Sweet Sweet Limoncello Sorrento

We arrived in Sorrento on Friday night. It was kind of late after a seriously ghetto train ride down, the GPS would only find enough signal to tell us the hotel was .7 miles away, we had no map and none were available...oh and did I mention it was raining. But like real travelers, we donned our rain gear and walked. They were going to charge us 18 Euro for a cab ride and Ragan refused because after all, it was only .7 miles!! When I saw the hill we were possibly going to go charging up with our luggage I decided to stop and do what all women do, I asked for directions. Low and behold, all we had to do was walk down the staircase we were standing next to and voila, there was our hotel. Thank you Jesus...thank you.

These are the fa real deal peeps! I had no idea lemons came as big as small children.



Sorrento is a sweet little tourist town known for it's Limoncello and really, anything lemon. They are proud of those sons a guns. They wanted 5 Euro for a bag of lemon drops that I wanted so bad, but knowing they would be $.50 in the States, I resisted the urge. We've had spectacular weather this entire trip, so our luck had to run out at some point. Sadly, Sorrento was it. We didn't get to do as much as we had hoped because it was either raining or the seas where to choppy to take us on some excursions.

Luckily,  Sorrento wasn't a repeat of Lisbon. There were just a few streets coming up from the water that you had to make a hike up.

Brothels, bakers and dogs oh my! Raise your hand if you thought Pompeii was a small little village on the side of the hill that was smothered in volacano ash? So did we! Wrong. It's HUGE people HUGE!! And they don't even have all of it excavated. Let's review our history for a moment. Shall we? Mt. Vesuvius errupted in 79 AD and buried the city in between 13-19' feet of ash and pumice. It was accidentally rediscovered in 1599. We made our way up there on a very beautiful Sunday thinking it would just take a few hours and we'd be on our way. It took the entire day, but it was totally worth it. And much to our surprise, it was free entry that day. Bonus. Compared to all of the other tours we've taken in Italy, this was by far the most well organized. Someone was sheer genuis and made one of the old ruins into a cafeteria style restaurant! We found Rufus' Italian cousin at the steps of Pompeii. Apparently, since dogs have been part of the city since the beginning, they still are very much apart of it. You can adopt a dog. They are fed and well taken care of. You will find them all over the grounds just hanging out and snoozing in the sun. It's pretty adorable.

Ruie's Italian cousin. He always had a buddy with him. When we first arrived, his little friend was barking at him while he was just laying there. Everyone was freaking out that maybe he was sick or something. That was before we all turned around and saw the huge sign that said there are dogs all over and they are taken care of, so no worries. Later on the dog jumped up on me and tugged at my pants like he wanted me to play with him, I had to give him the 'ole Cesar Milan "chhhh." I think Cesar speak reaches across all language barriers.

Here's Ragan in one of the bakeries. There were 35 now known bakeries in Pompeii. These were the old mill stones they used to ground the wheat. Ain't shabby for a bakery that dates back to 2nd century BC, but was remodeled after the earthquake in 62 AD. So this is the "modern version."

Were you thinking that this was the line to get into the only bathroom in Pompeii? Negative. This is bottleneck that occurred trying to get into the Lupanare. Lupa meaning prostitute. That's right, they had brothels! Lots of them. This was like being back in the Red Light district I guess. But this particular brothel was special. It was designed specifically to serve as a brothel. As you can see, it was super popular, even by todays standards.

These were the "rooms" at the brothel. That's a slab of concrete. No worries, there was a "mattress." We won't even discuss what was on the wall for fear that some of you may blush.

These Italians loved their gladiator fights! This was the amphitheater of Pompeii that held over 20,000 spectators. Built in 70 BC.

A typical city street in Pompeii. They had some great city planners back then! The city was laid out very well and even had street names and elevated sidewalks.

Before we left Sorrento, we did have a chance to take an afternoon ferry over to Capri. It wasn't what we had hoped for. We had booked a trip over in a boat that was supposed to take us all around the island and have the opportunity to go into the Blue Grotto. The trip was cancelled early that morning due to choppy seas. So we waited for the seas to settle and made what we could of the day.

Not that you can really tell from the picture, but the water is gorgeous! The sound that the rocks make when the waves are receding can only be described as the sound food makes when it's being dropped into a fryer. Seriously. It's not just me despreately needing some Southern food.

A view from City Center. But when you are walking in from the bottom, it feels doesn't feel very "centerish"...it feels very "topish."

Capri

We're still having a great time! Missing the US and everything that comes with her! We will see you guys in Florence.