Naples and Sorento

We woke up in the Bay of Naples this morning. We finished breakfast just as the ship finished docking. From the top deck, looking into Naples, the Castel Nuovo dominated the foreground. Behind us, Mount Vesuvius sat crowned in a halo of clouds.

Our original plan was to catch a taxi to the train station to get to Pompeii. When we got to the taxi stand, however, the cabbies started selling us on taking the taxi directly to Pompeii. Much discussion and attempted haggling ensued. To make a long story short, they stayed firm on their prices and we agreed to hire one to take us to Pompeii, then Sorento, and then back to Naples. We soon discovered that this was a wonderful stroke of luck genius on our part.

On the way out of Naples, we got to see some pretty crazy driving. Traffic going the other way was backed up (rush hour traffic), and to get around that some drivers were actually driving down our side of the road...

Honestly, I thought Pompeii would get old pretty quick. I mean, how many ruined buildings do you really need to see? I'm happy to report that I was wrong. We spent two and a half hours wandering around, and could easily have spent another two. My personal favorite was the small amphiteatre, where if you stood in exactly the right spot every sound you made (hum/whistle/sing/speak) would be echoed back to you. Move even a bit in any direction and you wouldn't get the effect. The amphiteatre is your standard Greek half-circle amphiteatre that seats about 5,000, and the spot is the center of the perfect circle inscribed by its outer rim.

I did notice one thing that Charity would not like about Pompeii: there were dogs all over. I believe they're were strays, and would find one dozing pretty much around every corner.

From Pompeii we headed to Sorento, and it's an absolutely gorgeous drive along the coast. This was also when the cabbie started proving invaluable: he knew all the vista points to stop at for us to take pictures.

When we reached Sorento, our thoughts had turned to lunch, but the cabbie advised us to walk around downtown before the stores closed for the afternoon, which we did. We met back up with the cabbie at 1:30pm, and asked him to take us to a restaurant where the locals would go. We were not disappointed. Lunch was absolutely spectacular. I had a caprese salad (huge chunks of mozarella in between thick slices of tomato with olive oil and herbs), spaghetti a vongole (the best spaghetti I've ever had, in a clam sauce that was just perfect), and cozze alla Pronvecale (mussels Provencale-style). Mmm...

The last time I was in Italy, I was sorely disappointed in the food. This one meal made up for all the past disappointments. I guess we must have been really unlucky last time and just picked sub-par restaurants.

After lunch, we headed back to Naples, where we wondered around downtown before boarding the ship. All in all it was a great day, with the highlight definitely being lunch.