Mar 9, 2011 - Sorrento

Today was definitely an adventure with a capital A!!! I started the day in Rome. After a quick breakfast (I booked all hotels with free breakfast by the way) I hit the road. I could NOT find my way back to the highway. After about an hr of driving in circles I found it. The drive to Napoli was beautiful. I stopped for my daily rest stop cappuccino and also bought a naples map before getting to the city. That helped alot! I still got lost of course but only for an hr instead of the usual 4. My hotel is on the 5th floor of a huge apartment...

Oct 25, 2010 - Sorrento, Italy

Monday, October 25, 2010. The weather started out doubtful but then cleared up pretty well. We took the hotel shuttle down to the town and began strolling the narrow streets and alleys never knowing when a motorbike would take a corner and try to run us down. They really are competent but to us appear to be reckless. Eventually we worked our way to the waterfront never knowing at any moment where we were but figuring if we keep going down we must be going to the water. We spent the next few hours watching the activity there and stopped for...

Oct 23, 2010 - Sorrento, Italy

Sunday, October 24, 2010. Drove 300 miles to Sorrento, Italy where we are staying at the Il Nido Hotel and Restaurante high above the Bay of Sorrento. Driving past Naples we had a torrential downpour and thought about pulling over but didn’t. When we arrived at our hotel the sun was shining and we were treated to a view of Mt. Vesuvius directly across the bay. Our bay view rooms have small balconies overlooking the bay and last night as we were sitting out we had conversations with an Aussie couple to the left and two brothers from...

Sep 23, 2010 - Birthdays In Italy Are Fun

Today was our last port on the cruise. We stopped in Salerno and took a private tour of the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. We started out the day really early which was good because it allowed us to stay very far ahead of the crowds. Our first stop was Pompeii where we got a private guide. The guide was a great addition because he really brought the pace to life. It was amazing to see all ruins still in pretty decent condition considering that the city was built over 2,000 years ago and completely covered in ash. We got there so early that we...

Sep 10, 2010 - Amalfi Cost: Day 1

Thursday night at 10:30 pm we left Rome on a double decker bus to head to the Amalfi Cost with a ton of other students. I ended up sitting next to a really nice girl from Rome who is an astronomy major (with a best friend in bio who loves plants!). I tried to sleep during the 4 hour drive but didn't really succeed. When I "woke up" I looked out the window and even in the dark I was blown away by the scenery! I could see the outline of roling hills and street/porch lights scattered across the landscape, Steep cliffs ending in sparkling...

Aug 4, 2010 - Sorrento, Italy

A few years ago I went on a tour of Italy from Venice down to Sorrento over the course of 2 weeks and it was amazing. I wanted to head back to Italy on this trip to visit some of the places I didn't make it to the first time. Places like Milan & Cinque Terra in the north and maybe towns on the westcoast or even down south like Sicily. Since everything I was doing at this point was based last minute and spontaneous it was difficult to find make it to some of these places economically. But I did find cheap airfare and hotel from...

Jul 30, 2010 - Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento

Today is a day that I have been looking forward to for many months. We're on our way to see the historical ruins of the town of Pompeii. I've always been curious as to what Pompeii suffered through during the volcanic eruption, and my appetite was sated when I saw the Pompeii exhibit at the Melbourne museum last year. Put simply, going to Pompeii was a non negotiable part of me going to Europe, and finally that day arrived. It was an early start. The pick up at the hotel was supposed to be 6.15am, according to the tour company (we popped in...

Jul 15, 2010 - Sorrento

First off, we are still alive. we have just been busy :P Secondly, Sorrento was incredible, although we didn't stay in the town itself, we stayed in a place just outside of it, lovely little place though very relaxed atmosphere. Its about an hour outside of Napoli by train on the coast to give you some idea of location. Whilst we were there we managed to see the capri islands on our first full day and spent most of the day there although it was a late start. The island was beautiful, and the beaches great with warm water although rocks...

Jun 2, 2010 - Sorrento

Leaving Rome we took a very comfortable train ride to Naples (about two hours) where we transfered to another train company to take us to Sorrento. This train was decidedly uncomfortable with plastic seats and packed, with many people including us, having to stand much of the way and since there are about 20 odd stations between Naples and Sorrento it was unpleasent. Sorrento when we arrived was a breath of fresh air as it is a delightful town that is big enough to explore but not like a city. On the first day we spent the time exploring...

May 12, 2010 - Sorrento - Italy

Bonjourno Italy - good morning Bari. We awake with a banging of the door saying "&%)$&#($)_#(&@)@_ BARI" - we figure this means, we have docked in Italy. Since upgrading to our exclusive dogbox, we apparently get breakfast included now - so we make our way from the Bronx of the boat, upstairs to the breakfast bar - our first taste of a good ol Italian brekky spread. OJ & coffee with crusty bread, cheese slices and ham & salami. It is another hour or so before we disembark - and we join the line of hundreds of others at 'immigration'. We...

Apr 25, 2010 - Day 12 - Sorrento

Headed off to Sorrento today, but took the Autostrade rather than the coast road again. A real tourist town, Sorrento is full of cobblestone lanes, quaint little shops and lemons. Lemons are everywhere - literally every spare square inch of ground has a lemon tree on it, they sell lemons in roadside stalls, paint lemon designs on all their touristy terracotta tiles and they ruin the fruit by turning it into the ghastly local liquor Limoncello. Having said that, we did actually buy some to foist onto unsuspecting relatives on our return to...

Apr 19, 2010 - Ciao from Sorrento

Hello everyone, We are in Sorrento. And it is beautiful. I have switched to the other side. Enough of showering with flip flops on, enought of enough of doing my laundry in the sink. I now have a bathtub to do ALL my laundry at the same time in the tub. Michelle loves the bidet. We tried to get the air conditioning working for 30 minutes, until we called the front desk and found out Italy does not use air. Mom is afraid to leave the sliding door open. she does not want bugs, so we will die in our sleep from the heat. Billy