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We were up, packed, and gone by 10 am.. lugging our suitcases through the metro, 2 stops to get to the main train station. We caught our 11am train to Naples without any issues at all. In Naples, we had to go down to a different area of trains to catch our regional train to Sorrento. The vibe was much different from upstairs, literally like night and day. We went from nice looking high speed trains to graffiti covered trains with the windows all open.. meaning no air conditioning.

We grabbed a snack and sat on the bench waiting for our train to come. There were a couple sketchy looking characters walking around, but no one seemed to pay any attention to us so I wasn’t concerned. And then all that changed. I got up to throw our trash away and when I did the man sitting on the other side of Mom, with a gap big enough for someone else to sit between them, was taking pictures of her.. like nonchalantly.. as I realized what he was going he was zooming in on her Fanny pack..

So, naturally, I start yelling at him.. “WTF are you taking pictures of her for?!” “Hey! WTF are you doing? Why are you taking pictures of her?!” Once I startled him, he hopped up and ran off back towards the exit of the platform.. a second later our train arrived and mom was asking what that was all about.. so as we get on our hot train with no seats, I’m telling her what he was doing and that we need to keep our eyes peeled because I think he was targeting her.

We’re standing at one of the doors, our stuff sandwiched together against the wall, my hand on my purse, when a man on the other side of the train car, at the other entrance starts screaming. “Get out of here you F*ckin thief!” And I think there’s about to be an altercation because the man doesn’t stop yelling and starts to chase the other guy down towards us.. other people start yelling “thief” and “get off the train!” at the man doing the running.

He stops for a second in front of mom, and I’m preparing myself.. because if he gets near her I’m planning to just shove my entire body weight into him before he can touch her, I’m already on high alert and a little jittery from my first altercation only a minute or so ago.. and then he darts left off the train. Everyone is kind of shifting around, moving their stuff, checking their purses and pockets for phones and wallets, all while eyeing everyone around them like their neighbor is about to attempt an attack.

We stick mom’s fanny pack in my zipper bag and end up having to stand the whole way to Sorrento.. which takes over an hour and a half. As people get on and off the train I see mom visibly tense up. Ugh, this is not how I want her to spend her day! Very frustrating, yes, but we also got pretty lucky. I think the man taking the pictures was sending them to the man trying to pickpocket on the train.. if I hadn’t yelled and caused a scene, and then the other man yell and cause a scene, too, who’s to say the man on the train wouldn’t have accidentally fallen into mom, unhooked her fannypack with her money, passport, and most importantly, her inhalers, and slipped off the train before we could stop him?

Anyway, overall, crisis averted. We left the train station with our stuff and headed down the flowery sidewalks of downtown Sorrento. Our keys to our apartment were at the sister hotel for the apartment complex.. on the opposite side of the city. With the sidewalks being tiny and cobblestones, we decided to have mom sit at a cafe and have a drink (coke, I’m sure) with our luggage, while I walked the half mile to the hotel to get our keys.

It was a gorgeous but very hot walk to the hotel, and once I got there I was quite happy we decided to do it the way we did.. and not for both of us to lug our stuff down here. I don’t think the wheels on my suitcase would have made it! The lady gave me the keys, told me we had access to the amenities of this hotel-the pool and the gym-it’s a 30 minute walk from our apartment back to here.

When I got back to mom, I could tell she was still on edge from earlier. She said she was worried about how long it was taking me, although I was actually pretty quick for having passports copied, maps looked at, pools shown to.. haha sheesh. I sat down and had a drink myself, not a coke, and once we paid we hailed a cab to take us to our apartment down on Marina Grande.

Sorrento is built into the cliff-sides, and on top of the hills, so everywhere you walk is up and down cobblestone steps. Our apartment is at the top of the steps at the marina, and we had the only one with a balcony terrace opening up to see the entire bay of the marina! It is so beautiful! I could literally look out from there all day long! These views were quickly turning Sorrento into my favorite location so far.

Once we were cooled off some, we went out exploring the marina, snapping 92737393 pictures, naturally. There were several restaurants along the water, so we picked one to eat an early (for Italians anyway) dinner. I got the homemade ravioli stuffed with the days fresh catch of crab and prawns (shrimp), in a homemade prawn sauce. This is by far my FAVORITE meal so far on this trip. Like, it takes the cake, number one, no one can beat it ever.. just WOW. Each and every single bite was mindblowingly phenomenal.

Mom got their homemade gnocchi, and liked it, too. She refused to try mine-which I was actually ok with because it was too good to share anyway. After we finished eating, we walked back up the steep steps and passed our apartment to go to the other side of the area, the main downtown.. we watched the sunset from a gorgeous view point, on top of the sheer cliff wall with nothing but the sea in front of us. Mesmerizing.

When we got back to the room, I decided I would walk to the gym at the other hotel and get my 4 miles in today, which would give me the 50 for the month! I changed and headed out into the hoards of people just coming out for dinner. It was packed. When I got to the area where I knew the hotel was close and the road was decently flat (compared to all the cliffs and hills back the other way), I tried to jog to the hotel to get some of my mileage not on a treadmill. It was useless. Within a quarter mile I hardly stayed on the sidewalk because of all the people, I sideswiped a tree with my arm and a man’s leg with my own leg.. yikes.

So, after logging a whopping 0.45 miles, I saved the rest for the treadmill. It was more of a locals gym connected to the hotel. There was a kickboxing class going on and some young men lifting weights and “bro-ing” out. I used one of the 3 treadmills and prayed it didn’t take forever to get my mileage. Because of being in Italy, the treadmill was in kilometers, so I figured if I did 5k that’s 3.1 miles, plus the 0.45 miles I ran here.. I just went to 6k to make sure I got it all either way. Shockingly, my watch seemed pretty darn accurate though. That made me happy.

I slowly walked back and showered once I made it home.. then settled into bed. In the morning we have a day trip planned to the Almafi coast by boat, so we have to meet at the hotel up the hill some from the top of our stairs. Man, I hope it’s as gorgeous as it looks online! I’m already so excited!

Neither one of us slept very well in our new apartment, although we aren’t quite sure why. The air conditioning gets cold, the comforters are cozy, but even still-we both slept bad. It could have also been that we knew we had to be up and at the hotel up the hill by 9am.

Mom made me some cheese toast in the toaster oven for breakfast and she had her coffee. She had also gotten some energy drinks from the grocery store she went to last night while I was gone to the gym. Praise her! Just the pep I need! (I know, I’ve got to quit drinking them, they are so bad for me.. I just can’t drink hot coffee while it’s 9000 degrees outside).

We headed up the hill and waited for our ride. One man came to see if we were his passengers, I showed him the info I was given, and he laughed a little and said, “no no, your driver will be here in a bit, I’m picking up 8:45.. we Italians are never really on time..” hahaha

When our guy did get there, only a couple minutes later, he seemed so frazzled about the traffic. He said tourist season has started early this year, but like, it’s June now.. sooo. Hmmm. Anyway, he drove to another spot to pick more people up, but they weren’t there yet, so while we waited, mom went into a tourist store and found out that we can take a shuttle bus to the Naples airport when we leave. She got all the details and the little booklet. Awesome! No sketchy train while lugging around everything we own!

Our new people never showed, so our driver got the ok from the tour company to leave without them. Then he was weaving and breaking and skirting through the tiny one lane streets that make up the roadways between cities on this coast. He was telling us how much it frustrates him that people that live in this area won’t just drive a scooter with all this traffic when they’re driving alone.. he would point out cars of solo people and say, “you see! Look at him, clogging up our roads!”

He even told us of a story where in bumper to bumper traffic he got out and went to ask someone why they chose to drive a car and not a scooter or bike.. wow, I pray he never does that in the United States.. not sure what it says about our country, but I don’t think many sane people get out of their vehicles to approach someone else’s without a slight fear for their life. It was pretty hysterical listening to his story while he’s driving like a lunatic, though.

We got to the bigger marina (not the one we’re currently staying at, that would be WAY too convenient), and they must have been waiting on us.. the second we walked down the stairs they were escorting us to our boat. Mom and I got lucky enough to get to sit at the very front of the boat with an Italian couple here from London, celebrating their 3rd wedding anniversary.
The boat ride alone was incredible. Being up front meant we could see absolutely everything! And it felt a little like a roller coaster at times, going over the waves with the sudden drop. I was like a little kid at Disney, having the BEST time.

Our captain stopped at a little outcropping of a round island, protected from the wind, and let us swim! The island is privately owned, has 2 villas and a little chapel on it, and the owner allows tour boat guests swim in the middle where the water is calm (and crystal clear blue).. before he owned the island, tour boats weren’t even allowed to pass through. Of course I swam. The second the Italian couple stood up and started taking off their coverups and t shirts, I did the same and followed right behind them. At first, we were the only 3 in the water! Slowly, others started to join.

It was so much warmer than in Greece and Northern Italy, but it had also been over a week since being at any of those places, so maybe they’ve warmed up some now too.. plus we’re a bit farther south. We swam, laughed and mingled.. all having the best time bobbing around, floating without any effort. When it was time to come back on the boat it was mixed emotions, I could have stayed right here all day long, but I knew better things were to come!

A short boat ride later, we were being let out in Amalfi. We were told to be back in an hour and a half.. and.. that was it! No lectures, no repeating 4 times and not moving-we were set free to explore and do as we chose! Wow! What a concept! Ha! We walked around, picked up 2 beach towels to have for our beach day in Sorrento.. our apartment only has the white bath towels and we were afraid we’d ruin them. Plus, now it’s a souvenir!

We took pictures and walked through the busy streets filled with tourists like us. We got drinks at a cute little restaurant on the water with great views, and later got ice cream to eat while sitting near the pier so we wouldn’t miss our boat. Back on board, I had a beer and enjoyed every second of being at the front of the boat, laughing every time the waves made my stomach drop.

Maybe 30 ish minutes later, we arrived in Positano, another gorgeous little city built into the sides of the cliffs, known for their tiny streets and many many steps. I knew I wanted to visit these cities by boat because everywhere online has people complaining about the winding roads and traffic jams and all the stairs to get down to the beach front-this has been perfect!

We walk around and shop some. I find a man painting with watercolors and pen, and of course have to have one. I picked one he made with an orange Vespa in the foreground, and then he showed it to me-it’s actually his Vespa! Lol he was super cute and wrote out a “dedication” to me on the back of the artwork. He put it in a cardboard roll for me to travel with and we carried on..

Then I found a man making sandals (Positano and the Amalfi Coast in general is known for handmade shoes), and I picked out a style and let him make them for me. He measured my feet (which I felt bad for the poor guy.. yikes) and went to work. Within 20 minutes, I had a perfect pair of brown leather sandals! I tried to get mom to get some too, as she has the worst luck with shoes fitting correctly, but she swore there were none she liked.

I loved this little city, we walked and wandered all the way up until it was time to leave.. and I almost didn’t want to. Knowing more swimming was in store ended up being good motivation though. Before no time at all, I was back in the water, continuing to love every second! Mom wouldn’t get in, no matter how much anyone tried to get her to. Our captain threw us pool noodles, so we swam, floated, played, and laughed a whole lot. It was a blast! We all made a pact to not make eye contact with the captain so he couldn’t make us get out.. and it worked! For maybe an extra 5-10 minutes of swimming.. lol

When we got back to the marina we had to wait for a driver. It was quite a long wait, and the waitress at the cafe we were told to wait at told us the bathrooms were closed. So, we ended up getting pretty irritated after 30 minutes of sitting and needing to pee. Around 40 minutes of uncomfortable sitting and waiting, mom asked the man with the tour group if he had an ETA because we needed to use a restroom. He seemed mortified after finding out the bathrooms were closed, went to look and then showed us where to go.. the lady had lied I guess. How rude.

Once those issues were taken care of, we were much more content to sit and wait. Our driver finally appeared.. he had been stuck behind an accident on the tiny road to get to and from downtown Sorrento. Before we knew it, we were being dropped off and walking to our little apartment! We showered and got dressed, and went in search of a dinner place.

There were several places I had read about online, the famous restaurant where you sit under the lemon trees called O’Parrucchiano La Favorita, and then a restaurant known for very good food in the heart of the city, called Donna Sofia. We didn’t make reservations, but set out for the second one since it was a closer walk. Sadly, they were fully booked for today and the next day too. We made our reservation for Friday night.

Knowing this one was full, we assumed the lemon tree one would be too. We just walked down little alley ways until we found something. We haven’t had bad food yet, so we weren’t really concerned.
We get to this place that seats us immediately. But then they don’t really come back for awhile, we watch as people get their food, from an older lady, maybe in her 70s.. that’s a good sign, it’s a family business! The other waitress looks very overwhelmed, a table of 11 sat down right as we did. We get our drinks, and when mom asked the older lady about the lasagna, just making sure it was available, because we didn’t see it on the menu, she just took our whole order. Okie dokie.

As we’re waiting for our main course, they bring a basket of bread and olive oil.. and then witness the group of 11 get up and leave-they never even got to give their drink order yet.. and then 3-4 other tables end up leaving too, all before we get our food. We’re starting to get concerned. The couple at the table nearest us has pizza, and it looks fantastic.. eh, whatever, we can wait.

I get my fettuccine bolognese and mom gets her lasagna. I don’t say anything, but my noodles are gross and the sauce tastes a little like ketchup.. I pick and eat what I can, until mom makes me laugh so hard I cry.. her lasagna had green peas and a hard boiled egg fall out of one of the layers. Regardless if that’s how it’s done here or not, her face was priceless! I’m laughing again as I type this.. oh my god. Anyway, her noodles were too hard to chew, I tried, and mine were just.. bad. We ended up not eating much of anything.

We still paid the bill, without complaint, after watching these ladies run around and have patron after patron leave unexpectedly. It’s funny to me that I had the best meal of my life yesterday and the worst of my life today (and trust me, after hiking the AT, I ate some shitty food) all in the same city.. ha, all you really can do is laugh, and know you won’t ever try this place again.

We left and were even too grossed out to try to revive our evening with something else, somewhere else. We were also just tired from the long day of boat riding, exploring, and sunshine. So we walked home, relaxed on the couch, and then tore the furniture apart to make sure we could sleep a little better tonight. Goodnight!

We were up and out early today for our trip to Pompeii. Mom made me egg and cheese sandwiches (I could totally make it myself, she just loves me too much to let me!), which I scarfed down quickly before we set off walking to the train station. We had to catch the train to Pompeii and meet our tour guide outside of the entrance gates.

Everything went smoothly, no uncomfortable encounters, and we got to have seats.. all pluses. At first I was irritated with myself for making us take the early 8:45 train, but then we had a few delays making our arrival time closer to the meeting time than we would have liked. If we had chosen the later train, we would have gotten there about 10-15 minutes late. Yay for OCD I guess. Lol.. while we had about 15 minutes to kill after we checked in with our guide, Chiara, we used the restroom and got slushees from the cafe across the street. It was already in the 80s with no cloud coverage. Today is going to be HOT.

Chiara took us through the ancient Pompeii ruins, explaining this and that about the area. The city was right on the ocean when it was created, and it was a harbor city. The city itself was spread out over 93 acres of land, all surrounded by mountains, which made for a natural border wall for protection.. they just didn’t know that the one mountain was actually a deadly volcano.. until they did..

She took us through the Roman bathhouses and brothel, which showed painted pictures of the sexual acts you could pay for, along with Roman numerals. She said this is because the general public was uneducated, couldn’t read or write mostly, and with it being a harbor town, many people from many different areas with different languages or dialects came through.. and men of all areas usually always want the same thing-sex-so they painted the scenes to make it easier to “order.”

Also, the prostitutes didn’t have the same stigma as they typically do now-considered poor and just trying to get by and whatnot.. these women were the most beautiful of the beautiful, chosen to be in this profession because of that, and they were paid and able to keep their earnings. They would go out into the town wearing their stunning jewelry and get the attention of new and returning clients. Chiara also pointed out that there were male prostitutes at that time, too. Also depicted in the paintings.

From the brothel and bath houses we walked up the huge hill to the main square with its huge pillars. It’s incredible that so much survived. When archeologists discovered Pompeii, they rebuilt the structures based off of the stones and bricks in the areas surrounding the few parts that didn’t collapse after the eruption. They started rebuilding in the 1700s, so even the rebuilt parts are ancient to me. It was quite fascinating.
We walked the original streets past shops and houses, a bakery and the first ever “fast food” joint.. the made clay pots that sat on counters with areas for heat to come through, so the food could all be cooked in the morning, put in the pots, and kept hot all day as patrons came and paid for their meal. Pretty dang neat.

We saw the home of the emperor, or who was thought to be the emperor based on the size and the different colored marbles found inside.. the mosaics on the floors are jaw dropping today, in their partially reconstructed state, I can’t imagine how it must have looked back then.

As we walked through, hiding in the shadows from the sun, Chiara told us of the story of Mount Vesuvius erupting, and how just as of 2 years ago, archeologists found proof that it erupted in October and not in august as previously thought.. anyway, the volcano doesn’t have an opening at the top where you can see lava moving and for the gases to escape. This makes Mount Vesuvius a very dangerous volcano because they can’t predict where the molten mud will spew when it erupts again. Plus, the mud moves faster than regular lava, and the initial eruption causes the debris to fly out and is deadly in its own right.

So all those years ago, it erupted and demolished the city of Pompeii (along with others in the area), and for days ash rained down. With the initial explosion, rock and debris flying though the air at top speeds was enough to kill people immediately. When the inhabitants saw this happening, most retreated into their homes to hide. Then, the weight of the ash over the next few days made the rooftops collapse.

Archeologists found ash casts of the people.. the ash hardened around the bodies over the centuries, and the actual human remains decomposed inside.. so they carefully made molds with the ash casts to see what the people looked like and to learn what their last moments were like. The people that were able to escape death came back days later to attempt to locate their homes and treasures left behind, but when they dug into the ash, it let the gases escape that suffocated them quickly. The others that saw this happen retreated back to safety and told the people in the new towns they settled in that the area was cursed by witches. This is why Pompeii wasn’t built on top of or scavenged for treasures after the gases escaped.. the people of the area thought it to be cursed-unlike the surrounding cities where people just rebuilt on top of the ash. Cities on top of unknown buried cities. Which, this is also why so much of Pompeii was able to be preserved and reconstructed, it had been vastly untouched from the eruption in 79AD until the 1700s when artifacts were found and the archeologists fought to save it.

At the end of this tour, Chiara sent us off with our next guide, Sofia, who drove mom and I plus a couple from Norway to a winery. Their names are Thomas and Helena.. they are in their early twenties and quiet, but we enjoyed their company all the same. We had lunch at the winery and got to sample 5 different wines with plenty of refills of each. Mom shared her fresh glasses with them as well as me, so I wouldn’t be “forced” to drink so much 😉 They loved it as much as I do!

After lunch, we went to the stables to ride horses! The winery and stables are on Mount Vesuvius, so the ground is more like loose ash compared to regular dirt. It was gorgeous! Sofia and her people put us on the horses (mine was named Mary, mom’s was named Beauty), and we followed Sofia in line around the winery grounds for an hour and a half.. up and down the rows of grape vines and down little paths between the fields and the villas on massive property. I had so much fun! Mary kept trying to eat the vine leaves. I learned how to steer her away, but at the same time, I was like, I get it girl.. I’d wanna snack if I had to lug me around too.. hahaha

After our tour was over, Sofia dropped us off at the train station. We rode back to Sorrento and walked to the apartment to get showered and ready for dinner. We were both so exhausted that mom called and ordered a pizza instead of attempting to walk around without reservations again. I was quite happy about not having to actually get dressed to go out. I ran an awkward mile through the apartment and a very slow pace, and then got in my jammies.

We attempted to watch TV, but none of the channels had anything other than the news on, so we ended up just eating our food and going to bed early. I’m quite happy about laying down, honestly. Tomorrow is another early morning, a boat ride to explore the island of Capri, plus our dinner reservations at Donna Sofia (so funny that this was our guide’s name today lol). So, off to sleep I go. Morning is going to come early.