alli

Our last morning in Sorrento started once again with delicious breakfast at the hotel and even a rainbow sendoff. I for sure want to visit Sorrento & the Amalfi Coast again in the summer, lay on the beautiful beaches under a bright blue umbrella, and eat gelato in the warm Mediterranean sun. As sad as I was to leave Sorrento, I was very much looking forward to exploring Pompeii. This was the one big thing I was most excited about on this trip to Italy. A land frozen in time, forever captured like a photo by the ash, dust, debris and poison gas that had covered the city from 79 A.D. until it was rediscovered in 1748. What struck me most about Pompeii was that life was just about as normal as it is now. Because of how in-tact the ruins were when it was found, archeologests were able to uncover some truly wonderous artifacts. For example, one of the buildings had a sign on it that roughly translated to, "Luxury Apartment for Rent - During this Time - Contact...

  Up and at 'em early, we knew we had a bit of an adventure in front of us when it came from travel from Florence to Sorrento. We hopped on a train from Florence S.M.N. Station to Naples. From there, we met a car driver who took us to the hotel. The train was about 3 hours but the seats were comfy and came equipped with charging stations for our phones and WIFI, so it wasn't a bad 3 hours at all.  Our car driver was awesome. Super helpful when I asked all about the area, as he was a lifelong local. We got some insider info about Sorrento from him and really enjoyed seeing this new area as we drove from the train station to the peninsula. There is so much rich history in Italy that it can be a lot to take it all in! But hearing the info from the locals is a truly amazing way to experience a trip.  All I can say about the hotel was that it was beyond. Hotel Parco dei Principi is situated on a cliff overlooking the sea. The seaview rooms give a breathtaking view o...

Part two of Florence, Italy! This was a day simply for explorations. The morning started out mild but by afternoon the skies had opened and the rain was pouring down. We got out of the hotel around 11, stopped at a small shop for coffee and pastries, and then began our adventuring. That is when we stumbled upon everything from Dinosaurs to a street market with giant canolis, which I happily considered fate and indulged in. Then, we waited a while in a line so get into the museum of The David! There we also saw some very old and very cool instruments, paintings, and other sculptures. Our walks took us to more residential areas of the city and we had a late afternoon bite right next to the Duomo as the rain really started to come down. My only regret is that our lunch was so late, that we didn't get hungry enough for dinner until it was too late. Because it was a Sunday, many places were closing up by the time we finally made it back out and we ended up having sad panini for din...