Links to the Italy Blog Series:
Italy Part 1: Venice and Trento
Italy part 2: Pisa and Lucca
Italy part 3: Cinque Terre (post 1 of 2)
Italy part 4: Cinque Terre (post 2 of 2)
Halfway through our trip, we headed away from the Cinque Terre toward Naples (or Napoli, as the Italians say) via train. (A side note- since I posted the last 2 blogs on the Cinque Terre, they had a disastrous flood which basically wiped out the town of Vernazza (the one we hiked to that had the pretty rocks). It will take 50 million Euro for the town to be inhabitable again, but the other cities are doing what they can to keep tourism alive to help the recovery relief of the towns that were damaged. If you go to Italy, please don’t miss the Cinque Terre.)
It was a LOOOOOOOONG day of riding trains. We had originally thought at some point we might check out Florence, but just didn’t have enough time this trip. You’ll recall that the statue of David by Michelangelo is in Florence, and the city itself is known for the amazing renaissance art that came from it. But we didn’t see it, so you get no photos of it. I thought it was funny that the newspaper had something about Warren Buffett. All the way in Italy, and it’s the front of the paper sitting across from us in the train.
(Mike often falls asleep while reading or doing crosswords. I have a video of him sleeping on a train, but he’s asked me to not put it on the blog. Still, you can picture it in your mind.)
We arrived in Naples and were greeted by my dear friend Laura who lives there now. She is from the states, and I met her when we were performers at Six Flags Over Texas, nearly a decade ago. When she moved to Naples with her husband, she said “hey, let me know if you ever are in town- we will always have a room!” Basically, never tell me that unless you are serious, because we took her up on her offer!
Laura and her husband Chris (and their dog Luna!!!) live just outside of the main city, in a vineyard. It’s just wonderful and relaxing!
This is Laura, showing me the vineyard where she lives. She also showed me the rabbits and chickens that their landlords cook fresh every now and then when it’s time to eat (apparently, it does not pay to be a rooster that can’t tell the time of day). It was interesting, since it’s generally not the way to do that here in the states. In Italy, it’s a big deal to be outside as much as possible, so they had a very nice balcony overlooking the mountains at sunset!
We were a bit rushed for time, since Laura’s husband Chris is in the Navy band (they had a festiva that night), so we grabbed some Napoli pizza for the road. OH. MY. GOSH. So pizza was invented in Naples, and you can tell. It was amazing. Mike had the margharita pizza, which is basically just cheese and fresh tomato. I think I had some sort of spicy sausage or something. I can’t even remember anymore. But the pizza was huge and delicious.
This was the band that was playing. Ironically, the show was being played where Chris lived as a child (he’s the drummer in these photos).
And here’s a video of part of the show (and Laura and I at the end of the video). The Italians maybe didn’t understand everything, but they love music!
The next day we got up early and took a ferry to the Isle of Capri. Which, by the way, is pronounced “CAH-pree”, as opposed to “cah-PREE”. Very important if you’re there. The ferry ride was interesting, as we had someone sing on the way over. But we were pretty sure they fancied themselves some sort of American Idol (Italian Idol?) wannabe. It got old after the 3rd song. Still, it really didn’t take away from how pretty Capri was.
We landed and rented a small boat. Boats are VERY easy to come by in Italy. You just hand over your ID and they pretty much hand you the keys to the boat for however many hours you want. So Laura, Chris, Mike and I hopped on and went for a trip around the island. We took a few breaks to jump into the water, have some prociutto and mozzarella sandwiches, and then we drove the boat through some awesome rocks. We didn’t get a chance to visit the blue grotto, since the water was a bit too choppy (really windy out that day!). Maybe next time!!!
The photo above was taken just outside of the funicular that went up the island. We walked around Capri from here.
We settled into Capri and had some pizza overlooking the water (not as amazing as Naples- but the VIEW was amazing). And the bartender made me a FRESH strawberry drink. She said it was a daiquiri, but it was different from anything I’ve had here. Afterward, we decided to do what we did in Venice, and try to get a little lost in Capri. I took the opportunity to do a few photos of Laura and Chris. One of the side streets (that Mike discovered by reading his Rick Steves’ Guide to Italy book) had some amazing gelato and some FRESHLY made waffle cones. As in they made them for each person who ordered. The line was insane. And you could smell the delicious waffle cones from at least a block away.
I also took a few photos of the cats on the island (see above photo). I am planning on doing a blog on all of the animals I saw in Italy, since they were SO interesting. It was so different from American animals. You wouldn’t think so, but it really was amazing how relaxed the Italian animals were.
I will add this video here: the hat Mike got in Lucca (you’ve seen it since my 2nd blog post of Italy) was blown off of his head when we were headed back to drop off the boat. He yelled “WILSON!” and jumped in after it. Here is one photo of the lonely hat floating in the Mediterranean (it’s in the left side of the photo), and the ensuing swim to get the hat after we turned the boat around to get closer.
We left Capri and headed back to the house where Chris and Laura made us some dinner: mussels and pasta, and we gifted them a bottle of our Cinque Terre Sciacchetra that we all shared at dinner. We learned from Chris that it’s a type of “digestivo” that helps you digest your foods after you eat, and can clear up things like chronic heartburn. Amazing that we don’t do this in the states!
This is their home, the view, and our dinner!
I’m adding this next photo just for my brother, who used to have an orange tree named Bob that was like a pet. I found Bob’s Italian family. Yes, those are oranges, though they’re still green.
Yes, those are oranges, though they’re still green.We said goodbye and thanks to Chris and Laura, and left really early the next day to head to Positano- the most relaxing part of our trip- where we met back up with Timon and Becky. Stay tuned for part 6: Positano!!!
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