Relaxing in Southern Italy

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Arriving into the Napoli train station around noon was the start of our southern Italy adventure. We had previously made the decision to pass Pompeii and go straight to Sorrento on a very, very “ghetto” local train. However once we passed out of the direct Napoli area and closer into the Sorrento Coast the views became more pleasant. As the train was nearly at its destination Joye and I decided to have a little pull up contest that turned into hanging from our legs inside the train, while being stared out by the locals that still remained on the train.

The first thing on our minds was the beach, but Bailey who as been in Sorrento before explained the beach was a hike away. So, instead we found the tourist information place and ate some delicious cheap food, while enjoying an amazing view. We made our way down the hill into the beach area, finding only one beach that was closed and ended up lying on a “beach” near some boats. It was about a 50 meter “beach” that was covered in friendly dogs and a few people. After about an hour of lying there I decided to walk to find somewhere to stay. First of all I had to walk back up the face of the mountain and find expensive after expensive hotel one after another. Eventually I found a reasonable one and began my trek back to meet up with Joye and Bailey. Well of course I walked past the turn and when I was about to turn around I hear
“BADER!!”
I was like WTF mate. I look up the hill and it is Jose, Chris, and Blair who waited in Rome to do the Vatican Museum and Blair needed to get a new passport since he lost his. After a joyful reunion we made our way back to meet up with them and grab our hotel. Of course once we arrived back at the hotel there was a different person at the counter, so we proceeded to get a better deal then before.

Naturally Jose and I were hungry and needed a snack, slash, beer, so we went to the conveniently located grocery store next door. Walking into the Italian grocery was a welcoming site. We found a wide selection of Italian beers along with all kinds of snacks. Jose and I grabbed a forty each and made our way back to the room. We had to wait about an hour before it was time to meet with the rest of our group so we kicked back on our balcony window drinking our forties and eating a pretzel, chip mix. After we ate our delicious dinner, went out for a beer that was way too expensive, while watching Roma get destroyed in futbol. Good night !!

The next day was dedicated to sleeping in just a tad and then going to Pompeii. Pompeii was cool, but the entire city looks roughly the same. Mt. Vesuvius was there for the climbing, but nobody was up for that. I thought it was cool that the city had stones crossing the roads for when the water rose to high they could still cross the roads. I originally thought some of them used to be columns, but those were also for crossing when the water rose. Some of the ruins include the Temples of Apollo and Jupiter, The Forum, two theaters, Amphitheater, Stabian Baths, and some unfortunate people that were caught in the 79 A.D. eruption. On our exit we got some delicious pizza, I recommend it to everybody that stops in Pompeii to get the pizza from the street vendors just outside the city.

Once back in Sorrento Jose and I had the plan of going to the Regina Giovanna. Nobody else wanted to join us other then Blairbear, so we started making our “three KM” walk. Three kilometers turned into about six or seven around winding roads that had no sidewalks. Although the walk was scenic, I’ll go ahead and be blunt saying these roads were unsafe. We eventually found the path to get to our destination, which seemed to be closed, but we carried on anyway. We walked through the uneven path passing cement workers on the path eventually getting to an open path, were we immediately saw a couple English girls sunbathing. After a short conversation we pressed on around the corner into the ruins. These ruins were actually cool; it was formally the Roman queen’s summer home. There were rooms and small wholes into the rocks that seemed to have other secret pathways; everything seemed to connect through small holes in the walls or roofs. After we explored the “palace” for a while we found the actual bath. The bath is a pool of water completely surrounded by rock except for a hole about 10 meters wide and 10 meters high (a guess) leading into the Mediterranean. Unfortunately it is not kept up anymore and could be a great tourist attraction if it would be restored. We climbed down into the lagoon and obviously got ready to take a dip. As we were posing for photographs I say
“Look a paddle boat”
Then we all look at each other and start climbing up the walls because the paddle boat nearly disappeared from our site because of a wave. Our shoes, shorts, and shirts were all in a hole in the wall and we were on top of rocks. We scampered down to find all of our stuff still dry and only a few scratches on our hands from climbing the rough rocks. We walk slowly into the freezing water arguing over who was jumping in first. Eventually I made the initial plunge, then immediately scaled the nearest rock to get out of the cold water. Since there were rocks under the water, I of course scratched my arm a bit and now have a new scar. We stood on this rock for a good thirty once again arguing who would go first, I was out of the argument since I went first last time. We talk Blair into going first; we explain to him to jump were there were no rocks… two seconds later Blair is jumping into the area we told him not too. Luckily he didn’t die and he took the easy way back. Jose and I decided to take the swim back instead of the wall. All of us were in a hurry to enjoy the sun again, so we took a quick pace up the hill and decided to park ourselves on top of one of the ledges to dry off. Well, as did a random guy wearing a speedo reading a newspaper (odd).
We began our walk back with a down the other side and followed a group of little German kids skipping from rock to rock like it was nothing. We continued to follow them until we came upon a “bridge” that was only the cross boards and railings. The German kids started to run across this dangerous situation, we looked at each other…
“Let’s do it”
Blair wanted nothing to do with it, but Jose and I started to cross it. Obviously Jose’s overweight self was making some of the boards make cracking noises, so we crossed fairly quickly. The bridge led t to a restaurant that appeared to be destroyed by a wave. These German kids were climbing rock faces, while we tried to make our way through the pebbles. We had to jump down about six feet of the other side of the restaurant to get to the ground and Jose was a bit skeptical. Then the little German kid called him out for being a sissy girl, so he jumped. It was a great few, but now we had to make our way back, so we took some random path up the mountain. After taking one trail after another, we realized we were in some creepy grove. Luckily the horror movie didn’t begin and we found a random broken hole in the wall leading us back to the main path. After we arrived back in the hotel we continued to brag to everyone how amazing our little journey was and how Blair missed the most dangerous and fun part of our adventure.

The next morning we ventured our way back to the ever so safe Napoli. We needed to catch an early train to Bari, Italy, so we can catch our ferry to Greece. Chris, Jose, and I played rummy 500 and ate enormous sandwiches, while Joye and Blair slept. Upon the arrival in Bari, we made our way towards our “cruise boat”. After we realized we had another four hours before we needed to check we took to the city. We checked out the castle and a small park, but everything was closed because of holiday. Next we stopped for some pizza at a small place across from the port. At first we saw all the delicious and then realized there were pictures of Mussolini everywhere. I didn’t know what to make of the situation, but I ate my amazing pizza that was way to hot (burned my mouth) and we made our way back into the port.

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Photos

Sorrento
Sorrento simply doing its thing

Nuns
Our first thought in Sorrento was to find a bench, but they were all taken

Sorrento Beach
The Beach in Sorrento and some of our new friends

Relaxing
Jose and I relaxing before dinner in Sorrento

Pompeii
Crossing the Pompeii street

In one of the Theaters
Looking good in Pompeii

Regina Giovanna
The former bathing place of the Roman queen

Peligroso?
The very safe bridge we crossed that was over waves and rocks

Drying off
Drying off in the ramaining sun... to the right would be a man wearing a speedo reading the newspaper

German Monkeys
The well adapted climbing German kids

Scary Movie
After getting off our trail, we found ourselves in the beginning of a scary movie

Halfway done
Train from Napoli to Bari... I had a large sandwich