3 nights in Sorrento

Sorrento
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Our first experience on a passenger train was when we left Rome and headed for Sorrento. We left early in the morning and were in Naples in 2 hours. We got off there and explored Naples for half the day before heading on to Sorrento. Naples is the home of organized crime as well as pizza. It was a Monday and the main street of Naples was crowded with people. Naples ended up being a crowded, noisy city (3rd largest in Italy), but we rewarded our survival by having pizza at the end of our walk. Some of the restaurants we went to had the menu in Italian and English, some places were just in Italian. This pizza place, supposedly one of the best in town, had the menu in Italian, so we didn't really know what to order. We knew ham (prosciutto) and mushrooms (funghi), so that's what we ordered. It was pretty good, but I didn't think it was the best.

Amalfi Coast
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One of the hardest parts of our train travel was getting from Naples to Sorrento. There is a separate train that runs between these cities. Once we got back to the main station, we followed signs to the separate train station, bought tickets from a window, and made our way to the tracks. The tracks didn't seem to be marked as well as they were in Rome, so we ended up jumping on the wrong train. Luckily, we discovered our mistake and jumped off a few stations down and waited for the correct train to come. Mike always says things will work out, but I was a little stressed. I think the train stations caused most of my stressing out moments, but it all worked out!

Home of lemon and olive groves

Church in Amalfi
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Sorrento is a nice little town that sort of reminded me of La Jolla, CA. There are lots of little boutique clothing stores and limoncello everywhere (it's made in this area). A lot of visitors to the town are from England, so a lot of people spoke English.

We spent a day taking a bus from Sorrento down the Amalfi Coast.

Pompeii
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It was gorgeous. We got off in Amalfi and walked around and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants from our trip. Meals in Italy usually consist of bread, wine, primi (pasta), and secondi (entree of meat or fish). Of course, there are appetizers and dessert as well. Most of the time, we ordered pasta, but a few times, we had the full on meal with entree and dessert. We always had wine. You could order by liter or mezzo liter (half liter). After meals, most Italians have espresso, which we got into the habit of doing as well. And, we had gelato, usually in between meals.

Breakfast in Italy is different as well. The usual breakfast consists of espresso or cappuccino and a croissant. Most Italians drink their coffee standing at a bar. It costs extra in some places if you want to sit down, or in train stations, you can stand at a table. Most of our hotels included breakfast, but each place did it different. Our hotel in Rome had a spread of pastries, cereal and some yogurt. Our hotel in Sorrento gave us coupons to take to a bar for cappuccino and a croissant. Our hotel in Cinque Terre did not have breakfast. Our hotel in Florence brought breakfast to our room. Our hotel in Venice was the most extravagant,

because it was a Hilton.

Another day, we went to Pompeii.

It is a town that was destroyed by a volcano and the ruins are still standing. It's a very touristy place to visit, but it is worth the visit. We opted for an Audioguide to explain some of the things we were looking at. The place is huge, we spent about 2 and 1/2 hours there only to explore 1/3 of the place. You could probably see more if you weren't listening to the Audioguide though.

The weather these 3 days of our trip were mixed. It rained at night while we were at dinner once and a little when we were coming back from Amalfi on the bus. Our warmest day was in Pompeii and I was wearing long sleeves.