Sorrento, Capri and Napoli and Now Rome

When we got to Sorrento they wanted 35 cents per minute for internet access. Obviously, I am not going to do that, so we have some catching up do do! One thing is for sure. We are not sitting on our hands.

We took the train from Florence to Naples. When we got to the station we had a driver waiting who took us from the station to our hotel, which was the Bellevue Syrene in Sorrento. The hotel is about 200 feet up off the ocean front. We had a seaside room with a view of the Bay of Sorrento and Mt Vesuvius. The room was really unusual. Very large, with mirrors, painted in purple and white. The view from the room was spectacular. Sorrento is a kind of old seaside resort. The only thing there is fishing and tourism. They are well known for lemon products, like lemoncello, lemon soap, etc. The first day we spent time walking around and getting to know the town.

On day two we had a tour of Capri, which is a 25 minute boat ride from Sorrento. The only way to describe Capri is captivating. This is the land of the rich and famous...kind of like Malibu. Everyone of note has a villa in Capri...and if you have to ask how much, you can't afford it! I have lots of pictures which I will post here. Words really don't do the island justice.

Our tour took the entire day. We saw every part of the island....taking a cable chair to the very top.

After hanging out in Sorrento for a few days we went on to Naples and Pompeii. We did not spend much time in Naples, but it looked like it could be an interesting place to visit were there more time. We did spend two hours touring the ruins of Pompeii. Very impressive. Apparently this is the largest excacation site in Europe and one of the largest in the world, next to Egypt.

We arrived in Rome from Naples yesterday. We spent last night getting familiar with our hotel, The Eden Hotel, and surrounding area. We are 10 minutes from the Spanish Steps and about 15 minutes from Trevi Fountain. Today we did a tour of the Vatican...the ususal, St Peter's Square and Bacillica, the Sisten Chapel, The Vatican Museum, etc. It is overwhelming. I had artwork overload. There is just not enough time to see it all. The best part was seeing the Pieta, which I have only seen copies of heretofore.

From the Vatican we took a cab to the Colleseum and from there walked back to the hotel. We stopped to see a gallery showing of Piccasso, which was very good. We also stoppped to see the Forum. It was about a 2 mile hike back to the hotel, so Yoko and I were both pooped by the time we got back. (We left for the Vatican at 9 AM and did not get back to the hotel till about 5 PM this evening.) We spent the evening enjoying the view from the Terrace Bar on the top of this hotel that looks out over the city of Rome. After that we went out and had dinner on Via Veneto, where we found a place that had a great piano player. It was a nice way to end the day. Yoko did not like the food, but the piano player made her cry, so all in all it was a success.

She is sitting next to me and wishes you all well. It is hard to believe that this trip is nearly over!