Mediterranean Day Seven

Day 7 – Naples

This morning started like yesterday – at 8:30 AM in Animator’s Palate. We went down – with ABD we always get to go to the front of the line and we were first down to the dock. We got on two little buses which at the time seemed odd however the reason why soon became apparent. The tour took us by Pompeii and Herculaneum and we can see Mt. Vesuvius from our ship but our travels today took us to the lovely area of Sorrento.

Apparently road laws are mere suggestions and everybody drives where they can find room. Which is often on our side of the road. They park all over the place and walk all over the place and scooter all over the place. It’s a HUGE mess and I was SO glad I did not have to pilot a car down these winding, miniscule streets. Our guide told us that the roads were simply paved horse or chariot paths and I believe him.

The other thing is that Sorrento is on limestone and volcanic rock. This makes for some spectacular scenery BUT it is all extremely steep and there is no room for the inhabitants of this area to expand so most of the people drive little tiny cars – one of the girls on the bus called them Mr. Bean cars – and so they are.

So we wound around and around some spectacular scenery and made our way to Agriturismo La Galatea Farm. There they showed us how to make mozzarella, pizza, olives, olive oil, salami, and preserves from the citrus fruit they grow there. Sorrento is known for its lemons, olives and olive oil. So we had a tour of the farm which has cows, calves, goats, kids (baby goats not children), Italian chickens, peacocks, pigs and everything is FILTHY. But then we went back in and made our own Margharita pizza which is pizza dough, tomato or tomate sauce, mozzarella cheese and basil. Which are also the colors of the Italian flag.

After lunch we got back on our coach, covered our eyes and silent screamed down to the bay. (Not really but the driving is really horrifying!) So we made it down to the Bay of Naples and you cannot take a private bus into the town of Sorrento so we waited and waited for the city bus to come and finally one showed up and we crammed 41 people into a little tiny bus. The bus driver told me that if we were seen by the politzia we would be in a lot of trouble. But we had to catch a ferry and they were supposed to have two buses and only one showed up so we had no choice.

Then we rode a hydrofoil over to the Island of Capri. There we got onto a private boat and roared around the island looking for a place for some foolish members of our group to swim. Some of the scenery was MAGNIFICENT. There was one formation which looked just like a turtle made out of rock. And there was a cave called Tiberius’s Lips and they say that he would have his enemies taken up and flung out onto the rocks below. That would have to hurt.

So after we boated around and hopefully got some good pictures – there was a lot of chop and the water was really cold – some hearty souls went swimming and we went back to the town of Capri where we had some gelato which was really REALLY yummy. So we then had some time to shop around and I went to a shoe store where when the shoes that I liked were not available in my size they literally made me a pair of sandals right in front of my very eyes – so now I have custom sandals from Italy. It says Moda Capri right on the shoes.

Tonight the towel animal is a snake and Tom and I are going straight to bed because tomorrow is (bum, bum, bum) the Rome Death March. On a related note I’m getting sunburned despite copious amounts of sunscreen. And on a second side note – public bathrooms in the areas we have gone so far are disgusting.