Fall Break: Part 3 (and last)-Sorrento

Wow!

It's December 1 and I'm finally posting the last part of our Fall break to Italy.  December 1- that means we've been in Ukraine for 4 months now.  The time seems to be going by quickly.  In just two more weeks we will be on Winter Break from December 14 until January 7!  More travelling is planned for December.  I figured out this morning that I will only have to tolerate the cold weather for 11 days this month.  The other 20 days will be spent much closer to the equator; 4 in Abu Dhabi and 16 in Tanzania.  But more about those adventures later... Here's the rest of our trip to Italy...which, by the way, was also warm and sunny.  Yay!

Sorrento, Italy

We left Rome and headed south on a fast train to Naples.  Fast really means fast!  We were moving along the Italian countryside at 300 km/hour (about 186 mph)!!  The train was sleek and clean and comfortable; very different from the next train ride we would take to get from Naples to Sorrento!  What we hadn't thought about was the fact that we would be switching trains during "rush hour".  The second train we took was a commuter train that was absolutely packed with people and stopped at least 20 times before we arrived in Sorrento.  Of course Sorrento was also the final stop for the train, so the passenger manifest did start to decrease the closer we got to Sorrento, making the ride much more comfortable.  I think I was finally able to sit down at about stop #17.

This was one of the stops on the way to Sorrento.  We were on a bridge across from the one you see in the picture.  Weird place for a stop, right?

There were lemon groves everywhere!  This one was so full of trees and lemons, they were pushing their way through the fence.  

One of the days in Sorrento we took a ferry to the Island of Capri.  This is a view of the harbor in Sorrento as we walked down to it.  It was a long way down...

and a lot of steps!

 

 

Capri

Some pictures of the island as we approached it from the water.

Of course we had to buy tickets to see The Blue Grotto.  It was another short boat ride around the island and then a small rowboat ride into the cave, but it was worth it.  It is so touristy and silly, but it's just one of those things you have to do just to say you did it.

I think we had the only red-headed, freckled Italian in all of Italy rowing our boat into the Blue Grotto.  (That's him on the far left of the picture)  There were several rowboats going in and out of the cave manned by these "singing captains".  Later, I got to thinking that Marco, our singing captain, reminded me of Danny Bonaduce (is that an Italian name?) from the Partridge Family.  Now that I think about it again, maybe red hair is not that uncommon in parts of Italy-Mario Batali also has red hair and freckles...What do I know?  I'm still a bit naive, if not ignorant, about most of the world.  I'm trying to change that!   

It really was BLUE!

 

 

After our short excursion to the grotto, we spent some time touring the rest of the island.  The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery.

We rode the funicular from the marina up to the main streets in town.

Unfortunately we didn't have our bathing suits, but I did roll up my "Capri" pants and wade into the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Back at our hotel in Sorrento that evening we sat out on the roof-top bar looking at Mt. Vesuvius, the reason for the next tourist stop in Italy:

Pompeii

Another evening on the rooftop before heading out to dinner...

and a final look at the amazing coastline of Sorrento. 

 

 

After three days in Sorrento we returned to Rome to catch our flight back to Kiev. As we boarded the plane, I recognized some of the passengers as the same ones we rode with before.  It was a much more sober flight than the one to Rome.  I guess all of us were quietly reminiscing about our week in Italy and dreaming of the day we might return again.