Rick Steves and cheap wine in Paradise

July 13, 2014
Sunday morning we woke up early to catch the short-bus to town for Mass.  Although the novelty of attending an Italian Mass was enticing, I really wanted to be able to understand what was going on, so we headed to St. Francis, who offered one English-speaking Mass a weekend.

Cloisters at St. Francis in Sorrento

Cloisters at St. Francis in Sorrento

After Mass we decided to take the steep ramp down to the beach and see what the coastline had to offer.  I was dying to get my feet in the Mediterranean Sea!

Ramp from top to bottom is on the far left.

 The air was chilly and the water was even colder, so my feet were all that got wet that day.

We walked along the boardwalk/beach, and found a bench near the water to just sit and enjoy the breeze, the view, and each other.

 This was one of my favorite moments of our trip.  No plans made, nowhere to be, the calm of the sea, and my love next to me.

We decided from here to follow a self-guided tour, laid out by Rick Steves in his tour book.  (love me some Rick Steves on PBS!)  We enjoyed seeing the hidden treasures of the city, and found ourselves in this canyon that was a road back up to the city.

It was really beautiful....until we made it to the end.  All those steps!! Aaron's fitbit counted 8 flights of stairs but it felt like so much more on my knees.

Um, where's the elevator?

Once my knees and lungs recovered from the climb, we did a bit of shopping amid the local shops, each one having an overwhelming smell of lemons to them.  We also found a shop where they sold products from a local farm, including wine.  YUM.  They claimed to provide most of the house wines the restaurants offered in Sorrento.  Of course I purchased some for myself and a few of my fellow vino lovers back home. 

No shortage of lemon products here!

Lemon tree for sale at the farm stand shop.

Because of awesome Rick Steves, we happened upon an off-the-main-strip restaurant that was dirt cheap and delicious!  Grill tuna and salad for me, and a pasta dish for Aaron.  Wine was the cheapest I'd seen in all of Italy so far and I was not going to pass it up!

Simple yet sooooo good.

The huge "slice" of lemon on my salad plate.

 We visited another church in the city, and found where St. Anthony was buried.  Not the St. Anthony, patron saint of lost things, but at the time, I had no idea.  Again....Italian-English barrier.  He's a pretty big deal to Sorrento, being their patron saint, and on February 14th, the people of Sorrento celebrate his feast day, not giving much thought to St. Valentine.

Statue of St. Anthony outside the church

Yup, there he is.

After we toured the city, we headed back to the hotel for a nap, and had dinner on the deck of the restaurant at the hotel, overlooking the city.

Mt. Vesuvius at night

Sorrento at night

Next Stop....Sorrento!

July 12, 2014

Saturday morning we woke up, ready for a new adventure.  Rome was the most perfect 4 days of our lives, and we were ready to see what Sorrento held for us.  We took the subway to the train station, and then boarded the train to Naples.  Although it was a smooth ride, I still got a bit nauseous.  I found out on this trip I have about zero tolerance for moving other than walking on my own two feet.  Nauseous scale of 1-10....about a 3.  It was great to see the Italian countryside fly by us as we headed south.

The inside of our train car

Our train took us to the Naples where we had to get on another train to take us to Sorrento.  First train....nice, smooth, air conditioned.  Second train....rickety, scary and hot (naseous scale: 5).  The Naples train station and the train ride through Naples was actually the first time since being in Italy I feared for my life.  Sketchy people, mixed with bad areas of town, and a language I didn't understand very well just wasn't a good mix.  Sorrento was the last stop on the route, so we spent about an hour on the sketchy train.  Thankfully the farther we got away from the Naples station, the better the surrounding areas were getting.

The town of Sorrento is small and we were able to walk to the bus stop where our hotel would pick us up.  The short-bus driver, Mario as we nicknamed him, was a happy little guy and knew only a handful of English words. 

Mario

The 10 minute winding bus ride up the hill (nauseous scale: 8) took us to Il Nido Hotel, which was a small but nice family-ran hotel.  We got to our room and I couldn't stop taking pictures from our balcony.  The view was just amazing.

The town of Sorrento

 Across the bay, Mount Vesuvius

Closeup of Sorrento

We headed back to town (yay, the bus again) and wandered around taking in the sights.  The streets were filling up quickly with people, and it seemed that Sorrento is busier after the sun goes down.  What they all do, I don't know, unless it's shopping.

All the streets are lined with shop after shop of touristy things, and most of them had to do with lemons.  Sorrento is known for their lemon orchards, and also have them growing everywhere, like Maple trees in Indiana.  After we grabbed some dinner, we found the church we would be going to tomorrow, and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

Friday in Rome

July 11, 2014
Today was the only day we had in Rome where we had nothing preplanned.  We had a few places we wanted to hit, but the day was pretty much open.  Aaron wanted to do a 5K in one of the cities we were going to on our trip, but apparently no one plans 5K's during the summer because of the heat over here.  So, he decided to get up before the sun, literally, and go for a run.  He ran down to the Colosseum, ran around it 6 times or so (he said he lost count) and ran back to the hotel.  I got to sleep in.  :)

Once ready for the day, we headed back to Castel Sant' Angelo where I promised him we would return.  It was warmer than it had been yet, but still absolutely beautiful weather.  I bought a hat, to protect my poor head from the sun.

Outside the castle were 8 Bernini statues, and 2 more being replicas of the originals we saw on Tuesday with our guide in a different church.  The castle was a bit expensive to go in, so we decided just to walk around town.

Castel Sant' Angelo

 We crossed the river through the Bernini's, and headed for Piazza Navona.  It was hopping with lots of people, music and painters selling their goods.  I was able to get a lot of closeup pictures of the fountain details that I didn't get on Tuesday.

Piazza Navona

From Piazza Navona we attempted to catch the 116 train up to this church and crypt Aaron wanted to go see.  After waiting 20 minutes or so, and still no train, we realize it's a night train only.  The sign states this, but yeah, we don't read much Italian.  So...we catch a different bus to the Wedding Cake building thing area, get lost around that stupid thing because it faces the wrong way on the map, but finally find the right bus.  We nailed the stop we got off the bus (which was just dumb luck), and were only a few buildings away from the church.  Boo-ya.

The church we were visiting was Santa Maria della Concezione, but more importantly, we were there to see the crypt.  We walk in to a pretty shaken up British lady telling us how demonic it was and that we shouldn't do it.  I had my doubts, but it was only 6 Euros a piece, and it was something Aaron was really wanting to see.  The museum was "eh" talking about the Capuchin monks and how they came about, and a few of the famous ones, and blah blah blah.  Next were the crypts.  These rooms weren't scary, but they were very, very weird.  If you want to know more about them, here is a video of the crypt.  Or Google it.  Picture taking was not allowed, but others have taken pictures of this place.  Afterwards we went up to the church and visited that, which I thought was just as eerie.  They did have the original Reni painting of "St. Michael the Archangel" which was pretty awesome to see in real life.  Apparently a duplicate is hanging in the Louvre.  I guess we'll see in a few days.

St. Michael the Archangel by Guido Reni

After the freaky church we went to Santa Maria de Vittoria church which was just around the corner.  The main reason for this visit was to see the Bernini statue of "The Ecstasy of St. Theresa".

  The Ecstasy of St. Theresa

Yes, that's actually St. Theresa under the statue.  This is apparently a common thing in Italy, to display the bodies of saints.

The altar at Santa Maria de Vittoria church

The church itself was very ornate and very beautiful.  It was my favorite one we visited after St. Peter's Basilica.  Once we were done here we walked back to the hotel to freshen up.

We asked Elena for dinner suggestions, and she said "This is your last night, yes?  I have just the place!" and proceeded to make us dinner reservations somewhere before we could answer her.  Dinner was at 7pm and we had an hour and a half to kill, so she sent us to this coffee shop that she loves.  The building was a tiny house covered in ivy.  The shop was called La Piccola Casa, which means "The Little House".

 La Piccola Casa

After coffee and snacks, we walked around a bit until our reservation time.  Dinner was very good, and our service was even better.

Our server was part owner I think also, and he was very helpful in teaching me correct Italian words and phrases.  He gave us both a complimentary Limoncello at the end of dinner...which was completely awful and tasted like lemon vodka.  When he went to the back I held my nose and downed the rest of it.  Thank goodness it was only the size of a shot.  I couldn't leave it on the table...that would be rude!  Aaron struggled with his as well, but was able to choke it down.  After dinner we walked back to the hotel and packed up our things and said goodbye to Elena, as she would not be around in the morning when we checked out.  She has been the most helpful of anyone from Hotel Raffaello.  I spent the rest of the night working on the blog so I would be able to remember everything from our trip.

Update:  After we went to Rome, Aaron and I wanted to watch the movie "Angels and Demons" again to see where all we went that was in the movie.  Looking back through this day, I realized nearly our whole day was in the movie!  Piazza Navona, Castel Sant Angelo, and Santa Maria de Vittoria, which is crazy because of how many churches are actually in this city.

The Vatican

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Thursday morning we had our alarms set early, as we were to meet our guide for our Vatican tour at 7:20 am.  The breakfast spread opened about 3 minutes before our taxi arrived, allowing us to grab a croissant, and me, a cup of coffee as well.  This was a bad choice on my part, as I should have known better.  Coffee and cab drivers should never mixed.  I spilled the coffee on myself no less than 30 seconds after I got in the cab and got to display brown stains on the front of my bright blue pants the rest of the day.  Lesson learned.

Waiting for our tour to start

The Vatican tour started a bit crazy.  There were many groups there already that early, and our guide, John, said that there would be lots of people in the Sistine Chapel, but not nearly as many as if we had waited during the time it was open to the public.  We by-passed all the museums and went straight to the Sistine Chapel.  A few parts of the tour were very overwhelming to me, and the Sistine Chapel was the first one of those instances.  It nearly broke me down as I walked in, and saw the beautiful artwork, and felt the history that the chapel held.  We were only allowed to stay in the room about 20 minutes, but luckily we were given a handout explaining the ceiling of the chapel, and each of the parts of the Michelangelo work.  The rest of the work we were on our own to decipher.  Unfortunately, taking pictures in the Sistine Chapel is forbidden.  After the Sistine Chapel, we went through the Vatican museums, which were, quite frankly, dull as can be.  We were raced through them, with barely enough time for pictures.  I was anxious to get to St. Peter's Basilica. The highlight of this part of the tour were the Raphael rooms, where there were some beautiful artwork from the painter, Raphael.

 My favorite painting from Raphael....the angel freeing Peter from imprisonment.

 A close-up from the painting.

 Another famous Raphael painting.

Finally we were headed to St. Peter's Basilica, which, I cannot explain in words.  This is in fact the biggest Catholic church in the world, and it is absolutely beautiful.  With our tour we spent a good half hour in the church, and afterwards, Aaron and I went back in for more.

There is so much to say about St. Peter's Basilica!  The statues were amazingly large but detailed.  There was Mass going on, which we missed by only 5 minutes or so.  If I'd known the times beforehand, I would have drug Aaron to Mass there.  They had 6 or 8 confessionals setup for people wanting to go to confession.  Aaron encouraged me to go, but I told him Reconciliation is such an emotional thing for me anyways, as soon as I stepped in that confessional I'd be a bawling mess.  St. John Paul II's sarcophagus was there, and there were many people crowded around it praying and taking pictures.

 St. John Paul II's tomb

The Pieta was another crowded area of the church.....the famous sculpture of Michelangelo.  We visited the crypt, where many past popes are buried, and we saw the area above where St. Peter is buried.  This is another area of the Vatican where picture taking is forbidden.

If I could have stayed in this church all day, I would have.  It was such an amazing experience.  After we left the basilica, we got some outside pictures, and then headed to the temporary Vatican post office and sent a few postcards to our loved ones.

We left the country of the Vatican City and headed north, to the Castel Sant' Angelo.  Once we were nearly there I pleaded with Aaron to head back to the hotel for a nap, as the early rise time and the long emotional day were making it hard to keep my eyes open and on my feet.  We grabbed some lunch at a place that wasn't anything special and then gelato for dessert.  Chocolate and caramel for me, and Pineapple and Coconut for Aaron.  Yum.  We got back to the hotel around 3pm and the next thing we knew it was after 6pm.  Naps are allowed on vacation, right?  We skyped with the boys, who seemed to be having a great time with Aunt Cori and the girls.  I believe they were getting ready to take a nap, as they had just gotten back from swimming at the pool.  After talking to them for a bit, we headed out for dinner, stopping in one of the local eateries off the beaten path.  This place was called Urbana 46.

 Their food was amazing, as well as their "vino della casa".  We splurged for dessert, and walked around the town when we were done.  I wanted to get some pictures of the Colosseum lit up at night.

 After our evening stroll, we called it a night.

Ready or Not....Rome here we come

In true beginner form, it looks like I deleted the first of my drafts I was going to post.  It's okay though, as it was written very late, with a lingering vino buzz, it probably wasn't very good anyway.  So....here we go.  Take two.

Monday was the day Aaron and I had been looking forward to for months now.  It was here, and we were both very anxious and keyed up.  We spent the morning packing our final things, rechecking them, pacing the floor, and twiddling our thumbs.  I cleaned most of Cori's kitchen and if I had known where the mop was, I would have done her floors too.  I'm not sure about Aaron, but I was worked up about leaving the boys for so long, as well as flying, which I hate.

When we got to the airport we kissed the boys a few times each, hugged them, "I love you's" all around, and off we went.  My emotions broke for just a moment as we walked inside the airport, but soon we were headed to get checked in.  Our flight to Charlotte was easy, and we made it to our next gate in perfect time.  Our flight to Rome was as easy as an 8 1/2 hour flight could be.  We only caught about an hour of sleep each, but luckily technology has gotten better on planes since our honeymoon, and we each had touchscreen TV's in front of us to watch movies, TV, play games, or listen to music.  I watched "Labor Day" with the yummy talented Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet,

and late in the trip I discovered a bunch of Downton Abbey seasons...score!  I know what I'll be watching on the way home.

 We landed in Rome and our first challenge was finding baggage claim and then finding the right one to go to.  We walked past 8 baggage claim thingies, to the screen at the end to wait to see where we needed to go.  It ended up immediately on our left, AND our luggage pieces were the first two off.  We found our driver with ease amongst the probably 100 drivers waiting at the exit.  Our driver taught us two things very quickly.  Italians like speeding, and ignoring all traffic signs.  We clocked him at 170 kph.  Aaron asked me to remind him to look that up when we got to the hotel.  (107 mph)

Our hotel room was perfecto.  We were able to get a room with a balcony (thanks Helga!) and went up to unpack and get a shower before heading out on the town.  We got some pizza at a place in town we find out later is a tourist trap, but no matter...we were starving.

 .
We headed to the Spanish steps to kill some time before our "Getting to Know Rome" tour started.  The thing I remember most about the Spanish steps?  The annoying vendors.  They would walk around with long stem roses and try to shove them in your hand.  They were everywhere.  Turn to talk to Aaron.  BAM.  Roses in my face.  Try to take a picture of the Spanish Steps.

BAM.
Roses in my face.  The funny thing is we didn't even know we had this picture till after we got back to the hotel.  I learned the phrase "No, Grazie." very quickly that afternoon.

Our tour was very good, led by a guy from Dublin....I forgot his name.  He had a lot of pointers on how to avoid tourist traps and find authentic Italian eateries.  The tour, in that alone, was well worth it.

He also pointed out the great water fountains throughout the city that look like you would get malaria from, but have delicious (and free!) water coming from them.  There are 100s around the city.

We visited the Pantheon,

the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, which was covered in scaffolding and not currently working,

and got our first taste of gelato.  Gelato is made with less cream than ice cream, and stirred slower than ice cream.  I got Strawberry and Tiramisu and Aaron got Lemon and Strawberry.  It was very, very good stuff.  After our tour, we headed back to the hotel to Skype with the boys, and get some much needed rest.