I had a hard time finding free WiFi at our last hotels in Italy and also at the airport, so these last postings were done from home.
Wednesday November 2, 2011
Today after breakfast, we took the train to Herculaneum (see photos). We had gorgeous weather and the site was fantastic as always. We saw some lovely frescoes and mosaic tiles. The nice thing about this site is that it is much smaller than Pompeii so it is “doable” in a shorter time. When we returned to Sorrento, we ate at a restaurant on the square. Everything was delicious. The “girls” are going out again at 4 to do a bit of last minute shopping. We will have our farewell dinner at 6:45 tonight. Dinner last night was very good. We had three different types of pasta and Manuela gave us the recipes for them. It should be exciting to try them at home. Tomorrow will be a travel day. We will go by bus to Rome, stopping along the way for a side trip to Monte Cassino. We will be home Friday evening.
Thursday November 3, 2011
We got on the bus after breakfast and headed toward Rome. We stopped to see the Abbey at Monte Cassino. It was heavily damaged in World War II. It was rebuilt, but the interior is done in different colored marble and not to my taste. When we arrived in Rome, our driver took us on a sightseeing hour of the city by bus. We drove by the coliseum, the forum, the Victor Emmanuel monument (nicknamed the wedding cake), the Republican garden (where Julius Caesar was killed and where many cats of Rome reside – fed by little old ladies of the neighborhood), the Baths, and the Circus Maximus. Our hotel was out of the city center and was a huge surprise. It was very modern and huge! We had a sitting room and a bedroom as well as a huge bathroom. There was a lot of color everywhere. For example, the bathroom was all red tile, the dresser was bright yellow and there was a Jackson Pollack poster on the wall. John, Lana, and Kelly took a taxi to Trevi Fountain before our final dinner. They each tossed a coin to ensure a return trip to Rome.
Friday November 4, 2011
We got up early this morning and had a quick breakfast before our taxi ride to the airport. We spent our last few Euros on bottled water for the flight. We were a little late getting off the ground, but the pilot made up for it in flight. I sat next to a man who was in Naval Aeronautics. He had just spent the last month in Sicily at a NATO base there and was on his way home to Virginia Beach. The man next to him was an Albanian Orthodox priest who was moving his whole family to Boston to a church there. At one point, I was standing near the restroom and noticed a section of the plane that was curtained off – it was the cabin crew resting. A woman came up the aisle and tripped on something and fell into the curtain and onto a couple of the crew. She was very embarrassed and we had a good laugh, as it was so unexpected! We arrived in Boston, went through passport control and customs and then caught the bus to Providence (fortunately, Susanne spotted it – otherwise we could have had a long wait). The bad thing was that we were in Friday night rush hour traffic so it took a lot longer than usual to get to Providence. It was nice to get home and we look forward to seeing everyone soon.
Thoughts about the trip: Pinocchio everywhere, umbrella pines, cedar trees, garlic, olive oil, red wine, homemade fresh pasta, smoke in Sorrento from the burning of olive branches that had been pruned, motor scooters, Smart cars, fresh mozzarella, huge lemons and tomatoes, giant Nutella, piccolo mini, Andiamo y'all. We had a nice time . . . I wonder where we will go next?
