Day 1 – Rome – August 11
We had a short, hour-long layover in Madrid, long enough to make us remember we love Espana. Our flight from Madrid to Rome (Roma as they call it – apparently it’s nearly impossible to decipher if you don’t add that ‘a’ on the end) was pleasant enough; no one was sitting next to us, but we took off late due to maintenance issues, only for the plane to land on time. We guess they just flew faster. Ryan wanted an Italian stamp on his passport, but we didn’t get one as we were already in the Schengen Area. Our Airbnb host gave us detailed instructions on how to transfer from the airport to the apartment. We, of course, decided that route was too expensive and took a different train, which ended up taking us not quite where we needed to be. So we took a taxi the final 20 minutes, instead of spending another hour on a bus ride. Our taxi driver was quite congenial, telling us where to eat, and what tourist spots to avoid; then he let us know that his pistol was made in Texas (STI brand) and that he only used it for target practice. What a coincidence. Our Airbnb host met us in the courtyard of the apartment and explained the building was over 100 years old and very Roman. He then escorted us to our room and gave a brief introduction to Rome. We then loaded up the washing machine and went out to find some pizza. Half an hour later our host messaged us to let us know that we needed to wait until tomorrow to do our laundry, because we had tripped the breaker and killed the power to the apartment – something our flat mates were not happy about. This didn’t slow us down, as we were enjoying phenomenal pizza and delicious wine at Alma Bunoa. We returned to the Airbnb, watched an episode of GOT, then Elizabeth promptly fell asleep.
Day 2 -Rome – August 12
Elizabeth woke up early (well early for us – at 7 AM) to go for a jog around the neighborhood. In typical fashion, she got lost and ended up running six miles, 3 more than she intended, and biffed it on the pavement, scrapping her knee, elbow and hand. She eventually made it to the park where other people were exercising- but no one was exercising on the way there-how did they make it there? Meanwhile Ryan slept in, he couldn’t fall asleep until half past 2 the night before, so he was catching up. At 1030, we ate a free in-house breakfast of cereal, yogurt and prosciutto, then finished our laundry cycle. After hanging the clothes to dry, we set out to see the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon; we also needed to check out the shopping district nearby, even though we ended up not buying anything.
Deciding we had walked enough, we walked towards the nearest bus stop and attempted to buy tickets. They are traditionally sold at tobacco shops and convenience stores. We were not able to find either of these on the way, so we concocted a plan to download the app. That effort led us to missing the first bus. We eventually figured it out though and hopped on the next one. Arriving at our stop we realized that walking to all those sights had brewed quite a hunger in us, which we had to sate with pasta and wine. Stopping in at a quaint looking osteria, where we ate spaghetti carbonara and Norcina alla con tartufo.
After enjoying this rich meal, Elizabeth decided our only option was to stop by a gelateria. How could you argue with that? A few scoops of pistachio, Stracciatella, and Oreo gelato later, we were hankering for a nightcap. We strolled into the café across from our apartment to order a few beers and a couple glasses of wine. They were kind enough to serve us some interesting tapas unprompted, which they then charged us for. They didn’t charge us for all the drinks though, so it looks like they were free after all. The 2-minute walk to our apartment seemed like an eternity, as we wanted nothing more than to be in our beds, but Elizabeth let us take the elevator to save some time (and effort).
Day 3 – Rome – August 13
We got up around 8:30 and made our way over to St. Peter’s Basilica to go into Vatican City. The crowds were pretty low and we were able to enjoy the square and look upon the Basilica. Construction of the basilica began in 1506 and finished in 1626, it is estimated to have cost $5.4 billion to build today. It is believed to be resting place of St. Peter, the first pope, under the main altar. We walked along the outside of the entire Holy See, so we could say we’ve walked around an entire country. The line for the Vatican museum was at least three blocks long. We haven’t figured out the prime days/times for visiting the various sites in Rome.
Next we set off for lunch walking about 45 minutes along the Tiber River to the eastern part of Rome. The walk was beautiful and cool as we strolled under the shade of the trees seemingly having the entire city to ourselves. We ate lunch at a pizzeria called Emma and it was delicious. We ate a margarita pizza and a prosciutto pizza and shared a bottle of red wine, also delicious. For dessert, we each got an espresso and shared an order of homemade biscuits. We were served entirely too many to finish.
We continued wandering east, eventually stumbling upon the Altare della Patria, which translates to Altar of the Fatherland. Much to our delight, it was free! So, we climbed the enormous marble staircases and admired architecture and the statues. This landmark is a monument built in honor of Victor Emmanuel II the first king of unified Italy and was completed in 1911. We were able to take great panoramic photos of the city from the top and had our first glimpse at the Roman Forum and the Colosseum – our next stops.
We wandered down the street walking next to several large Roman pillars and parts of benches and buildings that had been excavated in the 1800s. The preservation of these artifacts is amazing and you can still see so much carved detail in the stone. We got to the Colosseum pretty late, around 5 pm, hoping to miss the heat and the crowds. It still took 15-20 minutes to make it through all the metal detectors and lines to buy our tickets, but finally we were in.
We wandered through the ground floor, noticing that the stadium floor had been removed. They are renovating all the tunnels and spaces below. On the second floor you have a better view of the whole colosseum and there is a little museum that has models of how it would have looked in its heyday. It was the largest colosseum at the time and could hold up to 80,000 people. You could see in the models how the animals and gladiators would have come up through the floor. It was a good thing we just finished watching Gladiator in Morocco – to see what Russel Crowe has seen.
Exhausted, we began walking back home by wandering around the outside of the Roman Forum – Rome should really work on updating their signs for entrances and thru-streets. We walked a good 20 minutes before realizing we were headed to a dead end and had to turn back. Hungry, we began our quest for food. The area near the colosseum is pretty touristy, as you can imagine, and charge a lot of money for a unappetizing spaghetti and meatball. So, we continued our journey back to our neighborhood of Prati – which happens to be a good local food scene. On our way, we stopped into an Irish Pub called The Surge to get a few beers and cool off. Ryan tried the Guinness; per usual he reports it is still not as good as Ireland.
We then hopped on the bus and headed back towards our AirBnB. The bus system in Rome is a disaster, as described by a local. Google has timetables for arrival and departures, but the buses are always very late, very early, or just never come. We’d hustle to catch a bus, only to have to sit for 30 minutes waiting for one to show up. Luckily the beer helped us cope. For dinner we ate at a restaurant down the street from our room called Luma Bistro. Ryan had gnocchi with prawn and Elizabeth got spaghetti Bolognese, and of course we had some more local Lazio wine – delicious. Bellies full, it was a short walk back to our home.
Day 4 – Rome – August 14
We got up earlyish with the intention of going inside St. Peter’s Basilica around 9 am. The line was already wrapping around the entire plaza, so we left for a quick breakfast of pastries and coffee at a small tourist breakfast shop, Café Delle Commari, which was overpriced and about 10 minutes away. We returned an hour later to see if the lines had dropped – they had not. We relaxed in the plaza for an hour or so, lounging in the shade and people watching, all while the line got longer and longer stretching around the back end of the church. Since we have plenty of time in Rome, we decided to come back another less crowded day to see the church.
We hopped on a bus and headed back towards the center of town to visit a hand-picked, heavily researched Italian restaurant. This was the beginning of our Italian restaurant failings. Apparently, the entire country goes on vacation at the end of August and doesn’t update their Google hours or open/closed status. We arrived to gated doors. Starving, we popped in small sandwich shop just a few doors down with Homer Simpson on the sign. We shared a large Peroni, a ham and mozzarella sandwich on facoccia bread, and French fries. Apparently, we started a trend because the small restaurant of four tables was empty when we arrived and we could barely get through the crowd to pay our bill. After a quick detour for the gelato shop for Elizabeth, stracciatella and menta, it was off to the Roman Forum.
Roman Forum had a tricky entrance to locate but the Colosseum tickets we purchased included both and we were determined to get our moneys worth. The forum is well worth the price of admission. You can see everything from the sidewalk above as you walk towards the Colosseum, but it was something else to actually walk through the old archways which are old government buildings and is in the heart of ancient Rome. We continued out of the valley and up the hill to the Palantine. Palantine is where the Augustus imperial palace ruins stand. Its crazy to see things that were built in 60 AD, 60!
Finally, we were headed back home for some afternoon drinking and changing out of our sweaty clothes. We waited and waited and waited for a bus until finally just ordering a taxi. The bus is only 1.5 euro a person, so maybe that’s why it’s never on time. After having the driver drop us off near our AirBnB we walked over to a bar/café, La Fiorentina and drank a half liter of their house white wine; it was so cool and refreshing. Ryan had found a number of delicious looking restaurants right in our neighborhood, so afterwards we set off for some pasta and pizza. Unfortunately, the first three we walked to were all closed for vacation. We ended up going to a restaurant right across the street called Trattoria Micci from our AirBnB at Elizabeth’s suggestion. We sat outside, and only being 7:30 pm, beat the local Italian crowd to dinner. This was one of our favorite meals in Rome. We had a bottle of the house red and split a sausage pizza and pasta all’Amatriciana. For dinner we split a crème brûlée, so heavenly.
Day 5 – Vatican City – August 15
Elizabeth woke up early to jog up Monte Mario a small mountain a mile away from our house with an observatory on top. The jog was challenging going up a short and steep series of switchbacks on uneven cobbles but the views over Rome were worth it. On her way down we stopped by St. Peters Basilica to check out the lines, the pope was giving a blessing at noon and she knew there’d be more security to go through. It seemed like people were already going in, at 8:30, so Elizabeth panicked, made us quick shower and grab cappuccinos and pastries from the shop below our apartment before rushing over.
Obviously, we made it through the metal detectors by 9:30 and the place was practically deserted. Since we had 2.5 hours to kill before the pope, we walked into the basilica. Again, virtually no wait. We’re not really sure what was going on the day before. Our first stop was up the 551 steps to go up inside St. Peters Dome and then to the top of the cupola to walk around on the outside. The first set of steps (320) are long, broad, and slick that take you inside the church. You can walk along half of the dome and have a close view of all the mosaics on the ceiling and walls. The walls and ceilings are not actually painted anywhere within in the church, they’re all mosaics. You can look down right in the middle and see the baldacchino canopy above the altar above St. Peters grave and where the pope says mass. Next we went up the narrow, winding stairs towards the top. The views are gorgeous and you can see all of Piazza San Pietro. It cost 8 euro to take the stairs to the top or 10 euro to elevator half way up but it’s well worth the price.
After winding our way back down, we spent plenty of time up top enjoying the breeze and trying to dry our sweat from climbing all the unairconditioned stairs with 300 other people, we went inside the church. Since it was a Holy Day of Obligation, Ascension Thursday – when Mary goes to heaven, there was mass happening in all of the side chapels every hour on the hour. We wandered around looking at all the art and marveling at how big the church is before going into the basement Grotto. Below holds the tombs of former popes and we weaved between the different tombs and sarcophagi.
Finally, it was around 11:30 and Elizabeth was getting pope excited. We weren’t sure where he was going to be speaking from. Eventually we learned he gives these addresses from his study window, which isn’t in the church, but in one of the buildings to the side looking of St. Peter’s Square. We waited in the shade until 11:45 when they dramatically flung open his study window and laid out his crest and flag. We scampered into the sun and closer to his window to get a better view of the Holy Father. He popped out right as the bells were chiming noon and was just as adorable as his pictures. Speaking in Italian he greeted us and reflected on the Ascension of Mary into heaven. He gave us a blessing, welcomed the different pilgrimage groups by name, then told us to have a good lunch. I was able to find his whole speech (they translate it to English), and you can see us in the crowd a few times, here: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/angelus/2019-08/pope-s-angelus-of-15-august-2019.html#play I bought a new rosary prior and the beads look like little globes, and now it has the popes blessing upon it!
Ryan thought we treated the pope like a rock star, applauding and cheering when he came out – and he is. We were famished post-pope and walking through the church, so we decided to find some food. We settled on sharing a doner kebab, one of Elizabeth’s favorites from Spain; it’s like a gyro but extra. Next stop was heading back to the house to wait out the afternoon heat in our A/C.
For dinner that night we took a bus 30 minutes towards the southern end of the city to a pizzeria recommended by our taxi driver the night we arrived in Rome, which apparently had the best Roman pizza. Of course, we arrived to boarded up doors as they were on vacation. Ever the optimists we decided we’d wander around the neighborhood and enjoy one of the other 10 restaurants Google maps recommended – all were closed. We don’t know how, economically speaking, an entire city can take vacation at the same time, but Rome makes it work. Maybe it’s because we’re not going to the touristy shops. Feeling defeated and hungry it was icing on the cake to watch the bus drive by without stopping at our stop, thank God for taxis and cell phones.
We tried to recreate the magic of our previous night’s dinner at Trattoria Micci, but arrived at normal eating hours, so didn’t get to sit outside. We tried the cacio e pepe a noodle dish with just butter, cheese, and pepper and a pizza that had egg, meat, artichokes and mushrooms. Ryan was still famished, so he went ahead and ordered a Margareta pizza and washed it all down with the house white wine.
Day 6 – Rome – August 16
We got up early to head over to the Basilica to attend mass one last time. Arriving around 9 the security lines were short and we found a 9:30 daily mass in Italian. No idea what was said, beside the normal stuff, but it felt so nice and peaceful. By the time we left, around 10, the line was again wrapped all the way around the church. We enjoyed one last free breakfast at our AirBnB, before switching to cheaper accommodations in the northeastern portion of the city. The weather wasn’t supposed to reach into the 90’s anymore so Elizabeth thought we could do without the A/C. She was so wrong.
The bus ride to our new place was hellish. Not only was the bus late per usual, but it was overly crowded being a Friday. As it was standing room only, Elizabeth nearly smothered a man with her pack while we rode the long hour down the bumping, winding streets. We had already purchased event tickets to see the Vatican museum so we weren’t excited to make this trip again in just a few hours’ time.
Finally, we arrived at our new spot and settled in. We ventured out to find food and experience the Rome metro. This was our first trip as the line by our old place had been under maintenance. The metro is very nice and not super expansive, but it doesn’t reach many parts of the city conveniently. Apparently every time they try to dig a new tunnel to expand the line, they unearth new archaeological discoveries.
We took the metro to the Termni Station; we’d be back here Monday for our train to Naples. As to be expected, most things that looked good were closed, but eventually we found Ristorante Centro and ate more pasta all’amatriciana while Ryan got a white pasta with rabbit meat. Both were delicious and we decided to mixed it up by ordering beer instead of wine.
We were killing time before our Vatican Museum tour and happy hour began at 7 pm, so we found a small outdoor bar to split another bottle of house wine. The bar was located on a steep hill so all the tables and chairs were at strange angles, Ryan angled his so it felt like he was reclining. On our walk to catch the bus towards the Vatican, Ryan managed slice open the front of his toe on the uneven pavement. Before it could start gushing blood, we grabbed a taxi back to the room so he could clean it, bandage it, and put on tennis shoes. Though we didn’t love having to pay for a taxi, we did love that we then didn’t have time to bus to the Vatican and got to avoid that annoying part of the trip.
We arrived at the museum entrance just on time to go through security and wind up in the courtyard facing St. Peter’s Basilica listening to a jazz band, while eating appetizers and sipping wine. The Vatican, trying to encourage people to revisit the Vatican, runs these Friday night happy hours exclusively in the summer months. Since Elizabeth had experienced the museum and Vatican grounds by day 10 years before, she was excited to see it all in a different, and hopefully cooler, light. We stuffed our faces with all the food and dessert we could, and after they forgot to collect our drink tickets enjoyed two free wines each in the Cortile della Pigna. Around 8:30 we decided it was time to head in and see what this museum had to offer.
The crowd was still pretty large, but we couldn’t imagine being there in peak time. If you hung out in front of an exhibit for about 2-3 minutes, you could manage a clear, uninterrupted shot. We enjoyed not being wall to wall with people. We self-guided ourselves through various statue rooms, the garden statue area that for whatever reason has a lot of fancy bathtubs, the map room, tapestry room, Raphael rooms, modern art museum, and eventually the Sistine Chapel. All of the male statues either have broken off dongs or leaves over their privates. Apparently, Pope Paul IV began the trend around 1555 and it continued through a series of popes, ending in 1857 with Pope Pius IX covering any remaining members with fig leaves. They thought them improper and now all the dongs live in boxes in the basement. Hilarious.
The tapestry rooms and map rooms were beautiful and the Raphael rooms held iconic paintings like the three roman philosophers. Finally, we made it into the Sistine Chapel, no photos are allowed so the space is full of the guards yelling at people. The famous God and David touching fingers is the central panel but what most people don’t realize is that it’s only one of a hundred different scenes that were painted there. We left the museum exhausted and without accidently running into the pope – despite our best efforts.
Day 7 – Rome – August 17
We survived, but barely, our first night in a non-A/C room. We were excited about a corner room, until we realized it was afternoon-sun-facing and had its back to the wind. The room heated up then held it all night with no breeze, but hey, it was more wine or a good night’s sleep. The neighborhood we are staying in was supposed to be great for food, but of course, just about every restaurateur are vacationing. Our third café was opened, called Don Nino. We got cappuccinos, yogurt, a croissant and a sandwich. Next we decided to pick up some essentials and hit a nearby park.
Ryan loves grocery stores in general, so you can imagine how he is in foreign ones with mystery meats and cheese counters. After what felt like an eternity to Elizabeth, we left with a bottle of wine, bread, prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, and tomatoes. We made it to the park and passed some old wooden exercise equipment that he briefly used until we found a bench by a green lake. We spent the afternoon dreaming about where to go next and lounging.
We took the long walk home walking by many promising, but unfortunately closed pizza joints. We ventured out of our neighborhood to an area called Bologna hoping to find open restaurants. We finally found one in the main plaza called Trattoria da Neno. All the locals must be on vacation too, because the internet said we wouldn’t be able to get a table and the place was pretty empty. We got carbonara and focaccia bread and tried the burger and fries. The burger was actually surprisingly delicious and had three types of sauce. We drank a large bottle of wine and stumbled home to another stuffy night.
Day 8 – Rome – August 18
We woke up early and walked to the Tiber river to enjoy a jog on what Google labeled a regular path. The single width dirt rode wove around the river and through forest right in the middle of Rome. At one point we passed sheep grazing in front of apartment complexes. We went to mass at a church right around the corner from our AirBnB. We wish we spoke Italian because the priest thought he was hilarious and was clearly cracking a lot of jokes.
Hungry we made another attempt at food. We started with gelato since it was open and Elizabeth was getting crabby. We decided to take the metro back over to the Termini station area to see if we could have more success in the tourist areas. We found a restaurant called Fratelli Scarpetta Roma; we got the house red wine, which was sparkling and Ryan loved it. For food we each got a gnocchi, pesto and red sauce, it was the best gnocchi we’d ever had. We split ways, Ryan heading back to the grocery store to get food for dinner at our AirBnB, while Elizabeth was spoiled and got to go straight home. We spent the late afternoon and evening watching movies and eating more popcorn, prosciutto, cheese, and tomatoes – and of drinking course wine.
Day 9 – Naples – August 19
We packed up and walked back to the metro towards Termini Station to catch our train towards Naples. After fighting the crowds and a last-minute platform switch, we found our seats and enjoyed the 1.5-hour trip, rolling along the coast, watching the ocean and vineyards pass in the window. Once we made it to Naples, we walked 20 minutes north, and after being led astray by Google maps, managed to find our apartment rental. We were met by Luigi, who barely spoke English and showed us to our loft room with two double beds. Ryan is excited to be away from me and be cool.
It was passed lunch time so we found a well rated pizzeria just, Pizzeria del Corso, just around the block that was even open! We are huge pizza fans, as you can tell by our belly sizes, and Neapolitan style pizza is our favorite. Ryan has been excited about eating pizza in this place for years. Neapolitan style pizza has very specific rules and is heavily regulated. Everything from the origin of the tomatoes and cheese to the diameter of the pizza to the temperature of the brick oven, are all tightly controlled. Pizzerias that meet the standards are deemed vera pizza (true pizza) and are given a certification number. We got two pizzas and giant Peroni’s, and it was so cheap! Ryan’s pizza even had a stuffed crust!
After our late lunch we popped over to the grocery store to get wine, beer, milk, and cookies. We didn’t plan on eating that for dinner, but we settled into the air conditioning and couldn’t bring ourselves to make it out later that night – it worked out well for cost savings!
Day 10 – Naples – August 20
We woke up early and walked around the city. Unlike Rome, Naples seems to wake up early and the streets were already crowded by 8 am with people popping into cafes and opening up their shops. We stopped in Caffe Vanvitelli and once we figured out the process, ordered two cappuccinos and fresh homemade croissants (one with Nutella stuffed inside) and stood at the counter pounding our breakfast with the other locals. Next, it was time to navigate the subway. Rome was convenient in that you could buy tickets to all public transportation with a phone app, but sadly Naples is not that advanced. You have to buy tickets at the tobacco shops, half of which are closed due to people on vacation.
We walked down towards the metro line then rode 10 stops to the west part of town. Our first stop was St. Elmos Castle. This castle sits atop a hill overlooking Naples and is made of volcanic tuff. It is half price on Tuesdays so we thoroughly enjoyed walking around and taking in the views of the city, ocean, Vesuvius, and Capri in the distance.
Since we rode the metro, we didn’t realize how high above the city we were. Elizabeth decided our next walk would be through the Spanish Quarter and the route took us down hundreds of steep and slick steps. A lot of the walk was covered in broken glass, there must be a lot of partying going on here at night.
Finally, we made it back down into the city and need to find some place to eat. We settled on Trattoria da Concetta and were able to sit out on the patio between the old buildings. For lunch we shared a bottle of house wine, only 3 euro for a liter, cotoletta alla Milanese and a Caprese salad. The cheese on the salad was the most rich and decadent mozzarella either of us had ever tasted. This cannot be stressed enough, it was outstanding. We then wandered through the quarter towards the Plazza del Plebiscito. The sun was hot, but we found some shade on the stairs with the other locals eating their lunches and relaxed enjoying the scenery.
We were close to the coast, so we had to follow it along until we found a bar where we had some Peroni’s, which we followed up with shots of Limoncello, all while looking over the ocean at Mount Vesuvius. Once we’d regained our energy, we continued walking along the coast observing the many people swimming off the rocks; there isn’t a lot of proper sandy beach here, so people were floating around on little dinghies.
Next we spent a few hours wandering down the street Toledo. This is one of the main shopping areas and we spent lots of time popping in and out of stores and even bought Ryan a new long sleeve shirt. The pizza place we wanted to go to for dinner didn’t open until 7:30, so we needed to kill sometime at a bar. We found one in the university area and enjoyed more house wine and tapas.
Eventually we wandered over to the pizzeria, which was obviously closed, but we found another one right around the corner. We sat outside in the plaza, it was a very cramped space with tons of tables and chairs. We enjoyed more wine and shared two types of pizza. Feeling full but not ready to go home we stopped at one more local looking spot and shared more house wine and limoncello. We didn’t get the best service, we were the only tourists there, but it was still fun to be amongst the real Italian folks.
Day 11 – Pompeii – August 21
We stopped back Caffe Vanvitelli, our same café from the day before and again ate breakfast and drank coffee with the locals at the counter. Elizabeth was feeling very hungover, as we drank a lot the day before, but a breakfast pizza brought her back to life. It wasn’t a breakfast pizza with eggs etc., just a regular pizza that people apparently eat for breakfast. Unfortunately, the pastries weren’t as good the second day. Next we took the long walk down to the metro to catch the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii. We bought our tickets and stood on the platform with a couple hundred people. When train arrived and a few people were already on it, we realized our mistake in not walking a little further to get on at the first stop. This was the most crowded Elizabeth had ever seen a train and we had to shove our way in and stand next to smelly people for 40 minutes. The crowding slowly got better when a local would get off on a stop prior to Pompeii, but it was for the most part a very long train ride. A family got on and began “performing”; the mom played a recorded, karaoke version of Despacito on a speaker and the son played drums while the dad a beat a tambourine for part of the beat. It was the worst subway performance of all time. The worst part was, the speaker blared the music so loud we couldn’t even hear each other over the racket. Finally, they stopped and moved to the next car. Yikes.
The train traveled around the base of Vesuvius and eventually stopped at Pompeii. The masses detrained and we made our way to the queue to buy tickets. We hadn’t gotten as early of a start as we wanted and it was around noon, so we hoped to make it a quick trip to see the ruins. After finding a map we eventually made our way up the steep slope of the city. There were a ton of people visiting but it’s such a huge area it didn’t feel overwhelming.
We wandered for hours through all the ruins with Vesuvius in the background. The eruption happened in 79 AD and they’ve been excavating this site since the 1700s; there is still a lot of active archaeology going on today. When Elizabeth was here 10 years ago you could see lots of bodies that had been frozen in time by the ash, but we couldn’t find them. We did make it into the brothel to see the 2000-year-old sex art still painted on the walls. It was very hot and there isn’t a lot of shade from the sun. We made it about 3 hours until we needed to find the train back and some food.
The train back wasn’t nearly as crowded, and we were able to actually sit. The Despacito family returned and blared the same music at us for a few minutes before also playing on their phones in the back of the train. We got back to Naples around 3, so it was hard to find an open lunch spot. After much wandering we found a pizzeria called Pizzeria la Ruota and had the place to ourselves. We watched an Italian documentary about Anthony Hopkins and drank Peroni with our pies.
Exhausted from the day, we decided to have a night in, eating our leftover milk and cookies trying to spare our waistlines and wallets.
Day 12 – Capri – August 22
We decided to give our café, Caffe Vanvitelli, one last try and got coffee and pastries. Again, the pastries weren’t great so we vowed to try a new place the next morning. We then began our 45-minute walk down to the port to catch a ferry to Capri. Capri is an Island in the Bay of Naples that can be reached in 50 minutes on a high-speed ferry. We got our tickets – more expensive than we liked – and found seats. Elizabeth is not one for boats and gets seasick easy, but it was a clear day and the sea seemed calm. The ride was uneventful and the ferry was entirely enclosed, so we couldn’t even enjoy the sea breeze. We pulled up to the beautiful island and immediately began shoving our way through tourist crowds.
First on the list was a chairlift ride to the top of the mountain Elizabeth remembered doing when she last visited 10 years ago. Google said it was just a 30-minute walk, so we decided we’d do that then find some lunch. Little did we know we had just begun a hike up, according to Ryan’s Fitbit, of 100 stories. We hiked halfway up the mountain to get to the chairlift, and it was all accomplished while on slick, steep stairs in the sun. Ryan almost divorced her. Finally, we made it to the top and found a nice tourist shopping area and a place where for $2, a bus drops you off from the marina. Lesson for next time.
We found the chair lift and enjoyed the 13-minute ride to the top, taking in the views of the city below and the ocean. The chair lifts were single seaters so you can see both of us taking pictures of the other one over our shoulders on the way up and down.
At the top we enjoyed the views and gawked at the ridiculous prices for water, beer, and the toilet. We snapped a few photos then rode down to find some better looking food at a reasonable price.
We ate a lunch of house wine, a giant plate of French fries, a shrimp-butter pasta dish. We asked the waiter which beach we should go to and he suggested one that was a 45-minute walk across the island. He said it was all down hill and where the locals go, so we decided to give it a try. We stopped by the café across the street for cappuccinos and gelato, then began our journey. We walked along the road for most of it, fortunately hearing the vespas before they whizzed around the corner. Eventually we found a trail that travels through the woods along the coast. We arrived at a very crowded rocky inlet, not a beach, but it certainly wasn’t slowing anyone else down.
We managed to secure an area between beached row boats to set down our stuff then got into the salty water. It was splendidly refreshing. The rocks are mostly limestone and very sharp. We found a few places where algae coated the rocks and it was more comfortable to stand. Kids were snorkeling and teenagers were climbing up the cliffs and jumping off. We climbed around on a few rocks ourselves and after diving back in, tragedy struck: Ryan lost his sunglasses.
It didn’t take long to tire out treading water in the waves and we rested and dried off near the row boats. Eventually we needed to get back to the marina to catch a ferry back to Naples and luckily there was a bus stop at the beach, we did not want to walk back. We stood in the queue and luckily, we were the last two that got shoved on the bus, Ryan standing in the stairs by the door. We were transferred to the next bus stop and ended up waiting 45 minutes for the next bus to take us to the Marina. In the end we made it and had sometime to kill before our ferry so we purchased overpriced beer and sat along the marina.
The ferry back was wider and shorter and was a smoother ride back. We made it back to Naples just in time for a late dinner. We stopped at a restaurant called Imperatore 1906. The restaurant had a sleek and modern Italian feeling. They were a ton of pizza options and it took us a while to sort through them all and convince ourselves to try new things. We settled on craft beer, a safety pizza (Margherita), and an adventurous pizza. The adventure was a white pizza with yellow tomatoes, tuna and nuts. All was delicious. After dinner we finished the long walk home and fell right to sleep.
Day 13 – Naples – August 23
For breakfast we decided to try a new pastry shop and walked across the street to Bella Vita. We ate an Italian elephant ear, a meat and cheese kolache-esque pastry and drank our coffees like professionals at the bar. Next we wandered over to the botanical gardens. They are free to enter and apparently one of the best gardens in Europe. They had an impressive number of species and an area for both biblical plants and medical plants. We wandered until we started to feel the mosquito bites then ran back to our apartment.
We spent the rest of the afternoon planning for our next stop: Croatia. We focused on trying to figure out how to rent a car and finding places to stay. We ventured out for dinner that night in the same area of town we ate dinner the night before. We settled on well rated seafood restaurant (we decided to take a break from pizza), but they had a line around the corner – so we decided to go the place across the street. We drank some red wine, ate Bolognese (almost as good as Ryan’s recipe), seafood pasta, and calamari. Everything was delicious!
Day 14 – Sorrento – August 24
We woke up with a wonderful text from our host: he’d made us homemade pastries. They were absolutely delicious and filled with some cheese or custard concoction. We made our way back down to the train station, being smart and walking a few minutes extra so we could get on the train before everyone else. The ride was long and cramped again, and it took us about an hour and a half to get to Sorrento. The town is right on the cliff edge of the sea so we enjoyed wandering around the city. We found a cathedral with an exhibit of famous photographs of St. Theresa.
We were hungry and headed down to the marina to find some lunch. We had such a nice view sitting outside and enjoying the shade and boats. We drank wine and ate clam pasta, red sauce gnocchi, and fried anchovies. You can apparently eat them whole but there are a lot of bones and spines so we’d split them down the middle and fillet them. Ryan got very good at it.
After lunch we headed back towards the main city and wandered down a switchback along the cliff that led to several businesses with restaurants, lounge chairs, bars etc. We looked at a few different prices and settled on Bagnino to get loungers and swim.
We spent the afternoon climbing around on the rocks and floating in the salt water. Ryan was determined to get an underwater photo with our GoPro, it probably took us 10 attempts. We then would dry off in the sun and read our books, after 30 minutes repeat. We got kicked out around 7 pm and walked back towards the train station. The conductor was driving very quickly and we made it back in 45 minutes.
We walked back to 1906 for our last dinner and shared beer, fried zucchini flowers, mozzarella balls, and a calzone. Delicious per usual we headed home and packed our backs for our flight the next day. Italy has been fun but took a real toll on our budget.
Day 15 – Naples – August 25
We headed to the airport around 8 am. According to Google maps our cab should only cost 10 euro but Naples also charges you one cent every second you are in the cab so it doubled our airport ride cost. We arrived and checked into our flight. Easyjet is a discount airline and you can only bring one bag. It was kind of funny watching people try to squeeze things; read the fine print, people. We were able to spend an hour in the lounge sipping champagne and eating cheese until we boarded our 45-minute flight. Off to Croatia.
Things we’ve learned in Italy:
- Do not come in August.
Ryan and Elizabeth Goss 