Capri (Sorrento Part 5)

View from the top of Monte Solaro - highest point on Capri

View of Sorrento from the Ferry

On Saturday we had reservations to go back to Pompeii and see some "by reservation only" sites.  After thinking about it, Jay and I decided that he should go alone.  The girls had been really tolerant of being drug around lots of piles of ancient ruins and we knew that we would all be happier in the end if we split up.  Karissa and I kind of wanted to go back to Pompeii (it is so huge and amazing) but we also thought it would be fun to head out to the island of Capri.  Unfortunately for us, Jay managed to "bump into" Mattia Bulindano who works for the site and is THE official Italian government guy who tours dignitaries (e.g. Bill Clinton)  through the site.  Jay was able to spend about 3 hours with him and a small group he was leading.  He saw some pretty amazing and "private" areas of the site which I'll share in the next posting.  To say the least he was thrilled - a true blessing from God that we never expected to happen.

Capri as we arrive, Monte Solaro in the background

Alas, we missed that incredible tour but the beauty of Capri more than made up for it.  We thought the Amalfi Coast was cool - Capri even silenced my chatty girls.  We caught a 30 minute ferry from the nearby port out to the island.  From there, we caught a 15 foot bus (big buses can't navigate the roads) up to the not so touristy town of Anacapri on the other side of the
island.  A little Italian Grandma helped us figure out the bus.  She must have said "Mamma Mia" twenty times to us while we were waiting for the bus-hilarious - and they really do use their hands to talk!  She was especially aghast when she saw the girls smearing lipstick all over their faces (stick sunscreen which she had never seen before!).

Karissa heading up to Monte Solaro

View from the lift of Ischia Island and Anacapri

Watching the bridal photos-what are they thinking right now?

Looking straight down at the boats, blue water and birds

Anacapri was a quaint little town that had a chairlift to the highest point on the island,  Monte Solaro at 1900 feet above sea level.  The views were the most beautiful I have ever seen.  The water was a beautiful color and there were thousands of seagulls swarming around the rocky cliffs below.  We took a million pictures, ate our lunch on some rocks overlooking the ocean (Karissa chose to eat hers in a tree she had climbed), swung in a swing, watched a bride and groom get their wedding pictures taken, picked wildflowers and just savored the view.  Dayna did not want to leave.  She fell in love with the place - who wouldn't?

View of Capri town from Villa San Michele

After the trip down the lift we wandered over to an old villa called Villa San Michele.  It was built around 1900, by Axel Munthe, a Swedish doctor and author, before Capri was such a tourist destination.  The views were fabulous and it made us all want an island retreat.  His gardens were fabulous, with millions of flowers and a bird sanctuary.  After that we took a bus down to the city of Capri.  It was totally touristy and was a real turn off.  A huge shopping destination with all of the famous designers from Ferragamo to Versace and others I've never heard of.  Needless to say, when we stopped for our gelato they asked us to leave the outdoor seating since it wasn't for "gelato only " customers!  We bolted and headed for a hiking trail - not our scene at all!

Arco Naturale

The trail took us over to Arco Naturale.  An incredible natural arch with a killer view down to the sea.  We blew back down to the harbor (again, through narrow pedestrian streets and stairs - don't know how these people would ever get a mattress delivered!) in order to catch our ferry.  As we ran up to the departing ferry we begged the crew to put the gangplank back down as the Coast Guard officer had told the wrong info about our ferry location.  I guess we looked pathetic and so they reluctantly backed up this huge ferry and put the plank down for us!!  What was I thinking????  Stuck on Capri overnight, not so bad.....suppose Jay would have been worried??  One day was not enough for Capri!  Dayna especially dreams of going back someday - maybe she'll have her wedding pictures taken on Monte Solaro??

Amalfi Coast (Sorrento Part 4)

Bonding at Positano

The view from the bus of the coast

Our bus doing the shuffle on the road!

Day 5 was another "too tired of ruins" day so we girls took off for the Amalfi Coast which is on the south side of the peninsula (Sorrento is on the north side).  Jay headed back to do a little more thorough tour of Herculaneum.  Our bus ride was quite a thrilled.  The coastal highway hugs the cliffs and we were warned not to even TRY to rent a car here.  You'll see in the pictures that the roads are skinny, people park along the side and buses have to do some fancy footwork to pass each other.  Sometimes it took several minutes to maneuver around a curve or a congested area. It's amazing that no one got car sick!!  We made a friend on the bus.  Her name was Augustina and she was a 28 year old Argentinian attorney traveling alone.  She hung with us on our little adventure and we enjoyed lunch with her and learning about her life.  It's so fun to meet people from all over and most everyone speaks some English.  It makes me feel so stupid not to speak at least one language apart from English.

Positano hanging on the cliff

Our first hop off the bus was in Positano.  The bus had been stopped and barely moving because of the congestion so we decided it was a good time.  I small village that tumbles down the mountainside with a pebbly beach.  The bus stops at the top of the village so we hiked down the little narrow paths toward signs that were painted tile that said Spagna Beach.  Sounded good to us and Karissa managed to keep us from missing our little turns down stairways.  As always the girls loved the beach.  Since it wasn't high tourist season it was fun to wander through the streets, find the next bus stop and to wait with the locals for the next bus toward Amalfi.  By the way, there are no real schedules on buses in Italy - they come when they come!

 

The Duomo and our lunch spot in Amalfi

We curved along the coast taking in some of the most spectacular cliffs I've ever seen.   Unfortunately, the windows of the bus were fogged up so the pictures are a bit fuzzy!  The bus drivers are absolutely amazing.  It would be hard to drive it in a small car, let alone a bus!  They must all aspire to be Grand Prix drivers!!  Our next stop was Amalfi.  Another beautiful coastal town, where we ate lunch at the bottom of the steps to the famous Romanesque style Duomo di Sant' Andrea church.  Augustina and I shared a locally caught fish (brought to the table completely intact and the waiter cut it up for us) and the girls ate pizza (again) in the sunshine.  No one eats inside unless it's raining I think!  We said our goodbyes to Augustina and boarded an open air bus for a twenty minute ride up the mountain to the little town of Ravello.

The fabulous view from Ravello

The drive up to  Ravello was fantastic.  There were only two others on the bus with us so it felt like we had a giant convertible to ourselves!! Ravello was so quaint and charming.  Very quiet but with incredible views.  The girls managed to make friends with the local cats (what views these cats get!!) and find a playground with the locals.  We bought some locally painted pottery and just savored the views (of course waiting for the bus back to Amalfi called for a gelato break!).  We barely managed to make our connection for the bus back to Sorrento (the first two "scheduled" buses back to Amalfi from Ravello just never came!).

On the very long and circuitous route back to Sorrento (nearly 2 hours and we definitely got a tour of the whole peninsula - too bad it got dark!) we got some incredible sunset views up the coastline.  Could the scenery get any better?

Meta Beach and Naples (Sorrento Part 3)

Day three took Jay back to
Pompeii and I suffered by staying back and taking the girls to the
beach!  We rode the little public bus for about 20 minutes to a village 3
towns down the coast right to a little pebbly, black sand beach (again
most of the shoreline is made up of steep cliffs and the black sand is
from the volcanic lava).  The water was a little chilly (read COLD!) but
the girls didn't care. They climbed on the rocks and gathered millions
of rocks, tumbled glass and shells to take home (what's that baggage
weight limit??).  The water was a brilliant blue/green and the sunshine felt so good
after our long winter.  We ended the day with a beautiful sunset from
the park overlooking the ocean across the street from our apartment and
of course gelato shared with an American family we happened upon!  It
was fun to share stories.  Everyone we meet reminds us how blessed we
are for this extended opportunity to LIVE in Europe and not just make a
whirlwind tour for a few weeks.  Staying in the apartments when we
travel has really allowed us to mingle with the locals and live like a
local more than what we get when we only stay in one place for a few
days.  We get a chance to use the local buses, go to the market and
become familiar with some of the shopkeepers etc. (like Jhonny of
course! It's kind of nice to feel like someone recognizes you!)  Never
did get too friendly with the fish guy though - girls wouldn't linger long
enough around the baby octopus, whole fish and the lovely smell!!

Day 4 took us into the city of Naples.  About an hour away by a rugged
train trip.  This particular train system leaves little to be desired. 
It is covered with graffiti, ,stops constantly and is quite crowded -
also known for pick pockets.  Fortunately we didn't have any problems
with that.  We were all pretty excited to go the National Archaeological
Museum in Naples which houses many of the treasures found in Pompeii
and Herculaneum.  The museum is filled with frescoes removed from the
walls of the homes, household items (pots, pans, silverware, decorative
vases etc.), floor mosaics, coins, etc.  Much to our dismay, entire
sections of the museum were closed including the "Secret Room" exhibit
(for adults only).  We didn't get to see any of the floor mosaics or
coins but we did see a couple of models of Pompeii which were quite
interesting.  One from the late 1800's and one from the late 1900's. It
is amazing to see how much they have dug up in the last century.  We
found Naples to be crowded and dirty (it has a reputation for that) so
we headed back early to the beautiful coast.  Although the day was
somewhat disappointing it wasn't anything a gelato and Jhonny's Pizza
couldn't fix!  And a little souvenir shopping - always a favorite. 
Dayna has quite a collection of postcards!

Pompeii (Sorrento Part 2)

The girls demonstrating the stepping stones

Dayna serving a Coke at the Taverna

Vesuvius from Pompeii

An interior courtyard with Vesuvius in the background.

Two of the plaster casts from victims

On our second full day we took the local train for 40 minutes to
Pompeii.  It is amazing to see an entire city so well preserved from
2000 years ago.  It really helps you to understand what life was like -
although it was a very wealthy city.  The girls loved wandering the
narrow, cobblestone streets and enjoyed jumping from one side of the
street to the other.  The streets also served as their drainage system
so there were steps in the middle that the carts could roll right over
but that could be used by pedestrians to cross over one side to the next
without getting wet.

Karissa's favorite things were the "stepping stones" and the little "tavernas" everywhere.  In Pompeii, you always ate your lunch "out".  The big pots set into the counter held the food and drinks as Dayna demonstrates above!  Dayna's favorite was the "Beware of Dog" floor mosaic at the entrance to one of the homes.  She waited nearly the entire day to get to see it. 

We also liked the ornate
communal bath houses - huge.  It was THE place to see and be seen (boys
and girls were separate however).  People from our time go to Starbucks,
THEY went to the baths and hung out for a few hours.  The number of
intact frescoes and mosaic floors were astonishing.  They were REALLY
into decorating their homes - pretty nice places all with interior
courtyards for their outdoor living and frescoed walls facing the skinny
little streets.  It was difficult to tell where the houses started and
stopped so you definitely couldn't tell much about the house or its size
until you entered it.  Much different than our modern way of displaying
our wealth!!

With our Vesuvius visit and the recent eruption in Iceland (remember our favorite friends here are Icelandic so we get lots of updates on it!) we have learned more about volcanos than ever! One of the unique things about Pompeii is that the city was buried in ash and debris, not lava.  It literally rained down from the sky and most people that died, died from the toxic gas or suffocation.  They have found empty cavities in the shape of humans as they have dug through the site.  They "backfill" these cavities with plaster and it shows the actual shape and position of the person or animal as it died!  There are many of these casts around the city and it's pretty eery and makes the whole affair much more human.

After our daily gelato at the site we closed the place
down.  Much to our amazement the girls were really engaged and attentive
and enjoyed showing their American friends "Flat Kayla" and "Flat Ryan"
around. ( They are "visiting" us from the second grade at Pullen
Elementary in Rockwall.)

Dayna with Flat Kayla

April 4th - Pompeii and the Sorrento Peninsula

The view of the Bay of Naples on our way to Sorrento

Karissa was the first to spot Vesuvius from the air

Okay, so I'm miserable at keeping this thing up to date!!  Confirmed.  We got back about two weeks ago from a 10 day trip back to Italy.  We have tried to cram all of our big and "south" trips into the late winter/early spring to catch some warmer weather.  We succeeded on our previous two trips to Italy and Greece and managed to catch another wonderful wave of weather - no rain whatsoever and warm, beautiful days.

Our little street where we "lived" and the apartment interiorI have to admit that this trip was probably the most beautiful scenery we have seen along with Switzerland.  We flew into Naples on Easter Sunday (after hunting Easter eggs of course) and took a special tour type bus to Sorrento - about an hour and 15 minutes around the bay.  Naples is the most densely populated city in western Europe so we couldn't get out of there fast enough (real Mafia town).  All we saw out the bus windows were somewhat dilapidated high-rise apartment buildings with balconies laden with drying laundry!!  It was pretty depressing.  Everyone we had talked with said that Sorrento was the place to stay.  Now we understand!  It is still quaint but definitely "cleaned up" for the tourists.  It's a mecca for the Brits and there were lots of them there as the British kids were on school holiday that week as well.  Our kids enjoyed getting to converse with other English speaking kids for a change!

Sorrento itself sits right on the coast and most of the shoreline along the peninsula consists of cliffs that plunge into the sea.  We arrived with our entourage of suitcases on wheels and had a 10 minute walk over cobblestone streets to our apartment.  What we didn't realize is that we arrived right in the middle of the "passeggiata" - the distinctively Italian nightly stroll.  EVERY Italian in Sorrento was walking or shall I say meandering down the street.  It is a ritual where you go out before your late dinner and see and be seen.  Not exactly easy maneuvering for our group of 9 (4 people and 5 suitcases!) who didn't know for sure where we were going!  Anyway, our two bedroom apartment was right in the middle of town and turned out to be huge.  It even had it's own balcony for drying our own laundry (P.S.  Make sure you know the people below you quite well if you happen to drop undergarments onto their balcony, oops ;) ).  The nightly stroll amazed us because when we went out again later it was even crazier and people were just walking right down the street with their strollers etc.  Forget the cars and scooters.  It was truly a cultural awakening!

The intact mosaics were incredible.Frescoed walls still standing after 2000 years

 It feels like a real city, streets and allOn our first full day we took the train to Herculaneum.  A city that was right on the ocean at the time of Vesuvius' eruption in 79 A.D.  Unlike, Pompeii, it didn't get demolished, it was just buried by about 95 feet of hot mud and ash!!  Many historians think it is much better preserved than Pompeii as the houses are so intact that there are second stories still remaining.  It's pretty weird though because they built a new city right on top of the buried city.  So, the excavation is significantly smaller because there is modern city built all around it and they can't get to the rest of the archaeological site!  It's just like a 100 foot deep pit in the middle of this urban sprawl.  Along with "Scavi di Ercolano" we went to the MAV Museum an interactive museum about the ancient site.  The girls loved it - it was all high tech and they got to "dust off" frescoes and mosaic floors, "wade through an ancient pool",  walk through computerized recreations of some of the buildings.  It really made it a lot of fun for them.

Upon our return to Sorrento that night we happened upon
Jhonny's Pizza (yes, that's how it's spelled).  Jhonny gave us quite a
show with his dough and wood burning oven.  He's won a number of awards for his frisbee like
moves (rolling it down his outstretched arms etc.) and also won our business for 4 nights during our stay (anything
to get Karissa to eat dinner - excuse me, I think the proper word would be
"inhale" in this particular case!).  It was a lot of fun and quite appropriate since that area of Italy is supposed to be the birthplace of the pizza.  Thin and crispy!

 Jhonny, throwing our dough!