Saturday October 19, 2013 

Sorrento

OK  Its Saturday night and its been a busy three days.  Left Montepulciano (Tuscany region) on Thursday.  Took the Autostrada which is the main Italian higway system down to Sorrento.  about 450 kilometers and traffic was no different than driving at home.  Speed limit was 130 km/h (80 mph) and you can see the size of vehicle I have been driving a full size (for Europe) 9 passenger Mercedes Benz Diesel. 

I can tell you in all the driving in Southern Italy I have not seen a single Ferrari or Lamborghini.  One Porsche though.   

Driving got interesting once we hit Naples.  Very aggressive, lanes and stop signs are mere suggestions especially for the motorcyclists and scooters.  Pass you on the left, right, into oncoming traffic.  They are the Honey Badger of the roads here, they just don't give a shit.  (look up honey badger on youtube).

Below are a couple of pictures from Tuscany one is of a dragon which adorn all the buildings there.  The other is of Deb and I in front of an Etruscan well from about the 3rd century you can see the wear marks in the stone around the well from ropes pulling up the buckets of water.   Well is a misnomer its more of a cistern as rain was collected in the cistern from all the rooftops and then everyone went there to draw their water.

 

This is the picture that says it best , Deb, Linda and Marla doing laundry when we arrived in Sorrento.  Please note the prosseco, they said its the only way to do laundry!!

Yesterday we spent the day tour Herculaneum a city that was nearer to Naples that was buried at the same time that Pompeii was by the Mt Vesuvius eruption.  Quite a bit smaller, we were told it was mainly the summer homes of wealthy Romans with not much industry in the area.  Pompeii is vastly larger with more extensive temples, baths, bakeries and brothels.  We may still go back for another day in Pompeii as we saw maybe half of the place. 

Last night was spent at a local farm where they grow olives, lemons (for their own lemon cello), nuts and milk their own cows to produce their own mozzarella cheese.  Here is a video link of their cheese making demonstration reminded me of mom making cottage cheese when the lady here made Riccotta cheese.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE_j5lr8ww0

We came here with Peter & Karen Thompson two years ago to the same hotel and farm.  I don't know what we pulled off when we were here but both the owner of the hotel Johanna and the lady at the farm (neither of which speak much English) stood and pointed at me and (in Italian, the main lady at the farm translated) points at me and goes "I remember him Trafalgar tours 2 years ago" pretty neat. 

Today we took a ferry over to the Isle of Capri. All limestone cliffs many caves and grottos that we toured around the island by boat. Water is an azure and green color very clear we were looking down into 30 feet of water and could see clear to the bottom.  

Then it was up to the top of the mountain to the main village of Capri via a funiculare ( cable car that is towed up and down the mountain 70 people at a time. Again great views of the bay of Napoli. 

Tomorrow we plan on hanging around the hotel most of the day.  Lary and Linda's daughter and son in law Christa and Robbie arrive around 2 so I will have plenty of time to add pictures to the blog tomorrow.  

It was great talking to Dad today was glad to hear all the crops were off.  We are making plans to go to the Ukraine for next year!

Good night all. 

D&D