Day 14: Sorrento/Rome

Rome, Italy

This morning’s sky in Sorrento was crystal clear and you could spot the actual crater rim of Mount Vesuvius (see photo). After a relaxing morning poolside, we packed up and had one more scenic lunch before heading back to Naples to catch our 3pm train to Rome! Looking forward to one more fun night in the “big city” before we depart for home in the morning! One thing I’ve greatly enjoyed about our trip has been all the different modes of transportation we’ve taken! By the time we head home tomorrow (one more private driver and two more flights), we’ll have taken: 5 flights, 5 high speed trains, 1 traditional train, 2 water taxies (1 rubber boat & 1 gondola we stood on), 1 traditional gonadal (boat), 1 chairlift (up and down), 3 ferry boats, 2 funicular trains, and have had numerous private drivers for many of our day trips (various vans and even an Audi wagon one day). It’s been cool to see all the different compact cars (Smartcars, smaller style BMW/Audi, Sabb, Mini Coopers, Mercedes Benz, etc.) parked along the streets. Many Smartcars don’t event parallel park, they just pull perpendicular to the sidewalk and fit just fine! I have particularly grown found of the little 3 or 4 wheeled trucks (see picture). Bryan thinks it would be perfect to have at home for a quick run to Home Depot/Lowe’s for house projects (sorry to our neighbors if this little thing shows up in our driveway, ha!). I’ve also been fascinated by the level of service everywhere we have been. In each city, people seem to just own their job and deliver nothing but the best. It’s amazing to be surrounded by people that care about their “own brand.” Everyone we’ve encountered bleeds passion and takes pride in their work. It’s so refreshing and became extremely apparent to us just how much this is lacking in the US after just a couple days in Italy (don’t get me wrong, I still obviously call the US home and appreciate the things we have access to as a US citizen …just making some observations on the difference in European culture to that of the US). From the garbage sweeper/collector, to each waiter or porter, each individual has their assigned role and they deliver without missing a beat. They also seem to be a culture more dedicated to education. From taxi drivers and wait staff, to our highly skilled tour guides everyone left a bit of the city’s history with us. I laughed thinking about the old segment (Jaywalking) on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where they’d randomly poll the general public on miscellaneous events in history/current events/famous sites, etc. and so many people were not able to answer even close to correct. Italians probably would nail those questions and proceed to give you more information than what’s available on Wikipedia 🙂 Most places of business/hotels/restaurants had less staff that worked extra hard (very efficient) and in higher end restaurants there was a person dedicated to each task (host/hostess, individual to get drinks, person that passed bread to each table and refilled, another waiter to take your meal orders, different people to bus the tables, etc.). Many meals were brought out on carts and between courses we were provided clothes or towels to wipe our hands. We also would eat a meal for hours and were never rushed out of a restaurant because they needed to turn our table…this, with all the right dishes, glasses, etc. for each meal really made for a pleasant dining experience. The cleanliness throughout these vast areas and attention to various waste disposal (organic, recycling, etc.) largely surprised me. I expected a lot of trash/dirty city streets and instead they were regularly cleaned and cared for. From the narrow streets of Florence, Venice and Sorrento/the other coastal towns, and even throughout the larger streets of Rome we found very little littering. Right in the city center of Naples seemed a little more polluted, but we really can’t make a fair assessment since we only saw the train station there. At our last hotel that was more “resort style” we were shocked when we passed one of the kitchen prep areas on our walk back to the room one evening…the grill cooktop we could see was spotless. This got us all curious, so as we walked the customer facing prep area we looked at all the appliances and couldn’t believe they were all immaculate! I think this goes back to the level of pride/people here see the equipment to be important to their job and therefore maintain it. One other side note, I’m sipping on Orange Fanta on the train (which is going 284 km/hr right now) and it’s amazing here! It taste more like orange juice than pop. Certainly a flavor of Italy I’m going to miss, as I find most pop to be too sweet to enjoy. This will likely be my last post, so I’ll leave you with my recommendations/thoughts and HIGHLY encourage you to book a trip to Italy at some point in your life (most of these really apply to any travel you do): – One general rule I always find important is to keep an open mind wherever you go! – Learn some of the basic language: 1) The locals warm up to you more for at least making the effort and 2) it’s fun! – Understand the culture: many restaurants charged a service or bread charge per person in lieu of tipping or a lower tip was then appropriate. Make sure you check the latest before you go, so you don’t get upset over it or unintentionally over/under tip. – Eat the food that’s specific to each region (spritz & tiramisu in Venice, olive oil galore in Tuscany, try lasagna in each region because it’s different in each, seafood and the local fishes in the costal towns, caprice style veal or salad and lemon cake in Sorrento/Capri, Pasta Carbonara in Rome, etc.). It’s going to be so hard to eat shrimp or calamari when we get back to the states because the flavor of the fresh ones we had in Sorrento/Amalfi was truly indescribable! – Also, just an FYI: Chicken Parmesan and meatballs don’t really exist here! Not sure how Italian restaurants in the states can claim to make “authentic” versions of either. They could be more prevalent in Sicily/other areas we didn’t travel to. – Purchase any tickets you can in advanced for crowded attractions to “skip” the long lines (Coliseum, Vatican, etc.). – After reading my blog, you can tell I love food 🙂 Schedule a cooking class while you’re in Italy! It’s truly a once in a lifetime experience. – Drink plenty of wine, indulge in all the food and don’t skip the fresh gelato (but, not the gelato that’s piled high)! – Order Euros from your bank before leaving the states or use an ATM aboard for best conversion rates. – As always, stay aware of your surroundings and belongings. – Expect small showers/restrooms, but don’t let it ruin your trip! – Public restrooms: not it the best shape, so do your business and move on with your day! Carry some hand sanitizer 🙂 – Push yourself to learn! We were fortunate to have excellent, bilingual tour guides; but, we overheard others doing self directed tours or large group tours make comments like “once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all” and it really made me sad to instantly realize just how much that person could be missing out on. I was never really a “history buff”, but learning so much about Ancient Rome, the Renaissance and gothic artwork, and the buildings (oh did I love all the architecture) don’t cheat yourself/limit what you can take in. Definitely caught the travel bug more than ever on this trip and looking forward to traveling to other places in the world!! Tonight’s dinner was at a cool, new restaurant (Osteria Delle Coppelle) in the heart of a local neighborhood in Rome! Definitely finished our trip on a high note with this meal…I won’t bore you with every detail (I’ll let the pictures tell the story), but we shared an excellent meat and cheese board, the best bruschetta we’ve had and various small plates leaving room for us to each order an entree and still couldn’t finish all the delicious food! Ciao, Italy! I’ll miss you and hope to return again someday!