Photos of Sorrento & Amalfi Coast trip

Here's a link to the photos.

The little things

A couple of minor things that stayed with me as I decompressed back to LA time:
-the sound of Neapolitan in my ear, through the 'whisper' devices that were used to hear Vincenzo's lectures. Whenever we were walking from place to place, he and Manu would be chatting in their native tongue, while the microphone was still on.
-holding our breaths as Antonio, the bus driver, maneuvered within inches of a passing bus on the narrow road between Amalfi and Positano. The way the drivers communicated and maneuvered around each other was astonishing (and stressful).
-the smell of lemons everywhere, and the taste of it in practically everything
-the word 'prego', used in all kinds of ways (as a response to 'thank you', when someone hands you something)
-discovering that they have profiteroles in Italy too! I've now had them in three countries.

Return home

Those of us on the early bus woke to torrential thunderstorms! The bus taking us to the airport is on time and the first thing I need to do is find out what is happening to my flight, as Lufthansa pilots are striking in Munich. I was put on the Frankfurt flight connecting to LAX.

By the time we land in Frankfurt, I have 40 minutes to find the customs office to get my VAT receipt stamped, and run from one end of the airport to the other to catch my plane. Luckily, German efficiency does not extend to boarding planes. The flight is operated by Lufthansa, so I will enjoy real food, hot towels plus we are on a 747. I've got an empty seat next to me as well! It's a 10 hour flight back. 

Landing at LAX, the Bradley terminal is quiet (it is 9/11 after all). The renovation is very nice, and the customs line is all machines that read your passport, asks you questions, takes your picture, and sends you on your way. Luggage showed up (thank god, I was worried with the tight Frankfurt connection). 

There is nothing like coming home after a trip, no matter how enjoyable the vacation.

Shopping day!

Wednesday is our last full day. We have a lecture in the morning by the same English gent who did the history lecture. This time he will give us some insight into contemporary Italy. And it is seriously messed up! 

After the lecture, the group splits up. A handful of people head out on a long hike in the hills to Positano. Others take a bus to Ravello. I decided I wanted a more relaxing day and needed some shopping time so I stayed in Sorrento. 

The town's shopping is in two areas. The main street (where everyone takes their nightly stroll) is full of the regular commercial stores. These shops close for the mid day break from 1 to 4 pm and then open again until 9pm. The mainly pedestrian shopping alleys are mostly open all day. 

Before shopping, I head back to the cliffs to take some pictures of the south side of the cliffs with the better morning light. Then out to patrol the streets. Since I had plenty of time, I was able to make a few rounds, compare prices and return back to shops to purchase. The merchandise is primarily ceramics (with lemons, olives or both painted on it), leather (lots of bags, shoes and at least one jacket store), lemon goods (limoncello, candies, etc), linen (seriously gorgeous and lots on sale), marquetry (mostly boxes, music boxes, plaques), jewelry (cameos plus murano glass from Venezia). There was also the usual cheal tourist bait stuff of course. A few fruit vendors where scattered around with lemons (always!), figs and other good looking produce. I ran into John and Janice and made plans to have lunch with them. Before we did that, I went back to the hotel to drop off my merch and take a rest. 

For lunch, we went to the Bellevue Sirene, which Sally had recommended for their beautiful patio over looking the water. Truly relaxing and refreshing. I had one last pasta limone e gamberetti (one of the signature dishes in the area. Dessert was gelato from Davide, nocciola and torrone (nougat). In the afternoon, I put on my swim suit and headed up to the pool. The water was really cold but it felt good to dangle my legs in looking out over the infinity pool.

Tonight is the farewell dinner. I decide to wear the linen dress and sandals I got in Capri, plus the murano earrings from a local store. We start with drinks in the hotel bar. What a difference a week makes! The group now behaves and sounds like a bunch of long time friends. Emanuele is our handsome host in a dark Italian suit and tie. Dinner is in the breakfast room with Diego (who has been refilling our breakfast coffee) serving. We each get a certificate. Dessert is a giant cake with green and red fruit on top and a sparkler! The festive atmosphere at the bar carries over here. Afterwards, a few of us pop back into the bar for drinks or just to wind down. I'm on the very early 3:45a bus to the airport, so tonight is goodbyes, sadly.

Capri

Hard to believe but today is our last official excursion (we have a free day tomorrow). The focus of the day is Capri. We go by hydrofoil (very smooth!) to the island, which is crowded with hordes of tourists. The first thing we are to do is take a boat around part of the island to enjoy its natural beauty and experience the incredible blue water. Turns out the full moon (the last super moon of the year) has caused the water level to be quite high and the boats are slow going through and coming back from the Blue Grotto. We aren't going there because it's crowded and unpredictable. After a short wait, we get on a boat and start making our way around. The island is all cliffs and dramatic coastlines and the water is unbelievably blue. There are small grottos with interesting rock formations and one place where the reflection of the water glows green. We also stop by another place called the little blue grotto that gives a sense of the larger one, with an intense blue glow deep in the cave. It's truly a beautiful place out in the water.

On our return, the line for the funicular is too long, so we are going to take a bus instead. It's a shorter wait and we can browse some shops in the meantime. The drive up is one of those treacherous winding ones where buses pass within inches of each other. At the top is Capri, a bustling crowded touristy place full of pricey stores but gorgeous views of the beautiful blue water below. They have some gorgeous linen clothing and I found a dress on sale, I also picked up a pair of custom made Capri sandals, and watched as the young man made them up for me in 10 minutes. Lunch was at a place that felt a bit like a tourist trap, the only place like this that we've experienced. Our fears were confirmed when two large tour groups follow after us. The food was pretty decent though.

Once we get down to the port, I got some panna cotta gelato (really good!) before we caught the hydrofoil back to Sorrento. 

After a couple of hours break, I went down to Linda's room for a G & T on her balcony. We were then joined by Marion, and then were summoned to the roof, where Sylvia, Sally and Jim were already sitting. I headed out to dinner with the whole group of Canadian ladies and Sally and Jim to a beautiful restaurant on the water. I had a mixed appetizer plate (fried zucchini flower, eggplant parmeggian, octopus, shrimp), green tagliatelle with lemon and orange zest and shrimp (OMG!). We all passed around our plates. Everyone had a delicious meal. Service was outstanding. Prices were completely reasonable for the amount of food and wine we had. We had a fantastic time.

Pompeii and Herculaneum

Today was the big day, visiting the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum. We did one right after the other with a late lunch so as to get there before crowds and before the heat of the afternoon.

This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. The two sites are very different from each other. Pompeii has more of the city exposed since it was easier to excavate. It was a trading town and is the source of a lot of knowledge about life in a typical Roman town and source of most of the artifacts in the archeological museum in Naples. Pompeii was severely damaged by an earthquake 17 years before the eruption, so we can see its reconstruction under the newer Empire style. Herculaneum was destroyed by mud before the lava flow and so was more difficult to excavate. It was discovered earlier and was looted of much of the treasures. It was a resort town and since it was not damaged in the earthquake, still retains much of the older Republic style of buildings. Because of the mud flow, we are able to see remaining charred wood beams and doors that were destroyed in Pompeii. We also see second stories on houses, since they did not collapse under the weight of ash.

In Pompeii we visited the baths, some shops, the large and small theaters and of course the Forum. They had several cast bodies on display, including a dog. 

The site of Herculaneum is currently totally surrounded by the modern town. Here we see that the Forum has a different form, being more like a Greek agora. The second story of several buildings are still visible. We are able to visit two types of houses. One is typical of a house kept by someone who is not a permanent resident (either a summer home or owned as a status symbol). The second house is a more typical Roman house of the time for a permanent resident of the town. 

V provided so much information, including small details about daily life that it really gave us a sense of how someone might have lived 2000 years ago. Truly a remarkable place. 

Lunch today is at a restaurant in the new town of Pompeii, Il Principe. The restaurant was beautifully decorated with reproductions of Pompeiian frescos as well as some busts made of pasta, cork and plastic fruit, and books. A little quirky to say the least! (They also had a feng shui flute hanging from one corner of the restaurant.) The meal started with bruschetta, croquettes and salad, with spaghetti siciliano (eggplant in tomato sauce), followed by fresh fruit. 

Tonight's dinner is at Caruso restaurant, which has photos of the great tenor all over the walls, as well as caricatures drawn by Caruso in one of the rooms. Dinner is tomato soup (really amazingly good!) or cheese ravioli (wow!) and swordfish with cabbage and potatoes. Dessert is profiteroles (yum!). I ended up with a group of the Canadians who were plastered. Manu had the restaurant bring us glasses of limoncello, my first of the trip! We laughed at silly things on our way back to the hotel.

Napoli

Today was our day in Naples. Emanuele makes sure we get an early start because we want to get into the city before traffic starts to get bad. This city has the youngest population in italy, so most people were out late on Saturday night having fun, and will sleep in and have a late lunch. The first place we stop is a scenic overlook called the 'balcony' of Naples. It offers a beautiful view of Vesuvius, Sorrento, and Capri, although today is a bit hazy. As we drive through the city, Vincenzo and Manu point out the streets where they live, the soccer stadium, where V went to school and the hospital where his kids were born. They are both very proud of their city and later when I ask V, he tells me that they consider themselves to be Neapolitan, not Italian (and it would be the same for people from other regions of Italy, I presume). It also seems that Naples has gotten the short end of the stick since unification as a lot of industry was moved out of Naples to other parts of the country.

Our first stop is going to be the Archeological Museum but on the way we drive by old castles (of the fortress and canons type) and equestrian statues. The museum houses the collections of the Farnese family (who acquired most of their loot from having a family member as Pope) and the archeological digs in Pompeii, which will be our focus. At the time of the discovery, much of the frescoes and larger materials at Pompeii were simply carved up and shipped to Naples, so they were not as well preserved as they might have been. Still the museum has an incredible selection of mosaics ranging from the earliest crude examples to exceptionally detailed and fine pieces. The highlight is the large panel depicting Alexander the Great battling Darius, the Persian Emperor. We are also able to enter the recently opened Secret Cabinet, which houses the erotic art from Pompeii, including phallic symbols marking locations of brothels, as well as paintings of sexual positions used as a type of 'menu' and smaller decorative items that were worn for good luck. (Apparently, the room was kept locked away until recently due to embarrassment in earlier ages.) The museum's collection of bronzes includes medical instruments that still look similar to modern ones. Beautiful examples of glassware is highlighted by a blue cameo vase with incredibly intricate carving work. 

After the museum, we head to a restaurant on the waterfront pedestrian street or Lungomare. Lunch is bruschetta and salad, margherita pizza and a delicious dessert of ladyfingers, cream and Nutella. After lunch we get to meet Manu's fiancée, Danila, who is adorable, and then we are free to stroll for the next hour or so. I got a lemon gelato to cool off. 

A short nap on the bus ride back is always nice. In the evening we have a fascinating lecture on volcanic eruptions and the particulars of the one in 79 AD. The lecturer describes what happened from the descriptions of Pliny the Elder who perished in the fallout but who left notes for his nephew, Pliny the younger. She also told us about the evacuation plan set up for the cities and towns surrounding Vesuvius but a lot of people live very close to this volcano.

Dinner is at another nearby restaurant, with minestrone soup, snapper with a lemon flavour, and nougat ice cream cake. Everything was exceptional, particularly the fish, which was cooked to perfection. 

Mozzarella farm and Paestum

Today started with a visit to an organic mozzarella farm. Mozzarella is made from water buffalo milk. (Similar cheese from cow milk is fior de latte.) The buffalo here lead a charmed life. They are all micro-chipped which helps the farm keep track of them and the quality of their milk. They are housed in a beautiful large barn with massage brushes available to give them a rub down any time (and we saw them line up for it). They are milked through an automatic milking machine that knows how big they are (from the chip). The buffalo are fed organic feed after they are milked and are not given hormones, injections of any kind? Buffalo milk has higher sugar content and more fat than cow milk. They were originally brought to Italy from Asia but have been here for a long time, and we later learned from Vincenzo that it was Alexander the Great who brought them. We sampled some of the fresh mozzarella, which was so good! 

From here our next stop is Paestum. Vincenzo gives us some background on the history of the Greeks in this area of Southern Italy. Apparently this was a major and very influential part of the Greek empire back in the day. The museum has some nice Greek era artifacts, pottery, armor, architectural fragments. The highlight for me were the painted frescos from a tomb showing a diver. 

After our museum tour, we walk to view two of the three temples. On the way, there are remnants of the old Roman town that was once here, including a coliseum for gladiator fights. We learned that these types of competitions actually were originated by the local people here (Italic peoples) and spread to the rest of the empire by the Romans who recognized the popularity of the events.

The large temple here is one of the best preserved. The oldest temple on the site is next to it. You can see an evolution in the Doric columns between the two temples (built about 50 years apart). The large temple still has the interior columns that housed the statue of the god (believed to have been Apollo). The metopes and other artwork have long been removed. Many of the stones from the surrounding Roman village were 'reused' long ago by local people for their own homes.

Lunch is at a restaurant on the site of the Roman village. We started with a caprese (more delicious mozzarella and really good olive oil), spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce, but the best simple spaghetti I've ever had, with a lemon cake that didn't taste of lemon but was so light it was like eating a cloud. After lunch we sat with the son and daughter of the restaurant owners and were able to ask them questions about their lives. Such an interesting opportunity, but sad to hear how cynical they are about their country's future. 

After a long bus ride back, we had a short time to freshen up before a lecture by an archeologist from the Naples Museum with the history of the collections there, as well as photos of objects not currently on display (either in storage or on loan). The images included objects from Pompeii currently traveling in LA, which I saw a few weeks ago! She also had pictures of how the museum's WWII era director arranged to protect the valuable artifacts from bombing, which she has never shown before!

After that interesting lecture, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, which was penne with mushroom in cream sauce, bresaola (beef rolled with spinach and garlic), and delicious coffee and hazelnut gelato. At my table was a meteorologist, and we got to talking about dramatic weather as we also had a couple from New Jersey who contributed their Hurricane Sandy stories. 

Amalfi coast and Positano

Today starts with breakfast at the hotel, and the spread is fantastic. They have fruits, pastries, hot dishes, and even a juicer! After breakfast is a lecture by Ken Tyson condensing the 3000 yr history of the area into under 1 hour. He is originally British but has lived in Italy for 30 years, and has a dry slightly cynical view of his adopted country which makes for a very entertaining lecture. 

After the lecture, we walk to the bus parking area and head towards Positano. Vincenzo joins us as the local guide, giving us some history and information along the way. The road is very winding and narrow. At one point we have to change from the big bus to smaller buses to even make it into Positano. The town itself is built into a hillside. The narrow streets are lined with small shops. Lemon products are popular, as the original orange groves were converted through grafting into lemon groves when Sicily started producing better oranges. This makes the area's lemons special and limoncello is a local specialty. There are also a lot of ceramics, linen clothing, as well as the usual tourist bait products. 

I popped my head into a church dedicated to Black Madonna, but didn't linger as the priest was very stern and warned us all about messing with a wedding that was about to take place. I ran into a few of my fellow travelers having gelato by the water and so my first gelato of the trip is here, a pistachio which was decent, but not spectacular. Still, a nice treat as it's warm and very humid. 

From Positano, we are taking a boat to Amalfi. This allows us to see the coastal towns from the water as well as avoid the road, which we will discover is a very good thing! 

Amalfi is another tiny little town. We have lunch at Lo Smerelda right by the water. Starter is a salad, but when I mention I don't eat salad, they automatically offered a caprese, which had delicious mozzarella and okay tomatoes. The main was a wide flattened tube pasta with a local fish sauce. The pasta is al dente in the proper fashion and very chewy. I got the feeling from Vincenzo that American tourists must often complain to him about the texture of pasta here. Dessert is a delicious lemon cream with profiteroles. After lunch we have time to wander the town. I join a few ladies to hunt for a paper store (as the local handmade paper is supposed to be quite special) and to check out the rather remarkable church. The paper store turned out to be difficult to find but was right under our noses, next to the church. The location of the church has been a religious building for a very long time, dating back to pagan days. This area was not affected as much by warring, so was able to be built on top of layer by layer. The outside features some beautiful Byzantine mosaics, and the interior has gorgeous silver and jeweled treasures. The church interior is from the 18th century featuring beautiful marble patterns and painted coffered ceilings. 

We meet at the water to catch our bus back to Sorrento and on the road back between Amalfi and Positano we discover how challenging it is to pass two large buses on curvy roads barely wide enough for 1 normal car! The bus drivers are truly remarkable, and we manage to make it through without taking out any parked scooters. It did make for a harrowing ride back.

After a short rest, I meet up with some folks for dinner at a restaurant recommended to one of them. It turns out to be an enchanting place, with tables in a canopied garden setting with fairy lights and lemons hanging overhead. Dinner was delicious and ridiculously reasonable in price. We all tried calamari, prosciutto and figs, caprese to start. My main was linguine with octopus and sea urchin sauce. The pasta had a faint scent of lemon and the octopus was perfectly cooked, but my stomach was jet lagged and refused to have any more. However I still had room for dessert! We tried the tiramisu (much dryer and less sweet than ones I've had in the US, delicious), ricotta cheese cake (interesting texture but I felt it lacked flavour) and a spiked mint and chocolate gelato. The sun had set by the time we left the restaurant and there were no cars. Some stores were still open (recall the long mid day break) and the whole ambiance almost felt like a Disneyworld version of an Italian city, except that this was the actual place those Disney cities are emulating. The atmosphere was just so magical it didn't feel real. 

Italy here I come!

On Wednesday I headed to the airport early in the morning to head to Italy for my first ever visit! My itinerary for the day includes 4 airports (LAX, EWR, FRA, NAP), three countries (US, Germany, Italy) and a bus over 24 hours to Sorrento. I was a little concerned about potential delays causing havoc in my schedule, but it turns out every flight departed on time and arrived early! Getting through passport control in Frankfurt and then to the correct gate was stressful, but the long fast walk kept me awake.

When we arrived at Napoli, I met up with a group of fellow travelers as well as our campus director, Emanuele. Antonio is our fabulous bus driver for most of the next week. As soon as you leave the airport you can see Vesuvius. We learned that the 79AD eruption blew off the top half of the mountain so it had been quite an impressive peak. The vegetation reminds me a lot of LA, although much more lush. 

When we get to Sorrento, we each make our way to our hotel rooms at the Hotel Plaza. It's right off the main square, Piazzo Tasso, and very modern. We have a couple of hours before meeting the group for a quick walking tour of Sorrento so after getting unpacked, I headed to the roof to check out the bar and spectacular view of the Bay of Naples, and the small infinity pool. Definitely going to have to find time to take a quick dip! 

After a short but much needed nap, we gather in the lobby where we are given radios and headsets to help us hear the guides. Today's local guide is Franco. He takes us through the Piazzo, to the one spot in town with a public access to the water and through some delightfully picturesque shopping streets. There are at least 10 things I want to buy! Many stores in the main street take a long midday break and stay open later in the evening. As we pass stores, half the shop owners greet Franco by name. 

After the tour, we gather in the hotel lobby bar for a welcome drink and get to know our fellow travelers. There are people from all over, although the largest contingent are U of T alums from Ontario. Other folks are from Arkansas, Nebraska, Maryland, Philadelphia, New Jersey. Everyone is really friendly and interesting.

Dinner is in the hotel dining room, with a wonderful local wine. I had cheese ravioli, eggplant (melanzane) parmeggian, and panne cotta. 

I went to bed right after dinner and slept soundly until 3am, then fitfully after that until it was time for breakfast.