And we climbed a mountain!

Buon giorno from Roma! Before I get carried away here, we better rewind the clock a couple of days to Florence (or Firenze as we call it now that we speak Italian and all) and Sorrento. We arrived bright and early in Firenze, and no I'm not lying. I think the train arrived at something like 6:15 in the morning...yes, Erin and I were in a spectacular mood after another night train. Oh well, time to move on from the tiredness and see the city. After a much needed coffee and breakfast, we set off from the train station. Our first stop was the Accademia to see 'The David.' No trip to Firenze would be complete with out it. It was great actually, since we were there early, we didn't have to stand in line. It really is a spectacluar piece of art, it's hard to describe because it is so much larger then you think and much more detailed. Definitely worth the price of admission to the Accademia alone, and a good thing too because there really isn't that much else to see. We strolled along the river and had another coffee (no sleep, people...what we were supposed to do?!) and found the Uffizzi Gallery. We had luckily pre-booked our tickets so we picked them up and skipped the line. Yay! Again, lots of spectacular art to be seen...the Birth of Venus and lots of Botticceli. It kinda sucked because alot of the gallery was closed so we really didn't spend as much time there as we thought we would. We found our 'hotel' after a long and sweaty walk and checked in. Because there were hardly any guests booked for that night, we got a free upgrade...ensuite bathroom...always a bonus! Then came our string of bad luck...it always comes in 3's you know. We had gone to American Express to cash some travellers cheques and it was closed. That didn't please us in the least as the average commission at other bureau du changes was 14%. Next bad thing was that the Duomo was closed when we arrived to go in. Evidently, it closes early the first Saturday of every month. Yeah, like we knew that. And lastly, we had to pay 20 Euro to reserve our train to Naples, even though we both have rail passes. All these things added up on top of the tiredness we were already feeling left us in pretty bad moods. We went back to the hostel (actually, it was more like we dragged our sorry butts back) and had popcorn for dinner. Yes, our first night in Italy and we had popcorn.



Day 2 in Florence was shopping day so of course our moods had drastically improved. We first walked up the Piazzale de la Michealangelo (the first of many hills/mountains to come) and got a stunning view of the city. Then it was shopping time...yay! We entered the leather market and it was so hard to choose what to buy...lots of purses, not very much room to pack them all! E and I both settled on purses that we liked and had to stop there otherwise things would have gotten out of control. We tried going to the Duomo again, but it was Sunday and that equals Catholic mass. Tourists are only allowed in between masses, so the line was ridiculously long so that will just have to wait for another trip. We caught our train to Naples (so glad we were only there for approx 30 minutes) and got on another train for Sorrento. We caught our first view of the Italian coast and it is beautiful!!! The hostel in Sorrento was lovely, but the dorm room had 14 beds crammed in it...not a lot of space to be had. We went to bed but were awakened in the night by the loudest snorer ever!!!! Let's just say the walls of the stone building were shaking. No joke.



Our first day in the Sorrento area was spent at Pompeii and the 'beach.' Pompeii is amazing, it's astonishing how advanced the ancient Romans were. We walked around for about 2.5 hours but the heat was getting to us both so back to the hostel we went to get our bathing suits and find the beach. You walk down this long and steep staircase and get to a junction...private beach to the right and public beach to the left. We didn't have 20 Euro on us for the private on so off to the public one we went. 'Beach' is a general term...it was more of a concrete slab built out into the ocean. But whatever, the water was lovely and it was a nice way to spend a hot afternoon. The hostel is also a cooking school and every night they put on a dinner. It's 15 Euro but you get 4 fantastic courses. Dinner was delicious and combined with a 5 Euro litre of red wine, good times were had by all!



We had signed up for a tour of Capri Island at the hostel and it was supposed to be our 2nd and last day in the area. The weather had other plans for us though, as it was cool and cloudy with rain definitely on the way when we woke up. After some debating, we decided to stay an extra day with hopes that the weather would be better. We relaxed in the hammocks pretty much all day with only a trip into town for lunch interrupting our relaxation. We agained had the dinner at the hostel and at bedtime, we were sure the weather would work in our favor.

Well, we were sort of right. The sun was shining and the birds were singing but the wind was also howling. Sal (the tour guy) arrived and said the trip was cancelled again today as the water was too rough. We just can't catch a break! We stayed an extra day just to see Capri so we were going to make it happen. We caught the hydrofoil and off we went! The Blue Grotto was closed so that sucked, but we still had a great day! We hiked up to Capri Town from the marina and found the Natural Arch, and part of the afternoon was spent at the beach. Yes, sunbathing on Capri Island...we lead a very hard life. We arrived back in Sorrento with time to grab our bags and catch a train to Rome, which is where we are now.

It's hard to believe that we only have 2 cities left, but we'll make the best of it!

Signing off from Roma...

Megs