Vet Judy

After Rome, I went south to Sorrento, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.

Sorrento was a nice quiet town. This entire coastal region is covered in terraced fruit and olive orchards. The rocks are steep, the roads are narrow, and riding along the coast in a bus is similar to an amusement park ride. The buses honk going around the corners as there is not enough room for two vehicles.

When the road is wide enough for two vehicles, then scooters feel obligated to squeeze beside and in between.

In some small towns along the coast I am sure the bus window was close enough to the entry of a café, I could have gotten coffee handed to me through the window. That is how narrow the road is.

It fascinates me, how much effort goes into making the land productive through the use of terracing. It also cuts down the avalanche risk by keeping the soil stable. The food was average when compared to the north. I felt that way about the food in all of these locations.

I took a boat ride between Amalfi and Sorrento in the evening. It was beautiful and a nice way to end up the trip.

After Sorrento and area, I had to head back to Rome for the flight home. I flew from Rome to Amsterdam, then Minneapolis and home to Edmonton.

The trip was long but uneventful.

The time spent in Italy went fast but I was glad to be home.

Got to spend the day in Riomaggiore and then took a short train ride to Monterosso. There is a beach there which is small but nice. Took a hike up in the hills in the morning and could hardly move the legs in the afternoon. Spent some time by the ocean enjoying the sound of the waves and the cool breeze. It was cloudy today, which I was grateful for. Yesterday was brutally hot for me.

Today I ventured up the coast, from Lucca to Cinque Terre National Park. It consists of 5 villages on the rocky coastline. They can be reached by train and a lot of hill climbing. I want to stress a lot of hill climbing. It seems I have been doing nothing but climbing hills since I got here, so I gave up the suitcase in lieu of a backpack. Didn’t make the climb any less, but saves the wrenching on the back from the one side.

I am staying in Riomaggiore for the next day or two. There is beautiful coastline from here to Genoa where I am headed anyway. So I think I will hop the train, hike the hills, and basically enjoy the view. It is spectacular.

Had to ride the train for a short time in the early evening today: we were packed in like cattle and holly hot was the trip. I was grateful it was only a 20 minute train ride. I think it was the Sunday crowd going home after spending time in the national park on the weekend. I can only hope tomorrow is better for train travel, as that little work out almost resulted in fainting.

Today I headed off to Lucca. Now this is a cool place for me. It is a city surrounded by a wall. You can rent bikes to bike around the city, sit in an open patio restaurant and drink while watching people wander by in any of the main squares. It is flatter here, thank goodness. My legs needed a break. It is relatively easy to find your way around town and there is less traffic and people in the streets. I shall stay here a couple of days and it is a short trip by train from here to Pisa for the leaning tower. I will have to fit that in while I am here.

Today consisted of primarily trains and connections. I took a train from Assisi to Florence and then found a bus to go to Sienna. If that sounds pretty straight forward, it wasn’t anything of the sort. What should have been a few hours turned out to be the majority of the day. It won’t be long now and I will be a pro: I have learned a few basic lines in Italian regarding the trains now. Such things as “does this train stop at, do I have to change trains, how many stops to etc etc.”

Open arrival, I found out, yes there are more steep hills! I found a place to stay. Hotel Piccolo. I have discovered that every Italian city I have been through so far, has a Piccolo hotel. Most of the ones I have seen or stayed at look clean enough. So if you are ever wandering through and don’t know where to stay, well a piccolo hotel may be as good a shot as any.

I stayed in Siena and used it mostly to work and then to do tours of the surrounding area. I took a wine tasting tour in the Chianti region of Tuscany one afternoon. This was fun, except the turns in the road were so fast and hard, I felt nauseous most of the afternoon. This cut back my wine consumption, but I still learned a lot about making wines and had a good time. It was a fabulous day and a lot of photos were taken.

I also spent a day and went to Florence. I am not much of a big city person, so take this with that in mind. I have lived in and traveled to a large number of big cities. I am at the point in my life where one big city is the same as the next. So for some people I am sure this city is purely magical. For me it was, OK- that is good, seen David and the Uffizi, walked down the Ponte Vecchio (gold smith alley)..and I am ready to abort. I had a nice meal there. You could spend days here though depending on your interests. There are I think 40 museums and at least half as many churches. The Uffizi gallery alone is so huge, if you are an art buff, you could spend days there.

The most interesting thing is the guide warns you about gypsies and pick-pockets and your wallet. I think there is more of a chance of going broke there by pulling out your wallet at one of the designer shops or a jewelry store there. In the entrance of the designer shops, there is a guard. Let’s put it this way, it is highly unlikely I was getting in there with a backpack on to just take a look. Needless to say, I didn’t even try. If you have a unique piece of jewelry, leather or outfit you are looking for and an unending budget, this would be the place to shop until you drop.