Yes, I Love Italy

After a glorious night of sleep, we had a lazy morning and a big breakfast at the hotel and then proceeded to do about a 5 mile walk through the dirty and old streets of Naples.

There are some pedestrian streets that have a measure of charm and on this New Year's Saturday, the entire town was out strolling on the narrow streets.

The churches were impressive and we did enjoy seeing this gritty town in all of its functionality.

Soon enough it was time to jump on the boat that would take us over to Sorrento, the real destination for this trip.

Less than ideal weather continues to plague us with chillier than normal temperatures, cloudy skies and rain drops. Too cloudy to even take a photo or two of Vesuvius. The ride was about 40 minutes long and soon the lovely plateau of Sorrento came into view. I was here 8 years ago with a girlfriend and always wanted to bring Doug back and return myself for a longer time so it was great to finally be fulfilling this hope. The town is every bit as charming as I had remembered and now, with the streets fully decorated for Christmas, it was even more magical.

Lights adorned almost every building. Garlands were hung over the main drag and a giant lit Christmas tree graced the main square. At 9.00 the tree performed a light show to Christmas music, Santa Claus is Coming to Town to be specific.

The streets were crowded tonight with Italians probably hanging onto their last days of the holidays. It was great fun to stroll amidst the beautiful shops and we fully look forward to our week here. Of course, gelato had to figure in our day today.eqw

It's a good thing our lovely room is located on the 4th floor of a building that overlooks the main street and there is no elevator so at least I'll try to work off some of the caloric count that each day in Italy brings our way. 

One of the light displays showed a classic Nordic scene which just shows that people all the world over still think of reindeer and polar bears when it comes to Christmas!

Another little outdoor chapel housed an elaborate 3D nativity scene. It was really beautiful and a joy to behold.

It's a thrill to be here. We plan to visit Pompei and take the dramatic drive from Sorrento to Amalfi along the beautiful coastline and get over to Capri or Ischia. It's so nice to have some days with plenty of time to explore all that we long to take in from this beautiful, special little corner of the world called Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.