Italy/Greece : Day 4 - Rome -> Capri -> Sorrento

We had another marathon day today, but I'll try to keep this post shorter ;0D

Today after another 6am wakeup, we said good-bye to Rome. I realize that I didn't give you a description of what Rome is like. It's crowded, but clean and charming. In Rome, a mini-cooper is a BIG car... a smart car and cars of that size fit right in. There are thousands of scooters which the Italians call mosquitos, because of how they buzz around everyone. Fabrizio keep touting our bus driver's skill, saying that, "You are lucky you have a Napolian bus driver!" Even Jim was impressed with how he'd drive the little streets in Rome with inches to spare on each side of the bus.

We didn't really know what the "Napolean bus driver" comment meant until we left Rome for the port of Napoli (our bus driver's home). What a crazy place! There, markings on the street on only for decoration, and signal lights are considered only suggestions. But, thanks to Samuel's skill we made it safely to the port, and boarded a boat to the beautiful Island of Capri (thankfully, leaving Napoli behind).

The main part of town at the top of the hill. Jim and I headed to the funicular (cable car) that would take us there. In the meantime, the kids jumped on another boat for an island cruise:



The town was so interesting! The houses are carved into the side of the hills; the streets are little walkways or intersecting tunnels.


We found some pretty spectacular views:


Meanwhile, on the cruise, the kids were see the same things we were, but from sea level:


When the kids got back, they did a little exploring of their own... Trust them to find the Rodeo Drive of Capri. Capri is the designer showcase (second only to Milan). All the major designers and new upcoming designers have shops in Capri. Yeah, the group of ladies on our tour, who we affectionately called the "shopping ladies," were in heaven!

We stopped at a cute little sidewalk cafe for... you guessed it... PIZZA!

Now is our time to leave. We met up with the kids just before heading back down the Funicular to board the ferry to Sorrento. The ride was only 25 minutes, but it was an exhausting day. We all fell asleep.

BUT, it's not over YET! Welcome to SORRENTO!!!

We had just enough time to get to the hotel and take showers, but with our entire group taking showers at once, the water pressure was almost non-existent. I had to rinse my hair out under the faucet. Eventually, the hotel ran out of hot water... some of the group members were NOT happy! After the showers finally got finished, we took several micro-mini-vans to a lemon farm for dinner. The road to the farm was insanely narrow... too narrow for a bus... too narrow for van... but just wide enough for a micro-mini-van. BUT NOT wide enough for the micro-mini-van to pass anything (not even a pedestrian). Seriously, there were inches of clearance on each side! Here is the van:

And here is what it looked like inside, lol!

This is a private residence and they open their home up to serve tour groups a home-cooked meal. Isn't this a wonderful place to eat? The food was WONDERFUL and plentiful. Like all Italian dinners, it lasted for a couple hours.


Look at this view from their yard!


The specialty of the lemon farm (in fact the whole region) is a lemon liquor that they call limoncella. We tried the limoncella here, and it was very strong! Chris and I didn't like it, but Jim and Cheryl did. In fact, Cheryl finished Chris's cup. I told Chris to make sure that Cheryl didn't fall down the stairs on the way to their room tonight. On the way back down the mountain in the micro-mini-vans, the group, who we fondly refer to as the "crazy Australians" had hit the limoncella a little to much... they offered our driver 50 euro, to pass the van in front of us. Needless, to say, it was a WILD ride down the mountain! When we reached the bottom, we all tumbled out laughing. We got back to the hotel after 10pm... time for bed!

I'll leave you with the FUNNY OF THE DAY: Our hotel was old, but with lots of character. The elevator was tiny! It claimed to hold a maximum capacity of 5. The 4 of us got into the elevator, and it wouldn't budge! We were over the weight limit. I got out and took the stairs... Well, the elevator may have a maximum capacity of 5 Italians, but it only holds 3 Americans.