Assisi to Sorrento

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July 19 Wednesday



Even though I called the reception desk three different times to have them come check on my AC they never showed up. Apparently they can check it from their desk. Thankfully I had my fan or I would've been unhappy last night sleeping. Since I have some time before breakfast I went out onto the large veranda the hotel has on my floor. The view in the morning was beautiful. After taking my New luggage down to the reception desk to be placed in the cubby storage area of the bus, I headed down to breakfast. The offerings wasn't very good. Let's just say that having scrambled eggs soup (I think there was more water than egg) was not my ideal breakfast. They did have fresh croissants, which I normally don't like, that were covered in powdered sugar. So I had four of those covered with cherry jelly. Then it was time to go visit Assisi.





Assisi is a hill town in central Italy’s Umbria region. It was the birthplace of St. Francis (1181–1226), one of Italy’s patron saints. The Basilica of St. Francis is a massive, 2-level church, consecrated in 1253. Its 13th-century frescoes portraying the life of St. Francis have been attributed to Giotto and Cimabue, among others. The crypt houses the saint’s stone sarcophagus.





We traveled a short distance to the Assisi site from the hotel. Our local tour guide was named Giuseppe. We walked through the town as we headed toward the Cathedral. The stone architecture was very interesting. I noticed that many of the doors had half circle iron grill work. There was a wide variety in the designs. As we were taking pictures we have the extra careful with the traffic as they sped past us, apparently again, no speed limit signs anywhere to be seen. We arrived at the huge plaza and took many pictures. I enjoy the water fountain and the lion statues. As we continue walking up to the cathedral you really had to look from top to bottom of many of the buildings. There are many hidden frescoes and ironwork along the walls of the buildings. Once we got to the Cathedral we were no longer allowed to take pictures inside. We had to go through security checkpoint before entering. Everything in the cathedral was original. According to our guide they can preserve the artwork and the architecture but they cannot change it or paint over it. We were able to go down into the crypt and see where St. Francis is laid to rest. We then were able to view the rest of the cathedral. We were given an hour afterwards to walk down to where the bus stop was, stopping along the way of various gift shops. On a religious point of view, I wonder what St. Francis would say about the grandeur of his resting place and amount of money that is collected based on his name.





Then headed for Sorrento. We stopped about two hours on the road to grab a bite to eat at another rest stop. The quickest and easiest thing to grab a pizza. I also grabbed an energy drink to keep me awake. The countryside is beautiful. We did pass a few areas that were currently on fire. Unfortunately 30 minutes after he left the restaurant we had to change bus drivers. Luigi had to go home and take care of a family emergency. Our new driver is a retired bus driver from the Trafalgar company. Hopefully it will only be for a couple of days. As we got closer to Naples on our way to Sorrento we were able to view Mount Vesuvius. Now that I've seen the mountain I can check that off my list of things to do in my life. We then passed through the longest tunnel I have ever been in. It's about 5 miles long! We were in that tunnel for almost 7 minutes! The air-quality in the center of the tunnel had become hazy, and some of the people on our bus were panicking a little thinking the air-quality on our bus was getting worse because of the AC unit. As we made our way around the coast to Sorrento we kept climbing higher and higher as the road got narrower and narrower. The view however was breathtaking.





We arrived at the hotel La Residenza. We were warned ahead of time that the hotel would not be like an American hotel but more Italian. I was pleasantly surprised how nice it was once I got to my room. Exterior of the building is very bland but the interior had a lot of style. I love the tile flooring in my room. The AC worked wonderful and I have plenty of space to move around. We had two hours on her own before we had to head out to the farm that we are going to be visiting. So I decided to go find the pool. This hotel shared a park land with two other hotels. Apparently at one time this area was own by some aristocrat who created the park land for the rich and famous to come and escape to. I simply just loved the whole park area. There were hidden pathways that meander throughout the whole park. There are hidden pottery, a bridge, ruins and even a folly dedicated to the goddess Venus. Then along the cliff was an old mansion with a beautiful tile work in front of it. One of the French doors was open and I was able to walk into the dining room where tables were covered with tablecloths. It was beautiful inside. I then exited the building and went to the left where a very large veranda was situated. There was a large white canopy covering almost the whole veranda. The view from there was stunning. I just loved it. Definitely need to come back to spend time at this location in the future. I then wandered to the other side of the building and found the pool. After seeing the private swimming pool I decided to go for a swim. I stopped at the reception desk and let them know how much I enjoyed the park and view. They gave me a little booklet about the history of the place. As I was heading back to the pool after changing, I met a woman who told me about the access to the black sand beach down below. A lifeguard from the pool took me to there. He had me follow him through another hotel to a set of elevators. We took those elevators down and then went through a couple of hallways to another set of elevators and then took that elevator all the way down to the bottom of the cliff. The elevators opened up into a long tunnel through the cliff. When I went to get my towel the young man at the register asked if I had a receipt for the €20 it would cost to go to the beach. Since I didn't I did ask if I could just walk down and put my feet in the water and touch the black sand and he agreed. The water was cold and the sand felt soft. I then headed to the pool from where I started. Ali was already in it swimming. When I dunked my head under the water I was surprised to feel that the water was salt water and not freshwater. I never swim in a saltwater pool before. Although the water was nice and warm I didn't care for the burning sensation in my eyes. After about 30 minutes we left the pool together to get back to the room to get ready to change. I thought I had at least an hour to get ready but my alarm went off just as I got out of the shower warning me that I have 15 minutes to get to the bus before the bus left for our trip to the farm. I made it with two minutes to spare!





When Scott told us that we will be visiting the farm I thought we would be traveling quite a distance outside of town but we actually only travel for about 15 minutes. We couldn't take the bus so we had two passenger vans to use. The farm is a working farm that owns a restaurant. They are known for their lemons and olive oil. Rosa, was our guide as well as the owner. We pass the cows and a goose before we made it to the location where they pressed the olives. After listening to the interesting story about olive harvesting and pressing we then continued on to the mozzarella demonstration. Maria did the demonstration as Rosa did the talk. 4 of the members of our group were then selected to create their own pizza using a brick oven. We were then invited to go to the restaurant to eat. The food was very good. First was cut bread drizzled with two kinds of olive oil. One had a nice spicy taste while the other had a lemon flavor. Next was tomatoes. I actually ate 3 raw sliced tomatoes (each a different kind). They were served with olive oil and fresh mozzarella and sliced olives. Very enjoyable. We were then served a slice of Margherita pizza. Very tasty. Then we given a dish to share of beans, olives, ricotta cheese and omelet cut into squares. I tried an olive and hated it. But I did like the sliced olives from the tomato dish. Next was a plate of pasta with fresh tomato sauce. Nice. Finally we were served a lemon custard on top of a slice of lemon cake. After a bite I passed on eating the rest. We then had a chance to try their lemon liquors. Both were good. The creme was smooth and the other burned like whiskey.





We headed back to the passenger vans for our trip back to the hotel. 7 of us decided to get dropped off at the town square to look around. We didn't find any souvenir shops but did find some postcards and magnets at a little market shop. Since I had mapquest and the address of our hotel I was designated the leader. The quick "15 minutes" walk took about 30. We laughed and joked around as we went along the narrow and sometimes uneven sidewalks. At one time I was a little ahead of the group with a local couple in between me and them. I saw a gated entry with enough room to hide in. I waited until Charne walked by and yelled "Boo!" She screamed as did Melanie!!! We laughed hilariously about it. Charne had said that she had just noticed that she couldn't see me ahead of her and was wondering where I had gone. Too funny!! We made it back just before 10 pm.

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Photos

Grand Hotel Assisi (5)
Brian being funny as usual!