Saturday April 17, 2010

Just a side note being in Europe with planes grounded is a real strange experience. When we go to the train station in the morning to tour the city the terminal is full of hundreds of people trying to get somewhere. We met a couple from Sweden who booked a train to Innsbruck but did not know how they were gettting back to Sweden from there. The other couple we met were here in Rome for a wedding and the parents of the groom couldn't get to the wedding. The hotels are booked and people are standing in line trying to find places to stay .

We have only scheduled one complete day to be in Rome so we must move quickly to see as much as we can. Our first stop is the Colosseum, for 1 week in Italy all the public sites are free. We are approached by a tour person who is up front and informs us of the free entrance and asks if we would like a tour for 15 euro. We join the tour and turns out to be a very good choice . The tour led by a young woman named Mia takes us through the Colosseum then on to the forum and the sights around it. The day is quickly passing us by and we still have not seen the Sistine Chapel or St. Peter's Basilica. We are in line for the basilica when we are told the chapel closes at 4:00 and it is know 3:20. We make our way to the chapel and begin our own self guided tour. The picture to the left does not do justice to the beauty of the chapel the details on the ceiling were very ornate and I could not take enough pictures. The last stop for the day the basilica. We decide to stand in line one more time to see the basilica as you recall we have been in the line 2 times and still haven't been able to get in. It was so worth the 3rd attempt to get in. The church was like nothing I have ever seen. It was so huge I am not sure we saw everything but did our best. We had to take 2 Metro trains to get to our bus and managed without 1 incident. The buses and trains are becoming easier everyday.

The decision is to go back to the same restaraunt we ate at the previous night our driver last night was Lawrence but we now have a new driver named Franco. One of the specialties of the restaraunt is beef. The owner carefully cuts the size of meat you want and then they cook it over a wood fire. Bob carefully chose a t-bone with a huge tenderloin and the cut was done to perfection. When the dinner was completed Franco reappears and we call it a day.

Friday April 16, 2010

We say goodbye to the beautiful city of Sorrento. The stay at the LaTonnarella has been just incredible with views of Naples, Sorrento and the Gulf of Naples who could ask for any more. This is the hotel perched high above the cliffs.

I have been contemplating the trip out of Sorrento since we arrived, it was not good driving into Sorrento with rain and bad navigation by the gertie. The trip out of Sorrtento was without a hitch. We programmed gertie and she took us to Rome. We had booked a room the day before because of the airports being closed all over Europe due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Sight on seen we booked at a hotel that was called the Hotel Domidea this is a real find. I am not going to put pictures up but here is the website a buisness suite and that it was. http://www.hoteldomidea.it/ A short walk to the bus then onto the underground and we end up right in Rome all for 1euro a piece.

I had never been to Rome and didn't know what to expect the city is amazing. Greg had suggested we do the bus hop tour and we were able to hook up with it right out of the train station. The bus takes you past all of the landmarks and at certain points you can hop off and come back to another bus whenever you wish. We hopped off at the Vatican hoping to get the tour of St. Peter's Basilica so we could see other sights on Sat. When entering the gates we were stopped because Bob had is new pocket knife in his pocket and there are no knives allowed. Once back on the bus we finished our ride and plan to return the next day to see the sights.

Our hotel offers a shuttle service to restraunts after 7:30 pm. The driver dropped us at a place called Pizzeria Braceria and would pick us up when we were done with dinner. The place was incredible we were the only Americans and also the only people who spoke English. The atmosphere was like being at Washington Square, kids, families and a couple of guys singing Jimmy Buffet in Italian. The pasta dishes were the best we have had so far and the place was just a bustling. The driver came back, picked us up and deposited us back at the hotel.

Thursday April 15, 2010

After a short walk to the train station we were headed to see the beautiful ruins of Pompei. The train ride was really a good deal about $7 round trip for the 2 of us. We got off the train and followed everyone to the spot where we could purchase our tickets. We were approached by several people selling a tour in English and finally decided on a old man named Jesseppe. We were hooked up with Kari, and Nick from London. Jesseppe was just the best, at 81 years old had been the president of the tour guides for 25 years and now only does 1 tour a day. As we snaked our way around the ruins it was hard to imagine what it must have been like in those days but with the information Jesseppe was giving us we could almost picture what it was like. He took us to the stores, wine stores, brothels, big villas, and small villas. Bob the engineer was very interested especially in the road ways, he was always trying to figure out the curb and gutter and the one way streets. Jesseppe had a way to dive right in front of hords of people smiling and yelling, we manged to always be ahead of the other large groups. We could have spent more time but the weather was getting more miserable as we proceeded. We said goodbye to Kari, and Nick and boarded our train to head back to our hotel.

We dined at a restaraunt located at the bottom of the hill close to Marine Grand called De Marie. The walk down was a bit challenging as we didn't take the correct road and ended up in the camp grounds, with some direction we hiked down tons of stairs and found the place. The service was not good but the food was very enjoyable.

Wednesday April 14, 2010

Yesterday we decided this should be the day we go to the island of Capri. We had contemplated going over there to say for a few nights but the weather is not perfect and being on land is less confining than being on an island. The walk to the ferry is not far from our hotel so we headed on down where we would be greeted by 100's of people also taking the ferry including a bunch of high school kids on a tour. We purchased our tickets for 14 euro a piece and away we went. We had done alittle reading and knew we wanted to end up at Capri and then on to Ancapri. After standing in another line we purchased our tickets for the funicular at 1.8 euro a piece. We then stood in another line to ride to the top so we could start exploring the towns.

Once on top exhausted from standing in lines we strolled around capri and found the bus to take us to Anacapri the cost of the bus 1.8 euro. The ride was the worst ever, there is a cliff with a 2 foot wall as a guard rail and straight down and pretty much 1 way traffic but they think they can pass. Anacapri is a very nice town much quieter, we walked around the square and some historical buildings and then decided to head to the azzurre grotto. There was a sign on the street and we had actually read about it in the tour book. The bus would take us right there through the cliff hanging roads.

We arrived and stepped into a small boat then to a mother boat to pay our 11.50 euro a piece and this was by far the best investment I have ever made. The blue water is caused from the reflection of the sun on the cave walls, it was like nothing I have ever seen.

The day ended taking the fast ferry back to our dock for 14.50 euro a piece. The day was not cheap but it sure was fun. We dined in town early so we didn't have to walk down to the city again.

Tuesday April 13, 2010

After a nice Europeon breakfast we say goodby to our new friends and head down the coat. The decision is go the the west coast as the weather is really bad cold, foggy and raining sheets. We head across the country with Sorrento as our goal. With the GPS progamamed we should have made it without a hitch. Gertie did not do us good for the first time, she took us through the worst towns and roads that were flooded until finally getting us in the right direction.

It was pouring rain and I felt like I was looking at rooms forever. We had decided on a room and looked at one more. We had hit the jackpot the location was the best, a short walk to the city and the view was like nothing I have ever seen. The room was quit large and has 2 balconies. Pictured above is the view from 1 of the decks. The name of the place is called Hotel LaTonnarella. This is the low season and they are really giving discounts on the rooms.

We decided to dine at the hotel restaraunt and it was interesting to say the least. I ordered pasta with (little fish) I had ordered this once before and it was the best dish I had eaten. When the dish came it had pasta and worm like fish that looked like they could have been aliens or some weird sea creature. The pasta was good but the texture and appearance of the fish was more than I could handle. Bob ordered octupus bolognese fettuccini that was at least palatable I might add the wine was good. We met a darling young couple in their 30's from London.

The couple was celebrating their 1st anniversay and over here for a week. It was fun talking with them and Bob was able to talk politics and anything of interest and not only with me. The young man was so cute when talking of his mom he put it like this, "she cals and wants to talk and he is often busy but then he keeps telling himself he needs to be responsible for her she may sometime actually need his help."

Monday April 12, 2010

The ferry trip over was 9 hours and I have been worring about the high seas for 2 days. Much to my surprise it was a very smooth ride. After a nice shower and cup of coffee we would diesmbrk the boat and start to search for the rental car place. With the Gps in hand and towing our bag we zeroed in, about 1 1/2 miles from the ferry terminal Once again gerite got us right to the right spot and were on the road again only we had the international driver and 1 navigator , how things have changed in 1 week. Our route is to head south as it is still raining and this would be a good time to get some distance behind us. The shape of Italy has a heel, toe and what Bob calls a spur, is where we are headed. The drive was through the one of the National Parks named Gargano and the groves of olives went for miles, more than we have seen anywhere. We located a dot on the map called Peschici and decided this would be a good place to stop for lunch. The restaurant was called Piccolo Paradiso, we knocked on the door and they were not open but someone came and invited us in to have lunch. We dined on antipasto del mar which is things of the sea and that it was. There were some things with tenacles, clams-oysters and some kind of local fish along with this we had a big pizza.

We continued to drive around the spur heading south hoping to find a place to say before hitting the big cities. This coast is known for it's anceint forests, limestone cliffs, and many grottos. We check some gorgeous places but they were not open for the season. This area is a big resort area only reachable by car it is one of the few spots that houses beautiful sand beaches. The final place we checked was marginally open but a very nice place, we are a little ahead of the season. There were 5 guests staying at the place so you can't beat that. The gentleman who own-run the place spoke no English but we did manage to communicate. They let me use a flash drive to hook into the internet for a short time as they were not hooked up yet.

There were no restaurants open so they invited us to dine at the hotel. We arrive to a table for 2 ( the setting was like something out of the bachelor) the only difference there were no cameras. The food was was good and we truly were the only people in the restaurant. When completing our dinner another man arrived and we think he was the mayor of the nearby town best as we could tell

Sunday Apri 11, 2010
Staying at the Villa Kastel turned out to be a very good choice. Beside the room being the largest we have stayed in it was also in a good location. The family who owned and managed the villa gave us information on how and when we should connect with the bus at the airport that would transport us to the ferry terminal where we would leave for Italy.
The weather is really bad, cold, raining and windy I have put on everything in my suitcase to stay warm. The owners were kind enough to let us stay at the villa until we needed to go and get rid of the car. This was a huge bonus Bob was able to rest, and watch TV and I was able to organize some pictures from the last 2 weeks, and work on the scarf I am knitting for Teresa.
We finally ended up in Split with no complications but had 4 hours to fill our time. The shops were all closed but the tour inside the old city proved to be a good choice for us. We stumbled across a great restaurant called Appetit, the meal was very tasty especially on the cold rainy day. Once done with the meal we decided to take in the Croatia boat show located on the same pier as the ferry terminal.
The boat show was nice but not spectacular, although Bob did get information on charting boats and perhaps the possiblity of even delivering new boats to customers who had purchased them.
Boarding for the ferry was at 7:00 not any too soon we were done trying to fill up time. The ship is a very large vessel housing passengers, semi-trucks, buses and cars. The cabin consisted of a bathroom, shower, and 2 beds who could ask for anymore?