Roma

21-Settembre-2011


We left Sorrento more or less as planned, this time leaving the scenery of Angri to the locals.  Vesuvio was impressive up close under the bright sunshine.  

Looks like a nice hike.

Some slow traffic on the way delayed our arrival.  We had to shelve our plan of dropping the ladies and our stuff at the hotel and then taking the car to the drop-off point a short distance away.  Also, there was a detour that dumped us into an unexpected part of Rome.  While I panicked, Mary’s sharp eyes found a “termini” sign for the train terminal, which we knew was close to the car rental return, so we headed off in that direction, but were soon lost again.  As we were looking for someone to help us, Mary spotted another sign and we thought we were home free.  Not so.  The maze of one-way streets thwarted two attempts to get to Via Guilia Guiotti.  We had a map, and Mary and I had been to the place once before, so we knew we were close, but we just couldn’t solve the maze of one-way streets to get the car to the drop off point.  Very frustrating!  

I told Dave to park alongside the dumpsters in the street.  I walked a few blocks to the parking garage where the return lot was.  After a number of false starts in the attendant’s broken English and my more broken Italian, I learned that the way to approach the Hertz return was on Via Mangini, one street to the west.  Dave circled back to find that where we intersected Via Mangini was also one way in the wrong direction, but one more clockwise rotation around a block finally got us where we needed to be.  Dave navigated the tight, tight turns in the garage up to the 7^th floor.  Like the Sorrento busboy said, drive to Roma, enter the city, get lost 10 times and finally get where you want to go. 

Thank you, Kuga, for your service.  Enough with the driving already.

We happily abandoned the car.  The guy receiving the car made no mention of our slightly late arrival.  Either my interest in prompt arrival was misplaced in Italy, which is quite likely, or the fact that the return site is close to impossible to find made prompt return irrelevant.  

Dave and I grabbed our bags and followed the ladies on the way to the termini.  We caught up with them sooner than expected, since Becky and Mary had found that the ground floor was 0, not 1.  We met the laughing ladies just after that realization had dawned.  The down and up trip they made was more than enough for Dave and me to catch up.  

We found a cab at the trains station taxi stand and paid €25 for a distance we could have walked.  I thought we were being ripped off until the hotel deskman told me that with 4 people and all our bags, the bill for the 10 minute ride was about right.  I still did not like the incredible swiftness with which the cabbie sequestered my 50 into the same pocket where Mary had observed him pocketing a 20 before we left the train station.  I have to believe we would have been “gamed” if not observant.  I wonder if the cabbie was originally from Capri?  

Our things dropped at the hotel, we were off to Trevi.  The place was incredibly crowded in mid afternoon.  Regardless, it was as beautiful as ever.  Because of the dense packing of tourists, a woman behind me tossed her coin high in the air and into the fountain from 25 feet away.  Instinctively, both of my hands shot up into the air and I shouted, “Three!”  
She smiled and scurried away quickly.

Bellissima Fontana Di Trevi

We tromped to the Pantheon, passing a huge temple converted to a government agricultural building on a less travelled by-way.  I am always amazed at the unheralded antiquities of Rome.  

Not even mentioned in the tour guides.

Looking up at the dome of the nearly 2000 year-old Pantheon,
a fine advertisement for use of structural concrete.

Outside the Pantheon, a Salumeria provided a good picture-taking diversion, even without sampling the wonderful-looking sandwiches.  

Pigeon contemplating entry?

The aesthetic appeal of the Piazza Navona, the original stadium of Rome, was lessened by a display related to some current conference.

Piazza Navona, still not shabby

The view was obscured by tents over displays.  But we managed to salvage the piazza visit by eating fine meal at a restaurant just off the piazza.  

We soon headed off to see the Campo Di Fiore, but the vendors were gone since we arrived too late in the day.  At first glance, it looked like the Zambonis were cleaning the ice, but it turned out to be the street cleaning trucks purging the garbage strewn about.  

We took in the Spanish Steps and Trevi again that night.  

Looking up at the Spanish Steps

Just a great place to hang out.

Beautiful, as always.  And relaxing, in a odd way.  The shock value of Rome is gone for me.  I am used to the din, the crazy driving, the heat and the press of the crowd.  But oddly, I find I like it more.  I feel a bit more comfortable, and that my slightly improved yet still limited understanding of the language will get us by.  Being there is always an experience.  It is Rome, and nowhere else is Rome.  

Mary will return...

Positano, Amalfi, Ravello

20-Settembre-2011

After visiting Positano, Amalfi and Ravello, I know why Sorrento was settled.  It is the only flat spot for a long, long way.  Perhaps because of that, it is over-commercialized.  Becky and Dave say Sorrento feels much more like Mexico than they would have expected.  I’ll have to trust their opinion.

Our near-silent driver, Enzo, picked us up at the hotel and took us over the mountain to Amalfi Drive.  The road?  I could have driven it, but it would not have been pleasant.  Mary would have been a nervous wreck.  

Almalfi Drive is that horizontal line you see on the cliff just below the houses.
This is one of the lower sections.

So graze for driving to Enzo, even though he failed to even attempt to converse.  When Dave asked for “un piccolo ristorante con vista panoramico,” Enzo grunted, but basically blew off the suggestion.  No little restaurant with a view for us.  Not on his route.

A distorted 180 degree view from Positano beach.  
Please bend your monitor around your head for the proper perspective.

Positano’s beach was outstanding.  The sea rolls small rocks up to the foot of the mountains.  To the East, the blue of the sea and sky contrasted spectacularly with the bright orange beach umbrellas.  

The other way, the multicolored buildings cling to the mountainside, far up into the valley that is the reason the town is there.

Positano is a great place to go for a beach vacation if you don’t care about going anywhere else, because the drive in and out is prohibitive.  

We were in Amalfi long enough to eat lunch on the seaside, but not a lot else.  We did not get into the town very far, so perhaps I am selling it short, but I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to come back.  There was not enough time to really see the Duomo, so I passed on that and took a few pictures in the square.  

At least the fountain was entertaining.  I had to wonder which Saint was being celebrated.

Ravello has a spectacular view high above the coast.  Did the natives settle there for the view?

Villa Rufolo looked interesting, but once again, no time.  I hate tours, because you are always on someone else’s schedule.  Soon we were back in the minivan and careening down the twisting cliffside road.  Looking down at the terraces, Dave indicated he’d be afraid to farm there for fear of falling.  

There are goats in there somewhere.

“Enzo, are those wild goats?”  

“Goat? Que e goat?”  

“Over there, on the hill, where we just passed.  Uhh…Pecora.”  Enzo looked up from his texting while driving and turned around to scan for whatever Dave was describing on the hillside.  

“NO, NO, never mind!”  came the 4-part cry from the passengers.  

Back in Sorrento, Mary and I had a drink on the windy balcony of the hotel and once again drank in the fabulous view of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples.  

Not a bad port for a cruise.

Dinner out with the Foringers included a purely factual discussion of why Becky was a bad influence on Mary while shopping.  Suprisingly enough, Becky and Mary did not give any indication that deterrence had been achieved.  


Dave, ever the sage, said nothing. 

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Bonus videos explaining why Mary would have been a nervous wreck if I drove.  And this is the video from the "safe" inside lane...