Italy Part 5: Nature's War & Peace - We head south to Pompeii & Sorrento

The last time I was in Italy (2007) I stayed in the north part of the country visiting Venice, Rome, Florence and Pisa. This morning would be my first visit south of the capital city of Rome towards two drastically different locations - Pompeii and Sorrento.

We awoke around 6:30 and had breakfast around 7 a.m. This was our first day together as an entire 48-person traveling group and if I learned anything on my last bus tour, this was when our various links would bond to form friendships that could last to the many corners of the world once we left Italy and our holiday behind. We loaded up the bus with our bags on time at 7:30 and headed out of Rome around 8am. Just after we departed Rome proper, our tour guide, Angie, began to explain a bit more about Italy, its culture and what we were in for during the next two weeks. Each person was then invited up to the front of the bus on the microphone to introduce themselves. This lasted until 9:30 when we stopped at our first Autogrill (the best highway truckstop I've ever been to which are located all over Italy).

The Autogrill is unlike American pitstops. Enter any Autogrill and head up to the 2nd floor. Everything is a one-way direction so everyone enters into the first area which is comprised of a sandwich shop/coffee shop with fresh sandwiches which you purchase first then bring your ticket to pick up your sandwich. There is no order involved here. The plan is essentially get to the front of the counter if you can and then hand your ticket over, hoping some of the pushier Italian women don't butt in before you can make the pass. It is a free for all, especially if it is nearing lunch time. If you don't want the coffee or sandwich, you can continue in the one-way direction to the mini-grocery store. Following the single aisle, much like in a haunted house, you walk past the crackers, cookies and other snacks, then the varieties of meats and fresh cheeses followed by books, toys and other goods that would keep people occupied on their travels. Should none of this satisfy you, the 3rd floor is a cafeteria style restaurant with all sorts of Italian meals and desserts. It is more expensive up here and much more tempting to over-eat so I tend to stick to the sandwiches and waters located on the 2nd floor.

Halfway between Rome and Pompeii we passed the famous abbey of Monte Cassino, originally built by St. Benedict who founded the Benedictine Order. It is set on a high hill overlooking a lower valley where the highway now lay and was the sight of a vicious battle during the Second World War. We continued south after our 1/2 hour lunch stop and eventually reached Pompeii.

I don't know that I'd ever seen pictures of Pompeii that showed the area around it. I knew about Mt. Vesuvius but I don't think I realized how near to the Sea Pompeii and the volcano lay. Had I not known our first destination, I would have expected the entire area to be resort towns (which many of them are). Yet if you look away from the beautiful Mediterranean beckoning from one side and face inland, the entire area resides beneath the slumbering volcano which scientists say is overdue for another big eruption.

We pulled into the parking lot of Pompeii to find tons of vendors and a restaurant along with a store selling Limoncello, a popular lemon-based alcohol from the region. Lemons grow everywhere in this tropical region. Everyone headed upstairs past the vendors to stand in line to use the "magic room," our code word for bathroom on the tour. During the next 2 weeks we'd hear, "I need magic" or "Angie, where is magic here?" which was extremely amusing.

We then gathered to pick up our audio devices and meet our tour guide, a man in his 50's or 60's who spoke with a definite Italian accent in English and over enunciated a lot when he spoke. He explained how the entrance to the town had two doorways - one was for people and was smaller with stairs. The other, the one now used by visitors, served as a path for carts and animals and had a very large slope up into the town. All around the entrance were gorgeous, vibrant pink flowers which stood in marked contrast to this town which was left in a state of death still being uncovered from the ashes. What had been saved however was breathtaking. The frescoes on the walls were still vibrant and I could only imagine how much brighter they would have been when new.

We walked through temples, neighborhoods and past meeting places, bars, bakeries and even the Red Light district. I learned a lot about old Italy in Pompeii. First of all, there are no street names. If you wanted to describe where you lived or set a meeting point, you either picked "the bar" or said, "turn left at the goat-head fountain." Large, square water fountains exist every couple of intersections and were the key meeting points for people. Also, in ancient times, stepping stones actually had a significance. (This is cool.) Streets in Pompeii had sidewalks and streets. People used the sidewalks and animals and carts used the street. Stepping stones were placed 2 or 3 side by side so people could cross the street without stepping in anything unsavory that may lay in the street deposited by animals. A street with 2 stepping stones meant it was a one-way street. Streets with 3 stepping stones meant it was wider and thus a 2-way street!

We concluded our time in Pompeii with a quick lunch (I had cantaloupe and salad) along with a visit to the vendors outside and a free sample of limoncello (Bitter and sweet...and potent!) I bought a few postcards and a city patch, which I collect. At 2:15, it was then time to head a few minutes further south along the winding coastal road to Sorrento.

Sorrento reminded me a lot of Nice, France. It lays on the Mediterranean and is built on cliffs overlooking the Sea. There is a ton of shopping. The nicer stores line the main street but if you wander down any alley, there is a maze of streets selling all sorts of goods and knock-offs. And lots of gelato shops! The alleyways were where to go. Flags hung all over the walls that lined these streets. It was a festival-like atmosphere and people were everywhere day and night. Medieval churches also could be found in these back alleys which seemed weird but I saw them more as sentries over the revelry that had continued throughout time.

We had dinner that night at one of the backstreet restaurants. Pizza was the meal of the night along with the best caprese salad I've ever had with buffalo mozzarella, arugula and tomatoes. The wine was flowing freely and our table called out "Salute!" over and over again. The sights of tropical Sorrento and the food made for an incredible evening. That wasn't the end of our night, however. It concluded at an Irish bar, in Italy where the owner and his wife greeted us by blasting Italian music. This guy was constantly leading us in rousing renditions of popular Italian songs and contemporary ones. This was definitely La dolce vita - the good life.