Laura and I enjoyed the last two days around Sorrento shopping on Corso Italia, eating at nice restaurants, and enjoying the beautiful weather. We had great seafood at La Fenice and amazing service at a little side street trattoria near Piazza Tasso. I loved relaxing with a café at Café Ercolano while we waited for the bus or sitting near the marina and watching the sea. Everywhere Laura got to indulge herself in tiramisu. It was real sweet living: great food, good weather, and shopping for Laura, not really for me.
By the time Sunday came we were ready to head north again. We decided to stop at Pompeii then catch the train from Naples to Rome. We loaded all our stuff which had increased quite a bit thanks to 5 bottles of wine Laura had bought and put it on our backs. Needless to say, it was nice to get a seat on the train to Pompeii. We passed around Vesuvius through multiple small towns like Castellammare di Stabbia where my mom's father's family came from nearly 100 years ago. We reached Pompeii station and made our way to the ruins which are expansive. There is really a whole city to walk through complete with homes, theaters, courthouses, markets, and of course the infamous brothel, whose street happened to be closed while we were there. Sorry no ancient vice for us. I liked imagining what the city was like before the eruption and how the people must have felt when they saw Vesuvius ready to blow. The campaign slogans you see written in red paint on many of the walls give testament to an election that perhaps never occurred. The theater echoes with performances that unfortunately could not continue. The houses still contain belongings left frozen in time.
From Pompeii we got back on the Circumvesuviana line to Naples. We went on an unfruitful mission to find the so called best pizza in Naples at Da Michele and had to settle for McDonalds. After our fast food dinner and unfortunately no tiramisu for dessert, we bordered our train to Rome.
Laura and I spent our last night together in Rome over Pasta Lenticchi and red wine. I was the chef. We went to bed early as we had to catch an early train to Fiumicino so she could catch her flight. I waited so long for her to come and now she was going back. It was not a nice feeling.
We said goodbye at security at Fiumicino and for the first time in a while I felt like I couldn't wait to get back home. I just told myself I had to let that feeling pass. I wasn't going to spend the next month in a hurry to get home. I was still in a nice position here in Europe, even though back in that position alone.
italy
