Y’all….
I REALLY wanted to finish all of my Italy posts. I have 18 pages left in my journal to type up…when am I going to find the time to do that?!
Especially now since all I wanna blog about is the baby. š
One of these days I’m just going to knuckle down and finish….hopefully before the baby gets here because then I’ll never get it done!!
10/26/2011
RAIN! Booooooooooo! We had to take an expensive cab to catch the bus for our Amalfi Drive tour (no shuttle that early). Then it rained for most of the tour and we got soaked. But ā the views were amazing and we took the most stunning pictures during this part of our trip. We also had a nice lunch with a couple from the UK. (They talked a lot about 9/11 and the royal wedding. And they totally used the phrase āfortnightā ā it was awesome!)
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| Madonna holding her child |
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| Fresh squeeze Amalfi orange juice ā yum yum yum!! |
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| It took all my will power not to stand next to this and mimic the statue in the middle at the bottom. Lol! |
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| Do you see me? |
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| Look at the size of those meringues! |
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| My Toms! I wore these the entire trip – so comfy! |
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| Mmmmm |
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| The Sleeping Giant – do you see him? |
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| “Room service! You want me fluff your pillow?” Name that movie! |
10/27/2011
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| Morning in Sorrento! |
The next morning weĀ traveled to Pompeii. This time on the local train, there was an ENTIRE band playing and begging for money ā complete with an accordion player!
We didnāt have a guided tour of Pompeii, which was a bad decision. We had no clue what we were looking at most of the time and we got lost at one point. But we still had a good time. Iāve always been fascinated with Pompeii ever since I watch a movie during elementary school about it, so it was awesome to finally see it in person!
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| Peek-a-boo! |
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| Creepy! |
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| Who knew they had a vineyard in Pompeii? |
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| Goofy face, but the sandwich looks awesome. Mmm! |
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| Josh’s 1/2 eaten carbonara. |
We went back to Sorrento and shopped around all afternoon. Then did a quick trip back up to the hotel to change for dinner.
For dinner, Josh had pasta carbonara AGAIN (guess I know what I need to learn to make when we get home) and I had a pasta dish with red sauce, tomatoes, mozzarella, eggplant, and basil. It had a long Italian name and I took a stab at saying it when I ordered. The waiter totally laughed at me. Oh well!
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| I look so awkward…. |
AĀ few last things about Sorrento:
There were a million British kids touring around. Josh and I figured it must be their fall break.
Riding around Sorrento and Amalfi was SCARY! There were tons of one lane roads curving up the mountains ā yikes! The huge tour bus we were on during the Amalfi drive had to back up Ā¼ of a mile at one point because a delivery truck was driving up the road. At least he was a safe driver ā hands on the wheel and never on his cell phone.
There was an orange tabby cat at the hotel. He came into the restaurant during breakfast one morning ā the waiters didnāt seem to care!
At the fancy restaurant (where Josh made me take a pic with the guitar player) a dog walked into the outdoor seating area where we were eating. I figured the waiters would shoo him out, but instead a woman brought him out a plate of dog food and fed him right outside the restaurant. He was so cute ā soft and brown with big sad puppy dog eyes. After he ate his plate of food, he came back into the outdoor seating area and lay down and took a nap. It made me miss my puppies SO much!
10/25/2011
Y’all…Sorrento is probably one of the most beautiful places weāve ever been! The view from our hotel room is breathtaking. Getting to the hotel, however, was a little difficult. The local train that I was worried about really wasnāt that big of a deal. Pretty similar to Marta. However, it was PACKED. We were barely able to get our bag onto the train and had to stand for most of the trip. It was a long ride ā over an hour. Josh and I werenāt able to stand together either, which made it a little scary.
This one older man got my attention, pointed at his eyes, and then at me ā telling me to watch my purse for pick pockets. There was also a woman, well – girl really, on the train begging while holding a baby. Josh told me that he read that pick-pockets in Italy will carry around a baby doll and pretend itās real. Then, theyāll pretend to trip and throw the doll at you and pick your pocket or steal your purse while youāre freaking out about them dropping the baby. But this was a real baby. And the girl didnāt drop him or throw him. Thank goodness!
When we arrived in Sorrento, we had no idea where our hotel was or how far it was from the metro stop. Luckily, there was an info desk. I went up to it and did my usual, āEnglish?ā to see if the girl working there spoke English. Turns out sheās from Florida! I asked her how far the hotel was ā it was far. BUT – there was a shuttle and it was arriving in 10 minutes. How perfect! Josh and I have this international traveling thing DOWN!
We got to the hotel (beautiful, beautiful, beautiful hotel and views!!) checked in, took some pics and then took the shuttle back to town to get some lunch. We had a hard time finding a place that was serving food (since it was like, 3pm by this time) but we found a little mom-and-pop place and had some awesome pizza!
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| Hotel in Sorrento – not really much to look at…but the door behind the curtains – that led to a balcony with the most amazing views ever!! |
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| The floor in the hotel room. |
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| The bathroom…with the bidet! |
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| The VIEW!! And thanks again to my boss at work for letting us borrow the company camera for ItalyĀ so we could get these awesome pics! |
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| The hotel |
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| Olive tree at the hotel. |
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| A sign in the elevator. We decided it said you couldn’t wear pants in the restaurant. Lol! |
After lunch, we strolled around Sorrento. Right in the middle of the city, in an area that wasn’t touristy at all, we saw these two murals and a sign that said “Free Entry” in English. We couldn’t figure out what it was, but we decided to venture in. It was a lemon grove!! Right in the middle of the city!! It was soooo pretty and so quiet.
We walked around for a while, hand in hand, just taking in the sights and enjoying the smell of the lemons. We were the only people there – it was very romantic. At the end of the grove was a little stand with a woman selling limoncello made from the lemons from that grove. We got to try a sample – mmmmmmmmm!! And of course we bought a couple of bottles! The grove was such an awesome unplanned surprise. One of my fav memories from our trip.
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| Chug! |
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| Just kidding – see, it’s not even opened! |
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| One of my most fav pics from the entire trip!!! |
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| Shrimp heads…gross… |
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| CuteĀ gatto at the hotel. |
Tomorrow is our full-day Amalfi Drive Tour! So excited!
10/25/2011
Arrivederci Rome!
That morning we slept in, packed up our bags, took a cold shower (hope our next hotel has better hot water and water pressure) and walked about a mile with all of our luggage to the train station. One of our bags was HUGE so I was dreading this part, but it wasnāt too bad. However, today it was hot hot HOT in Rome. Thank goodness I wore a short sleeve shirt ā I was so sweaty when we got to the train station. Ew. The station was kind of confusing, but we finally figured out where to go. We were on platform 9 and Ā¾. š Just kidding. We were on platform 10. The first class cars are nice ā way better than the plane. Iām soooo nervous about the small local train we have to take from Naples to Sorrento. Iāve read reviews about how yucky and scary it is and about pick pockets. Hopefully it wonāt be any worse than the subway in Rome. (We though we saw a pick pocket in the subway there, but it was just some guyās friend messing with him!)
One quick story I forgot to write about before ā
On our tour of the Colosseum, an older lady thought the tour guide said the ancient Romans played football there. She asked if they played it on the sand. The tour guide has said the shape of the Colosseum is like a modern day football stadium. They didnāt play football back then. Bless her heart! Lol!
And one thing Iāve learned ā
Girls: always make friends with the women in line with you for the bathroom. When you get up to the front of the line and thereās no toilet paper, theyāll be nice and let you borrow a tissue they brought with them. Already happened to me twice! Now Iāve learned to carry my own tissues. And donāt forget your euros ā it almost always cost money toĀ use the bathrooms.
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| I’m on a train! |
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| Obligatory stoic picture looking out the window. Too bad we hadn’t left the station yet! |
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| Writing on the train. (I love that cute, old Italian guy sitting behind me in this pic.) |
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| I’m so clever… |
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| Shakespeare couldn’t have put it better himself! |
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| I’m a word-play genius! |
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| Views |
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| More views |
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| Josh said, “Holly, you’re so beautiful!” |
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| So then I did this! |
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| And I guess I should include one pic of my cute hubby. š |
Today was great! Early morning tour of the Vatican (thank goodness for Skip-the-Line tours – a MUST here) and the Sistine Chapel (beautiful!).
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| The God of Wine š |
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| A random toe. |
At the Vatican, I took a picture with Diana, the goddess of fertility. I posted the pic on Facebook, tagging my mom and my mother-in-law saying, “I took this picture for you two!” Lol!
The Sistine Chapel really was amazing. My neck hurt after we were done from staring at the ceiling!Ā You couldn’t talk or take pics in the chapel – they even had 2 guards in there that kept chanting, “Noooo phoootooos” and then they’d say, “Shhhhh!” It was pretty funny.
Even though you weren’t supposed to talk in the chapel, our guide was able to point out a few things right before we left. There were 2 places on the ceiling where Michelangelo painted his likeness/face into the mural. One was in the picture of the last judgement – St. Bartholomew was holding his skin (in the bible he was skinned alive) and Michelangelo painted his face on the skin. Creepy! The other spot was in the back on a picture ofĀ a guy laying headless on a bed and two women carrying his head in a basket – that head had the face of Michelangelo.
And the BEST part of the Sistine Chapel – the DRAAAAMAAAA that happened! Again, picture us in the chapel – this beautiful, sacred place where people we just staring in awe at the beautiful murals. We were PACKED in like sardines in there – it was crazy crowded. And hard to move around. One of the older, American ladies that was with our tour, apparently got bumped by an Asian woman from another tour. Well the American lady turned around and PUSHED – like SHOVED the Asian lady, almost knocking her over!!! I still can’t believe that happened! I mean, who does that? The Asian lady just stared the American lady down. (Good for her! I might have started a fight if it had been me!) THEN the American lady turned to her husband and started complaining about the “stupid Japanese tourists.” Geez. No wonder everyone hates Americans!!
We couldn’t go to St. Peter’s because the Pope was having mass. Seriously – someone should have told him Holly and Josh were coming so he could have rescheduled!
On the way back from the tour, we got off the bus right at the Trevi Fountain and toured around a bit more on our own. We walked around the outside of the Colosseum again too. Our feet were killing us, so we took a break on some steps overlooking the Colosseum. It was fun sitting there and people watching! Josh and Holly, just sittin’ and relaxin’ in Italy. Normal day, right? Ha!
The place we choose for lunch that day was alright…def not the best meal we had. I had gnocchi with 4 cheese sauce and Josh had spaghetti with seafood. I had caffe after the meal, which was the best part – mmmm!
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| Just sitting outside a ristorante in Rome, watching people walk by on the street, drinking caffe, with the Italian Flag in the background. You know, a normal day. š |
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| This pic cracks me up! Josh took a bunch of these pics of me looking sideways – we were just trying to take an artistic picture. The lady behind me must have wondered what I kept looking at – so she looked over too! |
We had a great time in Rome, despite our dinner adventures on our last night. Off to Sorrento tomorrow!
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