The Unpolished Princess

I woke up very hungover.. as in, got sick in the middle of the night hungover.. I haven’t felt that cruddy in a long time. I was so beyond happy that we had nothing planned and we could sleep in today. Some time after noon, we finally got motivated to go find some food.

We stopped into a restaurant named “That’s Amore” and ordered a pizza. It was hot and stuffy inside, and hotter and muggier outside. Ah, when in Rome. We ate and made sure to order drinks with ice, that melted way too fast. Even the Italians were complaining that this is the hottest May they can remember, and we all know it’s only going to get hotter as the weeks pass.

We strolled through the busy roads, slowly thanks to me feeling crappy, and snapped so many pictures of this beautiful city. We just don’t have this type of ancient architecture back home, so of course we oooo and ahhh at every building with flowery vines roped across it. It’s impossible not to!

We passed the Trevi Fountain again, which was even more crowded than the first time we saw it, then headed directly towards the Pantheon. We could have signed up for a tour of it, but we both decided pictures of its outside and the piazza that it sits in would be enough for today. We strolled back towards the apartment and decided to stop at the little grocery store between the two restaurants on the ground floor.

The store was tiny but we couldn’t seem to find what we were looking for. The man behind the counter came to help us find the eggs (not refrigerated by the way), butter, cheese and bread.. plus some other snacky things. Mom asked him about the coffee maker in our apartment, seeing if he would be able to explain to her how to use it-which he did.. then he tells us that he will be working tonight until 10pm so if we can’t figure out the coffee maker or the stove, take pictures and come back down and he’d try to help us get it working. So so kind!

We put our new groceries away and then settled into the couch to watch movies. I googled how to logout of the Dutch Netflix account since I couldn’t tell what any of the words were, and then logged into my own. I also tried downloading Hulu to the TV, but it isn’t an app they “allow.” I guess no Chicago PD for us! We watched movies in the cool air conditioned paradise apartment until a little after 9pm.. it was fantastic!

We then decided to get dressed and go find somewhere to eat dinner, don’t we sound like legitimate Italians now? Ha! Originally the plan was to eat at one of the two restaurants right outside our door, but they were so busy and had no seats available. We walked up the hill towards the Spanish steps. A man in a suit told us about the rooftop restaurant right down the side street from where we were standing. He let us check out the menu and then off we went!

It was a beautiful rooftop terrace, and mom looked so beautiful in her new sunflower sundress. The food-was mediocre. I got mushroom and truffle risotto, but the rice wasn’t quite cooked to the soft smush it usually is, it still wasn’t terrible, but not nearly as good as it has been at other places. Mom got a steak and every bite she tried to take was gristle.. I thought she was exaggerating, but when I took a bite I couldn’t chew it either. She ate her sides though, and we planned on telling our waiter, but he never came back during the actual meal.

When he finally did come by, he was mortified that she didn’t like her steak and tried for awhile to talk her into something else, which she wasn’t having.. she was full from the sides and had already decided she wanted dessert from down the street. So, he took her food off the bill and apologized over and over. We did our best to make him realize we weren’t upset in any way, sometimes things just don’t turn out right, it was still an enjoyable dinner!

We took some pictures on the rooftop with the flowers and then carried on the to dessert place. We picked out some little pastries to take with us back to the room. I changed my clothes and did a very slow jog for my mile and accepted the fact that I’m 8 miles away from reaching the 50 mile goal for the month.. and only have 2 days to do it.. soooo, more than likely that’s not going to happen. And not to mention I’m now on day 1 of a new run streak.. Whatever, it is what it is.

I got showered and in my pjs and we settled in for another movie. I think we both needed this downtime. It’s felt so refreshing and relaxing to have no whee to be and nothing to do but escape the insufferable heat. Today felt more like living here than exploring here, which is a wonderful feeling.

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!