Ciao, Italia

It’s hard to believe, but my month in Italy is over! Tonight is my last night, and I’m really sad to leave. I can’t believe I’m even going to write this, but I’m going to miss the food so much. Me, of all people, missing food! It’s just so fresh – the cheeses especially are really good. I’ve eaten the hell out of the country’s supply of caprese salads, and the tomatoes are always really red and fresh, and the mozzarella is practically still mooing (though it’s actually made from water buffalo in Italy, not cows). And, of course, I’ll miss the gelato the most. I’ll post my updated totals below, but it will never be enough gelato! I’ve walked my ass off this trip – I’m averaging 6+ miles a day, good god – so I’ve felt entitled to my ice cream.

It’s been a little longer than I planned between posts, but I’ve been pretty tired. All that walking and sight-seeing…I’m getting too old for this shit. I’ve had some early and long days, so I’ve just come home and zoned out with a book or streamed some TV. Anyway, I’ve spent a lovely 5 days in Sorrento, which I’ve used as a base for some day trips to the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompeii, and Naples. Sorrento itself doesn’t have any major sights other than the Mediterranean and a view of Mt. Vesuvius across the Gulf of Naples. But, it has a cute little downtown area where I have done plenty of shopping, and it’s pretty conveniently located for my purposes, so I like it. I really debated about whether I should split my time here and spend a few nights actually on the Amalfi Coast, but I think I made the right decision staying solely in Sorrento. The AC towns are super cute (more on them in a minute), but traffic is a nightmare, they’re crowded, and they’re a little more expensive than Sorrento.

Since I’m on the topic, I guess I’ll just dive in to my AC visits. I did a small group tour to the AC on Friday, my first day here, which was really nice. These can be hit or miss in terms of your fellow tourists, but we had a great group – 2 couples, a solo guy (rare!), and me, all Americans so we had a nice camaraderie for the day. And it was a long day. Thursday was a national holiday (Liberation Day), so there were a lot of Italians taking long weekends, making Friday traffic absolutely INSANE. What should have been a 9 hour tour became nearly 11, so it was a good thing we all got along because we spent A LOT of time together in the little van! I ended up going back there today using the public bus system, and it was unbelievable what a difference the lack of traffic makes. I made it back in 90 minutes – it took us almost 3 hours on Friday.

Anyway, the Amalfi Coast is comprised of a bunch of small little towns built into the mountains on the Mediterranean. It’s similar to the Cinque Terre except further south, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. The two most well-known towns are also the largest, Positano and Amalfi. My tour did those two plus Ravello, which is a little different in that it’s up in the mountains and doesn’t have any coastal access. It’s a little harder to get to, so I only visited with my tour group and not on my own today. But because of that, it doesn’t get quite as big of crowds so it’s a lot easier to enjoy than the others. The towns themselves are the “sights” so aside from checking out the local churches and visiting the little boutiques full of lemon-everything (aprons, clothes, ornaments, you name it), it’s a pretty low-key way to spend a day, especially on a day like today when the crowds are minimal. Friday’s crowds were what you would typically see in peak season of July and August. You could not pay me to come here in July or August.

Saturday, I took the ferry to the island of Capri. It’s ADORABLE. And it was also crazy crowded due to the holiday weekend, but the weather was great and I enjoyed it. The only bummer was I didn’t get to see the thing Capri’s most known for, the Blue Grotto. The sea was too choppy so they weren’t going in the cave. So disappointing! I did have a gorgeous boat tour around the island, and then I explored the two little towns on Capri. One has a chairlift to the top of a mountain, so the views were pretty amazing there, too. The sea is just SO BLUE around here, it’s incredible.

I really wanted/needed a day off from sightseeing on Sunday (I’m oldddd), so I planned a really long day trip on Monday combining a trip to Pompeii with a visit to Naples. It was tiring, but worth having the day on Sunday to relax and $hop. I got an early start to Pompeii and was there right when it opened, so I avoided some of the tour groups and just used my Rick Steves Audioguide to get an understanding of the site. It’s amazingly well-preserved due to the ash burying the city, so you get a really good sense of how advanced the Romans were. Restaurants, paved roads, brothels, palaces, all the things a thriving town of 20,000 people needed to live life in AD 79. About 2000 of those people were killed by the eruption from Mt. Vesuvius, and because the ash covered some of the bodies, their bodies left air bubbles in the ash when they decayed. Scientists were able to fill those air pockets with plaster and get castes made of some of the people and animals that died. Those really remind you when you’re visiting that this was a thriving city that came to an abrupt and catastrophic halt on August morning. After about 2 hours (and 10,000 steps!), I was on my way to Naples for the afternoon.

My great-grandmother came to the US from Naples as a 9 year old in 1913, so I was particularly interested in seeing the city. It was previously a flourishing city-state prior to Italy’s unification, but when Rome was made the capital of Italy rather than Naples, it started to fall on hard times. It hasn’t seen the economic growth that some of the other major Italian cities have, and it was held back as well by some of the organized crime popular in the area. It has a high population density, and it has a gritty, busy feel to it, so a lot of people visiting don’t tend to like it. It’s also quite popular with pickpockets. I was a bit apprehensive given its less than stellar reputation, but I really loved it. The Italy Americans think of when they think of this country is largely due to the customs and traditions of the Neapolitan region – they gave us pizza, meatballs, and O Sole Mio, just to name a few. It has really pretty architecture and really interesting graffiti, which is a unique mix. I used my trusty Rick Steves Audioguide to do a walking tour of the city and spent an enjoyable afternoon seeing the city of my ancestors.

All in all, the last month has been amazing. I’ve seen more of this country than I ever imagined I could see in my life time, and I’ve seen the pluses (food! shopping! architecture!) and the minuses (no one can line up properly to save their goddamn lives! traffic!). I’m really sad to be leaving; I thought I might be tired of Italy, but nope. I could eat good food and see historic sights and enjoy gorgeous architecture for a long time. But, that’s not how life works, so I leave tomorrow for Malta. I’m excited to see it, as it feels very exotic and different. I’ll let you know if that’s true!

Oh, and my now-standard reminder: if you are glutton for punishment and want more pics, there are a ton on Facebook. I typically put a lot of detailed captions there, and it’s too much to retype here. I still have to post yesterday’s Pompeii/Naples trip and today’s AC visit…soon. Instagram has some, too.

Gelato Update: 73 scoops
lemon – 14, mango – 1, strawberry – 2, caramel cream – 7, dark chocolate – 18, chocolate – 7, chocolate chip – 1; cherry – 6; rum – 1; cookie – 1; chocolate mousse – 1; raspberry – 10; vanilla – 1; mixed berry – 1; Oreo – 1; caramel with pecans – 1

This is not the final tally, because I’ll be getting some in the airport tomorrow. Possibly in the train station, too, before the airport if I can manage it!