Naples

This was our first day on mainland Italy. We arrived to Port in Naples around 8 a.m. after a night at sea on a ferry from Palermo. I was a bit dubious about getting much quality sleep as the seas were rolling a bit. Neither of us suffer from motion sickness, but I do get a bit unnerved by the unevenness of the motion, not unlike my response to turbulence in the air.

I woke up to the light coming in from the porthole and got up to look outside. It turns out that we were approaching the isle of Capri. That passage will likely be the closest that we get to Capri, but it was fun to see it.

When we disembarked from the ferry, the next task was to find the commuter ferry from Naples to Sorrento. Google maps saved the day, and we easily found the ticket office about fifteen minutes later. I hadn't booked the connecting ferry until 11 a.m., but the ticket agent let us book the 9 a.m. to Sorrento for a modest fee.

The ride on the commuter ferry was fun. It was a fast passenger ferry and we cruised along the shoreline at a pretty good clip. Our first glimpse of Sorrento was inspiring as we saw buildings built into the cliffs and walls that reminded me of castles from Game of Thrones.

As we pulled up to port, we started to map the address, but as I looked up from the dock, I recognized our inn from photos. We confirmed the address and, sure enough, our place of lodging was only about 100 meters from the marina. In retrospect, the lodging house is called Marina Piccolo (small marina) so it makes sense that it was close by

When we arrived at our accommodations, we met Alice. We were hoping to just drop out backpacks off, but it turns out that our room was ready and she let us move in after a tour of the facility and area restaurant suggestions. She was really quite lovely and welcoming.

Our room is spectacular. We face the bay and Mt. Vesuvius. The song of the dance of the waves on the shore adds to the tranquility of the place. And most of the city is nestled on the cliffs above us.

We learned that there are only two ways to get to the upper city: the stairs or a lift that connects you to the public garden. We decided to check out the lift and ventured in search of a local laundromat. As has been true for a good part of our trip, the rains have stalked us from Portland.
Luckily, Alice had made sure that we had an umbrella, and we found a site to do laundry.
When we arrived, a young Australian couple helped us navigate how the machines worked. We learned that they had both quit their jobs, and they told us that they were exploring Europe ".. until their money ran out." They alerted us to avoid a specific washing machine. In turn, we paid the information forward by helping another traveling young man navigate the machines.

Walking the streets of Sorrento is festive with many shops and restaurants luring you to their spaces. The old buildings are interspersed with the new, and I love the integration.

As we returned back toward our hotel, we opted to try some pizza, the food that this region is famous for creating. When we asked the server how big the pizzas were, he replied that they were single serving size. They were huge and tasty, and despite having leftovers, to-go boxes do not seem to be in custom here. We capped the meal with limoncello shots.

After a nap, we held a family Zoom call with Genevieve, Olive and my mother as an early Mother's Day greeting and catch up.

We opted for a late night dinner at the beach. We were the last reservation of the night, and the service was disorganized, but gracious. It should be noted that traveling in Sorrento is a bit like the DownEast Mainer expression, "You can't get there from heah." Although we could see the restaurant from our accommodation, the route to get there was a little tricky as we have to travel up and around a cliff to get back to the shore.

It's time for bed. I go to sleep with gratitude that the travel gods were looking out for us. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Buona Notte! 💞Read more