Florence Day 1 and 2

Sunday morning we got up, checked out, and headed for the local train. Most of the day was spend traveling - just over an hour to get to Naples, then the high speed train for over 3 hours to get to Florence. We had about 30 minutes between trains, and I really needed to go to the bathroom. There was, of course, a long line for the women, and no line for the men. Not only was there a long line, but from what I could gather from folks in front of me, and the sign on the wall, it was going to cost me to use the bathroom. The line was moving so slow, that after 10 minutes or so, I gave up, and watched our bags while Erik went to the bathroom. He was done in a minute, and didn't have to pay, so perhaps the sexes are not yet equal in Naples! We grabbed some pizza to take on the train, and I used the free bathroom in first class.

The further north the train went, the worse the weather got. First, just cloudy, but just before Florence, we hit rain. We decided to take a taxi rather than dragging our bags through the rain (only) 960 yards to the hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel, we had to haul our bags, which are getting heavier as we add souvenirs, up 26 steps to the hotel lobby. We dropped off our bags, and decided that despite the bad weather, we should do some sightseeing, since our time in Florence is short. We headed out to check out the Ufuzzi, hoping we would get lucky with short lines, but they were long as expected. Next stop was the Ponte Vecchio, where we window shopped the gorgeous but very expensive jewelry. We made our way across the river and ended up at the Pitti Palace. But not before getting gelato from a corner store with beautifully decorated mounds of gelato. It was late in the afternoon by then, so we only had time to see one of the museums in the Pitti Palace - the Palantine Gallery. The gallery featured many works by Pietro Benevenuti, but the real highlight was the architecture of the palace itself, especially the frescos on the ceilings and the ornate carvings. We then made our way back to the hotel, and asked for a dinner recommendation. Thomas, one of the hotel owners, suggested Restaurant Natalinos. He said it was only a 10 minute walk, but it seemed like we walked forever to get there. However, the walk was totally worth it. The food was the best we've had in Italy. And, the wine was as well. Their house special pasta is pear stuffed pasta in a gorgonzola sauce. Sounds crazy, but it was amazing!! We spent several hours eating and relaxing, and had a second course of chicken and peppers, capped off by a slice of chocolate cake which was closer to fudge in consistency than cake. The walk back to the hotel seemed shorter - somehow a full belly and a bottle of wine will do that, I guess.

Monday was a day trip to Tuscany. There were 4 other people from our hotel and us in a small van. We choose this day trip because it combined seeing some of the small towns in the area with visiting a winery and doing a wine tasting. The driver gave us an overview of the day when we got in the van, but little did we know that was the only speaking he had planned to do for the day. It was a sharp change from the constant narration we received from Carmello during our tours in Sorrento. Not for the better. Our first stop was a winery in Chianti country called Casa Sola. We got the grand tour of the fields and their wine and olive oil making process. We got lucky with the weather - although the ground was still quite soggy, it was sunny and beautiful. We learned that most of the process is still done by hand, and also learned the difference between hot pressed and cold pressed olive oil (yes, you can taste the difference). Of course, the best part was getting to taste the wines. After learning about the different aging processes for the different wines, we got to experience first hand the benefits of the additional time spent on the more expensive wines. Although they fed us meats and cheeses with the tasting, it did little to blunt the good buzz we had walking out of there. We're looking forward to receiving our case of chianti, uh I mean "olive oil" back here in the US.

The next stop on the tour was San Gimignano, a town on top of a hill entirely surrounded by a wall. It is quite impressive to see from afar, but is a cute little town once you get inside the walls. We were given about 1 1/2 hours to explore the town, but this included eating lunch, so to save time, we grabbed a slice of pizza (not nearly so good this far north - those Southern Italians have cornered the market on pizza), and sat on the steps of a well in the center of town to eat. We used the rest of our time to shop and check out the amazing views. We missed our chance to climb to the top of the tower in the middle of town, as they had it closed temporarily for a shift change. Oh darn. We enjoyed some gelato from the shop that was the World Champion in 2006-07, and it was quite yummy. Despite our drivers lack of commentary, he certainly knew how to drive us into restricted areas so we had little walking to do to enjoy the towns, which we appreciated as we passed tourist after tourist hiking up the hill from the parking lots outside the walls.

Next was a quick stop at another small town - Monteriggioni - which was even smaller village, surrounded by walls. It consisted of one church and a hand full of shops. We were able to pay to climb to the top of the wall, and could walk around part of the wall on a metal walkway they had constructed. Our final stop was Siena. Again, for a town where you're not allowed to drive, our driver found a way to take us all the way into the city's main square - Il Campo. We had more time to spend here, so started by hiking up to the duomo. It was late in the day by then, and many of the sites were nearing closing time. We opted not to go in, but instead used our time to walk around and see as much of the city as we could. We did some more shopping, and some more eating. The driver was scheduled to pick us up at 6:30 to head back to Florence. After relaxing and enjoying the weather in different places throughout the city, and exploring the many streets and back alley shops, we were more than ready for the trip back to Florence. We decided to do dinner on our own - without a recommendation, but paid for it with just so-so food at Trattoria Marione's. This restaurant was actually recommended to us as a great lunch spot for their soup, but I guess in comparison to the tour de force from the night before, anything would have seemed just so-so. I blame that on choosing the house wine instead of something a little more tasty.

The Amalfi Coast

Somehow the days have gotten away from me, and it has been several days since the last post. I will therefore take the last few days in sections - first talking about our last day in the Sorrento area. As I mentioned before, we had hired Carmello for 2 days - the first was our trip to Pertosa, and the second was spending Saturday driving the Amalfi Coast. Sorrento is in the Bay of Naples, whereas the Amalfi Coast is in the Bay of Amalfi. This part of the country was more beautiful than Sorrento. You probably have heard about the winding and very narrow roads, and the towns that are built almost vertically. However, seeing it is even more impressive. In between the towns were little fisherman's villages that are tucked in the nook of the cliff with a small beach area, and no way to reach the town other than by water. It makes you imagine a very different lifestyle than what we are accustomed to.
We were so glad to have someone else driving so that we could enjoy the view. The road has more than 700 twists and turns from just south of Sorrento to Amalfi. We stopped several times along the way to take pictures, and again were blessed with perfect weather. This was actually the warmest day we have had yet - it was in the mid 60's. For the first time, I didn't need to wear a jacket! Carmello gave us lots of history and information as we drove along the road. The first town we stopped in was Positano. This is supposedly a very romantic city, but it didn't seem that different from the other towns - all of which are romantic in some way. Carmello told us that there is nothing that is made in Positano - all the items are brought in from other towns for the tourists. However, every town has it's own supply of fresh fruits and vegetables - there were gardens, olive and lemon trees everywhere we went. Although the towns were very small, you could imagine families walking hundreds of steps to get to the local market, and in fact we saw many locals carring bags of groceries and walking up the steep hills to get to their house.
Our next stop was to have lunch in Ravello. This town is up a very steep and even more narrow road - basically above Amalfi. Ravello is famous for the classical music concerts that occur from April to October. Also, Ravello is famous because Jackie and Caroline Kennedy stayed there for 3 weeks one summer when Caroline was little. The house they stayed in was across the street from the restaurant where we ate lunch, and is actually abandoned right now, so if you're looking for some real estate in the area, we've got the spot for you.:)
The restaurant is right on the edge of a cliff, and provided beautiful views while we ate. We also had our first taste of lemoncello, which was very good, but very strong, and only accentuated our wine buzz.
The next stop was in Amalfi, where we spent some time walking around. As Carmello had predicted, most of the tourists had cleared out by the time we got back from lunch. We walked on the beach, dipped our feet in the very cold Mediterranean, and shopped. We also learned that this is where the compass originated. On the way to and from Amalfi, we got a glimpse of the 1,000 steps that were used in Medieval times to get from Amalfi to Ravello. It was interesting to hear about the long history of the region, and to see the castles and monestaries that have been there for centuries.
The drive back to Sorrento was less beautiful, because the light was fading, and the weather was taking a turn for the worse. In fact, we learned that it had been so windy in Sorrento that they had to stop running the boat to Capri, and the closer we got to Sorrento, the worse the weather got. But that didn't stop us from having Carmello drop us off at Davida Gelato for the best gelato in Sorrento. We had nearly 50 flavors to choose from, and with the bad weather, the place was almost empty. We watched as all the street venders chasing their things down the street from the wind. That night we stayed in and ordered room service. A crime to miss out on the wonderful local food, but after a day of traveling, and some bad weather, we couldn't muster up the desire to go back out.

Sorrento Shopping and Capri

Given the long day we had on Wednesday, Thursday started by sleeping in! We went and ate our free continental breakfast, and finally ventured out in the late morning. Even though this is a rather small town, there are a ton of alleys off the main streets, which makes for lots of areas to explore, and lots of shopping to do! We started out by walking up near the train station to a supermarket, which contains not only food and toiletries, but also toys and clothes. Carmello (our driver from Wednesday) told us prices were cheaper here, so if they had something we wanted, this was the place to buy it. For now, we just looked, and continued on down the street. Because we got a late start, we ended up not having much time to shop before the stores started closing for the afternoon siesta. Most stores are closed from about 1pm until about 3:30pm, then open again until 8 or so. The things to buy here in Sorrento are anything lemon, and boxes and decorations that are made of inlaid wood. We had a great find in a little store in one of the alleys where the gentleman and his father make their own wood products. The store was tiny, as half of it was taken with the equipment to do the work. We found a beautiful wall hanging that we loved, so it should be on it's way to America right now.

By then, most of the stores had closed, so we stopped for lunch, and enjoyed a siesta with the rest of the town. I swear you can't get bad food over here. But, I'm ruined. Their pizza is so good, I can't imagine eating America's version of pizza for a long time. Once the stores opened again, we continued shopping as we headed back in the direction of the hotel. Erik has been fighting a chest cold since the beginning of our trip, but is getting worse not better, so we had the hotel call in a doctor. She said he doesn't have bronchitis yet, but is headed in that direction. So, he is now on antibiotics, which will hopefully help, as both of us are tired of him not feeling well and his hacking cough! We tried a place for dinner that was recommended both by the Rick Steves book and by Carmello - a pizza joint up near the train station. Their pizza was really good, and the atmosphere was casual. We stopped next door for some gelato afterwards, but much to my dismay, their version of pistachio here (which is a darker green than what we had in Rome) was not so good. Thankfully the other flavors seem to measure up. Not sure what's different about pistachio here versus in Rome, but I will stick to other flavors while I'm here.

Friday we had planned to spend the day in Capri, weather permitting. The weather was gorgeous, but Erik was still not feeling well, so we got a late start to the day. We didn't leave enough time to catch the 11:45 boat, so ate lunch at the dock and took the 1:30 boat. As soon as we arrived in Capri, we inquired about boats to the famous Blue Grotto, but they were not running because of the weather. Not sure what weather they were referring to - it was gorgeous - sunny with less wind than any other day we've been here. We were offered the option of hiring a boat for $100 to take us, but we didn't want to see it that bad. So, we took the funicular up to

the town center to look around. Although the books warned about the commercialism, I think Erik and I were still quite surprised. There wasn't much to the town other than fancy hotels and shops. They even have their own version of Rodeo Drive with a street of stores such as Gucchi, Versache, Louis Vitton, Dolce & Gabana, etc. Basically, it seems like Capri is where the rich go to vacation. Not many historical things to see, but of course still beautiful views. To try and get a different view of the city, Erik wanted to walk back to the marina. It started by us having to walk on an already narrow roadway and try not to get hit by the buses, cars, and scooters that were navigating the twists and turns. But, thankfully, not too far down the road there was a pedestrian walkway that wasn't well marked, but Erik assured me would take us to the marina. Of course, he was right, though we really weren't sure until we had walked for a bit and realized we were indeed headed towards the marina. It was a nice change of pace as we walked on the paved path between houses while winding our way down the mountain. But, it was well over a 30 minute walk, versus a 5 minute ride on the funicular. We walked quickly at the end and were able to catch the very crowded 4:25 boat back to Sorrento. There was only one more boat after that, so I can only imagine how crowded that would have been. Thirty minutes later, we're at the dock in Sorrento again, and debating whether to walk the huge set of stairs to get back up to our hotel, or take the bus. In the end, we walked. Now we're about to head out to dinner, and if the internet is working, get on Web cam with Dominic, who we miss a ton.

Tomorrow Carmello will drive us to Positano, Ravello and Amalfi for a full day tour. Hopefully the driving will keep him distracted enough that he won't talk non stop like he did before, but I imagine we'll know more than we had ever wanted to about the area by the end of the day.