I slouch exhausted in a sun drenched bibleoteca, reeling from an amazing and challenging weekend on the South coast of Italy, and ready for the week that lay before me. Today is a national holiday in Italia - complete with marching bands, military, state and local police and fire marching through the town square and even the Prime Minister’s designate to the region of Tuscany. I’m no worse for the wear but ready to enjoy actually knowing where I am, where I need to be and when.
The culture in Southern Italy is night and day different - its literally another country.
When we hear talk of secession in the states, it strikes an almost obvious response of ‘yea right’ however here, similar to say Quebec in Canada, a real point can be made for the vast cultural differences. That and the guys in the South make me want to do steroids and learn various forms of bone breaking karate’. Machismo doesn’t do them justice.
Geographically speaking its stunning, the landscape of the region has truly spoiled the population to no end. The cliffs and lush tropical setting is impressive alone, but when mixed with a perfect sea breeze and delicious cloud cover you quickly find yourself relaxed. There is no tourist diligent enough not to get swept up in its beauty at least once.
Capri was fantastic - crowded to a point of insanity but very nice no less.
Sorrento was quaint and nicely developed with full size hotels and restaurants.
Most beaches in Italy are private - Sorrento and Capri was no different, with some beaches charging us up to 18 Euro to spend the day there.
In my opinion the best way to see Capri is via boat. If you’re with a group, charter a boat for the day, and then at some point take a break and ride the chairlift from Anacapri up to the top. We didn’t get to do this, its probably my only regret.
We did have cloud cover and rain most of Sunday and Monday however that ended up helping us out at Pompeii. Known for crowds and unbearable heat - the cloud cover and cool post-rainfall breeze was a perfect if not eerie accompaniment to the excavation. For me the most remarkable thing about Pompeii wasn’t the frozen people or penis tiled sidewalks in their “red light” district - it was the great preservation and cutaway glimpse into how daring and thoughtful the Roman architects and engineers were. I was beyond impressed - they had things figured out nearly 2000 years ago, amazing.
As always thanks for the thoughtful notes and support during this journey, I can’t put into words how much it means. I miss all my tumblr pals and hope everyone’s Summer is off to a great start.
