Driving down to Pompeii
We started out of Rome really early. I had heard so many stories about driving in Rome that I was tentative about doing it while everyone else was awake! LOL So I got the both of us up very early and left town before anyone else woke up! I did break my fear of driving in Rome but not till after we got back from the road trip down the coast. Diving down, I didn’t take the highway, I put into the GPS that I wanted to go to Pompeii and I guess I set the controls ‘to avoid highways”! LOL Anyway, GPS told me how to get there (a good two hours more than the highway!) but I got some really great pictures of the Italian countryside after a rain storm in the morning sunlight.
One thing that’s notable: I’m not the best at driving long distance. I can do it but I need to stop for coffee/ espresso and chew gum to keep my mind engaged. So of course, I stopped off at a local espresso shop, ordered my coffee and a couple pastries. That was funny! My trying to speak broken Italian to the gentleman who was the bakery owner that knew no English was a trip! But we figured it out and I got the coffee and breakfast we needed!.
When you arrive at Pompeii, you find a parking spot, walk by several street vendors and food places to get to the gates. When we went, it was a timed entry because of Covid so I’m not sure if that will be a permanent thing or not. I had ordered the tickets that included a tour in English. They gave us these little recorders that we could play when we reached certain areas around the archeological site.
The great thing about this tour was that we could explore as we wanted to, just type in the corresponding numbers to the sights we were standing in front of in order to hear the history of that place and what each place was used for. The place that Justin is standing outside of and petting the cat was the bordello. Thankfully, my son isn’t old enough in this picture to realize what the pictures represent! I had thought to insist that he stays out of that building when I walked through it but it had started raining. I figured he would look harder at everything that I didn’t want to explain if I restricted him. So I showed him the bed (didn’t tell him what it was used for! LOL) Then showed him a couple pictures, while ushering him out away from the graphic pictures at the top of the walls. Let’s just say, I don’t believe we have changed our positions too much in thousands of years!
I found several things interesting while walking through this ancient city: we all know they had roads but I never knew they had sidewalks and a raised crosswalk! How innovative! They had ruts for the carriages to go through but the walk was raised so they could be out of the mud!
The left two pictures show what is left of the Forum. It is still pretty impressive! You can tell that at one time, Pompeii was a major Roman city. No, not the size of Rome but a very important place non the less. The book that I’m showing underneath, shows the full extent of what the forum would have looked like in it’s heyday. And below that is the auditorium where they would have listened to plays.
Knowing we got to Sorrento a bit too early to check into our hotel, we drove over the mountain that only take about an hour even on the very curvy and narrow coast road to Positano. I had been warned about this coast road being harrowing. I guess I have had plenty of experience with driving mountain roads so it really didn’t bother me very much. Just keep it relatively slow (having a small, very maneuverable car helps) and watch the mirrors coming around the sharp corners for the tour buses!
After seeing that Justin was really just too tired to do as much exploring as I had originally planned, I drove us back to our hotel: The Art Hotel Gran Paradiso. You have to get the Superior Double Room with Sea view! It is a very comfortable room with an awesome view as you can see! In fact, I postponed our visit into Sorrento because I enjoyed the hotel so much! The bar and service were great! And the pool area was beautiful, though the water was too cold to swim in at our time of visit in April.
After visiting Pompeii, we drove down the coast, heading toward Sorrento. We stopped a couple times to get pictures along the way and also to get the biggest lemons and oranges I’ve ever seen in my life! They barely fit into my hand, they were so huge! And taste… awesome!
We didn’t make it as far as I had originally planned to travel on the Almafi Coast because Justin was bushed!! He fell asleep in the car and didn’t even wake up for lunch! He literally slept on the table, much to my chagrin!
Even though Justin slept right through the entire lunch, I enjoyed the meal very much! It was absolutely delicious and with the open kitchen, I had fun watching how smooth the operations ran!
We ate dinner here at the Art Hotel Gran Paradiso also and enjoyed it very much. Why did we stay at the hotel rather than go into town? Easy! there was a huge thunderstorm that rolled in with alot of wind and rain. I really wasn’t feeling the tight drive down that driveway around a town I didn’t know in a rainstorm! LOL Besides the storm pictures were so worth it with Vesuvius in the back ground! I stayed outside on our balcony as long as I possibly could trying to get a picture of the lightening strikes over Naples! Stayed out till I was so cold, my fingers were shaking and couldn’t get a clear picture anymore.
While traveling, always leave some expendable time in your vacation. Why? because so many random things could happen that will throw your plans off. In the case here, it was the weather. The storm the night before, threw a wrench into my itinerary. I had booked a boat tour over to Capri to be able to see the Blue Grotto and take pictures of it. But because of the that storm, the seas were too choppy for the tour boat to cross and make it back, he had to cancel. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity, so I had asked the front desk at the hotel what our options were. They told me about the ferry that goes over to the island every day. So down to the docks, I drove! When we got to the docks and asked about the ferry, we got told that they too were being restricted because of high seas. We could get a ferry over but we would have to stay the night! After a bit of decision making, we decided, ‘Hell yes, we want to go!” The tickets weren’t all that much and we couldn’t do the boat tour, I was just very happy for having put a ‘free’ day in our plans! We bought our tickets and then since there was a couple hours to kill, we walked up the stairs into Sorrento to explore! Our legs got a workout, we earned our espresso and gelato with those! LOL
Sorrento was a happening place even that early in April. There was the little shops up and down every street. So much to explore and see! I should probably be glad that I had to limit my souvenir shopping because I had to make sure it fit into my luggage getting back on the plane! We walked down the Via S Cesareo and found so much to look at! I fell in love with a painting of the sunset coming over Vesuvius at Sorrento Fine art Gallery. I had to buy it, thankfully the owner who was an older Italian shop owner was very willing to ship it for me. He was awesome! He also was so sweet to Justin, in a grandfatherly way! After buying some lemoncello and a couple more items, we were out of time and had to run down to catch the ferry!
They were right! the seas were very choppy that afternoon! While Justin and I were perfectly at ease with these choppy seas, there were some people who got sea sick! It didn’t take very long to get to the island and there were many people, just like us, who were wheeling their carryon bags behind them onto the ferry. Come to find out, this is how you really want to travel while going to Capri. It’s the best! When we got to the Capri marina, there are great restaurants and bars. I would recommend the Bar Carallo. Justin and I got an esspresso martini and gelato here when we were leaving. The Bar Grotta Azzurra was another great place we stopped waiting for the return ferry.
One thing I didn’t know but would totally recommend is about the Capri buses. They cost like 2 euros and are totally worth it! When I looked at the GPS to see how long it was to get to our hotel, I saw that it was less than 2.5 km. I thought to myself: I run less than that, it’ll be nothing! I can get my steps in for today and then can relax! LMAO. I was totally unprepared for the fact it was all uphill with a suitcase and backpack! And once you start, you have to finish, the buses don’t stop! We did succeed to making it to the main square but I resolved to use the bus from then on getting up and down the island! Another thing that we got to see and it was amazing to watch was this ship in the picture to the left. He entered the harbor, dropped his anchor and used his anchor to spin his butt right into port! It was amazing to watch, I can’t imagine how much practice he had to have to make that with such precision!
When we got the the square, we were, understandably hungry and tired! LOL We stopped at il Piccolo- Capri. Justin loved the pizza and I really enjoyed mine, though I hate to say, I don’t remember what I had.
According to what I was told, The island was rebuilt by the Benedictine Monks who wanted the island to be quiet. This led to the roads to be built as they were, very narrow, not for normal car use. They do have trucks that drive around and haul stuff with but as you can see from the picture to the left, it’s only wide enough for one person.
We did try to visit the Villa Jovis, though by the time we checked into our hotel and then started walking, it was too late to enter the historic area. So we took a breather before turning around and heading back for dinner and this was when I started taking pictures of the Capri Sunset! I have to admit, I don’t normally wait for more than a half hour to get into a restaurant. It’s probably a sign that I am spoiled or something but when I get hungry, I tend to get hangry. In this case though I was recommended to go to a local favorite and I waited! And I loved the courtyard in front but what I really enjoyed was the food! If you ever get there: make sure you go to the Verginiello Pizzeria! It’s worth the wait!
The last 2 days went pretty quick! Isn’t that how vacations go? The next morning, we had to check out of our hotel and make it to the ferry. We did have a little time to explore one of the parks but it wasn’t for long since the ferry left pretty early. From there, we drove from Sorrento back up to Rome. Out of all my driving, there was one point in Sorrento that actually scared me: it was were two old buildings were built (long before cars and modern streets) and the two lane road had to squeeze between them. We barely had an inch between both cars and then on either side from the buildings. That one had me with white knuckles on my steering wheel! We did make it back to Rome, without a scratch too! LOL and the following morning, hit the road again this time going north to Saturnalia. This little town has been around since the Etruscans, then taken over by the Romans. It was never a main road, as in moving soldiers and such but it was a popular known road because of the hot springs located here. The first picture I posted here is the Cascate del Mulino. Since the Roman time, people knew of its healing properties and so in the 1800s, they built the center: Termi Di Saturnia. They routed the thermal waters into the Termi into a series of pools and waterfalls, making a beautiful place to relax, eat, and soak up the warm waters. From there the stream runs to the Cascate and down the waterfall. Justing and I went to both. I wasn’t sure from the internet if they were connected or not. I thought you had to buy tickets to the Termi for both. Little did I know till I got there that they were two different distinct places. We saw many Italian families at the Cascate, swimming and having a picnic lunch. While at the Termi, there was a restaurant that probably served excellent food and drinks. However, since we got to the Termi early (you had to make appointments, I’m assuming because of Covid and controlling the number of people in a facility) We weren’t hungry yet. So when we did get hungry, we left the Cascate and explored the little town of Saturnia. In this little town, we were able to eat at Barakka. They had great food and Aperol Spritz. But in exploring, I walked along the old Roman road down to the gate. I also discovered another feature that I wished we would do in America and other places: they had a small street sign with some details about the town but it also had a QR code on it to read more about the history. I loved this! So innovative! I would be in travel and history heaven if we had this everywhere!
The day we went to Saturnia was also our last night. It was kind of bittersweet. Both of us loved our visit to Italy, even though Justin didn’t get to go swimming even once! And to this day, he has voted this vacation as his favorite and wants to go back. So for this last night, we chose one of the restaurants in Trestavere that we hadn’t made it to yet: Il Duca. You have to try the fried artichokes! Just like the rest of the meal, they do these to perfection!
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