Bella Italia!

We have been in Italy for about 10 days and each day has been wonderful! We flew from Dublin to Rome and stayed in a small hotel near the train station. We spent the next day making train reservations for our trip to Naples and then figuring out the details of getting to Sorrento from Naples. Saturday morning, the 13th., we tried out the Italian train system and liked it! We traveled on a medium speed train and reached Naples in 2 hours and then took a hydrofoil to Sorrento! It was a great way to see the surrounding area.

Rick Steves' talks about Sorrento as being a great base from which to explore that coastal region and we agree! We stayed in a superb hotel on the hillside and looked out on the Bay of Naples. The weather cooperated and we finally found sun and warm temperatures. We went to Pompeii by commuter train, the Amalfi coast as far as the town of Amalfi by bus (crazy, wild ride on curvy, narrow roads that are on the edge of cliffs with long drops to the sea!), the Isle of Capri by hydrofoil, and the other town that Vesuvius buried - Ercolano - and the National Museum in Naples also by commuter train. All these took a day each. We also just browsed around Sorrento which is a lovely town of 20,000. I bought some new shoes for walking; I had worn out the ones I took with me!

Then last Friday we took the train from Sorrento to Venice. This was a long day, changing trains in Naples (where Jon and I got separated when he couldn't get off the first train fast enough!) and then again in Rome. These were the fast trains, which helped, but we still were the move from 9:30 in the morning when we left the hotel until 6:30 in the evening when we reached our hotel in Venice. The last step was taking the Venetian style of public transportation, the vaporetto (boat) and then walking with our bags, following the great directions provided by the hotel.

Venice is delightful! We have 3 full days here and have used the first two well. Of course, our first stop Saturday morning had to be Piazza San Marco - St. Mark's plaza. Then we toured the bascilica, which is amazing. The entire ceiling has gold background and mosaics. Then we walked over the Rialto Bridge and past the market there to the Frari church with it's collection of Bellinis and Titians - WOW! Next door to it is the Scuola Grande with it's collection of Tintorettos. These are probably the three most gifted artists that Venice ever produced and their work is awesome. By the time we found our way back to the hotel, we were pretty tired but what a way to start!

Today we woke up to light gray skies with the possibility of rain to come so we wasted no time in having our gondola ride! Luca was our gondolier and he explained what we were seeing well in English. It was a lot of fun and not nearly so cheesy as we thought it might be. Then we headed back to San Marco's (which is just a few minutes away from our hotel happily) to visit the Doge's Palace. The Doge was the most powerful political person in Venice during it's heyday, which last for hundreds of years. The palace is very interesting and we took our time. Afterwards, we went to the San Marco vaporetto stop to take an enjoyable ride down the Grand Canal (this time without luggage) and to truly enjoy the sights. We walked back quite a distance and at this moment, we are getting ready to have some tasty Italian food for dinner. For the record, I am TRYING to be good and have only had gelato once so far - on Capri where it was in the 70s and sunny - a perfect day!

Here are some photos. From the top: the view from our balcony at the Hotel Bristol in Sorrento, the Amalfi coastline at Positano, me on Capri, us on the balcony of the bascilica overlooking piazza San Marco, and us at the end of our gondola ride this morning.