Monday, June 4, 2012

We checked out early from the hotel and made our way to the train station. We were lucky enough to find a bench to sit on as we waited for our train to be posted on the board. We have travelled first class up to now, but we were going economy today. About the only difference was we didn’t get free coffee and cookies riding economy, but we had a good breakfast so that didn’t matter.

We had a brief station stop in Rome and then continued on to Naples. Naples looked to be the most modern city we have seen up to now. There were a number of skyscrapers, but lots of less modern apartment blocks and a few stone structures that looked old.

I know trains don’t pass through the best parts of town, but it looked like Naples didn’t even try. We had a quick transfer from one train to another, and a quick descent in quality. The train we took is the local that stops at a lot of the stations on the way to Sorrento. The outside of the train was covered in graffiti and it was a mad rush to get on and get a seat. We were lucky enough to get a seat, but they weren’t together.

Sorrento appears to be a beautiful city – lots of bougainvillea cascading over the walls. We had a bit of a walk to where we were to catch the hotel shuttle, but we had time to grab a beer and half a pizza each.

We were right on time for the shuttle and we started driving up and up and up and up about as far as you can go. We have a lovely room that overlooks a lemon orchard and we can see down to the water and watch the sailboats. I’ve seen the ferry boat to Capri (at least I think that is where it is going and coming from) as well as the very to Naples. If the clouds clear we should be able to see Mount Vesuvius.

We have a lot to see in our last week so we’ll be busy planning tonight. I wish we had thought to purchase some limoncello when we were in town!

We had a lovely supper at the hotel – way too much food (all of it delicious) – and then we sat out on our balcony and watched the lights in Sorrento and across the bay.

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