Roma, Italia

Unahotel - Nice room. Nice staff. Near Termini train station. Dinner in hotel restaurant- Cacio e pepe pasta

Massa Lubrense, Italia via Napoli and Sorrento

Termini train to Naples. Bought “una spazzola per cappelli” and asked for it in Italian at the department store inside the station. Found the local train line to Sorrento. Did not understand what was meant by, “Go to Infopoint”. (I wish they would speak to me in Italian.)

Apparently, Infopoint is a place where they round up all the foreigners and take them, en masse, to the train for Sorrento. Only, the staff person was leading us so quickly down steep flights of stairs, that we weren’t sure we would make it! Luckily, we had time for a couple panini in station cafe.

Taxi from Sorrento to Massa Lubrense, 30 euro (3.3 miles). La Cassita awaited down 100 steep steps. Dinner items (sausage, cheese, olive oil, pasta, tomatoes, onion, wine) from a mini-mercato. (It probably shouldn’t have cost so much.) But dinner was very tasty, looking out at the bright blue water and the moonlight.

Massa Lubrense and Sorrento

Breakfast on the terrace. Sea views! Mike swims in the Mediterranean for the first time. Two busses to Sorrento (We figured it out!). Had aperitivi at a small bar, spritzes and panini. Met our guide for our Sorrento walk, Roberto. He explained lemon growing and gave us a delicious limoncello tasting. He told us of history and Sorrento icons, like Caruso, Lucio Dalla and Sofia Loren. Lovely seafood dinner with one of the best desserts ever - white chocolate panna cotta with dark chocolate bits and caramel topping.

Bus and train to Pompeii. Guided tour with Raffaele.Very hot, but interesting.

Massa Lubrense to Anzio, via Napoli and Roma. Missed the Anzio exit, because the train door wouldn’t open. Circled back from Nettuno. Senora Rossano gave us directions to walk from the train station: “Walk downhill to the church. Then put your shoulder to the church and cross the piazza. I will meet you there.” \240Well, we found the church, but didn’t know which shoulder to use and there was no piazza, so we kept walking.

It turns out that, “put your shoulder to” something, means, “put your back to” and that wasn’t the right church, because that church was part of a school. So we kept walking and found one piazza, called Senora Rossana, and gave her our coordinates. Unfortunately, she had never heard of the cross street where we were, but eventually found us and led us to the correct church (not connected to a school) and piazza. I think she was fed up with us at that point, as she was fairly elderly and had had to walk farther than intended. I think I could have followed her directions a lot better in Italian, but they don’t tend to expect that, so usually continue in English. She asked, “Don’t you have GoogleMap?” I had been using Google map when, “shoulder to the church didn’t seem to be working”. But that led to the street she didn’t recognize. Che casino!!

Poor lady! The apartment was lovely, with a sea view, but up on the 5th floor with no elevator. The air conditioner hadn’t been turned on yet, so we were dripping in the Southern Italian heat, but it did work well and kicked on very quickly.

After that, all was copacetic, as you can tell from the photos below. There were many seaside restaurants to choose from and we ate delicious fish and seafood in this relaxing fishing port, watching the strolling paesani on their evening passegiatta.

Exploring Anzio.

Uno spritz nell’una bella piazza, after sitting in on a bit of the mass at the church in the background.

Delicious prima colazione at the port, before taking off for Genova. Ciao, Anzio.

Bordighera

Bordighera con La Cara Ida

Menton - Mon vue préféré de tout le voyage!

Spritz, French olive et cuisine par Lisa

Perfume experience in Nice

Firenze - Giorni perduti 😩

Non c’è nessuna foto!

Firenze

Firenze a Bracciano