station! figures! and it was a lot more obvious too compared to the one we found. Sometimes advanced internet research complicates things more than anything else.

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The hike up was not too strenuous, but like with all things in life – the fitter you are the easier it is.  These shots can give you an idea of what the hike was like (about 900m long / 200m up)

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The views over the Bay of Naples however makes stopping along the way up irresistible!

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And check out this mountain range that looks like a profile…  neat!

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But of course the most amazing views are the ones down into the crater. They were awesome!  Well worth the effort, I would recommend this excursion to anyone!

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Totally worth it!

Italy 2013 – Day 12 / Amalfi & Positano

We did Amalfi and Positano today. It was not the initial plan (we were going to do them on 2 separate days), although I kind of suspected that it would work out this way!  I originally wanted to spread them out a little more, but quickly after arriving in Positano I knew this would be a “two in one”.

Logistically it was effortless. We bussed it from Sorrento to Positano; I was concerned about the scariness of the drive but it was really not that bad – I did get a little car-sick, but not too bad…  The Blue Grotto was much much worse!

The bus lets you off at the top of the town and we took the little back streets (which are stairs) down down down to the beach & church area that is really the hub of the city.

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Great views on the way down, really gorgeous!!!  But I have to admit that by the time to get to the bottom, you are kind of over it. I am not a shopper AT ALL so the retail-draw is lost on me completely!! It rained on and off (sun showers mostly) so we ducked into a cafe, watched the world go by…  and that was pretty much it for Positano; does not sound like much, but it was very enjoyable!

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Of course, you wont be surprised to know that I also make a lot of new friends on the way:

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We decided after about an hour that we got all we were going to get out of Positano, so we decided to take the boat over to Amalfi and have lunch there. (Lunch was amazing – if you are friends with me on Facebook, you already know that!)

We liked Amalfi more, yes it’s touristier (is that a word?) but if felt like there was more to see. I hindsight, I don’t really think there was… but the Cathedral in Amalfi was gorgeous!!  That swung the vote.

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We had a loungy two-hour lunch, then took the bus back to Sorrento. Easy breezy – no fuss- no traffic.  In fact, unbeknownst to us, the stop before the final station back in Sorrento was right across the street from our hotel!!!  What luck!

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Back in Sorrento we went for a drink and pondered diner; we eventually settled on pizza which I now regret: feeling disgustingly full!!!  Frankly, I should have had a liquid supper and I would be feeling much better right now.

My husband’s cold is not much improved; he’s been sniffing all day.  Pray that he will be in shape tomorrow for the hike up to the creator of Vesuvius…  if not I will go by myself on Thursday!!!

Italy 2013 – Day 11 / Blue Grotto, Capri, Sorrento

Mission accomplished! We ‘did’ the Blue Grotto.  Seems we were lucky because it was closed for the last 3 days due to high tide; even while in rowboats waiting to get in we were told that the wait was extra long because although the tide was low enough to resume tours of the Grotto, it was still high. I just took his word for it, I have nothing to compare it to!

I have to say that the motion sickness really got to me. Not in the “big boat” while it was sailing to the Grotto, but once it stopped and bobbed in place – and also once we were in the rowboat I really felt sick! It’s 4 people per rowboat, 3 in the back and one in the front (plus the rower so 5 total) and I ended up in the back UNDER the other two!!!  I am amazed I did not break a rib!

It’s not cheap. The boat that takes you out to the Grotto and meets up with the rowboat was something like 18€ and then once there, it’s another 12.50 for the Grotto entrance fee and the “tax”. ahem… yeah whatever! Seemed a little “organized wink-wink” to me.

Paying that extra 12.50 once in the rowboat was comical. You get rowed over to 3 guys in a dingy collecting money… laugh out loud silly!

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We made it in relatively unscathed…  although I was whacked in the head a few times by the chain the rower uses to pull the rowboat into the Grotto. You can sort of see it here in this picture: the rower is pulling along the chain – the hair on the right is the woman who was on top of my husband who was on top of me! LOL

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Our pictures didn’t really turn out – hard to fiddle with the camera settings when lying down in a bobbing rowboat sandwiched between strangers!!! HA!  I don’t really mind the shotty snaps, it captures the colours and that’s good enough for me! I’ll remember the rest.

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Would I recommend it? Sure why not… although I am not sure that the WOW factor of seeing it in person is any better than a decent set of pictures you can find on Google (not mine obviously!) My husband said is was Hell. Squished in a boat, getting wet, sweating like a pig, spending a lot of money – he was very unimpressed and thought it was a total waste.  Ah well.

After that, we had a nice lunch with a view over Capri and then took the boat back to Sorrento.

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Capri seemed all new to me this time. In 2003 as part of the tour, we visited the Villa and took the chair lift up to Ana Capri so we skipped all that today and spent more time in Capri Town; it all seemed like I was seeing it for the first time.

I also made a new friend…  always nice!

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Back in Sorrento we decided to walk to the hotel where we stayed in 2003 to see how much of it we remembered. It was SO FAR! Walking there and back was a solid hour! In actual fact it turns out we were not even in Sorrento proper that time, but rather in Saint Angelo (or something like that). I was wondering why Sorrento seemed so new to me this time.  We didn’t even realize in 2003 that Sorrento had an old town! We really missed out then – so glad we are staying in the center of town this time!

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Time to call is a day. My husband has had a sore throat all day today and it’s stressing me out!!!  Jesus, AGAIN??  I gave him 2 doses of Vitamin C & Echinacea and it better work!

I cant believe we are facing this AGAIN!  ARGH!