Time to go home ... and Charming Sorrento

Time to go home... Packing to go home is not nearly so traumatic as packing to go TO somewhere.  Bos is, as I write, throwing things in suitcases, ready for the 11 p.m. deadline outside our door.  And, with as little clothes as possible, we leap out of bed at 6:30 a.m. and have to be off the boat by 8 a.m.  We will be in Rome, so off to Rome’s airport for the 10-1/2 hour flight to New York and another flight to St. Louis, with memories all intact.  We hope, very earnestly, that you have enjoyed our daily blog with color pictures (courtesy of Bos!) during this trip.  I have enjoyed the blogging much more than I expected --it made me look at places, people and things through different eyes!  So you will probably be “stuck” with blogs on all our trips from now on!! (No, I don’t mean the trips to the Lake, silly!!)

But, while we are certainly ready to come home, we can now turn to the adventures on our last day in Italy,  Today we are in Sorrento, which is near Capri, Amalfi, Mt. Vesuvius and, of course, Pompeii.  We have been to Pompeii and, while we would like to return to the site someday, today was not the day for that sort of hike. We were dragging, finding it hard to put one foot in front of the other!  So we opted for a ride south on the Amalfi coast, a breathtaking ride on narrow cliffs, sides of volcanic mountains, and crashing waves below.  When one thinks of Italy, oftentimes one has a picture in one’s mind, of this coastal part of Italy.  Since Italy is made up of lots and lots of city states and actually didn’t become a country until 1877, each region is distinctly different and has its own character, food, wine and lifestyle.  

Sorrento and the Amalfi coast is noted for a very casual lifestyle.  If you need a car repair, you might -- or might not -- get it this month.  And if you go to lunch or dinner, better have planned for an entire day, or not, depending!  A lot of Italian directors and Italian movie stars like Sophia Loren have summer homes perched above the ocean on the hillside.  In fact, Sophia had a chairlift installed from her house to the highway above the hillside, so she didn’t have to climb hundreds of stairs! 

We stopped at Positano for a gelati at an outdoor cafe in city center, where we could watch the people shop. We could, we decided, get into this casual lifestyle quite easily!  No one here needed a gym membership or an alarm clock. Time just didn’t seem to matter.  You could sit at your table all night and noone would make a move to oust you! Sons were walking with their mothers, even when the sons were 50 years old and mama looks 90! Small children were running through the square; old ladies were coming from church, even though it was Thursday, not Sunday.  Interesting...

We stopped again an hour later for lunch, which in Italy would be equivalent to our supper. Seems Italians love to eat anytime anywhere!!   In many of the countries we traveled through, the big meal is at noon.  Then shops close for siesta time and reopen around 5 p.m. until 8 or 9 p.m.  And this is certainly true for Italy.  The leisurely way of life is something to admire and try to emulate!  Lunch was perfectly cooked spinach canneloni with cheese sauce, a salad of greens with just olive oil and vinegar, and a fish we have never heard of -- followed by an exquisite cream cake.  Wine?? Of course... Then back to the boat, with memories of Italy and Sorrento.

So .... you have followed us  through 19 ports and 9 countries in 27 days.  We have experienced everything from Russia and Turkey to Egypt and Greece, each with a very different lifestyle and way of looking at the world and us!  A learning experience? Yes.  What we wanted from our trip?  Absolutely.  What we expected?  Yes and no.  People are the same all over, but their views of the world are distinct.  When one travels, as we have just done, it opens your brain to how others look at us -- and how we need to be more open-minded as a country, if we are to exist in this increasingly international world!