Sorrento Avventure

Let's just say we had quite an adventure getting to Sorrento. We landed in Naples and wanting to save money, we were determined to take the train to Sorrento. We traversed the streets with our rolly suitcases in tow and paused at a bus stop to read the map. The bus driver, who spoke no English, was kind enough to drive us to the train station free of charge (thanks Hayden for learning "train station" in Italian). He brought us to the nearest stop, when another passenger walked another 15 minutes with us through the vibrant yet dangerous and trash ridden streets of Naples until we reached the train station. We most certainly took the shortcut as we zigzagged in and out of tiny streets in a city with seemingly no traffic laws. If cars were moving too slowly, Vespas would drive in between the two lanes of traffic in order to go their desired speed. It was certainly a free for all driving wise but definitely interesting to watch. We got to the train station and stuffed ourselves onto a hot and sticky train that looked as if it was built 50 years ago. You had the pleasure of getting to know the other tourists as well as the locals really well as you were forced together in the train. Knowing beforehand that this was one of the most dangerous trains regarding pick pocketing we all huddled together, circling our belongings. One girl passed out and everyone around was so helpful giving her water and helping her up. After an hour or some made it to Sorrento, walked a bit more, and made it to our hostel. We were exhilarated to say the least. We spent our first night walking quickly through the markets so we could watch the sunset over the ocean. Just that one moment was worth the entire day of stressful traveling. Since Sorrento is a small city, we all didn't need to stick together the entire day. A few of us visited a coffee shop that morning that had delicious pastries. We no longer had places to be at specific times, so we took our time, enjoyed our cappuccinos/cafe maraschino and read our books.

Sunset on the Amalfi Coast

I love markets so I spent the majority of the rest of the day visiting the shops. I came back to show all my friends my gifts and then relaxed by the pool with a good book.

Sorrento is known for its lemons and lemony things.  Just one example of the markets with all the lemon amenities you could ever need.

The inlaid wood shop where I bought some presents

In many of the wood shops, they demonstrated how they hand made all of the woodwork with the inlaid pieces of wood. 

Hayden had previously traveled to Sorrento with his family and had a wonderful experience through a tour he had done of the Amalfi Coast. We signed up with the same service and the following morning, our guide was at our hostel to pick us up. We all piled into the comfy, air conditioned, Mercedes van and began our adventure with our expressive and friendly tour guide, Bernardo. He drove along the coast, stopped at the pretty places to take pictures, and took us to three different cities. He dropped us off to let us explore the different cities: their shops, historic buildings, and the culture.

Small art gallery in one city along the Amalfi coast

A great view from the van

One of the Amalfi coast cities. Picture taken from a dock.  Lauren and Kadee were gracious enough to duck so I could see the view

The last city we visited Bernardo brought us to a wonderful restaurant hidden away down one of the alleys. We were all incredibly hungry by this point and looking forward to the food we were about to devour. Most of us ordered the house sample, trusting that these Italians knew their stuff and would bring us a great assortment. Spoiler alert: we were not wrong. Before the pasta however, they brought out the best tomato salad I have ever had in my life. Was it because of secret ingredients that somehow could only be attained in Italy? Nope. It was tomato, olive oil, olives, probably some oregano, basil, salt and pepper and that was it. What makes their plates so great though is the fresh ingredients. I never thought olive oil and tomatoes could taste so good but believe me they can. As we were eating this deliciousness, a band came in to serenade the restaurant in hopes of selling a few CDs. It was everything that stereotypical Italy would seem like. So next up was the pasta. The combination of cannoli, pesto pasta, marinated pasta, some type of meat pasta, and the best cheese baked pasta thing that I can't even describe but was my favorite out of all of them. We thanked the restaurant, thanked Bernardo for the suggestion, and made our way back to Sorrento. Carbo-coma kicked in and many of us took a wonderful nap on the way back.

The next day, we were determined to go to the beach. The free beach near our hostel was a slab of concrete so we splurged on the 2.60 euro bus ticket to take us to a farther away beach. I think we were all apprehensive about our decision when we laid down and immediately starting sweating from the heat. Don't think about touching the sand because it will scorch your feet. Our smarts got the better of us so we ventured out into the initially freezing ocean. After just a minute it felt fantastic and extremely salty. You could easily float on your back and enjoy the beautiful view of the cliffs surrounding you.

Google images came up with this when I typed in Meta Beach.  Though this doesn't look extremely familiar, you get the point: pretty beach next to big cliffs.

Walking along the sidewalks in Sorrento

Sorrento!

And that brings us to right now as I'm writing this entry, post showered and waiting for our last real meal of Sorrento. It's a rather nice place so we all got dressed up for the occasion. We planned it just right so we'll be eating on a dock at sunset. The food was phenomenal. It started off with bruschetta and bread with olive oil and vinegar. Risotto with clams, mussels, octopus, and prawns was paired with the nice house red. All of this was on the coast watching the cliffs change colors as the sun set and the lights from a small mountain a few miles off become brighter as the night was getting darker. I promised myself that I would get gelato one more time after dinner since that would be my last time in Italy for I don't know how long. I failed myself however because I literally could not fit anything else in my stomach and I was extremely thirsty by this point. We got home and I chugged some water which made me even more full and I laid in bed the rest of the night feeling sickly full. I didn't even have the energy to change out of my dress in fear that if I moved I would puke. The parasympathetics kicked in however and over night I had digested a bit and felt better the next morning at 5:30am when we all woke up to catch our early transportations.

Eating dinner at a great restaurant next to the ocean

Near the center of the picture, you can see a restaurant with hanging lights above it.  This is the restaurant seen in the picture above.

Off to Spain!