After spending some time in Italy and Germany I've made an observation: most people don't go out of their way to smile and say hello. Italians especially tend to keep to themselves and only greet you when you're being introduced or at businesses. I'm not saying that they're rude-they're not. Everyone is friendly and helpful. But back home I like to walk around with a big smile on my face and see how many people I can make smile back. Here in Europe however people look at you like you're crazy and give you a look that says "What's wrong with you?! Why are you smiling? You must be American." What works best is if you walk around with a slight scowl on your face (imagine you were just woken up from a nap or deep sleep by an annoying loud noise-that's the face I'm talking about). Then, if you make eye contact with someone just give a slight smirk/smile and a nod of your head and then look away. The Europeans respond better to this then a smile and a hello. Again-this is my own personal observation.
On the Circumvesuvia, we put on our scowl faces, made little eye contact and kept two hands on our backpack at all times. And we were fine. I didn't see any shady stuff go down. When we arrived in Sorrento, we had to hunt down our hotel and we felt pretty proud of ourselves because we did it without any mapquest, google or English. I'm getting more and more confident in my Italian. It probably sounds like Spalian (Spanish+Itialian) but it does the trick. We checked into our room and were so happy to have a huge room, huge bathroom and a mini fridge. We did laundry, took a mini-siesta and then hit the beach.
The route to the beach had this tunnel-luckily it was short, lit up and everyone had on suits at the beach.
The beaches in Sorrento have a lot of rocks, cliffs and pebbly beaches. It doesn't make them any less beautiful. The water temperature was perfect since it was a such a hot day and we stayed in the water for hours only getting out to reapply sunscreen. I thought of another must pack tip for anyone backpacking in a sunny place: a big floppy hat. Europeans don't really wear baseball hats so I tried to find something a little more stylish while at the same time easy to pack. My friend Jenny recommended the brand Walleroo. It was perfect-their hats can be scrunched up or rolled in a ball and they still hold their shape. They also have SPF 50 built into the material.
Later that evening we explored the small touristy town of Sorrento. We tried their #1 gelato and it didn't disappoint. This specific place has a sign out that says "We're keeping an eye on the royal birth-as soon as Kate and William deliver their baby we'll hand out free strawberry cheesecake gelato to anyone nearby." I'm assuming Princess Kate is still with child because we didn't get anything for free. For dinner we tried a restaurant recommend by a local. It was hands down our best meal of the trip. While I've been writing this blog Super Nel has been keeping a journal. His entries are all about food. His Spaghetti Carbonara in Sorrento wins as his favorite meal.
One of the statues in the main square.
We tried the famous Limoncello liquor made in the region. It's made from lemons that are the size of a small football and its strong!! After our one drink we stumbled over to enjoy the sunset and called it a day. I can honestly say we haven't stayed out anywhere too late on the trip. Mostly because we're exhausted by the end of the day and we usually have to be up early the next day. The main reason today was because we had two 5 euro bottles of wine we'd scored in Rome and wanted to finish them in order to lighten our load before heading out the next day. Mission accomplished!
I highly recommend taking a train ride to the South of Italy for a relaxing day. If we could of spared another day we would of continued down to tour the Amalfi coast.
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