Sorrento, Pompeii, and Capri

My travels this past weekend took me south to the Amalfi coast where I visited Sorrento, the ancient city of Pompeii, and the Island of Capri. The weather was atrocious for the entire weekend, but despite the weather these cities were absolutely gorgeous. In pristine weather conditions, these cities would be amazingly beautiful!

We departed Rome, on Friday morning and took a bus to Sorrento ( about 4 hours) through the countryside of Italy, until we reached the coastline. It was particularly scary driving along the coastline in such a large vehicle as you could see the ocean below the high slopes of the cliffs on which we were driving. We then explored the small windy streets of Sorrento, admiring the hand painted goods and porcelain items. We also noticed the HUGE lemons, which are one of agricultural products of the area. Some of the lemons were larger than peoples heads, an amazing sight! We of course sampled the gelato as one does in Italy and then went out for a very nice dinner. This region of Italy specializes in the Neapolitan type of pizza, (which has a thicker crust than the pizza in Rome), it was a nice change in gastronomy.

Pizza napoletana

I was not as happy as I look in this terrible weather!

giant lemons!

The next day we headed to Pompeii. It was particularly interesting walking the streets of the city as we had learned so much about Pompeii in my high school Latin class. Pompeii receives  2.5 million visitors per year, which makes it one of the most visited sites of Italy. It was also only discovered 250 years ago, so it was a lost city for 1700 years. Pompeii dates back  to 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted and froze the city in time under volcanic ash. An interesting note about Pompeii is that they actually spoke Oscan, Latin was not as common. However, Pompeii was the hub in southern Italy for money exchange when traveling to other cities in Italy.

inside the baths

Mosaic lining the floor of a wealthy home

Pompeii's version of McDonalds, but instead of french fries they would serve up different wines( some nearing 43% alcohol) and garum, a not so appetizing mixture of fermented cured intestines of small fish. 

the amphitheater of Pompeii

For the last day in the Campania region, our group traveled to Capri. Capri is an island off the coast, so it was necessary to take a short boat trip to get there. The seas were a bit rough, but we made it to Capri safely and most importantly dry. I really must visit Capri again when the weather is not as terrible as it was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. My pictures do not do the island justice. Because the weather was so terrible, we didn't have the opportunity to rent out a small boat and explore the famous blue grotto, or travel by boat to many of the lagoons around the island. We did go on a nature walk which gave us an amazing view of the coast line and the famous two rocks or in Italian,the Faraglioni. There were many shops to look at and a wonderful perfume factory with portraits of famous old movie stars who had visited the island lining the walls. The smell of lemons was also everywhere in Capri. The souvenirs all carried classic blue and yellow designs with depictions of the giant lemons of the island .