Italy | Travel | Uncategorized | vacation

Viva Italia – Day 6 and Day 7 – Amalfi Coast and Pompeii

By on February 4, 2012

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 – 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 “fortnight” – it was awesome!)

 

Madonna holding her child

 

Fresh squeeze Amalfi orange juice – yum yum yum!!

 

 

 

 

It took all my will power not to stand next to this and mimic the statue in the middle at the bottom. Lol!

 

Do you see me?

 

Look at the size of those meringues!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Toms! I wore these the entire trip – so comfy!

 

 

 

Mmmmm

 

The Sleeping Giant – do you see him?
By the end of the tour, we were pretty miserable – cold, wet, tired, and sad that it rained and the tour was cut short. 🙁 When we got back to the hotel we changed and warmed up and then realized the next tram back down to the town wasn’t until 8:45! (A cleaver ploy to get you to eat dinner at their hotel restaurant.) Since we didn’t want to spend that much money again, we decided to order room service and stay in. And what a great idea that was! Josh had a hamburger – it was actually really tasty! I had a sandwich and we shared some fries. It was filling and one of the most affordable meals we had. AND we didn’t have to go back out in the rain. We also shared some of the limoncello we’d bough. A nice night in!
“Room service! You want me fluff your pillow?” Name that movie!

10/27/2011

Morning in Sorrento!

The next morning we traveled to Pompeii. This time on the local train, there was an ENTIRE band playing and begging for money – complete with an accordion player!

We didn’t 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. I’ve 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!

 

 

Peek-a-boo!

 

 

 

 

Creepy!

 

Who knew they had a vineyard in Pompeii?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate lunch at a place near Pompeii – Josh had pasta carbonara and I had a grilled sandwich with prosciutto, mozzarella and tomato. I also go a cappuccino – very tasty!

 

 

Goofy face, but the sandwich looks awesome. Mmm!

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tried to have dinner at a place recommended by the hotel, but we couldn’t find it! So we ended up at a fancy place with an Italian guitar player walking around. We didn’t get any wine (too expensive) but the guy singing and playing the guitar was fun. Josh even tipped him and asked him if he’d take a picture with me. I was sooooooooo embarrassed!

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!

 

 

I look so awkward….

 

The bus back to the hotel didn’t pick up until 11pm, so we walked and walked and walked. We stopped and bought a bottle of wine to drink in the hotel, but we realized we didn’t have a corkscrew! The wine was 3 euros and the only corkscrew we could find to buy was 4 euros…so we passed and didn’t end up drinking wine that night. We made one more stop at a crepe place and split a nutella crepe – mmm! That night, we didn’t get to bed until midnight, even though we had to get up at 6am the next morning for our wine tour in Tuscany.

A 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 – yikes! The huge tour bus we were on during the Amalfi drive had to back up ¼ of a mile at one point because a delivery truck was driving up the road. At least he was a safe driver – 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 – the waiters didn’t 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 – 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!

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fun | Italy | Travel | Uncategorized | vacation

Viva Italia – Day 5 Continued – Sorrento

By on January 17, 2012

 

10/25/2011

Y’all…Sorrento is probably one of the most beautiful places we’ve 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 wasn’t 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 – over an hour. Josh and I weren’t 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 – 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 it’s real. Then, they’ll pretend to trip and throw the doll at you and pick your pocket or steal your purse while you’re freaking out about them dropping the baby. But this was a real baby. And the girl didn’t 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, “English?” to see if the girl working there spoke English. Turns out she’s from Florida! I asked her how far the hotel was – 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!

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!!

 

The floor in the hotel room.

 

The bathroom…with the bidet!

 

The VIEW!! And thanks again to my boss at work for letting us borrow the company camera for Italy so we could get these awesome pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hotel

 

Olive tree at the hotel.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

After walking around for a while, we caught the shuttle back up to the hotel and took a much needed nap. When we woke up, we didn’t feel like taking the shuttle again, so we decided to eat dinner at the hotel…bad idea. It was the worst meal yet. It was 25 euros per person too. Our 1st course was pasta – which was pretty good. Then Josh had seafood (fish with too many bones) and I had lamb – which was SO tough and overcooked. And they only gave me a butter knife to eat it with! So that was disappointing…

 

Chug!

 

Just kidding – see, it’s not even opened!

 

 

One of my most fav pics from the entire trip!!!

 

 

 

Shrimp heads…gross…

 

Cute gatto at the hotel.

 

 

Tomorrow is our full-day Amalfi Drive Tour! So excited!

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fun | Italy | Travel | Uncategorized | vacation

Viva Italia – Day 5 – Sorrento

By on January 16, 2012

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 wasn’t too bad. However, today it was hot hot HOT in Rome. Thank goodness I wore a short sleeve shirt – 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 ¾. 😉 Just kidding. We were on platform 10. The first class cars are nice – way better than the plane. I’m soooo nervous about the small local train we have to take from Naples to Sorrento. I’ve read reviews about how yucky and scary it is and about pick pockets. Hopefully it won’t be any worse than the subway in Rome. (We though we saw a pick pocket in the subway there, but it was just some guy’s friend messing with him!)

One quick story I forgot to write about before –
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 didn’t play football back then. Bless her heart! Lol!

And one thing I’ve learned –
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 there’s no toilet paper, they’ll be nice and let you borrow a tissue they brought with them. Already happened to me twice! Now I’ve learned to carry my own tissues. And don’t forget your euros – it almost always cost money to use the bathrooms.

I’m on a train!

 

Obligatory stoic picture looking out the window. Too bad we hadn’t left the station yet!

 

Writing on the train.
(I love that cute, old Italian guy sitting behind me in this pic.)
I’m so clever…
Shakespeare couldn’t have put it better himself!

 

I’m a word-play genius!

 

Views

 

More views

 

Josh said, “Holly, you’re so beautiful!”

 

So then I did this!

 

And I guess I should include one pic of my cute hubby. 🙂

 

 

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food | fun | Italy | Travel | Uncategorized | vacation

Viva Italia – Day 4 – Rome

By on December 28, 2011

Today was great! Early morning tour of the Vatican (thank goodness for Skip-the-Line tours – a MUST here) and the Sistine Chapel (beautiful!).

 

 

 

The God of Wine 🙂

 

 

 

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! 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 of 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!

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. 🙂

 

 

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!

 

 

 

 

For dinner, we tried to go somewhere new, but after sitting at a table for 20 minutes we figured maybe the waiter didn’t want to serve us because we were American? We left and went to the same restaurant we went to the first night – yum! At the restaurant, the waiter (which was the same guy we had the 1st time) told us we ordered wine the wrong way (the American way). He said Americans order wine before they order the food. The Italian way is to order food and then pair the wine with what you’ve ordered to eat. We figured he was just trying to talk us into buying a more expensive wine. But he was really nice and fun to talk to, so we let him suggest something. I can’t remember what it was, but it was delish! I had steak with rosemary oil and Josh had some type of pasta…can’t remember more than that.

We had a great time in Rome, despite our dinner adventures on our last night. Off to Sorrento tomorrow!

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