Love/Hate Illustrated

The next day started out with good omens--FINALLY! Someone lent Flo a charger, and we met 3 sweet French girls at breakfast who had a car and also planned on visiting Pompeii. Pompeii was interesting--not eery like I had imagined, but perhaps this had to do with the bright blue sky that was looking down. The view of Mt. Vesuvius was great, and the ruins gave so much insight into the way of life, the mixture of Greek and Roman history, and the thought process of the people. It was so hot, that after lunch we decided to go straight to the sea to swim.

Amalfi/Ravello were the last towns we wanted to hit before leaving the Amalfi coast. We left at 9:30 the next day to take the bus to the train to get to Sorrento where we wanted to take a boat to Amalfi at 11:15. Classic Caitlyn/Flo style, we had to run, and when we finally got to the ticket window, they said we couldn't go to Amalfi--I have no idea why, it said right in my time table Sorrento-Amalfi, but we ended up buying the ticket to Positano and then figuring we'd take the bus from Positano to Amalfi. A boat even came that was headed for Amalfi, but they wouldn't let us on. In any case, the boat was wonderful, the air was fresh, the sea was blue...

In Positano we walked up the hill, Flo wanted to stop and eat, but I wanted to pick up something in the grocery store and eat at the bus stop so we wouldn't waste more time.. I had my heart set on Ravello--the city of gardens where poets go to die. At the top of the hill (once more) we ate our sandwiches and waited for the 1:30 bus to Amalfi. When it came it was standing room only around those tight corners dangling off the cliffs. Surprisingly, someone called to us, and it was the 3 French girls and the Italian couple from our B&B who had taken this bus directly from Sorrento and had been riding for 3 hours! They didn't look happy. We were glad to have taken the boat in between.

Another hour later we arrived in Amalfi. The French girls planned to spend the day on the Amalfi beach, and the Italian couple (who spoke not a word of English) were headed on to Ravello. I asked if I could go with them, Flo waffled. Finally she decided she wanted to see Ravello, too. So we headed to another bus station. Another hour passed waiting and enroute before we finally arrived in Ravello. Ravello was beautiful! Fewer people, a beautiful church in the central plaza with mosaics, 360 degree panorama views of the mountains, vegetation, the sea, etc, and up many steps in the little town we came to the Villa di Cimbrone where poetry met nature met art. It was divine. sculptures, views, terraces, trees, flowers, inscriptions, fountains, it was a combination Italian and English style garden. THIS is what I had been waiting for! Communication between us and the Italians was limited, because they really didn't speak ONE WORD of English, but we smiled a lot, and they were patient--making an effort to understand my cryptic Italian and speaking slowly and clearly with me, waiting while I translated for Flo.


It was time to go, because we were hoping to catch a 6:30 boat back to Sorrento, however when we arrived, we decided it was too expensive so we took the bus. 2 more hours of sharp turns, cliffs, stopping abruptly, and FAST driving (even the Italians were commenting), and of course we were in the very last row--which my mother warned me about, but they were the only available seats!--and squeezed 4 people into 3 open seats. Poor Flo had had enough. I watched helplessly as she turned green and then suddenly asked for a plastic bag from our backpack. She was throwing up for the last 45 minutes of our trip. Even after getting off the bus, we still had to take the train back to Vico and then thankfully the Italians had a car to drive us all up to the B&B. Poor poor Flo. I thought she would never speak to me again.

Halfway up the hill in the car with the Italians, we had to stop to let a patron saint procession go by. I swear it was half of the town processing down the street with candles, bearing the statue of the saint on a platform, singing. Cool to see, but honestly, don't they have side streets for that kind of thing? Back at the B&B, Flo went straight to bed, so I had dinner with the Italians. Such effort to converse! But I couldn't get over how nice they were. They walked me back to my room after to check on Flo, and then came back with pills for nausea.

THe next day we packed up, gave Vincenzo our offerings of American BBQ sauce and Belgian chocolate to thank him for taking good care of us, and headed to the beach with the Italians with the Italians for the morning before boarding our trains to Rome. This particular beach was refreshing, but crowded and dirty. It was good to be in the water, despite the brown film coating our bodies when we left. Getting off the train in Naples, the doors closed on Flo's backpack and we had to yank her out before the train started moving again. She says she's unlucky. I'm beginning to believe her.

On the Napoli-Roma train, the woman we sat next to struck up conversation and then told me my Italian was very good. I couldn't help but laugh, but I was excited for her to say so! We made it to Rome and our convent (yes, we stayed with the sisters) without difficulty (FOR ONCE!), showered and headed out to explore Rome by night. We came upon the Collosseum all lit up with the full moon hovering above and felt our troubles melting away...