Buongiorno, sono in Sorrento, Italia!!
We’ll we’ve finally made it to Italy. Currently, I’m sitting on the rooftop terrace of our hotel in Sorrento as the sun goes down, listening to the hustle and bustle from the street below. Although I can’t see the ocean from our hotel, there is a good view of the hills behind us, and we’re 30 seconds walk away from the train station.
On the subject of trains, the local line here is more of a budget metro instead of a train. Yesterday on our way from Naples to Sorrento, the heavens opened on us in a big way; thunder, dark clouds and torrential rain accompanied us as we started our ‘train’ journey to Sorrento. The carriage we were in also started leaking above 2 seats so it was raining both inside and out. Both me and Freya were very excited when a young Italian on the train left his seat (he was getting rained on inside) only to tell another passenger “piovere” (it’s raining) and pointing at the ceiling. YAH!! We understood what he said!!
Near Pompei two British ladies got on and not deterred by the indoor rain (apparently she’s been here a while and nothing surprises her anymore…) one of them promptly sat down and erected this defense of the rain –
Most of the carriage had a small smile on their face after this, one young guy was trying very hard not to smile.
After 45 mins hurtling along, bouncing all over the place (on this line, it seems one doesn’t need to prune overhanging branches/plants etc as the train will do that…) plants, shrubs and branches bashing and scrapping along the side of the train, we arrive at the end of the line – Sorrento
Last night we had pizza and pasta for dinner, today we had gelato for lunch and a very nice pasta for dinner at what looked to be a family run restaurant. So far prices are not too bad and everyone is very friendly. We’ve been using a little Italian, but mostly English as that’s the language we’re generally greeted in. (There are a lot of British/Irish tourists here currently, some whom have seen way too much sun recently) It will be good to be in the same country with the same language (minus the dialects) for such an extended period of time after all our constant moving around recently.
Hopefully we’ll be going to Pompeii tomorrow as the weather is suppose to be quite nice for the rest of this week (temp in the mid to high 20s)
Whilst eating dinner tonight, a local church was having great fun ringing their bells over and over and over, which kinda reminded me of when I was in Central Java – Yogyakarta and the mosque’s would call people to pray, except the bells weren’t quite as loud, continuous or sounded 4-5 times a day. (Tada!! 1st Central Java reference, not a very good one, but it’s a start)
Ciao
It is “Italian Week” on Masterchef. Dad is hoping to learn even more pizza tricks.