Blogs from Sorrento, Campania, Italy, Europe - page 10

Geo: 40.6263, 14.3757Woke up to another rainy day, went ahead and met the 3 others who I said I would meet down at Marina Piccola. It is actually much larger than Marina Grande, I mentioned that one a couple of days ago, everyone has their umbrellas out and using them, so it's a small adventure maneuvering down the narrow sidewalks with all of them open! Found the others and we discussed options for the day, supposedly the ferries would run at 10:30 so I had a cioccolata caulda (hot chocolate), they had espressos, none of us really wanted to do the same thing and with the weather not so good we decided to go do our own thing and meet back for lunch. Did this, ordered a Ceasar salad without the anchovies, it was good but ... read more

Geo: 40.6263, 14.3757Today we said goodbye to some of the people that were here for only a week, there was a small "graduation" ceremony for them consisting of a "diploma" and much clapping and fanfare from all! I guess more students will be joining us next week. It is really hard to believe I've been gone for a week, it has gone by really fast, though I have a feeling the next week will be slower with looking forward to going home on my mind as I am missing my family! After class today, I came back to the apt and had lunch, checked emails, and rested a bit. I then went out exploring the town a little, tried to find the shop my hostess said she buys homemade pasta from, I think I found it ... read more

Geo: 40.6263, 14.3757After an exhausting day of hiking over the stones of Pompeii yesterday, it was hard to get out of bed this morning! I did though at about 7:00, took my shower and went to my hostesses apt for a slightly stale cornetto and lukewarm tea... Oh well, off to school! Am totally enjoying, my classes and am so hoping I remember everything!!! We did more review of the basic verbs and indeterminate articles, going onto the plurals of them, in grammar class. In our conversation class, we drew our "ideal house" and then got in front of the class to explain it in Italian, good practice and at times hilarious!I have very interesting classmates, actually everyone here is interesting, we have a judge from CA who is also a commissioner, pretty high up person ... read more

Geo: 40.6263, 14.3757Buenasera! This morning after a nice cornetto and tea with my hostess in her apt. I headed over to the school (Scoula) for the 8:30 start, was as foretold by yours truly that I would be put into the beginners class and was :-) We will have grammar class every day from 9-10:40 then a 20-minute break then back for conversation class from 11-12:40. So during grammar, I was thinking this is too facile (easy) BUT during the conversation class, I decided that it was just right! So am very happy where I am placed, have nice classmates, only 4 of us in there, so will get lots of one on one teaching. It's only been the one day but am really enjoying it. After class 4 of us took our lunch and sat ... read more

What can we say about our day in Pompeii? All of us agree it was both our good thing and our bad thing today. It was in turns amazing, overwhelming, frustrating, annoying, exhausting, stimulating, but definitely a not to be missed experience. The day started off just fine, with an easy trip on the train from Sorrento, during which we smugly congratulated ourselves on our relatively early start. But even though we arrived less than an hour after opening, the place was already full of bus loads of tourists. We were frustrated by lines and crowds and especially by the fact that they were out of the informational booklet that all the guidebooks promised was excellent for touring the site. (And the promise of which made us decide not to lug our other guidebooks along with ... read more